Executive producer Julie Plec has repeatedly discussed her plans for continuing The Vampire Diaries franchise, and while these plans are unlikely to focus on the characters or plots from The Originals, it's always possible that major figures will appear in flashbacks or cameos. One character that fans can never get enough of is Klaus Mikaelson, who was first introduced as an unstoppable villain that would happily annihilate anyone who betrayed him or even got in the way.
Shockingly, Klaus proved himself to be very forgiving to the people he loved most. Though he punished them for hurting him, Klaus hardly ever stayed upset with Hayley, his siblings, Marcel, Stefan, or Caroline. However, there were also betrayals that he could never completely recover from, which almost always resulted in the traitor's death and a fundamental change in his character and/or the story itself.
10 Davina Broke Klaus's Sire Line
Klaus's best protection against his enemies was their connection to him through the sire line, as he could not be killed without all the vampires he sired dying too. Davina broke that connection, which made it possible for Lucien and Marcel to target him without endangering their own lives. This indirectly led to Klaus suffering five years of torture and time without his daughter.
While Klaus never really liked Davina, she was part of the complicated web that made up the Mikaelson family, as Marcel's surrogate daughter and Kol's girlfriend. Those relationships were the only reason he didn't kill her for what she had done. Even so, he never trusted her again, causing further rifts with Kol and Marcel.
9 Elijah Abandoned Always And Forever
Elijah betrayed Klaus on numerous occasions, working against him and even trying to kill him. All of that, Klaus could forgive. But when the siblings had to separate for Hope's sake, Elijah asked Marcel to make him forget his family. Without his memories, Elijah helped the Sienna family kill Hayley and hurt Hope. Because of them, the Hollow nearly killed Hope.
This betrayal was one that Klaus (and the fans) couldn't recover from. Even when Elijah remembered the truth, his relationship with Klaus was irrevocably broken. Elijah had betrayed everything that he once stood for, and though Klaus worked with him for Hope's sake, they never had the bond they once shared.
8 Genevieve And The Witches Tried To Kill Hope
The witches of New Orleans brought Klaus to take down Marcel, but they then became his greatest enemies—weakening him, killing Hayley, and trying to kill Hope. The season 1 finale of The Originals was utterly gut-wrenching, as Klaus helplessly watched everything he had hoped for die.
Klaus believed that he had allies among the witches, especially his lover Genevieve. When she used the Moonlight Rings to weaken him, he discovered how trusting the wrong person could utterly destroy him. He also learned how much Hope meant to him. This made him more aggressive when managing threats in the future and solidified his resolve to get enough power to never feel helpless against threats on his family again.
7 Katherine Became A Vampire
Klaus needed Katherine's blood to break the Hybrid Curse, and when she became a vampire, she doomed him to another 500 years without his werewolf side. While this wasn't a personal betrayal to Klaus, it was still a serious one that he responded to by slaughtering the Petrova family.
Klaus then hunted Katherine for 500 years, becoming her monster like Mikael was his. While he wasn't a saint before this, he was certainly a villain after it, seeking revenge on Katherine and pursuing Elena with relentless focus. Though he seemed to move on after breaking the curse and moving to New Orleans, Klaus returned to town to gloat as she died, proving that he never got past his anger.
6 Esther Tried To Kill Her Children
Esther caused Klaus a lot of pain in his childhood, but in season 3 of The Vampire Diaries, she came back from the dead just to try to kill Klaus and his siblings. She then returned again in The Originals to kill Hope and make everyone mortal.
These betrayals stung so much because Esther's driving motivation from the start was to save her children. She was the representation of eternal motherly love, and then she shattered that illusion. He hated her for getting Finn and Kol killed, hated her for making the deal with Dahlia that took Freya and endangered Hope, and hated her for trying to kill his child. In response to her betrayal, Klaus lost faith in Hayley and took Hope away from her.
5 The Hybrid Mutiny
While Klaus definitely wanted a powerful army, he really wanted people who understood and loved him. He could have handled losing Tyler, but when all the hybrids schemed to take him out, it proved to him that nobody could ever love him. As they seemed ready to attack him, he slaughtered them all.
Klaus didn't necessarily care about any of the Hybrids as individuals, but their rejection as a whole made him stop making new Hybrids. He planned to destroy the Cure to keep himself safe, rather than to make Elena human again. When he discovered that Hope could make Hybrids, he didn't take advantage of it. Instead of trying to find kinship, he sought immortality.
4 Tyler Tried To Take His Hybrids, His Unborn Daughter, And His Life
While the most significant betrayals in Klaus's life happened centuries before The Vampire Diaries began, Tyler Lockwood managed to really hurt him in the modern day. Tyler was supposed to be his servant and his friend, yet he broke the sire bond and turned the other Hybrids against him. He also tried to kill Klaus and kidnapped Hayley while she was pregnant.
This betrayal wasn't necessarily painful because Tyler himself mattered to Klaus, but because Tyler was the first person who could relate to Klaus (as a Hybrid), and he hated him. Seeing that his Hybrids weren't the family he always wanted them to be convinced Klaus to protect Hayley. Klaus let Tyler live for Caroline's sake, but he helped cement the idea that everyone would eventually betray Klaus.
3 Esther And Mikael Cut Him Off From His Werewolf Side
Though lycanthropy was seen as a curse in The Vampire Diaries, Klaus's transformation created a possibility for Klaus to be loved and understood. However, Mikael and Elijah captured Klaus and kept him trapped while Esther locked his werewolf side away. Then Mikael killed Klaus's entire pack, including his birth father.
This was a betrayal that Klaus couldn't live with, prompting him to kill his mother and frame his father. But his revenge was never enough. Even when Klaus broke the spell and became a hybrid, he felt alone. This fueled his desperation to create hybrids and his desire for a child, both of which fundamentally changed the TVDU forever.
2 Lucien Targeted Everyone Klaus Loved
Lucien was the first member of Klaus's sire line and a former friend, yet he hurt everyone Klaus loved. Lucien ordered the werewolves be hunted down, kidnapped Camille and Freya, created the Enhanced Original serum, killed Finn and Cami, and nearly killed Hayley. In return, Klaus killed him with no mercy.
Lucien's betrayal was not just personal. It was world-changing. For the first time, Klaus was outmatched in power and planning. Because of that, he gave up on offense and devoted his life to protecting Hope, even if it meant his own captivity, exile, and death.
1 Mikael's Abuse
Klaus had a lot of people betray him over the centuries, but nothing ever hurt him quite like Mikael. Mikael was abusive and demeaning toward Klaus when he believed that he was his father, but once he knew the truth, it got much worse. He tried to kill Klaus for centuries, hurting the people he loved and destroying every major accomplishment Klaus ever had along the way.
Although all of that is horrible in its own right, it carried an extra sting of betrayal because Mikael was supposed to love him. As he told Hayley, "He has done damage only a father can do." Mikael's betrayal was what convinced Klaus that nobody could be trusted for centuries, and it was what eventually drove Klaus to be the best father he could be.
The Vampire Diaries is available to stream on HBO Max, while The Originals is available to watch on Netflix.
Source:gamerant.com