Hi, my name is Hannah, and I've been sent here to tell you that DAMON, NOT Stefan, was the better Salvatore brother.
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Even STEFAN HIMSELF said so!!!
Now, I understand this is a controversial opinion. I understand people feel strongly about this. But in the seventh grade I used a persuasive letter to convince my paranoid mom to let me get a Facebook, and I'll be damned if I can't change your minds too!
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So strap in, folks. It's going to be a bumpy ride.
1. Look, I know y'all are gonna @ me saying Damon was a cold-blooded killer. But are we really going to pretend Stefan wasn't??
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Remember when Damon and Elena went looking for Stefan in Chicago and found his old home from the 1920s where he'd written down the names of all his victims? Look how many names are on that list!! Plus that was only prior to the 1920s!
2. In fact, Stefan was arguably worse than Damon. We don't have exact numbers, but we do know that Stefan had multiple decades-long ripper binges, while Damon mostly fed and let people go.
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Damon really tried to teach Stefan moderation and stop him from killing people. Did it work? No. But he tried!
3. Besides, Stefan was the one who turned Damon into a vampire in the first place!
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Damon wanted to die a human, but Stefan killed their father and turned, then forced Damon to drink vampire blood. STEFAN, self-touted king of "letting people make their own decisions!" He didn't even let Damon decide whether he wanted to become a monster ://///
4. You could certainly argue that this makes Stefan responsible for Damon's actions as a vampire. Stefan certainly felt that way. But when Stefan went on a self-hating spiral because of it in Season 1, Damon told him not to take on that guilt.
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Even though he still "hated" Stefan here.
5. Damon was a legitimately good brother. He was constantly bringing Stefan out of his moods and spirals!
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He never gave up on Stefan!! Like when he had a ripper relapse in Season 1, ALL of Season 3, when he died at the end of Season 5...
Meanwhile, Stefan gave up on Damon multiple times. Like in Season 6, when Damon was dead, or after he came out of that weird torture world in Season 7.
6. On the subject of Stefan's spirals: Stefan was moody 365 days a year while Damon was actually fun to be around.
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Who actually wanted to hang out with Stefan??
7. Which meant Damon was (rightfully) WAY better liked by our mains.
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Who was Stefan even friends with?? Elena and Caroline. And he dated both of them. Who was Damon friends with? Elena, Alaric, Bonnie, Enzo, Jeremy, Liz...the list goes on.
8. Not only that, but Damon was a way better friend than Stefan.
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Y'all remember when Damon died and Stefan was a total dick to Caroline (who had been nothing but supportive of him) for the better part of Season 5?? Or when he LET ELENA ERASE ALL MEMORY OF DAMON FROM HER MIND?? Damon would NEVER if Stefan had died.
9. Damon was legitimately nicer to Caroline in Season 5 than Stefan was. And Caroline and Damon hated each other. Remember at Caroline's mom's funeral, when Stefan basically said he didn't want to be with her? Meanwhile, Damon used Liz's eulogy to remind Caroline how special she was.
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Let's not forget Stefan's actions caused Caroline to turn her humanity off THAT EPISODE.
10. Let's talk about Liz and Damon's friendship for a moment. Even when Liz found out about vampires and tried to kill them all, Damon spared her, saying she was his friend. And when she said her daughter was dead to her, Damon defended Caroline!
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Again, Caroline and Damon did NOT get along.
11. I'm not going to pretend like Damon never did bad things. But half the time, he was just doing what needed to be done.
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Damon was willing to play the bad guy and take all the blame if it meant the people he loved were safe. When Elena was going to try some sketchy potion to stay alive during Klaus's ritual, he fed her his blood. When they had to turn Bonnie's mom into a vampire to save Elena, Damon did it so that Stefan wouldn't have to live with that guilt or take the blame. When Bonnie was stuck in the prison world and they needed the ascendent, he compelled Alaric to steal it from Jo. These decisions were unpopular, but they needed to be made.
12. Not only was he always willing to take the blame, but he was always willing to lay down his life for Stefan and Elena (and later, Bonnie.)
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When Cade tried to kill Stefan and Elena, Damon offered himself up for ETERNAL DAMNATION instead!! And when Bonnie tried to save him, he told her he'd let go if she didn't stop, because he knew it could kill her!
Remember that time he was compelled to go after Jeremy?? He asked Jeremy to shoot him in the head! Or in the series finale, when he compelled Stefan to leave so that Damon could sacrifice himself to kill Katherine?
13. And now the moment you've all been waiting for: it's time to discuss Damon and Elena. Stefan got a lottttt of credit for "letting Elena make her own decisions." AKA, letting her try to sacrifice herself for others.
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Damon just cared that Elena was alive, even if it meant she hated him. He wanted what was best for her!!
14. Damon only disrespected her wishes when they were dangerous, or when she wasn't in control enough to make them. Like when he found out that the sire bond was influencing Elena, so he backed off from their relationship despite Elena begging him to stay.
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I definitely cried during this scene.
15. But in all other circ*mstances, he let her make her own decisions! First of all, he respected her relationship with Stefan.
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And when she chose Stefan at the end of Season 3 and said maybe it would've been different if she'd met him first, he didn't tell her that they actually had met first. He let her go.
16. He respected Elena's decision on whether or not she wanted to remain a vampire, while Stefan kept wanting to change her back to a human so that she would be with him again.
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When Elena became a vampire, Stefan kept trying to change her back so she'd love him again. So much for wanting her to make her own decisions, Stefan!!
17. And he respected her choice to stay in a coma while Bonnie lived.
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Even though Kai handed him a dying Bonnie on a silver platter.
18. Besides that, he helped Elena through her transition into a vampire way more than Stefan did.
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He made sure she didn't become a self-hating mess like Stefan.
19. He even taught her to actually enjoy being a vampire!
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Notice the change from Season 2 to Season 5?
20. Elena really came into her own after she turned, and a lot of that was because of Damon.
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Remember how happy Elena was at the start of Season 5 with Damon?? It was a beautiful thing.
21. Overall, both Damon and Elena grew from their relationship. Damon was GOOD for her.
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This is what love is, guys!!
22. But even after Elena left, Damon continued to become a better man. He grew so much in Seasons 7 & 8, owning up to all of his mistakes and helping Stefan move forward in his life.
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This is why Stefan said he was the better man in the end, guys!!
TL;DR: Damon was the better brother. End of story.
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