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Thank you for saying this because I felt like such a bad Steroline fan for mentioning it. 
Yes exactly to what you said. Since episode 7 when Stefan found out about Caroline's feelings...up to episode 14, I feel like you do about how Stefan was showing more romantic feelings - the looks, the touches, devoting himself to her...I really thought a kiss was going to happen in that moment in the woods in ep 13 too. I felt Stefan was getting bolder (phone in pocket  ) and opening himself up to love again. I really feel that his question to Caroline in ep 7 about why she had a thing for him was more about his insecurities of having lost Elena to Damon and that struggle. That's when I felt like the conversation at the end of episode 15 should have happened soon after that episode. So when Stefan initiated the kiss in ep 14, I felt he had finally embraced his romantic feelings for her. And then episode 15 happened and he was so uncertain that he was wiling to accept Damon's advice to stop it. And it took listening to Damon's eulogy about how amazing Caroline was (which out of everyone Stefan as her best friend should already know  ) to make the decision that pursuing something more with Caroline was worth it. I'm glad also we got clarity of Stefan's feelings but that episode has been an obstacle for me with the writing of his feelings. Then in the next episode Stefan tells Caroline that the reason why he didn't tell her in ep 15 was because he was afraid of the feelings he had for her and had to push them away.  And then three episodes later we have a ep 13 flashback where the only issue Stefan had with starting a relationship with Caroline was the timing and that he would be patient for the perfect timing. I get that the writers are using Stefan's feelings to suit their means for the SL in each episode but I just feel they have been manipulating the flow of his feelings over the season to do it and it just bugs me. It bugs me that he didn't bring up his relationship with Elena until it suited the SL in ep 15. Or in ep 16 when he was pushing those feelings away because he obviously wasn't in the prior episodes.
Tho I do think the flashback makes sense as part of the flow up to that point in ep 13. I agree with you about how it ties in to Liz's statement to Caroline in ep 14. I think the writers are bringing the point up of Stefan's feelings because it's going to play a role in the upcoming episodes regarding Steroline's feelings for each other. It reinforces that Stefan wants to pursue a relationship with her and has those feelings for her. That part wasn't necessary because Caroline could have turned her humanity back on based on the letter in the flashback alone. But episodes 15/16 will always bug me because of how the writers wrote Stefan's feelings mainly to suit the SL in those particular episode than what they were telling us in all the previous episodes.
Happier thought: I'm loving that Liz has been consistently giving her blessing to a romantic relationship for SC because I think that means good things coming up for us.  |
The more I think about it the more I'm seeing it as a retcon
But it's not like he came out and confessed his love and he just said if something happens it should be under better circumstances. He couldn't use his friend line that he did with Damon since it would have been impolite
So I'll assume that he was still uncertain at the time and only accepting that something could happen with Caroline so it won't seem like a retcon. Also if he was certain in the flashback it contradicts the way I see the SC story. Unlike you I didn't think that he had embraced his feelings with the kiss. Since 5x18 when Stefan said you can't be friends and in love at the same time my first thought was that was put there for SC. It explains his obliviousness upto 6x07 and then confusion with finding out Caroline's feelings. I agree about the insecurity from Stefan but I also think the bigger issue was the friendship aspect. And this is proven since he kept on using that excuse everytime the subject came up. Then I think he had moments where he felt more than friendship such as Thanksgiving but because of his friendship theory and also fear he kept on pushing it away as he said in 6x16 so basically he was in denial for a while. I don't think he was talking about pushing it away only in 6x15 since he even spoke about not knowing when things changed. His speech in 6x16 seemed to be about his feelings in general. And then post kiss the confusion was because it was a different feeling to what he experienced before. Can I blame the doppleganger spell for this?
Tbh these ideas of different kinds of love, being in denial and having moments of realisations are difficult to believe but this is fiction so I'll suspend my disbelief. So I think he was stopping it not because it wasn't worth pursuing but because it was too risky to lose a friendship and jump into something he couldn't fully understand. When Damon gave his advice you could see he wasn't very happy about it like he wanted to disagree. 6x15 was just not a good episode and really silly the way he came to his realisation but they wanted to make it as dramatic as possible. 6x16 annoyed me because of this blame of Stefan not giving Caroline the right answer and then her saying that made him a jerk. Wouldn't it have made more sense to blame him for kissing her without being sure it's what he really wanted? Anyway that's how I'm gonna look at it until the writers find a way to contradict me in a future episode
And I agree that they've manipulated the flow of his feelings because they dragged it out for so long and now they're suddenly giving us a whole lot of stuff as if they're trying to make up for his lack of POV for most of the first half of the season.
I'm so happy we got Liz's blessing
