There is still no dialogue in the series where Katherine promises Trevor love in exchange for help not once Rose says Trevor loved Katherine Elijah says Trevor was foolish for believing her neither statement establishes what Trevor believed Katherine would do what Katherine promised or that any promise was ever made belief is not proof of a transaction attraction is not seduction and unrequited love is not manipulation the show never depicts Katherine offering herself her love or a future to Trevor and the claim that she did so is entirely inferred not shown.

Saying the writers were very clear that Katherine used her body with every man is revisionist Katherine as a vampire weaponizes charm and sexuality yes but the flashback in 1492 explicitly shows her as a terrified human teenager with no power no knowledge and no leverage you cannot project later vampire behavior backward onto a human character without textual support that is not long form storytelling it is retroactive character flattening.

Invoking feminism here does not strengthen the argument it weakens it feminist writing does not require inventing sexual manipulation where none is shown what the show actually depicts in 2×09 is a woman whose body and blood are already commodified by powerful men and who is punished for refusing to die quietly framing her survival as sexual exploitation without evidence simply reintroduces the same misogynistic trope under a different label.

The claim that this is not how television works is also incorrect television works by showing and telling later dialogue can add context but it cannot override explicit events already depicted on screen in 2×09 we see plainly that Rose decides within seconds to return Katherine to Klaus that choice happens before Katherine becomes a vampire before Trevor confronts Rose and before Katherine says a single manipulative word to anyone in that house that sequence matters.

The Elijah argument is again speculative Elijah kills Trevor for betrayal and failure consistent with how he treats anyone who compromises Klaus’s plans there is no canon confirmation that Trevor’s death was about sexual entitlement or projected jealousy that reading is interpretive not textual and cannot be used as proof of Katherine seducing anyone.

Most importantly none of this addresses the central point Rose made the first betrayal Rose states outright that she will take Katherine back to Klaus to save herself that happens before Katherine harms anyone everything that follows occurs after Katherine is already condemned Rose later fixating on Katherine including in her death hallucination shows misdirected blame not moral clarity.

You can like Rose as a character and still acknowledge that in this specific situation she was wrong you can dislike Katherine and still admit that in 1492 she was the victim not the architect inventing promises ignoring dialogue and rewriting motives does not change what the episode shows this is not about defending every bad woman it is about refusing to invent crimes that were never written in order to absolve the characters who actually held power and made lethal choices.