So, I often joke about how Forwood is the shipping equivalent of a unicorn prancing through streets inlaid with gold trailing fairy dust in its wake.
But, as I mentioned in another post, it isn’t typical romance that gets me weak at the knees for the Tyler/Caroline pairing on The Vampire Diaries.
There are no grand gestures or grand relationship moments in the season two arc of this couple. Their first kiss was just a pared back scene on a porch; they didn’t need the backdrop of a karaoke scene, as Matt/Caroline had with their short-lived reunion in 2×16, to make them seem epic, because their complicated relationship itself is epic on its own. The fallout from well-intentioned lies and deception left them estranged mid-way through the season, yet small moments of mutual understanding and forgiveness were enough for them to restore their bond, rather than the typical path of one saving the other’s life and this being enough to cancel out any past actions.
Vampire Barbie and Teen Wolf may not have gotten Camper Van action yet, but there are plenty of moments that left me squeeing or feeling all bittersweet this season. As more of a cynic than a romantic, it wasn’t necessarily the lovey dovey scenes that meant the most to me, so you might be surprise by some of my choices. A lot of the power of T/C, and ironically a lot of the reasons why I think they have the potential to be a long-lasting couple, came through in moments of tension, anger, pain and, yes, those laden with Bad Touches.
So, I’m curious to see how your lists of their top moments compare to mine. I’ll give you the option of voting for your top moment of all, but I’d love to know whether you agree with my overall ordering, or think that I lost the plot after staring at too much Trevino torso porn while compiling this list. Maybe I left out something altogether that you can’t believe I didn’t put in the list. Go nuts!
Also, don’t miss blogger pal Julie’s Delena equivalent of this post!
Let’s start counting down, shall we?
Number Ten – “We can’t go there, Tyler” – Daddy Issues
The moment:
In a cute inversion of the Walk of Shame, the morning after her first kiss with Tyler, Caroline is locking her front door as she exits to go to school, when her Vampire Barbie Spidey Sense kicks in and she senses a presence behind her. Tyler’s intense gaze and tense air that has the quality of a cobra getting ready to strike doesn’t tip her off that something is wrong. So when he says that they need to talk, she thinks that he wants to work out what is happening between them, and gives a little speech about pictures and human love interest Matt Donovan still being in them. The Forwood unicorn-y goodness is all in the subtext of what she says.
Notable quotables:
Tyler: “We need to talk.”
Caroline: “Yeah, we do. Listen, I’ve been thinking about it and I don’t want to over analyse. It was just one kiss. But… Matt’s kinda still in the picture. We can’t go there, Tyler.”
Tyler: “Fine.”
Abyss-deep reasons why I love this moment:
Tyler and Caroline’s first kiss was spontaneous, but there were signs that both were aware they were on the tipping point of becoming more than friends. I’ll go more into depth of Tyler’s first awareness of his feelings a little later, but I thought it was noteworthy that in The Descent, when Matt interrupts Caroline and Tyler’s little werewolf transformation de-brief…
… that Caroline instantly says, “Nothing is going on between me and Tyler”.
To me, this meant that she was conscious of the possibility of something going on between them that she even felt the need to defend being near Tyler, when Matt hadn’t even asked what was up. The lady vamp doth protest too much and all that. Similarly, when she says, “We can’t go there, Tyler”, it is interesting to note that she doesn’t say that she doesn’t *want* to go there or in any way mark clear boundaries of how she was feeling versus how she assumed he was feeling (that he might want to be in a relationship with her). I feel like this was her knowing how close they were to becoming something more, and putting a stop to it.
Maybe Caroline cared deeply enough about Matt to not want to pursue anything with Tyler, but I actually think the main reason she chose Matt over Tyler at this point is because she is symbolically rejecting her supernatural side, as embodied by Tyler, in favour of her humanity, represented by Matt. Caroline is yet to come to terms with the long-term implications of what being a vampire means, and it is not surprising that she would try to cling onto the person who reminds her most of her human life. I’m really hoping that she discovers that Tyler is a person who not only accepts both sides of her, but helps her reconcile both her supernatural and human sides. Also, in TV-speak, “We can’t go there” basically means that, one day, these two characters will totally go there. Wall sex on Caroline’s porch, anyone?
On a small note, I love this moment because Caroline states that she doesn’t want to over analyse their kiss. You just know that control freak on crack Caroline is the type of girl who would totally have over analysed ever nuance of the kiss, from the moment that she slammed the door in Tyler’s face after yelling, “Everyone needs to stop kissing me!” to the moment that she faced him for the first time afterwards on her porch.
Shallow-as-a-kiddie-pool reasons why I love this moment:
Those who know me well will know that having Trevino!Ass walksexing up Caroline’s drive in his skinny black jeans, my absolutely favourite item from his wardrobe, pretty much rendered me speechless and required multiple rewinds on re-watch. What? They fit in all the right places and have the power to turn fangirls into pickpockets on the hope that, one day, they will have an excuse to grab Tyler’s ass pull something from the back pockets of the jeans.
Number Nine – Caroline/Tyler Bad & Good Touches – Rose
The moments:
I can’t really just isolate one of the Bad or Good Touches in this episode as being worthy of mentioning; collectively they are an awesome inversion of gender power stereotypes and a cute homage to Twilight (yes, I know the Twilight books/movies inside out enough to pick up even on subtle ones, got a problem with dat? ;))
After accidentally killing Thing One at the Masquerade party, Tyler had triggered the werewolf curse in front of Caroline, who let slip that she knew more than she was telling without actually saying, “You’re a werewolf, I’m a vamp, ask me how!”
In this episode, Tyler spends the whole time trying to get Caroline to tell him what she knows. He attempts to physically intimidate Caroline, which results in her vampire judo-ing his ass and basically pwning him.
Later, he thinks that her strength means that she is a werewolf, and he was determined to have her “say it” (i.e. admit that she was one).
Of course, this is a callback to Bella telling Edward she knew what he was and Edward demanding she “say it” out loud.
Pretty clever homage, considering that the answer to both “say its” was that Edward and Caroline are vampires.
Caroline was thrown up against the wall by Tyler before hissing at him in her vamp face (hot!), leading him to hilariously back away from her on his butt and all fours.
The capper of, “I’m not a werewolf, okay?” was just golden. Later, she traded war stories with Tyler about what transitioning into a baby supe had been like for them, leading to him admitting that he was scared and reaching out for a Good Touch, an awwww-inducing hug.
Notable quotables
Tyler: “Keep it up, but I’m not buying it. I saw how strong you were. I’m not leaving here until you tell me the truth. You’re a werewolf. Say it.”
Caroline: [cracks up in his face]
Tyler: “Stop lying!” [throws her against a wall]
Caroline: “I’m not lying!” [vamps out][Tyler backs away in fear] “I’m not a werewolf, OK?”
Abyss-deep reasons why I love this moment:
Part of the reason why I love the Tyler/Caroline pairing as told so far, is that they don’t whitewash the more negative aspects of the characters. Tyler wasn’t above trying to menace Caroline with physical intimidation even before realising she is not only his equal, but superior in strength. As far as he knew, he was threatening a meek little girly girl. I like that the show basically acknowledges that Tyler is a jerk who has the potential to be better, and never pretends he is anything else.
Yes, his scenes after returning from Werewolf Obedience School or whatever have shown a kinder, gentler Tyler, but I found that in character. He had gone through a life-changing transformation and left town because he knew he needed to come to terms with a new supernatural identity. While gone, he had ample time to recognise from the fallout of Daddy Issues that he needs to grow up considerably, and be more thoughtful in his actions (which almost led him to getting Elena killed) and not so ruled by his emotions. Moreover, when the smoke cleared, he had time to recognise who really counted, deceptions aside. For all I know, this could be a guise before he becomes a full throttle villain next season, but I doubt it.
Similarly, Caroline isn’t above using her newfound supernatural strength to put werewolves in their place. Mason, too, experienced the wrath of Vampire Barbie, and had the black balls to prove it, in Kill or Be Killed. Guess it could be worse, and he could’ve gotten blue balls, right, KJewls? 😉
Here’s hoping this aspect of their dynamic isn’t wholly whitewashed next season. I like how they challenge one another, and don’t handle one another’s feelings with kid gloves. This scene was awesome because Tyler needs a girl who will stand up to him, and Caroline, who has insecurity issues and has been put down a lot in the past, needs a boy who she can stand up to.
Shallow-as-a-kiddie-pool reasons why I love this moment:
I can’t be the only one hoping that their second showdown is foreshadowing for future wall sex, right?
Also, when Caroline wrenches Tyler’s arm back behind the bus, I love how she does us all a favour by flexing Trevino’s considerable bicep porn.
Caroline giggle fit in Tyler’s face is so adorable, especially considering how intense and scary he was in that moment.
Number Eight – Lupining!Tyler watches Caroline longingly – Crying Wolf
The moment:
After The Very Bad Things that happened in Daddy Issues (more on that later), Caroline wanted nothing to do with Tyler, telling him they weren’t friends anymore. When he decided to leave Mystic Falls with a fellow werewolf to come to terms with his new nature, he stopped at her house so that he could look at her one last time from the shadows of her porch.
Notable quotables:
Not really applicable here in terms of character dialogue, although the lyrics of the accompanying song speak volumes: “This is not your meant to be; I can break the chains that bind you”.
Abyss-deep reasons why I love this moment:
I’ve mentioned before the awesome post 12_12_12 did where she outlines how Caroline’s door is used as a metaphor for her heart and the state of her relationships in season two, but it is vital to understanding the resonance of this scene to mention it again. Here we have Tyler standing outside Caroline’s door in a pool of darkness right before leaving Mystic Falls, because he has screwed up so badly that he felt like he doesn’t deserve to knock on the door and ask for the chance to be welcomed back into the warmth and light of Caroline’s heart, as signified by the well-lit house. Although later we discover that Caroline doesn’t hate him as he feels she does in this moment, and wished he had said goodbye, I like that he doesn’t, because this way he removed any possibility of her feeling obligated to forgive him just because he was planning to leave, or her feeling like his imminent departure was a kind of ultimatum that if she didn’t get over her anger she would lose him forever.
Tyler, fresh from admitting his love for Caroline to Matt, just has to have one last longing look at Caroline because he cares for her so much, yet Caroline isn’t aware of this expression of his feelings. Time will tell if she ever finds out that he said goodbye in this way (although judging from their reunion episode where he didn’t say he actually *had* said goodbye in his own unique way to her, when she questions him, I doubt it), and for that matter whether she will ever find out that he told Matt that he loves her. I simply adore expressions of love that the recipient has no idea about, and this scene just works.
Shallow-as-a-kiddie-pool reasons why I love this moment:
This is Lupining!Tyler Magnum Opus, where he has entered my favourite stages of ships – he pines for the girl he thinks that he will never have. I love every little moment of it, right down to the pained look in his eyes and little throat swallow he does as he resigns himself to a life without Caroline.
Trevino’s dark colouring also suits the pool of darkness he is standing in, just as Accola’s blondness and light colouring suits the pool of light she is standing in.
Number Seven – Caroline shuts Tyler out of her life – Daddy Issues
The moment:
The episode starts with the fallout from Tyler discovering that Caroline has been lying to him about being the only vampire in Mystic Falls, and moreover that she is partially complicit in Team Salvatore killing his werewolf Uncle Mason (never 4get, Mason!) and any future possibilities of Mason stripping down for our viewing pleasure. Believe me, I totally understood Tyler’s anger.
Yet the events of the episode totally invert this dynamic so that by the end Tyler is the one needs to earn Caroline’s forgiveness. Tyler, having been thrust into his first violent showdown and confused about whether his loyalties should lie with his fellow werewolves Jules and Brady or Caroline, hesitates to let her out of a cage she has been tortured in by Jules and Brady and also fails to do anything during a crucial moment that almost leads to her death.
Up until this moment, Caroline and Tyler’s little standoffs have been filled with Bad Touches with more bark than bite, but Caroline lashes out at Tyler and cuts him right to the bone with her words, ending their friendship.
Notable quotables:
Caroline: “Do you know what they did to me?”
Tyler: “I’m sorry, but … it’s crazy now, okay? I don’t know who to trust. You lied to me!”
Caroline: “I lied to protect my friends. I lied to protect *you*. Don’t you get that?”
Tyler: “Caroline…”
Caroline: “You just stood there. When they were going to kill us? You just stood there! You didn’t do anything!”
Tyler: “I didn’t know what to do.”
Caroline: “You help your friend. That’s what you do.”
Tyler: “I’m sorry.”
Caroline: “No. It’s too late. Because we’re not friends anymore. And what happened to me? That will never happen again. So you take that back to your little werewolf pack and you get the hell out of my house.”
Abyss-deep reasons why I love this moment:
On face value, this seems like an odd choice for this list, especially since I haven’t placed it at the bottom. But like I said, highly romantic scenes don’t speak to me as much as the ones that speak to the connection of the characters, including passionate arguments that speak of the intensity of feelings two people have for each other.
Interestingly, this isn’t an argument spurred on by your typical love/hate relationship, which I adore as well. Verbal sparring and foreplay through snarkage (or smashing windshields of cars, incidentally – snaps if you get the reference!) is one of my favourite forms of “courting” in TV and cinema. Caroline’s cutting words make the list because of what it illustrated about the relationship she has with Tyler, as compared with Matt.
To paraphrase scarynikki12 from TWoP, Caroline’s willingness to get no-holds-barred mad at Tyler when he lets her down arguably shows how much stronger their relationship is than the one she shares with Matt. Now, you could argue that Matt hasn’t betrayed Caroline in the manner that Tyler has, and therefore hasn’t warranted a stormy argument like this one. Yet, Caroline’s reaction, or *non*-reaction, as the case was, to discovering that Matt had been plotting with her mother to spy on her and possibly kill her, was telling – and I would say this betrayal is on the same level as what Tyler did. She didn’t get mad or scream at Matt. I guess you could argue that she was in shock over discovering what Matt and her mother had been up to, but it’s not like she had months more of time to react to Tyler’s actions than she did with Matt, so why was she not paralysed with shock over what Tyler did too?
Her gut reaction to both situations shows the very different natures of the Matt/Caroline and Tyler/Caroline dynamics. As scarynikki states, Caroline subconsciously doesn’t feel the same freedom to get wholeheartedly mad at Matt the way she can with Tyler, because while she knows Tyler will ultimately be there for her when the smoke clears (despite his poor decision making in the heat of the moment in Daddy Issues), she can’t make the same guarantees about Matt. Caroline knows that if she makes the wrong move or doesn’t react in a way that Matt finds palatable, in all likelihood he will leave her easily; this was demonstrated by the ease with which she was able to manipulate him into dumping her for his own good as a baby vamp, but deliberately showcasing the less appealing side of dating someone who is prone to feeling jealous and insecure about her boyfriend flirting with another girl. (I actually think Matt was way out of line, because Amy was definitely coming onto him in that scene as she had all episode, and he had done nothing to discourage it, which to me is *not* boyfriend-y behaviour, but that is beside the point).
So, yeah, this was an awesome moment of showing how equal the Tyler/Caroline relationship is. Being with Tyler empowers her to make her needs clear, for better or worse, and how she is unwilling to be an enabler for terrible behaviour on his part without consequences (i.e. temporarily severing all ties with him).
Shallow-as-a-kiddie-pool reasons why I love this moment:
Tyler’s Kicked!Puppy look in this scenes makes me feel like I’ve been punched in the stomach, but is also adorable in a vulnerable, sweet way.
Number Six – “I don’t want you to be alone” – The Sacrifice
The moment:
Tyler and Caroline have scouted out the old Lockwood cellar in preparation for his first transformation, and while down there discover his uncle Mason’s Werewolf Diaries, as well as a drive containing a video of Mason’s own first time he wolfed out. After seeing his soon-to-be-agonising fate playing out before his eyes in explicit detail, Tyler takes his fear out on Caroline and demands to know why the hell she has been helping him out, even though they haven’t exactly been close friends in the past.
Notable quotables:
Tyler: “Why are you helping me?”
Caroline: “What do you mean?”
Tyler: “Why do you care? We’ve never been friends before.”
Caroline: “That’s not true. I’ve know you for my entire life, Tyler.”
Tyler: “We’ve never been close. Not like this.”
Caroline: “I don’t know. You just seem like you kinda need it. I was alone when I turned. I had no control over my body or my urges. And I killed somebody. I don’t want that to happen to you. I don’t want you to be alone.”
[eyesex of the highest order is exchanged]
Abyss-deep reasons why I love this moment:
At this point in the season, Tyler had lost his uncle Mason, and the other werewolves had yet to arrive in Mystic Falls, so he was completely alone in navigating the crazy world of being a baby were. He also had lost a father figure when his dad died, and as far as Tyler knew, his mother was unaware of his werewolf heritage and should stay that way. So Tyler was more lonely, isolated and scared than he had probably ever felt at any point of his life. As a vampire, Caroline couldn’t give him the same guidance through his ordeal as a fellow werewolf, but she was able to empathise having recently gone through the experience of recently becoming a baby supe herself. Caroline had been lucky enough to have Stefan there to help her through her experience. So having her tell Tyler that she doesn’t want him to be alone is a beautiful way to bring everything full circle.
What I liked most about this scene is it illustrates how shared experiences can draw people closer, as much as other commonalities such as shared interests and values. The intensity of certain experiences can forge a bond that is as strong as a relationship built on a long-term foundation or alternatively love at first sight – and going through the phases of Tyler’s transition allowed the pair to see each other in an entirely new light. Viewing an acquaintance you have known for a long time and have deeply embedded assumptions in a romantic light is, in my opinion, a lot harder that meeting a brand new person and thinking of them in this way, because with the latter you aren’t carrying the baggage of preconceptions.
As has been pointed out by 12_12_12, there was a small detail in one of Caroline’s responses that shows how in tune the pair are with one another. When Caroline says, “You just seem like you kinda need it”, she paused slightly before “kinda” because she had been close to saying “really”. Knowing that Tyler is someone with a lot of pride and who felt embarrassed about admitting he was scared to her, using the word “kinda” helped him save face and protect his ego at a time he is feeling most vulnerable.
Shallow-as-a-kiddie-pool reasons why I love this moment:
It’s all in the eye-sexing by Tyler… the little downward flick Trevino makes with his insanely long lashes as Tyler softens after Caroline makes her admission about not wanting him to be alone, plus the cute shrug and serious eyes Caroline punctuates her statement with.
Number Five – Coed Naked Forwood Couch Cuddling (TM KJewls) – The Sun Also Rises
The moment:
Feeling particularly low after being dumped by Matt, Caroline snuggles up under a blanket with Tyler, who is recovering from his second transformation and being shot by Matt is his wolf form. Oh yeah, did I mention he was playing couch commando, literally, at the time, and was completely naked under the blanket? Must have slipped my mind.
Notable quotables:
Tyler: “You were right. I shouldn’t have come home.”
Caroline: “No, you just … should have never left. And you shouldn’t leave again.”
Tyler: “You’re kidding, right? This is the second time I’ve tried to kill you.”
Caroline: “Well, no friendship is perfect. Well, you know, instead of just bailing on me again, you could just say, ‘Thank you, Caroline, for taking care of me. And I’m sorry that I tried to chow down on you again’.”
Tyler: “Thank you, Caroline, for taking care of me.”
Caroline: “You’re welcome.”
Abyss-deep reasons why I love this moment:
Surprisingly enough, there is a lot of depth to The Naked Tyler Lockwood Show. For one thing, this is likely the first time that Tyler, in season one and early season two one of the biggest hornwolves in Mystic Falls, has been naked and in close proximity to a girl, and the objective has been nothing other than providing her emotional comfort. Previously, he was the type of guy who would say stuff like, “Come on, what’s the deal?” and keep kissing a girl even after she had said she wasn’t into it, as he did in Bad Moon Rising. Chances are, if he had been in a similar situation with Caroline prior to their season two arc, with her emotionally vulnerable and fresh from a break up, he wouldn’t have thought twice about taking advantage of the situation.
Yet Tyler’s nudity here isn’t about “getting some”; it really is more a signifier of how he is becoming more vulnerable with Caroline too. Caroline has seen his best and worst sides, and yes, his junk over the course of a couple full moons. While the sight of him shirtless flustered her in By the Light of the Full Moon (“OMG, you’re not gonna get naked are you?”), she is completely unfazed by his nakedness in this scene. She rests her head on his bare chest for comfort, but there isn’t even the slightest hint of awkwardness, just the easy intimacy of two incredibly close friends.
In fact, for all the Lockwood flesh on show, the scene isn’t played as being sexual at all, even though for a split second we see Tyler’s internal struggle between wanting to be a good friend to Caroline and being excited that she is single.
We’ve seen Caroline be nurturing and look after Tyler post-transformation twice now, so this scene is also lovely because we see Tyler reciprocating this by looking after her. Also, where Matt has said stuff like, “I told you how I feel about you Caroline, what more do you need” in the past, Caroline shows she is comfortable enough with Tyler to voice her needs specifically with him, even coming right out and telling him what she needs to hear. I can’t recall a single scene with Matt where she has put herself out there is quite the same way. Rather than making her feel like she is insecure or neurotic for making this request, Tyler simple says her words back to her with such appreciation and adoration that it was like a herd of unicorns storming the Bastille. Heh. That image is weird, but my friend is studying the French Revolution at college, so blame her.
The tragedy of how safe Caroline feels in her little Coed Naked Cocoon, as also driven home by the dialogue, is that Tyler is the one creature that is the most physically dangerous to her. At least, until a succubus comes to Mystic Falls, or something.
Shallow-as-a-kiddie-pool reasons why I love this moment:
Naked!Tyler. Tyler in his birthday suit. Tyler naked as the day he was born and raised by wolves. Did I mention he was naked? Without cloth? Or fiber?
Candice Accola tried to do some damage control in a recent interview and claimed that Caroline would have collected Tyler’s shorts from upstairs and gotten Matt to put them on him. I choose to think that no one would try to force shorts on Tyler’s body in his weakened state, and am sticking with the original, naked recipe of this scene.
Number Four – Tyler admits to Matt he has kinda fallen for Caroline – Crying Wolf
The moment:
Matt, who at the time was still a part of Team Clueless Humans, witnessed a growing closeness between Tyler and Caroline, as well as passionate arguments between the pair, throughout season two that he misinterpreted as them hooking up, breaking up and making up on the sly.
One such argument included Tyler pickpocketing Caroline’s phone, for which I am forever grateful he did while wearing my fave skinny black jeans
In reality, Caroline was helping Tyler through the toughest time of his life as a baby werewolf – going through his first transformation, a long, agonising, life-altering experience – and then reacting to his betrayal through inaction during a life/death standoff between members of Mystic Falls’ werewolf and vampire populations.
Tyler, who was planning to leave town so he could get a handle on his new werewolf condition, set the record straight with Matt that nothing was going on between him and Caroline, even though he had “kinda fallen” for her. Tyler didn’t give away the specifics of his and Caroline’s true natures, but gave his best friend an explanation that was a parting gift and goodbye, without Matt knowing it at the time.
Notable quotables:
Tyler: “I’ve been going through a rough time, something I can’t really talk about, and Caroline’s being helping me through it. She’s been there for me, more than anyone’s ever been my entire life. I kinda fell for her. I don’t know how anyone wouldn’t, because she’s pretty incredible. But she loves you, and she needs you, and to be honest, she deserves someone like you. So you be good to her, OK?”
Abyss-deep reasons why I love this moment:
This moment was as sweet as a sugar cube handed to a unicorn, because Tyler Lockwood, he of grand romantic statements like, “Is it me, or did Amy Bradley’s ass get hot?”, is actually admitting to having fallen for someone. Tyler tends to be someone who is given to understatement, and frequently qualifies his true feelings or has difficultly expressing his emotions. So even though he says, “I *kinda* fell for her”, you just know he is masking the true intensity of his feelings.
To be honest, that isn’t even the sentiment that really had me swooning. I loved how he said that he couldn’t understand why anyone wouldn’t be Forbsing Caroline, what with her being “pretty incredible” and all. Caroline and Tyler are arguably the two characters on the show with the most negative, limiting labels slapped on them. It has been drummed into our heads that Caroline is neurotic, bitchy, a twit, a control freak, and insecure; likewise, Tyler has been called a tool, dick, douche, punk and other variations over and over. In fact, Tyler and Caroline were prone to doing a little name-calling or agreeing with others’ less-than-positive appraisals about one another before they got to know each other better.
From the Rose episode:
Caroline: So Sarah attacks Tyler and he pushed her away and she tripped and she fell and she hit her head.
Damon: Does Matt remember anything?
Caroline: Hmm, he thinks he blacked out but I think they were both compelled by Katherine. That’s why I covered for Tyler and said it was an accident.
Damon: Yeah, I don’t understand that. The guy is a tool.
Caroline: Gee, dah. Tyler getting blamed for Sarah death just opens up questions that can’t answer and do you really think that’s a good idea for him to tell his mom he’s a werewolf?
From the Plan B episode:
Tyler: “You know what I think of Caroline Forbes. She’s an insecure, neurotic, bitchy little twit. But the girl’s got heart. She means well. You’ve just got to take the good with the bad sometimes.”
For Tyler to just say Caroline is “pretty incredible”, and not justifying his compliment or couching it negatively in any way, as was the norm with other characters until late season two with our Vampire Barbie, was so refreshing you have no idea how happy it made me.
Even Stefan, who established a positive rapport with Caroline after she was vamped when he acted as a kind of mentor, was saying stuff like “No matter what her flaws are, when push comes to shove, you’re gonna want that girl on your side” in Daddy Issues, an episode in the second half of the season. It wasn’t really until she bounced back from her torture at Jules hands with incredible courage that Stefan dropped qualifying his appreciation of her. I would say that the karaoke scene with Matt, where Caroline pwns the stage much to the amazement of Elena, Bonnie et al, marked a similar turning point in her friends realising that Caroline is much more than the pigeon holes they’ve been putting her in.
If you go back and analyse the compliments people gave Caroline prior to Tyler’s declaration to Matt, you can count on one hand, literally, the number of times she was given an honest-to-goodness compliment rather than a back-handed one. Tyler, for his part, hasn’t really received any compliments from characters aside from Jeremy acknowledging his artistic talent.
So this is just a really, really topsy turvy way of saying I love this moment because it shows how Caroline and Tyler are seeing beyond the labels with each other, and how their connection is much deeper than the superficial. Also, I love how the implication of Tyler saying he doesn’t know how anyone wouldn’t fall for Caroline basically is a subtle way of saying you would have to be an idiot not to love her or at least admire her or acknowledge her worth. Damon, despite wanting to kill Caroline in the episode she was vamped, showed the grudging respect he had developed for her when he went to save her in Daddy Issues, despite this being a move that put his life at risk for no real gain other than getting her back. Stefan clearly values her now as an integral part of Team Salvatore, as demonstrated when let her know instantly that Klaus was around and he needed her help in The Last Dance. Pretty much everyone has really accepted Caroline as being awesomesauce post-karaoke scene.
The thing I like is the lasting impact Tyler’s words have on Matt. Yes, Matt was a douche who plotted against Caro with her mother when he found out she was a vampire, but he at least came to realise eventually that her humanity was still to some degree intact. He dumped her because he couldn’t handle the whole package of Caroline, or the good with the bad as Tyler said, which included her supernatural shenanigans, but I will give him this – when he said he had enjoyed the last few days of them as a couple because they were so “Caroline”, I viewed that as him finally, finally liking human Caroline as she was. Which is nothing short of a watershed moment, because his tendency to treat Caro as a placeholder to Elena was well documented over the course of their relationship. So, clearly Tyler’s words worked miracles! 😉
Shallow-as-a-kiddie-pool reasons why I love this moment:
The skinny black jeans make a re-appearance, and Tyler is also wearing a badass black jacket and a lovesick puppy expression. I just wanna take him home and ravish him senseless until he is happy again.
Matt’s tight blue Mystic Falls Grill shirt also deserves a mention. I may not particularly like his character with Caroline, but I LOVE his friendship scenes with Tyler, and I don’t deny his hotness. It’s a good thing the shirts clings just right, since it is practically all we see Matt in. One reason why I am hoping for a dark!Matt next season is for Zach Roerig to have his chance to enter the BAMF leather jacket club.
Number Three – Porch Kissage – The Descent
The moment:
Stefan: “What do you mean, they kissed?”
Damon: “Well, when two lips pucker and they go [kiss noises]”
Notable quotables:
Tyler: “Why would you risk it? If a werewolf bite kills a vampire… why would you risk it?”
Caroline: “Because you needed help.”
Tyler: “I could have killed you.”
Caroline: “But you didn’t.”
Tyler: “I don’t understand you, Caroline.”
Caroline: “Why is it so hard for you to let someone else help you?”
Tyler: “That’s not it.”
Caroline: “Yeah, it is, Tyler. It’s like you don’t want anyone to care about you and I’m sorry I cared. I care, Tyler, so forgive me if I overstepped my boundaries by actually giving a –” [Tyler interrupts her rant and kisses her]
Caroline: “You can’t do that.”
Tyler: “I’m sorry, it’s…”
Caroline: “Everyone just needs to stop kissing me!”
Abyss-deep reasons why I love this moment:
I’ve squeed about the hotness and sweetness of this kiss from pretty much every angle, particularly in my Got Forwood recap for The Descent. It’s really too hard to summarise all the reasons why I love this moment succinctly, so be sure to read the recap for a full analysis. Something I haven’t mentioned about The Kiss yet, though, which a group of us chatted about over at TWoP, is how much the T/C smoochies contrast with earlier Tyler hook ups. In Bad Moon Rising, for example, Tyler kisses Thing Two on the neck in the old Lockwood cellar, in a detached, emotionless action that is clearly just a precursor to sex. What’s more, even after Thing Two, who has broken from Caroline’s compulsion to stalk a guy other than Matt, tells Tyler she isn’t into it, he tries to pressure her into continuing (“What’s the deal? Come on”). He even seems perfectly content to continue making out even though Thing Two admits that she likes Matt, though ultimately she pushes him away and he lets her go.
The Caroline/Tyler kiss, in comparison, is all about emotional connection. There is face cupping, eye gazing, the works… When Caroline pulls away, Tyler doesn’t hang onto her, and when she tells him he can’t kiss her, he not only doesn’t ask why she responded if that is the case, but actually *apologises*. One of the best things about this kiss is that Tyler’s more sensitive treatment of Caroline, as exemplified by this scene, isn’t limited to Caroline alone. Over season two, we seem him develop more respect for the various women in his life in general. He shares several heart-to-hearts with his mother and also establishes a rapport with Jules, who for all her failings (i.e. being a sociopath who kills innocent human campers and tortures Vampire Barbies), genuinely cared for Tyler.
Shallow-as-a-kiddie-pool reasons why I love this moment:
As Cordelia would say, Tyler in that football jersey is seriously lunchable.
Number Two – Tyler’s First Werewolf Transformation – By The Light of the Full Moon
The moments:
Torture is a linchpin of The Vampire Diaries. Bondage Stefan has a particularly special place in my heart, as regular Spidey readers well know.
What was interesting about Tyler’s werewolf transformation is that the torture was internal; it was his own body not an external force that caused him agony in a long, drawn out process of bones resetting and snapping. Over the course of By the Light of the Full Moon, we experience Tyler’s first transformation with him and Caroline, with her refusing to leave his side until the very last possible moment, despite knowing that a werewolf bite is fatal to a vampire.
Notable quotables:
Caroline: “OMG, you’re not gonna get naked, are you?”
Tyler: “It’s elastic. I mean, what should I wear. I don’t think it’s like the Hulk, where I get to keep my pants.”
And later
Tyler: “You should leave.”
Caroline: “Not yet.”
Abyss-deep reasons why I love these moments:
Caroline is a fixer by nature, and an incredibly generous and loyal friend, even when her insecurities are plaguing her. For example, in season one, Caroline convinces Elena to not drop out of the Miss Mystic Falls pageant, reminding her how much it meant to Elena’s mother; she does so even though she is convinced that by having Elena participate, there is no way she herself can win this competition, which means a great deal to her. Caroline is also the only person to attempt to repair the Matt/Tyler friendship when it hits a rough patch after Tyler hooks up with Matt’s mother. Caroline staying with Tyler during his werewolf transformation was an incredible act of love for a friend suffering the most harrowing night of his life. It would have been particularly hard for a fixer like her to see a friend going through agony in a situation she had absolutely no control over and couldn’t script, plan or arrange to go more smoothly; yet she refused to leave him until she absolutely had to.
Spidey reader Andre and I have argued time and time again about how much risk Caroline was actually in during the transformation. I stand by the fact that despite having superstrength and speed as a vampire, being in an enclosed space and in close proximity to a creature that could kill you with a single bite meant Caroline showed incredible bravery staying with him. What’s more, her reluctance to leave him until the last possible moment meant she barely had time to dart away from Tyler before he wolfed out entirely; it’s ironic how T/C’s deep care for one another is often in direct opposition to the fact that they are biological enemies. On a simple human level (which I think is appropriate because Tyler and Caroline still have humanity intact despite being baby supes), her tears when she is outside and no longer has to be strong for Tyler shows how emotionally wrenching the whole experience was for her.
For Tyler’s part, his repeated statement that she should leave, even though she was obviously the one thing keeping him together (in a later episode he says to her, “I don’t know what I would have done if you hadn’t been there”) shows incredible care for her wellbeing over his own. Obviously he wouldn’t want to live with the guilt of harming anyone on his head. Nevertheless, I think if I was in a similar situation I might find have found it harder than Tyler to put someone else’s wellbeing first.
Shallow-as-a-kiddie-pool reasons why I love these moments:
The full-body skim of Tyler’s torso with a gratuitous pause on his Adonis Belt (that lovely V!) after he takes his shirt off in front of Caroline is the number one way I am able to hook new Tyler fangirls.
Also, Tyler in chains is pretty awesome, I won’t deny it.
I adore the Hulk reference because it is a subtle reminder of Tyler’s skills as a graphic artist – of *course* he would use a comic book character as a reference point.
Number One – “I get it” – The Sacrifice
The moment:
Caroline tells Tyler that it’s for the best that she has broken up with Matt despite still clearly caring about him, and is stunned when Tyler intuitively understands the reasons why and simply “gets” her. She also briefly considers alerting the media because Tyler has actual thoughts about relationships and feelings.
Notable quotables:
Tyler: “So… Matt’s bumming pretty hard.”
Caroline: “I know. [off Tyler’s look] It’s better this way.”
Tyler: “I get it.”
Caroline: [rolls her eyes, clearly sceptical] “You do?”
Tyler: “Yeah. You can’t be honest with him. And it’s not really fair to be with someone, and not really let them know who you are. I get it.”
![It’s not really fair to be with someone and not really let them know who you are. I get it. [2x10] - tyler-and-caroline fan art](https://i0.wp.com/images4.fanpop.com/image/photos/17400000/It-s-not-really-fair-to-be-with-someone-and-not-really-let-them-know-who-you-are-I-get-it-2x10-tyler-and-caroline-17420198-450-234.gif "It’s not really fair to be with someone and not really let them know who you are. I get it. [2x10] - tyler-and-caroline fan art")
[Caroline stares at him in astonishment]
Abyss-deep reasons why I love this moment:
Caroline is used to being dismissed as a neurotic control freak on crack, with many people, including Tyler in the past, assuming that her motives for doing things are shallow and silly. Seriously, re-watch the whole of season one, and tell me this isn’t the case. Here, Tyler is essentially saying that he knows that her reasons behind breaking up with Matt are those of a thoughtful person deserving of respect. His ability to outline those exact reasons shows how completely in tune he is now with the way she thinks.
The subtext of the scene makes it all the richer. On the surface, Tyler and Caroline are talking about the Matt/Caroline relationship, but at this point, Caroline was not being entirely honest with Tyler about Mason’s death and the vampire population in Mystic Falls, and therefore was also not letting *Tyler* completely know who she was. So while this might seem like a strange scene for me to give the number one position to on this list, it deserves the spot because it demonstrates what I love most about Tyler/Caroline… for all the romantic potential they have and the unique connection they share, this is in constant conflict a variety of internal and external conflicts, like their supernatural identities and the negative sides of their personality types. This isn’t the stuff of fairytales, but a truly *epic* relationship in every sense of the word.
Shallow-as-a-kiddie-pool reasons why I love this moment:
I love when Tyler tells Caroline to “watch her step” before she follows the staircase down into the Lockwood cellar. Hey, if I like unicorns, is it so hard to believe that I like reminders of times when knights and chivalry weren’t dead, so long as damsels in distress aren’t involved?
So, it’s time to vote!
Honourable mentions
It killed me to leave these off of my final list of ten top moments, but I had to be cutt-throat. Vote for your favourite honourable mention moment!
HM #1 – Caroline tells Tyler that even though his actions in Daddy Issues and Crying Wolf had hurt her, she could never hate him. His response? The single most swoonworthy half-smile to ever cross anyone’s face in the history of ever
HM #2 – Caroline asks Tyler, “Why did you leave me?”, an incredibly intimate question, and he responds because he thought she deserved someone better than him in her life.
HM #3 – Tyler tells Caroline post-first transformation that, “Whatever you need, I’m right here.” Yes, this was only in the promo for The Descent and removed from the actual episode, but I consider it canon, SO THERE promo monkeys. 😉
HM #4 – Tyler and Caroline engage in EyeFlirting (TM Amy) when he thanks her the morning after his first transformation.
You wanna know how excited I am to find out your fave moments? This excited:
myspideysenseistingling 
![<img title=”Tyler/Caroline ❤ [The laugh] – tyler-and-caroline fan art” src=”http://images4.fanpop.com/image/photos/16700000/Tyler-Caroline-3-The-laugh-tyler-and-caroline-16743877-500-282.gif” alt=”Tyler/Caroline](http://images4.fanpop.com/image/photos/16700000/Tyler-Caroline-3-The-laugh-tyler-and-caroline-16743877-500-282.gif){kind=link}
May 26th, 2011 at 2:18 pm
[…] If so, be sure to check out my super talented, and often hilarious, blogger pal Cherie’s analysis of the Top Ten FORWOOD moments from Season 2. Trust me, you won’t regret it! The post is made of […]
May 26th, 2011 at 4:02 pm
Well if this isn’t the best way to end a tiring day of studying, I don’t know what is.
You’ve gone and made me remember why Forwood is like Unicorns handing out rainbowcookies while glitter falls from the sky.
I have to admit I was bummed you didn’t put in the I’m scared hug, but I get that after a whole post on The Descent, we can’t expect the whole monologue on here again. I’ll make it my work to go and read that review asap. 😉
The Good Bad Touches though…
Perfect. I have noticed too how they showed Tyler’s jerk-ness when he ‘attacked’ sweet, defenseless Caroline, not knowing she was superior to him then. It’s been a great build up to the people they’re growing into. Both respecting each other while never losing themselves.
Now,
my favorite moment is without a doubt the one where Tyler just had to sneak a peek at Caroline one last time before he left for good. For all the reasons you mentioned. He doesn’t force her to forgive him by knocking and telling her he’s leaving, because that would have been a classic sappy romcom storyline. I’ve never liked the “I’m gone. You won’t be bothered with me anymore.” and then the girl has a flashback of their greatest moments and falls into his arms “Oh but I love you so so much!” -spin kiss with fireworks-
No.
He realises he cares for her and that him being around her causes her pain and therefor decides to leave her life and hopefully take any bad thing with him. Not only that, he swallows any words he wanted to say and turns away. Isn’t Tyler super impulsive? What a strength that must’ve taken to just walk away and not barge in and scream “I’m sorry okay?!”
Great moment. Tyler shouldn’t have stayed away so long though. Good thing we got Naked!Lockwood Torso on his second day back. Just couldn’t let Trevino keep his clothes on huh Plec? We all thank you kindly.
The rest of your top 20 are pretty much well placed. I wouldn’t have put in the HM either, because they’re cute and make me giggle like a five-year old but the moments you chose are important and abyss deep.
Also, I love that you remarked the fact that Caroline isn’t afraid to yell at Tyler because she knows it’s Tyler so it’s ok. That lays in the same line as Tyler just repeating the “Thank you Caroline.” on the couch. Can you imagine a moment like this going down with anyone else? They would roll their eyes are make a stupid comment, but Tyler finds it endearing and repeats the words as if they were his own. She tells him what she needs and he gives it to her in the best possible way. While being naked.
No I’m kidding! haha! I just mean that he gets it and she knows he gets it so she doesn’t need to act like she’s okay. In that way Stefan’s quote is perfect. “You don’t need to pretend with me, Caroline.” And with Tyler she doesn’t need either. Especially now that everything is out in the open and he knows everything she was hiding from him before. I also love that Tyler doesn’t make a move because it shows his intentions with Caroline are pure. It’s like the opposite of our intentions with Naked!Tyler. I.e. Not throw her against a wall and have his way with her. YET. 😉
Can I just so in all seriousness, I would LOVE for Matt to become a kick ass Dark!Matt in season 3. My lord that would make me so happy. Seeing him with the riffle did all kind of things for my Mattlove-meter, I can’t imagine what a permanent BadAss Matt could do.
He needs a decent storyline pronto though, even if I’m kinda scared he’ll be used as a prop on the Forwoodlovefest to ‘mix things up’.
I choose to ignore Candice’s statement that Tyler was indeed wearing basketballshorts because, really, who remembers what clothes are for when Trevino is naked? They lose all meaning.
I loved this to pieces Cherie! Can’t wait til you speculate for season 3! 😉
Any ideas yet? I haven’t heard any spoilers, not due a lack of searching that’s for sure, so I’m curious as to what you think/hope may happen.
XO
Sophie
June 13th, 2011 at 6:06 pm
I so can’t wait for the first Forwood sex scene, so that I can plaster my blog with all of the rainbow and unicorn images I’ve been accumulating over time.
Oh, it was so hard leaving out the “I’m scared” hug – but I tried to capture the essence of that scene in one of the other shortlisted moments. That’s the thing about our OTP – they have so many amazing moments that it is hard to narrow them down for a list like this. Hence the epic length of this post, even after cutting out a fair few paragraphs. Speaking of you winding down after a day of studying, wouldn’t it be nice if we could get our pHD in Forwood? It would be one of the most fun thesis topics ever!
I’m so glad you liked me including the Bad as well as the Good Touches. Because part of what makes Tyler and Caroline sing for me is how flawed both of these characters are, yet being around one another has brought out their best sides. Tyler started out the kind of person who would intimidate Caroline and threaten violence even both her realised she was more than his physical equal, and ended the season providing Caroline the kind of (naked!) gentle, reassuring comfort she needed in the Coed Naked Forwood Cuddle. It was also nice to see Caroline use her vampire strength to put Tyler in his place as much as the way she moves me whenever she soothes him during or after a transformation, I won’t lie!
Ohhh, I like the moment that you chose as your favourite! I am SUCH a sucker for romantic gestures where the recipient has no idea they have been shown them. An example on Misfits, which I know you love too, is Nathan telling Kelly “it should have been a car crash but it wasn’t” (i.e. he liked her as she was) when she was brainwashed and he was trying to reach her, something she promptly forgot about when the spell over her was removed. That was among the most romantic moments on Misfits for me, and what kills me the most is that Kelly will never know that she hasn’t even seen the best side of Nathan yet! It is the same thing here with Tyler and Caroline. Caroline may never know just how much regret filled Tyler at the thought of leaving her, to the extent he just HAD to have one last longing look at her. Light touches like this are what make up my favourite types of romances.
See, the thing is, if he HAD said goodbye, it would have been a selfish gesture. Because at the point, as far as he was concerned, Caroline hated his guts, but she is a generous person by nature. She would have no doubt felt guilty about driving Tyler out of town, even if she did actually hate him, and it would have forced the issue of her forgiveness, rather than it coming about organically. I love the point you make about it being doubly hard for Tyler, given his impulsive nature, so damn much, you have no idea.
Heh. I’ve often wondered if Julie schedules her on set visits with shirtless scenes for the boys. What a hard life she leads, being forced to watch dailies of these gorgeous men and write scenes with their torsos in mind! 😉
I love how Tyler and Caroline know it is okay to be a way that they normally wouldn’t be with anyone else. Caroline, who probably has abandonment issues with her dad being absent from her life and having her first love break up so easily with her the first time, really showed her trust in shouting at Tyler – you only get that mad at the people you know who love you no matter what. Yes, the yelling was deserved, but I would say that she would feel free to express herself passionately in any argument they have. Conversely, Tyler can be sincere and genuine with her because he knows she has no ulterior motive other than caring for him. After Mason and Jeremy betrayed him, despite them caring for him somewhat, it must be refreshing to have someone like Caroline in his life!
My intentions for Naked!Tyler are just as impure as yours, and I can’t wait for the squeeing we’ll do when we finally get baby were and baby vamp action, with shirtless shots aplenty involved, I’m sure.
I really, really want dark Matt! He doesn’t necessarily have to be a villain per see, but it would be understandable if he flipped out a little and did some morally ambiguous acts because he still isn’t sure who to side with, particularly with the ghost of Vicki being back. On the other hand, I would love to have some Matt/Tyler friendship scenes, because they just play of each other well being such complete opposites. Their interactions would be interesting to witness, what with Tyler being so much more grounded and mature, and with the spectre of Tyler’s confession of love hanging over both of their heads.
Haha! Candice was clearly doing damage control, but us fangirls know the truth. Tyler was naked under that cover, and no amount of backpedalling will convince me otherwise.
I have a speculation/wish list post in the works. Can’t wait to read your take on it when I’m finished! 😉
May 26th, 2011 at 11:02 pm
You’ve really outdone yourself with this post, Cherie. I’m just blown away by the intimate connection you have with these two characters, and your graduate thesis-worthy explanations as to why they work as a couple.
The fact that the Forwood relationship runs as deep as it does, and is as complex as it is, (especially considering that both characters get half as much screentime as Damon / Elena / and Stefan) is a true testament, both to the quality of this show’s writing, and Trevino’s and Accola’s acting skills. Sure, Caroline and Tyler are “supporting characters” in many ways. But reading this, I can see how an entire show could be formed around the Forwood relationship, and still be extremely intelligent and captivating . . . kind of like a were-vamp version of Veronica Mars. 😉
I was also intrigued by how un-traditional some of your Forwood Moment choices were. It would have been easy for you to top off your countdown with any of the three most physically intimate of the Forwood Moments: the Coed Naked Couch Cuddle, the First Were Transformation, or the Kiss. But I love how you dug deeper, and chose a much more EMOTIONALLY intimate scene, one that included almost NO physical contact between the characters at all!
Because you are absolutely right! Sheer animal lust will only take a relationship so far. What makes Forwood a couple that’s “in it to win it,” so to speak, is the mutual respect and admiration the pair have for one another, and the instinctive knack they have for understanding what one another is thinking and feeling.
I also like that you were able to take seemingly negative interactions between Tyler and Caroline (like the Big Fight Over What Happened During Daddy Issues, Tyler’s Realization of Caroline’s Intial Betrayal Regarding Mason, and the Bad Touch) and find positive aspects to them. After all, these moments were actually extremely telling, regarding Forwood’s ability to overcome conflict, and survive as a couple.
As for my favorite Forwood Scene . . . well this might seem boring and commonplace . . . but I’m going to have to go with the Coed Naked Couch Cuddle . . . And yet, not necessarily for the reasons you might think. 🙂
Here’s the thing, SHIPPING a TV couple is always a double-edged sword. Because, on one hand, you are ALWAYS rooting for the unrequited lovers to become requited, for the uncoupled to couple, and for the star crossed to cross. And yet, on the other hand, there will always be this secret fear lurking in your subconscious, that when your couple DOES couple, they will lose the passion and angst they so forcefully showed, during their unrequited lusting faze. Because, think about it, how many Sultry TV Unrequiteds have you watched unite, only to eventually become Just Another Dull Couple.
So, in order to prevent this unique brand of anguish from happening to me, when I TV SHIP, there’s a part of me that’s always looking for signs that when my couple actually DOES couple, they will still be interesting and intriguing to watch. Coed Naked Couch Cuddling was the moment for me, when I realized that Caroline and Tyler would almost definitely be just as interesting and sexy as a COUPLE, as they are as an Almost-Couple.
Here’s why: Given all that had happened between these two during the past season (the painful were transformations, the kidnappings, the literally knock-down drag out fights, the murders, the attempted murders, the mini and not-so-mini betrayals) the Couch Cuddle was the first quiet and simple moment Caroline and Tyler had shared in a long time.
For once, we got to see this pair just be themselves. (I mean, Tyler was NAKED for crying out loud, how much more unburdened can you get!) This was a moment when Tyler and Caroline were just able to simply TALK, and take comfort in one another’s warm bodies. And because I found Tyler and Caroline just as sweet and intriguing, without the Big Speeches, Action Packed Intrigue, and Major Plotlines, as with them, I knew that this union had what it took to hold my interest for the long haul.
Oh . . . and on a much shallower note, let’s face it: Tyler’s Body is SMOKIN’! Who could blame Caroline for taking a peek under that blanket, when he first sidled up to her on the couch? 😉 I mean, wouldn’t you have done the same thing, in her position? I know I would have. 😉
June 13th, 2011 at 3:52 pm
Aww thanks! I was equally blown away by your awesome Delena post, which was definitely set the benchmark of awesomeness for this companion shipper post.
There is SO MUCH to unpack from the text and subtext of the Forwood relationship that you could practically write a thesis about them (I very nearly did with this post!). Tiny reaction shots from Candice and Trevino add so much to the fabulous writing, too. Half the fun of re-watching their scenes is watching out for their split second facial expressions as they realise how they are feeling but either don’t want to reveal to the other what the emotion is or because of life and death circumstances can’t ponder on it too long. Like Damon/Elena, because they aren’t a couple yet, their poignancy is all in what is left unsaid.
What I particularly love is that for all the intelligent writing and street smarts of the characters, their dialogue is still that of inarticulate teens with raging hormones and enormous problems they can barely begin to fathom. Out of all the couples, I would say that theirs feels the most like an awkward but cute high school relationship, aside from the whole wolf/vampire thing.
The funny thing is, I prefer smaller moments to romantic, flashy, epic ones that scream SHIP THEM, SHIP THEM! I don’t mind the occasional sprinkling of moments like this if they are earned, but constant battering over your head of THIS COUPLE IS MEANT TO BE just turns me off completely. It’s kind of like when a comic character suddenly becomes serious – it is all the more meaningful. So, yes, I totally squeed over their kisses and cuddles and have done my fangirl due diligence by rewatching these scenes over and over again, but I’ve actually enjoyed the subtler moments even more. This is especially true because Tyler and Caroline both used to live life a lot on the surface, and aren’t used to handling deep romantic feelings, so I like that they often only have flashes of connection before resuming their normal façade.
I think you really hit on the fundamental difference between the Matt/Caro and Tyler/Caro relationships: Matt has often be derisive of her and ultimately decided she wasn’t worth being with if it meant supernatural baggage came with her, whereas Tyler has nothing but respect for her, and has always been grudgingly respectful of her. Even when he insulted her about her being a bitchy little twit, he still recognised how much heart she has. Yes, his werewolf nature means it is easier for him to take the supernatural side in some ways, but the fact that their species are mortal enemies means that him being a supe too creates as many problems as it solves.
Tyler and Caroline are so bittersweet that there hasn’t really been a single moment without some undercurrent of pain. Caroline was a friend to Tyler in a way no one had been before, yet the entire time she supported him through his first transformation and in the lead up to this, she was lying to him and keeping a major secret about his uncle. They shared a kiss and Tyler finally fully trusted her for a fleeting moment, only to have the cat be let out of the bag. They’ve made amends but the spectre of Matt, Tyler’s best friend, lingers over their relationship, as does their respective betrayals, however well-intentioned they may or may not be. Nothing is ever easy for them, and there is an instrinsically doomed quality to their relationship due to the fact that Caroline is immortal and Tyler is not.
I know what you mean about the danger of requited couples becoming boring. I personally wanted Tyler to work harder than he actually did to regain Caroline’s friendship, and I am hoping there are some trust issues they need to work out next season due to the fallout of Daddy Issues and Crying Wolf. Ah well, if I at least get some lupining, because both are in denial that the other considers them more than a friend, I’ll be kept happy! Sometimes I enjoy a couple snarking at each other when they are apart as much as when they are together, ala Logan/Veronica in season two of VMars.
I loved how you found their quiet moments to be just as compelling as their more dramatic ones. From the season three synopsis, it looks like they will be drawing closer together while outside forces like their families threaten to tear them apart, so it’s really key that they are just as interesting as a solid couple as when they are fighting with one another.
Yes, yes I would’ve peeked under the blanket. I am more than happy to acknowledge that fact. In fact, I was momentarily disappointed that Vampire Diaries doesn’t show on HBO like True Blood, because maybe we would’ve been shown a glimpse!
May 27th, 2011 at 1:45 am
I love that you and Julie have “matching” shipper posts! Even if I don’t love Tyler ;-0
June 13th, 2011 at 3:31 pm
Heh! Just keeping it in the blogging family! It’s nice that Julie and I are equally obsessed about two different ships on the show, particularly since I find that a lot of Delena shippers tend to like Forwood too (though I know you’re the exception since Tyler isn’t your cup of tea ;))
May 30th, 2011 at 7:33 pm
Well you are back and so am I. Like a wolf following a trail of blood. *evil grin*
Albeit many parts of the scenes you depicted influenced me in a different way. In addition this one is much longer than I originally thought. You obviously put work into it which makes me even more eager to see your blogs on the other characters. Please, when do we get to see them?
One thing about the article though. I think you should have added this music to it:
Or this one:
And another thing: you mentioned in previous comments some “ranting” or so from fans who said Tyler was dead to them due to the events in Crying Wolf, but they easily forgave Damon for killing Jeremy. Do you still have a link to that site? I would love to read that.
“… they didn’t need the backdrop of a karaoke scene … because their complicated relationship itself is epic on its own.”
Why is it that you always seem to compare it to the Karaoke scene and not e.g. the dance scene with Damon and Elena or Jeremy “sacrificing” himself for Bonny?
And what exactly is so complicated about their relationship? I think it is pretty simple. We know why things are held back and others not and the reasons are pretty straight forward. Even from the characters point of view I cannot comprehend why it is supposedly so complicated?
And on a side note:
Considered what you like about that scene I guess that you also liked Sookie in episode 6 of True Blood when she ate the rest of her gram’s pie. Right?
” A lot of the power of T/C, and ironically a lot of the reasons why I think they have the potential to be a long-lasting couple, came through in moments of tension, anger, pain and, yes, those laden with Bad Touches.”
Come on we both know that will not happen. Unless the writers suddenly introduce the topic of weres becoming vamps or vamps turning into mortals, they don’t have a future. Of course considered the current pacing of the show that may never be a problem since they might be in the sixth season and still none of the characters is older than 19 in the show. Think about it, the show started in 2009 and Elena is still 17 at the end of season 2.*roll eyes* (Kjewls might a good case by speculating that the writers intentionally leave certain dates (thanksgiving, christmas, etc.) out). That might mean that Trevino and Roerig will suffer from the Luke-Perry effect. Poor guys.
” when her Vampire Barbie Spidey Sense kicks in”
You know I found that weird, where did that all of a sudden came from? None of the other vamps had shown that before and neither did she. That one witch was even able to sneak up on Katherine. Or did I miss something?
It was the same with Tyler. A few hours before he couldn’t sniff vampires out and on the next day he could sense Stefan?
I gotta be honest I am already close to the line where I can no longer “overlook” things.
” Also, in TV-speak, “We can’t go there” basically means that, one day, these two characters will totally go there. Wall sex on Caroline’s porch, anyone?”
Oh, hell no. Seriously do we really want something that predictable? Again? We already had that with Elena and the Salvatore’s, we all knew she would get wet between the legs (excuse my language) for Damon. And Jeremy fell in love again so fast it can be seen as another sign of repression. So personally I hope the show won’t go there, because it really needs something new. Or at least a development that lets it seem so improbable that we are really surprised when it happens. I can accept that but not something so predictable.
“Those who know me well will know that having Trevino!Ass walksexing up Caroline’s drive in his skinny black jeans, my absolutely favourite item from his wardrobe, pretty much rendered me speechless and required multiple rewinds on re-watch.”
That is ” Shallow-as-a-kiddie-pool”. 😀 But don’t worry, I am sure we will all forgive you. However I am also pretty sure that there are two things from his wardrobe you would prefer:
1) His tight black boxers
2) Pure air (evidence: ” Naked!Tyler. Tyler in his birthday suit. Tyler naked as the day he was born and raised by wolves. Did I mention he was naked? Without cloth? Or fiber?”) 😉
“For all I know, this could be a guise before he becomes a full throttle villain next season, but I doubt it.”
It doesn’t need to be a guise for it to happen. We had characters turn around in this show much faster.
“Similarly, Caroline isn’t above using her newfound supernatural strength to put werewolves in their place. Mason, too, experienced the wrath of Vampire Barbie, and had the black balls to prove it, in Kill or Be Killed. ”
For me that was another reason why I don’t get that “the werewolves are these big enemies of the vampires”. Seriously, they are an actual danger once per month and even if their bite is infectious in human form that is not really a threat consider the relatively small human teeth, easy to avoid. The witches might make a formidable enemy but not the werewolves, but seemingly the witches are mostly vamp tools.
“Here’s hoping this aspect of their dynamic isn’t wholly whitewashed next season. I like how they challenge one another, and don’t handle one another’s feelings with kid gloves. ”
I think it might happen if they really show them in an actual relationship. First they are not the main characters and I know I said it before and I will say it again: we have been shown nothing about how the react on a day to day basis. Despite what you wrote in earlier articles the writers did not show us whether the personalities of these two actually match enough for a relationship. It is enough for friendship but not more at the time. Currently they were thrown at each other by circumstance.
And what do you mean with “don’t handle one another’s feelings with kid gloves”, I think they did that pretty much the whole time.
But of course it is TVD so we both might be wrong and the two might end up as eternal enemies next season. Not out of question, sad but true.
“…with a fellow werewolf to come to terms…”
A fellow werewolf? Not a bitch? Did I just enter a mirror universe?
” who for all her failings…. genuinely cared for Tyler.”
Who are you and what have you done with our beloved Spiderqueen? 😀
“I guess you could argue that she was in shock over discovering what Matt and her mother had been up to, but it’s not like she had months more of time to react to Tyler’s actions than she did with Matt, so why was she not paralysed with shock over what Tyler did too?”
Because she had tons of TVD-time of thinking about what would happen if Matt knows about her, or her mom, and despite the fact that she thought she compelled him she had already told him the whole story. In this situation the first question in her mind would be, ‘why does he know it nonetheless’ and not ‘why is he doing this’, the last would be pretty obvious. The whole situation wasn’t nearly as surprising as the mentioned one in Crying Wolf. Furthermore this was Tyler, not Matt like you said but when you read below you will see that this fact can also mean something totally different.
“Caroline has seen his best and worst sides…”
“even though for a split second we see Tyler’s internal struggle between wanting to be a good friend to Caroline and being excited that she is single.”
When and where?
“She rests her head on his bare chest for comfort, but there isn’t even the slightest hint of awkwardness, just the easy intimacy of two incredibly close friends.”
Or maybe she is just tired from the whole craziness that is her life and doesn’t have the energy to care anymore.
“… Tyler is the one creature that is the most physically dangerous to her.”
Ok, after reading that, I can’t do any different then thinking that you give Caro and Tyler more spotlight then they deserve. From the still existent people in the show the most physically dangerous to her are Damon, Stefan, Katherine, Klaus and Bonnie, not Tyler. He is only a danger once per month and in an actual conflict the most easily to avoid and trick. The biggest physical danger at the moment is posed by Damon and Bonnie in the town. Tyler is only number 3 and only because there is currently no other competition.
“Caroline is used to being dismissed as a neurotic control freak on crack, with many people, including Tyler in the past, assuming that her motives for doing things are shallow and silly. Seriously, re-watch the whole of season one, and tell me this isn’t the case.”
Well most of her motives were, or how would you describe that?
“Caroline and Tyler are arguably the two characters on the show with the most negative, limiting labels slapped on them.”
For good reason, these two were not victims in that regard it was honest to earth truth. I apologize if I am wrong but sometimes it sounds as though you… sorta blame the other characters for that, despite the fact that neither Caroline nor Tyler started as particularly likeable characters.
“… it shows how Caroline and Tyler are seeing beyond the labels with each other…”
“…it’s ironic how T/C’s deep care for one another is often in direct opposition to the fact that they are biological enemies.”
But do they see the truth and where will it lead them to? If vamps and weres could just get along why didn’t they do so long ago? Seriously the whole Klaus story seems like a pretty lame reason in my eyes for starting a war.
“Yes, Matt was a douche”
Of course he was; *rolleyes*
“One reason why I am hoping for a dark!Matt next season is for Zach Roerig to have his chance to enter the BAMF leather jacket club.”
Maybe he will be possessed next season. And although he is too old to play teenager convincingly I am happy he isn’t one anymore, saw some of his photos from As the World Turns and he looks much better now. Talk about people getting hotter with age. 🙂
“The full-body skim of Tyler’s torso with a gratuitous pause on his Adonis Belt (that lovely V!) after he takes his shirt off in front of Caroline is the number one way I am able to hook new Tyler fangirls.
Also, Tyler in chains is pretty awesome, I won’t deny it.”
Fair enough, although I prefer him naked.
One thing I noticed, the transformation looked rather as though Tyler would be physically growing while instead he should have looked like shrinking, since a common grey wolf (which he was) is probably only half of Tyler’s weight.
” I adore the Hulk reference because it is a subtle reminder of Tyler’s skills as a graphic artist – of *course* he would use a comic book character as a reference point.”
What do you think; will they address that at all in season 3?
“… when Tyler intuitively understands the reasons why and simply “gets” her.”
That still strikes me as odd actually, if it is that way. Where did that all of a sudden come from? He was depicted with a not so small lack of maturity and perception before this. Seriously it does sound as though the writers just rewrote the characters.
“Her gut reaction to both situations shows the very different natures of the Matt/Caroline and Tyler/Caroline dynamics. As scarynikki states, Caroline subconsciously doesn’t feel the same freedom to get wholeheartedly mad at Matt the way she can with Tyler, because while she knows Tyler will ultimately be there for her when the smoke clears (despite his poor decision making in the heat of the moment in Daddy Issues), she can’t make the same guarantees about Matt. Caroline knows that if she makes the wrong move or doesn’t react in a way that Matt finds palatable, in all likelihood he will leave her easily; this was demonstrated by the ease with which she was able to manipulate him into dumping her for his own good as a baby vamp, but deliberately showcasing the less appealing side of dating someone who is prone to feeling jealous and insecure about her boyfriend flirting with another girl. (I actually think Matt was way out of line, because Amy was definitely coming onto him in that scene as she had all episode, and he had done nothing to discourage it, which to me is *not* boyfriend-y behaviour, but that is beside the point).”
Oh man, this will be the stuff for long and heated discussions I think; maybe we two should start a liveblog. 😉
In my eyes this is clearly your dislike of Matt speaking again. I believe you when you say that you see neither through rose-colored glasses but based on what I read I think that you might, albeit not consciously, ignore equally plausible explanations in favor of those that put the two closer towards romance. Ever considered that Matt didn’t actually register what Amy was up to? Your beloved Tyler didn’t also until she told him. People are not equally good at reading other people all the time.
It’s the same with “Caroline helped Tyler against his father even when Matt didn’t”. Maybe she was just closer to him and thereby there first? Or maybe Matt did have Tyler’s best interest in mind and simply thought that Tyler should learn to stand up to his old man by himself. Or Caroline just pitied Tyler. Not everything these two did has to be some foreshadowing of a romantic relationship.
I think that there is a much more plausible explanation for Caroline’s behavior in Crying Wolf (an unfitting title if you ask me): Tyler.
Maybe she simply didn’t care so much about “loosing” Tyler at the moment or in general so she had fewer reservations. Seriously people, those two didn’t start at zero. From what little was presented she knew him as jerk for a long time; do you really think she just forgot that in less than a month? You mentioned yourself what a guy he was in Season 1. Did it ever occur to any Forwooder that the whole situation simply brought back to her the memories of old Tyler?
During this seemingly half a month they had worked on the whole transformation thing, she had “invested” in him, she thought he was reliable, that he had changed for the better and that he would understand why she did what she did but then this happened. You said yourself that his first transformation was an intense moment of bonding so why is it that you didn’t consider this possibility? You said yourself that the show projected him as a jerk with the potential to be better so why didn’t you think of that playing a role in it?
Again he was a jerk, a pretty much unreliable jerk that made out with his best friends sister (whom he also mistreated and was ashamed about) and mother and beat the same friend into a pulp (and there is no way anybody can blame that on “the wolf”, his uncle Mason was the best proof that you can still have yourself under control). And the ‘he didn’t want to attack Matt’ stuff´ is no defense, when he was caught his statement was “Dude, calm down.” Hands up or not his reaction to being caught speaks of a guy who takes what he wants without thinking of the consequences and how it might hurt people. I know many seem to favor painting Tyler as the victim in that situation but he was clearly not, he deserved being punched for what he did. Not only did he make out with Vicky and not even being honest about it now he made out with her mother? And afterwards everything he managed to say was a sorry. Spidey you analyzed that scene yourself. Never thought that this was also coming to Caroline’s mind after Tyler’s inaction?
Then we have the whole Tyler-Vicky-Jeremy thing, we all know what happened there. And Caroline definitely knew what was going on; there is no way she could have missed that.
His betrayal “simply” caused all those memories of him to resurface and when you put these together you don’t get a very nice picture. But nonetheless this Tyler at least stood up with his friends (or better friend) most of the time but now he didn’t even do that simply because he was “confused”. What sort of lame excuse is that? Would you have reacted differently in that situation?
I think it is entirely plausible that in Caroline’s mind at the time this would only prove that Tyler is essentially an unreliable jerk, who goes as the wind blows and that she was a fool for ever thinking better of him.
June 13th, 2011 at 3:29 pm
Hi Andre! Thanks for the awesome comment! I promise to come back later with a response to do it justice! 😉
July 3rd, 2011 at 12:48 pm
Hey Andre! Sorry is has taken me so. damn. long to write a response, but I have been ultra busy with a new job/another arts festival, and every time I tried to sit down and write a response to your awesome comment, I would be drawn away by some responsibility or another. Never fear, I can now do what I do best – debating until I’m blue in the face about my favourite characters/ships with people like you!
And another thing: you mentioned in previous comments some “ranting” or so from fans who said Tyler was dead to them due to the events in Crying Wolf, but they easily forgave Damon for killing Jeremy. Do you still have a link to that site? I would love to read that.
You know, it wasn’t any one site. I remember being on Twitter and Tumblr after the events went down, and the vitriol directed at Tyler just absolutely took me aback. Here was a rant I wrote because it started making my blood boil:
snapping Elena’s brother’s neck, and yet Tyler’s hesitation is somehow viewed as a higher betrayal? Perspective, people. Perspective.
Let’s also not forget that Tyler is meant to be a teen, and Damon a 145+ vampire, yet we forgive the latter for acting more like a petulant child than someone who actually is. God, this pisses me off. Tyler’s douchiest comments in S1 continue to be matched by Damon (“have fun with the Mystic Queen, I know I did?” anyone). Tyler forced himself on Vicki, but Damon did the same in The Return.
So I LOVE BOTH CHARACTERS because they both live in a nice shade of grey that means they can both betray, be betrayed, and hopefully be redeemed. This dead to me stuff drives me crazy.
After the neck snapping incident, I saw that as Damon’s rock bottom, an his telling Elena the truth about not seeing the protecto ring on Jeremy the only way that any relationship between Delena being seen as built on a foundation of honesty, tough as it may be.
The hesitation and Elena-hunting was Tyler’s, who I might remind everyone immediately dropped the hunt once he discovered they planned to sacrifice Elena. Now, he can start with an honest, clean slate with Care and the others.
If we believe Damon deserves that chance, or can prove himself worthy in the future, why isn’t this true of Tyler?
End rant 😉
“… they didn’t need the backdrop of a karaoke scene … because their complicated relationship itself is epic on its own.”
Why is it that you always seem to compare it to the Karaoke scene and not e.g. the dance scene with Damon and Elena or Jeremy “sacrificing” himself for Bonny?
The main reason I draw comparisons between Tyler/Caro and Matt/Caro is because they are three points of the same triangle, so it makes more sense to me from an analytic point of view. I think Damon and Elena are much more similar to Tyler/Caro in that they share small moments rather than major epic relationship scenes. Stefan/Elena have more of those, particularly from early season one. Don’t even get me started on Bonnie/Jeremy – I think this relationship is built on shallow moments and has been a complete waste of Steven R McQueen’s charisma and acting chops.
And on a side note:
Considered what you like about that scene I guess that you also liked Sookie in episode 6 of True Blood when she ate the rest of her gram’s pie. Right?
I pretty much like an emotional scene that is built more about Show than Tell. What I liked about Sookie eating her grandma’s pie is that it wasn’t a fresh new pie; it was already partly eaten. So, we get a sense of the suddenness of her grandmother’s death, even if we weren’t already aware of her being murdered, because it shows that this woman had been pottering around the kitchen, happily making pies and just in general looking after her grandchildren, and they didn’t even have the chance to FINISH the last pie she had made before she was gone. There was also the sense of the pie being a temporary joy – once it was eaten, a tangible memory of her grandmother would have disappeared.
That’s one of the major things that attracts me to T/C over M/C – there is far more Telling with T/C. The karaoke scene just drove me bananas because it was the writers screaming at me, “This pairing is EPICCCCCCCCC! Accept this fact”, and just left me honestly with the reverse response.
” A lot of the power of T/C, and ironically a lot of the reasons why I think they have the potential to be a long-lasting couple, came through in moments of tension, anger, pain and, yes, those laden with Bad Touches.”
Come on we both know that will not happen. Unless the writers suddenly introduce the topic of weres becoming vamps or vamps turning into mortals, they don’t have a future. Of course considered the current pacing of the show that may never be a problem since they might be in the sixth season and still none of the characters is older than 19 in the show. Think about it, the show started in 2009 and Elena is still 17 at the end of season 2.*roll eyes* (Kjewls might a good case by speculating that the writers intentionally leave certain dates (thanksgiving, christmas, etc.) out). That might mean that Trevino and Roerig will suffer from the Luke-Perry effect. Poor guys.
You know, I think that in any teen angst show, the happiness of any couple, no matter how close, is generally relatively short-lived or is filled with external and internal conflicts that mean being together never becomes easy. Stefan/Elena, an unusually stable couple for a long time, were constantly facing life/death issues, plus Elena’s growing feelings for Damon etc. So, yeah, I do think Forwood will have a bit of longevity like Stelena, especially given their popularity as a pairing. I fully expect them to make up/break up or in the very least have fights from time to time, but be that pairing where even if they aren’t together at a particular point of time, they are always going to get under one another’s skin. It’s kind of like how you get filler characters who act as romantic interests who you know are only there for the purpose of temporarily keeping the supercouple apart.
Regarding the timeline on the show, you know this annoys me too. It will be interesting to see whether the writers time jump forward to show that Damon and Elena have had to cope without Ripper!Stefan for some time, or if they intend to pick up where we left off at the end of season two. I don’t mind a time skip forward as long as it isn’t ridiculously far into the future. After all, I have a vested personal interest in this, because I want to SEE Tyler/Caro experience all their firsts. If they are together once season three starts because we are months and months into the future, I will be pissed off, believe me.
” when her Vampire Barbie Spidey Sense kicks in”
You know I found that weird, where did that all of a sudden came from? None of the other vamps had shown that before and neither did she. That one witch was even able to sneak up on Katherine. Or did I miss something?
This may be a case of the writers using special powers when it is convenient for them. It’s like how on Buffy the ability of humans to defend themselves changed to suit the situation. Sometimes Xander and Willow could put up a good fight, sometimes they were fully out of their league, even if the vampires they faced weren’t that different in terms of physical strenght. It’s one of those continuity issues, I guess.
” Also, in TV-speak, “We can’t go there” basically means that, one day, these two characters will totally go there. Wall sex on Caroline’s porch, anyone?”
Oh, hell no. Seriously do we really want something that predictable? Again? We already had that with Elena and the Salvatore’s, we all knew she would get wet between the legs (excuse my language) for Damon. And Jeremy fell in love again so fast it can be seen as another sign of repression. So personally I hope the show won’t go there, because it really needs something new. Or at least a development that lets it seem so improbable that we are really surprised when it happens. I can accept that but not something so predictable.
I was reading on another livejournal a quote that a good TV coupling/development has a sense of inevitability, but there is unpredictability in how it all unfolds. CW shows are less sublte about it than other channels, generally, but that just goes with the territory and is something you have to accept about their teen dramas. I actually think that Caroline saying, “We can’t go there” is a clever way of indicating this will occur, rather than her saying straight out I care about you but I’m in love with Matt” – we can read between the lines that this is her meaning, without being explicitly told this.
Elena’s love triangle with the Salvatores is not only predictable but is the central thrust of the marketing of the show. Bonnie and Jeremy getting together feels so contrived that I’m not even going to go there. It’s like the producers said, “Hmm, they are two of the only people left to hook up, so let’s go there!” At least with T/C, they put some thought into why it would be interesting if they pairing up – warring species, baby supes sharing similar experiences, Caroline being complicit in the murder of Tyler’s uncle etc etc.
And, yes, yes I DO want Tyler and Caroline to hook up, more than I have wanted any couple on this show to hook up – you can’t have read my Got Forwood recaps and not have known this already 😉 I am looking forward to the unpredictability in how everything develops between the two of them. I mean, I have often been able to partially predict things on The Vampire Diaries, but still been taken by surprise by certain elements. From some of my speculation posts, you’ve been able to see that, actually, I am often way off on my assumptions, so anticipate being surprised just as much this year.
“Those who know me well will know that having Trevino!Ass walksexing up Caroline’s drive in his skinny black jeans, my absolutely favourite item from his wardrobe, pretty much rendered me speechless and required multiple rewinds on re-watch.”
That is ” Shallow-as-a-kiddie-pool”. But don’t worry, I am sure we will all forgive you. However I am also pretty sure that there are two things from his wardrobe you would prefer:
1) His tight black boxers
2) Pure air (evidence: ” Naked!Tyler. Tyler in his birthday suit. Tyler naked as the day he was born and raised by wolves. Did I mention he was naked? Without cloth? Or fiber?”)
Haha! I ❤ you! I just might have to use the "pure air" thing and give you your first Spidey TM, Andre! 😉
“For all I know, this could be a guise before he becomes a full throttle villain next season, but I doubt it.”
It doesn’t need to be a guise for it to happen. We had characters turn around in this show much faster.
Actually, the more I think about it, the majority of the characters are morally ambiguous and are “villians” by ordinary people’s standards in terms of some of the horrific acts they do. The Founders Council, ironically, are presented as a Big Bad even though they are really just trying to police and manage the supes. So I guess I should say, “villain from the perspective of the characters we love”.
“Similarly, Caroline isn’t above using her newfound supernatural strength to put werewolves in their place. Mason, too, experienced the wrath of Vampire Barbie, and had the black balls to prove it, in Kill or Be Killed. ”
For me that was another reason why I don’t get that “the werewolves are these big enemies of the vampires”. Seriously, they are an actual danger once per month and even if their bite is infectious in human form that is not really a threat consider the relatively small human teeth, easy to avoid. The witches might make a formidable enemy but not the werewolves, but seemingly the witches are mostly vamp tools.
IMO, the writers should have ditched the Klaus as a werepire idea and made the sun/moon curse genuine (and put thought into having it all make sense), and had the werewolves break it at the end of the season. As you astutely point out, the werewolves have been emasculated by their conception on the series, and the stakes would have been higher if they could transform whenever they wanted to – with the obvious deterrent being the pain everytime they do so.
“Here’s hoping this aspect of their dynamic isn’t wholly whitewashed next season. I like how they challenge one another, and don’t handle one another’s feelings with kid gloves. ”
I think it might happen if they really show them in an actual relationship. First they are not the main characters and I know I said it before and I will say it again: we have been shown nothing about how the react on a day to day basis. Despite what you wrote in earlier articles the writers did not show us whether the personalities of these two actually match enough for a relationship. It is enough for friendship but not more at the time. Currently they were thrown at each other by circumstance.
Hmmm, I think that the popularity of Forwood means they will get the supercouple treatment, and will more than likely be developed in an interesting way. Although Tyler has matured, he has never been in a proper relationship before, so there are bound to be issues there. Who knows how Matt and the rest of their friends and family will react, especially as there are whisperings of Sheriff Forbes and Carol Lockwood being at each other’s throats next season.
Look, I don’t really understand what the big deal is about them being thrown together by circumstance. All friends/couples are, in one way or another – whether the circumstance is growing up together, going to the same school, discovering their ex vamp girlfriend has a human doppelganger, or suddenly discovering that they have a commonality of being baby supes.
I do agree though that it will be interesting to see how compatible their personalities are – but then, which couple is perfect in this department? They seemed pretty comfy together when they were engaging in Naked Coed Forwood Couch Cuddling, but I seriously hope that they have their little moments of quirky, banter-y arguments. Smooth sailing would be boring. I have a feeling though that they will be presented as a couple who can fight the good fight, but we are shown why ultimately their bond remains intact regardless.
I don’t see how Matt/Caro were any more compatible, at any rate. I mean, both Tyler and Matt grew up knewing Caro, but didn’t really KNOW her until recently. At least Tyler has shared all of these supe experiences with her, and understands where she is coming from. Also, at least he treats her with a basic modicum of respect and enjoys her company, whereas with Matt she is almost always treated like a placeholder who doesn’t match up to the standards set by Elena.
“…with a fellow werewolf to come to terms…”
A fellow werewolf? Not a bitch? Did I just enter a mirror universe?
Heh. Well, she’s dead now on the series, so I guess my anger at her Forwood Unicorn stomping tendencies has abated.
” who for all her failings…. genuinely cared for Tyler.”
Who are you and what have you done with our beloved Spiderqueen?
I’ve read a few interesting takes on Jules that have made me reconsider her stance. Also, I admit that her attitude in the final scene between her, Tyler and Caro changed my mind a little upon re-watch. Jules, who you have to remember had only just been complicity in Caroline’s torture and shown that she had grown up being told to hate vampires with every fibre of her being, had the grace to look a little guilty when she saw Caroline and immediately allowed Tyler to speak with her. In all likelihood, in Tyler’s time away from Mystic Falls, he probably explained what an incredible friend Caro had been to him, and I think there were signs that Jules might have come around to realising that not all vampires are what she has previously thought them to be.
“Caroline has seen his best and worst sides…”
“even though for a split second we see Tyler’s internal struggle between wanting to be a good friend to Caroline and being excited that she is single.”
When and where?
Caroline has had Tyler menace her with the threat of violence in Rose, despite him still believing she was human at the time, and knowing his strength had increased dramatically since he triggered the werewolf gene the week before. He hesitated during a life/death moment when she really needed him. Yet she has had him show that he “gets” her (in The Sacrifice, he showed that he understood her motivations for breaking up with Matt in Bad Moon Rising, and what’s more that he knew her intentions for doing so were out of her goodness). He has apologised to her and shown vulnerability even though she is well aware how difficult these things must be to show for a hyper masculine guy like Tyler. And so on.
When they were snuggling on the couch and Caroline mentioned that Matt broke up with her, you could see a play of emotions across Trevino’s face from him going inwardly, “Yippe! She’s free!’ without meaning to chastising himself for thinking that when she was obviously hurting to finding it hard to believe Matt would break up with this amazing girl.
“She rests her head on his bare chest for comfort, but there isn’t even the slightest hint of awkwardness, just the easy intimacy of two incredibly close friends.”
Or maybe she is just tired from the whole craziness that is her life and doesn’t have the energy to care anymore.
I don’t care how tired you are, you wouldn’t just snuggle up with a naked or even half-naked version of someone you don’t feel comfortable with. I mean, Andre, I love your mad commenting skillz, but if we went to a Vampire Diaries convention, caught up, and were exhausted by the sheer hotness of Trevino and McQueen in the flesh, I doubt I would lay across your chest after you stripped down to cool yourself off. Just sayin’ 😉
“… Tyler is the one creature that is the most physically dangerous to her.”
Ok, after reading that, I can’t do any different then thinking that you give Caro and Tyler more spotlight then they deserve. From the still existent people in the show the most physically dangerous to her are Damon, Stefan, Katherine, Klaus and Bonnie, not Tyler. He is only a danger once per month and in an actual conflict the most easily to avoid and trick. The biggest physical danger at the moment is posed by Damon and Bonnie in the town. Tyler is only number 3 and only because there is currently no other competition.
You may be partly right on this point, but the fact remains that a werewolf bite kills a vampire, and if Tyler managed to get unchained or started transforming before they could lock him down, as happened in the season two finale, her undead life would be in danger. Yet, I am severely disappointed the werewolves didn’t break the curse in their favour if it had ended up being real, because I think this would have been an extremely exciting way of levelling the playing field.
“Caroline is used to being dismissed as a neurotic control freak on crack, with many people, including Tyler in the past, assuming that her motives for doing things are shallow and silly. Seriously, re-watch the whole of season one, and tell me this isn’t the case.”
Well most of her motives were, or how would you describe that?
I actually don’t think her motives really were. I don’t think she was given enough credit for how generous and thoughtful she often was. For instance, she convinced Elena to compete in Miss Mystic Falls in her mother’s honour, despite believing her chances of winning a competition that meant a great deal to her would be nonexistent. She tried to help patch up the Matt/Tyler and Bonnie/Elean rifts.
Her hooking up with Matt may have been partially about claiming Elena’s territory and the ego boost of having a guy who was in love with Elena pick her (even if by default). Ultimately though, her motivations were really more about her being desperately lonely and connecting with Matt over this shared feeling.
“Caroline and Tyler are arguably the two characters on the show with the most negative, limiting labels slapped on them.”
For good reason, these two were not victims in that regard it was honest to earth truth. I apologize if I am wrong but sometimes it sounds as though you… sorta blame the other characters for that, despite the fact that neither Caroline nor Tyler started as particularly likeable characters.
I think you misunderstand. I’m honestly not blaming the characters for Caroline and Tyler not being likeable. What’s more, part of their appeal and my ability to relate to them stems from them being less perfect in their initial conceptions than Elena. All I’m saying is that the show makes me feel uncomfortable when it puts a value judgment on who is “worth it” and who isn’t. I think that we all have our flaws, and no one should be seen as “asking for it”, “it” being rotten treatment, even if these flaws don’t always paint us in the most positive light.
It’s interesting how women are often framed with negative labels more than men on The Vampire Diaries, regardless of whether the men do evil acts or not. Bonnie is “judgy” for not being Team
Salvatore (I say this as a major Salvatore fan), Katherine is a “slut” and “skank” (whose crime was not loving Damon back), Caroline is “neurotic” and a “control freak”. So, while it seems like I’m limiting my annoyance to Caroline and Tyler, that is really only because I was specifically analysing their characters for the sake of this post. The more I talk to other members of fandom, the more it bothers me that Stefan, Damon and most of the other men are allowed to just “be” on the show without a similar value judgment, regardless of whether they do heinous acts or not.
“… it shows how Caroline and Tyler are seeing beyond the labels with each other…”
“…it’s ironic how T/C’s deep care for one another is often in direct opposition to the fact that they are biological enemies.”
But do they see the truth and where will it lead them to? If vamps and weres could just get along why didn’t they do so long ago? Seriously the whole Klaus story seems like a pretty lame reason in my eyes for starting a war.
I think Tyler hit the nail on the head when he told Jules how ridiculous she sounded when she said that vampires will never be his friend. Hate begets more hate, and I don’t think we should just throw up our hands and accept that two warring communities aren’t ever going to get along. It seems like a Middle East war situation to me, in the sense that these creatures may have forgotten why they initially hated one another, but this hatred has been passed down through generations for so long that they no longer question it. I look forward to Tyler and Caroline being an antidote to this.
“Yes, Matt was a douche”
Of course he was; *rolleyes*
Our mileage, as always, varies on this. See my Good Boy Woobie post for more details about why Matt is a douche in my eyes. You’re entitled to your opinion, as am I. It’d be boring if we totally agreed, don’tcha think?
“One reason why I am hoping for a dark!Matt next season is for Zach Roerig to have his chance to enter the BAMF leather jacket club.”
Maybe he will be possessed next season. And although he is too old to play teenager convincingly I am happy he isn’t one anymore, saw some of his photos from As the World Turns and he looks much better now. Talk about people getting hotter with age.
Yeah, some people just grow into their hotness, especially when they are a clean cut, All American type like Zach. He is like Ian Somerhalder in that some wrinkles and a little weathering makes him a tiny little bit rougher around the edges, and therefore much sexier.
“The full-body skim of Tyler’s torso with a gratuitous pause on his Adonis Belt (that lovely V!) after he takes his shirt off in front of Caroline is the number one way I am able to hook new Tyler fangirls.
Also, Tyler in chains is pretty awesome, I won’t deny it.”
Fair enough, although I prefer him naked.
Hehe! True, true. I just like the symbolism of Tyler in chains, and all the sado-maschosim overtones it carries.
One thing I noticed, the transformation looked rather as though Tyler would be physically growing while instead he should have looked like shrinking, since a common grey wolf (which he was) is probably only half of Tyler’s weight.
Very interesting. The depth of your knowledge about wolves is astonishing, really, judging but the little tid bits you always drop on this blog!
” I adore the Hulk reference because it is a subtle reminder of Tyler’s skills as a graphic artist – of *course* he would use a comic book character as a reference point.”
What do you think; will they address that at all in season 3?
I certainly hope so, at least for the sake of continuity. I think though his artistry was really just a way of initially establishing that he had hidden depths and sensitivity – one of the more eye-rollingly unsubtle tools used by the writers for his character.
“… when Tyler intuitively understands the reasons why and simply “gets” her.”
That still strikes me as odd actually, if it is that way. Where did that all of a sudden come from? He was depicted with a not so small lack of maturity and perception before this. Seriously it does sound as though the writers just rewrote the characters.
Again, our mileage varies. I think the writers very ably showed that the dramatic experience of becoming baby supes and all of the hardships and uncertainties this entailed changed Tyler and Caro into very different people. Being forced into life/death situations on an almost daily basis also made it essential for them to figure out what really counts. So, of course, their superficial jock and school princess personas are going to alter.
“Her gut reaction to both situations shows the very different natures of the Matt/Caroline and Tyler/Caroline dynamics. As scarynikki states, Caroline subconsciously doesn’t feel the same freedom to get wholeheartedly mad at Matt the way she can with Tyler, because while she knows Tyler will ultimately be there for her when the smoke clears (despite his poor decision making in the heat of the moment in Daddy Issues), she can’t make the same guarantees about Matt. Caroline knows that if she makes the wrong move or doesn’t react in a way that Matt finds palatable, in all likelihood he will leave her easily; this was demonstrated by the ease with which she was able to manipulate him into dumping her for his own good as a baby vamp, but deliberately showcasing the less appealing side of dating someone who is prone to feeling jealous and insecure about her boyfriend flirting with another girl. (I actually think Matt was way out of line, because Amy was definitely coming onto him in that scene as she had all episode, and he had done nothing to discourage it, which to me is *not* boyfriend-y behaviour, but that is beside the point).”
Oh man, this will be the stuff for long and heated discussions I think; maybe we two should start a liveblog.
In my eyes this is clearly your dislike of Matt speaking again. I believe you when you say that you see neither through rose-colored glasses but based on what I read I think that you might, albeit not consciously, ignore equally plausible explanations in favor of those that put the two closer towards romance. Ever considered that Matt didn’t actually register what Amy was up to? Your beloved Tyler didn’t also until she told him. People are not equally good at reading other people all the time.
It’s the same with “Caroline helped Tyler against his father even when Matt didn’t”. Maybe she was just closer to him and thereby there first? Or maybe Matt did have Tyler’s best interest in mind and simply thought that Tyler should learn to stand up to his old man by himself. Or Caroline just pitied Tyler. Not everything these two did has to be some foreshadowing of a romantic relationship.
When it comes down to it, Tyler and Caro have BOTH had the freedom to scream at each other and express anger. In contrast, Caroline has NEVER gotten out and out angry with Matt, even when he deserved it. Even in the wake of finding out that he had been conspiring against her with her mother, possibly to kill her, Caroline didn’t get angry, just defeated and resigned. In fact, Matt gave us a whole speech about how hard this whole situation was for him, and that he couldn’t handle her supernatural baggage! I don’t think Tyler’s hesitation was any worse than Matt conspiring with Liz, and the Matt situation didn’t have mitigating factos like just finding out Caro’s friends had murdered his uncle. So, it struck me as very interesting that Caroline launched into a scream attack against Tyler and told him quite freely what he did wrong, but didn’t do the same with Matt, even though he had betrayed her loyalty, which I would argue is the trait Caroline values most highly, based on her characterisation so far.
I think that there is a much more plausible explanation for Caroline’s behavior in Crying Wolf (an unfitting title if you ask me): Tyler.
Maybe she simply didn’t care so much about “loosing” Tyler at the moment or in general so she had fewer reservations. Seriously people, those two didn’t start at zero. From what little was presented she knew him as jerk for a long time; do you really think she just forgot that in less than a month? You mentioned yourself what a guy he was in Season 1. Did it ever occur to any Forwooder that the whole situation simply brought back to her the memories of old Tyler?
There were signs, very subtle, but signs nonetheless that Caroline was affected by Tyler leaving. It’s just that because the writers (thank God) don’t bash us over the head with Forwood’s feelings that they might not be immdediately evident.
In the scene where Care is talking to Matt about Tyler having left, her question about whether Tyler had said anything else other than goodbye is totes her wondering if Tyler had mentioned her at all. Matt knew this, too, because he got his hackles all up and asked her why she wanted to know, and if there was anything she wanted to tell him *cough*TC kiss* cough
When Care is trying to get Useless Aunt Jenna to forgive Alaric, she says “Maybe he’s lying to protect you”, which I guess can be seen as being about Matt and lying to him about the vamps/weres in town for his own sake. But it has definite shades of “I lied to protect my friends. I lied to protect YOU, don’t you get that?” which says to me that she feels the pain of the fallout from her lies about Mason, however well-intentioned, keenly.
In the final scene with Matt where he finds out she is a vamp and Caroline says “But it’s all gonna be okay because I’m going to tell you everything. And you’re going to understand why I had to keep it from you, and we’re gonna be fine” is clearly her deciding to come clean because when she had withheld the truth from Tyler, it triggered a series of events and actions from both parties that, for the time being, has cost them their relationship.
Lastly, I thought that her loving The Notebook movie was an anvil. The premise is that a girl forges an intense bond with a boy, who is flawed and scrappy and impulsive, and they break up in a heated way through a series of miscommunications. Heck, the men show their feelings in ways the women don’t immediately know at the time (in the Notebook, the letters Noah sends Allie for her year that her mother keeps from her; Tyler standing in the shadows of Caroline’s porch at the end of Crying Wolf so he can see her one last time, plus his speech to Matt about his feelings for her). In The Notebook, Allie then meets someone who is perfect on paper, and who she does care about deeply. But she is never able to forget about Noah and the passion they share, and ultimately they reunite. The writers are so careful with their subtleties and allusions with T/C/M, and I’m convinced this is a pretty big signpost for T/C inevitably happening.
During this seemingly half a month they had worked on the whole transformation thing, she had “invested” in him, she thought he was reliable, that he had changed for the better and that he would understand why she did what she did but then this happened. You said yourself that his first transformation was an intense moment of bonding so why is it that you didn’t consider this possibility? You said yourself that the show projected him as a jerk with the potential to be better so why didn’t you think of that playing a role in it?
Just because they have bonded doesn’t make them immune to miscommunications and betrayals – I think that what is striking about the bond is how it has remained intact despite obviously being severely tested. I think that Caroline, with time to think about it, was able to see Tyler’s perspective (otherwise I doubt she would have forgiven him). I mean, she was complicit in Mason’s death, and Tyler was justified in having a moment of confusion about who to trust. Here, he has a girl who stuck out his transformation with him, but in his other ear he has a werewolf, one of his own kind, telling him this same girl was lying to him, and what’s more offering him a code of werewolf honour and loyalty that must have sounded very appealing. Was I annoyed that Caroline didn’t explain her reasons to Tyler for lying to him before everything went down, rather than getting Stefan, who was obviously prejudiced against werewolves and acted in an extremely intimidating manner towards Tyler, to try to convince him to hear them out? Yes. Was I annoyed that Tyler didn’t question the motives of a woman he had known for a short time over a lifelong friend? Yes. But trust issues have long been established as a shared trait of Caroline and Tyler, two people accustomed to being abandoned or having people use them with major ulterior motives (e.g. Mason mainly building rapport with Tyler to get the moonstone). So, despite their bond, was I surprised that their friendship could be tested by this perfect storm of horrible events? No.
Again he was a jerk, a pretty much unreliable jerk that made out with his best friends sister (whom he also mistreated and was ashamed about) and mother and beat the same friend into a pulp (and there is no way anybody can blame that on “the wolf”, his uncle Mason was the best proof that you can still have yourself under control). And the ‘he didn’t want to attack Matt’ stuff´ is no defense, when he was caught his statement was “Dude, calm down.” Hands up or not his reaction to being caught speaks of a guy who takes what he wants without thinking of the consequences and how it might hurt people. I know many seem to favor painting Tyler as the victim in that situation but he was clearly not, he deserved being punched for what he did. Not only did he make out with Vicky and not even being honest about it now he made out with her mother? And afterwards everything he managed to say was a sorry. Spidey you analyzed that scene yourself. Never thought that this was also coming to Caroline’s mind after Tyler’s inaction?
No one’s pretending that Tyler was a prince in season one. I guess the difference for me between Tyler and Matt is that the writers CALL Tyler on his douchiness, but don’t acknowledge Matt’s. We are TOLD Tyler is a dick, a tool, but Matt is a good guy directly by the writing. I can handle bad behaviour as long as the authorial intent of the writers shows that they are aware of how the character is coming across. I just feel like they think Matt is just a plain straight up Good Guy, even when he is coming across the way to me. Nothing drives me more bonkers than a discrepancy between authorial intent and the reality.
I’m not really sure what Tyler being a womanizer has to do with his inaction. I do agree though that part of Caroline’s feeling of betrayal is that Tyler seems quite impulsive by nature, so to have him freeze up in a situation (understandable IMO as it was his first life/death scenario, not a response to a drunken friend being upset at his incredible inappropriate hookup with his mother), would have seemed that much worse to her.
July 10th, 2011 at 8:21 pm
“Come on we both know that will not happen. Unless the writers suddenly introduce the topic of weres becoming vamps or vamps turning into mortals, they don’t have a future.”
Well, I don’t think it’s fair to assume that they don’t have a future. It’s really too early to say where they will go with this. But I agree with Spidery that these two DO have the potential to be long lasting.
“I think it might happen if they really show them in an actual relationship. First they are not the main characters and I know I said it before and I will say it again: we have been shown nothing about how the react on a day to day basis. Despite what you wrote in earlier articles the writers did not show us whether the personalities of these two actually match enough for a relationship. It is enough for friendship but not more at the time. Currently they were thrown at each other by circumstance.”
But who isn’t thrown together by circumstance? Couldn’t you argue Damon and Elena are too? Damon and Elena wouldn’t have known each other if it hadn’t been for Stefan and for their respective relationships to Stefan.
We don’t know how anybody reacts on a day to day basis. I see no reason WHY they wouldn’t be a good match. Caroline and Matt are IMO not a good match. He’s judgmental and boring, and around him she’s transparent and insecure. Spare me. I’d rather watch Tyler and Caroline any day versus the Matt and Caroline show.
“Caroline has seen his best and worst sides…”
“even though for a split second we see Tyler’s internal struggle between wanting to be a good friend to Caroline and being excited that she is single.”
“When and where?”
Well, she’s seen him be sweet to her in 2×12 and the kiss, and his worst sides, well, assuming they have known each other their whole lives, most of season 1, during the Vicki/Jeremy/Tyler triangle, she’s seen him with Matt, during his transformation.
As for the struggle, it’s right on his face. His eyes dart up to Caroline and then down, and his little shake of the head proves that he is thinking what a mistake it was to let Matt take care of Caroline when he said goodbye to him in 2×14. Obviously, Matt did NOT hold up his end of the bargain and was not good to Caroline.
“Yes, Matt was a douche”
“Of course he was; *rolleyes*”
Then what do you call someone who jumps on his girlfriend for being a bit weird THE DAY AFTER SHE GOT OUT OF THE HOSPITAL? Call me naive, but his is not about Matt not accepting Caroline as a vampire or how anyone would react after finding out their bf/gf was a vampire. This is about Matt not accepting Caroline. Period. Notice how Tyler even said “But the girl’s got heart. She means well.” And this was before he started really getting to know her. Matt can’t see that.
I don’t know. I just know if my boyfriend suffered a life and death situation, got out of the hospital and was acting strange, I think I’d give him the benefit of the doubt.
Matt’s douche moments come from how he treated Caroline when she was human, not as a vampire.
July 10th, 2011 at 8:25 pm
“… when Tyler intuitively understands the reasons why and simply “gets” her.”
“That still strikes me as odd actually, if it is that way. Where did that all of a sudden come from? He was depicted with a not so small lack of maturity and perception before this. Seriously it does sound as though the writers just rewrote the characters.”
Again, I don’t think it’s rewriting. It’s characters evolving. You’ve never spent time with someone after thinking about them one way and then changed your mind? I don’t get why people think this is a revision. Maybe Tyler has become more intuitive since going through a very similar situation himself, and albeit limited, but informative time he spent with Caroline has made him become aware of certain things.
“His betrayal “simply” caused all those memories of him to resurface and when you put these together you don’t get a very nice picture. But nonetheless this Tyler at least stood up with his friends (or better friend) most of the time but now he didn’t even do that simply because he was “confused”. What sort of lame excuse is that? Would you have reacted differently in that situation?
I think it is entirely plausible that in Caroline’s mind at the time this would only prove that Tyler is essentially an unreliable jerk, who goes as the wind blows and that she was a fool for ever thinking better of him.”
I don’t see it that way at all. I think Caroline was hurt because she realized she DID have feelings for Tyler and he wasn’t there for her the way she wanted him to be, because she had his back and felt he didn’t have hers. I don’t think she really cares about what Tyler was in the past, as you brought up earlier that these two were equally unlikeable characters in early season 1.
She and Tyler had bonded, she’d seen him transform, and then he kissed her and now she has to deal with her new feelings for Tyler, which are stronger than she ever thought they could be. Tyler and Caroline’s relationship has ALWAYS been intense. Then she gets kidnapped and Tyler supposedly doesn’t help her/react fast enough. I’m not going to argue who was right/wrong in that situation because it would be a forever long post. Who is to say though that she was hell bent on not forgiving him? The time away gave Caroline time to digest and realize how she missed Tyler.
If she really was remembering all those bad times regarding Tyler and thinking she was a fool, then she wouldn’t have reacted the way she did in 2×20 and 2×21. She would have gone on hating him. Instead, she was willing to once again, lay her heart on the line.
And notice how fast she was to once again join him in the transformation, knowing the risks. If that’s not love, show me what is.
“She rests her head on his bare chest for comfort, but there isn’t even the slightest hint of awkwardness, just the easy intimacy of two incredibly close friends.”
“Or maybe she is just tired from the whole craziness that is her life and doesn’t have the energy to care anymore.”
IA with Spidey. I don’t care how tired I am, I have the energy to tell my naked friend to put something on under there if I’m going to cuddle.
June 3rd, 2011 at 7:21 am
My honorable mention goes to Caroline and her undeniable attraction to Tyler’s hair, as well as her chronic routine of petting it every chance she gets.
There should be a tumblr dedicated to Caroline’s love of Tyler Locks.
June 13th, 2011 at 3:29 pm
Hi Cactusu! Thanks so much for stopping by!
You are absolutely right! Caroline is petting Tyler in the two post-wolf transformation scenes, even though he is decidedly less hairy in human form. Bwahaha at the nickname Tyler Locks, which I may use, with a Cactusu TM of course, in a future recap. Though, I hope she is running her fingers through his hair for an entirely different reason when it comes to that! (porch sex! porch sex!)
July 19th, 2011 at 11:32 am
Haha totally agree, you guys crack me up! I do love the petting thing :> Hi I am new here and enjoy the posts so much (it has become my guilty pleasure) Just wanted to mention a song that was actually in a Jyler scene while taking shots in S2Ep1, it reminds me so much of forwood in the start of their relationship:
Hurts – Wonderful Life
On a bridge across the Severn on a Saturday night,
Susie meets the man of her dreams.
He says that he got in trouble and if she doesn’t mind
He doesn’t want the company
But there’s something in the air
They share a look in silence and everything is understood
Susie grabs her man and puts a grip on his hand as the rain puts a tear in his eye.
SHE SAYS:
Don’t let go
Never give up, it’s such a wonderful life
Don’t let go
Never give up, it’s such a wonderful life
Driving through the city to the Temple Station,
He cries into the leather seat
And Susie knows her baby was a family man,
But the world has got him down on his knees
So she throws him at the wall and kisses burn like fire,
And suddenly he starts to believe
He takes her in his arms and he doesn’t know why,
But he thinks that he begins to see
SHE SAYS:
Don’t let go
Never give up, it’s such a wonderful life
Don’t let go
Never give up, it’s such a wonderful life
Don’t let go
Never give up, it’s such a wonderful life
Don’t let go
Never give up, it’s such a wonderful life
SHE SAYS:
Don’t let go
Never give up
Don’t let go
Never give up, it’s such a wonderful life
wonderful life, wonderful life, wonderful, wonderful, wonderful life
wonderful life, wonderful life, wonderful, wonderful, wonderful life
Don’t let go
Don’t let go
July 19th, 2011 at 12:42 pm
Aww, yeah! Another Forwood unicorn lover! I’m so excited that Tyler/Caroline are your guilty pleasure and that you’re enjoying these blog posts. They are my favourite thing in the world to write about. So, I bet you are as excited as I am for next season and all of the Forwood-y goodness we’ll be able to squee about next season 🙂
I LOVE the song you chose to capture the heart of the T/C connection. The have such a bittersweet relationship steeped in so much potential tragedy/conflict, but there is also such a simplicity and innocence to their interactions. Which is something special considering how Tyler and Caroline’s characters were initially conceived. They bring out the best in each other, and I just need more TC scenes in my life like right now!
July 9th, 2011 at 12:06 am
Wow. Is all I have to say.
Makes me wish I was as eloquent a writer as you. But you hit the nail on the head, spot on. This was so beautiful and yeah. LOL. I’m just in awe of this post. After reading it, I realized I’ve seen you on TWOP, so :waves: hello.
Anyway, this just exempliefies why I love Tyler and Caroline to a tee. I’m glad to see others see them the way I see them, both in their glory and their not-so-good times.
Whatever happens, these two will forever be epic in my opinion. They’re tragic, amazing, cute, sad,happy all in one and I don’t think I’ll ever enjoy another TV couple as much as I’ve enjoyed these two. So, yes, I applaud you and I have read your other reviews of the recent episodes. Can’t wait until season 3 to see whatever else you write about these two!
Keep it up!
July 9th, 2011 at 1:33 am
Hi Alyssa! Awww, your comment has totally made my day! Thanks for the sweet words about the post, and I’m so glad you enjoyed reading it. What is your handle at TWoP? *waves back*
What I love about Tyler and Caroline’s relationship is that it is never easy, every step forward is earned. They go through some incredible highs and lows (I attribute at least a little sexual tension to pure adrenalin ;)), and in their low key, inarticulate teen dialogue way keep their bond intact. Little touches like Caroline saying, “I’ll help” after Tyler and Damon have their mini Glare Off in the Tomb of Sacrifice when Tyler says he needs to lock himself up is just one example. Tyler gives this tiny sideways glance and is clearly amazed that after everything this girl is still going to help him out. He probably never would have thought to ask her for help again, and yet, here she is, volunteering because she cares.
So, as you can tell from my many, many feeeliiiiings for this pair, I thik they are tragic, amazing, cute, sad, happy all in one too. Veronica/Logan from Veronica Mars used to be my top ship ever, but now no couple has come close to my investment in Tyler/Caro. The thing is, this couple are epic without trying. Biologically incompatible, warring species, hints of warring mothers/families… EPIC!
I can’t wait for September so that I can resume recapping again! Got Forwood recaps are my FAVOURITE thing in the world to write. Feel free to pop by and squee with me and all of the other Tyler/Caro fans each week 😉
July 9th, 2011 at 2:20 am
Oh, I defintely will!!
I’m Oxymoron417 at TWOP. I actually replied to one of your posts. It was the good boy woobie one. LOL.
I’ll definitely come and squee with you!!
July 9th, 2011 at 2:36 am
So, now I know you are a SISTER obsessive 😉
I always enjoy reading your posts – insightful, laden with Matt hate, what’s not to love?! Hee!
The good boy woobie post was basically a culmination of many frustrated months of wearing a FREE CAROLINE shirt and jabbing my Matt Donovan voodoo doll, plus discussing what it was many of us disliked about him. Time will tell if being away from Caroline makes Matt bearable again. But then, I don’t really care too much, so long as he leaves our Vampire Barbie alone!
There’s going to be so much to squee about with all of you guys when it comes to Forwood this season, I can’t wait! I’m just praying that the writers don’t screw it up.
July 9th, 2011 at 2:44 am
“The good boy woobie post was basically a culmination of many frustrated months of wearing a FREE CAROLINE shirt and jabbing my Matt Donovan voodoo doll”
BWAH! I want both. Do they sell those on ebay?
Obsessive? Um, hell yes. You know you’re obsessed when your birthday is in the summer and yet you’re willing to bypass it so that it’ll be September 15th and you can see Tyler and Caroline again.
I too hope the writers don’t screw it up!!!
July 9th, 2011 at 2:48 am
Hehe! OMG, I had a “You know you’re obsessed with…” moment lately.
A friend was describing being a in a rush and was like, “So, I wolfed down my sandwich…” and my first thought was of Tyler. I went into giggle fits and she said, “What, what, do I have something on my face.”
Most people don’t get my fannish obsessiveness in RL, so I didn’t tell her that, actually, she just made me think of my favourite werewolf.
September… so close, yet so very far!
July 9th, 2011 at 2:51 am
Haha!
I’m a court reporter so I take down depositions and a few weeks ago, the lawyer asking the questions was named Carolyn and the person she was questioning had a son named Tyler.
I was like, it’s fate! LOL.
Also, I don’t know if you’re interested (it’s probably not as good as some others) but I have a Forwood fanfiction going.
http://www.fanfiction.net/s/7033175/1/Something_More
Feel free to check it out and leave comments.
July 9th, 2011 at 2:59 am
You have my mum’s dream job, just FYI 🙂
*rushes away to read fanfiction*
I’ve just started diving into more Forwood fanfiction to get me through hiatus, so I can’t wait to read what you’ve written.
I’ve dabbled with the idea of writing a Tyler/Elijah fanficlet, because I don’t think Elijah’s interest in the Lockwood mansion was incidental. But… everything I write is basically the calibre of a 12 year old writing with crayons! Maybe I’ll post something if I ever come up with something decent.
July 9th, 2011 at 3:03 am
I’m sure what you write is awesome. Um, have you READ all of your blogs? Seriously.
Yeah, I also have a Damon/Tyler body swap one going! Hehe, it’s pretty hilarious, but Michael and Ian have such good chemistry off screen and on. They should definitely have more screen time.
Aw, tell your mum it’s hard work but I enjoy it (most of the time!)
July 9th, 2011 at 3:09 am
@Alyssa
Reading through your fanfiction like a boss. I’m going to post a whole bunch of reactions, like a liveblog, but had to point out one line that got me cracking up: “She was wearing this adorable black vest over a blue shirt and jeans, and she looked hot. He was suddenly happy he wasn’t wearing tight jeans.” #sorrymindingutter
You’ve got a beautiful writing style, and you’ve captured the Tyler voice perfectly, which I think would be one of the hardest POVs to write.
Oh my goodness, the thought of Tyler and Damon swapping bodies. Does that mean we get a shirtless!Tyler dancing scene? 😉
July 9th, 2011 at 3:26 am
Aww. I’m glad you’re enjoying it.
Tyler’s a VERY hard POV to write from. It’s like you don’t want to sap him up too much, but you think this is how he’d be when he is in love.
Haha, I’m glad you liked that part. My mind’s ALWAYS in the gutter.
July 20th, 2011 at 11:39 am
Thanks for the warm welcome! I am OVERLY exited for the next season… it’s all about the forwood (O and off course pappa stefan! Heehee couldn’t have chosen a better name for him so props :>) Hey you floored me with the Caratt and Woobie comments Hahaha awesome!
July 23rd, 2011 at 3:49 am
Oh my goodness, my love for Papa Stefan knows no bounds! That’s why, as much as Paul Wesley and Candice Accola have scorching chemistry, I don’t want their relationship to ever become romantic, Forwood shipper bias aside. There is just such a paternal air to the way he interacts with Caroline, and I love when he lights up around her like a doting father!
Caratt is my favourite shipper name to use EVER. It just perfectly encapsulates that annoying stuck-in-your-teeth-and-just-just-wanna-pick-them-out feeling that Matt/Caro together makes me feel.
So glad you’re having fun! I definitely have my favourites, but there is definitely rhyme and reason to why they are my faves. It would drain some of the fun out of recapping if I felt neutral about everyone anyway 😉 Expect much Tyler/Caro squeeing, unrepentant Matt hatred (unless the writers miraculously make him likable to me) and pleas for Caro to become Stefan’s new Lexi!!
July 25th, 2011 at 11:52 am
I also want Papa stef and Vamp Barbie to be friends only, I think he is def gonna need a good friend to lean on in S3. Annoying is an understatement for Caratt and Woobie Matt. Yipee cannot wait!