"Damon knelt down, and I rushed toward his side. Katherine was lying on her back, ropes binding her arms and legs. The ropes must have been covered with vervain, because there were terrible burns on the patches of skin that touched the twine. A leather mask covered her face, and her hair was matted with dried blood.

I stood back, not wanting to touch her or even look at her, as Damon set to work untying the muzzle. Once she was free, I couldn’t help but notice her teeth, her fangs, her true nature, obvious in a way I’d never seen before. But Damon was gazing at her as if in a trance. He gently brushed the hair off her face and slowly leaned in to kiss her lips.

“Thank you,” said Katherine simply. That was it. And watching them, the way Katherine’s fingers stroked Damon’s hair, the way Damon cried into her collarbone, I knew that this was true love."

-The Vampire Diaries: Stefan’s Diaries #1: Origins

I've often wondered why Damon and Katherine are contested so greatly. I mean, it is without a doubt the most romantic love story of the show. I wont go so far as to tell their story. We all know it by now. I'm no closer to coming up with an answer as to why everybody hates Datherine, but I have come up with an idea. Perhaps it can all be summed up in one word: Katherine. (If you're interested in some of the tropes I mention in the article, I have included links in the headings of each paragraph.)

THE BYRONIC HERO

http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/ByronicHero

Damon is the ideal hero that women fantasize about. He, along with many many other males (Stefan included) epitomise the trope of the Byronic hero. A Byronic hero is a dark, tortured male character who is tormented by a tragic flaw of some kind, or a past traumatic event that haunts him even today. He is usually intelligent, passionate, a social outcast, ridiculously good looking, socially dominant/imposing, and cannot be put in the category of either good or bad. He most commonly has everything a man could...

Why do I like Damon & Katherine even after all she put him through? No, not because they are 'hot", which seems to the reason that many people tend to pair them up. I always see a constant drag down of DK by the DE's (I am just going by what I have seen)because Katherine has hurt him. Yes, she has, but how many times has Elena done that? Second chances, it's all about second chances. About undoing what you did wrong the first time. Katherine is manipulative. Yes, but what about Elena? She's been playing "innocent" and been stringing along both the brothers but no one says anything to her. -- Datherine -- Because there is so much left unspoken and so many lies. Katherine isn't a person that can be revealed just from the surface, she is like an onion that needs to be peeled, layer by layer to unveil the truth. She is an enigma. The flashbacks -- she COMPELLED AND FED from Stefan. The first night the spent together she fed on him so there is no way she could have possibly slept with him. With Damon, she made love to him, she taught him everything about Vampires, she left him with a /choice/. Damon and Katherine are the real love story, here. The differences in the two...