The Vampire Diaries: Every Time the Vampire Characters Turned Off Their Humanity – CBR – Comic Book Resources

The Vampire Diaries adhered to every vampire trope and trademark,fromenhanced abilities, to drinking blood, to immortality.Italso hadnifty additions that perked up the plot, including theabilities to manipulate dreams,compel humans, shut down their humanity and turn off their emotions, with the latter two allowing them to have carefree lives with no remorse over their action.Over the course of TVDs eight-season-run, many vampires turned off their humanity to deal with pain and difficult decisions, which almost always endedwith dire consequences:

Stefan turned off his humanity a total of four times during The Vampire Diaries;although, the first time he did it unknowingly as he was a new vampire at the age of 17, guilty and alone after his brother, Damon, left him. Unaware that he had turned his humanity off, he lost control over his bloodlust and went on a killing spree until he met another, older vampire, Alexie "Lexi" Branson. She became his best friend and mentored him on how to turn his humanity back on, as well as how to survive on a strict animal blood diet.

In Season 3, Episode 5, "The Reckoning" the original vampire, Niklaus Mikaelson, compelled Stefan to turn off his humanity. While he kept Elena "safe" for Klaus plan to create hybrids with her blood, he reverted back to his early Ripper days,not caringfor anything or anyone. Though it was never shown when or how Stefan regained his humanity, when Damon tried to kill Klaus with the White Oak Stake, Stefan saved Klaus as he knew that the hybrids were programmed to kill Damon if the original vampire died. This showed that his humanity was back; although, he went on to actlike he still didnt care about anyone anymore.

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In Season 6, Episode 16, "The Downward Spiral," Stefan turned off his humanity again when Caroline, with her humanity switch flipped, threatened to kill his niece, Sarah. Following it, he managed to make Caroline join him in his careless killing spree where they both fed without a thought and left behind injured victims and dead bodies. It was only when Damon brought back their mother, Lily, who had been turned into a vampire, that Stefan managed to turn back on his humanity.

The last time Stefan turned off his humanity was to save Lizzie and Josie Saltzman, Alarics daughters, who were kidnapped by Seline, the siren. He offered himself up to Arcadius, the creator of Hell in exchange and chose to turn off his humanity for a year to bring him souls. Like always, he fell off the wagon and became a Ripper while he tipped people towards darkness to corrupt their souls. When Cade offered him a choice to be off the contract and instead kill Elena as a bargain, he remorselessly killed Enzo. He only stopped when Bonnie, grief-stricken over Enzos death, injected him with the cure, turning him human and thus bringing back his emotions as he remembered everyone he had slaughtered for Cade.

When her brother, Jeremy, was killed in Season 4 by Silas, Elena was unable to handle the immense grief and was advised by Damon to turn off her humanity. While, unlike Stefan, she did not go on a killing spree, she did lose all the guilt she associated with killing humans and was happy to do some blood-binging in broad daylight. She changed her appearance, and her new persona deteriorated to the point that she attacked Bonnie and tried to kill Caroline, pushing Damon and Stefan to break Matt Donovans neck, which forced her to feel again.

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Damon, along with the vampire Enzo, was tortured by Dr. Whitmore as a part of the Augustine Society that experimented on vampires since 1953. It was Enzos friendship that helped Damon to hold on to his humanity. When he got to opportunity to flee in 1958, he tried to free Enzo, but he failed as the bars of his cage were soaked in vervain. He knew that to save himself he had to stop caring about his friend, so he turned off his humanity and left Enzo to die. With no guilt left, Damon led a reckless life for years where he unknowingly killed Maggie James, Enzos one true love.

In the 70s, he hosted wild parties and was feeding on people when Lexi found him and tried to get his humanity back, only for him to trick her into getting stuck on a rooftop with sunlight and no way to escape until nightfall. In 1994, he visited Stefan ,who was in Mystic Falls with Uncle Zack Salvatore and his pregnant girlfriend, Gail, whom he killed when Stefan took away his daylight ring. While it was never confirmed when he regained his humanity, in Season 6, he claimed that when he met Zach in 2007 , he remembered how he "ruined everything," thus indicating that he eitherregainedhis humanity or it resurfaced from that point onward.

Damon lost his humanity for the second time in Season 7 when the siren, Sybil, mind-controlled him and Enzo into bringing her the flesh of the wicked she wouldeat, but their souls were saved forArcadius to consume. To ensure his conscience didnt hinder him, she ordered him to turn off his humanity. Under her influence, he killed Tyler and joined his brother in killing innocents, but his love for Elena allowed him to retain a shred of humanity that helped him to overcome Sybil. In retaliation, Sybil brought back his humanity, allowing his guiltto intensely hurt him.

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The first time Enzo turned off his humanity was when he learned Damon killed Maggie.She had attacked Damon with the intention to subdue him and take him back to the Augustine operations. With his humanity off, he not only beheaded her with his bare hand, but he also staged her body to look like it was Stefan who killed her. Enzo shut down his humanity to stop caring about Maggies death and to not hate Damon.

Deciding to act on his whims, Enzo tried to kill Liv, attacked Damon and Stefan when they tried to stop him, kidnapped Elena and tried to kill her. He then attempted to set Stefan on fire, who pulled on Enzo'sheart without ripping it out,threatening to kill him.Knowing that nothing would pain Damon more than to know that his brother killed his best friend, Enzo stepped back, allowing his heart to be ripped out.

He came back as a ghost andtormented the Salvatore brothers and Elena until Damon assured him that hecould be brought back from the Other Side with Bonnies help. While itwas unknownwhat flipped his humanity back on, he did join Caroline and begunto look for ways to bring back Damon in Season 6 after he got stuck in the Other Side.

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Enzo turned off his humanity for the second time in Season 7 after Sybil realized that his obedience to follow her commands couldnt be controlled by her siren call alone. She discovered the bond he shared with Bonnie allowed him to resist her influence and tasked Damon to kill her. Desperate to save Bonnie, Enzo agreed to part ways with his humanity. Later, Bonnie managed to take Enzo back to their cabin and tried everything to recover his humanity, but it was in vain. As a last-ditch attempt, Bonnie set the cabin on fire to force Enzo with her impending death to turn on his humanity, and it worked.

In Season 6, Episode 14, "Stay," Caroline Forbes mother, Elizabeth, died of a rare cancer, despite her trying to cure her with vampire blood. Unable to cope with the pain of her death, Caroline flipped her humanity switch before Stefan could tell her that he loved her. Without her humanity, Caroline didnt care what others thought, was bitterly honest and kept herself busy with shopping, partying and drinking, but she was still in full control of her bloodlust, knowing that a string of bodies would put the police on her trail.

She told Elena and Bonnie that all she needed was a year without feeling pain, grief or remorse and if during it anyone or anything tried to bring back her humanity, there would be dire consequences. Her warning was tested when Stefan tried to trigger her feelings for him. Knowing that Stefan would keep trying to bring back her humanity, she retaliated by kidnapping his niece, Sarah, and compelled Liam to kill her, forcing Stefan to turn his humanity off.

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Accompanied by Stefan, who wasgoing intohis Ripper-mode, Caroline abandoned her careful "routine" of leading a normal life when Stefan pushed her to join him on killing sprees. She went as far as to torture people just for fun, like when she killed a bartender by compelling him to think he was having a heart attack. She even tried killing Tyler and Matt, which resulted in the latter getting staked.

When Damon managed to trigger Stefans humanity by bringing back their mother, the younger Salvatore once again pursued Caroline and managed to convince her that his humanity was still off. He tricked her into getting caught by Damon, Elena and Bonnie and successfully brought back her emotions by putting visions of her mother in her head, pushing Caroline to break down and face everything she had done in her attempt to suppressher pain.

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Apeksha is a passionate content creator with years of experience in the media and online publishing industry. A full-time freelance writer now, she can cover anything under the sun and harbours a secret Vampire Diaries crush. And when she is not breaking her back by typing on her laptop for hours, you can likely find her curled up on the couch, with a murder mystery book in her hands and her cat dozing on her lap.

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The Vampire Diaries: Every Time the Vampire Characters Turned Off Their Humanity - CBR - Comic Book Resources

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