so this is the more sensitive side of TVD that should be handled delicately

tw: this chapter will contain mentions of sexual abuse towards men and women

it's about the characters on the show, not the actors to make that very clear

I also won't be as crass or blunt about this or include humorous gifs as this is a very serious topic

specifically we're going to be discussing where the TVD writers went wrong with this topic and also dealing with how to write these characters in fanfictions and teach you how you should approach a character that is made to have gone through such an abuse or experience or a character that tried to do said abuse to another

first of all, reminder that all of these examples come specifically from season 1 as it was 2009 and education and advocacy about sexual abuse still wasn't as serious as it should have been. This led to misguided use, lack of knowledge when it came to how to deal with the abused or assaulted, and when it unfortunately comes to a main character: completely forgetting what they did and proceeded to enact a redemption arc in said character over the seasons.

Let me make it also clear that when it comes to these characters, especially when this type of stuff happens, it usually only happens once or early on. It's because the show needs a villain, for either one episode or a few more. Then, it's never brought up again.

When I give out examples of these characters and how they proceeded to have a story arc where they were redeemed or they just never talk about what happened again, don't directly blame the characters. They're fictional characters. I advise you to blame the writers and creators of said characters, as they're the ones who decided how these characters would act for the purpose of one scene each and have no consequence in store for them.

If you are planning to write a story that features these types of topics you need to decide the fate of the character doing the abusing.

If you have a bad guy or a bully or an antagonist in your story that you want to redeem one day or over the course of your story, do not make them abuse another character. Redemption is out the window for that. The abuser should face consequences for what they've done (or maybe part of the story is how they didn't face any consequences).

So if you have a character who's an anti-hero or a just not a good guy at all and you want them to eventually join said good guys, you can't have them cross such a serious line and still join the protagonists and then expect the readers to be okay with it.

some examples not from TVD include:

Chuck Bass from Gossip Girl

the grand majority of fans from this show still have an unconditional love for this wild, womanizing, selfish man and proceed to just forget that in the pilot episode he tried to force Jenny Humphrey (a fourteen-fifteen? year old girl when he was sixteen) to have sex with him. One of the girls at the party literally said 'another one of your victims'.
And then, they proceeded to just do everything they could to redeem him. (they even had Jenny decide she wanted to lose her virginity to him four seasons later!)
Overall, the Gossip Girl writers could've just made a different one time character to be the villain of the pilot rather than resort to using one of their main characters that they were also planning on redeeming along the way.

Either that, or actually plan to have said character face retribution and consequences for his actions.

If you don't know how to write about this topic, stay away from it until you know more.

let's get into the TVD examples

the three main examples of the show are:

Tyler Lockwood

A lot of people (including myself) have often just erased the pilot version of Tyler from their brains when it came to the scene of him and Vicki in the woods making out. Vicki started saying no, that she wasn't in the mood, a drunk Tyler ignored it and tried to keep her there until Jeremy showed up and shoved him off of her.

Let's just address what went wrong here. Tyler was chosen as the villain in the scenario, Jeremy the savior, and Vicki the damsel. It's classic tropes with a spin, Vicki often keeps self destructive decisions and Jeremy had a cling towards her after a tragedy and fed off her own decisions. But let's not analyze them, let's talk about the guy who's not taking no for an answer.

Tyler Lockwood in my opinion could've been such a great character if the writers hadn't kept using him as a villain in every possible way. They knew he'd be from a family of werewolves since season 1, there were small hints throughout season one and we all know how the first season finale ended for him, so they knew he'd be a main character that we'd have to see every week in which sooner or later he'd be brought in on the supernatural inner circle, and so they decided for our very first opinion of him to be ignoring a girl when she says 'no to his sexual advances.

When it comes to Tyler the writers really just kept shitting all over his character. Making him a tertiary antagonist when it was convenient not to mention he's the only main werewolf and the actor is the second POC on the show still he's given the worst situations half the time.

The other half to consider is that he was only that type of villain in the pilot and you should know that when it comes to television pilot episodes, the channel and people in charge watch it and decide whether or not to keep going with more episodes or cancel it after the pilot. That's why a lot of TV show pilots are sometimes distinctly different from the rest of the episodes they film.

Take a look at Tyler in S2E3 where he's making out with Amy and then she backs away, says she's not into it, she's actually into Matt and he's a bit hurt but otherwise is cool and says see ya later.

They could've just built a random bad ex for Vicki to end up dead by Damon's hand or something instead of having one of your main characters do that.

now for the character that has had this happen twice:

Damon Salvatore

In the first parts of season 1 Damon met Caroline. They had sex and in between that he revealed his vampirism and bit her neck. Afterwards, their relationship is merely for show and they aren't sexual anymore but he kept feeding on her, ordered her around and ultimately abused her psychologically. Physically, too, since we see him jerking her around by her arm, they only slept once in that encounter.

And even to everyone in town no one thought "what was this 20 something guy doing with a 17 year old??" (even her mom brought it up but then never did anything and proceeded to have her closest friendships be with him)

And then we have Andie in S2 and S3 (though she died at the start of S3, so it's mainly S2) and though she was originally interested in Damon (and physically age appropriate) he still took away her fear when confessing what he was rather than just having a nice one night stand. He fed on her, compelled her fear away and raped her. The thing is when he took that fear away, he took away her choice. If she was still afraid of him after his admission of guilt and being a vampire she would've ran for the hills, she wouldn't have wanted to be with him, but he took that choice away from her.

One of the reasons Damon is the way he is happens to come from what he was taught by Sage in 1912. Damon after becoming a vampire was basically Stefan but without the ripper tendencies. He was waiting for Katherine to come out of the tomb and he only fed when he was hungry, not for pleasure as he literally wanted to stay faithful to Katherine for the whole run. Then he met Sage and she built the Damon we all know. She taught him that humans, specifically women, were playthings for vampires enjoyment. I know the way vampires see humans is usually as food or entertainment, and that's almost every vampire, but the way she talked about women was misogynistic at best. She literally taught and encouraged this behavior in Damon.

Anyway, much like Tyler, they had Damon cross huge lines early on and then decided to slowly redeem him over every season.

That's the problem with those actions. If you decide to have one of your main characters cross such a serious line and plan on redeeming him, it's not going to look good for you, your character, or your audience. Unless you're planning on the character facing consequences or it's brought up and he still doesn't face consequences (in the manner of that being a whole other storyline where people get away with it, it's another road)

now for the one no one really ever talks about:

Katherine Pierce

This is the one that no one talks about at all, and probably one you weren't even aware of until now.

"When Katherine met the Salvatore brothers she deceived them both and when she revealed what she really was, Stefan was terrified of her. In order to keep him under her thumb, Katherine compelled Stefan's fear away, fed on him, and raped him. While Stefan did love Katherine at first, she twisted that love and took away Stefan's free will. Her love was extremely damaging to Stefan. And like many abuse victims, Stefan felt shame and self loathing."

- This is a direct quote from an analysis video of Elena and Katherine, it's what first made me aware of what Katherine did and just how damaged she left Stefan.

The video (Elena and Katherine: Inverse Mirrors) is at the top of this chapter and for this excerpt please go to 6:37. And please keep watching after that time stamp as she keeps exploring just how damaged Katherine left Stefan afterwards.

(And the writers had the gall to actually have them sleep together again in S5)

What's worse about this is that no one realizes what happened. When it comes to male survivors, they're often not as acknowledged or thought about which is even more damaging to their psyche. In the case of Stefan, Katherine did exactly what Damon did to Andie where she compelled his fear away and thus took his choice and free will away.

The thing I've noticed is that this show never took this topic seriously. They throw it in as a moment of rescuing a girl (Vicki) or are completely unaware of it when it happens (Stefan). Or they actually go through it twice with the same abuser character who happens to be one of the three most important characters in the show (Caroline and Andie).

The assaulters are main characters that we're expected to root for and get redemption arcs whilst the survivors never talk about it again.

What I'm trying to say is they shouldn't have their mains do that unless they also plan on them facing their consequences for it.

Now, if either three of these characters are your favorite, or simply just one you liked or were okay with, that's okay. The beauty of fanfiction is getting to rewrite all of these incorrectly and ruined storylines that the TVD writers and Julie Plec decided to let happen.

I personally could never see Damon going as far as he did with Andie because everything we learn about him as a character from being raised by a huge abusive father and seeing his mother abused as well it seems out of character for him to have these actions so, I am officially declaring mischaracterization on Julie Plec's part when she added this. The same with Caroline. He and Caroline could've had the same type of relationship Katherine and Matt had in S2 where she simply compelled him for information and had no type of physical relationship.

The same goes with Tyler, whether he's drunk or not, he was raised under an abusive father but caring mother. I don't think he'd ever stoop that low.

And while a lot of love Katherine Pierce, I do think it was in character for her. Not to mention that her actions influence just how badly damaged Stefan was left and it's a huge part of his character and development. Unfortunately, I think it should remain.

I do not however think he and Katherine should've ever gotten together in S5. I think Katherine is one of those untouchable characters when it comes to this topic, where even if Stefan finally admits what happened to him, and he'll get comfort and sympathy from his brother and Elena, and Caroline too, it would be impossible to actually catch her and hold her accountable. Not to mention that in Katherine's mindset, she believes she did nothing wrong even when she's told otherwise. She keeps bringing it back that he's simply "in denial" when that is not the case. She's the one in denial. The fact that he's the one to end up stabbing her in S5 for a final death was perfect however. (and again at the end of S8)

If you do want to start writing about this topic for your TVDU book or any other book, remember to do copious amounts of research and remember that if you do plan on making an OC an abuser that they should not be a future character getting a redemption arc. Once they cross that line there is no going back.

Remember to not just start hating on these fictional characters, the actions of these characters are on the ones writing them. You can't blame a fictional character for their actions when there's someone behind the camera that's literally controlling everything and wanted this to happen.

"Julie Plec did not have to make Tyler ignore Vicki when she said no, or have Damon's dynamic with Caroline and Andie be sexual, or have Katherine take away Stefan's free will but they were and now we have to address that."

- thank you Kaci  for this quote

"It is better to not write an abuse plot, than to write a very badly done one that does not hold the abuser accountable and then later on depicts them as a redeemed character."

       - thank you Lou for this great addition to the chapter

Frankly, if any of this was happening today, there would've been a huge amount of backlash for these storylines, especially for how poorly they happened.

Remember to stay safe and I hope this chapter opened your eyes to these important topics.

I would like to give a huge thanks to Kaci for helping me write this, she contributed a lot to this chapter, gave great insight to these characters and their actions as well. Please go follow her, read her stories, they're written so carefully, cleverly and just well done overall. Thanks Kace!