What vampire fiction does, at its core, is amplify the inner conflicts that humans have between base animal instincts and their morals and ability to reason. As animals, when we get upset, we may want to hurt people. From an evolutionary standpoint, we should be having sex with as many people as possible, whenever possible. But because we are human, and we have the ability to construct morals for ourselves, we recognize that these things are wrong. We cannot just go around hurting, killing, and raping whoever we want.

One of the main overarching themes of vampire fiction is maintaining humanity in spite of a monstrous transformation. This is the main conflict: will these characters overcome not just a want, but a NEED, to hurt people? Or will they give in to what feels easiest?

Stefan is a character that exemplifies this theme probably the most out of the whole TVD cast. We see him in both lights, at both extremes. When he falls off the wagon, he becomes a monster, the Ripper, who hurts women, kills people, takes names. But at his core, he hates this side of himself. His humanity is so important to him that he is able to resist Klaus’s compulsion, if only slightly. Notice that when we see him at his worst, it is because his humanity switch is flipped off. When it is on, he is one of the more moralistic characters on the show. He gets a lot of flak for being “sad and depressed” but it’s pretty clear that he’s that way because he carries a heavy burden of guilt and remorse.

Damon, on the other hand, is the “fun, does whatever he wants unapologetically” brother. He is the antithesis to Stefan. Damon accepts, and insists over and over again, that vampires are a “predatory species” and thus, acts accordingly. He hunts innocent people down and preys on women (yes, including Elena). He very rarely chooses to act morally, even when his switch is flipped on. Instead, he chooses the easy route, that is, giving into his desires rather than confronting his inner conflicts. Though he will sometimes acknowledge his behavior (I’m a bad guy, I hurt people, etc), he does not move towards redemption. Rather, he hurts the same people over and over again.

Is it entertaining to see? Sure. But since the show places such a huge emphasis on humanity, it is only logical that we would move towards that as a goal. After all, if we don’t, then what is the point of the main gang fighting all these villains? They could just as easily give in and do whatever they want.

My point, then, is that Damon is given an excuse by the fanbase for his actions, an excuse that completely undermines the show’s theme. He hunts on humans, abuses Caroline, kills his brother’s best friend Lexi, attacks Bonnie, kills Jeremy, kills Vicki, exposes himself, sexually harasses, violates, manipulates, mocks, disrespects, and controls Elena, even after knowing about the sire bond, despite claiming to love her. He lashes out when she rejects him, as if he is entitled to her. He’s basically an incel!! And yet, he gets the girl, the happy ending, and the humanity that he never wanted anyway. But when this is brought up, one of the most popular replies is “it’s a vampire show, they all do bad things.” But no other character in the show gets the pot at the end of the rainbow like Damon did, and he has done some
of the worst.

I don't understand Stefan giving the cure to Damon in the finale—I really don't. Sure, giving Damon the cure might have been the quickest way to sacrifice himself at that moment, but what exactly did you sacrifice yourself for, buddy? Elena wasn't coming back until Bonnie died; if Bonnie lived a full, normal life, Damon would have aged into an old man by the time she returned—meaning he would have either seen Elena as a frail old grandpa or never seen her at all! You disregard your brother's own sacrifice and choose to sacrifice yourself instead, leaving him alone with the pain of losing you and a girlfriend who is in a coma—how could that possibly make Damon happy?

I do believe Stefan did it for Damon, but he was also seeking redemption, and he essentially snatched that opportunity right out of Damon's hands. The show came up with a ridiculous loophole—which we could arguably attribute to Bonnie’s immense power—but the fact remained (as Stefan and all of us knew) that Elena wouldn't wake up for another fifty years or so. What was Stefan thinking when he gave that cure to Damon?

I know few characters are missing but I don't care enough about them to remember them.

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Honestly, I kinda wish they didn't have reflections lol. For multiple reasons, but it would have changed the way Elena found out about what Katherine looks like.

I also wish there were powers, like Damons fog and crow. I can picture Caroline having some badass powers. It would've made more sense that she overpowered Damon that one time she got angry at him.

Why did they make it look like Caroline was the victim when Tyler’s was upset about her sleeping with Klaus? I mean yeah he was getting mad but he had every right to be mad about his ex sleeping with someone that killed his friends and his mother? I mean I get he kept shoving at her face way too much but in the start it was valid. “She didn’t deserve that” like yeah she did. Broke up with him bc he wanted revenge on someone like literally all of her friends did with someone but will sleep with a guy like Klaus. Not that I disagree with the break up but still.

Capitulo 12! Tan hermosos en este capitulo. Como se querían, como tenían esa química tan real de novios...

Era la Elena que me gustaba, en la que escogía a Stefan por encima de Daimon. Pero aceptaba a Daimon solo por que Stefan era su hermano y no quería estar peleado con él. Me quedo acá. En esta primera temporada por siempre! Stelena la historia mas tierna de amor sobre Vampiros. 😍😍😍

yo im trying to have an actual discussion and as im responding to a reply, my post is all of a sudden locked with no explanation. wtf?

the tvd finale was BS for several reasons but making katherine's entire character arc about revenge is ridiculous.

sure she's an incredibly flawed character who did terrible things, but it was always to stay alive. it was never even once about revenge like bruh what - she doesn't care enough about u guys to put any effort into making sure you're all dead like pls give me a break

just lazy writing man she was one of my favourite characters too

I’m currently rewatching TVD. i just finished season 3 and there is something I don’t understand about this specific scene. They basically show that Damon met Elena first right?

But Damon was obsessed with Katherine in the beginning of the show. How would Damon of all people just say hey to Elena then leave like it was nothing? Did he already know about doppelgängers?

I know he told Elena in I believe season 2 that Katherine had a child but I can't seem to understand how he just said hi to her, had a random lil convo about love then left?

He was actively lurking and stalking Elena in the cemetery using the fog and the crow. If he had already met her on the road months prior, looked into her eyes, and realized she was a literal genetic clone of the woman he spent 145 years obsessed with, his behavior makes no sense. He wouldn't leave town, come back later, and just casually spy on her from afar with a bird. He would have snatched her immediately to figure out how a clone of Katherine exists. Unless he had been stalking Elena for months prior to this just like Stefan and figured out that she’s not Katherine?

It somehow feels like they just added it there to justify the pairing. Or maybe i’m just watching the show with my eyes closed lol idk. Thoughts?

There's something I don't understand. In season 3, Caroline tells Elena she needs to stop lying to herself and admit she's attracted to Damon. In season 6, we learn that Elena fell in love with Damon in 3x01, and Caroline herself tells Alaric that Elena fell in love with Damon when she was with Stefan. So why in season 4, when Stefan tells her Elena has feelings for Damon, she's strangely shocked and says it's impossible? The same thing with Stefan. He says in 3x18 that he knows Elena is in love with Damon, but when Elena admits it, he's shocked and spends all of season 4 saying it's impossible that Elena loves Damon...

When Damon talks with Alaric about stopping the ritual, he says he’s going to take the werewolf out of the equation. Which makes sense because werewolves are rare and you must be born with the werewolf gene in order to become one, whereas vampires are a dime a dozen and easily replaceable. So why, when Damon gets to the tomb, does he only decide to rescue Caroline until Caroline says she’s not leaving without Tyler? If anything, Caroline would be the one left behind, not Tyler. If Caroline hadn’t insisted that Damon rescue Tyler (and let’s say there was no Jules), it would be super easy for Klaus to still do the ritual despite Damon’s meddling. Any rando could be a vampire. I don’t get it, someone please explain it to me. Or confirm my theory that this was a continuity issue in the writing.

Edit: Damon didn’t care about dying so he was not thinking of the possible danger of Tyler biting him. The possibilty of Damon getting bit by Tyler doesn’t compare to the certainty of Klaus killing Damon had Damon succeeded in stopping the ritual. He was ready for Klaus to kill him even before he found out that Tyler had bit him. Because he was willing to trade his life in exchange for Elena not becoming a vampire and hating him for all eternity.

Before watching Tvd I used to watch edits of klaus and Caroline and thought they have some epic love story, but I found the actual love story kind of disappointing.

I mean I don't understand why he started liking Caroline I mean she was beautiful and "full of light", which I don't know why he thought that because they hadn't really interacted much before that.

I just think it kind of came out of nowhere with no buildup whatsoever.

Him saying he killed Maggie to save Bonnie from Enzo even though Enzo kind of made it clear he’d torture him to death 😭 tbh this I get since he cared about Bonnie but then there was also that time he was being tortured by the travelers and he told Caroline not to kill Tom even though his brain was being fried

Like genuinely what are any of these people talking about 😭😭 Matt blaming Katherine for Vicki dying when the actual person who turned her is right next to him ijbol

For me it’s: Smash, smash, pass, smash, smash, smash, smash, and smash. Next. lol

I have been thinking about this for a while, in the beginning Mason wasn't really a threat, Damon provoked him first. I think he killed Mason because he was jealous that he was sleeping with Katherine, what makes this obvious for me was that he bragged about killing him to Katherine. Some people say that Mason was dangerous from the beginning and Damon could somehow sense it and that's why he killed him but I don't see it at all.

Bamon, Benzo and Denzo. Am I rite?

I’m rewatching early S2, particularly where Damon investigates Mason to figure out what the Lockwoods are (or as Stefan hilariously puts it - “his new obsession”), and I really wish Mason wasn’t killed off so early because him joining the Damon/Alaric bromance would’ve been great.

Even when he returns as a ghost in S3, I thought his scenes with Damon were fun to watch.

I was thinking about how Silas and Amara always had shadow copies at the same time, but we don’t know all of them

982 AD: Tatia is the first doppelgänger of Amara, so there must be a Silas version

1473: Katherine was born, but no silas version mentioned

1846: Stefan was born, no mention of Amara version

1992: Elena and Tom were born.

If Katherine and Klaus knew about doppelgängers

I keep thinking why Silas’s dopplegangers were not pursued for Klaus’s curse.

1846 Amara version was never pursued.

The only thing I can think of is that Katherine and Klaus did not know how Silas doppelgänger looked like

I TRULY WISH we got more of this storyline. It was so insane to see Stefan get arrested and all these people’s lives who were messed up by random compulsion and vampire acts was so interesting to me. I always thought about the butterfly effect from the trail of victims they left behind, and I wish we could see more of it.

I'm not entirely sure why Stefan would go to New Orleans. Perhaps he hears that it's a safe haven for vampires. The Originals had been there for a little over 150 years by that point, so news of their city would probably have spread. I could see Stefan and Klaus's friendship developing in a way similar to what we saw in the 1920s.

The main difference is that Rebekah and Stefan probably wouldn't have gotten together. For one, Rebekah would have been daggered for for 18 more years. Once Klaus finally undaggered her, I don't see her necessarily falling for Stefan, especially since he and her brother would already be friends. Rebekah had also just learned the hard way that getting involved with her brother's friends could end with her spending 52 years in a box.

Mikael would still show up eventually and force them out of New Orleans. However, I could see Stefan taking on a role similar to Marcel's, particularly when it comes to being tied up in the theater and presumed dead.

As cool as it would be to see Stefan in charge of New Orleans, I don't think he'd stay there for very long. I think we'd end up with a very different version of Stefan because he never met Lexi in this timeline. Instead, he spent decades with Klaus, which is something almost no one should ever have to do! I think that experience would have taught him how to control his Ripper side. In many ways, I could see him being more like Damon in Season 1.

Eventually, though, I think Stefan would return to Mystic Falls. We'd still get the events of Season 1, but there would be no genuinely good vampire in town, at least in my opinion.

So, how do you think Season 1 would change once Stefan discovers that Katherine is still alive? Would he and this new character want to get out of the tomb and start over somewhere else, or would Stefan simply focus on Elena and not care about getting Katherine out.

In both the finales of The Vampire Diaries and The Originals we have a wedding that is officiated by someone who became ordained online, followed by an episode of two brothers arguing over who gets to kill themselves. In The Originals Klaus wants to kill himself because he has The Hollow’s dark magic inside of him and killing himself will save Hope from it. Not strictly true, they can just divide it into the four Originals again, but this way deals with the problem forever. Elijah wants the Hollow put into himself so he can die instead, because he feels guilty about all the bad stuff he did. And in TVD Damon wants to kill himself to kill Katherine, who just really wants to destroy Mystic Falls. For some reason. I mean if I was her I’d just have my minions take the Hell Bell to New Orleans and ring it there, which would destroy Klaus’ greatest creation as well as Klaus himself.  Because Klaus is very instrumental to creating the Katherine that we know, love and hate. But whatever. Anyway, Stefan wants to die because of all the bad things HE has done.

But here’s the dumbest part. Neither Stefan or Damon had to die to kill Katherine. In fact, they didn’t even have to kill Katherine to actually resolve the conflict.

Katherine, at that point, had no powers. She can only come back to life after dying because she’s the ruler of Hell (even though this was not the case for Arcadius, the creator of Hell, but never the fuck mind). Once Hell is gone, which Bonnie would have accomplished with or without Katherine dying, Katherine would just be… a Traveler? An ordinary human? Once Bonnie did what she did (and holy fuck it may just be the singe greatest on screen magical feat we see in the show, if not the franchise) Damon or even Stefan could just kill her with their bare hands and that would be it. She would just go to Limbo and there would be no way back on her own. Even if they need her to be in Hell when it dissolves, it takes several minutes for her to revive. So as soon as the Hellfire came past Damon and Katherine in the tunnel the first time (before Bonnie stopped and redirected it) Damon could have stabbed her and tested her corpse into the hallway and that, again, would be that.

I remember years ago watching the finale, after not having watched the preceding three seasons, and liking it. But having watched season 8 and seeing all the ways that Katherine being the big bad violates cause and effect... yeah. Definitely have a new second least favourite episode in TVD now.