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.

It's disgusting how (TO) Elijah stans act like he's such a kind and great brother, and that he sacrificed so much for all of them. It's like yall forget he repeatedly helped Klaus dagger their siblings, prefered Finn and even Kol dead, even Rebekah did fare that well but at least better than them. He's the reason Klaus was able to do all of the horrible things he did. To their own family. You claim he's loyal, where was his loyalty to them. Everyone would have inevitably been happier if Klaus and Elijah hadn't been there.

This obviously does not include TVD version of Elijah (season 2-3), he was an angel who actually did love and care for all his family above all.

People who call Tyler an asshole for being horrible to Vicki in S1 are the same people who defend Damon for compelling and sleeping with Caroline, the same people who defend Klaus for making out with Caroline in Tyler's body and she thought he was Tyler. I have absolutely zero respect for them. If you want to go for that angle and say it's not forgivable, I am all for it but be consistent at the least.

Just wrote an anti kc/anti klaus drabble

I'm sorry but the only reason klaroline ever got so much popularity and their huge fan base was because the fans used Caroline as a self insert: she's the stereotype of a teenager girl, a gorgeous blonde vampire who's insecure and is always put second aka what every teen has been in one point of their lives.

That's why other Klaus’s ships, such as klayley, klamille, klaurora and especially klonnie, didn't get the hype and love klaroline did. These women were all adults or young adults when they were introduced (except Bonnie of course) and the people didn't like them at all at first. I mean, the hatred towards Camille, Hayley and Aurora when The Originals was streaming was crazy and this has reduced a little, but still remains.

I'm aware that even if klaroline hadn't happened, klonnie wouldn't have gotten half the support that Klaus and Caroline have. Of course it wouldn't, why would they care about a poc romance? Bonnie wasn't ignored only by the show itself, but by the fans and this shows. I mean, even klena (Klaus x Elena) gets more love than them and while I don't hate this pairing, it just proves that writers will never put their favorite white person with a black woman.

My daughter has an advantage Klaus never had, she will never ever know you.

THE ORIGINALS | A Closer Walk With Thee (1.20)

I don't understand why people try to invalidate the fact that Klaus abused Hayley. He took her freedom, he physically assaulted her, and he said he trusted her and then broke her neck. He cursed her and kept her away from the daughter she died to birth just because he felt entitled to the baby. He became a deadbeat, and she had to do all the lifting on her own, and like every ungrateful teenager, Hope still didn't hesitate to throw her under the bus to have Klaus attention. Klaus loved Hayley as a family and was sexually attracted to her for a while, yes. But let's not pretend that he spent a lot of time tolerating Hayley because she was the womb who gave him a child. She was literally held in a choke by him because she wanted an abortion for the baby he crossed his heart and hoped to die that was unwanted. Klaus didn't love Hayley romantically at all, and that's why he held her to the same kind of abuse he held his siblings, especially Rebekah. The fact he accepted Hayley and Elijah far better than he accepted Jackson because in love with Hayley, Elijah would never leave him, but Hayley with Jackson would limitate his control over her life... basically all he did to Rebekah, on some scale. Cursed her to be trapped as wolf stealing her life, essentially, as he stole Finn's life. It's not the same thing, but it's the same line of thinking. Hayley was and will always be family and I love her character and think she was her best self around Klaus but he didn't loved her as a woman, he loved her a family and because he saw his family as his assets, he abused her as he abused his family, because even being a victim, Klaus was a perpetrator of the cycle of abuse his father started. Abused his siblings, abused his son, and then abused the mother of his child.

It’s still insane how that side of tvdu fandom vilifies Tyler for choosing to get revenge on the man that killed his mother and friends instead of staying with Caroline, all because they needed an excuse to make Klaus look like the better choice for Care. Which is insane because he has physically harmed Caroline and almost killed her, yet somehow him doing that isn’t terrible as Tyler growling at Caroline bc she slept with the man who tortured him and again, has killed his mother…

“Tyler slut shamed her”… when all he stated was that she slept with Klaus. Even in show, they have Stefan punching him and acting as if he said something egregious [Them completely forgetting all the times they have Caroline call other female characters sluts or insinuate it, but ofc the writers and fandom have selective memory when it comes to certain characters] when Tyler had the right to be upset over his girlfriend sleeping with the man who destroyed his life.

This is the same side that calls Bonnie a terrible friend because she didn’t immediately warm up to Caroline being a vampire. Even though Caroline had literally killed an innocent person—Even though Bonnie made her a daylight ring not too long after. But this is the TVD fandom we’re talking about, so of course black and poc character’s feelings are not an importance to them. It’s interesting how they are so quick to infantilize and baby white characters, yet the black/poc chars are supposed to easily move on from their trauma, deal with it, and prioritize their white counterparts over themselves.

Kol is such a baby in this scene and I love him for it. Clearly, Klaus can't resist how adorable he is either.

Another reason to resent Julie, because imagine if The Originals was actually about the family becoming whole again...

sometimes i just think about bonnie bennett

and how she was never intended to be black. her equivalent character in the vampire diaries novels is white and the only reason she’s black is that the producers of tvd told julie plec that she couldn’t have an all white cast. yet bonnie bennett is the embodiment of the magical negro trope, she’s probably one of the best examples of it in 21st century television. and it just makes me wonder what bonnie bennett would be like if she got the storyline julie plec would have given her had she been white. both joseph morgan and ian somerhalder argued for bonnie to get a romance plot with their characters. i personally would have liked a subplot of kol teaching bonnie magic in tvd season 3 and 4 perhaps with a romantic plot within it. but the symbolism of kol who was taught magic by ayana being the first person who teach bonnie since her grams died and teaching her all these ancient bennett spells from his childhood is something that i think just made so much sense for both their characters.

sometimes i just think about bonnie bennett and who she would be without julie plec’s racism.

oh and this is everyone’s reminder that stefan and damon had nothing to do with the confederacy in the vampire diaries novels they were just 500 year old dudes from italy. the whole mystic falls confederacy lore is entirely of julie plec’s own making.

A Reddit post is triggering this rant but it has to be said (even though I’m sure I’ve said it before on this page).

Caroline‘s "girl boss" moment telling Tyler She wasn't going to continue to feel guilty after sleeping with Klaus was not a "girl boss" moment. Caroline slept with the man that caused Tyler, an immense amount of pain and trauma, and also killed, not only his hybrid friends that he was trying to free from Klaus, but his mother.

In the scene Caroline says " your hybrid bite just killed someone and no one even batted an eye. I sleep with the wrong guy once weeks ago and I don't hear the end of it how is that fair".

First of you're comparing two different things. The only valid comparison that Caroline could’ve made to her situation was Elena getting with Damon after all the BS he has done to everyone and the fact that that’s Stefan brother. But she knew not to do that bc everybody had something to say about Elena getting Damon (especially her). Second, the person he killed (Nadia) he did it to SAVE YOUR LIFE so, why are you bringing that up like he did it for nothing or for fun?????? It's not adding up.

Then she rants about how being a good vampire doesn’t come easy and she has the same impulses as Tyler so she’s allowed to make mistakes and says " yes I slept with Klaus, but that was after you walked away from me that was my choice and I’m living with it and I don’t need to be hearing about it every five seconds, so just get over it or get out of my life, but I’m done feeling guilty".

Why is she talking like she’s the victim? Why is she talking as if that guilt she’s feeling isn’t deserved bc she hurt someone who lost his freedom (at one point), friends and mother all at the hands of the man that you slept with? why are you continually pushing and pushing (and unnecessarily, inserting yourself in his life every chance you got) him to forgive you instead of giving him that time to get over what you did like he continued to ask you to do? Tyler shouldn’t of had to forgive you on your terms, Caroline when YOU WERE THE ONE WHO MADE THE MISTAKE.

it’s interesting how Caroline continuously told Elena to stick with Stefan even after he went on his little revenge hunt for Klaus but she can’t give Tyler that same energy. I understand one situation is when they thought they could kill Klaus and the other was when they knew that killing Klaus wasn't possible but how come you can’t let Tyler work through his anger from the pain Klaus caused him like you were able to do with Stefan?

That's what's not fair.

(Sidenote: Didnt Caroline cheat on Tyler with Jesse?)

one of klaus’ redeeming quality was how much he hated damon. he was always on that man’s neck. he treated him like the dirt on his shoes and i had to stan just because of that!!!!! like the amount of times damon would offer himself in place of stefan to be his ripper buddy and klaus would be so disgusted. it reminds me of how bonnie hated him in the earlier season. no one has ever hated damon like klaus and bonnie have. we had to stan the smartest tvd characters.

Unpopular opinion: Tyler should’ve killed Hayley and he wasn’t wrong for trying to.

Another unpopular opinion: I think Michael Trevino (along with Kat Graham) was done wrong by Plec due to him being a non white hispanic man. Tyler Lockwood could’ve been SO MUCH BETTER and could’ve had such an interesting storyline and character development along with Bonnie if Plec wasn’t a racist bum.

Facts. Not trying to make this super long. Hayley would’ve deserved whatever Tyler decided to do. She betrayed him first.

People seem to only see “innocent Hayley who’s pregnant by Klaus” but forgets that Tyler’s intentions were rooted in protecting the werewolves as a species. The irritating part in this is that it was all done on TO. Which means they weren’t going to actually let Tyler do anything to Hayley. Depending on how a fan watches the franchise Tyler looks like the villain here. Hayley even calls him a “backstabbing half breed”. I do find it funny she became a “half breed” and never shut up about being one after that lol.

I talked about how Hayley’s death is a karma moment here.

You aren’t wrong. Tyler is white, but it’s clear he doesn’t look white. He looks NOTHING like his family members. Klaus/Caroline exist as a ship to constantly sideline him. When Tyler was the introduction to the werewolves.

Michael Trevino and Kat Graham deserved better more than words can say. Their characters were used as plot devices and never given the same push as their white counterparts.

Isn’t ironic that two characters Tyler and Bonnie were introduced with these unique bloodlines yet we’re done the worst. I’m so pissed that we learn in TO, Tyler’s would’ve been protecting the hallow bones. It would’ve been pleasing as fuck to see Hayley BEG Tyler for help after she betrayed him.

Julie and the other writers were so racist they couldn’t even at least let Tonnie happen as a ship. Instead, Tyler ends up dating one of the many white Bonnie’s of TVDU lol. (i meant Liv Parker).

Imagine Lucien saying something like this to Elain:

Lucien is so patient and understanding that he would wait for her.

This man is >>>>>>>>>>>

For the "Send me a show and I'll tell you..." meme: The Vampire Diaries :)

The first character I fell in love with: Bonnie Bennett, my precious child

The character who is my ‘baby’: Tyler Lockwood, loml. And Kat too

The character who I do not understand: The Salvatores and klaus (lowkey elijah)

The character that I think the show ruined: EVERYONE

The most attractive male and female character: Bonnie and Tyler

The character death that was the worst for me: Every time Bonnie died, Vicki, Tyler, Jenna, Anna

The character that is the most like me: Rebekah and I hate to say it, Caroline

The character I think the writer(s) love: The salvatores and klelijah. I'd say Caroline but she does receive sexist treatment

The character that I just want to be happy: Bonnie and Tyler

My four favorite characters, past or present: Bonnie, Tyler, Rebekah, Katherine

My four least favorite characters, past or present: Stefan, Damon, Klaus, Elijah

I get being upset about Bonnie not being invited to the Mikaelson ball, but here you go once again, blaming Caroline for a choice the writer's made, something she had no part of. People are getting weird AF with their anti Caroline stance and it's getting ridiculous.

Here you go once again, putting words I didn't say in my mouth.

Does it upset me that Bonnie wasn't invited to the ball? Yes. Does Caroline being there make me mad? No. Do I think she shouldn't have come? Yes, I certainly think so.

I complained about Caroline and Matt being there because plot wise it was absolutely stupid and it made no sense. They didn't add absolutely nothing to the events developing there, and their presence was completely unneeded: Caroline and Matt were there solely because of Klaus and Rebekah/delena. This was the moment the showrunners decided to start writing klaroline, exclusively and only because the fans liked their first scene together, so they decided to have her going to the ball just to have their "romance" developing, which made no sense for her at all;

Klaus literally tried to kill her a few episodes prior, he had Tyler bite her on her birthday leaving her on the brink of death and then he showed up to heal her. Where is her self-preservation? Wasn't she scared of him at all?

It's funny to me that she only accepted to go because of Rebekah inviting Matt. Did she thought he was in potential danger? Did she decide to go to try to protect him? I get she was worried about her friend, but this is slightly strange.

Matt was just there for Rebekah and to make Damon and Elena fight because of his altercation with Kol, nothing else, and his presence and the issue he caused wasn't that serious because they made up an episode later. Why would he go? He was a human on a house full of the oldest vampires to ever live, and he was aware of this. I'm aware Matt isn't the brightest person to walk the earth, but everybody knows a human shouldn't be around bloodthirsty vampires.

Again, just stupid. Caroline and Matt shouldn't have been at the ball, that's all. Elena and the Salvatore going made sense: she was the doppelgänger, Stefan had story with them and Damon wouldn't allow her to go anywhere without any of them.

Bonnie, however, had every single reason to be there:

She was Ayana's descendant.

Esther would want to meet a Bennett witch, seeing she was best friends with one once and she knew they were powerful allies.

She had been more close than anyone to killing Klaus: the fact that he didn't try to seduce her or try to kill her was ooc, especially because he befriended witches before klaroline came in.

Kol loved witches and this bitch knows everything about everyone. It surprises me that he didn't try to get her on his side or at least use her to try to take down any member of his family.

The Bennett bloodline is far more powerful in magic terms than any other family could ever be, their blood was needed for like half of the most powerful spells and the fact that not a single person thought about getting on Bonnie's good side is completely stupid.

What is ridiculous is that people dickride 3x14 to hell because of the fanservice. I love this episode, but calling out it's flaws it's not a bad thing.