During the Television Critics’ Association press tour, Kevin Williamson has spoken about the Vampire Diaries love triangle (giving hope to Stefan/Elena fans!), the Originals and why he loves the character of Caroline. Beware of spoilers.

In the IGN interview, Kevin Williamson speaks about his struggles of branding The Vampire Diaries to a male audience:

I wish more guys would watch it. Because I do think this is the type of show I would watch as a teenage boy. That’s all I do, is try to write a show that you’d want to watch. And I think if they do get into it, they realize, “Hey, you know what, it’s not just a girly show.” I love horror. I love writing horror. It’s my favorite thing in the whole world. But I don’t like “horror.” I love emotional horror. If you don’t feel it, if you don’t care about anybody, I don’t give a s**t. And the way to do that is with characters and a love story and epic love. So I get to do everything I love to do [on this show].

Speaking of this epic love, Williamson still seems all about the Stefan/Elena romance – even going so far as to say the Elena/Damon kiss happened, “just to stir things up a little bit.” And it’s going to mean more for Damon’s character than for Elena’s, essentially:

He’s earned it. He’s proven some worth and he’s done some good, solid things for Elena. He’s developed a friendship with her. She can trust him now. There’s a relationship there now and I felt like we earned it. And this complicates things. Love is complicated and relationships are complicated and we’re just entering the next phase of it. And Stefan is so tragic now, because you’ve got this fallen hero who, yes, I love him, but is he ever going to love himself? [Elena will] love him, but I don’t think he’s going to let her so easily. I think what we’re doing is, if you see what happens with the kiss, it’s going to have all sorts of repercussions. And we always know how Damon responds… He always responds with ripping somebody’s head off.

Sounds like it’s pretty clear that Elena will go back to Stefan eventually, huh?

Williamson moves on to talk about Caroline, admitting that the character has been “our greatest triumph”, because of the depth which Candice Accola has brought to the role. Coming up for Caroline, he teases:

There’s more of her and Tyler and how she sort of gets in the middle of the whole hybrid, Mystic Falls takeover. Her mother is the sheriff, her father is a council member and he’s a vampire hater. So I think there’s still some father/daughter stuff to tell. And now that Tyler is a hybrid, it’ll be really interesting to see that unfold. Exactly how far can [Tyler] go, being sired by Klaus? And where’s his allegiance? And is love stronger?

In the interview he also talks about his new serial killer drama picked up by FOX, and much more! Read it here at IGN.