Delena Beautiful Disaster 8: Never Let You Go - Page 97

I've been reflecting lately on why so many people favor Damon over Stefan or pretty much any other character on the show. Looking back on what happened with me when I first watched Vampire Diaries, not knowing anything about the story, I am pretty convinced that it was the writers' intention that Damon or DE became the fan favorite. I know it may hard to believe considering how many of us feel strung along, some even doubting that DE are the love story of the show and are discouraged by how much Stefan is being coddled in the recent interviews. Some of us are frustrated at his lack of character development, the lack of consequences for the bad things he has done as well as the fact that he's basically the weakest character who seems to always come out on top. Thinking back on the series since S1, I started to see specific things that have happened that caused me personally to start rooting for Damon.

As some of you know, I started off liking Stelena. I had no idea this was a story about a love triangle or that Damon was actually an option as a romantic partner for Elena. SE were cute, a typical high school romance and originally I thought the story was about them. However, Damon instantly fascinated me when he showed up in 1x01. He was exciting, unpredictable and such a wonderful "bad guy". I had no idea that he was going to fall in love and change; I was sort of expecting him to stay bad. So what were the things that happened in the show to get me to really fall in love with Damon's character? The more I thought about this and thought of specific scenes, the more I believe that it was completely intentional by the writers that I did. There were a lot of subtle scenes- things they weaved into the story with regards to Damon- scenes that were not necessary to advance the plot, but were put in there intentionally to create sympathy for him. Perhaps this is my bias speaking, but I don't remember Stefan getting any subtle (or not so subtle), but powerful scenes like Damon got. Some of them are popular scenes, like in 1x03 when Damon was stroking Elena's cheek during Stefan's voice-over:

"I thought there was hope, that somewhere deep inside something in Damon was still human… But I was wrong, there is nothing human left in Damon- no good, kindness, no love; only a monster that must be stopped."

What is it about this scene that strikes such a chord with the audience? Looking at this, why would the writers put this in the story? It wasn't necessary to advance the plot, and if they didn't want the audience to fall for Damon and DE like they did, why would they put this in? That's exactly it- I am convinced they put this scene in there to stir something in the audience to root for this complex and fascinating character and I see so many scenes like this and it would end up being a book if I wrote about them all (which I won't, so don't worry).

Another brilliant move on the writers' part was in the end of 1x09 after all the buildup and plot development we got involving this mysterious woman [Katherine] from the past, the unveiling of the fact that both brothers loved her, all leading up to the declaration that Damon's reason for returning to Mystic Falls was to rescue her. Stefan had forgotten (supposedly) about Katherine, and we knew from the start that Stefan pursued Elena because of her resemblance to Katherine- they made this clear from the beginning by showing Stefan looking at a picture of Katherine from 1864 after he started something with Elena. Damon, on the other hand, has stayed true to her all along. All this being said, 1x09 was another brilliant, but subtle move by the writers to build up more sympathy for Damon's plight and his character. We find out in the end of this episode that Damon made a deal with Emily to protect her descendants in return for help getting Katherine out of the tomb. We get that heartbreaking scene of Emily betraying Damon, breaking her end of the deal and destroying the crystal. To top it off, we got that very sad scene with Damon fighting tears confessing that Katherine never compelled his love. Again, if the writers did not want the audience to back Damon, they could have easily written the story differently. Instead, they kept peeling back layers and layers to Damon's character. Did they put that much consideration into writing Stefan?

I remember back in S1 at the end of Stefan's blood phase #1 in 1x20: Stefan was, as Damon said, being a typical martyr. BUT, while that would have been the perfect opportunity for the writers to give Stefan some meaningful writing, they chose to turn it into creating more sympathy for Damon. How did they do this? By revealing in the midst of this Stefan-story that it was Stefan who forced Damon to turn into a vampire against his will. Instead of keeping the plot about Stefan and his character arc, they made it about Damon. Why would they do that? Why would they give us yet another reason to side with Damon during a time when we were supposed to be hurting for Stefan? In my opinion, they turned Stefan's blood phase #1 into a Damon moment and used the whole thing to prop Damon's character. At the climax of this darker side of Stefan, we got it turned into sympathy for Damon. We got it turned to Stefan thanking Damon. And during the past two episodes, we got the famous MMF dance which in and of itself was very, very significant for DE. I can't even begin to revel in the beautiful irony that Stefan was MIA during a very important moment in Elena's life and Damon was the one who stepped in in his place.

Some other things that I will touch on quickly: Stefan and Elena betraying Damon in S1 by getting the the journal without him. They've done a pretty good job of creating some sympathy for Damon up to that point- in the Bloodlines episode too. Did your guys' hearts sink when Stefan told Elena that he was planning on betraying Damon? Damon finally decided to trust his brother with something very important to him and we find out that Stefan was planning on using that against Damon. The icing on the cake with this whole thing was the very subtle, but beautiful part when Damon was releasing Elena back to Stefan. He looked at her, near tears and said, "But you… you had me fooled." He snapped and fed her his blood, but instead of 'tossing' Elena back to Stefan as I half-expected him to, he brushed his face against her hair and released her gently. Even after being betrayed by the two people he cared about, he did not respond by being vengeful. The writers had him surprise us again, by peeling back yet another layer of his wonderful character.

Bonnie and the vampire device. Another great move by the writers was to have her fake deactivating the device. Yeah, okay wonderful. But here is the kicker: Why would they give us a scene with Damon sincerely thanking Bonnie for deactivating it when we, as the audience, knew she hadn't? I mean think about it. Why put that in there? How many of your guys' hearts twisted painfully, when Damon told Bonnie, "Thank you… the device that Emily spelled could have killed me. I don't take what you did lightly, so thank you."? Exactly. Another scene that wasn't necessary to the plot was put beautifully into the story to get the audience to fall more in love with Damon's character.

There are so many more things. Why am I posting this? Because looking back I fully believe that we are supposed to root for Damon and Elena. They have been so much more intentional about Damon's character and his development than any other character on the show. Damon had to suffer the consequences for nearly everything he has done. They made a point to have Damon suffer the consequences for killing Lexi, using Caroline, biting Bonnie, killing Jeremy, force-feeding Elena is blood in S2, killing Alaric, sleeping with Rebekah, killing Kol. He got blame for the vampires escaping from the tomb. Even more, he got hate for things he has done in the past before 1x01- like sleeping with/turning Isobel. Damon blamed himself for Stefan's ripper phase in 1912. Besides killing Jessica, I don't think Damon has really gotten away with anything. All this is pointing to the writers paying more attention to the details with Damon than with Stefan.

I don't think it's any accident that they had Damon there alone with Alaric when he was dying. I think it was completely on purpose that we got those sad, touching scenes with Damon and Rose. I think it was on purpose that we got to see Damon's existential crisis with Jessica and his beautiful, "I'm in love with a woman I can never have…" with Andie. We got Damon's love confession in 2x08. We already knew Damon was in love with Elena so why put that scene in there? Because it was beautiful. I also don't think it's on accident that they killed off each person who was important to Damon outside of Stefan and Elena. I am more convinced than ever that they want us to love and root for Damon and that's why they've made this season so sad for him.

Contrast that with Stefan who has gotten NO character development. He was never thrown under the bus with his bad decisions, never had to face any consequences, never had to really suffer for what he has done. Are characters like that really the characters that the audience loves and wants to win? No. We side with the underdog. The loser. The outcast. The misunderstood. The one that gets trampled on. The one that every other character on the show dislikes because we, as the audience, have been privileged with special information regarding that character that none of the other people on the show know about. Damon has gotten the character development on-screen and away from Elena and they have been meticulous in the way that they have written him. I am convinced that Stefan is being written the way he is simply to prop Damon.

Think about this last example I'll touch on from S1: In 1x22 we have some key dialogue between Stefan and Damon after he told Jeremy to cut his sister some slack:

Stefan: Get over yourself; we both know that you're not doing this for the right reasons.

Damon: See there you go with that whole jealousy act again. What are the right reasons, Stefan? Enlighten me, please.

Stefan: See, Damon, it's only real when it comes from your desire to do the right thing for nothing in return. And I know that is an entirely foreign concept to you; I completely understand that you wouldn't get it.

Setting aside my desire to rant about Stefan's complete douchebagness in this scene, I found it pretty amazing that Stefan was totally proved wrong by the end of the episode. Actually, Stefan was wrong even when he told Damon this. Damon was talking to Jeremy privately about cutting his sister some slack and he wasn't doing it to win Elena over. But the beauty of this particular scene is that it all pointed to the wonderful part with Damon visiting Jeremy to tell him about Anna and apologize about Vicki and offer to help him forget. That was one of my favorite Damon moments to date. He wasn't doing it to show off how wonderful he was to Elena, he wasn't doing it for selfish reasons, and by putting this scene (and others) in the show, the writers have shown us blatantly how wrong Stefan is about Damon. Beyond that, what Damon did for Jeremy in 1x22 had absolutely NOTHING to do with Elena. At all. The writers develop Damon as a character- not JUST as a character whose world revolves around Elena. That's part of it, but it's not all of it. Damon giving Rose her dying dream had nothing to do with Elena either. I think that's why so many of us were awed with the DE conversation in 3x19. We've watched three seasons of Damon growing, doing heroic things secretly without expecting anything in return and never getting recognition for it. The DE bed conversation in 3x19, as well as Rose's speech in the car, were put there as a shout-out from the writers that they understand us. That Damon's character and all his heroic deeds with no recognition is intentional. They get us and they get why we ship Damon and Elena. They understand and they have written their story on purpose.

Damon gets the powerful scenes, the character development and the writing. I know that JP praises Stefan's wonderfulness in her interviews, but as far as I'm concerned, she has to to keep this as "balanced" as she can. She can't talk trash about Stefan because of the purpose she has put behind Damon's writing. We get DE on the show and Stefan in the interviews. She can't talk about how wonderful DE are because them as a couple is not canon on the show yet.

I mean just stop and think about it, guys… Think about the scenes with Damon and DE that we have gotten on the show. The scenes that didn't necessarily NEED to be there, but were put there with the purpose of getting people to cheer for Damon. I wish I could list and talk about them all, but as I said, it would turn into a book.

At the end of the day, Stefan or SE just don't get the excellent writing that Damon and DE have gotten. With SE/Stefan, it's all in the interviews.