What do you think about Damon and alarics friendship?
I can't tell if all of these Damon asks are by someone who agrees or someone who is hate reading, but here we go with another.
Damon and Alaric's friendship makes a lot more sense when we accept that Alaric may just no be the nice guy we met in Season 1.
They initially meet when Alaric is trying to kill Damon for murdering his wife. And shocker, once again, it was just a tragic misunderstanding. Those seem to happen a lot with Damon and he somehow ends up on top. But of course Damon can't just say this, but rather toys with Alaric first. Alaric just forgives Damon and they become drinking buddies, I guess.
But out of all Damon's friends, I guess I like this one the best. Alaric is at least an age appropriate friend for Damon and didn't technically do anything to Alaric or his loved ones. I guess we don't include killing Jeremy on this list. Alaric does get points taken off for being okay with Damon flirting and sleeping with minors, also manipulating and assaulting people like Andi. But again, this makes more sense when we see how Alaric uses a student as a surrogate for the mother of his children and even a surrogate for his wife.
But this friendship shows that Damon doesn't really value friendships. He compels Alaric without his consent, he abandons him, he doesn't even realize how badly Alaric is grieving after losing his wife and unborn children. He puts the twins in harm way in Season 8 and I don't think their friendship ever recovered from that.
Like most of Damon's friendships, it was incredibly one sided. What benefit did Alaric ever really get from being friends with Damon? He didn't even get protection or loyalty. Friendships aren't transactional, but Alaric was repeatedly hurt by being close to Damon.
To me, their friendship was cute, but not very meaningful. I thought it was amusing at times, but it never felt like more than just drinking buddies to me.
Thanks for the ask!