"I love you, and it's because I love you that I can't be selfish with you..."
I want to comment on Stefan kissing Elena in the finale. And compare it with Damon's love confession to her in 2x08.
Stefan knew she was soon going to make her choice between them. Okay, it was a "goodbye kiss", "just in case". I am not saying that he had no right to kiss Elena, because she hadn't made her choice yet. But that is the way he left her to make her choice. Now we need to put ourselves in Elena's shoes. She hadn't felt Stefan's kiss in a year, and let's be honest, a kiss always brings something. And in this case, I think it brought back her feelings for him. I'm not saying she stopped loving him, but those feelings of being with him when they were all over each other, acting all lovey-dovey and kissing each other. She just started loving Damon, she's never been with him. Hence, her kiss with Damon a few episodes ago was not of this way. But she remembered what it was like to be with Stefan. With that kiss. Of course it is easier to choose the one you are certain of what it will be like with. She was pursued. Stefan wanted to kiss her, but...
When Damon confessed his love to her in season 2, she was also here with neither brother. Her and Stefan had broken up. She went back to Stefan, but her feelings would have been stirred up with Damon's confession. And Damon knew it would stir things up. Not that she would start loving him, but she would have forgiven him, she would have been affected by being around him. But he wanted her to be with Stefan. He did not want to ruin the possibility of them getting back together, and getting back together as soon as possible. Looking at it at this level, it would kind of have been a choice: Should she go back to Stefan or start wondering about Damon first? Damon did not want to pursure her in that way. Stefan wanted to kiss her, to get that last kiss in case it would have been the last. Damon wanted to tell her he loved her, but here is the difference. He did not let it affect her. It is not as if Stefan did not think a kiss from him would affect Elena. He needed to kiss her because not only did he need to feel that kiss, so did he think Elena did. Damon told her he loved her because he did, and that was simply it.
"I promise you, I will never leave you again..."
The same thing goes with Stefan telling her he still loved her, then telling her she also loved Damon. Again he let it affect her feelings for Damon because she had been told how Stefan loved her. And again we need to put ourselves in Elena's shoes, because she had not heard those words from Stefan in a year. When Damon tells her he loves her, it is not because he wants her to make a choice. He has let it come on its own because he is selfless with his love. The first time he tells her he loves her, he makes her forget. The second him he tells her, he is dying. The minute Stefan "starts feeling again" he tells Elena to make a choice. And in my opinion, he pressured her. Like said, she had just started really feeling for Damon. To have got to make a proper choice, she needed to figure those feelings out more. In Stefan's mind, all she needed to do was to go on a trip with Damon and then just like that, she would have known who she wanted to be with. Meanwhile she's been in a relationship with Stefan for two years. Yes, Elena spent most of her time together with Damon throughout this year. And yes, she developed feelings for him through that time. But no, she was not sure of them. She was surprised when Stefan told her. Because she was in denial. So okay, then he wants her to figure them out. The supposedly selfless love he gives her. And if love is not left in her for him, he will simply leave her. Elena did not share Damon's love through all that time Damon loved her on his own. But guess what? He did not leave. After all the people Elena's lost, and she points this straight out to the both of them - she does not know how she can loose one of them. It will cause her great pain. And what does Stefan come up with? Instead of sticking around in her life at least to be there with her, at least be a friend, he wants one of them to disappear completely out of Elena's life. But Elena does not only need someone to be with in a relationship, and that is exactly what Damon has given her. That selfless love.
"I will always choose you..."
Elena may not have chosen Damon, but he will always choose her. And that will never go away. After all those times she has rejected him, after choosing Stefan time after time and time, Damon never leaves her. He is there for her, he takes all that he can get. Stefan could be without Elena the time he had to be without her simply because he was not in her life. He cut her out of his life. Damon does not need Elena to be with him to be in her life. He will always be there.
Damon came back. Even when he thought Elena was dead, he came back for her.
In my opinion, Elena's choice was not a fair choice. And I am so sick of the "one step forward, two steps back" thing. But no matter how many times and how long Elena and Stefan will be in a relationship, Damon was the first one there and he has been the one who has always been there.
fan art by DarkAvenger
