"I watched you go over the edge!" | The Vampire Diaries 3x16 1912 Reaction 

UR REPLY SAYS IT ALL👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏🙌🙌🙌🙌🙌🙌

I think that you are right on a few points I personally disagree on the overarching idea that says: "Both characters have done awful things, therefor both characters are equally bad"... While I do agree with the point that there is no way to call either of the Salvatores or many other characters "good guys", because they have done enough to loose that title; I don't think that they are equally bad, there are differences in their deeds, their context and their reasons... I will put a very noticeable example: Damon and Klaus can never be consider 'good guys' like you said, they are both bad guys for sure, but that doesn't mean that they are both equally bad... Klaus is definitely much worse than Damon because of the length of the things he has done, the total amount of things he has done and his reasons for doing those things... So there are differences and rankings even among 'bad guys'. To me it is clear that while Stefan is no saint by any means, he is indeed a better person than Damon... Not a 'good guy', not 'innocent' because we agree that he doesn't qualify for those titles, but he is morally better than Damon... Damon lost his moral compass long ago, in the present he doesn't have one, it's non existent and he relies heavily on Stefan or Elena's reactions to the things he does or say to decide whether something was wrong or right or for them to outright tell him and remind him that something is wrong to do. And I also understand your view and preference towards the "unapologetic bad guys", they are usually entertaining and fun... But I would put a caveat on your point about the "good guys" coming out as hypocritical or self righteous, since this is something that characters like Stefan or Elijah usually get called by people who don't like them... I don't subscribe to this idea that: "The character who is bad and acts badly, it's unapologetic about it, enjoys it, doesn't see anything wrong with what he does, etc." it's morally preferable to "the character that at least has a moral compass, a code that he tries not to break, lines that he tries not to cross and when he does, he truly understands the wrongness of what he did"... One is clearly better than the other in moral terms. Like I said, I fully understand the view that the bad guy who is unapologetic can be more fun and even preferable for many viewers for entertainment value, but not from the point of view of morality... From the point of view of 'right and wrong' the guy that at the very least tries to be good, even if he fails to live up to it a lot of the times, is morally better than the guy that doesn't care if what he does is right or wrong and doesn't repent about what he does.

I agree, Stefan has a problem of needing to fix every problem that happens, especially if he has dealt with it before in the past. It gets overbearing. But I disagree that he’s a hypocrite. His actions are never his own, it’s always when he’s controlled by his “ripper” side. Apart from that he never does anything to be considered as “bad”. Which is why he’s not hypocritical. You also can’t deny that he is the technical good guy between the two brothers because of how he chooses to be and live as a vampire. Just their actions and choices alone decide who’s objectively better in goodness of the two. I do agree how much more entertaining it is to watch the redemption arc, but it’s done too many times on shows to the point where it just becomes mediocre.

@@cptayne See, the "ripper" side of Stefan just enjoys the thrill of the kill and tearing apart the victims while in a blood frenzy. But he has decades of reveling in debauchery for the sake of it until he randomly felt guilt again.