HBO Max and Peacock have got the TVD treatment as the iconic vampire show has moved homes from Netflix to the new streaming services. The Vampire Diaries has been a mainstay in teenage supernatural dramas since 2009, and Elena Gilbert was the pillar who supported the Salvatore brothers, Caroline, Bonnie, and all their Big Bad enemies through six of eight seasons.
By virtue of being the main character of the show, Elena was afforded the ultimate plot armor that kept her from dying — even when her character left the show in season 6, she did not die but was cursed to sleep for a short while instead. There were several instances when Elena should have died but was protected by the plot.
Killed Kol
The Vampire Diaries fandom had mixed feelings when Elena became a vampire, but were excited to see her powers. However, her strength as a newbie vampire was never enough to overcome an Original vampire, yet she did exactly that.
Killing Kol was laughably easy for Elena, who should have perished in the encounter since Kol had roughly 10 centuries on her. It was a clear case of plot armor protecting her from certain death.
Daggered Rebekah
It was unfathomable that a human would think of baiting and daggering an Original vampire as lethal as Rebekah, but the plot provided for Elena at all costs. After befriending Rebekah and becoming her confidante, Elena stabbed her in the back, quite literally.
Rebekah should have seen this coming, especially since she could hear human heartbeats. Elena would have been stressed out by the prospect of daggering Rebekah, but the Original forgot all about her abilities and let Elena get close enough to her to stab her.
Got Driven Off The Bridge By Rebekah
After being betrayed by Elena, Rebekah was in no mood to play games. Driving Matt and Elena off the bridge was supposed to silence Elena permanently, but even then there was a twist that saved her — Meredith had fed her vampire blood beforehand.
This led to Elena becoming a vampire. So, even though she died, technically, she stayed alive as a vampire. These little loopholes always appeared for Elena when she was in danger.
Daggered Elijah
Not only was Elijah wise, but also extremely strong. Therefore, it made no sense that Elena, as a weak 17-year-old human, was able to dagger him on the pretext of stabbing herself. Elijah was almost prescient, so he should have been able to see the (pretty large) dagger in Elena’s hands.
His reflexes as an Original were lightning fast, but he got fooled by Elena at a human pace. Elena’s sleight of hand here should have been impossible to pull off.
Gave Katherine The Cure
A freshly minted vampire was no match for a vampire older than them, and certainly not for Katherine who was wily and fast, in addition to having over 500 years on her competition. Elena and Katherine had similarities, but strength and speed wasn’t it.
The fight between Elena and Katherine in Mystic Falls High School shouldn’t have lasted as long as it did, since Elena would have been taken down very quickly by the latter. It wasn’t sensible of Elena to pick the fight at all, nor did it add up that she was able to jam the cure into Katherine’s throat at all.
Killed Connor The Hunter
One of the worst decisions Elena made was to kill Connor the Hunter, which plagued her with the Hunter’s Curse. These hallucinations were designed to drive a vampire to madness, so that they would kill themselves and fulfill the Five’s work anyway.
Even though Klaus was haunted for 52 years by the curse, Elena got really lucky because the curse disappeared in a day, because the new Hunter rose in Jeremy. It was too convenient, and would only happen to Elena.
Klaus Drained Her Blood
Klaus wanted Elena dead, or as his blood bank for more than one season, yet Elena kept surviving against all odds. Klaus was the most powerful being on the planet, but two young vampires kept this human girl alive, even when Klaus drained her of blood not once, but twice.
There was no way for Elena to survive the moonstone ritual, yet John Gilbert found a way to transfer his life to hers, which was unheard of before. Even when Klaus kidnaps Elena, she didn’t even faint from blood loss. The plot armor was strong with this one.
Crossing Mystic Falls Magic-Stripping Boundaries
Markos and the Travelers had made Mystic Falls a haven for themselves, and hostile to all other types of magic. Everyone who was a witch, vampire, or werewolf would revert to their original state of death or humanity once they crossed the borders, and people like Tyler and Alaric had done so almost immediately.
However, when Damon and Elena drove through Mystic Falls, they stayed vampires till they went to the Grill, without even a sign of weakness or death, which was a sign that they were exceptions to the rule.
The Mystic Grill Explosion
Right after entering Mystic Falls, Elena and Damon crashed knowingly into the Mystic Grill. They were aware that they would reach the Other Side where Bonnie was waiting to send them back, but everyone wasn’t lucky enough. Elena, however, was.
She died and was sent back by Bonnie, who herself couldn’t make it along with Damon and Lexi. Elena always survived, even under impossible circumstances.
Katherine Body-Swapped Her
Katherine, as always, figured out how to survive, and it involved taking over Elena’s body after hers wasted away. By all means, Katherine should have succeeded since she even carried out the ritual to make herself permanent, but (as always) there was a way out for Elena.
She would never be killed off, and even Katherine, who managed to fool everyone in Elena’s body, couldn’t outsmart the plot armor that Elena had.
