The Vampire Diaries arrived at a time when the vampire fad was through the roof. If you were a teenager in the late-2000s, then you’ll how crazy every girl went at the mere mention of vampires. The cool vampires from the material such as Van Helsing was a thing of the past and the sparkly boy-toy versions from Twilight were the new norm. In 2009, The Vampire Diaries was commissioned to cater to this market and brought a similar protagonist to Twilight’s main character on the show.
Elena Gilbert was altogether a better character than the one from Twilight, and evolved into a more developed character as the series progressed and vampires weren’t associated with romance as much anymore. She was still supposed to be a girl-next-door figure when she was introduced and displayed naïve personality traits to the mysterious Stefan Salvatore. Elena’s love life deviated a few seasons down the line and her characterization also changed to accommodate changes such as her becoming a vampire later on.
The popularity of Elena and the Salvatore brothers made The Vampire Diaries an instant hit and for a couple years, it was the top-rated show on the CW. Although it didn’t last as long as initially believed (let’s face it, the show’s no Supernatural), it was the main characters’ fame that made the show stand out. We’re here now to dive a little deeper into the character traits of the main character.
Here are 20 Things Wrong With Elena Gilbert We All Choose To Ignore.
Choosing Stefan at first then switching to Damon
For the first three seasons of the show, Stefan was built up to be the absolute one for Elena. No matter what Damon did, Elena would only harbor feelings for Stefan. This made Damon likable to the audience who wanted their favorite bad boy to end up with the girl.
Perhaps seeing this response, the show had Elena suddenly switching her preference from Stefan to Damon. At the end of Season 3 and beginning of Season 4, she’d firmly stood by choosing Stefan; since then, it was as if she never really liked Stefan in the first place and quickly turned her feelings toward Damon.
The story changed because the actress left
The fact of the matter is that The Vampire Diaries would never have gone the pathway it did had Nina Dobrev not left the show. You can talk about the whole spell Elena had with Bonnie being alive and all, or the entirety of the seventh and eight seasons, but none of it would’ve been the way it turned out to be had the actress not gone away.
Had Nina decided to stay, most likely the angles we saw Damon and Stefan go through would’ve been radically different. But we did find out that the show didn’t hinge on Elena as it ran for two more seasons without her.
We never found out how Bonnie woke her up
In the finale, the closing moments had a lot of things happening at the same time and by this point, we weren’t as attached to Elena as we once were. By now, it was the relationship between Stefan and Damon that the audience truly cared for. Due to this, Elena’s eventual awakening from her permanent sleep wasn’t seen.
Instead, Bonnie somehow came up with a magical solution that negated the previous spell Elena was under. We never found out what Bonnie used to wake Elena up, but maybe that wasn’t important anymore.
She Should've Been the weakest Vampire
In the first season, it was established that the older vampires were the stronger they would get as the years ed by. This was at first put into motion to show how powerful Damon and the Originals were. Soon after, though, this clause was taken out entirely and newer vampires seemed to be stronger.
In the same vein, Elena didn’t show any problems after becoming a vampire. Considering she was an absolutely fresh vampire, she should’ve been the weakest of the bunch; this never played out that way, and Elena was shown to be pretty good with her new abilities.
The huge age difference between her and the brothers
These people were supposed to be vampires and to illustrate the immortal aspect they carried the how had the main two guys be over a hundred-years-old. But there’s no hiding the fact that they were in love with a girl who was supposed to be 17!
Sure, they were biologically around that age themselves, but they had had over a century of life experiences at that point, which the whole thing kind of gross that Elena had over a century of age differences with both her love interests. Really puts a new spin on someone being into older men, right?
Being involved with two brothers
Someone who’s supposed to have a Girl-Next-Door persona isn’t a person who one would expect to be running around jumping onto a new guy. While Elena didn’t have a long list of dating history, her record of having been intimate with two brothers isn’t something you’d associate with a Nice girl, is it?
No matter how okay you might be with her being involved physically with two brothers, there are most certainly people who would be uncomfortable knowing this fact. Turns out the Girl-Next-Door thing wasn’t so literally placed onto Elena.
Her brother didn't care she was in a coma
For the time that Elena’s brother Jeremy was on the show, he didn’t do much other than being the guy who constantly falling into trouble. Basically, the guy was a load for the heroes and he developed this reputation. In-universe, Jeremy had a similar epiphany and left Mystic Falls to craft his own legacy.
He must have been very invested in his own stuff because Jeremy never showed up to check on the permanently asleep Elena. His sister had always placed him first in importance, but it seems Jeremy wasn’t all that attached to her considering he never came to see his sister.
The actress is older than the character
Nina Dobrev will be turning 30-years-old in 2019. This made her 20 when the show began in 2009. Elena was supposed to be 16-17 when The Vampire Diaries started, marking a 3-4 year age gap between Elena and her actress.
This isn’t as big of a difference than many other actors, but as the show progressed, the gap enlarged. By the time the show ended in 2017, Nina was 28-years-old, making her far too old to be someone playing Elena’s age. Even now as of 2019, Elena is only 26-27.
She's attracted to boys who are bad for her
Some girls just have a type they are attracted to. You can’t help who you find alluring, it’s just something that comes naturally. That usually applies to physical attractiveness, but in Elena’s case, her attraction is toward a boy with certain attributes in personality.
Elena’s attraction is usually toward boys who are clearly bad for her. We first had Stefan – a mysterious, brooding lover who obviously had a dark secret and was nothing like the usual boys. Then there was Damon – a rebellious bad boy with a mean streak. She might have been the Nice girl, but she was certainly attracted to the Bad boys.
Her Terrible Personality Change
Turns out Elena’s innately good personality only hinged on her being a human. After she was converted into a vampire, Elena didn’t go totally dark side, but she was by no means a good person. Ironically, in the earlier seasons, she had always shunned the alpha cheerleader syndrome and chosen to be a nice person albeit attractive and in a good position at the school.
The Vampire!Elena was nothing the sweet girl who was human, and would treat other people like dirt. It’s a good thing she became human again because Vampire!Elena was just like Katherine.