The Vampire Diaries: Katherine's 10 Shadiest Burns | Screen Rant
There are a lot of memorable characters in The Vampire Diaries, but none quite manage to hold a candle to Katherine Pierce. She is ruthless, seductive, and powerful, and that's what makes a good villain so engaging. She is one of the best TV antagonists, and that comes in part because she has the best lines.
Life gets convoluted with the various supernatural happenings in Mystic Falls, but Katherine always finds a way to come out on top without letting the chaos ruffle her feathers. She always has a snarky line or comeback to tear down the people around her, and these are some of the best burns she ever uttered.
Fans knew that Katherine had to have some living relatives since Elena was descended from her, but it was still a surprise when Nadia made her way to town, looking for her mother. Katherine has never been the kind of person anyone would call maternal, and that didn't change much when she was first introduced to Nadia.
However, Katherine gradually began to see herself in her daughter, praising her for her good hair, manipulations, and cold attitude toward others. While this was the start of the two bonding, two of the three traits can hardly be called compliments coming from anyone other than Katherine.
While many fans think Jeremy should have ended up with Anna, it definitely wasn't fair of him to cheat on Bonnie with his ex-girlfriend. Between the general betrayal of cheating and the specific supernatural details of it, Jeremy and Anna's relationship was definitely a little strange.
Katherine picked up on all of that tension and weirdness and rolled it all up into one concise burn. Jeremy deserved to be told off for the way he was treating Bonnie, and Katherine did it in the best way. She said what the audience was all thinking, and did it in the most iconic way possible.
Rebekah might have been best known for her romantic dalliances, but she was an Original vampire, with all the power that entailed. Yet Katherine showed very little fear in the face of her wrath. Katherine had a knack for spinning every situation to her advantage, so while she spent centuries running from Klaus, she didn't hold that same level of fear and respect for his siblings.
At the end of the day, Katherine was more interested in maintaining her snarky persona than courting favor with an Original. While the burn itself was a little childish, Katherine's willingness to upset Rebekah made it badass.
The existence of the doppelgangers provided plenty of opportunities for Katherine to impersonate Elena, and the time she spent possessing Elena's body served as the culmination of every impersonation that came before.
Katherine always looked down on Elena for being more boring in looks and personality, but their appearances made a big difference in fans knowing which character Nina Dobrev was playing at the moment. This burn allowed Katherine to throw a dig at Elena while also prepping the audience to accept Katherine looking like Elena, an important pre-requisite to body-swapping fun.
While Stefan and Damon were able to stand up against some serious opponents, it's important to remember the general rule in the vampire community that vampires get stronger the longer they live. Based on that standard, Katherine was one of the most powerful vampires in TVD, not counting Originals and those like them.
This inherent power structure meant that Katherine never really felt threatened by the Salvatore brothers, which led to some of her most iconic lines. Katherine's confidence in her own power is strong enough that she doesn't have to show it off—the threat is enough.
Damon was the ultimate villain in season 1 of The Vampire Diaries until Katherine was introduced, at which point audiences started to see him as a love-sick puppy. Damon truly loved Katherine, but she chose Stefan. Likewise, while she was alive, Elena always chose Stefan over Damon, leading the characters to assume all affection she held for Damon was due to the sire bond.
Katherine made sure to throw a little salt in those wounds, using her own affairs with Damon against him while he worried about Elena. It hurt because it was true, which led fans to root for Delena's relationship that much more.
Even though being a vampire turned out to be the best thing for Caroline, it was pretty brutal to see Katherine kill her just to prove a point. Katherine, however, was clearly unfazed by the experience, because she casually threatened Caroline to do it again.
Caroline was one of the strongest vampires in the core Mystic Falls group, taking to her new life like she was made for it. But that doesn't mean she was capable of standing up to Katherine Pierce. Katherine knew her own strength, which let her make threats and insults with some real weight behind them.
The Gilbert family was heavily connected with the supernatural even before the Salvatore brothers came to Mystic Falls, interacting with and killing vampires on a regular basis. Jeremy inherited that lineage, eventually becoming part of a secret group of hunters called the Brotherhood of Five and even taking out an Original.
But that powerful legacy meant very little to Katherine, who didn't see Jeremy as a threat. She had the absolute best comeback to Jeremy's threats and bravado, referring back to another Gilbert man who thought he knew how to handle her and paid the price.
It's practically a rite of passage for vampires to turn off their humanity a time or two since their increased sensations can make them feel too deeply. Because of that, Katherine is kind of impressive for never turning hers off, despite everything that has been done to her. Elena did some terrible things when her humanity was off, so it's terrifying to think what Katherine could do without hers.
When the Salvatore brothers are trying to get Elena to turn her humanity back on, they turn to Katherine for help, but she is never one to coddle Elena. She insults Elena, calling her weak for turning off her humanity, for needing to be protected from all the horrors of life. It's an amazing burn because it simultaneously points out something frustrating about Elena that audiences had been pointing out for years while also holding up Katherine as the paragon of vampiric strength.
Because Damon was so in love with Katherine, he opened himself fully to her, and that, along with some spying over the years, meant that she knew him incredibly well. Damon was never one for doing things in small measures, so she knew that his spiral was likely to be something big.
Katherine's burns are the best on the show because they're always grounded in truth, just said more openly than anyone else would dare. She manages to insult Damon along with anybody else who thinks Damon's temperament could be an easy fix.