A short promo came out for season 6:
There's just nothing in that episode that strongly suggests that he was a ghost vs a hallucination.  Elena was already hallucinating several other scenarios that closely resembled the truth as we saw it.  Otherwise, we have to introduce several new concepts, like humans on the other side, near-death/ripper virus inducing the ability to see ghosts, and/or Aaron being somehow special in being the only human ghost so far on the show.  Seeing as Elena was established to be hallucinating, it just seems a bit far fetched to me to suggest she was also tapping into some spiritual ghost realm just to see one specific human.
It's also that it just hasn't been established on TVD.  It's fine to say that TO and TVD are the same universe, therefore the same rules apply, but you can't expect everyone to watch the spin-off, and so in effect, they're stand-alones.  What we see on TVD should be how we judge TVD.  As far as we know on the show, humans don't go to the other side.  It was central to the plot of the s05 finale, as that's why Elena and Damon had to rush their suicide mission.  They couldn't die as humans, otherwise they wouldn't get to come back through Bonnie.
I'd think the fanbaiting was mostly the first few episodes, though it was rather subtle. Â Like, Elena stroking Stefan's name on her phone, or her running to him before Damon when they were both injured in Qetsiyah's place, or having Elena be jealous of Qetsiyah and Stefan (though I think she was more possessive than jealous? I dunno). It was just a bit much after season 4, where Elena said she loved Stefan, but was no longer in love with him. Â It came off like a pitiful attempt to reinvigorate the dying triangle. Â
But yeah, I agree with you that the alternate reality episode was more of a "goodbye" to Stelena than anything else, because they made a point of showing that it wasn't real at all.  It was a very generic fantasy, in the sense that they had their family, they had kids, they were human, and it was perfectly happy.  It was like watching a Folgers commercial without the incest.  And yet they weren't actually themselves, because Stefan couldn't cook, but Elena could.  They made a joke of that, but I think that was the whole point.  They weren't themselves.  And that's the episode where they established themselves as friends, and were comfortable enough to say "I love you" without any romantic notions.  I think that's the point where Stefan was finally out of love with her.
Personally, I'm a huge Steroline fan, and have been since season 2 (or maybe even season 1 when he turned her down... oops).  I'm a real sucker for the Best Friends Fall In Love trope.  I dunno, they were my first real ship on the show, and I'm so excited that they're likely to happen this season.  But I think Stefan's happy ending isn't so much about who he ends up with, but about him learning to accept himself.  That's the point on which he's been developing since the beginning. Â
And I think what's great about him and Steroline is that... when he was with Elena, part of the charm was that he could forget he was a vampire with her, as he told Lexi.  She brought out his humanity, and he loved that, because he saw himself as a sort of Dr Jekyll, fighting off his Hyde.  But when Elena became a vampire, he saw all his vampirism reflected back at him.  You could see him visibly recoil at seeing her flash her fangs when they made out.  Elena's type of fun was too Damon-ish for him; it was reckelss and potentially bloody, and he felt he couldn't let go around her without temping the Ripper side of himself.  And Elena has only grown more into her darker side, if anything.  But with Caroline?  He's never had a problem having fun, or letting go.  Caroline is his partner in crime.  They work like a team, even finishing each other's sentences and thoughts.  And because she's the picture of a stable, controlled, moral vampire, Stefan can actually be happy as a vampire around her.  In season 5, he never felt like shit about himself when he was with Caroline.  She's been his sober sponsor as well as his fun sponsor; Stefan even said, when with Elena, that if Caroline were there, they'd both be laughing.  Stefan was so uncomfortable with the way Elena changed when she became a vampire, even though vampirism only heightens your true personality, which says a lot (to me) about how he viewed Elena; I think he put her on a bit of a pedestal, whereas Damon saw all her good and bad (even complimented her on her darkest moments, like daggering Rebekah).  But Stefan admired how Caroline grew into herself, meaning that, when her personality what heightened... he actually liked her more, not less. Â
Sorry, shipper moment. Â But this is why I think (hope) that Steroline will be endgame. Â I believe Stefan's overall journey in the series is to accept himself the way he is, and I think Caroline is a great mirror for that, because she embraces being a vampire without embracing the dark nature of it, like Damon/Elena do. Â And I like to think the writers use the dead on the other side to communicate their thoughts, cause like, Rose's speech in 3x19? Â Not subtle. Â And Lexi has been gunning for Steroline since season 4. Â I'd like to think that's meaningful.Â
I think Elena was just paranoid and hallucinating.  Her intuition told her that people were tip-toeing around her about something that happened (she already questioned Damon about it), and she figured it must have been something she/Katherine did, because why else would they all be so afraid to tell her?  She then went to Aaron's dorm, saw that all of his stuff was gone, and naturally figured he died and that his death was covered up like the other vampire-induced deaths at the school.  So, putting two and two together, she imagined he was not only a victim of a vampire attack, but was her victim.  I think if Aaron was any sort of ghost, he would've told her who killed him, instead of being all cryptic.  He represented Elena's fears, not what actual reality. The fact that they were similar is just the writers getting all poetic and shit.
Elena certainly didn't have the ability to see the other side--she was just having very vivid hallucinations due to the werewolf venom in the ripper virus Katherine gave her. Â And as with all her other hallucinations, they were drawn from her own psyche. Â For instance, the Stefan/Katherine/Damon hallucination. Â The setting was identical to the Stefan/Katherine motel scene, but we know people can't remember anything when being possessed by a traveler, so this was just a creative decision by the writers/directors. Â I think the same goes with Aaron's wound. Â Elena's fears were physically similar to reality, but the truth behind them was made up by her own mind.
I thought they had a fairly friendly split? Â Regardless, the only time I've seen Paul be remotely unprofessional is when he pulls a Robert Pattinson and makes fun of the writing on the show, which is just amusing. Â He seems like a pretty great guy, to be honest. Â Also so hilarious... I just love watching him and Ian do interviews together, shamelessly flirting with one another. Â They're like a double act.
Buuut I doubt Meredith would come back, since they've cast someone new to play a doctor this season, working with Elena outside of Mystic Falls. Â I think any medical plotlines will revolve around there, not where Meredith works. Â
That was the first time we really saw her "set aside her morals" because of her love for Damon while they were in a relationship. Â She did that tons before, back when they were just friends. Â She did that for other people, too. Â She set aside her morals and took away Jeremy's free will, twice. Â She almost constantly set aside her morals and protected all her vampire friends who had killed plenty of people put together. Â I mean, pretty much all of season 3 was Elena forgiving Stefan for doing horrible things, or blatantly pretending they didn't happen. Â To say that her relationship with Damon is the cause of this is a bit ridiculous since she was sleeping with a 160 year old ex-serial killer by 1x10. Â This isn't new.
It's just that, for the first time, the show actually acknowledges it.  She had this same issue with Stefan, but they never addressed it.  Hell, he nearly drove her off the bridge where her parents died, and a couple of episodes later they're practically going on a date, and the issue is never brought up after her tearful panic attack.  So while the show's going on about how Elena and Damon are so toxic, ironically enough, the fact that they notice the problem and try to fix it is a hell of a lot healthier than how everyone romanticizes everything about Stefan and Elena's relationship, like Elena saying Stefan was the perfect boyfriend who never scared her, while standing next to Wickery Bridge?  (I'd like to think that was deliberate.)  Saying he was "never a monster" when we saw explicitly how terrible he could get as the RIpper? It seems like Stefan's the only one who doesn't see himself as the epitome of pure and moral. Â
Elena has, however, always been aware of Damon's deepest flaws, right off the bat.  Even when confessing her love for him, she didn't sugarcoat it--she told him he had been a terrible person. So the way Caroline (and a lot of the fandom) try to portray Elena as somehow deluded by Damon's charm doesn't make sense to me.  Elena's extremely aware.  She's aware that she makes excuses for him, and for all her friends.  But Stefan had a really good point in 5x21; they're all vampires.  They've all committed murder.  Even Caroline killed 12 witches to save Bonnie, and before that admitted to having actually enjoyed her first kill.  They take away people's free will without blinking.  They steal blood from hospitals, or feed off of living, breathing people.  They all bend their morals for each other.  Damon and Elena are just the first ones to notice how problematic this can be.
At the start of the show, Tyler was pretty much about to rape Vicki, and was consistently abusive towards her and Jeremy; he made out with his best friend's mother and then beat up said best friend; and he didn't do anything to interfere as werewolves tortured Caroline. Â So if we shouldn't ship anyone with a "bad boy" on TV, Tyler should've been out of the question all the way back in season 1, no? Â Same with Stefan, who stalked a girl before dating her, and then lied to her about his past as a serial killer who would have gladly killed her whole family. Â
Seriously, this is not a show to start getting judgemental about ships. Â Virtually everyone on this show is a murderer and has done horrible things. Â If we're to stick to shipping people who are innocent, we're left with like... Matt and Jenna. Â And even Matt killed an original vampire, thus ending an entire line of vampires, not caring much if those vampires were good and deserving of life.
But the real point is that it's TELEVISION. Â This isn't reality. Â If you can't tell the difference, that's the problem, not the people who enjoy the dynamic between two vampires on a tv show. Â
Except they made it clear on the show that the sire bond didn't affect feelings at all, but was rather created because of pre-existing feelings.  If the sire bond did anything, it might've nudged her to act on her feelings sooner rather than later; but as we all know, it wasn't even Elena that took the step to break up with Stefan... that was Stefan's decision.  So even then, the sire bond didn't do much at all except make her agree when Damon said something very specific.  Elena could actually feel the sire bond in action when he told her to go home, and she wanted to resist it.  So she knew there was a difference between her real feelings, and whatever the sire bond was doing to her.
The sire bond was brought in as an obstacle in their relationship, not as an explanation for Elena's growing feelings. Â They made a whole point of showing the sire bond well and truly broken at the end of 4x23, not long before Elena declared she was in love with Damon--sire bond or no sire bond, her emotions remained the same (or even grew). Â The sire bond had nothing to do with Elena falling in love with Damon, and falling out of love with Stefan. Â She said it herself, when compelled to tell the truth: Stefan made her feel like a broken toy, like she was something that needed to be fixed, whilst Damon made her feel alive, loving her all the same. Â All of that was unconnected to the sire bond. Â I feel like it was all a red herring, meant to throw us off, to create conflict for everyone, and to draw out the triangle for another season. Â The way I see it, all her emotions were amplified when turned into a vampire, but her perspective on those feelings changed. Â Where she was unwilling to admit her feelings for Damon as a human, she was uninhibited as a vampire.
I agree with your general point, though. Â They made it clear that the spell didn't make Elena fall in love with Stefan. Â I even question the notion that it drew them together at all, even geographically, since you'd think she'd have been drawn to Tom, of all people, but she never met the guy. Â Honestly? Â I think they introduced it to explain why these characters are all connected despite the odds, and to make Damon feel insecure. Â
Neither, but if I had to choose, I'd go with Klaus. Â Caroline deserves an interesting counterpart, and I find Tyler a bit of a bore.
Personally, I'm all for Stefan and Caroline. Â I find they improve as individual characters when around each other, which is my favourite kind of ship. Â
Dead:  Tyler (I don't hate him, I just find him uninteresting)
Resurrect: Damon, but since that's pretty much a given, I'll throw in a vote for Lexi and Jenna (even if they're two of the only characters actually unlikely to come back at this point)
I just need my Damon/Alaric bromance. Â Got one half back, lost the other. Â Dammit.
More epic? Â Definitely Delena. Â I was confused at the characters calling Stelena epic, of all things, since the charm of that relationship was in how normal they were despite their circumstances. "Epic" doesn't really coincide with "steady", "sweet", and "consistent" (at least not in my book). Â Delena is a wild mess of passion and flaws, and fighting against all the odds. Â They've been to all the extremes.
The destiny thing is pretty silly since Stefan and Elena weren't even supposed to meet. Â Same with Katherine and Stefan. Â The spell draws dopplegangers together, but it doesn't mean they're all soulmates. Â Soulmates shouldn't exactly fall out of love with each other. Â Besides, Elena's counterpart was Tom, if anyone. Â I think the show was trying to tell us that there was no such thing as soulmates in the first place, because Lexi told Stefan he could have many The Ones, and she's often the voice of reason. Â Stefan and Elena fell in love because they fell in love, and same with Damon and Elena. Â
Also, y'all need to calm down. Â It's hilariously stupid to judge people for which pairing they like on a tv show. Â Half the people on TVD could be classified as serial killers, so lets have a little perspective. Â (And am I seriously the only fan who likes both Stelena and Delena?)
The writers would be kind of stupid not to bring them back. Â They've done it for everyone else... to leave out the fandom fave would be insane.