Can we please stop pretending Klaus is some Machiavellian genius?

I get the show is always trying to tell us he is a mastermind, but there are so many more clever characters who actually set up long term plans to achieve their goals (Lucien, Celeste, Katherine). What did Klaus ever do that was ever strategic or showed any superior intelligence? If anything his intelligence was severely stunted, he was a thousand years old and still acting like a teenager half the time. He made rash and impulsive decisions and they worked out sometimes. They had just as much of a chance of blowing up in his face. This doesn't make him smart. If he wasn't so indestructible, he wouldn't have been so lucky.

Throughout history, we constantly see Elijah having to remind Klaus not to draw attention to them. All he has to do is stop being a serial killer or risk bringing the one man he is terrified of to town. You would think it would be easy, yet he is unable to control himself. At no point do we see him ever preparing to confront Mikael. He only runs from him. He could have created an army to trap Mikael or befriended witches. But no, instead of coming up with a plan, they all just run. Not much of a master strategist. The fandom loves to say it was stupid that Rebekah called Mikael to New Orleans yet doesn't want to talk about how stupid it was for Kol and Klaus to go on a killing spree which they knew would attract Mikael. And he does this not once, not twice, but repeatedly in every flashback we see, all the way from the first flashback in 1001 to the last in the 1950s.

Speaking of the 1950s, what great strategic plan was it to tell Elijah he buried their siblings at sea? He isolated the one family member he had left while Mikael was hot on his trail. This turned Elijah against him and what did Klaus do? Did he come up with a masterplan? No. he ran and body jumped.

Klaus' strength isn't his intelligence but his durability and his psychical strength. Which is why he was so determined to break his curse. He needed to be stronger than everyone, including his siblings. But what did any of that get him? Tristan and Aya at least built a cult and created weapons that could even take down Originals. Yet Klaus wasn't able to come up with any plan to take down Mikael?

We see Elijah tell Klaus that Klaus 'built' New Orleans, yet we never see any indication that Klaus is politically minded. In fact, in season one, he is in charge and a war breaks out in large part due to his scheming. He is constantly killing political leaders (the mayor, the mayor's son, the witches' leaders, every faction head, etc.) and then is surprised when they can't find peace and everyone is against him.

The only time Klaus had a long term plan that actually seemed clever was the lie about the sun and the moon curse. Not only did it take them nearly a thousand years before it actually worked, but he wasn't even the reason it worked. He was tricked by Elijah and literal teenagers. Elijah tricked him to get him to MF, the MF gang tricked him into believing Bonnie was dead, and then he fell for that exact same trick and believed that Elena was dead.

Throughout the shows and even flashbacks, people act like Klaus is this great strategist. And maybe he is compared to the children he is targeting. But when you put him up against his equals (Lucien, Mikael, Dahlia, etc.), he doesn't compare.

Celeste and Genevie were manipulating Klaus left and right in season one. In the short '9' months he was in New Orleans, he destabilized it so much that Hope nearly died. She only survived because of Marcel. They only got her back because of Elijah and Hayley. In fact, Klaus' plan to bring Hope back before they were ready is what drew Dahlia back so quickly, leaving them unprepared to face her.

Klaus wasn't responsible for Mikael's first death. He got lucky that everyone else (the children he was targeting) came up with a plan to trick Mikael. Mikael's second death was simply overpowering him, no outsmarting there. In fact, Mikael would have killed Klaus if his family hadn't saved him earlier.

Yes, he 'tricked' Dahlia into believing he betrayed his family, but this wasn't a trick. He actually did betray them. He murdered Gia and turned Elijah against him once again. He is unable to scheme without actually hurting those close to him and alienating the people trying to help. He lies that he killed Aiden, again another time he just jumps on the first opportunity he sees, and by doing so, he alienates all of their allies and endangers his family. The only reason they end up beating Dahlia is because of Esther. They all would have died based on Klaus' plan. Sure his idea to curse Hayley did technically save her life but he didn't do it for that purpose, he admitted he did it to punish her. There was no long term scheme. He hadn't thought through how it would impact Hope or even what he would tell his daughter as she got older.

Then in Season 3, Lucien had Klaus on his knees before his big brother and big sister swept in to save the day. Even taking down Tristan was thanks to Cami and Freya's plan. He had to be saved from the Strix by Hayley, Marcel, and Stefan. They have their big Thanksgiving dinner where they confront the three, but all it does is show that Lucien, Tristan, and Aurora had out schemed the Mikaelsons. The only thing the Mikaelsons could do was overpower them and threaten them.

In Season 4, Klaus hardly does anything and Season 5 Klaus is an absolute mess. You're telling me this legendary strategist couldn't save his daughter and her mother from a hundred year old vampire? He couldn't figure out a way to find her? In the seven years they were forced apart, he wasn't even trying to find a way to reunite his family? He wasn't a strategist, rather he waited for events to happen and then reacted impulsively, hoping it would work out. His plans are all based on emotion and vendettas, not strategy or intelligence.

Yes, he is Machiavellian in a sense that he has nearly no empathy and will do whatever it takes to get what he wants, but he lacks the cunningness to be truly Machiavellian. Instead he is just a narcissistic psychopath.

everytime i talk or write in english i feel like a stupid baby

but when i write in portuguese i feel like Shakespeare, or better, Machado de Assis

i can't really express my emotions in english, it's like a lot of the words lack or they don't feel like the same, if i ever say a pt term in middle of my english, it's because of that, i can't say i miss [something], i need to say saudade

My wish for 2023 is that this is the year people stop adding the suffix -cest to every damn word and pretending like fantasy edge cases with little to no grounding in the real world bear any resemblance to actual incest.

i have a test tmrw and didn't study almost at all, but it's OK, it's romanian, it's my native language 😍‼️ (i prob have ti fucking pull an all nighter ahahaha.. ha.. haha.. kill me.)

At the point where the roadtrip is not fun and cool it is painful and I’m dizzy let me out of this car

i started watching game of thrones around thanksgiving and now i’m at the last episode of season six. i’m literally watching the finale right now. 

why didn’t i watch this show sooner? i can’t wait to watch house of the dragon next. i hope it’s just as good :D 

just eat desperately sending me notifications trying to entice me in. bro i can't even afford groceries for the next few days, the fuck am i getting money for takeout from ?

[MAJOR CAN CI PIN (the defectives) SPOILER ALERT] (i repeat, MAJOR spoilers)!!!!!!!

did priest just….kill half her characters all in one chapter halfway through the series….?

🔥 the death of peace of mind // chapter 8 // promises break // by @lightningandfireinmybones

Just as she’s slipping into the saddle, not taking the time to buckle in the straps around her legs, Rhaenyra bursts out onto the bridge, thick hair streaming behind her in the howling wind. The message from the raven is clutched in her fist.

— Bring him home, Valaena! — her mother screams after her, pain evident in her voice and blood once again seeping onto the front of her gown. 

Her mother’s words haunt her on the most wretched flight of her life. Wings pumping valiantly against the winds, Grey Ghost hurdles his massive body forward, a sleek bone colored arrow in a storm. Every lesson about headwinds and slipways and air pockets Valaena has ever received from Daemon or Rhaenys is gone, as she has turned herself over completely to her dragon.

Lobsters trapped in grocery stores make me feel extremely upset.

Once free to roam the ocean, spend time with their family, exist by their own accord. Now trapped within the glass, watching their inmates slowly be picked off one by one. Relief is sweet if in captivity. I would prefer death over capture. Freedom to die.

It sickens me. Captivity. A life of freedom get stuck in such a small space, only to entice people to eat you. Your claws clamped shut. They may never open again. You’re packed so closely with your peers that there is barely any distinction.

Have they ever even seen the wonders of the earth? Or were they born in captivity? What makes my life any more valuable than theirs? What defines my value? Why am I not in that tank, resigned to my space?

It’s awful. It shatters my soul. I believe it is natural to eat and be eaten. You know what isn’t natural? Torturing them before you do. It isn’t right. What makes us any better than them? Why must they be stuck in captivity while I am free?

i know i complain about this every time i have to wake up before 1pm but it is too early to be awake

What’s the best fic you’ve written in your opinion (I have a personal fave and I wanna see if they match 😂) —thot-son-of-odin

I’m thinking Portal to the Past since it has some sort of plot going on? I’m very happy with how Like Blood Running From a Stone is working out too though!

Guy help wtf is wrong with me

I have been watching Kwite recently and I have this genius idea for like an art thing but I can’t normal human it and I started making a comic but holy shit do I fucking hate drawing mechanical shit and this requires a LOT of it.

6. Name 3 things you love most about your muse/muses.

Meme for Roleplay Muns

Only three? Alright then.

I think my overall favorite thing about Unohana is how neither her crazy nor her compassionate side seems to be a lie. Usually with a character like her, it turns out that their previous kindness was all a lie and they always hated the people they acted nice to. With Unohana though, that just doesn't seem to be true; at the very least, she trusted Isane enough to tell her everything, and left an "I'm gonna go die now" letter for her, which no typical character of this type would bother doing. The fact that both her psychotic and kind sides seemed to be genuine was always super fascinating to me, and I was always sad it wasn't explored more.

Second on the list of things to love is how she bounces off the other characters. Like, I forgot the shade she threw at Ichigo during their trip to the fake Karakura Town. The way she needled Mayuri just before to make sure he'd behave was also fantastic. Then there's the fact that she was apparently just conducting her own private investigation into all of the bullshit going down during the Soul Society arc while no one was looking, and figured out enough to go to the Central 46 chamber and confront Aizen. There isn't a lot of it, unfortunately, because Unohana is a side character who tends to get eaten by the background whenever the focus isn't on her, but what little we have is fucking gold.

Third is her crazy eyes. Those eyes that are jagged yet amorphous, pupiless yet expressive. Y'know, the ones she makes when she starts really getting into her fight with Zaraki. We didn't get nearly enough of that in the manga. Here's hoping the anime can fill that particular void.