The Vampire Diares -- Why Damon Meeting Elena First Is Pure Julie Plec Shipper Fodder
Every time there's been a near-death experience for Damon or Elena the DE shippers have gone on about Elena remember Damon telling her he loved her then compelling her to forget. It happened when she was sacrificed on Klaus' blood altar and when Elena had Damon's neck broken. The thing is Damon has told her he loves her a few times already and it hasn't made any difference to her one way or another. So why would Elena remembering that moment be any big deal?
It's the same for Elena remembering she met Damon first. Elena threw a bone at Damon about maybe if she'd met him first like you do when you break up with someone and tell them it's not them it's you to make them feel better about being dumped. The DE shippers, however, are making a mountain out of that little molehill and acting like if Elena remembers she met Damon first it's suddenly going to make her in love with him and not Stefan.
It's not like Elena met Damon that long after meeting Stefan. They meet about roughly the same time and she didn't fall in love with him at first sight. Damon didn't compel her not to have any feelings for him, just not to remember him. So when she met him again, surely if she'd had any feelings for him from when she first met them, she would have felt them on meeting him again. But she didn't feel anything for Damon and over time Damon has had to practically force an attraction to him on her by behaving in inappropriate manners towards her. So remembering she met him first isn't going to cause some light bulb moment for Elena where she realizes she really loves Damon. That's pure fan fiction territory.
The thing that makes the flashback of Damon meeting Elena right before Stefan did pure Julie Plec shipper fodder is if you watch that scene from the season three finale and then go and watch the pilot that scene makes absolutely no sense at all. For instance, why was Damon having his crow dive bombing her car so she nearly got into a car accident or stalking and terrorizing her in the cemetery if that sweet little first meeting had really happened? And the Damon that viewers first got to know was nothing like the Damon that Elena met first. The same thing happened in season two's Memory Lane when they totally rewrote everything that happened after Damon and Stefan died trying to save Katherine.
Plec had been revving both groups of shippers up for months. She did that inane one week DE moment thing, and the next week a SE moment thing, until everyone was getting fed up with the whole thing. She promised Elena would make her choice be the finale was over. Unfortunately, both groups were making threats if they weren't the chosen ones, they would stop watching the show. So Plec had a big mess on her hands. But what she lacks in being a good writer she makes up for in manipulation and she cleverly found a way to keep both shipper groups happy and on the hook for round #1010 of the Triangle of Doom.
The fact is of the two groups the DE fan group is easier to manipulate and it takes so little. Part of the problem is the arrogance that they believe they make up [last I saw one boast] 85% of the viewing audience and without them there will be no show. So ultimately they will have to be given what they want. As I said, it takes very little to set them off spinning in their belief they're going to get what they want. That they are the mystical endgame they have been chanting incessantly for some time. Like Damon telling Elena he loves her and then making her forget he said it, and the DE's belief if she ever remembers that she'll leave Stefan in the dust and realize Damon is the one; even though he's said a few times since then that he loves her and it hasn't done the trick.
This time all it took was a line, "Maybe if I'd met you, first." and a fake flashback of Elena meeting Damon first to make them feel that Elena choosing Stefan was suddenly null and void and when she remembers she met Damon first it's going to change everything. The fact that Plec chose this moment to kill off Elena and vampirize her meant she would remember not only meeting Damon first, but that longed-for moment DEs have been wishing to happen, the first time Damon told her he love her. Plec neatly avoided shipper disaster and has the DE firmly on her hook once again.
The sad thing is there comes a point you can't even feel sorry for the DE fan group for being made a fool of by Julie Plec. Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me. How many times are they going to let her fool them before they finally get it and get they're not the chosen ones. Both Plec and Kevin Williamson have said that Stefan and Elena are their epic romance, yet DE's still believe they're couple will be the couple that ends up together. They've convinced themselves that since Kevin Williamson was on Dawson's Creek and Pacey got the girl instead of Dawson that means Damon will get the girl instead of Stefan. They're grasping at straws to convince themselves they're the chosen ones, which makes them prime for the picking for Julie Plec's manipulations.
It's a sad situation. Someone can only continue to manipulate you if you let them. At this point, there's been plenty of warning signs to tip them off that their couple will never be the one. When they end up with a lump of coal in their stocking instead of a bright shiny present, the only ones they can ultimately blame is themselves. How many times has Plec set you up to think you were going to get what you wanted and you got nothing? How many times have you ignored that and let her play you for a fool again and again? The time is going to come, probably in the final moments of the show, where you discover your couple isn't endgame and never was going to be. That you have to face the fact you did this to yourself by not facing the truth and letting Julie Plec continue to play you for all your worth.
When that day finally comes, I think it will be a sad day for the DE fandom. I think they will be enraged and they'll be crying foul as their hopes and dreams lay at their feet in a pile of ashes. They'll be like the rubes who have empty pockets and colored water after buying what a snake oil salesman was selling, while the snake oil salesman goes off on her merry way not the least bit regretful for taking them for a ride.
