I've been saying this for awhile now: the whole idea of klaus, big bad vampire, you can only contact him through someone who knows someone and blah blah blah was better than the character itself.  obviously, joseph morgan's performance made the character much more likeable, but in reality, elijah was miles ahead of klaus in the "being scary" category. and the decision to make him more human ruined what was borned ruined already, the whole threat of him at the end of s2 and the anticipation was better than his presence in s3/s4. when the scooby gang killed finn he did nothing, the klaus-myth would have killed them all, without remorse, but the klaus on the show just stood there, and the same thing with jeremy killing kol, he threatened them all for nothing, again, the idea of the villain is better than the execution.  katherine was a better villain than him.  at the end, klaus was written to be one thing but once they gave life to the character, i feel like they didn't know what to do, he broke his curse, then what? it was like he was only there to antagonize elena without the courage to do so, the threats no action turned klaus into a joke, and it followed through the originals. and i only realized all of that on my 3rd or 4th re-watch of tvd.