Why The Vampire Diaries ended with season 8? Reasons explored

The Vampire Diaries ended after season 8, show producer Julie Plec said that the series was headed toward its eventual conclusion as it became apparent that the plot would revolve around The Vampire Diaries' underworld. The series ended organically without being cancelled.

Plec mentioned in a guest column for Variety:

"As the team and I were going through prep and shoot of the last episode, we realized just how rare our experience was. We hadn’t been canceled; we hadn’t had the plug pulled — we had chosen to say goodbye."

The supernatural drama developed by Julie Plec and Kevin Williamson was inspired by author L.J. Smith's novel series with the same title. The Vampire Diaries premiered on The CW in September 2009 and scored the highest ratings for any series premiere on the network channel then, as per The Hollywood Reporter.

The Vampire Diaries ran for several years due to its immense popularity; Plec confirmed in 2016 that the show would end the following year. Even though the show concluded with season 8, its success resulted in two spinoffs: Legacies and The Originals, which included crossovers from various The Vampire Diaries characters, including Stefan Salvatore.

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Season finale of The Vampire Diaries: Explained

The Vampire Diaries began with a focus on the familial drama of a vampire and a teenage girl who loses her parents. The final episode wraps up the eight seasons of sorrow, love, and intricately detailed narrative by resolving the epic love triangle of the show.

The paranormal romance revolves around two vampire brothers falling in love with the same woman, Elena Gilbert (Nina Dobrev). The vampire brothers named Stefan and Damon Salvatore were played by Paul Wesley and Ian Somerhalder respectively

Sad tears, glad tears, reunions filled with emotion, and heartbreaking deaths. Everything was there in the Vampire Diaries season finale, including happy endings for many of the cherished characters.

First off, Katherine (Nina Dobrev) made a comeback to ruin Mystic Falls one last time. But in the end, Bonnie (Kat Graham) masterfully controlled her developing witch abilities and vanquished Katherine, erasing hell and hell forever.

Damon and Stefan indulged in a tearful argument on who would die for the greater good. Damon made an effort to get Stefan to leave and let him make the sacrifice.

As a recently transformed human living in a town full of vampires, Stefan took the vampire cure out of his blood and injected it into Damon, turning him human. Stefan was on a steady diet of vervain. Damon had no choice but to let his younger brother Stefan die in his place, since without the cure Stefan would soon start to age rapidly and pass away, much like Katherine did back in Season 5.

In a mystical, life-and-death state, Stefan bid Elena a final goodbye before he passed away. There, he promised Elena that he would love her forever and gave Elena a note to relay to his wife, Caroline. In his final hours, he had true happiness as he reunited with his devoted companion Lexi (Arielle Kebbel), one of the beloved characters in the series who departed far too soon.

After Bonnie broke the spell, Elena lived a contented life as a human with Damon. After attending medical school, she came back to Mystic Falls and aged. It appeared that Elena and Damon had tied the knot and driven out into the sunset together because there was an engagement and wedding band on her finger.

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Elena finally found peace after living human life. In afterlife, she found comfort in the company of her parents, dad, Uncle John Gilbert (David Anders), mom Miranda (Erin Beute), and aunt Jenna (Sara Canning). Elena had her family back, minus her brother Jeremy. She gave them a big family embrace on the porch of the Gilbert house. It was a time of complete fulfilment for her.