The Real Villains of The Vampire Diaries Universe Aren’t Who You Think

When it comes to television dramas, a series is only as good as its villain in The Vampire Diaries universe, there were plenty of villains to love to hate. Starting with The Vampire Diaries and running through its two spinoffs, The Originals and Legacies, fans had no shortage of bad guys (and girls) to watch as they caused problems and chaos for the central characters, sometimes becoming beloved characters themselves in the process. After all, Damon Salvatore was a bit of an antagonist when we first met him and Klaus Mikaelson was a real big bad until he ended up being everyone’s favorite and got his own show.

But while the villains gave us the drama and the angst needed to keep the heroes on their toes and keep viewers interested week to week and season to season, they weren’t the real evil in Mystic Fall or New Orleans for that matter. The real root of all the problems plaguing The Vampire Diaries universe is bad parenting.

Mikael, the Worst of Them All

Let’s start with the absolute worst of them all, Klaus’ “dad” Mikael. This dude is just awful from the start. After the supposed death of his daughter Freya, Mikael became a stern and strict father, even becoming cruel in his efforts to teach them to survive. He was particularly awful to a young Niklaus, beating him as a child for minor infractions under the claim of it making the child stronger. It would later be revealed that Klaus was not actually Mikael’s son but the product of an affair Esther had with a werewolf named Ansel and when Klaus first transformed, Mikael declared him to be a “beast” and an “abomination” and convinces Esther to bind Klaus’ werewolf side to keep it dormant.

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Mikael’s awful treatment of Klaus is a huge part of what so deeply scars Klaus and makes him into the villain he is in The Vampire Diaries (as well as the flawed anti-hero of The Originals) but it goes deeper than that. Mikael also ends up being a vampire who hunts other vampires — namely his own children and specifically Klaus, who he blames for destroying his family. Mikael is not only a major threat to Klaus and the rest of the Mikaelsons, but he’s just an all-around bad guy who is a threat to vampires in general.

Giuseppe Salvatore Also Sucked

Another terrible father and outright just bad person who is a fundamental villain in The Vampire Diaries universe — in this case one from the way back — is Giuseppe Salvatore. One of Mystic Falls’ founders, he was just a trash guy from the start. He was a drunk, controlling of his wife, Lily, and abusive to his son Damon, while showing favoritism to his son, Stefan. Of course, while he plays favorites, he actually doesn’t really care about either of his sons. When Giuseppe discovers vampires in Mystic Falls, it becomes a mission to kill them all. The dude decides to use his own son, Stefan, to expose Stefan’s lover Katherine Pierce as being a vampire. When Stefan and Damon tried to rescue her after she was locked in a tomb with 26 other vampires set to be killed, Giuseppe shot both of his sons deciding he’d rather them be dead than be “traitors”.

Giuseppe being awful has echoes in the future because of his impact on Stefan. You see, Stefan died with Katherine’s blood in his system which means that Stefan was transitioning to a vampire. He comes to his dad and Giuseppe tries to stake Stefan and kill him. It doesn’t exactly work and this bad dad ends up stabbed in the stomach with his own stake. Stefan ends up licking his father’s blood off his fingers, making it the first human blood he consumes. That combined with how Giuseppe treated him and his brother in life leads to Stefan having a difficult time with his bloodlust as a vampire — which leads to some real problems.

There Are No Shortage of Bad Parents

While Mikael and Giuseppe Salvatore are the worst of the dads whose awful parenting and just generally being terrible directly lead to a lot of the problems faced by the heroes in The Vampire Diaries universe, it’s certainly not the end of the list of bad dads and parents. Tyler Lockwood’s dad, Richard, is pretty awful. The former Mystic Falls mayor is abusive towards his son and is an outright bully which has plenty of influence on his son’s sometimes not great behavior.  He also was so focused on his hatred of vampires that he was cool with risking innocent people just to round them up. That actually makes it kind of fitting that Richard met his end thanks to one of the vampires he was trying to kill. There’s also Elena Gilbert’s biological parents who are pretty awful, especially John Gilbert who is part of the whole “let’s kill vampires” of it all.

On Legacies, lots of the kids at the Salvatore School have awful parents who either treated them terribly or abandon them (or in the case of Landon, his dad is literally a monster, Malivore). Even Hope Mikaelson isn’t immune as Klaus becomes the “bad parent” in a sense despite him being dead because his past sins come back to haunt her. But the one character on the show that we see really have to deal with the painful reality of having garbage parents is MG. In Legacies Milton Greasley, aka MG, MG’s mother hid his transition into being a vampire from his father, letting MG believe that his father had rejected him because of religion. Instead, MG’s father had been led to believe that he was dead. However, MG reveals himself to his father and while there’s brief acceptance, it all goes south when MG reveals himself to be a vampire. It’s something that devastates MG, who compels his father to forget. Broken, MG goes into a ripper state and kills Landon. Ultimately everything works out for MG — he stops being a ripper, Landon doesn’t die exactly, he comes back as a phoenix — but it’s clear that the just overall crappy, bad parenting on the part of MG’s mom in particular has a major negative impact and continues The Vampire Diaries universe’s long line of just not great family dynamics. After all, who needs actual bad guys when you have bad parents?

Did you ever consider that bad parents were the real villains of The Vampire Diaries universe? Let us know your thoughts in the comment section!