This Romance Still Isn't Over

After that bombshell of a midseason finale, we couldn't help but speculate which couples would pop up in the second half of The Vampire Diaries fifth season — and now we know. Executive producer on the show, Caroline Dries, dropped some serious hints to TVGuide earlier this week about the fate of Damon Salvatore and Elena Gilbert following their explosive break-up a few weeks ago. To further convince us that Damon and Elena are far from over for good, Ian Somerhalder made some confident statements about Damon's love at a TVD convention in Orlando, FL last week. For "Delena" 'shippers, this news is the holy grail of the hiatus — but is it the best thing for these two characters?

Sure, the first thing we wondered when Damon had his emotional meltdown and called it quits on his long-fought-for relationship with Elena was whether or not we'd begin again after the hiatus at point zero. If a fresh start and a fresh chance for our favorite love triangle would emerge in full swing. Would Elena run straight into Stefan's arms? Would Damon go off the deep-end and have Elena struggle to pull him back up? Would the two brothers start fighting over her again?

When TVGuide posed that particular burning question about the love triangle beginning again to Dries, she essentially shot down the idea of starting from square one:

What the show does well is that it doesn't just make rash decisions with people that causes them to just stop loving the people they love. Damon and Elena have a deep-rooted love for each other and you can't just turn your back on that. Elena will always feel that for Damon even if they fight or [break up]. But we will see in future episodes that there is a huge strain in their relationship, bigger than them in a way.

Well, now we know that Elena will never stop fighting. When she got together with Damon she never stopped fighting to keep Stefan close to her and now she'll be doing the same to save Damon from himself. So there's hope, guys! Basically, they'll never be over for real and forever. Not even Ian Somerhalder thinks so — while at the TVD convention last week a fan asked him who he though Elena would end up with, he responded with, "I think Damon definitely loves her more." Telling? We'd say so. But is it the best thing — we're not entirely sure.

Damon and Elena obviously have enough chemistry to set off a nuclear explosion but a lot of that chemistry comes from the challenge. As much as Damon's evolved and opened up over the past four seasons, he's still incredibly emotionally guarded. And Elena's constantly pushing him. He already said he was never going to change and that he wasn't good enough for her — which just spells disaster on all accounts. Elena's going to push him either into accepting himself or into changing to become a better person and that's going to be exhausting to watch. She'll also probably get incredibly frustrated because she always does when it comes to Damon or Stefan not adapting in the way she wants them to.

There's also that deep-rooted love that has nothing to do with a doppelgänger curse — which is important. If these two don't end up together, where would they end up? Damon would probably shut his humanity off and Elena would end up with Stefan and live with that "what if" for all eternity (because she's a vampire and life never ends). So as difficult and challenging they are for one another, we can't see a situation where them ending up together could be worse than the alternative. Also, sad Elena and sad Damon would be a nightmare to watch.

For the sake of The Vampire Diaries we've become "Delena" 'shippers so we really hope Dries and Somerhalder aren't just leading us to bark up the wrong tree.

Image: The CW