Kol/Kaleb was absolutely scared shitless of him, Rebekah tried to kill him when they were human, he beat Klaus and had him literally cursed.
But also, he appealed to Elijah before he tried attacking Klaus in New Orleans, he spoke with Rebekah before trying to kill Klaus in Mystic Falls. Makes you wonder whether he tried to appeal to his ‘true’ children whenever he tried to kill Klaus. But also, he did seem to announce his presence with dramatic levels of destruction so idk if there was a lot of time for that
He is awful, but it always annoys me when fics cut him down to being abusive to Klaus. I get it, we love Klaus. But I think Mikael sees Klaus as a cuckoo in the nest, a monster who has lead his children astray. He blames Klaus for pretty much everything that’s gone wrong.
I know Mikael said he “just hated klaus and there was no reason” but there was absolutely a reason… Klaus literally said to Esther that she left him at the mercy of a father who “valued only strength”. And Klaus was magically weakened by a necklace so he’d never break his curse. And we know that Mikael was pretty absent after Freya until Klaus was born, and that he loved baby Klaus.
I’m not saying he was justified but I definitely read Mikael’s hate for Klaus as a mixture of ‘I need to make him strong’ / ‘he is a sign of my failure to raise a strong son’ / hate you can’t really remember why / he’s the reason my youngest son is dead / enhanced emotions/ he’s a bastard / this is an insult to my pride and manliness / he killed my wife / he stole my children from me / he’s stolen my eldest son’s freedom / he’s a monster / he daggers my children and they forgive him / my children hate me
Klaus is defo Mikael’s scapegoat but it’s not just Angry Man is Angry
I'm having thoughts about that lovely gifset with Elijah and that axe, because... that dude grew up as a viking. He was trained for war/battle since birth even before he was a vampire. And by Mikael, Mr "I feel no pain" and "mercy is for the weak".
Elijah could teach those wolves about fighting with that axe for years and they'd be nowhere near his level, even if he didn't use his vamp powers.
Oh, I would Love to hear your opinions about Klamille and Klaroline (especially how ist was portrayed in the beginnend and how ist evolved, because I think the portrayel Changed quite a lot)
I’ve spoken about Klaroline previously and this is what I said:
Klaroline is one of those ships I actually don’t have much of an opinion on. I don’t ship them, but I don’t hate them either. For me, I see it as a crackship more so than anything else. I can see the potential and intrigue in regards to the possibilities with them that can be used for fanfiction and AU’s etc. but in regards to canon, I’ve gotta admit I don’t really see it. I find it to be a very shallow relationship. Klaus fell in love with Caroline although he barely knew her and I can’t really understand what it is about Caroline - an ordinary 17 year old high school girl - that would make a 1000 year old hybrid fall in love with her? And in regards to Caroline’s well-being and happiness, being with Klaus definitely isn’t the right thing for her. I mean, she married Stefan who is quite literally the polar opposite to Klaus and that just says it all. I just don’t see how Caroline could ever love Klaus. She was attracted to him and intrigued by him, yes, but in regards to a real emotional connection and a long-term relationship I just don’t think it’s there between them. Also, as someone once pointed out, a big theme of the Klaroline relationship that the shippers seem to hold onto a lot is the whole idea of Caroline wanting to see the world and travel. But it’s actually something she herself never once expressed. Klaus is the one that projected that onto her, telling her there was an entire world out there for her to see, offering to take her to Paris, calling her up when he was in New Orleans to tell her he wanted to share the art and culture with her - yet when did Caroline herself ever express wanting to travel or see the world? Basically, Klaroline is a ship that was never really supposed to happen but because the Klaroline fandom turned out to be so huge, the writers did a tonne of fan-servicing and made them into a lot more than it was supposed to be. For that reason there isn’t much of a basis for them, which is why I don’t ship them. But I can see why others ship them, particularly in regards to the non-canon possibilities.
I don’t really have much more to add to this because I still feel the same way. I think Joseph and Candice have great chemistry, but to be honest, Joseph/Klaus has chemistry with every single person he interacts with. I understood Klaroline when it was Klaus just having a little unreciprocated crush on Caroline, but anything beyond that I don’t really buy into. Their scenes on The Originals felt so forced to me. Like that whole line “you’ve never been the villain in my story”..... cringe. And their general behaviour towards each other with the flirting and reminiscing over their fond memories which were non-existent (are we just gonna conveniently forget that their entire relationship on TVD consisted of Klaus obsessing over Caroline and Caroline despearately trying to swerve his advances because she wasn’t interested and was in love with and committed to Tyler?) I just think that narratively speaking, Klaroline were taken to places that didn’t make sense to appease the shippers. And I know that the shippers are probably still disappointed/angry and might say they didn’t get justice, but being an outsider looking in, I can see that the writers gave Klaroline shippers way more than they ever intended. Klaroline would’ve withered away and died as quickly as it developed if it hadn’t of been for how popular they were.
Now we come onto Klamille. I’m very meh about them. I don’t care for them. I said Klaus has chemistry with everyone, but his chemistry with Cami was poor considering she became his main relationship on TO. I just find their chemistry very flat and their relationship to be like every other relationship on TVD (particularly the vampire-human relationships). It was all about Camille fixing Klaus and being this little snowflake of purity and goodness that made Klaus vulnerable and capable of love. Cami felt more like Klaus’ therapist a lot of the time. It’s like he was a project for her. He was so broken and had so much emotional baggage, and she was intruiged by him and wanted to try and help him. I never really bought into her loving Klaus. Camille wasn’t messed up enough to fall for someone like Klaus. We’ve seen humans fall for vampires so many times and it’s always hard to comprehend, because I genuinely do think that is vampires existed in reality it would be very, very, very rare for a human to actually fall for a vampire. But Klaus? He takes it to an entirely different level. He was one thousand years old, a hybrid, a monster and by far the most evil character in the whole of the TVD/TO universe. I know that Klaus had his good side and that Cami saw parts of that, but I still don’t think she’s the sort of person that would fall for him. The early stages of their meeting showed that. Cami started out having feelings for Marcel and was pretty much repulsed by Klaus, but then suddenly started to get a crush on him. Don’t get me wrong, Klaus and Cami clearly had a connection and stuff in common, but I saw her as being more of a friend and/or sister figure in his life rather than a lover.
Klaus was such a complex character that any romantic relationship he had had to be very different from any other TVD ship (or ships generally), and they weren’t. That’s why they didn’t work for me. Klaus’ darkness went too deep for women like Caroline or Camille to seriously love him and want to be with him. They might’ve been intruiged by him and eager to unravel the mysteries of his long life, but that’s as far as it would’ve gone. Likewise, Klaus was not the sort of person that fell in love easily and yet with Caroline and Cami (Caroline in particular) it did seem to happen easily, and I never bought it.
This is also the reason why Klayley is my favourite romantic pairing for him, because it was different. Hayley wasn’t the light to Klaus’ darkness or his therapist or somebody whose sole life purpose was to fix him. Hayley accepted Klaus for exactly who he was. She saw the goodness in him but she was never blinded by it. She wasn’t delusional or filled with false hope that he could somehow change and become this beacon of love and good. She wasn’t surprised when he did bad things and she didn’t turn away from him either, because she knew that was who he was. It was also more likely that someone like Klaus would fall for somebody that he spent lots of time with over a prolonged period of time through shared experiences and the building of trust and common ground. That’s what he had with Hayley. Not to mention, Hope was the greatest love of Klaus’ life and the fact that he shared Hope with Hayley was enough by itself to cause him to fall in love with Hayley. Sorry, this has just descended into a rant as to why Klayley were the superior ship haha.
To sum up, I don’t really like Klaroline or Klamille, but I don’t hate them either. There are nice parts to both ships, but overall, I think neither relationship made sense for Klaus’ character. Not to mention, they both probably deserved a lot better. Then again, any woman in the universe Klaus could’ve ended up with would’ve deserved better lol.
There’s nothing to drum up motivation quite like avoiding schoolwork, so I’m doing another one. This time on the Original daddy: Mikael
Mikael; a villain, but not an antagonist.
To start with, let’s talk about his backstory. The Mikael who kicks children and whips people half to death? A complete fabrication by TO that in no way reflects TVD.
“But Nik was not born a killer – none of us were! You did this to us when you turned us into vampires! You destroyed our family. Not him.” – Rebekah TVD 3x09 Homecoming
“My family was quite close, but Klaus and my father did not get along too well.” – Elijah TVD 2x18 Klaus
The emphasis here being that it’s all wrapped up in them becoming vampires. Klaus’ fall, Mikael ruining their family all of it. Before, they were all content, a whole loving family. Yes, Klaus and Mikael had troubles, there will be people whose personalities don’t mesh.
Now, is this to say that Mikael was actually an all loving father and Klaus is just a lying liar who lies? No (well, at least not in this specific instance), as I said, Mikael is a villain; a harsh man from a harsh time. His children loved him, but they also feared him, and that’s generally not something indicative of a father of the year award nominee. But the man who Elijah confessed he should have killed a thousand years ago, the man Rebekah tried to kill in his sleep, the man who hated Klaus just because (WE WILL GET TO THAT) didn’t come about until TO.
So then, who is Mikael? We first see him as a mysterious figure whose presence scares Klaus into running, both in the flashback to the 1920s, and in modern day. The first real glimpse of him we get is in Ordinary People, when he grows angry at Klaus and Elijah’s play-fighting. This angers him, as he believes that combat should be taken seriously. When confronted, Elijah backs down; Klaus tries to defend it, and gets a swordfight in response. It goes on until Esther, who at first permits it, tells Mikael that he’s ‘made his point’ and to stop. Which he does.
Mikael is a Viking, and though Plec and co. erroneously assume that Viking refers to the entirety of Norse culture, the fact that he is one means he’s a warrior. He was the guy that went out and fought and pillaged. Which informs a great deal about his worldview. How to treat combat, and how to respond to threats.
Which in turn leads to his pride, dubbed by Rebekah to be his greatest weakness. Mikael ran once, when his eldest died, because a disease has no form you can fight, there’s no enemy to be beaten, but still it pained him to do it. And so, when Henrik dies, he decides he won’t run again. The werewolves are a physical opponent, they can be beaten, but suppose another child gets sick? Or another enemy comes, one who is beyond Mikael’s ability to fight. He’s been unable to protect two of children, has had to outlive two of his children, and he will not permit another. And so he and Esther come up with a plan. One to make it so that their family can’t lose anyone else; make them immortal. No more running, now they fight.
Until everything went to hell, culminating in the revelation of Klaus’ true parentage, the casting of the hybrid curse, and Klaus murdering Esther in a fit of rage.
And so Mikael lost basically everything, his son murdered his wife, and his other children believed that Mikael was responsible. And so he spent the next thousand years hunting. Seeking to avenge his wife, and to kill his son.
And really, that was what he dedicated himself towards. TO pretty much erases all of it in order to say that it was the fact that Klaus was a hybrid and not biologically his son that spurred him to hunt down his children -and it was all his children on TO- but that ignores a whole lot, as shown here:
This scene is incredible, for starters, because it alone manages to give more depth to Mikael than an entire season of TO did. Mikael loves Rebekah, he loves all his children, and Klaus was his only target. In TO, Mikael seems incapable of anything but hatred. The show forgets that pride -not rage- was his defining trait, the pride that prevented him from apologizing to Rebekah, of acknowledging that no matter how justified he felt, he still caused harm to her. In TO, Mikael hates Klaus, hates hybrids, werewolves, vampires, his children, his wife. The only person he doesn’t hate is Freya, who’s a frigging retcon character.
Speaking of retcons, on TO it’s repeatedly stated that Mikael burned down cities in his hunt for his children, hell we see him burn down an entire opera theatre. Remember this quote from Homecoming: “I had a hand in creating vampires, but bloodlust was never my intention. Over the centuries I learned to feed from the predator, not the innocent?” The bloodlust, described by Rebekah as being the darkest consequence of what they were because it drove them to kill, and Mikael trains himself to overcome it because he doesn’t want to kill innocent people. At least not needlessly, he is a vampire, an Original, he definitely has the will to kill, but a guy who spent god knows how long training himself to feed on vampires, a guy who refused human blood after being dessicated for a decade, destroys cities willy-nilly for the hell of it? That’s not even getting into the fact that TO shows him multiple times willingly feeding on living people. Again, this is the guy who refused human blood after going without any blood for a decade.
Oh, and going back to Klaus:
Notice Klaus calls Mikael father in this scene. On TO, when Klaus did that in a flashback during 1x15 Le Grand Guignol, Mikael mocked him for it, derided him for “still clinging to that word.” On TVD? Nothing. Because Klaus is Mikael’s son. The narrative irony, that the child Mikael got along with the least would come to be the one most like him. After all, Klaus wants to be the biggest, baddest, strongest guy out there, and growing up, who was that if not Mikael?
Mikael was a villain, but not an antagonist, his role in the story was an ‘enemy of my enemy’ type with the MFG. They both wanted Klaus dead. This narrative role allowed for a bit of nuance. Mikael and Klaus were mirrors of each other, and both had their own twisted senses of honour and love. And yes, I do fully believe that Mikael loved Klaus. In their meeting, he doesn’t deride Klaus’ biological parentage, he doesn’t insult him for calling Mikael his father, he chastises him for his “impulse” and calls out the fact that between compulsion, sirebonds and daggers, there isn’t a single person who’s loyal to Klaus who is so willingly.
The entire meeting is of two family members calling each other out on their failings: Klaus calling out that Mikael always underestimated him, never gave Klaus’ own strength the respect it deserves, embodied through attempting to call Mikael’s bluff. But Mikael wasn’t bluffing, and as far as Mikael and Klaus were aware in that moment, Mikael killed Elena and Klaus’ access to more hybrids. And then Mikael dies, killed by his son, whose strength he never acknowledged. Is it really any wonder that the only response to this is cry, however briefly?
Mikael’s relationship with Klaus was a focal point for his character, and TO’s complete derailment of it, therefore, had a huge impact on the character. On TVD, Klaus was a villain and an antagonist, but on TO he’s the protagonist (ostensibly anyway, in reality, the deuteragonist to Hayley’s protagonist), and Mikael the antagonist. Now there are two different ways that this could have gone.
1) Recognize the incredibly complex relationship between these two and build on it in order to help cement the relative moral nature of a show focused on the oldest serial murderers in the world
2) Say ‘fuck relative morality and nuance’ and make the antagonist as evil as possible so that by comparison the guy you had choke a pregnant woman for trying have an abortion seem like a good guy
Three guesses which option the show went with. First two don’t count. Yes, they eschewed any complexity by making Mikael out to be a sadistic psychopath who tried multiple times to murder Klaus BEFORE he ripped out Esther’s heart and blamed it on Mikael. Oh wait sorry, ~choked her to death~ and blamed it on Mikael. As opposed to the intense regret he felt upon seeing Rebekah on TVD, on TO Mikael shows nothing but anger when meeting Elijah, even when he’s ostensibly saying he’s proud of him. On TO, he can’t mention Klaus without saying the word bastard, on TVD it’s never uttered. On TVD he explicitly states that Klaus is the only one he ever wanted dead, on TO he plans to help Finncent kill them all. On TVD, avenging Esther was what spurred him forward, on TO, upon meeting he screams at her and tries to hit her. Hell, their entire relationship is reduced to a Stockholm syndrome-fuelled abusive horror show.
And it all culminates in that scene. Klaus has the white oak pointed at Mikael’s heart and asks ‘why?’ Why was he a kid kicking, Klaus whipping, no-good-awful-abusive-piece-of-shit? Why, for Klaus’ entire life did Mikael hate him?
“I don’t know, I just did.”
A character’s motivation: why they do what they do. Why they feel what they feel. It’s fundamental to them. Without that, a character could be replaced with an object. They stop being a character and become a macguffin. And TO cares so little for Mikael, the man who created vampires on their vampire show, that they didn’t even bother to give a motivation as to why he was an abusive ass. They retconned him into a complete psychopathic monster because they didn’t have the necessary skill to make us care about Klaus despite the fact that he’s a monster, so why not make Mikael irredeemably horrible because abuse survivor=relatable right? This despite the fact that Klaus was still an abuse survivor on TVD, and they still managed to make him likable without relying on the image of him being kicked as a child.
On TO, Mikael could have been replaced with literal cancer and the result would have been the same. A source of pain and agony in Klaus’ past that made him feel weak, and he never wishes to re-experience. They didn’t just take away nuance and complexity from him, they took away the most basic aspects. The closest thing to characterization Mikael has on TO is his relationship with Freya, who is a retconned in character from the same season Mikael came back in. The ‘I love you/I hate you/I want you to die/please acknowledge me’ relationship with Klaus built up from TVD goes nowhere. There’s never any further expression of regret from when he met Rebekah again. Hell, the shadow he ostensibly cast over the Originals’ existence is kind of called into question when they can stay in one place for nearly three hundred years, openly referring to themselves as the Mikaelsons the entire time. Everything Mikael was on TVD was stripped away in favour of ‘stock antagonist’ such that his only real points of note are his fighting capability, which is nice to watch but doesn’t make a character, and his relationship with Freya, which isn’t part of the character that got people invested.
I’m both proud and ashamed of how long this is (what is my life?). If you read all of this, you get a cookie.
I got a little enthusiastic while writing a meta (/rant) on Elijah, and on his relationship with Klaus, and also Marcel - but I mean, even his relationship with Marcel is practically about Klaus as well. I feel like this season scratched the surface of so many interesting dynamics, while never really quite delivering on any of them.
I thought this season was going to explore Elijah’s mental struggles more than it did. We learnt in season 2 that he can become incredibly unstable, but that he manages to pull himself together for most of his time by burying all of that behind the Red Door. We didn’t see much of it since, so I was eager to delve deeper into it.
Elijah normally exercises an extreme amount of control in everything he does, from the way he looks to the way he thinks to the way he acts. He’s not rash or impulsive at all. When he uses violence, it’s almost always because he rationally decided to do so. Attacking someone impulsively because his emotions got the best of him is rare, although it can definitely happen. No one is always in full control over themselves and their emotions, after all. *whispers* pulling out Marcel’s heart. To Elijah, this lack of control is abhorrent and he will always regret those lapses. After all, this is the man who has been berating Klaus (and frankly all of his siblings) for their temper and lack of control for centuries.
When the Red Door is opened however, it’s a different story. Elijah’s mind is attacked by memories and feelings of guilt and self-loathing, so powerful and overwhelming that he shuts down. He loses all of his ability to restrain himself and think rationally. His violence becomes uncontrolled and unreasoned. He no longer makes a conscious decision to use violence, it happens involuntarily. Some people argue that this is the real Elijah, while the suit-and-handkerchief Elijah is merely pretending to be something he is not, but I don’t agree. Both of these sides of Elijah are part of who he is. In fact, I’d argue one side would not exist without the other. Would Elijah be so desperate for self-control and self-restraint if he didn’t become so horrifyingly violent without it? Would Elijah try to bury all of his memories behind the Red Door if they didn’t torment him with guilt, self-loathing and regret? There’s a whole debate to be had about what exactly defines us as a person (instincts, actions, decisions, feelings…) but for the sake of keeping it simple now, I’d argue they’re all part of who you are. People are complex.
I thought this season might explore that paradox of Elijah’s deliberate vs indeliberate violence, by leading him to a breaking point again. With Klaus getting better and better at keeping his temper in check, it was the perfect time for Elijah to dissolve, and it really did seem to go into that direction – but it just feels half-assed, if I’m honest. They made Rebekah say:
“Now that our brother has found his noble purpose, what about you? (…) You're no longer tethered to him. You must have thought about it. So what will you do with your immortality, now you're not burdened with saving Nik's soul?”
I was excited. I thought I would get what I wanted: an unravelling Elijah in an existential crisis because the sole objective he had for the entirety of his life, the redemption of his brother, suddenly seemed achievable. The one thing he had devoted himself to for a thousand years within his reach – and of course he wouldn’t know what to do with his life anymore. It would be enough to give anyone an intense feeling of loss, let alone an immortal who has lived for so long. Not to mention how Elijah is a controlfreak who has poured all of himself into saving his brother simply to forget his own struggles. There is no person Elijah feels more guilt towards than Klaus. Therefore, devoting himself to his brother is the surest way for Elijah to soothe his mind and basically keep the Red Door tightly locked. He’s not ready to let Klaus go, because then what else would Elijah focus on? He desperately clings to his brother still, because his brother is the only thing that gives his life purpose.
Klaus’s redemption being the potential reason for Elijah’s downfall is something I really, really love. His devotion to Klaus has always been unhealthy, and it was bound to backfire. This season definitely did reference this a little – the finale talked about how they needed to let each other go, after all, which was a good sentiment to conclude the season with. I just don’t feel like this was much explored in the season itself at all. I feel like Elijah’s struggles were mostly just there to create Hayley/Elijah drama.
Elijah has never exactly been a good guy, but this season he noticeably made more horrible decisions without scruples – which I feel like he would’ve mostly tried to avoid before. I think this is because Elijah is painfully aware that with Klaus changing for the better, it would fall up to him to do the dirty work, the things necessary to protect the family from all harm. Those have always been Klaus’s tasks, and Elijah has always vehemently protested against those ‘reckless actions’ – but I think Elijah can’t help but admit that Klaus’s actions, however he may dislike them, are the reason their family is still here today: a necessary evil. So suddenly the roles get reversed. As Klaus attempts to be better for his daughter, Elijah is prepared to take over the responsibility of doing the necessary evil stuff for the sake of giving his brother the chance to become a good dad without any tarnish. He spent almost a thousand years trying to achieve his brother’s redemption – now that it’s within reach, what else is there for him, than to do everything in his power to make sure his brother gets to keep it? He does so by offering up his own morality for the sake of Klaus’s, kind of figuratively in the spirit of: ‘I’ll damn make sure my brother goes to heaven – even if I have to go to hell for it’. He’s protecting Klaus’s purity and innocence – or well, what the hell’s even left of it, of course (anyone remember in S2 when Elijah told Klaus: “whatever innocence remains, we must protect it at all costs”?).
Now, I don’t know how much of this is actually in the show itself. This is what I think should have taken place, but I definitely feel like the writers dropped the ball on it. It does look like the writers were going for kind of the same idea as me. After all, they made Elijah pretty much beg Klaus to let him be the monster and do all the dirty work, so that Klaus can simply be a dad:
“And how do we protect Hope from all of this? She worships you, Niklaus. She must not see the monster. (…) Let me do this, please. And should any turmoil arise, should anyone dare to disrupt our kingdom… let them answer to me.”
Now, keep in mind, Elijah made a deliberate choice to go dark, and therefore this still fits into the category of “controlled, deliberate violence”. This is not Red Door Elijah yet, but the Red Door might just start to creak and shudder a little under the extra weight. I think Elijah’s task of protecting his family would definitely be a large burden for him. He’s not as skilled as Klaus in taking down enemies by doing whatever it takes. Elijah is much more in his element when he can plan ahead, and he’s not as capable of handling himself in stressful situations when things change very quickly. He may have an act of cool indifference, but once placed in extremely tense situations, he can lose his cool - especially when he deals with things that he feels are out of his control, as the true controlfreak he is. And when Elijah becomes desperate, he is very much capable of going off the deep end, further than he would’ve liked.
As much as the lack of Hope/Elijah scenes dismays me, I think it would’ve made perfect sense for Elijah to avoid all interaction with Hope, if he were to go to such dark places. Klaus needs to be good and light to be in Hope’s vicinity as her father, so Elijah will simply disappear into the darkness and perform all the deeds that Klaus now cannot. For Elijah, it’s of the utmost importance that Hope should never have to see her father as the monster he is/used to be. He’s protecting Hope’s innocence, because in turn that means he’s protecting Klaus’s. However, I can’t tell whether those lack of scenes between them are deliberate or not, and that’s the whole problem. I love subtlety, but this isn’t even subtle anymore. This is just unexplained and messy. If they wanted to show Elijah avoiding Hope, we should’ve actively seen Elijah avoid Hope. The groundwork was there, why not follow it through? If they didn’t want to show Elijah avoiding Hope, there’s really no excuse why they have so little scenes together – yes, they do have some scenes together, but they contain so little interaction that they hardly count imo.
Elijah’s relationship with Marcel was also neglected in this season, to be honest. It was there, but most of the time not really in a substantial way. Most of the season consisted of Elijah and Marcel putting aside their differences temporarily for a partnership in which they tensely kept snarking at each other. Snark is fun, but after all the abuse that has taken place between them, I do find it quite a muted response.
The one scene I think is absolutely amazing, is the one in 4x05, when Marcel is locked in the cellar and Elijah threatens him. In that scene, Elijah reiterates what I’ve been saying above: he’s obsessed with his brother’s redemption. Everything is about Klaus and for Klaus. He will do everything for his brother’s redemption and take out everyone who threatens to stand in the way. Even if that goes for Marcel, whom Elijah once considered a son. It was a very ruthless, cold and chilling scene. Elijah was calculated in his words; he had obviously been thinking about it before he entered the cellar. All of his words were carefully crafted to make it hurt more for Marcel, make the impact greater. It was essentially parental emotional abuse, and deliberate abuse at that. Does Elijah mean what he says? Yes and no. He means it in the sense that he really would choose Klaus’s redemption over Marcel in a heartbeat, but Elijah pretending not to care is just an act. We know he cares. We saw how he cried after he had ripped Marcel’s heart out. But, as he told us, as long as Marcel forms any threat to either Klaus’s safety or his redemption, Elijah is not capable of showing any mercy to Marcel. So he puts on the act, and he puts it on perfectly, all to threaten and intimidate Marcel into obedience. Not to mention how he tells Marcel how worthless he is – it’s chilling how much that echoes Mikael telling Klaus how he’s useless and weak. It’s clear that Elijah picked up a thing or two in Abuse 101 class taught by Mikael.
The 2x02 flashback was the first time that we saw Elijah pushing away Marcel for the sake of Klaus, and he has never really stopped doing so. This is how far Elijah’s dysfunctional devotion to his brother goes. His devotion to Klaus will always stand in the way of his relationship with Marcel, so the only way it will ever be possible for Elijah to make amends is by letting go of that devotion to his brother. That’s why I do kind of like how it was Marcel in the end who compelled Elijah’s memories away and ‘set him free’ (even if the compelling thing itself doesn’t make a whole lot of sense). Marcel basically set Elijah free from one of the major obstacles always standing in the way of them having a loving, familial relationship. This is once again something I wish was introduced more throughout the season, but I’m at least curious to see how that will change things between Elijah and Marcel next season.
One thing I found the most interesting about that scene was how Elijah viewed Marcel’s worth (or seemed to, at least) almost solely in the light of how useful he has been for Klaus’s redemption. That’s really disturbing. And it’s not like it’s just Marcel either: even before Hope’s birth, Elijah has always been obsessed with her primarily because of what she would mean for Klaus. Since we don’t have much actual Hope/Elijah scenes, it’s difficult to tell how much he cares about Hope outside of her good influence on Klaus, which is a question I desperately want answered. After all, what if Hope also ended up failing in contributing to Klaus’s redemption? I do feel like Elijah places more value on blood relatives than on adopted ones, unfortunately. Klaus has always been about “we can choose our own family”, but I’m not sure if Elijah ever shared that sentiment. I’m pretty sure he silently considers that an affront – why would you choose others over your own family? He’s kind of affronted everytime Rebekah goes in search of her own family somewhere, too. The irony of course is that Klaus is only half a blood relative of Elijah, and yet he is the one Elijah clings to the hardest.
The Red Door episode of Elijah’s mind, 4x10, was underwhelming, because I feel like it didn’t actually tell or show us anything new, anything of substance. Elijah’s Red Door never actually opens throughout the season – pretty much all his violence and horrific deeds this season have been deliberate and consciously done. He’s been a little more touchy, definitely, which made him look like a ticking time bomb, but we never actually saw it go off. We didn’t get an explanation as to why Elijah seems a bit more unstable now. Freya says that Elijah’s mind is unstable, but it seems like that’s more a result of his mind shattering in the pendant, than because of anything psychological here. The show framed it like “this is who Elijah is underneath, all the time, always - we’ll show you now just to remind you, as we like to do every once in a while”. So what was the point? Was all of that just so Elijah could fall off Hayley’s pedestal? Why did we not actually explore what it would take for Elijah to open the door again?
I feel like this is one of my most incoherent rants ever. Mostly because this season left me feeling like the writers technically agree for the most part with my take on Elijah and his relationships, they just have a really bad way of showing it. Like, what I did here is ‘explain’ the storyline of Elijah and his various relationships on the show this season… yet I don’t recall seeing much of this actually on screen. Maybe if you squint hard enough, but mostly this just feels like me drawing conclusions based on the few hints they’ve dropped, paired with my own judgement on what should’ve taken place. I think that might be the most frustrating thing: seeing these little hints dropped in the show where it seems like the writers agree with me, but then they don’t really come through. It was mostly just a line here or there, and a couple of outstanding scenes, but I feel like all of the relationships suffered as most screen time was attributed to… just plot. (A plot that I didn’t care much for, I might add, because the Hollow was so underwhelming as a villain and a character, but maybe that’s just me.) I feel like the plot should’ve revolved more around these relationships, instead of trying to cram relationship substance into a completely unrelated plot.
A deeper layer of meaning is interesting, but your basic layer needs to make sense too. As I see fandom increasingly start to ask the question: ‘why the fuck is Elijah suddenly behaving this way?’ – I think they haven’t done a good job with it. I think I’ll just live in my imaginary theories world, where I clearly have many feels on the subject nevertheless.
@loisfreakinglane : this is a super exhausting aspect of to/tvd and a lot of other shows like it. it’s one of many reasons why I’ll always be invested in found families above and beyond anything championing blood as the #1 top priority in life. sometimes your family is abusive or murderous or just straight up sucks, and you don’t owe them your love or your life or anything at all
right? i agree with all of that. and it’s such a double edged sword too bc it’s annoying on screen to see it see it play out, and sometimes when you try to find solace in fellow fans there’s such a warped image. “blood is the gold premium” and if you don’t agree with that then you’re silly and immature. i do like the mikaelson dynamic bc it’s interesting (and yes i agree they love each other) but it’s so unhealthy most of the time. if they weren’t related and they acted the same way towards each other i’m pretty sure most of them would be deemed highly abusive or at least problematic. like i said in my tags unconditional love is great but the always and forever thing is toxic half the time (poor bex never got to date the boys she wanted to date bc of her overprotective brother). that catch phrase does not apply equally to all the family members, and yeah i loled at that kol line to marcel to get over not being a mikaelson… but that is solely by blood?? klaus and marcel constantly talk about how they were father son figures. and yeah they made the choice to part… bc who is most important in your life should be a choice. freya obsessed for centuries about having a family she didn’t even know. hayley’s apart of the family bc she’s klaus’ baby daddy? if she just elijah’s love interest she wouldn’t be included in always and forever no matter how deep their love was. it’s so arbitrary. and yes, it’s a common thing in shows, but it;s no less infuriating.
and i’ll say it again, the mikaelson dynamics is very interesting and enjoy it at times, and sure it’s a special case because they’ve been together for so long, but they’ve treated each other poorly just as long too.
kol’s speech back in s2 (”Oh, you’re angry are you? Well join the party! I’ve been here 1,000 years. I was building that dagger to protect myself against you, Nik. I’m not the bad guy in this chapter of our family’s story. I’m the wronged, I’m the dead, but never mourned. And whilst you got everythng you ever wanted, I got a family who didn’t care if I lived or if I died”) always comes back to me. and i know klaus and bex were like no?? we love you, but looking at the show it’s not hard to tell he’s the last in line of receiving mikaelson love. he’s constantly just looking for kernels of their affection (lol sorry i’m watching the show rn and it fits… just make it platonic). every time i see when davina tells kol he loves her kol’s shocked face is screaming “holy shit someone actually loves me for me and not just because i’m related to them”.
… anyways, you can tell i’m heated bc of the kol (people bitching bc he said he cares about his gf more than his fam) / davina stuff (mikaelson fam ultimately does not give a damn they killed her… tho she’s tangentially involved with their family) but it really does apply to so many shows/ideals in life and it’s annoying. like you said, someone’s family sucks and you’re not obligated to stick with them.
