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This article is about Tyler Smallwood from the novels. You may be looking for Tyler Lockwood from the TV series.

Tyler Smallwood is an antagonistic male character of The Vampire Diaries novel series. He is an eighteen-year-old who was born and raised in the supernatural town of Fell's Church, Virginia. He is a werewolf resident within the town. Tyler is the son of Mr. and Mrs. Smallwood, as well as the cousin of Caleb Smallwood. Tyler's best friend is Dick Carter, who plays on the high school football team with him. Klaus helped him trigger his werewolf gene by assisting him in killing Sue Carson and feeding him her blood. He later had sex with, or possibly raped, Caroline Forbes, his ex-girlfriend, which made her pregnant with a child. Though he was presumably unaware of this, he fled the town after Klaus' death. Tyler is currently in a relationship with Caroline and he is raising their twin children, Lucas and Brianna together.

Appearance[]

Physical appearance wise, Tyler is said to be handsome and attractive. He is the stereotypical jock type who is highly athletic, cocky, somewhat overpowering and intimidating in appearance. Tyler has good bone structure although he has been frequently described to be rather "fleshy" in appearance. He has dark brown eyes and black hair. Tyler is described to be very tall (Tyler is approx. 6'5" to 6'7") and he is rather husky in appearance. He is significantly taller than Stefan, who is of average height and he is also twice as broad as Stefan; this is observed by Elena. Meredith, Bonnie, and Elena all agree that he has large teeth, probably due to the fact that he is a werewolf.

Werewolf Appearance[]

"His voice was thick with saliva, and his red tongue lolled among the rows of long canine teeth. His face wasn't a face anymore. It jutted out grotesquely into a muzzle, and his eyes were yellow, with slit-like pupils. His reddish sandy hair had grown over his cheeks and down the back of his neck. A pelt. His breath was so hot, and it smelled feral, like an animal. The nails he was digging into her wrist were stumpy blackened claws. Although he still stood of two feet, his body was humped and strangely distorted."

Tyler in his werewolf form is entirely different his human form. As a werewolf, Tyler takes on the appearance of a classical werewolf. Later on in the book once Bonnie, Stefan, Meredith, and Matt were fighting Klaus and Tyler, Tyler was described by Bonnie as looking even more like an animal than he did in the graveyard.

Personality[]

Tyler is cocky, hot-headed, jealous, competitive, brash, impulsive, reckless, spoiled, self-assured, and a bully. He is a student and a star athlete at his high school, playing on the high school football team, along with Matt Honeycutt, who plays the position of quarterback and Stefan Salvatore, who plays the position of wide receiver. Tyler sees himself in the role of alpha male, and seems to have no qualms about forcing himself on women (including Elena, whom he tried to rape in the first book). He is known for his arrogance, chauvinism, entitled attitude and his aggressiveness towards a number of other characters within the series, particularly any man from whom he may meet competition (such as Stefan, for example). His best friend was Dick Carter, who also played on the high school football team.

Name[]

  • Tyler is both a masculine and feminine name of English origin. The meaning of the name is "tile maker".
  • Other spellings and variations of the name Tyler include Tylar, Tilar, Tilor, Tyelar, Tylarr, Tylour, Tiler, Tyel, Tyeler, Tyelor, Tyhler, Tyle, Tylee, Tylere, Tyller, Tylyr, Ty, Tye, Tie, and Ti.[1]
  • Smallwood is a name whose history is connected to the ancient Anglo-Saxon tribes of Britain. It is derived from the Smallwood family once lived in the township of Smallwood in the parish of Astbury in the county of Cheshire.[2]

Powers and Abilities[]

  • Heightened Senses - They have heightened, animalistic senses which allow them to hear, see, and smell better than humans.
  • Shapeshifting - Werewolves are able to shapeshift from their human forms to a half-human half-wolf beast form at will. It is implied that werewolves are able to transform into "real" wolves.
  • Superhuman Speed - Werewolves are very fast and move with animal-like quickness and speed in human or wolf form.
  • Superhuman Strength - Werewolves are insanely strong in terms of abnormal strength; they can easily tear human and animals to pieces.
  • Alpha Werewolf Voice - The voice of an Alpha Werewolf has the ability to force the transformation of other werewolves against their will.
  • Werewolf Bite - Werewolves can transmit the curse of lycanthropy through their bite.

Weaknesses[]

  • Decapitation - The act of dismembering or removing the head of a werewolf will result in death.
  • Fire - Fire can/will most likely kill a werewolf if the flames are not doused.
  • Heart Extraction - The act of removing a werewolf's heart will result in a quick, instantly fast death.
  • Silver/Silver Bullets - If a werewolf is wounded by silver, it will cause the werewolf to become weak and wounded. However, if a silver knife or bullet penetrates a werewolf's heart, it will result in instant death.
  • Wolfsbane - This is a herb that won't kill a werewolf but will cause a werewolf to become weakened and sick. It is the werewolf counterpart to the vampire counterpart of vervain.

Early History[]

Tyler grew up as a spoiled, selfish, entitled child, due to his father having a high status in Fell's Church, as they were descended from one of the town's founders, Jacob Smallwood. He often remarks that the Smallwoods were the real founders of the town instead of the Fells, and is also very prone to anger. Tyler is an 18-year-old direct descendant of the Smallwoods that were present at the founding of Fell's Church. Tyler is the stereotypical "jock" type; he is very tall, broad, husky and muscular with jet black hair, pale skin, and very dark eyes. He is described as handsome and attractive, although he is rather fleshy. Tyler has fleshy hands and significantly large teeth. Tyler is much taller than Stefan and at least twice as broad. Tyler's family, the Smallwoods, is one founding family of Fell's Church; there appears to be some deep-seated resentment on the part of the Smallwoods over the history of the town's creation. Tyler seems to think that his family is more responsible for the founding than the Fell family, after which the town is named. In the first book, Tyler takes Elena to the graveyard, where she sees his grandfather's grave. Tyler tries to force himself on Elena, but Stefan saves her. Tyler has been antagonistic towards Stefan and Elena ever since. He is later revealed to be a werewolf; it was dormant until he knew how to begin the werewolf gene. Tyler eventually develops a relationship with Caroline Forbes. He is the father of Caroline's unborn babies at the end of The Return: Nightfall. Tyler has a cousin named Caleb Smallwood, who appears in Phantom.

The Original Series[]

Elena saw Tyler as a world-class jerk and disliked the fact that he was picking on Stefan. She didn't like him, but after finding out that Stefan was with Caroline Forbes, she started flirting with him out of jealousy.

On the night of Homecoming in their senior year in 1991, Elena decides to leave and ask Tyler to take her home, but he convinced her to go see his grandfather's grave first with Dick Carter and Vickie Bennett. While there, Tyler tried to take advantage of her, but Elena fought back. As he was about to assault Elena, Stefan arrives just in time to rescue her and slams Tyler against Honoria and Thomas' tomb, knocked unconscious.

Later, during the Haunted House Fund-raiser, Tyler comes to school and arrives at the fundraiser. Bonnie later finds Mr. Tanner's lifeless and dead body. This gives Tyler the chance to blame the attacks all on Stefan and, when Stefan is nowhere to be found, it adds to the suspicions of everyone and a huge mob is created all intent on one thing- to find Stefan.

Determined to prove to the town that Stefan is the reason for the recent events, as Elena's diary reveals her suspicions about him, Caroline begins talking with Tyler due to his family's influence and gets closer to him. They plan for Caroline to read Elena's diary aloud during Founder's Day. When the time comes, however, Caroline finds that Elena's diary has been switched with her own. Later that day, Stefan goes into the Quonset Hut to feed on humans for the first time in centuries in order to face off with Damon to the death. He drinks Tyler and two other boys to the point of unconsciousness and is about to feed on Caroline when she screams, and he just decides to influence her to forget the event.

Tyler's father knows that Stefan is behind the attack, probably because Tyler shared the information and was not in his usual self, and makes him undergo hypnosis by Alaric K. Saltzman to try to get him to remember it.

On June 6, 1992, Klaus, an Old One, comes to Fell's Church to avenge the death of his protegée Katherine. Here, he reveals to Tyler that he was meant to be a werewolf and of all the power it can give him. He convinces Tyler to let him help turn him into a werewolf so they can cause chaos together, and Tyler breaks into Caroline's house (during the surprise birthday party organized by Caroline, Bonnie, Vickie and Sue Carson for Meredith) that night to let Klaus in, as the others are using an Ouija board to try and contact Elena. Elena tells them that "he" is in the house and Klaus lures Sue upstairs, letting Tyler push her out of the window, killing her and completing the transition. Klaus then makes an incision on her chest and then lets Tyler drink her blood. Tyler, later, went ahead to discriminate Bonnie and Meredith that Sue wasn't murdered by Vickie, but Bonnie noticed Tyler knew something only the killer would know. The Salvatore brothers returned to Fell's Church at Bonnie's summoning and together with Matt, Stefan (investigating Sue's body and the Smallwood family) realizes that Tyler Smallwood is a werewolf. To confront Tyler, Bonnie and Meredith stage a fake fight during graduation about respecting Elena, making it loud enough for everyone to hear. It ends with Meredith saying that she will visit Elena's grave that night. She does so, and Tyler shows up to rape her as expected, but the others stop him and force him to reveal that Klaus had come to town and had been helping him. When he told them that Klaus was after Vickie, they fled to save her and left Tyler who escaped. They failed in saving Vickie and Tyler went back to Klaus. Later, Stefan receives Caroline's scarf in the mail and a note telling him to come face Klaus alone. He does, but Bonnie, Meredith and Matt sneak along, anyway. Meredith rescues Caroline, who is tied up and then goes to help Bonnie and Matt face off against Tyler, who has transformed into a brown half-wolf, half-human. Tyler claws Meredith's leg down to the bone, but Bonnie pushes a large branch onto the side of his head and he runs off. When the spirits of the graveyard rose on the summer solstice, Elena healed to wounded and Klaus was taken away to some unknown location. Frightened, Tyler fled and make contact with a burning tree, he stopped the beat the flames off him and then kept running. His current location is unknown.

The Return Series[]

One of the plotlines of The Return series is that Caroline has become pregnant with his child (later discovered to be twins) and is turning into a werewolf because of it. Considering that she was kidnapped and that Tyler wasn't exactly boyfriend material as a werewolf, she was most likely raped by him during this book, although it is never stated or confirmed.

The Hunters Series[]

Destiny Rising[]

He is in a relationship with Caroline, helping her raise their two twin children, Lucas and Brianna. He and Caroline had been compelled by Klaus to burn the white ash wood tree down and states that he wants nothing to do with Klaus.

The Vampire Diaries[]

1x01 Pilot-Tyler

Michael Trevino as Tyler Lockwood

Main article: Tyler Lockwood

In the television series, Tyler's surname is changed to Lockwood. Tyler Lockwood is portrayed by Michael Trevino. In the TV series, he was a werewolf, until being transformed into a hybrid by Klaus. His parents are Richard Lockwood, and Carol Lockwood, his human mother. The werewolf gene is passed down through the Lockwood line, although his father never was a werewolf. He also is shown to be less violent in the show. Like in the books, he also had a relationship with Caroline Forbes, but she is a vampire. She, too, became pregnant after Alaric and Jo's twin daughters Josie and Lizzie Saltzman were magically put into her.

Trivia[]

  • Just like his ancestor, Jacob Smallwood, in his wolf form, he attacks only young girls.
  • In the novels, Tyler disappears after Klaus' defeat. In the series, a reference to the disappearance of both antagonists in the books is the bloodline. If Klaus was destroyed, Tyler would also die too.
  • His werewolf nature is jokingly hinted at in The Awakening by Meredith, saying he's an animal and all teeth.

References[]

See also[]

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