klaroline had chemistry and were both popular/beloved characters. i believe that's what attracted ppl to it... ur analyzying a hot vampire show too deeply. if the white girl thing mattered so much, he'd be shipped that hard with elena, hayley, that other white girl from the originals, etc. pretty sure klaus interacted with many white girls and none of it picked up
well, on the one hand i would say that klayley and klamille had/have pretty big fandoms on their own with a sizable impact, but i know what you mean that KC seemed special and out of the ordinary and thatās, imo, due to timing and convenience. klaus was due aĀ ālove interestā and this was theĀ āfirstā girl that seemed to finally draw his interest. if there had been a white witch instead, or elena, under the same circumstances, (iām gonna kill you, oops, i change my mind, cat and mouse game), it wouldāve had just as much hype around it cuz ppl wanted to see klaus courting smb, cuz #klausthirst, i guess. 2012 was a gentler time. also, before KC showed up, there was speculation and klonnie and klena too, but since nothing concrete had happened, it did not seem to take over the fandom as KC did.Ā
i think KCās big appeal is less about chemistry (more about that in a minute) and more about facility and self-referentiality. so for instance this ship could be teased in the last season of TO precisely because itās not really reliant on any storyline or character beats, itās somehow independent of the show, it has its own universe and it can pop up on tvd, TO, legacies etc because itās more about this illusory dynamic where klaus is carolineās weakness (heās not) and where caroline reformed klaus in some way (she didnāt). in fact, KC thrives onĀ āwould-beās and being these āimaginary soulmatesā. if caroline and klaus had actually interacted more and had more to do with one another, the shipās popularity would have been tested by a relationshipās natural progression. but since KC were never rly given a chance, it can live in that ideal place of ācanon without consequencesā.Ā
the best i can say about them is that they ended up as friends, which is rather more appropriate. (their TO scenes read like two exes who are content with having put their brief stint behind them. in fact, they have far more chemistry as friends)
as for the chemistry, the first KC scene is probably the best because there was a certain warmth and mystery to it that it never managed to equal after 3x11. the rest of the season caroline kept acting more bothered by him than anything else (and not in a fun hot way). their scenes are always a combo of caroline going likeĀ āgawd! i canāt believe youāre here!ā klaus: you canāt get rid of me so easily, love x 100 but without much impact on the storyline or on each other as characters. klaus doesnt really grow as a person until his stint on TO, letās face it (and his time with his family and cami) and carolineāsĀ āethical dilemmaā about klaus is not really dealt with (tyler is vilified for it more than her - not that she should be vilified but you donāt get the sense of real conflict) because this whole thing was not thought out very well. hell, even carolineās attraction to him is infantilized. i meanā¦. klaus literally comes back for a few scenes just to have sex with herā¦.okay. their emotional scenes are always stunted by lack of good writing (the scene where he stabs her and bites her and then sheās likeĀ āyouāre in love with me and every person who loves is worth savingā ā¦.is tonally weird, because it has not been earned and it jars with the rest of their dynamic, because such intimacy is hardly ever brought up again). i will say KC had potential for smth interesting, but itās precisely because of theirĀ āno narrative strings attachedā policy and because this ship ultimately isnāt that challenging that ppl latched onto to it. and i donāt fault them for it, we all like fast food, i just wish weād be more critical about it.Ā
(sidenote about whiteness: i feel like caroline was a much easier self-insert to project on than hayley and camille who challenged klaus in far more intimate and visceral ways. again, caroline could have potentially challenged klaus like that, but she never got the chance)
