Fans of sci-fi/fantasy shows know going in that there’s going to be a certain amount of suspension of reality and common sense required. For example, on The Flash whenever a new rogue shows up in Central City we just accept that they have powers and pretend to understand the scientific craziness the team needs to stop them. As a nerd, it’s a skill you learn early on.

For a series like The Vampire Diaries, it starts with the idea that centuries old vampires, who happen to all look like gorgeous teenagers, are walking around a small Virginia town and very few people have figured it out. Seriously, shouldn’t the government be investigating the massive amount of unexplained, gruesome deaths? Once the audience gets past that, they have to try and follow all the tangled storylines involving doppelgangers, curses, the veil to the other side, vampire hunters and destroying hell. Not to mention the revolving door of couples. Of course, we love it and wouldn’t miss a moment. Even if they watch every week and know the show inside and out, there are always going to be a few plots that slip through the cracks. These are the biggest plot holes from The Vampire Diaries.

15 PASTOR YOUNG BLOWS UP THE FOUNDER’S COUNCIL

Though it seemed like no one in town knew what was really going on in Mystic Falls, we found out very quickly that there was a small group devoted to keeping the city safe. The Founder’s Council was made up of descendants of the town founders and they knew all about vampires. Sheriff Forbes, Mayor Lockwood and Elena’s deceased parents were all members at one point.

At the start of season four, Pastor Young started a new, more brutal council whose first mission was to kidnap Rebekah, Stefan and Elena. Once they escaped, the pastor gathered everyone and announced that it was just the beginning and blew his house up with the council inside. What was the point of making the new council seem so important when they were proved to be just as ineffective as the old one and died immediately?

14 VAMPIRE HUNTERS THE FIVE

With Klaus and the other Originals about to head off to their own show, the series needed to introduce a new threat to bring the group together. Enter Connor, a smart, powerful vampire hunter, who is one of The Five, an ancient group of hunters whose sole purpose in life is to kill vampires. This is especially dangerous since Elena is newly turned and hasn’t figured out how to control herself yet.

The Five were set up as a menacing force that even Klaus was wary of. However, they knew about the cure to vampirism so Damon and Stefan had to figure out a hunter tattoo that would lead to an island where the cure was. In the end it was really all about releasing Silas, who of course was evil. The Five were just a red herring and completely unimportant. All the tattoo nonsense was pointless.

13 SIRENS AND CADE CONTROL DAMON AND ENZO

In the season seven finale, Enzo was attacked by a mysterious creature in the Armory vault. Damon went in to save him and was also taken. At the start of season eight, no one knows where they are, but viewers see pretty quickly that Damon is back to his old self, killing travelers on the road. He and Enzo are in the service of a siren who needs them to kill to make her stronger. It’s later revealed that she’s working for Cade, the ruler of Hell, who wants to escape.

Of course, the Mystic Falls gang finds a way to free them from being controlled, but then Stefan is forced to serve Cade as the ripper. In the finale, none of this is important as it turns out Katherine orchestrated the whole thing. So the season boiled down to one long throwaway storyline.

12 ALARIC GETS TURNED INTO AN ORIGINAL VAMPIRE

The introduction of the Original vampire family, the Mikaelsons added to the mythology of the series. Their mother turned the whole family to protect them from the neighboring werewolf village. They are stronger and harder to kill than average vampires. There are five Mikaelson siblings, with Klaus as the oldest. Since Klaus possessed his body when he first came to town, terrorized his friends and killed Jenna, Alaric has no love for the Originals.

Considering how their backstory was so well established, and we knew how vampires were made, it seemed a bit silly that Alaric could be turned into an original through magic. Of course, magic is an all-purpose fix for The Vampire Diaries. In vampire form, Ric’s evil vampire hating alter ego took over and it negated everything we knew about Alaric.

11 WHITMORE COLLEGE

Season five began with Elena and Caroline heading off to college. As with most teen dramas, the stories get a bit lost when the main characters move away from home and The Vampire Diaries was no different. While the girls are happy to be away from all the craziness of Mystic Falls, you just know it can’t last. Turns out there are mysterious professors who know all about vampires and run experiments on them.

Considering the lack of actual school time Elena and Caroline put in, it’s a wonder they even got into college in the first place. About part way through the season, the action shifted back to Mystic Falls and the college setting became unimportant to the plot. Honestly, the same exact storyline could’ve unfolded in the same manner without unnecessary college scenes.

10 MATT BECOMES THE SHERIFF

Poor Matt Donovan was the odd man out for eight seasons. His girlfriends either died or dumped him for vampires and werewolves. He was used as bait and killed constantly, and was basically a human blood bag for awhile. On top of all that, he has no family and is an orphan.

Fed up with all the supernatural shenanigans he decided to become a deputy. Though, like always, a town ceremony erupted in violence when the graduation turned into a massacre by the heretics. Then Liz Forbes succumbed to cancer, suddenly making him the senior law enforcement officer in town. So, no one thought to hire an outsider with more experience? They just all said let’s go with the kid who’s barely out of high school and is seemingly involved in a lot of mysterious deaths and accidents.

9 STEFAN AND DAMON KNOW NOTHING ABOUT VAMPIRE HISTORY

When the series begins, the Salvatores are around 145 years old. That’s actually young for a vampire, but as we learn in the course of the show, it’s been an interesting 145 years. They’ve lived all over the world and known tons of fascinating characters. So, with all this experience, why do they always seem so unprepared for the threats the constantly arise?

When Elijah first shows up, they clearly have no idea what an Original is, which is weird since Stefan and Rebekah used to date. They are completely in the dark about werewolves, witches and hunters, putting everyone in danger. They can’t be expected to know every supernatural threat out there, but they could at least read up on the basics. For a duo made to look so clever, they lack a remarkable amount of knowledge about vampire history.

8 JEREMY DOESN’T COME HOME AFTER ELENA’S ETERNAL SLUMBER

Jeremy Gilbert is Elena’s little brother and he’s made to seem unimportant from almost the first moment we meet him. His girlfriends frequently end up turned into vampires or dead, or both. He also has a problem staying among the living and dies a lot. He sole purpose seems to be as leverage against Elena and Bonnie.

All this supernatural stuff has essentially ruined his life. Once he figures that out he decides he needs to get away and convinces everyone he’s going to art school. Only Ric knows that he actually went off to be a vampire hunter. When Elena ends up in a magical coma, and everyone is playing musical caskets with her coffin, he never once comes back to town. Yes, Steven R. McQueen had left the show, but he couldn’t even call? Once again he lets Elena down.

7 BONNIE BREAKS ELENA’S SLEEPING CURSE

When star Nina Dobrev decided to leave the series at the end of season six, producers didn’t want to kill her. Ultimately, they came up with the idea of a sleeping spell that linked Bonnie and Elena’s lives. As long as Bonnie lived, Elena would remain in an eternal slumber.

There was a lot of talk about finding a way to break the curse, but Elena herself told Bonnie she was happy to help her friend have a long life and would see Damon in 60 years. Damon was emotionally crushed. There were a lot of tears. Then all of a sudden in the series finale, after all the bad guys are killed, Bonnie announced that she found the power to break the curse and all is well. This all happened off screen during a commercial break and seemed very anti-climatic after two years of crying.

6 THEY SPEND VERY LITTLE TIME IN CLASS

When the series begins, the main characters are juniors in high school. In season one they spend time at school, but mostly have a lot of parties and dances. This pattern is repeated throughout the first few seasons. The actual school part of high school is pointless. In the season four finale, they all graduate from high school, which seems weird since no one has been to class in months. Seriously, did anyone even go to school in season three?

It’s understandable that with ancient vampires hunting you, friends and family constantly dying and non-stop relationship drama, going to class would seem unimportant. It’s also the place where a lot of attacks take place, so maybe it’s just the danger keeping everyone away. If only we all could graduate and get into a great college with the bare minimum of classes attended.

5 KLAUS KILLS ALL HIS HYBRIDS

From the minute Klaus arrived on the scene, he had one goal, lift the curse and wake up his werewolf side. Once this was accomplished he decided he needed a new family and began siring hybrids. He was able to successfully create 12 of them. Klaus was obviously trying to replace his family with the hybrids, forcing his control on them.

The problem for the hybrids was that they weren’t his family and Klaus seemed more than willing to sacrifice them when it suited his needs. However, Tyler and the others didn’t want to be slaves to Klaus’ whims and tried to break the sire bond. When Klaus found out about Tyler’s plan he lashed out like the angry child he is and killed Tyler’s mom and all the hybrids. It was a surprising end considering how much time he spent focused on their creation.

4 DOPPELGANGERS

Very early on, we discover that Elena looks just like Stefan and Damon’s sire and first love Katherine. Later we find out that Elena is one of the Petrova doppelgangers, meaning they are from the same bloodline. Over the course of the series, this leads to a lot of Freaky Friday style nonsense with impersonations and body swaps.

While it’s a creative character aspect that gives Nina Dobrev a chance to shine, it becomes a crutch that is relied on way too often. The writers even add a couple more Petrovas just to further confuse viewers. At one point even Stefan is found to have an evil doppelganger and the whole idea just gets out of hand. When Dobrev returned for the series finale, she actually spent most of the episode as Katherine and the last few scenes as Elena. It just got redundant after awhile.

3 BONNIE’S REPEATED RETURNS FROM DEATH

On a show like The Vampire Diaries death is never really certain. No matter how set in stone it seems, someone can always find a way back to the living. Perhaps the only person who died more than Jeremy was Bonnie. She spent half a season on the other side, was trapped in the 1994 prison world with Damon and died on purpose a few other times as part of someone’s crazy plan.

Luckily for her, she’s one of the most powerful witches around and her magic usually brings her back. Sometimes it’s immediate, sometimes it takes awhile, but Bonnie always finds her way back. It’s nice to know a fan favorite isn’t in any danger, but it also takes away some of the suspense of the show.

2 ELENA IS THE KEY TO EVERYTHING

Yes, Elena is the leading lady. The story is about her life in her small town, surrounded by vampires. From the beginning, Damon and Stefan are both drawn to her. Bonnie gets involved to help her. Caroline is jealous because she gets so much attention. When Klaus shows up to break his curse, of course he needs her for the sacrifice. Later on, when he wants to create hybrids that don’t die, guess whose blood he needs? Yep, Elena.

As the series progresses, it seems she is required to make every complicated spell work properly. There’s usually some ridiculous magic based reason why, but come on after awhile it was silly. It was really nice to see Caroline and Bonnie get to be the leads in seasons seven and eight. Made it feel like a new show.

1 MOST OF THE TOWN HAS NO IDEA ABOUT THE SUPERNATURAL

Just so we’re clear, Mystic Falls is full of vampires, werewolves, witches, magical bells that open the gates of Hell and no end of mysterious disappearances and deaths, and no one is the tiniest bit suspicious. None of the parents not on the town council wonder why every major town event ends in a massacre? Seriously, never throw a party in Mystic Falls.

When the heretics took over, everyone was compelled into thinking there was a hazardous gas leak, but there wasn’t a single nerdy conspiracy theorist in the entire city who thought “that story makes no sense?” At least on Buffy the Vampire Slayer, the residents seem aware that their city is different and take some precautions. It’s just ridiculous that no one ever once asks the crazy questions. Like, why don’t any of these kids age?