The truth is everything about the life and love of Elena Gilbert was written to suck in hormonal teenagers in front of this CW series. When it premiered, many of us were already far too old to be invested in the drama and relationships of these small-town humans, vampires, and witches. But, they lured us in over and over again. No matter how cheesy or absurd. No matter how many times we found ourselves saying, “Oh, for goodness sake. How many men can fall in love with Elena?” We still tuned in every week. The angst was deeper than Friday Night Lights. The friendships were much more shallow than that of the Friends gang. And the love story was still (slightly) more satisfying than the end of How I Met Your Mother. But that didn’t make The Vampire Diaries any less trite or worthy of eye rolls.