On the other hand, he can also sulk and then find away to anihilate all vampires.

I’m also happy you liked my use of Matt. I wanted the human to be useful but not in a Xander/Dark Willow way. And honestly, its tough to make a witch friend go dark without the comparisons. You’re so right though about the sniper solution.

It actually will become more of a novel like structure in the future. I know we talk about an Originals spinoff and when I envision it, I don’t picture 20,000 plot twists a week. I picture it moving much more slowly and being more deliberate about setting up a larger world rather than the small, interwoven web that is Mystic Falls. its still hard for me to get back into novel mode after writing scripts for so long but it is the goal.

And as for the character POV, sometimes, I will keep it between multiple characters with that third person omnipotent viewpoint just because I think that in action scenes it can work better. Even if it is breaking some rule of writing. But most of the scenes will be much more limited POV because I do want to get inside the head of each Original.

Hee, I worked on a torture scene last night. It was way more fun to write than it should have been.

I always appreciate a good Bonnie death, so I’m not hard to impress there, but having her go all Dark Willow is, I feel, totally in keeping with her character (what little the writers have given her thus far), and it would be interesting to see the gang have to deal with one of their own, a human, going completely off the reservation. Although Elena is right; Bonnie being a witch makes her as much a part of the supernatural as the vampires and werewolves. I liked how you showed Matt willing to get involved, even though it meant the death of a friend. On the surface, one would expect Matt to side WITH Bonnie, but both you and the show have handled Matt’s reaction to the supernatural shenanigans very well, and I can totally see him doing what you had him do. The witches may be the “servants of nature,” and see themselves as these arbiters for maintaining a balance, but they don’t always recognize that it’s the regular ole mundane humans who are the fulcrum. It’s therefore gratifying to have it be a human who saves the day.

[As an aside, I always wonder why, in supernatural stories, the characters don't just take the obvious and expedient route when it comes to dealing with witches and wizards: Just take a gun, get yourself into position, and snipe them when they are not expecting it. Voila! Problem solved!]

From a technical standpoint, I realize this is more of a prologue than the story proper, and I know you thought the length kind of got away from you, so I’m cutting some slack for that. The structure felt like sort of a strange amalgam of script writing and story writing, what with the setting headers. This worked to try and abbreviate the length since, again, this is to show how we get to the start of the story you’re telling and not the main focus of that story, but going forward I would like to see a more traditional, novel-like structure. It’s not that what you’ve done is wrong or anything; it’s a stylistic choice, just not my own preference. So, grain of salt, and all that.

Another stylistic choice you made was to go with the third-person omnipotent POV. Again, there is nothing wrong with that, it’s one of the available options, etc. I gravitate more toward a third person limited POV within a scene because I think it allows a sharper focus on one character, usually the one who most “owns” the scene. Hopping from head to head often means you can’t, for narrative purposes, give more than a cursory glance at what is going on for the characters internally, where as a single POV gets you deeper into the character with the most at stake, and also allows you to do some interesting inter-character things with all not always being as it appears to one character. Especially with this cast of wily, Machiavellian Originals, I think that could be a powerful writing tool. BUT, this is totally just my own preference, and not something you are in any way obligated to do. It’s your story, after all. I’m just throwing it out there as something to think about.

I’m really, REALLY looking forward to seeing what happens when the lot of them arrive in the Big Apple. So, um… WRITE FASTER!

Nice touch with Katherine, not saving the day per say, but tipping the balance at the last minute. Totally her style.

Can’t wait for the torture scenes. (And yes, I know how wrong this sounds.)

I would love some trouble between the girls if it in turn addresses some of the issues that have been around since the first season. I feel like the danger has allowed the girls to just move on without really working things out. I want them to work through their problems but they definitely need to be brought up in the first place. And you know, for Bonnie to be a person not a plot device.

And heavens yes, Elena needs the defense. Don’t forget too, she lost her adoptive parents the May before the series began. They weren’t her bio parents, but they were her “real” parents, as in they were the ones who raised her, and the ones she loved.

Then on the Bonnie thing. I didn’t go as into this because I focused on Elena but I’ll say two things. One, I don’t like Bonnie but I honestly wish I did. I’ve said elsewhere that I feel like I’m supposed to like Bonnie but that the writers haven’t given me any real insight into her life or her emotions. So when I start to defend her, thinking well Bonnie’s been through a lot, I think but who hasn’t on this show? It’s hard for me to be clear on just how much this bothers me. I don’t enjoy disliking Bonnie when I don’t feel like I have solid enough reasons to. It is by far my biggest beef with the writers (the second being this crying wolf with killing Alaric routine). I can’t stand Damon but I know who he is. I feel justified in making a decision in regards to Damon because I’ve seen his emotions. So it pisses me off to no end that I don’t like Bonnie when I haven’t been given enough reason for it.
Two, I do agree that Bonnie shutting out Elena is relatable. it’s not just understandable in the moment, it is a total teenage girl thing to do. It kind of feels like it will become more than just a moment of anger though if you know what i mean. Like its going to cause bigger problems in the next few episodes. And there’s a part of me that says well Bonnie hasn’t shown any sign of connecting with her mother (again something I’m frustrated about) and she willingly chose to let Esther channel her, putting herself at risk against the Originals (who I bet would’ve just killed her) and then blames Elena. I get why Bonnie’s doing it, I just don’t find it fully justifiable.

& since this comment is absurdly long, I’ll just note that depending on the next few episodes, I have the feeling I’ll be writing a post on the girls and their friendship, and really digging into everyone’s point of view. This time just felt like someone needed to stand up for Elena.