What started out as a little show about vampiric relationships has evolved into a trilogy of supernatural adventures. With spin-off number three, Legacies, in its first season, it’s time to revisit what lead to the new series. One defining relationship that changed the course of the series was that between Caroline Forbes (teenage vampire) and Klaus Mikaelson (a thousand-year-old Viking and Original vampire).

Over the course of The Vampire Diaries and its first spin-off, The Originals, Caroline and Klaus have made the transition from enemies, to friends, to an epic romance that could have been. This relationship became known as Klaroline. Although each character has had other serious romantic partners, the ship remains extremely popular.

Klaus committed many crimes in his time, meaning he is often referred to as the villain of the story. However, Caroline thinks he can be redeemed. Given how his story ends perhaps she was correct. Klaus perished to protect his daughter and the world, and the other Mikaelsons are happily ready to continue with their lives. Still, the relationship between the two often doesn’t make sense. Things like forgiveness and developments that realistically would not have come to pass are strewn all over.

With the end of The Originals, their story is seemingly ended, of course, Klaus would not be the first Mikaelson to rise from the grave. Like Caroline said, Klaus was not the villain of her story.

Let’s take a look at Vampire Diaries: 20 Things That Don’t Make Sense About Klaus and Caroline’s Relationship.

Is A Thousand Too Old?

Age difference doesn’t matter too much on the Vampire Diaries, a series about immortal men from the eighteen hundreds competing over the affections of a teenage girl. However, one might imagine that having approximately one-thousand years between you and a teenage vampire, perpetually frozen at seventeen, might be a bit much.

Klaus is one of the Vikings that supposedly settled in the Americas, residing in the original Mystic Falls and having since traveled the world, whereas Caroline is a modern teenager, who goes to high school. Caroline addresses this difference in season five, after a significant time-jump leaving both as adults and parents. She believes she represented something innocent to him that he had lost.

They're Definite Control Freaks

When the audience is introduced to Caroline she’s a typical popular high-schooler. She wins ‘Miss Mystic Falls’, does well in school, and knows everything about everybody. She’s so organized her friends question her human status before she joined the ranks of vampires in Mystic Falls. After her vampire nature heightens her personality she describes herself as “an insecure, neurotic, control freak on.” Klaus is very similar. His paintings are his way of re-establishing control over his life and himself. He wanted to control his family so badly he would dagger (temporarily eliminate) and coffin his siblings, quick to resort to this if things did not go his way. To say these are similar traits might be understating things.

Caroline Was Used As Klaus-Bait

Klaus has many flaws, but he is honest about his intentions, especially his feelings for Caroline. Shortly after the feelings develop, the Mystic Falls team begins to use Caroline against Klaus as a tool of distraction, sometimes to thwart him (like taking a cursed Elena out of his house), and also to assist in attempts on his life. Klaus does show considerable forgiveness for this, understanding that he has made no short effort to hurt her friends and overlooking these attempts at distracting him, which are often filled with genuine connection. Caroline becomes a weakness of Klaus’ and as the series wears on her efforts to pretend to retain civility as the bait changes to proper conversations as equals and friends.

They're both Moral, Even If It's Questionable

Caroline is considered to be the ‘angel’ of the group, her morals are high and she does her best to live up to them. Klaus, however, is referred to as the ‘devil’ quite frequently by both friend and foe. In season five Elena even references that Klaus would “ruffle those perfect feathers.” The truth is, although her body count is significantly lower than most of her other vampire friends on the show, it is still no small list. She eliminated a human during her first day as a vampire, later destroying police officers and an entire coven of witches before she even graduated high school. She does this to protect the people she cares about and, in the end, so does Klaus.

Caroline Loses Her Life-Taking Ways As She Gets Older

What possible reason could Caroline have for eliminating Klaus? Aside from him being aggressive to her best friend and placing everyone she cares for in peril, the reason is elusive. When Klaus visits Caroline at her school many years later he requests she make good on all the attempts on his life. He needs to protect Hope from the Hollow, but Caroline does not want to finally complete her life-taking intentions. She mentions she was “young back then.” Whilst it is true that a lot has happened for Caroline since Klaus left, it was hardly the excuse of youth that lead to their life-ending attempts. Perhaps her opinion as a fellow immortal has simply shifted instead.

Caroline Has Forgiven More Than She Probably Should

Caroline’s and Klaus’ stories diverge when Hayley, a werewolf who betrayed Caroline and Tyler (eliminating her, having twelve hybrids destroyed, and eliminating Tyler’s mother and forcing him to go on the run) becomes pregnant with Klaus’ miracle baby, Hope.

Years later Caroline, now a mother of twins, and founder and headmistress of the Salvatore Boarding School, enrolls Hope into the school where she would spend the majority of her childhood and teen years. It’s a complicated relationship, but it seems Caroline has forgiven Hayley for her betrayal and cares for the entire Mikaelson family, despite how much they’ve all harmed each other.

Caroline Ends Up Marrying The Enemy

During Stephen’s Ripper years he meets and befriends both Klaus and his sister, Rebekah. Many years later Klaus and Stephen are enemies and have a deep dislike for each other… sometimes. Relationships are complicated in the Vampire Diaries Universe and forgiveness comes and goes. Yet, considering Klaus declared himself Caroline’s last love, her marrying a fellow immortal (at the time) would not have settled well. That being said, Klaus has an understanding of Caroline, especially her love for the twins, that Stephen did not, nor did he want to. However, Caroline’s love of her life is not Stephen or Klaus, but two little girls named Josie and Lizzie.

These Kids Grow Up Better Without Klaus

Caroline gave birth to Alaric’s and Jo’s children and raised them as her own, as their birth mother. Her loyalty to them is unbending and the favor is returned, as seen in Legacies. Klaus is a danger to their protection. He is one of the oldest vampires, the original hybrid, and a criminal that has left chaos and destruction through the ages. Not exactly conducive to child safety. Alaric is sure of this and immediately stakes Klaus when he comes asking for a favor in The Originals season five. It’s at her high school graduation when he comes to her rescue that Caroline does learn to hold trust in Klaus and the determination he has to protect those he cares for.

Klaus Can Be Pretty Jealous

Caroline’s second major boyfriend in the series is werewolf Tyler Lockwood. Caroline is forced to risk her best friend’s life in order to save the life of her boyfriend when Klaus returns to Mystic Falls, feeds Tyler his blood, and destroys him. Although time continues and this sin is forgiven, at the time it was tough for the pair. Hybrids become sired, completely loyal to their vampire maker, leading to much distrust between the couple. The growing feelings of Tyler’s dislike and Caroline’s affection toward the Original Hybrid eventually led to their break-up. It certainly wasn’t the best first impression.

They Could Have Never Met One Another

We first met Klaus in season two when he required the moonstone, a vampire, a werewolf, a witch to cast a spell, and a Petrova doppleganger. Although the end result had Jules perish and Jenna turned-then-eliminated alongside Elena. However, the original sacrifice was the werewolf Tyler and vampire Caroline. They lay waiting in a cave for their eventual destruction, only to be saved by Matt and Damon. Although they never saw Klaus’ face it was clear that he was behind it and had it gone that way, as Katherine had planned for Klaus, Caroline and Klaus never would have become friends and the team likely would not have succeeded in half of their plans against the Mikaelsons.

Caroline's Attitude Towards Him Completely Changed

While Caroline helped raise his daughter, Hope, Klaus went on a crime spree for years. Possessed by a fourth of the Hollow he went globetrotting, seemingly mad, taking out family enemies one by one. Caroline visits him in France during his latest spree and her attitude is much changed. Where she once would have been afraid and judgmental she was surprisingly calm, even confident, claiming he was just his usual crazy. She knows he hasn’t gone mad; that he has a list and a plan. Still, not exactly a step in the direction of Caroline’s morally conscious heart. Although, her influence and that of his daughter, have meant he has done the right thing more than once.

Klaus Steals Caroline's Best Friend

In the eighteenth episode of the third season, Klaus steals Bonnie, Caroline’s other best friend and witch, to try to unbind his family bloodlines after his mother’s attempt to eliminate them. He threatens her mother and Jeremy (who is being followed by Kol, his brother) all while his sister Rebekah harms Damon. Bonnie is one of Caroline’s closest friends and the girlfriend of Elena’s brother.

Bonnie succeeds in the spell meaning only Finn perishes and not all Originals. A blessing in disguise as all the vampires in the bloodline consequently perish as well. This is still an attempt at harm to people Caroline cares deeply for, yet it is to protect his life and the life of his family.

Klaus Uses Elena As A Personal Food Supply

Spells are tricky. And with the unbinding of the curse that held back Klaus’ werewolf half, certain consequences arose. As part of any vampire transformation, a human must drink the blood of a vampire, perish, then drink human blood. This is slightly different for hybrids sired by Klaus. The werewolf must drink Klaus’ blood, perish, and then consume the blood of the human doppleganger that broke the curse (who is meant to be deceased). Since John saved Elena, she lived and continued on as a human for some time, meaning Klaus could create even more havoc and destruction than ever before. He repeatedly drains Elena’s blood over the course of the third season, using her as his personal blood bank.

Klaus Is Constantly Putting Her Life In Danger, Then Saving Her

When Stephen decides to push the boundaries of Klaus’ patience, he pushes back. He orders the sired hybrid Tyler to bite Caroline on her eighteenth birthday. A bite from a werewolf or hybrid is toxic to vampires and she spends the remainder of her birthday with one foot in the grave. Klaus decides to cure her and sees himself, younger and more innocent, in her and it is here that his affections begin.

Later, when searching for the cure to immortality they trap Klaus in the Gilbert house under watch from Caroline and Tyler, where Klaus bites her. Once again he cures her and she claims to believe he can be saved because she knows he is in love with her.

Caroline's Ex-Boyfriend Became A Target

Tyler began his hybrid revolution in season four, letting them break free of the sire bond to Klaus. Their attempt goes south when Hayley reveals their plans to Klaus. Her plan all along was for the hybrids to be the next part of the sacrifice for the Expression Triangle. Tyler is forced to run, leaving everything behind, so Klaus will not track him down and destroy him. Klaus doesn’t actively pursue him on behalf of Caroline, even though she had a hand in that same attempt on his life. Planning on trapping him in Rebekah and encasing them in cement.

They're Not Always Presented As Villains

“When we’re young, we’re taught the difference between a hero and a villain… but what if the only difference is who’s telling the story?” It holds true in the case of our Mystic Falls team and the Mikaelson family. Klaus and the Mikaelsons present themselves as the villains of The Vampire Diaries but the team has ended two of the brothers: Kol and Finn. Finn wanted to help end the reign of vampires and Kol wanted to stop Silas rising. The motivations behind his demise were extremely selfish, ending all the vampires Kol ever sired to find a cure for Elena. They were the villains of each other’s story, but the demise of family is usually impossible to forgive.

They're Constantly Trying To End One Another

Their story began when Klaus came to destroy Elena. Since then, Caroline has helped in many attempts on Klaus’ life over the years. She helped with the plan to destroy Klaus after the ritual in season two, with Tyler’s hybrid attack, Esther’s plan, forcing him to take the cure and the list goes on. Klaus himself has threatened Caroline’s life three times: in preparation for the ritual sacrifice, forcing Tyler to bite her and then biting her himself. With both bites it was also Klaus who saved her life. These were often in retaliation to plan to harm him. Constantly plotting to end him and his family is hardly conducive for a relationship.

Klaus Has Eliminated Caroline's Best Friends Before

Elena Gilbert is the latest Petrova doppleganger and therefore the key ingredient in breaking the werewolf binding curse on Klaus. He has searched for this cure for one thousand years and the life of a seventeen year old matters little in comparison for him. Klaus breaks the curse by ending Elena and dropping her body on the altar. She is resurrected by magic, but Caroline still (temporarily) lost one of her best friends to Klaus. To most people, this would be an unforgivable offense. However, Vampire Diaries is no stranger to forgiving the elimination of best friends, like Stephen’s best friend, Lexy, who was destroyed by Damon.

Klaus Loses His Temper Often

After Tyler and his hybrids fail to take down Klaus, he acts in revenge. Klaus eliminated his twelve hybrids and then drowns Mayor Carol Lockwood in a fountain. The unknowing town thinks Carol was drinking, slipped, and simply perished by accident, an unbefitting announcement for someone who passed at the hands of the Original Hybrid. It is not an offense easily forgiven, but, as Klaus reminds Caroline, that was after an attempt on his life. By this point, they have already ended one of his brothers and then they eliminate Kol. As Klaus says, “we’re even now.” Caroline holds to her anger about the issue for some time, but eventually understands and Tyler’s unbending anger eventually causes their break-up.

Klaus Did Something Unforgivable

There are certain things you forgive and some things you can’t. Perhaps the greatest offense Klaus ever committed toward the Mystic Falls group was the turning and ending of Jenna. Jenna was new to the reality of the supernatural and the life her niece and nephew had been living. She was innocent, perhaps the last person in the show who deserved her fate. Even Esther later states that Jenna remained pure, even after becoming a vampire, so she never went to Purgatory. Klaus also compelled Isabelle (Elena’s biological mother) to end herself, but Jenna’s demise hit home to everyone. She was loved and missed by all, including Caroline, who was meant to be sacrificed in Jenna’s stead.