If you asked me this time last season if Damon and Elena should be together, I would have given you a big fat “eww” and scratched that repulsive thought from my mind.  It’s funny how things change.  Sexual tension is a very well know tactic in television, but I’ve never seen sexual tension like this.  There’s far more than tension going on here.  It’s two people with remarkable chemistry that are burning up the screen in every way imaginable all because they’re defying the natural order.  In other words, this one goes to eleven.  
 
Other than I feel myself needing an ice bath every time Damon and Elena are together on screen, I found five reasons why they should be caving into their desires, guilt over Stefan be damned.  And it’s not just because I’m enjoying the soft porn I’m getting every week from watching these two.  Come on, admit it, watching Stefan and Elena every week was like watching a fairy tale compared to her and his brother.  
 


On Screen Chemistry

 
This has more to do with the actors than the actual characters themselves.  I call it the “feeding off one another” phenomenon (yeah, I need to work on that title a bit more).  For an example, I’m pulling from my Supernatural fan perspective.  Jared Padalecki came into that show in my opinion one fairly weak actor.  Great looking, but weak.  His Gilmore Girls performances left something to be desired.  Yet the second he stepped on screen with Jensen Ackles, his screen presence suddenly multiplied by ten.  By the middle of the second season, he grew so much as an actor he was pretty much on par with his stronger acting co-star.  Since season three, he’s delivered amazing stuff every single week.  


 
The same thing in The Vampire Diaries season three is happening with Nina Dobrev.  She’s a pretty girl but I always thought her screen presence was lacking a bit.  Then she started doing more scenes with Ian Somerhandler.  Yes, that was the sound of my jaw smashing to the floor.  There’s something about those two on screen together that sets off a giant sparks.  Suddenly, Nina is being listed among one of the finest actresses in TV.  Such acting improvement usually happens because of the right co-star to bring out your greatest strengths.  Ian has been strong from the very beginning but Nina, it’s been so much fun watching her grow this season.  More vulnerability, more hotness, more emotional depth, more strength, more…je ne sais quoi.  So for Nina’s sake (as well selfishly as my own), this pairing should continue.  
 
The Plot Possibilities
 
If Damon and Elena got together, it would be a match made in Heaven, right!  Ha!  Far from it.  You see, these two don’t exactly exude stability, a lot having to do with that self-conflicted yet oh so hot moody vampire who’s a little more good that he would like to admit.  I’m not looking for a “together one week apart the next” scenario.  That gets very old fast.  Older than “will they or won’t they.”  I’m looking for a “How dysfunctional can this relationship possibly get?” twist.  Damon will do something unthinkable, and then Elena will do something even more unthinkable back.  It’s a lot like what they’ve done already, just this time to each other.  Continue to throw Alaric into the mix, being the father figure to Elena and best friend for Damon, and it can only get better.  


 
Let’s face it, what’s usually derailed romances in television in the past after a long “will they or won’t they” build up is they get boring.  Turns out once the sexual tension is gone, there’s nothing left.  I have confidence that the writers are fully aware of this trap, and lucky for them, they have a character in Damon that will likely prevent “routine” from happening.  He’s crossed too many lines, and I doubt finding love again after 140 some years isn’t going to stop that now.  
 
I’m fascinated where they can take this, because the smoking hot sexual tension will get old too after a while.  Remember Tyler and Caroline?  There comes a point where you just can’t take it anymore.  Come to think of it, Tyler and Caroline aren’t boring either, but then again they have that whole vampire/werewolf-hybrid dynamic that makes things fun.  

The Love Triangle, or Square, or Whatever!
 
I hear it, “What about poor Stefan?”  Yeah, the love triangle thing is a must is these vampire stories I guess.  After all, Elena just can’t dump her love for Stefan.  But now that Elena has seen Stefan’s ugly side, and has known Damon’s ugly side from the very beginning, who’s more fun?  I get she’ll probably spend the series bouncing back and forth between the two, just like Katherine, but remember item #1?  The chemistry thing?   At this point, Stefan’s best purpose is dramatic tension, you know, the thing that gets in the way of Damon and Elena having a sappy, whirlwind romance.  I’m all for dramatic tension.   


 
Dopplegangers Have More Fun
 
Elena is not your typical 18 year old getting ready to graduate high school (and boy I can’t wait until they get away from that high school setting).  She knows her future won’t involve baking cookies in the kitchen for the rugrats.  She’s in love with one vampire, and whether she wants to admit it or not, she’s in love with the other too.  She’s also going to be targeted as the breeding ground for hybrids her whole life.  Will she kick into self preservation mode someday and turn herself into a vampire like Katherine did?  Who knows, but whatever the future holds for the young Ms. Gilbert, it ain’t gonna be the apple pie life.  
 
So what does this have to do with Damon?  I know Katherine wanted to have both, but Katherine had this convenient little distraction of faking her own demise.  Elena, having the practical head on her shoulders, is gonna have to choose.  Now she could take a high ground and not choose either, allowing herself to be a spinster breeding nothing but freakish vampire/werewolf hybrids, but when you’re that young and both the brothers you love are capable of being unstable dicks, why not pick the fun one?  Damon doesn’t take himself too seriously, and in her situation, Elena really doesn’t need to take herself so seriously either.  Plus we’ve seen it, she has a lot more fun around Damon.  There’s something about him that let’s her wild side come out.  It’s time to get in the Camaro babe and go for a ride!  
 
How Cozy Can Two Non-lovers Get? 


 
I’m not sure how many people were shouting “called it!” when it was Damon who showed up at the hospital to get Elena after her blood was taken, but I didn’t care if it was predictable or not.  The tenderness as he comes in, seeing what’s been done to her, and how he gently scoops her up and takes her home, that turned me into a puddle.  This is the stuff romance novels strive to be.  It stays good as he’s comforting her back at his house, vowing to never leave her alone again.  Sure it’s a promise he probably can’t keep, but the way those words were spoken, he meant it.  It may have made Elena a little uncomfortable, but that all changed once jerky Stefan showed up to ruin the mood.  
 
Then there’s this…



 
This part of the Damon/Elena dynamic is the one that’s toughest to explain for me.  It’s so…creepy, weird, unusual, yet so freaking delicious.  How can these two be so comfortable around each other in the kitchen, in the bedroom, in the bar, in the car, in the…you get it.  These are their moments alone.  They’re like best friends, but a bit too cozy to be best friends.  Okay, a lot.  I mean, Elena just crawls into bed, falling asleep while Damon is there lying by her side staring at her like she’s the most beautiful thing in the world.  


How does that not creep her out?  Maybe after what she’s seen, nothing can creep her out anymore.  I swear if these two don’t start having sex soon, they’re gonna end up each night hanging out, putting each other’s hair in curlers and painting toenails.  Just when you think things couldn’t get any weirder.  

 
And THIS….



Their last scene together in “Homecoming.”  They both come to the heartbreaking realization that Stefan is gone.  Sure they don’t know the part that Stefan did what he did to protect Damon, but it’s heartbreak nonetheless.  It’s Elena’s turn to be comforting.  How can she not have fallen for this guy???  I think she has.  The only thing tearing these two apart right now is extreme guilt.  I do adore how Damon has maintained remarkable restraint with her in his vulnerable situations.  Now that she’s making the move, it’s a whole new ballgame.  
 
So fans, what do you think?  If Damon and Elena do get together, how would you like to see the romance handled?  I can’t imagine this pairing would follow the syrupy, star crossed lovers angle that eventually bored me with Stefan and Elena.  If it did, then Katherine and Stefan will have to get that square thing going again.  Oh, let’s just throw in Tyler and Caroline too, just to make it interesting.   


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