So I have been receiving some lovely reviews for my story including some constructive criticism which I acknowledge fully. That been said I think that one of the good things that comes from such reviews is the chance to not only think about certain things but also to be able to have a constructive discussion too.
Some of the reviews I have gotten are not showing as of now in the site once I accept them but I have read them from my email too. Fanfiction net is malfunctioning so I assume all the reviews eventually will show up.Â
Anyhow... Now since the two reviewers that left me basically the same review (are you two or one?....sorry I had to ask lol) were on guest and I canât reply to them by private messaging I am going to do it from here so theyâll know my mentality over the things they are questioning and how I see things as I write the story and my characters. Replying on tumblr is not ideal and possibly they wonât be able to see the answer here but eventually when I post a new chapter in my story I will point them towards this post.
That been said I have a few things to cover mostly.
This story is a parallel to Seasons 1-3 and somewhat 4 of TVD. I havenât watched TVD after that point and neither anything connected to that universe. I found the show to be doing a disservice to its characters and I found the writing poor so I stopped watching. So any allegory that can be found in my story that is connected with TVD and its characters is up to S4 of the show.Â
After a point my story is going to diverge from that and for now there are parallels and I am trying to not write the characters extremely OOC but after breaking a certain word limit the characters you write, either they are part of fanfiction or based on some other characters that inspired you...well they start to get a voice of their own.
I acknowledge 100% the fact that a reader may not like some of my characters. It happens. We canât all have the same perspective or taste and so on.Â
So this is not me being critical over the reviews or trying to change anyoneâs opinion. I am just here to point out how I view certain things and characters as I write them.
But let me clarify some things because this may not be a story for you after all.
1. If you are expecting Klaus Mikaelson to have a redemption arc in my story then this is not a story for you. Yes there are some glimpses of humanity where Caroline is concerned and as I will get into the second phase of the story and as Klausâ background and main plot will get into the forefront more of these glimpses will appear. Along with more of his darkness.
This is why I chose this particular alternative universe as a setting for my story. Because vampires are monsters so I wanted a human version of despicable monsters too.Â
I also chose an environment that is steeped in misogyny and is not progressive because if I wanted to parallel TVD I had to have such elements in the story since the writing in TVD was awfully misogynistic, racist and homophobic. My plan though, and I hope to be able to succeed on that, is to eventually subvert those tropes in my story which is exactly it is set that way in the beginning.
Back to Klaus now...I am not going to woobify the villain. I am not going to have love âsaveâ him. He isnât going to change for the sake of love. Any development that happens to his character and to his relationship with Caroline wonât turn him into another character. He is an adult, a criminal, a psychopath really. Those arenât traits to change.
2. I NEVER ever saw Caroline as a good or moral person even in TVD. So donât expect that in my story either.
The fact that the writing in TVD told us so doesnât make Caroline a good person. Since the narrative of her actions and character contradicted it. Yes she had good sides. She may have wanted to be good too. But she was still a Vampire. Which came along with a certain darkness despite the writers wanting to have their cake and eat it too by writing the vampires of the inner circle of TVD as Mary Sue vampires while they still murdered and killed and yet they somehow were the good guys. Â
Carolineâs potential for me was that she was meant to have agency. To be a vampire and relish in the dark parts too. That was one of the reasons why I liked Klaroline so much. Not in order for Klaus to become better. Or Caroline to simply become worse. But in order to show the true nature of vampirism will all that came along with it. To focus on the mythology, the legend, the immortality and freedom, to the creatures of the night. And you know...blood, desire, gore and slaughter. Simple every day stuff really.
I wanted Caroline that sided by the ripper of Monterey because he was her savior but did so despite knowing that he ate children. Caroline that was raped by Damon but overcame the horror, that stood by Elena when she committed genocide, that took Mason down, that was tortured by the werewolves and then said goodbye to girly girl Caroline and said screw it all I will be cheery but I will be a survivor too and thrive. The Caroline that fought the tomb vampires. The Caroline that tricked Katherine. The Caroline that in order to save her friend murdered 12 witches in cold blood. The Caroline that manipulated Klausâ affections to save herself and despite seeing the good parts in him was never fooled by those and saw him for the villain and menace he was and never coddled him. The Caroline that distracted the worst monster of them all and had fun while doing so. The Caroline that traded a date for the life of another person (a friend of the man she loved back then) because it suited her purposes. The Caroline that joined a game of life and death with Klaus Mikaelson and found the silver lining and was pulled towards him despite how much she fought against it. The Caroline that was a hypocrite in believing she and her friends were better than Klaus and still got the plan to put him Rebekahâs body and bury him forever. The Caroline that when Klaus saved her in the corridor she still toasted over his demise later on the same day. The Caroline that Silas saw how she wanted her perfect feathers ruffled. The Caroline that screwed Klaus despite him having murdered Jenna and Carol Lockwood, and Elena and having tortured all her friends. The man that despite doing all that and sending her boyfriend to exile she still wanted and was still attracted to him. Because she couldnât underestimate the allure of darkness no matter how much she tried. Because it was a part of her too with or without Klaus.
That Caroline that for me was never a good person. It is just too simplistic to claim that she was.Â
3. Sometimes sexual desire and connection is not translated by good actions. You donât have to be a good person to feel lust for someone. To be infatuated. To be tempted.Â
Sometimes it is physical. Sometimes it is intellectual. It doesnât have to be love. It can be desire. Some times you can desire assholes too. It is instinct.
Do Klaus and Caroline love each other in my story? No. Not yet. Donât know about the future.
Do they have the hots for each other and want to bone each other? Yes. Definitely.
And if we are being honest ...did that desire came out of nowhere?Â
I donât know ...didnât it came out of the blue in the show too?
Here in my story the slow burn has been building up for more than 200.000 words. Maybe you feel I failed on communicating that correctly. Maybe I did. But I wouldnât say that desire is always reasonable or gets there in a straight line step by step.
This is still a story based on the trope of enemies to lovers so of course those two are enemies now. Maybe you donât approve or like that stage or makes no sense to you. But some times enemies can have desire for each other even without reason. If that isnât a trope for you I digress.
Even in TVD though Caroline was never head over heels for Klaus. She covered her darkest desires and their connection with hostility. She always had walls up. She had put herself on a pedestal against him despite her own terrible actions and her own darkness she still wanted the villain. She was still at the beginning of the journey that give or take 1000 years would turn her into Klausâ door as she by them she wouldnât be that different from him.Â
4. Is Klaus dragging Caroline to darkness in my story? Yes. In her own darkness that was already there to begin with all the potential. In the same way in TVD he was an Original and she was a baby vampire and he saw in her parts of himself. âWe are the same Carolineâ. âThe allure of darkness.â âThe darkness desires.â and so on. Klaus that in TVD his version of mercy and kindness also equaled darkness and pain.
So those are things that inspired me to write my story so here we are. Caroline is unlocking emotions in Klaus. Emotions that he never had before and he doesnât know how to deal with or what they mean and gets destructive and confused because of them. While he still basically worships the ground Caroline walks on while he also still plays his fucked up mind games. In the same way Caroline is finding freedom in the darkness he opens up in her too and still wants to bring him down.
5. In the same way love canât change a person fundamentally but show the best and worst versions of oneâs character which is something that applies for Klaus in my story then in the same way the same counts for Caroline.
Her agency wonât be forgotten. She is not all of the sudden going to forget her plans and her desire for freedom because she feels desire or even love for a man. It doesnât work that way. And she wonât be simply good, the vanilla version of good or simply evil or pulled to darkness. There is going to be a struggle of what she feels. Both for Klaus and for herself. That wonât change. It wonât be sacrificed in my story.
Caroline for Caroline comes first. Klaroline comes second. At this point I would even debate that comes third after her family too.Â
Caroline wonât change to a doormat for any man. Not in my story. Not simply because I ship Klaroline.
If that makes her unlikable. Then so be it. If it makes her selfish then good.
If this is somehow lost in translation for you I get it. Maybe I didnât write it as clearly as I could.Â
But if you want to get a better feel of who Caroline is through the Klaroline ship in my story and her connection to Klaus and all her reactions to him and the ship in general then I am afraid youâve lost the meaning of my story. You wonât be able to get who Caroline is only through shipping goggles here. I am not writing her like this despite this being a Klaroline fanfiction.Â
And of course she is confused btw and not certain for things and is still building up her character through mistakes and uncertainty. Her age, her background and her current situation add to that.Â
6. Disclaimer:Â If anyone is expecting anything similar to what I have seen from TO in gifs (I didnât bother watching those seens) regarding Klaroline then ...NO. I donât know how more forward I can be with this. I cringed beyond belief by what TO had shown for Klaroline from what I saw here in tumblr. I double tripled cringed by any gifs I have see from TVD after S4 when it came to Caroline (O_O) and there is no level of cringe that can describe how I felt when it came to TO in general. So if anyone is expecting that or is basing their opinion of what they see in my story over THAT perspective...then I get it...yeah..my story will most definitely disappoint you. No questions asked about that.
I get what you are saying about the long descriptions and not as much dialogue in my story but then again I am afraid thatâs my writing style here. I wonât change that anytime soon.
Let me be honest here by saying that IF I was publishing this as a book I would probably be trying to contain the long winded texts more, to make a better pace and so on. The descriptions would still be longer than the dialogue though. Because thatâs my style. That been said this is still fanfiction and I am writing it in order to have fun so this is me having fun. Letting go and even writing all this writing vomit lol...I get it. It is not always easy to read. It can be tiresome and jarring. But thatâs how I write and I do feel that my writing is not for everyone. I am not saying you are wrong in your criticism here. Objectively you are right. I recognize that too. But it is what I like and feel inclined to write so...yeah.
Anyhow. This is my long winded answer too (see? Thatâs HOW I WRITE lol...if it is not dissertation whatâs the point ha ha)...I hope Iâll get more reviews from you and thank you for your compliments in those reviews too. I am always open for more discussions of this sort either you are on guest or not.