this is a requested chapter, i forgot who requested it, so whoever did, yay!

now, there are two ways of going with an AU in my own opinion

1. rearrange the past to change the future yet the future still has similar elements just different so your story is still unique but stays in the box of TVDU

2. you go absolutely apeshit and do whatever you want bc its your story and no one can tell you different 

(except for me in which case i shall be roasting you on this book)

now, let's focus on number 1 shall we?

the most accurate AU i can offer you isn't even a book, it's a show

if you've heard of the book series The Mortal Instruments and maybe also heard of its TV adaption, Shadowhunters then this'll make sense to you

when i first watched Shadowhunters i was glad they were going the same route as the books but then near the end of the first season everything started to change up until i said no to watching it bc it wasn't following the books anymore.

but then a couple years later i decided the watch the whole show since it was over already and give me full opinion (you can find it on the last chapter of that heinous shadowhunters fic in my profile, i wrote the chapters when i was 13-14 ok) but the opinion is much more recent.

what i saw in the show is that is more like an AU of Mortal Instruments. certain characters had different paths and it balanced everything out.

i don't want to give spoilers so i won't use names

Person A was supposed to live while another one, Person B was supposed to die. This was switched.

Person C was supposed to be afflicted by this curse/power thing but Person D got it instead.

Person E was supposed to forget everything that happened to them in this world but instead Person F was made to forget.

There was a whole ass restaurant that was like this local diner that everyone went to but it didn't exist up until the very last episode. So, something that existed for years in the books came to be in the moment.

what I'm trying to say is that if you want to make an AU that is still within the borders of TVDU then go along like this show, pick out certain characters and change their outcome with another.

i like to call it balancing it out.

you can't just have Caroline not be a vampire and let her live a happy human life, someone has to be a vampire in the start of season 2

you can't just keep all the Originals from dying in season 3, Finn dies so at least a different one should die to let them know that it is very possible for them to go as well. and also to learn about how when an Original dies their whole sireline dies with them.

some examples:

instead of Carol Lockwood becoming mayor, someone else does. someone like Bill Forbes or John Gilbert even.

instead of Caroline becoming a vampire, Matt does (but gross no)

instead of the Original's being the Originals, maybe the first vampires were some other people? people like Tristan de Martel, Aurora de Martel, and Lucien Castle

idk how on earth these bitches would've been made into the Original Vampires but it'd be an interesting spin on it, i won't lie

maybe Lucien and Aurora finally did fall in love and Lucien made a deal with some witch to stay with his love forever and to defend themselves from people that didn't want them together; and bc Aurora can't live without her brother she makes sure he becomes an Original too

and maybe the curse they're trying to lift is actually just Lucien trying to get back to his love bc some witches or hunters or smth imprisoned her Silas-style and Lucien's trying to free her so we get Tristan showing up all Elijah-like only he's much more of an ass, and while Lucien is better in certain ways he is much more psychotic than Klaus was.

idk the curse could go a number of ways, play with the curse in season 2, figure out who would want to break it, is it Aurora trying to get her brother back? or trying to get Lucien back? or both? or is it Lucien trying to get Aurora back? or Tristan trying to get his sister back? meanwhile who takes Elijah's place as the first Original introduced who gives us exposition on the story? Lucien or Tristan? some of you might think Tristan bc suit but remember that Lucien was a lot more likable than Tristan. so ya'll get to play around with that too

now let's talk about number 2

so, you wanna take the idea of TVD and make it entirely your own? just a full on AU with your own ideas?

maybe stefan and damon don't show up at all. maybe it's katherine that saves elena.

maybe elena and katherine meet, maybe they get to know each other and even become friends and katherine wants to help her survive simply because she reminds her of herself. maybe katherine convinces elena to help her get revenge on klaus with help from elijah (who thinks his entire family is dead and gone in the ocean)

maybe stefan is still with klaus, and they're just super close confidants and friends now (but also secretely but not-so secretely lovers obviously) 

maybe damon is still in new york, keeping his head down bc he admitted how toxic katherine was and his life isn't so bad (until someone drags him back to mystic falls again)

what if bonnie is excited about being a witch? what if she's in classic alex-russo-style, doing magic for all the wrong reasons? and then she learns over the story to do it for the right reasons.

what if caroline's insecurities run deeper than you think? maybe she needs a friend, maybe she has things to accept about herself (yes, im saying she's queer, it could be a good denial storyline)

maybe jeremy finds their parents hunting stash before going into drugs. maybe he becomes like his ancestor, Jonathan Gilbert, and becomes obsessed with demons of the night, starting his hunter storyline early.

ask yourself what would be a different way to tell the story, and how would you tell it?

play around with relationships and pasts. 

change up the characters and how they develop. 

elena grows into a much more selfish person due to katherine's influence for example.

stefan has become more vicious and ruthless with klaus over the decades.

damon in his solitude, has maybe become a pacifist?

bonnie, afraid of abandonment, chooses to control the narrative instead. she has fun and she isn't afraid of it.

anyone have any more thoughts?