#that i'm woobifying klaus at the expense of holding him accountable

[bakerolivias-archived]

just to clear things up, i don't think people are understanding when i say that a.laric is extremely insensitive about hope's parentage, i don't mean klaus should be made out as some kind of woobified uwu meow meow.

first off, alaric is a hypocrite because his best friend is d.amon salvatore, a serial rapist, misogynist, confederate (although whether that was d.amon's choice or not is, i suppose, debatable, but he was a white man over the age of eighteen and thus complacent) murderer, and d.amon raped the woman who gave birth to ric's children, who also happened to be his ex history student, and nobody badmouths d.amon in the name of historical accuracy, especially not to d.elena's daughter. d.amon did little to earn ric's forgiveness regardless, but because he cared about damon he chose to anyways. alaric could at least be empathetic and realize that hope loved a man who did horrible things, same as ric himself, and those two relationships are very different. one is a best friend who is very much alive, at peace, and has a family. the other is a father who sacrificed himself so hope could have a good life of her own.

hope is old enough to be properly educated about klaus's actions, no one has to sugarcoat it. but he died and his death, for obvious reasons, still hurts her. she has every right to mourn her father while also understanding that he hurt other people, but the way alaric is trying to, supposedly, "educate" her is extremely unkind on his part. he chooses to throw hope's parentage in her face in a moment when she is vulnerable (aka in the process of facing the life altering decision to become a "tribrid") and needs external support from people who care about hope's safety and quality of life. alaric doesn't have to forgive klaus, but he could have at least had some tact and respect for hope during this time. even lizzie and josie were indignant when alaric chose to play the Klaus Is A Baddie And I Don't Want You To End Up Like Him card. he also said "this is your father and i won't allow it" during a time when hope was being emotional and felt betrayed and angry, and expressed this in ways that is perfectly normal for a teenage girl? like how was that supposed to help her at the time?

klaus did some fucked up things which negatively impacted ric's life and his loved ones, but hope was already aware of her dad's more violent nature long before he died, way back in TOs5. he doesn't have to constantly put her down for the fact that klaus was a Big Bad, and she's not the right person - a grieving daughter who lost her dad - to vent his and klaus's issues to. there should definitely be some kind of boundaries there that need to be enforced.

marcel and freya are clearly better candidates for addressing the issue, than alaric. they both were klaus's family which theoretically means they would be more biased, but marcel was able to put that aside for hope's sake and give her a watered down version of klaus's darker side that was acceptable for a seven year old (your dad doesn't trust many people, kid) and freya was levelheaded and supportive of hope's choice to become the tribrid, and the fact that it would be a very difficult decision for her. she addressed the fact that klaus was complicated and unethical, but also told hope about the qualities she loved about her brother (loyal to a fault and "would burn the world to protect the people he loved"). alaric says he doesn't want hope to turn out like her father, but disrespects the fact that she loved the qualities of his personality he showed her as a father and as a person. freya assured hope that she had many of her father's loveable traits, and her mother's as well (which legacies should do more often but i digress), and that she was not just a better person than her father, she was better than them all, for making a decision that would selflessly save the lives of others even at her personal cost. there is a way to maintain a realistic balance between klaus having done several bad things and klaus being a person whom she loved and who loved hope in return.