"But then there was one moment when we were writing the third episode [“Friday Night Bites”] where Kevin called me and he basically pitched to me the Damon-Stefan storyline where Stefan’s upset with Damon about abusing Caroline and using her as a puppet, and Damon says, “They’re whatever I want them to be. They are puppets,” and then he kills Coach Tanner, and we’re sitting here thinking, God, this guy is such a dick! Like, he’s such a dick, such a bad guy. But then at the very end of the show, there he is, standing over Elena’s bed watching her sleep. And when Kevin pitched that to me, I felt like a tug in my chest, like, oh my God, this is important. This is important." - Julie Plec (via ohmypreciousgirl)