The Vampire Diaries: Elena Gilbert’s 5 Best Traits (& 5 Worst)

Up until Nina Dobrev’s somewhat abrupt exit from The Vampire Diaries at the end of season six, Elena Gilbert was the central figure of the series. She was undoubtedly a flawed heroine, one who seemed to try her best at one turn and then do something thoughtless or downright awful at the next.

The fact that Elena Gilbert was a character with good and bad sides to her made her much easier for the audience to relate to her. But it goes without saying, when she was at her best she was great to watch, and when she was at her worst it was cringe-worthy. So what are her best and worst traits?

10 Best: Tough

After both of Elena’s parents died, it seems like her life very rapidly became an endless gauntlet of scary, dangerous, and painful experiences for her.

And despite the fact that Elena was a mere human and then a baby vampire, she never hesitated to face her literal demons head on whenever she felt it was necessary, sometimes putting herself in even more danger than she needed to.

9 Worst: Indecisive

In fairness, it’s not as if Elena’s feelings for Stefan and Damon Salvatore were shallow or fleeting, so it’s not like she was jerking them around entirely by choice.

However, at some point she needed to just pick one, and she really dragged her feet and continually gave each brother hope when she probably shouldn’t have. For the sake of all of their sanity, she should have picked a lane and stayed there for a while.

8 Best: Protective

Unfortunately for Elena, just by virtue of being what she was, she was a danger magnet for herself and everyone around her. Many of her friends and family members suffered and died as a result of being in her orbit.

But with that said, Elena obviously always did whatever she could to protect her loved ones, even if it meant putting herself in danger in their stead.

7 Worst: Controlling

One of the most frustrating aspects of Elena as a character is that despite the fact that she was a teenage girl who was completely unfamiliar with the supernatural, she always thought she knew what was best for everyone.

She would often make people’s decisions for them without even giving them a say or letting them know what she was doing, and she didn’t seem to think twice about the fact that she had no right to do so.

6 Best: Self-Sacrificing

Regardless of anything that Elena ever did, it has to be said that she does put her money where her mouth is.

She can be overly controlling when it comes to what she thinks is best for everyone, but if she has to sacrifice her life to save those she loves, she doesn’t hesitate to do it. She’s pretty much the definition of self-sacrificing.

5 Worst: Dishonest

Although getting drawn into the supernatural world necessitated that Elena sometimes lie to the people around her, she had a habit of lying to people even when it wasn’t actually required.

Sometimes she didn’t want to admit she’d done something wrong, sometimes she wanted to protect someone, or sometimes she just withheld the truth to avoid something, but she was extremely comfortable and even self-righteous about lying to people when she wanted to.

4 Best: Compassionate

To be honest, as Elena’s character developed further and further, her relationship with her own compassion got a little rocky.

However at the start of the series and for a very long time, Elena’s ability to sympathize and empathize with others was one of her strongest assets. She showed exceptional concern for her loved ones and did what she could to avoid anyone else becoming collateral damage in the violence that consumed her life.

3 Worst: Reckless

When danger presented itself, Elena was often times the first one unto the breach. But the problem is, often times she didn’t have to be there, and it wasn’t very unusual for her presence or intervention in a situation to make things worse instead of better.

She was so focused on the fact that she could possibly change the outcome of a situation that she didn’t stop and think whether or not she should.

2 Best: Loving

For someone in the circumstances of Elena Gilbert, loving people isn’t always easy. Historically, Elena has lost many of the people that she loved, and even her relationships with those who survived were usually pretty painful.

But despite the fact that things could wind up terribly, Elena never stopped herself from loving her friends, family, or boyfriends wholeheartedly and without shame or reservation.

1 Worst: Self-Obsessed

In fairness to Elena, it seems like literally everyone that she knows is utterly obsessed with her and cares more about her well being and state of mind than they care about nearly anything else. However, that still doesn’t excuse Elena’s extreme bouts of narcissism.

Especially as her character continued to develop, she tended to put her loved ones in more and more danger, not intentionally, but because she was only thinking about her own wants and needs. Her self-centeredness resulted in a lot of people getting hurt not just emotionally, but physically too.