A Physical Tour of the Ages: Vampire Diaries (Whitney Hadzima)

"For over a century, I have lived in secret. Until now. I know the risk but I have to know her." - Stefan Salvatore

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 **Introduction**

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Since the beginning of mankind there has been communication. Humans have always found ways to document our findings from the big kill on Tuesday down to even the small everyday victories (like a diary). The oldest cave art found is said to be from around 35,400 years ago in pre-historic times. We have always written down our experiences, but somewhere along the way the pictures turned into symbols. With this transition, the world was tied between those that could afford an education and those that had to have their children work for money and help around the family farm. But, thanks to this struggle, folklore became very popular. Children would gather around their grandparents to hear stories from when they were little, whether they were true or just passed on from the generation before, the stories on the cave walls continued to live through the mouth of the storyteller. It wasn’t until Martin Luther came up with his Ninety-five Theses in 1517 that the idea was put out for children to at least learn how to read. Eventually—four-hundred years later, in 1918—children were
required to have an elementary education regardless of their household income. The folklore became novels when the children grew up with their ability to read and
write and so the novels became movies amongst television shows.
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Throughout the centuries, there have been tales of the undead looming in the shadows of every supernatural guru’s mind ready to jump out at anyone that would listen. Ever since the middle ages, the thought of vampires increased tremendously. Given the outbreak of the plague, people were coming down with porphyria—a blood disorder that, when exposed to sunlight, causes severe blisters on the skin. As time drug on, people began to evolve both physically and mentally leaving the myths on the back burner until 1896 when a French filmmaker created the three-minute film *Le Manoir Du Diable* based on the horror of the blood drinkers. Over a hundred years later, there have been over four hundred movies and TV shows combined created out of these creatures of the night. They have been romanticized and used for horror, sometimes separately and other times all in the same movie or show. *The Vampire Diaries* is a television show that has used both horror and romanticism to reach its viewers. It was based off the fiction novels written by L. J. Smith that exploit the good side and the bad side of these creepy demons. For eight years the show brought its viewers through a multitude of highs, lows, and gut-wrenching facts of the past and present for the main characters.

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Based in Mystic Falls, Virginia, the story is all about the founders’ council trying to fight against the rule of vampires in their beloved town, similar to what the founders of the town did back in the 1800s. *The Vampire Diaries* is a TV show based on the novels, *The Vampire Diaries* by L. J. Smith. The series takes its viewers through the life of a teenage doppelgänger (Elena), four vampires (Stefan, Damon, Caroline, and Enzo), a werewolf turned hybrid (Tyler), an evil hybrid original (Klaus), a powerful witch (Bonnie), two vampire slayers (Alaric and Jeremy), and a mortal (Matt). Throughout the plot, Stefan goes rogue with Klaus while he is building up his hybrid army to save Damon, which in return puts an everlasting wedge between him and Elena and sends her into Damon’s waiting arms.

## **Knowledge Communities**

### **Fandoms**

Interesting enough, there is not a specific name
to identify the fans of *The Vampire*
Diaries *because none of the fans can agree on a term. Without fans there would be no shows to watch, but the fandom*
culture is another league of devotion. Surprisingly, fandoms have been around
for almost a hundred years:

“One more of the oldest literary fandoms is *Joyceans*. This is the fandom of the
famous Irish writer James Joyce, and particularly his famous book “Ulysses”.
 27 June 1924 James Joyce wrote a letter to Miss Weaver in which he
mentioned: “There is a group of people who observe what they call Bloom’s day –
16 June”. It was the first time,
then people (organized by John Ryan (artist, critic, publican and founder of
Envoy magazine) and the novelist Brian O’Nolan) had a symbolical walking in the
places the main character of the book “Ulysses” Leopold Bloom spend his time.
The first Bloom’s day was held on the 50th anniversary of the event
in the novel, which also took place on the 16th of June. Nowadays, for more
than 90 years people throw-out the world is still gathering together to
celebrate this day. The celebration itself consist of reading the book,
theatrical representation and etc. Of course, aside from that, Joyceans are
well-known by their fan fictions too.”

Even
in the twenties people were devoted to celebrating their favorite pass-time choice
of entertainment. It is amazing to see fans care so deeply about fictitious characters,
especially in *The Vampire Diaries.* Videography
has taken off and skyrocketed over the last century and because of this, people
now feel like they are actually *in*
the movie or TV show. Television shows that know how to channel pathos go far
because people like to relate to things. The more “relatable” a show is, the
more viewers the show is going to receive. *The*
Vampire Diaries *is extensive because the* fandom site is massive. Fans have come together from all walks of life and
compiled all this information into one large data base and each sub-sub-section
has discussions going on. But, this isn’t the only way fans connect.

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### **Social Media Connections**

Fans
connect through the fan Facebook and Twitter page where all the memorabilia are
now posted since the show quit airing last year, in 2017. But, it’s not just
the fans that are using the social media to pick points out from the show. The
stars of the show have used social media platforms to give out details of their
upcoming seasons. For example, Nina Dobrev—the actress that plays Elena Gilbert—posted
on her Instagram account that both her and Michael Trevino (Tyler Lockwood)
were leaving the show back in April of 2015 (right before season 6 ended). Fans
were in mourning and completely heartbroken that Nina—given her important role—would
just leave the show. Some fans were saying things like, “Nina leaving TVD for me is 10 times worse than Zayn leaving One
Direction,” and, “I just don't understand how they will continue
the show without one of the main/major character.” Fans
were distraught and seriously did not understand how Plec was going to fix the
issue.

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## **Remediation**

### **The Originals**

*The Originals* is a spin-off of the infamous *Vampire Diaries*, the show picked up from
season four of the show when they made a pilot episode within the season. The series
follows vampire-werewolf hybrid Klaus Mikaelson as he and his family of fellow originals become
embroiled in the supernatural politics of New Orleans. The show began to
air October 3, 2013 and the final season began to air April 18 of this year—2018.
Over the course of five years, this show has had millions of viewers; although it
was popular, it wasn’t as popular as *The*
Vampire Diaries*. But, in 2014, the show had their very own Joseph Morgan—Klaus—win*
a People’s Choice Award for “Favorite Actor in a New Series,” and *The Originals* has been nominated for
multiple other awards every year they have been on the air.

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### **Legacies**

*Legacies* is an American television drama series, created by Julie Plec, that premiered on
October 25, 2018 on The CW. It is a spin-off of *The Originals* and *The Vampire Diaries* and features characters from both series. Danielle Rose Russell stars as the
17-year-old Hope Mikaelson. Russell began portraying
the teenaged Hope in the fifth and final season of *The*
Originals*. Matt Davis—Alaric—also features*
prominently in the series, bringing back his role as Alaric
Saltzman from *The Vampire Diaries*. The show is
currently on season one and each episode has had over a million viewers, so for
a spin-off of a spin-off it is doing fairly well with keeping all its viewers
wanting more. So far there has only been five episodes, so it will be hard to
predict if the show will sink or swim.

## **Authorial Intention**

### **The Novels**

*The Vampire Diaries* TV show started while the last nine books of the original novel series were being written, but that didn’t stop Smith. *The Vampire Diaries* is a young adult vampire, romance, and horror sequence of novels created and written by Lisa Jane Smith in 1991. With pressure, she wrote the first four by the end of 1992. The series’ first three books of the four original publications were from Elena and Stefan’s perspective and the fourth one was from Bonnie’s view. Although
Smith wrote the first seven books, she had two different ghostwriters—Aubrey Clark (books 11-13) and an unknown writer (books 8-10)—write the rest of her story and because she did this Alloy (her packaging company) owned all the copyrights to *The Vampire Diaries*. The whole series lasted from September 1991 through May 2014. Smith even got a nomination for ‘Favorite Book,’ in the 2010 Kids’ Choice Awards. Unfortunately, L. J. Smith was fired from her packaging company because her services, "were not needed," anymore. Afterwards,
she decided to continue her works in the fan fiction world.

### **Did the TV show do the book justice?**

The Television show had some of the same scenarios which
happened in the book, but for the most part the book is very different. In
2009, Kevin Williamson and Julie Plec signed a contract with The CW to make
this series come to life. Instead of staying with Fell’s Church, Virginia, the
developers changed it to Mystic Falls, Virginia, and a lot of the characters
have either different last names or different names altogether.
For example, Bonnie McCullough is actually Bonnie Bennet, Judith Maxwell is Elena’s
aunt—Jenna Sommers—and Jeremy (Elena’s brother) doesn’t even exist because in
the book he is a baby girl named Margaret. After research, the two mediums of
this series do not match up very well.

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## **References**

1. ↑ "Pilot". *The Vampire Diaries.* The CW. Warner Bros., British Columbia. 10 Sep. 2009. Television
2. ↑ History.com Editors. Vampire History. (2017, September 13). Retrieved from https://www.history.com/topics/folklore/vampire-history .
3. ↑ **Medkult. (2016, Mar. 8). The beginning of the fan**
movement: brief history of the first fandoms. Retrieved from http://medkult.upmedia.cz/2016/08/03/the-beginning-of-the-fan-movement-brief-history-of-the-first-fandoms/
4. ↑ modernity
has failed us. “nina leaving tvd for
me is 10 times worse than zayn leaving 1D. #TVD #NinaDobrevForeverOurPetrova”. 9:31
AM - Apr 7, 2015. (Tweet)
5. ↑ Character
(Faith. “I just don't understand how they will continue the show without one of
the main/major character!? #TVD #WeWillMissYouNina”. 9:30
AM - Apr 7, 2015. (Tweet)
6. ↑ 6.0 6.1 The Vampire Diaries (the novel). (2018, May 11). Retrieved from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The\_Vampire\_Diaries\_(novel\_series)#Publishing\_history.
7. ↑ Salt Lake Magazine. (2012, Oct. 27). Q&A: The Vampire Diaries Creator L.J. Smith on Writing and Losing the Series. Retrieved from https://www.saltlakemagazine.com/qa-the-vampire-diaries-creator-l-j-smith-on-writing-and-losing-the-series/
8. ↑ The
Vampire Diaries (Novel Series). Retrieved from https://vampirediaries.wikia.com/wiki/The\_Vampire\_Diaries\_(novel\_series)#Book\_Characters