Welcome to day six of Vampire Week. For today’s post, I have decided to take a look at the evolution of the characters in The Vampire Diaries. There is a time jump of three years that famously happens during the seventh season. It also allowed us to see the characters that were seventeen at the beginning of the series as adults.
In this way, we get to see an evolution of the characters in a way that would have taken several additional seasons without the time jump. I personally do like this evolution for certain characters. In particular, I adore the way we get to see Caroline as a mother! Matt really coming into his own as a police officer is also an interesting side point.
Besides the time jump, we do get to see the characters in college in seasons five, six, and half of seven. Elena chose to become a pre-med major, while Caroline is a drama major. After the time jump, we see that Caroline is a photojournalist, which interestingly is the career she voiced interest in all the way back during the job fair in season one! I really adore that she ended up doing what she had said she desired to do at the very beginning. It is a nice choice in order to bring this full circle!
One thing I hated about the time jump was that Stefan spent the whole time running with Valerie and not ever even contacting Caroline. He just abandoned her and then she ended up staying to raise the twins with Alaric (which I love and feel that she would have raised them even if Stefan stayed). What I hated about her staying is that she would end up in this pseudo-romantic relationship with Alaric. While I understand Caroline wanting the girls to have as normal of a childhood as they can, I hate the idea of marrying a man you do not love and are not attracted to just to make them a real family! I was so delighted that they never shared a room and never actually became a couple. Stefan and Caroline reconciling is a great decision instead, as I do like their friends to romance relationship.
This time jump and growing into adulthood also allowed Bonnie the room to grow and to finally fall in love with a man that treats her well. Literally, it took until season seven for her to have a good relationship with Enzo! Although, they were not allowed a happy ending, as Enzo died. This is similar to Caroline, who was widowed almost as fast as she was married!
I would have loved to have seen Caroline and Klaus getting a real chance to be together after she had mourned her loss. I think the final season of The Originals easily could have done this instead. But alas, I will talk about that more for tomorrow’s finale of Vampire Week! In any case, I hope that you have enjoyed this short post. Likewise, I hope that you understand why I think that the evolution of the characters into adulthood is actually interesting in ways that some people do not appreciate. Let me know your thoughts in the comments below!
Further Watching
- The Vampire Diaries (2009)
White Rose of Avalon 