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What is a doppelganger in Vampire Diaries?

doppelganger vampire diaries

Doppelgangers in The Vampire Diaries were a supernatural occurrence created by nature to balance the world order after the creation of the first immortal beings.

Throughout its eight-season run, The Vampire Diaries had various supernatural beings making an appearance.

However, the primary and permanently featured supernatural beings were vampires, werewolves, witches, and doppelgangers. While vampires, werewolves and witches had various families and tribes on the series, there were only five doppelgangers.

This is because, in the series, doppelgangers were created after Silas and Amara broke the rules of nature, which stated that everything had to die when they took the immortality elixir, made by Qetsiyah.

In nature’s attempt to balance the world order, it created shadow selves of the original immortal beings which were the doppelgangers that all died in the story, the last of which being Elena Gilbert.

What was The Vampire Diaries?

The Vampire Diaries was The CW’s flagship series which premiered in 2009.

The teen-drama series was adapted from the series of novels of the same name by L.J Smith. The books were adapted into a television series by showrunner and executive producer, Julie Plec.

The shared premise of the series is, “The lives, loves, dangers and disasters in the town, Mystic Falls, Virginia. Creatures of unspeakable horror lurk beneath this town as a teenage girl is suddenly torn between two vampire brothers.”

The premise was slightly amended following the season six exit of title character, Nina Dobrev, in the role of Elena Gilbert, who was in a love triangle with the Salvatore brothers.

What is a doppelganger in Vampire Diaries?

In order to understand what doppelgangers are in The Vampire Diaries, it is important to understand where they originate from.

Doppelgangers, shadow selves, or mortal shadow selves were created by nature in an attempt to balance the scales of nature. This was after the creation of the first two immortal beings, Silas and Amara.

Silas, who was meant to get married to one of the most powerful witches, Qetsiyah, stole the immortality elixir from her to have with his one true love, Qetsiyah’s handmaid, Amara, so they could spend the rest of their lives together.

In taking the immortality elixir, Silas and Amara broke the rules of nature that all things should die. Therefore, in an effort to restore the balance, nature created mortal shadow versions of the original mortals, which are commonly known as doppelgangers.

In the world of the story, there were a total of five doppelgangers, namely, Tatia, Katerina Petrova, Stefan Salvatore, Elena Gilbert, and Tom Avery.

Who was the last surviving doppelganger in The Vampire Diaries?

The last known doppelganger in The Vampire Diaries was Elena Gilbert.

After living happily ever after with Damon Salvatore, who lived his last years as a mortal, Elena marked the last of the living doppelgangers and descendants of Amara with her eventual death in the series finale in 2017.

Amara’s shadow mortal lineage included the first doppelganger, Tatia, thereafter, Katerina Petrova, and lastly Elena.

Amara had one additional doppelganger to Silas, who had Stefan Salvatore and Tom Avery as his shadow mortals, with Stefan being the last Salvatore doppelganger to die during the series finale.

What powers do doppelgangers have in The Vampire Diaries?

While doppelgangers were essentially human (since they were created as mortal shadows of the original mortals), they were still consequences of magic, and thus, were supernatural occurrences.

As a result, they had some form of supernatural powers. Mostly, their powers were in their blood, as the blood of a doppelganger could be used to link supernatural beings, or for powerful curses and spells, all of which had to be conducted by a witch.

Moreover, the blood of a doppelganger could be used to reverse powerful spells and curses. The most advantageous of the doppelganger blood was that of a human doppelganger.

What weaknesses do doppelgangers have in The Vampire Diaries?

Doppelgangers, in The Vampire Diaries universe, are considered the least powerful of the supernatural beings when compared to the vampires, witches, and werewolves.

This is because despite being supernatural occurrences, for all intents and purposes, they are still human. Therefore, they are susceptible to chronic illness and fatalities like most human beings.

Moreover, they are still susceptible to the spells and curses of witches, and in some instances, injury to one doppelganger could have an effect on other doppelgangers.

Final thoughts

The Vampire Diaries had only five doppelgangers throughout the entire universe. This included Amara’s doppelgangers, Tatia, Katerina Petrova and Elena Gilbert, as well as Silas’ doppelgangers, Stefan Salvatore, and Tom Avery.

By the end of the eight-season run of the series all the doppelgangers had died.

Doppelgangers were the creation of nature intended to restore balance in nature following the creation of the first immortal beings, Silas and Amara.

In light of the lovers breaking the rules of nature that everything must die, doppelgangers were created as shadow selves of the original immortals.