We like to keep an optimistic attitude when indulging in TV shipping, but it’s important to remember that things don’t always work out for even the most epic of television couples. Things aren’t looking so good right now for Damon (Ian Somerhalder) and Elena (Nina Dobrev) on The Vampire Diaries. Elena thinks Damon is dead and gone, while Damon is trapped on some kind of other-plane. Is Delena doomed?
Yes, this has always been a tragedy. Some of the best love stories are tragedies: Romeo and Juliet. Tristan and Isolde. Titanic. Will Delena join their number? In some ways, this would be an understandable ending to the TVD story. After all, this has never been a story of happy endings. It’s the story of Elena’s life becoming increasingly more wrought with death. Almost everyone she loves, including herself, has died at least once. For a show that started as a tale of a teenaged protagonist struggling to deal with the death of her parents, that’s par for the course.
If Elena ends up living happily ever after with Damon, we’re not sure we’d be satisfied because, though it would be sweet, would it feel a fitting end for the series? The best series endings match the themes and promises of the episodes and arcs that came before. For Elena, the true success would be learning to move on, learning to move past Mystic Falls, a place that has become synonymous with death. And part of that could be breaking completely free of the love triangle that has kept her there for so long, and claimed the lives of so many.
No, love is the central theme. On the other hand, while TVD has been about love as much as it has been about death. Will the former theme will out? There’s a strong possibility, otherwise what has all of this death been for? What’s the point of watching these two characters fight their way back to one another if they’re just going to fall short in the end? Yes, that story may be just as likely in real life, but this is fiction. This is genre fiction. On The CW. That comes with it a certain level of expectation. TVD is not in the habit of catering to its fans. The writing staff does what is necessary for the story, but that doesn’t mean they’re not just as invested in Elena’s love life as the internet is.
If good series endings fulfill an unspoken promise a TV show has made in every scene, line of dialogue, and tonal choice, then TVD may need this love story to have a definitive, happy ending because though this show has been filled with heartbreak, there has always been an underlying sentiment that friendship and love are worth fighting for. That, in the end, these characters will find peace.
Do you think Delena is doomed? Do you think TVD is a love story, tragedy, or something in-between? Sound off in the comments below!
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