u/Weird-Lobster-7152

I'm so tired of people saying Steroline didn't have chemistry. Personally I saw the chemistry between them. It was just different from that of the toxic couples that were solely based on sexual attraction.

Paul Wesley once jokingly said that Delena sounds like a disease, and Steroline sounds like a cure to the disease. And that's what Steroline was to me: a cure to Delena. Firstly, because after 2 seasons of waiting in vain for Elena to come to her senses and return to Stefan (who clearly deserved better than Damon), I finally saw Stefan move on and find another love interest, a girl who was always team Stefan and would choose him over any other man. And secondly, because Stefan and Caroline's relationship wasn't solely based on sex.

I was so tired of Delena, who were just arguing and having sex all the time. They couldn't control themselves even at school or before their friends' wedding. But that's not what love is, imo. Caroline and Stefan shared a deep connection, respect and understanding and felt profound admiration and affection for each other. I liked how vulnerable Caroline was around Stefan, how every touch from him would give her butterflies.

And I actually like the fact that Stefan's feelings for Caroline were different from his feelings for the doppelgängers, because if he only fell in love twice in 145 years, both times with the same face, and neither of those relationships worked out, then he must have been doing something wrong. His love for Caroline was soft, pure and tender, unlike his passionate love for the doppelgängers, and I think Caroline was exactly what he needed after all the heartbreak he had experienced.

I guess this has been discussed a lot. But what are your thoughts? Was Elena telling the truth about how she felt about Damon and Stefan under Rebekah's compulsion? Or was she just saying what the sire bond made her feel?

And yes, I know she was still in love with Damon and chose him after the sire bond got broken. But do you think the sire bond has somehow altered her feelings for the brothers? Or was she falling more in love with Damon and out of love with Stefan naturally even before the sire bond?

Damon was obsessed with Katherine for 145 years, but Stefan wasn't. Why do you think he couldn't fall in love with anyone until he met Elena? Was it because of the doppelgänger prophecy? Or because Stefan didn't take time to get to know other women? Or did he still have some lingering feelings for the kind and innocent girl he used to think Katherine was when he first met her?

I've never watched the spin-offs, but I've heard Klaus had changed for his daughter Hope. Do you think he would want his daughter to be treated the way he treated Caroline? Would it be OK for him if someone hurt his daughter repeatedly, but then saved her from himself (after some begging) and gave her some presents?

I find it a bit frustrating that many male villains, like Damon and Klaus, got a redemption arc despite all the horrible things they had done, but Katherine didn't. I know she didn't really try to change, but neither did Damon and Klaus. And Katherine had more reasons to become evil: her baby taken away, her family slaughtered, being on the run from Klaus for 500 years. Damon became evil just because a girl he was in love with also liked his brother. Klaus became evil, because his father didn't love him, which is a slightly more valid reason than Damon's, I think, but still not as valid as Katherine's.

There are also too many bad boy/good girl ships on the show (Delena, Klaroline, Bonenzo) where the female characters see the good in their abusers and forgive them for trying to kill them or for killing and abusing their relatives and friends. Meanwhile Stefan didn't want to be with Katherine the moment he found out she was evil. Why do women on this show forgive their abusers so easily?

Imagine Elena had been born in the 19th century and met the Salvatore brothers in 1864 instead of Katherine. Which brother do you think she would have chosen?