Legacies: Why It's Finally Living Up To Its Name

The premiere of season four of Legacies, the second spinoff show of the all-famous Vampire Diaries, has left viewers stunned. The first episode of the season quickly had over 690,000 viewers, greatly surpassing its failed ratings from previous seasons.

Legacies follows the life of the newly orphaned Hope Mikaelson (Danielle Rose Russell), daughter of the original vampire-werewolf hybrid, Klaus Mikaelson, and descendant of one of the most powerful witch bloodlines. Hope attends the Salvatore School, namesake of the deceased Stefan Salvatore from The Vampire Diaries. The school is  for vampires, witches, and werewolves. Something is special about Hope, though: she’s all three, a tribrid. If she were to activate her vampire side by dying, coming back to life, and feeding on blood, she would become the most powerful creature in the Vampire Diaries universe.

Fans have been waiting impatiently for Hope to become a full tribrid in order to see her full potential, but Legacies has left them hanging for three seasons. Instead, fans were disappointed with childish monsters, teenage drama, and even Santa Claus. Contrary to its name, Legacies has certainly not lived up to the legacy left by The Vampire Diaries and its first spinoff, The Originals. In contrast, it resembles a Disney vampire show trying and failing to parallel The Vampire Diaries, rather than the thriller it is supposed to be.

No one expected any better from season four considering the previous seasons, but the show took an unexpected twist. Hope Mikaelson finally activated her vampire side in order to save her loved ones and defeat the main villain of the show, Malivore. Fans were delighted and started writing down their thoughts on all social media platforms. If this wasn’t enough, Legacies dropped a bomb that no one was expecting: Hope turned her humanity off. In the Vampire Diaries universe, vampires can turn off their humanity, essentially making them numb to any sort of emotion. A powerful tribrid and no humanity do not mix well, for Hope literally cannot be killed.

After killing her boyfriend, putting her father figure in a coma, and easily defeating Malivore, Hope leaves to go enjoy herself. Rebekah Mikaelson (Claire Holt), a fan favorite and original vampire from The Originals, briefly returned to the show in order to make Hope turn her humanity back on. However, her attempts failed and  she was left hurt by Hope’s emotionless jabs.

As an avid Vampire Diaries fan, I’m glad that Legacies has finally stopped downplaying Hope. It was about time for the show to start stepping it up and actually engage the viewers. Many fans had begun to doubt Hope’s abilities after she was a weak werewitch for so long, but it is now a truth of the Vampire Diaries universe that Hope Mikaelson is a force to be reckoned with.

I was also very excited about Rebekah Mikaelson’s return to the show. Her appearance was only a couple minutes long, so I hope that she returns in a later episode to mend fences with Hope after their disastrous encounter. 

Another aspect of the show that fans are curious about is how Hope’s relationships will be affected. There is a high chance that the boyfriend she killed will come back to the show, as he has died and been resurrected multiple times. As a confirmed bisexual, fans also ship Hope with twins Lizzie Saltzman (Jenny Boyd) and Josie Saltzman (Kaylee Bryant). After Hope puts the twins’ father in a coma, Lizzie is enraged, which is quite upsetting considering their relationship had just become a positive one. Josie, however, understands the darkest parts of Hope and doesn’t seem as mad. 

Hope also visited her enemy-turned-friend Clarke (Nick Fink), who seemed to appeal to her humanity for just a couple seconds. As an avid “Holarke” shipper, I hope that he is the one to turn Hope’s humanity back on.

Ultimately, season four of Legacies has viewers on the edge of their seats, and no one can predict what will happen next. I’m not sure myself of the events to come, but I’ll keep in mind what Hope Mikaelson herself said after becoming the tribrid:

“There is no monster like me.”

by MAHI MIRCHANDANI