Matt Donovan

Matthew G. "Matt" Donovan is a main character on The Vampire Diaries. He is the son of Kelly Donovan. He was born and raised in the town of Mystic Falls. Matt is the ex-boyfriend of both Caroline Forbes and Elena Gilbert, as well as the younger brother of Vicki Donovan. After the death of Elena's parents, Elena broke up with Matt because she lost interest in him, although Matt still cares about Elena deeply and they've managed to maintain a good friendship. At the beginning of the series, Matt struggles with his sister, Vicki, because she becomes a vampire but then tragically dies. He begins dating Caroline Forbes and encourages her to become a more caring, kind and selfless young woman. However, Caroline soon breaks up with him after her transition into a vampire. Upon learning about the existence of supernatural creatures, he begins to distance himself from the Mystic Falls Gang, but eventually starts to help his friends defeat enemies that cause terror in their hometown, and also fixes his friendship with Caroline. He also becomes a Medium like Jeremy Gilbert. He began a brief relationship with Rebekah Mikaelson at the end of Season Four, but ended after she had left Mystic Falls.

His best friends are Jeremy Gilbert, Tyler Lockwood, Elena Gilbert, and Bonnie Bennett. He is also close friends with Caroline Forbes.

Matt is a member of the Donovan Family.

Early History
Matt was born in Mystic Falls. He is the son of Kelly Donovan and an unnamed father. He had an older sister, Vicki Donovan. Because Kelly and Miranda Gilbert, who was Elena's adoptive mother, were best friends since high school, Matt knew Elena since infancy, occasionally sharing a crib. They grew up together, being really close childhood friends, and began dating in their teenage years feeling they owed it to themselves to try. When Elena's parents died, she broke up with Matt because she needed time alone to figure out her feelings. Matt still hoped they could be together, but it was not likely to happen due to Elena's instant connection to the new student, Stefan Salvatore. It's something he might still mourn about.

Season One - Season Six
See Matt Donovan's page on The Vampire Diaries wikia.

Season Seven (FanFiction)
In Wishing You Were Somehow Here Again,

In Why Do You Let Me Stay Here?,

In A Date With Destiny,

In A Nightmare on Sorority Row,

In Something to Die For,

Personality
Matt is everyone's definition of the "everyday man". Out of the characters, he is the most "normal"; he does not possess any supernatural attribute, nor any supernatural artifact that makes him stand out of the rest of humanity and he wants it to stay that way (at least until he was given the Gilbert Ring previously worn by Jeremy). He is, however, aware of the supernatural world and has more than had his fair share of skirmishes with them in the past.

Matt is often seen by some people as a person who only cares about the sport, however, he is just the opposite, Matt is strong because he wants to protect his family and friends from the dangers that threaten them every day.

As far as personality goes, Matt is loyal, headstrong, and down-to-earth. According to Vicki, Matt is the "golden child" of their family, with a good future ahead of him. These qualities make it very hard for other characters not to like him, and he has captured the hearts of several females throughout the series.

Physical Appearance
Matt is a very handsome young man, who stands at approximately 6 feet tall with baby blue eyes and short dark blonde hair. He has an attractive face and can be considered as the stereotypical football player in regards to his personality and physical looks.

Matt's hairstyle over the seasons has remained similar, shortened with not much length except his hair was somewhat longer in the first season. On special occasions, Matt has been shown to gel his hair such as for the 60's Decade Dance, for a more formal style.

His clothing sense is that of a typical teenager, for school as he played football, he used to wear the school Timberwolves jacket however usually wore a range of different colored t-shirts and jeans with boots or sneaker shoes. Lately, he has been wearing checkered button-down shirts with a t-shirt underneath or shirts with an unbuttoned collar. He also wears a heavy jacket with hoods or light weight jackets, both of which are usually a darkened color. Working at the Grill, Matt has a uniform which consists of a dark blue t-shirt and black trousers. On occasions, he regularly wears a dark tuxedo and trousers with a tie.

Name

 * Matt is a masculine name of Hebrew origin. It is from the Hebrew מַתִּתְיָהוּ (Mattiyahu) which means "Gift of Yaweh". Matt is a variation or short form for Matthew. In the English meaning, it means "Gift of God".
 * Donovan is an anglicized form of the Gaelic Ó Donndubháin.

Trivia

 * Matt's birthday is February 26, making him an Pisces.
 * So far, Matt has died three times in the series.
 * His first death occurred in The Reckoning. He drowned himself to communicate with his sister Vicki. Bonnie revived him with CPR.
 * His second death occurred in She's Come Undone. Damon snapped his neck to turn Elena's humanity on. The Gilbert Ring resurrected him.
 * His third death occurred in True Lies. Silas snapped his neck, because he couldn't control him since he was already possessed by The Travelers.
 * Matt's first death was "natural" in contrast with his second death caused by "supernatural" causes. This is similar to the character of Buffy Summers who has also died twice. Like Matt, she was drowned causing her first death while her second death was also supernatural: she was killed by mystical energy.
 * In the books, Matt]'s surname is Honeycutt, but in the TV series, his surname is Donovan.
 * In the books, Matt learns that Stefan and Damon are vampires and that Elena has become a vampire and needs blood.
 * Matt was almost killed by two of his ex-girlfriends after they've been turned into vampires, the first being Caroline in Bad Moon Rising and Elena in The Rager.
 * In the series, Matt is aware of four people he knows turned into vampires, werewolf and a hybrid: Vicki, Caroline, Tyler (werewolf/hybrid) and Elena.
 * In the series, Matt was the second-to-last main character to learn about the supernatural world (before Jenna) and he is the last character to have learned this to be still alive since Jenna died one episode after.
 * Matt is not the brother of Vickie in the books. In the television series, he is Vicki's brother and takes care of Vicki and his mother Kelly.
 * In the books, Matt becomes Stefan's best friend, but in the series, Matt is best friends with Tyler Lockwood and Jeremy Gilbert.
 * In the series, he often shortens people's names, as well as Damon, but with nicknames -
 * Vicki "Vick"
 * Tyler "Ty"
 * Jeremy "Jer"
 * Caroline "Care"
 * Bonnie "Bon"
 * Kevin Williamson commented on the character Matt, saying "There's a door there, that we will eventually open, but for now he's human."
 * Although Matt's feelings for Elena are a major recurring theme in the first season, they have seemed to have completely vanished to make way for his new feelings for Caroline, which become a major plotline in the second season particularly since Caroline is now a vampire. However, in the books, Matt's feelings for Elena never seem to go away and play an even stronger role since he still has feelings for her when he discovers the existence of the supernatural world.
 * Matt was the first main character who destroyed an Original (Finn) without neutralizing it. (The Murder of One).
 * Finn is also his first, and only kill to date.
 * Matt is one of three main characters that has killed an Original. The other two are Niklaus and Jeremy.
 * In the books, he and Damon interact more often than in the TV series.
 * Although Vicki was a grade above Matt, she isn't quite a year older then him.
 * He and Jeremy are indirectly responsible for Elena becoming a vampire.
 * Before "Graduation", Matt had never set one foot out of Mystic Falls.
 * This changed when he and Rebekah Mikaelson took a summer trip around Europe.
 * Matt is the first main character to be possessed by someone through Traveler magic, the Passenger spell.
 * Matt is the first and only character shown to be immune to Silas's mind control, however this is due to him being possessed by Gregor at the time, the presence of another individual inside his mind prevented Silas from controlling him.
 * In No Exit, Katherine insists that Nadia kill Matt, but Nadia decides not to comply.
 * Matt is the first non-supernatural character who has shown to have been the Other Side when killed by supernatural entities while wearing the a Gilbert Ring].  He is also the first non-supernatural character who passed through Bonnie upon death. After his third death wearing a Gilbert Ring in Resident Evil, Matt became the first wearer of Gilbert Ring to retain his memory or experience from the Other Side.
 * Matt is similar to Damon in respect of their relationships with women.
 * Both of them had romantic/sexual relationship with Elena Gilbert, Caroline Forbes and Rebekah Mikaelson.
 * Both of them had close relationship with three members of the Petrova family:
 * Damon had sex with Katerina Petrova, Isobel Flemming, and Elena Gilbert.
 * Matt was the first love of Elena Gilbert and had sex with Nadia Petrova. Katerina had a small crush on him.
 * After six seasons of The Vampire Diaries, Matt remains the only main human character.
 * It was revealed that Matt could bench press more than Jeremy.
 * Who can speak a language Matt Donovan can understand? The Maytag Man can. Eureka star Colin Ferguson, most recently seen as pitchman for Maytag, appears in the premiere as Tripp, leader of a local watch group that gives Matt something to do with his time, what with the absence of immediate threats on his life."He came about because we wanted to show Matt thriving in Mystic Falls without supernaturals," Dries said of Ferguson's character. "Every episode Matt is having his life in jeopardy or somebody's threatening to kill him or something. So it's like, 'What's Matt's life like when he can just not have to have a death threat every five minutes.' We kinda wanted to give him a father figure-type, coach kinda guy, so that's where Trip came out of. But it's Mystic Falls, The Vampire Diaries, not everyone is who they say they wanna be, but he'll ultimately become kinda an interesting, layered dynamic character that's not necessarily a good guy or a bad guy. He actually represents I think like a normal person if you're not in love with Damon or Stefan, like a normal person's point-of-view on the whole vampire world."
 * Matt is the only main character whose father is unknown.

Tropes

 * Elena's former boyfriend, hasn't given up hope yet - which makes him a Dogged Nice Guy.
 * He is pretty much a Generic Guy, with no special qualities - except being human .
 * Of course, he just wants his beloved to be happy, so he forgives Elena for ditching him and tries to be friends with Stefan.
 * His life sucks most of the times: We don't even know if he knew his father ;his mother is an Alcoholic who left him for a boyfriend in Florida; his sister Vicki was a drug addict who got turned into a Vampire by Damon because he was bored then staked by Stefan. Ah, and Vicki came back as a ghost. She was persuaded by Esther to try and kill Elena!
 * Like most of the main cast, he even died once. But he was revived.
 * By Season Four he is the only one in the cast member to remain human, so he is the Token Human, which in this case is also a Token Minority.
 * He's often called as The Quarterback, or Matty (Which he is affectionately called by Vicki).
 * He's Rebekah's Morality Pet
 * With April and Meredith he is part of Team Normal - the humans without powers that help the super-powered heroes.