#maybe i’ll do another one exploring the unconditional love trajectory across the seasons

[kylermalloy]

In the TO pilot, as Elijah tries an array of techniques to entice Klaus to stay in New Orleans and protect his unborn daughter, he says something very interesting: “I think this child could offer you something you never believed you’ve had—the unconditional love of family.”

That line can be a little confusing, especially since Elijah proceeds to stand by Klaus unconditionally for the next two seasons, despite him pulling some seriously dodgy crap. Even when their bond is seemingly fractured, Elijah always comes back.

So the problem, as Elijah says, isn’t that no one in their family loves Klaus unconditionally—Klaus just doesn’t believe that they do. Mikael imparted in him such a fear of failure, of retaliation and denouncement at the slightest mistake, that even a thousand years later, he believes his siblings can snatch away their love just as easily.

I feel like this is a large cause of a lot of Klaus’s behavior toward his siblings—since he thinks they’ll never love him fully, without reserve, it frees him to do whatever he likes. He can treat them badly, punish them for any menial thing, because it doesn’t matter. He won’t lose them—can’t really lose them—and if he does he can just force them to stay with him one way or the other.

The series is in large part about him unlearning that mindset, that behavior. As he learns what it means to love someone innocent, to love his child unconditionally, so he learns to love his siblings the same way—and accepts their love in return.

Elijah’s feelings are almost the exact opposite—he does love Klaus unconditionally, so how Klaus feels about him almost doesn’t matter. In spite of the countless times Klaus has pushed him away, Elijah will stay by his brother’s side...

...doing monstrous things, but who cares? This family is too old to worry about moral quandaries. Elijah says it outright in one of the few good TVD scenes—“I helped him because I loved him.” It didn’t matter that they were plotting to murder an innocent, trusting girl for her blood. Klaus wanted it, and Elijah loved him enough to want to help him.

(Sidenote: Elijah’s full TVD line is “I helped him because I loved him...that’s changed, now he must die.” and I have to laugh at how untrue it is. Elijah’s quest to kill Klaus was almost...a mercy killing. How can you tell me that even in s2 of TVD Elijah didn’t love Klaus?)

So while Klaus’s idea of unconditional love (or lack thereof) is a freeing notion, Elijah sees it as...almost confining. And I don’t mean that Elijah feels shackled down...but he very well might be, in a metaphorical sense. His love for Klaus causes him untold pain and heartache and misery—and ultimately costs him his life.

So what’s really my point here? Who knows, definitely not me—my blog is titled “Unfocused Ramblings” for a reason. Essentially, the Mikaelson promise of Always and Forever is meant to be a vow of unconditional love, but it’s interesting to see how it’s kept/not kept over time. One of my wishes for the show would’ve been to change the focus of Klaus’s character arc from “redemption” to learning unconditional love. It wouldn’t really change the trajectory of the narrative—it would still have Klaus changing for the better and make sacrifices for the people he loves. But it wouldn’t ring quite so false when he backslides and does bad things, like slaughter innocents. The point of the show wasn’t for Klaus to magically become Huggy Bear; he was supposed to learn how to accept and give unconditional love to not only his daughter, but his family. A redemption is a little different, and @aeruthien already articulated it much better than I could.

And yet? The show also makes a case for unconditional love to not be such a good thing. We see the toxic side of it with all that Elijah has suffered and lost and given up because of Klaus. Unlike Rebekah, he doesn’t leave. His dedication is honorable, but man does it get ugly for him.

In the end, though, I’m not sure if the show was equipped to give us an outright answer. I just think the idea of unconditional love and what it means to various characters is incredibly fascinating. This even inspired some Thoughts about Sam & Dean—but I hate mixing fandoms, so that’ll be another post.