#forwood

If you love Tyler Lockwood (TVD) and you want reblog or like,this is the link of my reblog character :)

If you love Tyler&Caroline (TVD) and you want reblog or like,this is the link of my reblog couples :)

caroline forbes is not perfect. in fact, i would argue she's not even inherently a 'good' person. she is a hard-working and neurotic overachiever, a highly flawed individual with a mean streak, and a lot of insecurities that fashion the way she interacts with the world around her.

once she becomes a vampire, she becomes 'better' because vampires are better—from a purely superficial level. she is a good vampire because she doesn't kill people (ignoring how, if we follow this logic on its own, she was a good human for not killing people, but no one gets praised for that like a vampire does, do they?). she becomes a 'better' caroline because she gets to be young and beautiful (and fast and strong and nearly unkillable) forever.

to be a better person, all caroline has to do after transitioning is not kill people to sustain herself. that's a small hurdle to jump.

of course, this is supposed to be a struggle for any vampire, it goes against their nature. but she also had a lot of advantages in this battle:

most of the people around her were friends, family, friends of friends, or people she at least knew of (since she lived in a small town and was a social butterfly); killing them would likely hurt her in turn, which could help keep her temptations at bay

her mother was a cop: following the rules, the law, and doing what was right are probably concepts caroline has been familiar with since her childhood

the fear of punishment: if she stepped too far out of line, stefan and bonnie could kill her, and officer forbes would probably put down her own child if it meant saving the town from what she perceived as truly harmful; it would a punishment that felt almost divine, handed out by people she knew and loved

she had a seasoned and resourceful vampire (stefan) with a deep history tied to 'addiction' to blood, who was already aided in his journey by someone else (lexi), who wanted to better himself and was willing to help her avoid the pitfalls of being a vampire

if vampirism 'enhanced' emotions or existing personality traits, consider that caroline was a teenager whose entire identity was built as a multi-layered show of theatre and the desire to seem perfect. one of the things she wanted more than anything was control. someone with those traits could find it easier to try and 'control' their hunger, especially when failing to do so would tank her standing socially.

to be a better person, caroline simply had to do the one thing that would seem morally reprehensible... to a vampire, or a human, or a werewolf, or a witch: slaughter people indiscriminately with no purpose beyond entertainment.

from a narrative perspective, caroline forbes needed to accomplish... basically nothing in order for the narrative to paint her as 'good' past her transformation.

the issue then becomes this: what about all that emotional and mental baggage?

that's where tyler comes in.

compare and contrast: narratively, tyler needed to accomplish the impossible, then got side-lined, belittled, battered, forgotten, then brought back just to die and even then the narrative painted him only as 'little more than a small town boy,' in the words of his greatest adversary, from the lips of his greatest love, who he lost to the aforementioned adversary, who went on to be painted as a great man, just as his murderer did. brutal.

we watch tyler make choices and mistakes that are much easier to point out. things the narrative frequently points out. he's verbally and physically angry, he's sexually promiscuous and of course there's what happened with vicki, he's loud and he's rude. his dad's abusive, he's abusive, his whole bloodline has the capacity to be abusive, his entire supernatural species in more inclined to be abusive! bad! bad! bad!

just like how murder is bad, caroline can look at tyler's behaviour and easily label it bad. so does tyler. tyler sees within himself his flaws, things he does not like, and makes an effort to fix them, to better himself, and to change. spurred on by a curse, his upbringing, the abuse he and his mother went through, and his feelings for caroline, tyler actively works toward becoming a better man.

tyler can look at caroline and he can easily label some of what she does as bad. he called her on her bullshit quite often, which caroline did not like, but he was probably the one consistent voice in her life that refused to let her remain in her protective bubble of 'i'm a good vampire, i'm good, so everything i say and everything i do is good.'

he saw the girl behind the act.

for tyler, that mask wasn't good enough. he saw the brightness in her, the positives, the love she felt, the pain she had, and he accepted her. all of her. even the not so nice. caroline, on the other hand, began accepting tyler once he had made that effort to change. to be better.

unfortunately for caroline, i think the the 'i can help him fix himself' storyline needed to go both ways.

caroline never feels the need to become better. and the narrative eventually stops wanting her to become better, or to even evolve. to grow. she stagnates and becomes faultless, she can never be blamed, she can never be wrong. so she can never learn. trapped in a hamster wheel, repeating her cycles, playing pretend, caught up in a life that looks so, so perfect on paper from a safe distance away.

tyler doesn't necessarily tell her she needs to be better - or rather, different - because he, probably better than most, understands that some parts of you cannot be snuffed out. especially the ugly parts forged from trauma or pain. these parts can only quieted, chipped down, maybe mellowed. maintained, to put it into more caroline-friendly terms.

only with a genuine love and understanding can you tell a girl who possibly fashioned some of the ugliest parts of her personality as a shield from hurt, abandonment, fear, and insecurity, that yes, she is beautiful but no, not everything she does, even if it is not out of malicious intent, is okay. there is love in acceptance, of course, but there is also love in accountability. something caroline helped teach tyler, and something he could have taught her in turn.

and this is where i start having a bone to pick with this show and its writing.

i think caroline could have genuinely grown into a better woman; the woman the show kept telling us she was, instead of showing us. not for a man, she would have already had the man (who was head over heels for her even at her worst), but for herself. dealing with the quieter internal struggles alongside a man who also had room to grow, and was willing to grow beside her, with her.

a story of two flawed individuals gradually growing into better versions of themselves together. a relationship where you can make mistakes, stumble and fall, and know that they will be there to pick you up and help you back onto the right path. a relationship that allows enough autonomy to make mistakes and be stupid, to be human, but with strong enough guardrails in place to keep each other safe while they figured it out, whatever 'it' was that month. to stop each other from doing things they couldn't take back, things that they would regret, because they knew each other enough to help balance one another out.

but alas, i guess this is all the writers cared about:

please consider tyler and caroline:

making a home together / re-establishing them finding a home in each other

verbally sparring (because they don't always agree but they always agree to talk/argue through it)

physically sparring (because they're trying to take down powers stronger than they are and they've got no magic to back them up in this place; who better to learn from than each other?)

their special brand of domesticity e.g.: caroline going décor crazy, tyler scaring half the neighbours when he wakes up on the wrong side of the bed, having quasi-parties for the inevitable friends they make along the way, caroline finding new ways to dress up for no reason, tyler accidentally breaking the stuff he's trying to fix because he doesn't always know his own strength

watching a small space they have to call home go from what is probably carline forbes' nightmare (grey walls, minimal furniture, dreary and 'practical') turn into a culmination of their efforts, caroline's dictation over decoration, and little details of them - as individuals, as a growing couple - in every corner

the "great, date attempt #23 is interrupted by another life that needs saving - when are we going to have time for US, tyler?!" minor arguments

and the "things have been crazy, no i didn't forget our anniversary/your birthday/the fact you wanted to go to this one specific spot 5 episodes ago, i love you, caroline" reconciliations

but also the "i know how important this is for you, i'm always going to be here, you also need a rest, happy birthday (i know u forgot), i understand how much this means to you but i just have to be dramatic about it first, tyler" sheepish reconciliations by caroline

tyler the alpha and his pack of rogues trying to take on The King like they're in some greek epic and it'll probably take 3-4 seasons but he'll lead them through it all

caroline the vampire and initially being 'othered' because she's a blood sucker (ew) but she proves herself by being the mentor and support she was lucky enough to have after her transition (and also by kicking a butt or two or three)

"caroline, you're a genius!" and "tyler, you're an idiot" happen at least once each season; consider the parallel opportunities like tyler smiling through agonizing pain as he prepares to transform for the 100th time because he trusted the suggestion caroline's made and caroline is in tears watching this but he believes in her and so he will keep going until the end; or caroline smiling through her tears because tyler's super dishevelled from handling some or other days-long altercation and the flowers + chocolate + gift he got for her are in a State but he's standing at their door and promising forever and to always come back home (to her, she is home) and it's basically a proposal after a really stressful forced separation because caroline always enjoys a bit of wooing and tyler loves trying to sweep her off her feet

being covered in blood from fights or from feeding

each individually having an arc where they find themselves close to the cusp of a serious drop off and being each other's anchors, helping them reign it back in and properly deal with the issues rather than brushing them under the carpet for them to pop up again later

the 'we're going to be parents' season