Damon has always been random as fuck

When I reflect on Damon’s first appearance in season 1 and what he did to Caroline I always get confused as to why he did that to Caroline. It’s not so much I don’t understand why he would rape someone or even Caroline, he’s a predator. He explains exactly why he picks her in 4×04. It’s just that it doesn’t match up with he motives for coming to Mystic Falls.

He’s there for the comet to get Katherine out of the tomb. For such he needs Bonnie, but he doesn’t even approach her until Caroline gives her Emily’s talisman, something he didn’t plan for. He makes it clear that he’s using Caroline to accomplish his goal, but she’s literally useless to him. She’s not a Bennett witch, she’s barely friends with Elena, and while she is closer to Bonnie that friendship isn’t that strong either, at least for anything he planned for.

So again why Caroline? As much as I hate the idea, Bonnie should have been his target. Granted she’s a hell of a lot harder to manipulate, but manipulating Caroline wasn’t getting him anywhere and nor was it ever going to. Damon is a lot of things, but stupid isn’t one of them. It’s part of what makes everything he does so awful because he’s fully aware of exactly what he’s doing.

And if we want to delve deeper why didn’t he actually keep his end of the bargin with Emily knowing he’d need one of her descendents one day? It’s a lot easier to get something from someone when you’ve built a rapport with them and that’s actually something he knows. It’s never really been a new concept that his actions don’t match his motives, but you’d think they would try to have some consistency in the first season.

So honestly, what the fuck was Damon doing in season 1? Now keep in mind this is one of the better seasons, the one ran by Plec and Williamson, and it’s things like this that make me wonder why Williamson gets a lot if praise when it comes to TVD. Is he better than Plec? Yes. But is his overall writing better for the show? No, he’s contributed to a lot of the problematic aspects of the show and they start as early as the pilot because in general Caroline should have never been raped because Caroline doesn’t even fit in the plot there. It’s bad enough that it’s never acknowledged, but the fact that it was completely unnecessary to begin with just makes it even worse.

She doesn’t even fit into the idea in showing how brutal vampires can be because that’s what Vicki was for and the way she’s brutalized is at least consistent with necessary vampire behavior. The way Caroline is treated was unnecessary from the jump because again in 4×04, his usual routine does not involve raping them. Physically and mentally abusing them? Yes, but rape no. “Snach, eat, erase.” There’s nothing about Caroline for him to deviate from this. I know rape isn’t about logic, but storytelling is, especially for what impact you’re going for and this doesn’t serve for anything. It’s not impactful because Damon is never held accountable for it and it makes no sense to the plot. It’s just simple bad writing.

The show would have been better off with Caroline and Matt from the start and her living her normal because that was the one thing I liked about season 1, that they didn’t live in a vacuum where only them and the supernatural exists. That there were people in the dark simply living. It provided a nice contrast to the chaos of everything else.

I know I’ve veered off from my original point of Damon having always been random, but seriously how did anyone buy him as a character past the first season when he literally has no motives or objectives? He was essentially a random character doing random shit and has never had consistency.