Nowadays all you see on TV really is reality shows. Which sometimes they can be funny, but they can also be simply boring. However, if there is one non reality show that is still on TV, and that I've consistently watched for five years, it would have to be The Vampire Diaries. I know what you're thinking, stupid vampires. Although the title is somewhat cheesy, the show is definitely not that.
The show has many different plot lines which I think is what makes it so strong. The series starts off in Mystic Falls, Virginia, focusing on the main character, Elena, whose parents had just died in a car accident that she was apart of. Eventually she meets Stefan, who is a vampire, and they begin dating. Along comes Damon, his "bad brother", who eventually Elena falls inlove with. It becomes one big love triangle followed by all the other subplots that help build the show. The first season premiering in September 2009 on the CW, gave audiences just what they wanted to see. The show wasn't just a typical story about a high school girl whose parents die and falls inlove with let alone vampires. The story focuses on other characters, not just Elena. Who is Stefan? What was he like in the past? How did he become who he is? Who is Damon, why is he the bad brother? What involvement did Elena's parents have in the vampire community. The show brings the audience into the lives of multiple characters, so you aren't just focusing on their love story, you're also focusing on other things. And I think it is a very hard thing to be able to pull off the plot line of vampires because it can be done in such a cheesy way. A good example of the cheesy plot line of vampires is Twilight. Although the books were somewhat good, the movies were just plain horrible. And so, due to the success of season 1, The Vampire Diaries continued, and is now starting its 6th season this October!
Anyway, I'm going to talk about one of my top favorite plotlines that they did in this show, and how they pulled this awesomeness off. The writers chose to deal with the topic of doppelgangers. When Stefan firsts meets Elena, he acts kind of weird to her because low and behold Elena is identical to the vampire that 1. turned him into a vampire and 2. he was inlove with. We find out this person is Katherine. Now although that's what peaked his initial interest in Elena, he later finds out they are completely different people. In episodes, we go back in time to 1864, and we are introduced to Katherine and we find out the kind of person she was and still is. For starters, she played both brothers at the same time. She acted as if she was inlove with both of them and they were all going to live together forever. She is very manipulative, is great at getting her way, and uses sex as a tool. Once the audience is actually presented with real life Katherine, we find out more characteristics she has. She is selfish and puts herself first for everything. Survival is her number one goal. Where as Elena is pure, she is selfless and falls inlove helplessly, and would do anything to save her friends or family. She does not lie, does not hurt anyone or anything. They are polar opposites which is why they both hate each other. Katherine believes Elena has somehow stolen her happiness. She believes that Elena does not deserve all the love she gets, and that she, Katherine, should be living the good life and not having a worry in the world. Meanwhile, the audience is realizing how psychotic really is because she is such a horrible person that kills anyone at any moment, and Elena doesn't. Elena does not like her because all she does is kill and or hurt the ones she loves most.
Katherine Pierce
Elena Gilbert
Being that these characters are 100% different, this required the actress, Nina Dobrev, to have an incredible amount of talent. Not only did she do both roles, but she made them completely different and pulled it off. If that doesn't scream amazing actress, I don't know what does. And as soon as you were getting use to two Nina Dobrev's, the writers choose to throw in another doppelganger. Say hello to Amara! The original Petrova doppelganger.
Just Amara
Amara turns out to be the original Petrova doppelganger. Petrova being the line of their specific doppelganger. Although Amara didn't last long on the show, it was important that the writers add her character in there. Amara helped shape where Katherine and Elena originally came from. She was a combination of both of them. We find out that she is the anchor to the other side. Meaning any supernatural creature that dies, has to pass through her, which causes her a huge amount of pain. In the first picture, she is seen as a statue. The witch, Qetsiya, sentenced her to that form for eternity because she was having an affair with Silas, the man that she was inlove with. Amara definitely put her love interests first like Katherine. However her love for Silas was pure, like Elena's. And finally after all the years of torture, when she is unfrozen, she chooses death for herself. She does this to rid herself of the pain, unlike Elena or Katherine. Elena would never throw her life away no matter how horrible things got. And Katherine wouldn't waste her life for something so insignificant, she would take control of it.
Seeing these three characters develop throughout the show definitely helped shape some insight on background stories. And I gurantee you that if any other show tried to do this, they would have a very, very, very hard time pulling it off like the writers of TVD did. And that goes for acting too. Nina Dobrev was able to take these three characters on and make them completely different through small things. In the photo above, you see Katherine with one hand on her hip, and kind of leaning foward, and then she draws back as if shes bored. Then there is Amara in the middle with her hands crossed over one another. Something that people did a long time ago in a way to show respect, or stay out of the spotlight. And finally there's Elena on the right with her arms crossed. They are crossed in a way as if she's nervous, but wants to continue on and see what happens. All three characters displaying small different movements, and this completely differentiates them. And because this plotline was so complicated, I fell inlove with it. It was done so well, it is basically now impossible to beat.
LONG LIVE TVD
"I always knew that I wanted Elena's story to be a six season adventure," says actress Nina Dobrev in the announcement of her exit after the season six finale of The Vampire Diaries and let me tell you, I am torn. This Instagram post is what I woke up to this morning, along with a few Tumblr posts saying "RIP TVD." It's not a sudden thing, I know. Ever since Nina talked about wanting to get out of acting as a high school student, there's been buzz about how much longer she was actually going to stay.
I'm chilled with Dobrev's statement about how nothing in TVD is quite what it seems. But, I think I'm more chilled by the fact that she's always known it was going to be a six season adventure. I feel kind of betrayed, you know? I've dedicated myself to this show, and to Nina as an actress, I watched her and supported her as Mia Jones when she was on Degrassi, and followed her straight through TVD. But, now I feel like she was just setting me up to tear me down. She decided that this was how it was going to go but no fans were aware in the slightest.
I want to applaud her for deciding to move on, I really do. I just can't. As a fan of the show and her acting on this specific show, I'm hurt. I think she's done an amazing job as Elena Gilbert, and I truly could not see another person filling those shoes. She's had to do so much for the part, including acting the part of four separate people in just one episode. Honestly, she's an amazing actress. I don't know how that'll carry over to her next role, but I know she's done such a good job with this role that I am truly devastated that it's going to be over so soon.
