Elena Gilbert (novel)

Elena Gilbert
Biographical information
Born	July 5, 1974 (18)
Status	Dying
Occupation	High School Student (Formerly) Student at Dalcrest College (Currently)
Species	Human (Originally) Vampire (Klaus' Bloodline) (Formerly) Spirit Of The Afterlife (Formerly) Human/Angel Hybrid (Currently In The Evensong Series) Earth Guardian (Currently In The Salvation Series; Formerly In The Evensong Series)
Gender	Female
Family information
Family Members	The Principle Guardians (Maternal Ancestors) The Celestial Guardians (Maternal Ancestors) The Blonde Guardians (Maternal Ancestors) Other Angels (Maternal Ancestors) Ryannen (Maternal Relative) Mylea (Maternal Relative) Thomas Gilbert † (Father) Elizabeth Morrow-Gilbert † (Mother) Robert Maxwell (Paternal Uncle Through Marriage) Judith Gilbert-Maxwell (Legal Guardian/Paternal Aunt) Baron von Swartzschild † (Step-Father) Katherine von Swartzschild † (Older Maternal Half-Sister) Margaret Gilbert (Younger Sister) Breanna † (Cousin) Paternal Grandfather † Paternal Grandmother † Tilda (Great-Aunt) 2nd Unnamed Great-Aunt 3rd Unnamed Great-Aunt Stefan Salvatore † (True Love, Soulmate, Fiancé)
Supernatural information
Significant kills	Katherine von Swartzschild † Klaus † Davos †
Cause of death	Drowning (1st time; as a human) Burned (as a vampire)
Killed by	Katherine von Swartzschild †(Both times)
Appearance
First seen	The Awakening
Last seen	The Salvation: Unspoken Evensong: The War of Roses

“	I am not an angel and I am not a spirit. I'm Elena Gilbert and I've been to the Other Side. And right now I'm ready to do whatever needs to be done, which seems to include kicking some ass!	”
	— Elena in The Return: Nightfall

Elena Gilbert (Full Name: Elena Marie Morrow Gilbert) is the central character, the heroine and the protagonist of The Vampire Diaries novel series. Elena is the soul mate and true love of Stefan Salvatore, the best friend of Bonnie McCullough and Meredith Sulez, the former best friend-recently-turned-rival of Caroline Forbes, Matt Honeycutt's childhood friend, first love and ex-girlfriend, and Damon Salvatore's prize of possession. She is also the niece of Robert and Judith Maxwell and the elder sister of Margaret Gilbert.

Elena was born in the small town of Fells Church, Virginia. Both of her parents, Mr. Thomas Gilbert and Mrs. Elizabeth Gilbert (née Morrow) had died in a tragic and fatal car accident when she was younger. Because of this, she and her four year old younger sister Margaret, were taken in and were raised by her Aunt Judith Gilbert, who is her father's sister. Throughout the series, Elena is called the 'Golden Girl'. In the first book of the original series, The Awakening, Elena Gilbert is a high school Senior, who is very popular, extremely beautiful, admired by all the girls and the object of affection of many boys in the town of Fells Church.

Elena is cool, blond and slender; the girl every boy wants and the girl every other girl wants to be. Always in control, no boy that she has ever seen or dated has ever stirred her innermost feelings, passions and desires. Until she meets a handsome, foreign, mysterious Italian boy, Stefan Salvatore. Something completely unusual about the new mysterious guy (Stefan) makes her strongly desire him with deep, profound, intense and indescribable passion, an overwhelming passion and desire that Elena has never experienced before in her entire lifetime. Immediately, indescribably and deeply drawn to Stefan with a frightening and scary intensity, Elena knows that she must be with Stefan under any circumstances, even if it kills them both.

Stefan enrolls at her high school, Robert E. Lee High. In the beginning, he completely ignores her attempts to attract his attention due to the extremely intense, profound, and electrifying connection the both of them share with one another. But aside from the immediate, intense, and an indescribable connection that she feels to Stefan, the combination of Stefan's outer qualities such as his quick intelligence, hard-to-get and challenging ways, loner aura, classic romance novel appearance, and distant mysterious demeanor only makes Elena desire Stefan even more and makes Elena all the more determined to be with him. However, Elena is completely unaware that Stefan is a centuries old (aged 500+) vampire who had renounced his living in the darkness and in the shadows. Stefan has spent centuries in the shadows consumed with overwhelming guilt, loneliness, sadness and self-hatred.

Stefan tries to start a new life for himself living in the light and amongst the humans by renouncing his living in the dark shadows due to his dark, painful past. He attempts to ignore Elena at first for one reason out of many. Aside from the extremely overwhelming, powerful and intense connection he has with Elena, she also ironically and coincidentally happens to be the near perfect double or doppelgänger of his long lost first love which he has been tortured and tormented over for centuries, Katherine von Swartzschild, who was the beautiful young vampire whom both he and his brother Damon fought over many centuries ago, rivaled and were in competition for her affections.

Katherine turned both Stefan and Damon into vampires over five hundred years ago. She then "committed suicide" and the Salvatore brothers ended killing one another after fighting to the death with their swords, because each brother blamed the other for her death (later on revealed to be her fake death). When Stefan finally admits that he is deeply, passionately and strongly in love with Elena, he initially keeps his vampire nature a secret from her to protect her from himself, his dangerous brother, Damon and keep her safe. Due to this secrecy on Stefan's behalf regarding his dark, tortured and mysterious past, this causes some conflict, struggle, tension and distance in their strong mutual bond, along with many other outside forces and obstacles. At the end of The Awakening, Elena eventually discovers the deep, dark and shocking truth about Stefan and his tortured past and the fact that he is in fact, a centuries old vampire who was born during the fifteenth century.

Elena finds out about Stefan's identity as well as his dark past after the school's history school teacher, Mr. Tanner, is murdered brutally at the Halloween Dance. The school as well as the rest of the town of Fells Church begins to start speculating that Stefan is the killer of the town and they start to blame and accuse Stefan for the unusual murders. However, Elena strongly believes this isn't true at all and she fiercely defends Stefan, believing that he is completely and totally innocent. Elena begins to believe that the real killer of Mr. Tanner is not Stefan, but Stefan's elder, malevolent and dangerous brother Damon, who has been trying to seduce her on the sly and trying to possess her whole entire being in order to hurt Stefan in anger, jealousy and revenge. Elena deeply and strongly loves Stefan, though, and consistently rejects Damon's repeated advances.

Physical Appearance

"I ....don't think it's vain to say that I am beautiful. If I did not know I was, I would have to have never looked in a mirror or heard a compliment. It's not something I should be proud of—it's just something that was passed down from Mom and Dad."

Elena was described to be angelically beautiful, so beautiful that all of the boys in Fells Church desire her and all the girls in town want to be like her.

She has thick, silky-smooth golden-blond hair that reaches her waist, along with brows and long lashes that are a darker blond compared to her hair. Her eyes are noted to be an intriguing colour: as blue as a Lapis Lazuli stone, but also flecked with gold and even had shades of violet. Her complexion was described to be smooth, perfect, and translucent - Stefan had stated that Elena's skin reminds him of swans, alabaster, or porcelain. Because of her flawless fair skin, however, Elena does not tan easily, but she can easily get sunburned. Her fair skin is also probably part of the reason why she has the nicknames of "Snow Queen", "Ice Queen", and "Ice Princess". Elena's physique was said to be sleek and slim, tall when compared to the petite Bonnie, but short in contrast to Meredith.

Personality

Personality wise, Elena is described as a very beautiful, popular but ordinary seventeen year old teenage human girl. Elena was born and raised in Fells Church, Virginia. Even though Elena is very beautiful physically, she could still be seen as the girl next door. At the start of the series, Elena was in competition to be the 'Queen' of Robert E. Lee High School with former friend and newly turned rival, Caroline Forbes. Elena is the type of girl that every boy falls for and whom every girl desires to be like. She is cool, confident, sociable, approachable and popular. Elena is highly active socially and she is involved in many extra curricular school activities. She is a top student and generally gets good grades, although she seems to not thrive at doing trigonometry. Elena is on the Senior Welcoming Committee at her high school. She was also voted as Most Popular and was voted as the Homecoming Queen. Even though Elena may be beautiful and popular, she is far from perfect. She has many flaws and imperfections within her personality. At first,  Elena initially comes off as very shallow, bossy, selfish, childish, competitive, self-absorbed, vain, proud, overly headstrong and extremely spoiled. However,  she is still a good person at heart, is a generally kind, caring and protective individual, and is someone who loves and cares about her family and friends. Elena is outgoing, confident, brave, active, optimistic, determined, ambitious, loyal, protective and strong-willed. She is a very good leader and as a result, is good at leading most situations which require solid leadership. As the series progresses, she is willing to put her life at risk and do anything to help the people she loves and cares about. Elena has suffered and endured much loss, grief, pain and tragedy in her very young teenage life. Most of this is due to the loss of her parents, Thomas and Elizabeth, in a tragic and fatal car accident. Elena has openly admitted that she always used boys and treated the opposite sex as if they were prizes and trophies. She used them them as a way to boost her confidence and self-esteem. None of the boys that she has ever encountered, met, or dated (including Matt Honeycutt, her first love since childhood) has ever had an enormous, unusual, lifechanging or highly influential impact on her the way that Stefan Salvatore has. Elena has had many boyfriends in the past. Because of this, she is often perceived to be somewhat promiscuous. Although she had always treated boys' as prizes, she never saw, viewed or treated Matt (her childhood best friend and first love) that way. She genuinely loves and cares about him, but more like that of a best friend, companion, cousin or a brother. Matt and Elena have an easygoing relationship. He has influenced her in a positive way. Elena breaks up with Matt at the start of the school year; realizing that even though she does loves Matt, there is still something "missing". She still loves and cares about him like a best friend. Matt still looks out for her and he is also incredibly loyal and supportive of her as well. Elena has been best friends with Bonnie McCullough and Meredith Sulez since the first grade. She was also a best friends with Caroline Forbes since kindergarten, although the two had become intense rivals. Most of the rivalry between Elena and Caroline is due to the competition  between them when it came to social status, boys and popularity. Elena has been nicknamed "The Ice Princess" by many, for she sometimes possesses the impression of appearing cold, distant and aloof towards others. This is noted by Tyler Smallwood. However, she immediately and dramatically becomes a much warmer, selfless, giving, kinder, open-minded, compassionate and spiritually awakened individual after she meets Stefan. Outside personalities wise, Elena is the polar opposite of Stefan in many ways. Elena is outgoing and sociable, Stefan is shy or quiet. Elena is popular, Stefan is more of a loner (though he eventually opens up and makes friends). Elena is more headstrong and aggressive, Stefan is more laid back and passive. Elena is more idealistic and optimistic, Stefan is more cynical and pessimistic. Elena is vain and selfish, Stefan is humble and selfless. Elena is more cheerful, Stefan is more brooding. Elena is self-confident, Stefan is self-loathing. Although everyone seems to be convinced of Elena's intelligence, her academic performance actually seems somewhat uneven. Mr. Tanner says that Elena is failing history, and no one corrects him. Elena says she doesn't care if she fails trigonometry. She is enrolled in a General Business class even though she is a Senior. Elena frequently writes in her own personal journal. In it, she records all her inner thoughts, dreams, passions and desires. She mostly writes about her life, her family, her friends and mostly about Stefan. Bonnie comments in Elena's diary when she first died that Elena was far from perfect, that while she was never an angel, she died a good person. After Elena is dead (following Katherine's death), Bonnie describes her in her diary: "She was not a saint. She was not always sweet and honest and agreeable. But she was strong and loving and loyal to her friends, and in the end she did the most unselfish thing anybody could do." Before Elena starts the school year, she states in her diary that she feels strange. She states that she felt something "big" is going to happen but she couldn't describe why she felt that way. She also admits that she felt like she had been missing something. Elena also admitted that deep down, she felt lost, confused and that she had no idea where she belonged. Until the start of the school year. Elena's life dramatically changes forever upon first meeting a mysterious, gorgeous new foreign student from Italy, Stefan Salvatore. Stefan is a centuries old (500+) vampire who renounced his living in the shadows and darkness; desiring to live in the daylight and be accepted amongst the humans. To start a new life and escape his mysterious and troubled past, he enrolls at Robert E. Lee High School as a new transfer student. It is there where Stefan inevitably and fatefully meets Elena Gilbert. When he first sees Elena, he is instantly, immediately, undeniably and intensely drawn to her. Stefan's first encounter with Elena was indescribable and intense. Their first meeting was so deep, intense, indescribable and electrifying. Before meeting one another, Stefan and Elena were two dead, shattered and empty souls, who had both suffered similar, mirrored experiences in terms of loss, grief and pain. Stefan and Elena have experienced hardships and heartbreak when it comes to romance. For the longest time, Stefan had a hard time accepting love at all costs, feeling as though he was highly unworthy and unlovable because he felt he was a monster incapable of being loved or accepted by anyone. Stefan had always felt that he was a hunter, a beast that was meant to be condemned to living in the shadows without the concept of warmth, love, and acceptance. Elena, on the other hand, had a hard time finding love and trying to discover her true identity and destiny as a person. Elena constantly questioned "What was her true path"? She felt lost, unhappy and lonely despite the fact that on the surface, Elena had it all. Stefan was still dealing with the tragic loss of his first beloved, Katherine von Swartzschild. Elena dated many boys and had various boyfriends to cover up her unhappiness; to conceal her inner loneliness and emptiness. Stefan Salvatore and Elena Gilbert From the very first day when Elena met Stefan, she is immediately and undeniably drawn to him. She is willing to do anything to be with him at all costs. Due to Elena's determination, she even gets her friends Bonnie, Meredith and even Matt, to help her with her cause. Her connection to Stefan is so overwhelming and intense that she cannot describe it or understand it herself,  She often stated in her personal journal that meeting Stefan has been a life changing event for her. Elena states in her diary that encountering Stefan was so incredibly profound and intense, that changes began occurring in her daily life patterns. These included her ability to eat, sleep and concentrate on anything else important, including her extra curricular school activities and even socializing. At first,  Elena had described this connection with Stefan as overwhelming, intense, scary, frightening and terrifying. Upon arriving in Fells Church and meeting Elena physically, Stefan is immediately able to sense her presence and her mind. At first, it is so intense and overwhelming for him that he makes a consistent effort to ignore Elena and stay away from her at all costs. Stefan also initially ignores Elena because he has a huge fear of harming her in any way because of his intense desire and longing for her. Stefan also tries to stay away from her, because Elena coincidentally happens to be the spitting physical image of his long lost, past love, which caused him much significant pain and grief, Katherine. Despite the strong, mutual, and intense connection that both Stefan and Elena share with one another even from afar, Elena is taken back when Stefan repeatedly makes attempts to avoid her. She is deeply and indescribably hurt and tortured by this. Elena has said the pain caused by Stefan avoiding her repeatedly is so incredibly painful and bad that she cannot eat, sleep or concentrate on anything important. Stefan's challenging ways and his constant escaping from her only make Elena even more eager to be with him. It makes her more determined for her to stop Stefan from running away from her. With each passing day, Elena knows deep down that she must be with Stefan, but she cannot explain why. Curiosity completely takes over her and she does everything she can to find out all about Stefan and his background with the help of her friends Bonnie and Meredith. She even enlists the help of Matt. Her current rival Caroline, also takes a significant interest in Stefan as well, causing the rivalry between the two girls to heat up immensely. Elena's school reputation is important to her, so she makes up a fake boyfriend named Jean-Claude, to hide her deep feelings for Stefan and the fact that Stefan had ignored her.  Caroline becomes intensely envious of Elena when Stefan eventually begins to bond with Elena and also, when he begins to reciprocate Elena's affections. Elena is deeply, madly, intensely, passionately and unconditionally in love with Stefan. She states consistently how she feels incredible magnetic and electrifying intensity, love and passion between them but strangely at the same time, she also feels a sense of warmth, comfort, safety, stability and security when she is with him. Elena has described being with Stefan as "coming home" or like "being home where she belongs". Immediately after meeting Stefan, Elena becomes an irrevocably enlightened individual. She experiences an inner spiritual awakening, both before and after meeting Stefan. Overwhelming feelings in which she has never felt before in her lifetime. Elena has said in so many words in her diary that for the first time in her life, she feels incredibly alive and happy. In some ways, Stefan has a special influence on her that even Elena cannot seem to understand. Elena loves Stefan with a fiery passion and unconditional love. She is loyal and protective of him and she will do absolutely anything and everything for him, including sacrificing her own life, risking her own life and dying for him. Elena has stated that if Stefan dies, she will die with him without any hesitation. Although Elena had everything she wanted in life and appeared to be generally content with what she had on the outside (her beauty, her popularity, her status etc.), Elena was deeply, painfully lonely and incredibly sad. When she first met Stefan and began to develop a deeper relationship with him, her loneliness was immediately evaporated away. She became an alive, awakened soul and became a significantly happy, contented individual. Elena's connection with Stefan is so intense, profound and powerful, that she has said that she is able to know what Stefan is thinking (while she was still human, before she was a vampire and a spiritual being) and also, feel whatever Stefan is feeling. These senses between Stefan and Elena became significantly more intense when Elena becomes a vampire and even more intensely after Elena came back from the afterlife. Stefan and Elena often communicate telepathically with one another. Stefan and Elena are bound together by a silver cord (a.k.a the Red Sting of Fate, Silver Cord of Fate, Cord of Love, Cord of Fate, Cord of Destiny, the Twin Soul Concept or more commonly known, the Soulmate Principle), which is a non-breakable string or thread indicating destiny and fate between two eternal soulmates. The silver cord connects destined, true lovers from heart to heart. This implies that Stefan and Elena are destined lovers for all of eternity and in many, many, many, many lifetimes afterwards. The soulmate principle between Stefan and Elena also means that they will be together in death in the afterlife if they shall ever die. Stefan and Elena are unbreakable and are inseparable regardless of time, space and distance. Elena discovered that Stefan was her true counterpart and other half in Shadow Souls when Elena had an out of body experience after falling asleep and having a deep, intense lucid dream about Stefan. She then saw the silver cord connecting her soul to Stefan's soul, therefore, using their silver cord connection to be able to visit Stefan in spirit while he was dying, stuck in the prison in the Dark Dimension. Despite the eternal bond and unconditional love that Stefan and Elena have for each other, they have always had a chaotic, tumultuous relationship at the same time. Stefan and Elena often fall on difficult times with each other because of all of the chaotic events, obstacles and problems that always surround the two of them. This prevents the two from staying together. These obstacles include personal inner struggles that both Stefan and Elena have endured as individuals, unusual events occurring in the town of Fell's Church and also many outside forces "deliberately" separating Stefan and Elena from one another beyond their control (i.e. Stefan being trapped in a prison in the Dark Dimension, Elena's destiny as a Guardian). But the largest obstacle that Stefan and Elena had to overcome was Damon, who is Stefan's malevolent elder brother who tries to steal Elena from Stefan out of both jealousy and revenge. Even though Elena possesses the bad traits of being selfish and headstrong, Stefan brings out the best in her, which includes her compassion, generosity, selflessness, kindness and understanding. Elena has written in her journal that Stefan makes her a significantly much better individual and that he makes her blissfully happy. Like Stefan, Elena can be very stubborn. Elena has a deep, strong and passionate romantic relationship with Stefan which is the core and heart of the entire series. Although, later on, she does realize that she is strongly attracted to Damon. Damon is the polar opposite of Stefan in all aspects of life. While Stefan is highly moral, noble, has a strong hold onto his humanity and has a very high regard for all human life, Damon wants to harm, hunt, torture and kill many humans for fun without any sense of guilt or remorse. Unlike Stefan, Damon views human beings as objects and as food to sustain vampires strength and gain vampires much power. Unlike Stefan, who hates being a vampire and who refuses to kill innocent people just for the sake of succumbing to selfishly drinking human blood for power, Damon strongly enjoys vampirism; he greatly revels in taking innocent human life for their blood for his own selfish purposes. In regards to Elena, Damon wants to possess Elena mind, body and soul. He will stop at nothing to possess her, control her, and take her away from Stefan at all costs in attempts to make Elena his Princess of Darkness. Damon desires to over Elena the gift of immortality, and be powerful with her in the shadows and darkness, away from the light and love alongside her friends, family and most of all, her beloved Stefan. Damon will go as far as to kill humans, including his very own brother Stefan (who Elena is deeply, strongly and passionately in love with), in order possess and have her by his side. Because of Damon's extreme obsession with Elena, he has threatened Stefan's life on many occasions. There have been times when Elena has almost given into Damon's influence but she has repeatedly remained stoically loyal to Stefan and her profound, unbreakable love for him. Damon has repeatedly tried to coerce and force Elena to join the dark side with him (the "winning side", as Damon calls it), live in the shadows of darkness alongside him for all eternity by turning her into an immortal, and to crown her his Princess of Darkness. However, Elena consistently displays her stoic loyalty and fierce devotion to Stefan by defying Damon's wishes. Elena has made it clear to Damon many times that she does not want to live in the darkness and that she desires to live in the light amongst her friends, family and with her beloved Stefan. This, of course, strongly angers Damon greatly and has caused Damon to become intensely jealous, envious and hateful of his younger brother. Elena dies twice throughout the series, changing from a regular, mortal human to a vampire (after she gets enough blood from both Salvatore brothers, where her killer, Katherine, thought she only got blood from one boy, the one boy being Stefan) to a spirit of the afterlife (after an unknown power brings her back). In Nightfall, Elena comes back as a perfectly normal human albeit with angelic superhuman abilities and powers intact, making her blood extremely irresistible to all vampires and also, to all supernatural creatures, entities, beings. Elena has a very strong sexual and romantic relationship (although rather up and down, tumultuous in the beginning and during the original trilogy) with Stefan, which is the basis and core of the entire series, although in the later books, she starts to develop deep feelings for Damon as well.

Name

• Elena is a feminine first name of Greek origin (Elene) or' (Elene) which means "torch". The meaning of Elena is "the bright one" or "light". It is a variation of the name Helen.'

• Gilbert is a surname of Germanic origin. The English-language surname is derived from Giselbert, a medieval personal name composed of the following Germanic elements gisil ("pledge","hostage","noble youth") and berht ("bright", "famous").

Nicknames

Elena has many and various nicknames throughout the course of the series, and most of them are nicknames coined by Stefan. Elena's nicknames include:

• 'Golden Girl' (frequently used for Elena throughout the course of the whole series)
• 'Angel' (often referring to her physical appearance)
• 'Golden Angel' (used by Stefan)
• His Elena (referenced by Stefan)
• His Angel (used and referenced by Stefan)
• 'Love' (used by Stefan),
• 'Lovely Love' (used by Stefan only)
• 'Little Lovely Love' (used by Stefan only)
• 'Ice Princess'
• 'Ice Queen'
• 'Snow Queen'
• 'Queen of Shadows' (used by Damon)
• 'Princess' (used by Damon)
• 'Princess of Darkness' (used by Damon)

Powers and Abilities

• Vampire
• Angel or Guardian

When Elena was turned into a vampire after receiving blood mostly from Stefan and also, a little from Damon, Elena possessed the standard vampire powers and abilities.

• Superhuman Senses: Elena's vision, hearing, taste, touch and smell advanced greater than the average human.
• Super Speed: Elena had the supernatural ability to jump, move and run at superhuman velocity. Elena had used this ability when she found out Stefan's life was in serious danger. She and Damon raced to his rescue.
• Telepathy: The supernatural ability can communicate mentally with other vampires without physical contact and long distances. It also allows one to probe the minds of others. Elena was able to communicate with the Salvatore brothers' non-verbally as well as Bonnie, who is also telepathic due to being a psychic. This power was substantially much stronger when she was communicating telepathically with Stefan due to her soul mate connection with him.
• Compulsion (Mind Control/Influence): Elena had the supernatural ability to control and manipulate the body, mind, and soul of any animal or person.
• Weather Control: Elena possessed the supernatural ability allows influence meteorological energy patterns, creating rain, wind, hail, lightning, snow, sleet, fog and temperature changes.
• Elemental Manipulation: Elena had the supernatural ability to control and manipulate the elements of air, earth, fire, water, lightning, etc.
• Animal Control: Elena has the supernatural ability that could handle all kinds of wild animals or domestic. Normally, they can only control a species at a time.
• Healing: Elena possessed the supernatural ability to heal all infections, wounds, and injuries at an accelerated speed.
• Immortality: Elena possessed the supernatural ability of eternal life and youth, meaning that she will never grow old or age and she is incapable of death due to human circumstances.
• Shapeshifting: Elena had the supernatural ability to alter and change the physical form of ones self.
• Super-Strength: Elena had the supernatural ability of abnormal strength beyond that of a normal human being.
• Illusion: Elena was capable of disrupting the reality of one or more things at once. The power of Illusion is limited, since it uses a short time but because the neutralization of the enemy and does not usually give orders to the victims.

As a human returned from the afterlife, Elena was given special abilities that power her aura. All supernatural beings can see it, so has Damon taught her how to control it and circulate it around her system. Her powers have made her blood irresistible to vampires and other supernatural creatures. Later on in the series, it was revealed that Elena possesses these special powers is because she is half angel/Guardian, thanks to these angelic powers Elena and by far the most powerful character of the series.

• Superhuman Senses: Elena has learned to control her senses of hearing, vision, and smell at her own will.
• Telepathy: Elena can communicate with Stefan, Damon and Bonnie non verbally, using her mental senses.
• Wings of Power: Elena has several different wings, all powers given to her from the afterlife. These are her different kinds of wings:
  1. Wings Of Protection are strong and, like the name, very useful for Elena to protect herself and whoever is there with her.
  2. Wings Of Purification are white in colouring and can remove all sins of a person and their memories
  3. Wings Of Remembrance are violet-blue in color and can return someone's memories.
  4. Wings Of Redemption are rainbow-colored and can redeem people of their sins.
  5. Wings Of The Wind which are gold in color, were used to create wind and these wings helped her to fly.
  6. Wings Of Destruction are used to destroy things which are obstacles or are possible dangers.
• Time Manipulation: Elena, like other guardians, can go back in time, causing the resurrection of the dead, memory loss, and physical restoration of the damage.
• Sacred Blood: Elena's blood is the ultimate weapon to destroy all the evil creatures of the universe. It's the only thing that can destroy the Old Ones, and prevent their resurrection.

Relationships

Stefan Salvatore Stefan Salvatore is Elena's soulmate and love interest of the series. The two have had a very complex, tumultuous and chaotic relationship throughout the course of the series. Most of this is due to the many and various personal issues in which both Stefan and Elena have faced in their lives and also, many outside obstacles that try to keep them from being together. Upon meeting, Elena (and Stefan) is magnetically, strongly and undeniably drawn to him and Elena falls in love with Stefan at first sight. At first, Stefan repeatedly avoids Elena because of her strong resemblance to his ex vampire-girlfriend Katherine, which brings up painful memories. Although Stefan repeatedly tries to avoid Elena at all costs and becomes very distant towards her. This deeply hurts Elena and makes her all and finds him on the roof with blood smeared on his lips after feeding on a bird. Frightened and shocked, she falls off the roof but Stefan catches her and she remains unharmed. Throughout the series, the two go through much chaos, pain and torture together, but their strong, powerful love for each other is what keeps them together. In The Hunters: Destiny Rising, Elena finally chooses Stefan over Damon to be her eternal life partner and mate. In order for Elena to live an eternity with her true soulmate, Stefan, Elena drinks a goblet of a special, pure water from the Fountain of Eternal Youth and Life, which gives eternal life and immortality to any human who drinks it. Damon Salvatore Elena and Damon first meet when he shows up at Elena's school gym. Elena almost succumbs to Damon's compulsion and nearly kisses Damon, but at the last minute pulls away and stays loyal to Stefan. However, the two have a deep connection and she finds herself drawn to Damon, possibly because he is dangerous and unpredictable. Damon desires Elena's heart more than anyone else's and he has made it his mission to make Elena his. Because of this, Damon has become obliged with winning over Elena from his little brother, Stefan. Damon wants Elena to join alongside him in the shadows as a vampire and be his Princess Of Darkness. In, "The Struggle," he explains to Elena that by the end of winter, she will have joined him and she will be his. Soon after Damon leaves, Elena feels snowflakes, as it is the beginning of winter. When Stefan is trapped in the Dark Dimension in "Dark Reunion," Elena gives to Damon the love she would to Stefan. He tries to kiss her but she resists. In the book "The Return Shadow Souls", Elena and Damon set off to find Stefan in the Dark Dimension, while sharing romantic moments together, and eventually kissing. Although, Elena has a strong connection with Damon, she will always love Stefan much more due to the Soulmate Principle shared between her and Stefan. In The Hunters: Destiny Rising, Elena finally chooses Stefan (her true soulmate) over Damon as her eternal life partner and mate. In order to control Damon from succumbing to the darkness, Elena, as a Guardian, shares a connection (which is a curse that can kill either Elena or Damon) with Damon in which the Principle Guardian created in order to control Damon from killing innocents and succumbing to darkness and evil. Bonnie McCullough Bonnie is a bubbly, charming, witty and kindhearted redhead who is a powerful psychic with supposed witch ancestry. Bonnie and Elena share a very close, deep and solid friendship. Bonnie is Elena's best friend and they have been best friends since the first grade. Elena's other very close friend is Meredith. Bonnie has helped Elena through a lot and she has been highly supportive of Elena throughout all of her issues, struggles and tragedies. Bonnie is the one Elena often turns to for emotional support and comfort. Aside from Damon being attracted to Elena, Damon also develops some feelings for Bonnie and he is protective of her. Damon thinks of Elena and Bonnie as "his girls", and though he cares deeply for Bonnie, he gives Elena more attention due to his strong attraction to her. Bonnie is a psychic, and has dreams of Elena in the other world at the beginning of the book, Dark Reunion, after Elena dies in The Fury. The two are extremely close, and are very best friends. Bonnie helps Elena find Stefan in "The Struggle," and they find him trapped in the bottom of a well, close to death. Meredith Sulez Meredith and Elena are very close friends, as Elena is with Bonnie. Meredith is the other best friend of Elena. Meredith has been through everything with Elena. The two share a close friendship. Elena and Meredith have been through a lot ever since Stefan became Elena's boyfriend but eventually befriends and trusts Stefan. Meredith is wary of Damon at first but gains trust and he believes her to be a very skilled person. Meredith believes that Damon is taking advantage of Elena, emotionally, and warns both Elena and Bonnie that he dangerous. Matt Honeycutt TBA Caroline Forbes TBA Katherine von Swartzschild TBA Klaus TBA Tyler Smallwood TBA

 

Biography

Elena Gilbert is the heroine and the protagonist of The Vampire Diaries book series. Her soulmate and true love is centuries old vampire, Stefan Salvatore. Stefan's elder, dangerous and malevolent vampire brother who follows him to Fells Church is Damon Salvatore. Elena was born July 6th, 1974 in Fells Church, Virginia. Elena starts off the series as being the most beautiful, popular girl at Robert E. Lee High School. Although she is very beautiful and popular, Elena initially comes off as very vain, selfish, headstrong and spoiled. Upon meeting Stefan, Elena feels an immediate, indescribable and intense connection and attraction to him that she cannot describe in words. She is deeply, passionately, and strongly in love with Stefan, but she also finds herself drawn to his malevolent and dangerous brother, Damon. Elena has endured much pain and tragedy in her young lifetime. Both of her parents died in a fatal car crash when she was younger, and she is raised by her Aunt Judith. Elena is very beautiful, and because of this, is able to have any boy she wants. All the boys in Fell's Church want her, and all the girls in Fells Church want to be like her. Elena has a younger four year old sister named Margaret. At first, Stefan avoids Elena because of her strong resemblance to his ex vampire-girlfriend Katherine and also because of the intense attraction they have for each other. Damon also becomes interested in Elena because of her physical resemblance to Katherine. Elena is very caring and willing to make the ultimate sacrifice to keep her loved ones safe. Elena appears in all the books and is the main protagonist. She is best friends with Bonnie McCollough, a bubbly, charming and perky redhead who is a strong psychic with witch ancestry, and Meredith Sulez, an insightful, intelligent and practical brunette who always gives wise advice. Elena used to be friends with Caroline Forbes, but when school starts again, Caroline becomes Elena's rival. When Stefan Salvatore enrolls at the school, Elena feels intensely drawn to him and promises to herself that she will have him, "even if it kills them both." Caroline also takes an interest in Stefan, causing the rivalry between her and Elena to heat up intensely. Caroline says to Elena that she might be losing her popularity, and status as "Queen Of The School." Caroline gets a date with Stefan at the homecoming dance, and Elena tries to get Stefan to dance with her before Caroline foils her plans, coming back and saying that Elena looks "so pretty", and asks Elena if she minds that Caroline will be dancing with Stefan. However, in the end, Elena is the one who receives Stefan's affections and the two eventually (but quickly) fall deeply, intensely and strongly in love with each other. Although Stefan and Elena always find absolute happiness, contentedness and bliss with each other, Elena's relationship with Stefan has been rather tumultuous and chaotic throughout the course of the series. Most of this is due to Stefan's tortured, dark and mysterious past and him keeping his centuries old dark secret of being a vampire from Elena. Aside from both of Stefan and Elena's personal issues and struggles, many different and various obstacles often try to keep Stefan and Elena from being together, one of those obstacles being Stefan's elder dangerous brother, Damon. Elena has a highly complicated relationship with Damon. Damon has repeatedly tried to make advances at Elena, but she repeatedly rejects Damon's wishes and advances and has remained stoically loyal to her strong and deep love for Stefan. This strongly angers Damon and he often reacts in jealousy and rage as a result.

Early History

Elena Gilbert was born and raised in Fell's Church, Virginia, United States. She had been childhood friends with Caroline Forbes, Meredith Sulez and Bonnie McCullough since the first grade. When she around 14 years old, both of her parents died in a tragic car accident and she and her little sister Margaret, were given custody to Judith Gilbert, her paternal aunt who became Elena and Margaret's legal guardian.

Books

Novels

The Awakening File:Tvd02 greece 2010.png Elena returned to Fell's Church from France with her Aunt Judith and Margaret, her little sister. On the first day of school, she found herself being watched by a crow sitting in a tree. It spooked her and creeped her out so she threw a rock at it and it flew away. At school, she was greeted by Meredith Sulez, Bonnie McCullough, Caroline Forbes and a group of others just as a Porsche drove into the compound. The driver was a handsome youth who immediately caught the eye of every girl in sight, including Elena, who had a boyfriend already, Matt Honeycutt. Elena Gilbert starts her senior year of school at Robert E. Lee High with her friends, Meredith Sulez, Bonnie McCullough, Caroline Forbes, and Matt Honeycutt. Caroline promptly becomes competition with Elena for the position of most popular girl. A drop dead gorgeous and handsome new Italian boy named Stefan Salvatore (who is secretly a centuries old immortal who also looks like a 17 year old), also enrolls. Elena feels an intense, indescribable, passionate and immediate connection with Stefan the very moment she sees him. All the girls (including Meredith, Bonnie and Caroline) within the entire school want to attract his attention and desire for him to be their suitor, but Stefan brushes them all off, including Elena. This deeply shocks and hurts Elena, who has never been brushed off by a boy before. At first, Stefan is seen to be guarded, quiet and shy, however, he eventually opens up and lets his guard down. Stefan begins to develop a friendship with Matt Honeycutt and he joins the high school football team alongside Matt (who plays the position of quarterback) and Tyler Smallwood (who is a tackler), playing the position of wide receiver on the team. Because of Stefan's excellent and highly impressive football skills, Stefan becomes popular with the guys on his football team and gains much admiration and respect from his teammates, including Matt. Meanwhile, several mysterious and frightening events occur in Fell's Church. A large crow exhibits un-birdlike behavior. Elena and her friends feel a threatening force that causes them to flee from the town's old cemetery, and Elena loses her hair ribbon in the flight. A homeless man is attacked and partially drained of blood. Stefan experiences fugue states and fears that he has been attacking people during them, even though he has no memory of doing so when he awakes. Elena devises various schemes to gain the attention of Stefan, but Stefan avoids her for his own personal reasons. Stefan does this because he is highly overwhelmed by the immediate, intense connection he has with Elena He also avoids her because Elena reminds him of his past love Katherine, who had "died" centuries ago. Aside from those reasons, Stefan also avoids Elena at first because he is highly tempted to drink her blood. Elena finally corners Stefan at the Homecoming Dance. She believes he will be unable to refuse her invitation to dance with her, the Homecoming Queen. However, Stefan's date for the evening is Caroline, who foils Elena's plan. To show she is not deeply hurt by the situation with Stefan and Caroline, Elena leaves the dance with two arrogant jocks, Tyler Smallwood and his friend Dick Carter, two boys who are on the football team and who are amongst the very few on the football team to be hostile towards Stefan in the past out of envy. Another girl, Vickie Bennett, goes with them. The four go to the cemetery to deface the funerary statues of Honoria Fell and Thomas Fell. Elena perceives one statue moving and revealing an empty space beneath, but no one else shares her vision. A drunken Tyler sexually harasses and assaults Elena. Stefan appears and rescues Elena by beating up Tyler. Stefan takes her to his room at the boarding house so that she can clean up before he drives her home. Elena confronts Stefan to ask why he has been avoiding her. His responses are evasive, but they lock hands and then kiss, at which point Elena is certain that she has found her romantic destiny. When Stefan drives Elena home, she learns that Vickie has been found wandering on the road, scratched and raving about having been attacked by some supernatural force. To Elena's confusion, Stefan then seems to draw away from her emotionally. File:Tvd07 czech 2012.png Bonnie McCollough & Elena Gilbert The next day, Stefan tries to distance himself from Elena out of hesitance and fear, but she refuses to let him do so under any circumstances. Without his knowing, she opens a small casket on Stefan's dresser and finds the hair ribbon she lost when fleeing from the cemetery the first week of school. This convinces her that he has secretly loved her since the very beginning. She writes about the hair ribbon and the romance in her diary, also noting that Stefan still seems to be hiding something from her. Elena, Bonnie, and Meredith plan the school's Haunted House for Halloween. The lights go off and a seductive college-aged boy enters. He nearly persuades (and Influences) Elena to kiss him despite her deep and strong love for Stefan. When she refuses, he says he may finally have found the girl he has been looking for. Then he disappears. Elena brings her diary to a slumber party with Meredith and Bonnie. They hold a dumb supper at which Elena invites her future husband to enter Bonnie's house. She does not see Stefan, but the seductive college-aged boy appears. He quotes love poetry and tries to kiss Elena. Elena's head swims and she nearly succumbs, but she manages to resist. The boy reacts with anger but leaves when Elena asks him to do so. Elena then learns that Bonnie's dog has unexpectedly died during the dumb supper and that her diary has been stolen. Over the next few weeks, Elena becomes more concerned at how Stefan seems to be drawing subtly away from her and keeping secrets. For example, he is wearing an objection a chain around his neck, hidden underneath his clothing, and he refuses to talk about it. He appears haunted and sad. Elena is determined to bring them back together as one and persuade Stefan to trust her completely. Because Stefan confronted their European History teacher, Mr. Tanner, on the first day of school and corrected him about how teenagers behaved during the Renaissance, Elena plans to wear a Renaissance ball gown as her Halloween costume. She believes this will overcome Stefan's resistance to her. Much to her distress, however, Stefan's reaction to seeing her in the dress is shock. During the Haunted House, Mr. Tanner's given the role of Bloody Corpse. This requires him to be covered with fake blood with a knife lying nearby; he is supposed to sit up unexpectedly to frighten visitors. When Bonnie leads visitors to see the Bloody Corpse, however, she finds that Mr. Tanner is actually dead and covered with blood. A panic results. Tyler tells everyone that the murderer is probably Stefan Salvatore because the strange violence in Fell's Church began at the time that Stefan arrived in town. This spurious logic turns the crowd into a mob. Elena passes a warning to Stefan through Matt, and Stefan flees back to the boarding house to prepare to leave Fell’s Church. Elena follows him and finds Stefan on the roof of the boarding house with blood smeared on his lips, his fangs extended, and dead birds at his feet. In her shock, she falls off the roof, but Stefan leaps after her and catches her in mid-descent. Elena is unhurt. Elena demands explanations at last. Stefan tells her he became a vampire when he and Damon both pressed Katherine to marry them. Katherine told them that she would make her choice between them, and that night she came to Stefan's bed and turned him into a vampire. Stefan believed he had been chosen. The next day, however, she told Stefan and Damon that she had gone to both their beds and turned them both into vampires. She gave each a ring and told them she expected they would all live happily ever after as a threesome. Stefan and Damon rejected Katherine's plan and demanded that she chooses between them. Katherine fled in tears. The next day, they found her empty dress in the garden and ashes in the dress. A note nearby told them that she had taken off her lapis lazuli ring to commit suicide and thereby bring the brothers back together. Distraught and blaming each other, Stefan and Damon then dueled with swords. Damon stabbed Stefan through the heart. When Stefan fell and Damon bent over him, Stefan stabbed Damon fatally. Both brothers were thereby locked permanently into their vampire state. Stefan was buried with Katherine's ring and besides Damon. When both woke, they separated in fear and confusion. Stefan lived on animal blood in the streets of Florence until Damon, who had become a powerful mercenary soldier, returned and threatened to kill him unless he left. They saw each other intermittently since that time, with Damon invariably threatening to kill Stefan. Stefan also explains to Elena that vampire have Powers that include the ability to influence and read minds, the ability to turn into animals, and the ability to influence the weather. File:Tvd05 czech 2010.png Damon drinks tons of human blood and so, is much more powerful than Stefan, who tries to lead a moral existence by drinking a strict animal blood diet. Lapis lazuli protects vampires from sunlight. The mysterious object Stefan wears on a silver chain around his neck is revealed to be Katherine's ring. Elena assures a guilt-ridden Stefan that he is not at all responsible for Katherine's death or Damon's death and transformation. She also convinces Stefan that he is not responsible for the violence and unexplained killings in Fell's Church as he had feared. She now is able to identify Damon as the seductive college-aged boy who nearly persuaded her to kiss him. Since Damon is in Fell's Church and has an evil agenda, Elena concludes Damon must be responsible for the violence. He has not shown himself because he has been trying to make Stefan blame himself and feel guilty for things he did not do. Stefan finds Elena's argument rather convincing. Over Stefan's objections, Elena then persuades Stefan to drink her blood to erase the last boundary between them. After returning Elena to her home, Stefan goes to the woods and uses his Power to call Damon, who appears. Damon admits to killing Mr. Tanner without any regret, remorse or guilt and tells Stefan that he must abandon Elena to Damon, who wants her for himself. Stefan refuses. Damon attacks Stefan viciously and drinks his blood against his will, a process that is extremely painful. When Damon releases Stefan, Stefan attempts to stagger back to his car but is attacked again from behind, after which he falls unconscious. The next day, Elena discovers that Stefan has disappeared and is nowhere to be found. Extremely furious and certain of who should be blamed, she goes to the cemetery and shouts Damon's name to summon him. Here, the book ends. The Struggle File:Tvd01 germany 2009.png The Struggle begins with Elena standing in the cemetery shouting for Damon to answer her. When he appears, she accuses him of being responsible for the disappearance of his brother, Stefan. Damon urges her to forget Stefan and uses his strong Powers to try to persuade her to become his. When he fails, he promises Elena that she will be his before winter and leaves. As a parting shot, he tells her that he killed Stefan the night before. Unconvinced that Stefan is dead and strongly determined, Elena sets out to find Stefan no matter what. She nearly freezes in the snowstorm that Damon has called up with his Powers, but she is rescued by both Bonnie and Meredith. Bonnie uses her strong psychic powers to determine that Stefan is still alive but is located in a place that is always dark and wet. Having guessed that this location is a well on the abandoned Old Francher place, Matt and the girls set out to rescue Stefan. They succeed, but Stefan is near death from his ordeal. While the other three set out to find medical help, the medical help being Bonnie's older sister, Mary, Elena insists that Stefan drink her blood to help strengthen him and restore him. Stefan at first refuses, but then eventually gives in and drinks Elena's blood. Elena's blood loss causes her to become unusually tired, but she recovers soon. Stefan cannot remember who attacked him, but Elena is sure it was Damon. When Elena returns to school, the replacement European History teacher is Alaric Saltzman, whose first act is to encourage all the students to talk about their recent terrifying experiences to get their feelings out. Stefan is suspicious of this un-teacherly behavior. Alaric invites all the students to a get-together at his house in the evening. Elena and Stefan show up, but when Elena leaves Stefan to find food, she runs into Damon, who is there in the guise of “Damon Smith,” a college student on vacation who is a friend of Sue Carson, one of Elena's fellow students. Stefan and Damon have a confrontation that Elena interrupts when she fears that Damon's goal is simply to make Stefan seem irrationally violent (and therefore Mr. Tanner's murderer). In leaving the house, however, Elena finds a slip of violet paper in her purse with a line from her stolen diary. Elena warns Bonnie and Meredith that “Damon Smith” is the murderer, although she will not tell them why she believes this. Meanwhile, Vickie Bennett has returned to school, but she behaves irrationally by undressing in the cafeteria and then accusing Elena of being evil. Stefan and Matt have disappeared to hunt for vervain, a plant that interferes with a vampire's ability to control or influence others' mind against their will. Elena spends a night at Bonnie's house where she dreams pleasurably about dancing with Damon. She wakes abruptly to find a crow in the room and vampire marks on her neck, and she realizes that she invited Damon into Bonnie's house during the dumb supper. Elena realizes that Damon had bit her and taken her blood against her wills while she had been sleeping. When she returns home, Stefan is there with the vervain that will protect her—afew hours too late. She does not tell Stefan about her experience with Damon because she wants to avoid a confrontation among Stefan and Damon that she is sure Stefan, with his weaker powers, will lose. Elena and the other girls set out to find the diary thief. Despite Elena's initial inclination to blame Damon, they identify Caroline Forbes as the culprit. Elena follows Caroline at lunch into a deserted schoolroom where she overhears Caroline and Tyler discuss how to use the diary against Stefan and Elena. Their plan is to wait until Elena is chosen to play “The Spirit of Fell's Church” during the annual Founder's Day ceremony. Caroline will also be chosen to play a role. At that time, she will walk on stage and read Elena's diary aloud to the crowd. Caroline and Tyler believe that Elena's statement in her diary that Stefan took her ribbon from the cemetery on the day the homeless man was attacked will suffice to prove to the police that Stefan is the murderer. Elena, Meredith, and Bonnie decide to burgle Caroline's house to retrieve the diary before she can use it on Founder's Day. When Caroline and her family return home, they are forced to flee without having found anything more than Caroline's diary. Elena, however, is unable to reach the door in time and ends up on a second-floor balcony. Damon, who has been lurking on the roof, pulls her up to avoid detection. Once again, he suggests to Elena that she would be better off with him than with Stefan. Once again, she rejects him. This time, the vervain defeats Damon's attempt to influence her with his Powers. Damon tells Elena that if she would give him some of her blood, he would get the diary back. Elena jumps off the roof to show Damon that she would rather be dead than endure his presence. Damon rescues her before she falls to her death. He then jumps with her to the ground. After telling her that he has done a favor and will collect the next time he sees her, he shifts to crow form and flies away. Elena's Aunt Judith prepares a mock Thanksgiving dinner a week before the real Thanksgiving to ensure nothing goes wrong. Elena invites Matt and Bonnie as her guests. Aunt Judith's fiancé, Robert Maxwell, also appears and brings “Damon Smith” as his guest. When Elena's little sister Margaret Gilbert appears with her new white kitten, Elena seizes the kitten and sticks it into Damon's face, knowing that animals often sense a vampire's nature and become hostile. The kitten hisses and spits before fleeing the room, leaving everyone to wonder why Elena is thrusting cats into guests' face. After dinner, Damon leaves, but Elena knows that he has the now gained an invitation to her house and can return whenever he pleases. She is about to ask Stefan for help despite her fear that he will confront Damon and lose the fight when she realizes that her house was actually built in two parts: a first part before the Civil War and a second part afterwards. Although Damon was invited into one part, her bedroom is in the other. Damon shows up as Elena expected, but when he is unable to enter her room, he threatens to enter Margaret's room instead. Elena leaves her room to protect her little sister. Elena wakes up the next morning in her bedroom. She is surprised that Damon has not turned her into a vampire, but she is weak and dizzy from blood loss. When she sees Stefan later, she confesses to him that Caroline plans to use her diary against Stefan. Stefan, who's been wondering why Elena has been so worried, is relieved that she is not rejecting him because of his vampire nature. He refuses to leave town and says that he and Elena will face the situation together. He then drinks her blood again. Afterwards, he proposes to Elena and offers her Katherine's ring. She accepts but says that the engagement must be kept secret because she is still 17 and Aunt Judith thinks that Stefan has been a bad influence on Elena. Elena has now lost quite a bit of blood and, on several occasions, drunk the blood of Stefan (or Damon) in exchange. As a result, she is somewhat dazed during the Founder's Day ceremony. The latest plan is that Elena's friends will steal the diary back from Caroline because she will not be able to carry it in her nineteenth-century costume, but Caroline foils them by obtaining her reticule early and bringing the diary with her. When Caroline pulls out the diary to read on stage, though, she finds she brought her own diary and not Elena's. Elena spots Damon in the audience and realizes that he has saved her and Stefan by substituting the diaries. She goes to ask him his motive and refuses to believe him when he says “for my own purposes.” Aunt Judith arrives and encourages Elena and Damon to spend more time together. Believing that Damon is influencing Aunt Judith, Elena becomes angry. She tells Damon she is marrying Stefan and shows him Katherine's ring on her finger, at which point Damon becomes angry and leaves. Assumed to be under Damon's influence, Aunt Judith forbids Elena to marry Stefan, and Elena takes Matt's car to the boarding house to find Stefan. She returns when she cannot find him, but she feels the presence of evil in the brewing storm, and she spots a large white owl chasing her. She screams at Damon to leave her alone, but she drives off Wickery Bridge while speeding to safety. She then drowns. Meanwhile, Stefan is confronting Tyler, Caroline, and several of Tyler's bulky friends in a Quonset hut. When Bonnie and Meredith find him, Bonnie abruptly has a psychic realization that Elena is drowning at Wickery Bridge. She, Meredith, and Stefan race to save her but are much too late. Stefan sends Bonnie and Meredith to go to find the police. Devastated and deeply anguished by Elena's unexpectedly death, Stefan sets out to commit suicide to end his extreme grief and suffering. First, Stefan returns to the Quonset Hut and drains all the boys to the point of unconsciousness (although he doesn't kill any of them). Stefan then uses his new Powers, due to drinking an excessive amount of human blood, to turn into a falcon and find Damon. Stating that Damon made a mistake in not killing him and Elena together, Stefan attacks. The fight is interrupted, however, when Elena wakes up in a state of great confusion and arrives to save the brother she is now sure she loves: Damon. The Fury When Elena Gilbert wakes up and enters the clearing where her new fiancé, Stefan, is fighting to kill his brother Damon because he believes Damon killed Elena, Stefan is at first unbelieving. He then realizes that Elena is not miraculously alive but has instead been transformed into a vampire because Stefan fed Elena his blood to strengthen her after him drinking from her. For her part, Elena is extremely confused because of her transformation and therefore, suffers from a loss of memory and amnesia. Elena does not recognize Stefan at first and believes that she is in love with Damon instead. She viciously attacks Stefan because he has been fighting with Damon, and Stefan prepares to let Elena kill him, believing that the Elena whom he deeply loved is gone forever. Instead, Damon pulls Elena off Stefan and questions her until clearly Elena has lost large portions of her memory and is therefore, not rational. Damon then suggests to Stefan that they wait until Elena recovers before they take her attitude about Damon seriously. Damon also says that Elena's confusion is due to the fact she did not have quite enough vampire blood to make the transition successfully, and she needs to drink human blood soon or she will die. The three return to the school, where Stefan lays out the situation to his friend, Matt. Matt is shocked by the news that his best friend and ex-girlfriend are all vampires, but he volunteers his blood to Elena. After Elena drinks from Matt, Damon takes her to the attic of Alaric to sleep and complete the transition. He leaves her diary, which he had retrieved from the house of Caroline Forbes, with her. Meanwhile, Stefan and Matt go to the Quonset Hut, where Stefan influences his victims to forget about him. Matt is shocked at the sight of the violence that his best friend has wrought and extremely shocked, disappointed and disillusioned when Stefan refuses to apologize for it. Elena wakes up a few days later. She overhears Alaric talking below to the high school principle about vampire hunting. Returning to the attic, she reads her diary and recovers her memories. When she is able, she makes her way to the church, where most Fell's Church's inhabitants are holding her funeral even though her body has disappeared. Elena watches unseen from the church loft as Meredith makes a speech about how she and Elena used to do homework together. Elena realizes that the speech is a message to her from Meredith because the facts Meredith are describing never happened. Elena concludes Meredith knows that she is not dead. Stefan and Damon show up at the loft. When the funeral concludes, many pets in Fell's Church suddenly turn up in the parking lot and attack the mourners as they are leaving. Stefan goes to help. Elena urges Damon to join them, although he is very reluctant to do so. Damon agrees at last to help as well, but at that point, the animal attack is ending. When Stefan returns, Elena asks Damon and Stefan to work with her to help protect Fell's Church from the mysterious Other Power who killed her and caused the animal attack. She no longer believes that Damon was responsible. Damon agrees. Stefan is more reluctant at first but eventually agrees it's not Damon either as well. Elena goes to Meredith's house. Meredith is startled to see Elena because she only half-believed that Elena was alive. Bonnie arrives and is delighted to see Elena. Elena enlists them into her plan to hunt down the Other Power and save Fell's Church. Bonnie performs a magic ritual that says they can win their fight if they all stick together and are prepared to make sacrifices. Stefan watches Alaric suspiciously at school and resents that he is there while Elena is staying in the barn of his landlady, Mrs. Flowers, and possibly seeing Damon. He attempts to speak to Matt, but Matt has persuaded himself that Elena is dead and there are no vampires. Matt shoves Stefan away and leaves. Elena visits her home and sees the white kitten about to attack her little sister Margaret Gilbert in her sleep. Elena wakes Margaret up, and the kitten runs away. Elena promises to watch over Margaret from afar. Alaric holds another student meeting at his house. Bonnie and Meredith attend, while Damon and Elena are in the attic listening. When Meredith leads Alaric upstairs, Alaric brings a gun for protection and points it at Damon. Damon takes away the gun, which has wooden bullets. Alaric notices Stefan's absence and warns Damon and Elena that some of the parents of the teenagers that Stefan had attacked in the Quonset hut intended to lynch Stefan because Alaric had hypnotized Caroline, who had identified Stefan Salvatore as their attacker. Elena and Damon go to Stefan's rescue. Damon can travel faster as a crow and arrives just in time to shift into wolf form and protect Stefan from being staked. He is not able to evade being shot in turn, but Elena arrives and knocks the gun away before it can actually be fired. Alaric, Bonnie, and Meredith then arrive. Alaric tells the armed men that Caroline's hypnosis sessions are not finished and she is confused, and Meredith asks Caroline if the attacker might have been Damon. Caroline is unsure, and the mob breaks up muttering. Alaric explains to Stefan, Damon, Elena, and Bonnie that he is a graduate student specializing in parapsychology. In the past, he met Meredith's grandfather, who is a vampire victim who went insane and is now in a mental institution. He agrees to help with Elena's project to save Fell's Church. The high school is about to hold a dance, and Stefan and Elena believe that the Other Power will attack then. When Stefan and Damon leave, Elena reminds Damon about his victim, Vickie Bennett. Damon says he doesn't know her. When Elena implies he is lying, Damon storms off. Stefan then tells Elena that Matt is unwilling to talk to him but he might be willing to talk to her. Elena goes to visit Matt and finds him in bed. When she wakes him up and he realizes she really has not died, he offers her his blood. Elena accepts it, believing that this is Stefan's gift to her. Matt also agrees to join in the battle to save Fell's Church. When the dance begins, no attack happens. Bonnie performs a ritual to find when and where the attack will take place. Accompanied with the others, she walks in a trance to the ruined church in the old cemetery, where she points at the funerary statues of Honoria Fell and Thomas Fell. Elena remembers her previous vision that the statues move, and Stefan and Damon lift the tomb lid to find an opening to a crypt. Everyone descends into the crypt, where the ghost of Honoria Fell appears. Honoria Fell explains that she was a witch when she lived and that she has been the guardian spirit of Fell's Church since her death. She tells Bonnie that she can take away Bonnie's psychic powers, but Bonnie bravely decides to keep them. Honoria Fell warns everyone that she has done all she can to help them and that the coming battle is theirs, and then she fades away to her final rest. At this point, a white tiger walks through a hole in the crypt wall and attacks. Elena at first believes the white tiger is Damon, but then a wolf appears to attack the tiger and she realizes that Damon is not the tiger but the wolf. Stefan helps in the fight by shining a flashlight in the tiger's eye. The humans escape while the tiger defeats the wolf and then knocks Stefan and Elena unconscious. Elena wakes up to find herself tied to the bars of a grate next to Stefan and Damon. She sees a woman looking like her and identifies the woman as Katherine von Swartzschild. Katherine explains that she faked her own death to make Stefan and Damon feel guilt and remorse for what had happened many centuries ago. She was angry when they did not respond as she had expected, and she went back to Klaus, the vampire who had changed her. Eventually she decided to get revenge on Stefan and Damon, and she had influenced them to come to Fell's Church so that they could see Elena and feel extremely guilty. She had not expected them to fall in love with Elena. Elena realizes that Katherine is insane. Katherine admits to killing Bonnie's dog, attacking Vickie and the homeless man, killing Elena, and doing almost all the things for which Stefan and Elena blamed Damon. Katherine also took the shape of a white kitten to invade Elena's home. In his attempts to persuade Katherine to let at least Elena and Damon go to spare their lives, Stefan says he feels extremely guilty for having killed his brother and damning him. Damon listens intently. When Katherine offers to kill Stefan and Elena and let Damon go, Damon rejects her. Katherine physically attacks him and knocks the others unconscious again. Elena and Stefan wake again at dawn. Damon remains unconscious. Katherine explains that she has taken all their lapis lazuli rings away and that she plans to burn them alive in the sunlight. Elena wrenches free and leaps for Katherine, tearing her lapis lazuli necklace away, but the two fall together in the patch of growing sunlight. Katherine, as an old vampire, bursts into flame and then falls into ash. Elena, being a newly turned vampire, simply dies. Stefan is able to pull her from the sunlight long enough for Elena to say farewell to both Stefan and Damon, who regains consciousness. Before her death, Elena requires Stefan and Damon to promise to look after each other. With Katherine's death, the animals stop attacking. In a postscript, Bonnie starts to keep her own diary. She states that Damon disappeared shortly after Elena's (second) funeral, and she and the others drove Stefan to the airport. Meredith and Alaric are talking about getting married. Matt punched Tyler when he said something improper about Elena. Bonnie sums up Elena's character, and wraps up the trilogy, by saying Elena was not perfect but in the end was unselfish enough to die to save the entire town of Fell's Church. Dark Reunion Six months after Elena's death, Bonnie had a dream about herself and Elena having a tea party: "Bonnie commented on Elena's fancy hairstyle and Elena replied that hair was important, and that blood is important too. Elena offered Bonnie some tea and took a bit of her sandwich, but her teeth became covered in mud, with mud oozing out of the sandwich and falling on the tablecloth. Bonnie was horrified at first as Elena's voice and appearance started to change. She attempted to get away as the surroundings changed, but Elena called to her, pleading that Bonnie had to use a spell to contact someone and that Elena already told her the ingredients. Elena tries to tell Bonnie that someone is trying to control and change the dream, but she wasn't as strong as him. Bonnie tries to call to Elena as she drifts away, but wakes up". At Meredith's birthday, Bonnie tells Caroline Forbes, Meredith Sulez, Sue Carson and Vickie Bennett about her dream and they decide to try and contact Elena with an Ouija Board. Elena warned the groups that danger was in the house and that they had to leave. They hastened to do so, but in the midst of the chaos, Sue was killed. Elena orders that Bonnie and her friends get Stefan to come back to Fells Church immediately. Stefan returns promptly to Fell's Church, accompanied by Damon. They join with Matt, Bonnie, and Meredith at the barn owned by Mrs. Flowers. When Bonnie asks why Damon came, Damon responds that they mixed up some of his hair with Stefan's and so he, too, was summoned by Bonnie's spell. Bonnie and Meredith tell Stefan and Damon what happened and ask for help. Stefan agrees but asks Bonnie to contact Elena for him and let him psychically ride along so that he can see Elena one last time. Bonnie refuses, saying that the new evil is too powerful and dangerous. Instead of going home, Bonnie visits Stefan's room. She is afraid of his mood swings and his deep grief and depression, and hopes that if she offers to let him see Elena, he'll settle down. When she finds Elena in a vision, though, Stefan and Elena have only a few minutes together before the Old One shows up and begins to control Bonnie's mind. The Old One identifies himself as Klaus, the vampire who turned Katherine. He destroys Elena's appearance to hurt both her and Stefan, but Stefan refuses to turn away from his beloved and uses his own Powers to restore her appearance. Before Klaus destroys Bonnie's dream-vision, Elena tells Stefan that one of Klaus' victims will know how to defeat him. A confrontation occurs in the woods, with Klaus and Tyler fighting Stefan, Bonnie, Meredith, and Matt. Caroline is rescued. Bonnie knocks Tyler unconscious, but only after Tyler rakes Meredith's leg to the bone and gives Matt a concussion. Klaus stabs Stefan multiple times to kill him slowly. Damon shows up and throws his own spear at Klaus, distracting him. Damon and Bonnie try to help Stefan, who is too badly wounded to save. Stefan asks Damon to promise to save the others, and Damon agrees when he can find no way to save Stefan's life. The promise is made moot when Klaus reappears and hits Damon with lightning, knocking him unconscious. Klaus is about to kill Bonnie, who is vainly trying to shelter Stefan with her body, when Bonnie suddenly calls upon Elena. Elena's ghost appears, along with the ghosts of the Civil War soldiers. The soldiers seize Klaus and carry him away. Tyler flees. Elena offers to heal Stefan, who decides he wants to live in order to go on trying to do good in the world. Elena's ghost then kisses all the wounded to heal them. Then midnight arrives, and with it Elena's time as a guardian spirit is up. She is being drawn away to her final reward when Stefan screams her name in agony at their separation. Elena is suddenly restored to human life and deposited naked on the ground. The girls rush to offer her their clothes. Elena and Stefan embrace, and the others embrace Elena as well. The only exception is Damon, who stands apart and says he is not like the others. Matt says that Damon is not that different, that he came voluntarily to Fell's Church to help them, and Damon only killed Mr. Tanner in self-defense. Damon also admits that he didn't rescue Vickie from Klaus because he had not been able to enter Vickie's house without an invitation. Although Damon has now been exculpated from every major sin attributed to him, he continues to refuse to join the others. After giving Elena his leather jacket, he walks away into the woods. The Return: Nightfall The Return: Shadow Souls Elena was in her Jaguar, pouring out her feelings and emotions on the recorder in her phone, due to her forgetting her diary in the car truck. Suddenly, there was a loud thud on the roof of the car and Elena exited to find Matt there, squirming to get off. He had been thrown there by Damon, who had been offended by him and they got into an argument Elena had to break up. The Return: Midnight Elena returns to be human once again thanks to the Celestial Court, but she, along with Stefan, Bonnie, Meredith and others, suffer the death of Damon. The Hunters: Phantom The Hunters: Moonsong The Hunters: Destiny Rising The Salvation: Unseen The Salvation: Unspoken Damon and Elena go to Paris but Elena begins to choke. Myea the guardian, goes to them stating that because Damon killed a human(she states Jack was a human even if he used science to make himself vampire), the bond between him and Elena is broken and that she will die. Myea leaves and Damon vows to save Elena no matter what it takes. The Salvation: Unmasked

Template:The Vampire Diaries

In the television series, Elena is portrayed by Nina Dobrev. Elena Gilbert is a 18 year old high school girl who lives in Mystic Falls, Virginia with her aunt, Jenna Sommers and her younger adoptive brother Template:Jeremy. She is significantly different than her book counterpart. Several differences are parts of her personality, and her physical appearance. In the novels, Elena has fair skin, blonde hair and eyes the color of Lapis Lazuli. On the TV series, however, Elena has olive skin, long, straight chocolate brown hair and deep brown eyes. In the novels, Elena's personality is slightly shallow and selfish but still a good person but on the TV series, Elena is more kind-hearted, warm and compassionate towards others.

On the TV series, Elena is quiet, withdrawn and melancholy. It is revealed that the reason for this is the death of her parents, a few months beforehand. Her friends reveal that before her parents' death, she was active, popular and cheerful, and that her recent change in behavior is due to her loss. As the show progresses, she begins to regain some of her 'pep'; meeting Stefan was the main reason for this. Elena has been shown to be very protective of her family, very astute, with high moral standards. She displays deep affection for her friends, and often takes it upon herself to worry about people who don't expect or welcome her concern. Elena is also very stubborn and feisty. She's very direct and prefers to confront people head-on as opposed to keeping her anger bottled up. She displays trust in Stefan, Damon and others, despite their past actions and recent transgressions.

Elena is adopted and both of her adoptive parents, Grayson and Miranda Gilbert, died in a tragic car accident (something shared with the novels). Elena finds out that her biological mother is Isobel Saltzman, a 16 year old teenager who gave birth to her, abandoned her and chose to be transformed into a vampire and that her biological father is actually her paternal uncle, John Gilbert, who is Grayson's younger brother. Elena also finds out about her distant lineage and discovers that she is related to and a descendant of Katherine Pierce, the vampire whom both Salvatore brothers fell in love with back in 1864. She is the doppelgänger of Katherine, hence why they both bear such a striking resemblance to one another.

Trivia

• Elena's first name means "light" or "bright one".
• Elena's grandmother kept a jar of crystallized violets.
• Favourite hobby is writing in her diary.
• Wears violet perfume.
• Doesn't eat very much.
• Loves coffee and prefers drinking coffee over eating.
• Quit the debate team some time before her Senior year in high school.
• Prefers baths over showers.
• Doesn't own her own car.
• Transformed into a vampire by both Stefan and Damon Salvatore. Elena received blood from Stefan during their intimate blood sharing moments and received blood from Damon when he fed from her during her sleep (and used dream manipulation to make Elena dream about him) and fed her his blood afterwards.
• Although Elena has a connection with Damon, Elena's destined soulmate is Stefan. 
• Elena is connected and linked to Stefan by a silver cord. This is known as the Soulmate Principle.
• Elena is handspan taller than Katherine, according to Stefan.
• As a Guardian, Elena shares the same physical traits as other Guardians, which is light blonde hair and deep blue eyes.
• Elena's eyes have flecks of gold in them.