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In your opinion who is the best mother in the TVD universe? I think it has to be Hayley. She had made a lot of mistakes, but at the end of the day, Hope has never once doubted that her mother truly and unconditionally loved and supported her. Hayley practically raised Hope by herself. All Hayley wanted is for Hope to have a normal, happy childhood. And unlike many people I don’t think she ever abandoned Hope. Yes, she sent her away to the Salvatore school - but I think that’s because she knew that Hope couldn’t live a normal life in New Orleans and she thought that the best chance of Hope having a semi normal childhood is if no one knew who she was. And in legacies, it’s said that she still visited Hope at school frequently.

Hayley Marshall without a doubt was the best mother in tvdu, especially considering the events regarding her pregnancy, daughter and her daughter's family.

Hayley loved Hope from the very beginning, don't bring up how she tried to abort Hope because that's just rubbish: she wanted to do it because it would be better for both of them, but ultimately couldn't bring herself to do it. Claiming Elijah was the first person to care about Hope is so wrong, he didn't give a damn about the fetus but what it could mean to Klaus and his fucked up family at the beginning, he only saw his niece as her own person when she was fifteen years old.

Motherhood was forced upon Hayley and she had no other choice but to accept it, Klaus and Elijah made that very clear and it sickens me how people brush over Hayley herself saying how terrified and scared she was during this period of her life. She was barely an adult, thrown into the most dangerous family to ever live just because she happened to carry a baby and was killed twice because of that same family.

Saying Hayley was a bad mother is crazy, she loved Hope and put her above everyone almost always (I won't praise her for this, though, loving your child is the bare minium a decent parent should do) even if it was above people she cared about. People always bring up how she "stole" Hope in season two to try to put her in a bad light and it's embarrassing every time.

Was it a dangerous and risky choice? Obviously, yes, but Klaus, the father of her daughter, was jeopardizing Hope at the time with his paranoia and refusal to trust his family, and at the time everyone believed he had killed Aiden, a member of Hayley's pack, of course she would panick and run away with their kid. It was wrong nonetheless because she was putting in danger her whole pack, her husband, her daughter and herself, but I'll never blame her for it considering how much shit she went through only because of the Mikaelson.

Like Klaus, Hayley was scared too and this is often "forgotten" by the fandom: like him, she never had any good parent, but this didn't make her stop talking to Hope suddenly. The fandom often justifies Klaus abandoning Hope because he had daddy issues and because of The Hollow, but was it that hard to write letters, answer her phone calls? He ghosted his own daughter when she was nine because she saw him murdering someone, but somehow Klaus is the better parent in tvdu and the one Hope loved the most. Make it make sense.

Caroline was away too from her daughters, but she didn't ghost them the way Klaus did. Hayley was co-leading New Orleans, a whole city full of supernatural creatures, but she didn't abandon Hope either: as you said, Josie herself said she used to come to Mystic Falls frequently just for her daughter. Sending Hope away to school after nearly dying and losing her father was too soon, and while Legacies made everything they could to make these women look like bad mothers (Hope being basically depressed as a child, wanting to belong into the Saltzman family, her line in season three "my mom and dad will come back for me" - though I'm not sure if it should consider it proof, considering it was a weird Star Wars episode -, Lizzie feeling neglected by her mother, etc) they simply weren't.

Caroline and Hayley were both forced to be mothers and both proved to be better than everyone in the series. People should start criticizing the actual bad parents in this show instead of them.

I find the argument of Klaus hating Elijah after Hayley's death very interesting. Or when haylijah antis say how Elijah and Hayley never fell truly in love with each other, just their idealized versions.

Hayley and Elijah were both one of the most important persons in Klaus’s life: their opinions and feelings mattered to him, yet Hayley is the only one of the two who actually managed to inspire and make Klaus be good (as much as Klaus Mikaelson can be good), but having Elijah by his side during a thousand made Klaus what he was when we met him in The Vampire Diaries.

Elijah, as much as he loved his brother, couldn't have done what Hayley and Hope did for Klaus and he said it himself in 5x13 of The Originals ("Do you understand you've accomplished in 15 years what I couldn't in a thousand?"). Of course he kept Klaus on a check during all those centuries, and their relationship developed from a normal sibling bond between brothers to a toxic codependent mess, where Klaus was slightly more clingy. Whether Elijah stayed with him because of guilt to what he had done to Aurora, and as a consequence, to his brother, isn't really important considering Klaus killed their mother: he chose to remain at his side during a millennium because despite how toxic their bond was, they loved each other.

And then, Hayley came into the picture.

Both brothers were quickly attracted to her: Klaus and her were kindred souls, in a way. They were both wolves casted out, their parents didn't really care about them and they eventually slept together because of this, and their obvious attraction to each other, causing Hope to be born. However, when Hayley met Elijah, she was pregnant and alone, admitting herself she was scared of the father of her baby, scared of being a mother, and he made her "feel safe", and if I correct, her own subconscious told her she fell for the suit, not Elijah, which makes them look bad to people who don't ship them, and it made them look bad for me at first too, I won't lie. She met him in probably one of the worst times in her life, where she was alone and scared, but Hayley herself admitted to being a monster and that she probably loved Elijah despite what he is, or because of what he is.

When talking to Rebekah (4x12), Hayley admitted she was okay with it and how she was scared of how that would affect Hope, she never wanted her daughter to turn out like her or her father's family, so naturally she pushed Elijah away, like any decent mother would. And Elijah wanted the same too:

(Elijah: "If I thought I couldn't do this, I wouldn't have come. Niklaus, when this is done, I want you to take Hayley and Hope away from this. All of it."

Klaus: "You've pointedly left yourself out of that equation. Whatever Hayley saw in you, she will come to accept.")

Klaus is a selfish man, that isn't a surprise to anyone, and he wasn't gonna watch how Hayley and Elijah, both essential people in his life, broke up leaving him in the dust. I'm referring to what Rebekah said in 5x07: "Why do you think we never tore Elijah and Hayley apart? You knew that Hayley would stay close because of Hope, and as long as Elijah was in love with Hayley, he would never leave you, either". Hayley only stayed in the family because of her daughter and Elijah was around Klaus because he was in love with that same woman: Klaus didn't lose Hayley, the mother of his daughter, an essential part of his life, and he didn't lose Elijah either, his best friend and his lodestar, meaning his guide/inspiration. It's not a secret Elijah is the closest thing Klaus ever got to a good parent, and losing him (and Hayley) because of The Hollow clearly messed up with his mind.

Hayley clearly got over about the red door situation though, as she went to visit him in France, was clearly still in love with him and even asked him for a dance in the afterlife, the closest thing tvdu would give us as an endgame. Her reaction was perfectly understandable: she never broke up with Elijah because of herself, but rather Hope, and they would've clearly found their way back to each other if The Hollow hadn't been a thing.

Elijah probably broke Klaus’s heart in 5x03 when he refused to go back with him to help save Hayley. Her life was on the line, and Klaus couldn't lose her too after losing his brother, but Elijah simply didn't care and Klaus was losing his mind because of it. ("You once convinced me that Hayley's life was worth saving, that my daughter's life was worth saving. Please, Elijah. Hayley is missing. Hayley. Even in your addled state, that name must mean something to you!"). Elijah himself pointed it out later how him rejecting his offer hurt his brother and how he knew Klaus wouldn't return, despite Hayley being in danger, only because his words had practically shattered him: "Yes, I do. They say Elijah Mikaelson was his North Star, that he guided Klaus through the darkest parts of his pathetic life. So to renounce that family, to renounce him the way that I did, I saw it. I watched the light vanish from his eyes. This immovable man, this legendary Niklaus Mikaelson was... broken."

Of course Klaus was weeping after having Elijah, the only person in the world who always thought he was capable of good, of being saved, renounce him. He always thinks of himself first, and he didn't think of coming back to ask his brother for help with Hayley. Of course, then he went to New Orleans (5x04) to search for Hayley himself, endangering Hope and everyone in the city, claiming it was only for his daughter: (All of this... is for my daughter. They took Hayley by force. They tied her down like an animal, because she's different, because they were scared of her. See, that's their language. Fear. Now they'll listen.) (Well, I suggest you amp up your efforts to retrieve her, then. Because if my daughter is not reunited with her mother by sundown,...) but it wasn't only because of Hope. Elijah had practically broken his heart and he was acting like a dick half of the episode mainly because of that, while also making people find Hayley faster:

(Marcel: "This is my family. For the last seven years, I have been a phone call away whenever Hope needed me. I am trying to talk you out of making the biggest mistake of your life. To protect you from yourself. So you don't have to tell Hope that you're the reason that her mother is dead."

Klaus: "He knew! Okay? Elijah knew who he was, and he still told me to leave. I begged him. He didn't want anything to do with any of us. He's gone, Marcellus. He's gone."

Marcel: "I understand. I do. Look, I understand the pain. But you got to move through it, okay? You can't let it cloud your judgment. Not with Hayley's life on the line.")

Finding out Hayley had been mutilated just made everything worse ("Marcel, please, I'm going out of my mind here. Look at what they've done to Hayley. I don't do well without Elijah.") ("Every word of it. Even at our most estranged, there was always a trace of the brother I loved, but not anymore. Every part of him was unfamiliar. I promised Hope I'd bring her mother home safely"). He was losing both of them at the same time and he didn't know how to react, and that just exploded in his face once Elijah didn't save Hayley from dying.

Once Hayley died and Elijah just stood and watched, Klaus did lose all respect for him and probably didn't want to see his face for the next few decades while his memory remained lost, because he knew damn well his brother had practically killed himself by erasing his memories. He literally speaks of amnesic Elijah and his brother like they're different people ("But he did leave! Elijah was always there for me. Swooping in when my rage got the better of me, setting me on a path to redemption. For a thousand years, he made me need him. My brother was my greatest ally. He was the only one who could give me a chance of being worthy of Hope. And he was my best friend. You killed him. And I hate you for that"). ("I made a vow to my brother. That's just the man who got Hope's mother killed"). But once he remembered who he was and what he had done, or rather, what he hadn't done, Klaus was literally mad with him for like what, a week? Two? He loved Hayley a lot, but he loved his brother too.

Don't get me wrong, him not saving Hayley did shatter their bond and was a big reason as to why Klaus was so hostile with him, but Klaus is selfish and he always put his feelings above everything and this situation wasn't a exception. I mean, just look at when he was gonna die: he was sneaking around with Caroline, completely ignoring Hope, something she complained about and something Elijah pointed out. Even Hope forgave him for his part in Hayley's death because she knew he wasn't responsible for what had happened, and neither was she by the way.

The three of them loved Hayley, and Hope and Elijah both loved Klaus, and Klaus loved the three of them, and who he needed/loved more between them is complex, but in my opinion, is more "understandable" when people discuss if Klaus loved Elijah or Hope more, considering he was putting her life in danger for the last seven years because he couldn't stay away from his brother, but he couldn't fathom the idea of Hope dying or leaving him forever either.

The Mikaelson family’s relationships, especially their romantic relationships, are weird. Klaus and Elijah have a weird thing going on in which they share partners (Katherine, Tatia, Hayley - but probably more. I think it’s kinda gross being with someone who’s been with your brother but to each their own I guess). Freya fell in love with someone she kidnapped - which is never a great sign.

But the worst is probably Rebekah who is technically Marcel’s aunt - and yet they’re together romantically. Davina is like Marcel’s daughter - and yet she’s with Kol who is like Marcel’s uncle which would mean that Davina is like Marcel’s aunt. However, if Hope is the sister of Marcel, and Marcel is the father of Davina, would that make Hope her aunt? Or if Davina’s with Kol, does that make Hope her niece and Marcel her nephew?

Honestly I think the only Mikaelson sibling to have a normal (as normal as it can be given that they’re vampires and live through centuries) romantic relationship is Finn. I think he and Sage were a pretty normal, average couple compared to everyone else.

I don’t know… I’m trying not to analyze the Mikaelsons and their messed up relationships too much because it kinda grosses me out and makes my head hurt. Im trying to focus on the bright side - no one is actually related - so that’s good.

The Mikaelson are each so fucked up and their personal relationships are even more screwed.

It was implied in The Vampire Diaries the Mikaelson shared partners sexually, and there was this one girl called Mary Porter/Scary Mary, who was a "Original groupie". She was close to all of them, to the point none of them could "remember" by which sibling she had been turned. Knowing how fucked up they are, sharing partners isn't something weird, especially to Klaus and Elijah who loved fighting over the same girl.

Freya falling in love with Keelin was so fucked up. I like them, they're cute once you get past the whole kidnapping thing, but it's wrong regardless. After she finally got with Freya, her storyline was reduced to nothing: she just became her love interest and stopped being her own person. Not surprising, though, the writers of this shows love doing that.

Marcel falling for Rebekah is just straight up grooming, and it's crazy how it was never addressed or how the fandom denies it. You're gonna tell me she saw him grow up, saw his brother love and care for him as his own son, and still managed to be attracted to him? To even marry him and want children with him? It's a miracle he never called her aunt at least once, even if it was sarcastically. I really don't like how the show kept painting Marcel as the bad guy and Rebekah as the victim because he refused to be/couldn't be with her, like why?

I can overlook Kol and Davina because he never saw Marcel as family and she never saw the Mikaelson as her family either, didn't even like them. Still wrong tho, because Davina was like fifteen/sixteen by the time they met and Kol/Kaleb looked around his twenties.

Finn and Sage were absolutely adorable. I truly like Finn and I wished he had at least a chance at a happy ending, but sadly he died twice and he couldn't even mourn the woman he loved.

At least they're not related, but fucked up anyway. I try not to analyze the Mikaelson relationships either because they're clearly problematic and fucked up even for an universe such as The Vampire Diaries, but oh well.

Thanks for the ask! I had fun answering it.