Five More Things I Really Like About The Vampire Diaries

NOTE: This post contains mild to major spoilers for the first two seasons.

1. Sheriff Elizabeth Forbes
If you've ever seen any other vampire show in the history of television, you'd probably expect the local sheriff to be completely unaware of the supernatural and/or totally incompetent when she has to deal with it. In that case, prepare to be pleasantly surprised.

2. The Siblings
I know this is technically more of a "romance" show, and I suppose there's not exactly anything wrong with that, but my favorite relationships are those between brothers and sisters, or characters who think of each other as family: Elena and Jeremy (the scene where he tells her to "chill herself" in the pilot was one of the biggest reasons I started to love the show), Matt and Vicki, Elena and Bonnie and Caroline, Stefan and Damon (their complicated relationship with each other is infinitely more interesting than any whatever either of them have going on with Elena at any given time), even Klaus and Rebekah.
I guess I didn't really explain that one, but it sort of explains itself, yeah?

3. The Heartwarming Moments
So when the writers try to tug at your heartstrings, they either get it really wrong or really right.  Some of the most noteworthy times they got it right (in other words, some of the most memorable scenes that made me cry like a little girl) include Elena's complete breakdown when Bonnie dies in "The Last Dance," Liz and Tyler to the rescue in "The End of the Affair," Elena's attempts to comfort Jenna in "The Sun Also Rises," and Matt's reunion with Vicki in "The Reckoning."
Also, special mention goes to that one silent scene in "Ghost World." You know the one I'm talking about.

4. Elena Gilbert: The Anti-Bella
Long story short, Twilight makes me afraid to ever have a daughter for fear that she will one day grow up to be anything like Bella. On the other hand, The Vampire Diaries gives me hope that she might be a little bit like Elena.
To break it down a little bit:
Despite meeting a totally hot vampire who's completely in love with her when she's seventeen, Elena actually has goals for her life that have nothing to do with him!
Despite meeting a totally hot vampire who's completely in love with her when she's seventeen, Elena DOES NOT WANT TO BE A VAMPIRE. The thought literally drives her to tears.
When Stefan doesn't call her for a few days, she says she doesn't want to be one of those girls who falls apart without a guy in their lives. OH SNAP.
She actually has friends.
I could go on, but I don't want to spoil season three.

5. WITCHCRAFT
Okay, so Bonnie may have a knack for forgetting that, oh hey, she can move things with her mind. And her friends might have a knack for not asking her to help them deal with vampire problems even though she's the only main character (and probably one of the only humans ever) who has managed to hurt an Original Vampire . . .
. . . but, other than that, there are so many things that this show gets spot-on, such as:
* Bonnie tends to do "big" spells (for example: activating Caroline's daylight ring) in total silence, no chanting whatsoever. Unfortunately, as the show goes on, they seem to be getting more and more inclined to have her chant in order to do just about anything; fortunately, she never chants in any language other than pseudo-Latin (or is it just straight-up real Latin? I'm not that much of a linguist).
* So far, we haven't met any witches who worship any sort of goddess. Not that there would be anything wrong with that, thematically speaking, but I personally prefer witches who are crazy powerful just because, you know?
* The whole "witches hate vampires" thing, best summed up in 3x8: "A witch is nature's servant; a vampire is an abomination of nature. You can either be one or the other, never both." Which FINALLY confirmed a theory I've had since practically forever.
* When a witch wants to set something on fire, she does not conjure a cheesy CGI fireball and throw it. She just points at whatever it is and, boom, fire. Or she sets fire to water, which I could not figure out for the longest time, until it hit me that, in real life, that's not actually water -- it's clear and it's liquid, but it's totally flammable. So my point is there's a remarkable lack of horrible special effects, and that's nice.
* I really like how witches are born, not made (or, technically, I guess they're born and then made). They exist because nature needs help maintaining the balance or what-have-you. Vampires and werewolves, on the other hand, exist because witches abused their power. They shouldn't exist. Which I suppose I should've mentioned two points ago, but I don't know how to use backspace.
* More often than not, when a witch does magic, the only thing about it that's supernatural is that there's a witch doing it.