Legacies, the second spin-off in The Vampire Diaries universe, offered a new generation’s story from familiar family lines with a style, tone, and journey unique to its predecessors. Like The Vampire Diaries, Legacies began in Mystic Falls with a recently orphaned teenage girl, Hope Mikaelson (Danielle Rose Russell), reeling from the loss of her parents and aided by father figure Alaric Saltzman (Matt Davis) as she finds her purpose, strength, and a new family. Unlike Elena, Hope was no stranger to the world of vampires, magic, and monsters, having faced against some of the strangest and most consuming dark forces in this world as a child. Through Hope and other key characters like Lizzie (Jenny Boyd) and Josie Saltzman (Kaylee Bryant), we were given young adult characters who were battling with living up to their bloodlines and finding their own happiness, family, and growth with the weight of saving the world from supernaturally powered monsters who continuously target and hunt them. The show is full of heart, style, compelling emotion, ever growing characters, a unique take on classic folklore, genre homages, and fierce energy, but it is not without its flaws. Season 3 revealed some hurdles the show needs to get past in its upcoming 4th season to elevate the characters’ journey, honor the original spirit of the show, and hold on to the fan base.
What Season 3 Did Right:
Found a way to creatively honor the TVD roots and characters without the original actors
The show’s Mystic Falls setting has been equally nostalgic and problematic. This town is plagued with darkness and a prevalent supernatural community barely hidden, which gives us a new generation in a familiar setting. The downside is there’s a ton of suspension of disbelief needed especially when characters from the originals series, many who are family to Legacies’ characters and even live in the same town, are never seen. The writers work around this oddity and try to create reasons for key characters’ absences as best as they can. While there’s no real fix as long as it’s still set in Mystic Falls, Season 3 did take advantage of moments to creatively honor The Vampire Diaries and The Originals heroes and villains without bringing back cast members who have moved on from these characters.
This was done wonderfully in one of the strongest episodes of Season 3, “Salvatore: The Musical”. The Salvatore School puts on a play of the school’s origins, tackling the romance, loss, and epic stories of Stefan, Damon, Elena, and Caroline. The episode was a complete throwback to the original series and even allowed the mystical teens of The Salvatore School to enter the TVD fandom themselves. It also took us back to some of The Vampire Diaries'' most iconic early moments. The episode poked fun at the craziness of trying to sum up a story fueled by doppelgängers, sleeping curses, and supernatural siphoning. Rather than simply being a fun homage episode for the fans, it offered some fantastic emotion, connections these characters hold to the original Mystic Falls characters, and even offered closure and key connections, giving the teens permission to honor the past and embrace their unique differences.
One of the last episodes of the season, “A New Hope,” a dream dimension Star Wars and sci-fi powered episode found a way to honor past characters while focusing on the modern-day characters and story. The episode gave us a satisfying throwback with a young Hope Mikaelson and a modern day Lizzie, Josie, and Hope inside Lizzie’s 11 year-old fanfiction scenario. This allowed for the return of the actress who played Hope in season 4 of The Originals, Summer Fontana. Additionally, it offered another look at a familiar villain and allowed them to tackle their fears head-on while giving the audience a more enlightened perspective of what these characters were struggling with at a young age. Additionally, it further embraces Lizzie’s closet nerd, which is always a satisfying journey to go on and reveals her true character more.
Personal Exploration, Growth and Unity
If there’s one thing Julie Plec knows how to do well it’s to tackle damage, darkness, and fear, and tend to it, creating poetic and profound growth. This season this was most evident in Lizzie and Josie, both in their individual paths and their understanding and connection to each other. The twins having their own storylines and physically being separated allows them to be stronger and focus on their own journey while knowing they will be there for each other when they truly need it. Josie starts the season at Mystic Falls High to help her come to terms with her dark magic bender, the damage she caused to others, and what might still linger in her. Josie takes time for herself to heal and explore who she could be simply as a person without the weight of the world on her shoulders and conniving sinister uncles trying to get her to succumb to the same darkness. Beyond this she learns how to prioritize her own desires, put herself out there, and further explore her sexuality and romantic bond with a girl she connects with, Finch (Courtney Bandeko), who she turns out to have even in more in common with than she first suspected. Lizzie likewise acknowledges and tackles her issues and continues to grow as she is reminded or her own worth and thirst to continue to become the best version of herself. Even in her most troubling moments her passion, loyalty, intuition, and determination offer a reminder of her strength as a character and how her complex journey is one of the most satisfying of the series.
While Hope is fueled by her anger and despair for a large part of this season, there are key moments in her acknowledging the loss of her family and the seemingly losing battle of her and Landon’s love that set up future growth. Additionally, there are strong moments of unity between her, Lizzie, and Josie, and realizing they are her family too, as well as through a new student with her own dark origins and secrets, Cleo (Omano Okajie).
M.G. (Quincy Fouse) is on a similar path to Josie this season, leaving the Salvatore School and exploring how he can do some good with his vampiric nature. He bonds with Ethan (Leo Howard), the former Mystic Falls quarterback, who learns of the supernatural true nature of M.G. and his Salvatore School classmates. Rather than taking away his memories, M.G. can’t help but see it as an opportunity to have someone who doesn’t see him as a demon but as a superhero, akin to those he idolizes. He makes mistakes during his vampiric hero escapades and learns and grows from them. Just as importantly, the relationship between them shows connection, unity, and a depiction of male closeness that is noteworthy. The Vampire Diaries and connected worlds have always honored the bromance and close male relationship, but in this season of Legacies, the focus on the importance and validity of male characters being sensitive and expressing their care without there needing to be homoerotic subtext was particularly prevalent. In society, we give women this right far more than men.
The Necromancer as a Frenemy
The Necromancer (Ben Guerens) is an amazing character and the most enticing villain to be introduced on Legacies thus far. His over-the-top theatrics, tongue-in-cheek malicious snark and constant scheming, and dedication to being a reigning master of necromancy makes him a villain you can’t get enough of. You still root for our heroes, but he’s so infectious you root for him to bring havoc another day. The Necromancer keeps the dark roots of the inherent threat present and our heroes on their toes while also offering wildly entertaining material and comedic flare. Allowing him to work alongside them created the perfect frenemy to The Salvatore School gang and ample snark and witty one-liners, creating a hellacious duo. Hopefully, he becomes a Katherine Pierce in the end, the villain and occasional frenemy who keeps on finding a way back into these characters lives to thrive in their never-ending diabolical plans.
What it’s time for in Season 4
Stop using the prison world to solve every problem
When first introduced in TVD, sending Damon and Bonnie to this never-ending hell dimension, having to repeat the same day for all eternity, the prison world offered a haunting turn. Prison worlds certainly have their appeal especially when having to stash away a powerful evil you can’t kill otherwise or to create some happiness for a friend doomed to die, but they are far overused at this point. Especially considering how many people we have seen escape from prison worlds, they don’t hold the true claustrophobic terror or finality they once did and really aren’t true fixes to any problem. As is, the threat of the show's core villain, Malivore (Douglas Tate), getting out is very much alive. Reliance on prison worlds is starting to become easy, lazy, and convoluted writing. We need new magical fixes and horrifying landscapes beyond this.
Stop the continuous circle of reunion and wreckage between Hope and Landon.
Hope and Landon have offered us an emotional, passionate, and heartwarming love story. With the loss, confusion, and darkness in both of their origins the fire they can light in each other is satisfying. However, the constant on and off, soul crushing separating, loving and blissful reuniting, and ending back up in consuming misery again is becoming repetitive, old, and counterproductive. If Hope is literally toxic to Landon and there’s not a clear loophole by now, it’s time to just let them go their separate paths. While I can admire Hope’s dedication and love for Landon, this season she’s been so consumed with the loss and hurt of not being with him there’s room for little else in her. Sure, she’ll still face down monsters and fight for what’s right when it’s needed, but she’s losing herself in letting herself be so consumed with one guy. Landon was the first person she really let herself be vulnerable with and trust in such a complete way, so her inability to let go is understandable, but there’s also strength in letting someone you love go. The mournful Hope this season was honest to human emotion and spoke to the truth that sometimes break ups are that consuming, hurtful, and hard to accept, but now it’s time for both Hope and Landon to explore who they are outside the relationship and reconnect with themselves.
A true Tribrid - It’s time for Hope to ignite her vampire side
A key part of Hope’s identity and journey is in being the tribrid, yet at this point we have only seen her as witch-werewolf hybrid. Granted this means dying and beginning her undead life so it is admittedly a big step and will be a major turning point for her character and the show, but it’s time to take that step. Being a vampire amplifies the characteristics you held as a human and for many, allows them to become their best selves. Igniting her vampire lineage will allow her to fully explore what this side of her nature means, creating a more evolved, stronger being. This could likely enable her to destroy Malivore like she was always meant to do.
Return to Phoenix Landon - or at least give him more of a purpose and identity of his own.
Just as Landon and Hope separating should mean Hope focusing on discovering and embracing her true nature and purpose, Landon needs to focus on his own path as well. Ideally, that would include a return to his Phoenix nature. Having the power of resurrection did present some hurdles in that it would be easy for audiences not to truly fear for him when he’s in peril, but if Plec made it work with powerful immortal vampires, she can make it work for him. There are traumas worse than death and every supernatural creature has things that haunt them. He deserves to be more than just the vulnerable human who needs to be saved. The Phoenix is a fascinating character, powered by being born anew, stronger in its rebirth. The very definition suggests that a Phoenix is never truly destroyed. Now is the perfect time for that fiery return, offering interesting material for Landon and a purpose for him outside of the tragic love story.
Allow for more “big bads” and compelling villains other than Malivore
Malivore is very much the antithesis of Hope Mikaelson: a dark, all-powerful entity created from the three supernatural lines that make her the tribrid: witch, vampire, and werewolf. He offers an ample threat and Hope being the only one that can truly put a stop to him creates a strong future showdown and reflection on her nature. This being built up throughout Season 4 and setting the score once and for all would be a compelling and logical way to tackle this continued rivalry and create a world free of Malivore monsters at last if Hope is successful. However, if that doesn’t happen and Malivore is going to be a constant threat that is never truly destroyed or beaten, then it’s time to focus on other “big bads”.
The unique take on classic fairy tale monsters and giving them both sinister and often tragic exploration has set the show apart from other supernatural material. There are many wildly interesting creatures that could offer more to the story beyond one episode. The Necromancer started as just another monster of the week, but he proved to have intensely entertaining, interesting, and strikingly macabre lasting power. Whether it’s time for The Necromancer to be put to rest for awhile or not, allow other characters to affect the Super Squad and storyline in a bigger way. Four seasons is plenty of time to tackle one villain no matter how powerful or connected to our heroine. Even if they defeat Malivore and he manages to resurface later, ending that chapter for now would offer an enticing, high stakes showdown and push our characters in a positive way - particularly Hope. It would open the show up to a bigger variety and exploration in the darkness, growth, and bigger story the young witches, vampires, and werewolf can tackle.