With only one week left until the premiere of the final season of The Vampire Dairies we taking a look back at our favorite Mystic Falls residents who have managed to survive seven seasons of chaos, massacres and heartbreak and will be ending their stories this year.
[tps_header]Caroline Forbes[/tps_header]
From insensitive mean-girl cheerleader to loyal vampire and mother, Caroline has gone through some major changes since season 1. When we were first introduced to Caroline she was after Stefan and her main goal was to make her best-friend Elena jealous. As a human, Damon used her as his plaything and personal blood-bag. After getting into a severe car accident at the end of the season Damon healed her with his blood, but at the start of season 2 she was killed by Elena’s evil doppelganger Katherine and turned into a vampire. This transition was the major start of Caroline’s character transformation for the better. Although she flip-flopped from dating Matt to Tyler and had a fling with original vampire Klaus throughout the seasons, becoming a vampire was defiantly a major improvement to character.
Flash forward to season 7 Caroline is still recovering from the loss of her mother to cancer and has sparked a romance with Stefan. She also became magically pregnant when Alaric’s pregnant fiancée Jo was killed at their wedding and their twins were transferred into her, when she gave birth she imminently attached to the idea of becoming a mother and even became engaged to Alaric in order to keep their family together. This goes south though when she realizes that her true love is Stefan and season 7 ends with us wondering where their relationship will go and whether or not it will last.
[tps_header]Stefan Salvatore[/tps_header]
Since The Vampire Diaries is Stefan’s story, it’s no surprise that he has survived this long even though he’s faced death mutiple times. Introduced as the broody new student at Mystic Falls High in season 1 living with his last remaining nephew Zach in the old Salvatore boarding house he is immediately drawn to Elena because of her resemblance to former love Katherine. They develop a passionate romance framed as the story line of the series, but wrench is thrown in his plans to live a normal life when his older brother Damon arrives in town and tries to steal his girl. Stefan and Elena’s romance hit a road block in season 4 when she admits to falling in love with Damon, but Stefan’s character is more than just his relationship with Elena. He becomes more complex throughout the seasons when he reveals that he used to be a ripper, becomes a henchman for Klaus in the end of season 2 reverting back to his ripper ways, and comes face to face with his own doppelganger who traps him in a safe submerged in the river in the finale of season 4.
Looking at season 7 Stefan has sparked a romance with Caroline, but has lost his Mystic Falls home to a group of heretics run by his recently resurrected mother. He also becomes marked by vampire hunter Rayna and spends a good chunk of the season on the run with his former flame Valerie, a heretic. The season ends with Stefan being reunited with Caroline and their future up in the air.
[tps_header]Bonnie Bennett[/tps_header]
Bonnie is easily the most tortured character in the series. In season 1 Bonnie is just discovering her powers as a witch while navigating the newly discovered supernatural world with Elena and Caroline while grappling with what it means to be a Bennett witch. She becomes more important throughout the seasons, primarily in the season 4 finale when she is killed by a powerful spell and in season 5 when she is resurrected and becomes The Anchor to the other side, which is what every ghost must pass through to get to find peace. By the end of the season the other side is destroyed and Bonnie allows many dead characters, most notably Enzo and Alaric, to pass through. She becomes trapped though with Damon, who sacrifices himself earlier in the episode to help destroy the villainous travelers, in the other side as it is collapsing causing them to walk into the light together and “die”.
But since it’s The Vampire Diaries, they survive and eventually escape their purgatory leaving Bonnie traumatized. In season 7 the trauma continues with Bonnie feeling the guilt of responsible for Elena’s sleeping curse because the two are linked and Elena will not wake up until Bonnie dies. She does find some happiness with Enzo in a blooming romance, but that is quickly shattered when she realizes that she is dying from an anti-magic pill she was taking to avoid being tracked by The Armory. The only way Bonnie could survive was by transferring the life of huntress Rayna into her, but by doing this she unknowingly becomes a huntress herself and attempts to kill the vampires she loves. She is saved by Damon, who destroys the last body of the Everlastings who created the huntress curse, but is still brought into a dark place by the end of the season when her love Enzo and best friend Damon are taken by the creature in the vault.
[tps_header]Damon Salvatore[/tps_header]
Damon is arguably the most complex and interesting character in the series going from the bad guy to anti-hero to hero throughout the seven seasons. In season 1 Damon is introduced as Stefan’s older brother who comes home to Mystic Falls for reasons unknown. It is only later that we learn he is there in order to resurrect his lost love Katherine, but ends up creating havoc for the town residents instead. Although his character does horrible things like repetitively feeding off of Caroline and killing innocent humans, there’s something tragic and inherently good in his character that makes the audience root for him to have a happy ending with Elena, which he gets for a while in season 4 when she admits that she loves him. Although Elena is cursed at the end of season 6 to sleep eternally until Bonnie dies, Damon develops a close relationship with the witch and their friendship has become one of the core relationships in the series.
In season 7 Damon is learning to live without Elena, we learn about his mommy issues and we watch him go down a darker path as he tries to navigate his own moral compass. Most of the season Damon is desperately trying to save Bonnie from the anti-magic pills that are slowly killing her and trying to save Stefan from the huntress’ mark, but his good deeds take a turn for the worst in the final episode when him and Enzo enter The Armory’s vault to destroy the last body of the Everlastings and they are confronted by the creature, pulling them into darkness.
[tps_header]Alaric Saltzman and Matt Donovan[/tps_header]
Matt and Alaric tend to be forgotten when it comes to talking about the central characters, but the two have managed to survive and have a lasting impact in the show whether the audience realizes it or not. Matt has been the golden boy since season 1, he dated Elena prior to the first episode and deals with the death of his sister Vicki, who was turned into a vampire, throughout the season. He has a brief relationship with Caroline and a fling with original vampire Rebekah. In season 7 Matt steps up his game and assumes the role of town sheriff after Elena is placed in her sleeping curse. He falls in love and briefly becomes engaged to fellow officer Penny, but his future is dashed away when he accidentally shoots her while attempting to slay a vampire. In the finale Matt decides that it would best to leave Mystic Falls for good to find happiness.
On the other hand Alaric doesn’t seem to be going anywhere now that he is the sole caregiver of the series’ youngest residents in season 7, twins Josie and Lizzie, after is fiancee Jo dies. The character has come a long way since his position as a history teacher/vampire hunter in season 1 and is looking to be a major player once season 8 premieres.
The Vampire Diaries returns Friday, October 21 at 8 p.m. on The CW.