Elena Gilbert

(Biological Father/Adoptive Paternal Uncle)

* Isobel Flemming (Biological Mother)
* Grayson Gilbert † (Paternal Uncle/Adoptive Father)
* Miranda Sommers-Gilbert † (Paternal Aunt/Adoptive Mother)
* Jenna Sommers (Adoptive Maternal Aunt)

**Elena Gilbert** is the main female protagonist of *The Shadow of the Eternals*. At the beginning of the series, Elena appears to be a regular human girl, but is then revealed to be a Petrova doppelgänger.

Elena was described as a star student. She was popular, sporty, smart, compassionate, empathetic, caring and friendly. She could be very vulnerable and a damsel in distress.

Elena is best friends with Farrah Maerian, Caroline Forbes, and Matt Donovan. She has a major crush on Stefan Salvatore but soon falls in love with Damon Salvatore the once believed to be dead brother of Stefan. Her actions and beliefs throughout the series have been most influenced by her on-and-off romantic relationships with the Salvatore brothers, as well as by her antagonistic relationship with Katerina Petrova.

## Early Life

### 2000s

Elena was born on June 22, 2005, in Mystic Falls and lived there peacefully for 16 years, with her parents, Miranda and Grayson Gilbert. They led a quiet small town life, free of the supernatural. However, in Season One Elena learns that she was adopted and her biological parents are John Gilbert, her uncle, and Isobel Flemming. John's brother Grayson and his wife Miranda, who desperately wanted to have children but were having difficulties conceiving, adopted Elena following her birth. Because Grayson was a doctor, he was able to tamper with the birth records, making himself and Miranda appear as Elena's biological parents on her birth certificate. If anyone ever became suspicious, they would have the birth certificate as documentation proof.

### 2018

On December 22, 2018, Elena was fifteen years old and a freshman at Mystic Falls High School and was helping her town prepare for the Mystic Falls Lighting of the Tree Ceremony. While she was making hot chocolate, Farrah threw a snowball at Elena and revealed that her father was taking her on a trip, meaning that Bonnie would miss Christmas with her friends. Caroline also got excited when Elena revealed that she was going to convince her parents to let Farrah stay for the holidays as they had never spent a holiday away from each other.

### 2019-2020

During her sophomore year, Elena had a relationship with Matt Donovan, her oldest friend with whom she formerly shared a crib. At a bonfire, the two of them get into an argument where, afterwards, she calls her parents to pick her up. While waiting to be picked up, she meets Damon Salvatore who originally confuses her with Katherine. He tells her she wants a love that consumes her as well as passion, adventure, and even a little danger when she admits she doesn't know what she wants. Damon then compels her to forget their meeting. Elena's parents then arrive to pick her up.

After Elena's parents pick her up from the bonfire, their car unexpectedly drives off Wickery Bridge. Stefan Salvatore, who is nearby, hears the crash and saves an unconscious Elena at Grayson's insistence. Stefan's unable to save her parents and takes Elena to the shore where she's found, with everyone believing Elena somehow made it out of the car and made it to shore. Afterwards, she breaks up with Matt and she begin to live with her aunt, Jenna Sommers, who became her legal guardian.

After her parents death Elena shut everyone else out to deal with her parents' deaths. Elena moved into Elizabeth Forbes house for a awhile as Jenna wasn't up to the task yet. Liz took her to school as well as tried to cook for them but wasn't good at it, just like Elena's adoptive mother/aunt Miranda.

## Personality

As a human, Elena's the sociable popular girl in school and the girl next door. She's compassionate, caring, empathetic, kind, intelligent, beautiful, friendly but she can also be pushy, judgmental, selfish, at times prying into other peoples' business, Elena is also athletic and a cheerleader. Her favorite hobby is writing in her journal and says that she's always wanted to be a writer. Elena's "dark side" from the books as a human is never explored because it "didn't ever feel like a characteristic" the show wanted for their heroine. Elena's actual dark side is her "deep, deep connection to other people". Elena's always surrounded by drama. She's always helping around in her community events and Caroline calls her the mothering type.

Like her mother before her, Elena believes in family, honor, loyalty and community. She is shown to be consistently polite, calm and composed, though prone to great anxiety and panic. Despite being something of a skeptic, she has a vivid internal life. She is extremely introverted. She is brave and self-sacrificing, though much of her willingness to save others seems to come from survivor's guilt over her parent's death. She has a strong back bone and never displays a sense of inferiority. However, Elena can also be a hypocrite, and gradually becomes more and more self-absorbed as the seasons continue, but undergoes several huge changes due to trauma, stress, loss and finally healing. Elena exalts personal choice and is known for her forgiving nature.

Before her parents' death, Elena used to be "way more fun" and "into everything, very busy", all things described by her best friend Caroline Forbes.

## Physical Appearance

Physically, Elena is a very beautiful and attractive young woman with an oval face, light olive complexion, almond-shaped brown eyes which are sometimes described as doe-eyes, and long dark brown hair. Her height is 5'6"(168 cm), and she has a slim, slightly athletic physique. Elena has an uncanny physical resemblance to her ancestor and doppelgänger, Katerina Petrova, who often poses as Elena in order to trick others. However, even though Elena and Katherine look exactly the same in terms of physical appearance, there are some slight differences between the two in terms of fashion and style, and especially personality.

In terms of fashion sense, while Elena's human, she's much more casual, sporty and "girl next door" and doesn't wear a lot of make up or favor fashionable clothing unless attending a formal event. Elena favors wearing dark blue jeans with t-shirts of various colors and Converse sneakers. Elena primarily wears fashionable clothing or dresses up for special occasions or formal events. Katherine's fashion sense or style, on the other hand, is much more high maintenance, expensive and trendy. Another distinct difference between Elena and Katherine's physical appearance is that Elena always wears her hair straight with a middle part in which Katherine doesn't like, while Katherine wears her hair curly. However, Katherine often straightens her hair in order to fool people when she's posing as Elena. Elena wore a special necklace containing the herb vervain in it as a human, which is really Esther's talisman, which cannot be destroyed; it was given to Elena by Stefan to protect her from compulsion.

## Powers and Abilities

While Elena is just like any other human Elena is also a doppelgänger meaning, her blood can be used for various spells, particularly the magic stripping spell. Elena being a Doppelgänger which means her blood in an unlimited (while she's alive) source of power for witches and siphoners as well.

## Weaknesses

Elena possesses all the typical weaknesses of a human.