Welcome to Vampire Week here at White Rose of Avalon! For day one of Vampire Week, I have chosen to take on the concept of the evolution of doppelgängers to The Vampire Diaries mythos. I have watched a couple of YouTubers take stances against the mythos of this series universe in general. In particular, today I will be discussing why the evolution of the doppelgänger storyline actually filled in gaps rather than creating plot holes.
In season two, we first hear the word doppelgänger spoken, but we already knew that Elena was identical to Katherine from the first episode of the series. The term doppelgänger and learning how important they are magically speaking makes total sense to the storyline. Doppelgänger is a term that literally means “dark double” and was feared in many cultures for centuries. The idea is essentially that of the classic evil twin.
Throughout the second season, we get to learn Katherine’s history of being exiled from her family after she gave birth to her daughter out of wedlock. After this, she went to England and met with a couple of noblemen, named Elijah and Niklaus Mikaelson! It is here that we learn that she was brought to Klaus because she was a doppelgänger! That is right, she is already termed a doppelgänger in 1492, this is confirmed by Katherine herself in season two (which goes against what certain YouTubers may claim). She actually killed herself in order to prevent herself from being used in the sacrifice ritual Klaus needed to perform. She purposely got herself fed vampire blood so that she would transition after hanging herself! The rest of season two is about figuring out a way to save Elena from being sacrificed to break the curse.
At the end of the day, she is sacrificed but saved later through a magical spell workaround. In season three we officially learn a bit about the first doppelgänger that Elijah and Klaus knew, Tatia. She was a woman they both fancied, but who is said to have played with their emotions and it was her blood that turned them to vampires, also later it was her blood that bound the hybrid curse on Klaus!
It takes until the season finale of season four for us to learn more about the doppelgängers of this universe. This is the point where some people think that the show has undone its backstory and its own mythos. I actually disagree, as learning that Silas (the first immortal being) is actually the first version of Stefan makes sense. Before then we had no reason to understand why doppelgängers existed. Now we know that Silas and Amara (his true love) becoming the first immortals created an imbalance in nature. Nature corrected this by creating several versions of them that could die!
That is how Tatia would come to be a doppelgänger, while this is not confirmed in the show, I personally have a theory that Esther Mikaelson always knew that she would need a truly powerful being to draw on to create these two spells (the vampire spell and hybrid curse). This makes total sense that Esther would have known Tatia was a doppelgänger, making her the ideal choice for this role! I see this as a calculated move rather than a petty one of a mother annoyed by her children’s love interest (as most have theorized). I would also like to address the idea that doppelgängers are drawn to one another as lovers (that is a Silas and an Amara doppelgänger of said generation are drawn together). I feel that it is likely that Amara’s first husband was a Silas doppelgänger, which would make everything come even further full circle for me!
Now that I have made my point, I would like to say that Silas and Amara being the beginning of the doppelgänger line does not mean they are genetically related to their doubles. This is another thing that confuses some people, but the only two doppelgängers we know of to be genetically related are Katherine and Elena. I hope I have made my point that the doppelgängers on The Vampire Diaries are not plot holes, actually contributing to the plot of the show. I personally adore this specific evolution throughout the series. I hope you have enjoyed this post. Let me know your thoughts in the comments below!
Note on Image: The image at the top of the post is Katherine and Elena. I found the image on https://www.tvfanatic.com/2020/08/the-vampire-diaries-how-katherine-pierce-overshadowed-elena-gilb/.
Further Watching
- The Vampire Diaries (2009)
White Rose of Avalon 