The Vampire Diaries Universe: How Legacies Broke Its Own Rules

by

When Legacies debuted in 2018, it effectively ended the Vampire Diaries franchise. The Vampire Diaries originally aired on The CW for eight seasons starting in 2009 and was popular enough to inspire a spin-off about the Original vampires. But by the time Legacies arrived, interest in the initial series had faded.

Legacies continued the story after both The Vampire Diaries and The Originals ended. It centered on a new group of students at the Salvatore School for the Young & Gifted, primarily aimed at fans who already knew the previous shows. Many of the characters were related to those from the original series – Hope was Klaus’s daughter, and the Saltzman twins were the children of Alaric and Caroline. The show depended a lot on viewers’ existing knowledge and didn’t quite live up to expectations set by The Originals.

Hope Mikaelson Made Her Debut in The Originals

Similar to how Buffy the Vampire Slayer and its spin-off Angel redefined the supernatural genre, The Originals took a different approach. While Buffy and Angel featured teen romance, The Originals focused on a dramatic family saga in the style of Anne Rice’s novels, with a central storyline revolving around the birth of a unique child.

The story of The Originals began with a surprising connection: a one-night stand between werewolf Hayley and the vampire-werewolf hybrid, Klaus. Despite the odds, they had a daughter named Hope. The show largely focused on protecting Hope as she grew up, and later seasons featured Danielle Rose Russell as an older, teenage Hope.

Initially, some viewers struggled to connect with the younger version of Hope. However, that reaction was misguided. Introducing a magically powerful teenager with all the complexities of adolescence brought the show back to the feel of The Vampire Diaries. The tension was further heightened by the fact that Klaus couldn’t be near his own daughter.

Klaus and his siblings gained a dangerous power called the Hollow, which forced them to separate and, crucially, stay away from Hope. Being near her would cause a devastating disaster. Understandably, this left Hope feeling lost and rebellious, especially since she also possessed incredibly powerful and unique abilities.

Hope faced unimaginable hardships, especially for someone so young. After years of her mother, Hayley, desperately trying to keep her safe, Hayley was tragically killed, followed shortly by Klaus. Both made the ultimate sacrifice, ensuring Hope’s survival in a selfless act of redemption.

Hope was sadly left without a family, and being both one-of-a-kind and an orphan was a particularly difficult situation for her. The Originals frequently explored challenging themes like these, so it made sense that the story would continue. Hope seemed like the perfect character to lead a new series, but the way it was done didn’t quite make sense.

Legacies Don’t Make Sense in the World of The Originals

When the show began, Hope was already a student at the Salvatore School in Mystic Falls, Virginia. Despite being far from her home in New Orleans, she immediately faced complex and challenging situations connected to her family. The series quickly introduced a problem for Hope, as she was involved in a troubling incident at school.

Henry, a werewolf constantly picked on, asked Hope for her blood, hoping to become a hybrid strong enough to stand up for himself. Hope agreed, but only if he kept the transformation a secret. However, Henry dramatically revealed his change by leaping from a window, both attempting suicide and beginning his hybrid transformation.

Hope readily agreed to trade her blood, and Henry felt trapped in a cycle of bullying at school with no way out except suicide – a decision that led to his unexpected return. However, Hope’s actions resulted in immediate suspension and a return to New Orleans, which was exactly what her mother had tried to avoid.

She did eventually come back to the Salvatore School, but when she did, it was almost completely different. The show took a big chance with its new direction and storylines. Rather than exploring Hope’s emotional pain, the writers dramatically changed established facts and history within the series, much to the surprise of longtime viewers.

It wasn’t just vampires, werewolves, and witches inhabiting the supernatural world. Recently, many other creatures have begun to emerge from hiding.

The first season of the show introduced fantastical elements like dragons, necromancers, and gargoyles, moving away from the more realistic style of earlier seasons. While The Vampire Diaries and The Originals successfully explored similar changes in tone, feeling natural within their settings, Legacies went too far and didn’t quite work. Hope returned to school, but instead of facing serious threats, she dealt with a weak romantic interest and an uninteresting villain, ultimately leading to a decline in quality.

It always seemed odd that Hope, the daughter of such a notorious vampire, would lead a team of unlikely heroes. Despite being a high school student, she’d experienced a shocking amount of tragedy and loss. The show’s depiction of her life in New Orleans felt jarring and didn’t quite align with her established personality.

Legacies Was Too Chaotic for Its Own Good

It’s easy for a show to slip from being delightfully cheesy to just plain silly. But even with a sometimes strange tone, this series managed to include monsters that The Vampire Diaries couldn’t, regardless of whether viewers asked for them or not.

Once the show Legacies established that Malivore had wiped out almost all supernatural beings except for a few, it opened up endless storytelling possibilities. Each week, Hope and her friends found themselves tracking down a new creature rising from the Malivore pit. This eventually led to a surprising discovery: Hope’s boyfriend, Landon, was actually born from the pit and was a phoenix.

Despite some major plot twists, Legacies managed to reveal Hope’s destiny: she was meant to destroy Malivore. She sacrificed herself by jumping into the pit, eliminating the creature and, seemingly, herself. Had the show ended there, it would have been a fitting conclusion. However, the longer Legacies continued, the more confusing the story became.

Legacies didn’t quite capture the rich backstory of The Originals, nor did it have the same level of romantic tension. The pairing of Hope and Landon also felt forced, as he didn’t seem like a natural fit for a powerful hero, and they didn’t become physically intimate until the third season despite being in a relationship.

Despite some surprisingly over-the-top action scenes, Legacies grew increasingly boring as it went on. A strong character, Rafael, was initially set up as important but was later unexpectedly removed from the show. Meanwhile, Josie’s turn to the darker side felt forced and heavily borrowed from Buffy the Vampire Slayer without proper development.

Despite fans’ desire for the story of Mystic Falls to continue, the show ultimately suffered from weak writing and a lack of consistency. Legacies would have been stronger as a continuation of The Originals, building on the established story and characters. It already had a solid foundation and simply needed to focus on Hope and introduce her story to a new audience.

Several characters showed promise, particularly Josie and Lizzie, twin sisters destined for a magical showdown where they’d have to combine their identities. The dynamic between them and their volatile Uncle Kai was a great storyline, but it was cut short when the character was unexpectedly killed off.

The show Legacies quickly introduced many storylines without clear resolutions, ultimately leading to its cancellation. Though the series had ambitious ideas, it would have been more successful to focus on what already appealed to its existing audience instead of trying to attract new viewers with unfamiliar directions.

5 Questions
Did Legacies Do Justice to Hope Mikaelson?
Your Top Score
—
Attempts
—
0
0
Report Error

Found an error? Send it so it can be corrected.

Read More

2026-03-17 07:11