Niklaus Mikaelson

Klaus is theOriginal Hybrid and the one of the most powerful supernatural beings in the VD/TO universe. He is the primary antagonist of The Vampire Diaries television adaptation (serving as the true main antagonist of Season 2) and the main protagonist of the VD spin-off TV show, The Originals and he currently lives in New Orleans. He is half brother to Elijah, Finn, Kol, Rebekah, and Henrik as well as the father of Hope Mikaelson. Even though he is one of the main antagonists of the first season, due to him wanting power and wanting to save his child and does that by plotting and scheming due to his greed, he is actually the true main anti-villain of the show.

He is portrayed by Joseph Morgan.

Origin
A thousand years ago, Klaus and his family where mortals, save for his witch mother Esther. It is revealed his mother had an affair and Klaus's biological father was a werewolf. Esther put a spell on her family that turned them into vampires to protect them from werewolves. Klaus would have become a hybrid if not for the witches keeping his werewolf side in dormat. In retaliation, Klaus killed his mother, but became a target for his step father Mikeal, who began hunting vampires. To have his werewolf side released, a vampire, a werewolf and a Petrova doppleganger had to be sacrificed. In the middle ages, Klaus found Petrova doppleganger, Katrina Petrova, but she killed herself to become a vampire, rendering his ritual moot for now. Klaus then devoted himself to hunting her down.

Regin in Mystic Falls
In modren times, Klaus heads to Mystic Falls where found Katrina, now living under the name Katharine, and the next Petrova doppleganger, Elena Gilbert. He finds Katharine and tourtures her. Afterwords he finds the moonstone needed for the ritual, has a werewolf named Jules killed, turns Elena's aunt Jenna into a vampire for the ritual and abducts Elena. The ritual is complete but Elena doesn't die, turns out her father John Gilbert went through a spell to die in her place.

The next season Klaus sets out to create more Hybrids, starting with Tyler Lockwood. Klaus realizes that Elena needs to remain alive for him to make more Hybrids, so he decides to let her live, but has her vampiric boyfriend Stefan turn off his humanity. Eventually Klaus's siblings awaken, and Klaus kills his step father. His mother Esther is also ressurected. She has a plan to whipe out the vampire race by killing her children, a killing an original will whipe out the bloodline. Klaus and his siblings team up with the Mystic Falls Gang to combat Esther. Esther turns  the MFG friend Alaric into an original vampire but is killed by him. Eventually Klaus is subdued by a descection spell cast by Bonnie, but is now a target by Alaric. Klaus's body is staked, but Bonnie casts a spell to transfer Klaus's soul into Tyler's body.

Klaus goes bored and it's discovered dues to his werewolf genes his body didn't turn to dust. Klaus forces Bonnie to retransfer Klaus back to his original body. Once back, Klaus helps the MFG deal with the hunter Connor Jordan, who is eventually killed, meanwhile, Tyler plans the Hybrids to start a revloution against Klaus. In retaliation, Klaus kills his Hybrids and Tyler's mother. During the season, the main focus was to find a cure for vampires (doing so would awake the more ancient and powerful Silas), during so required a number of deaths, Klaus's hybrids including. Jeremy Gilbert, who became a vampire hunter, kills Klaus's brother Kol and his entire bloodline. Klaus swears revenge but is trapped in the Gilberts house by Bonnie. During this time it's revealed Klaus was in love with Caroline, Tyler's girlfriend. But Klaus breaks her heart by forcing Tyler to leave Mystic Falls with the promise to hunt him down. The cure is found but stolen by Katharine, nonetheless, Silas is awakened and heads to Mystic Falls. One of the first people Silas meets is Klaus, and Silas attacks him. Klaus is left wounded but it turns out the wound and the pain he was feeling was a hallucination, demonstrating how powerful Silas is.

Adventure in New Orleans
After getting a tip that the witches are plotting against him, Klaus goes to the French Quarter of New Orleans, that his family built a long time ago. He realises that his former protege, Marcel Gerard, is now the vampire king of New Orleans.

To make matters worse, the werewolf, Hayley Marshall is pregnant with Klaus' child (after their one-night stand) and she is held captive by the witches and Klaus wants the child dead.

However, Elijah sees it as an opportunity for the Originals to finally have a chance of redemption and then Klaus decides that he wants to keep the child because every king has an heir, so therefroe, Klaus wants to reclaim the French Quarter, leading him to embark on a journey full of power and redemption.

However, his greed for power doesn't do him any justice whatsoever. At first he believes that Hayley has slept with someone else, he finally believes that the child is his. The witches later blackmailed Klaus, that they will kill Hayley and the child if the Originals don't help them. When Elijah tries to tell Klaus about the new chances of the baby, Klaus still hasn't changed his mind. However, when Hayley is put into Elijah's custody, he promises that he'll keep her safe. However, he daggers Elijah as a peace offering to Marcel but later makes it up to him.

Rebekah aids Klaus on his fight for power and he makes a deal with the witch Sophie Deveraux but he was actually using him.

As Hayley is later kidnapped by Tyler Lockwood, who kidnapped her so that her baby can be used to make an army of hybrids (Hayley and Elijah first think that's what Klaus wants, which hurts the Original Hybrid), Rebekah and Klaus save her.

Klaus then changes his mind as he tells Elijah that every King needs an heir. He then plots against the witches and Marcel. by using a newbie gay vampire named Josh Rosza to be his spy by compelling him as well as using Marcel's surrogate daughter, Davina Claire's powerful yet uncontrollable powers to use as a weapon against the witches. He even played mind games with the witch Davina. Klaus killed Josh and Marcel turned him and Klaus even makes Josh do stuff that he doesn't want to do. Klaus even fears that Marcel will use Rebekah against him but Rebekah and Marcel later have an unrequited love.

He even uses Marcel's crush, Camille O' Connell by compelling her into spying on Marcel but he later on falls in love with Cami, leading him to compel her to bond with him and later to leave New Orleans and forget everything that has happened.

However, Marcel manipulates Josh against Klaus which leads to his compulsion gone, leading Josh to be on Klaus' rogues gallery (Marcel and Josh later become friends)

However, it doesn't go well as Klaus ends up forming a feud against Marcel's vampire community, which Elijah ends up being a part of. Marcel and Rebekah along with the vampires stage a revolution against Klaus and the vampires try to fight Klaus but he kills a majority of them until Marcel picked up a vampire ring, so now Klaus is the ruler of the vampire community and is not King of New Orleans, making Elijah the Co-King. This disgusts Marcel and Rebekah as Klaus' ruthlessly devious nature helps him get what he wants, no matter who it hurts.

Davina has a hatred for the Mikaelson family (she is formerly Elijah's friend) thanks to Klaus who threatens to kill her other friend.

When Josh breaks free of Klaus' compulsion, he is on Klaus' rogues gallery. Davina now wants revenge on Klaus, and she feels that Marcel betrayed her due to him using Davina as a weapon against the witches but he used her just to protect her from the Harvest ritual.

In the Casket Girls, Davina frees Cami of all the compulsion made by Klaus.

When the Harvest ritual (a ritual where teenage witches must sacrifice themselves in order for them to be with their ancestors), Davina is supposed to be sacrificed and the Originals and Sophie are intent on making sure that Davina gets sacrificed but Marcel goes through extreme lengths to prevent it but she is sacrificed anyway. However, she is later resurrected. As a result, she gets the uncontrollable power of the earth, wind, water and fire and this makes her a threat to New Orleans. As a result, the ritual failed. Klaus later kidnapped and compelled Davina's friend Tim. Elijah and Klaus team up with Marcel to find Davina and sacrifice her to the harvest ritual. However, the vengeful witch uses her power to weaken and inflict pain on Elijah, Klaus and Marcel. This makes blood come out of Elijah's mouth and knocks him out and the same for Marcel and it makes Klaus nearly turn into a werewolf. Klaus then kills Tim. Rebekah them protects Davina from her brother's clutches.

The witch Sabine is possessed by Elijah's dead lover turned enemy Celeste who resurrects the old century witches to seek revenge on the Mikaelson family. They start by weakening Elijah and kidnaps Rebekah and Klaus. Klaus and Rebekah are then held in an old hospital where one of the witches was Rebekah's friend (her name is Genevieve) and she reveals about Rebekah and Marcel's conspiracy to drive Klaus out of New Orleans by resurrecting Mikael. This puts Rebekah's life in danger as Klaus has the White Oak Stake and Rebekah is gonna feel his wrath until Elijah stabs Klaus with Papa Tunde's blade so that he can save Rebekah.

Klaus manages to take the blade out and hunts down Rebekah at a cemetery where the other two titular Originals are and it's Elijah and Rebekah against Klaus showing that once again, they are torn apart due to Klaus' wicked schemes and paranoid nature (which is why Rebekah and Marcel wanted him to leave New Orleans).

As they are stuck at a cemetery, Klaus stabs Elijah with Papa Tunde's blade. As Rebekah tells Klaus about how he has ruined her life and denied her the freedom to love, Klaus stabs her with the White Oak Stake but pulls it out. The two later reconcile and Klaus allows Rebekah to leave town and live her own life. Meanwhile, Marcel tries to find a way to have them set free.

After being freed from the cemetery, Elijah tries to make peace between the Supernatural Factions of New Orleans as Klaus has given up.

At a point, Klaus teams up with the werewolves as the witch Genevieve makes moonlight rings for the werewolves where every full moon, the werewolves getting power weakens the Original Hybrid.

However, the arrival of the Gurrerea family causes havoc as they are drug trafficking kingpins, lead by Francesca Guerrera, who wants power. Seeing this threatens the vampires, Marcel builds a vampire army to fight against Klaus and the werewolves and witches. This will lead to war for power for New Orleans.

In the Battle of New Orleans, Klaus gives Josh a werewolf bite as leverage and Davina uses a spell to make Klaus' blood from the war heal Josh, which succeeds. Klaus and Elijah fight against the Guerrera werewolves but their bites weaken Elijah. However, Francesca and Genevieve plotted to make the Moonlight rings for her family so that they can be strong, so as a result, the Guerreras run New Orleans. Hayley is about to give birth and the witches Monique and Genevieve kidnap her to Papa Tunde's church so that she be sacrificed for the ritual. After battling Marcel, Klaus fights to save Hayley until Genevieve weakens him.

When arriving at the church, the wicked witches trap Klaus and when Hayley gives birth, she tries to hold her baby but her throat is slit by Monique. The witches then take the baby away from her parents.

Klaus is then freed and due to her child being a hybrid, Hayley is resurrected but as a hybrid and Elijah arrives at the church, covered in blood. The 3 main protagonists then search for the baby and save her at the cemetery. However, once they get there, they find out that the witches' leader is actually none other than the delusional Original witch, Esther Mikaelson who has her army of ancestral witches battle Klaus, Hayley and Elijah. The baby's life hangs in the balance as the heroes manage to defeat the witches and they knock Genevieve out unconscious. Meanwhile, Marcel wants to help Davina heal Josh from Klaus' werewolf bite so he gets the Devils's star and use it to kill/wound Klaus so that Davina can cure Josh.

Monique is about to stab the baby but a redeemed Marcel kills her and takes the baby.

At the Original's house, Klaus thanks Marcel and offers him his blood. After Hayley kills Genevieve, the Originals see that New Orleans isn't safe for Klaus' heiress so they vow to take down their enemies but start by faking the child's death and Klaus gives Rebekah his child so that she can take care of her and find a witch to do a spell so that the other witches do not find her. Little does Klaus know that Esther and Finn have been resurrected and they are possessing two witches, Esther possessing Cassie and Finn possessing Vincent and Davina has resurrected Mikael but actually has him under her control.

In the next season, we are shown that the the Guerreras rule New Orleans and Cassie/Esther has made the werewolves some Moonlight Rings. This weakens Klaus even more and it does not help and Hayley now wants revenge. Vampires are banned from entering the French Quarter as a result. Seeing that Elijah has located the last of the 12 moonlight rings, Klaus teams up with Elijah, Marcel, Hayley and Cami to ensnare the werewolves so that they can take away the moonlight rings and that includes killing the Guerreras.

As they get retrieve the moonlight rings by killing or decacipating the werewolves, Klaus regains his strength. However, the last survivor is Francesca Guerrera who has been killed by a vengeful Hayley. There are lots of other werewolves and Hayley plots to retrieve her pack. However, Klaus and Elijah have another enemy to face-Esther as well as Mikael. Still possessing Cassie, Esther has the werewolves under her spell. When Klaus finds out that the White Oak Stake is missing, he also finds out that his mother is alive as well as his brother Finn.

After a fight at the bar between the werewolves, Kaleb (possessed by Kol), Davina and Mikael, Marcel and Elijah save Davina.

After a dinner with Esther and Finn, Klaus and Elijah begin to find out her motive-she wants her children to become witches again and start a new life by possessing mortals so that they can be "a family again". After a cold-hearted truth told by Klaus to Esther about her being the main reason why her children (mostly himself) are monsters, she possesses Hayley and Klaus and Elijah's ally, Lenore and Cassie is left confused. It is revealed that Esther gave Klaus a necklace so that he can be weakened, and lied to him all those years, saying that it is meant to protect him.

Lenore/Esther offers Hayley her proposition to stop being a hybrid and become a werewolf again and the tritagonist is tempted. Esther wants to make Elijah and Klaus' lives hell (even if it means hurting the ones they love) till they are desperate enough to accept her offer. However, Klaus tracks down Davina and Mikael at Davina's family's old cabin and ends up in a battle with his biggest fear-his stepfather Mikael.

After stabbing him with Papa Tunde's blood, Mikael reawakens and kidnaps Cami. Klaus tries to save her and Davina, after losing the power to control him, tries to weaken the White Oak Stake so that she can unsire her friend's from Klaus' sire line (which would've saved most of the main protagonists of the Vampire Diaries if Klaus was dead) and gets help from Kol (after she knows about his identity) to do it. As Klaus battles Mikael, he stabs him with a weakened White Oak Stake and a traumatised Cami saves Klaus by taking out the WOS from him.

After being informed of this, Hayley and Marcel confront Mikael and Klaus has the White Oak Stake as his weapon and Mikael has Papa Tunde's blade. He is then confronted/outnumbered by Klaus, Hayley, Marcel, Cami and surprisingly Davina and seeing that he is outnumbered, Mikael leaves. After the fight, Marcel reprimands Davina, who tells Kol that he is gonna help her get even with Klaus as he wants revenge on his whole family (possibly for their corruption). Klaus later finds out that Esther has kidnapped Elijah.

Klaus manages to save Elijah but Esther has put a trap in his mind so that he can realise the type of monster he is and will later want to possess someone. However, he is stuck in his nightmaric dreams thanks to Esther and Klaus tries to save his brother but he cannot get into his head. He then searches for an antidote and confronts Esther, who says that she will protect him from Mikael and offers him the chance to possess a werewolf. However, Esther also reveals why she is after Hope-she has/had an older sister named Dahlia who was more powerful then she was and she made a deal with Esther, stating that she will give her children if she kills any of her descendant's bloodline and if not, she will come after her and her family. However, Klaus still hates Esther (due to her wantinf to kill Hope)and he later comes face to face with his biological father, Ansel, who was resurrected by Esther before the Other Side's collapse.

In the next episode, Klaus tries to find an antidote for Elijah, whose mind is having nightmares, manipulated by Esther. When Ansel accidentally reveals that he knows about the child, Klaus kills his father so that Esther won't know where to find her.

Personality
Klaus is a very important character of the Vampire Diaries Universe. Even though he is a brutal, sadistic, power-hungry, violent, ruthless, manipulative, cunning, vengeful, impulsive and often a tyrannical man, in truth, Klaus is actually a complex character.

He is a monster because of his past, where his stepfather tortured him and favoured his other children, Klaus became a monster and it was even made worse when Esther was too scared to stand up for him and that she commtited infidelity.

Klaus and his family have shown to have a lot of enemies (many of them bengg each other and the Mystic Falls Gang) mostly because of Klaus' ruthlessly sadistic and tyrannical nature as well as his thirst for power and him being a master of severe torture. A majority of his enemies are afraid of him and many have grudges against him but he is always one step ahead of them. Klaus is also a mass murderer, which is shown when he murdered Katherine Pierce's whole family.

One of Klaus' important traits is his lust for power and he will do anything to achieve despite the consequences it has on his relationship with his family. His lust for power and his greed has torn his family apart and that is widely shown in the Originals and occasionally in the Vampire Diaries. As the first season's central plot was him fighting for power in French Quarter of New Orleans and trying to protect his daughter, Hope Mikaelson, Klaus would do anything to be in power, no matter who it hurts. He even manipulates and psychologically abuses the teenage witch, Davina Claire's who invincible power is uncontrollable, when she is a weapon for Marcel, Klaus plays mind games and even viewed her as a weapon against the witches as he even exploited her, he has continued driving a wedge between Rebekah and Marcel's relationship, he compels a newbie vampire, Joshua Rosza (who is later manipulated by Marcel). When provoked, Klaus can get extremely angry and dangerous And will even go through extreme lengths to make sure that whoever provokes him stops it immediately. This makes him one of the most dangerous characters and one who is not to be trifled with otherwise his enemy will suffer a long agony of pain, making them to regret messing with the Original Hybrid.

Regardless of this, Klaus has shown some acts of humanity inside of him, which is widely shown when he is around Caroline Forbes and Camille O' Connell. He has shown to be fond of Camille as she is his friend and she understands his complexity, making Klaus very protective over her.

The most important heroic side of Klaus (which can also be the anti-villainous side of him) is his determination and extreme lengths to protect his child from the witches who plan to kill her. Klaus has shown to care for his child as he believes that every king deserves an heir.

This is what makes Klaus better than Mikael-even though both are evil, they are actually different-Mikael is a brutal man with no remorse and Klaus is pretty much a misunderstood character whose evil demeanor actually hides his fear of being alone which is the reason behind his acts.

Klaus actually doesn't want to be alone, which is possibly why he wants power or even why he manipulates people into doing stuff for him (regardless of some enemies who he hates that he previously manipulated).

This doesn't necessarily make Klaus an irredeemable villain because due to his character, he has the potential to be redeemed and mend for his past sins, which is possibly why his allies have never given up on him, especially Elijah and Marcel. Even though he is a violent psychopath, Klaus actually and truly means well.

This makes him one of the most important yet diverse characters of the VD/TO universe as the Vampire Diaries mostly showed him as a villain with some tragicness inside of him but in the Originals, we see that there's more to Klaus' character than an evil psychopath, arguably making him a character who people love to hate or one that people can feel sympathy for.

Trivia

 * In Season 2, Klaus has much more of a heroic role than the previous season or that of an anti-hero as he wants to stop his mother from her plot. This is strongly shown in the season premiere, Rebirth, where he admits to Elijah that all the tragedy that he caused for himself and his family and everyone he loves in New Orleans was his fault, not the witches nor the werewolves, nor Marcel but him. He also implies that his greed has costed the life of his child and that he is afraid about what Hayley will think of him.
 * He is very similar to Mikael as both are proud, violent, ruthless, brutal and cruel.
 * Out of all his siblings, Klaus has been closer with Rebekah and Elijah, as the rest of his family are pretty much his enemies.
 * Klaus is evil due to Esther's affair that made him and the torture and pain that Mikael has inflicted on him.
 * This doesn't necessarily make Klaus a bad guy, he is just a troubled guy with lots of inner demons to fight and that his ruthlessness is possibly a facade for his fear of being alone.
 * Klaus' ruthlessness has led to him having lots of enemies and his family hating him (sometimes). Everyone blames this on his family but it is mostly Klaus' fault due to his greed, Machiavellian schemes and brutal nature and sadistic pain that he inflicts on others.
 * If there was a series finale of the Originals, Klaus could possibly be redeemed.
 * New Orleans brings out more of the humanity in Klaus while in Mystic Falls, he was still "evil" yet his weakness was Caroline Forbes.
 * Currently, Klaus is possibly frenemies with the Mystic Falls Gang as he was usually their enemy but in the fourth season, he made an on-and-off alliance with them.
 * Elijah and Rebekah agreed that they will remain with Klaus, always and forever.
 * Klaus has torn apart his family numerous times which lead them to try and destroy him, which tore them apart even more.
 * His one night stand with Hayley was possibly the beginning to the Originals tv series.
 * Joseph Morgan finds it that fans struggle to hate Klaus.
 * Klaus never wants to be like Mikael and Mikael still has a hold over him.
 * He is an interestingly complex protagonist.
 * Klaus' current allies are Elijah, Hayley, Marcel, Camille and Rebekah, whom he is protective over (especially Camille).
 * At a point, Klaus has been an enemy to a majority of his allies (except Camille and Hayley)
 * It is unknown wether Klaus will mend with Josh as it was shown in Rebirth that he wasn't going to attack him nor did he talk to him when he was in the room with Marcel.
 * Klaus can be quite exploitive.
 * Klaus, along with his family have all been antagonists in the Vampire Diaries. Elijah was the first one.
 * He has a bromance with Stefan, which fans thought would lead to a homosexual relationship (or they hoped it would, along with Paul Wesley)
 * Klaus is known for having grudges against his enemies and could possibly have some anger issues.
 * Compulsion is Klaus' manipulative tactic, which is shown for most vampires in the VD/TO Universe.
 * His relationship with Rebekah and Elijah is being mended as Klaus as forgiven Rebekah and Elijah is aiding Klaus.
 * Klaus, Elijah and Rebekah are the main protagonists of the Originals.