Legacies Repeats A Vampire Diaries Elena Story (But Worse)
Legacies put its own twist on Elena Gilbert's story from The Vampire Diaries but with disappointing results. Legacies, created by Julie Plec, is the second spinoff of the popular supernatural series that ran for eight seasons on The CW. Legacies features characters from the canon and follows the adventures of the next generation of witches, vampires, and werewolves of the Salvatore School, along with a slew of new mystical creatures. Legacies is back after a shortened season 2 and a long filming hiatus, both due to the pandemic.
Legacies season 2's penultimate episode featured the attempted Gemini twin merge (making Caroline Forbe's absence from the show increasingly problematic) between Josie and Lizzie Saltzman. The merge ultimately failed when Hope Mikaelson linked Lizzie's life to Landon Kirby's, enabling Lizzie to be resurrected and retain her ability to perform magic. To save Josie, Hope entered Josie's subconscious to help Josie defeat her darker half. The good and bad sides of Josie's psyche battled for control, and good Josie emerged victorious. Inexplicably, Hope remained asleep, her future uncertain. On Legacies' season 3 premiere, Alaric Saltzman, headmaster of the school, determined that Hope knew the Sphinx's prophecy had been realized and her love, Landon, was dead (stabbed with the golden arrow by his brainwashed best friend, Rafael "Raf" Waithe). Hope remained in a comatose state to avoid dealing with her grief.
Hope's mystical coma was a disappointing variation of the sleeping spell cast on Elena by Kai Parker during The Vampire Diaries season 6 finale. As long as Bonnie lived, Elena would stay young and beautiful, waking after her best friend lived out her human life. The spell created a moral conundrum for Damon Salvatore, who could get his girl back if he was willing to either let Bonnie die or kill her himself. The storyline was a great vehicle for cementing the bond between Bonnie and Damon that had been built during their time together in the Prison World (Some fans hoped it would lead to the twosome dating as Bonnie and Damon did in the book series.) It showed his character's struggle to respect Elena's choices and his series-long evolution from bad guy to hero. Legacies used this same plot device, on the other hand, to spotlight some seriously codependent and unhealthy relationships in the show. Raf used Hope to manipulate Landon into allowing his spirit to be returned to his body, thereby alleviating his own feelings of guilt for killing his best friend.
Alaric struck a deal with the Necromancer to bring Landon back to life (along with Alyssa and Raf) in exchange for Josie's black magic, and Legacies' season 3 premiere delivered on some of those expectations. However, Landon refused to let his soul be placed back in his body, sacrificing his life to prevent this transference of power that would ultimately put all of his friends' lives at risk. Upon learning of Hope's being in a coma, however, he was faced with his own ethical dilemma: exert his free will to save his friends or relent and save Hope? Ultimately, he chose the latter and she was awakened in Sleeping Beauty fashion by Landon's kiss.
Landon's justification for his actions was valid: Hope knew what she was doing when she did a deep dive into Josie's mind, and she was willing to accept the consequences, something she'd done in the past when she consumed the Hollow's powers and jumped into Malivore's pit. Elena's story paid tribute to the heroine's selflessness and tested the bonds of loyalty between friends. Legacies' recycled version did the opposite, punishing Landon by threatening to sever those connections if he stayed true to his convictions. Only time will tell if Hope and Landon's romance will suffer as a result or if they'll end up like Vampire Diaries' Damon and Elena whose happy ending has been referenced on Legacies.
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