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The Vampire Diaries started the franchise, The Originals built out from it, and Legacies brought it all back together. Now that Legacies has come to an end – I’m still bitter about the cancellation – I decided to do a rewatch of all three shows.
I’m only in the middle of TVD season two, and I’m already running out of Kleenex. I forgot how many heartbreaking scenes there are! Even knowing what happens next in all three shows, these moments still get me. Spoiler alert if you haven’t finished Legacies because I will be talking about scenes in the finale!
Before I even talk about Enzo’s death: Bonnie deserved better than what she was given every season. All Bonnie wanted to do was live a happy life. Even after escaping the prison world, Bonnie somehow managed to find love with Enzo.
And then Stefan ripped Enzo’s heart out in front of Bonnie as they were discussing plans for the future. I will never forgive Stefan for that. Bonnie’s heartbreaking scream was filled with so much pain that it brought back her powers and created another world for Enzo’s spirit. I still get chills from it.
Again with the deaths Bonnie had to live through! Grams was the only person in Bonnie’s family that stood by her through thick and thin and helped her hone her magic skills. And let’s be honest, Grams was the best adult in the series.
If we’re going to blame anyone for Grams’ death, it better be Damon. He pushed and pushed for them to mess with the barrier in the tomb, even when he knew it was too much for them to handle. When Bonnie found Grams, it hit so hard I couldn’t stop myself from crying.
I never expected to cry as much as I did when Liz died. Yeah, I loved the character, but I thought I would be okay watching the inevitable end. But I think I cried so much because of how she died. Nearly every other character in the show died (sometimes multiple times) because of supernatural causes.
But Liz died because of her cancer. It was the most realistic death – and one that hit way too close for home for me. Everyone’s reaction to Liz’s death, especially Caroline’s, was so relatable that I will never be able to get through the season without crying.
See related: Katherine Pierce’s 10 Most Evil, Heartless Moments on ‘The Vampire Diaries’
This is less a “sad” moment than one that made me cry because of how relatable it is. Ironic that a magical possession would get that comment, but hear me out. Lizzie, from the beginning, was shown to have mental health issues that didn’t get talked about enough.
When the Oni possessed her, she finally let loose all the sad and intrusive thoughts she’d been holding in. Her comments about not wanting to live like she had been were so relatable because I, like so many people, had felt that before, too.
I can’t imagine how Hope got through so much in her life without having constant breakdowns. When Hope was struggling in episode 14 of season one of Legacies, I knew exactly what was coming. But that didn’t make it any less heartbreaking.
Everyone kept pushing her to be what they wanted her to be, do what they thought was best. Nobody ever asked what she wanted or needed. So when she finally cries for her dead parents, it was like the floodgates were opened for me, too.
Aurora’s arc is one of the best in the entire TVD universe. She came into The Originals as an antagonist and continued that storyline when she came back in season four of Legacies. I honestly thought Hope was going to die when Aurora realized how wrong Ken was about Hope and her friends.
When Aurora rushed in front of Hope at the last minute, I couldn’t help but gasp. I hadn’t expected that. Her talk with Hope as she’s dying, the acceptance she had for death, made me sob for a character I hadn’t even loved. In the end, her funeral was perfect for her.
I know most people didn’t love Kaleb after he sold out Hope to Malivore and became a dragon. But I could see where he was coming from. Yes, I was annoyed with what he did, but he worked hard to gain their trust again. And it got him killed – even for a short time.
When Ken killed Kaleb, I immediately hated Ken. (I was a little late to the game on that front.) But the way Kaleb died was worse than who killed him – Cleo was forced to watch him die. I’m just glad they got their happy ending in the finale.
See related: Ranking the Characters from ‘Legacies’
I’ll be honest, I didn’t love Cami when she first got introduced. But she proved herself a strong character, and I grew to appreciate her. So when she died, I was livid. The Vampire Diaries creators really knew how to get you to love a character and then rip them away.
Her death itself wasn’t the saddest part – it was Klaus having to say goodbye to yet another woman he loved. He really couldn’t get the girl, could he? Cami made Klaus a better person, so I’m glad his character development stayed long after her death.
While Cami’s death had me pausing in my binge-watch of The Originals for a couple of hours, I had to wait a couple of days to watch more after Josh’s death. He had been one of my favorite characters, so maybe I’m biased, but his death was more heartbreaking than most other characters.
Up to his last breath, he still had that humor that made everyone love him. We had seen his journey from a newbie vampire to Davina’s best friend to his death, so that’s probably why his death hits harder than even Stefan’s.
This was a bittersweet moment in The Vampire Diaries franchise. For so long, the brothers had run and fought to stay alive while being hunted by their father. They had taken the motto “Forever and always” to heart – even to their last breaths.
I understand why Klaus had to die, but Elijah’s choice to go with him because he only lived for his brother was even more heart-wrenching. After everything Elijah went through in season five of The Originals, though, I wasn’t really surprised.
After Hayley’s death (don’t worry, that’s next on the list), Elijah was on my hit list. But then he got his memories back of his family and friends a few episodes later, and I did sympathize with him for a bit. And maybe that’s why his reaction to her death was almost as sad as her passing.
The way he remembered everything he’d done was probably more heartbreaking than any other death he’d caused. She was the love of his life – and he’d let her die because he didn’t remember. It’s no wonder he decided to die with Klaus in the finale.
If there was one character I had hoped would make it to the finale in The Originals, it would be Hayley. Her arc from The Vampire Diaries to her death was one of the best. She had grown from a teenager to a great mom in such a short time.
That’s what makes her death all the more painful. She was the only one who had taken care of Hope when the Mikaelsons couldn’t; she was Hope’s only family for so long. So when she was about to die, she used her last seconds to take one more person who had hurt Hope with her.
If I had to choose the most heartbreaking scene in Legacies, it would be Hope arguing with her humanity and losing control. I personally loved Hope without her humanity, but when I saw how hard she was fighting to stay that way, I was heartbroken for her.
She had lost so many people and was about to do so again, even if she didn’t want to admit she cared. The monologue she has to herself is one of the most relatable things anyone has said in the entire third show. I don’t think I’ll ever not cry over that scene.
Elena’s breakdown after finally coming to the realization that Jeremy was dead after finding the Cure will always be the most heartbreaking scene in the entire show. There will never be a day that I don’t cry watching her bawl and try to burn her house down.
The acting from Nina Dobrev is so intense that it honestly feels real. And the death is relatable in a way because she couldn’t do anything, and she feels so hopeless being the last person still alive in her family. And then when it finally just goes away when she turns off her humanity – chilling.
