Fans of The Vampire Diaries can agree that just as much as they loved the riveting love triangle and the suspenseful supernatural storylines, the villains also stole the show. Each season introduced a new main antagonist or two that would turn the main characters' daily lives on an axis.
Some of these villains are better left forgotten seeing as they didn't leave a lasting evil impression. But there are some that helped define the show and had fans' blood boiling with their wickedness. TVD had a bit of everything when it came to baddies from vampires, sirens, doppelgängers, and even the king of Hell. But the question is, who was the worst of them all?
Updated on September 27th, 2021 by Kevin Pantoja: Although the show wrapped up several years ago, The Vampire Diaries is still watched by many fans on streaming services like Netflix. These are either new viewers who are just getting hooked on the iconic characters or longtime fans watching through all eight seasons once again because they miss their favorites. Among them are the TVD villains, who were often one of the best parts of the show. Regardless of how much trouble they caused, not all could be considered the evilest villain of The Vampire Diaries.
Lily And The Heretics
Lily Salvatore and the Heretics got under many fans' skin. That is due to the fact that they lacked empathy and were blinded by their end goal, especially Lily. After losing her sons, she went on to make a family of her own called the Heretics.
In order to bring her children back, Lily was willing to commit murder and betrayal at whatever cost. The same went for the Heretics, who followed her orders. The heretics were witch-vampire-hybrids with immense powers and a first in the supernatural world. While they all certainly did terrible things, it's hard to match up to what some of the other Vampire Diaries' villains pulled off.
Atticus Shane
Atticus Shane was a recurring antagonist who made an appearance in season 4. Shane was a professor of the Occult at Whitmore College and knew a thing or two about the paranormal. What made him maniacal was his ability to manipulate the characters into helping with his plan.
Still grief-stricken by the loss of his family, he discovers that reviving Silas might bring back his family. He does whatever is necessary, even orchestrating mass murder. Shane gains the trust of the main characters by offering them solutions to their problems but in reality, he's only out for his own gain. Though not as powerful as other villains on The Vampire Diaries, Shane was among the most cunning.
Wes Maxfield
Sometimes, humans are the most villainous characters. In season 5, Wes Maxfield became a central antagonist who no one expected due to him being a professor at Whitmore College. His brilliance only proved to be a ruse for his true self. Maxfield's arrogance and bizarre behavior are revealed to Elena when he tells her he has studied her father's work.
In reality, Maxfield is obsessed with studying the supernatural and wants to find a way for vampires to feed on each other in hopes to eradicate them. Throughout the season, he puts the lives of the main characters in jeopardy for his obsession and for the secret society he's a part of. His acts of torture on vampires like Enzo, Damon, and Elena were true bits of evil.
Arcadius
Arcadius only played a short role towards the end of the show in season 8. But he still deserves some recognition for his evil ways, especially since he's also the Devil himself. Cade was the world's first psychic who was wronged by his village and burned at the stake. His scream created a new dimension that would be called Hell.
Due to his death, Cade lost all his empathy and when arriving in Mystic Falls he terrorizes the main characters. He punishes anyone who committed even an ounce of sin. Cade wants Damon and Stefan to submit to him or he will hurt the people they love. He even forces Damon to choose between saving Elena or Stefan, who was at the time mortal, which is as evil as it gets.
The Mikaelson Family
The Mikaelson family is one nobody wants to mess with. The family as a whole has some major issues and has no problem killing in order to get their way. They are known as the Original vampires and are the first of their kind. Throughout many seasons of the show, almost every member of the family wreaked havoc in some way.
Esther, the matriarch, used the main characters to try and fulfill her plan of murdering her own children, which included killing Alaric. Elijah is one of the more sensible siblings but was willing to betray and use the main characters in order to seek revenge against his brother. Rebekah had her hand in many evil plots and let her anger get in the way which inevitably resulted in many deaths. Michael threatened almost everyone in his path and Kol attacked Jeremy after befriending him. That's all not even including Klaus, the most prominent member of them all.
Silas
Silas was a main antagonist in the show, and he gave fans an eery chill with his wickedness. He was the world's first immortal and a powerful witch who was often feared. As a villain, Silas was good at manipulation and instilling fear into people in order to get his way.
He tricked Shane into finding his tomb by using the grief of his dead family. After his return, he has everyone believing he is Stefan, all the while Stefan is trapped in a safe at the bottom of the river, causing him to die over and over. In order to get his message across, Silas controls a mass group of townspeople and slits the mayor's throat. In his pursuit of destroying the Other Side, Silas even has a hand in killing Bonnie's father and is able to control Klaus, a powerful being in his own right.
Sybil
Many fans came to inherently dislike Sybil and her villainous ways of manipulation. Sybil and her sister were the world's first sirens and were under the control of Cade. In their time, they would lure innocent victims to their deaths that would then lead them to hell for Cade to consume.
As a siren, Sybil would feed on her victims' darkness and their flesh for sustenance in order to retain her powers. To gather victims, she ended up enslaving Damon and Enzo, who were unable to escape for fear of hurting the people they love. Sybil seeks revenge against the people who enslaved her and lost all regard for human life and was willing to sacrifice Caroline's children in order to be free of Cade. While Cade may have been in control, Sybil clearly enjoyed what she was doing when harming people.
Katherine Pierce
There's no argument that Katherine is one of the evilest villains on the show. She is Elena's doppelgänger and is responsible for both Damon and Stefan turning into vampires. She singlehandedly ruined the lives of the characters the minute she appeared in their lives.
Katherine is conniving, manipulative, smart, and well-dressed. She has many times put Elena's life in danger in order to free herself from Klaus. She has also killed main characters more than once and was the reason why Jeremy was murdered by Silas. If it means Katherine can get away scot-free, she'd do almost anything.
Klaus Mikaleson
Klaus Mikaleson is the worst of the worst but a villain that many fans came to sympathize with as TVD went on. He initially was willing to kill anyone in order to retrieve the moonstone to break his hybrid curse. This even meant killing Elena and her innocent aunt Jenna.
Klaus can be described as evil based on his lack of regard for human life. He saw no issue in killing anyone in his path and he also didn't mind the idea of killing off his own family members. In "The Reckoning," Klaus forces Stefan to turn off his humanity and unleashes him on Elena. The only thing keeping him from being the evilest is that he was eventually redeemed.
Kai Parker
Kai Parker had the same effect as a notorious serial killer during his time on the show. He's often regarded as being the worst and most vile antagonist on TVD A huge part of this stems from the fact that he willingly murdered his siblings and parents to absorb their magic.
Kai uses Bonnie and even stabs her in order to escape the Other Side to kill off the rest of his family. He commits mass murder at Jo and Alaric's wedding, goes as far as to try and kill his nieces, and is responsible for the cursed sleep that Elena is put into. Kai has that evil glint in his eyes that made viewers shiver in fear. His return in Legacies only saw him continue his evil ways.