Last Nox ’s episode of VampireDiaries require a pretty simple question : Why can Damon be forgive over andover , for being a sequential - killer and bad friend , when Katherine is beyondforgiveness ? The solution seems to be : moral relativism is sexy , dammit .
pamperer ahead …
It ’s worth remembering that Vampire Diaries started out as ashow with a very strong moral framework . Stefan was good because he did n’t killhumans , or even feed on human blood . Damon was evil because he did kill humans , without much compunction .
Over time , though , we all fell in love with Damon ’s sarcasticsmirk and big gloomy eye . And meanwhile , Stefan ’s uprightness was recontextualized as a sign that he could n’t handlehuman profligate because there was something incorrect with him .
And now that we ’re in the fifth time of year , almost everybody hasbeen a teras at one point or another — Elena ’s killed an free waitress , and masterminded the deaths of thousands of vampires in one instant . Who’sinnocent at this point ? Caroline , maybe . Matt , I guess . That Adam cat .
In any case , here ’s a abbreviated sum-up of last dark ’s installment , followed by some of the question I have : Damon escapes his cellphone using a bullettrick that I ’m not sure would work and tries and fails to apply Adam as leverageto rescue Elena , only to melt down into his old cellmate Enzo . Eventually Stefanrescues Elena , while being passably dickish to Katherine , who wants one lastchance at love before she dies — and then Katherine decides to take herdaughter up on her go of survival by possessing someone else ’s consistence .
The crux of the episode is that Stefan ca n’t forgiveKatherine for 147 long time of evil human action ( to be bonny , most of that prison term he thoughtKatherine was entombed or dead ) . While Elena can forgive Damon for the latestrevelations , including the fact that he killed almost Adam ’s entire household forgenerations and abandon his cellmate Enzo to become flat . Why is Damon forgiveablebut not Katherine ? Umm … rationality .
Anyway , here are some question :
1 ) Is it evenpossible for this show to have a scoundrel any more ? It was vaguelysurprising a few episodes back , when the show ’s “ Big Bad ” Silasunceremoniously snuff it . Apparently for effective ? In any case , now we ’re back toa status where everybody ’s more or less the same level of bad .
There ’s a villain in Dr. Wes , the excited - scientist guy cable — but the reveal thatElena ’s angelical founding father did the same stuff and their work make unnecessary innocent peoplesort of blunts Dr. Wes ’ villainy . Plus Dr. Wes is right — the man would be abetter place if all the lamia killed each other and stopped murderinghumans . Even if you see Dr. Wes as the baddie , though , he ’s not much of an evilmastermind . He ’s already been outsmarted six times , and the time of year is only halfover .
Maybe there ’s no way for a real baddie on this show , because by definition such a person would have to be more evil than the other character . And maybe that ’s no longer possible .
2 ) Is it potential toreplace good and vicious with other values , such as loyalty ? You know , atvarious head this show has strain to pose an alternate value organisation to conventionalmorality , found on suffer by your crime syndicate or friends . So even if Elena is amass murderer , she will do anything for Jeremy , Bonnie , Caroline and theSalvatores .
That breaks down when there are conflicts within the mathematical group — like when Elena kills Jesse to save Damon , but Caroline had a thing forJesse . It also intermit down when Elena is a flake , like when she dumbfound psychicpremonitions that Stefan is in a coin bank bank vault in a pit and push aside thembecause she ’s meddling canoodle .
But most of all , it fails Kant’sCategoricalImperative : act only according to a maxim that you would like to be auniversal law ( that everybody else follows ) . If everybody followed Elena’smoral say-so of only worry about the well - being of a smattering of people , you’dget a post - apocalyptic nightmare in no time . Mystic Falls would become The Road if everyone followed Elena’sexample .
3 ) Do socialinstitutions subsist only to be demolish ? Most of us do in a moralfashion not because we have any kind of moral Congress of Racial Equality ( ha)but because we revere getting caught and contrive in prison .
https://gizmodo.com/25-of-the-scariest-science-experiments-ever-conducted-5390389
In Vampire Diaries , authority figures generally do n’t last that long — we ’ve seen multiple mayorsdie , and fairly much all the members of the secret council of Mystic Falls havesnuffed it . Sheriff Forbes is miraculously live , but she ’s so co - opted thatpeople talk about her like some kind of handmaiden . “ Oh , I ’ll get SheriffForbes to clean that up . Oh , let ’s get Sheriff Forbes to bring pizza pie over . We’llgive her a $ 5 for her problem . ” Etc . The secret society that head for the hills the Augustineexperiments seems like a ridiculous fantasm of its 1950s ego , which Damon alreadyslaughtered . Not to mention that nobodyhas parent any more , or any variety of aged relatives who could provide moralcensure or advice .
Meanwhile , on TheOriginals , the full metropolis government of New Orleans has already burn thedust . belike just the first of many civic butchery on that show .
The trouble with strong social initiation , of class , isthat they probably wo n’t approve of people palling around with sequential killer — so if we ’re going to sympathize with Damon , we ’re going to scent up rootingfor the dissolution or undermining of every form of government or authority in theworld . Over time , though , you ’re move to end up with a world that feel less andless real — because societal institutions are a cardinal form of reality - building , and becauseit ’s not clear what ’s keep people from open cannibalism on the streets ofMystic Falls at this decimal point .
4 ) So why is Damonbetter than Katherine ? I think it has to do with individualism , perchance . vampire are the ultimate individualist because they ’re brawny enough to dowhat they want , and because their quasi - immortality insure the endurance of theindividual rather than of a crime syndicate or community . Sure , we see vampires livingin “ nests ” sometimes — but the interesting vampires are unremarkably individuals , or even loners .
Katherine is depicted as a bad individualist — she onlyever cares about herself , we ’re told over and over . She has throw the peoplein her life under the bus , but also she ’s perfectly happy to be running on herown for years at a metre . If Katherine had n’t been curse with mortality , shewouldn’t be giving any of these suckers a 2d cerebration , probably not evenStefan .
Damon is an individualist , too , but at least during the timewe’ve known him he ’s seemed to care about a bantam smattering of people ( followingElena ’s dictum ) , and he has loyalty to his family and ally . Within a verysmall wheel spoke . Damon is a practiced individualist where Katherine is a badindividualist — because they ’re both felicitous to be selfish , but Damon also wearshis heart on his sleeve and has aroused weaknesses .
So there you have it : the absolute moral marrow of VampireDiaries : It comes down to feel .
HorrorTelevisionVampire DiariesVampires
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