Stefan, Katherine, and Damon

The relationship between the vampire doppelgänger Stefan Salvatore, the vampire Damon Salvatore and the cured vampire/deceased witch doppelgänger, Katherine Pierce started at some point in 1864 when Katherine came to Mystic Falls in order to hide from Klaus and met the Salvatore brothers. She had a romantic relationship with both, although she had a clear preference for Stefan and would later reveal, in recent times, that she never loved Damon and that it was always Stefan.
Katherine had planned to turn both brothers into vampires, and had been feeding them vampire blood for a while already when her identity was revealed and they were both killed by their own father for trying to protect her. However, Damon truly loved her and had hoped to be the only one to be turned into a vampire by her, so he was angry at his brother for being turned into one as well. Furthermore, Damon had been told by Emily Bennett that Katherine had been entombed along with all the other vampires in the town in 1864 as a form of protection, and so, for over 140 years, he dreamed of bringing Katherine back as he shared a bitter and violent relationship with his brother.
In recent times, Damon came back to Mystic Falls after finding what he believed to be a way to finally bring Katherine back. However, after meeting Katherine's descendant and fellow doppelgänger Elena Gilbert, and upon realizing that the former had never loved him, Damon stopped caring for her and started working with his brother to protect Elena and her friends and family from various supernatural threats. When Katherine eventually returned to Mystic Falls as well and with the goal of killing Elena for various reasons, the Salvatore brothers and her became enemies. Afterwards, Damon's and Katherine's hate for each other continuously grew, and so did Damon's feelings for Elena.
Although Damon would jump on any occasion to get rid of Katherine for good, Stefan has been more lenient with her, believing that she is merely the person that she is because of her harsh life.
The Stefan-Damon-Katherine love triangle is arguably the one to have had the most significant impact on the series' storyline.
Damon went off to the Confederate army but came back to find Stefan playing a game with Katherine. Katherine was happy he returned as she now had both brothers to keep her entertained. She needed someone to escort her to the Founder's Ball and both Stefan and Damon accepted to offer at the same time, awkwardly exchanging looks. Katherine was amused but in the end, she chose Stefan. After the dance, Stefan escorted Katherine, beaming with pleasure because she was staying with his family.
Stefan escorted her to her room and confessed his feelings for her and kissed her afterwards. Katherine was taken by surprise, but in a good way. When she entered her room, she found Damon was waiting there. He had no problem with Stefan's "feeble crush" but Katherine had compelled him to leave her alone. Katherine was alone in her room and she brushed her fingers over her lips, thinking happily about Stefan's confession and his kiss.
While having sex with Stefan, Katherine's true nature was revealed as a vampire and she bit Stefan. In the morning, she compelled a frightened Stefan to keep her secret and not to tell anyone. She had a future planned for herself, Stefan and Damon. She compelled both brothers to keep the secret from one another and eventually be together forever.
Katherine knew that George Lockwood knew what she was and made a deal with him: she would get him what he wanted, if she helped him escape the town. He agreed. Katherine continued her love affairs with both brothers. Damon fell deeply in love with Katherine and willingly drank her blood as he wanted to become a vampire himself and join the darkness in order to be with her for all of eternity. Pearl, a friend of Katherine's was aware of what she was doing to the brothers and advised Katherine against it, but Katherine wasn't bothered. Vampires were being hunted and the Salvatore brothers knew that if Katherine was exposed, she would be taken away and be destroyed. Stefan wondered whether it would be best if they told their father Giuseppe Salvatore so he would protect her but Damon was against the suggestion, knowing that if their father found out, he would kill Katherine himself. Damon, wanting Katherine to be safe, made Stefan promise not to speak a word to their father. Nevertheless, Stefan went to Giuseppe anyway and tried to convince him that there were good vampires in the world, but Giuseppe knew that vampires were monsters and there was no goodness in them. Suspicious of Stefan's judgment, Giuseppe spiked Stefan's drink with vervain. Unaware what his father had done, Stefan went about his daily business. Katherine knew when the vampires would be rounded up and wanted to see Stefan one more time.
When he and Katherine were alone, Katherine bit him. Stefan by now was used to her feeding on him and didn't mind but was confused and horrified when she collapsed, due to the vervain weakening her. Giuseppe came and told Stefan to alert the sheriff.
Damon came and tried to stop Katherine from being taken away. Giuseppe stopped him, knowing that if Damon was marked a sympathizer, he would be killed with her as well, but Damon didn't care. Damon was furious with Stefan for what he had done and blamed him for revealing who Katherine was. Both brothers decided to free her. In the process, Damon was shot and killed. Stefan picked up a gun and tried to shoot whoever had done it but was shot as well. Stefan watched Katherine get reloaded into the wagon and driven away as he died. Katherine escaped not too long after with the help of George Lockwood and looked back at the brothers' bodies. She then ran back to Stefan and confessed her love for him and kissed his lifeless lips, vowing that they would be together again someday.
Both brothers woke the next day as transitioning vampires. While Damon volunteered to be a vampire, Stefan had been compelled by Katherine to drink her blood. Becoming a vampire had been for Katherine only and because she was going to die, being a vampire was worthless. Stefan went to say goodbye to their father while Damon went to Fell's Church to see Katherine being taken inside before the building went up in flames. When he came back, Stefan had become a vampire with their father's blood. Stefan wanted them both to remain together forever and compelled a young woman to a "gift" for Damon's final transitioning. Damon was hesitant at first but the temptation for blood was irresistible and he drank the woman's blood. Damon was angry that Katherine had decided to turn Stefan as well and vowed his brother an eternity of misery. He talked to Emily Bennett, Katherine's handmaiden, who was a witch and had cast a spell on the church so the vampires were protected from permanent death. Because she kept Katherine alive, Damon protected her family when she was burned at the stake.
==History==
Katherine had kept an eye on Stefan and had been stalking him over the next few years, keeping a secure distance from him, knowing that Damon was always around because Damon always followed Stefan. Katherine admitted she was jealous seeing Stefan having fun with his best vampire friend, Lexi, and even referred to Lexi as a "wench." 
It was revealed in The Return, Katherine never loved Damon and that she always loved Stefan, as she always will.
==Throughout The Vampire Diaries Series==
===Season One===
Damon knew Katherine was still alive in the tomb with the 26 other vampires and planned to free her so they could spend the rest of eternity together while Stefan remained with her look-alike, Elena Gilbert. Stefan was shocked to find out about Katherine, but promised his brother he would help because he wanted him to leave and if he had Katherine, he would. The truth was, Stefan couldn't let Damon have what he wanted as bringing Katherine back was the worst possible thing. After Emily destroyed the crystal, it was revealed that her spell-book may have been what Damon was looking for.
Stefan got to Emily's grimoire before Damon but when Damon, threatened to turn Elena, Stefan gave him the spell book in exchange for Elena's safety. Elena's friend Bonnie Bennett and Bonnie's grandmother Sheila were descendants of Emily and also witches. They opened the tomb but after searching everywhere, Damon was shocked and devastated to find that Katherine wasn't there at all! He, Stefan and Elena got out of the tomb and they weren't the only ones. Another vampire, Anna, needed the tomb opened to retrieve her mother Pearl and she was successful. Damon found them and choked Pearl who told him the truth: Katherine was never in the tomb. A guard was smitten with Katherine and released her. Anna told Damon that she saw Katherine a few years ago and she knew where he was, but she didn't care. After hearing this news, Damon was heartbroken.
Damon drank and partied his sorrows out. With the return of Elena's vampire mother Isobel Saltzman who was working for Katherine, Damon, still angered by Katherine's deception, threatened Isobel who asked him for the device that could destroy all the vampires in Mystic Falls. He gave it to Elena who had Bonnie remove the spell on it and she gave it to Isobel, unaware that Bonnie did not do as she asked. At the Founder's Day Parade, Elena got dressed up as Katherine for a float with Stefan as her escort. Elena's uncle, now revealed to be her biological father, set off the device, incapacitating Stefan, Damon and rest of the tomb vampires as Katherine had wanted.
Alaric stopped Stefan from being captured and he and Elena managed to save Damon from being burned to death. Katherine returned to the town and took Elena's things and went to her house. She was surprised to see Damon there but as he was unaware of who she was, she posed as Elena. Damon kissed her as Elena's aunt, Jenna Sommers interrupted them and unwittingly invited Katherine in the house, believing her to be Elena. Katherine spoke to John who also believed she was Elena, but Katherine took and knife and cut off his ring and the rest of his fingers before stabbing him. Elena returned home, explaining to Stefan that her things were missing. She went inside and heard a noise coming from the kitchen. She went to see what it was.
Katherine and Damon kiss and make out, then Katherine reveals that she never really loved Damon.
===Season Two===
Katherine's return was only revealed to John at first, that was until Damon brought up the kiss he and "Elena" had, only with Elena not having a clue. That was when Damon realized who it really was. Katherine went back to the Gilbert house and came across Stefan who wasn't fooled like Damon. They had a small fight and Katherine escaped right as Elena and Damon entered the room.
Stefan was furious with Damon for attempting to kiss Elena but she reminded him it was Katherine he kissed. Stefan went to the Lockwood house and found Katherine with Bonnie. They left and went outside where he and Katherine spoke. He tried to see what she was up to. Katherine told Stefan she had come back for him, but when Stefan replied that he hated her, she stabbed him and said it was the beginning of a love story—not the end of one. She went to the Salvatore Boarding House to say goodbye to Damon but they ended up making out to the point where Damon asked her for the truth. Katherine told him the truth: she had never loved him; she had always loved Stefan. With that she left, leaving a seriously heartbroken Damon behind.
Stefan dreamed of dancing with Katherine in 1864 and in the dream, he playfully tried to kiss her. He denied him, bringing up the rules of dance, amusing him. Damon was upset about them dancing together, and when Stefan saw him again, he was with Elena, where 21st Century clothes against the formal 1864 attire. Stefan left Katherine and ended up in the Mystic Grill and watched on with shock and jealousy as Elena and Damon kissed and played pool together like a couple. Katherine entered again and watched with Stefan, viewing this as how she felt about Stefan with Elena.
Stefan woke up in his bedroom holding Elena. At first he was relieved, but was not fooled by Katherine's "Elena facade". He tried to attack her but she defended herself and threw him down easily. She found it very easy to get into his head. When he asked why she came back, she said that she came back for him. Stefan found Katherine reading his journal in the living room. As he gave her a cup of blood from Damon's personal stock, Katherine went back to the night of the First Founders' Party. Katherine said she had done all the talking and asked why Stefan had come back: for Elena, or to find a reason to fall back in love with her. Stefan approached her and caressed her face, wondering aloud how was it he could fall for her—before injecting her with vervain.
Stefan chained Katherine up in the basement and demanded why she had come back; her answer was: for him. Stefan put on gloves and broke apart a piece of vervain and tenderly touched her face with it, Katherine screaming in agony. Katherine was upset Stefan was torturing her and admitted that George Lockwood was the reason the vampires were rounded up and that she made a deal with him, knowing he knew she was a vampire, and knowing his own furry little secret. Katherine continued to tell Stefan that she had come back for him, nothing that even in 1864 he had loved her and she only compelled him so he wouldn't be frightened. Stefan refused this answer from her. Elena soon came to see Stefan and Katherine broke free of her chains, admitting that after that incident in 1864, she consumed vervain everyday to strengthen her system against it. She stabbed Stefan and went to meet Elena, but fled minutes later. That night, Katherine spoke to Damon by The Grill. They talk over the matter of werewolves and that Damon is no longer jealous of her likes for Stefan.
Once Damon kills Katherine's puppet Mason, a werewolf, Katherine compels Elena's aunt, Jenna, to stab herself. This causes Elena to see that Katherine would anything to break her apart from Stefan, so she breaks up with him. Katherine makes plans to retrieve the moonstone from the Salvatore's and attends the Masquerade Ball posing as Elena while Elena herself remained at home with Jenna and Alaric. Stefan and Damon worked with Bonnie, Caroline and Jeremy to destroy Katherine who gets the upper hand by bringing her own witch to the party. 
While Katherine dances with Stefan, she tells him to give her the moonstone or else she would kill someone, proving it by killing Aimee Bradley. Stefan and Damon manage to trap her but fail to kill once they find out that Katherine's witch linked Katherine and Elena together, forcing Elena to experience what Katherine went through. Bonnie convinces the witch, Lucy (also Bonnie's cousin), to betray Katherine. Damon and Stefan then lock Katherine away in the tomb with the moonstone. As Damon closes the door, Katherine begs him not too, saying Elena was in danger.
Despite her imprisonment, Elena convinced Caroline to remove the seal so she could talk to Katherine and gave Caroline the task on distracting Stefan. However, Stefan eventually puzzled together where Elena was and tried to dissuade her off anything Katherine had said to her, calling Katherine a "psychotic bitch". Katherine retorted that while anyone connected to Elena would be in danger, she herself would be safe in the tomb. Realizing they needed the moonstone, Stefan and Damon went to the tomb and tried to convince Katherine to hand it over. She refused and the brothers devised a plan to take it from her with the help of Bonnie. Jeremy on the other hand, went behind their back and tried to retrieve the moonstone himself but ended up becoming her prisoner. Damon was separated from the group to go and rescue Elena and Stefan ended up running into the tomb to stop Katherine from hurting Jeremy further. Once Stefan is trapped with Katherine, he orders Damon to keep an eye of Elena. Katherine muses that Damon was pleased that Stefan was out the picture, trying to taunt Stefan into playing with her. When Stefan wouldn't respond to her advances, Katherine played with his dreams. While he sleeps, Stefan sees Katherine's illusion; that she undresses in front of him and taunts him about Elena and Damon, leading to Stefan to make out passionately with her. However, Stefan immediately wakes up and snaps at Katherine to stay out of his head. Eventually, Elena makes a deal with Elijah, an Original vampire, to free Stefan from the tomb. Elijah complies and has his warlocks break Bonnie's spell. Stefan is freed and Elijah compels Katherine to remain in the tomb.
Despite Elena's insistence, neither of the brothers trust Elijah and plot to destroy him. Damon goes to Katherine and gives her blood and fresh clothes before informing her of the plan to kill Elijah with a silver dagger dipped in white ash wood. Katherine panics and says if Elijah dies, she's trapped in the tomb forever, prompting Damon to continue with the plan. However, Alaric does so instead, but the removal of the dagger brings Elijah back to life. He goes after Elena who tricks and stabs him again. Stefan and Damon store the body in the cellar and when Damon goes this room, he finds Katherine in his shower. She knew that Elijah's death would free her. She was now free to play games again. Katherine pretends to be Elena to fool the brothers until they could identify who was who. Katherine decides to help the brothers, but no one trusts her. Katherine tries to toy with Damon who refuses her advances. Elijah's warlocks try to free him, resulting in the death of the son, Luka Martin. His father, Jonas, goes after Elena. The brothers allow Katherine to pose as Elena for the attack. Katherine goes ahead to rip out his neck but he survives. Jonas returns Bonnie her powers before Stefan breaks his neck. However, although Katherine said she never loved Damon and that it was always Stefan. It's shown that she still cares for Damon deeply. When she visited the Salvatore Boarding House to give Damon the cure to a werewolf bite, she walks in on Elena kissing Damon. She gives him the cure and as she walks off she turns back around to Elena and says, "It's alright to love them both..I did." Damon and Elena looked after her as she left and then they looked at each other.
===Season Three===
===Season Four===
===Season Five===
In The Cell, Katherine tries to help Stefan deal with his PTSD and eventually gets inside the safe with him. Stefan grows anxious in the safe and almost loses control. He tells Katherine to leave because he doesn't 
want to kill her, but she tells him that she's dying anyway. Katherine soothes Stefan by placing her hands on his cheeks and telling him that she's here with him. Once Stefan has calmed down Katherine keeps her hands on his cheeks, and they almost kiss but before anything happens Caroline opens the safe.
Later in the episode, Katherine finds Stefan near the fireplace where their conversation soon leads to a kiss.
In Fifty Shades of Grayson, Katherine wakes up next to Stefan in his bed and remembers their night together. When she goes to hug him she stops, finding a lock of grey hair on the bed. She jumps off the bed and wraps herself up in a blanket when Stefan wakes up, not wanting him to see her like this.
Later on, Stefan comes to visit Katherine and tells her he wants to talk. He says that they had a moment and got swept up in it, implying that he doesn't expect anything else to happen or want more. Stefan then tells her that 147 years is a long time to forgive in one night. Katherine says that it doesn't matter if they had one night together or an eternity, because he'd never look at her the way he looks at Elena.
When Katherine begins to leave Stefan stops her by gently catching her hand, and then interlacing their fingers. He tells her that he's sorry that she's dying, and with tears in her eyes she says she's sorry too.
In 500 Years of Solitude, Damon forces a dream on to a dying Katherine while she is sleeping and makes her relive the death of her parents. He appears in the memory and tells her that this was all her fault, and continues to emotionally torture her. Later, Damon stabs her with a painkiller from the hospital that will make her sleep so that he can give her another dream. Nadia soon appears and snaps Damon's neck, to stop him from upsetting Katherine and bringing her more pain.
Later, Stefan comes to see Katherine. He doesn't believe that she deserves to die alone, even after everything that she has done. When he tells Katherine to close her eyes she refuses, saying that she wants to see him and not another dream. Stefan tells her she will and insists that she closes her eyes. When she does she finds herself back at the site of her parents death, and when Stefan appears she cries and tells him that Damon already had his fun with this memory.
Stefan urges Katherine to open her mind to him, and when she does he changes the dream. The dead bodies of her family and the blood on the walls disappear, and when Katherine asks Stefan what he is doing he tells her that she deserves to feel peace. Katherine then hears the sound of a baby crying and turns around to see her daughter in a tiny bassinet. After pressing a kiss to Katherine's forehead Stefan says goodbye and leaves her.
==The Novels==
In the novels, their relationship takes place in Renaissance Italy. Katherine von Swartzschild is the daughter of Baron von Swartzchild. She came from Germany. Stefan fell in love with her and their fathers were pleased by this and had discussed marriage plans—that was until Damon returned from the University. Giuseppe Conte di Salvatore, was not pleased with him. Only at Katherine's request did he allow Damon to stay, much to Stefan's disappointment. He was upset with how Katherine spent quite a lot of time with Damon. He and Damon argued over who would be a better suitor for her, and Katherine, unhappy with their rivalry, decided to make a choice, which she would announced on Sunday evening. The night before her final decision, she went to Stefan's chambers and he realized she had chosen him, much to his great delight. They exchanged blood and Stefan remained happy for the rest of the day. By Sunday evening, Katherine had made her choice. She gave Stefan a ring of Lapis Lazuli—and also gave one to Damon. She had chosen both of them, but she didn't realize that the rivalry was too strong and that neither of the brother had accepted her choice. Heartbroken, she ran off crying. Stefan and Damon later went to her chambers, but her maid, Gudren, told them she had gone to the garden. Stefan remembered Katherine's favorite place and went over to a lemon tree and was horrified to discover Katherine's favorite white dress covered in ash which smelled awful, like burnt fat, and a note, saying she had been selfish, wanting the both of them. She couldn't bear to be the cause of strife between the brothers and hoped that once she was gone, that they would no longer hate each other; Katherine was dead. She had left her ring with them, but instead of comforting each other as she had hoped, they fought over the ring, and eventually dueled for it, ending with Damon stabbing Stefan in the heart, killing him. Stefan, full of hatred for Damon, used his remaining strength to kill Damon, stabbing him too in the heart.
Katherine was heartbroken that the brothers weren't willing to look past their rivalry for her. She decided to fake her death in the hopes that the rivalry would end. She and Gudren planned to scam, leaving Katherine's favorite white dress under the lemon tree with ash from the fireplace and burnt fat. Katherine stood watching from a distance as she saw the Salvatore Brothers approach her "suicide", but was angered when they started fighting and killed each other. Afterwards, she went to Klaus, the vampire who turned her. She remained with him, long enough to become evil, and eventually attempting to kill him. She leaves thinking she was successful although she was not.
===The Awakening===
Stefan and Damon grew to hate each other even more as the years passed, but both were drawn to a small town called Fell's Church. Stefan attended the school as a student and the shock of his life when he met Elena Gilbert, who was an exact vision of Katherine. Despite his best attempts to keep a distance from her, he fell in love with Elena, but someone else had already taken an interest in her as well, Damon. The two argued about it and Damon attacked Stefan, draining lots of his blood out of him. Stefan stumbled away but fell unconscious. Stefan had been accused of the European history teacher, Mr. Tanner's murder and it didn't look good for him when he disappeared.
===The Struggle===
Elena confronted Damon who told her he killed Stefan. Elena didn't believe him and had Bonnie McCullough tune into to Stefan's thoughts to find him. He wasn't at Wickery Bridge as they had hoped but with the help of Matt Honeycutt, they discovered him in an old well, barely clinging to life. Elena and Stefan suspected Damon had dumped him there. This continued until The Founder's Day Parade. After an argument with Aunt Judith, Robert and Damon about her engagement to Stefan, Elena ran off to the boarding house to find him, but neither he nor Mrs. Flowers were home. Elena left, but a powerful force knocked her off the bridge as she was driving and she drowned. Stefan tried to save her, but was too late. Believing Damon was responsible, Stefan went to fight and kill him.
===The Fury===
Consuming the blood of both brothers was enough to transform into a vampire and stop the brothers from killing one another. New problems arose when the animals of Fell's Church started to attack the inhabitants, including Margaret's kitten Snowball. Bonnie used her psychic powers to communicate to Honoria Fell, who resided in her tomb, who warned them of a great evil that had entered town. Bonnie, Meredith, Matt and Alaric were able to escape, but Stefan, Elena and Damon stayed behind to fight a large white tiger. All three were knocked unconscious and when they awoke, they found themselves tied up, imprisoned by none other than Katherine. Katherine confessed that she had faked her death so the brothers could be happy, but was infuriated when the plan backfired. She had come to Fell's Church and was responsible for everything that had happened in the town: attacking and controlling Vickie Bennett, controlling the animals to attack humans and even knocked Elena off the bridge. Stefan was in shock, but Damon recognized Katherine as Margaret's kitten Snowball. Katherine was upset that Stefan had fallen in love with Elena and had given her Katherine's ring. She hated Stefan, but she loved him more than Damon. She offered Damon companionship, so they could be together after she killed Elena and Stefan, but Damon told her "Go to Hell". Furious, Katherine attacked him and drained him of blood. Elena managed to free herself of her bounds and, though Katherine was taken away the trio's Lapis Lazuli, fought Katherine, snatching away Katherine's Lapis necklace, causing Katherine to burn to ash in the sunlight. Stefan escaped the ropes too and pulled Elena out of the sunlight, but she had been poison by the light. As she died, Elena had Stefan and Damon promise to look after each other. Heartbroken, Stefan helped his brother to safety, then later, they left Fell's Church.
==Trivia==
==Gallery==
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|-|Season One=
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==See also==
Category:Relationships
Category:The Vampire Diaries (series)
Category:The Vampire Diaries Relationships
Category:Love Triangles
Category:Romantic Relationship
Category:Friendly Relationship
Category:Enemy Relationship
it:Stefan, Katherine e Damon