After watching the first episode of The Vampire Diaries on The CW, I thought, “Wow, this is a complete knock-off of Twilight.” But then some of my vampire-savvy friends told me that L.J. Smith’s The Vampire Diaries was actually written way before Stephenie Meyer‘s Twilight. So if there’s any knocking off going on, then Twilight is a knock-off of The Vampire Diaries. Or who knows, maybe they’re all knock-offs of Dracula.
However it shakes out, it’s not hard to see the similarities between The Vampire Diaries and Twilight (both of which I love). Here are a few that jumped out at me with all the aggression of a hungry vampire….
The cute teenagers. I realize they’re all teenagers, but it’s amazing to me that Diaries’ Elena and Stefan (Nina Dobrev and Paul Wesley) actually look a little like Twilight‘s Bella and Edward (Kristen Stewart and Robert Pattinson). Not only that, but the setup in the first episode was almost exactly the same, right down to Stefan staring at Elena across a classroom, just as Edward did with Bella.
On another note, Ian Somerhalder, who plays bad-boy vamp Damon, looks like a cross between Gossip Girls‘ Chace Crawford and Smallville‘s Tom Welling. I’m starting to think there’s a special laboratory where they breed guys specifically for CW shows.
The blood factor. When Elena scrapes her leg, Stefan has to divert his attention, lest he take a nibble — or giant bite — out of her. Likewise, when Edward has to save Bella after the scuffle with James, he’s afraid he won’t be able to stop. It’s a vampire thing.
The dark towns. Both stories take place in dark, mysterious towns. For Diaries, that’s Mystic Falls, Virgina, while Twilight takes place in the rainy little town of Forks, Washington. The smokey mist that rolled in while Elena was in the cemetery was pretty darn awesome.
The attacks. In Twilight, people are getting killed by what’s presumed to be animals (though we really know it’s the James gang). The Vampire Diaries jumps right into it with people dropping left and right — with those telltale marks on their necks. It appears that The Vampire Diaries is setting things up to be far more aggressive than Twilight in the way of attacks.
What other similarities have you noticed between these two series? And which is your favorite? Or are you like Deb, and think Diaries is trying to copy Buffy (and failing miserably)?
Clacked by Jane Boursaw 
on Sep 23, 2009 @ 09:30 EST5EDT
You are absolutely correct that the Vampire Diaries series came out way before the Twilight series. I love them both and here are a few things, imo, that are different:
While Twilight & VD have great love stories, the major difference is the heroine in each story. It was tough for me to finish Twilight’s Breaking Dawn because Bella is so incredibly whiney and the Cullen’s seem to do everything for her; particularly Edward. I think Stephanie Meyer was trying to create a romantic love story but she made Bella this completely dependent, soft, no aspiration type of girl. What bothers me about this is that 99% of the Twilight audience are young teenage girls. I really would have liked to see a stronger, independent leading lady. Someone who isn’t dependent on their significant other for a car or cell phone :( Now on to Vampire Diaries; Elena is definitely much more bitchy in the books than she seems to be on the show. The difference is Elena is not whiney and not soft. She does not depend upon Stefan for material things and he doesn’t overpower her with his protectiveness. Don’t get me wrong; I know every woman loves to feel that their man will defend them and will protect them but there is that line between defending and possessing. Edward possesses, Stefan defends. Another thing that irks me about Bella is she completely ditches her friends for Edward whereas Elena does not.
I know S.Meyer is a young author but LJ Smith defintely blows her out of the water when it comes to their writing skill. Hopefully, SM will continue writing and will get better. I’m not saying she’s horrible, but LJ Smith has her beat by a few miles.
All in all, both are good entertaining reads. There are some aspects I love about Twilight more and some about VD I love more. I think Vampire Diaries fits right in the middle between Twilight and True Blood. Twilight = PG; Vampire Diaries = PG13, True Blood = R (some scenes should be NC-17!) Thanks for letting me speak my mind. Team Edward, Team Eric, & Team Stefan :)
I totally agree that Edward posseses and Stefan defends. Sometimes I wonder if Stefanie was just trying to drag on the series. If a guy did that to me I would totally dump his butt! Stefanie, to me, is starting off her writing carrer looking like a copy cat and Smith is deffinately a better writer than Meyer. Its possible to write something that is supernatural but not something that is impossible like sticking with a man who is too clingy. Bella is a bad influence to young girls by showing them that inorder to keep your man you have to give up something. In the Diaries, Elena tells Damon that she doesn’t want to become a vampire and when she does, she is not happy for a while. Bella has this image that she can’t be with Edward because she is getting older and all she wants is to become a vampire. She prepares for this by ditching her friends and gives Edward no other choice when she becomes pregnant. In the Vampire Diaries show, Elena is clearly able to give Stefan and in the book, is clearly not able to give up her friends. The only thing that could have made the Diaries better is if Smith kept Elena human longer. She only knew Stefan for around 3 months before she was killed and transformed. Bella at least had to wait six times that long!
If you were to read the book Vampire Diaries you would see how “similar” that classroom scene really is. After reading The Vampire Diaries (and the fact it even mentions the term “Twilight” about a million times in the book) I am convinced regardless what Stephenie Meyer says that she not only read Vampire Diaries which came out in 1991 but the copied many of the story lines in the book. She is however a Mormon writer and had to remove certain aspects from her writing. After reading Vampire Diaries I have come to the conclusion that I am VERY disappointed in Meyer. I suggest reading the book then checking out the similarities. Your jaw will drop if you really want to see them.
Well I am in the middle of reading the Fury and I agree 100% about the dissapointment in Meyer. My friends is also reading the series along with me and she agrees that Meyer has done some serious copying. Twilight is also mentioned many times. I tried counting about half way into the first book and lost count. Somewhere in the twenties. She wrote the book around 2005 and a lot of the lingo used in her books sounds like it was almost written in the early 1990’s thus The Vampire Diaries. I noticed that when I was reading Twilight, before I even knew the Vampire Diaries existed. There is so many similarities. Not nessecarily in the show but within the books. Others that I have talked to think that they may have needed to cut some of the things out of the book just to make the show not seem as similar to Twilight. The fact is that Meyer looks like she took little things like the confustion in the office and the ignoring/hatred in the beginning and twisted a few words around to make them her own. She also took big things such as the girl trying to find and rescue her love from death in both of the second books and the proposal in the mens bedrooms… They aren’t exactly the same but they have the same plot and idea. And in the third book of the Diaries, there is something invading the town and all the vampires don’t sense there presence or know who or what is going on. I am suprized Smith doesn’t bring up legal things with this. EVERYONE who has read both of the books sees the similarities! L.J. has even started to get back at Meyer by writing the new returning series that came out this February and the second book is due next spring. Did Twilight really come as a dream or a dream after just finishing The Vampire Diaries?
I agree with u Holly. And I luv u 4eva Free Willy!
*Bonnie sees the future like Alice, both are short and described like little pixies/goblin (at least in spanish translation, I haven’t read the english version)
*Bella and Elena are described as pale like albino.
*In the 4th book of vampire diaries (written in 1992) there is a werewolf called Jacob.
The werewolf is called tyler in the vampire diaries not jacob
His ancestor is called Jacob Smallwood, who was bitten by a werewolf and become one.
It is said at Honoria Fell’s journal.
“The blood initiated Tyler into his hereditary powers as a werewolf. Because Jacob Smallwood, a town founder and contemporary of Honoria Fell, was bitten by a werewolf, all his male descendents were similarly infected.”
https://wiki.vampire-diaries.net/Dark_Reunion
Okay, Twilight is WAAAAAY better than stupid Vampire Diaries. I don’t care if Stephenie Meyer did copy it from Vampire Diaries.(Which she didn’t) That is quite posssibly the dumbest show I have ever seen, and Twilight, New Moon, Eclipse, and Breaking Dawn are like 5,248,515,751,384,185% better. SUCK THAT HATERSSS. You’re just mad that the movies and books have made so much money, and Vampire Diaries is barely noticed. Maybe thats a sign that it sucks.
WELL LET ME TELL U SOMETHING U CAN COUNT…..VD IS SOOOOOOOOOOOO WAY BETTER THAN TWILIGHT..TWILIGHT HAS NO PLOT VD DOES
Twilight did not copy vampire diaries there might be simalaeritys but this is not high school musical, its not about who copyed who. To be quite frank twilight is better,but vd is also good. I like the charecter bella swan cuz she is a normal girl that anybody could be, some might think she is selfish but we all are. My point is twilight rocks! Team Edward!!! By the way edward is not possive he is just caring and kind, bella is just unlucky, she always gets into trouble, that why edward is always there!
another similarity:
in the VD after Elena finds out that Stefan is a vampire Stefan has a whole “i’m really strong and fast” thing just like Edward does. Stefan tosses heavy objects across the room as if the were a pillow and snaps a big thick board in half. and the dialogue is very simmilar as well. Now i’m not sure if Stephenie meyer copied or not. I’ll (as of right now) belive her when she says she never read a vampire book before. but i don’t know
and as others have pointed out:
girl in love with vampire
vampire try not to love her but can’t stop being with her
“evil” vampire comes and trys to take elena/bella away (twilight wants bella to kill, VD damon wants bella to be ‘vampire princess’)
bonnie sees future alice sees future
werewolves
love triangle Elena/Stefan/Damon Bella/Edward/Jacob
there are lot of similarities.
now i like both books the same. VD came out before Twilight though so it’s making me wonder……
i gotta say even though Damon is the “evil” vampire i really like him. (totaly of topic but oh well)
oh and for those of you who completly deny the similarities obviously are crazy or haven’t read both series all the way through.
and sorry for bad spelling and bad grammer. i suck at that kind of thing (so much for being in ap english) o_O*
Twilight is better then vd (though i like vd too) and here is the prof. Twilight was more successful than vd! To all the haters: take a chill pill. If L. J Smith felt she got coopyed she could just sue steph!!!!!!!!!!