The Vampire Diaries -- What Does It Mean To Be Sired?

Well, I think the first thing is it's very different for a werewolf to be sired to one opposed to a vampire being sired to someone. For instance the werewolves are pack animals who are submissive to the alpha of the group. You might say it's hardwired into them to be submissive to a master; be it the alpha wolf or Klaus. They didn't seem to think that Klaus murdered them; all that mattered was the Klaus had freed them from their terrible curse and that caused Klaus to be able to usurp the alpha wolf and become their new master.

When you're sired, you also have a lack of freewill. We saw that when Klaus ordered Tyler to bite Caroline. Tyler refused to do it, but he found himself doing it without even being aware he did it. If the sire master chooses, as Klaus does, they can force you to do things that are against your will. The sire master can also force you to walk into a situation where your death will be the result and you'll have no choice but to comply. Those are example of the sire master taking advantage of the sire bond to make you do whatever he wishes.

While the sire bond occurs in werewolves because they're hardwired to be submissive to someone; with vampires the sire bond occurs when you have feelings for the vampire who's blood turns you into a vampire. Which means there's quite a few vampires that are sired to each other. Katherine and Damon and Dead Lexie and her boyfriend that she turned to name two.

One of the prerequisites for becoming sired to the vampire whose blood turns you into a vampire is you can't have been compelled into having a relationship with them. Which is why Stefan is sired to Katherine and Caroline isn't sired to Damon.

I've seen some people trying to claim Damon loved Katherine for a decade and a half because he was sired to her. He was faithful to her for decades because of the sire bond. I'm sorry, but since Katherine had no contact with Damon after he became a vampire, nothing he did was because of a sire bond, but because of his love for Katherine. He loved Katherine enough to become a vampire, so everything he did after he became a vampire was because he loved Katherine.

Also the way the show showed to end a vampire sire bond I don't think really ends it. It's just using the sire bond to make someone who loves you do what you tell them to do against their will. It's the same as Klaus ordering Tyler to bite Caroline or ordering a hybrid. If you go to them years later and say something like, "It would make me happy if you'd love me again," odds are they'd do exactly what you said.

Look at Charlotte. Damon telling her it would make him happy if she'd forget him and go out and have a good life for herself didn't stop her from loving him or flip some kind of switch. She was just going to do what Damon ordered her to do, much like his careless remark about counting all the bricks in New Orleans until he came back to her.

For the werewolves the sire bond to Klaus was broken when they could do for themselves what he did for them. Basically, transform without feeling pain and taking their own pain away the way Klaus did when he turned them into hybrids. I think the way the vampire sire bond weakens and becomes dormant is by your feelings changing for the vampire who made you.

Katherine has done everything in her power to convince Damon she never loved him and that's weakened the sire bond, because he had to accept what she was saying and try to get over his love for her. But if Damon ever discovered Katherine truly did and does love him, the sire bond would be strengthened again. In the vampire, I don't think the sire bond ever truly goes away. It can weaken if your feelings for the sire master weaken, but it'll always be there. It's the same way you can love someone and if they break your heart your feelings for them weaken and eventually disappear.

One thing, however, that hasn't been brought up on the show is does a sire bond cause the sire slave to behave in a way they feel the sire master would want them to behave? Like Tyler being loyal to Klaus even though he didn't specifically order him to be loyal to him.

One thing that's been strange is while Elena's feelings for Damon have intensified by becoming a vampire, her feeling for Stefan don't seem to have done the same thing. She even told Damon she can barely remember being in love with Stefan. Has Elena's feelings for Stefan weakened because she feels that's what her sire master Damon would want? Every time Elena was about to have sex with Stefan, something happened to stop it from happening. The first time she started projectile vomiting and the second time she started having visions of Damon. Was it because the sire bond made her feel Damon wouldn't like her having sex with Stefan?

In a vampire, the sire bond is born because of feelings you have for the vampire that turns you. So basically, the sire bond has nothing to do with your feeling for your vampire maker. However, the sire bond could make your feelings lessen for other people that you had feelings for before you became a vampire, because the sire bond makes you feel that's what your sire master would want. That he would want you to only have feelings for him, even if he never actually says that to you and orders you to have feelings for no one but him.