Caroline Forbes (novel)

Caroline Forbes (Full Name: Caroline Beula or Beulah Forbes) is a supporting female character of The Vampire Diaries novel series. She is the old childhood friend turned rival and enemy of Elena Gilbert. She is an eighteen year old human girl living in the supernatural town of Fell's Church along with Elena Gilbert, Bonnie McCullough, Meredith Sulez and Matt Honeycutt. She is also love interest of Tyler Smallwood. Caroline was also formerly good childhood friends with Bonnie McCullough and Meredith Sulez since the first grade.
Caroline and Elena used to be the closest of friends growing up since kindergarten, but the two girls became intense rivals and each other's competition in terms of popularity, boys and social status at their high school. She is in frequent competition with Elena for the title of "Queen of Robert E. Lee High." Caroline has shown that she is threatened by and extremely jealous and envious of Elena's popularity and beauty. Caroline was very jealous, resentful, envious and angered that Stefan Salvatore, the new, mysterious and extremely handsome new foreign student at Robert E. Lee High, whom every girl in all of the high school tried to gain the attention of, chose Elena over her. Because of Stefan's rejection of her, Caroline had plotted to get revenge alongside Tyler Smallwood, by stealing Elena's personal diary to help to expose Elena's thoughts and secrets at the Founder's Day parade. But her plot with Tyler had backfired on her and she ended up humiliated in the end. Stefan first dated Caroline while attending the Homecoming Dance, while he was trying to stay away from Elena due to his intense connection to her. Later on in the series, Caroline became pregnant by Tyler Smallwood (who is a werewolf), she blamed Matt Honeycutt for forcing himself on her and claiming that Matt was the father instead of Tyler. However, she truthfully admits to Bonnie and Meredith that the real father of her unborn children is indeed Tyler Smallwood. Caroline Forbes is now a werewolf, in a relationship with Tyler and raising their two children, Lucas and Brianna.
==Early History==
Caroline was born and raised in Fell's Church, Virginia, and she was childhood best friends with Elena Gilbert since the first grade. She was also close friends with Bonnie McCullough and Meredith Sulez. As they got older, Caroline and Elena started to become each other's competition and rivals, but remained good friends until their senior year at Robert E. Lee High School. Caroline has a younger brother named Daniel Forbes.
==The Original Series==
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|-|The Awakening=
Caroline was one of the people to greet Elena who had returned from France. She, like everyone else, goggled when Stefan Salvatore arrived at the school. She saw Elena give interest and reminded her she already had Matt Honeycutt. Caroline expressed interest in Stefan and cut her friendship off with Elena, stating that Elena had been the queen too long. Secretly, she started hanging out with Stefan, noticing that he never ate and told him she didn't either because of a diet. She had a laugh whenever Elena made a fool of herself in front of everyone because of Stefan. She went with Stefan to the Homecoming Dance, but he abandoned her to rescue Elena from Tyler Smallwood. Caroline was angered that Stefan chose Elena over her and plotted to get revenge and humiliate Elena. While Elena was at Bonnie's house with Meredith, Caroline stole Elena's Diary.
|-|The Struggle=
Elena and the other girls set out to find the diary thief. Despite Elena's initial inclination to blame Damon, they identify Caroline Forbes as the culprit. Elena follows Caroline at lunch into a deserted schoolroom where she overhears Caroline and Tyler Smallwood discuss how to use the diary against Stefan and Elena. Their plan is to wait until Elena is chosen to play "The Spirit of Fell's Church" during the annual Founder's Day ceremony. Caroline will also be chosen to play a role. At that time, she will walk on stage and read Elena's diary aloud to the crowd. Caroline and Tyler believe that Elena's statement in her diary that Stefan took her ribbon from the cemetery on the day the homeless man was attacked will suffice to prove to the police that Stefan is the murderer. Elena, Meredith, and Bonnie decide to burgle Caroline's house to retrieve the diary before she can use it on Founder's Day. When Caroline and her family return home, they are forced to flee without having found anything more than Caroline's diary. The latest plan is that Elena's friends will steal the diary back from Caroline because she will not be able to carry it in her nineteenth-century costume, but Caroline foils them by obtaining her reticule early and bringing the diary with her. When Caroline pulls out the diary to read onstage, though, she finds she brought her own diary and not Elena's. Elena spots Damon in the audience and realizes that he has saved her and Stefan by substituting the diaries.
|-|The Fury=
Caroline was in shock after witnessing Stefan's attack on Tyler and his friends. Stefan wiped her memory of the event, but she remained shaken. Her father had Alaric Saltzman, the new European History teacher who was really an experimental psychologist, hypnotize her to try and help her remember what had really happened. Caroline went as far as to remember something about Stefan, causing her father, Tyler and Vickie's father, as well as the fathers of the other victims to suspect what Stefan had done. They had Caroline contact Stefan and have her meet them at Robert E. Lee High School, but it was a trap. Stefan was already weak when they attacked but he was rescued by Damon (in wolf form), Elena (in the shadows), Meredith, Bonnie and Alaric. Alaric convinced the others to back off and asked Caroline if it really had been Stefan. Caroline wasn't too sure but admitted that it could have been Damon Smith, a guy who looked very similar to Stefan (in other words, Caroline thought it was Stefan's brother, Damon).
|-|Dark Reunion=
Caroline insists on throwing Meredith a birthday party against Bonnie's better judgment and invites Sue Carson and Vickie Bennett over to her room. Once Bonnie brought up her dream about Elena, the group decided to contact her using an Ouija board. Elena gave them a warning that danger was in the house and that they had to escape just as the power went out. The girls panicked. Caroline had to lead the way out of the house but got separated. She managed to get outside but was too frightened to go back inside. While outside, Sue was killed and Vickie was blamed. Caroline was frightened by the experience and left town with her parents for safety. Her friends didn't think this would help. Over time, Caroline was kidnapped by Tyler Smallwood, her ex-boyfriend and werewolf, and Klaus, an Original Vampire. Klaus sent her scarf to Stefan to let him know the circumstances and Stefan went to face him alone, leaving Matt, Meredith and Bonnie behind, but they were too stubborn to listen to him. They followed Stefan to the old abandoned Francher's Farm. Caroline was bound and gagged. While Stefan battled with Klaus and Matt fought with Tyler, Meredith went to rescue Caroline. After Klaus' defeat with the help of the Spirits of the Civil War, Elena was given a second chance at life. Caroline stripped off her dress to give to a newly reborn Elena and celebrated with the others that she had returned.
</tabber>
==The Return Series==
<tabber>
|-|Nightfall=
|-|Shadow Souls=
Meredith and Bonnie visited Caroline at her house. Caroline's room was dark because she refused any light there, and Caroline's behavior was peculiar. Whenever she got a temper, her voice sounded like a growl, and she avoided touching or going near the others. Meredith tries to convince Caroline to stop lying about who the real father of her children was because they all knew it was Tyler Smallwood, not Matt Honeycutt. Caroline refused to budge from her lie. As Meredith and Bonnie left, Bonnie told Meredith that when she entered the room, Caroline had grabbed her arm, but her fingernails felt like claws. Meredith tried to visit her again with Bonnie waiting outside. She walked in on Caroline eating what turned out to be worms and slugs. It was disgusting as she offered Meredith some and somehow, Meredith's mouth was filled with the "food." Meredith vomited as Caroline laughed and fled the house with Bonnie, who too had been affected, forcing Meredith to perform CPR on her.
|-|Midnight=
TBA
</tabber>
==The Hunters Series==
<tabber>
|-|Phantom=
|-|Moonsong=
TBA
|-|Destiny Rising=
Caroline has given birth to twins and devoted herself to motherhood. Caring more about her children than her own vanity, she encounters the gang in the woods and apologizes for her pettiness. She and Tyler then return to their camp.
</tabber>
==Appearance==
"It was Caroline, her auburn hair rich and glossy, her skin tanned to a perfect bronze. She was wearing a dress of pure gold lame that showed an incredibly daring amount of skin. She slipped one bare arm through Stefan's and smiled lazily up at him. They were stunning together, like a couple of international models slumming at a high school dance, far more glamorous and sophisticated than anyone else in the room."
Caroline is described to be as beautiful as a "Vogue" model: tall, well-built, and voluptuous, with a perfect bronze complexion that is maintained through bronzer or tan from a bottle. In terms of her height, she is extremely tall, being between 5'10" to 5'11" (about 6'1" to 6'2" with high heels). She has rich, glossy auburn-red hair, and her eyes are described as being very "catlike": slightly slanted and bright green in color with thick, long eyelashes. Her clothing is stylish and trendy, but at times seductive to show off her voluptuous figure and her perfect bronze complexion.
==Personality==
Caroline's personality is quite difficult to ascertain. Caroline only cares about what would benefit herself and she is a highly self-absorbed and selfish individual. She wants to have everything, such as popularity, the title of 'Queen Of Robert E. Lee High School', and she also wanted the new, gorgeous and mysterious student, Stefan Salvatore, who she eventually lost to Elena Gilbert. Throughout the novels, Caroline has only been seen to act catty adversarial to Elena so it could be said that Caroline is just deeply misunderstood. Elena notes that she and Caroline used to be the best of friends, though they developed a healthy rivalry for social status in their social group and who would be named "Queen of Robert E. Lee High School." Caroline also used to be friends with Bonnie McCullough and Meredith Sulez. Elena considered Caroline to be her closest friend when she was away in France and had said that she had missed her the most. However, at some point over the summer, while Elena was still in France, Caroline turned on her for reasons unknown to Elena (and thus unknown to the reader), and when Elena returns on the first day of school, she is met with a surprisingly cold reception from her former friend and newfound rival. Originally, Caroline Forbes wanted Stefan Salvatore for herself but Elena also had a significant interest in him as well. This caused the rivalry between them to heat up even more and become fiercely competitive. From what is displayed of Caroline's personality in the books, Caroline is extremely competitive, jealous, manipulative, cunning, selfish, shallow, calculating, deceitful, scheming, conniving, self-centered and seems to be willing to do anything in her power to get what she wants, regardless of legal or ethical implications. She takes social slights very personally, and seems to value social status above most other things. She is also manipulative, cunning, and selfish doing everything in her power to get what she wants. Caroline takes joy in plotting and scheming and she most definitely displays this in The Struggle, when she steals Elena's personal diary and plots with Tyler Smallwood, to read Elena's journal at the Founder's Day parade and expose all of Elena's inner thoughts and secrets. Caroline did this in order to get back at Elena for "stealing" Stefan away from her and Tyler joined forces with Caroline to get back at Stefan and Elena for Stefan beating him up at the Homecoming Dance. However, she does later on in the original series, seem to care whether people get hurt in her schemes, and soon came to realize her selfishness after Elena's death. After Elena's second and then-final death, Caroline seems to have a change of heart; she rejoins her old friends, Bonnie and Meredith, and stops speaking ill of Elena.
==Name==
*Caroline is a feminine first name of Old German origin, which means "free man". is a female form of "Carolus", which in turn is a Latin form of Charles, derived from the German world Karl, that means simply, "a free man".https://www.behindthename.com/name/caroline
**Variants of the name Caroline include Carlyn, Carolina, Carolyn, Karolyn (English), Carolin, Karolina, Karoline (German), Karolina (Scandinavian), and Carolien (Dutch).
*Beula is a feminine first name of Hebrew origin, meaning "bride".https://www.thebump.com/b/beula-baby-name
** Variants of Beula include Bella and Beyla. Other similar baby names are Seula, Della, Dela, Belle, Bel, Baila, Byla, Bayla, Beba, Bea, Beata, Beea, Bebba, Beda, Bell, Belva, Bellva, Bena, Bera, Beta, Betha, Betia, Betta, Byulah, Bulah, Bewlah, Beaulah, Billa, Buna, Breila, Keela, Cela, Ceila, Nella, Nela, Eula, Geila, Geela, Geulah, Giula, Hella, Belia, Jeyla, Keyla, Keala, Keila, Leala, Leola, Leila, Leyla, Lela, Leela, Lula, Mella, Mela, Neala, Neila, Nebula, Neola, Nula, Paula, Pella, Raula, Bekka, Becka, Rella, Sela, Seila, Sula, Shula, Tula, Teela, Oula and Yula.
*Forbes is a surname of Scottish and Irish origin, coming from the Gaelic forba meaning "field". This interesting surname has two distinct possible origins, one Scottish and the other Gaelic Irish. In the first instance, the name is of territorial origin from the lands of Forbes in Aberdeenshire, so called from the Gaelic "forba", a field or district, plus the local suffix "ais". These lands were granted to Duncan de Forbes by Alexander 111 in the latter part of the thirteenth century.https://www.behindthename.com/name/forbes
**Alternate surname spellings for Forbes include Forbs, Forbis, Faubus, Fobes, Forbess, Forbis, Forbish, Forbus, Forbush, Fordice, Fordyce, and Furbush.
==Powers and Abilities==
Because of Misao, Caroline is possessed by malach, giving her supernatural and demonic powers. Caroline's main purpose is to spread the malach into the other young women and girls in Fell's Church. She also scuttles across the ceiling like a lizard and is extremely strong. Since becoming pregnant with the children of a werewolf, Caroline is now a mix between werewolf and malach. It is shown that if a woman has a child of an activated werewolf, she turns into a werewolf as well. Caroline's fingernails have turned into claws.
==The Vampire Diaries==
In the television series, Caroline is portrayed by Candice Accola.
Caroline on the show initially had the same personality as her book counterpart, but has changed and become a much nicer, compassionate, understanding and kindhearted individual after she was turned into a vampire. Caroline attends Mystic Falls High School. She considers Bonnie Bennett to be her very best friend, and is frenemies with Elena Gilbert. She starts of shallow, but her relations with Damon Salvatore led to her starting to become a deeper and nicer person. Caroline's mother is the sheriff of Mystic Falls. After a car accident, Damon fed her his blood, and she was killed by Katherine Pierce, thus turning her into a vampire after she completed the transition by feeding on human blood. Physically, Caroline is naturally beautiful. She usually wears feminine clothes, nice shirts and skirts, but throughout the other part of Season One, she wears more trousers. As the series has progressed, her style changed dramatically, from a girly style to a more natural look. When first introduced, Caroline dressed very girly and wore bright colors with different hairstyles to suit her outfit. Caroline's style has changed dramatically, having turned darker since she turned into a vampire, but stayed natural as well.
At the beginning of Season Two, her clothes were more edgy and striking, but throughout Season 2, she has worn more mature clothes. Personality wise, Caroline is strong and determined, much like her mother, Sheriff Forbes. She is extremely loyal and protective of her friends. She has a sensitive and loving nature. Despite having a confident exterior, underneath it all, Caroline was very insecure to begin with and upset that she could never say the right thing to make guys fall for her. This tends to make her an overachiever at times, creating flaws and complexities in her character, leading to various matters that factor into her development as she overcomes them. Especially when it came to Elena, as she always felt she was in Elena's shadow, and she seems very jealous of Elena. She considers Elena her competition when it comes to life in general. Over time, she and Elena grew much closer, and Caroline overcame these insecurities and became confident in herself. Becoming a vampire made her see the world in a different light, with her maturing as well. She became much more strong-willed, and people feared her because she was an unpredictable vampire and very strong for her age. She becomes much more responsible and protective, especially proven when she comforted Tyler on the night of his first full moon and refused to leave him, despite knowing one bite would kill her. Ironically, she appreciates life more since becoming a vampire. She was formerly in a relationships with Matt Donovan and Tyler Lockwood also Stefan Salvatore before they broke up for her safety as she has surrogate twin daughters to care for.
==Trivia==
*Caroline's birthday is May 8 and her astrological sign is Taurus.
*Caroline in the TV series is a much different character from the Caroline in the novels, not only in terms of appearance, but also personality and prominence. The novel Caroline is red-haired, green-eyed, and tanned-skinned, and turned against her friends because of her jealousy, until motherhood made her see the error of her ways and become a better person. The TV Caroline, on the other hand, is blonde-haired, blue-eyed, and white-skinned, and never turned against her friends despite her tendency to be insensitive and competitive, and her transition into a vampire actually made her become a better person altogether. In the TV series, her middle name is Elizabeth rather than Beula/Beulah.
*Caroline was seen as an enemy by Elena, Bonnie, and Meredith throughout the novels until The Hunters: Destiny Rising, where it was revealed that she had changed enough that she cared more for her children than her looks, and acknowledged that she had no one to blame but herself for her friends turning against her.
==References==
==See also==
Category:Novel Characters
Category:Female Characters
Category:Recurring Characters
Category:Supernatural
Category:Werewolves