klaus mikaelson

Klaus Mikaelson: a truly compelling TV villain…

Netflix, Uncategorized

Klaus is painted to be the big bad wolf in most of TVD, and granted he does some truly terrible things however he is such an interesting character. I think that is a big part of why they were able to create The Originals spin off, because all three of the Original siblings have so much depth of character. So let me explain why I love Klaus so dearly as a character.

Klaus is so compelling to the point where he is a villain that you can’t totally hate, he is so deeply flawed but we understand him so clearly. Klaus may be 1000 years old, but at heart he is still that little boy who’s father hated him and mother turned her back on him. Klaus longed for the love of his family and felt he would never have it or deserve it. This led to a multitude of trust issues which, you guessed it, are heightened as a vampire.

Klaus’s father hated him for being his illegitimate son, forcing him to spend him life with a piece of who he is (the werewolf side) being kept from him, his mother constantly tricks him when she comes back and doesn’t protect him. He is hated for being born. I know many people can understand and empathize with being forced to hide a piece of yourself because your family or society does not accept it.

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Consistently, through the show, we see Klaus make growth and then feel betrayed or hurt but you can’t say he is heartless. Klaus does care for his family and siblings. He cares for Rebekah and Elijah and even Stefan. Also, it is so clear to see Klaus opens up around Caroline, almost only around Caroline but still. He shows her himself, though his paintings, stories, gestures. Which is why it hits so much harder each time she betrays him and causes him to lash out and revert back to being terrible and un-trusting, as he feels he doesn’t deserve the love of others so he will ensure they fear him. Even in ‘The Originals’ we see this go further with Klaus caring for Cami and his past relationship with Marcelle. He looked at Marcelle like a son, he cared for him, loved him, raised him and tried to give him a better life and family than he himself had, until he felt betrayed by Marcelle.

not my image…

For instance, although Klaus constantly lashes out at his siblings and daggers them, he is not one to actually kill them. He values his family so greatly he trades anything he needs for them.

Also, we can see when Klaus does finally get to be fully entirely himself, all he really wants is to belong. He wants to make himself hybrids so he won’t be alone. Klaus is driven by his past trauma and trust issues, having your own parents try to kill you must really affect your emotional growth and I can get that. Klaus doesn’t want to be alone.

Klaus does terrible things but I find him so interesting to watch because he is so complex, more complex than Damon or Stefan or most any of the other characters. I also have to give Joseph credit for making me believe him and feel for Klaus through his acting.

We see so many moments of redemption such as, always coming when Caroline needs him but he also constantly falls off his redemption, which is honestly really human.

For me, the hallmark of a good TV villain is all of these things, depth of character, understanding why they are doing things, showing they aren’t inherently evil, humanizing them. Klaus ticks all these boxes for me and more.

Also, I have to say I’m a die hard Klauroline (Klaus + Caroline) stan.

I can’t explain it honestly. Although, I will say, watching Klaus meet Hope for the first time gave me so many emotions. All Klaus ever wanted was a family, people like him, Hope really was that. She was a ‘hybrid’ like him, she was his daughter, his family. And standing next to him was the woman who gave everything for the baby, her mother, Haley and the two members of Klaus’s family who loved him through it all. Klaus had his family standing right there.

So, what do you think? Did you love Klaus like me? Or was the murder too much for you? In any case, I believe Klaus was an incredibly well-written villain for this show and that this continued with other villains like Kai. All I want is character depth and growth and I feel like that’s what Klaus give me.

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carrie diaries, SVu, Law and order, Legacies, PLL, pretty little liars

Spin offs you should and shouldn’t watch!!

Netflix, pretty little liars, Uncategorized

Spin offs a remakes seem to be the biggest thing lately because why ruin something that works I guess. But, do we really need all of these spin offs? The announcement was recently made about the How I Met Your Mother spin off, ‘How I Met Your Father’ which is set to star Hilary Duff so I thought now was the perfect time to discuss what spin offs are worth the watch and which to give a miss. I’m only going to go through the one’s I’ve seen or tried.

You can get DVDs of any of these at Sanity:

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Stargate SG1:

This was one of the shows I watched with my dad growing up. We used to watch it all weekend when I was a young teenager and we watched all 10 seasons together. Memories 🙂 Hi Dad! If you haven’t seen it, basically, Stargate is about a magic alien “gate” discovered on earth by the US military which transports you across galaxies. They send out the SG1 team to different locations discovering there is a lot of dangerous stuff out there which would love to come to Earth. It is available on Stan and Sanity.

P.S. yes I know that this was technically a spin off for the original movie, but that is a movie so I consider SG1 the first of the shows.

Stargate Atlantis:

Atlantis was the first spin off and took place entirely not on Earth, this was a previously unexplored part of the Universe to the US military. However, they manage to get trapped without contact to the Earth gate. I love Atlantis and I think it is somewhat more interesting than SG1 however that still has a special place in my heart. Definitely still check if out if you are into sci-fi.

Universe:

I watched all of SG1 and Atlantis and couldn’t even get through season 1 of universe because everyone in it was so annoying. Just don’t bother.

Pretty Little Liars:

If you are on here you should know this is one of my all time favourite shows, but honestly, it’s spin offs kind of flopped. But if you want to read my PLL posts so far check them out below.

Ravenswood:

So, apparently not all the Pretty Little Liars fans know about Ravenswood. I watched it as it was airing because I love Hanna and Caleb and had to see what was going to happen to them during Caleb being the star of the spinoff.

I’m sure we all remember when Caleb went off the Ravenswood right after they found out Alison was alive and he met that random girl Miranda. Well they are the stars of Ravenswood with a few others and honestly it’s about ghosts. I don’t really vibe with shows that are like *there’s magic in this world and ghosts but not over there in rosewood but over here* (@Sabrina and Riverdale). So that kind of annoyed me and also they obviously broke Hanna and Caleb up while Ravenswood happened which sucks, and then they basically used It as a reason to ruin his character when he came back – Caleb was never the same. Basically, there’s a reason it got cancelled after 1 season. However, the plot also didn’t merit longer so I give it a miss.

Not worth the watch….

I haven’t watched the newest spin off of PLL so I can’t comment on it 🙂

The Vampire Diaries:

I think all of the late 90’s early 2000’s kids would agree that TVD is a pinnacle of television for the 2000’s/2010’s. I love it despite the definite cringe and I also think it’s got some good spin offs…

The Originals:

I haven’t seen all of The Originals but I do like it and I think the Originals are really interesting and complex characters so I like it, I just find it slow but I know lots of people love it. Sign up for my email notifications to see my upcoming Klaus Mikaelson post!

Also, we cannot ignore the exciting moments watching Pheobe Tonkin and Claire Holt from H20 on screen again together. But even more so, we also have the classic Aussies Eka Darville and Rebecca Breeds from Blue Water High (who actually happened to be on Cariba’s season of blue water high) and the wonder that is Danielle Campbell from Starstuck. Such a cast for my youth.

Legacies:

Legacies, however, I haven’t heard many people talk about and I am trying to get through the episodes on Binge. Legacies follows Alaric and the witch babies he had with Caroline (or his wife however you see it) at a school for supernatural kids. A bit random and one of those so bad it’s kind of good shows. So, I vibe with it because its basic and very teen-ish but of the three it is 100% the worst.

I think it is good fun and an easy watch.

Law and Order: Special Victims Unit

Technically SVU is a spin off of regular law and order and I think SVU is way better. However, I’m someone who loves SVU and Criminal Minds and all that but I know lots of people don’t vibe with watching lots of murder or abuse or rape but, I like SVU and Criminal minds. So, I highly rate SVU and would love to watch it start to finish! It’s also still airing which is fun. After 22 years!

Criminal Minds spin offs:

No, that’s all I have. No. Criminal minds is *chefs kiss* but I just can’t vibe with the cast of any of the other shows so no, don’t mess with perfection. They just don’t compare, I can’t even stand the episodes in Criminal Minds where they introduce the other “teams” from the spin offs. So, it’s a pass from me, just stick with original Criminal Minds.

Grey’s Anatomy:

A classic.

Private Practice:

I have just started watching Private Practice and it’s pretty decent honestly. I won’t say it is by any means as good as greys but I like it so far. Private Practice follows Addison after she left the show and moved to LA to work in, you guessed it, a private practice. Bit of a strange career move but hey, she needed a fresh start. So, I love Addison, that’s probably all you need to know, in the Derek, Meredith, Addison equation I’m team Addison (as in Addison deserves better). I think she is a great character and I always liked her, so if you didn’t, probably don’t watch the spin off. The first few seasons are on 7plus currently if you’re interested!

I have heard only good things about Private Practice and also, I love Amelia and Addison as characters so if you did too then give it a go to see more of Amelia’s story before she moved to Greys

Station 19:

Station 19 takes a different turn and is about the firefighters who work in Seattle and bring cases to Grey Sloan Memorial. It is the show Ben moved to and I really like it. I think by it being about fire fighters rather than medicine gave them more reign to try some new things and make something different. I think it is great honestly and I don’t even think you need to watch greys to watch either of these spin offs.

I think they gave the characters a good degree of depth, likeability and the calls they go to are exciting just like Greys. We also see a little cross over in the later seasons of Greys.

The Carrie Diaries:

So I was at uni recently and one of my friends mentioned The Carrie Diaries and it just brought forward all these memories of a show I had completely forgotten about. The Carrie Diaries for those who didn’t see it, is the prequal to sex in the city where Carrie Bradshaw is in high school and trying to start her career in fashion. I haven’t actually seen sex in the city and I loved the Carrie Diaries and it’s a shame it didn’t last super long. I have no idea where you can watch it currently but if you see the opportunity I say go for it. If you’re into teen shows it actually a really good one.

Let me know if you have any spin off recommendations and what you think of the idea of ‘How I Met Your Father’ with Hilary Duff. I wonder why they made it a spin off, it definitely didn’t need to be. Check out my socials down below and like, share or comment if you liked this post. Thanks so much for the views while I took a break from uploading, hope to be back on the grind of it soon.

Thanks for reading!

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  • woman in the house across the street

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grand army

‘Grand Army’ is worth the watch!

Netflix, Uncategorized

So, grand Army came out a long time ago and I hardly heard anyone talking about it, so I finally checked it out on Netflix recently. I was definitely surprised but what I was faced with and had not at all expected it. For me this was a very clear case of judging a show by its cover image, and I was way off!

Grand Army is about a school in New York and a set of kids at this school, but it is a little dark. Not in the regular sense of a dark show, I feel like Grand Army is unapologetic in showing all of the worst aspects of high school. Particularly in America.

Some themes which are discussed include; friendship, selfishness, racism, sexism, feminism, terrorism, rape and sexual assault, religion, sexuality, class, poverty, pressure on women, victim blaming and more. In only a few episodes.

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For me though, the most influential character was Joey who starts as a very confident woman trying to support women’s rights at their school, going against dress code norms and being confident in her body, sexuality and herself. However, this character later goes through a turmoil with rape, losing all her friends and going through the criminal process as a victim. I feel like her acting was incredibly compelling through this show.

We see her come to lose confidence in her body, her memories and her personality at points, she moves to shroud herself in clothing. A woman who stood up in her school for non sexist dress codes and free the nip. We watch her lose herself entirely for a time.

While the other stories are also important and well done, hers had the most impact to me, however they all did impact me in one way or another. But I wouldn’t want to spoil the whole show for you!

Although, I have to admit, I hated this girl so much and I hated the amount of screen time she got!

So, is Grand Army an enjoyable show? No not really, but I think the messages are very important and they didn’t totally shy away from the worst of a high school experience. You can learn things from every character. I also feel like there is a character that we can all probably relate to.

So I do 100 percent recommend Grand Army but it is nothing like I was expecting and it can be difficult to watch at points. Because they chose honesty. I think more shows should be more honest about these issues rather than recycling the same ideals and the same way to approach issues.

It is a very confronting show a times but, that added to the realism for me. So, if you have a chance, please do check it out and let me know what you think!

Thanks for reading this quick post, please like, comment or share this post if you enjoyed it and don’t forget to follow down below!

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  • woman in the house across the street

    Biggest plot holes in ‘The woman in the house across the street from the girl in the window’…

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    Worst Grey’s plot points

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betty and archie riverdale

TV couples who ruin shows for me…

Movies, Netflix, pretty little liars, Uncategorized

Last week we had a romance movie post, this week we are swinging back the opposite direction. TV Couples who ruins shows for me. Because look, not all couples are meant to be and lots of them are toxic on TV. Sometimes, it is better to be alone than with someone, if they are the wrong person. So, here is my list of most (not all), couples who I hate on TV. May we all remember the wonderful friends and family members in our lives this Galentine’s day. Shout-out to all the people who support me and this blog!

*disclaimer, not all of these are necessarily couples but fan favs.

In no particular order…

Duncan Kane and Veronica Mars

I know I’ve said it before but I’ll say it again, Duncan Kane is so boring, he just seems like a child. He acts like a child the whole time and he is way too boring for Veronica. I was so glad when he left the show. Moreover, they both believed they were siblings, he believed it before they slept together, which is just disgusting, but she also believed it later. How do you date again after that?

yucky…

Veronica and Piz

If you can’t tell, I love Veronica Mars as a show, I really do, just man, everyone except Logan was a bit boring. Piz was especially boring, it felt like they were trying to give Piz and inch because he was resident nice guy, but he wasn’t that nice, he was boring and she had way more chemistry with Logan. I know her and Logan are super toxic but I can’t.

Betty and Archie

I just don’t like how Archie never saw Betty in that way, she put herself out there saying she loved him then he rejected her and dated countless other girls, then Betty found happiness for years with Jughead and they just make sense together. Even a whiff of Betty and Archie made me completely stop watching Riverdale. They couldn’t just stay best friends? She and Jughead couldn’t just move forward without bringing Archie back into the mix. Also, “I will never be good enough for you Betty” or whatever he said in the pilot feels like such a cop out to me.

Callie and Brandon

Brandon seemed to Callie like an easy way to self-destruct. She constantly turned to him any time she felt things were going too well or a small inconvenience happened she would turn to him. They were trying to be siblings, they lived together as siblings for years, It never should have happened.

Every time there was a problem with her being adopted she would go back to Brandon and date him or have sex with him or whatever, which only makes everything perpetually worse. Callie was the most self destructive character I personally have seen but Brandon was just along for the ride it seemed. They never even really made sense to start with, he was in a relationship when they met, there was no reason he had to ‘fall for Callie’. Just bad vibes all around for me.

Finn and Rachael

Sorry but they are both just too boring. Finn is the same as Duncan where he seems too much like a child and Rachel is so annoying. Finn also just didn’t respect her at the start of the show. I don’t know, maybe they get better later in the show and grow as people, but in the beginning when they dated the first few times it was terrible.

Miranda Bailey and nurse Eli

She could’ve had Ben that whole time but went for the young “attractive” asshole of a nurse. Who made her do so many things which she would never have done. Eli was like a vacation from who Miranda was, he made what he thought more important than what she thought.

I really never felt like their relationship was organic, it seemed like he was pushing her constantly and she was acting like a teenager. We all know it was just an excuse to create tension with Ben before they got back together so…

Rory and Jess

I know lots of people love Rory and Jess but I just don’t, but more on that in a dedicated post coming soon…

Sorry but, having similar interests doesn’t mean you are a good match or good people.

Iris and Barry

I’m sorry I just don’t gel with the whole, one best friend always loved the other and they never saw them, until, they did. Iris got engaged to another man and it took her finding out Barry was flash to be into him (also her fiance dying but, regardless), I just don’t love it. They grew up together and she never saw him. There are so many plot issues which revolve around, Iris not loving Barry and its just too much.

Clary and Jace

Look, I think if you hear that you’re siblings than even finding out you aren’t, that should be tainted, shouldn’t be allowed

Ross and Rachel

Ross has never deserved Rachel, I’m sorry but it’s true. He was so possessive of her early on considering they weren’t together and he always under estimated her and was such a misogynist. However, I will admit I have no sentimental attachment to Friends because I never really watched it until recently, but watching it now, with a relatively open mind. Ross is a terrible person. He is homophobic, spiteful, rude and much more. Rachel deserved the best.

Stefan and Elena

They are just so boring. That’s it, so bland. Stefan is also basically so obsessed with Elena he almost misses Caroline completely, because he was waiting for Elena to leave Damon for him? Honestly, I would have just picked Caroline from the start.

Ezra and Aria

Their whole story is just so messed up, to know she is 15 and date her, and underage girl because he wants to investigate her, then continues to date her whilst being her teacher and continually lying about it. It is just so yucky. Also, romanticizing them for the entire show is a terrible and potentially predatory message to send to the shows young audience.

Waitlist and Rebecca,

Yes I choose to call him Waitlist…

Also, just boring, I am way more into Waitlist and Laurel. There was no real reason for Wes and Rebecca to actually get together, they didn’t have similar interests or lives, she was so rude to him from the second they met, they were so distrusting of each other. Great show though!

Paige and Emily

They just have no chemistry to me, I also think starting with trying to drown Emily is not the way.

Emily and Alison,

Alison is the worst so that’s that, but she also manipulated Emily countless times, she shouldn’t have gotten back with Alison.

Spencer and JJ

JJ marries Will, has a baby with him and is married to him for years, she works with Spencer that entire time, but then they try to throw something together between them as the show is ending. That is so disrespectful to Will, I love Will, he is the bright shining light saying that you can work at the BAU and have a loving family. We should never negate JJ and Will’s relationship and love.

Spencer and Caleb

Even if Hanna said it was okay it is so iffy for them to get together and they were just a terrible couple which ruins Caleb and Hanna entirely as well as the end of the show. Caleb and Spencer made such good borderline best friends, but it felt so wrong for them to be together which jeopardized Hanna and Spencer’s friendship. Just a bad move for me from the writers. Like come on, Spencer and Caleb could at least have waited til Hanna was actually married.

Izzie on Greys with anyone.

Sorry if you love Izzie or love Izzie and Karev but they are all terrible to me. Look, Denny was her patient so she shouldn’t have crossed that line and in real life I doubt she would have thrown her career away. Alex cheats on her, stands her up, treats her terribly then she gets back with him and they get married, not because either of them should have been married but because she was meant to die. And George was just terrible, awful.

So, I’m sure I could spend years and years adding to this list and remembering more but that felt like enough this time. Let me know your thoughts on any of the couples I have mentioned in the comments, or if you have any couples you hate. I’d love to hear your lists. Don’t forget to like or share this post and you can always follow my socials or this blog to know when I upload. Thanks for reading! Happy Galentine’s Day

not my image 🙂

Main character syndrome…

Uncategorized

I don’t now if anyone else feels this but I seem to have a slight issue with likeability of main characters in lots of television. This can make it hard for me to watch some of these shows which I really do like, except I don’t like the main character or main love interest. Now this isn’t all shows, some shows I really appreciate the main character or main love interest but for many of the shows I love I seem to find the main characters irritating. I am curious if this is a phenomenon others experience or these are my own issues or choice writing. So, I’m going to refer to this as main character syndrome – making the main character or love interest of the main character un-apologetically boring, cliche or just the least likeable of the characters. Here’s some examples for you;

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Meredith Grey (Grey’s Anatomy)

I find Meredith a terrible friend most of the time, starting with George and ending with being a poor sister to Amelia (okay sister-in-law) and Lexi (half-sister). She also is just very whiney and selfish in my opinion. I feel like she definitely has her moments where she is a good character but across the board she is standoffish, rude and not understanding.

Derek Shepard (Grey’s Anatomy) –

Derek is so manipulative from the start and I feel like people forget that he lied about being married, then chose to stay with his wife instead of Meredith, got all angry about her being with other men before finally choosing to be with her. He is incredibly condescending towards the other characters and needs to be the best. I cannot stand team Derek and he honestly impacts my feelings towards Meredith making me like her even less. Derek has to be in charge and has to be in the spotlight even if he truly isn’t the best. But characters in the show constantly say how good a guy he is, honestly show me where! Not so Mr. Dreamy to me….

Clarry Fairchild (Shadow Hunters)

Clarry is so incredibly irritating to me, I have the utmost respect for her actress but she leads Simon on for years then instantly starts dating Jace, finds out he’s her brother so goes on to date Simon but really still loves Jace then finds out Jace isn’t her brother and goes back to him. She also makes everything about her (although, I guess a lot of the problems facing them are about her) and she kind of just walks into the Institute having never held a weapon and suddenly everyone (except Alec) is cool with her and she can fight super quickly.

Elena Gilbert (The Vampire Diaries) –

Elena Gilbert is boring. She is a boring girl who just happened to be a doppelganger but early on in TVD she has no substance to me. She’s just playing through the motions of her life not being active in any of it. Admittedly I do think her character improves as she becomes a vampire but in the beginning everything about her screams bland from her fashion to her hair to her personality. The only interesting things about her were that her parents were dead and Katherine (who was a far more interesting character with way more depth).

Marissa Cooper (The OC) –

I have very few words for Marissa I just really couldn’t stand her, I couldn’t even make it to her death because she irritated me so much I had to stop watching. Ryan wasn’t particularly likeable to me either but in my opinion he was far better as a character all the times him and Marissa weren’t together. Marissa was just so self-destructive.

Stefan Salvatore (The Vampire Diaries) –

As Elena said, Stefan is the safe option, he’s the one who listens, but he’s also very bland. The most interesting thing about Stefan for me is his addiction but a characters addiction should not be the most interesting thing about them. If Elena and Stefan had ended up together their lives really would have been as boring as if she had stayed human and married Matt (no shade to Matt). He also really needs to get over Elena faster, it is so boring watching Stefan love Elena and not understand that she loves Damon even if he’s bad for her. He also really dogs Caroline for a long time before they finally get together.


Detective Stabler (Special Victims Unit) –

Detective Stabler is a bad cop, he just is, he is a poor investigator, he’s way too opinionated about the cases and the people involved (I guess so is Olivia but hey), he is constantly using unnecessary force against the public and he is always rude especially to Olivia. I for one am not excited to see Stabler return to SVU in the coming seasons.

Alison DiLaurentis (Pretty Little Liars) –

Alison DiLaurentis, whilst not entirely a main character in PLL I will still discuss. She’s a terrible friend obviously, she used so many people before and after she ran away ranging from her friends to the pilot she dated so she could live a double life to the Police. Then after years of screwing with Emily and marrying someone else they decide they should be together. Alison has to be my least favourite of Emily’s love interests and I really think Emily got a bad bunch compared to the other characters. Alison also completely disregards her friends feelings all the time but especially towards Charlotte in the flash forward. She is also obviously extremely manipulative.


Tara Webster (Dance Academy) –

Now this one might be a bit more obscure, for those who don’t know, Dance Academy is an Australian teen drama about Ballet dancers in the National Academy of Dance and I have a lot to say about it that might make it into it’s own dedicated blog but for now…. Tara is the main character. Bland, untalented, childish. I can’t understand how Tara got into the academy but when she’s there, she blatantly ignores her teachers, goes straight for her best friends brother, risking their friendship, then cheats and basically ignores Kat most of the time. She’s entirely self-obsessed and boy crazy.


Duncan Kane (Veronica Mars) –

Duncan Kane sleeps with Veronica while thinking she’s his sister. He is also incredibly boring and acts like a child in my opinion. Dates the popular girl – effectively using her because Veronica ‘is his sister’ until she wants him back. Then he literally runs off with his ex-girlfriends (and his) baby. GOOD RIDDANCE. Now I love Veronica Mars and I get not everyone likes Logan, and yes, Veronica and him were quite toxic but I have to love them, two very flawed individuals trying their best to love each other even if it doesn’t work sometimes. But Duncan for me was the worst of the show.


Hannah Baker (13 Reasons Why)

Hannah Baker is a sad story, I’ll give you that. It is upsetting to watch the events in her life unfold up to her suicide, But… she decided she would bulldoze everyone else’s life in the process of ending hers which feels like payback. Was everything that each character did bad, yes, but was it worth blaming them for your death, I don’t think so. Had Bryce Walker not raped Hannah Baker she likely would not have committed suicide, so to blame the other characters for taking her notes and writing her name on a hot list is offensive. It makes for a good story about the impact of small actions however it doesn’t make me care for her character as a character.

Rae (My Mad Fat Diary)

Rae was such a strange character to me, obviously she was dealing with a lot of personal issues throughout the show and a lot of those were relatable for the audience. But honestly, I felt like you almost couldn’t root for her because she behaved so terribly and she treated her friends poorly, treated Finn poorly because of her own insecurities and was terrible to her mother the entire series. I can’t understand why they made the main character a character who I couldn’t fully get behind or fully root for. All her friends were more likeable than her and more interesting. I respect My Mad Fat Diary for really going over body image issues as a core to this show, but, Rae for me wasn’t the character to look to for personal growth and becoming confident and accepting of your own body and prioritizing health. If you’d like to hear more on My Mad Fat Diary let me know in the comments.

A few other notable mentions for me include Clarke from The 100, Wes from How to Get Away With Murder, Finn from Glee, Tori from Victorious, Rory Gilmore and Emma from the Netflix Original Scream.

Those are just a few examples of what I have decided to call ‘main character syndrome’. I find it very confusing why shows make their main character so boring and irritating. It can seriously impact my willingness to watch a show if I dislike the main character or love interests. Would it not be better to have compelling main characters who show personal growth. Take The Vampire Diaries, Caroline for me is the best character in the show, she is compassionate, confident, caring, powerful and a great friend. But she didn’t start off that way, she grew over the course of the series. BUT, Caroline isn’t the lead, she’s a main character but TVD is undeniable about Elena, Stefan and Damon. What purpose does it have to make your lead uninteresting?

Please let me know if you’ve ever noticed this or if you have any other main character/love interests to add to this list. Thanks for reading!

The beginning of The Vampire Diaries is just Twilight…

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I like many others enjoyed watching TVD in my teens as it aired and still enjoy re-watching it despite some issues present (but more on this later). After several times watching TVD the most recent time I noticed several scenes and lines which directly relate in my opinion to those in Twilight and I will lay them out. Although, I would not consider myself a hardcore Twilight fan I have seen all the movies at least once and the first several times. However, no one can deny the connection between Twilight premiering in 2008 and The Vampire Diaries airing in 2009. Both are book adaptations of Stephenie Meyer’s Twilight and L.J. Smith’s The Vampire Diaries. Granted the Vampire Diaries books were released prior to the Twilight books, the Twilight film was before TVD and therefore, I am equating TVD to being script and cinematically similar to Twilight. Both include tales of vampires, humans and werewolves and lots of teen drama and angst. I merely wrote this as a bit of fun and to point out some things you may not have noticed, there is no intention to offend any parties involved in the creation of either work as I do enjoy both and am a fan. So, here are all the similarities I noticed when re-watching the first few episodes of TVD, forewarning of spoilers.


1. A newcomer to town… who’s not so new
As we know Twilight begins with Bella Swan arriving to town to stay with her father. Now although Elena is not the newcomer to town there are newcomers, Stefan and Damon who become the talk of the school. Bella used to holiday in Forks which makes her not a total alien there and Damon and Stefan both have spent many lifetimes in Mystic Falls before returning once again.

2. Much like Edward, Stefan is the mysterious man in the school who everyone (particularly the side characters) is interested in.

3. Vampires
Now, I know this is an obvious one but there was a clear interest in television and film in the supernatural, but it is a similarity between the two as well as the slightly later addition of werewolves to TVD in season 2.


4. Vampires gotta wear sunglasses I guess…

5. It is also a vampire family, granted a much smaller family that the Cullen’s but a family of vampires nonetheless.

6. We have the changing eyes in relation to blood lust.

7. Then there is the obvious, we eat animals trope from Twilight which we see again from Stefan.

8. The very stalkery Vampires:

Look at this creeper out here honestly,

Then Damon breaks into Elena’s room while she’s asleep and later when Elena finds out Stefan is a vampire and she’s in her room with the window open, Stefan jumps through her window into her bedroom. That is 100% an Edward move, because he did it constantly.

9. Also, now come on, you can’t tell me these aren’t the same scene…

10. Super fast running, super strong Vampires in both, we also have the super hearing thing and the jumps that make no sense at all. Basically, the vampire lore and powers are almost the same minus the vervain and mind reading future seeing powers.


11. Old ass Vampires who choose to go back to high school which I just can’t understand. Why would they all want to go back to high school to have to worry about high school stuff like exams and learn about the history which they already lived through? Also, Stefan supposedly already had college degrees so school must be such a bore. ALSO also, just because you stay in the body of a teenager surely doesn’t mean you don’t age psychologically and grow up, they’re both over 100 years old after all.

At least the TVD Vampires don’t also sparkle, they sizzle instead!


12. Werewolves:

Although, Tyler doesn’t become a werewolf and they aren’t introduced until later in the season it is still a similarity. It is also a similarity that Jacob doesn’t become a werewolf until after the first movie and Tyler doesn’t until season 2 episode 7. Although, Uncle Mason is introduced season 2 episode 1.


13. Questionable parenting:

So we are led to believe in both medias that the parenting is subpar for the mains. However, I honestly have to disagree, I think Jenna is trying her best considering she lost her sister and suddenly had two teenagers to raise while still being quite young herself and Charlie I really think is trying so hard to get to know Bella after all this time of her living with her mother and he wants to know her he’s just a bit out of practice and Bella doesn’t seem to want to know him. That said, it’s still a similarity.

14. Bland main characters:

Whoops sorry! But as you’ll see in an upcoming post I am writing (subscribe down below to be notified when it is up), I have an issue with Elena. I find Elena incredibly bland and boring basically until she becomes a Vampire but even then I don’t like her. She is so average in every way except that she’s the Doppelganger. Same with Bella, Bella Swan is so boring of a character to watch, she has no personality in the first film, she’s a terrible friend and she’s just plain.


Bella’s a suffer in silence type, how brooding

15. The very hot and cold romance where honestly Edward and Stefan kinda treat Bella and Elena really terribly, you either like her or you don’t, you either want to stay away or you don’t.

16. Small town people and small town lives, both of which are surrounded by forest!Both of these are set in a small town despite the fact it’s probably far easier to fly under the radar if you’re surrounded by people. It’s easier to blend it when there’s thousands of people around you – although no animals to hunt.

17. “Animal attacks”, I guess that’s why we need to set these in wooded areas.

18. Car crash that didn’t kill our main girl – check

19. We have the boy who wants but just can’t have our main girl, I guess that makes Matt, Jacob. Or is Damon, the Jacob, hard to say. On this same point we have – Love triangle. Who doesn’t love a vampire love triangle?

20. Tad bit of gas-lighting to add to the mix is another similarity I can’t ignore.

21. Sports scene, admittedly a bit of a reach but, sports.

22. Lovely little cooking moment despite that vampires don’t need to eat human food.

And that is all the reasons I could find to justify the fact that the beginning of The Vampire Diaries is basically Twilight. Granted the two move sharply in different directions for the rest of their movies and seasons I still felt it was interesting to point out just how many similarities there are. I’m sure everyone could agree there being Vampires and Werewolves and a love triangle were clear similarities but I hope this has shone some light on some other similarities between these two book adaption YA medias.


Still, despite all this I do enjoy watching both Twilight and TVD and have the utmost respect for those involved in the creation of them for the joy they have been able to bring me over the years.


Thank you for reading, please comment any opinions or thoughts you have I’d love to hear them, don’t forget you can add your email at the bottom of the page or follow my Instagram @simplymythoughts_blog to find out when I post.