Nina Dobrev (Elena Gilbert / Katherine Pierce – Petrova)

Born on 22 June 1992, Elena Gilbert, portrayed by Nina Dobrev since the pilot, is the series’ heroine and female protagonist. Elena lives with her younger brother, Jeremy Gilbert, and her aunt, Jenna Sommers, who became her legal guardian after her parents died in a car crash. Her best friend is Bonnie Bennett, who later discovers she is a witch, and she is also friends with Caroline Forbes. On May 23, 2009, Elena and her parents, Grayson and Miranda Gilbert, were in a car accident that took place at Wickery Bridge. It was there that Elena was miraculously saved by Stefan. Elena spent months wondering how she had survived the accident and called it a “miracle”. Before the beginning of the series, Elena was in a relationship with Matt Donovan, who is both her childhood friend and first love. At the beginning of the school year, Elena unexpectedly and fatefully meets a handsome, brooding and mysterious new student, Stefan Salvatore. Elena is immediately and undeniably drawn to him and the two instantly connect. She later begins developing a romantic relationship with Stefan, whom eventually she discovers is a 162 year old vampire. Stefan’s elder and malevolent brother, Damon also eventually falls in love with Elena. At the end of season one, Elena discovers that her parents, Grayson and Miranda, aren’t actually her biological parents, but that she is actually the daughter of John Gilbert, who she thought was her uncle, and Isobel Flemming, who was turned into a vampire by Damon Salvatore.

In season two, she learns that she is a Petrova doppelgänger, just like Katherine Pierce, which means that she has to be sacrificed to release Klaus’ werewolf side. The sacrifice later happens, but Elena is saved, because John sacrificed himself for her after being put under a spell by Bonnie. However, her aunt Jenna is turned into a vampire and, as part of the sacrifice, is killed by Klaus, leaving Elena without a guardian. In the season two finale, while Damon is dying due to a werewolf bite, she forgives him for forcing her to drink his blood and kisses him with the thought that it might be Damon’s last day, however Damon gets cured by drinking Klaus’ blood.

In season three, Elena does everything in her power to make Stefan get his humanity back, which was turned off by Klaus. Meanwhile, she grows closer to Damon while working together on saving Stefan and trying to defeat Klaus, eventually even sharing a kiss. She later admits to Stefan that she has feelings for Damon as well but that she never stopped loving Stefan. While in Denver together, Elena kisses Damon, later telling him that she doesn’t know how she feels about him. It is eventually revealed that Elena met Damon the night of her parent’s death, though he compelled her to forget. She eventually chooses Stefan in the season finale but before she can tell him, Elena drowns while having vampire blood in her system. During the last moments of season three, she awakens as a vampire in transition.

In season four, Elena is faced with the tough decision of whether to die or to feed on human blood so she can fully transition into a vampire. Elena, after realizing Stefan’s desperation to keep her alive, decides to complete her transition. As of right now, Elena is a vampire. Elena tells Stefan that now that she is a vampire, she wants to spend an eternity with him and be with him forever. She tells Stefan that she will get through the rough patches of her newborn vampirism, just like they manage to get through everything else. Stefan gives Elena a daylight ring, which was made by Bonnie, in order to protect Elena from the sunlight. Elena continues to struggle with her new found blood lust. At the funeral of the City Council members, a mysterious vampire hunter suspects Elena’s vampirism and begins to target her. Through a series of events, Elena manages to elude him. Elena realizes she cannot have pre-packaged blood, or animal blood; she needs fresh human blood, which would mean her feeding off directly from a human. Damon offers to teach her since Stefan cannot fully control himself when exposed to human blood. At a college Halloween party, Damon and Elena loose control and Elena begins to feed on human after human. It is not until afterwards that she realizes what she’s done and regrets it. Damon drops Elena off at her house after the awkward college visit. She apologizes for things getting heated at the party. She admits that after all that has happened that night, she doesn’t want to be like him. The next day Jeremy, Matt, and April are kidnapped by Connor. Elena and Damon can’t find Stefan and start making rescue plans with everyone else. Stefan hinders there plans, preventing Elena and Damon from going to the Grill to rescue the others. Elena, convinced Stefan is either working with Klaus or compelled goes to the Grill on her own to save Jeremy. She attacks Connor, but he manages to get away with the help of Stefan. Elena ends up following Connor into the tunnels, biting him and warning him to stay away from her brother and Connor stakes her in the stomach. Elena proceeds to tell him ‘You missed’ and snaps Connor’s neck and later buries him whilst having an emotional breakdown. She later experiences hallucinations as a result of killing one of the ‘Five’ and accidentally stabs Jeremy in the neck, who was luckily wearing his ring. As the hallucinations become worse Elena is drawn to Wickery Bridge where she takes off her daylight ring and drops it into the lake so she can die when the sun comes up. Damon finds her and tries to talk her out of it, telling her she’s been cursed. When Jeremy breaks the curse by killing a vampire the sun has already started to rise and Elena begins to burn and looks at Damon for help. Damon rushes Elena and plunges them both into the lake to avoid the sun. Elena wakes the next morning with her ring on her finger and Damon explaining to Elena that Stefan has been looking for a ‘cure’ for her. Elena proceeds to speak with Stefan about how she’s changed and admits that her feelings for Damon have been magnified since she became a vampire. Stefan tells Elena he can’t do this anymore and Elena responds, ‘I know’. Soon after the Miss Mystic Falls pagent returns to Mystic Falls and renews some memories about Damon and Elena. Elena is helping Caroline with the Miss Mystic Pageant and Caroline digs into her about having feelings for Damon. While she and Caroline are helping April pick out a dress Damon comes in the room looking for Professor Shane. Elena and Caroline had told April to pick the blue but Damon says red and Elena awkwardly agrees. When Damon leaves Elena goes after him and tells him they need to talk, Damon replies he heard about her breakup with Stefan but he is not sorry. Elena asks if Stefan told him why and he says no, and she responds “You”. During the dance Elena and Damon keep glancing over at each other when Matt comes over to Elena asking if she has seen Jeremy and then tells her about he brother’s vampire hunter nightmares about killing her. Damon and Caroline come over and Elena tells them about Jeremy’s nightmares. Damon tells her to relax and she listens, Caroline again confronts Elena about why she’s been acting so strange and listening to Damon who she says ‘is never right’. Caroline is ranting to Klaus about being a best friend and telling him she does not like Elena’s relationship with Damon and Klaus responds” very peculiar” and then says “it’ll all make sense eventually” to Caroline. Elena follows Jeremy and talks with about his nightmares before he attacks her. Matt and Stefan stop him from killing his sister, Elena storms off saying she needs to find her brother and help him when Stefan tells her it’s his fault because he made him kill another vampire. Elena then tells him he doesn’t have to love her like this and that he needs to let go because this is who she is now. Elena moves out of her house and shows up at the Salvatores and Stefan tells her to pick a room saying he’ll crash somewhere else. Elena is sitting on the couch with Damon drinking whiskey while they reminiscence to last year’s dance, saying she wanted to dance with him today. Damon smiles puts down his glass, hers, stands up and offers her his hand and they start to dance. Meanwhile Caroline is telling Stefan not to give up on Elena or finding the cure, before she has an epiphany. Back to Elena and Damon, they’re still dancing and he spins her out and when she comes back in they kiss passionately. Caroline is telling Stefan she figured out why Klaus was so intrigued by Damon and Elena and starts to tell him that Damon is the only magical solution to every problem Elena has had since becoming a vampire. Stefan understands what Caroline is talking about and says “Elena is sired to Damon” just as Elena and Damon are having sex, while dramatic music counts down to the end of the episode. Damon wakes up in his bed and says “Elena?” when she appears and jumps on the bed and he and her talk just before having morning sex. Damon and Elena are walking down the hall of the Salvatore mansion when Elena grabs her bag and Damon her scarf before putting it around her neck and pulling her in for a kiss. They then talk about telling Stefan who shows up when Elena opens up the door to leave for school. Elena is walking down the hall of her school before running into Bonnie and Caroline. Elena suggests a girls night at the Salvatores’ when she sees Damon. Damon asks Elena to drink from a bloodbag to see if she can keep it down, which she can. While Elena, Bonnie, and Caroline are having a girls’ night Elena reveals she can drink from a blood bag, and later that she slept with Damon, which Caroline does not like. When Elena tells them she thinks she’s falling in love with Damon, Caroline blurts out that Elena is actually sired to Damon. When Damon returns Elena tells him she knows she’s sired to him. She tells him that her feelings haven’t changed, and then they have an emotional outburst, before Elena takes Damon’s hand and places it over her heart and asks him “Does this feel wrong?” and then takes her hand and gently touches his cheek and asks “Does this feel wrong?” before the last few seconds tick down.

 

Katherine –

Katherine Pierce, since season one, portrayed by Nina Dobrev, is the secondary antagonist of season two. Originally, Katerina Petrova, she was born in Bulgaria on 22 June, 1475 (coincidentally the same birthdate as her doppelganger and descendent, Elena Gilbert) and later banished to England after having an illegitimate child. Upon meeting Klaus and Elijah, two of the original vampires, she found out that she is a Petrova Doppelganger, which means that she has to be sacrificed to release Klaus’ werewolf side. She used a vampire named Trevor, who’d fallen in love with her, to escape and tricked vampire Rose into turning her, making her useless to break the curse. Katherine’s escape infuriated Klaus who vowed to find her and kill her for her disobedience. She then spent 500 years running and hiding to escape his wrath. Hundreds of years later, Katherine arrived in Mystic Falls, where both Stefan Salvatore and Damon Salvatore fell in love with her. When all the vampires in Mystic Falls were discovered and brought together to be burned to death, she escaped. During her stay in Mystic Falls she had given Damon and Stefan her blood which turned them into vampires after they were shot. Damon, believing Katherine was locked up in a tomb, spent 145 years loving her and trying to find a way to free her. When he is finally able to open it, he finds out that she is not in the tomb and was alive the entire time. In the last episode of season one, Katherine returns to Mystic Falls.

In the first episode of Season 2, she tells Damon that she has always been in love with Stefan and never cared for Damon. It is later revealed that her real reason for returning is to offer Klaus what he wants (the new doppelganger, the moonstone, a vampire, witch, and werewolf) in order to be free from him. Upon learning of her plan, she is locked in the tomb by Stefan and Damon, which has a spell that keeps all vampires locked in it. When the spell is finally broken later on, she is compelled by Elijah to stay in. Elijah temporarily dies and then Katherine is freed, but chooses to start helping Stefan and Damon. When Klaus comes to Mystic Falls, he kidnaps her and keeps her in Alaric’s apartment, where he tortures her. He eventually releases her, but she keeps track of Klaus and Stefan’s settings. When she finds out that a vampire hunter named Mikael is the key to killing Klaus, she finds him and wakes him up, but when Mikael’s plan to kill Klaus fails, she goes back into hiding.

In Season 4, Katherine appears as a hallucination to Elena while Klaus has her locked up to prevent her from killing herself, while she is experiencing terrifying hallucinations. She has not been seen since the curse was broken.