Stefan the TV-vampire (when he’s not on a human blood-binge) only drinks the blood of animals, but he never drinks them while onscreen. And for a very good reason. And that reason is that that would be some fucking hilarious shit, and undermine all the dark tension the series tries to pull off. I know this because Stefan the novel-vampire also drinks animal blood (refreshingly with no AA allegory accompanying him) and so trying to picture Paul Wesley act out the following momentous scene from L.J. Smith’s The Awakening demonstrates how shrewd the writers’ room was to keep his dining behind closed forest doors.
“Stefan, I had to come-” [Elena] began, and stopped short, because a flash of lightning lit the sky just as the figure in the corner whirled around. And then it was as if every foreboding and fear and nightmare she’d ever had were coming true all at once. It was beyond screaming at, it was beyond anything.
Oh God…no. Her mind refused to make sense of what her eyes were seeing. No. No. She wouldn’t look at this, she wouldn’t believe it…
But she could not help seeing. Even if she could have shut her eyes, every detail of the scene was etched upon her memory. As if the flash of lightning had seared it onto her brain forever.
Stefan. Stefan, so sleek and elegant in his ordinary clothes, in his black leather jacket with the collar turned up. Stefan, with his dark hair like one of the rolling storm clouds behind him. Stefan had been caught in that flash of light, half turned toward her, his body twisted into a bestial crouch, with a snarl of animal fury on his face.
And blood. That arrogant, sensitive, sensual mouth was smeared with blood. It showed ghastly red against the pallor of his skin, against the sharp whiteness of his bared teeth. In his hands was the limp body of a mourning dove, white as those teeth, wings outspread. Another lay on the ground at his feet, like a crumpled and discarded handkerchief.
To me, this is a taught, tense scene who’s last sentence serves as a comic punchline undermining everything above it. Now, as the written word reproduced in our imagination, it does work okay. As something to visually put on a television screen….Let me reiterate, I’m very pleased that I’ve never had to see Paul Wesley act out the above. Because watching Damon and Klaus and whoever else all leave a string of dead human bodies in their wake, and then switching the frame to Stefan, who periodically eats bunnies and puppies and squirrels….
However, because we have never been shown tv-Stefan eating animals, the writers have left an unanswered question echoing through the fandom (I’m just the first brave enough to voice it, is all): does Stefan kill the animals he eats?
Because… we’ve seen that vampires in The Vampire Diaries do not have to kill humans to drink human blood, it can be a case of catch and release. On the other hand, all available information indicates that the human characters in The Vampire Diaries are all meat eaters and…unless you have the most sadistic butcher ever, you simply cannot eat a burger without having the cow die first. But since Stefan only requires animal blood, which is easily extracted with no lasting harm….Now we know from Stefan’s lessons to Caroline in “Bad Moon Rising” that “as a human [he] cared deeply for people, how they felt. If they were hurting [he] felt their pain and [he] felt guilty if [he] was the one who caused it and as a vampire all of that got… magnified.” Thus a key part of the way he sees himself is as having a supernaturally heightened sense of compassion compared to your average mortal. And I could hypothetically see Stefan enjoying extra evidence of moral superiority: unlike his human friends, he can feed without ending any creature’s life.
However, it is hard to imagine Stefan drinking from an animal while simultaneously doing his best to dodge the creature’s squawks, scratches and thrashing blows. Convenience suggests he would just snap the animal’s neck to begin with before eating, but Stefan’s such a Moral Guy, after all.
So as I say, anyone drinking directly from an animal would look pretty ridiculous, and because the writers seem to agree with me, he has never been shown drinking. And this omission leaves a loophole where we get to picture his dining experience however we like, assembling everything we know about his character. And so my personal head-canon (because I love laughing at people) goes something like this:
Tuesday morning, Stefan Salvatore felt the inconvenient but undeniable nudge of hunger pangs. Unfortunate, because he had planned to meet with the local teenagers and plan battle against a much older and far more powerful creature of the night. Then he had to hurry home to shower and change so he would be ready for his high school’s most recent theme party; he needed lots of prep time because after 150 years a man does run out of fresh ideas for dressing up. Shoot! There it was again, that hunger pang. Best he take care of it now so that thoughts of his body’s needs didn’t distract him on his date.
He hurried into the woods, conveniently located just outside of his ancestral home, and with the practice of a century, began to methodically and ruthlessly use his supernatural powers in order to detect his prey. There! There she stood, a delicate snow-gray dove perched tentatively on a low-hanging tree limb. She watched him warily, stone-still, and Stefan could easily guess her thoughts: flight might be the safest option, but then it might draw his attention to her and perhaps he hadn’t seen her yet. Stefan had witnessed this internal struggle in the hundreds of woodland creatures he had stalked in his endless, guilt-ridden life. Almost as though they could sense him, their natural enemy, and dread the harm he would certainly do them. And again Stefan felt that same old guilt; why must his biology compel him to be so much less pure than he wished to be?! He caught the dove’s wary eye, his own gaze focused, his pupils dilating and constricting with magical intent.
“shh….shh sweetie,” he cooed. “Your mind is at ease. You will not fear me. You will stay perfectly still.” Having successfully compelled the small forest animal, Stefan stepped forward and lifted her in his arms, and gently rubbed his finger along the top of her head in comforting gratitude. Then, pulling her head back so the delicate neck arched vulnerably for him, Stefan’s face contorted, blood rushing to his eyes, fangs extended, and his bloodlust overtook him. He locked his mouth to the dove’s gentle neck and drank his fill.
Careful to pull back before he took enough blood for the dove to feel even slightly faint, Stefan licked at his blood-stained mouth, caught her blanked gaze, and compelled the wounded creature once more. “You will remember none of this. If you ever see me again, you will immediately fly away to safety.” The bird nodded in seeming avian understanding, registered his face, and with a squawk, flew to the sunny expanse of safety far above the tops of the trees. Far away from him. Why?! Why must he be such a depraved predator? It was insupportable. The guilt would haunt him always.
With a heavy heart, Stefan returned to his home, hoping his brother wouldn’t make light of his cruel crime against nature.
[Note: I’m guessing a scene like this might actually appear in the Stefan’s Diaries spinoff series, because judging only by that one paragraph I skimmed in the bookstore that one time those books looked hella-stupid. Sigh. I’d make much more money as a half-hearted ghost writer than as a half-hearted blogger.]
So that’s about everything I have to say on this topic, other than an open dare for the writers to show or explain Stefan’s modus operandi (writers, please don’t take the dare; it’s not worth it).
And because Damon is more stylish than I’ll ever be, I feel vindicated that he seems to agree with me on this topic. For a fun ending, let’s visit some classic Damon snarks.
In episode 1 x 17 “Let The Right One In:”
Damon: I have two liters of soccer mom in the fridge…No?
Stefan: We’ll talk when I get back.
Damon: Alright, give my regards to the squirrels.
In episode 1 x 20 “Blood Brothers:”
Elena: What’s his favorite..kind of umm..
Damon: His favorite kind of what?
Elena: Type of animal blood that he prefers?
Damon: Eww, gross.
Elena: Your joking doesn’t help.
Damon: It helps me. Now hurry up, I can’t babysit all night, I’ve got things to do.
Elena: I would say drop dead, but..
Damon: (laughs) Stefan likes..puppy blood, little golden retriever puppy’s with cute floppy ears. That’s his favorite.
In episode 2 x 2 “Brave New World:”
Damon [to Stefan]: Are you worried that one day, all the forest animals are gonna band together and fight back? I mean surely they talk.
In episode 3 x 16 “1912:”
Damon [doing a Stefan impression]: “Dear diary, a chipmunk asked me my name today. I told him it was Joe. That lie will haunt me forever.”