These are what we call the 'YMMV items.' Things that some people find in this work. We call them 'your mileage might vary' because not everyone sees these things in the same way. This starts discussions in the trope lists, a thing we don't want. Please use the discussion page if you'd like to discuss any of these items.
YMMV: The Vampire Diaries
Actor Shipping - Ian Somerhalder and Nina Dobrev. Even the media is shipping it.
It was confirmed in September 2011 that they had been in fact dating each other and in love for over a year.
Adaptation Displacement - At least on Wikipedia; looking upThe Vampire Diaries over there will bring up the TV show, with a link for the book series at the top of the page.
Most male-and for that matter female-vampires are like this given their disregard for human life. Isobel Saltzman is an obvious example.
Some of the episodes have also hinted at Blue and Orange Morality for Damon; this theory has been adopted by some of the fandom.
The reason for Stefan's mission to get the vampirism cure to cure Elena with, is he doing this because he's a caring boyfriend seeking to free her and himself from the curse that has been thrust upon both of them so they can live Happily Ever After, or is Stefan doing this because he's a clingy, controlling stalker that just wants Elena to go back to the way she was pre-vamprism because he just can't stand that she's changing into a different, perhaps better person?
Angst? What Angst? - Jeremy, after Vicki dies. Justified, since Elena asked Damon to make it so he wouldn't worry about her. However, at this point Jeremy stops angsting about any number of things, stops doing drugs, and becomes a good student. Elena confronts Damon about it. Damon just says he "took away his suffering."
Ass Pull - 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.
Badass Decay - 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 Lexi, but those were more surprise attacks that 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.... Kol, so....
Stefan towards the middle to end of season three and all of season four so far.
Base Breaker - The Originals. Many fans have been calling for them to get their 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.
Season 3 in general.
Elena being sired to Damon is already very divisive, never mind that it was canon to the books.
Creator's Pet - Klaus, who's the main source of conflict for nearly every character in every situation in season 3.
Damon may qualify as well, as he is unbelievably Easily Forgiven and the show spends about 30 minutes per episode just zooming in on Damon's poor-meface.
Hayley a character despised by the fans that is being carried over to the spinoff.
Crowning Music of Awesome - Vicki and Damon dancing around and trashing Stefan's room to "Enjoy The Silence"? Awesome. Especially when you notice how it seems to be sang from Damon's POV.
Within Temptation's "All I Need" during the Damon & Elena dance scene in "Miss Mystic Falls".
"Bloodstream" by Stateless in the season one finale, when Damon kisses Elena. Except it's Katherine.
"I Was Wrong" by Sleeperstar in 2x08 when Damon tells Elena that he loves her, and then makes her forget.
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.
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.
Alaric - the only non-useless adult. So popular, he has become a regular.
Caroline - has always been one due to her Deadpan Snarker nature and endearing ditziness, but her popularity really skyrocketed when she was turned, making her possibly the most competent good female on the show.
Elijah - Mysterious Badass Noble Demon Original vampire, with an ability to punch another vampire's head off without so much as breaking a sweat.
Klaus was saved from complete demise both because of this trope and because of his status as a Creator's Pet.
Rebekah - Alpha Bitch original vampire who's betrayed on a regular basis and isn't afraid to speak her mind. The fact she killed Elena probably doesn't hurt.
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.
There are fan calls for Elijah, Klaus, Kol, and Rebekah to get their own spin-off.
April is the latest one. "After School Special" cements her status.
Katherine. An especially good example since she's played by the same actress as Elena—but she's still sexier.
Elijah.
Klaus. Just ask Stefan.
Rebekah. Oh God Rebekah....
Kol. Now relax darling.
Fanon: A lot of people seem to think Pearl and Anna are members of Kol's bloodline despite nothing in the show to support this.
Fan Preferred Couple - Damon and Elena. By a lot. If you go by fanfiction.net results alone, it's a ratio of about 9.5 to 1.
Stefan and Katherine (although this is mainly the Damon/Elena shippers wanting to get Stefan out of the way)
Stefan is extremely hot when he's with Katherine and Katherine is really cute when she interacts with Stefan.
Stefan and Caroline to a lesser extent, although there's a healthy fandom for their platonic friendship.
And now Tyler/Caroline is becoming more and more popular, compared to Matt/Caroline.
And now Klaus/Caroline is becoming more popular than Tyler/Caroline.
Anna/Jeremy is still more popular than Bonnie/Jeremy despite the fact that Anna is dead. It was so popular it got revisited in Season 3.
Fixer Sue: Reviews have accused Bonnie of being a Deus ex Machina to fix things when the writers write themselves into a corner.
Averts a lot of Sue characteristics though. Sometimes it seems like the writers actively dislike the character, keeping her development and actual story lines to a minimum while keeping her as a plot device. Nearly all of her scenes now involve casting a spell.
Foe Yay - Kind of a given, being rivals, that Stefan and Damon would have some.
Cranked up to 11 in "Miss Mystic Falls", and then even higher as of "Smells Like Team Spirit" (and season three in general). "Way to a vampire's heart" indeed
Tyler and Jeremy. Why else would they randomly fight all the time, even after Vicki's out of the picture?
Elena and Rebekah downright ooze it in "The Rager"
Fridge Horror: Every single werewolf has killed someone. At best, they have crippling guilt about the person they killed. At worst, they're cold blooded murderers.
Fridge Logic: Stefan's explanation of why Elena looks like Katherine. Apparently, he was only surprised by them having different last names, which could be easily accounted for by a female descendant of Katherine marrying a Gilbert, and not by the fact that people don't tend to look like their 150-years-ago ancestor's identical twin.
For the record Katherine is over 518 years old being turned in 1492. Before she was turned Katherine had an illegitimate daughter. It is highly likely that Elena is the decendant of that daughter so Katherine is Elena's perhaps 22 times great grandmother (assuming each generation is 21 years going back over 500 years).
In "A Few Good Men" Sheriff Forbes does a background check on Alaric and he has a clean record. However, in "1912" Meredith does another background check and finds several violent instances. How would the local law enforcement miss such things.
Growing the Beard - "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 Sunnydale.
Harsher in Hindsight: Matt tells Caroline that their relationship isn't going to work when they start it in "Unpleasantville". It doesn't.
In "Lost Girls" Damon comments on how Vicki doesn't want to die. She dies in the next episode
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.
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.
Hate Dumb: Elena gets a lot of flack for killing Kol, despite the fact that she had two good reasons (Kol had compelled Damon to kill Jeremy, and was also trying to dismember him). Jeremy on the other hand, despite being the one who actually killed Kol, manages to get off even before Silas killed him.
Hell Is That Noise: The ungodly roar that Silas lets out just before he drains Jeremy.
Hilarious in Hindsight: Damon and Caroline talking about how someone becomes a vampire in episode 4 may just make people rewatching it laugh.
Stefan and Caroline dancing in the same episode takes on a new light in Season 2.
Klaus telling Elijah love is a vampire's greatest weakness in "Klaus"
In the pilot Jeremy asks Vicki "When was the last time that you had sex with a puppy?". Since she was dating Tyler, who was later revealed to be a werewolf, pretty recently.
In "Let the Right One In", Anna says that she won't turn Jeremy because he learned everything that he knew about vampires from Netflix. Netflix later picked up the show for streaming.
In "162 Candles" Damon kills a guy, what's the name of the actor: John Gilbert
In "History Repeating" Caroline calls Bonnie a "little liar". In the episode, Bonnie was being haunted by Emily played by Bianca Lawson who starred in Pretty Little Liars
Ho Yay - Not as much as most other shows, but there is some.
Damon and Alaric and their bromance.
Tyler and Jeremy were pretty popular in season one.
Also in "The Departed" who guessed the only way to kill Alaric would be to kill Elena and turn her into a vampire.
Is there anyone who actually thought Jeremy was going to come out of the hunter storyline alive?
Many people guessed the third sacrifice would have consist of twelves witches.
Jerkass Woobie - 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 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...
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.
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.
Rebekah. It's painfully clear by now that her Alpha Bitch 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 now that her own mother has possessed her body and teamed up with Dark Alaric to massacre the Originals (and thus kill every vampire alive), God only knows if she'll make it out in one piece. 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?
Launcher of a Thousand Ships: Caroline. In-Universe she has had relationships with Damon, Matt, Tyler and is the subject of affection of Klaus. In Fanfiction, she has been paired with Stefan, Jeremy, (whose actor she dated in real life), Elena, Katherine, Rebekah, Kol, even complete Crack Pairing s like Alaric, Mason, Jenna, and Vicki
Elena and Katherine at least In-Universe. It doesn't hurt that Nina Dobrev has chemistry with everyone.
Stefan's biggest ship is with Elena, but he is also shipped with other characters, including Caroline, Katherine, Damon, Bonnie, Klaus, Elijah, Rebekah, etc.
He learned everything he knew from Katherine Pierce/Katerina Petrova, who naturally is even better at the game and has enough back-up plans to fill out every letter in the alphabet.
Elijah and, as far as we know, Klaus.
Mary Sue: Elena is sometimes referred to as this trope. She is often compared to Bella Swan from Twilight, who is also frequently called a Mary Sue.
Relationship Sue: Elena fits this trope especially in the novel series in regards to Stefan in particular.
Sympathetic Sue: Elena is often victimized and therefore, receives much sympathy due to her struggles.
Marty Stu (other terms include Gary Stu, Larry Stu, Mary Joe or Mary Sam): Some people within fandom classify Stefan as this trope because at times, he comes off as too perfect.
Well the fact that he has chemistry with everybody helps.
Klaus
Mind Game Ship- Katherine tries to have one with Stefan.
Moral Event Horizon - Damon, so much. Is it possible to cross the Moral Event Horizon multiple times? Let's see - he framed and killed his brother's best friend. He snapped Jeremy's neck. He also seems to be a prime violator of rape being okay if it's sci fi.
There were plenty of Elena haters before, but the planning and then killing of Kol by Elena to grow Jeremy's hunter's mark, despite 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 Moral Event Horizon that she is now completely irredeemably evil.
Katherine:(in Caroline's bedroom) We're going to have so much fun together.
Cue a shot of a horrified-looking Caroline.
Nope there's a fandom for them.
Older Than They Think - 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.
Opinion Myopia: Some of the fans can't acknowledge when a character they like has raped another and they try to make up excuses as to why it's not rape, when compulsion is actually mind rape, no matter how nicely you try to put it. Forcing somebody down a bed while said person is crying, then manipulate this person's mind to have her be okay with you forcing her is rape.
In the TV show, Stefan, who is in a mutually loving, trusting and respectful relationship with Elena, is often vilified in favour of his 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 Moral Event Horizon 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 Femme Fatale cut off the same character's fingers, taunted him and then stabbed him it was considered a Kick the Son of a Bitch instead.
ArguablyStefan has in the past and is now doing things that are just as despicable as Damon's actions, so this is a case of Blackand Grey Morality for both brothers.
Post season 2 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 down right despicable in his need to get revenge on Klaus, and his holier-than-thou attitude ends up derailing his relationship with Elena
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 favour 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 favour 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.'
Some of Elena's hatred maybe justified in recent seasons due to her Selective Obliviousness of her friends suffering. From Caroline's rape to the murders of both Bonnie's mother and grandmother at the hands of Damon as well as Stefan's sadistic side, Elena's actions seem to imply that she holds the well being of the Salvadores above all else.
The Scrappy - Bonnie is one for a big segment of the fandom, due to her very judgmental nature and questionable methods, although she has some fans as well.
Emily, Bonnie's ancestor who all of Bonnie's annoying traits and none of her likable ones
In Season 2, Matt walks the line of being one, due to his bad treatment of Caroline, which the show always seems to gloss over by presenting him as a desireable boyfriend, and not having a personal arc or any interesting or meaningful interactions with other characters.
Changed by Season 3 and 4. He's a fairly likable if superfluous part of the show now.
Esther, an annoying hypocritical villain who's no better than her children who is also a terrible mother.
With Season 4, Elena definitely qualifies. The fanbase has all but completely turned on her when she helped kill Kol and, for all purposes, committed a mass vampire Genocide
Truth be told, everybody on TVD is The Scrappy at one point or another to a decent portion of TVD's fanbase.
Ship Mates - 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 Heartwarming Moments 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.
Also the Steroline shippers and the Bamon shippers seem to get along just fine.
Ship-to-Ship Combat - 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.
Now Katherine's back, expect to see Katherine/Stefan vs. Katherine/Damon added to the mix.
There has been an increase in Damon/Caroline since she's been turned and so is now more than capeable of sticking up for herself.
Damon/Rose and Caroline/Tyler.....
Tyler/Caroline and Klaus/Caroline's fanbases are at each other's throats as well. Well all ten of the Tyler/Caroline shippers. Stefan/Caroline are more at odds with the Klaroline shippers.
Ships That Pass In The Night: 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.
Suetiful All Along - Elena. Although they tried to tone down her perfection for the TV Show, she still has three very attractive men head-over-heels in love with her, and things always seem to go her way (as Caroline comments on in 'Miss Mystic Falls').
It can probably be safely said that Matt isn't really as in to Elena as he was at the beginning of the show, and really it's rarely brought up.
Considering how every character seems to take up arms whenever Elena is in danger, even when half the cast doesn't like each other, Elena seems to possess someofthesequalities
Near the end of season 2, Jenna finally is brought into the loop about vampires, after every other major human character. Then she's turned into one...and dies in the same episode.
At the end of season 3, Bonnie says she's "done getting pushed around" by vampires and it seems like she might go dark or use her magic for her own benefit, however this storyline was quickly dropped since we see Klaus manhandle her in the very first episode of season 4. Later on in the season, however...
Tear Jerker: Damon manipulating Rose's dream before he kills her.
Jenna's funeral too.
Unfortunate Implications: It's okay to forgive someone for murder if they're your friend. If they're not your friend, though, they should die
Bonnie's treatment comes off as this most of the time. Every guy which takes an interest in her either wants to use her or tries to kill her. The only love interest she ever had cheated on her and she never got back with another guy after that. She doesn't date since she's too busy saving her friends every week. Meanwhile, Elena has two brothers fighting for her affections and Caroline has had two boyfriends and is currently in a love triangle with two hybrids. Bonnie is never seen to grieve for a very long time and conveniently forgets anything anything bad that happened to her when she is needed again.
Took a Level in Badass: Whatever you may think of Elena, you have to admit that turning her emotions off gave her a much needed dose of Badass.
Wangst - Stefan gets some in the first episode, as does Elena, though she just lost her parents.
The Woobie: Caroline. Caroline. Caroline. Right after Katherine makes her a vampire in Brave New World.
Which isn't to say she didn't get a head start on this one. Her dad abandoned her, she and her mother don't get along, she is constantly finding it difficult to fit in with her friends and is constantly overshadowed by Elena, she is abused and discarded by Damon and her boyfriend neglects her. Really, getting turned was probably the best thing for her.
Matt as well. His mother and sister are immature wrecks who don't care how much They mess up his life, he is still pining after the girl he loves and he is left with far more responsibility than anyone his age should have to deal with. He and Caroline are starting to sound like a better fit now. He also doesn't have health insurance.
The biggest Woobie might just be Jeremy. Lets count the ways Life has utterly screwed him, shall We? He loses his parents, he is in love with a girl who strings him along and is ashamed to be with him, he gets picked on by teachers, his girlfriend is later murdered and he is mindwiped into forgetting. When things start looking up, he finds out about his past and how the people closest to him deceived him. Just before his next girlfriend is murdered by his uncle and revealed to have been using him which makes him attempt suicide. And that's just in the first season.
The Woobie of the World award should go to Bonnie. In season one, her grandmother dies after over-exerting herself by doing a spell that Bonnie had to convince her to do. Later, she hooks up with Jeremy, only to be dumped for his dead ex-girlfriend's ghost. Then Damon turns her mother into a vampire. Cue season four, Caroline and Elena barely acknowledge Bonnie's existence except when they need a spell and her best friend is making out with the very vampire that has caused her so much misery.
Culminated when Non-Humanity!Elena tried to kill Bonnie, all the while blaming Bonnie for her own faults. Taken into consideration, Bonnie's 'response' is quite expected.
Rebekah is an original vampire who longs to be a normal human and clings to any sense of humanity she can find. Not only that, but she's used and betrayed on a regular basis; even by her own family. Her father, mother, and older brother have all attempted to kill her. Her mother actually took over her body at one point. She's stabbed in the back by a girl she begins to finally open up to. And to top it all off, Elena has murdered two of Rebekah's brothers: Finn and Kol. You don't get much more Woobie-ish than that!
Elena. The ENTIRE SHOW seems to be about how many more times can life put her through the meat grinder. She can't seem to go a single day without herself or somebody she cares about being hurt, killed, or under threat by some supernatural being ever since the first episode, she has 2 boyfriends that endlessly fight over her that she's constantly conflicted about, she's too compassionate to just blow off anybody who's suffering so she ends up putting herself in even MORE trouble, and to top it all off she has serious loss and abandonment issues. Elena crosses into Woobie, Destroyer of Worlds territory once she becomes a vampire and turns her emotions off.
Woobie, Destroyer of Worlds: Damon and Katherine could both qualify, but none are worse than Rebekah; she was mentioned to actually have cried herself to sleep on a nightly basis for a thousand years.
Alaric's alter ego sprouted from him constantly dying, so he probably qualifies
He wasn't the first to be affected by this. Samantha Gilbert also suffered from the same affliction
Stefan may just qualify more than any other character on the show- his father was emotionally abusive (of the controlling and manipulative kind); he was raped, had the blood sucked out of him, and compelled into letting vampire blood into his system by Katherine; his brother went behind his back to be with the girl he loved(he was compelled to love her, but still); Damon doesn't seem to care about Stefan's rape; Damon continually makes Stefan's life a living hell and it's implied that his murder of Lexi was not the first time that Damon has killed people to hurt Stefan; Lexi herself tortured Stefan for who knows how long more than once, justified as it was to reign in his Ripper, but still; his rapist comes back and stabs him in the leg when he rejects her, drugs him- while posing as his girlfriend (can you imagine how horrifying it must be to be drugged into unconsciousness by your rapist ?!!?)and all the while telling him that her abuse was love and that he always loved her; he has to deal with Rebekah, Katherine, and Klaus and their obsession with him; he was compelled into forgetting a decade of his life; he and Elena broke up and he finds out that she is dating his brother (not that this Troper is faulting Elena, as not only is she sire-bonded, but she is a free person who can be with whoever she wants to be with, fandom); and now he has been double-crossed in finding the Cure.
Klaus fans believe him to be one. Caroline seems to agree. Stefan also agrees, but it doesn't stop him from trying to backstab him everytime he has the chance. The fact that he was constantly belittled by his father and cursed and shunned by his mother does bring up an interesting case.
