Food For Thought

I know, I know. The Vampire Diaries is only a TV show and I shouldn't get too caught up in it. But seriously, it's given me something to think about.

Most people, including myself, focus on the romantic aspect of the show, either shipping for Elena and Stefan or for Elena and Damon (Yay!). But in reality, there's another relationship that most people neglect or don't pay much attention to, and that's the sibling bond between Stefan and Damon.

Maybe having an older brother myself and being close to him is why I can sort of relate to that aspect. As executive producer Julie Plec said, the real love story is the love between the two brothers. Both of them were torn apart by a woman they both fell in love with, as well as many misunderstandings between them. But even after all that, even after 146 years of Damon hating Stefan, in the end, they both love each other so much because in the end, they only have each other, aptly put by Damon in the episode '1912': 'You're all I've got now.'

Lovers may fight and quarrel and separate. Friends may drift apart. But that bond between two siblings, no matter how many fights you get into, no matter how much you can hate your sibling in that heated moment of anger, in the end you still love them so much because one day, after your parents are gone, after your relatives are gone, all you really have are just your sibling (s). No matter how angry or pissed off you are at them, in the end you forgive them and love them even more for their flaws because you know, without them, you wouldn't be whole; you wouldn't be who you are.

I've always had the urge to protect my brother, even though he's older than I am. Maybe it's because he's just so pure and innocent sometimes, that I don't want the world to taint or mar him in anyway. I consider myself the 'bad' sibling, the one who isn't all that innocent, and that to me, nothing that happens to me is in anyway, at all important compared to anything that happens to him.

I've been fortunate in that I've been very close with my brother, seeing as he's the only sibling I have. We like the same things, the same games, the same movies and we sometimes act so alike we could be twins. We don't need words to communicate sometimes, I can tell what he's going to do even before he moves, and he'll know what I'm thinking even before I speak. He has his flaws though, of course. He can be so stubborn and arrogant and short tempered sometimes, and I always get mad at him when that happens. But damn, he has that way of making you NOT mad at him after he yelled at you. And I just don't have the heart to yell back at him.

Having siblings isn't all that perfect; you fight, you yell, you don't speak to each other and sometimes you say things you don't mean. But at the end of the day, you always forgive each other, knowing that they're going to be the only family you might have left in the future. I would give my life for my brother, I would bring him back from the edge of anything just to see him all right. And no matter how much I get mad at him, I still love him, because he's my brother.

So in a way, I must thank Damon and Stefan for making me realise what I already knew a long time ago. It was already there; I just couldn't see it yet.