Top 10 Characters of The Vampire Diaries Ranked

2. Stefan Salvatore

Stefan Salvatore was a lot of things. He was a brother, a friend, a boyfriend, a husband, a Ripper, but mostly, Stefan Salvatore was a good guy. He was doom and gloom a lot of the time. But life — and death — dealt him a crappy hand, and he didn’t trust happy times. Can you blame him? And yet, coming back to Mystic Falls gave him another chance at the life that had been ruined all those years ago.

Stefan Salvatore, the young, Civil War era good boy, may have died in Mystic Falls. But high school student and self-sacrificing good guy Stefan Salvatore got to live in Mystic Falls.

He fell in and out of love with Elena Gilbert in Mystic Falls. He reconnected with his brother and built a relationship stronger and closer than they ever had been. Then, he fell in love with Caroline Forbes, slowly and overwhelmingly over the years, eventually marrying her. He gave himself up to the clutches of Klaus for months, turning off his humanity, all to save Damon. The list goes on and on.

And in the end, he gave up his life with Caroline hours after marrying her to save Mystic Falls, saving Elena, saving his brother, and saving them all, in true martyr-like, heroic Stefan Salvatore fashion.

Rest in peace, Stefan Salvatore. No one deserved it more.