| Damon Salvatore | |
|---|---|
|
Date of birth |
October 30th 1469 (Age 23/523) |
|
Gender |
Male |
|
Hair Color |
Black |
|
Eye Color |
Black |
|
Species |
Vampire |
|
Family |
Conte Di Giuseppe Salvatore (Father), Contessa Di Salvatore (Mother), Stefan Salvatore (Younger Brother) |
|
Soulmate |
|
|
Powers |
Standard vampire powers and abilities (enhanced speed, enhanced strength, enhanced physical condition, enhanced senses, enhanced hearing, enhanced sight (or night vision), enhanced taste, enhanced touch, immortality (also known as eternal life, endless life, death immunity, or longevity), enhanced immunity, enhanced endurance, enhanced stamina, enhanced reflexes, enhanced durability, enhanced combat, eternal youth or delayed aging, mind control or mind compulsion, mind reading, enhanced agility, enhanced invulnerability, weather manipulation, regenerative healing factor (also known as enhanced healing, enhanced healing factor, healing factor and regeneration), aura reading, telepathy, dream manipulation, shapeshifting, self-sustenance, daytime walking, blood consumption, enhanced leap, fear inducement, enhanced bite or fangs, animal morphing, crow form, wolf form) |
|
First Appearance |
After Hours |
Damiano "Damon" Salvatore is the tritagonist, the main antagonist and the anti-hero of The Vampire Diaries series. He is Stefan Salvatore's older, immoral and malevolent brother. Stefan is the main love interest, true love and significant other of Elena Gilbert, whom Damon also desires to possess and make his "Princess of Darkness". His soulmate is Bonnie McCullough (it is strongly implied in Evensong being that they have experienced all of the signs of The Soulmate Principle, such as electric jolts through skin to skin contact and kissing).
Damon is the oldest child born to Conte Di Giuseppe Salvatore and Contessa Maria Antonietta Salvatore. He was born October 30th 1469 in Florence, Italy. Damon is over 500 years old, his history dating back to the fifteenth century Italian Renaissance. He is sexy, sleek and dangerous, and is the complete opposite of his compassionate, sweet and empathetic younger brother Stefan.
Damon is the former flame of Katherine Von Swartszchild, his ex-vampire girlfriend, and the woman who turned him. Damon was born into a wealthy, rich and noble family in Florence, Italy, where he met Katherine.
Damon's mother died sometime after Stefan's birth. He generally doesn't care about Stefan, but there are some times in the series that prove that he does in fact love and care about the younger Salvatore deep down, despite constantly saying he loathes and hates him.
He usually is uncaring, ruthless, unkind, cruel and extremely selfish, however, he is capable of loving (although only a very small and select group of people). He has shown that he is capable of feeling when he loved Katherine back in the fifteenth century, also revealing his desire to protect Elena and especially Bonnie, whom he displays very over protective behavior towards, from all harm.
Damon is obsessed with possessing Elena and making her his own, but Elena repeatedly rejects his wishes and advances and stays loyal to Stefan and her strong, undying love for him.
When the series first starts, Damon is determined to torment and hurt Stefan and wreak havoc on the peaceful town of Fell's Church, in revenge against his younger brother out of anger and jealousy towards him. His jealousy, anger and revenge against his brother is also the reason he deeply craves for Elena to be his Princess of Darkness, but Elena refuses his offers, preferring to live among the light with her family, her friends and with Stefan. Even back in the fifteenth century, Damon lacked responsibility and had a very tension-filled and strained relationship with his father because of that. Guiseppe strongly favored Stefan and saw him as the dutiful, responsible, noble and upstanding son who was going to be successful, even saying that he did not want to tell his friends that he, Guiseppe Conte di Salvatore, had a son who was a ne'er do well coward in Damon.
Damon's former flame Katherine transformed him into a vampire, along with his younger brother Stefan. The two brothers rivalry only intensified and they fought, and Damon managed to pierce Stefan's heart, but, using the little strength he still had, Stefan used the opportunity to pierce his brother's heart, triggering Damon's vampiricness. Damon has made it his life's mission to torture Stefan and wreak havoc in his younger brother's life. However, deep down, it is shown that Damon can genuinely love, but this is concealed by evilness, arrogance, selfishness and ruthlessness and because of this, Damon can come off as very sadistic, cold-hearted, and cruel. Despite this, he cares for Elena and she has feelings for him, however, she feels significantly more passionate, deeper, stronger about Stefan. Damon has also shown that he deeply and strongly cares for Bonnie and that he has a very deep and strong connection with her. He is shown to be very affectionate, gentle, loving and tender towards her and he is very overly protective of her. Bonnie is Damon's established weak spot and berserk button.
History[]
Damon is first seen in a flashback to the fifteen-century Italian Renaissance. He was a twenty-two year old young man who was human and was a nobleman. He and his younger brother Stefan both fell in love with the beautiful young vampire Katherine Von Swartszchild. She loved Stefan and had even made plans on marrying him, but she eventually fell for Damon's dark and seductive charm and she loved Damon too, and refused to choose between them when they tried to force her. She ran away in tears, heartbroken that they both refused to agree to her choice of living together forever.
The next morning, they found Katherine's dress, her lapis lazuli ring and a pile of ash under her favorite lemon tree, along with a suicide note, claiming that her death would bring them closer together. Blaming each other for Katherine's death, the two brothers fought to the death and killed each other with swords. Damon wounded Stefan fatally, but Stefan used his last bit of strength to pierce his brother's heart, and Damon died too. The two woke up the next morning in their family crypt as vampires. Damon has more history apart from being turned by Katherine.
When Damon's father was drunk and in a temper, he would physically beat Damon, scarring Damon emotionally, spiritually and mentally. Damon resented Stefan because their mother, whom he was close to as a very young child, had grown seriously ill and weak after Stefan's birth and she died. Damon grew into a handsome, charming aristocrat, and he was tutored in his education, but was living dangerously and wildly with a life of adventure. Damon was not very academic and scholarly and he did not take school seriously. He seemed to show more interest in his favourite past times such as hunting and hawking, drinking, womanizing and sword fighting. When Damon announced that he was quitting university, his father was extremely angered and infuriated.
Physical Appearance[]
Physically, Damon is abnormally gorgeous, beautiful, masculine and sexy. His features are almost Godlike. Damon has a very high sex appeal, which, combined with his appearance, has attracted many women to him over the centuries, and still does. Because of Damon's immortality and vampirism, he does not physically age or evolve, despite being over 500 years old. This means that Damon is physically twenty-two forever. Damon has a dark romantic and seductive look. Elena has described him as being physically gorgeous. Bonnie has also said the same thing about Damon, although for Bonnie, she could be referring to something a lot deeper than just his physical appearance (she's attracted to his aura and his soul).
Damon is hauntingly beautiful and drop dead gorgeous. Damon has a smooth, flawless complexion and perfect, refined facial features. He is extremely pale-skinned, and has a shock of dark, jet black straight hair. Damon's hair is thick, but not as thick as his brother Stefan's hair texture, which is wavy in texture. Damon's eye color is black, as black as a crow, or as black as the midnight sky. Bonnie has said that Damon is "inhumanely beautiful." Damon has a slim, lean body type. He has hard, lithe muscles and a well-built physique or body.
Damon also has noticeably high cheekbones just like his younger brother Stefan and it seems to be a physical trait that the brothers share in common. A quote from The Awakening describes Damon's cheekbones:
"Those cheekbones were a sculptor's dream."
Damon often wears all black or dark clothing, with a black leather jacket, a black shirt or black vest, black jeans and black rider boots. However, there are some occasions where he will wear a white shirt. Damon also seems to have a preference for wearing black silk shirts. Damon, like Stefan, wears a lapis lazuli ring on his middle finger in order for him to be able to walk around during the daylight, given to him by Katherine. Damon is not very tall at all and he is rather stocky, short and compact, only being about 5'4" or 5'5"; his brother Stefan has a significant height advantage over him. Because he's not at all tall, Damon has said that he prefers short, small, and petite girls (like Bonnie) rather than average height or overly tall girls. He has a masculine, dominant, strong, commanding appearance, and a very powerful and compelling aura.
A quote from Phantom describes Damon's physique:
"She felt the lithe, hard muscles in his arms and chest as he held her tight. Damon is described as being "black on black"—soft black hair, eyes black as midnight." Damon looks very similar to Stefan, except Damon's eyes are darker in color, and his hair is straight rather than wavy or curly. A quote from The Hunters: Phantom describes Elena's thoughts on Damon: "God, he was so beautiful. Black on black: soft black hair, eyes black as midnight, black jeans and a smooth leather jacket."
Personality[]
Damon is the "bad", immoral and malevolent brother of the series. He is the complete and total opposite of his good, moral and benevolent younger brother Stefan. Damon is dangerous, unkind, sadistic, cruel, unsympathetic, cold hearted, uncaring and ruthless. He is also sadistic, unmerciful, remorseless, careless, arrogant and impulsive. Damon has a very dark, compelling personality. Damon uses whoever he wants to get what he wants, not caring who he hurts in the process. He constantly plays word games, especially when it comes to dancing around an issue. Damon is highly appealing to women, is a womanizer and he attracts them like a moth to a flame.
Damon's dancing-around-an-issue attitude becomes clear when it involves his true feelings on a subject (like his deep feelings for Bonnie). Damon is elegant, has an aristocratic demeanor and he has a very pragmatic outlook on life. He also has no problem with threatening or intimidating small children (it is unknown if he would have gone through with his threat to hurt Elena's little sister Margaret). Damon believes that it is vampire nature to kill and that they are natural hunters and predators, therefore believing that Stefan's attempt to only hunt animals is unnatural.
Even though Damon claims to passionately loathe Stefan, it's shown throughout the series that deep down, he does in fact love and care about the younger Salvatore. Damon has absolutely no problem with killing innocent humans and doesn't care if he ever hurts them. He kills Mr. Tanner, but claims he only did so because Tanner pulled a knife on him, and thus, it was self-defense. Aside from caring about his younger brother Stefan, Damon has strong feelings for both Elena and Bonnie, though very different. Damon gives Elena more attention because he sees her as a prize to win, but he still happens to also deeply love Bonnie. He refuses to hurt or feed on her under any circumstances and is always there for her when she needs him. Damon is extremely over protective of Bonnie and it's shown that Bonnie is both a weakness and a berserk button for Damon.
However, Damon's main focus throughout the series is possessing Bonnie's best friend Elena, body and soul. Despite his over-zealous obsession with Elena, Damon feels a "weak spot" for Bonnie. He refused to let Bonnie go underwater when he bathed her, and would rather take a punch from Stefan than let Bonnie fly underwater. Damon has a very violent history due to his early vampire life, when he started his own mercenary company. While we aren't given any glimpses into his mercenary life, it was implied that he did very bad, terrible, and awful things with absolutely no regrets about it.
Damon deeply, strongly and indescribably cares and feels for Bonnie. There have been many hints throughout the series that show a very strong and powerful bond between the two of them. Damon and Bonnie have an electrifying and intense relationship. It is also magnetic, but still a tender connection and bond.
However, though, throughout the series , Damon's focus is possessing Elena body, mind and soul. Damon has seen Bonnie as somewhat child-like and immature. He believes Bonnie to be immature, childish and thinks that she does not fit what his "ideal" mold of a woman is of his type. Damon often mentions that Bonnie is physically, mentally and emotionally too immature for him, despite Bonnie being the same age as Elena. He often refers to Bonnie as a "woman-child." However, despite all this, he still feels an indescribable, deep, strong bond and connection to Bonnie. Even though Damon has an over-zealous obsession with Elena, he still has a "weak spot" for Bonnie. Bonnie is the very first person to show Damon's deeply buried, hidden humanity without absolutely any effort, long before even Elena ever managed to do so.
Bonnie does temper Damon's darkness and effortlessly brings out his softer, gentler, tender side, this revealing the true inner Damon that is locked inside and surrounded by thick walls for over five centuries. A quote from The Return: Nightfall displays the indescribable weak spot/bond that Damon has with Bonnie: "Contemplating his bedraggled little bird (Bonnie), who was clutching the towel to her instinctively, with her fiery hair plastered to her head and her big brown eyes blinking between strands, something swelled in Damon. Stefan had run to the door to tell the others the good news. For a moment, it was just the two of them: Damon and Bonnie."
The quote from Nightfall continues:
"The new thing he was feeling had swollen inside his soul until the pressure was almost too much to stand. When Bonnie said, "But I'm alive!" with an abrupt 180-degree turn in mood, her heart-shaped face flushing in joy, the fierce pride Damon felt in response was intoxicating."
Another quote from Nightfall displays Bonnie's strong effect on Damon without any effort:
"And then the swelling thing burst. There was to Damon, a palpable if not audible crack as the stone encasing his soul burst open and a great piece fell away. With something inside him singing, he clutched Bonnie to him, feeling the wet towel through the raw silk shirt, and feeling Bonnie's slight body under the towel. Definitely a maiden, and not a child, he thought dizzily, whatever the writing on that infamous scrap of pink nylon had claimed."
The quote continues:
"He clutched at her as if he needed her for blood-as if they were in hurricane-tossed seas and to let go of her would be to lose her."
Another quote from Nightfall goes on to show Bonnie affecting Damon's soul strongly during a deeply intense moment between them:
"His neck hurt fiercely, but more cracks were spreading all over the stone; it was going to explode completely, letting the Damon it held inside out-and he was too drunk on pride and joy, yes, joy, to care. Cracks were spreading in every direction, pieces of stone flying off...Bonnie pushed him away."
Damon has frequently saved Bonnie's life on many occasions, always being there for her when she needs him the most (when she needs help). Damon is also very protective of her and he refuses to ever harm her under any circumstances, but no reason has been stated for this. Damon is also very giving, selfless and generous to her, and has an "unconditional" bond with her. Damon can't stop himself from always saving Bonnie. Damon has actually saved Bonnie's life long before the original series started, from a pack of dangerous werewolves who had come to torment Bonnie and then attack her afterwards.
Damon and Bonnie then met unexpectedly and shared a kiss for the very first time and afterwards (it was described as being very intense by Bonnie herself). After saving and kissing Bonnie, Damon influenced her to forget the event as well as their first meeting, therefore, to this day, Bonnie is still clueless about it. Damon is very tender, gentle, nurturing, caring and loving towards her (he played the role of 'caretaker' for her in The Return: Nightfall, after she was poisoned by an unknown toxin from a tree and even fed her vampire blood as medicine).
Bonnie is the only person in the novel series whom Damon repeatedly and perpetually refuses to bite or feed from.
For some unknown reason, Damon finds himself drawn to and fascinated by her softness, fragility, purity, innocence and maidenly persona. In some ways, Damon has taken his bond and feelings toward Bonnie for granted, but Bonnie doesn't seem to understand because of her lack of maturity throughout the series. Bonnie naturally brings out Damon's human side, and he brings out her stronger, significantly more stable, serious, mature side, however, despite this, they have had a somewhat tumultuous relationship throughout the series. Damon has a frequent tendency to avoid Bonnie at times.