Mikael

Mikael (Elder Futhark: ᛗᛁᚲᚨᛖᛚ) was a major recurring character and a primary antagonist in the second and third season of The Inner Circle. He appeared in the first season via flashbacks and was eventually brought back to life. He was an Original Vampire and a powerful vampire hunter. Mikael is the father of the Originals, and the father of the vampire race as a whole. Mikael is the reason vampires came to exist, it was his idea to turn his children and himself into immortals with superpowers superior to werewolves, where they could then sire more of their kind as ordinary vampires. As the father of the Original Vampires, he was the oldest and one of the most powerful vampires in the TVD/TO universe.

Mikael was the husband of Esther. He was the father of Freya, Finn, Elijah, Kol, Rebekah and Henrik and step-father of Klaus. He was the grandfather of Freya and Mathias' unborn son, step-grandfather of Klaus and Hayley's daughter, Hope, and grandfather of Freya and Keelin's son, Nik. Mikael was also the brother-in-law of Dahlia.

Mikael was considered the strongest vampire in existence, due to his superior strength as a human over his children. He had an antagonistic relationship with his step-son, Klaus, as he was the son of a werewolf named Ansel. In the 1990s, Mikael was desiccated and entombed by Abby Bennett Wilson when he came to town in search of the baby doppelgänger, Elena Gilbert. However, in The Reckoning, he was revived by Katerina Petrova and Jeremy Gilbert. He then sought out Damon and Stefan Salvatore and formed a plan with them to kill Klaus. However, in Homecoming, Mikael was killed by Klaus due to Stefan's interference.

Mikael was later seen in the first season of The Originals during A Closer Walk With Thee, when he first appeared as a ghost to attack Hayley Marshall on The Other Side, and again in order to speak with Davina Claire. He eventually convinced her to resurrect him by offering to help her kill Klaus. In From a Cradle to a Grave, Mikael was successfully resurrected by Davina, but not without consequences; Davina ultimately used the Bracelet of Obedience to ensure that he would always be under her control. In the second season, Kol used his knowledge of magic and the bracelet, as he had the bracelet invented in the first place, to de-spell Davina's bracelet, allowing Mikael to continue on his mission to kill Klaus. After successfully staking and nearly killing Klaus, he ended up outnumbered by the arrival of Klaus' allies, forcing him to flee from a fight with his step-son for the very first time. He eventually formed an alliance with his wife, Esther, and a resurrected Finn, and vowed to stop at nothing to kill Klaus. Finn however, used sacrificial magic to desiccate both Mikael and Esther so that he could channel their power for himself.

Mikael was revived by his long lost daughter Freya, reuniting a delighted Mikael with the child he thought he had lost. They formed an alliance to kill Dahlia, who poses a threat to Freya and Hope. Mikael, after a failed team up with his children against Dahlia, was executed by Klaus for a second time, in order to procure the Viking ash Mikael's corpse would leave behind, to make another weapon against Dahlia, all in front of Freya, which devastated her.

Mikael was the patriarch of the Mikaelson Family.

Human
Prior to Freya's death, Mikael was described as a kind and loving husband as well as a good father, this is in spite of how his own father treated him, however, once Freya died Mikael became hostile, distant and cold due to the immense grief he felt due to the loss of his favorite child. Klaus' birth renewed Mikael's hope in his family but he was never the same man as he once was as his later personality can be described calculating, meticulous, aggressive, bad tempered and prideful - which Hayley described as "being a dick". As a human, Mikael is characterized by his pride, valor, and devotion to the family. However, he also used fear to control people, particularly his children as he wanted to make them stronger, possibly to prevent any more deaths of his children, his actions however, led to them being alienated from him.

Mikael has a deep hatred of Klaus, caused by the latter killing Henrik, then later murdering Mikael's wife and turning his family against him, (disregarding the fact that Henrik's death was an accident, that he was indirectly responsible for Esther's death when he convinced her to suppress Klaus' werewolf nature, and that his children were already against him for constantly physically abusing Klaus until, he was an adult; as well as the fact that he physically abuse his biological children if any of them tried to stop him from physically abusing Klaus), however, Mikael didn't always hate Klaus, as when he was born he was overjoyed and loved him, he even named him, however, as Klaus grew up, he acted differently to his siblings and Mikael began to see him as weak and thus he acted negative towards him, Mikael tends to degrade his worth and often referred to Klaus as "boy" rather than his given name.

Mikael physically assaulted Klaus even as a child for no apparent reason, and try to justified it by saying that he was trying to make him stronger, though going by what era they lived in and Mikael's viewpoint, it is entirely possible that Mikael was genuinely trying to make Klaus stronger as Mikael explained about fathers having to make their children stronger, Mikael was forced to learn how to use a staff despite being only eight years old and if he showed any strain, his father would have beaten him. Klaus was not like his other half-siblings, he was more focused on art and making sculptures than learning to fight and survive in their deadly environment, something Mikael saw as a weakness, however, Klaus was anything but weak.

Despite his anger and attitude towards Klaus, he still cared about him enough to save his life by turning him along with his half-siblings into vampires, proving he did care for Klaus before realizing Klaus was not his biological son.

His mistreatment of Klaus, is what ultimately turned his step-son against him, as well as the fact that it caused Klaus to despise Mikael, especially when the two would discover they are not father and son.

Mikael had failed to acknowledge his mistakes as a parent, as most of his children (Elijah, Kol, and Rebekah) eventually grew to despise him and turned their backs on Mikael, mainly because of how badly he treated Klaus.

Original Vampire
After being turned into a vampire, the valor becomes anger, and pride in obsession. Mikael didn't initially want to kill Klaus, as even after discovering him to be an "abomination" and a child fathered by someone else, he did not kill him, but had his wife curse Klaus to make his werewolf side dormant, making him just like the rest of his siblings, an Original Vampire. Possibly indicating that he still considered Klaus to be a part of the family, at least for his children and wife's sake, however, once Klaus murdered Esther and blamed Mikael for it, only then did he pursue his step-son with the intent to kill him.

For a thousand years, Mikael tried to destroy Klaus, but during this time, still loved his biological family, telling Rebekah that she and the others were never who he was after. Mikael is willing to kill and harm others, though, in his hunt for Klaus, threatening to and possibly nearly going through with tearing out Damon's heart when Stefan wouldn't tell him where Klaus was. However, Mikael later says this was simply just to "rile" Stefan up so that he could push past Klaus' compulsion, something Mikael says was a loophole.

Mikael seems to genuinely regret the consequences of having brought the Vampire race into existence, which is what motivated him into feeding exclusively upon other Vampires instead. This implies that in spite of everything he is and everything he became, Mikael still retained a sense of virtue about him, however he is more than willing to kill humans for his own agendas and to torment Klaus.

However, Mikael has shown multiple cruel and sadistic traits (far worse then Klaus), mostly when it comes to the target of his hatred, Klaus. He wasn't content to kill Klaus until he has humiliated and psychologically tortured him, and then promised to undo everyone's memory of him, turning Klaus into nothing more than a ghost, utterly alone.

According to Klaus, Mikael is a psychopath, as his reasons for tormenting his step-son for the last 1000 years was out of madness; instead of killing Klaus, as he had several opportunities to do it.

Mikael is a hypocrite, he blames Klaus for turning his children against him, when his actions contributed to that, this has also been said by his daughter Rebekah, who told him that he was the one who destroyed his family when he turned them into vampires, as Klaus, had nothing to do with it. Mikael's actions cause a rift in the family, thus turned against him completely, however, even after his children found out that it was Klaus who killed their mother, they are still antagonistic towards their father, though Rebekah was willing to allow Klaus to be killed after finding out the truth but did blame their father for making them violent, saying that Klaus wasn't born a killer. Even Elijah and Kol still harbor negative feelings towards their father.

Like Klaus and even Elijah, Mikael seems to be in a grey area morally, as in his pursuit of Klaus, he has killed numerous vampires and humans alike, especially if they get in his way, however, Mikael does have some morals, being regretful for his part in creating vampires and the bloodlust and so feeds only on vampires to avoid killing innocents needlessly. He also respects those who can stand up to him, acknowledging people such as Davina and Camille when they show feats of strength or courage. Mikael while cold and aggressive is not devoid of emotions or positive traits but tends to conceal them or hides behind anger, once he is reunited with Freya, his favorite daughter whom he thought was dead, he was reduced to tears and embraces her.

Mikael's personality has somewhat changed after his resurrection, being far less patient than before and overall had a more aggressive demeanor when interacting with others. Whereas before his death, Mikael was fairly patient, calculating and amiable to vampires such as Damon. He also absolutely refused to feed on human blood, even to free himself from desiccation. However, after his resurrection, Mikael was more willing to feed on humans with only mild reluctance when Davina fed him her blood. Mikael later fed on party goers and Camille in a desperate attempt to heal himself which proved fruitless. Mikael also didn't seem to have a problem feeding on werewolf blood, only telling Aiden that he preferred vampire blood. His decrease in morals may have been due to his increased desperation to kill Klaus, as the moment he was resurrected, he instantly sought out Klaus in an attempt to end his life. Mikael also went after his stepson while weakened with werewolf venom, and later Papa Tunde's blade, rather than wait until he was fully recovered.

Prior to his death, Mikael still held affection for his family despite that most of them were against him for years, he was pleased to see Rebekah again and upon seeing her in her new body, asked with amusement on what mischief she had gotten herself into, indicating he was used to seeing Rebekah getting herself in trouble. He fought furiously for Freya, something that made Klaus jealous, as he had always wanted his step-father's love and approval. Mikael's protectiveness over Freya granted him the strength and determination to fight through his desiccation and be the only one to manage to land a hit on Dahlia. When questioned by Klaus on why he despised him as he was growing up, Mikael claimed not to know. Mikael in his dying moments, reached out for Klaus before burning, showing he did care for Klaus. Klaus would change into a brutal Original Vampire, with a legendary temper, and obsessive. These are traits he shares with Mikael, with Klaus' personality changing into the man he was raised by. Mikael was willing to work with Klaus to protect their loved ones against Dahlia, even having fun together. When Klaus was about to execute Mikael, he did show regret for how he abused Klaus.

Ghost
It seems that even death didn't stop Mikael from tormenting and wanting to kill Klaus. As he had been conspiring his resurrection with a young Witch and had promised the young witch if she did resurrect him, he would help her save her friend and get rid of Klaus for good. After being resurrected, he attempted to kill Klaus, though doing so would have killed Marcel and Josh, something Davina wanted to avoid.

Human
Mikael was a strong and skilled Viking warrior before his transition to becoming the first vampire in the world. Mikael's skills were impressive enough that he had seemed to have single handedly slaughtered other raiders who had come to pillage and raid the village that he and his family lived in.

Original Vampire
Mikael was the first and oldest Vampire in existence and being an Original Vampire, possessed all the standard powers and abilities of one, but to a much greater extent compared to his children, likely due to being stronger as a human before he was turned. Coupled with his greater combat skills and discipline as a Viking warrior, he is arguably the most powerful Original vampire ever to appear. As an Original Vampire, Mikael was stronger and faster than any non-Original vampires and is one of the most powerful supernatural beings with the exception of Marcel Gerard and Lucien Castle as Upgraded Original vampires, and possibly, but confirmed, Alaric Saltzman when he was an Enhanced Original Vampire and had strength at least on par with Klaus. It was shown in Live and Let Die, that Mikael was able to fight Klaus on a relative equal ground now that Klaus broke his Hybrid Curse, even overpowering him at certain times, all while he was still weakened and recovering from werewolf venom. Mikael has overpowered three of his children in a fight, while facing all three simultaneously, a feat no other being has ever managed to accomplish. In a flashback to Le Grand Guignol, when Mikael arrived in New Orleans in 1919, he easily threw Elijah and Klaus across large distances with no effort while Klaus was still under the Hybrid Curse, and it took all of Elijah's strength to stop Mikael from staking him with the White Oak Stake, with Mikael not showing strain. Elijah told Klaus as they fled that they together could not fight him, as he was to strong, a testament to his strength over his Original Vampire children. A more recent testament to his strength has been shown where he single-handledly slaughtered Werewolves wearing Moonlight rings and once again, overpowered his son, Elijah. All of this with only having fed on little bit of Davina's blood. During said fight between Elijah and Mikael, their strength differences can be seen despite the fact that Mikael sustained multiple werewolf bites before squaring off with his son; while Elijah was only able to turn Mikael's head with a punch, the latter was able to send Elijah crashing into the counter with a backhand. It has been implied by Michael Narducci that Mikael is stronger than his children because he was stronger as a human before turning, which was then amplified. While he has drank Vampire blood for centuries instead of Human blood, it has been confirmed to not have any affect on his strength. We also know that his unique diet effected his ability to gain sustenance from Human blood, as he states to Davina that Human blood does little to sustain him anymore.

Mikael's sheer strength seems to be superior to even Klaus', the Original Hybrid, as Mikael was able to dominate the fight between them and physically overpower Klaus when they struggled with the White Oak Stake. It should be noted that Mikael still had werewolf venom in his system during this fight as his wounds were still not fully healed. It was implied that he may have a certain tolerance for Werewolf venom, since he deliberately fed on vampires infected with that very venom shortly after Davina revived him. During the fight between step-father and step-son, their emotional states could be seen, Mikael being relatively calm with no sign of straining while Klaus visibly struggled during the fight. Another notable skill for Mikael is his intense tolerance for pain, being able to practically ignore the effects of the werewolf venom, and even overcome the effects of Papa Tunde's Blade. A day later after this event and still weakened by the blade and only partially restored by human blood, Mikael was still able to fight Klaus and was still physically powerful as he was successfully pushing the white oak stake closer to Klaus' heart before the latter used Mikael's momentum against him and forced him into a pillar and then into a wall. In addition to his tremendous strength and willpower, Mikael was a highly skilled fighter, being trained by his father since he was a child and he himself trained his children, Mikael utilized many martial arts moves and counter attacks in his hand to hand fights, using his immense strength to compliment his style as a technical fighter. He is also noted to be one of two people in history that have ever made Klaus genuinely fear for his life, the other being Mikael's wife, and Klaus' mother; Esther.

As said above Mikael has over-powered Klaus while still weakened with werewolf venom, and Klaus was far from calm in said fight and should Klaus ever become enraged or transform completely into his Werewolf form, Mikael still has superior fighting skills and a tolerance for werewolf venom, making a werewolf's primary attack, its bite, useless. Mikael was able to stake Klaus with the White Oak Stake after a vicious battle (it should be noted that the latter was forced to let his guard down, when Mikael threw Papa Tunde's Blade at Camille, Klaus had to save his friend's life); however, Davina and Kol temporarily drained the stake of it's power, allowing Klaus to recover once pulled out before it was reactivated. Mikael was able to do this despite still recovering from werewolf venom, and being weak and recovering from Papa Tunde's Blade, demonstrating his power and skill over Klaus even while weakened, though it was shown that with the combined effects of the Blade and the venom, Klaus was able to fight on a slightly more even level to Mikael.

Mikael again demonstrated superior willpower and determination when he was able to still use his powers to wound Dahlia while being desiccated by her, whereas Klaus couldn't and had to be fed blood by Elijah before he could resume his attack on her.

Weaknesses
Mikael had the typical weaknesses of an Original Vampire though he was able to tolerate the effects of Werewolf venom and even overcome Papa Tunde's blade. To compare, Elijah was rendered unconscious after two bites from two werewolves, while Mikael sustained more injuries from a horde and managed to kill them all. His ability to overcome Papa Tunde's blade came from his training, as he learned to master his pain.