Seven months ago, when the DE fandom was struggling to find their way out of the pit of doubt and despair which the writers had happily thrown them into; I published an लेख voicing my concerns about Kevin and Julie's 'hot and cold' approach to Delena, and on their insistence that Damon had to apparently become 'worthy' of Elena before their relationship could be considered. link
It looked like Kevin and Julie had doomed Delena before they had even begun. What were the chances that Damon would ever settle down and learn how to be 'good'? "He screwed up...Everyone loves Damon but he's not worthy of her yet, in my opinion," Kevin stated bluntly in an interview.
I didn't like the implications of this at all. This was Damon we were talking about here. As much as I loved him, I knew he would never be perfect, and quite possibly, never be good enough for Elena. Why was Stefan considered good enough to be with Elena, when Damon wasn't, when they were both vampires?? My main concern was: if Elena only fell in प्यार with Damon for the good things he did, then she didn't really प्यार HIM. If Elena's प्यार came with a सूची of conditions attached, then she obviously didn't प्यार him for who he was. प्यार is unconditional (or it should be), and if आप have to 'earn' it द्वारा doing good deeds, then it can't really be प्यार in the first place. It made me very uneasy.
Fast-forward seven months to the aftermath of the season 2 finale. Damon's road to redemption has not been straightforward या painless. In fact, it has been littered with many set-backs, one of them major. In a way, it seems a bit strange to think that the writers have finally deemed him deserving of Elena's प्यार when much of what Damon has done this season has been worse than what he did in the first season. I'm not going to name them all, but it often felt as though Damon had only just got back into Elena's good पुस्तकें before doing something to make her hate him again. ('The Last Day' is a prime example of this.) However, the lengths Damon is willing to go to protect Elena redeems him. Inevitably, there will always be some प्रशंसकों who argue that simply being bitten द्वारा a werewolf and almost dying doesn't let him off the hook for the bad things he's done, just as force-feeding Elena his blood to save her doesn't justify his actions. This is why Stefan's murky past as a ripper is so important to remember. If Klaus is to be believed, it could be that Stefan's past as a vampire is a lot bloodier than Damon's, which would be a fantastic twist. It throws the entire 'good brother/bad brother' वाद-विवाद into disrepute. Basically, if Stefan has been just as bad as Damon, या dare I say it, maybe even worse, it throws the argument SE प्रशंसकों are so fond of reciting out the window. प्रशंसकों will no longer be able to predict who Elena should be with या which brother deserves her और if both brothers are the same. It would be head-spinning if, after all this time, Elena had been dating the brother who was hiding the darkest secrets of all.

The Season 2 finale received an astonishing response from DE fans. Only the very callous of viewers could watch DE in that episode and still try to downplay the heartfelt emotion and tenderness they displayed, especially on Elena's side. At the CW Upfront, Nina pointed out the parallels between the 'Founder's Day' किस and the Season 2 finale kiss: "It was legitimately Elena चुंबन Damon, her choice, she made the हटाइए and not him. He was his most vulnerable, and he was so beautiful and damaged and honest, and Elena likes the good guy at the end of the day."
Being so close to death brings Damon and Elena closer in a way they never have before. It brings all the defences that usually stand in their way down. It allows them to be open and honest in a way they couldn't be before. I think that seeing Damon in such a vulnerable state really affects Elena, and it kind of opens the door to how much she cares about him and feels for him.
I'm not too sure what Nina means when she says "Elena likes the good guy at the end of the day." Because she's seen Damon do some horrible things, and the same night she kisses him, he thinks she's Katherine and bites her. It's actually one of my favourite moments from the episode, but for Damon, it's just another thing to feel guilty about as he's on his deathbed, contemplating his life. Ultimately, as much as Nina might like to think that Elena likes the "good guy", it doesn't stop her from feeling deeply for the Damon who is flawed. I प्यार that Nina describes Damon as "beautiful and damaged." I think that is why so many people relate to him and empathise with him. I also think that could explain why Elena is so drawn to him, in spite of herself. Ever since Season One, Elena has demonstrated that she has a unique understanding with Damon - such as agreeing to help him get Katherine back for example. Even after 2x01 she doesn't completely give up on him, even though he probably would have deserved it if she had never spoken to him again. आप have to ask yourself where this understanding comes from and why Elena never shuts Damon out of her life completely.

I think Elena sees Damon for who he is, and that's not someone who's irretrievably evil and a लॉस्ट cause, but someone who is damaged या broken. Where another person (like Bonnie), would have written Damon off for the things he does, Elena never does that, regardless of what she might profess. While it would be easiest to claim that it's because she cares about him as a friend, I think that if आप look at their journey up til now, mere friendship doesn't quite cover it या go deep enough. I know that some प्रशंसकों won't agree with me, but if Elena only saw Damon as a friend, she would have thrown up her hands and cut him out of her life long ago. Why shouldn't she? He's done some awful things since he came to Mystic Falls, his attack on Jeremy being the worst. If all they had was friendship, then I believe those cords would have been cut द्वारा Elena a long time before the finale. Yes, Elena's a 'good girl', but that doesn't explain why she would want to keep Damon around दिया the blemished track record she knows he has. I think that Elena would have been absolutely justified to sever her friendship with Damon forever, especially after she'd been there for him in so many ways in Season One. "Don't make me regret being your friend," she tells him in 1x22. No sooner has she कहा these words, and Damon does something to make her regret it. (Not in this episode, but in 2x01). Would a friendship have survived such a traumatic ordeal? I don't think so. People might not agree, but I believe that the only reason why Delena lived to tell the tale this साल is due to one thing, and one thing only: Love.
Friendship can be fickle. It can let us down, betray us, stab us in the back, and abandon us for something या someone else. Even the very best of फ्रेंड्स can fail us. प्यार doesn't. प्यार holds on when everything seems लॉस्ट and it refuses to let go.
Elena had every reason to hate Damon for as long as she lived, and a choice to punish him द्वारा banishing him from her life and never forgiving him. But she doesn't. She can't let him go. Why? Because she sees how damaged he is, and that he needs her, and because she loves him. Not in the way that she loves Stefan, (that'll come later), but she loves him nevertheless. Elena has shown that in 2x22. She knows the bad things he's done, and yet she not only forgives him but she accepts him as he is: "I like आप now...just the way आप are." She doesn't say: "If आप get your act together, then maybe some दिन I could learn to like आप again." Or, "I liked आप a lot better five months पूर्व before आप did A, B and C." Elena knows Damon's faults better than anyone, except perhaps for Stefan. So to admit that she likes him as he is now, knowing perfectly well what his many flaws are and without wanting to change him, या exchange him for the person he was in 1864 is a momentous declaration.
It's not that Damon has suddenly changed and become good overnight...but we can see subtle shifts in his behaviour - from choosing to let Andie go instead of killing her, to immediately feeling remorse for feeding Elena his blood and setting out to make things right - individiually, they might not seem very much, but when viewed collectively, आप realise he's a far cry from the vampire we first met in Season One. Elena has never single-handedly tried to go about 'reforming' Damon - if he's changed, it's because it's come from within. But it's unlikely he would have changed at all if he didn't प्यार Elena. Damon has been redeemed द्वारा love, and और than that, through his प्यार for Elena, he's shown that he truly deserves to be with her.