This is a late question but looking back in hindsight should they have switched the more abusive parent storyline and made esther the one abusing klaus and mikael the more tame one? I mean think about it, esther was the most powerful before the vampires came, she was the one who didnt want klaus to be found out as not being her son ergo it would make sense she'd see him as a reminder of her adultery. I mean it was all played out right there, it never made sense that mikael was the abusive one. What?, just cause he came from a time where the husband had more say over the wife, that was the writers logic?, esther by all logic could have had mikael submit to her any day of the week but they made her look submissive for some reason, people might say cause her and dahlias village were terrorized by the vikings but that was done for dramatic effect, you arent going to have me believe a clan of witches get beaten so easily by humans. And on top of all this, mikael was just that, he had no power other than your typical viking at the time, even if mikael was this giant butch man, id still not buy it. Cause the reasoning for all that torture klaus went through and to an extent the siblings, we never really knew the reason for mikaels hatred before klaus got esther and henrik killed. The closest we got is a line where mikael says he is hideous so maybe he thought he was ugly which is ironic cause klaus looks more like mikael than he does ansel.
It felt to me like a rip off of gisueppe and this trope of dads being the abusive ones but if you're going to go with that trope at least explain why, they never did, it just would have more sense for esther, there was no power other than a psychological fear? that mikael had on esther, I mean she wasnt afraid to cheat on him behind his back, like I guess she couldnt just divorce him, I know its a fantasy show but idk how divorce worked in viking times.....and that too, we never knew what led esther to cheat on mikael in the first place, I just realized that.