The Vampire Diaries: 10 Things About Damon That Have Aged Poorly

As one of the main heartthrobs of the series, Damon Salvatore made a lasting impact with fans of The Vampire Diaries franchise. Though he often make less than ethical decisions, he almost always redeems himself when it comes to Elena. He respects her wants and needs even against his better judgement.

However, as time passes since the series ended, his some of his decisions on the show become more and more questionable. While Elena may be forgiving towards him, it’s clear when looking back that there are a few things about his character that have aged rather poorly.

When Damon Compelled And Bit Caroline

At the start of the show, Damon used Caroline, who makes some of The Vampire Diaries‘ shadiest burns, as a blood bag and compelled her to spy on Elena and his brother so he could sabotage their relationship. He treats Caroline terribly even though he is well aware that she is one of Elena’s closest friends and doing this would hurt her too.

Damon doesn’t care about other people and this entire interaction makes that abundantly clear. He wants to take Elena away from Stefan and he uses an innocent young girl to do so. Not to mention, this damaged most of Caroline’s relationships with her friends because they couldn’t trust her while she was under Damon’s influence.

When Damon Killed Zach And His Girlfriend

In season 1 of TVD, Damon kills his distant nephew, Zach, who takes care of their boarding house. Audiences are introduced to Zach as someone who despises Damon and fears his power over him.

The reason for his distaste doesn’t arrive until season 6 when it’s revealed that Damon killed Zach’s girlfriend years before because he was upset. Both of these actions are unforgivable and they become even more so when Zach’s orphaned child shows up. With the revelation of this information, Damon is obviously in the wrong in this situation.

When Damon Killed Stefan’s Best Friend Lexi

Damon kills many people throughout the series’ run, but Lexi’s death was one of the biggest betrayals of season 1. Though doing this solidified his place on the town council vampire hunter squad, he staked his brother’s best friend in the heart right in front of everyone.

Lexi was not only Stefan’s oldest friend, but she was also the only person at that time that knew how to get Stefan off a ripper binge. Without her help, Stefan relapses many times during the show and Damon is one of the few people that is to blame. He acted extremely selfishly in this moment and deprived the series of having Lexi become a regular.

When Damon Killed Jeremy And Vicki

Jeremy dies countless times in The Vampire Diaries, but he is always revived whether it be by Bonnie’s magic or his special family ring that brings him back to life if he’s killed by something supernatural.

However, Damon killed him multiple times causing his ring to drive him a little crazy and scaring Elena. If this isn’t bad enough, Damon also killed Jeremy’s first girlfriend, Vicki, and turned her into a vampire. This event fundamentally messed with the boy and made it even more terrible that Damon continued to kill and torment him.

When Damon Turned Bonnie’s Mom

When Damon turned Bonnie’s mom, he thought he was doing everyone a favor by stopping Ester from killing the rest of the Original family which also kept Elena safe. However, this made Elena and especially Bonnie despise Damon because he didn’t ask anyone, he just did it.

Damon always makes the decisions that no one else will make because they are too difficult to forgive, but, for Elena, he never minds being the bad guy. What he did here was awful and noble, but what makes it one of the worst things Damon Salvatore has ever done in The Vampire Diaries is that he never consulted anyone beforehand or tried to find a different solution to their problem.

When Damon Made Elena Drink Vampire Blood

Before Klaus’s ceremony to unleash his werewolf side and become a true hybrid, everyone tried to find a way for Elena to survive since she would have to die for Klaus’s transformation to be complete. While she wanted to simply sacrifice herself, at the last moment, Damon fed her his blood by force, which is one of the worst things a Salvatore brother did to Elena in The Vampire Diaries.

Though John gives his life to save Elena in the end, this decision to force her to become a vampire was entirely selfish on Damon’s part. Looking back on it today, while she eventually forgave him, he both ignored her wishes and almost forced her to live a life she explicitly stated she didn’t want.

When Damon Took Advantage Of His Sire Bonds

When Elena finally turned into a vampire at the beginning of season 4, she began to trust Damon more than she ever had because of her sire bond to him. Though Damon originally denied this being the case, when he realized it was true, he used this to his advantage to spend time with her.

Elena loves Damon dearly, but his way of dealing with this was to get her to do all the fun and cool things that Stefan never did with her. While it’s sweet at first, it’s clear that he knows he’s manipulating her and he likes it so he doesn’t stop. Though Elena does make her own decision to be with Damon in the end, as a human, he intentionally makes her do things that are out of character for her.

When Damon Loved Katherine After She Betrayed Him

From 1864 until he meets Elena in season 1, Damon is smitten by Katherine Pierce, who always survives the odds in The Vampire Diaries. Though it’s blatantly evident that she doesn’t care about him one bit, he tries to free her from the vampire cave no matter the cost.

When he finds out that Katherine was never trapped in the first place, he still entertains love for her, albeit not for very long. His long lasting love for Katherine is extremely upsetting especially considering she did so many awful things to everyone in the series and purposely impersonated and harmed Elena at several different points in each season.

When Damon Left Enzo At Whitmore

Enzo was one of Damon’s best friend’s at one point in time, but as he does to everyone, he betrayed Enzo when he got his one chance to escape the Whitmore vampire testing site. When Enzo finally finds him again, it’s understandable that he wants to exact his revenge.

Damon actually cared about Enzo, but his selfishness stopped him from trying to save him too. It’s obvious that he felt guilty about the decision, but feeling sorry doesn’t change the fact that he shut off his emotion so that he would not try to save him. Though it’s a survival technique, this entire storyline proves that Damon is fundamentally morally corrupt.

When Damon Tortured And Killed Mason Lockwood

Instead of trying to be friendly with Mason Lockwood and potentially team up against Klaus at the end of season 2, Damon antagonized him and treated him like he was nothing. This left the newly transitioning werewolf, Tyler, from having the support of his uncle and it also led to Mason torturing Damon when the spirit realm and real world collapsed in season 3.

It’s a running theme that Damon doesn’t think about what he does before it happens, but this is one of his biggest character flaws. If he had just tried to be peaceful and understand Mason Lockwood in a reasonable way he could have changed the outcome of season 2, significantly. However, with Damon being Damon, some things will never change.