I just read the most stunningly poor take about Klaus ever 💀
Something about how "he cared more about his hybrids than his siblings (specifically Finn & Kol)" & I feel like, either that person has never watched TO or they just have 0 media literacy.
Like, honestly, that take completely misses the entire point of the character!
Klaus is deeply traumatized and absolutely terrified of being abandoned by everyone he loves.
Daggering his siblings is obviously incredibly abusive and completely messed up. But he doesn't put them in boxes to hurt them, he puts them there specifically to guarantee they stay with him forever.
His actions are driven by a desperate need for control and intense paranoia about being left alone!
The obsession with the hybrid army comes from exactly the same deep insecurity.
He spent centuries running from Mikael feeling completely isolated from the world. And being the odd-one-out among his siblings, due to not being Mikael's kid! (And Mikael had already made him feel like he was a blight, before his paternity ever even came to light & reinforced his "outsider" feeling.)
Making those hybrids gave him a makeshift "family," that bound by sire-bond enforced loyalty. He desperately craved the absolute safety that the sire bond provided.
Plus that person completely rewrote the canon regarding Kol and Finn!
When Kol actually died in TVD, Klaus reacted with absolute devastation and murderous rage. He literally cried before hunting down Elena and Jeremy for brutal rrevenge. After that he got locked inside a room multiple days and then Jeremy died & I guess he considered that "an eye for an eye" or something.
His colder reaction to Finn dying makes complete logical sense within the plot. Finn, who had already been "gone" (by no fault of his own) for 900 years, actively collaborated with Esther to orchestrate the annihilation of their entire bloodline (and species)! Obviously he expresses less immediate grief for someone actively plotting his assassination, wouldn't you?
(Keep in mind, when his brothers died in TO he was incredibly upset.)
We can absolutely acknowledge that Klaus inflicts terrible pain on his own family and the people around him. But he loves them with all of his heart. He is an abuser. He continues Mikael's cycle of abuse because of his trauma. That is the point!
Erasing his desperate love for his family simply turns a wonderfully tragic protagonist into a boring cartoon villain.
But that's just my opinion. What do I know💀