What The Vampire Diaries Fans Really Think Of The Werewolves

"The Vampire Diaries" franchise has more than its fair share content for fans to pick apart and discuss. There's more than 170 episodes of the original show — itself based on a novel series by L.J. Smith — plus two spin-off shows ("Legacies" and "The Originals") that have expanded the supernatural world beyond the love triangle that started it all between Elena Gilbert (Nina Dobrev) and vampire brothers Stefan Salvatore (Paul Wesley) and Damon Salvatore (Ian Somerhalder). 

Created by "Scream" screenwriter Kevin Williamson and Julie Plec, the original "The Vampire Diaries" was set in the town of Mystic Falls, Virginia, a place crawling with all sorts of creatures and spooky phenomena. Among those creatures are the show's werewolves, whose curses come to life during the full moon. Like any cinematic depiction of man turning to beast, transformation scenes gave the creative team an opportunity to present appropriately horror-themed images to the audience. Michael Trevino, who played Tyler Lockwood, said that actually becoming a werewolf was sometimes a challenging process. "It was a marathon. There were very specific points with having to break my leg, or break my arm, or I'm spazzing out a bit and there's growling — so it was two very long and exhausting days," he said about his first transformation in Season 2 (via Entertainment Weekly). 

Fellow werewolf Taylor Kinney, who played Mason Lockwood, said real wolves were even brought onto set. "These are awesome creatures. They're maybe a foot or two bigger than any dog. They're always pacing. They're always looking," he said (per Digital Spy). 

However, while the actors themselves clearly enjoyed their time as lycanthropes, how did viewers take to them?

Fans have noted over the years that those individuals on "The Vampire Diaries" afflicted with the werewolf curse are nowhere near as strong as the vampires of the series. One Reddit discussion from 2020 kicked off with an image of a musclebound dog representing the vampires of "The Vampire Diaries" and a much smaller dog shedding a tear — who may not be spending as much time as lifting — representing the werewolves of the show. 

Now, to be clear, there is one caveat, as Reddit fan u/Miss-Messy-In-Ayland pointed out, which is that werewolves are stronger than vampires on a full moon — when their curse takes control — and that seems to be the specific intention of the writers. Indeed, it's worth noting that the original vampires were created by Esther Mikaelson (Alice Evans for the most part) to be more powerful than werewolves, something argued by u/TheStonedCelestial, who wrote: "The original vampires were literally created to be specifically superior to werewolves, it's like the whole point of their existence." Another viewer, u/sbagley01, pointed out that the human forms of the werewolves are so limited that they have to rely on human weaponry to even stand a chance against their blood-sucking foes. 

Some users compared the overall weakness of the "Vampire Diaries" werewolves to other depictions in popular media. As posted by u/YanCoffee, "In ['The Vampire Diaries'] they could take on a whole pack. At least the wolves were fearsome in ['True Blood']." As numerous fans have pointed out, werewolves are weaker not only because vampires were created to be superior, but the abilities of werewolves are not in effect until the full moon when they turn. That's also when they deliver venomous bites to vampires. So, perhaps everything balances out for narrative reasons.