The Vampire Diaries ran for eight whole seasons, and given the complex mythical rules and the intricate supernatural history involved, a few plotholes or errors are expected. For the most part, fans of the show had made their peace with the minor glitches in chronology, but there have been some flaws that escaped everyone’s attention.
For instance, vervain affects every original vampire differently, so is concentration a big deal vis-a-vis its effectiveness? Or are the non-hybrid Originals simply vastly different in their powers and strengths? What exactly was the broader significance of The Five? These are just a few other noteworthy flaws that fans simply overlooked.
Updated October 3, 2021 by Hilary Elizabeth: Throughout the eight-season run of The Vampire Diaries, there were quite a few plot holes and logic fails that attentive fans and viewers picked up on. So, this list has been expanded to include even more of the noticeable flaws in the mythology or internal consistency of the series.
The Availability Of Daylight Rings
While The Vampire Diaries did stick with one of the most common pieces of vampire lore when it made its fanged folks burn in the sunlight, the series also came up with an easy workaround so that its characters could walk outside during daytime. Enchanted daylight rings (or it could really be any jewelry) allowed vampires to become daywalkers.
However, when the series first started this magical jewelry was supposedly quite rare. Apparently, the characters of TVD are the luckiest vampires alive, because nearly every single significant vampire character either has or procures a daylight ring throughout the show.
Was The Five Even Significant?
As the Originals had to be written out to make way for their spin-off, the fourth season introduced The Five; in fact, the showrunners spent a lot of time establishing the Brotherhood of the Five, which suggested that the band of vampire hunters are important to the broader narrative of the show.
Connor was particularly depicted as a major antagonist and a threat to the vampire population in Mystic Falls, only to be killed by Elena who was a newborn vampire, which is very weird. Plus, the entire arc around the brotherhood eventually only concerned itself with Silas, which felt wasteful.
The Originals Were Hardly The First Immortals
The Originals’ claim to fame as the first immortals is actually very questionable, as is eventually revealed during the course of TVD. They are the first vampire generation but are not the first immortals, technically speaking, and it’s strange that they keep using the reference even though they are well aware that it’s untrue.
Mikael, Finn, Elijah, Rebekah, Klaus, and Kol were only immortal unless stabbed with the White Oak Stake. Moreover, Silas had taken the immortality potion centuries before the Originals, making him the true first immortal.
The Inconsistent Logic Of The Cure
The show initially claimed that if a vampire takes the cure then they will lose their immortality. However, if any other vampire wanted a human life they would have to drain the person who drank the cure of all of their blood.
The 1994 version of the cure was discovered by Bonnie when she was searching for Silas' Tombstone in Nova Scotia's prison world, and she took it back to Earth. And when Elena has the 1994 cure coursing through her veins, Bonnie takes some of it and injects Stefan, which turns him back into a human although there was no draining involved. So, have the rules of the cure changed? If so, why is it never explained?
The Vervain Access
Vervain was introduced as a rare herb that can keep vampires from compelling humans and can also burn a vampire. The rarity of vervain was actually stressed repeatedly when it was first introduced.
Throughout the course of the show, however, almost everyone seemed to have quick and easy access to vervain and had even accumulated enough vervain to contaminate the town’s water supply. This major error was overlooked by fans as most viewers never questioned how Mystic Falls stumbled into an overabundance of vervain.
The Human Blood Bags Don’t Always Die
The vampire killings lost all discipline as the show progressed, and surprisingly not many viewers commented on how inconsistently people died because of vampire bites. While primary characters could survive even dangerous mid-vein bites on the neck, secondary characters would die even if a vampire simply bit their wrists or sucked lightly on their necks.
This mistake was also repeated quite a few times in The Originals and after a point, things got really predictable, so much so that the viewers immediately knew that if a minor character or an extra was shown being bitten by a vampire they were going to die.
Bleeding Arteries
This is actually a criticism that can be levied at nearly every vampire movie and TV series ever made, but The Vampire Diaries is, unfortunately, no exception. And that is the odd fact that so many people have vampires chomping into their necks, which results in little more than a trickle of flowing blood.
Anyone with any basic anatomical knowledge knows that a punctured carotid artery should be gushing like a fountain, not oozing like a normal cut.
The Inconsistency With The Founding Year
There have been quite a few signs in Mystic Falls, like the one in the cemetery which claims that the town was founded in 1792. However numerous characters have said on the show that the town was founded in 1860. “Mystic Falls was founded in 1860 when a Lockwood, a Forbes, a Fell, a Gilbert, and a Salvatore gathered to sign the township charter,” Caroline specifically tells Sybil.
Though Sybil explains that the town had already been inhabited by witches, history states that the town was founded in 1860 and not 1792. No one addresses the error in the signs and neither does anyone acknowledge this seventy-year discrepancy in the town’s history.
This ID Glitch
This error is rather sneaky so it’s not surprising that fans didn’t take note; viewers are so used to thinking of Mystic Falls as a fictional town that they often forget that according to the canon it’s supposed to be located in Virginia.
In every town in the state of Virginia, the IDs of people under 21 are supposed to be vertical, but when Vicki shows the Sheriff her ID it’s horizontal. Since Vicki is 18 years old, even if she was using a fake ID, it would obviously alert the sheriff.
This Embarrassing Art Error
In the season 1 episode titled "Children of the Damned", Damon reminisces about Katherine in 1864. In one of the sequences a copy of Auguste Renoir’s painting, "Two Girls at the Piano" is seen hanging behind Katherine on a wall.
But this painting was only painted in 1892, a good 28 years after the flashback takes place. It’s surprising that eagle-eyed viewers, especially the ones who are enthusiastic about art, have not noticed this error. And it's even more surprising that the show didn't check its dates before including the painting in the show.