When The Vampire Diaries premiered in 2009, Elena Gilbert was front and center as its star. The original idea was her as an innocent woman pulled into a supernatural world with two vampire brothers vying for her affections. Nina Dobrev was fun in the role to make Elena a good character and help the show be a hit. There were turns such as Elena running into her evil vampire doppelganger Katherine and later becoming a vampire herself.
Yet it has to be acknowledged that there were a lot of times when Elena was no heroine. Even when she was human, Elena could show some bad stuff from her selfishness to some harsh treatment of her friends. Elena did have a lot of great moments, yet several times she was clearly in the wrong with her behavior. Here are 15 TVD moments where Elena really wasn’t the best person and coming off terribly to mar the show’s otherwise good run.
15 When She Feasted On An Innocent Cheerleader
When Elena becomes a humanity-free vampire, she rejoins the cheerleading squad just to show Caroline up. Elena lives up to every “mean girl” stereotype possible.
The worst is when she runs into a rival cheerleader, and the next scene has the woman wearing a scarf around her neck to cover up bite marks. Elena never apologizes for turning a random cheerleader into a meal.
14 Trying To Fix Stefan’s Amnesia With Just Memories Of Her
Elena has a bad habit of thinking everything in Mystic Falls revolves around her. When Stefan gets amnesia in season 5, Elena tries to help by talking of all the good times they’ve had and using that to jog his memories.
Keep in mind, Stefan was alive for a century before Elena was born, yet she’s ignoring anything else in his past and using just her to get his memory back.
13 She Only Seems To Need Bonnie For Magic
Elena claims Bonnie is her best friend and that she is always there for her. Yet when one looks at the series, it becomes evident that Elena only really needs Bonnie whenever magic is involved. She’ll often push Bonnie to her limits, even if it risks her life.
Too often, Elena ignores how Bonnie is suffering from her magic, but Elena just tells her to suck it up and keep going. This “friendship” is very one-sided.
12 Choosing To Forget All About Damon Rather Than Handle His Loss
When Damon sacrifices himself in the season 5 finale, Elena is heartbroken. She makes Alaric compel her to forget all about her love for Damon and to only remember him as a random vampire.
Alaric cites how all Elena is doing is running from her pain rather than embracing it. When Damon returned, he had to fight to get Elena to remember him as choosing to just forget about their love was a wrong move.
11 Her Weird Smothering/Ignoring Of Jeremy's Problems
When the series began, Elena was caring for her younger brother, Jeremy. This could be rather controlling at times with Elena going to extremes to keep her brother safe.
But that was better than when Elena starts ignoring Jeremy’s issues, especially when he comes back from death. The guy is a mess, yet Elena is too busy with her personal drama to be a supportive sister.
10 Manipulating Jeremy Into Taking Out Kol
When an Original dies, every vampire they’ve ever sired also goes. Elena knows this when she sets up Kol in season 4. Granted, the man is a monster, but Elena has to know the enormous cost killing him entails.
Worse is that Elena doesn’t even do it herself. Instead, she allows Jeremy to kill Kol, despite the risk to her brother. It’s a showcase for how Elena can be selfish in her games.
9 Half The Show's Deaths Are Because Of Her
Maybe it's a bit unfair, but it can't be ignored how scores of the bad stuff that happens on the show is somehow because of Elena. Bonnie lost both her mother and grandmother in part because of Elena.
Then there's poor Aunt Jenna who was first turned into a vampire and then sacrificed by Klaus. That's just scraping the surface as the truth is nearly half the show's body count is somehow tied in to Elena.
8 Her Amazing Jealousy Always Rears Its Head
Even before she got involved with the Salvatores, Elena tended to get jealous of others. She seemed annoyed Caroline was moving on with Matt and when one Salvatore was intrigued by another woman, Elena’s jealousy was apparent.
It got worse when she became a vampire, as Elena became angry when a Salvatore seemed to go for someone else. It was never pretty when Elena got jealous.
7 Never Realizing Bonnie Was Dead
When Bonnie sacrificed herself to bring Jeremy back to life, Jeremy made everyone think she was in Europe. Somehow, Elena just accepts Bonnie only dropping in text messages rather than being home.
The fact Bonnie didn’t come to her own father’s funeral should have been a huge warning sign. Yet her “best friend” never suspected something was wrong which is amazingly self-absorbed.
6 Making Caroline’s Breakdown All About Herself
In season six, Caroline, driven by the passing of her mother, turns off her humanity. She embarks on some nasty actions, and her friends try to help her out. Elena presses Caroline, using her own experience with no humanity a few seasons earlier.
This is an excellent example of how Elena tends to put herself in the middle of anything and everything.
5 Giving The Cure To Katherine
Throughout season 4, the gang is on the hunt for a possible cure for vampirism. Elena gets it, and it looks like she’ll use it. Instead, in a fight with doppelganger Katherine, Elena feeds her the cure.
Sure, it’s a bit of poetic justice for the one person who loved being a vampire to now be human. Yet it was a shallow move by Elena that wasted the cure for some petty revenge.
4 Ignoring Damon’s Horrible Treatment Of Caroline In The First Season
In season 1, Damon uses Caroline horribly. He compels her to not only be his lover but also feeding on her when he wants. The very first thing Caroline does when she becomes a vampire is to beat down Damon for some justifiable payback.
Elena never seems upset that her boyfriend used her best friend in such a way. Even Caroline forgave Damon fast for that, but Elena should have been wary of him for treating Caroline so poorly.
3 Killing An Innocent Waitress Just To Send A Message
In season 4, Elena has given up on her humanity and is trying to live a new life. The Salvatores track her to a small diner to try to get her back to normal.
Elena sends a message by snapping the neck of the innocent waitress serving them and warns the duo to back off. That she’s never called out on this dark move later on just makes it worse.
2 Never Apologizing For Her No-Humanity Actions
On TVD, vampires can “switch off” their humanity, so they don’t feel the pain of their actions. Elena did so in season 4, which led to some nasty stuff. Eventually, the gang got her to flip back the switch.
Did Elena even try to apologize for anything she’d done with no humanity? No. In fact, she openly said she couldn’t because “it’s too hard.” That seems a cop-out for her behavior.
1 Compelling Jeremy To Forget His Feelings For His Lost Love
Elena can mean well, but goes a bit too far deciding what’s “best” for people. When Jeremy was devastated over the loss of his beloved Vicki, Elena had Damon compel Jeremy to forget vampires, which is understandable.
What wasn’t was Elena adding that Damon should compel away Jeremy’s feelings for Vicki. That was a step too far as it hurt the memory of Vicki and was way too controlling.