#klamille

"Stuff like this is made to brainwash young girls into thinking that they can 'fix' dangerous men. Such girls usually end up in abusive relationships and their parents are right to worry."

It is rather strange to come across such a gross generalization, operating on an assumption that girls are blank slates whom anyone can manipulate and who can't distinguish between real and make believe on top of it.

In my entire "career"(if you can call it that) of engaging with fiction , the girls and women that I have run into in fandoms happened to be some of the most intelligent, talented, cool, witty and insightful people I have ever met. I've devoured the fics they have written. I have delighted in the arts and edits they've made. Their perspectives and interpretations about the characters and their relationships are genuinely fascinating to read about regardless of whether I agree with it or not. They are the ones who are most often at the receiving end of the antis' ire for no valid reason but they just keep deriving joy and inspiration from their favourite characters and ships and keep sharing it with others through stories, art and thoughts. They are not just smart but incredibly resilient, sensitive and aware not just about the media they consume but about the world around them and its issues.

I’ve been sitting on this draft for literally months, but after rewatching The Vampire Diaries and The Originals back-to-back, I need to scream into the void about this. The absolute chokehold that Klaroline still has on this fandom is wild to me, but when you strip away the gorgeous lighting, the beautiful actors, and the pure fan service, the narrative reality is stark: Klaus and Caroline do not make sense as a believable, long-term romantic pairing.

"Caroline challenged Klaus; Cami enabled him."

This is factually incorrect.

Caroline challenges Klaus morally and behaviorally. She tells him to be better, but she never digs into why he behaves the way he does. She doesn’t address his trauma, his attachment wounds, his paranoia, his fear of abandonment, or his identity fragmentation.

Cami did.

Cami asked, "Why are you like this? What are you afraid of?"Cami said, "Show me.”

She didn’t excuse him. She explained him to himself so he could understand his own patterns.

Explaining is not enabling. It’s therapy. It’s accountability. It’s the opposite of "letting him off the hook.” It’s pushing him to confront his own actions and emotions.

"Caroline pushed him to be better, Cami comforted him."

Oversimplified and untrue.

Caroline pushed Klaus to be good, but she did it from a place of moral superiority, distance, judgment, and idealism. She was, after all, a teenage girl — idealism comes with the age. She wanted him to be the man she believed he could be, but she couldn’t accept the man he was, flaws and all.

Cami did. She accepted him and tried to help him become a better person.

Cami was empathetic, insightful, and had the knowledge to identify the disease behind the symptoms. She wanted him to understand who he was versus who he thought he was.

Where Caroline questioned his behavior, Cami challenged his identity, his view of self.

"Caroline was the love he wanted, Cami the love he needed, but he’d choose Caroline."

This contradicts canon. If Klaus wanted Caroline more, he would have pursued her, stayed in Mystic Falls, returned for her, chosen her when she reciprocated, etc.

He did none of those things. Instead, he left Caroline the moment she reciprocated (if you can call a hookup in the woods reciprocation).

Klaus didn’t make a move on Cami, not in the beginning when he was so obviously attracted to her, not when they found their way into a friendship, not even when he declared them soulmates.

Klaus worked to be in her good graces, not by being grandiose or making promises or showing off. He didn’t try to impress Cami with jewelry or fancy dresses.

He tried to be in Cami’s good graces by being honest, by being there for her, by showing respect, by protecting her, and by simply caring for her.

Klaus needed Cami in his life, and at the same time, being with her terrified him.

As it terrified her too.

Cami was the person who saw him as he actually was, not as he portrayed himself to be.

The issue with fantasy (and Caroline) is that the fantasy collapses when it becomes real. The forest sex was good, but not what he thought it would be, because the chase is always the fun part in that kind of dynamic.

With Cami, there was a connection, a real, not idealized, connection.

The writers made that crystal clear.

He died protecting Cami. He didn’t give a damn about his sireline or Caroline when he went after Mikael weaponless.

He died for Cami. Not for Caroline. Not for any lover. Only Cami. That’s canon.

He broke after Cami’s death. He promised to follow where she goes.

Klaus Mikaelson — who triumphed in his immortality — promised Cami he would follow her in death.

He promised to carry her with him always. That’s canon.

After Cami’s death, his mind conjured her. She was "the moments of solace that sustained him.”

Again, canon.

After Cami’s death and the five years he spent as Marcel’s prisoner, Klaus returned to something like normalcy, and his main focus was Hope. But the end of S4 forced him away.

When we see him again ten years later, he is in bed with a woman he has obviously slept with and killed. But nothing changed in his romantic life.

He never again loved after Cami.

He still flirted with Caroline when she showed up, but he never opened himself emotionally again.

If he "would have chosen Caroline," he had multiple opportunities. Paris, Mystic Falls, the road trip, her visit to New Orleans. He chose none of them.

Because he didn’t want the fantasy. He wanted the person with whom he shared a real connection.

"Caroline was his epic love."

No. Caroline was his romantic fantasy.

Epic love requires mutual vulnerability, emotional intimacy, connection, shared trauma, and shared growth. Klaus and Caroline never had a real relationship — not even a friendship. They had chemistry, flirtation, longing, and potential.

That’s not epic love. That’s romantic projection.

"Cami was his therapist."

Love, Cami was his equal. His mirror.

She challenged him, called him out, refused to excuse him, confronted his cruelty, and demanded accountability. She set boundaries, and he respected them (most of the time).

Cami was not passive. She was not enabling. She was not his moral buffer.

She was the only person Klaus ever treated as an intellectual equal. He cared about her opinion. He listened to her advice. He valued her perspective.

"He prioritized Caroline even while with Cami."

This misreads the narrative. Saving Stefan was a favor to Caroline — perhaps because she had just become a mother and he was a father, and she sounded overwhelmed in that phone call. He could relate. Anything beyond that was fanservice.

He didn’t prioritize Caroline over Cami. He took Stefan to Freya, dealt with the problem, and never put his family, his city, or his daughter in danger.

"He would have chosen Caroline."

That’s a personal opinion. Nothing more.

From where I see it, Klaus would never choose Caroline over Camille.

In fact, I personally believe Caroline would ship Klaus and Cami if she had met her and seen them interact.

What is canon is that Klaus made grand speeches to Caroline.

But he was never with Caroline. Never connected with Caroline. Never died to protect her. Never declared his love for her. Never cried, holding her dead in his arms.

Perhaps Caroline was his aspirational love. But Cami was the love he got and the love he needed. That love was true love.

Cami was the woman who, "against every ounce of her better judgment, her sanity, and her common sense… had complicated feelings for a monster."

Cami was the woman who helped the monster address his trauma. Cami was the woman who pushed Klaus to accept Hayley’s pregnancy. Cami was the woman who inspired Klaus to be a better man.

Caroline was the love he imagined, a fantasy. Cami was the love he experienced, the one who transformed him, inspired him, and influenced him.

Cami was the woman he couldn’t survive losing.

Over a decade later, I caved. I watched The Originals. And I have thoughts, okay? A lot of them. Over the years, I have heard and read so much about the similarities between Caroline and Camille. After finally watching, I have to say aside from the fact that they are both blonde women, have a first name that begins with 'C' and have an attraction to Klaus, I don't see a lot of resemblance between them. I really don't. I find even less similarities between Klaroline and Klamille.

Here's my take:

Caroline challenged Klaus constantly. She didn't tolerate his bs, and she pushed him to be a better version of himself. She was almost a mirror of what Klaus could aspire to (light, strength, beauty). And the characters said it themselves. "We're the same, Caroline." (Klaus, TVD 4X14). Klaus saw a version of himself in Caroline. She had qualities that he admired but also possessed (they were a little buried, I'll concede that). "I reminded you of a part of yourself that you lost and wished that you could get back." (Caroline, TO 5x06) Caroline saw the resemblance too. She was just more reluctant to admit it. In contrast, Camille was more of a moral anchor for Klaus in my opinion. She was always rationalizing his behavior, trying to understand why he did what he did. That's what she gave Klaus: understanding. Caroline understood him too. She knew where his darkest nature came from, she understood the pain and trauma he carried. But unlike Camille, she didn't tell him that, she didn't allow him to use his past as an excuse to justify his terrible deeds. Camille provided comfort and acceptance. Caroline created friction and pressure. One made him feel understood and emotionally safe. The other demanded growth from him, stretching him beyond the easy and comfortable parts of himself, in order to earn a place by her side.

Camille met Klaus where he was. She listened to him, explained him, helped him articulate his pain, reframed his behavior through trauma, always trying to provide a logical and acceptable explanation for why he did what he did to the point of almost enabling him. She was literally his therapist, his conscience, a moral buffer. Caroline, however, never met Klaus where he was at. Ever. While Camille met Klaus where he was, Caroline defined where he wanted to go. He had to bend for Caroline, adapt, transform, deny his darkest instincts. He held her to such a high standard he had no choice but to rise to that standard to be worthy of her.

The bottom line is those two women served different purposes in his life, and it's okay to acknowledge that. I will always be a Klaroline shipper, but I acknowledge that Klaus needed Camille at a certain point in his life in order to become who he did. Caroline was able to unlock his vulnerability, but Camille is the one who sustained it. Camille is the one who held space for him, who welcomed his emotional moments, who let him sit and linger in his feelings, who allowed him to process his trauma.

Having said that though, there is no denying that Klaus longed for Caroline "Dearest Caroline... Yours, Klaus", "however long it takes". She never stopped holding his heart. He remembered her and held onto her across time and distance. He continued to make her a priority even when he was involved with Camille. He saved her boyfriend's life as a favor she didn't even have to ask for even though he was romantically entangled with Camille at the time. What's that, if not enduring devotion and unshakable love?

Very simply put, this is how I see it: Caroline was the love that elevated Klaus, Camille was the love that grounded Klaus. Now, I believe Klaus Mikaelson was a man who didn't settle. I believe he wanted a love that felt transcendent, a love that forced him to work every day to deserve it. So if we remove all narrative obstacles and just focus on who Klaus Mikaelson was at his core, there is no doubt in my mind that if given the possibility to be with one of them, both being willing to have him, he would have let Camille go and chosen Caroline.

They cast a blonde because a blonde won the chemistry test (yes, Joseph Morgan had a chemistry test with the actors auditioning for Cami because guess what, Cami was always supposed to be Klaus’s love interest on TO), and that blonde was the best female performer on that show, with only Claudia Black (Dahlia) probably being a competition (yet the material Leah delivered was obviously way more layered and versatile given her tenure on the show).

If you wanna go on a meta level and insist Klaus had a subconscious pull towards blondes, the origin of that would be his mother and sister Rebekah who were both blondes, not a teenager he met in MF at 1000 years of age. But let’s be real, he has gone for women of all hair colours and actually does not seem to have a fixation on phenotypes.

(Camille, Hayley, Aurora, Caroline... all of them could do way better.)

But I mostly hate it when people act as if Camille didn’t hold her ground against him. She did. And she did it as a HUMAN!

During the compulsion arc, she never, at any moment, accepted the position he was putting her in. She argued with him the whole way through.

After he revealed the supernatural world to her and began telling her about his monstrous acts, she remained unafraid to speak her mind. In episode 8, he told her about stabbing his siblings for disagreeing with him, and she immediately called him out. Anyone in that situation would probably rationalize that if he did that to his own blood, it would be best to stay quiet. But she didn’t.

In episode 6, he told her about Agnes’s death (the woman who killed her brother, by the way), and she SMACKED him.

A thousand-year-old hybrid walks in, telling you with a smile that he just participated in a murder, and you, a young human woman, slap him hard and threaten him. (I could never, my girl was so brave.)

All while she was secretly working under his nose to free herself from the mind control she knew very little about at the time.

When the compulsion was broken, she refused to let him have any form of control over her.

In episode 11, he told her over the phone to leave Rousseau’s when Papa Tunde was there. She didn’t. When he tried to stop her from helping Marcel, she went for it anyway.

"You don’t control me anymore, remember?"

During Father Kieran’s hex plot, he continuously told her she should accept it and let go. Even though he was right (and I believe deep down she knew it), she didn’t stop fighting for her uncle.

"I refuse to accept that. And you too, if you had any concept of family."

When she sleeps with Marcel, she refuses to let him shame her for it.

Honestly, I would say 90% of season 1 for Klamille consisted of Cami humbling him.

In season 2, he hurt everyone to defeat Dahlia, but Camille was the only one he apologized to and actually showed some remorse. She only accepted help him after he acknowledged what he did to her.

In the first few episodes of season 3, she firmly, and even harshly, made it clear to him that she would only truly believe in his change once he started putting it into action.

And she did the same toward any man who tried to intimidate or tell her what to do (Marcel, Finn, Kol, Lucien, her uncle).

She is SO far from the doormat people tried to paint her as.

She was compassionate, understanding, caring, lovable. But she was also smart, strong, brave, and assertive.