page_title: List of The Vampire Diaries characters
section_title: Damon Salvatore
hierarchical_section_title: List of The Vampire Diaries characters / Main characters / Damon Salvatore
caption_attribution_description: English: Ian Somerhalder at the 2015 San Diego Comic Con International in San Diego, California.
context_page_description: The Vampire Diaries is an American fantasy-drama television series which was first broadcast on The CW from 2009 to 2017, airing 171 episodes over 8 seasons. Kevin Williamson and Julie Plec adapted the TV series from L.J. Smith's novel series of the same name. Some of the characters appeared in the spin-off series, The Originals.
  The series is set in the non-fictional town of Mystic Falls, Virginia. The main points of the show are a love triangle – involving Elena Gilbert, a doppelgänger and later vampire, and vampire brothers Damon and Stefan Salvatore – and the town's supernatural history, involving Elena's friends and relatives.
context_section_description: Played by Ian Somerhalder
  Starring seasons: 1–8
  Damon Salvatore (based on Damon Salvatore from the novels) is a vampire, turned by Katherine Pierce one hundred and forty-five years prior to the beginning of the main storyline. He is the son of late Giuseppe Salvatore and the older brother of Stefan Salvatore. He is portrayed as a charming, handsome and snide person who loves tricking humans, and takes pleasure in feeding on them and killing them during the early episodes of the first season.
  During the first season, Damon gradually becomes kinder to the other characters, showing brief moments of compassion such as erasing Jeremy's traumatic memory of vampires. Damon apologizes for turning Vicki Donovan into a vampire and admits it was wrong. Later, he admits to Elena he came to the town wanting to destroy it but actually found himself wanting to protect it. Damon and Elena begin to kiss passionately before getting interrupted – it is later revealed that it wasn't Elena he kissed, but Katherine Pierce.
  In season two, Katherine tells Damon that she loved Stefan and never loved him. Elena later says something similar, leaving Damon heartbroken. He snaps Jeremy's neck (though Jeremy is wearing a ring which reverses damage done by supernatural creatures), incurring Elena's wrath. Bonnie declares hatred for Damon when she learns his blood turned Caroline Forbes into a vampire. After saving Elena and Stefan, Damon confesses his love for Elena but then compels her to forget his selfish words. Damon joins Rose to find out why the Originals are after Elena; they have sex, and Damon comforts Rose when she suffers a fatal werewolf bite. Elena and Damon then begin to mend fences, and Elena cares for Damon when he is bitten by Tyler at the end of the season. Expecting he will die, Elena gives him a kiss, but Damon is later cured by the blood of Klaus, the original hybrid.
  In the third season, Damon helps Elena bring Stefan back to Mystic Falls. He is at first reluctant to involve Elena in the rescue attempts, and employs her guardian, Alaric Saltzman, in order to conceal that Elena is alive. Stefan's change in attitude causes a rift between Elena and Stefan while Damon and Elena grow closer. Elena's refusal to admit this incenses Damon, who reverts to previous uncaring and reckless behavior. This continues until, in a heated moment, Elena admits to loving both brothers. Elena chooses Stefan and Damon seems to accept this decision and his death by Alaric, but rushes to the hospital when he realizes Elena has died.
  Damon starts season four at Elena's bedside after learning that she died with vampire blood in her system, and is transitioning. Damon tries to kill Rebekah with a White Oak Stake, but she overpowers him and escapes. Later, Damon uses Matt as bait to draw out the deputies and Pastor Young. After dispatching the deputies, Damon is about to kill Matt when stopped by a vampiric Elena. Damon makes Elena drink his blood when she seeks his help from a new vampire hunter, which leads to a fight with Stefan over what kind of vampire Elena will become.
  Damon tasks Stefan with learning more about Connor, a vampire hunter, while Damon accompanies Elena to college to teach her how to hunt and erase memories from her victims. Damon declares that he loves Elena whether she's human or vampire, and they eventually begin a relationship, though it is complicated by a sire bond between them (his blood was used to turn her). Damon uses the sire bond to make Elena turn off her humanity to avoid the guilt of Jeremy's death. Later, Damon and Stefan force her to turn it back on, at which point the sire bond has broken. However, Elena remains in love with Damon and they continue their relationship.
  In season six, Damon and Bonnie are trapped in a 1994 Prison World, which Damon initially believes is his own personal hell, as they continually relive a painful day from his past. While working with Bonnie to find a way back to Mystic Falls, and to take down Kai, Damon becomes friends with Bonnie. Eventually, Bonnie sends Damon back, leaving herself trapp
caption: Ian Somerhalder
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