The Originals

Fandom
Name:	The Originals
Abbreviation(s):	TO
Creator:	Julie Plec
Date(s):	October 3, 2013-
Medium:	Television
Country of Origin:	USA
External Links:	Official Site, Wikipedia
Click here for related articles on Fanlore.

The Originals is a television show that is a spin-off of Vampire Diaries television series.

Canon

The show centers around Klaus Mikaelson returning to New Orleans to find it being run by Marcel Gerard, a vampire that he had created. Along with that he has to deal with witches that wish to end Marcel's reign, in order to get Klaus to join their cause they take Hayley Marshall. Hayley is pregnant with Klaus's child, a natural vampire/werewolf hybrid. In order to protect his unborn child and take back control of New Orleans, Klaus is joined by his siblings Rebekah and Elijah Mikaelson.

Rounding out the main characters are Camille O'Connell, a psychology student and bartender that Marcel falls for that Klaus uses against him. Cami wants to find out what happened with her twin brother, who had murdered several people in a church which is revealed to be due to a hex. Davina Claire is a immensely powerful witch due to The Harvest ritual and that is under the protection of Marcel. Sophie Deveraux is also a witch that has a goal of killing Davina in order to complete The Harvest ritual in order to see her niece again.

For individual character pages on Fanlore, see Category:The Originals Characters

Fandom

The initial fan reaction to the show was mixed. When The Originals was announced fans wondered what the writers had in store. Announcement that Phoebe Tonkin, who portrayed werewolf Hayley on The Vampire Diaries, would be joining the cast caused some confusion among some of the fans, who perceived her as a unrelated guest star, only loosely connected to Klaus. Fans of Caroline Forbes, who wanted her to cross over to The Originals, were largely disapponted and there was some hate and character bashing directed at Hayley (some of it was also directed at the actress portraying her) as well as the character Cami O'Connell. When the "nature's loophole" storyline, and Hayley's pregnancy was introduced in episode 4x20 of The Vampire Diaries (the backdoor pilot, titled "The Originals") a lot of fans mocked the idea of a "miracle baby". Some of the older fans compared that idea to Angel's story arc in season 3, when two vampires (Angel and Darla) had sex and had a baby as a result. They joked that the baby plot was used before, and it didn't work then either.

At the same times other fans (especially those who were fans of Joseph Morgan) were trying to withold the judgement and wanted the show and its stars to succeed. In the show's early days, when there was a lot of discontent among the fans, who refused to watch the Originals (they were often identifying at Klaroline shippers who still wanted their pairing to "happen" and saw the show or the characters involved as an obstacle to that), there was a lot of "hate" posted in the originals Tumblr tag, and fans who enjoyed the show decided to create a "safe heaven". They started to use original groupies tag in addition to the fandom tag, to give themselves some way of filtering fandom content to avoid hateful posts.

Pairings

For more pairings in the fandom, as well as the most popular pairing names, see List of The Originals Pairing Names.

In the het department, fans tend to ship Elijah/Hayley, Klaus/Hayley, Rebekah/Marcel and Klaus/Camille. There are other rarepair ships, but since The Originals fandom isn't a big one, they are sporadic.

As far as slash pairings go, there's Klaus/Marcel and Elijah/Marcel as two most prominent ones. Canon pairing of Josh/Aiden also has a small following.

(is there any femslash?)

Shipping Conflicts

Fan confession regarding the shipping conflicts in TO fandom

Starting with season one of the show, large groups within the fandom were involved in somewhat prominent conflicts over their fandom OTPs. Some of it was a cross over from the conflicts the fans were involved in before the show started (the conflict between the Klaroline and Klayley shippers akin to a ship war), but the antagonistic approach didn't stop there. Two new possible/canon pairings with Klaus were introduced (Klamille and Klenevieve), each of them gathering some following. For a while there, it didn't look as if the conflicts would go away, which annoyed and frustrated some fans, who weren't involved in them.

Fandom Tropes

• Fan-made Trailers - especially popular before the show premiered and at the beginning of season one, vidders liked to create fan trailers, promos and ever credits for the show. They often modified the cast to include their favorite characters (most commonly Kol Mikaelson and Caroline Forbes) that they wanted to see on the show in addition, or as a replacement for other characters they don't like as much.

Examples:

• The Originals by AngeloftheNight30 (feat. Kol, Caroline, Stefan, Bonnie, and Katherine)

Fanworks

Examples Wanted: Editors are encouraged to add more examples or a wider variety of examples.

Fanfics

• Bloodlust by Rattlesnake Smile, a first Josh/Aiden fic
• Only Human, a Klaroline fic by peaceful village
• A thousand years by Voluntears

Fanart

• The Originals fan-made poster by katerinakh
• Klamille by Gallery Gestapo
• Klaus by anonimus9933
• Elijah and Hayley by Veilaks
• Hope by [klamilleendgame]
• Rebekah Michaelson by ayxiel

Fanvids

• holding a heart (Elijah/Hayley, Marcel/Rebekah, Klaus/Camille)
• Family makes you weak
• I did what I had to do
• the brave bartender by SayaxSama, a Klaus/Cami video
• Warriors by xLadyBlackBerryx

Archives and Communities

• The Originals and crossovers works at FFN
• The Originals fanworks at AO3

Fannish Links

• The Originals Always and Forever, a fansite

Resources

• The Originals at The Vampire Diaries Wikia