I expected to have something to say about Rose (it IS Lauren Cohan playing her!), but I just find her character devoid of any of the charm the actress showed as Bela Talbot, or even what little I saw of Maggie in The Walking Dead. maybe it's the hair. maybe it's that I know she's going to become a mouthpiece for DE and Damon. who knows. she's just not working for me rn.

I find it so annoying how in the vampire diaries fandom people constantly hate on Damon and love Stefan and Klaus despite doing the same things. Klaus is worse than both of them since he's done more awful things and has felt less remorse for his actions. I side eye when people claim Klaroline is healthier than Delena when Klaus made Tyler bite Caroline and right after he acted like he was saving her cause he fancied her. He also tried to sleep with Caroline while pretending to be Tyler. Damon gets shit on for the way he treated Caroline, which I get but he didn't abuse Caroline to the extent that hypocritical SE stans claim. After he compelled Caroline to let him feed on her there was no intimate scenes shown between them afterwards. They ended quickly after he compelled her to be okay with him feeding. Stefan was shown to feed on girls he compelled in a flashback where they were half dressed and making sounds that were explicit than other feeding moments in the show, but this hypocritical fandom doesn't think that suggests anything but they think the scene with Damon suggests something more horrid. Also what we found out about Stefan and his diary early season 3 isn't considered as implying something of that nature by Damon antis. Damon was the one who helped the girls get away from Stefan in the flashback and Stefan even told Elena that he was worse than Damon's present self.

I always look at intent and consideration. What are they trying to accomplish and is there a better way. I toss impulsivity out the window because I could tell you stories lol. I understand Damon. He has a lot of parallels that offer an even better understanding. His biggest problem sits in 4x23.

Damon can't let go and move on as Lexi tells Stefan to do with Elena because Damon believes Katherine is desiccating in the tomb. Letting go and moving on requires he find the tomb empty, and Stefan tries to deny him access. I'm talking about the same brother that was able to let go and move on because his love for Katherine turned to hate in his denial. Stefan was the only brother to "live" after they became vampires, one human life after another because he spent the past 145 years doing just that: denying. Damon merely existed because he suffered in his truth. It was real for him. If Stefan didn't want Damon to rescue Katherine, then he might as well have killed his brother in 1x13. Stefan forced Damon to become a vampire, and to live in a world without Katherine after Damon explicitly told him there is no world without her. And after forcing Damon to turn, he threw her death in his face... that's why Damon left him with Lexi. He killed Coach Tanner for the same reason. Her death thrown in his face - again.

Neither one knew about Katherine's plan to fake her death, so in Damon's mind... Stefan doomed him to an eternity of misery. He doomed Damon to an eternity by forcing him to become a vampire, and doomed him to the misery of that eternity knowing Katherine was to desiccate for 145 years. According to Stefan's knowledge, to the misery of that eternity knowing Katherine died in the church fire.

Damon's journal entry to Elena in her coffin... that's Katherine in the tomb. Damon's words after their dance in 6x22... that's him and Katherine. What would Damon be had Katherine actually given a damn.... happy. What does Stefan say when Damon goes to the prison world... Damon was "finally" happy.

Damon suffered without Katherine for 145 years, so Stefan had to suffer with him. Misery loves company. Who the hell wants to suffer alone? Elena being the border lurker in season 6 is every bit Damon, but she's quick to fix herself with Alaric's compulsion. Damon is a vampire, no one but an Original could compel his love for Katherine, and they knew nothing of the Originals then. Damon has been and still is stuck in neutral. Once he finds the tomb empty... he wants answers from Katherine for the same reason Alaric needs answers from Isobel. It's about closure. They can start over or end where they are, but Damon wants that closure because he's far past done with neutral.

Elena is the only reason Damon is able to move on... and she does it just by getting him into that tomb. She then made sure Damon got out before the seal was set to go up. 145 years waiting for Katherine shouldn't turn into another neutral. Elena is not a spiteful person, and she truly understands Damon. She not only feels his grief, she wants to alleviate it, so she hugs him. Very compassionate, that one.

Yes, Stefan admitted to Elena that he was worse than Damon. Stefan is in denial about that as well. There is no "was" for vampires because they're "still" vampires. "Was" requires the cure for vampirism. Stefan more than proves that. Alaric tries to explain this to Elena in the first season. He thinks Stefan is a good guy, but at the end of the day, he's "still" a vampire. Vampires are a toxic species, period. Elena doesn't believe Stefan to be worse than Damon. She loves him blindly and recklessly, only to have him rip into her neck. That's where she parallels her comment about Rebekah in 3x8. Blind to the vampire she truly believed would never hurt her. I consider it Stelena's fatal blow. Stefan's girlfriend died, and the necklace became Damon's. Just picture Elena's name on Stefan's Chicago wall and that all-girls high school around the corner.

Klaroline is nowhere near healthy. Klaus took over Alaric's body without consent and used him to kill Bonnie, Alaric's own History student. He planned to kill Tyler and Caroline herself - both only alive because Damon rescued them, killed Elena's Aunt Jenna, then literally killed Elena by draining her blood. She only survived because of the Damon-John combo. Had Klaus' ritual went as he originally planned, girls night wouldn't exist in season 4 because all three would be dead along with Caroline's friend, Tyler. That's Klaroline in the second season alone.

If Bonnie's to die, it's only because Damon wants Elena to live. If Matt's to die, it's only because Damon wants Elena to live. He wants her to get the life she wants. When Elena becomes a vampire, he responds in anger because he knows that's not the life she wanted for herself. He doesn't kill for more power. He drinks human blood and builds a tolerance to vervain. The only power he wants for himself is that required for survival. That's Delena.

Klaus is like Katherine in that regard. Not happy with the power they have, they want for more. He wants to be the most powerful creature on Earth, and after becoming the most powerful creature on Earth, still feels the need for a sired hybrid army completely fulfilling his every need. Because more power is more power. All of these young people dying or nearly dying because that's what Klaus wants. Damon just wants to love, be loved in return, and protect that very love.

Klaus and Caroline would never work as a couple. Caroline is too pure for Klaus just as Stefan is too pure for Katherine. Even the purest hearts are drawn to darkness, yes, but "drawn to" are the key words here. "Falling in love with" is a different story. Caroline would never fall for him. What Damon does in the show, Stefan does or has done. The Ripper wouldn't ask women permission. Without his humanity in the 20s, what permission is he to care for? He took... and I'm quite certain of that. Sadistic, what he does to the couple at Gloria's bar.