Favorites - 18 Favorite Characters from the Vampire Diaries Universe

Well, it’s finally time to end my time with this franchise. I mean to post this a while ago, but I've been kinda busy. Life does that sometimes. I gotta say that it’s been fun visiting these shows. I didn’t think I would’ve found these shows cool, but here we are. I got my wife to thank for that. She can be good with choosing some shows at times. This made for a fun binging.

While I wouldn’t throw any of the Vampire Diaries shows on my “Greatest TV Shows Ever” list, they were decent shows for the most part. They hit great highs and fell into some pretty bad lows. Their respective areas were pretty interesting, and the characters made these shows work even when the writing failed. Each show tried to do something unique. Of the three, I’d say that The Originals was my favorite of the bunch. The Mikaelsons made for some fun characters, and the conflicts between the supernatural factions in New Orleans were good television.  

I really couldn't keep the count low for my favorite characters, so 18 should do it. It’s not a ranked list, but I will have the best ones up first. I had to include all three shows with this. I know some don’t like Legacies, but that was where it really started for me. I got some main characters and even some side characters that I really liked from all three shows.

The Pros and Cons of... The Vampire Diaries

Well, this took longer than usual. When you have kids, some of the more violent stuff has to be put away for a bit. This kind of happened with The Vampire Diaries. I guess Andy wasn’t the only one who doesn’t like Rippers! So, where do I start with this show especially since I watched its spinoffs first? I guess the beginning’s a good point.

The Vampire Diaries was a supernatural soap opera that aired on the CW from 2009 to 2017. Twilight was in its hey-day at this point, so the CW decided to throw their hat in by adapting this young adult series. When it was airing, I only watched one episode, and that was because either Supernatural or some other show came on beforehand. It really wasn’t until last year where we had an inkling of watching the show in full. Besides, we had to see how it all began. We took a break around the third season because of Andy.  We didn’t get back on the Mystic Falls train until this year. We just finished the show recently.

So, the show takes place in the fictional town of Mystic Falls, Virginia. It mainly revolves around a young girl named Elena Gilbert (Nina Dobrev) as she falls for a handsome, generous 160-year-old vampire by the name of Stefan Salvatore (Paul Wesley). Of course, things start to go down into the depths of Hell as Damon Salvatore (Ian Somerhalder), Stefan’s older brother, comes into town. Not only does Damon notice something familiar about Elena, he also has a massive bone to pick with Stefan. Eventually, we find out why Damon hates Stefan as well as why Elena has a stark resemblance to Katerina Patrova, another woman Stefan and Damon loved back in 1866. Of course, a lot of other stuff happens like death, more vampires, witches, werewolves, Klaus mother-loving Mikaelson, doppelgangers, prison worlds, vampire-like witches, bad writing, broken necks, and the Devil… kinda.

Random Thoughts On... Similarities Between the Star Trek and Alien Movie Franchises

hen I was re-watching the Alien films, I was reminded of Star Trek a lot more than usual. Yeah, they both take place in the future and in outer space, but they are light years different. Trek’s an optimistic future where humanity’s got their crap together. The Alien franchise is so dour with corporations and the military doing really shady stuff. In fact, it's kinda today! Anyway, this one thought led me down a bit of a rabbit hole, and I ended up finding more similarities between the two franchises. Now, I’m mainly talking about the Trek movies from that time, not the many series. So, excuse me as I go down this weird rabbit hole I’ve created for myself. 

Star Trek: The Motion Picture/Alien

 

While there aren’t too many similarities, they are there:  

• The Plot - both plots are kinda similar. Both movies involved their respective crews going up against unknown life forms that endanger them and others. Of course, you can’t compare a simple Xenomorph to the behemoth of a ship called V’Ger, but they were threats that the crews of the Enterprise and Nostromo had to deal with.One Enterprise member gets taken over by V’Ger while John Hurt’s character (I can’t remember his name) becomes the Alien franchise’s first Xenomorph host. 
• The Effects - One of the things I really noticed about both films is how they were both influenced by 2001: A Space Odyssey. Both movies take measures showing how big and vast these ships and space is. They try to show off the coolness and relatability of this tech. They also kind of linger on these effects a little too much. Alien doesn’t do it as much as TMP did. It’s one of the reasons TMP is considered to be a bad movie. 
• The Composer - Jerry Goldsmith composed both films and did a tremendous job on both. I’d say that TMP’s score is more memorable for me since I basically grew up on the TOS movies, but the Alien score is pretty solid. 

This is Halloween 4! - The Alien Prequels and Spinoffs

Next up, I wanted to talk about the other movies from the Alien franchise like the prequels and the crossovers. I know the crossovers may not line up with the main Alien movies (especially after Prometheus…), but they still gotta be talked about. I’d probably even talk about Alien: Isolation, but I still can’t finish that game. Yes, there are Alien games out there and they vary from good to quite horrid. I might as well do this in the order they were released.

This Is Halloween 4! - The Original Alien Movies

Well, if you were wondering what franchise I was talking about last time, this would be the one. The Alien franchise added a new layer to horror and scifi. It also started the career of the awesome Sigourney Weaver. Unfortunately, it’s one that I’m not an uber-fan of. Over the years, I saw the four movies either on TV or at someone else's house and not all the way either. My folks weren’t renting this for us. I somehow ended up watching Aliens at the young age of 7 at my uncle’s house for some holiday, but I didn’t finish it. I guess they thought I couldn’t take too much Alien-ess. It was kinda like that for Alien 3, but I caught the ending instead of the beginning.

Since Alien: Romulus has come out, I thought I’d watch all the movies in full. I’m waiting for streaming to see Romulus, but my sister thought it was good. For this part, I’m only looking at the original four movies featuring our heroine, Ellen Ripley. I’m saving the prequels and spin-offs (yeah, I’m touching on the AVP movies too) for another post.