Bad Boys, Bad Boys, what ya gonna do when they come for you? The interviews with Bad Boy, Ian Somerhalder aka Damon Salvatore, keep pouring in. After-all, today marks the premiere of The Vampire Diaries Season 2. Kicking off with the most anticipated premiere episode The Return.

And, you can never have too many interviews with the ever so sexy, Ian. He’s engaging, his eyes are the best thing since sliced bread and right now he’s Compelling us to write this post. Don’t turn away or look into the light, just scroll down and read another Vamplicious interview by way of TV Squad.

It was quite a finale for Damon last season … we’ve never seen him like that!
[Laughs] Yeah, he is being humbled. It’s interesting, the ups and downs, art imitating life, which is kind of fun to watch, but there are a couple dynamics that are going to start to change. At the beginning of Season 1, Damon’s sort of this almighty, powerful, sadistic, kind of funny individual … and then he just gets leveled. [Laughs] Over and over and over again.

Well on one hand it was nice to see Damon vulnerable, because it proved he still has a hint of humanity, but on the other hand, he can’t stay like that for long, can he?
No, I hope not. You know, Season 2, you start to understand that there are certain elements that’ve come to town that sort of force Damon to shift his focus quite a bit and actually ask himself what’s important to him. I think throughout this first year, he’s forged these relationships. He initially came to town … like Damon said in the finale, “I came here wanting to destroy it, now I find myself wanting to protect it. How the hell has that happened?” And I think that it has happened. Any time you forge relationships with people and you have a vested interest in their safety and well-being, you essentially raise the stakes. You pretty much do anything to protect that. I think he’s found himself, for the first time in 150 years, actually caring about something.

But Damon and Stefan will still be bickering, right?
The end all be all is he loves his brother, and his brother loves him. No matter how many times they’ve literally had the opportunity to kill one another, they’re still walking around. There are obviously major differences, but I think Damon and Stefan are gonna have to set those aside and actually focus on what’s the give and the take of letting that age-old vendetta go away. They actually have to focus and protect what they love, which is gonna be interesting, by virtue of the fact that Katherine is back.

Oh Katherine … is it bad that I just love to hate her?
Katherine is just one of those individuals you don’t want to f*** with … excuse my language, that you don’t want to mess with. I thought Damon was badass and just wrong in so many ways. Katherine is a sadistic, selfish bitch, and she is gonna play them like a fiddle. And she crushes Damon … she does, she crushes him … over and over and over again. [Laughs] Fool me once, shame on you; fool me twice, shame on me. At this point, it’s like 10 — shame on me! [Laughs] Shame on Damon! He feels like such an idiot. And when we feel that stupid, what do we do? We lash out like a petulant child, you know?

Which is what he does best! Drinking, dancing in the rafters …
[Laughs] Exactly.

How soon after last season’s finale do we pick up in the Season 2 premiere?
Minutes, seconds … we start off in the finale. Literally. Which is great because to be honest with you, even just being away from the show for a couple of months, I sort of lost my footing on what was going on. It’s really helpful starting where we left off, and even going back a moment, back into the season finale. What’s starting to happen this season as well is someone we know very well … there are other vampires around now that were very unlikely candidates, and it’s a lot of fun. It’s fun to see dynamics change and to watch someone sort of figure out being a vampire when they’re so new at it. I’ve been doing it for a year and a half, and Damon’s been doing it for 150 years like Stefan, so you start to understand what it’s really kind of about. To watch someone go through the process of that is a lot of fun actually. [Laughs]

Lots of hazing, I’m sure. Damon doesn’t seem like the best teacher though …
Aw, Damon’s a good teacher! He just might teach you what he wants to teach you. [Laughs] Whatever’s most beneficial for him.