Legacies Season 1 Review
Major Spoilers are included in this season review. Please read with caution.
When I heard there was going to be a spin-off of The Originals—which was a spin-off of The Vampire Diaries—I was skeptical—but also very excited—about the latest entry coming to the TVD-Universe especially when this series was released only a few months after The Originals aired its series finale. However, I did enjoy watching Legacies’ first season for the most part with its characters and Easter eggs to its predecessors.
Picking up two years after the events of The Originals and twelve years after the events of The Vampire Diaries, the series follows seventeen-year-old Hope Mikaelson—daughter of the Original Hybrid Klaus Mikaelson and Alpha Werewolf Queen Hayley Marshall—at the Salvatore Boarding School for the supernatural alongside her classmates like twin witches Josie and Lizzie Saltzman, vampire MG, werewolf Rafael, and her mysterious love interest Landon Kirby.
So, this spin-off of a spin-off series is already sounding like a mixture of Harry Potter and the X-Men. Not going to lie, Legacies is essentially those two concepts meshed together—mostly the Harry Potter aspect though with the constant magic happening throughout the series. Hope’s story isn’t all that original either, as she had completely isolated herself from the people around her except for human father-figure and school headmaster Alaric Saltzman.
To set it apart from its predecessors though, was the literal monster-of-the-week format. Instead of the typical vampire-witches-werewolf species like The Vampire Diaries and The Originals handled, Legacies introduced a lot more different monsters like dragons, phoenixes, gargoyles, necromancers, etc. into the lore.
The downside was the explanation for why all these creatures existed—in addition to the main antagonist Malivore and Landon Kirbry’s origins—wasn’t revealed until the last few episodes of the season. As a result, the pacing felt off and rushed toward the end; it also didn’t help that the Malivore origin story is kind-of convoluted. However, it found a way to tie itself to Hope Mikaelson’s story—the reason she even exists in the first place—is to counter Malivore.
Another issue with the series is the plot armor. The first season played it somewhat too safe with making sure nobody dies—the opposite route of its predecessors where everyone dies—especially Hope Mikaelson. Because this is her story, the stakes didn’t feel suspenseful when she sacrificed herself to stop Malivore—and even if she did die “die”, she would just come back to life as a vampire anyway because she’s the Original Tribrid—vampire, witch, and werewolf. Also, Landon Kirby being revealed to be a phoenix—a being who dies and comes back to life—didn’t help with the stakes either.
The best thing about this series was the numerous Easter Eggs from The Vampire Diaries. The main setting is the original Salvatore house, the town of Mystic Falls was shown whenever the kids ventured into town, Sheriff Matt Donovan and Jeremy Gilbert made brief appearances, and Jo—the biological mother of Lizzie and Josie—when the necromancer brought her back to life.
Bringing Jo back into the narrative—since she was killed during TVD’s season 6 finale, back when death sort-of mattered—allowed her to meet Josie and Lizzie for the first time in addition to reintroducing The Merge back into the narrative. The Merge is a Gemini Coven ritual where twins fight to “absorb” the other on their 22nd birthday.
This also explained Caroline Forbes’s absence—Josie and Lizzie’s “surrogate” mother from The Vampire Diaries—as she was off traveling the world to figure out how to prevent her twin daughters from killing each other. The season 1 finale cliffhanger—involving the Ascendant holding their Uncle Kai’s prison world from The Vampire Diaries—was also a good set-up for what was to come.
The only character who drew the short straw was werewolf Rafael. The writers had no idea what to do with him. Rafael is Landon’s foster brother who had a love triangle with the Saltzman Twins in the first half of the season, but then he suddenly had strong romantic feelings for Hope and felt remorse for liking her because Landon was already dating her. The plot kept bouncing him around basically—a plot convenient character for the lack of a better term—with no clear direction or real story of his own.
Overall, I’d give Legacies a shot for the nostalgia if you’re a fan of The Vampire Diaries and The Originals. Without the context of the predecessors though, I’m not sure how y’all would react to this series. Thanks for reading this season 1 review, everyone! I’ll have a season 2 review as well to prepare us for season 3 coming in 2021. I’m excited to see how the story will resume after season 2’s awkward pandemic cliffhanger.