The Vampire Diaries’ Most Devastating Moment? This Damon’s Breakdown, Reddit Believes
Damon was a much more complex character than he seemed at first glance.
Womaniser and Mr. Bad Guy Damon Salvatore, played by Ian Somerhalder, quickly won the fans’ love with his passionate and controversial nature. And while he began the series as a ruthless psychopath and killer, the vampire decided to reconsider some of his life's priorities by the end.
Damon has become one of the show's most complex and multifaceted characters. The older Salvatore brother seems emotionally distant, which has become his defense mechanism, developed as a result of his long history of betrayal and loss. This detachment helps him deal with his pain and loneliness.
It wasn't until Season 6 that fans were able to see the roots of Damon's behavior – and it had to do with his mother, Lily.
Lily Was One of The Reasons for Damon’s Controversial Behavior
For a long time, the Salvatore brothers believed that their mother was dead – when they were children, she contracted tuberculosis and was sent to the hospital by Giuseppe, the brothers' abusive father, from which she never returned. It turned out that the doctor had turned her into a vampire to save his patient from death.
The news that their mother has been alive all this time didn’t impress the brothers, especially Damon. In her absence, Lily has become a Ripper, found a new "family" of Heretics, half-vampires, half-witches, and showed no warm feelings for her actual children.
Damon Just Wanted to Feel His Mother’s Love
The only good thing Lily did was to help restore Stefan's humanity, but she did it not out of good intentions, but in exchange for the members of her "family" being rescued from the Prison World.
The most heartbreaking thing for fans was to see the previously cold and stable Damon trying to earn at least a grain of love from his mother, who for all these decades was not even interested in her sons. Damon suddenly changed from a powerful vampire to a little boy who just wanted his mother's love.
Reddit User Actual_Mistake_759 wrote:
“Him saying "give me a chance to let you love me" makes me so sad because he really doesn't think he's worthy of being loved that not even his mother wanted him.”
Damon Wasn’t Able to Forgive Lily Even Before Her Death
Damon's emotional breakdown when he learned that Lily was the cause of Elena's Sleeping Beauty coma was followed by cold hatred – contrary to Stefan, he never forgave his mother, even on her deathbed, for sacrificing herself so that at least at the end of her life she could choose not her fake family, but her real sons.
Damon's last line to Lily was, "You made your bed. Have a nice nap." And it's probably the most painful line the older Salvatore brother ever said.