A Visitor's Guide to Mystic Falls - By Red Page 0,63
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A Visitor's Guide to
Fell's Church
A BOOK SERIES PRIMER FOR
TV SERIES FANS
• Red and Vee •
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One of the questions we’re asked most (other than “Does Paul Wesley have a Twitter account?”) is, “What happens in the books?” We’ve come to expect a flood of breathless emails following every cliffhanger, fans begging us to tell them what happens next because they may fall down and DIE, DIE I tell you! before the following week’s episode. And our answer is always the same:
We don’t have a clue.
As we write this, The Vampire Diaries TV series is preparing for its second season, and we’re as excited as you are to follow the romantic entanglements, twisted family dynamics, and, yes, those heart-stopping cliffhangers that have come to define Thursday nights.
Because, again, we have no idea what’s going to happen next.
And that is why the show is fun for those of us who have read the books. We have the benefit of experiencing every surprise the writers throw at us each week and the background information to pick up on the subtle and not-so-subtle book references scattered throughout the series (Druid Room! Honoria Fell! Oh my, that’s a very large full moon you’re standing under, Tyler!). As different as the story translation is from book to screen, and how much certain characters have been altered from their book origins, book DNA 176
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• A V i s i t o r ' s G u i d e t o F e l l ' s C h u r c h •
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runs through the TV series’ veins, and it’s a treat when the writers toss out nuggets for the fans.
This is not to say you’re missing out if you’re a fan who hasn’t read the books. But we’re sure that many of you will be interested in reading The Vampire Diaries in its original form on the page for the same reasons that you love the TV
series: the core themes of love, friendship, and being true to oneself against all odds. And, after all, L.J. Smith’s series has maintained a loyal and passionate following for nearly two decades. That has to spark some curiosity in TV series fans, right? Whether your enjoyment of the show will be affected by reading the books is up to you; your own mileage will vary when encountering the numerous differences. And to help ease the transition between these parallel universes, we humbly offer this primer, free of major spoilers, for your potential excursion into book territory.
Where do we begin?
Okay, wait a sec why is Elena blonde?
The first thing you’ll notice when you start reading The Vampire Diaries is a difference between many of the book characters and their TV series counterparts, in both appearance and personality.
The most startling character change is that of Elena Gilbert. She’s still an orphan, though she has had a few years to wrap her mind around that fact, and she still writes in her 6882 Visitor's Guide to Mystic Falls[FIN].indd 177
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• A V i s i t o r ’ s G u i d e t o M y s t i c F a l l s •
beloved diary. That’s where the similarities end. Blonde, blue-eyed, and sure of herself, the Elena Gilbert of the books is the queen of Robert E. Lee High School. She knows what she wants, and she makes sure that she gets it, no matter what the cost. She is, on the surface, rather selfish and materialistic and many readers find her hard to identify with as the heroine of a story. But stick with it, because Elena’s journey is one of the focal points of The Vampire Diaries; she evolves from a self-centered teenager, who has everything she desires, to a young woman stripped bare of all she has, who is the better for it as she realizes the most important things she can possess are love, friendship, and family.
Stefan, Damon, and Katherine are from
fifteenth century Europe? Where are the corsets, the suspenders, the Confederate uniforms?!
There are still plenty of Civil War costumes to be had in the books, but the town’s history has nothing to do with the Salvatore brothers. Here, Stefan and Damon are 500-year-old Italian noblemen, recently moved over to the United States from Italy, complete with sexy Italian accents. Sadly, the accents don’t stick around; Stefan’s ability to go from foreigner