'The Vampire Diaries'

 

Credit: The CW

It's been a full 4 hours since I last live-blogged something.

I'm getting withdrawal twitches. 

With that in mind... "Vampire Diaries" time!

3:30 p.m. I've got a fresh computer battery and I'm ready to go as, Ballroom 20 reloads after the departure of hundreds of Seth MacFarlane fans.

3:38 p.m. Wait a second. Was that a clip from Season 3, featuring Elena walking in on a naked Damon? I believe it was.

3:39 p.m. Time for our panelists, starting with Joseph Morgan (muted applause), Nina Dobrev (more applause), Julie Plec, Ian Somehalder (very loud applause, prolonged shrieks), Kevin Williamson, Birthday Boy Paul Wesley (probably quieter applause) and finally Candice Accola.

3:40 p.m. Whose death was most surprising and whose death hit the hardest? "On a personal level, watching Kayla Ewell go," Accola says. "I feel like every character on the show has died at one point or another," Wesley says.  Wesley goes with Rose's death. "I would say Kayla... And Aunt Jenna was very hard for me," Williamson says. Somerhalder also goes with Kayla Ewell. "I still get hate mail for killing Mason Lockwood," Plec says. And Dobrev also goes with Ewell and Sara Canning. Morgan also votes for Sara Canning.

3:44 p.m. Plec and Williamson said we haven't seen the lost of Elijah. 

3:44 p.m. Jeremy appears to be haunted? "Yeah, two super-hot chicks. It could be worse," Somerhalder says. 

3:46 p.m. What's happening with Damon's emotional state with Stefan suddenly becoming what Damon always wanted him to be, just with a bad guy. "It's one of those reluctant hero stories, but it's told of a man who takes one step forward and three steps back at every moment," Williamson says, before saying that Damon's best intentions keep exploding in his face.

3:47 p.m. We're trying to sing "Happy Birthday" to Paul Wesley. "I'm blushing," Wesley says, admitting that he doesn't like attention. "You shouldn't have become an actor, Paul," cracks Somerhalder. Wesley is looking forward to exploring the "Ripper" side to Stefan. 

3:50 p.m. Which is more fun for Nina, Elena or Katherine? "I get the best of both worlds. I get to be the bad girl and I get to be the good girl. I get to do flashbacks and bite people. I get to do scenes with this one and that one and they're both so much fun," Dobrev says. She adds, "It will kill me one day, because it's a lot of work." How does she shift between them? Somerhalder interjects, "She becomes a raging bitch one day and..." and Nina agrees, "I can get away with a lot more when I'm Katherine on set."

3:52 p.m. The stars like to pitch episodes set in Hawaii, The Caribbean and Paris. "You need a break sometimes and when you live as we all did or do in Southern California, you don't typically get seasons. And in Atlanta when it says 'Night - Exterior,' Kevin and Julie, in February... it kicks your butt," Somerhalder explains.

3:53 p.m. Accola says that her recent transformation has been "very cool." "It's very cool to do stunts and it's very cool to play a strong young female," Accola says. And what's in store for Caroline and Tyler? "Puppies?" Somerhalder interjects.

3:55 p.m. Wesley warns Somerhalder about the placard mentioning that people under 18 are in the audience.

3:55 p.m. If they could play any other character who would it be? "I'd like to play Damon, because of all the attention he's getting," Morgan says. "I would like to be Klaus... The biggest, baddest vampire of all time? Before you came around, that's what Katherine was," Nina says. "A hybrid," Morgan interrupts. In unison, Somerhalder and Wesley agree they'd also like to be Klaus. "I just wanna be Klaus with a really bad accent... 'Ripper,'" Wesley says. "A bad version of his accent," Somerhalder clarifies. "I like being Caroline," Accola giggles. Plec says she'd want to be Elijah.  

3:59 p.m. Will Damon and Elena date? That was the first audience question. Plec points out that Katherine said at the end of last season that it's OK to love both Damon and Stefan and Plec aggress, saying, "Katherine seems to know more about what it's like to care for both Salvatore brothers than anyone else thus far, so she's not saying it for no reason."

4:01 p.m. Can the actors tell the difference between when Dobrev is playing Katherine or Elena. "It's this weird little twinkle in her eye. She gets slightly sadistic. Whereas with Elena, she's pure," Somerhalder says. "Usually the attire will give it away," adds Wesley, who compares Katherine's brand of walking to "swimming through Jello."

4:03 p.m. With Stefan turned evil, will Elena just run into Damon's arms? "I don't think she's going to run straight into his arms," Williamson says. "She might zig-zag first," Somerhalder adds. Williamson chips in, "There are too many things in the way for them to just run into each other's arms."

4:04 p.m. "I'm just feeling naked without my name sign," Wesley says. "Here. Take a better one," Somerhalder says, passing his name sign over to Wesley.

4:05 p.m. A Brazilian fan tells the stars how much Brazil loves them.

4:06 p.m. Nina's asked to choose between Stefan and Damon. "Half of this room will get so mad at me if I say one," Dobrev says. "The beauty of this situation is that I don't have to choose. Katherine had it right," Dobrev says. Somerhalder adds, "Sharing is caring." There's then a reference to a Salvatore Sandwich. Hmmm...

4:07 p.m. Now for Nina, who can she relate to more - Elena or Katherine? Dobrev started off more as an Elena, but she's becoming more of a Katherine as she gets older.

4:09 p.m. Dream guest stars? "Fabio," Somerhalder says. "He auditioned for Damon," Wesley says. "I know who Kevin would want... Taylor Swift," Dobrev reveals, also adding that Justin Bieber wanted to be on "Vampire Diaries." "Stunt casting is not something I think we excel at and I don't think it's necessary," Williamson disagrees.

4:10 p.m. The last question is for Ian and kinda for Paul. If they could change anything about their characters, what would it be? "Thanks, you just put me in a loaded situation," says Somerhalder, sitting between the series creators. "I wouldn't change a damn thing about Damon Salvatore. With all these characters, they've just created these super-dynamic, very complex individuals," Somerhalder says. Somerhalder says he likes "the push and the pull," saying it's "the alcoholic in the bar, how difficult that person has to fight those urges." 

4:13 p.m. Is Ian Team Damon or Team Stefan? "Me? I'm actually a little Team Stefan," he says, pulling out a Team Stefan shirt. And is Paul Team Damon or Team Stefan? "He does the sexy raptor dance with his shirt off," Wesley says, pulling out a Team Damon shirt. And Nina? "We already went through this..." She pulls out a Team Katherine shirt. Candice has a Team Tyler shirt. And Morgan has a Team Klaus shirt. What about Jule and Kevin? "We should probably not choose. We'd start a little war between our children," Plec says, pulling out a shirt with the names of almost all of their characters. "All of these teams together make up this kick-ass family that we call 'Vampire Diaries,'" Somerhalder says.

And that's all, folks...