Blind shipping, let me rant to you about it... The thing is, many blind shippers do not pay attention at all. There is this fanon!Damon that has little to do with actual!Damon, but A LOT to do with fulfilling romantic fantasies about Dark And Perfect Boyfriend. Volumes could be written about what does it say about our culture... I read quite a lot bad D/E fanfic, and those fics usually have one thing in common: Damon is stereotypically masculine. He is strong, dominant, protective and chivalrous; he is just ultimately cool. When I compare this person to the Damon I see in canon (you know, unstable, insecure, psychopatic, abusive, trapped in his own fantasies and ultimately pathetic), I have to sit, because my head is spinning. I have an impression that all those speculations about D/E come from the fact that those people just ignore show!Damon at all. Now, their Damon really could be The Better Boyfriend for Elena (except for the fact that a personality like that just can't exist, even in a fantasy world), the problem is that I feel that their Damon is a character from some different show I certainly haven't seen.