Our heroine for most of The Vampire Diaries is no doubt a captivating one, but she has her share of faults. Elena Gilbert embodies many contradictions, and parts of her character don’t always add up. As we see her go through a whirlwind of mystical journeys and emotional traumas, she does develop as a person. However, one thing that hardly changes is her sugary sweet personality that’s meant to come across as the height of empathy. If this were really the case, she wouldn’t have taken a lot of the actions that led to more selfish ends. Even though it comes from the desire to protect her loved ones, there’s a lot about Elena’s nature that doesn’t totally fit the show's image of her.