Why we love bad boys, and why we should love nice guys

I love The Vampire Diaries. LOVE it. My adoration for this show is barfingly immense. It's hard to explain exactly why that is. Maybe it's the surprisingly complex writing that makes for action-packed episodes and jaw-dropping revelations. Maybe it's all the OH NO YOU DIDN'T character deaths. Maybe it's the strong female characters who do strong female things to warm the cockles of my feminist heart.

Or... maybe it's something else entirely. Hmm. I can't think of what. It's on the tip of my tongue...

Well, I wish it was on the tip of my tongue.

Damon. Damon Salvatore. Damon, Damon, Damon. Mrs. Sara Reine-Salvatore. Daaaamoooon. (Sorry, I'll stop.)

Bad boys are HOT, no doubt about it, and there's just about no bad boy hotter than Damon Salvatore. Sure, he killed Elena's brother, and he rips out a throat or two every other episode, and he uses mind control to effectively rape women, and don't get me started on what he did to Caroline in the first season, BUT HE IS SO HOT. Abs. Shoulders. Eyes. Mmmm. This man could burn down a village populated by adorable bunnies and get away with it as long as he did it without a shirt.

For whatever reason, we love bad boys even though they're, you know, bad. Their allure is that of the forbidden, and our drive to make them better through our love (or loins), and we love the feeling like a relationship with them might always go down a dark path. Loving a bad boy is like riding a roller coaster.

But even though I could live the rest of my life curled against those rock-hard abs, there's something to be said for the nice guys, too.

Okay, yeah, it's mostly the shirtless thing too. Unf. Those arm muscles. *wipes drool off keyboard* (By the way-- in my next life, I'm going to be a casting director for the CW. That's all there is to it.)

Although Stefan has taken a turn for the naughty in this season, last season, I kind of found myself rocking Team Good Guy. After spending the first season lusting after Damon and his swooning good looks, I suddenly found myself drawn to the way Stefan supported Elena and always backed her decisions, for better or for worse. When Stefan came around, I knew that things were always going to turn out okay. It wasn't as much fun as Damon, but it was nice.

While we all love bad boys for the uncertainty and the adrenaline, the nice guys are warm, reassuring, and safe. Isn't there something to be said for someone who is steered by an impeccable moral compass? Someone who makes decisions based on what's right, rather than his desires?

When I wrote Death's Hand, I went for the "nice guy" imperative with my heroic character, James. It was new for me, so I worried it would be boring. In most of my books, all the guys run a little on the bad side of things (Seth from Six Moon Summer is a werewolf hunter, after all, which basically makes him werewolf Rylie's biggest potential enemy). Having the hero be someone whose main desire is to support and uphold the decisions of the heroine turned out to be super awesome, though, because it allowed my heroine to be bad and showed a whole new side of the men I didn't know they possessed.

So I used to be all about the bad boys, but I think I'm a nice guy convert, especially where vampires are concerned. That means this:

Instead of this:

...Um, come to think of it, I'll just take them both. Forget everything I just said up there. (I think I just wrote this post as an excuse to show off hunky shirtless vamps.)

Who do you prefer? The heart-pumping bad boys, or the sweet and reassuring good guys?