Stelena Should've Been Vampire Diaries' Endgame (And Actually Was in the Books)
The writers screwed up the ending.
Even though The CW's The Vampire Diaries ended all the way back in 2017, fans of the vampire drama are still passionately discussing the show, arguing about ships, and hating Julie Plec for ruining the show. And it's quite obvious, considering how massively popular TVD was back in the day, and even the botched series finale and various controversial plot twists couldn't have ruined the show for its die-hard fans.
However, most fans want to change at least one thing about the show - Elena and Damon being the endgame.
Ever since the show premiered, fans have been massively shipping Elena and Stefan, calling them the best ship of the whole show, so seeing Elena end her storyline with Damon really pissed a lot of people off.
They were meant to be.
Even though Ian Somerhalder's character was significantly more popular than Paul Wesley's Stefan, fans still supported Stelena over Delena because Damon was a real piece of work, and many people felt that he didn't deserve to even date Nina Dobrev's character, let alone spend his entire life with her.
Stefan was sweet and caring, and he loved Elena with an insane intensity that even Damon can't be proud of. So, the fact that Plec decided to make Damon and Elena the endgame really upset fans, especially since the original TVD novels proved that Stelena was always the endgame.
Books' Ending
In L. J. Smith's original book series, Elena actually ended up with Stefan instead of Damon, so fans fully expected the same thing to happen on the show. However, Plec and her team of writers decided to go overboard, arguing that later books in the series actually made it clear that Elena wanted to be with Damon.
However, the vast majority of TVD fans disagree with this statement, arguing that the later installments of the book series were ghostwritten, with Smith having no creative input into the story, which immediately throws the ending out as non-canon.
But unfortunately, what has already happened cannot be undone, and it looks like the fans will have to learn to live with the fact that Elena and Stefan will never be together.