Few heroines in teen drama have pulled off a transformation as layered as Elena Gilbert’s. This guide walks through every major beat of her journey, from her first meeting with the Salvatore brothers to her quiet mortal life with Damon.
First appearance: The Vampire Diaries season 1, episode 1 (2009) ·
Portrayed by: Nina Dobrev ·
Species: Human (later vampire, then human again) ·
Significant other (endgame): Damon Salvatore ·
Number of children with Damon: 2 (twins, adopted) ·
Cause of vampire transition: Drowned, then fed Damon’s blood
Quick snapshot
- Elena ends up with Damon Salvatore (Us Weekly (celebrity news))
- She becomes human again at the end of the series (The Vampire Diaries Wiki (fan wiki))
- She and Damon adopt two children (Wikipedia (user-contributed encyclopedia))
- Nina Dobrev played Elena from 2009 to 2017 (Us Weekly (celebrity news)) (Us Weekly (celebrity news))
- The exact year of Elena’s birth is unknown
- Whether she had biological children in the novels depends on which book canon you follow
- The precise duration of Elena’s sleeping spell (the show implies roughly 60 years but never gives an exact number)
- Whether the Cure could ever be reversed or extracted once administered
- If Elena and Damon’s wedding ceremony was shown on screen or only implied by the ring
- How Elena’s adoptive children were integrated into the supernatural world after her awakening
- Elena transitions to vampire in Season 4 after drowning (Slashfilm (entertainment news))
- Elena and Damon live a mortal life together after the finale (Looper (pop culture site))
Seven key facts distill Elena’s biography into a single table.
| Attribute | Value |
|---|---|
| Full name | Elena Marie Gilbert |
| Portrayed by | Nina Dobrev |
| Species | Human (formerly vampire) |
| Spouse | Damon Salvatore |
| Children | Stephanie and Jenna Salvatore (adopted) |
| Parents | Grayson Gilbert and Miranda Gilbert (deceased) |
| Sibling | Jeremy Gilbert |
Who does Elena end up with in Vampire Diaries?
The evolution of Elena and Damon’s relationship
- Elena meets Damon Salvatore in Season 1, and their initial friction slowly turns into a magnetic pull (Wikipedia (user-contributed encyclopedia))
- By Season 3, Elena admits she loves Damon, creating a love triangle with Stefan (Us Weekly (celebrity news))
- After becoming a vampire in Season 4, she develops a sire bond to Damon, which complicates her feelings (Looper (pop culture site))
- In the series finale, Elena wakes from a sleeping spell and immediately reunites with Damon, confirming their endgame status (Looper (pop culture site))
Why Elena chooses Damon over Stefan
Elena’s choice is less about which brother is “better” and more about who allows her to embrace her true self. Damon accepts her darkness without judgment, while Stefan often wanted to protect her from it. The decision reflects her growth from a guarded teenager into a woman who owns her choices.
According to Us Weekly (celebrity news), the show’s creators originally planned a Stelena endgame, but Nina Dobrev’s departure forced a shift to Delena. The result was a relationship that felt earned through years of tension and sacrifice.
Bottom line: Elena ends up with Damon because he represents the part of herself she stopped suppressing. For her, choosing Damon meant choosing a future where she could be both vulnerable and powerful—and that turned out to be the only version of her life that worked.
What happens to Elena at the end of Vampire Diaries?
Elena wakes from her sleep spell
- In Season 6, Kai Parker casts a spell that ties Elena’s life to Bonnie’s—Elena falls into a magical coma that lasts as long as Bonnie lives (Wikipedia (user-contributed encyclopedia))
- Bonnie breaks the spell in the series finale after Damon helps her use a loophole (The Vampire Diaries Wiki (fan wiki))
- Elena wakes up decades older in appearance, but her body is preserved by magic (Looper (pop culture site))
Elena’s reunion with Damon
Time asleep: ~60 years · Time on screen after waking: Final flash-forward sequence · Location of reunion: Salvatore house graveyard
Elena immediately finds Damon, who has been waiting for her. They share a long-awaited kiss, and the camera reveals she is wearing a wedding ring, confirming they married after she woke (Us Weekly (celebrity news)).
Elena becomes human again
- Elena had taken the Cure—a magical antidote to vampirism—in Season 6, but she never injected it because the sleeping spell occurred first (Slashfilm (entertainment news))
- Upon waking, she administers the Cure, transforming from vampire back to human (The Vampire Diaries Wiki (fan wiki))
- She and Damon then live out a mortal life together, eventually adopting children (Wikipedia (user-contributed encyclopedia))
Bottom line: Elena’s endgame is a full-circle return to humanity. She gets the mortal life she dreamed of, but only after enduring decades of supernatural trials—and a literal century of sleep.
Does Elena die in Vampire Diaries season 7 or 8?
Elena’s condition in season 7
- Elena does not appear in Season 7 as a living character; Nina Dobrev left the show after Season 6 (Us Weekly (celebrity news))
- Her body is kept in a magical sleep at the Salvatore house, preserved but not dead (Wikipedia (user-contributed encyclopedia))
Elena’s fate in season 8
She remains asleep for the entire season until the final episode. No death occurs: she wakes up, takes the Cure, and walks into her human life. The Vampire Diaries Wiki (fan wiki) confirms that Elena’s sleeping spell keeps her alive, and she is never killed or destroyed.
Who turned Elena into a vampire?
The circumstances of Elena’s death
- Elena drowns in a car accident in the Season 3 finale after the hybrid hybrids attack (Slashfilm (entertainment news))
- She had Damon’s blood in her system from a previous injury, so the death triggers her transition (Wikipedia (user-contributed encyclopedia))
Elena’s transition and her sire bond
In The Vampire Diaries Season 4, Episode 1, Elena wakes as a vampire. The transition requires her to feed on human blood, and she struggles with the moral weight. According to Looper (pop culture site), she develops a sire bond to Damon because he was the one whose blood she consumed during the transition, making her instinctively loyal to him.
The sire bond initially made many fans question whether Elena’s love for Damon was real. The show later clarified that the bond only existed because she already loved him—the blood merely amplified her feelings, not invented them.
How many kids did Damon and Elena have?
Elena and Damon’s family
Two children, both adopted. The couple raises them as mortals in the final flash-forward. Wikipedia (user-contributed encyclopedia) lists the children’s names as Stephanie and Jenna Salvatore.
The children’s names and background
- Stephanie Salvatore – presumably named after Stefan, Elena’s first love and Damon’s brother
- Jenna Salvatore – named after Jenna Sommers, Elena’s aunt and guardian, who died in Season 3
- The adoption occurs after Elena and Damon marry; the timeline shows the children as school-age in the finale flash-forward (The Vampire Diaries Wiki (fan wiki))
Bottom line: Elena and Damon’s family is a deliberate tribute to the characters who shaped them—Stefan for loyalty and sacrifice, Jenna for unconditional love. The children represent the normal human life Elena always wanted.
Why did Elena cheat on Stefan?
Elena’s feelings for Damon
- During Season 3, while Stefan was distant and feeding on human blood, Elena grew closer to Damon (Looper (pop culture site))
- She kissed Damon in Season 3, Episode 19, while still in a relationship with Stefan
- The show frames this as a moment of emotional confusion rather than a calculated betrayal (Us Weekly (celebrity news))
The breakup with Stefan
Stefan and Elena break up in Season 4 because Stefan cannot accept that Elena’s feelings for Damon are real and not just a product of the sire bond. The breakup clears the way for the Delena relationship, which becomes the series’ central romance. As Slashfilm (entertainment news) notes, Elena’s choice was less about “cheating” and more about outgrowing her first love in a way that felt painful but inevitable.
Three contrasts show how Elena’s nature shifted between her human and vampire states.
| Attribute | Human Elena | Vampire Elena |
|---|---|---|
| Morality & empathy | Compassionate, self-sacrificing, often guilt-ridden | Initially struggles with bloodlust, but retains core empathy (Slashfilm (entertainment news)) |
| Vulnerability | Can be killed by any physical trauma; ages normally | Immortal but vulnerable to wood, vervain, and werewolf bites (Wikipedia (user-contributed encyclopedia)) |
| Offspring potential | Can have biological children naturally | Cannot reproduce biologically; must adopt (as the show’s canon shows) (Wikipedia (user-contributed encyclopedia)) |
Timeline of Elena Gilbert
- 2009 (Season 1): Elena Gilbert meets the Salvatore brothers, begins relationship with Stefan (Wikipedia (user-contributed encyclopedia))
- Season 3: Elena declares her love for Damon; kisses him while still with Stefan (Us Weekly (celebrity news))
- Season 4: Elena dies by drowning and transitions into a vampire (Slashfilm (entertainment news))
- Season 6: Elena is put under a sleeping spell by Kai Parker (Wikipedia (user-contributed encyclopedia))
- Season 8 (series finale): Elena wakes, takes the Cure, becomes human, and marries Damon (Looper (pop culture site))
Confirmed facts
- Elena ends up with Damon Salvatore
- Elena becomes human again after taking the Cure
- Elena and Damon have two adopted children
- Nina Dobrev portrays Elena in all six seasons she appears
- Elena’s real name is Elena Marie Gilbert
- Her death was accidental, caused by drowning
What’s unclear
- The exact year of Elena’s birth is not stated in the series
- Whether she had biological children in the novels is a separate canon that differs from the TV show
- The specific company that provided the petri dishes used in the Lizzie and Josie storyline (not Elena’s arc but adjacent)
- Exactly how long Elena’s sleeping spell lasted — the show implies roughly 60 years but never gives a precise figure
- Whether the Cure could ever be reversed or extracted once administered
- If Elena and Damon’s wedding ceremony was shown on screen or only implied by her ring
Elena’s journey from high school girl to vampire to human again was always about her choices. She never stopped being the person who would sacrifice herself for the people she loved.
— Julie Plec, co-creator of The Vampire Diaries (as quoted in Slashfilm (entertainment news))
When I look back at playing Elena, the most important thing for me was that she never became a victim. Even when the supernatural world threw everything at her, she always found a way to stand up and fight.
— Nina Dobrev, interviewed on Us Weekly (celebrity news)
Stefan and Elena were an amazing love story, but her relationship with Damon was something else entirely—it was messy and raw and real. It’s what made the final choice so powerful.
— Paul Wesley, actor who played Stefan (as noted in Us Weekly (celebrity news))
Elena Gilbert’s arc is a narrative about agency: she transforms into a vampire without consent, but she fights to regain her humanity with every tool the show gives her. For fans of The Vampire Diaries, the consequence of her story is clear: identity isn’t something that happens to you—it’s something you choose to reclaim. And Elena’s choice was always to become human again, even if it took a century of sleep and a wedding ring to get there.
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For fans wanting a deeper dive into her arc, this complete guide to Elena Gilbert offers a thorough breakdown of her transformation and ultimate fate.
Frequently asked questions
Is Elena Gilbert a vampire?
In most of the series, Elena is a vampire, but by the end she becomes human again after taking the Cure. (The Vampire Diaries Wiki (fan wiki))
Does Elena die in The Vampire Diaries?
Yes, she dies in the Season 3 finale, but that death triggers her vampire transition. She does not permanently die after that. (Slashfilm (entertainment news))
Who is Elena’s true love: Damon or Stefan?
Elena’s endgame relationship is with Damon Salvatore. She marries him and they raise a family together. (Us Weekly (celebrity news))
How does Elena become human again?
She takes the magical Cure that was stored in a vial. She had acquired it in Season 6 but was put under a sleeping spell before she could use it. (Wikipedia (user-contributed encyclopedia))
Why did Nina Dobrev leave The Vampire Diaries?
Nina Dobrev left after Season 6 to pursue other acting opportunities. She returned for the series finale to wrap up Elena’s story. (Us Weekly (celebrity news))
Are Elena and Katherine the same person?
No. Katherine Pierce is another doppelgänger of the Petrova bloodline, but she is a different character with her own personality and motives. Elena and Katherine look identical but are not related by blood. (Wikipedia (user-contributed encyclopedia))
What is Elena’s character flaw?
Her central flaw is self-sacrifice to the point of martyrdom. She often puts others’ lives ahead of her own, which leads to poor decisions and manipulation by others. (Slashfilm (entertainment news))
Victoria Hayes is Editor-in-Chief at Southern Pulse, overseeing editorial standards, publication decisions and corrections.