well behaved women

Someone told me The Vampire Diaries was not at all changed to be like Twilight, omg. For anyone on my flist who thought about watching it, I thought I'd post my reply and save them the time.

Elena is now brunette, angst-ridden, only looks forward to the day because of a boy, for god's sake, and has an 'immature' mother figure, as well as about as much personality as Bella. Stefan is now white, angst ridden, 'can't stay away from her', and is a 'redeemed' vampire, not to mention creepy. 'I have to know her? I couldn't resist?' Oh and now he ~can't resist her blood~, Twilight style. He stalks her, Twilight style! As opposed to the Italian gentleman and the charistmatic HBIC they were in the books? Yes. They're Twilight clones. They've stripped away all personality from her female friends and erased half of them, but that might just be a TV thing rather than a Twilight thing.

Oh, and apparently now it's his story, rather than hers.

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I am astonished by how clearly Vampire Diaries is trying to imitate Twilight.

They've white washed the cast, which pisses me off. And then what they did to them on a simple characterization level; no longer is Elena the fierce, intelligent young woman who pursued her love interest and worked to solve crimes and rule her school; no longer is Stefan the intelligent, gracious Italian gentleman. They've destroyed Elena's character in order to make her life revolve around Stefan. She is passive and bland; he is now the only reason she looks forward to the day--literally. They've destroyed Stefan's character to make him a 2D Edward ripoff, only with even less personality, and compounded this by whitewashing him into an actor that is a painful imitation of the movie's Edward, whatever that actor's name was. Damon is now a blustering, featureless bully that somehow manages to be totally disgustingly evil at the same time. Damon was a predator. Not totally evil.

Oh, and Stefan gives Elena a copy of Wuthering Heights, which she loves.

Also? No woman with brains would fall for the snide, ham handed remarks about an ex from some stranger who claims to be a close relative. Some stranger who is obviously an asshole.

They've erased her female friends in order to make room for extraneous male characters, replacing them with a couple of girls completely lacking personality who are only there to egg their bland relationship on. Seriously. The only thing they get to do; the only reason they exist. They completely destroyed the tight, complex female relationships that were so interesting. THEY DON'T HAVE MEREDITH, YOU GUYS. WHAT THE FUCK. And Caroline is now a sex-obsessed groupie of Elena's. They gave Elena a little brother instead of a little sister, and he's a total asshole. Not to mention what they did with the parental figures.

And....they have a daddy!figure now! How precious! How stupid. Just because Meyer's vampires act like adolescent assholes does not mean that ancient vampires in a competent narrative do. Oh--wait, there's my mistake. Calling it competent.

"Texting is an important step in every relationship!" Yes. We get it. You're ~gritty~ and ~hip~. Now please, let it rest.


They've turned it into a) a sitcom and b) a Twilight ripoff and completely obliterated any trace of original characterization that ever existed.

So: if you liked the book's originality, characters, freaking badass girls and female friendship, suspense and romance and adventure? Don't watch. For the first time, Matt is more appealing than Stefan. Vastly so.

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The Vampire Diaries.

They took out Meredith. They took out Meredith and Bonnie, and slapped in a token black chick with Bonnie's name. You know, I'm all for fair representation of all races in the media, but this isn't it. It is one more painful insertion of 'token black character' who is only there to be supportive. They made Elena angsty, not the gloriously bitchy, loyal and bullheaded heroine I loved. And they physically tried to make her Meredith, I guess, except that girl isn't a Mediterranean beauty, just a very bland, forgettable brunette.

And, of course, there's the travesty that is turning Stefan and Damon, attractive, intelligent Italian gentleman (well, one of them is a gentleman, the other one's a scoundrel) into two unattractive white bread attempted-Pattinson-clones. (I keep trying to write it Patterson, and then having to look it up.)

Seriously, though, both those actors have kind of squashed faces. Like...it weirds me out. Squashed, man.

Okay. I know I said I was abstaining. But seriously, guys, what the fuck? Vampire Diaries casting.

What part of 'gorgeous Italian young men' means ugly white bread boys? I know I have odd tastes sometimes but they are not attractive or even passable by any sense of the word. Just...what?

Oh. I understand. I looked at one of the other photos--they're going for an imitation Robert Pattinson (I had to look up his name, whoops) look. You misunderstand; Stephenie Meyer ripped off Vampire Diaries, not the other way around. FUCK YOU. I wanted this to wipe that skeeze-tastic series from my mind. And...I don't find Robert Pattinson at all attractive, but even he was better than that.

Yeah. Um. I'm stressed out and cramping viciously and this is not helping.