Week 3 / Blog 3

For this week's blog post in our discussion of villain, demons and evil portrayed in television, I am going to talk about the Vampire Diaries again, and it's spin-off.

Throughout the Vampire Diaries, the main villain for a long time is the Mikaelson family, or rather just Klaus. Klaus is portrayed as the bad guy because he does evil things in the name of protecting his family, because he values family loyalty above all else. So, even though he is doing all of these bad things, he is actually doing them for the good of his family (sometimes). In the clip above, Klaus is addressing his siblings because of their betrayal toward him even though he has been keeping his word on not doing such devious things lately. The show in general is full of different kind of villains, and in each of their eyes, the villain does not think they are the villain because of the circumstances. I think this show is trying to say that just because someone is doing bad things, very bad things, it doesn't make them totally evil. For people of society, I feel like the show is communicating that everyone sees heroes and villains differently. Whoever may be your hero could be a villain to someone else. Both heroes and villains can be complex characters with both good and bad qualities to them.

Even though Klaus does a lot of deviant and evil things, he wasn't born evil. He was faced with so much trauma and loss as a child which led to severe abandonment issues and "daddy issues." There are lasting effects on mental health from children who have faced childhood trauma. Stephanie Lake's (2016) statement in her research says that this trauma carries well onto adulthood and can cause detreimental effects if not dealt with properly. (p. 46).He puts up this evil front in a way of self protection from really getting his feelings hurt. In the clip above, it is the first time that his character shows real, raw emotion in both The Vampire Diaries and its spin-off. His siblings understand why he does the things he does, and they understand where his hurt is coming from (their hurt stems from the same place, but Klaus' history is a little more complicated as he is half vampire and werewolf due to infidelity, and his siblings are vampires). So because of this, his siblings are so quick to forgive him unlike the other characters on the show.

Understanding where a person comes from and what they have experienced does not excuse a person's actions, but it can help us better understand why they do the things they do and what we can do to help them.

Lake, S. (2016). The lasting effects of childhood trauma on mental health in adulthood: Current knowledge and practical next steps for clinical practice. UBC Medical Journal, 8(1), 46-47.