Every major death in The Vampire Diaries, ranked by emotional impact

An extremely small set of TV shows have managed to keep their audiences hooked, like The Vampire Diaries.

TVD is an electrifying mixed bag of supernatural lore, horror, love, and teen drama. The show has been created by Julie Plec and is an adaptation based on L.J. Smith’s book series titled with the same name.

The Vampire Diaries had its premiere on The CW Network in 2009, and it instantly turned out to be the network’s most-watched debut TV show, sealing its place as a once-in-a-lifetime type phenomenon, especially for fans of the Vampires from Mystic Falls.

Set in the town of Mystic Falls, Virginia, The Vampire Diaries follows through with the journey of Elena Gilbert. On the face of it, she's an ordinary high school teenage girl whose life takes a sweeping swirl when she falls in love with Stefan Salvatore, a vampire who spans across time.

However, with the iconic dialogue “Hello Brother,” Elena and Stefan’s story spins into spirals even further with the entry of Stefan’s older and alluring brother, Damon Salvatore. What begins as a sweet high school love story soon begins to swirl into many intense battles amongst supernatural creatures.

Eventually, as The Vampire Diaries gains momentum, Mystic Falls turns into a theater of war for supernatural creatures like vampires, of course, along with witches, werewolves, and several other ancient beings that span across the rest of the seasons.

One of the most central features of the show that sends its fans into a frenzy is the show's grave and emotional stakes, specifically when it comes to characters in the show dying left, right, and center.

One good thing about The Vampire Diaries is that, contrasting to several other TV shows and films, where death is ultimate and binding, TVD portrayed death in distinctive ways where some characters dying were eternal and final, while others led to supernatural revivals.

Nevertheless, irrespective of whether a character came back to the land of the living, the burden of their loss has a long-term impact on the other characters as well as on fans who relish watching TVD.

In this article, we try and explore some of the most tear-jerking deaths in The Vampire Diaries and the emotional heaviness that made these departures so memorable.

---

TOP EMOTIONAL DEATHS IN THE VAMPIRE DIARIES

1. Enzo St. John

Enzo St. John, at first brought in as a foe to the rest of the gang and as Damon Salvatore’s inmate from a prison from the 1950s, became an indispensable part of the show and a cherished character.

After undergoing years and years of torment and duplicity, Enzo ultimately happened to find happiness and love with Bonnie Bennett, establishing one of the most wholesome relationships on The Vampire Diaries.

Nonetheless, just as Enzo and Bonnie were arranging a beautiful future together, misfortune knocked on their door in the form of Stefan Salvatore falling under the influence and manipulation of Sybil—an evil siren.

Under the effect of his “ripper” impulses, Stefan quite literally ripped out Enzo’s heart from his chest, leaving Bonnie standing there destroyed and helpless. After enduring numerous losses and deaths, Bonnie was made to yet again witness the love of her life fall flat-out dead in front of her.

Enzo dying was remarkably excruciating for the reason that he had ultimately found Bonnie and a reason to live, marking his death to be all the more distressing for Bonnie and fans alike.

2. Bonnie Bennett

Bonnie Bennett was the one character who died and was resurrected several times just to sacrifice herself to save other characters on the show. However, the most shattering one of them all was when she came through to save Jeremy while giving her life to him in the wake of resurrecting him.

While paying no heed to forewarnings given to her by her grandma's spirit, Bonnie ended up using a tremendous volume of expression magic to bring Jeremy back to life, now giving him the ability to see ghosts. Even though at first she appeared to be safe and sound, the spell eventually claimed her soul on the other side.

What made Bonnie dying even more disheartening in The Vampire Diaries was that none of her friends straightway fathomed she was gone. Jeremy was the only one who could see her after her passing due to his newly gained ability to see ghosts due to Bonnie’s spell.

At her appeal, Jeremy maintained conversations via text with her friends while maintaining the deception that she was still alive and spending some time with her mother.

When the actuality of Bonnie being dead was made known at last, the guilty conscience and grief among her friends, especially Elena and Caroline, were immeasurable.

Bonnie’s death was just another instance of how she recurrently sacrificed herself for her friends. Even though she was later brought back to life, the pain she underwent throughout the entire series continued to be one of the most emotional aspects of the show.

3. Stefan Salvatore

Stefan Salvatore’s death in the CW show finale to this day is one of the weepiest moments in The Vampire Diaries, especially for his family and fans who are #TeamStefan. Regardless of juggling with death several times, his last act of sacrifice well defined his character that fans have known from the beginning of Season 1.

Coming to the realization that his home, Mystic Falls, is in serious peril, Stefan takes it upon himself to safeguard the entire town. As his final act of love towards Damon, he injects Damon with the cure to vampirism and gives himself up along with Katherine Pierce to annihilate the hellfire spread in Mystic Falls.

This self-sacrificing choice not only protected the people he truly loved but also let Damon live out a human life with Elena.

Stefan dying was one of the most heartbreaking scenes for fans who loved him. His sacrifice was also hard on especially Caroline, his now wife, who had just had her “June Wedding” with Stefan.

4. Elizabeth Forbes

Unlike other supernatural deaths in The Vampire Diaries, Sheriff Elizabeth Forbes’ passed away while being entirely human. As Caroline Forbes’ mother, she characterized steadiness and normality in the town of Mystic Falls.

Detected with cancer, Liz’s destiny was settled regardless of Caroline’s frantic efforts to save her mom. Her death was exceptionally agonizing because it was one of the few deaths that could not be overturned or saved by any supernatural ways.

Watching Caroline, who had constantly been a happy-go-lucky character with also being resilient and self-assured, have a severe meltdown due to grief made Liz’s death feel even more powerful and gut-wrenching.

Liz’s death in The Vampire Diaries was a cue that some misfortunes cannot be cancelled out, no matter how overpowering or strong-minded one might be.

5. Alaric Saltzman

Just like most of the characters, Alaric Saltzman’s character on The Vampire Diaries was outlined by loss and several instances touching the mouth of death.

However, his death in the Season 3 was perhaps his most significant one. After being controlled by Esther (a witch) into turning into a new species of an original vampire, Alaric was intended to be the greatest vampire hunter—crafted to kill Klaus and end all of the vampires—which came with the cost of killing his vampire friends.

But with his humanity switch still on, he grasped that the penalties of fully transitioning were too grave. With deciding to let himself die rather than unfold on this dark road, he gave out heart-touching farewells, none more agonizing than his final minutes with Damon, his best friend. Their unspoken bond came to the forefront, making his passing even more devastating.

Ric’s death, then again, had consequences outside of his own story. As he passed away, the group discovered that his life had been linked to Elena’s through witchy magic. When he died, so did Elena when she drowned—at least, in a way. His returning to life in the 5th season of The Vampire Diaries never quite wiped off the impact of his sacrifice.

6. Jeremy Gilbert

Little Jeremy Gilbert was yet another character who embodied the door of life and death in The Vampire Diaries. Having died and come back to the land of the living several times, his most excruciating death came in the Season 4 because of Silas.

Misled by Katherine, Jeremy was heartlessly murdered, his body left dead. However, the true anguish of this scene wasn’t just Jeremy dying—it was Elena’s reaction to her baby brother dying.

As the awareness hit, Elena’s anguish burst. Incapable of handling the crushing pain, she turns off her humanity switch and sets fire to her childhood home with Jeremy’s body lying cold inside, which leads fans to watch a severely distressing scene.

7. Jenna Sommers

Jenna Sommers acted as the custodian to Elena and Jeremy after the death of their parents in a car crash. However, she turned out to be yet another acquitted human caught in the world of vampires in Mystic Falls.

In his interest to trigger his hybrid abilities as half vampire and half werewolf, Klaus turned Aunt Jenna into a vampire and made her a pawn in his games of playing sacrifice. Despite her efforts to brawl against Klaus, she was eventually killed, leaving both of the kids—Elena and Jeremy—to be distraught by the death of their aunt.

Jenna’s death was specifically unfortunate because she was never involved in anything supernatural—she was merely caught in the tiff between Klaus and the other vampires and witches of Mystic Falls.

8. Rose

Rose’s time in Mystic Falls was short-lived and haunting. Brought in the 2nd season, she was originally a rival working for Elijah but immediately turned into a friend of Damon’s.

Unlike the other rival vampires in The Vampire Diaries, Rose as a character wasn’t obsessed with having dominion over others—she was merely trying to survive. Nonetheless, her fate was cut short when she got bit by Tyler Lockwood (now a werewolf), and she unfortunately went through with an antagonizing, excruciating death.

Rose did not brutally die by the hands of another supernatural creature, but rather her death was quite sorrowful. Damon, unexpectedly turning tender towards her, notices her pain and offers her a minute of tranquility by calming her into a dream before agreeing to mercy-killing her by driving a stake through her heart.

Their relationship, though brief, carried great weight, presenting the Vampire Diaries fans with an extremely infrequent look into Damon’s gentler side. While Rose was never a main character in Mystic Falls, her death functioned as a blunt remembrance of how poisonous werewolf toxin truly was, laying the groundwork for future werewolf clashes and troubles.

9. Jo Laughlin

In The Vampire Diaries, Jo Laughlin was a fellow member of the Gemini Coven, whether she liked it or not. She was also Alaric’s fiancée; her story was cut short on her wedding day at the altar by her own twin brother, Kai, who drove a knife into her mid-wedding.

Jo’s ghastly death was perfectly planned by Kai and was merely an act of brutality, stealing away Alaric’s and Jo’s happy ending.

The unborn twins in Jo’s stomach survived as the Gemini Coven with their magic transferred the babies into Caroline’s womb.

Jo’s death was appalling, not just for the reason that it took place at her own wedding but also because it made Kai out to be one of the most merciless villains in The Vampire Diaries. The aftershock left Alaric crushed and altered the way of the show in ways no fan could have foreseen.

10. Tyler Lockwood

Tyler Lockwood’s character arc saw him evolve from a quarrelsome athlete to a werewolf, a hybrid, and finally, a guy resolute to handling his own destiny.

However, his story came to an unforeseen and debatably unjust end in the show’s final season. While trying to deal with Damon, who was under Sybil’s manipulation, Tyler wished to strike a chord of humanity. Instead, he turned out to be yet another target of Damon’s irrepressible rage impulses.

Tyler’s death in The Vampire Diaries felt unfulfilled in implementation. Unlike other main characters and their deaths, there was extremely little outcome and next to no deep grieving from his nearest friends, excluding Matt. The rest of the gang appeared to move on immediately.

The absence of importance given to his death made it one of the most infuriating deaths in the show, even though Tyler Lockwood was one of the most impactful and important characters on The Vampire Diaries.

---

The Vampire Diaries was bizarrely into causing distressing deaths, each leaving a long-lasting impact on the characters as well as TVD fans, but, at the end, each and every death molded the stories on the show.

These deaths were not just about loss—they pushed these beloved characters to grow and define their journeys. Even in death, their legacies withstood, verifying that in Mystic Falls, no farewell was almost ever actually absolute in The Vampire Diaries.