Top 10 Characters of The Vampire Diaries Ranked

7. Alaric Saltzman

Alaric Saltzman is another character I was never quite sure how to feel about. When he arrived in Mystic Falls in the first season as the mysterious new History teacher at Mystic Falls High School, I was intrigued. He had a past, and as it unraveled, we learned A) he didn’t like vampires much and B) he hunted them. Not great news for the Salvatore brothers, for sure. But over time, he stole our hearts. He thought his beloved wife had been killed by a vampire, which – long story short – she was very much still around as a vampire herself and turned out to be Elena’s birth mother (small world!), and she was kind of the worst.

Over time, Alaric wormed his way into the hearts of everyone in Mystic Falls. Before he knew it, he was part of the Scooby Gang. He was a best friend to Damon, as much as he may have hated to admit it; a partner to Aunt Jenna and another step-in guardian to Elena and Jeremy Gilbert. He went from hunting vampires to working alongside and loving some of them, and for that, he earned love from fans everywhere.

Sure, it was…weird in the later seasons when he and Caroline had a relationship (she carried his dead fiancee’s magical twins), but the poor guy never got love for long (looking at you, Jenna, Meredith, Jo, even Caroline). But he had a found family with the Gilberts, with the Salvatores, and eventually, he had his dream of fatherhood fulfilled. It’s as happy of an ending as any of these characters got, really.