The Vampire Diaries universe has come to an end (at least for now,) but even after 13 years of supernatural plotlines, engaging protagonists, and fresh lore, Elena Gilbert remains the original anchor to the series. Everything in Mystic Falls began with this young teenager who was pushed into the world of vampires, wolves, and witches but managed to find love in the darkest of hours.
Her love triangle with the Salvatore brothers, the infamous no-humanity bender, and her inconvenient doppelgangers are just a few highlights of Elena's magnificent tenure on The Vampire Diaries. These memes depict the rollercoaster ride that was Elena's life.
It Was Always Going To Be Stefan?
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The earlier seasons of The Vampire Diaries depicted a very committed Elena, who couldn't see beyond the younger Salvatore. However, in time Elena proved that she didn't love Stefan all that much. Despite her verbal assertions of affection for him, her heart was very much captured by his older, bad-boy brother.
Fans found it quite amusing that most of the time, it seemed like she was convincing herself more than anyone else about her love for Stefan. It was one of her defining traits.
Burning Homes Down
A big twist in the plot was Elena turning off her humanity, which led her to make several questionable decisions. Her first, and most preposterous action was to burn her entire home down, with her brother's dead body in it.
While it made sense for her to flip the switch to preserve her sanity and blunt the ache of losing her family, the pyrotechnics were wholly unanticipated. Funnily enough, the entire incident was just forgotten and never discussed again, even after she got her humanity back.
Elena And Her Love For The Salvatores
The Salvatore brothers entered Elena's life when she was lost, empty, and without any direction in her life. She had lost her parents and any motivation to excel at school, so meeting Stefan was like a lifeline for her. Consequently, she became extremely attached to both brothers.
Where there was Elena, there was bound to be a vampire brother by her side. She considered them her family, even with the love triangle. They were joined at the hip for life. Most times, Elena only survived because of her friends and the two vampires.
Elena's Bias
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Elena was a morally righteous character from beginning to end (with a no humanity blip in the middle), but her fans always had an issue with the exceptions she used to make for Damon. They loved each other deeply, but she largely ignored the terrible things that he did.
Sadly, Damon not only harmed people unrelated to Elena, but also her best friends and family. Therefore it was ironic that she had such a desire for revenge against Katherine for killing Jeremy, even though Elena's beau Damon had done it first.
Fickle Elena
In the grand scheme of things, Elena was one of the good guys, but she flipped her decisions a fair bit during her run in the show. She was but a teenager, which meant that she was figuring things out on the fly. She hated Damon, then she loved him for life; It was always going to be Stefan, but only till the time his brother charmed her.
As the main character, others looked to her for directions, but poor Elena would often lead them down difficult and confusing roads because she was fickle and easily impressionable, as proved by her interactions with Elijah.
Elena Wasn't Katherine
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Elena's likeness to Katherine was just the beginning of a long line of doppelgangers who looked just like each other. Katherine was the perfect foil for Elena because she was as evil as Elena was good. Soon enough, there was Amara and Tatia made themselves known on the show, and Elena's most dominant feature became her supernatural likeness to the Petrova line.
It didn't help that her love story with the Salvatore brothers was eerily similar to the entanglement that Katherine had had with them in the 1800s.
No Humanity Elena
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Fans of the older Gilbert would vehemently oppose that she resembled Katherine in any other way than her physical form, but Elena did do many things exactly as the cunning vampire did.
This meme elaborates how her love for the Salvatores, her lack of clothes for shock value, and the killing of innocents were too much like Katherine. Most of these things were done when she had her humanity switch flipped off, but the resemblance couldn't be ignored.
Damon's One True Love
The Vampire Diaries suffered a fatal blow with Nina Dobrev, and consequently, Elena, exiting the series, but she was never really gone from the show. She appeared in flashbacks, and all the characters stayed very attached to her despite her falling into an enchanted sleep.
Her strongest connection was to Damon, who loved her irrevocably, and did everything he could to protect her. Even Sybil couldn't fully manage to erase her from Damon's conscience, and the soul of the show very much included Elena Gilbert.
The Sire Bond
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One of the most contentious things on the show was Elena's reason for getting together with Damon: the sire bond. The breakup between her and Stefan was still fresh, and the sire bond between her and Damon just stretched out the inevitable: that she was meant to be with Damon.
Poor Stefan had hoped that the sire bond was the reason behind her feelings, but Elena loved Damon deeply. In reality, it was always going to be Damon for her.
Scumbag Elena
A funny twist on the love triangle was that Elena wanted the last name, so when her affections changed from Stefan to Damon, it made little difference to her because her objective remained fulfilled.
In reality, the switch from one brother to another is quite a controversial and hurtful thing to do, but Elena's choices made for a very entertaining teen drama. Either way, she wasn't a quitter who got what she wanted.