The Vampire Diaries: 10 Short-Term Love Interests Who Deserved More

The Vampire Diaries is well known for many things. It’s one of the best supernatural TV shows of all time, it’s one of the CW’s most successful shows (so successful that it spawned two spinoffs), and it had an intense habit of creating romances out of nearly every relationship that sprung up between characters.

By the end of the series, it almost felt more like a romance show than a vampire show, and there were many ‘ships borne from it. But what love interests on the series didn’t get the amount of screen time or development that they deserved?

10 Liam Davis

Liam Davis is one of the oddest characters who was ever introduced into The Vampire Diaries. His relationship with Elena was so fast that it’s hard to even remember, and even more conveniently, Elena literally compelled him to forget about it so he doesn’t remember it either.

The purpose of his character seemed to be nothing more than an obstacle or placeholder in the interim while Elena wasn’t dating either Salvatore, and it really showed.

9 Jesse

When Jesse was first introduced, it seemed like he might be Caroline’s first reprieve from a love triangle since pretty much the beginning of the series. He was charming and confident, and best of all normal.

However, he didn’t stay normal for long. First he was co-opted by the Augustines, and then when he went rabid and attacked Damon, Elena didn’t hesitate to kill him.

8 Luka Martin

Unfortunately it seems like Luka Martin’s interest in Bonnie was more of a ruse to use her power and rescue his sister Greta from Klaus, but it would have been interesting to see his relationship with Bonnie develop further.

Bonnie was criminally underrated as a love interest on The Vampire Diaries, and while the show certainly overused love triangles, it would have been nice to see boys compete over Bonnie Bennett for once.

7 Andie Star

Honestly, the “relationship,” if it can even be called that, between Damon Salvatore and Andie Star was gross. She was basically just Damon’s compelled bed buddy, and he didn’t treat her particularly well on top of that.

But despite his best efforts, Damon grew to care for her, which is why she met an unfortunate and ignominious end when Stefan killed her just to get Damon to back off of him. She really deserved better on all counts.

6 Meredith Fell

In retrospect, it seems like The Vampire Diaries just added Meredith Fell because they thought it would be neat to have two spouses starring in the same show (Fell’s actress Torrey DeVitto was married to Paul Wesley at the time), but it doesn’t seem like her character got much thought beyond that.

She showed up, briefly dated Alaric, gave Elena some very convenient vampire blood, and then vanished off the face of the earth.

5 Valerie Tulle

It could not be clearer that TVD loves relationship drama, and if relationship drama cannot be found naturally, then it will be created.

Valerie Tulle seems to be a prime example of this modus operandi, as her past relationship with Stefan seemingly came out of nowhere, and it seemed like she was just introduced as another obstacle to Stefan and Caroline’s relationship. It’s unfortunate too, as her backstory had some potential beyond just being a Stefan/Caroline problem.

4 Anna

Anna was a great character, so thankfully she got a lot more screen time and development than many others who were introduced to the story only to be written out a few episodes later.

However, it’s disappointing that she spent most of her character arc playing second fiddle to the ghost of Vicki Donovan, and it would have been great to see her relationship with Jeremy really grow some legs.

3 Hayley Marshall

Considering where her character ended up on The Originals, Hayley Marshall has to be one of the stranger recurring characters of TVD. She showed up with a seeming crush on Tyler and it appeared that there was a burgeoning love triangle between Tyler, Caroline, and Hayley developing.

But then out of nowhere she seemingly slept with Klaus simply for the sake of a pregnancy plot device, and then promptly left for New Orleans. The female lead of The Originals should have had a much better and more logical intro.

2 Jo Laughlin

The Vampire Diaries surely has a history of treating it’s guest characters like they’re disposable, but Jo’s brief tenure on the series was exceptionally brutal and unnecessarily short.

Much like Hayley, it almost seems like she just abruptly appeared on the show long enough to get pregnant with particularly important babies and then get written off, but Jo’s exit from the series was considerably more violent than Hayley’s.

1 Enzo St. John

Enzo was arguably the best character added to the series in the later years, but he spent far too long as an antagonist and far too little time with Bonnie.

Bonnie really didn’t get epic loves in the way that Caroline and Elena did, and when she finally found Enzo, their screen time was far too brief. Enzo was a great character with a great relationship to another great character, and he deserved more.