20 Most Iconic Elena Gilbert Moments

2. Making Stefan save Matt first (3.22)

For every time Elena has put herself in harm’s way for her friends, it’s generally worked out for her – until it didn’t. When they’re on their way back to Mystic Falls to their friends, Matt and Elena are run off the road by Rebekah – off the bridge and into the river, where Elena’s parents died and poetically, where she survived the first time Stefan saved her. But this time, Elena is conscious in the water, and Matt isn’t – and she tells Stefan to save him first.

Stefan wasn’t fast enough for both.

Elena dies, and it’s not what anyone expected, not in the last minute, not when it just seemed like she was safe – but of course, Meredith Fell gave her vampire blood the day before when she was in the hospital, and it was still in her system.

Making Elena now a vampire – exactly what she had never wanted, and still, in her mind, worth it to have saved Matt. Because Elena Gilbert puts the world before her, and if she saved a life, then it’s worth it – her life isn’t worth anyone else’s, in her mind.

Pass the tissues, please.