Not every relationship in The Vampire Diaries was all roses and sunshine, no matter how much the fans could wish for a happy ending for their favorite characters. One of the couples that did get the happily ever after was Damon and Elena. These two started out their relationship on rocky grounds since Elena used to be Stefan's girlfriend, and Damon his evil brother.
Despite this, they found their way to each other, got married, and started a family together, while Stefan sacrificed his life for his brother to live. But there were multiple times when both Elena and Damon treated each other badly.
Elena Did To Damon: She Toyed With His Emotions
With her humanity switched off after Jeremy had died, Elena wasn't a very pleasant person. She was much livelier and more fun, but also manipulative and dangerous.
She mostly tormented Stefan during this period of her life, but Damon also ended up a victim of her cruel words. She, for example, mocked their shared past and said she never loved him, which was difficult to hear for Damon.
Damon Did To Elena: He Snapped Jeremy's Neck
If there's one constant in the show, it's that Elena loves her little brother Jeremy. And her love doesn't change even when she discovers that Jeremy is, in fact, her biological cousin, and not a brother. Damon knew perfectly well how much Elena was attached to her brother, especially after their parents had died.
Yet he decided to snap Jeremy's neck, and what's even worse, he did it right in front of Elena. Luckily Jeremy survived since he was wearing the Gilbert ring at the time, but it still was a close call.
Elena Did To Damon: She Erased Her Memories Of Him
Similarly to Bella Swan from the Twilight franchise, Elena didn't have the best coping mechanism when Damon vanished from her life. True, he didn't break up with her, but died.
Instead of dealing with his death like a sensible person, Elena disrespected his memory by erasing her memories of Damon and of how much she loved him.
Damon Did To Elena: He Forced Her His Blood
The show's Damon isn't as disrespectful of Elena's wishes as his book counterpart. But his behavior in this area still sometimes leaves a lot to be desired. For example, when Klaus wants to sacrifice Elena in the ritual, Damon forcefully feeds her his blood even though he knows that Elena doesn't want to be a vampire.
In order to reverse her transformation, John Gilbert sacrifices himself, so it could be said that Damon was responsible for killing Elena's biological father. A bad move, Damon, bad move.
Elena Did To Damon: She Led Him Astray
For the longest time, it seemed like Elena didn't know who she wanted, which of the Salvatore brothers she was actually in love with. And while it added some juicy drama to the show, it wasn't very fair neither to Stefan nor to Damon.
Granted, Elena never deliberately toyed with them like Katherine did, at least not until she turned off her emotions once she became a vampire, but she still should have made her decision much faster to save everyone a lot of emotional distress, Damon and Stefan included.
Damon Did To Elena: He Killed Aaron Whitmore
It's already been established that Damon doesn't excel at controlling his emotions, especially his anger and the need to get revenge. Honestly, at his age, he should have a better grip. Damon has the tendency to go crazy every time his romantic relationship either with Katherine or Elena collapses.
And while killing Aaron had always been Damon's ultimate game plan, he knew that Elena liked the student and it would hurt her if Aaron died.
Elena Did To Damon: She Endangered His Life
It's true that Elena didn't do it on purpose but some of her decisions on the show endangered everyone close to her - and that includes Damon, even in the times when they weren't yet dating. For example, in the second season, Elena chooses to go on with the ritual and not run from Klaus who wants to sacrifice her - and a vampire and a werewolf in the ritual.
How did this put Damon in danger? Well, Klaus is as unpredictable as they come and he needed a vampire, so Damon was one of the more obvious options.
Damon Did To Elena: He Tried To Compel Her To Kiss Him
Relatively shortly after Elena and Damon met, Damon decided that it would be a good idea to kiss Elena even though he knew that she and Stefan liked each other.
He followed her to a parking lot and then tried to compel her to kiss him. Luckily for Elena, Stefan had previously given her some vervain so the compulsion didn't work, and Elena slapped Damon instead. It may not seem like such a big deal, but controlling someone's mind to kiss them could, in fact, easily be read as a sexual assault.
Elena Did To Damon: She Tolerated His Bad Behavior
No matter what Damon did, how many twisted deeds he committed, Elena still forgave him for it and understood his actions, or was at least willing to pretend to understand.
While this may sound like the perfect love that forgives everything, by overlooking Damon's bad behavior, Elena also inadvertently encouraged it. Nobody can change their partner one hundred percent, but if Elena made her displeasure clearer, the couple could have avoided a lot of drama.
Damon Did To Elena: He Tried To Kill Matt
Even though in this case Damon didn't hurt Elena directly, he still went against her wishes - once again. When the car with Elena and Matt crashed, Elena asked Stefan to save Matt first - even though she knew she could die.
She went on to transform into a vampire, but instead of respecting her choice, Damon decided to kill Matt since, according to his twisted logic, Matt should have died instead of Elena.