Oh I actually agree with you on Stelena, I remember being surprised at the time that they did nothing to bring back Elena's feelings for Stefan when she loses her good memories of Damon, or when she becomes human again. I think they did have opportunity then to make Stelena a part of the story again. I meant that the show was so one track when to came to Delena in season 6 (and then the focus on Damon's obsession with waiting for Elena to wake up in season 7), that I don't really see how they could have ever gone back on that by the time of the finale, even if they did have Nina for a few more episodes at the end. Season 6 was what convinced me that they had lost all interest in the ship that was once meant to be the heart of the show. I agree that I don't believe it could ever have seriously been considered to bring Stelena back for the end, maybe Kevin Williamson was sincere in hoping for it, but then he left after season 2. I think that Julie was most likely humouring him when pointing out that they didn't have enough time for that without Nina, when the truth was that the triangle had been more or less completely dropped back in the season 4 finale, and by then she always planned on ending it on Damon 'getting the girl'

Season 8 was a let-down for me as well, I had high hopes originally that they were going to put together a really great and fast-faced arc with just 16 episodes, but the Sirens were simply awful as villains. I don't understand why the cast were hyping them up quite as much as they were, well I know it's their job lol, but they were absolutely nothing special, and then Cade never ended up amounting to much either. And agreed, Tyler's death feels even more pointless to me now that we know how little it ended up mattering compared to the focus that Enzo's passing got. It feels like a really shoddy way to treat someone who had been a regular on the show from the beginning, even his appearance in the finale was blink and you'll miss it