Stefan

When the original vampire Klaus Mikaelson (Joseph Morgan) is feared dead, it is revealed that everyone in his bloodline will die, including Stefan and Damon. In what International Business Times called "the moment Vampire Diaries fans have been waiting for", Elena had to pick to say goodbye to Stefan or Damon. She ended up choosing Stefan. When Elena became a vampire, her feelings for Damon heightened, and it was later revealed that she had a sired bond to him. Elena and Stefan broke up, and she began a romance with Damon. Stefan became heartbroken, feeling angry and betrayed, and lashed out at Damon and Elena. Wesley urged fans of Stefan and Elena not to lose hope, stating: "The fans should definitely maintain some hope. The thing to remember is that Stefan and Elena have this love that is so strong, and it was sort of the core of Season 1 — you can’t entirely disregard that". The show's head writer, Julie Plec, said "They love each other as deeply as two people can love each other, but that doesn’t mean that their relationship is infallible".

On March 27, 2009, The Hollywood Reporter announced that Paul Wesley had joined the cast of The Vampire Diaries as Stefan. He was the last main cast member whose casting was announced. Wesley has become popular with viewers. Carina MacKenzie of the Los Angeles Times noted that he spent "10 years as a successful but under-the-radar TV actor" but shortly after the show premiered, he was "everywhere". MacKenzie wrote: "Last summer his face was on more than 30 "Vampire Diaries" posters at the Century City/Westfield mall alone, not to mention billboards over seemingly every major boulevard in Hollywood". In November 2011, Wesley's ex-wife Torrey DeVitto joined the cast of The Vampire Diaries in the recurring role of Dr. Meredith Fell, who is "intrigued by" Alaric Saltzman (Matt Davis).

That night Elena comes to stay at the Salvatore house, and Stefan leaves to crash at Caroline's. While there, he and Caroline realize that Elena is sired to Damon. When Stefan informs Damon of this, they go to New Orleans to find the witch that broke a sire bond years ago that Damon had. Stefan and Damon find that in order to break the bond, Damon has to convince Elena not to care about him, and leave her, which Damon agrees to do for Stefan. Post Jeremy's death, Damon convinces Elena to switch off her humanity leading to her becoming brutal and ruthless. Stefan and Damon try constantly to make her feel something again. Later after Elena's humanity comes back, she chooses Damon, leaving Stefan heartbroken. Then Stefan tries to dump Silas body in the river only to find that Silas is still alive. Silas then reveals that Stefan is his doppelganger. Silas was the one who created the immortality spell 2000 years ago however, as nature creates a balance for everything, it created a version of Silas that could be killed, a shadow-self which ends up being Stefan. Silas then locks Stefan into a vault and drowns him in the river. This incident tempts Stefan to turn his humanity off in order to escape. Stefan happens to be in the safe for 3 months where he keeps on hallucinating.

In season 6, Stefan moves away from Mystic Falls because of Damon's death and finds a new girlfriend called Ivy. However, Enzo and Caroline, find him and Caroline tells Stefan that he's a coward and the worst friend ever. She starts crying so Enzo goes and kills Ivy. Stefan vows revenge. He comes back to Whitmore, and uses Elena's help to find Enzo leaving him to be killed by a vampire hunter. However, Enzo survives. Ivy returns as a vampire and it is revealed that Enzo had fed her vampire blood against her will before killing her. Damon, then returns to Mystic Falls and meets Stefan first which brings Stefan back to his friends. To make things worse, Enzo tells the other vampire hunter about Ivy and all the other vampires and the vampire hunter kills Ivy but is killed by Damon before the vampire hunter would kill anyone else. Enzo, figures out that Stefan's niece, Sarah is alive and that Damon had thought that he had killed Sarah before she was born but Sarah was born before her mother died however, Stefan kept this from Damon and Enzo uses this against Stefan. Meanwhile, the vampires have another threat, a psycho killer, Kai. Added on top of that, Sheriff Liz Forbes (Caroline's mother) is diagnosed with cancer. Stefan supports Caroline through this in which they bond even more and share a passionate kiss however just then Liz dies. At the funeral, Stefan realises that he has fallen in love with Caroline but before he can confess, Caroline switches off her humanity switch after the funeral. Stefan and Elena try to bring Caroline back but it fails and Caroline vows revenge for them not giving her the year she wanted without any feelings. She kidnaps Stefan and Damon's niece, Sarah Salvatore, and blackmails Stefan to turn off his humanity to save her. At the end of the episode 'The Downward Spiral', he does and joins Caroline. Stefan decides to ruin Caroline's life because she has done the same to him. He wants her to lose control and become a Ripper. He eventually is able to and they sleep together for the first time. When Lily, Stefan and Damon's mother, is rescued from the 1903 prison world and turns out to be a vampire, she manages to turn on Stefan's humanity again. However, it later is revealed that Lily lied to get him back and does not love her sons any more and only wants her travelling companions back. Stefan then pretends to still have his emotions off to get Caroline back and somehow succeeds, but Caroline tries to avoid him as she feels guilty for everything she had done. Stefan then also tries to talk Damon out of being a human again only to be with Elena but Damon decides to take the cure.

Stefan Salvatore is a fictional character and one of the two main protagonists from L. J. Smith's novel series The Vampire Diaries. He is portrayed by Paul Wesley in the television series CW's The Vampire Diaries and The Originals. Stefan Salvatore was turned into a vampire in 1864, at the age of 17, by Katerina Petrova, who also turned his brother Damon Salvatore.

Stefan Salvatore was born on November 1, 1846 and raised in Mystic Falls, Virginia to Giuseppe Salvatore and Lily Salvatore. Stefan is the younger brother of Damon. When Stefan and Damon were human, they were very close and were best friends in life. Damon always confided and trusted in Stefan and they always defended each other, especially to their father, and was fiercely loyal to him. However, this all seemed to change when Stefan and Damon fell in love with the same girl, Katherine Pierce, who turned out to be a vampire. Stefan fell deeply in love with Katherine before finding out she was a vampire. Katherine, however, compelled Stefan to not be afraid, also to keep her secret and go on as they were. It was also revealed that Katherine compelled Stefan to drink her vampire blood against his will. Damon, on the other hand, drank Katherine's blood willingly, wanting and desiring the immortal life in order to spend an eternity with Katherine. In 1864, Stefan was turned into a vampire after being shot by his father, Giuseppe, along with his brother, Damon with Katherine's blood in his system, before accidentally killing his father during a visit to tell him that he was going to let himself die. Damon, who turned into a vampire as well, promised Stefan an eternity of misery as he was angry that Stefan had forced him to turn and jealous that Katherine had also turned Stefan. A newborn vampire with uncontrollable blood lust, Stefan was unable to resist the temptations of human blood and became severely out of control and addicted (later on known as the Ripper) to the blood, killing many people because of his lack of control and extreme bloodlust. However, Stefan learned to change his ways when he was taught to control it by a vampire named Alexia "Lexi" Branson, who later on became Stefan's best friend and companion. In 1942, Stefan enlisted in the Army to fight in World War II (4x08 "We'll Always Have Bourbon Street"). After decades of absence from the town he called home, Stefan returned to Mystic Falls to visit his home and Zach. On May 23, 2009, Stefan heard the Gilbert's car accident at Wickery Bridge. It was then and there that Stefan fatefully encountered Elena Gilbert for the first time. After only being able to save Elena, Stefan noticed that she looked exactly like Katherine.