| “ | Hello, Brother. | „ |
| ~ Damon to Stefan in Season One. His first and last words in the story. |
| “ | Look, what happened to Enzo is gonna haunt you and her for the rest of your lives. But the you standing with me right now, the you that's gonna marry Caroline Forbes tomorrow, the you that I have known for almost 200 years, you didn't do it. Evil, nasty, Ripper Stefan did it, and you are not him. You hear me? | „ |
| ~ Damon comforting Stefan, and telling him he's a good person. |
Damon Salvatore is a redeemed antagonist, and the deuteragonist of The Vampire Diaries. After becoming a vampire, he became vengeful when Katherine chose Stefan over him. Promising his brother eternal misery, Damon would follow him, and see his brother deal with his blood lust. The main antagonist of Season 1, Damon would later redeem himself. Falling in love with Elena Gilbert, whom he marries in the series finale, and helping his friends protect Mystic Falls from supernatural threats.
He is Jeremy Gilbert, Bonnie Bennett, Caroline Forbes, Matt Donovan, Tyler Lockwood, Alaric Saltzman, and Enzo St. John's best friend.
Damon is portrayed by Ian Somerhalder, who also played Boone Carlyle in Lost and Dr. Luther Swann in the Netflix series V-Wars. Gavin Casalegno played the character young.
Biography[]
Early Life[]
Damon Salvatore was born on June 18th, 1839 in a the town that would be known as Mystic Falls, Virginia to Giuseppe, a businessman and town council member, and his wife Lillian. Damon would also become the older brother to Stefan, who was born in 1846, and the two also had an illegitimate brother by their father, whom died of unknown causes. In his childhood, Damon was abused by Giuseppe, who believed he was teaching his son, and also thought Damon stole money from him. However, it was actually Lillian, who was planning to leave her abusive husband with her children, but failed. When Lillian supposedly died of consumption or tuberculosis in 1858, Damon told Stefan that he would write their mother's eulogy, but didn't appear at the funeral.
Damon was forced by his father to join the Confederate Army, but secretly hated everything the south stood for, and left the military on his own. He was considered a coward by Giuseppe and most of the people of Mystic Falls, and the Confederacy would lose the war against the Union. Despite his troubled relationship with his father, he was close to Stefan, whom he preferred to as his best friend and companion in his life. Though their relationship became strained when they met Katherine Pierce, as the two battled each other for her affections. In the 1860s, Damon eventually learned that Katherine was a vampire, but wasn't afraid of her and watched her kill victims whom were travelling. He told Stefan not to tell Giuseppe, as their father was a member of the town council, and hated vampires since he learned of their existence.
Becoming a Vampire[]
When Stefan revealed that Katherine was a vampire, the townspeople captured Pierce and tried to bury her into the tomb. Damon and Stefan decided to rescue Katherine, but were shot by Giuseppe, who was ashamed by his sons for falling in love with a vampire. Despite being shot and killed, Katherine had the Salvatore's drink her blood, turning them into vampires. Damon awoke and saw the burning of Fell's Church, and Katherine was buried for centuries. After Stefan awoke, Damon told his brother that he had no reason for living since Katherine was gone, and that he wouldn't transition into a vampire. However, Stefan transitioned after drinking Giuseppe's blood, and had Damon drink the blood of a young woman.
Transitioning into a vampire, Damon told Stefan that he would make his life miserable due to that the fact that Katherine turned Stefan into a vampire, and that he caused Katherine to be buried. Despite the loss of Katherine, Damon managed to save some vampires with the assistance of Emily Bennett, who was Katherine's servant. Emily gave Damon a daylight ring, allowing him to walk in sunlight and didn't tell Stefan about the vampires in the tomb.
Damon wouldn't see his brother for 45 years until they both returned in Mystic Falls in 1912, as the two wanted to attend their nephew's funeral. Salvatore would meet a fellow vampire named Sage, who taught him to find pleasure in feeding on humans, and Damon had Stefan drink the blood of a woman. Stefan ripped the woman's head off when he fed on her too hard, and Damon left after criticizing Stefan for making him drink human blood.
During the 1940s, Damon turned a woman named Charlotte into a vampire in New Orleans, but wanted to break his bond with her when he noticed that she was too obsessive and euthanistic when he gave her commands. When he was unable to break it after killing twelve people, Damon command her to count every brick on every corner, and left. Before he left New Orleans, Damon reunited with Stefan, who wanted to make peace before he was sent to North Africa during World War II. The two briefly reconciled, and Damon thought about going to the frontline with Stefan, but Lexi Branson advised him not to so Stefan could continue his rehabilitation from blood as Damon's lifestyle was too troublesome.
During the 1950s, Damon and a vampire named Enzo were captured tortured by Dr. Whitmore, and Damon only managed to keep his humanity when he bonded with his fellow vampire captive. When Enzo came up with a plan to escape, Damon drank Enzo's blood supply, allowing to escape from the bars and kill every Augustine that was there. He was unable to save Enzo due to bars being soaked in vervain, so Damon turned off his humanity and slaughtered Aaron Whitmore's parents. Damon then decided to not to kill Aaron, as he wanted his bloodline to continue so he could kill them as well. During the mid-1990s, Damon returned to Mystic Falls where he tried to have Stefan go on a road trip with him, but Stefan refused due to how many times Damon ruined his life.
After Damon started feeding on his nephew's wife, Gail, Stefan snapped his neck and took his daylight ring. Damon then murdered his nephew's wife after he forced Stefan and Zach to give him back his daylight ring, and reminded Stefan that he owed him. Damon's whereabouts remained unknown until 2007, where he turned a woman named Isobel into a vampire, who was the mother of Elena Gilbert.
Personality[]
Human[]
Damon was originally a very free-spirited young man, who was best friends with his younger brother Stefan Salvatore, both of whom were instantly smitten with the vampire Katherine Pierce. He had a positive relationship with Stefan and he held his position as elder brother in high regard, being the one to teach Stefan how to fight when they were younger. As a human, Damon also held a sense of duty as he enrolled in the confederacy, however their father saw him as very irresponsible and reckless, proving he was very much a free spirit who did things on a whim, taking no mind to what people thought.
Damon could be considered much the opposite to his brother in many regards. Whilst they both were respectful and polite, Damon had a dark side which came to play when he fell in love with Katherine, whilst initially terrified at the prospect, his love for Katherine and dependency for her affections made the choice easy and he willingly drank her blood and conspired with her to kill innocent humans, a trait which passed on to his vampire lifestyle. Damon was very naïve as a human, he loved Katherine deeply and recklessly, regardless of the consequences and not caring that his father was ashamed of him. His carefree life fell apart when Stefan betrayed Damon by alluding to their father that Katherine was a vampire; information that resulted in Katherine being trapped and taken to a church to be burned, also doing whatever he could to get her back, even if it resulted in his death.
Vampire[]
After he became a vampire, he left Stefan's side, wanting no part in the life of the man who betrayed him. He selfishly kept the fact that Katherine was still alive from Stefan, jealous that his brother had also been turned by their shared lover. By the time he appears in season one, he's been away from Stefan for at least eighty years (including the meeting in 1912), and he immediately begins taunting his brother, as a colder, more calloused version of his human self.
Throughout season one, Damon pretends to be arrogant and sarcastic, showing little to no regard for human life and using whatever people he can get his hands on as his personal playthings. He shows pity to neither Caroline Forbes nor Vicki Donovan, even going so far as to kill Stefan's football coach to "prove" that he has no humanity left. He is also portrayed as a very impulsive vampire, known for his self-destructive behavior and his devious, sadistic mind. Despite this, he stays focused on his only goal: getting Katherine out of the tomb. This shows his ability for planning and forethought, and certainly the patience to wait 145 years for the necessary comet to return.
After Katherine is discovered to have been alive the entire time, and his reason for doing the things he has been doing shattered, Damon becomes more dangerous because he drinks alcohol constantly, bonding with others at the bar. He destructively taunts Alaric Saltzman about being the one to kill his wife, Isobel Flemming, but is confused when he finds that Isobel is Elena's birth mother. He tempts his brother with human blood, though he knows exactly what Stefan used to be, and when Stefan goes off the deep end, Damon helps Elena detox him. He also genuinely thanks Bonnie Bennett for disabling the device that could kill him, surprising her with his sincerity.
Every time his brother is put in a situation that endangers his life, Damon protects him, but he's not afraid to cause Stefan non-lethal harm. Despite his anger with Stefan for his actions in the past, he hangs around, protecting him and working with him, sometimes destroying the good in his life. Their perplexing relationship seems to center around Elena, who anchors them to Mystic Falls.
Elena is the oddity of Damon's behavior, the anomaly that makes his personality far from psychopathic. In the beginning of the first season, Stefan is prepared to give up on his brother, believing him to be an irreparable monster, but Damon displays true feeling for Elena. Elena Gilbert is physically identical to Katherine, the woman who turned him into a vampire, making her not only a constant reminder of what happened to him and Stefan, but a temptation to let history repeat itself. When Katherine reveals that she never loved him (in the beginning of season two), Damon reacts by trying to get Elena to admit that she loves him, and when she tells him that she loves Stefan, he reacts impulsively, set off by both Katherine and Elena choosing his brother instead of him. He kills Elena's brother, spending many weeks afterwards trying to make it up to Elena, showing true regret for his actions. Their relationship began with taunting and cruelty, but she became what he clings to for humanity; he became her occasional protector, a guardian of sorts. His impulsive actions often drive her away but she refuses to let him die, and he does the same for her.
With Elena influencing him throughout the second and third seasons, Damon becomes slightly kinder, if only for the fact that he no longer mindlessly kills and torments humans without good reason, and he controls himself to be strong for Elena's sake. He proves that he is capable of love, nobility, loyalty, and selflessness, masking the most intense of his emotions to spare himself from seeming weak, but expressing just enough to draw in a very small circle of friends (which he later drives away). He continues to claim that his emotions can be turned off, but several older vampires reveal that this is a lie; after a certain amount of time, a vampire has to pretend they can't feel. The only time Damon had ever admitted his pain was when Elena told him that she would never kiss him back, to which he responded, "Now I'm hurt".
About halfway through the third season, Damon believes that Elena is trying to turn him into Stefan by constantly telling him to be the 'better man.' Others continue to underestimate him and, to display that he doesn't care at all, he kills Alaric, with whom he'd developed a strong friendship. He also spends time trying to make it up to Alaric after his ring brings him back to life, treating him like a friend even though Alaric is extremely angry with him. He also snaps and feeds from Caroline's father, and, after a very violent fight with Caroline, he is confronted by Elena. He's even cruel to her, accusing her of trying to make him into something he's not. His inner turmoil continues when Katherine reappears, and he recklessly takes her offer of a "road trip", leaving Elena defenseless only because he is mad at her. When he returns, he displays genuine regret and, in one of his most tell-all, modest moments of the show, he tells her that he will never leave her again, showing his extreme love and devotion to Elena, and his regret for making another impulsive decision.
By the end of Season Five, Damon makes the biggest decision he's ever made; sacrificing his life to saved his brother and everyone else he cares about over on the Other Side. He was unable to come back in the process but was thankful to Elena that she had became a part of his life and for falling in love with him.
He compels her to forget that he said this (late in season two), because he believes it would be selfish to confuse Elena with his feelings. This is right after Stefan apologizes for making Damon turn in 1864, something that surprises Damon to the point of revelation; He realizes what he's been doing to his brother, all following one stupid mistake. In reality, what Damon said to Elena proves that she has been molding him into a better person, because before that moment, he never would've done something so selfless. Damon also admits to missing his human life before he drunkenly kills Jessica Cohen in the middle of the road; this secret is kept from everyone around him. He lets the girl go, but immediately chases her down and kills her anyway in an effort to prove that he doesn't really care. When his spirits are down, Damon solves his problems with alcohol (mostly bourbon), but he often uses violence and murder to console himself.
By his own testimony, Damon claims that the reason why he can control his vampiric urges is because he embraces what he is.
Damon is also very self-confident, given that he'll confront older, stronger vampires like; Lexi, Anna, Pearl, Elijah, Klaus, Rebekah, Kol, Katherine, Rose and Silas. Without hesitation, and without regard to manners, even when they themselves pose no signs of hostility towards him. He often taunts them, which results in him nearly being killed quite often as they are undeniably stronger than him; though of course, there were cases when he was able to best them on some occasions, as in the case of Kol and Silas. Further into season 4, Damon seems to have lost part of his authoritative and dominating personality, most likely because of Klaus, who is much stronger, older and more powerful than him.
Despite Elena's influence, it seems that he is a very vengeful person and it is routed in his core. After the torture he and Enzo experienced in the 1950's, he continued to carry out the revenge he swore to take even well into his and Elena's relationship. This also proves him to be very secretive, as he told nobody of his experiences, not even Stefan in the aftermath of the torture until it was revealed in the present.
Augustine Vampire[]
When Damon fed on Joey in Total Eclipse of the Heart, he was shown to have no remorse or guilt over ripping the young vampire's head off.
Ghost[]
Damon's personality as a Ghost was much like his personality as a Vampire. He did, however, seem to grow closer to Bonnie Bennett, and the two met Malachai and grew to have a mutual hatred of him.
Powers and Abilities[]
- Vampire Physiology (Formerly): Damon possessed all the standard powers and abilities of a non-original vampire. Although, Stefan has said that when at full strength, Damon "can be very powerful". However, he was still inferior to older vampires who are much stronger and more powerful than he is, though even then Damon has shown an ability to hold his own against them.
- Superhuman Strength: As a vampire of nearly two centuries, Damon was a strong man, able to contend with many threats, and even hold his own against older vampires for a long time.
- Superhuman Speed: Damon possessed great speed, able to move across distances quickly and even seemingly appear out of thin air, as he did when meeting Elena for the second time in series pilot.
- Superhuman Durability: As a vampire, Damon could endure extreme levels of physical damage to his person, helped by his own extreme pain tolerance.
- Superhuman Agility: Due to his abilities, Damon was extremely agile, which especially helped his fighting prowess.
- Superhuman Reflexes: Damon possessed great reflexes, being able to catch an arrow out mid air.
- Superhuman Senses: As a vampire, Damon possessed unheightened senses, being able to hear sounds from miles away and could pick up the smell of blood very easily.
- Regenerative Healing Factor: Damon possesses a powerful healing factor, allowing him to heal from even serious wounds in a matter of hours.
- Nigh-Immortality: As a vampire, Damon did not age, was immune to disease and pathogens, and could survive wounds that would be lethal for humans.
- Mind Compulsion: Damon possessed the ability to influence the mind through eye contact.
- Augustine Vampire Physiology (Formerly): In No Exit, Damon appears to have much increased strength when he feels the urge to feed on Vampire blood, he has all the abilities that a normal vampire would have except, enhanced to much more extreme levels making him much more powerful than vampires that are much older than him. For example Damon was able to break free from his chains in a matter of seconds when Enzo chained him up. Though this is something any-other vampire might not be able to do. Despite this, Damon is still no match for the Original Vampires and Klaus; the Original Hybrid.
- Gifted Intellect/Master Tactician and Strategist/Master Investigator: Raised in a wealthy and powerful southern family, Damon received a higher education than most people of his era, making him an extremely intelligent and cunning man. Damon has proven himself a cunning and resourceful tactician, able to make efficient plans that impressed other brilliant strategists, such Klaus or Katherine. Damon is also an excellent investigator, able to help Elena track down evidence of her mother Isobel and the research she conducted on the supernatural, as well as many other instances through the series.
- Expert of Psychological warfare: Damon is extremely skilled at mind games, especially with his brother Stefan.
- Expert Manipulator: Damon is a skilled manipulator.
- Leadership: Damon recurrently took on a leadership role among the Mystic Falls gang, and was capable enough that both Caroline and Bonnie, who hated him at the time, were willing to follow his lead.
- Master hand-to-hand combatant: Damon also on many occasions showed himself to be a skilled fighter, battling older and physically more powerful vampires as equals, Such as the original vampire Elijah, who Damon is once able to successfully surprise and briefly match before being subdued, as well as face Julian, a powerful vampire nearly twice Damon's age and an experienced fighter in his own right, as an equal for an extended period. Damon, alongside Alaric, was also able to teach Jeremy Gilbert combat and weapons, molding Jeremy into a skilled and formidable vampire hunter.
- Expert Marksman: Damon was a very proficient marksman, able to easily hit multiple shots into Logan Fell from a good distance.
- Expert Swordsman: Damon was also a skilled swordsman, allowing him to face Julian on a fair footing for a long while before being defeated by the older and more experienced vampire.
- Master Survivalist: Damon had excellent survival skills, utilizing them in the woods when looking for Silas' tomb, and when surviving against Malachi Parker in the 1994 prison world.
Gallery[]
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