THIS POST CONTAINS SPOILERS! But if you have watched the final episode EVER of The Vampire Diaries, you know the ending hurt us real bad, it was bittersweet alright. But it turns out, that’s not the ending the writers had planned! In fact, the original finale would have seen Damon and Stefan BOTH destined to die, while Elena went on and lived a nice human life married to Matt.
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Showrunner Julie Plec told Entertainment Weekly about her original plan, saying: “Back in season 2 when Kevin and I were sitting in the mall and we had fallen in love with this series and this story about two brothers who loved the same girl and the love triangle was kicking into high gear, we said to ourselves: When all is said and done, when this show is over, both brothers should die in the name of saving their girl and then be watching her like ghosts — because we had introduced the Other Side — as she went off into the sunset to live her life and maybe marry Matt Donovan or maybe become a doctor, but that those brothers would be side-by-side watching her live.”
Not that we don’t adore Matt but that’s incredibly mean to do after all Damon and Elena went through, and Julie agreed, explaining the change of direction was thanks to the fact that a love triangle between Stefan/Damon and Elena wasn’t believable anymore once Elena went into her mystical coma:
“If Nina had never left, I would’ve loved to have been able to see if Stefan and Elena could’ve found their way back to each other. I don’t know if they could have, but had that departure not been a part of it, the long game would’ve been to see if we could bring the love triangle back around before the series ended and really leave a choice. But her departure sealed the romantic contract between Damon and Elena. In that moment, to me, the show ceased to be about a love triangle and became a show about the power of these brothers and their love for each other. And so there was no way in hell I was killing both of them and leaving neither of them with the happy ending.”
Speaking of the killing thing (SPOILER!), why did ~anyone~ have to die? Many fans are finding it hard to forgive Julie for ending Stefan’s life, but she has no regrets saying, “…these kinds of stories really need to have life-or-death stakes, and no one will believe your death stakes if no one actually dies. It’s a lesson I’ve taken many liberties with over the years — including in this finale, since we see [Stefan] at peace after he dies — but it’s true when you’re making big moves, bringing characters full circle and finding closure for everyone. Closure comes as much in saying goodbye as it does in moving on. It felt necessary.”
Ahhh she’s right, it was a damn good ending and it’ll stay with us for a loooooong while
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