Throughout its eight seasons, The Vampire Diaries acquainted viewers with some truly villainous villains. From humans and vampires to sirens and witches and every kind of vampire hybrid imaginable, villains on this series didn't have just one face — or species — which kept fans on their toes from season to season.
With plenty of antagonists to choose from, many fans have argued over which characters were truly the most villainous. These fans can be found on Reddit overtaking thread after thread with talk around the topic.
Elijah Mikaelson
While Klaus gets a lot of hype (understandably) from Vampire Diaries fandom, Redditors aren't letting this hype overshadow one of the first Original Vampires they were introduced to. The_ImmortalHybrid23 said, "The earlier days of Elijah on TVD were frighting. I was more scared of him than Klaus at first."
FlayedMan345 added, "S2 Elijah was AMAZING. He brought such a powerful presence and really felt like some ancient vampire capable of slapping someone's head off with ease. Unfortunately, that all kind of evaporated in seasons 3 and 4, especially when he became lovesick for Katherine in S4. Shame. Thankfully, he had some really high points later in The Originals (while also some very low points)."
Stefan Salvatore
Stefan has had some terrible things happen to him. None of these things excuse his Ripper days, but they did culminate into Stefan being a pretty frightening villain. Odd_Act_4311 noted they liked "Ripper Stefan in the era of being Klaus’ [underling] because he was funny and just didn’t care about anyone but wasn’t like off his rails like he was when he was working for Cade."
Trixxx66 added, "Stefan overtook [Damon] in ruthlessness, he's much scarier as a bad boy than Damon, when he started working for Cade and switched his humanity off. And Stefan is far more shocking without humanity, I think because he's so different and opposite whereas with Damon it's hard to tell the difference whether it's on or off."
Mikael
When ranking their favorite villains from The Vampire Diaries, most fans list the Original Vampires at the top. And indeed, the Original Vampires made for some of the most terrifying villains, Mikael included. Mikael lived up to what viewers would expect of the father of all vampires and one of the most powerful by far.
One Reddit said, "Mikael! Jeeez! I dunno how I missed him off, but add him to the list. The only character that Klaus was truly afraid of and is still haunted by him in hallucinations and dreams. I'm guessing the magic torture blade (which btw Mikael was immune to!) might have conjured a few night terrors of Klaus's dear old dad too, while he was Marcel's captive." Another emphasized, Mikael "was feared by Klaus, that should tell you something."
Rayna Cruz
While the earlier seasons of The Vampire Diaries saw vampires mostly ri as the main antagonists, the later seasons were more creative. In Season 7, vampire huntress Rayna Cruz was a compelling villain for the short stint she served as one. Many Team Rayna fans believe she's a fun villain because of the potential terror she could have started if her hunting rampage had continued.
One Reddit simply said, "Rayna was really interesting." Another added, " I feel like she is kind of underrated. Maybe she would’ve been better if she had more screen time, but she definitely raised the stakes, and compared to the rest of the villains in the season, she was the best."
Julian
Julian is a controversial villain amongst The Vampire Diaries fandom. While some viewers overlook his character entirely — undoubtedly because of his later entrance in the series and his lack of ties to the Mikaelson family — other viewers took to Reddit to point out the carnage he created in season 7.
MajesticFan4 said, "I know [saying Julian was a great villain] is going to get me a lot of side glances, but I don’t care. Most of the villains did localized damage. They only messed with the Mystic Falls gang. Julian came in after being desiccated for decades and took over the whole town of Mystic Falls. He had all of them scrambling for what to do, and he wasn’t even a heretic! Just a regular vampire. He gets props from me."
Silas
Silas plagued the town of Mystic Falls during seasons 4 and 5 of The Vampire Diaries. One of the series' many pesky villains, Silas was an especially great antagonist because of the powerful skills in his repertoire, including shapeshifting and creating illusions.
TheMightyn00b itted Silas was an exciting villain, while also acknowledging that he "had great potential but he was too busy trying to become human so he could take the cure and die." A now-deleted argued, "Although he was a letdown in the end he had a nice build-up. The entire arc of his mythology and mystery is what drew the character of Silas, he didn’t need a face to make him scary, it’s too bad they ruined him by using Paul Wesley as his actor (not that he’s a bad actor) it’s just it was lazy."
Damon Salvatore
While Damon's trajectory in the plot swapped him from villain to hero, certain fans will never forget how good of an antagonist he was during the very first season. In addition to his shady burns —which were often worse than his bite — Damon presented as the traditional vampire unflinchingly wreaking havoc and killing people simply because he could.
Rkmrajeev said, "Damon was really good in s1 though, I really like him as a villain," and maddwhy agreed, saying, "Damon was so great as an antagonist in season 1." ursulazsenya added, "The best villain was Damon — who murdered and back-stabbed to get everything he wanted, paid for by everyone else's sacrifices, and still got to live happily ever after and end up in Heaven."
Kai Parker
While some fans are keeping the discourse on whether Kai is an antihero or a villain alive, others are instead choosing to argue why Kai is a better Vampire Diaries villain than Klaus. Sc0rpi093 said, "Kai is the only villain that got to stay a villain. He murdered his whole family and couldn't care less . . . Plus I loved how unpredictable his attacks/villainy were because he was pretty calm no matter what."
Lisa200117 argued against the idea of Kai as an antihero, stating, "Kai WAS a villain. He never did any good, and couldn't distinguish the two apart because he was a sociopath . . . What he wanted was to simply have more power in order to start massacres, or else he would have not killed his siblings for no reason."
Katherine Pierce
Some of the best villains are those who refuse to die, and Katherine was constantly surviving against the odds. This was obviously very frustrating for viewers. JSBT89 pointed out, however, that this is what made her "a great villain. You loved to hate her and you hated to love her."
nnikki100 added Katherine ranks as one of the better villains because she's also "one of the best characters. She’s just so layered and has a lot of dimensions. Katherine is smart and cruel, so unpredictable that when she’s on-screen things will just go wild. But she becomes complex while also being vulnerable and kind of pathetic (lol.) It’s all a really tragic and believable backstory that doesn’t make her entirely evil."
Niklaus Mikaelson
Arguably, Klaus is the fandom's favorite villain. In part, viewers have Joseph Morgan to thank — who really brought the magnetism of this character to life — as well as TVD writers for giving Klaus nail-biting and "better-written" storylines, which pandasgorawr noted is why Klaus is "without a doubt" the best villain.
kayjee17 added, "Klaus was the better villain on TVD ... Klaus as a villain is charismatic, unpredictable, and fearsome — and the viewer feels all of it. I seriously worried about some of my favorite characters whenever Klaus was pissed, and his magnificent rampage at Christmas when he slaughtered the hybrids and drowned poor Carol was horrifying and yet so perfectly Klaus."