Today, we spent the day on set for The Originals, where Executive Producer Julie Plec gave us some time to talk about the show as well as the series that spawned it, The Vampire Diaries, and within the discussion, the topic of last Thursday’s “Delena Rain Kiss” from TVD came up.
The faux-flashback kiss between Damon Salvatore (Ian Somerhalder) and Elena Gilbert (Nina Dobrev) made certain fans very happy, and Plec talked to us a bit about the reaction – starting with pointing out that it wasn’t necessarily “fan service.”
“For every naysayer that is like ‘oh, fan service, blah blah blah,’ there’s fan service when you tell stories as though the fans think it’s a Choose Your Own Adventure, and that’s not what we do,” Plec assured. “Then there’s the fan service when you have a group of people who, for five years, have been begging for one little thing, and you find the perfect way to give it to them. That’s called honoring your fans, and I believe that so strongly. So, this is born out of when Stefan got kidnapped in Season 1 and Damon and Elena, who heretofore hadn’t worked together much, had to go and rescue Stefan from the vampire house, from Frederick, and it was raining, and they’re standing there, talking to each other about rescuing Stefan. It’s one of those canon moments where people started really connecting with Damon and Elena as a potential couple – they really always called out that moment as ‘one day they’ll be in the rain and they’ll kiss’,” Julie explained, telling us that the “Delena Rain Kiss” is something that started on Twitter and grew over the years.
Thursday night’s episode “Do You Remember The First Time?” gave them a perfect opportunity to finally give the fans the kiss they’d been waiting for. “Here we were in this season when Damon was trying to win Elena back, saying ‘we loved each other,’ and her saying ‘tell me a memory that mattered to you. I want to remember something,’ and we were writing the story, and we were thinking ‘so what could that memory be?’ We’ve always wanted to say ‘what was that summer that we skipped between Season 4 and 5, where they had the summer of their lives? What was that? What did they do? There’s got to be something awesome that they did’,” Plec explained. A meteor shower and a waterfall were both ideas that were pitched in the Vampire Diaries writers’ room, before the notion of ‘what if they kissed in the rain?’ came up.
The TVD team was aware that some fans were not going to be happy, but the people who follow the Damon & Elena romance – “Delena” – would be very happy. “But really, the story was ‘what is this memory they shared’?” Plec described. “It was going to be something beautiful and epic, and so the rain was a way of us saying to this group of fans who have been begging five years for this one thing… basically, there’s something about two people coming together in the rain, that’s like the ultimate expression of love in the minds of most audiences, I guess.”
The Vampire Diaries airs new episodes Thursdays at 8PM on The CW.
9 Comments
So amazing! Loved that moment. Iconic.
OMG haha is that stupid woman for reals! not fanservice okey then! TVD is nothing but a big ass fanservice to one set of fans the delena fans and consequently it has turn tvd into the dullena diaries! Not fanservice my ass
Julie Plec needs to stop talking. And writing. What a useless woman! Bring back Kevin Williamson please. The show was epic when he was involved. Julie and Caroline have completely ruined it by making every single storyline about DULLENA. How many times can they say they’re bad for each other and break up? I think I’ve counted 10 times by now. No wonder the ratings are terrible.
it’s really sad when twitter starts writing scenes. TVD used to be great.
Translation: we’re not giving the fans what they want because we have no choice; it’s our conscious decision to let this group of amateurs write the show for us (it is fading fast and we need to find a way to stop the network from hiring better writers).
It’s been years since the show had any substance, though, so maybe fan service is their only way to sustain their remaining fan base.
Julie Plec in a nutshell. This woman makes me sick. Not only does she say it’s not fan-service, but then she goes on to say that it IS. *rolls eyes* And to think she actually chose to have this scene take place in between season 4 and 5…when Stefan was locked in a safe, drowning over and over again for MONTHS while Julie’s Dullena had “the summer of their lives”. That’s just disgusting, Plec. I’m so glad I stopped watching this show, the fan-service and the destroying of Steroline’s relationship have left me with nothing bit a bitter taste in my mouth that won’t leave. Thanks alot, Plec and Dries, you have officially helped make me and so many other fans hate this show now.
That was such a beautiful moment , thank you julie , I adore you
Is she for real? She’s full of BS, that was blatant fan service. Miss Plec, get out of Twitter for a day and you’ll see what people really think about the state of your show now. All the mindless butt kissing Delena fans do you is clouding your judgement. Everyone and their mothers can’t stand even a Delena mention anymore, and last week’s series low ratings should be enough proof of that for you.
I thoght this season would be different because I was really excited about Damon and Bonnie stuck together, but it’s all back to season 5 levels of sucking again. Damon and Elena argue, Damon and Elena kiss, Elena keeps being a royal lame jerk, Elena goes even lower for Damon, serial murderer and rapist, wash, rinse, repeat. Enough! Not to mention that you keep slapping Stefan and Elena’s reationship and their fans in their faces. Stefan is now a Delena cheerleader, ad to top it off you’re ruining his friendship with Caroline just for another lame hookup. This horrible attempt of having Stefan and Caroline in a romantic relationship is already annoying me as the cliché, twisted, boring, offensive Delena scenes do. Wake up!
“there’s something about two people coming together in the rain, that’s like the ultimate expression of love in the minds of most audiences, I guess.”
Except that you put Damon and Elena into it, which ruined it for a lot of people. Especially when we knew that a Twitter campaign was the main reason it happened, no matter how you try to spin it. And honoring fans, really? You have a lot of couple fan bases and you have been repeteadly “honoring” just one of them, how do you think that makes fans of other couples feel? It’s just rude and actually hilarious because the couple you cater to the most is actually one of the main reasons your show is less and less watched, not mention that Delena is now a big sick joke for anyone with a brain that still watches this show.
It was such a epic scene, we honoring you too
I really can’t understand people who spending so many hateful comments just for one little scene which was totally beautiful too , all of these bad comments is awful , get over yourself guys