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1!!YMMV for the books
2* FanonDiscontinuity: A portion of the fans refuse to acknowledge anything beyond the ''Return'' trilogy as canon, due to the fact the original author Creator/LJSmith was fired by the publisher and replaced with a ghostwriter (allegedly due to Smith and the publisher disagreeing on the direction of the series).
3* FoeRomanticSubtext: Together with HoYay— in the first few books, Elena’s narration will go into ''lengthy,'' detailed paragraphs about how attractive her frenemy-turned-rival Caroline is every time she shows up.
4* PopularityPolynomial: The original four books were bestsellers back in the early 1990s, then faded into obscurity over time. After ''[[Literature/Twilight2005 Twilight]]'' was published in 2005 and gave the ParanormalRomance genre a massive boost in popularity, it resurrected interest in ''The Vampire Diaries'', resulting in the original four books being reissued in 2007, more books being written, and a TV adaptation being greenlit in 2009.
5
6!!YMMV for the TV series
7* AbandonShipping: Caroline/Damon had a following and was briefly canon. Then his extreme physical, emotional, and sexual abuse of her throughout their short-lived "relationship" made this a little awkward, to say the least. The two did eventually come to a truce, but many fans remain angry about the abuse and the fact that Damon never really faced any consequences for it. Needless to say, to still be shipping Caroline/Damon is pretty much unheard of and highly frowned upon.
8* ActorShipping:
9** Creator/IanSomerhalder and Creator/NinaDobrev. Though it has died down considerably after they broke up- and ''especially'' after some disparaging things Ian said about Delena and Nina's potential return to the show.
10** Some fans also ship Ian with Creator/KatGraham due to their close friendship and the chemistry they have on screen.
11* AdaptationDisplacement: At least on Website/{{Wikipedia}}; looking up ''The Vampire Diaries'' over there will bring up the TV show, with a link for the book series at the top of the page. Considering that the books were originally published nearly twenty years before the TV show started airing and had faded into obscurity until they were reissued in 2007, it's not that surprising newer fans would be more familiar with the show.
12* AlternativeCharacterInterpretation: Most vampires are like this given their disregard for human life, despite having been human at some point.
13** Damon. Is he really [[ObviouslyEvil that evil]] or just [[LoveMakesYouEvil a victim of love]]? Considering that Damon is a SerialRapist and SerialKiller, this is DracoInLeatherPants all the way. Some of the episodes have also hinted at BlueAndOrangeMorality. It gets more complicated in the eighth season, when he spends half of it mind controlled by Sybil on both a conscious and subconscious level. This causes quite the snarl as to just how much of his behavior can be attributed to that, Damon just being Damon, or a combination of the two.
14** Is Stefan a tortured soul who's too good for this world or is he just as selfishly taking advantage of everyone? Furthermore, was his mission to get the vampirism cure for Elena the actions of a caring boyfriend seeking to free them both from a curse was thrust upon both of them so they can live HappilyEverAfter, or the actions of a clingy, controlling stalker that just wants Elena to go back to the way she was pre-vampirism because he just can't stand that she's changing into a different, perhaps better person?
15** Elena: Is she just an innocent girl who's unfairly targeted and lucky enough to have good friends to help her out, or is she just selfishly taking advantage of everyone, using her friends and not caring about them at all and just doing whatever she wants such as dating the guy who raped her best friend because she's got the hots for him now or dating a vampire even though it causes trouble for her best friend who's a witch and costs her the life of her grandmother.
16** Mr. Tanner didn't want to be a teacher, just a football coach, but was forced to by the school.
17** There's a possibility that John knew that the Gilbert device would affect Mayor Lockwood and did it because he wanted to become mayor himself, a plot that was only thwarted by Katherine stabbing him.
18** In the seventh season, Rayna wanted to kill Stefan and trap him inside the stone no matter what. So, she tricked Damon in rescinding his offer of taking his place by reminding him that he wouldn't be with Elena as a result of the switch. It may have been her way of getting what she wanted, and she was angry that Damon was getting in the way of that. [[spoiler: This may also be the real reason she tricked everyone later on and gave her powers and urges to kill vampires to Bonnie, as punishment for her mission being ruined.]]
19* AntiClimaxBoss:
20** Markos and his minions are not killed in a confrontation or fight, instead he is killed when Damon and Elena kamikaze the Mystic Grill. Later his ghost is curb stomped by Lexi and DraggedOffToHell in under ten seconds.
21** [[spoiler: Katherine Pierce in the show's finale.]] Touted as the "baddest bitch of all", she comes BackFromTheDead as a new ruler of Hell and the FinalBoss, only to be easily defeated after spending the whole episode getting stabbed, dying, and coming back to life again. Particularly jarring, seeing how in the past she's been much stronger as a vampire than as a ''friggin queen of Hell''.
22* AssPull:
23** The Sun and Moon Curse turning out to not exist and the actual curse being a curse on Klaus, to keep his werewolf side suppressed.
24** Both times that people need to find Alaric in Season 1, he's at the school... on a Saturday. The first time he has a semi-viable excuse of needing to use the copier but the second... no reason is given.
25** At the end of season 3, Esther reveals that she was the one who manipulated Alaric into developing a SplitPersonality so he could become "the ultimate hunter". This does not mesh with what is shown previously, as Alaric spent the entire season killing human founder members (in other words, other vampire ''hunters'') for not doing their job properly. How this, or corrupting Samantha Gilbert in 1912, helps Esther's plans is anybody's guess. It also begs the question of why she would spend so much time preparing Alaric when her original plan was to just kill all vampires in existence with a single spell.
26** In Season 6, Elena's sleeping curse is specifically set up by Kai to instantly kill both Bonnie and Elena if they so much as think about messing with it. Come the finale and Bonnie breaks it, off-screen with no more explanation than "I did it!" Made even worse by the fact that they had a way to explain it with Josie or Lizzie or both simply absorbing the spell.
27* SugarWiki/AwesomeMusic:
28** Vicki and Damon dancing around and trashing Stefan's room to "Enjoy The Silence"? ''Awesome''. Especially when you notice how it seems to be sung from Damon's POV.
29** Within Temptation's "All I Need" during the Damon & Elena dance scene in "Miss Mystic Falls".
30** "Bloodstream" by Stateless in the season one finale, when Damon kisses Elena. Except it's Katherine.
31** "I Was Wrong" by Sleeperstar in 2x08 when Damon tells Elena that he loves her, and then makes her forget.
32** Damon and Elena scenes get this ''a lot.'' Another highlight has to be "Never Let Me Go" by Florence+the Machine in 3x19 when Elena kisses Damon and they have an extended and passionate kiss scene.
33** The series finale has a few, but especially "Don't Let Me Go," by The Fray playing while [[spoiler: Stefan reveals that he is dead, having sacrificed himself for Damon, and is reunited in death with Lexi.]] "I was feeling epic," indeed.
34* BadassDecay:
35** Noticeably averted with Damon. If anything, the softer side he occasionally exhibits in Season 2 makes him ''even more'' badass. Although he's only ever held his own in a fight with humans, and vegetarian-vampire brother Stefan (sometimes) and he's been beaten by every other supernatural creature he's fought with (par the hybrids he killed and [[KickTheDog Lexi]], but those were more surprise attacks than a battle of strength) Elijah, Klaus, Katherine, Caroline, Stefan (occasionally) etc. Really the only fair fight that he has even won was against Kol, but it's.... [[SmallNameBigEgo Kol]], so....
36** Stefan towards the middle to end of season three and all of season four so far.
37* BaseBreakingCharacter:
38** The Originals. Many fans are happy they got their [[Series/TheOriginals own spin off]], but it's divided between people who like them and want to see a whole show based around them and people who think TVD has become too much about them and want them off their show. And people who just hate and/or like them, and people who like individual Originals.
39** Damon has also become one as of season four and five. It could be argued that Damon's popularity is almost 50/50, with half of the fanbase hating him and the other half liking or loving him.
40** Katherine of Season 5, the fact that the writers refuse to let her go away or die has irritated a number of people as has [[spoiler: her possessing Elena]]. And now that Katherine is not only dead, but got DraggedOffToHell, the fandom has been divided even further. Either Katherine got what was coming to her, or it was a case of DisproportionateRetribution. [[spoiler: This retribution getting reversed by her becoming Queen of Hell and the FinalBoss of the series makes things even worse.]]
41* BrokenBase:
42** Season's three and four in general.
43** Elena being sired to Damon.
44** Elena being in a romantic relationship with Damon.
45** Elena becoming a vampire.
46** Stefan/Caroline as a romantic couple as of season 6. A portion of the fan bases wants them together and another large portion of the fan base absolutely hates them together.
47* CompleteMonster: See [[Monster/TheVampireDiariesUniverse here]].
48* CrackPairing: Fans of this show ever love their crack ships. ''Every'' combination of two (or more) characters you could ever imagine is shipped by someone and has had fanfiction written about it, period. No matter how {{Squick}}y/incestuous/immoral/illegal/ridiculous/nonsensical, and even if the characters involved despise each other/have never met/one or both of them is dead.
49%%* CreatorsPet: Hayley, a character despised by the fans that is being carried over to the spinoff. Surprising though, said spinoff has [[RescuedFromTheScrappyHeap made her quite a bit more favorable to many of her haters]].
50* DieForOurShip:
51** Bonnie, because of the Damon/Bonnie ShipTease in the books, is mostly hated by Damon/Elena fans. She also gets savaged by Jeremy/Anna fans.
52** Both Salvatore brothers fall into this, but Elena, the centre of the triangle, probably gets more hate than both of them.
53** Tyler starting in Season 3, once well-liked, now people want him to die so Caroline can be with either Klaus or Stefan.
54* DracoInLeatherPants:
55** Damon, [[AllGirlsWantBadBoys obviously]].
56** Elijah.
57** Katherine
58** Klaus who is probably the evilest vampire on the whole show.
59** Silas. There were a lot of fangirls who actually felt sorry for Silas and woobified him.
60** Kol's got his share of fangirls as well, despite having no moments that indicate he has a good bone in his body.
61** Kai. He's got a lot of fangirls who sympathise with him despite the fact that he is an irredeemable and psychotic killer.
62* EnsembleDarkhorse:
63** Pre-season 5 Katherine for being a smart, menacing, charismatic villain with dozens of backup plans and a complex backstory.
64** Elijah - Mysterious badass NobleDemon Original vampire, with an ability to punch another vampire's head off without so much as breaking a sweat.
65** Klaus was saved from complete demise both because of this trope.
66** Rebekah - AlphaBitch original vampire who's betrayed on a regular basis and isn't afraid to speak her mind. The fact she [[spoiler: killed Elena]] probably doesn't hurt.
67** Caroline - has always been one due to her DeadpanSnarker nature and endearing ditziness, but her popularity really skyrocketed when she was turned, making her possibly the most competent good female on the show.
68** Kol - Big time. A charming, charismatic psychopath with some of the best lines on the show. What's not to love? Ever since Elena and Jeremy killed him, fans have been crying out for a resurrection.
69** Anna - though it didn't save her from [[TyrantTakesTheHelm Uncle John]], It did however, bring her back in the third season, and led to her receiving a less depressing end to her story this time, finally reunited with her mother.
70** Alaric - the only non-useless adult. So popular, he became a regular.
71** April. "After School Special" cements her status.
72** Silas. There are many fans who wish he would return and thought he made a great villain.
73** Amara. Many fans actually love her more than both Elena and Katherine and wished that she had more screentime as a character and with Silas.
74** Qetsiyah. Some fans love her and wanted to see more of her.
75** Enzo was popular with fans after his introduction and even gets promoted to regular for Season 6.
76** Kai, he has become a really popular villain and many fans hope he isn't killed off too soon.
77** With the possible exception of Malcom, The Heretics from Season 7 have quickly won people over (even [[WeHardlyKnewYe Oscar]] and [[TheSpeechless Beau]]), but lesbian couple Nora and Mary Louise are especially popular.
78** Lexi Branson. Killed off in her first episode, to the outrage of the fans due to her fun personality and platonic relationship with Stefan, causing her to be regularly brought back in equally memorable spirit and flashback capacities.
79** Sarah, the Salvatore's distant niece, for her MoralityPet nature, dynamics with Enzo and general likableness.
80* EvilIsCool: Damon, in his early days...
81** The Originals. To the point that they received their own show.
82** Kai. If the youtube comments are led to believe.
83** Silas is an evil bastard but how terrifyingly effective he is along with Paul Wesley's charismatic performance and Silas' complete embrace of his nature and sharp wit have made him ''very'' popular.
84* FandomSpecificPlot: The existence of a third usually female Salvatore to go along with Stefan and Damon. Sometimes it's their sister or an otherwise female descendant.
85* {{Fanon}}:
86** A lot of people seem to think Pearl and Anna are members of Kol's bloodline despite nothing in the show to support this and it being confirmed that both were turned by Katherine, who is of Klaus's bloodline.
87** In the show, Alaric is never once referred to as Elena's stepfather, but it is much more common in fanfiction.
88* FanonDiscontinuity: There was a book called Stefan's Diaries that was not advertised or widely distributed that most fans don't exist know exists, much less acknowledge, especially the show itself never references it.
89* FanPreferredCouple:
90** Due to the ShipTease between Klaus and Caroline in seasons three and four, the pairing quickly became the most popular ship in the fandom. However, due to Klaus getting his own spin-off, Caroline instead ended up with Stefan. Despite this, most fans prefer to pair her with Klaus, and the pairing remains the most written about ship from the franchise in terms of fanfiction.
91** The show ends with Bonnie in a relationship with Enzo, however most fans prefer to pair her with enemy turned best friend Damon. This is mainly due to the chemistry between their actors, who were best friends in real life, and the fact that their friendship is one of the few things fans generally love about the later seasons.
92* GrowingTheBeard: "Lost Girls". The mythology starts to truly be developed, Elena starts to grow a backbone, Vicki's turned, and we find out Mystic Falls isn't much better than [[Series/BuffyTheVampireSlayer Sunnydale]].
93** Season 6 has been called an improvement over the previous seasons.
94* HarsherInHindsight:
95** Matt tells Caroline that their relationship isn't going to work when they start it in "Unpleasantville". It doesn't.
96** In "Lost Girls" Damon comments on how Vicki doesn't want to die. She dies in the next episode.
97** In "The Descent" Damon tells Jules she won't live to see another full moon. The next full moon, she is killed by Klaus as part of the sacrifice.
98** In "The House Guest" Jonas tried to burn Mystic Grill down. The set that was used for the Grill would later be damaged in a real fire.
99** Silas and Amara's deaths are scored by Music/ChristinaGrimmie's "With Love". The singer would be murdered a few years later.
100** In "Things We Lost In The Fire", Matt is pulled over for drunk driving. His actor, Creator/ZachRoerig, was arrested for DUI in 2020.
101* HesJustHiding: Alaric claims that the [[spoiler:Lockwood]] family died out with [[spoiler:Tyler.]] There's some speculation that he merely disregarded two extremely minor characters from earlier seasons for being oblivious to the supernatural or too distantly related to the main branch of the family and that they aren't dead.
102* HilariousInHindsight:
103** Damon and Caroline talking about how someone becomes a vampire in episode 4 may just make people re-watching it laugh.
104** Stefan and Caroline dancing in the same episode takes on a new light in Season 2.
105** [[Series/TheLyingGame Alexandra Chando]] auditioned to play Elena/Katherine.
106** Klaus telling Elijah love is a vampire's greatest weakness in "Klaus"
107** In the pilot Jeremy asks Vicki, "You had sex with a puppy?". Since she was dating Tyler, who was later revealed to be a werewolf, she kind of did.
108** In "Let the Right One In", Anna says that she won't turn Jeremy because he learned everything that he knew about vampires from {{Creator/Netflix}}. Netflix later picked up the show for streaming.
109** In season 6, episode 11, Jo is using the Salvatore house to train in her magic and Damon jokes that he has allowed Alaric to turn the house into Hogwarts. Flash forward to the series finale where [[spoiler: Alaric turns the Salvatore Mansion into a school for magically gifted children]]
110** In "162 Candles" Damon kills a guy, what's the name of the actor: John Gilbert.
111** In "History Repeating" Caroline calls Bonnie a "little liar". In the episode, Bonnie was being haunted by Emily, played by Creator/BiancaLawson, who starred in ''Series/PrettyLittleLiars''
112** After Klaus almost succeeded in killing Jeremy, Elena sent him to Denver. Jeremy was TheStoner at the start of the series, and Colorado has since legalized recreational marijuana use.
113** Persia White, who plays a vampire from Klaus's bloodline, later married Creator/JosephMorgan.
114** After being bitten by a werewolf, Rose starts acting feral like a zombie, something Creator/LaurenCohan would later [[Series/TheWalkingDead be focused on killing]].
115** In "Family Ties", Damon reads New Moon saying that he doesn't get the series. You can tell that he seems to have changed his mind since Ian Somerhalder married Twilight star Nikki Reed.
116* HoYay: Not as much as most other shows, but there is some.
117** Damon and Alaric and their bromance.
118** Tyler and Jeremy were pretty popular in season one.
119** Damon and Elijah.
120** Klaus and Stefan. So incredibly much.
121** Fans were basically waiting for Damon and Enzo to share a passionate kiss since they found each other again. Even though he spent much of the second half of S6 with Matt, everything he was doing for Stefan's comeuppance on Damon's behalf.
122* IronWoobie: Elena, Caroline, Rebekah because of being vampires. Katherine also counts, though she doubles as a JerkassWoobie.
123* ItWasHisSled: Believe it or not, the fact that Klaus was Elijah's brother was a bit of a big reveal, but now it's very common knowledge.
124* JerkassWoobie:
125** Poor Damon may be lacking in morals, but he's had a ''really'' terrible time of it over the past century and a half (a lot of which he blames on Stefan, with [[IHateYouVampireDad some justification]]). He's also constantly treated with mistrust and hatred by most of the other characters, particularly Elena, Katherine, Bonnie, and his own brother. He does definitely fit the "jerkass" part of this trope, but it's increasingly clear that it's a vicious cycle: other characters insist Damon needs to make amends, Damon tries to make amends, Damon's amends are ignored or belittled, Damon lashes out in a way that is fatal or at least hurtful to someone, other characters insist Damon needs to make amends...
126** Katherine is also straying dangerously close to this territory, especially with the way she pleaded for Damon to let her out when he sealed her inside the tomb with every intention of letting her starve.
127** Tyler is becoming this. Only Caroline and Tyler know exactly what a first transformation is like from the DVD recording Mason left of his first transformation. Other than them and other werewolves, no one else has a clue about the bones painfully reforming, the internal organs rearranging, the teeth growing, etc.
128** Rebekah. It's painfully clear by now that her AlphaBitch personality is a big cover for her deep fear of being left alone and unloved, given how much her family keeps stabbing each other in the back -- and when her own ''mother'' has possessed her body and teamed up with Dark Alaric to massacre the Originals (and thus kill every vampire alive), whew. When she does get her body back, she has to clean after a dance that she organized but didn't get to attend because of her mother. Who didn't want to give her a hug after that?
129* JerksAreWorseThanVillains:
130** Bonnie Bennett was arguably the biggest victim of this for the show. In season 2, Bonnie became distant, cynical and withdrawn after her grandmother's death. She also was initially uncomfortable with Caroline being a vampire even though that was partly her fault. Despite coming around rather quickly, fans still considered Bonnie more despicable than Damon who is a SociopathicHero on his best days and was a villain for sizable amount of time, and the very charismatic Katherine, Elena's EvilDoppelganger. Even towards the end of the show, some fans still treated Bonnie with more hate than the villains.
131** Elena was a contentious character among the fandom for a long time, as many felt she was far less interesting than the aforementioned Katherine. Hatred for Elena skyrocketed when she chose to be with Damon over Stefan, leaving the latter heartbroken, even though Elena was sired to Damon. By contrast, the villainous Katherine and semi-villainous Rebekah have received far less vitriol from fans despite doing far worse things to other people, including Stefan. Fans unironically took Rebekah calling Elena "a child who only cares about herself" at face value ignoring that Rebekah is [[ImmortalImmaturity incredibly immature for her age]] and far more childish and selfish than Elena.
132** Some Bonnie fans who like to pair her off with Kol, Klaus, Kai or Damon view them as better matches for her than Jeremy who once cheated on Bonnie with the ghost of his dead ex-girlfriend. Damon flip flops between being a hero and a villain, Klaus was the BigBad for much of season 3 and had tried to kill Bonnie and her friends several times, Kol is notable for being even more AxCrazy and untrustworthy than Klaus and Kai is a sociopath who, among other things, tried to kill Bonnie and left her in a prison dimension. None of these things have stopped fans from pairing Bonnie with any of these characters while bashing Jeremy for a brief moment of infidelity that he apologized for.
133* LauncherOfAThousandShips:
134** Caroline. In Fanfiction, she has been paired with Klaus, Stefan, Jeremy, (whose actor she dated in real life), Elena, Katherine, Rebekah, Kol, even complete CrackPairing s like Alaric ([[HilariousInHindsight which briefly became canon]]), Mason, Jenna, and Vicki.
135** Stefan's biggest ship are with Elena and Caroline. He is also shipped with other characters, including Katherine, Damon, Bonnie, Klaus, Elijah, and Rebekah.
136** Bonnie is shipped with everyone on the show, both male and female characters. In terms of male characters, she is shipped with Damon, Stefan, Jeremy, Klaus, Elijah, Kol, Kai, Enzo, and Matt. She is also shipped with the female characters too such as Elena, Caroline, and Katherine.
137* LesYay:
138** In "Miss Mystic Falls", since Matt couldn't get off Caroline decided to bring Bonnie to practice dancing with her.
139** Katherine has this with every female character in sight.
140** April and Rebekah, to the point where Rebekah calls April "my sweet" and "darling"
141* TheLawOfFanJackassery: There is literally no pleasing Elena haters.
142* LoveToHate: Quite a few of the villains but Silas stands out the most. He is completely evil with absolutely no remorse for his crimes and casually commits acts of cruelty as easily as breathing but his power, the fact that he is genuinely frightening and Paul Wesley's wonderfully evil performance where it's clear he's having a blast playing such a despicable character make him an utter delight to watch.
143* MagnificentBastard: [[Characters/TheVampireDiariesUniverseSilas Silas]], an ancient Traveler and the first immortal, manipulates Professor Shane into freeing him from his tomb. Desiring to destroy the Other Side so he can [[TogetherInDeath be reunited with his mortal love in death]], Silas tricks Bonnie and Caroline into killing twelve witches to complete the expression triangle, uses his psychic power to [[PlayingSick convince Klaus he is dying]] to force him to find the cure, and tricks Bonnie into thinking he has shown her his true face. Eventually revealing himself to his doppelganger, Stefan, Silas traps Stefan at the bottom of a lake. Silas spends the next three months building his strength before compelling Mystic Falls to find Katherine for him so he can consume the cure from her blood. When Qetsiyah finds a way to suppress his psychic powers, Silas [[FightOffTheKryptonite finds a way to turn them back on]] by temporarily killing Stefan to get information on where the anchor to the Other Side is. Finding out that his love Amara is the anchor, Silas decides to kill her so they can be together in death and returns after death to teach Bonnie and Liv a spell to bring people back from the Other Side as it's being destroyed.
144%%* MindGameShip: Katherine tries to have one with Stefan. Lots of subtext of this between Klaus and Stefan as well.
145* MoralEventHorizon:
146** Damon, so much. He definitely crossed it in season five when it is revealed that he murdered Aaron's parents and every generation of Whitmores for years as revenge for being captured and experimented on. The truly despicable part is that he killed the last one only a few months ago meaning that he lied to Elena and his bloodlust and sociopathic nature are still very much alive. Even Elena, who has put up an extremely impressive wall of denial about him, is absolutely horrified.
147*** Damon pretty much zig-zagged this trope throughout the series because of his HeelFaceRevolvingDoor wherein he has killed Jeremy, who only survived because of the Gilbert ring, murdered Aaron when he thought Elena broke up with him, and has generally came close to killing Stefan and the rest of the gang on several occasions.
148** There were plenty of Elena haters before, but the planning and then killing of Kol by Elena to grow Jeremy's hunter's mark, specifically because of the fact that this would kill all of Kol's line of vampires, which is anywhere from hundreds to hundreds of thousands of vampires is considered by even Elena strongest supporters to have swung Elena so far past the MoralEventHorizon that she is now completely irredeemably evil.
149** Wes turning Jesse into a vampire for his research.
150** "Turning off" the humanity switch universally causes even the nicest of vampires to do a FaceHeelTurn for the duration and JumpOffTheSlipperySlope leading to these sorts of moments. Elena, Stefan, and Caroline all quickly go on psychopathic StupidEvil murder sprees until somebody forces them to turn it back on.
151* {{Narm}}: For those who watch both ''TVD'' and ''The Originals'', it's difficult to find Tyler's "Don't be a werewolf again" storyline seriously.
152* NeverLiveItDown:
153** Bonnie's attitude for the first few episodes of season 2 is one of the reasons that people still hate her character.
154** A vocal segment of Bonnie fans have never forgotten that Jeremy cheated on her with a ghost.
155** Some people had a serious problem with Elena being willing to commit an act of genocide by killing Kol and his entire bloodline.
156* NoYay: Katherine and Caroline, hopefully in a case of AccidentalInnuendo in early Season 2.
157--> '''Katherine:''' ''(in Caroline's bedroom)'' We're going to have so much ''fun'' together.
158--> Cue a shot of a horrified-looking Caroline.
159** Enzo and Bonnie's [[StrangledByTheRedString "relationship"]] started by Enzo kidnapping Bonnie and keeping her in a cabin in the woods for months. By the end of their time there Bonnie is hopelessly in love with Enzo in a way that creepily resembles StockholmSyndrome.
160** Sybil hits on Enzo and Damon constantly while mind controlling them. There is no evidence she took it any further, but they are both clearly disgusted by her flirtation while being powerless to leave or do anything about it. It's especially icky after she replaces all of Damon's memories of Elena with ones of herself.
161* OlderThanTheyThink: Most viewers and critics initially (and sadly still do, in some cases) dismissed the series as a rip-off of ''Twilight''. The ''Vampire Diaries'' books actually predate ''Twilight'' by fourteen years.
162* OneTrueThreesome: Damon/Elena/Stefan.
163** There's also followings for Elena/Caroline/Bonnie, Elena/Stefan/Katherine, Stefan/Katherine/Damon.
164* OpinionMyopia: Some fans debate when a character they like has raped another and make up excuses as to why it's not rape like for example stating that the sex was consensual before the compulsion. Though of course the other argument is that compulsion is mind rape and also forcing somebody down a bed while said person is crying, then manipulating this person's mind to have her be okay with you being a sociopath vampire that drinks your blood is technically rape since her free will was taken and so she is not truly consenting to continuing to sleep with you.
165* PortmanteauCoupleName: Plenty, due to the large amounts of ShipTease on the show. Some of the most common ones include:
166** [[StarcrossedLovers Stelena]] - Stefan/Elena
167** [[FanPreferredCouple Delena]] - Damon/Elena
168** [[StalkerWithACrush Steferine or Statherine]] - Stefan/Katherine
169** [[UnresolvedSexualTension Datherine]] - Damon/Katherine
170** [[IncestYayShipping Defan]] - Damon/Stefan
171** [[OfficialCouple Beremy]] - Bonnie/Jeremy (also known as [[{{Pun}} Boremy]])
172** [[FoeYayShipping Bamon]] - Bonnie/Damon
173** [[AnchoredShip Jalaric]] - Alaric/Jenna
174** [[BetaCouple Catt]] - Caroline/Matt
175** [[StarCrossedLovers Forwood]] - Caroline (Forbes)/Tyler (Lockwood)
176** [[BoyMeetsGirl Jeranna]] - Jeremy/Anna
177** [[HeterosexualLifePartners Dalaric]] - Damon/Alaric
178** [[PlatonicLifePartners Stexi]] - Stefan/Lexi
179** [[FoeYayShipping Klaroline]] - Klaus/Caroline
180** [[IncestYayShipping Klebekah]] - Klaus/Rebekah
181** [[AllLoveIsUnrequited Kalijah]] - Elijah/Katherine
182** [[FriendlyEnemy Elejah]] - Elijah/Elena
183** [[PlatonicLifePartners Steroline]] - Stefan/Caroline
184** [[VillainousCrush Stebekah]] - Stefan/Rebekah
185** [[FriendsWithBenefits Mabekah]] - Matt/Rebekah
186** [[FoeYayShipping Katholine or Fierce]] - Katherine/Caroline
187** [[FoeYayShipping Kathlena, Katlena, Kelena]] - Katherine/Elena
188* QuestionableCasting:
189** The casting of Creator/MiaKirshner as Isobel is strange considering she and Nina Dobrev look nothing alike. Elena looks like more like her adoptive mother than her biological one, though this is justified by the fact that Elena is a doppelgänger, and therefore magically inclined to look the way that she does.
190** Stefan is perhaps the most egregious example of this DawsonCasting-induced common problem with immortal characters in long-running shows: he's supposedly frozen at 17, but his actor was in his late 20s and even with the use of makeup and effects to age him down, he is very clearly older than 17. By the later seasons, he visibly has wrinkles and it is a bit laughable that the audience is meant to think he is a teenager.
191* RonTheDeathEater:
192** In the TV show, Stefan, who is in a mutually loving, trusting and respectful relationship with Elena, is often vilified in favor of his [[DracoInLeatherPants murdering rapist brother]], Damon. He gets it in the book fandom too, but Damon isn't nearly as bad in the books so it's not quite as mind-boggling. Stefan was even listed as having a MoralEventHorizon for threatening an extremely unpleasant and fan-hated character and telling him to get out of town. It comes off as a rather harsh judgment considering that when the FemmeFatale cut off the same character's fingers, taunted him and then stabbed him it was considered a KickTheDog instead. Post-season 2 [[spoiler: the show has been kind of trying to make a point that Stefan isn't the white knight that they sort of built him up as in season 1 and to a degree in season 2. His behavior in season 3 is just downright despicable in his need to get revenge on Klaus, and his holier-than-thou attitude ends up derailing his relationship with Elena]]
193** Elena gets it herself in both the book and TV fandom. In the book she's antagonized by fans for being a sometimes selfish but also brave, driven and compassionate young woman, in favor of her less self-assured friend. Despite her being a compassionate, considerate and downright selfless young woman in the TV show, she's been seen this way as well. Right down to 'in favor of her less self-assured friend.' Her big mistake, asking to have her brother's memory of his girlfriend's murder (after she attempted to eat his sister) erased to protect him in the aftermath of Elena's own assault by and witnessed death of said girlfriend is treated as unadulterated evil and 'pure selfishness.'
194* RootingForTheEmpire: Some people root for BigBad Klaus and TheDragon Elijah. This is partly because the show runs on ProtagonistCenteredMorality to the point where the supposedly "good" characters are sometimes little better than the villains, often leaving the audience to simply side with whichever character entertains them the most. Moreover, antagonists such as Klaus and Katherine, despite being genuinely villainous, are given FreudianExcuses and frequent enough PetTheDog moments for the audience to sympathize with them to some extent and are at least [[AtLeastIAdmitIt open about their evil nature]] in contrast to the leads engaging in shady actions regularly but still believing they have a moral high ground. The fact that all three are very charismatic and have some of the best lines on the show certainly helps.
195* TheScrappy: Wes Maxfield, who is basically John Gilbert with none of his charm. It doesn't help that by all rights almost any of the main characters should be able to take him down with ease, yet the writers keep contriving situations so they won't.
196** A lot of fans did not like Nadia, mostly because fans had her their own interpretations of what the character would be like, the fact that she's biologically older than Katherine, and the fact that she convinced Katherine to [[spoiler: steal Elena's body]]
197* SeasonalRot: Arguments abound as to where this began, with Season 5 being the earliest contender for when this set in. Katherine's death, the zigzagging plotlines, an overall unlikable Damon, and the show focusing way too much time on the Delena back and forth rather than the actual plot of the season resulted in plummeting ratings- with 5x21 and 5x22 hitting all time lows for the entire show during season five. The fanbase is divided over whether or not season 6 is any better, but seasons 7 and 8 are almost universally agreed to be the worst
198* ShipMates: The Damon/Elena shippers frequently ship Matt/Caroline and Stefan/Bonnie. This not only keeps Matt and Stefan away from Elena, but also shoots down any possibilities of Damon hooking up with Caroline again or showing any interest in Bonnie, despite the hints for that pairing in the books. Though the SugarWiki/HeartwarmingMoments between Stefan and Caroline since she became a vampire have led to an increase in the popularity of that pairing; Katherine and Stefan has also grown in popularity.
199* ShipToShipCombat:
200** The main shipping war is Stefan/Elena vs. Damon/Elena vs. Damon/Bonnie, but there's also quite a bit of conflict between the Damon/Elena shippers and the Damon/Caroline fans. The Jeremy/Bonnie ship has a contingent as well as a Luca/Bonnie one. Anna and Jeremy dwarfs both of them.
201** Now Katherine's back, expect to see Katherine/Stefan vs. Katherine/Damon added to the mix.
202** There has been an increase in Damon/Caroline since she's been turned and so is now more than capable of sticking up for herself.
203** Damon/Rose and Caroline/Tyler.....
204** Tyler/Caroline and Klaus/Caroline's fanbases are at each other's throats as well.
205** Stefan/Caroline are more at odds with the Klaroline shippers.
206** As of season five, Stefan/Elena vs. Stefan/Caroline vs. Stefan/Katherine shippers are at each other's throats. It seems as though season five is about the fandom fighting over who Stefan should be with. Now that Katherine is dead, there seems to be a major rivalry between Stelena shippers vs. Steroline shippers. There are still some disgruntled Steferine shippers who don't want Stefan to be with either Elena or Caroline though.
207** Biggest ship war in season 6 is the one between Stefan/Elena fans and Stefan/Caroline fans.
208** The biggest ship wars of Seasons 7 and 8 are between Bamon (Damon/Bonnie) shippers and Bonenzo (Enzo/Bonnie) shippers.
209* ShipsThatPassInTheNight:
210** There is a fandom for Kol Mikaelson and April Young despite the two having never met. Kol also gets this with Anna, but it's at least possible that those two crossed paths considering their ages. It is also popular Fanon that she is from his bloodline or was sired by him.
211** Klaus/Bonnie has gained quite a following even though they barely had any interaction. Their actors are even friends and asked for the pairing to happen.
212* {{Squick}}: Silas taking Elena's form after it was revealed that his lover Amara was the original doppelganger.
213* StrangledByTheRedString:
214** Stefan and Elena in the first two episodes. Elena meets Stefan, a mysterious new student, they have two awkward conversations, and the next day they both already knew they were meant to be. They agree that "We met. We talked. It was epic" before sharing their first kiss and becoming a couple. However, despite the rushed beginning, the rest of the relationship was well-written.
215** Enzo and Bonnie. In season 5 and 6, they are frenemies at best and TheFriendsWhoNeverHang at worst. Most episodes in Season 6 focus on Bonnie's close [[PlatonicLifePartners platonic relationship]] with Damon, and her few interactions with Enzo are not very friendly if not outright antagonistic. However in season 7 they fall in love during the three year TimeSkip (we only see a flashback of their first date in one episode) and remain madly in love for the rest of the show to the point they can't live without each other.
216* TheyChangedItNowItSucks: The new opening in Season 4 was very poorly received. It was actually something that worked well on other CW shows, specifically ''Series/{{Arrow}}''.
217* TheyWastedAPerfectlyGoodCharacter:
218** Lexi, who in her debut episode is killed by Damon, as her friendship with Stefan was interesting and she could have been a good ally, though she does make appearances in flashbacks and makes guest appearances as a ghost until moving on in the afterlife.
219** In the season 2 finale, Jenna, who's just become the last major character to learn about the {{Masquerade}}, is turned into a vampire herself. And is just as quickly killed off, rather than the multitudes of story possibilities that could have come from it.
220** The Heretics. Full stop because they mostly serve as the arc villains for the first half of the season and two of them get killed off in their debut episode. Then by the end of the season all of them are dead with the final one being PutOnABus.
221** Nora and Mary Louise when you consider that Nora was starting to become friends with Bonnie and was helping out later in the season. Because of this she could have made a good ally to the main characters and they could have had Mary as the wild card just like she was during the season as it is shown that she didn't trust them. In general it also would have been good to see their relationship explored more as their backstory of being lesbian vampire/witch hybrids who had to hide not just their relationship but what they are through the centuries would have been an interesting plot to explore more and also to have seen them adjust to modern society more which could have included one or both of them dating other people because of society being more tolerate of homosexuality.
222* TooBleakStoppedCaring: As the series progresses, it gets increasingly dark and gloomy, and characters either die or change for the worse. Thus this creeps in.
223* TookTheBadFilmSeriously: Most of the cast, but especially Creator/NinaDobrev and Creator/PaulWesley. Even the harshest critics of the later seasons never denied that they were doing their best with the material and did genuinely good work despite it.
224* {{Wangst}}: Stefan gets some in the first episode, as does Elena, though she just lost her parents.

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