How Can You Have the Vampire Diaries Without Elena Gilbert?

Nina Dobrev announced on Monday that her 6-year journey with The Vampire Diaries on The CW would be coming to an end at the close of the 6^th season, and all the fangirls cried. What’s interesting to me is that they don’t intend to end the show all together, but rather have already been renewed for a 7^th season. But how can you continue a show when a character that I would consider to be a main if not THE main character is leaving?

It’s still unclear as to how she’ll be leaving the show. We’ll just have to watch the rest of this season to find out, but I hope it’s something spectacular and cry-worthy. The most common way for a character to leave TVD is to die, and since the Other Side is no longer in existence when you die now, YOU DIE. No miraculous two-season-later resurrections like Alaric Saltzman. (But no really, Julie Plec, thank you for bringing him back!) However it seems rather anti-climatic for Elena Gilbert to end her TVD run by dying since we’ve spent the majority of the last 6 seasons watching the characters do everything in their power to make sure that she DOESN’T die—or at least survive after death in some capacity. It would be like what was the point of all the blood the Salvatore brothers spilled? And Bonnie dying several times? And Jeremy dying and being resurrected more than anyone ever should be? And Matty Blue Eyes being oblivious to everything and ALMOST dying several times a season. And how can you have Elena exit the show (by dying or otherwise) and not have Damon go on a bloodthirsty rampage across the South? Haven’t we seen him do that enough? I really don’t want to go back to that humanity-switch-off place anymore. It’s not very becoming on you, Mr. Salvatore.

Since Bonnie brought back the Cure from 1994, I do see an opportunity to turn Elena back into a human and maybe erase her memories and send her off in the sunset to have a happy life. It would kind of destroy the personal independence thing she’s built while being a vampire that I would find disappointing because I have this dream that a girl can get involved with vampires and NOT have to be a mindless waif being pushed around to everyone’s agenda but her own (*cough* Twilight *cough*). But in the case of Elena, she falls into that stereotype quite easily most of the time.

Okay, but if Elena is going to leave in some capacity and TVD is still going to continue, where could Julie Plec take us? Like a dedicated TVD fangirl, I have some theories (aka ridiculous fanfiction ideas).

1. Sarah Salvatore – Besides Elena Gilbert, the Salvatore brothers hold the greatest weight storyline-wise and with Julie Plec’s official announcement it seems we’ll still be seeing a fair bit of Salvatore bromance in the coming season. So why not add another girl to the mix? Sarah Salvatore’s story (which has been minimal at best in the second half of season 6) intrigues me. She’s the only human Salvatore left and humanity-less Damon is responsible for the death of her mother and essential orphan-hood at birth (since her father was compelled to forget she even exists. That was a jerk move, Stefan.) Eventually her existence is going to have to come out to Damon and perhaps that revelation will become a new obsession for him.
2. Mama Salvatore – I can actually see TVD taking this route. We have such little information about MaMa Salvatore that I can’t even really speculate where this storyline might go, but if TVD is still going to center around the Salvatore brothers, what better direction to take than backwards to explore more of their past?
3. Matt the Haphazard Vampire Hunter – Okay, this isn’t a real theory, but you never know. He’s gotten a little crazy with the anti-vampire attitude lately despite the fact that all of his friends are vampires. Maybe he’s been wearing that supernatural-death-repellant ring too long and will decide to start a vampire Armageddon himself. (Although it’s obvious from previous attempts, he won’t get very far).
4. Jolaric Baby – Perhaps we’ll do a time-jump 16 years when Jo and Alaric’s baby is turning 16 and the Salvatore brothers return to Mystic Falls once again. I imagine some weird incestual-feeling relationship between Stefan and Jolaric (Grown-Up) Baby. Like Jacob imprinting on Bella and Edward’s child. It would be creepy and weird and totally shake everything up.
5. Witchy Prison World – Perhaps because of all the trouble the Mystic Falls vampire crew has caused they’ll be imprisoned in a prison world. And it will be survival of the fittest with the pressure of rationing bloodbags.
6. Kai and Bonnie – While it seems insane to me that Bonnie could ever fall for the guy who TORTURED her, there is a weird sexual tension going on between them that I’m interested in seeing carried through which means Kai needs to get out of MaMa Salvatore’s prison world.
7. Caroline the Ripper – I assume Caroline’s humanity-switch problem will be resolved through the rest of season’s 6’s episodes, but you never know, Caroline could become the new big villain! It could happen! I don’t want it to happen because she’s my favorite character, but it could still happen!
8. The Gilberts – With both Elena and Jeremy leaving this season, I’m sad that nothing was really explored with their parents. It always felt like there was a sinister storyline waiting to be discovered. Sheriff Forbes and Damon even tried to uncover what really happened to the Gilberts that fateful night Elena almost died, but it anticlimactically turned out to be nothing more than an accident. Can TVD still follow a Gilbert storyline without having any living Gilberts around? Maybe Elena and Jeremy have an unknown cousin that will show up and take over the mystery?

For a TVD fangirl, now is the time for mourning. I’ll miss Nina and her million characters on the show, but I am surprisingly excited about how losing a main character could affect the show for the better. TVD has felt a little stale since the Original vampire storyline without a villain that held serious weight and could terrorize for as long as Klaus did. A new cast of characters might shake things up enough to make TVD insatiable again.

So what do you think? What’s your TVD theory for how the story might progress with Elena/Nina’s exit?