It's hard not to scramble when news like Nina Dobrev leaving The Vampire Diaries hits. The show is far from over; her co-stars aren't leaving; she's the star; where the hell do we go from here? We start piecing together what will be left in the wake of the star of the show leaving her post and from there comes an avalanche of possibilities and one of the greatest possibilities is that Caroline will become the new TVD heroine (she's kind of amazing, so that's not the worst outcome), but that would mean pushing Steroline to be endgame for the series as a replacement for Delena. Unfortunately, that would mean Klaroline is definitely not going to happen. Sorry, 'shippers.
Of course, we all knew there was a possibility that Klaroline would never see the light of another day. Klaus went and got his own show and The Vampire Diaries without Caroline is no show at all. This 'ship was doomed from the start. But we held out hope. Perhaps there was a way, somehow, at the end of The Vampire Diaries' run: Caroline could leave Mystic Falls, the town full of bad vibes and reminders of her mother's passing, and ship off to New Orleans and make our hopeless dreams come true. But now, The Vampire Diaries needs to find another OTP to carry the series through how ever many more seasons Julie Plec wants to give us. I have no doubt, Dobrev's final episode will come with closure for Delena and Stelena 'shippers, but then it will likely be time to crown another couple, unless Plec changes course. TVD runs on 'ships, after all. (Well, vampire violence, doppelgangers, and 'ships, but you get my point.)
Logically, that couple is Steroline (lord knows fans would not be down with Bamon taking the crown, even if Dobrev is abandoning ship). No other remaining characters have fans as invested as Stefan and Caroline (except solo Damon) and while they're not exactly Summer & Seth from The OC, it'd be easy to use that couple as a template for how to continue a series once its own version of the Ryan & Marisa pairing was done. I simply don't see Julie Plec bringing in new loves for Stefan and Caroline (and Klaus can't exactly abandon his own show for her, though that would be damn romantic), because that's not how OTP works.
But all hope is not lost. Many Klaroline fans are actually taking this news as a good thing for their favorite 'ship. Perhaps TVD won't find a new OTP. Perhaps it will let Delena be it and make the Brothers Salvatore the core relationship for the rest of the series, leaving Caroline open to leave and become Klaus' destiny on The Originals. I suppose anything is possible and so do the fans...
There were those with the silver lining approach:
The folks who are clearly trying to appeal to Plec's affection for the fandom:
Some had clear cut plans for Plec to get back in their good graces:
(I don't totally disagree with this as long as she brings Damon with her to NOLA.)
But then there were the pessimists:
And the borderline riotous pessimists:
But despite the wave of evidence suggesting Klaroline has no shot at all, there are those who choose to keep the faith:
Me too, friend. Me too.
Image: Annette Brown/CW; Giphy
