BREAKING NEWS: Thee Hot Girl, Megan Thee Stallion, Has Spoken Out About The Vampire Diaries
*SPOILER WARNINGS FOR THE VAMPIRE DIARIES*// Where I reveal my love for Elena Gilbert (in a way that is wholly shielded from any criticism because Megan Thee Stallion agrees with me)
Listen. As a long-time The Vampire Diaries stan (this translates to: I watched episode 1 live on the CW back in 2009), I have had to protect most of my opinions regarding the show. Why? Because a lot of people have a lot of opinions on it (many formed without even watching up to Nina Dobrev’s season six departure or the series finale). And I do not like to argue about my comfort characters. But today, I have a confession to make: I am an Elena Gilbert apologist. Yes, it’s true, and I know that many people will not agree with me. But you know who does?
Megan Thee Stallion. That’s right. The H-Town Hottie confessed her love for our favorite human-turned-doppelganger-turned-vampire-turned-human-again and protagonist of the show, thee Elena Gilbert, on Twitter yesterday. She sounded off online (and turned Twitter upside down) with a simple tweet at 4:56pm EST that read: “Once I figured out Elena wasn’t coming back on vampire diaries I stopped watching bc wtf”
I saw this tweet and I was damn-near driven to tears. Because ME TOO!! MEEE TOOOO!! I still remember that horrific day in 2014 when Nina Dobrev announced that she was leaving the show, the same day Julie Plec et al (who are simultaneously my most favorite and most hated people on the planet) announced that they would be continuing the show without her. “Bc wtf” perfectly encapsulates all of my questions and confusions and heartbreak about this stupid little CW series, a show that, towards its end, didn’t make sense. Because how could Elena Gilbert-- the girl who was both being/fucking the vampires and writing the diaries-- leave the show without it completely crumbling? (Spoiler alert: it did crumble, and Episode 1, Season 7 - Episode 15, Season 8, made no amount of sense (because why would it without its literal narrator?) and this is therefore, as Megan herself has pointed out, the reason that many loyal fans stopped watching).
Love her (as both I and Megan do) or hate her (as many other people loudly do), Elena Gilbert was the glue that held that show together. And for that reason, we have to stan! Yes, Elena could be annoying, but might I remind you all that she was a 15 year old who witnessed the death both of her parents and was being groomed by a 162 year old vampire who basically stalked her and tricked her into a relationship and then watched many of her other family members die because of her stalker-turned-boyfriend but couldn’t leave her relationship because she was being groomed to believe he was her only reason for living. Like… I too would be very annoying if EYE were in that situation!! Also, as Megan pointed out at 5:07pm yesterday, “Think abt this… if there was no Elena everyone would be bored and stagnant my bitch was making people change for the better her whole time on the show.” IF THERE WAS NO ELENA!!!! EVERYONE WOULD BE BORED AND STAGNANT!!!! So true, Megan, literally so true!!!
If it weren’t for Elena, nobody would like Damon Salvatore. Caroline Forbes (who Megan and I both dislike as well!!) would be just as fucking annoying, vain, and catty as she was in the very first episode of the show. Stefan Salvatore… well, there were no redeeming qualities there, EVER, but at least she got him to stop ruthlessly murdering thousands of people. The only person who probably would have been better off without Ms. Gilbert-turned-Salvatore was Bonnie, but, as Megan said in reference to Bonnie’s character, “That’s definitely my bitch but damn she can’t have her bestie back,” which, is so fucking true!! Like, Elena really never did anything to actively harm Bonnie, and nine times out of ten, Bonnie was choosing to put her life on the line for Elena, because she felt bad for her and all of the loss she experienced so close together and, she knew deep down that Elena would always do the same for her. (Keep in mind the MULTIPLE times that Elena volunteered to die to keep Bonnie safe but nobody would let her ass just croak!)
Megan’s tweet really made me think hard about the Elena vs. Bonnie discourse that has come up in many fan discussions online over the past few years, and I think all of the Elena hatred is misplaced. Like, Elena really never did shit to Ms. Bonnie Bennett. The problem was not Elena as a character; the problem was really that the writer’s room kept molly-whopping Bonnie and stealing happiness from her time and time again for no good reason. When you really think about it, it wasn’t as though Elena and Bonnie were destined to be rivals -- nothing in their characters’ storylines or character arcs really positioned them to be at odds with one another. It was simply that the writer’s room chose absolute gorey violence against Elena and then used Bonnie as the blood-soaked dish rag to wipe down the entire room afterwards. It’s really not Elena’s fault that the TVD writer’s room had zero respect for Bonnie… If the writers were a little more creative and decided to cast a few more witches throughout the series, then Bonnie and Elena would literally never be placed at odds with each other in any capacity. The Elena and Bonnie tension was always situational, and not the fault of either of the characters or their decision making.
And, guess what? Once Elena was in a magical coma and out of the picture, the writer’s room STILL chose so much unnecessary violence against Bonnie, trying to kill her every other episode. This is literal evidence that Elena Gilbert’s existence on that show didn’t have shit to do materially with Bonnie’s unhappiness. That writer’s room wanted Bonnie Bennett to be broken. So, like Megan said, CAN’T BONNIE JUST HAVE HER BESTIE’S BACK??! (she shouldn’t have had to as many times as she did, god damn -- but that blood is on the TVD Writer’s Room’s hands.)
So yeah, I am an Elena Gilbert apologist. Nina Dobrev put her back into that character and Elena basically carried the entirety of the show, whether we want to admit it or not. And, thanks to Megan Thee Stallion, I can now say how I feel about it all with my chest. If she’s going to be dragged down because of her Elena allegiance, I’m going down with her.
This was so much fun to write. Special thanks to Megan Thee Stallion for her inadvertent contributions to this piece. Sidenote: I’m obsessed with the fact that she’s a Delena stan.
