'The Vampire Diaries': Julie Plec talks sire bond -- did it tear Damon and Elena apart or push them together?Add to Favorites | The Vampire Diaries
Because she'd been turned with his blood and had strong feelings for him, those feelings became magnified into a sort of compulsion to obey him and trust him implicitly. The question was, after they finally slept together after years of tension, whether that sire bond was the source of her love for him, or simply a catalyst that pushed them together.
In the next two episodes, we'll get answers. "Definitely before the season's over, we have our answer to the question of does the sire bond still exist, and if not, then what are her feelings and who are they for," executive producer Julie Plec reveals.
Looking back on the season, the sire bond has been one of the more talked-about aspects of the story. I wrote an article about why it worked for me in terms of pushing the story forward, particularly in terms of creating an obstacle that wasn't insurmountable and providing a better balance for Damon and Elena's relationship.
Some fans, however, still felt that there were unexplained consent issues and that the show as a whole suffered from its heroine's loss of agency, at least in terms of her relationship with Damon.
Plec says that despite the dissent in the fandom, the sire bond "absolutely" accomplished what the writers intended for it to accomplish. "The bottom line is that Elena as a human made a very, very, very clear choice that she would love Stefan always and forever," she says. "But then her entire life turned upside down, and any feelings she originally had for Damon were still there, and of course magnified. There was always going to be a little bit of a confusion there for her -- but not enough confusion for her to be over Stefan. It would take a lot to rip Elena away from loving Stefan. It would take years and seasons. We'd be eighty, if we followed the natural progression of that relationship."
Thus, as much as the sire bond was an obstacle for Damon and Elena, in some ways, it's the thing that pushed Damon and Elena together. "The sire bond let us have a supernatural reason -- and yes, albeit a controversial one -- but a very bold way for Elena to finally feel comfortable acting on these feelings that she's been struggling with now for a couple years. Without it she'd just have that confusion," Plec explains.
See how it all turns out in the final two "Vampire Diaries" episodes of the season, Thursday nights at 8 p.m. EST on The CW.