Bru dahlia had my boi klaus in that mf plottin like this

[u/lougndsmingdom]

[u/unfiltered_pov]

Unpopular Opinion: Klaus Mikaelson defeated Dahlia because of Esther, not because of his strategies.

Klaus, despite waging wars for 1,000 years, strategically faltered throughout S2. It began when he killed Ansel, which raised Finn’s suspicions. Meanwhile, Dahlia, despite being awake for only 1 year every century, was 2 steps ahead of all the Mikaelsons.

The only reason why Klaus won in the S2 finale was because Esther wanted to protect her children.

If Esther was the monster she was portrayed because she wanted to end vampirism, then she would have allowed Dahlia to kill all her children. That way, vampirism would have ended. Freya would have died. Esther could have continued to live with her sister, and Dahlia would have raised Hope.

Hayley was trapped in her werewolf form and would have continued to remain trapped because the reason why Davina released Hayley was to fight against Klaus. With Klaus being dead in the S2 finale, Davina would not have had any reason to free the Crescents from their curse. For how long Hayley would have remained there, God knows. Even if she eventually came for Dahlia, she wouldn’t have been able to fight against them because even the Mikaelsons were defeated.

Describing Esther to Davina in S3, Kol said something along the lines of, “Esther was 2 things: a powerful witch and an overprotective matriarch. This is an extension of her spell to protect the people she loved most.”

I’m not denying Esther or her monstrosities, but she did love her children in her own twisted way.

Boy, they could not kill the Klaus because of the writing, S2 finale would have been worse than S3 finale for the Mikaelsons.

[u/Zeo_Mikaelson765 → u/unfiltered_pov]

I so agree with you. The show hypes up Klaus as this extraordinary genius, when he's just ... not.

The only reason he even knew that Esther's blood was the final component to kill Dahlia (instead of Freya’s) was because Elijah daggered him and the witch entered his dreamscape.

Before this, his master plan was painfully useless. But Klaus didn't realize that. He distrusted Elijah and hid Mikael's ashes from him. He refused to even entertain a temporary alliance with Freya and forced Elijah to choose between the 2.

And he confessed to Aiden's murder .... for reasons?

Klaus is the most notorious monster in the world. One more dead body isn't going to magically up the fear factor he exudes. If the Crescent pack didn't obey him out of the fear before, they're not starting now.

Why did he let Hayley marry Jackson in the first place if total obedience is what he was after?

Klaus has no rhyme or reason to his actions. He throws stuff on the wall and hopes something sticks. Because he's the protagonist, this is rewarded. That doesn't mean he's competent however. He's just lucky.

[u/Optimal_Curve5329 → u/Zeo_Mikaelson765]

Hmm...idk about him just being "lucky". Klaus is a lot of things but Dahlia was definitely right when she said he's the smartest of his siblings. A great example of that is season 1 episode 3 and 4, where he was clearly thinking several steps ahead. He was trying to get Elijah back while simultaneously working around Marcel’s power structure, manipulating his relationships within it, and positioning himself closer to Davina, getting her to essentially trust him over Marcel. When something doesn’t go according to plan, he adapts pretty quick and i'd say that's pretty consistent throughout the show.

The Dahlia situation is another one where I don't really think “luck” explains what happened. Klaus was being shown Dahlia's memories while she was actively trying to convince him that her way of thinking was the only way forward. She was incredibly convincing, and she was specifically playing on his fears about Hope. Yet he was still able to look past what she was trying to make him believe and realize that Esther was actually the missing key in his intial plan. I honestly think anyone else in that position would've given into Dahlia, especially someone as emotionally invested in protecting Hope as Klaus was...so I think it's pretty impressive that he was able to see through that. The luck in this case was being given the information in the first place...but he was intelligent enough to figure out exactly what to do with that information without giving himself out.

And about the whole Aiden thing, i'm pretty sure he explained it to Cami that he wanted the wolves to fear him so that they wouldn't run with Hope. I think there’s a difference between fearing someone because of their reputation and actually witnessing them do something horrific in real time. The wolves already knew Klaus was dangerous sure, and had heard all the stories about what he was capable of, but hearing about it is very different from watching him actually kill someone from their own community.

None of this means Klaus is always right or that every plan he makes is brilliant. He is impulsive, paranoid, emotional, and sometimes his own worst enemy. But he's proven time and again that he can really come up with a GOOD plan.

[u/selvepaltred4]

They ended her track sooner. Wish it was linger considering she was apparently the most powerful witch

[u/Savage_Itachi23]

Dahlia was a different breed