Character Review #3 : Damon Salvatore

I like Damon Salvatore as the character of a story, but as a person not so much. He is interesting. A villainous character with good buried deep inside. He cares for his brother but doesn’t show it outside. Sometimes he does terrible things because others don’t have to. But sometimes he does that for fun or because he is upset. He is sarcastic and has got amazing one-lines. He is someone who loves deeply, after all he spent 145 years trying to find a way to release the woman he loved from the curse. He blames Stefan for turning him into a vampire and for their history with Katherine but forgives him ultimately.

He is also heartless and cruel and ruthless. He kills people without thinking twice just because he thinks it’s fun. He abuses his mind controlling abilities to make school girls as his toys. He compels women to be his girlfriends and calls them a distraction. In the beginning he abuses Caroline and tortures her. He has little respect for women and humans altogether, but somehow the show made him as its hero. I don’t buy the excuse that his endless suffering made him like that. Because clearly it is always his choice. Stefan did terrible things when he had his humanity switch turned off and he had no control over his actions. But Damon he takes proud in the fact that he has absolute control over his blood lust and still chose to hurt people.  

As for Elena, What I felt was his obsessive love for Katherine got transferred to Elena when he saw that Elena was everything he ever wanted Katherine to be. When he first saw Elena he didn’t fall in love with her, no matter how hard the show writers try to convince us otherwise, that is the truth. He came to that town to revive Katherine and spent rest of their life together. But when he finally found Katherine, she told him she loved Stefan not him. He was hurt. And then he saw Elena with his brother, saw that they were actually happy, he saw that his brother was at peace and he wanted that for himself too.  Damon realized that what Stefan has with Elena was exactly what he wanted to have with Katherine. Thus started his obsession.

Beginning of the show it is shown that he still blames Stefan for his vampire life and pledged to make Stefan’s live miserable. But as the show progressed to reveal his goodness buried inside, he was always shown to have cared for Stefan. Still he tries to seduce his brother’s girlfriend, shows off his abs and naked body to her, getting into her bed to wake her up etc. I don’t know how you do that if you really loved your brother or if you have a little self-respect! Stefan would never have done that, and that is the core difference between the two brothers. Stefan would have walked away if it was Damon who was in a relationship with her first.

Again, keeping Damon in a morally grey area isn’t wrong. Not everyone can be selfless. But trying to sell this character as a redeemed hero or even a better person than his brother is wrong. Because clearly he isn’t. He never will be.

I get that Damon tries to be a better person for Elena and all but still can’t see anything to hold on to their relationship. Other than that both the actors are super-hot and have awesome chemistry.

Also I didn’t like the way Elena decided to give him a clean pass even after he did terrible things. Forgiving him and moving on is one thing, but decides to spend rest of your life with someone who killed your brother because you upset him, someone who tried to kill your best friends and family at one point or the other is a pretty dumb move, even for Elena. How could you ever forget something like that! Only in a fantasy world it is super charming when the hot guy tells you he is bad and that is who he is, when he does terrible things and he admits it proudly and you love him for that.

Damon will do anything for Elena, but the second she makes him upset he will take it out on her dearest ones, or have revenge sex with her enemies. Definitely boyfriend goals!!

While Elena was with Stefan it was fun to see Damon trying to win her, flirt with her only to get “Its always going to be Stefan” from her. I think it would have better to keep their relation only teased at, like a forbidden love. The moment they were in a real relationship it lost its charm. The actors had awesome chemistry so the will they won’t they game was much more fun. Delena was much more about their physical relationship rather than an emotional bonding which is vital for a stable relationship.