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Name: Elena Gilbert Door: door pass - dominant Canon: The Vampire Diaries Canon Point: 1.05 Age: 17 Appearance: 1 / 2 History: Elena at the vampire diaries wiki Personality ❝ i used to be more fun ❞ Before her accident, Elena was as typical of a teenage girl as you could imagine. She was a cheerleader, dating the quarterback, the whole shebang. The saddest thing she'd experienced to date was the realisation that she didn't love her boyfriend the way that she should. She was happy, she was fun and popular, she had the kind of life that people dream of, and life was good - right up until the accident. After Elena's parents die she goes through a drastic change. Losing them has left Elena with a deep set sadness – she becomes withdrawn and antisocial, all but a shadow of her former self. She gives herself the summer to grieve and wallow, to ignore absolutely everything going on in the world around her, and once it is over she pulls up her bootstraps and pretends like everything is fine. She says as much in her diary ("Today will be different. It has to be. I will smile, and it will be believable") and the strategy works - for all of a day. Elena quickly realises that it's not that simple though, and if it hadn't been for a huge life changing event in the form of a guy walking into her life she may well have kept walking through the days like this, not really present, just pretending to be fine and smile away the concern. It does change though, she finds the big epic love she'd hoped for since she was a little girl. Even after this tragedy Elena is still capable of a remarkable capacity for love. ❝ trust is earned. i can't just magically hand it over ❞ Except life isn't as simple as a boyfriend fixing everything, and after the loss of her parents and the collapse of her relationship with Matt it has left scars. Elena isn't anywhere near as trusting as she used to be, and it shows in the early days of her relationship with Stefan. Granted he's lying to her about being a vampire, but that doesn't change the fact that Elena is completely captivated by the idea of complete trust from the moment she thinks he is keeping something from her. She values trust so much that any signs of its' absence drives her crazy, and she can't just let it go. It causes a quick rift between them, Elena demanding more openness between them because that's who she is. When she puts her mind to something, whether it's a good thing or not, she can't help herself. She has to keep pushing and pushing, and in this case Elena pushes all the way to figuring out her boyfriend is a supernatural being. It shakes her to the core, of course it does, but remarkably enough it actually brings them closer together and that's because to Elena trust is the only deal breaker anymore. ❝ when all is said and done, there's nothing more important than the bond of family ❞ She's built up a close knit group of people based on trust that, whether since childhood or over the last year, have become family to Elena. For those people, Elena would go to the ends of the Earth. Repeatedly she puts her life on the line for these people, her brother, her closest friends, because her family is everything to her. Everyone has a weak spot, and Elena's is her loved ones - when that button is pushed, Elena usually becomes irrational and quick to make bad choices in the name of best interests. It might not always be the right decision, but Elena is always trying to do the thing to ensure their safety, even when that involves self-sacrifice. It's the biggest source of tension between her and the Salvatore's, because Elena is willing to do anything to keep her family safe and happy, even if that means sacrificing her own life. It's her achilles heel in every sense of the term. When people are at risk she makes stupid decisions. She rushes in headfirst, acting now and thinking later, and sometimes that means accidentally putting other people at risk. It comes from a good place, but that doesn't change the fact that the easiest way to throw Elena off of her game is by threatening the people she cares about. When she's given time to think, to rationalise and then act she can actually be very smart and quick-witted. She's capable of thinking out plans and acting them out, and has the capacity to be very rational at times. It's just that it all goes out the window the moment anyone puts the pressure on one of the people on her list. At one point this even becomes a literal list of people, given to the second strongest creature in the world in return for her playing ball in a plan that results in her loss of life. Again and again, Elena has lost people, and all it has done is make her more determined to protect the ones she has left. ❝ i can't blame anyone else anymore ❞ One thing Elena has an amazing propensity for is loading guilt onto her shoulders. It comes from a good place of course, Elena has an incredibly good heart, but it doesn't change the fact that whether intentionally or not she has the tendency to make things about her. Granted a lot of the events in her life following the death of her parents are revolved around Elena, but that doesn't change the fact that between her guilt and her martyrdom it ends up looking more selfish than anything else. "Everything is because of me" was said in a time of great distress, but it speaks to the way Elena looks on the events of her life. Whether from a place of narcissism or or self-sacrifice, it doesn't change the fact that it shows how she views the world. Whether true or not Elena definitely sees the events of her life as totally her fault, and as more loss piles up on her conscience her guilt complex grows. It's part of what drives her desperate need to protect, her willingness to literally lay down her life on multiple occasions, because anyone with a guilt complex like that is looking for absolution.❝ i'm not going to lose it. at least not before the cake ❞ Elena Gilbert is selfish. She is headstrong and stubborn to a fault, and often makes stupid decisions in the heat of the moment because she believes that it is right. The road to hell is paved with good intentions though, and all of Elena's good intentions can't cover up her faults. More than once she's used her life as a bargaining chip to convince people to follow through with her plan. It's said on a few occasions that she can actually be quite manipulative, noted as a similarity to her vampire doppelganger Katherine, and that comparison is anything but a compliment. The difference is intention though, as much as it doesn't change or justify her actions it can at least explain them. Elena is at her worst when she's trying to save people, Katherine is her worst when she is trying to save herself. Ultimately Elena is strong. She has lost almost all of her biological family, leaving only her and her adopted brother Jeremy, and somehow she has managed to keep going. She's seen the Powers and Abilities CANON – Although a doppelganger, Elena doesn't possess any active supernatural qualities of her own. She's about as strong as any seventeen year old cheerleader, although she has proven to be quick and resourceful in the face of imminent danger - or the danger of someone close to her. Being a doppelganger gives her certain latent abilities though, mostly through the use of her blood in magic spells, and has canonically be used as an active ingredient and way of 'sealing' certain curses and spells. It also creates a bond between her and other doppelgangers, to the point where they can be linked to suffer each other's pain and injury, but beyond use in certain magic there are no real abilities given. Inventory • Her necklace — no 'magic' power on its own but can be used by witches to "channel" energy and boost their abilities (happy to nerf that though). inside the locket it also contains the herb vervain which essentially acts as a power nerf for TVD vampires. • Her journal with entries that date after her canon point as far as S2 • Johnathan Gilbert's device – depowered if need be! Samples: ONE | TWO |
