Goodbye, TVD. Goodbye, Tumblr.
The last time I posted anything on Tumblr was almost two years ago, on the 26th of March 2015. You can still see in my bio how I mention I’m 18, when in fact, I actually just recently turned 20.
Back then, I found myself drifting away from Tumblr, and decided to go on a potentially indefinite hiatus from it all. One of the main reasons I no longer found Tumblr as fun was the fact that TVD was going to shit, I hated The Originals, Klaroline pretty much died, and I felt like the fandom was divided and people were moving on to new shows.
But for those few years I was actively on this site, I used to love checking Tumblr after every episode of TVD and just relishing in the feeling of being a part of a great community. I remember watching the episode live for ‘500 Years of Solitude’ despite it being 1AM here in the UK and on a shitty live-stream just so that I could freak out with everyone over the (amazing) Klaroline kiss. I can honestly say that TVD and Klaroline meant so much to me back then (it quite literally consumed my thoughts at times), but it really was the fandom that made it for me. The reblogging of the amazing stuff people made like the gif-sets, videos, text posts, fanfiction, all of it. I used to have the FanFiction app and check every day for updates on my favourite Klaroline stories. I remember dying of excitement every time Prowl updated, which still remains to this day, the best fanfic I’ve ever read. I sometimes go back through my old posts and laugh so hard at the way I used to scream about the show and its ships in the tags. I had almost forgotten how emotional and worked up the show used to make me back then, especially if Caroline or Klaus were involved.
Therefore, despite the fact that I feel like TVD has turned into a shit-show, it’ll always have a very special place in my heart for the utter happiness the show and the fandom brought me (especially the Klaroline fandom). Honestly, those teenage years weren’t the easiest for me, and finding an escape in the (sometimes ridiculous) drama of TVD, getting caught up in the Klaroline fever, feeling like I belonged in this online TVD community, it really meant so much to me.
I really did grow up with TVD, I mean, it basically spanned my entire teens. The characters and the story have come to mean so much to me, no matter how terrible the writing gets. I’ll always have a love for Caroline, Stefan, Klaus, Bonnie, Damon, Matt, Alaric Kol, Rebekah, Elijah, Katherine, Kai, Jeremy, even Elena who I came to despise as a character. I’ve laughed with them, cried with them, shouted at the screen for them, and ran around the room in excitement over just one kiss. TVD (and the fandom) have been a comfort to me during times of sadness and happiness, and has even been the cause of some of it! It was honestly a hell of an emotional roller coaster these years. The joy I used to feel over seeing Klaroline on screen, and how crushed I felt when the whole Hayley-spawn thing happened. I’ve never been so emotionally invested and immersed in a show as I have been for TVD. And whilst for the last years I’ve begged for it to just end because of how awful I felt the show has become, now we’re at the final episode, I’m absolutely devastated to see it go after 7 years of investment.
I look back at some of my old posts about TVD (and ‘JoMo’) and cringe, but that just shows how much I’ve grown up and changed throughout the show. And I owe some of this growth to the show and Tumblr. So it’s almost poetic that the show ends when I finally have begun feeling like an adult. The ending of TVD is almost like a fundamental part of my childhood and adolescence ending. And whilst I’m not quite ready for it, I know that I have to let it go.
When I started this blog on on the 7th of October 2012, it quickly became a TVD and Klaroline blog. Therefore it only seems right that since TVD is ending, this blog also ends.
So here’s to TVD... For all the smiles, laughs, tears, the unbelievable excitement, the butterflies in my stomach when Klaroline finally kissed, the anger, the sadness, the moments of apathy, but the ultimate love for the show.
And here’s to Tumblr... For being an amazing part of my life, for the fandom, the amazing content people made, the collective emotions we all felt, the feeling of community.
It’s been a hell of a ride.Thank you to TVD for being such a significant part of my life. And thank you to the fandom for being there to experience it all with me. Goodbye.
