To start our look at the epic romances of The Vampire Diaries and The Originals, we’re going to borrow a line from another show featuring an epic romance (Logan and Veronica), Veronica Mars: “Epic. Spanning years and continents. Lives ruined. Blood shed. Epic….No one writes songs about the ones that come easy.”
The romances on this list aren’t necessarily the ones that came easily or ended well. Some of the romances were downright unhealthy, while others were end goals. They endured through time, conflict, and dangerous situations. In addition, each romance on this list had an element of risk about it. Sometimes there was a reward, and sometimes just a short moment or an acknowledgment of an unhealthy relationship that you couldn’t easily quit.
Katherine And the Salvatore Brothers
Katherine, a villain we love to hate, started The Vampire Diaries by her romance with both brothers: Stefan and Damon. She made both vampires. One (Damon) wanted to be a vampire in order to join her, and the other one didn’t necessarily know that he was being made into a vampire (Stefan). While Stefan insisted that the way he felt about Katherine wasn’t true, his best friend, Lexi, would disagree. In Season 1, she jokes about how hung up on Katherine Stefan was for years. He even had her old picture out. Later, when Katherine is made human in Season 5, they passionately hook up. As much as Stefan denies it, he still is attracted to Katherine.
Damon would have done anything for Katherine in Season 1. He spent much of the season trying to save her, thinking she was still trapped under the church. However, he finds out that she had escaped and never was trapped there. Meaning that while he spent hundreds of years trying to find a way to free her, she had always been free and just never sought him out. When she comes back and they share a kiss, he asks her to tell him that she loves him. When she tells him that it was always Stefan she loved more, she pushes the dagger deeper, adding to the resentment between brothers.
Klaus And Caroline
The tension between these two spanned shows, episodes, and years. Klaus cared about only a few people, and Caroline was one of them. When Caroline is in danger, Klaus risks his welfare to save her without a second thought. When Klaus comes back to New Orleans in The Originals, Caroline is the first person he calls.
Whenever Caroline makes guest appearances on The Originals or Klaus on The Vampire Diaries, the chemistry between these two characters is so strong that their current love interests don’t stand a chance. Klaus lets himself be vulnerable with Caroline, revealing his past and even his reluctant admiration for humans. Maybe it’s because we never saw the shows really deliver on the potential romance that left us wishing for more.
Enzo And Bonnie
Finally, Bonnie is matched with someone worthy of her. Bonnie spent most of The Vampire Diaries sacrificing herself for others. The few romances that she had seemed unsatisfying. When she was with Jeremy, Elena’s little brother, he cheated on her with his ex-girlfriend’s ghost. We wanted to see Bonnie have a little fun and to be truly appreciated.
Enzo also had unfulfilling romances prior to Bonnie. When Enzo hides Bonnie away to keep her safe, they eventually develop strong feelings for each other and fall in love. When Sybil, the siren, possesses Enzo, compelling him to do horrible deeds, his love for Bonnie keeps him somewhat protected. He hides and holds on to that love, even coming to visit Bonnie when he can. A love that can withstand being manipulated by a siren is both an epic love and a strong one in our book.
Hayley And Elijah
This romance had forbidden written all over it. Hayley, after a one night stand with Klaus, becomes pregnant with Hope. Although Klaus is a vampire and long dead, somehow his werewolf gene gave a small miracle and allowed Hope to be created. Elijah sees Hope, the miracle baby, as a hope for their family. He is even the one who names her.
Throughout The Originals, Elijah protects Hayley while she is pregnant. These two develop a strong bond, transforming into love and romance. Although Klaus and Hayley aren’t romantic, Klaus is possessive, so having feelings for your brother’s ex-fling and current co-parent, is probably not a good idea. Still, these two love each other, even willing to care for each other during the bad times. This makes the end when memory-wiped Elijah doesn’t recognize Hayley, especially painful.
Nora And Mary Louise
The two Heretics (vampire-witches) are seen as villains during most of their time on The Vampire Diaries. They fell in love hundreds of years ago, were locked away in a prison world where they left desiccating, and then were finally freed into a time period that better accepted their love.
While Mary Louise initially had a hard time adjusting to other elements of the modern times, she and Nora are excited that they can make their love official. They get engaged. Unfortunately, their engagement gets cut short when they sacrifice themselves to save others, villains no longer. We wish that this epic romance could have ended in happiness, rather than death.
Alaric And Jo
Alaric’s previous loves had either died (Jenna) or rejected him to turn into a vampire (Isobel). While there were some brief loves presented, Jo enters as his biggest love. He doesn’t need to lie to her about the supernatural because she is a witch, though non-practicing. In fact, Jo had rejected her witch nature, becoming a doctor instead. Even Jo’s murderous twin brother, Kai, seemed like he couldn’t keep these two love birds apart.
Never underestimate Kai. Their wedding ended up a bloodbath as Kai stabbed Jo right in front of Alaric at the altar. Kai kills the rest of the Gemini coven, but not before the coven magically transfers Jo’s twins from her womb to Caroline’s. While Alaric’s daughters are saved, Jo is not.
In Legacies, Jo comes back briefly in the necromancer’s attempt to get one of the keys for Malivore (the big evil). Jo is actually herself, until she is made to do the necromancer’s bidding. Once Jo becomes aware of what is going on, she lets herself be killed again, brought back to dust. So, poor Alaric has to see his love die two times in front of his eyes.
Davina And Kol
Kol spies on Davina for his mother, the witch Esther. He plays double agent. However, this doesn’t work as Kol ends up falling in love with Davina. The feeling is mutual. When Kol dies, Davina does all that she can to bring him back. Kol, as a vampire, changes and controls his most murderous urges for Davina.
Davina, long used by others, is finally valued. Kol, seen as expendable by his family (at times), is seen as important and worthy of being brought back to the land of the living. Ultimately, Davina and Kol marry, giving us a happy ending.
Josh And Aiden
Josh, a vampire, could easily have been killed or hurt by Aiden’s bite, a werewolf. Aiden, a werewolf, should have not gotten close to Josh, a member of Marcel’s crew. Marcel had forced the werewolves to the outskirts of New Orleans in The Originals. Regardless, they fell in love. Josh even considered Aiden part of his “pack.”
Though Aiden is killed fairly early on, Josh doesn’t really get another love interest. When Josh dies, Aiden is there waiting to be reunited with him on the other side.
Rebekah And Marcel
Rebekah and Marcel have a truly epic romance. Klaus forbid their love. He daggers Rebekah for decades since she couldn’t stop loving Marcel.
Marcel also couldn’t stop loving Rebekah. With Rebekah no longer daggered, they start their romance again. They do this in secret, so that Klaus doesn’t find out. They actually find a way to bring Mikael, Rebekah’s father and Klaus’s arch enemy, to New Orleans so that Mikael can kill or scare away Klaus. In the end, Mikael scares the whole family, including Rebekah who also flees. She leaves Marcel behind. Despite other love interests, Rebekah and Marcel are drawn together. They love and forgive each other, again and again.
Elena And The Salvatore Brothers
The epic romance that started the Vampire Diaries series was the love triangle between Elena, Stefan, and Damon. While Damon won Elena, her romance with Stefan was also important. Before she died and turned into a vampire, human Elena was going to choose Stefan.
By turning into a vampire, she recovered memories Damon blocked from her. These memories, a sire bond, and more, led her to choose Damon. Later, after Elena becomes human again, Damon gives up his immortality to be with her. Having Elena in his life allowed Damon to be a better person and brother. Because of that, Stefan reasoned that it was good that Damon was with Elena.
However, in a tender moment with Lexi (briefly returned from the dead), he asks her,”What if Elena was the one?” Lexi responds, “She was. And she will always be an epic love. Contrary to popular belief, there are actually multiple ones, especially for a vampire.”
We second Lexi.
