We like (no, love) Delena just the way they are, even if it felt like 162 years for them to finally have their first kiss on The Vampire Diaries.
When the Salvatore brothers rolled into Mystic Falls, we thought the only good brother was Stefan, but there was another, hidden deep down, waiting for his soulmate, who he thought was buried under a church. We fell in love with Stefan and Elena's relationship at the beginning, but we had no idea that a love triangle would soon form. We had no idea that we would completely switch brothers and fall in love with Damon and Elena's growing relationship.
We also had no idea that we'd get a lot of false starts in their relationship, a lot of sexual tension, and... a lot of waiting.
Now that the show has been over for a couple of years now, and the actors have gone on to do bigger and better things, we're still hung up over the fact that it took so long for Damon and Elena to kiss. But there were a couple of variables behind the scenes that prevented them from being together a lot faster.
Damon's Storyline Got Complicated For Writers
At the beginning of season one, it was clear that there was a good and bad brother. But when fan's love for Damon escalated, the show's writers had a problem on their hands. They found out they couldn't turn audiences against the bad brother anymore.
"You do respond to what works," TVD's co-creator, Kevin Williamson, said. "When you are in the writer's room and you have this really great twist and this really great moment where, 'Aw, I know, why don't we let Ian [Somerhalder] kill Elena's brother? That's the way to make him bad again; that's the way to turn Elena against him. He should be the villain."
Still, none of the attempts to make Damon bad again swayed fans in the slightest. They didn't exactly want him to be completely good (and boring) like Stefan, and they didn't exactly want him to be completely bad either, to the point where Elena despised him.
So this probably played into why Delena took forever to happen. They drip-fed us little moments, tried to change our minds about Damon, but nothing could change the way fans thought of him. They created a monster, thinking they gave us a villain, but Damon was so much more. He was multi-faceted. Once they made him an anti-hero, it was too late to turn back.
"Once we made him nice we couldn't turn Damon into a villain to save our lives," Williamson continued. "The audience loved him no matter why. And we kept trying to turn the audience against him again just so that we can win him back again and it was really hard. . . I think the trick is... I try not to read Twitter; I try not to let it influence me."
There was also the fact that the creators of the show always wanted Elena and Stefan to end up together, so no wonder it took so long for Delena's first kiss. They also wanted both Damon and Stefan to die by the end of the show too.
"As I Lay Dying" Was A God Send, Sort Of
Since the end of season one, there was hope for Delena. There were teases. That moment in the rain, their dance, Isobel's revelation of Damon's love...and then that unfortunate hijinx on the porch.
Season two was no better. We never knew we'd hate the words "it'll always be Stefan" so much. The whole season saw a drought in juicy Delena moments until Damon confessed his love for Elena...and then made her forget. Were the writers teasing us? Yes, and no. They had grand plans.
One of the biggest questions that the writer's dealt with in the early seasons was when Stelena was going to break up. They had to consider what all the fans would think if they broke up and Delena happened immediately, and they had to give both brothers their time with her.
Executive producer Julie Plec also had a firm belief that Delena shouldn't happen until Elena was a vampire, which they had planned for the end of season four, so it was just a waiting game. They gave Delena and Stelena fans little tidbits here and there until it was solely Delena.
From a logical standpoint, what use would it be if Delena happened right away? The whole point of a show is to draw that stuff out for as long as possible to get fans to tune in every week. The dancing around each other is what gets us excited.
There were hardly any juicy Delena moments in season two; that's why their deathbed first kiss was so powerful. It was a good-bye kiss, as Elena claimed, but a kiss nonetheless, in a moment that the whole season had been building towards. One that probably warranted fresh breath too.
Appearing on Elle's Thirst Trap back in 2019, Somerhalder explained that it's essential to have good breath going into a kissing scene.
"When you’re next to someone like this for hours [in] a day, and they’re eating salmon and broccoli and onions, [and] garlic mixed with coffee and protein powder, it becomes pretty gnarly," he said. Minty breathe aside, it was also probably enjoyable for Somerhalder and Dobrev to share this on-screen kiss just as they were starting their off-screen affair.
Watching that scene was like having a wave of relief wash over us, but they didn't kiss again until season 3's "The New Deal." In fact, season three was just another tease, only at a slightly faster trajectory. But at least we know that the writers didn't go into it lightly. They had a strategic plan to their madness, and they wanted to be fair to not only the fans but the characters too. Delena happened in the end, so we really shouldn't complain.
