I like many others enjoyed watching TVD in my teens as it aired and still enjoy re-watching it despite some issues present (but more on this later). After several times watching TVD the most recent time I noticed several scenes and lines which directly relate in my opinion to those in Twilight and I will lay them out. Although, I would not consider myself a hardcore Twilight fan I have seen all the movies at least once and the first several times. However, no one can deny the connection between Twilight premiering in 2008 and The Vampire Diaries airing in 2009. Both are book adaptations of Stephenie Meyer’s Twilight and L.J. Smith’s The Vampire Diaries. Granted the Vampire Diaries books were released prior to the Twilight books, the Twilight film was before TVD and therefore, I am equating TVD to being script and cinematically similar to Twilight. Both include tales of vampires, humans and werewolves and lots of teen drama and angst. I merely wrote this as a bit of fun and to point out some things you may not have noticed, there is no intention to offend any parties involved in the creation of either work as I do enjoy both and am a fan. So, here are all the similarities I noticed when re-watching the first few episodes of TVD, forewarning of spoilers.

1. A newcomer to town… who’s not so new
As we know Twilight begins with Bella Swan arriving to town to stay with her father. Now although Elena is not the newcomer to town there are newcomers, Stefan and Damon who become the talk of the school. Bella used to holiday in Forks which makes her not a total alien there and Damon and Stefan both have spent many lifetimes in Mystic Falls before returning once again.

2. Much like Edward, Stefan is the mysterious man in the school who everyone (particularly the side characters) is interested in.

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3. Vampires
Now, I know this is an obvious one but there was a clear interest in television and film in the supernatural, but it is a similarity between the two as well as the slightly later addition of werewolves to TVD in season 2.

4. Vampires gotta wear sunglasses I guess…

5. It is also a vampire family, granted a much smaller family that the Cullen’s but a family of vampires nonetheless.

6. We have the changing eyes in relation to blood lust.

7. Then there is the obvious, we eat animals trope from Twilight which we see again from Stefan.

8. The very stalkery Vampires:

Look at this creeper out here honestly,

Then Damon breaks into Elena’s room while she’s asleep and later when Elena finds out Stefan is a vampire and she’s in her room with the window open, Stefan jumps through her window into her bedroom. That is 100% an Edward move, because he did it constantly.

9. Also, now come on, you can’t tell me these aren’t the same scene…

10. Super fast running, super strong Vampires in both, we also have the super hearing thing and the jumps that make no sense at all. Basically, the vampire lore and powers are almost the same minus the vervain and mind reading future seeing powers.

11. Old ass Vampires who choose to go back to high school which I just can’t understand. Why would they all want to go back to high school to have to worry about high school stuff like exams and learn about the history which they already lived through? Also, Stefan supposedly already had college degrees so school must be such a bore. ALSO also, just because you stay in the body of a teenager surely doesn’t mean you don’t age psychologically and grow up, they’re both over 100 years old after all.

At least the TVD Vampires don’t also sparkle, they sizzle instead!

12. Werewolves:

Although, Tyler doesn’t become a werewolf and they aren’t introduced until later in the season it is still a similarity. It is also a similarity that Jacob doesn’t become a werewolf until after the first movie and Tyler doesn’t until season 2 episode 7. Although, Uncle Mason is introduced season 2 episode 1.

13. Questionable parenting:

So we are led to believe in both medias that the parenting is subpar for the mains. However, I honestly have to disagree, I think Jenna is trying her best considering she lost her sister and suddenly had two teenagers to raise while still being quite young herself and Charlie I really think is trying so hard to get to know Bella after all this time of her living with her mother and he wants to know her he’s just a bit out of practice and Bella doesn’t seem to want to know him. That said, it’s still a similarity.

14. Bland main characters:

Whoops sorry! But as you’ll see in an upcoming post I am writing (subscribe down below to be notified when it is up), I have an issue with Elena. I find Elena incredibly bland and boring basically until she becomes a Vampire but even then I don’t like her. She is so average in every way except that she’s the Doppelganger. Same with Bella, Bella Swan is so boring of a character to watch, she has no personality in the first film, she’s a terrible friend and she’s just plain.

Bella’s a suffer in silence type, how brooding

15. The very hot and cold romance where honestly Edward and Stefan kinda treat Bella and Elena really terribly, you either like her or you don’t, you either want to stay away or you don’t.

16. Small town people and small town lives, both of which are surrounded by forest!Both of these are set in a small town despite the fact it’s probably far easier to fly under the radar if you’re surrounded by people. It’s easier to blend it when there’s thousands of people around you – although no animals to hunt.

17. “Animal attacks”, I guess that’s why we need to set these in wooded areas.

18. Car crash that didn’t kill our main girl – check

19. We have the boy who wants but just can’t have our main girl, I guess that makes Matt, Jacob. Or is Damon, the Jacob, hard to say. On this same point we have – Love triangle. Who doesn’t love a vampire love triangle?

20. Tad bit of gas-lighting to add to the mix is another similarity I can’t ignore.

21. Sports scene, admittedly a bit of a reach but, sports.

22. Lovely little cooking moment despite that vampires don’t need to eat human food.

And that is all the reasons I could find to justify the fact that the beginning of The Vampire Diaries is basically Twilight. Granted the two move sharply in different directions for the rest of their movies and seasons I still felt it was interesting to point out just how many similarities there are. I’m sure everyone could agree there being Vampires and Werewolves and a love triangle were clear similarities but I hope this has shone some light on some other similarities between these two book adaption YA medias.

Still, despite all this I do enjoy watching both Twilight and TVD and have the utmost respect for those involved in the creation of them for the joy they have been able to bring me over the years.

Thank you for reading, please comment any opinions or thoughts you have I’d love to hear them, don’t forget you can add your email at the bottom of the page or follow my Instagram @simplymythoughts_blog to find out when I post.