Paul Wesley (Stefan Salvatore)

Born on 5 November 1846, Stefan Salvatore, portrayed by Paul Wesley since the pilot, is the series’ narrator, hero, and male protagonist. Stefan Salvatore was born and raised in Mystic Falls, Virginia to Giuseppe Salvatore and an unnamed mother, who died when he was younger. 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 Stefan always defended Damon, especially to their father, and was fiercely loyal to him. However, this all seemed to change when he and Damon fell in love with the same girl, Katherine Pierce, who turned out to be a vampire. Stefan had strong feelings for Katherine before finding out that she was a vampire. Once Stefan discovered Katherine’s deep, dark secret, Stefan was both scared and repulsed by Katherine and vampirism in general. Katherine, however, compelled Stefan to not be afraid of Katherine, to keep her secret and go on as if Stefan didn’t know she was a vampire. 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 bloodlust, 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 or companion.

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. Elena and her parents were facing possible death saved Elena Gilbert from a car crash and noticed that she looked exactly like Katherine. Stefan and Elena begin a relationship and he reveals to her that he is a vampire. However, Damon returns to Mystic Falls, too, and also falls in love with Elena. Further on in the series, Damon and Stefan start to bond as brothers again and it becomes apparent that they do love each other. Because of his addiction to human blood, Stefan only drank animal blood in the beginning of the series, which made him weaker than other vampires. In season two, Stefan starts to take small amounts of Elena’s blood each day to mitigate its effect on him and to increase his strength. When Katherine returns it is discovered that she has always been in love with Stefan and not Damon; however, Stefan is in love with Elena and not interested in Katherine. Stefan starts to build a friendship with Caroline Forbes after she is turned into a vampire. After Klaus gives Stefan his blood to save Damon from a werewolf bite, he turns Stefan into a ripper again.

Stefan starts working for him as he agreed to do to save Damon, and hopes it might also protect Elena by making sure Klaus never returns to Mystic Falls, since he believes her to be dead. Klaus later finds out and compels Stefan to kill her, but when he is able to resist the compulsion, Klaus makes him turn his humanity and emotions off. However, he is later able to get his humanity back, which is seen when he saves Klaus’s life to protect Damon, but yet he pretends not to care about Elena anymore. He then takes it upon himself to kill Klaus. He steals Klaus’s family as retaliation, and uses them as blackmail, when that fails (the witches give Klaus the coffins when he threatens to end the Bennett line), Stefan threatens to drive Elena off Wickery Bridge with vampire blood in her system if Klaus doesn’t get his hybrids out of town, Klaus agrees at the last minute. He and Elena get into a fight. In the season three finale, he kisses Elena. In the end, Elena chooses Stefan over Damon, but when Rebekah causes Matt’s truck to drive off Wickery Bridge, she is trapped underwater. Stefan barely gets there in time, but Elena makes him save Matt first and she drowns. It is later revealed Dr. Fell gave Elena vampire blood, meaning she died with vampire blood in her system.

In the season four premiere, Stefan tries to get Bonnie to save her from becoming a full vampire, however, she along with several other vampires are captured by the Founder’s Council. As Elena begins to die and out of desperation to keep Elena alive, Stefan kills a guard and uses his blood to allow Elena to feed and to complete her transition into a vampire. Stefan gives Elena a daylight ring, which was made by Bonnie, in order to protect Elena from the sun. Stefan tries to assure Elena that everything will be okay and that they’ll take Elena’s newborn vampirism one day at a time. During the second episode of season 4, Stefan tries to help Elena cope with her hunger for human blood. After his “bunny diet” disagrees with Elena stomach she seeks help from Damon to find an alternative blood source. When blood bags and Damon’s own blood fails too, she ends up feeding on Matt under extreme circumstances. Stefan then discovers from Klaus and Rebekah that there is a possible cure for vampirism. Stefan “teams” up with Klaus in order to find the possible cure, so that Stefan can give Elena the choice of becoming human again.

Unfortunately, Klaus needs the vampire hunter Connor to stay alive because he holds the map to the cure in his tattoo, and Stefan must keep him alive at all costs when everyone else wants him dead. When Connor kidnaps Jeremy, April, and Matt, and keeps them hostage at the Grille, Stefan must stop Damon from rashly walking in and killing his chance at curing Elena. After tranquilizing Damon with vervain and taking his daylight ring, Stefan tries to take matters into his own hands and infiltrates the Grille by himself. With Jeremy at gunpoint, Elena comes in and takes Connor by surprise. Stefan manages to get Connor out, but Elena later kills him and is consumed with grief at being a murderer.

When Elena begins to hallucinate because of Connor’s death, Klaus informs Stefan and Damon that she must be locked away to keep from killing herself, and kidnaps her before they can say no. Later, Stefan works with one of Klaus’s hybrids, Chris, to free Elena who stabs him in the neck and runs away. Stefan sends Damon to find her and goes with Bonnie to see if the Proffessor Shane knows how to end the hallucinations. He informs them that a potential hunter must kill a vampire so he may take the place of that dead hunter, which is virtually impossible. Luckily, Stefan realizes that Jeremy is a potential hunter, and tells him that to save his sister, he must kill a vampire. Jeremy kills the hybrid Chris who originally helped them free Elena, and in turn her hallucinations end, and she is safe, but only barely.

Later then, Elena breaks up with Stefan because of her feelings for Damon. Stefan goes to Caroline for support since she loathes Damon, and become closer. During the Miss Mystic Falls Pageant, Stefan Turns a criminal in the hospital and convinces Jeremy to kill him to make the hunter’s mark on his arm grow. Afterward, Jeremy becomes very anti-vampire and attempts to kill Elena. Stefan is there and saves her, but has to apologize for making him crazy. Elena tries to tell him that she doesn’t need the cure if it means it hurts Jeremy.

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.