Though there are many beloved The Vampire Diaries characters, some of the supporting players in the series were truly hated. The vampires, werewolves, hybrids, doppelgangers, hunters, and sirens were all once ordinary people, who due to extraordinary circumstances, become those things that go bump in the night, which meant that the series often presented the characters in moral gray areas. Since The Vampire Diaries was ultimately about retribution and forgiveness, sometimes the scariest monsters saved the day. While the audience could forgive and forget the worst transgressions of the main characters, that wasn’t true for the supporting players who betrayed the main characters. Repeated betrayal was the most common reason to hate a Vampire Diaries character.
The series centered on Elena Gilbert (Nina Dobrev) and her friends and supernatural allies. She found herself repeatedly caught in supernatural power struggles – between vampire families, between doppelgangers, and even between witches. Elena and the Salvatore brothers (Ian Somerhalder, Paul Wesley) were the main characters and the fan favorites, which meant the audience wanted to see their stories play out. Characters who created obstacles that lasted for too long or offered up repeated betrayals after allying with them did not get any love.
15 Isobel Flemming
Elena’s birth mother, Isobel Flemming (Mia Kirshner), is one of the least-liked Vampire Diaries characters. It’s revealed that she was once married to Alaric Saltzman (Matt Davis) but became so infatuated with the supernatural world and so obsessed with vampires that she sought after Damon (Somerhalder) and slept with him, coercing him to turn her. She then left Alaric and soon met Katherine (Dobrev).
She was an unlikable supporting character due to her selfish and dark attitude. She purposefully hurt the people she loved to get her way. Isobel even went as far as to have a relationship with Damon and tried to have Elena get the Gilbert device for her. She also had two lackeys who killed for her, and then kidnaped Jeremy to force Elena to do her bidding. In a series that lauded the bonds between the Salvatore brothers and even the Original vampires, Isobel betraying her own daughter didn’t go over well.
14 Qetsiyah/Tessa
Tessa (Janina Gavinkar) made Damon’s, Stefan’s, and Elena’s lives difficult for a total of four episodes. Tessa had a long history and was regarded as the most powerful witch among Vampire Diaries characters. She created turmoil with the main characters as she sought revenge against Silas, Stefan’s doppelganger. Her power was immense as she was the original witch who created the first immortality spell as well as the cure for vampirism.
Tessa was also responsible for creating the Other Side where she had hoped to imprison Silas for his betrayal. During her time on the show, audiences understood her pain but disliked her ambition for revenge no matter the cost. She played her hand and forced the main characters to comply with her demands without learning forgiveness. There’s no greater fury than a woman scorned.
13 The Heretics
The Heretics instilled fear in the main characters during their time in seasons six and seven. The Heretics were a powerful coven of hybrids under the leadership of Damon and Stefan’s mother, Lily Salvatore (Annie Wershing). Bonnie (Kat Graham) was unable to help Lily revive the Heretics in the modern-day. When Kai (Chris Wood) was in the Prison World, the Heretics feed on him and returned to Mystic Falls.
The hybrid group was disliked by audiences due to their blind allegiance to Lily. Due to being turned into vampires by her, they were compelled to do her bidding even if it meant killing people or causing mayhem along the way. The Heretics worked as a group but didn’t think for themselves. They might have been powerful, but they weren’t very interesting villains as a result.
12 John Gilbert
John Gilbert (David Anders) was a mere mortal, but as a member of one of the founding families, he’s a guy with power who tried to exert control over everyone and everything while harboring intractable hate for the undead. He was an ordinary man who got his way through threats and intimidation. His arrogance was amplified by his Gilbert Ring, which allowed him to face down vampires without fear of death.
John was old-school Mystic Falls — the final generation of founding families that ineptly battled vampires. John did save Elena’s life, but his character had simply stayed too long at the party. There were so many more interesting characters in the series by the time John tried to gain redemption in the eyes of the audience that it was just too late for him.
11 Arcadius
The main characters went as far as upsetting the literal ruler of hell, the devil, Arcadius (Wolé Parks). He became prominent in the eighth season and raised hell. Cade was the first-ever psychic who was murdered by his own village. He set off a psychic blast creating an alternate dimension that became hell. Cade was summoned by Sybil and wreaked havoc on Earth. He had no regard for human life and forced Damon or Stefan to kill 100 people to save Elena.
Cade was a hated character due to playing the odds as he used Stefan’s soul as well as Enzo’s to threaten Damon and Bonnie. He put everyone’s life at risk which wasn’t entirely surprising given who he actually was. He tried to fight Bonnie, in the end, to keep Damon’s soul in hell. If there’s one thing that’s true about The Vampire Diaries characters: if they hurt fan-favorite Bonnie, the audience won’t forgive them.
10 Klaus Mikaelson
In all fairness, powerful Original vampire Klaus Mikaleson (Joseph Morgan) had more of a love-hate relationship with both the audience and the other Vampire Diaries characters. At the beginning of his appearance on the show, he was despised because he put Elena and her loved ones in danger to become a werewolf/vampire hybrid. He even went as far as turning Aunt Jenna (Sara Canning) and then killing her. Klaus’s indifference to bloodshed and murder made him a notable antagonist.
As his character progressed, it was easy to feel bad for Klaus despite his killer ways. Klaus was quite manipulative and destroyed anyone in his path in the blink of an eye. But his character slowly started to show his true emotions, exposing fragility and a desire to be loved. His character was also much better fleshed out in the spin-off series The Originals.
9 Kai Parker
Kai was a self-proclaimed sociopath whose only goal during season 6 was to become the head of the Gemini Coven. Kai’s sunny disposition was hard to reconcile with his destructive actions and dark impulses. Kai managed to be almost likable at times thanks to his sarcastic quips, good looks, and ability to play well with others (as long as it was mutually beneficial) which lumps him in with the likes of everyone from Damon to Klaus.
Because even the “good guys” on The Vampire Diaries gave in to their own worst impulses from time to time, to be an irredeemable monster means committing heinous acts that exceed the lowest expectations. Kai preyed on the weakest and most helpless — the unborn babies in his sister’s womb. Even a time-out in Hell did nothing to cause Kai to rethink murdering children, particularly his nieces.
8 Katherine Pierce
Chased to the end of the world and back by Klaus Mikaelson, Katherine spent 500 years either attempting to evade the world’s oldest vampire or finding some way to appease him. Her real legacy was being obsessed with her ex, and that was a serious problem since both Katherine and the object of her affection, Stefan, were both immortal.
It was pure genius for the show’s good girl to have the same face as one of its most heinous villains. Katherine tried to end or ruin the lives of Jeremy Gilbert (Steven R. McQueen), Elena Gilbert, Bonnie Bennett, Pearl (Kelly Hu), Anna (Malese Jow), Jenna, Rose (Lauren Cohan), Tyler Lockwood (Michael Trevino) and so many other Vampire Diaries characters. Her biggest crime? She came between two loving brothers, causing over a century’s worth of guilt and anger. She’s the reason the Salvatores reunited in Mystic Falls, set up shop, and brought about the events of the entire show.
7 Silas
The 2000-year-old Silas was season 4’s big bad who was determined to take the cure and drop the veil to the Other Side, unleashing hell on Earth. A shadowy figure whose powers exceeded anything seen before his appearance, Silas blured the line between reality and illusion to the point where the main Vampire Diaries characters didn’t know what was real and what was not.
Season 4’s body count was epic, and Silas either orchestrated the deaths or was directly responsible. He sentenced his “shadow self” Stefan to months of dying repeatedly by drowning. Silas was the first villain to strike fear into members of the Original family, and while even the most diabolical villains have a weak spot, Silas was seemingly indestructible.
6 Esther Mikaelson
The Original witch (Alice Evans) started as a possible ally to Elena and the Salvatore brothers since she was determined to kill all of her children during season 3. When Plan A failed, Esther’s Plan B involved turning Alaric into the ultimate vampire hunter, and to make it worse, she used Elena as part of her scheme.
Not only did Elena and Jeremy lose the last stable influence and parental figure in their lives, but Alaric’s hunter instincts also eradicated his morality, empathy, and his affection for his former friends. Esther created this plague on humanity, and every attempt she made to right this wrong punished the undeserving: Alaric, Abby Bennett (Persia White), Elena, Jeremy, Bonnie, and Matt (Zach Roerig).
5 Dr. Wesley “Wes” Maxfield
Dr. Wes Maxfield (Rick Cosnett), a member of the Augustine Society who was a season 5 antagonist, was obsessed with creating a new kind of vampire: one who only craved the blood of other vampires. Wes didn’t just use existing vampires, he killed normal people and turned them to further his research.
The Augustine storyline was gruesome, and it didn’t serve much of a purpose except to emphasize further how horrible Damon was in spite of Elena’s supposed positive influence. It also blurred the line between good and evil among Vampire Diaries characters since Elena’s father — loving patriarch and town physician — was an Augustine. Vampires may be predatory by nature, but a man who believes the most heinous actions are justified if they’re for their own twisted belief of a greater good can be far more dangerous.
4 Professor Atticus Shane
Loss and grief made Professor Shane (David Alpay) vulnerable to Silas’ mind control, but orchestrating multiple mass murders and manipulating a young witch, and turning her into a mystical time bomb was all on him. He acted like an obsessed fanboy around vampires, and his hard sell to get everybody on board with his plans to raise Silas during season 4 made him seem like a desperate used-car salesman.
Shane managed to delude himself into believing the atrocities he committed would be rectified when Silas rose, but he just sounded like a fanatic. After all his Machiavellian scheming, there’s an immense amount of satisfaction in watching his cries for help in a cave go unanswered.
3 Kol Mikaelson
Kol (Nathaniel Buzolic) was a Mikaelson, but he wasn’t burdened with the issues of his siblings. Unlike Rebekah Mikaelson (Claire Holt), he didn’t long for humanity. Unlike Elijah (Daniel Gillies), he had no interest in being honorable. Unlike Klaus, he was not plagued with daddy issues, nor did Kol have any interest in amassing power. He’s just a reckless younger brother unencumbered with any desires above feeding and self-preservation: the latter being what motivated him to terrorize and threaten the Gilbert siblings during season 4.
As far as villains go, Kol was full of youthful exuberance and hubris, obnoxious and overconfident, and it was a welcome relief when this emotionally stunted Original brother met his end. His time on the show didn’t add creative sub-plots like some of the more interesting Vampire Diaries characters.
2 Lily Salvatore
Lily Salvatore was freed from the 1903 Prison World for the sole purpose to get Stefan to regain his humanity during season 7. The family reunion proved disappointing since Lily cared less for her sons than a group of Heretics who she credited with helping her kick her Ripper habit. Time and again Lily made it clear to Stefan and Damon that she had no maternal feelings towards them, choosing to side with vampire-witch hybrids who effectively turned Mystic Falls into a ghost town.
Lily’s delusion that she could control the Heretics and live in harmony like some ghoulish Brady Bunch made her almost more pathetic than anything else. Der eventual “a-ha” moment that all of her choices had tragic consequences didn’t make her any more likable.
1 Sybil
Sybil (Nathalie Kelley) was a beautiful seductress with the ability to bend men to do her bidding and crush their free will, which sounded like a pretty fun Vampire Diaries character at first. She became less appealing once it was made clear that she was a siren who fed on bad boys and girls and delivered their souls to Cade, aka “the Devil.” She was also prone to jealousy, unwilling to share Enzo (Michael Malarkey) and Damon with anyone, particularly those who loved them.
Fans were always rooting for Damon to redeem himself, but Sybil sent him into a downward spiral unlike viewers had ever seen before, and when she inserted herself into Damon’s memories of Elena, that was crossing a line no other antagonist dared to cross in The Vampire Diaries.