The Vampire Diaries

The Vampire Diaries is an American supernatural teen drama television series developed by Kevin Williamson and Julie Plec, based on the book series of the same name written by L. J. Smith. The series premiered on the CW on September 10, 2009, and concluded on March 10, 2017, having aired 171 episodes over eight seasons.
The first season averaged 3.60 million viewers. It became the most-watched series on the network before being surpassed by Arrow. The show has received numerous award nominations, winning four People's Choice Awards and thirty Teen Choice Awards.
In April 2015, lead actress Nina Dobrev, who played Elena Gilbert, confirmed that she would be leaving the show after its sixth season. Dobrev returned to record a voice-over for the seventh-season finale and returned as a guest star in the series finale. In March 2016, the CW renewed the series for an eighth season, but in July of that year announced that the eighth season, consisting of 16 episodes, would be the show's last.
The Vampire Diaries has received generally positive reviews from critics throughout its run, who praised the performances, characterization, emotional depth and themes. The concepts and characters developed in the series served to launch a media franchise that includes other television series, web series, novels and comic books. The television series The Originals which also aired on the CWwas the first major entry in this collection of connected works, followed by a spin-off of The Originals entitled Legacies, which aired on the CW as well. The Vampire Diaries significantly influenced the supernatural teen drama genre, contributing to a surge in vampire-themed media during the late 2000s and early 2010s.

Series overview

The series is set in the fictional town of Mystic Falls, Virginia, a town charged with supernatural history. It follows the life of Elena Gilbert, a teenage girl who has just lost both parents in a car crash, as she falls in love with a 172-year-old vampire named Stefan Salvatore, who she thinks is just a normal human. Their relationship becomes increasingly intricate as Stefan's mysterious older brother Damon Salvatore returns to Mystic Falls with a plan to bring back their past love, Katherine Pierce, who is Elena's doppelgänger.
Although Damon initially holds a grudge against his brother for forcing him to become a vampire, he later reconciles with Stefan, but their relationship is challenged when they both fall in love with Elena, creating a love triangle among the three. Both brothers attempt to protect Elena as they face various villains and threats to their town, including Katherine, while trying to protect their identity as vampires. Throughout the series, the Salvatore brothers pasts and the town's history is slowly revealed through flashbacks.
Additional storylines revolve around the other inhabitants of the town, most notably Elena's younger brother Jeremy Gilbert and aunt Jenna Sommers, her best friends Bonnie Bennett and Caroline Forbes, their mutual friends Matt Donovan and Tyler Lockwood, Matt's older sister Vicki Donovan, and their history teacher and vampire hunter Alaric Saltzman. The town's politics are orchestrated by the Founders' council, comprising descendants of the founding families: the Fells, the Forbes, the Lockwoods, the Gilberts, and the Salvatores. They guard the town mainly from vampires and other supernatural threats such as werewolves, witches, hybrids, and ghosts.

Cast and characters

Nina Dobrev as Elena Gilbert, a young orphan who falls in love with vampire Stefan Salvatore and later his brother, Damon, creating a love triangle. When Stefan turns his humanity off after being blackmailed by Klaus, Damon is given the opportunity to grow closer to Elena. This results in her being further drawn into the supernatural world and results in her struggling to survive supernatural events in the town. Elena becomes a vampire following the events of the third-season finale, but takes the cure and becomes human again in the sixth season. In the sixth-season finale, Elena's life was tied to Bonnie's in such a way that as long as Bonnie is alive, Elena will remain asleep.
*Dobrev also portrays Elena's doppelgänger, Katerina Petrova, also known as Katherine Pierce. Dobrev sporadically appeared as Katherine in subsequent seasons, with Katherine playing a significant role in the second and fifth seasons.
*Dobrev also plays the progenitor of the Petrova doppelgängers and Silas's true love, Amara, during the fifth season, whom he had sought in the afterlife for two thousand years.
Paul Wesley as Stefan Salvatore, a good-hearted and affectionate vampire and the complete opposite of his older brother, Damon Salvatore. Later in the series, Stefan reverts to his old ways as a Ripper to save Damon from a werewolf bite. His role becomes more antagonistic, after being forced to turn his humanity off. Eventually, he returns to his good-hearted and caring self and reconciles with Elena, but the relationship doesn't last long. He becomes human again in the final season and marries Caroline in the eighth season but is killed afterwards in the series finale as he sacrifices himself along with Katherine to save Mystic Falls.
*Wesley also portrays his revealed doppelgänger, Silas, the world's first immortal being, in the fourth and fifth seasons.
*Wesley also played another doppelgänger, Tom Avery, during the fifth season.
Ian Somerhalder as Damon Salvatore, Stefan's malevolent elder vampire brother. He is mostly thought of as selfish and manipulative, using humans for his own gain with no regard but later on begins to display a more caring side. Throughout the series, Damon is able to repair his relationship with Stefan, and becomes best friends with Alaric and Bonnie. Though his love for Elena is initially one-sided, she begins to develop feelings for him as they work together to save Stefan after he's given in to his Ripper side. They begin dating in the fourth season, after Elena transitions into a vampire, and continue to have an on-and-off relationship until a now-human Elena is put into her deep sleep at the end of the sixth season.
Steven R. McQueen as Jeremy Gilbert, Elena's younger brother, actually revealed to be her biological cousin. He later becomes a member of The Five, a vampire hunting group giving him supernatural strengths. Jeremy is killed in the fourth season after Katherine throws him onto Silas, who drains his blood. He is resurrected by Bonnie Bennett, his love interest, in the fourth-season finale. In the sixth season, he leaves Mystic Falls to hunt vampires, unbeknownst to everyone other than Alaric. Jeremy returns to Mystic Falls in the final episode after Elena's curse is broken, and begins working as a teacher at the Salvatore Boarding School for the Young & Gifted that Alaric and Caroline open.
Sara Canning as Jenna Sommers, Elena and Jeremy's aunt and legal guardian after the death of their parents. Though she is young, she strives to be a role model to Elena and Jeremy and look after them. She dates Alaric after he moves to town in the middle of the first season. Jenna was killed in season two during Klaus' hybrid ritual after being turned into a vampire.
Kat Graham as Bonnie Bennett, Elena and Caroline's best friend and a very powerful witch. She has died numerous times but always found a way to return. She develops and controls her powers with the help of her grandmother, Sheila or "Grams", another witch in the Bennett family. She is often able to use her magic to help the group, and while she initially hates vampires, particularly Damon, she ends up warming up to them; she and Damon become best friends after being stuck in a prison world with him for four months during season six. Bonnie has lost and regained her ability to do magic multiple times throughout the show. She spent the second through fifth seasons in an on-again, off-again relationship with Elena's brother Jeremy and later became involved with Enzo. In the seventh season, Bonnie faces the challenge of having received Rayna Cruz's hunters' curse, which puts all her vampire friends at risk. In the series finale, Bonnie breaks the sleeping spell on Elena and leaves Mystic Falls to travel the world.
Candice King as Caroline Forbes, Elena and Bonnie's best friend, who used to be insecure and sometimes jealous of Elena for the attention she received, often feeling second best. After turning into a vampire in the second season, she becomes more caring and sympathetic. Neurotic but lovable, Caroline has been the love interest of many of the male characters. She initially serves as Damon's plaything in the first season, which she hates him for, but they later become friends. Afterwards, she has serious relationships with Matt, Tyler, Alaric, and Stefan. She was long the subject of Klaus's adoration, whom she sleeps with in the fifth season, too. Caroline gives birth to Alaric and Jo's twin daughters after becoming pregnant with them through a spell cast by the Gemini Coven and becomes their mother, as Jo is killed in the seventh season. She married Stefan shortly before his death in the eighth season and repaired her relationship with Damon. Caroline raises the twins with Alaric, who she views as her own; she opens the Salvatore Boarding School for the Young & Gifted with Alaric.
Zach Roerig as Matt Donovan, Vicki's younger brother and Elena's childhood friend and ex-boyfriend, who became romantically involved with Caroline in the first and second seasons. Matt and Caroline remain good friends even after breaking up during the second season. Matt wants no part in the supernatural events in his town and is later at odds with the vampires as he becomes a police officer and tries to protect the town from them. He becomes the sheriff in the eighth season and plans to run for mayor.
Kayla Ewell as Vicki Donovan, Matt's drug-addicted older sister. She appears to be dating Tyler but is also interested in Jeremy. She is quite insecure about herself, being poor and an outsider. She is turned into a vampire by Damon and is killed by Stefan shortly after due to her getting out of control and attacking Elena. Following the destruction of the Other Side, the supernatural limbo where she resided after her death, Vicki was sent to Hell.
Michael Trevino as Tyler Lockwood, a werewolf, later turned into a hybrid by Klaus, Matt's best friend and the son of the mayor of Mystic Falls. His family carry a lycanthropic trait, being descended from an ancient werewolf clan. His father, the mayor, had the gene but did not trigger the curse. His uncle Mason was also a triggered werewolf, who was killed by Damon in the second season. Tyler was turned into the first successful hybrid by Klaus. In the fifth-season finale, he is returned to just being a human. He reactivates his werewolf gene and leaves town at the end of the sixth season. He appears in a couple of episodes of the seventh season, protecting Elena's coffin.
Matt Davis as Alaric Saltzman, a history teacher, vampire hunter and Jenna's love interest in the first two seasons. Davis left the show at the end of season three after Alaric was killed. His character returned as a regular from the sixth season onwards, after he was resurrected in the fifth season. His vampirism is stripped away by magic, turning him into a human once again, after being saved by Josette Laughlin ; the two begin dating. Jo becomes pregnant and they plan to marry, but she is murdered by her brother Malachai at their wedding. The Gemini coven, Jo's witch family, was able to transfer the babies to Caroline's womb, and she gives birth to Alaric and Jo's twin daughters - Josie and Lizzie named after their biological mother Josette and Carolines' mother Elizabeth. Caroline and Alaric move to Dallas together and begin a relationship, but end it when Caroline decides to be with Stefan after his return at the end of the seventh season. Alaric establishes the Salvatore Boarding School for the Young & Gifted with Caroline, with whom he raises the twins, as Jo watches over him from the afterlife.
Joseph Morgan as Klaus Mikaelson, the Original Hybrid, who begins to build an army of new "hybrids", which are half vampire and half werewolf. During the third season, Klaus began to develop feelings for Caroline and falls in love with her. Klaus eventually moves to New Orleans where his character is the lead in the spin-off show The Originals.
Michael Malarkey as Enzo St. John, a vampire formerly under the imprisonment of the Augustine society. He was Damon Salvatore's cellmate back in the 1950s when the latter was captured by the Augustines. He and Damon revived their friendship as he searched for his lost lover, Maggie. In the fifth-season episode "Man on Fire", Enzo shut off his humanity after finding out the truth about Maggie's death. He is later killed by Stefan, having his heart ripped out. He was resurrected in the fifth-season finale and becomes Bonnie's love interest, before coming under the control of the monster in the vault at the end of the seventh season. He is killed by a humanity-less Stefan in the eighth season having his heart ripped out again. He watches over Bonnie in the afterlife.