The TV Series Compared to L.J. Smith's

Despite The Vampire Diaries TV series being based on the books by L.J. Smith, the storyline and characters are far from it. It has the essence of the books with the soul focus being on the relationship between two brothers with an attraction to the same girl but even Elena, the main character is given a different persona.

Elena Gilbert in the novel is described as having:
 fair skin, blonde hair, blue eyes and a wilder than mild personality.

Elena in the TV series on the other hand has the features of actress Nina Dobrev with:
 tan skin, brown hair, brown eyes and is given a milder personality.

Katherine in the novel is of Swedish descent but due to Nina Dobrev being of Bulgarian descent, to the advantage of production, so is the character in the series where Nina’s bilingual ability becomes useful in flashbacks featuring Katherine.

                              -Other Changes-

We see also a change from Elena’s best friend Bonnie, a red headed witch in the novel of druid descent becomes dark haired and of Salem descent due to the casting of Katarina Graham. Casting has had a lot of impact on the changes of character. Not only that but the producers Julie Plec and Kevin Williamson planned to derive the series from the books and yet stretch the plot in their own preferred direction for the benefit of the series, staying recognizably to the book and steering away form it at the same time. Where in the book Elena has a little sister called Margaret, in the series she has a younger brother named Jeremy of high school age. After being signed for his role as Jeremy, Steven R. McQueen recalls reading the book with the intension to learn a bit about his character until he discovered to his surprise that he was replacing a little girl named Margaret.  

TVD Interview with Steven R. McQueen 

-Changes to the plot-

As far as Season 3 goes, Elena has not yet become a vampire and is saved after crashing off Wickery Bridge. In the novels Elena becomes a vampire after her death over the bridge at the end of the first book in the written series.Another major change is the name of the place in the books from Fell's Church, Virginia to Mystic Falls, Virginia. Personally I prefer the series better but there are a few interesting things about the book such as the vampires who constantly drink blood being able to transform at free will into almost any animal and the Salvatore brothers are from the 1500's rather than the 1800's.

http://www.vampirediariesfanwiki.com/page/The+Vampire+Diaries%3A+Books+vs.+Series

Don't Judge a Show by the Cover

Back to school 2010 after the Term 2 holidays (if you’re in New Zealand) I remember I was keen, I was ready… wait no I wasn’t. I could still fit in a couple of yawns on my way to science class with one of the most horrible teachers ever who thought it was cool to wear lipstick on her cheeks instead of blush and strip a layer because someone had to point out she had a hole in her shirt. Fortunately she didn’t have a hole in her singlet. You’d think she was a happy little queen of the leprechauns but deep down under she had 50 detention slips up her sleeve. Not pointing out anyone in particular but how many times have you heard the name Mrs. White? I've known about four, coincidently all old, not to mention Mrs. White in Cluedo which makes five and she’s old too so it makes it harder to avoid cringing every time I hear the name. Anyway I get up the stairs, open the door, sit down at a desk, look at my friends and remember why I’m here…gossip sesh. This was about the same time the first few episodes of The Vampire Diaries had aired and also a period of me being quite over the idea of vampires. However my days during science class were to be forever filled with unintelligible nonsense called… how am I supposed to remember what work we were supposed to be doing that year? So there was nothing better to do than allow my friends to bombard me with talk of this new show called The Vampire Diaries. It took me several weeks of listening to them recapping the episodes to cave in to this vampire fever but I have these two friends who are just so very persuasive. By the end of the year, if someone had asked me what I’d learned during science, I would have been able to give them a full rundown of the vampire diaries even without having watched the episodes. It’s actually that good to rave about.

Prior to this I had no intention of even looking at a vampire 
book or movie, turned off by lame supernatural clichés and cheesy catchphrases like-
Bella, I couldn’t live with myself if I ever hurt you. You don’t know how it’s tortured me. The thought of you, still, white, cold… to never see you blush scarlet again, to never see that flash of intuition in your eyes when you see through my pretences… it would be unendurable. You are the most important thing to me now. The most important thing to me ever. 
Sounds to me like lame poetry that on average would take at least ten minutes to come up with, maybe half an hour to think of “through my pretences” or “flash of intuition.” Compared to The Vampire Diaries- 
“Do you wanna know.. what I would write? I met a girl.. we talked.. it was epic.. and the sun came up and reality set in. All this is reality. Right here.” 

They even told me “it’s nothing like Twilight or any other vampire show you’ve heard of,” and I said “no it sounds lame,” just because of the name and the idea but after explaining it a bit because there truly is a lot to say about its forever cliff-hanging plots and newly arising conflicts. When I had a taste of the first episode I knew by the natural lighting, casual music, realistic dialogue and varied scenery that I was going to like it. The first countertype which had me thinking twice about the many clichés I expected, was a scene of Elena sitting in a graveyard with a happy expression rather than an intense, sad, dull or emotional one, and not because she likes to sit in graveyards writing in her diary either but because she was reminiscing of the days when her parents were alive while the sun beams down on her between the trees rather than a spooky forest. I’d recommend it to anyone deciding to watch something new who still had ideas that put them off vampire fiction due to the many stereotypes associated with the genre. Easier said than done but this is one show to not judge by its cover.

Pros and Cons of Being a TVD Vampire

I’d rather be a vampire over other fantasy creatures such as werewolves etc. for many reasons. There are the cons of having decayed looking skin every time you got the munchies and having to be really stealthy with hiding your vampirism but on the other hand, you’d never waste 5 minutes every time you were given a menu because you only ever eat/drink one thing and you’d never get tired except of people who bothered you. So I put together a list of reasons why vampires are pretty darn amazing and another with reasons that Jacob Black fans can appreciate (werewolf from twilight).

Pros

With sonar hearing like a bat- it wouldn't be hard to eavesdrop

Sleepless nights- means you could be up finishing homework without needing a sugar hit, practicing beating your siblings at pool so you can waste them in the morning, never be late to school, if you’re into MMO games like Runescape you could waste every day, night and penny on that and you’d have extra hours to do almost anything.

Super heal- say goodbye to blemishes and hello to flawless skin with the all new ‘Vampire Treatment,’ only at the cost of your life.

With super speed- you can make a quick dash anywhere! For a bite, when you’re late, while cleaning up, to the toilet, when you’ve forgotten something, when you’re hiding, to be first to dinner, to win a race.

Having increased emotions- you’d have to brace yourself for intense love.

You could stay young for as long as you unlived.

Compulsion- would allow you to compel almost anyone to do whatever you wanted

You can sort of time travel into the future if you were desiccated for some time by becoming dry of blood and re-awoke some years later after being fed.

Super strength of course is an advantage

Cons

High frequency noises would be nerve rattling

You could burn in the sunlight without a witch’s magic and tanning would no longer be an option

Finding food would not be so hard but hiding your vampirism would be an issue

Vulnerability to burning by touching a vervane plant or failure to compel someone on vervane would be a weakness.

Prepare for wild rampages and highly emotional meltdowns

A craving for blood on the odd occasion could set you in a mess you’d have to fix.

You couldn’t have kids unless you adopted or were human first or are a man.

Werewolf bites would be infectious and deadly unless you had hybrid blood for an antidote.

If you went unfed for a while and became desiccated, until someone fed you you’d probably miss out on a couple years or so.

So there you have it, the reasons why and why not being a TVD vampire would be so awesome. In my opinion the pros outweigh the cons by the level of each benefit compared to each disadvantage. The pros of being a vampire are what make them more admirable in comparison to the pros of being a werewolf, mermaid, goblin, avatar, or any other fictional being but after going through the lists I’ll leave that for you to decide.

           Nina Dobrev PaleyFest Interview- pros and cons of Damon and Stefan Salvatore

Getting Rid of Cliches

Vampires are often portrayed as evil so what makes a vampire story come to life is usually down to the one vampire who is different from all the rest. This vampire, as seen in movies like Twilight with Edward Cullen the vampire who falls in love with a human and in The Little Vampire with Rudolph who makes friends with a human, becomes the protagonist for their failure to be normal (in an evil vampire way). Vampires, are depicted as evil right across the media, notably for their demonic features and blood sucking habits. It then becomes a little cliché when you see a werewolf within the same storyline because they are practically portrayed as the heroic opposite with a loyalty to humans. Most likely it’s because werewolves are similar to dogs so they can be seen as ‘man’s best friend’ unlike vampires who feed on ‘dog’s best friend’. The movie Van Helsing is a great example of this, if you’ve seen it you’ll know that I’m not exaggerating when I say ‘vampires are to demons as werewolves are to angels.’

Van Helsing (2004)

Starring Hugh Jackman, Kate Beckinsale and Richard Roxburgh, Van Helsing is a very literal example. A vampire slayer named Van Helsing is sent to defend a town in Transylvania in which the vampire Count Dracula (dracul meaning demon in Hebrew) plans to spawn his own undead children by the hundreds. While venturing to thwart his plan and kill him, Van Helsing who has had his memory of the past taken away, discovers he is the archangel Gabriel Van Helsing (Gabriel- Left Hand of God, adapted from Bram Stoker’s Abraham Van Helsing) and in a final battle he transforms into a werewolf and bites the neck of Dracula who has transformed into a bat-winged creature, killing him and filling the order that had been given to him nine generations ago.

Van Helsing Trailer:

What differs The Vampire Diaries from other fantasy-horrors is its many countertypes such as evil werewolves to avert from the clichés and good vampires among the evil "i vaant to suuck your bloood" type. Again it’s no surprise to find a witch among the same sort of storyline but because it’s The Vampire Diaries you’ll find yet again you can’t categorise them as either good or evil. Even the setting is a countertype of a typical teen genre featuring a highschool where instead of focusing the series on highschool antics, the series is focused predominantly on the town of Mystic Falls and its dilemmas. This is perhaps the biggest countertype in TVD compared to teen genres such as Glee, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Mean Girls and High School Musical. Even the one vampire Stefan who initially is the main feature who sets the plot due to his heroics of being the only good vampire, eventually becomes the generalised evil vampire while his conspiring brother becomes good natured. His human girlfriend Elena is not a weak stereotype either but instead can put up a fight by literally stabbing a vampire in the back. In season 3 senes show her working out and learning to fight.Characters in the series are constantly developing and never quite seem to stick to a particular stereotype contributing to what makes The Vampire Diaries unique and successful.

In the Beginning

                Vampire BD (Before Dracula)

One of the first things that come to most minds when you hear the word vampire is Dracula but while most people think he was the first to hit the scene, the truth is actually there was no Dracula in the beginning, it was a deadly theory called superstition. Why deadly you may ask? Due to the delusional ideas of some of our ancestors, based on legends which happened to be passed by word of mouth (sort of like rumours), the idea of vampirism arose. This superstition fluctuated between different cultures and the established name ‘vampire’ was given various names such as ‘vrykolakas’ to the Greeks and ‘strigoi’ to the Romanians. 
But around the early 18^th century, superstition regarding vampires reached its peak, leading to mass hysteria and persecutions of people who carried the signs of vampirism. The ones to feel sorry for here are the ones who had a respiratory illness and were mistakenly persecuted for being a vampire. Fortunately if you’re an asthmatic nowadays you’ll be diagnosed properly and given an inhaler in comparison to garlic and a death sentence. 
Again still many of us are facing misconception in believing that Dracula was the first ever recorded novel to depict a vampire. In fact, ironically the first novel which was written by John Poladori in 1819 was simply called ‘The Vampyre,’ considerably one of the most influential novels of the newly categorised vampire genre, inspiring Bram Stoker’s Dracula which followed successively in 1897.


How to Spot a Vampire...      


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Vervane plant burns the skin

Before recordings of vampires became popular as fictional narratives, they were most commonly defined as bloated with a blood lust, almost like a parasite, but with a pale to purplish skin tone, signs of death due to existence as a living corpse such as breathing difficulty, and can be warded off by garlic, killed by a stake to the heart or burnt by fire. 

Vampire AD (After Dracula)

Staked Vampire

Modern characteristics have been given to vampires since they became featured in novels such as sparkling in the sunlight but The Vampire Diaries TV series has stayed somewhat true to ancient beliefs. Apart from the modern take on since Dracula where vampires appear with fangs, as the vampire Stefan puts it, crosses are useless, holy water won’t get rid of them and silverware only works on werewolves, in terms of theories taken from other modern developments in the genre. In the Vampire Diaries, both fire which includes being a victim to sunlight, and a stake to the heart can kill a vampire which is given a twist by the use of bewitched rings so as not to burn in the daylight and the creation of a variety of slaying weapons including a range of guns loaded with wooden tipped bullets and crossbows loaded with a stake. A new variation to garlic in The Vampire Diaries is a plant called vervane which is also used in the creation of vervane grenades as a weapon. Staying true to the attributes of ancient vampires, on being starved of blood, the vampires become corpse-like with decaying and pale purple tainted skin. The idea of the vampire deriving from witchcraft is also in conjunction with history but it appears as though a new generation of vampires has subsequently emerged from the legacy over the years. New adaptions halve evolved to adjust to a modern audience such as vampires that are given superhero qualities like running with superhuman speed and fitting with the times, it is only logical for vampires to now seek out their means of lunch at the blood bank of a hospital with ease.

Vampire after transition

Vampire burning in the sunlight

I expect as times change, so will history’s view on vampires but the strange thing is how a simple life-threatening superstition could change over time into a mass hysteria because people want talk of more rather than less vampires. My question is, if vampires with a history derived from mere superstition could be subjected to the media and transformed from something horrifying into something entertaining, then what new genres from the past might resurrect to entertain us next?