The Vampire Diaries Universe Elena Gilbert / Characters

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Elena Gilbert

"I don't question why everyone tries so hard to save me. You shouldn't question why I try so hard to save everyone else."

Portrayed by: Nina Dobrev

One of the protagonists of the The Vampire Diaries. Elena Gilbert is a recently orphaned 17-year-old who lives in Mystic Falls, whose ordinary life is turned upside down when she discovers that the supernatural is real and she herself is tied to it.

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A-L

Academic Athlete: She's both an honor student and a talented cheerleader. Her athleticism and quick thinking help her transition from an Ordinary High-School Student to an Action Survivor.
Action Girl: In season 3, she starts receiving vampire hunter and self-defense training from Alaric and Damon, making her evolve from an Action Survivor to an actual Badass Normal combatant who got pretty good at staking people. This is magnified in Season 4 after she transitions into a vampire, becoming tougher, stronger and having the Superpower Lottery that comes with being a vampire in this universe.
Action Survivor: In the earlier seasons, she's far too likely to be a Damsel in Distress, but she is pretty competent while trying to defend herself. For example, when a strange vampire is trying to kill her, she stabs him with pencils - repeatedly - and then breaks a mop over her knee to try to stake him, and when a werewolf attacks her, she instantly sticks a knife into his gut. She's also adept at using her surroundings while trying to run away if pursued by a supernatural.
Adaptational Backstory Change: In the original novels, Elena lost her parents in an accident when she was young. At the beginning of the series, the accident has only just occurred a few months back and she's still processing it.
Adaptation Dye-Job: Elena was blonde in the original novels, but on the show, she is a brunette.
Adaptation Personality Change: Elena is a mature Nice Girl at the beginning of the series, and a lot more pleasant than the snobbish Alpha Bitch she started out as in novels.
Adaptation Species Change: In the books, Elena (and Katherine)'s birth mother was an angel and Elena was a Half-Human Hybrid.
All Girls Want Bad Boys: Her relationships with Stefan (brooding, mysterious loner) and Damon (rebellious, wild bad boy). And of the two, she ultimately ended with the "baddest", Damon.
All Guys Want Cheerleaders: She is a cheerleader in the first season but she quits due to personal reasons. She's considered attractive and is actually a nice gal.
Always Someone Better: Despite being Childhood Friends, Caroline always felt jealous at how more popular and successful Elena was, which was a plot point between the two in the earlier seasons. But after Caroline becomes a vampire, she becomes more confident and her feelings of inferiority towards Elena go away, which deepens their friendship.
Amicable Exes:
- With Matt. They were a couple before the beginning of the series and they transition to being good friends after a bit of initial awkwardness.
- Initially subverted with Stefan, who proclaims that he is 'done with her' after realizing she was in love with his brother. It's only in season 5 that they move on from each other and renew their relationship as friends, though they still have some Unresolved Sexual Tension and jealousy moments.

Back for the Finale: After being stuck into a Convenient Coma for season 7 and most of season 8, she comes back for the Grand Finale and gets her happy ending by turning back human and marrying Damon.
Badass Normal: Elena as a regular human is capable of defending herself against all of the supernatural beings around her, due to the hunter training she received from Alaric and Damon. After she turned into a vampire she became an Empowered Badass Normal, to the point she even beat Katherine in a fight, despite Katherine being a much older vampire than Elena was.
Battle Couple: Fought alongside Stefan in the early seasons and then with Damon in the later seasons.
Belligerent Sexual Tension: Elena has this type of relationship with Damon in the early seasons. She finds him self-centered, violent, and needlessly cruel at times, but she's also undeniably sexually attracted to him, much to her own annoyance. When he goes through some Character Development, they become the Official Couple, but he still likes to get on her nerves.
Betty and Veronica: She's the Archie for the Love Triangle with Salvatore brothers (with Stefan as the "Betty", being the morally righteous and compassionate Love Interest while Damon is the "Veronica", being the sexy and morally ambiguous Love Interest). The love triangle between Elena, Stefan and Damon is considered to be the main plot of the series, and they maintain this dynamic the whole time.
Beware the Nice Ones: A very sweet and kind person but more than capable of putting you down if she's provoked. Hurt anyone of Elena's loved ones and watch her wrath.
Big Sister Instinct: Towards Jeremy. Elena is seen to be highly protective of Jeremy, especially after her Jenna dies, considering that Jeremy is the only family that she really has left and Elana has a Promotion to Parent. She often lectures him, acting more like a mother figure to him from time to time. She goes so far as to kill Connor in order to protect her brother. And Jeremy dying in season 4 triggers her into a Heroic BSoD state where she resorts to begging Damon to turn off her emotions to ease her pain,.
Birds of a Feather: With Stefan. It seems that Elena and Stefan have various things in common, most notably the fact that both Stefan and Elena like to write in journals and record their thoughts, which was emphasized in the Pilot episode.
Blessed with Suck: Elena is a Doppelgänger and therefore, because of it, she is the target of much danger from the supernatural world. Elena's blood is special and is used for many spells and binding rituals, such as breaking Klaus' werewolf/hybrid curse and also, creating hybrids. So basically Elena is a human blood bag for vampires, witches, werewolves, and hybrids. Being a doppelganger doesn't even give her any real benefits either, other than sometimes being immune to some sort of magic or spell.
Born Unlucky: Elena is born a Doppelgänger, which means she's cursed with doom, pain, tragedy, and death. Because of her identity, many people she loves end up dying because of her. And the tragic or sad thing about it is that it's completely out of her control.
Brainy Brunette: She's a pretty white girl with brown hair. She's smart, mature, and an honor student.
Break His Heart to Save Him: In season two Elena breaks up with Stefan in order to protect him and her family and friends from Katherine.
Break the Cutie: Elena goes from a happy, cheery, and popular girl next door (despite the loss of her parents) to a girl who suffers almost everyday on a daily basis due to constant supernatural threats.
Broken Bird: Before the series started, she was described as being a much cheerier, fun-loving girl, but due to her parents dying she has become reclusive and cynical, which is how the show starts. And whenever she starts to get better, someone close to her dies again and the process repeats itself.
Broken Hero: Been through endless grief and tragedy, yet still manages to keep going regardless.
Brooding Boy, Gentle Girl: Elena is the Gentle Girl to Stefan's Brooding Boy. In the beginning, Stefan is a brooding, mysterious loner who meets and falls for Elena, the sweet, gentle girl next door. Despite Stefan's ongoing angsting, especially about his guilt and his dark, mysterious past, Elena often makes Stefan smile and brings out a much lighter, playful side of Stefan.
Brought Down to Normal: By the end of the series, she's one of the few vampires in the verse who managed to get the cure and turn back into a human.
Buxom Beauty Standard: As a Doppelgänger, she inherited Katherine's well-endowed figure, but while it's one of the reasons she's a Dude Magnet, as seen by the guys she attracts when she wears a bikini on the lake, she doesn't flaunt it as much as Katherine does.
Came Back Wrong: After she was turned into a vampire, it was discovered that Elena became sired to Damon, and it takes some time for her friends to manage to break it off without her losing her humanity.
Character Tics: Elena tucks her hair behind her ear when she's nervous.
Childhood Friend: With Matt. They grew up together since childhood and eventually began dating in their teen years. They broke up before the start of the story but still remained Amicable Exes for the entire series.
Class Princess: Before her parent's death, she used to be the most popular girl at school, being attractive, fun, charismatic, a cheerleader and was an honor student that was on friendly terms with most of her peers. Post-accident she becomes too depressed to keep the same attitude and later gets too involved with the supernatural happenings around town to care much for school.
Clingy Jealous Girl: She's constantly annoyed that her love interests tend to be major Chick Magnets.
- She often shows annoyance at Caroline flirting with Stefan in season 1.
- The first time she meets Stefan's vampire Best Friend Lexi, she catcher her in his house in nothing but a Modesty Towel and assumes they have a thing and becomes catty about it, until Stefan makes it clear he and Lexi's relationship is purely platonic.
- She gets jealous of Damon and Rebekah's relationship in season 3, much to Damon's amusement.
- She's overall very jealous of Katherine's involvement with both Stefan and Damon, and this is a big part of why she dislikes Katherine so much.
Cool Big Sis: She tries her best to be an approachable but mature and level-headed older sister to Jeremy and is overall very protective of her troubled younger brother.
Dating Catwoman: She starts developing an Unresolved Sexual Tension with Damon even before he makes a Heel–Face Turn. Many of her friends and family seem to disapprove of this romantic relationship, most notably Caroline.
Deadpan Snarker: Not as much as other characters, but she has a few sarcastic quips from time to time.
Designated Victim: She's targeted by pretty much every Big Bad or Arc Villains in the show, since being a Doppelgänger makes her a valuable Plot Device for whatever it is they're trying to achieve, but it's mostly done so the show can have her act as the Action Survivor Final Girl in a Slasher Movie.
Destructive Romance: Her relationship with either of the Salvatores brothers tends to become unhealthy and destructive to her at certain points, mostly due to all the emotional baggage that they have developed being Long-Lived vampires being too much to handle for a young adult like her.
Deus Angst Machina: It's a wonder the girl hasn't broken down yet, with all the tragedy she's experienced. Parents dead, discovered they're not really her parents, her biological parents, aunt and father-figure die, faces death and supernatural horrors on a daily basis, her boyfriend goes insane and homicidal, she became a vampire, the list goes on and on and on. And then she finally breaks down, flips her vampire switch and literally burns the whole house down in the wake of Jeremy's death.
Disappeared Dad: Her adoptive father Grayson is deceased. As well as her biological father, John, ends up doing a Heroic Sacrifice to save her not long after she learned about him.
Distress Ball: Especially when she was a human, she was always the Designated Victim who got attacked, kidnapped, or hurt every single episode. Her Doppelgänger blood made her the target of all kinds of supernatural beings, including vampires, werewolves, witches and Originals. Not to mention all the personal tragedies she suffers.
Doom Magnet: The fact she's a Petrova Doppelgänger marks her as the target for all sorts of supernatural threats, since her blood is valuable for all kinds of spells.
Doppelgänger: Elena is a Petrova doppelganger, a human woman that is born physically identical to the first female immortal, Amara, who broke the natural law that dictates that all living things must die, thus doppelgangers of her are naturally born every few centuries so they can "die in her place". This makes Elena's blood special for many magical purposes, although she's for most purposes the same as any other human.
Doppelgänger Replacement Love Interest: Played With. Elena being a Doppelgänger of Katherine is the first thing that caught the eye of both Stefan and Damon, due to them both being in love with Katherine in the past. But eventually, they both grew to love Elena more than Katherine due to her compassionate and nurturing personality.
Driven to Suicide: Elena attempted Suicide by Sunlight after Jeremy's death, but it's interrupted and stopped by Damon.
Dude Magnet: Stefan and Damon are both in love with her, as was Matt in the first season.
Dying Declaration of Love:
- Dying Damon declares his love to Elena in 2x22, going so far as to say he didn't regret any of his past choices, horrible as they were, because if he hadn't made them he would never have met her.
- She confesses her love to Stefan in 4x01. She tells Stefan as she is dying from not feeding on human blood during her transformation that she came back for Stefan because she loved him.
Earn Your Happy Ending: She goes through a lot of horrible things and loses a lot of loved ones throughout the series run, but she ends the series being cured of her vampirism, getting Happily Married and living the rest of her days in peace.
Easily Forgiven:
- Elena constantly forgives Damon for doing horrible things to her, such as killing Jeremy due to her rejecting him (although Jeremy came back to life due to the Gilbert ring) or feeding her vampire blood (essentially ending her human life).
- All of the characters seem to easily forgive Elena if she screws up or makes mistakes. Her mistakes are normally glossed over.
Family Relationship Switcheroo: In season 1 she learns that she's adopted and that her uncle, John Gilbert, is actually her biological father; she was born when he was a teenager, and after the mother left town, he gave his daughter to his much-older brother and his supposedly infertile wife to raise as their own child. This also makes her adopted brother her biological cousin.
The Fashionista: Since turning into a vampire in season four, Elena is way more interested in fashionable and trendy clothing.
The Fettered: Elena is one of the characters that is the primary moral compass of the show. She lives by a strong set of morals, ideals, values and beliefs and always believes in doing the right thing.
Foolish Sibling, Responsible Sibling: She's responsible and mature in contrast to her rebellious brother Jeremy, who often needs Elena's help to bail him out of trouble.
Friendly Neighborhood Vampire: Retains her kindness and compassion even after she turns and becomes a vampire. Even when she fails to become a Vegetarian Vampire who sustains herself only on animals, she still refuses to unwillingly harm someone and feeds exclusively on blood bags or volunteers.
Girl Next Door: Despite her popularity and beauty, Elena is the typical friendly, sweet "good girl" and she's easy to talk to.
Girly Girl with a Tomboy Streak: Despite her feminine "girl next door" looks and demeanour, she frequently wears casual and sporty clothes, and only really wears dresses or traditionally girly clothing when attending events.
Go-Getter Girl: Elena is highly active socially. She is scholarly, ambitious and hardworking. She is always involved in the extra school extracurricular activities and events.
Good Is Not Soft: Elena is generally nice and caring but it isn't a good idea to get on her bad side by hurting people she loves.
Guile Heroine: Part of what makes her such a good Action Survivor is her ingenuity and quick thinking, such as being able to improvise stakes from all sorts of objects to deal with vampires.
Grand Theft Me: A significant story arc in season 5 involves Katherine using Traveler magic to escape her own dying body by stealing Elena's. Elena eventually regains control in the same season.
Happily Adopted: Before her parents died. This is largely because she didn't even know she was adopted until after they were dead.
The Heart: Elena is the glue that holds the Mystic Fall gang together, and is usually the only one that is on good terms with everyone.
Heartbroken Badass: Suffering so much at the hand of supernatural threats is what spurs Elena to become more of an Action Girl, in order to protect herself and those she loves. Unfortunately, this doesn't really stop awful things from happening and she's in constant anguish as a result.
Heroic BSoD: Goes into severe denial when Jeremy is killed off to the extent of not smelling the decomposition, followed by a complete breakdown, followed by Damon making her turn off her emotions.
The Heroine: Elena is the main character of the series whose primary purpose is to save and protect everyone.
Heroic Sacrifice:
- Attempts this throughout season two. Elena is willing to sacrifice her life so that the majority of her family and friends don't have to die. Subverted when she uses the "sacrifice" to stab the bad guy and remove the need for her death.
- In the third season finale, Elena insists that Stefan rescue Matt while the two of them are drowning, mirroring how Elena's father insisted Stefan save Elena before the show began.
Heterosexual Life-Partners: She's extremely close to Bonnie and Caroline, and shares with them all aspects of her life, and their friendship only grew as the show went on.
Horrible Judge of Character: Elena isn't the best judge of character due to being too trusting and always giving everyone the benefit of the doubt, which villains often take advantage of.
Hypocrite: Elena can be rather hypocritical sometimes. She condemns having her choice or free will taken away from her. Yet, she frequently asks Damon to compel Jeremy to forget things a few times. Also when Elena blasts Jeremy for being in love with ghost Anna, yet Elena is doing nothing but trying to get Stefan in non-humanity-mode to turn his humanity back. Elena even compares loving non-humanity!Stefan to loving a ghost, which is ironically what Jeremy was doing.
I Can Change My Beloved: She's a very empathetic and forgiving person and believes people can change for the better, and constantly tries to influence Damon and Stefan (during his Heel–Face Turn in season 3) to become better people. And she's actually surprisingly successful.
The Idealist: Mostly in the early seasons, Elena is a generally hopeful, optimistic individual who always believes in the best outcome possible. However, later seasons have Elena has become more cynical, which is to be expected considering all the tragedy that she has been through.
Identical Granddaughter: Thanks to her being a Doppelgänger, she has this with Katherine, several generations removed. As well as her other doppelgangers, even further back.
I Did What I Had to Do: She does some dubious things in order to protect her brother, which usually backfires on her.
- She asked Damon to erase Jeremy's memory of Vicki being a vampire and of her death, and lie to everyone about it to protect them. Jeremy is furious with her when he finds out and it takes a while for them to mend their relationship.
- Later, she has Damon compel Jeremy to go to Denver, after witnessing him hacking off the head of a hybrid with no hesitation.
I Just Want to Be Normal: Elena says this almost word-for-word to Stefan. Elena thinks she's normal but down the line, she discovers that she has a Secret Legacy of being a Doppelgänger and that she is tied to the supernatural. Elena tries to repeatedly run the other way and not face her true identity. Before she is turned into a vampire, she tells Stefan that she doesn't want to be a vampire, that she wants to get married, grow old, have children and grandchildren. She is very torn because she loves Stefan and Stefan is a vampire incapable of giving Elena all that she desires. Nonetheless, Stefan understands Elena not wanting to turn into a vampire, because he has always desired to be normal himself.
Inconvenient Attraction: In the early seasons, she's often frustrated with herself for being so attracted to Damon, despite knowing he's bad news.
Interspecies Romance: Elena has this type of relationship with the Salvatore brothers, since they are both vampires and Elena is a human. Elena later becomes a vampire, making things less complicated on that front.
It's All About Me: Played With. Elena being a Doppelgänger makes her such a Doom Magnet that she grows to become paranoid and starts to assume anything supernatural that happens in Mystic Falls is because of her. She can come off self-absorbed at times, and some of her friends even call her out of it, but humorously enough Elena is actually correct most of the time.
It's All My Fault: Elena often feels extremely guilty, feeling that she is responsible for every bad thing that has happened to her friends and family because being a Doppelgänger makes her a Doom Magnet.
Elena: It's not just me that's in danger, it's Caroline, it's Tyler and it's Bonnie. They are all part of breaking the curse. I can't blame anyone else anymore. Because it's not because you came into town, or because you and I fell in love. That's not why everyone I love is in danger. It's because of me, everything is because of ME!
The Kirk: Elena is this of the main trio between herself (The Kirk, Ego), Stefan (The Spock, Superego) and Damon (The McCoy, Id). Elena is stable, balanced and she is the centre of the trio. She often chooses between Stefan and Damon's side.

The Leader: Out of the core group of girls, Elena seems to take the lead over Caroline or Bonnie. However, in the beginning, Caroline seemed to take the lead, especially in the cheerleading squad.
Leg Focus: As a Ms. Fanservice, her legs are one of the most emphasized body parts whenever she gets a Fanservice scene, likely due to her past as a cheerleader. She frequently wears outfits that leave her legs bared as a result.
Lethal Chef: Downplayed. "Friday Night Bites" establishes Elena can't cook at all, but she's not absurdly inept.
Life Drinker: Elena is a vampire since being turned at the end of season 3 and sustains on blood, which causes her a lot of stress due to her strong morality. When her attempts to be a Vegetarian Vampire fail, she reluctantly starts to feed on blood bags, or her friends who offer themselves for her to be fed on.
Light Feminine and Dark Feminine: Elena is the Light Feminine to Katherine's Dark Feminine. Elena and Katherine are both doppelgangers who share an uncanny physical appearance. Elena is the Light Feminine (good, moral) and Katherine is Dark Feminine (bad, immoral). Both share a common love and interest in Stefan and are often in competition with each other for his affections.
Long Hair Is Feminine: She's the Girly Girl with a Tomboy Streak of her Power Trio, with her long straight hair being her most feminine feature, often in contrast to her sporty clothes.

Love Hurts: Given she's in the middle of a Love Triangle in a Supernatural Soap Opera, Elena's tumultuous love life causes her a lot of heartbreak and confusion.
Love Interest: To the Salvatore brothers, being stuck in a Love Triangle with them for most of the show. Ultimately, she ends up with Damon in the final seasons, with Stefan moving on with Caroline.
Love Will Lead You Back: At the start of season 3, Elena refuses to go on without Stefan coming back into her life. Caroline mentions that since Stefan had left with Klaus, Elena had stopped living and had let life pass her by. Elena spent much of season three trying to get Stefan back and get him to turn on his humanity again.

M-W

MacGuffin Super-Person: As the Petrova Doppelgänger, whose blood breaks the moonstone curse, she is actively sought after by the vampires, and as the series progresses, her blood still becomes a Plot Device for other villains' plans as well, making her a major Doom Magnet / Weirdness Magnet.
Mayfly–December Romance: Both of her love interests are immortal vampires that are over a century and a half older than her, although they're both The Ageless, so appearance-wise Stefan is 18 while Damon is 25.
Meet Cute: With Stefan in the pilot episode. They meet each other for the first time outside of the men's washroom, which is kind of embarrassing on Elena's part considering she's actually the one coming out of the men's restroom.
Memento MacGuffin: Elena's necklace, in which Stefan gave to her in 1x03. The necklace is often seen as a representation of Stefan and Elena's love. Aside from that, the amulet actually has many supernatural ties to it. The amulet is used as a talisman to connect to the Original Witch, Esther. The amulet is indestructible. The amulet also allowed Esther to use magic in the living world while she was still on the Other Side. It also contains a portion of Esther's magic.
Missing Mom: Her adoptive mother Miranda was killed in a car accident shortly before the start of the series. As is her biological mother Isobel who gave Elena up for adoption. Elena never knew about Isobel until later on in her life.
Morality Chain: She is this to both Stefan and Damon (but more Damon), as she always pushes them to not let their vampire nature consume them and to connect them with their humanity.
Morality Pet: ZigZagged. Elena often is this for Damon in the early seasons, as even in his more villainous moments he avoids actively trying to hurt her and often holds himself back in her account, which makes the few moments where he doesn't and acts pettily against her stand all as major Kick the Dog moments, such as when he Neck Snapped Jeremy and tried to turn him into a vampire to get back at Elena for rejecting him.
Ms. Fanservice: Elena is a Head-Turning Beauty and gets several scenes where she gets to show off skin for gratuitous reasons, such as Bathtub Scenes, Lingerie Scenes, Shower Scenes and cheerleading scenes. She also gets to wear many fancy and fashionable dresses for all the constant events that happen in Mystic Fall.
My God, What Have I Done?: Elena has committed some immoral acts (especially as a vampire) where she has been overwhelmed with guilt and appalled by her own actions.
- In "The Five", Elena and Damon feed on endless humans at a party and she gives into her blood lust, not realizing what she is doing. Elena comes off of her blood high when she sees Bonnie looking at her concerned and Elena realizes her out-of-control actions. She then breaks down to Bonnie about how what she was doing was not her and that she doesn't want to be that person.
- In "The Killer" when Elena kills Connor, she ends up consumed and overwhelmed with guilt, shocked that she actually killed a human being. Due to her inner guilt, Elena ends up being haunted afterwards by Connor's ghost.
My Master, Right or Wrong: Elena when she was sired to Damon. When Elena was under the control of the sire bond, she would do what Damon told her to do, even if it was something that Elena wouldn't like or agree with. The purpose of the sire bond was for Elena to obey to what Damon wanted no matter what.
Nice Girl: Elena is kind, compassionate, friendly, and down to earth. She is the kind of person almost anyone would want to befriend.
Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: A LOT of the Mystic Falls gang's problems come from Elena either refusing to do as she's told and keep herself out of harm's way or firmly grabbing the Idiot Ball and intentionally putting herself in danger. The best example of the latter comes when Elena decides to say goodbye to Katherine...and gives Katherine the perfect opportunity to possess Elena's body.
Non-Human Lover Reveal: In 1x06, Elena discovers Stefan's deep dark secret when she starts to put the pieces together of all of the strange events that have happened in the town as well as to people around her: Stefan is a vampire. At first, Elena is completely scared and freaked when she discovers Stefan's revelation but eventually, she becomes more understanding of Stefan and his vampirism. Elena eventually comes around completely and accepts and loves Stefan as a vampire, despite being extremely hesitant at first after finding out his secret.

Not Herself: For most of Season 4 when she becomes a vampire. She can't keep any blood down (including animal blood, human blood from blood bags, and even vampire blood); she became irrational, impulsive, moody and she had the serious urge to feed off of humans and kill; she killed someone for the first time (Connor); she hallucinated his ghost; she's tried to kill Jeremy a few times; she became suicidal and tried to kill herself and finally, she became sired to Damon. And to add to that, in 4x15 she has her humanity switched off.
Official Couple: Her Love Triangle with the Salvatore brothers is one of the focus of the series. In short, she has Stefan as her primary Love Interest for the first 3 seasons and Damon as her Love Interest for the rest of the series.
Official Couple Ordeal Syndrome: Many times the supernatural threats to Mystic Falls seem to exist just to disrupt her relationship with the Salvatore brothers.
Ordinary High-School Student: She starts the series as an ordinary 17-year-old student, before learning about the supernatural events and individuals in her town and becoming heavily involved in them.
Parental Abandonment: Both her parents died in an accident before the beginning of the series, which is what caused her to start off as a Broken Bird.
Pinball Protagonist: She's the protagonist and Audience Surrogate of the first few seasons, but her only goal is to live a normal life with her loved ones. Unfortunately for her, she was born a Petrova Doppelgänger, which makes her a Doom Magnet for supernatural threats, but even when she knows villains are around, she tends to react to their plans. Stefan, Damon, and Alaric are usually the ones who more proactively oppose the threats to Mystic Falls.
Platonic Life-Partners: With Matt, her Childhood Friend and first love, with whom she remains a close Amicable Ex to for the entire series, and the closest male friend she has that's her age.
Plucky Girl: When she recovers from being a Broken Girl, she becomes a sensible and optimist who braves supernatural threats in order to protect her family and loved ones.
Pom-Pom Girl: She's described by others as having been much cheerful during the years she was a cheerleader, but she quit in her last year of high school when she became a Broken Bird due to her parent's sudden death.
Put on a Bus: After Nina Dobrev left the show at the end of season 6, Elena is put in a coffin after a spell renders her into a Convenient Coma till whenever Bonnie dies. She does come Back for the Finale in season 8 when Bonnie manages to break the spell.
Pro-Human Transhuman: After she is turned into a vampire, Elena tries to uphold her humanity as much as possible, though she greatly struggles with being a Vegetarian Vampire.
Promoted to Parent: Her parents dying caused Elena to step up in getting involved in Jeremy's life, and Jenna dying in season 2 forced Elena to step up even further, as she had to become a mother figure to him, as his only family.
Properly Paranoid: Being such a huge Doom Magnet / Weirdness Magnet has caused her to assume many of the supernatural occurrences happening in town are about her, and she's often proven correct.
Red Oni, Blue Oni: Elena is the Blue Oni to Caroline's Red Oni. Elena is more calm, cool, and logical while Caroline is more impulsive, passionate, and intense.
- Reincarnation Romance: Elena's relationship with Stefan. They are both the doppelgangers from the first immortals, Amara and Silas, who were also a couple.
Related Differently in the Adaptation: There was no concept of doppelgangers in the book series; the reason Elena and Katherine looked so much alike was that they were half-sisters (born a long time apart) with the same mother and a Strong Family Resemblance.
Reluctant Monster: She never wanted to become a vampire, and greatly struggles with her urges as a Life Drinker, especially since her attempts at being a Vegetarian Vampire leave her in constant anguish. She reluctantly feeds on blood bags and on her friends when they volunteer, but she finds the whole thing distasteful. This is why she takes the cure in the Grand Finale.
Rescue Romance: Subverted in her romance with Stefan. Four months before Elena met Stefan, Stefan had saved her life in the car accident at Wickery Bridge, but she had amnesia from that day's events and only remembers them way later. The fact he was able to save her and not her parents also caused friction in their relationship. In a more general sense, it's played straight throughout the series, with Elena often getting rescued or rescuing the Salvatore brothers, which usually deepens their relationship.
Secret Legacy: Elena is a Petrova Doppelgänger, which was completely unknown to her until Stefan and Damon walked into her life. The Gilbert family's past as vampire hunters was also completely unknown to her, as was the fact she's actually adopted.
Seen It All: Elena, as a human, has seen everything that is supernatural and out of the ordinary. Therefore, Elena becomes completely unfazed by anything that is unusual. She's seen everything from vampires, witches, werewolves, and hybrids to the Original vampires.

Single Woman Seeks Good Man: While she also has a thing for bad boys, all of her Love Interests (Matt, Stefan, Damon, Liam) are good men deep down, and it's the quality she finds most attractive in them.
Skeptic No Longer: She starts the series being skeptical about the supernatural occurrences around her, but quickly reaches a point she can't deny it anymore.
Elena: Dear Diary, I'm not a believer. People are born, they grow old and then they die. That's the world we live in. There's no magic, no mysticism, no immortality. There is nothing that defies rational thought. People are supposed to be who they say they are and not lie or hide their true selves. It's not possible. I'm not a believer. I can't be. But how can I deny what's right in front of me? Someone who never grows old. Never gets hurt. Someone who changes in ways that can't be explained. Girls bitten. Bodies drained of blood.
Star-Crossed Lovers: With Stefan. Despite their mutual attraction, it's mostly outside circumstances that kept interfering with their relationship.
Stepford Smiler: Elena's constantly frustrated with how much of a mess her life became, and is often depressed by many personal tragedies and heartbreaks, but she usually hides her pain with a smile and a cheerful attitude. Her very first diary entry is her showing this behavior:
Elena: Dear diary, today will be different. It has to be. I will smile, and it will be believable. My smile will say, 'I’m fine, thank you. Yes, I feel much better.' I will no longer be the sad little girl who lost her parents. I will start fresh, be someone new. It’s the only way I will make it through.
Strong Family Resemblance: To Katherine. They are identical in physical appearance. This is because Elena is Katherine's doppelgänger and Elena is a descendent of Katherine.
Superpower Lottery: Because of Elena's vampirism, she possesses standard vampire powers and abilities. 1) Super-Speed: Elena can move and run much faster than that of a normal human. 2) Super-Reflexes: Also known as super agility. Elena can react much faster and quicker to situations than that of a normal human. 3) Super-Strength: Elena is able to carry or lift heavier objects with much ease and little effort. 4) Mind Manipulation: Elena is able to control the mind of any human, influencing their thoughts and their actions in the process. The only way to prevent Elena from mind-influencing someone is for the human victim to have vervain on them. 5) Healing Factor: Elena can get stabbed, shot, or wounded and she will heal immediately. 6) Super-Senses: All of Elena's senses, such as sight, smell, taste, touch, and hearing have become clearer, stronger, and heightened. She is able to see, smell and hear things from a greater distance than that of a normal human.
Team Mom: Due to her compassionate personality, she acts as the mother to the Mystic Falls Gang, being constantly worried about everyone's well-being and Caroline even calls her the "mothering type". Her little brother, Jeremy in particular gets the most of it, although he often finds her attention smothering.
Took a Level in Badass: Elena, slowly but surely. It starts in "Haunted" when she goes after Vicki with a 2x4, continues in "Unpleasantville" when she manages to hold off a vampire with just a few pencils long enough for Damon and Stefan to kill him, and becomes even more noticeable in "Let The Right One In" when she saves Stefan by staking Frederick with a vervain dart and momentarily incapacitating him and by offering Stefan some of her blood.
Tragic Heroine: Elena has gone through nothing but pain and endless hardships due to the fact that she was born to be doomed (due to her family history and her identity as a doppelgänger). She is probably one of the most tragic characters on the show ―definitely up there with Stefan).
Trauma Conga Line: The series begins with her parents dying and things just seem to keep getting worse for her as the series goes on with both Jenna and Jeremy eventually getting killed. This takes her to her lowest point in Season 4 when she has Damon turn off her humanity just to ease her pain.
Tsundere: Towards Damon in the earlier seasons. She's constantly annoyed by his attitude, especially since she resents being attracted to him, but when he lets down his guard her compassionate side takes over and she forgets how much he annoys her.
Unfazed Everyman: Elena starts the series being somewhat skeptical about the supernatural, but since she's a Weirdness Magnet she quickly just comes to accept that supernatural beings will be a constant in her life.
Use Your Head: Elena does this several times throughout the series.
- In "All My Children", Rebekah grabs Elena from behind. Elena answers by smashing the back of her head into Rebekah's face.
- During Elena's wild party from "Bring It On", Caroline tries to restrain her hands, only for Elena to headbutt her in the forehead, forcing her to let go.
- She does it again, this time to Wes Maxfield in "Fifty Shades of Grayson". Wes stabbed a syringe into Elena's chest, but was distracted by Stefan's shouts, which gave her enough time to headbutt him out cold.
Vegetarian Vampire: After turning into a vampire, Elena attempts to be one, living on a diet of animal blood, much like Stefan, but she's ultimately unable to keep down animal blood and has to resort to blood bags or her friends volunteering for feedings.
Viral Transformation: At the end of season three when Elena dies with vampire blood in her system and turns into a vampire as a result.
Weirdness Magnet: Elena as a human is primarily surrounded by friends and family that are supernatural beings (vampires, werewolves, witches, etc.) with the exception of Matt. Elena has seen every supernatural being as a human that she became completely unfazed by any of it. Her love interests are vampires. Her Best Friend is a witch. Members of her family were supernatural beings (Katherine, Isobel, Alaric and Jenna were/became vampires; Jeremy is a medium/vampire hunter/Member of The Five) She was sought after by the Originals (Klaus, Elijah, Rebekah, Kol, Finn, Mikael), whom are all vampires with the exception of Esther, who was the Original witch. Elena becomes even more unfazed by the supernatural beings around her when she discovers that she's actually a supernatural being called Doppelgänger herself.
Will They or Won't They?: Elena has this type of dynamic with Damon in the earlier seasons, with a lot of Belligerent and Unresolved Sexual Tension between them, even when she was dating Stefan. In season 4, they become the Official Couple of the series.

Elena With No Humanity

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/elena_gilbert_no_humanity.png

During the late half of season 4, Damon has the sired Elena turn off her humanity in order to deal with Jeremy's death, which causes a massive shift in her personality.

Alpha Bitch: When she loses her humanity and goes back to school, she starts showing shades of this, with her loss of emotion making her much more rude and arrogant towards her school peers. Especially in "Bring it on" when she resumes being a cheerleader and even starts throwing Wild Teen Party at her house.
Anti-Villain: Becomes an antagonist in this period, with her friends trying to prevent her from truly crossing a line and opposing them when they want to cure her.
Became Their Own Antithesis: In the first season, Elena frequently says that she doesn't want to be compared to Katherine. But now, with her becoming a vampire and having her humanity shut off completely, she has become more like Katherine and not just in the looks department, adopting many of Katherine's more shallow traits, such as her vanity, lack of modesty, a fashion sense geared towards black and tendency to use sex to get what she wants.
Brutal Honesty: When she turns off her humanity, she becomes very direct and blunt, without caring about other people's feelings and often hurting her friend with her new It's All About Me attitude.
Elena: It is what it is and I am what I am and want what I want. And right now I would like to feed on that girl over there. And I resent you for trying to stop me.
Clingy Jealous Girl: Elena always has a bit of a jealous streak, but now it becomes extremely possessive. When Elena sees Stefan and Caroline dancing together in 4x16, Elena is obviously jealous, even though her humanity is shut off.
Dark Action Girl: While Elena mostly fought in self-defense, her No Humanity persona is very willing to attack people in order to get what she wants, even getting into a fight with Caroline.
Emotionless Girl: During the late half of season 4, when Damon tells Elena to turn off her emotions and her humanity through the sire bond. He quickly comes to regret it when she turns it a Jerkass, but she regains her emotions by the end of the season.
Emotion Suppression: In order to get over her grief about Jeremy's death, Damon has Elena turn off her humanity and suppress her emotions.
Expository Hairstyle Change: In 4x17, she gets a new hairstyle to better illustrate the difference between her old self, sporting bangs and bright red streaks in her hair. Elena keeps them until the next season until she's possessed by Katherine, who gets rid of them.
Fake Kill Scare: How she ultimately regains her emotions. Matt and Damon hatch a plan where Matt ends up dying (while secretly wearing the Gilbert Ring that will resurrect him) in order to shock Elena, thus making her humanity come back. It works.
The Gadfly: While she's an Emotionless Girl most of the time, sometimes she seems to do things purely to get a reaction out of people, for her own amusement.
Good Girl Gone Bad: After Elena had her humanity switched off, Elena became much more rebellious and uncaring.
Hard-Drinking Party Girl: She starts to enjoy partying and drinking hard.
Kick the Dog: Elena kills an innocent waitress just to prove a point to Stefan and Damon about how apathetic and evil she's become, and that they should stop trying to help her.
Lack of Empathy: Elena without her humanity is cold, ruthless and uncaring. She can hurt others without feeling any guilt or remorse.
Shameless Fanservice Girl: In this form Elena doesn't care for modesty in the slightest, stepping out of the shower naked and dripping wet in front of her friends or casually changing her clothes in front of them.
The Tease: She seems to enjoy teasing people and acting sexually aggressive toward Stefan, since she still senses he carries a torch for her. This includes paring nude in front of him or using him as a stretching stool to flaunt her flexibility.
Took a Level in Jerkass: After turning off her humanity she lacks basic empathy for even her friends and loved ones and simply starts doing whatever she likes.
The Unfettered: Elena without her humanity doesn't seem to care what she does, even if she is hurting others, very much like non-humanity Stefan in season three. She will do whatever she wants regardless and doesn't have any remorse for her out-of-control actions.
Villainous Friendship: The only person she got along with during this period was actually Rebekah, who previously disliked Elena. They team up to track down Katherine and get along surprisingly well.
Villain Protagonist: She becomes the Arc Villain during the period when she has no humanity while maintaining her status as the main character.

Characters / The Vampire Diaries Universe Elena Gilbert

Elena Gilbert

Elena With No Humanity

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