Hi, my name is Hannah, and I've been sent here to tell you that DAMON, NOT Stefan, was the better Salvatore brother.
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!
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??
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.
3. Besides, Stefan was the one who turned Damon into a vampire in the first place!
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.
5. Damon was a legitimately good brother. He was constantly bringing Stefan out of his moods and spirals!
6. On the subject of Stefan's spirals: Stefan was moody 365 days a year while Damon was actually fun to be around.
7. Which meant Damon was (rightfully) WAY better liked by our mains.
8. Not only that, but Damon was a way better friend than Stefan.
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.
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!
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.
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.)
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.
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.
15. But in all other circumstances, he let her make her own decisions! First of all, he respected her relationship with Stefan.
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.
17. And he respected her choice to stay in a coma while Bonnie lived.
18. Besides that, he helped Elena through her transition into a vampire way more than Stefan did.
19. He even taught her to actually enjoy being a vampire!
20. Elena really came into her own after she turned, and a lot of that was because of Damon.
21. Overall, both Damon and Elena grew from their relationship. Damon was GOOD for her.
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.
TL;DR: Damon was the better brother. End of story.
