Summary
Legaciesis one of the two spinoffs fromThe Vampire Diariesoriginal series and is best remembered for the many story contradictions that populated the TV show. The first series is based on the books by L. J. Smith, and afterThe Vampire Diariesexploded in popularity, it made sense for the network and the creators to capitalize on its success.The Originals, the first spinoff, introduces Hope Mikaelson,played by Danielle Rose Russell in Hope’s teenage and young adult years. She went on to be the star ofLegaciesalongside characters old and new to the franchise.
The daughter of an original vampire, an alpha werewolf, and descended from powerful witches, Hope was set up to be a memorable character in her own spinoff,Legacies.
The daughter of an original vampire, an alpha werewolf, and descended from powerful witches, Hope was set up to be a memorable character in her own spinoff,Legacies. AlthoughLegaciesseason 5 was canceled, the series impacted the franchise, especially because it altered so much of the original lore fromThe Vampire Diaries. So much happened in bothThe Vampire DiariesandThe Originalsthatit can be difficult to keep track of the many magical rules and creatures included in the series.However, some flaws are so glaring that they’re impossible to ignore.
10 Legacies Storylines I Can’t Believe Made It To Air
Despite the Legacies' strengths, the TVD and Originals spinoff show included many storylines that I don’t think should have made it to air.
10Lizzie Easily Breaks Her Sire Bond
Something that was nearly impossible in The Vampire Diaries takes a moment in Legacies.
Overall, the characters inLegaciesdon’t have to deal with the worst of hardships and difficulties that those inThe Vampire Diariesdo. Plot points that derailed episodes and upended character development, like the sire bond, barely make a dent in the storylines onLegacies.Elena’s bond with Damon changes her personalityand is one of the biggest factors in her initial decision to pick him over Stefan. Overcoming the bond is difficult, time-consuming, and is often defined by intense physical pain to help the new vampire out of their fog.
Lizzie is barely affected by her sire bond with Hope and easily overcomes Hope’s demandsand influence. Hope tries to force Lizzie to kill someone after she turns, and Lizze refuses because it’s the right thing to do. This is confusing, as inThe Vampire Diaries, Tyler bites Caroline and nearly kills her because Klaus demands it as his sire. Tyler loves Caroline and states he will never do this, but still must leave for the woods to break his bond. Lizzie’s ability to exercise self-control and break the bond upendsThe Vampire Diariesplotlines.
9The Existence Of The Malivore Doesn’t Make Sense
The Malivore and Landon’s characters are a difficult part of Legacies to understand.
Monsters and the Malivore are meant to be treated differently than supernatural entities that populate the earlier shows.
One of the core features ofLegaciesthat differentiates it from bothThe Vampire DiariesandThe Originalsis the existence of monsters and the Malivore. Monsters and the Malivore are meant to be treated differently than supernatural entities that populate the earlier shows.It makes sense thatLegacieswould want to distance itself from the lore and stories of the other series,as it was a new entity that should be considered a unique project. However, Malivore and the monsters added byLegaciesend up blurring the line between the rules for existing creatures.
This also brings up the inconsistencies with the plot of The Triad, the group that created Malivore. The Triad was a group of one witch, one vampire, and one werewolf who created Malivore to consume all the monsters on Earth. However,the timeline of The Triad’s existence and when Malivore was made doesn’t align with when vampires were borninThe Vampire Diaries. Additionally, if The Triad had existed the whole time, they would have come after Klaus and other hybrids for their supposed abomination.
8Hope’s Past Timeline Is Altered
How and when she gets to the Salvatore School is inconsistent.
The Vampire Diariesand its spinoff timelineis a confusing aspect of all three shows. As time progressed, each show jumped forward to account for changes in the character’s ages and to avoid problematic storylines.The Originalsincludes time skips twice to account for Hope getting older and Klaus' absence in her life. Later,Legacieswould be set in the near future, though this is rarely important to the show’s premise.However, the exact time she is sent to the Salvatore School versus whenThe OriginalsandLegaciesoverlap doesn’t line up.
Though Hope, Josie, and Lizzie aren’t the same age in the earlier shows, they’re described to be inLegacies. Additionally, inThe Originals, Hope is sent to the Salvatore School when she’s seven, but there’s an inconsistency in a flashback episode later on.It’s implied that Hope came to the school when the twins were eleven, but this wouldn’t be possible,as they’re two years younger than her. However,Legaciesplays with the character’s ages and pasts to best fit the present storyline.
7The Existence Of Gods
Once Gods were introduced, it was clear that Legacies was going to change a lot.
Every God inLegaciesbrings something unique to the table, but they all challenge the previously established ideas about how magic, vampires, and other supernatural beings came into the world. When the Mikaelsons were introduced inThe VampireDiaries,their story explained how vampires were created as well as the powerful witch line that every Mikaelson descends from.The Vampire Diariesdoes a good job of making magic a tangible and natural force that witches connect to through the Earth. However, this explanation for the supernatural is altered by the Gods.
Additionally, if the Gods' powers were fueled by human belief in them, there would be more proof and evidence of their history. The rules for how Gods can exist and why they never appeared inThe Vampire Diariesare never fully explained.Many different afterlives and realities are discussed and explored inThe Vampire Diaries,so they would likely have encountered the Gods already. Overall, the Gods are a needless addition to a franchise that already had enough lore to draw from.
6Blurring The Line Of The Invitation Rule
A vampire can’t come in unless they’re invited, but the exact rules aren’t clear.
One of the most enduring rules across all vampire lore is that a vampire can’t come into someone’s house unless they’re invited inside.The Vampire Diariescircumvents many traditional vampire rulesby giving them magic sunlight rings so they can walk around during the day and giving them unique ways around being killed time and again. When it comes to the invitation rule, every show inThe Vampire Diariesfranchise is fairly consistent with ensuring that a vampire has the weakness that they can’t enter a home where they’re not welcome.
This contradicts a moment inThe Vampire Diarieswhen Bonnie invites Stefan inside merely by nodding.
However,Legaciesalters the specific nuances and requirements of this rule. Hope gets inside the school without an invitation after she’s turned in the wake of turning off her humanity switch. Additionally, it’s explicitly stated inLegaciesthat a vampire must be verbally invited in for it to work. This contradicts a moment inThe Vampire Diarieswhen Bonnie invites Stefan inside merely by nodding. Though this is a smaller detail and could easily be overlooked,it shows the rift betweenLegaciesandThe Vampire Diaries.
5The Siphoners Powers & Twin Merge
Lizzie and Josie have the difficult job of shouldering the Gemini twin burden.
At the start ofLegacies, Lizzie and Josie are introduced as Alaric’s children, who are biologically Jo’s but were carried by Caroline inThe Vampire Diaries. How a vampire can carry children is one of the many problems with the original series, but things grow even more complicated when Lizzie and Josie grow up.As members of the Gemini Coven, the sisters know that they have to perform The Mergeas part of the coven’s traditions. However, The Merge determines who will become the coven’s leader, meaning one of them will die in the process.
Though Lizzie and Josie are close, this fact makes things very difficult for them and their relationship, and they were born siphoners. While they can’t generate their own magic, they can draw it from other sources and even retain this ability if they’re turned into vampires. The problems of siphoning and merging are huge issues inThe Vampire Diaries. Conversely, they’re easily resolved with little drama inLegacies.They avoid The Merge when Lizzie becomes a vampire, and siphoning is characterized by something easyand painless. This diverges from how both were characterized before.
4The Dark Magic Split Personality
Tapping into dark magic does something entirely different in Legacies.
Dark magic physically and emotionally affects Bonnie, but she’s still herself and doesn’t have a wild personality shift.
It’s obvious that Julie Plec, an executive producer and co-creator ofThe Vampire Diaries, is interested in other supernatural teen dramas.Buffy The Vampire Slayerlikely influenced the dark magic plotlinethat alters Josie’s personality, making her Dark Josie. This can easily be compared to the Dark Willow plotline inBuffy The Vampire Slayerseason 6, but it doesn’t align with whatThe Vampire Diarieshad done in the past. Bonnie, one of the best witches inThe Vampire Diaries, has a few forays into using dark magic but doesn’t change who she is.
Dark magic physically and emotionally affects Bonnie, but she’s still herself and doesn’t have a wild personality shift. Conversely,Josie becomes someone entirely different when she uses dark magic,even though it’s initially for the greater good. Josie transforms into an antagonist and behaves similarly to how vampires do when they turn off their humanity switch. While Josie is a siphoner and all witches are different, it doesn’t make sense that the impact of dark magic would be so incongruent with the past.
3Ben’s Backstory
The demigod who made everything more difficult.
Ben’s history as a demigod and the so-called Prometheus of magic made him one of the most contradictory characters fromLegacies.His backstory is a clear adaptation of the myth of Prometheus, but he brings magic to humansinstead of fire, and his actions spur the development of all supernatural beings and monsters. Based on what audiences know about magic and vampires from the earlier shows, this wouldn’t be possible. Additionally, Ben’s motivations are unclear throughout his arc, making it difficult to follow these changes.
It’s Ben’s story in particular that stands out as the most anachronistic when it comes to already established storylines fromThe Vampire Diaries. It’s frustrating thatLegacies' final season was the one to change the history of magic’s origins after so much of Hope and other witches' identities are tied to how magic came into existence.Instead of magic being a part of Earth and witches having the power to tap into it, it was one man who made it available to humans,who then misused it.
2The Humans In Mystic Falls Forgot Alaric’s Many Deaths
Legacies finally brought his constant cycle of deaths and resurrections to a close.
Alaric Saltzman dies a lot inThe Vampire DiariesandLegacies, but the consistency of canon and continuity when it comes to what people remember about his past is murky. It’s inThe Vampire Diariesseason 3 that Alaric dies the most, and eventually loses his body and is a ghost for most of season 4. ThoughThe Vampire Diariesframes magic and vampirism as an open secret in Mystic Falls,the fact that no one in the town seems to remember Alaric’s past inLegaciesis confusing.He was a high school teacher in Mystic Falls for years and was a staple of local events.
The inconsistencies in his deaths and people’s knowledge of them aren’t the only parts of Alaric’s character that don’t always make the most sense.
Tragically,Alaric finally succumbs to death for good inLegaciesseason 4,but it seems that this is always where his character is going to end up. The inconsistencies in his deaths and people’s knowledge of them aren’t the only parts of Alaric’s character that don’t always make the most sense. InLegacies, he makes many of the same mistakes with Hope and his daughters that he did with Elena and Jeremy when he was partially raising him, and Alaric should’ve learned from some of these past missteps.
1Hope’s Missing Relatives
The Mikaelsons loved Hope. They wouldn’t leave her at boarding school and never return.
As the daughter of some of the most powerful beings on Earth, Hope Mikaelson always has oversized abilities and strength. However, she got this way through great cost and personal loss.The many deaths within her family have a profound impact on Hope,and this influences how she interacts with the people who try to get close to her inLegacies. After Hope arrives at the Salvatore School, she’s very lonely and sees Alaric as a surrogate father. However, it doesn’t make sense that the other Mikaelsons wouldn’t come to see her.
Of course, this is likely because many actors fromThe OriginalsandThe Vampire Diarieshad no interest in renewing their contracts with the franchise or were booked on other projects. Despite these tangible reasons why Hope doesn’t see her surviving family often,it still feels like a plot hole and a missed opportunity to further explore Hope as a character.For much of the series, Hope feels defined by her family’s legacy, even though the audience rarely sees them.
Legacies
Cast
Legacies is a Supernatural Fantasy Drama created by Julie Plec and starring Danielle Rose Russell, Jenny Boyd, Kaylee Bryant, and Aria Shahghasemi. The series if a spin-off of the show The Originals. The premise revolves around Hope Mikaelson, a character deeply rooted in the world of vampires, witches, and werewolves, as she attempts to integrate into life and the many struggles that come with it.
