Iknewyoucoulddoit

So many unpopular opinins about this show, including that I still love it regardless of its problems. I love season 4 and 5, probably even more than the other seasons. Matthew was a very boring character, and I didn't miss him much once he was gone. I love Rose! I thought she was a lot more lively and interetsing than Sybil, who was supposed to be some sort of passionate, spirited, warmhearted rebel but mostly seemed very flat and distant. The actress who played her seemed to sleepwalk through her scenes. I also don't feel like she and Tom had some grand epic romance. Did they ever even connect about anything other than politics? Mostly Tom just seemed bitter in general and impatient with Sybil while Sybil came off only moderately interested in Tom. (This again could be attributed to the lifeless actress.) I always laugh at the "you're my ticket" scene. It's supposed to be this sweet romantic moment but comes off like Sybil basically announcing that she's using him to rebel and try out a more adventurous type of life rather than actually having some deep love for him. I get that we're supposed to think they're in love, but it didn't come across that way. Related to the above: I think Tom became more likable after Sybil's death. I hate that he gave up his political passions and ended up working to maintain the way of life he claimed to loathe and then as some sort of car salesman, but he also lost a lot of that generalized bitter anger that made him tiresome duirng the Sybil years. I love Cora and her marriage with Robert, which obviously was not ideal, especially by today's standards, but felt real to me all the same, and I do think they sincerely loved each other. I wish Mary had ended the series single and quite happy about it. If I read descriptions of each of these characters, I would have expected to relate most to Edith, but she is always very hard for me to root for. She just seems so whiny and self-pitying. Carson is sometimes entertaining, but he's awful. So much worse than Robert in many ways, which I know is an unpopular opinion. And Carson seemed to get progressively worse with every season. I love Elsie Hughes and think she deserved a far batter fate!

I can't believe this show is even supposed to be funny. It's so agonizingly stupid and the "humor" feels like it's geared for people under the age of seven. What an awful show. I see why it was on the verge of being canceled.

@Chaos Theory, I would love to hear more about why you hate Stefan! I agree completely about loving Liz and the relationships that Caroline and Damon both had with her. And even as someone who likes eraly Elena, I agree also about Caroline being a more compelling character.

One of the best parts about finding this site is having a place to confess how much I love Emily Prentiss! As others have said, she's tough but compassionate, socially awkward but sassy, impatient and snarky but deeply caring, blunt but sensitive, cerebral but sometimes recklessly impulsive, and so on. I relate to her in some ways and aspire to be like her in others. She's someone who's both relatably flawed and who I can look up to. I'm sure some of my love for her stems from how much I like the actress. And how much I covet her hair, lol.

I always felt like Paris more proactively set goals and went after what she wanted. Rory, especially in college, wanted certain things in the abstract but, aside from studying hard because she genuinely enjoyed doing so, often waited for other people to helpfully shove her in a certain direction or outright gift her with opportunities. Fortunately, the writers made sure that such opportunities were always plentiful and timely. :) There are probably better examples than Rory being eagerly handed the editorship of Yale Daily News despite not even indicating an interest in it and not having been on campus the entire previous semester while she was off living like a celebutante and DAR-ing, but that might be the one that bothers me the most. I haven't watched that episode in years, but I recall staff memebers all but pleading for her to take the position. I get that they didn't want to work for Paris anymore, but are we to believe that not one other reporter for the Yale Daily News was better equipped for that role than someone who deals with adversity by stealing yachts and dropping out of college and who has one less semester writing and learning about the paper than other Yale juniors on staff? Heaven forbid someone critique one of the articles Rory was responsible for editing during her reign; she might have burned down the entire building, or at least stolen that person's vehicle. ;) The way that situation was carefully written to prevent viewers from being angry at Rory bothered me too. I would have much rather seen a newly re-matriculated Rory become obsessively driven, so determined to make up for lost time and pursue her goals that she was willing to hurt Paris along the way. It would have made for an interesting conflict between Rory and Paris, the kind where you can at least partly understand where both people were coming from, but of course instead Paris is made out to be a irrational nutjob for daring to get angry at Rory since our little princess never actively sought out the editor in chief position in the first place. And at least in that scenario Rory would have ended up with an honor that she deliberately, assertively set out to get rather than one she was handed because she's Rory. Does anyone else ever feel like they need reminders about why they love this show since there's so much about it that is all too worthy of criticism? I read the posts here and the media critiques pointing out how the revival magnified serious issues with the show and its characters that were present all along and I suddenly have trouble recalling why it's supposedly one of my favorite shows!

I've been rewatching the past few weeks and have really enjoyed falling back in love with this show! Some of my opinions that seem fairly unpopular - I really love Rossi. He's tied with Reid and Prentiss as my favorite character. Part of me has always shipped Reid and Prentiss. I understand why many hate the idea of ships within the team and often agree, but there's something in me that would love to see them together, if only in the fanfic that I'm about to start reading and (possibly?!) writing! It seems many love the Elle and Gideon era the best and I can understand why, but S3-S5 is my favorite stretch of the show, especially S3-S4. I love some members of the team better than others, but I really do like all of them. This is one of the most re-watchable series ever. Even though I now know exactly how my favorite epiodes play out, somehow they're still suspenseful and draw me in every single time!

Ha! You're more generous than I am ;) I love seeing the relative love for S6! It obviously had some issues, but it did give us some of my very favorite Bamon and even Stefan/Damon moments ever, and Kai was just so much fun to watch. Would anyone be interested in doing at least a partial one? We could each pick some favorite episodes to rewatch and chat about them as a group...? I've been rewacthing anyway, but it would be more fun to do it with you all!

@Aeryn13, your answers were perfect and helped me so much! I understand completely what you mean about Bonnie ultimately being the most loving, feeling and selfless character even though Elena is led more by her heart and emotions. Bonnie became more understandably guarded and cynical as the series progressed and is less trusting and initially open than Elena or even Caroline but ultimately cares deeply about others and is, as you pointed out, very intuistive and instinctive as well. How would you all rate the seasons from your favorite to least favorite? I think mine would be S2, S1, S3, S6 (Love Damon and Bonnie in a different dimension and found Kai one of the series' best antagonists), S4, S5, S7, S8.

I know! Sometimes I wanted to spend more time back there and less in the present day. That was a major part of what hooked me on S1 and S2 and still keeps me riveted to those episodes - the pacing is a whirlwind, with more happening in most individual episodes of TVD than seems to happen in about 10 episodes of many other shows, and yet it usually didn't feel too rushed or overcrowded, just compelling and incredibly fun to watch even now that I know what happens. I've loved recalling what drew many of us to the show. I'm so used to focusing on our many complaints as fans - not that they're not valid!- that it's nice to be reminded of why I wasn't not too insane for loving it at the very beginning and still feeling attached to it despite its many problems. I have a question for you all related to a fanfic that I will no doubt be too lazy to actually write. :) What do you all see as the main differences and similarities among Elena, Bonnie and Caroline? What do you see as their core personality traits? Which of them do you see as the most introverted, the most extroverted, most led by their heart, most led by their head, the most inuitive, the most logical, the most emotional, the most intellectual and so on? There are times when they're all written as very frustratingly similar. Someone wrote a post with a long list of adjectives, and I realized every single one of those adjectives could apply equally to all three of them! This seems to be the one place on the internet where we can politely discuss different views about TVD ships and still like and respect people whose opinions differ from ours, one of many reasons I love this place and wish I had found it sooner! I think my ideal pairings would be Elena/Stefan, Bonnie/Damon, Caroline/Tyler. I know that none of these will actually end up together in reality, but that never deters me. :) Given how much less I love most of the characters in later seasons, though, I'd probably be fine if no one ended up with anyone else and the characters and pairings just lived on in fanfic, where they're often better written anyway!

ALL of this! (Except that I loved the Pilot for some reason and was hooked immediately, lol). In addition to everything you mentioned, I loved how in the first few seasons there was this interesting exploration of how the past sometimes does come full circle and continues to influence the present in a variety of ways. It raised some very interesting issues about why and whether history is sometimes doomed to repeat itself, how we can break free of those cycles and patterns, how even ancestors we don't know of affect who we are and how we live today. Not trying to give the show credit for being deeper than it is, but it felt like the first few seasons did a great job of showing how heavily past events impacted Mystic Falls and the people in it. Plus, as a huge bonus, we got to see our characters in gorgeous costumes from other eras :)

I love that so many of us feel this way, even those of us who are bitter about the last several seasons. I'm a Buffyverse fan, but S2 of TVD and large parts of S1 and S3 as well are right up there with the very best of Buffy and Angel for me, as blasphemous as some Buffy fans may consider that :) I agree with a lot of this and would add that my ultimate ending for Caroline would be to decide to be happily single at least for the time being and see where life takes her. Given Caroline's insecurities, I think that would be a great end for her character, but TV writers seem legally obligated to pair off almost every character in series' finales, so I'm not holding my breath This perfectly sums up how I end up feeling about most shows that run for longer than a few seasons, very much including this one! But as much as I complain about this show, I have to admit that when I showed a few S1 episodes to a friend who had never seen the show just a few weeks ago, I found myself sucked in all over again. There's something about the storytelling style that's incredibly engaging even when it isn't objectively very good! And I really do enjoy most of these characters for the first few seasons, especially when I convneiently block out how most of them are written later and just pretend they stayed or became who I imagined them to be. Deliberate denial is the key to loving many of my TV shows. :)

Hi all! New here but an old fan of the show, or at least the first few seasons of it. I looked for a UO thread here but couldn't find it, so please be forewarned that some of the opinions I'm venting here are weird and held by almost no one else :) Speaking of - I love Elena Gilbert. Granted, only pre-vampire Elena Gilbert. I'm sure there are psychological reasons rooted in some of my own experiences that explain why I need to see her as relatable and likable, but I just know that I care about her and feel she's a more layered character than anyone else feels she is :) To me she's someone who was never truly happy even before her parents' death, confident but just going through the motions, and became more introspective, self-doubting and feeling as a result of her parents' death. I think she now follows her heart even when it leads herself and others into horrible situations but does always mean well, as weak a consolation as that may be. I just like and get her somehow, at least until around S4. But I love Dawn Summers too, so maybe I've got some genetic quirk that forces me to love characters who others understandably hate! Stefan/Elena of the first two seasons will always be one of my favorite fictional couples. I have no defense for feeling this way, but 'shipping' isn't rational! I dislike Stefan/Caroline as more than friends. It feels so forced and there's such a lack of real chemistry or joy there to me. The only thing I like less is the idea of Caroline with Klaus. I love Caroline overall, but she's one of these characters who's always much more lovable to me outside of her romantic relationships. Klaus isn't compelling or intriguing to me, just repulsive. Even by the standards of this show, he's just horrible. I get why some see Stefan as a discount Angel, though I see them as somewhat different. Damon, though, is total discount Spike to me. I agree with the posters who said the first two or three seasons of this show are surprisingly great TV and really underrated. I still love them despite resenting a lot of what follows. My frustration with later seasons initially turned me off to the show in general but now make me appreciate the early ones more.

Absolutely, though the writing was terrible for almost everyone in Season 6, at least IMO :) Right? She's so sentimental and emotional. She cares so much and tries so hard. I love and relate to her despite being much older and having far less gorgeous hair! The unpopular opinion thread is the perfect place for me to admit that I really enjoyed Wesley's stint on BTVS. :) I love a lot of episodes that seem unpopular and dislike a few that most fans seem to love, but I'm not sure this is the right place to discuss episodes...?

The Paul/Odette thing is just unfunny, unnecessary and gross, making Logan and Rory even less likable than they were otherwise - and they didn't need that extra help. One thing I find ironic about Rory finding Paul too forgettable to even break up with or recall the existence of (ha ha...ha?) is that Rory herself is not exactly the world's most charismatic and vibrant sparkplug of a character. Like who is SHE to think this devoted, generous, perfectly nice guy - a lot nicer than she is - is so beneath her that he's not even worth treating with a shred of respect despite the fact that she kept him in her life for years? It's yet another thing supporting the theory that the Palldinos perceive their main characters as far better, more charming and lovable people than they actually are. I used to be a big defender of Rory and still can't find it in me to hate her, but even I think she's a lackluster drip who's led by stronger personalities like Lorelai, Emily, Paris, Logan, and Jess since she doesn't have much personality of her own. Playing up how a guy she dated for years is too boring for the allegedly more dynamic, "force of nature" (LOL!!!) princess Rory to even remember is especially ironic to me and yet another example of how the Palladinos perceive their characters differently from the majority of viewers.

I didn't even think that was that terrible! And although he obviously was not a solid and sufficiently involved presence in Rory's life, I wouldn't say he was a complete deadbeat either. I know of parents who played no role in their kids' lives at all, and that wasn't the case here. Tbh, I think there's a tendency to overly vilify Christopher. I don't like or respect him much, but he's not nearly as awful as many make him out to be. Maybe for some seeing everything that Christopher does in the worst possible light makes it easier to think well of Luke by contrast and the dreary, depressing dysfunction of Luke x Lorelai. I also think Christopher and Lorelai ctually communicated a lot better than Luke and Lorelai ever did and had more chemistry and happiness in their relationship too, but that may be because I'm thinking mostly of the scenes written by Rosenthal in season 7, and he didn't seem to hate and resent writing for romanctic couples as much as the Palladinos did.