The Originals: 20 Things Wrong With Rebekah We All Choose To Ignore

In the third season of The Vampire Diaries audiences were introduced to the Original family; the first vampires in history. We had already met Niklaus, the Original Hybrid, and Elijah, the noble vampire. And we finally meet the youngest Original and the only female Original vampire, Rebekah Mikaelson, in the third episode of the third season.

Rebekah is certainly an intense character, growing up in an era where women were secondary and survival was difficult. Even with an intense, over-bearing father who wouldn’t let her hold a blade, she was a Viking at heart and often protected her brothers. She has taken this mentality through the ages, establishing herself as just as fearsome as her brothers, if not more. She helps women throughout history, believing that “us girls got to stick together.” She protected Davina, saved the casket girls in the eighteenth century, and even wore trousers in the twenties.

Rebekah is often petty, intense, and quick to fall in love. However, she can be extremely loyal, often to her own detriment. She did not abandon Matt when he was standing on a bomb, helped Caroline (who she dislikes) when Silas was forcing her to cut off her own hands, is constantly betrayed by her whole family but will still come to their aid, and has helped Stephan, Elena, and Damon (even when they destroyed her brothers).

Everything wrong with Rebekah is why you love her. In Hayley’s words: “I still think you’re a [bad person]. I’ve just grown to like that about you.”

20 VAMPIRE BRATS

When Rebekah is first introduced she is often referred to as a “brat.” Klaus mentions this when he takes her shopping in her second episode on The Vampire Diaries, it becomes clear over the two series that she hasn’t evolved. As Matt said, she’s “had a thousand years to better herself” and yet she is the same teenage brat she was when she was first made a vampire, if not worse. There has been no personal improvement in her life and she continues her life that way. That attitude slowly develops from when we first see her and she finally gains a new perspective that happiness is something you build for yourself. Although, vampire or human, you wouldn’t want to face Rebekah if she didn’t get her way.

19 SHE’S GOT A BAD TEMPER

Vampires have heightened senses and emotions, making it difficult to control them and over-reaction a normal response to opposition. Klaus gets his temper from his werewolf side and the effects of the pain he endured under his adoptive father. Rebekah has definitely inherited hers from Mikael, her harmful father, admitting to getting her temper from him.

She is quick to tantrums, throwing furniture at her missing necklace and almost taking Elena’s head off, rambling nonsensically, when she reveals evidence depicting Klaus taking her mother’s heart, as opposed to Mikael, whom she originally thought was the guilty party. When tempers mean harm, one might try to control theirs a little better, but when you’re a vampire why not lean into it?

18 She Just Wants To Be Loved

Rebekah, more than anything, does not wish to be alone. She wants someone who loves her and often finds herself being tempted, whether with the expectation of romance or just a night of togetherness. Stephan, Damon, and Marcel have manipulated Rebekah in one way or another. Regardless, she usually either knows what she’s in for or gets revenge for the wrongs done against her; a habit that developed after her relationship with a hunter who betrayed her and was then dispatched by Klaus. It seems to be a habit of the Mikaelsons, Klaus distracted by Caroline repeatedly, and Elijah who is fooled by Katerina/Katherine Pierce despite knowing her five hundred year history of manipulation.

17 BREAK UP WITH YOUR GIRLFRIEND, I’M BORED

It’s no secret that Rebekah is beautiful and fearless; men have flocked to her over the centuries. Perhaps it is for that reason she enjoys a challenge. One of the audience’s first impressions of Rebekah has her challenging Caroline for her boyfriend, the newly hybridized Tyler. She tempts him with blood when he is fresh from his transformation and tries to worm into his life. This is more an attempt to integrate herself with the main group of Mystic Falls than anything else. She also makes a pass with Stephan and Damon, knowing they love Elena. We don’t see much of this in The Originals when Marcel becomes her main love interest.

16 DO WHAT I SAY OR PERISH

Vampires live for centuries, only being stopped by a quick end. After so many lifetimes it’s unsurprising that human life if often insignificant to them. The entirety of the Original family is often quick to threats and demise as a solution, and Rebekah is no exception. In her first appearance in The Originals, Rebekah threatens the life of Camille to get information from Marcel for Elijah. She will consistently threaten a random passer-by to make her point or get her way. To save her family from Esther’s spell in The Vampire Diaries Rebekah went so far as to cover Elena in gasoline and threaten to burn her alive. She is definitely not someone you want as an enemy.

15 HER EXCUSES OF “‘CAUSE IT’S FUN”

The Originals are often petty in their dealings, none more so than Klaus, but Rebekah is a close second. In The Vampire Diaries, she compelled a round table of questions regarding Damon, Elena, and Stephan, blowing up their tenuous love triangle. She eliminated Elena in front of April, who asked: “was that necessary?” As Rebekah stated: “No, but it was fun.” She taunted Elena at school and the home party shortly after causing her demise, thereby forcing her into vampirism. She also rigorously bothered Damon in season three after he invaded her mind during their time together. She slowly overcomes this nature throughout The Originals but it is no secret that if you slight Rebekah she will pay you back in spades.

14 ALL OF HER ELITISM

When the youngest Mikaelson sibling, Henrik, perished on the night of the full moon rather than pack up and move away from the danger that they had been warned about, they had to be better. To deny nature’s laws, be faster and stronger; all because of “pride.” When you are immortal and one of the most powerful beings alive it is easy to think yourself better, especially when you could compel yourself into living the good life. Generally, all the Originals are cocky and have an elitist attitude to human and regular vampires. Even Elijah would say, “If you think you can beat me… you can’t.” Even referring to one of the oldest vampires, Finn’s lover Sage, Rebekah refers to her as a “[Bad] little thing.”

13 ONE BIG FAMILY FEUD

The Mikaelsons are complicated. One child born from bad choices, one ended by werewolves, one sold to their aunt, the son eliminated their father who hunted them for a millennium… it goes on. Elijah, Rebekah and Klaus lived by the family motto of “always and forever.” This excluded the others, but no one more than Finn. It seemed a mutual dislike as he missed his older sister Freya who was replaced by siblings who thought he was drab and boring. After a millennia, there was no effort to become close or mend any fences with Finn who felt so excluded and disliked that he was willing to perish just to end the lives of his other siblings.

12 WHO WANTS TO LIVE FOREVER?

Rebekah is one of the most powerful beings ‘alive’ and has been for over one thousand years. She has lived through ages and seen the world. But wants to be a human, have a husband, and kids of her own. The option of adopting had never come up and being human is not a guarantee of any of those things. Her time as a vampire is something she considers meaningless, saying that she wants to “spend my days with meaning knowing that everyone matters.” The attitude is very in-line with Elena who also wants all of those things, it feels like a copy; an older version of who Elena could be should she have never been cured.

11 WORLD’S OLDEST CHEERLEADER

Everyone is different. Personalities, interests, and priorities change person to person, but the core problems tend to be shared once you get old enough. In The Vampire Diaries Stephan, a vampire over a century old went back to high school to be closer to Elena, a girl who looked like his past love. Most teenagers usually find themselves sprinting out the gate after school is over, but Stephan was curious. At a thousand years old one might think there could be nothing that could make you enter school, an institution that would be useless to you. And yet, Rebekah decided to go back, join the cheerleading squad, and plan high school dances.

10 QUICK TO HARM OTHERS

One handy vampire skill is compulsion, which is essentially mind-control via an intense staring contest. No one loves this more than Rebekah. In the early days of her storyline, she would compel her victims often and without mercy, using people for even the most menial tasks. When she speaks with Elena in the Salvatore house she introduces herself by asking Elena to pick a dress for her off the compelled high school students strutting the runway.

This habit eventually fades over time after she begins to connect with Matt and perhaps most significantly when she sees Katherine having compelled the entire town she’s been staying in. By the time The Originals begins her compulsion is often limited to helping family and protecting the supernatural secret from mortals.

9 LAUGH AT THE GIRL WHO LOVED TOO EASILY

It’s no secret that the spawning of this vampiric saga was the love story of The Vampire Diaries and the trend continues in Rebekah’s character. She is constantly in relationships, told that she is desperate and “loves too easily.” This is not entirely untrue, she wants love and a family, something she believes will be denied to her as a vampire, but she continually seeks it out. Often this is stripped away by her brother, Klaus, who does not want to be abandoned. We have seen her involved with the Salvatore brothers, an ancient hunter, a small town boy (Matt) who took the life of her brother and Klaus’ adoptive son Marcel. Still, anyone is bound to rack up a list of exes after a millennium.

8 TRUE LOVE NEVER PERISHES

It is revealed early on in The Originals that Marcel fell in love with Rebekah when he was a young boy and that love was returned when he was older. Marcel was raised by her brother Klaus, therefore making him an adoptive nephew to Rebekah. Klaus, believing that she was ‘stealing’ his adoptive son, daggered his sister, keeping her ‘deceased’ for fifty-two years. She awoke to discover that Marcel had been offered a choice: to live out his human days with Rebekah or to let her rot and be turned into a vampire. Aside from going from aunt to lover and then being betrayed, Rebekah and Marcel soon re-started their love even after his betrayal.

7 SHE JUST WANTS TO SETTLE DOWN

In every relationship there is a settler. Rebekah has been consistently vocal about what she wants: “to have kids with someone who loves me enough to stand outside my window with a stupid boom box. I want to be human.”

“I want to live a simple life as a normal person and when it ends it ends.” She believes all this is impossible as a vampire and intends to take the cure to become human again. She decides to be with Marcel, a vampire, incapable of children, who will be with someone who will stay young while she ages. She could have remained a vampire or gone off, free, to find a human she could do it with. Instead, she settles to reverse the situation she feared for herself.

6 DON’T PLAY WITH YOUR FOOD

The vampire race is a predatory species, but they were all human once and many still have moral reservations about feeding and taking lives. Lexy, Stephan, Caroline, and Josh are vampires who are consistently shown to have empathy and (with humanity intact) restraint. Rebekah and most of the Original family will happily drink a human with no remorse. After a thousand years as vampires before the days of blood bags it might be expected, but it does make it hard to empathize with her.

This steadily changes for Rebekah in her interactions with Matt and other human teenagers from The Vampire Diaries who refuse to be intimidated. When The Originals begins, her random slayings are a little reduced and she shows care and concern for other humans around her, like Camille.

5 I DON’T BABYSIT

It’s no secret that while aunts and uncles occasionally babysit, it isn’t their duty to parent and stay around all the time. However, when a miracle baby (the first new Mikaelson in one thousand years) is on the horizon, sticking around might be the right thing to do. When The Originals first started, Rebekah only arrived in New Orleans to track down her missing brother Elijah and had effectively severed her ties with Klaus for the first time beforehand, travelling the world with Matt Donovan. Once she found him, Rebekah was going to abandon Hayley when she was pregnant with her niece. Whilst she does stay Rebekah has repeatedly left New Orleans leaving Hope in the protection of her other siblings.

4 AND THE DOPPLEGANGER BITES THE DUST

Rebekah’s story was first introduced in the original series The Vampire Diaries, so when she took the life of the main protagonist, Elena Gilbert, it was tragic. Rebekah ran both Elena and Matt off a bridge and she drowned. Unfortunately, Elena was linked to the mad Original Alaric created by Esther and ending Elena was the only way to destroy him and protect the rest of her family after he seemingly exterminated Klaus. Particularly devastating as this was after Damon protected her and, had Alaric and Elena not perished, would have meant his demise. Whilst this is bad for Elena, she perished with vampire blood in her system, which meant that fans finally saw Elena become a vampire.

3 SHE KEEPS ON COMING BACK

Rebekah’s longest and supposedly last love was Marcel, an on-off relationship that had been going on for centuries. Marcel chose many things over Rebekah, yet she went back to him repeatedly even after he abandoned her to a daggered state, never went looking for them after the Originals were forced to flee New Orleans and, greatest of all, almost caused the demise of Kol and Elijah in the third season. He took a magic serum developed by the second generation of vampires, granting Marcel enhanced abilities beyond the Originals. His bite also became toxic and it is this he uses on her siblings, forcing the family to spell themselves into a frozen state for half a decade before Hayley and Hope go on the run.

2 JUST ANOTHER DAGGER

Rebekah has been daggered repeatedly by her brother Klaus. For days, to years, to decades, he would keep her in a coffin and bring her out when he was feeling forgiving. Her longest dagger demise was for ninety years, bringing her from the flapper twenties into the twenty-first century. She immediately forgives Klaus despite this serious mistreatment and betrayal.

These incidents usually occur when she chooses something for herself, generally a romantic entanglement, who would also often be dispatched. They rob her of time and autonomy, leaving her constantly under threat for the last thousand years. Despite these continued attacks on herself and her partners she instantly finds herself at Klaus’ side. After all, family is “always and forever.”

1 COFFIN NAPS DO YOU GOOD

Klaus often daggered his siblings to punish them and keep them contained. This was a pseudo demise, a somewhat comatose state for Original Vampires brought on by a silver dagger dipped in white oak ash. Their original intention was to be used by hunters to put down the indestructible family; instead, they fell into the hands of Klaus, a vampire/Original hybrid, on whom they had no effect. Every time he had a minor dispute with family he would put them down for a few decades at a time. Rebekah (and often Elijah) followed Klaus to a fault and never attempted to help their fallen family. Including Finn, who was daggered and carted around in a coffin for nine-hundred years.

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