20 Most Iconic Elena Gilbert Moments

13. Saying goodbye to Alaric (3.20)

"“This is all my fault. You moved out, you gave me your ring back. You didn’t want any part of this and I forced you to stay and take care of us. “Don’t do that. Taking care of you and Jeremy was the closest I ever came to having the life I always wanted.”"

Maybe I’m just a sucker for emotional Elena scenes, but like I said – Nina Dobrev knows just how to make you sob along with her. Saying goodbye to Alaric when he chose not to go through with his vampire transition in season 3 was one of those moments, especially when she felt so hugely responsible for it.

Naturally, of course, it happened the night of a decades dance – because what tragedy didn’t happen at a decades dance?

Alaric chooses to die, because his dark side was bad enough human and he never wanted a vampire life.

Though he plans to go it alone, everyone turns up to be by him when he dies – standing right outside the crypt, showing their love and support for someone who was never really sure where he fit in with them. While Damon is the one who sits with him as he dies, his best friend, it’s Elena and Jeremy who say goodbye first. With tears in her eyes, she takes the blame as she says goodbye to yet another parent figure in her life, who she loved and needed just as much as he loved and needed her and Jeremy. Alaric’s life has been far from perfect – pre death, post death (first death and second death) – but the Gilberts gave him a family that he so desperately had wanted and for a long time, never had.

And as Elena holds onto him, crying, bearing the guilt for another loss she has to bear, you can feel that grief with her. At least, I always do. (I’d say rest in peace Alaric, but as this show goes, no one actually stays dead. (Except Alaric’s love interests. Oof.)