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As weird as it might seem, those are actually adults

Les Légendaires (The Legendaries) is a French fantasy comic book written by Patrick Sobral.

Set in a universe named Alysia, the comic focuses on the eponymous characters, a group of five heroes who were once famous and praised by people for protecting them from the Evil Sorcerer Darkhell. However, during their Final Battle with him, they accidentally break the Stone of Jovénia, a powerful artifact once used by the Gods to create Alysia that Darkhell was intending to use to get his youth back. As a result, the stone's energy seemingly kills Darkhell, but also irradiates Alysia and its neighborhood planet, the Elven World, turning every inhabitant into children with no way to grow up. Blaming and despising them for the incident, the people of Alysia banish the Legendaries, causing their group to disband.

The series starts five years after this event, when the leader of the Legendaries, Danael, reunite the group so they can find a way to restore Alysia to normal. Of course, the attempt fails, and the group decides to stay united in order to find another way.

The comic uses a very animesque style, and often plays with a weird equilibrium between serious and silly, alternating between silly humor and a darker, more violent storylines, especially in later issues. Characters die, get tortured (physically and psychologically alike), and, while initially comical, get a large amount of Character Development.

Though the comic has yet to be published in other places (though the series is available in English through Comixology note ), it has been quite successful in France (over 3 millions fans), and eventually spawned a spin-off Origins Episode, Les Légendaires: Origines, that relates how the protagonists met before the Jovénia Incident. Another spin-off Les Chroniques de Darkhell about the origins of the villain has been announced. An animated adaptation is currently airing on Tfou.

A reboot in black-and-white manga format (right-to-left reading and all) was announced for 2020 and will be drawn by Guillaume Lapeyre, previously known as the artist of the French manga City Hall. A sequel spin-off series, with the subtitle of "Résistance", has started in 2021.

The Protagonist, the Legendaries, include:

  • Danael, a knight from the Kingdom of Larbos and The Leader of the group. He is the one reassembling the Legendaries in order to find a cure to Jovénia Incident. Good-hearted and willing to do the right thing, but can sometimes be willing to do dirty actions for the sake of Alysia. Fight with a Golden Sword forged by the Elves from his blood, which he can summon no matter where it is.
  • Gryfenfer "Gryf" (Ironclaw "Claw"), a beast-man from the city of Jaguarys and Danael's best friend. When compared to Danael, Gryf tends to be slightly more anti-heroic and more pragmatic, displaying more concern about things like payment and having less strict moral (though he still displays concern about the sake of Alysia, and makes a rule to never break his word). He tends to have crude manners compared to the rest of his group, including displaying some Chivalrous Pervert tendencies. He is still the bravest of the Legendaries.
  • Jadina, a Magician Princess from the Kingdom of Orchidia. She is the owner of the Eagle Staff, a powerful Magic Staff who has the abilitie to turn into an giant emerald eagle for transport purpose. Jadina tends to act shallow and silly occasionnally, but she is probably one of the nicest person in the team. Has feelings for Danael.
  • Razzia, a former Barbarian from the country of Rymar who the Jovénia Incident turned back into a fat little boy while leaving him with his humongous strength. Seems to be dumb at the first look, but actually possesses advanced knowledge about monsters and archeology. Is also a Big Eater. Fight with a large saber named the Leviathan.
  • Shimy, a female Elf from the Elven World, who is actually the current Elementary Elf (the Guardian of the Elven World granted with the abilities to control and merge with the Four Elements). A strong-willed girl who doesn't express her feelings much, constantly argues with Jadina due to their contrasting personnalities.


This series provides examples of:

  • Absent Animal Companion: Shimy's lion Lionfeu was initially meant the be the Team Pet but the author hated drawing him so he vanished after the second book.
  • Absurdly Sharp Blade: Danael's Golden Sword and Razzia's Leviathan Saber both displayed abilities to cut through hightly resiliant matters, such as steel and rock.
  • Action Mom: Shimy's mother, Captain Shamira, is well known for being the leader of the Elven Fleet, a surpringly competent fighter and probably one of the most authoritary characters in the book. She is actually much more impressive and intimidating than Shimy's father.
  • A God Am I: Anathos; justified in that he is one.
    • Abyss doesn't outright tell it, but he does define himself as beyond human;
  • Alas, Poor Villain: Darkhell/Elysio when he gets killed by Anathos. Despite the fact Darkhell was pretty much the most evil character of the serie before Anathos shows up, it's hard to not feel sorry for him when you hear him thinking about his beloved daughter Tenebris as his final thought. The fact Anathos defeated him only by cheating doesn't help either.
    • subverted with Abyss; after explaining the reason behind his actions, Tenebris seems like she's feeling sorry for him... Then he is revealed to be Not Quite Dead and rises again to fight the Legendairies.
  • The Alcatraz: Prison Barek seems to have this reputation.
  • Always Chaotic Evil: Adverted with the Pirahni: when first introduced, they served as villains, but it was quickly revealed their antagonism with Elves was because of a mistake and that they were being manipulated. By the end of book 4, they have a Heel–Face Turn.
    • Kinda justified with the Darkhellions, the Zar-Iko and the Dragonites, as they seems to be few more things than magically/genetically engeneered drones with limited intelligence and considering Darkhell as their father.
  • Ambiguously Brown: the inhabitant of Orchidia and Sabledoray are this, though Orchidia seems to have some white men as well. The Marakas and Comanshawas as well. Captain Ceyderom too, though his origin is undefined.
  • And I Must Scream: After he defeated Skroa, Darkhell chose to keep him as a lab rat instead of just killing him, trapping his old rival inside a magical cage and doing experiments on him. Skroa describes this to Danael as "tortures beyond your imagination."
    • Ironically enough, Book 15 reveals that Skroa did exactly the same thing to Amy before it happened to him.
    • The people possessed by the souls of the fallen Chiridan civilisation are not only still present, but conscious of everything the spirits see and hear without them having any control over their own bodies. This is brought up by Shimy as a way of revealing that she was there the whole time Gryf was confiding in Lheïra, but the implications are absolutely horrifying.
  • Animesque: The artstyle resembles some manga elements, such as the hair and big eyes.
  • Anime Hair: Several characters, elves most prominently, are portrayed with unusual hair colours: Shimy's hair is turquoise and later turns white, Ceyderom, Shun-Day and Halan all have hair in different shades of green, and some Jaguarians even have blue fur. Tellingly, humans tend to come with more... well, human hair colors.
  • Anti-Villain: General Rasga; the only reason he teamed up with Darkhell was that he believed this would help his people find a safe place to live, and he displays absolutely no villainous traits, and even refused to kill his defeated opponents. Unsurprisingly, he ends up having a Heel–Face Turn.
    • The Guardian, though it's hard to say due to his Lawful Neutral alignment and how much of a jerk he is.
    • Elysio becomes this during the Anathos Cycle after the Guardian selects him and Darkhell to be his champions.
  • Arch-Enemy: Darkhell to the Legendaries.
  • Artifact Title: The spin off Les Légendaires: Les Chroniques de Darkhell. The first part of the title is this since it takes place long before the Legendaries were born.
  • Badass Adorable: Many of the characters. Considering this takes place in a world where almost everyone has been turned into a child, this shouldn't be surprising, right?
  • The Bad Guy Wins: Played with at several points:
    • In Book 2, all Legendaries but Danael die trying to reach the Stone of Crescia, only to have Skroa taking it for himself and getting away with it (They got better, of course).
    • Similarly, in Book 6, Jadina is the only Legendary to survive their time-travel, as the others all get killed by past Darkhell. The only way they survived was by having Jadina tralling back to time again in order to prevent their original time travel to begin with.
    • The second book of the Anathos Cycle is probably the most straight exemple: even though the Legendaries are able to prevent Anathos from coming back by reincarnating into Shimy, he still succeeds in coming back by possessing Danael instead. He then single-handed defeats the four remaining Legendaries, leaving them horribly scarred and crippled, kills his Worthy Opponent Darkhell/Elysio after a fight, and destroys the Guardians, before using the Legendaries' blood to create Evil Twins of them as his personnal Five-Man Band. By the end of the book, he's pretty much on his way to destroy all of Alysia.
  • Base on Wheels: The Castlewar. More accurately a base on legs.
  • Battle Couple: Danael and Jadina. Interestingly, those two were the funding members of the Legendaries.
  • Beach Episode: Subverted/downplayed at the beginning of the Anathos Cycle, where the Legendaries seem to be in the middle of a summer swim break. It doesn't last more than two pages however, as they are attacked by Darkhell and Elysio, throwing them is the darkest adventure they have even been through. We still get to see Jadina steal Shimy's bikini top...
    • Parodied on the front page of Book 11, which displays a postcard of the Hellions on a beach, with the caption "Kisses from Hell".
  • Becoming the Mask: Shun-Day.
  • Belligerent Sexual Tension: Gryf seems to have this kind of relationship with both Shimy and Shun-Day. He is usually the one who gets beat up though.
  • Berserk Button: Whenever Darkhell gets hit in the face, he usually gets mad as hell and attempts to beat the crap out of the one responsible. Hurting Tenebris can also have the same kind of effect on him.
  • Betty and Veronica:
    • In book 5 "Heart of the Past", Jadina is the Archie to her dutiful friend and love interest Danaël's Betty, and to her womanizing "fiancé" Prince Halan's Veronica.
    • If Gryf is Archie, his long-time teammate/on-and-off girlfriend Shimy is the Betty, while his reformed Dark Action Girl fiancée Shun-Day is the Veronica.
  • Beware the Silly Ones: both Jadina and Razzia are part of this. Despite his apparent sillyness and fat bookworm look, Razzia is actually smart and incredibly powerful, while Jadina, despite her clumsyness and sillyness, is proven to be extremely dangerous when angry (Ceyderom found out the hard way).
  • Bickering Couple, Peaceful Couple: Gryf/Shimy and Razzia/Tenebris, respectively.
    • Gryf and Shimy start out with mere Ship Tease that soon turns into full blown Belligerent Sexual Tension. They finally kiss in book 10, but they break up when Gryf admits he's been seeing someone else. Said someone else turns out to be Shun-Day, whom Shimy was already butting heads with back when she was introduced, but THEN Gryf turns out to have been leading Shun-Day on the whole time, and then Shun-Day dies. Gryf and Shimy get back together but still keep butting heads and arguing, especially since Shimy hasn't completely forgiven Gryf for lying to her. Their reality gets erased and their characters altered, but they still manage to find each other again, so you think they'll finally get their Happily Ever After, right? Wrong. Years later in Resistance, we meet their son Shain who as it turns out has a bone to pick with his old man for abandoning his mother.
    • Razzia and Tenebris initially have their issues, mainly due to the fact that Tenebris is pretty much a walking reminder of Razzia's dark past (not to mention the fact that her father's forces murdered his parents and laid waste to his hometown). Despite their complicated history they have never stopped loving each other, and if anything this complicated history means that they are long past the more tedious relationship milestones, issues and misunderstandings. Razzia and Tenebris tend to act more often than not like a happily married couple, to the point where she calls him "love" and he calls her "sweetheart".
    • Danaël and Jadina land somewhere in between. They have a rather classic knight/princess setup and get along a hell of a lot better than Gryf and Shimy do, but they lack Razzia and Tenebris's solid foundation. Though they noticeably suffer from a case of Twice Shy, their main obstacle has always been bad timing; you'd think death would be more inconvenient, but even that's just temporary.
  • Big Bad: Darkhell, later replaced by Abyss.
  • Big Bad Wannabe: Kasino appeared to be the main villain in book 13, until he gets killed through Abyss's machinations. Book 14 reveals Abyss was actually planning to use him for his plans, but ended up using Jadina instead, making Kasino expendable.
  • Big Damn Hero: Darkhell and Elysio to Tenebris when she was about to stand against Anathos in a hopeless fight.
  • Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: when first introduced, Dr Vangelis is portrayed as one of the nicest characters ever, being both a father figure to Jadina and a responsible person. The next book however, reveal a darker side of him...
  • Brainwashed and Crazy: Tenebris, though Abyss hints it might have been More than Mind Control. Danael too, in some way.
  • Break the Cutie: a lot. ESPECIALLY during the Anathos Cycle with the Legendaries themselves.
  • Calling Your Attacks: Anathos' "Devil Breath" and Darkhell/Elysio's "Bolt of Divine Execution".
  • The Cavalry: Anathos really thought he had Jadina's plan all figured out... until a distant rumble informs him that all exits from the canyon have been blocked off; cue the Elven fleet flooding the canyon with Captain Shamira at their command. The Castlewar blast isn't waterproof, so Anathos sends in his armies of Vultures... which promptly get overtaken by General Rasga's Pirahni army and Sabledoran flying machines.
  • Cerebus Syndrome: the first book has some minor dark elements but is mostly comical and light-hearted; book 2 gives most characters Disney Death, but remains relatively standard otherwise; Books 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 and 8 gradually deal with darker elements, including Fantastic Racism, guilt, many death and betrayal; the Anathos Cycle goes full Darker and Edgier and litterally shattered the Statu Quo to pieces.
  • The Chessmaster: Skroa seems to use this as his trademark. He manipulated the Legendaries twice so they'd lead him to what he wanted.
    • Abyss is shown to be quite an impressive one as well. Pretty much everything that happens from book 13 to beginning of book 14 turns out to have been part of a bigger plan of placing Tenebris on the Orchidian throne before conquering all of Alysia.
    • Kalandre is the true mastermind, since her plan to take her revenge on the Gods has been in the motions for millenia, and she has been inconspicuously flitting in and out of different eras and steering the events to her advantage.
  • Chickification: Arguadably with Shimy; in the first books, she was portrayed as more of a Sugar-and-Ice Personality, a Tomboy and a Deadpan Snarker who rarely express any feelings other than anger. After her Heroic BSoD in the Anathos Cycle however, she wears more girly clothes (which tends to make her the main fanservice source in the serie) and display more emotion than before, evolving toward Tsundere. This even more visible by the fact the original chick of the group, Jadina, Took a Level in Badass and became the leader, making her appear now almost mentally stronger than Shimy. Granted, this is justified because of all Shimy went through (including a possession attempt from a God of Evil, getting her eyes burnt and learning her boyfriend was cheating on her), but this is still sad. She however averts Badass Decay by remaining very competent.
  • Chuck Cunningham Syndrome: In the first two books, Shimy had a pet lion named Lionfeu note  who was initially meant to be the Team Pet (and he appears on the back cover of each books before the Anathos Cycle). However, he inexplicably disapears by the third book and is never mentionned again. According to Sobral he got rid of him because he was hard to drawn. Lionfeu briefly returns in Book 4 of the Origins and in the animated series.
  • Create Your Own Hero: Played with, where Darkhell actually gets wise about this trope, and, after slaughtering a village, framed a local army of heroes by leaving their banner behind. As a result, the only kid who survived ends up directing his hate toward said heroes, grows into a villain and becomes Darkhell's Dragon. However, he eventually does learn the truth, causing him to pull a Heel–Face Turn and join the protagonists.
  • Crouching Moron, Hidden Badass: the Legendaries are often portrayed as clumsy and kinda goofy when doing unimportant missions, but they definitely kick ass when fighting real treath.
  • Curb-Stomp Battle: The Legendaries' first encounter with a reincarnate and subsequently far more powerful Anathos is a quick and disturbingly bloody affair; by the end of it Jadina has been stabbed in the gut, Gryf's chest has burst open, Shimy's eyes have been bisected and Razzia is missing his right arm.
  • Daddy's Little Villain: Tenebris to Darkhell.
  • Darker and Edgier: the serie goes that way starting with the Anathos cycle.
    • Origins as well, due to it taking place back when Darkhell was still in power and the characters were still adults. The series still has some jokes, but for the most part it's a lot darker, with more tragedy and showing how messed up the protagonists' lifes are.
  • Dating Catwoman: Gryf with Shun-Day. Arguadably Razzia and Tenebris, though their couple was allowed to exist only when they were on the same side.
  • Death is Cheap: and how. The Legendaries got killed together twice so far, usually with only one survivor left at the end, yet in both case they are brought back to life in a matter of minutes after it happened. And let's not even talk about what happened to Jadina and Danael...
  • Demonic Possession: pretty much the way Anathos is able to come back to life.
    • Abyss also uses it as his main power.
  • Did You Just Punch Out Cthulhu??: Gryf punches Dusk, the God of Destruction, in the face in book 8, much to everyone's shock. Fortunately, the God doesn't get pissed off.
  • Domed Hometown:
    • Jaguarys, the hidden city of Jaguaryans has a protective dome that makes it invisible from outside. This magical dome is powered by the Horn of Sygma.
    • The City of Barabath in Razzia has another magical shield powered by the egg of a god.
  • Dramatis Personae: Each books opens with a descriptions of the Legendaries. They are updated in Book 11: Versus Inferno.
  • Enemy Mine: Darkhell and Elysio when they were working for the Guardian.
  • Even Evil Has Loved Ones: despite being a cruel, homicidal, insane megalomaniac sorcerer, Darkhell is shown to deeply care about his daughter Tenebris, to the point the concept of sacrificing/loosing her was awful to him, even after she turned against him.
    • Abyss also expressed admiration for his "father" (despite the fact that, unlike Tenebris, Darkhell never even bothered caring about him), and is shown to care a lot about Tenebris (even though his "love" for her is quite twisted).
    • Tenebris and Razzia also developped their relationship while being under Darkhell's services.
    • Averted with Skroa and Shun-Day; while Shun-Day considers Skroa as her father and loves him as such, he actually finds this annoying and only sees her as his servant.
    • Ceyderom is a played straight use of this trope; even though he's implied to have been evil since the beginning, his whole reason for trying to eliminate the Legendaries and serving as a villain was to bring back his beloved wife, Sisgyga, to life.
    • Similarly to Ceyderom, Sheiba whole motivation to eradicate humanity is to avenge what happened to her beloved son Razorcat.
    • The serie as a whole seems to actually use this a lot; so far, the only Big Bads with no loved one were Skroa and Anathos.
  • Evil Chancellor:Dr Vangelis/Abyss became this in book 14 during the time Tenebris was queen of Orchidia.]]
  • Evil Genius: Darkhell, Skroa and Abyss all are shown to be brillant minds with advanced knowledge and skills in magic and science, as well as being really good at scheming. Anathos can arguably count as well, though he's more of another kind of genius.
  • Evil Laugh: Darkhell does this a lot.
    • Anathos has one after killing the Guardian he has another one in Book 12, only to end up with a Oh, Crap! face when realizing Jadina owned him.
  • Evil Sorcerer: Darkhell and Skroa.
  • Evil Twin: inverted with Elysio for Darkhell;
    • played straight with Anathos creating the Hellions, an evil version of the Legendaries, as his personnal elite warriors;
  • Eviler than Thou: Skroa with Darkhell. Also, Darkhell vs Anathos, though at this point Darkhell couldn't really be considered as "evil".
  • Explaining Your Power to the Enemy: adverted; Darkhell explains how the Krea-Kaos works to General Rasga and Tenebris explains to the Legendaries how her armband can absorb and send back magic attacks, but both Rasga and the Legendaries were allies to them at this point.
    • Dark-Shimy and Dark-Gryf both explained their Power Upgrade (respectively infinite energy and permanant Chakounia state) to their respective Legendaries counterpart while fighting them. In both case, they had no reason to not do so, as both didn't know themselves weakness; in fact, Dark-Shimy's case was justified, as she was attempting to crush her enemy's confidence. After the fight, Gryf does explain his One-Winged Angel form's weakness to Dark-Gryf, who immediatly attempts to take advantage on it... only to find out it's too late for that, as Gryf himself already figured out his weakness and defeat him in regular form.
  • Failure Is the Only Option: Every attempt to reverse the effects of the Jovénia stone has to date ended in failure.
  • Fanservice: Not much of it in the original series, considering the characters are (safe for the flashback, time-travel and other occasionnal exceptions) trapped in child form, and as such do not possess bodies built for such matter. Most of the cases, fanservice is rather parodied.
  • False Flag Operation: Razzia initially joins Darkhell to avenge his village destroyed by the army of 1000 Wolves. :It turns out that it was Darkhell's army posing as the 1000 Wolves.
  • Fantastic Racism: played straight with the Jaguarians, Gryf's specie; they are considered as monsters by humans, who chase them like beast even when they don't mean any harm, and use them as slaves for bloody arene fights. The persections were actually so much that the specie went near extinction and had to hide in a magically hidden city in order to survive.
    • Partially hinted between Elves and Pirahni, though it was more portrayed as prejudicious hereditary hate (similar to the one between French and German during World War I) than actual racism: apparently, Piranhi considered Elves to be backstabbing arrogant oppressors, while Elves seemed to see the Pirahni as something like monstrous brutish barbarians. By the end of book 4, the two, after learning they used to be allies in the past, end this and peacefully cohabit.
  • From Nobody to Nightmare: Razzia when he grow up to Korbo. Cf Took a Level In Badass above.
  • Futile Hand Reach: Danael and Jadina desperately reach for one another as he's being assimilated by Anathos's essence, but it's already too late.
  • Generic Cuteness: Save for a handful of characters, such as king Larbosa, Artemus or even Razzia, every de-aged adult is pretty much drawn the same way, so you can only take the characters' word on who is more attractive. Case in point, Jadina is frequently singled out as "the pretty one" when she looks no different from Shimy, especially in later books.
  • Girl on Girl Is Hot: In book 13, Shimy drunkenly kisses Tenebris in front of several people in an attempt to show up Gryf. Two or three backgrounders are shown to be obviously delighted by the scene.
  • God of Evil: Anathos.
  • Handicapped Badass: Shimy loses her sight to Anathos. She compensates for it by not only brushing up her already formidable elemental abilites, but acquiring the power of Aura Vision.
  • Heroic BSoD: Danael has one in book 2 after learning he never controlled anything since the beginning of their quest. He takes a whole night to recover from it.
    • Shimy gets a pretty dark one too during the Anathos cycle after finding out she was the one Anathos choosed to reincarnate, and that it was her fault (at least according to Danael) because she had let her thirst of power get the better of her.
    • Jadina has an even more spectacular one in book 14 after he original body was found, causing her to believe she might not be the true Jadina.
  • Hero with Bad Publicity: The Legendaries were this until the end of the Anathos Cycle.
  • Hidden Elf Village: The Jaguarians' city, Jaguarys, is secluded from the rest of the world and hidden by a magic shield that prevent anyone who haven't been invited to ever find it. Justified in that Jaguarians had to isolate themselves in order to escape from the humans' Fantastic Racism
  • Hotter and Sexier: Origins, due to having the characters being adults, involves a lot more fanservice than the mainstream series.
  • Humans Are Bastards: Not used that much, but occasionally hinted; the people of Alysia are most often shown to be quite ungrateful to the Legendaries, being quick to not only blame, but despise them because of the Jovénia Incident, despite all the times they saved everyone's asses by taking it upon themselves to fight back against Darkhell. When learning the Legendaries were holding a possible cure for the Jovénia Incident in book 7, they immediatly assume the Legendaries were trying to keep it for themselves (they actually were trying to bring it to the King for massive production) and attempt to lynch them, only being prevented from this by the Gods Dawn and Dusk scaring them away. Not to mention their Fantastic Racism toward Jaguarians...
  • Identity Amnesia:
    • Elysio. He's eventually revealed to be have been Darkhell.
    • Gryf is later revealed to have suffered this as well.
  • I Have You Now, My Pretty: Abyss with Tenebris; even though he states he considers her as his sister, the way he interacts with her (seizing her with Energy Tentacles, stating his love to her...) sounds more like incest than fraternal love.
    • Anathos uses it to mock Jadina when he has her captured. She answers by trying to punch him.
  • Jerkass Gods: subverted with Dawn and Dusk; though they do act as jerkass when they show up, it eventually turns out they were doing so as a test to see if the Alysians had grown mature enough. Once satisfied, they went away, leaving the planet harmless.
    • Played straight with the Guardian; though attempted to be a neutral being that must only serve as a guardian to the Gods' magic stone, he wasn't above freely giving the Stone of Jovénia to Darkhell as part of a deal. He also gave mortals fake maps leading to his castle so they would die trying to go through deadly traps in order to get the stone from him, all of this just for his amusement. When he attempted to prevent Anathos' return, his methods was to recruit and upgrade Darkhell and Elysio in order to kill ALL the Legendaries because he didn't know which one of them was gonna serve as Anathos' host for his reincarnation (guess explaining them what happened first would have been too complicated...)
  • Large Ham: unsurprisingly, Darkhell, Skroa, Anathos and Abyss all have hammy moments at some point.
    • Even lampshaded in book 1 when Danael rescues Elysio from being eaten by a Troll. Elysio states he could have defeated the Troll by himself and has a very hammy moment, laughing maniacally as he gloats over how he would have reduced the troll to dust had his powers work (a probable foreshadowing of who he actually is). Danael mentally refers to him as a "megalomaniac".
  • Last of His Kind: Skroa is said several times to be the last survivor of a bird demon specie called the Galina.
    • Shaki also is the last of his tribe, the Comanshawas, due to Darkhell killing all the others in order to get their Shamans' herbs
    • Gryf was once thought to be the last Jaguarian alive when actually the others were only hiding themselves from the humans.
  • Little Sister Instinct: Razzia was bullied as a kid, and his little sister Sheyla routinely went around beating up the ones responsible... only to then irritably beat up Razzia for not manning up and defending himself.
  • Love Redeems: The very reason Tenebris eventually switched sides.
  • Love Makes You Evil: The very reason Prince Halan became a villain in book 5 was because of his feelings for Jadina.
  • MacGuffin: The comic makes a heavy use of them, but the author usually makes sure they disappear once they have served the plot by having them either destroyed (the Stone of Jovénia, the Krea-Kaos, the Temporhell and the Alystory) or taken away (the Stone of Crescia).
  • Magitek: Alysia's Gods' magic sometimes has much similarities with alien tech: the Guardian's castle, especially, has very spaceship-like features (including the abilties to fly in space).
  • Meaningful Name: Darkhell; Need we say more?
    • "Shimy" is a pun on the french word "chimie", which mean "chemistry" (for a character with the ability to merge with the Four Elements);
    • "Skroa" sounds like a crow scream. For a bird-like demon.
    • "Tenebris" is the latin word for "Darkness";
    • "Gryfenfer" is a pun on "Griffe en Fer", which means "Iron Claw" in french.note 
    • This one's more sutble, but the word "razzia'' refers to a brutal surprise attack after which looting ensues, where oftentimes the assaultee were captured and sold into slavery. This sounds like an oddly negative name to give to one of the good guys, until you find out just what he used to be.
  • Mind Rape:Dark-Jadina is heavily implied to have done this to Tenebris in Book 11.
  • Mood Whiplash: the serie is a big fan of this; not only, almost all the arcs start with the Legendaries getting themselves embarrassed in some silly mission and end up sending them in a serious one, but at several points, serious moments suddenly turns into jokes, and vice-versa.
  • Morality Pet: Tenebris refers to Razzia as "her part of light".
    • Tenebris herself came to become this to Darkhell in some way, though is arguadable to say Darkhell "redeemed" himself.
  • Mordor: the country of Shiar, where Darkhell built his castle, is pretty much portrayed as this. Klafootynote , to a minor extent, might count as well.
  • Naked on Revival: Danael rises from his grave naked when a mysterious adult woman bring him back to life. A rock covers his crotch thought.
  • Names to Run Away from Really Fast: Darkhell, Anathos (from the greek "Thanatos"), Abyss.
  • No-Holds-Barred Beatdown: Anathos in his first battle with the Legendaries. this scene is pretty considered as the most violent battle ever in the whole serie.
  • Not Quite Dead:As you can guess, Darkhell isn't really dead.
  • Nothing Is the Same Anymore: Pretty much the result of the Anathos Cycle.
  • Older Than They Look: Justified; because of the Jovénia Incident, virtually everyone on Alysia and the Elven World looks like a 12-year-old kid, not matter what their actual ages might be.
  • Offing the Offspring: In Razzia, King Absalon impales his treacherous son on a ice pick.
  • Omnicidal Maniac: Anathos is basically a king of that: he successfully destroyed the original Alysia, and attempted to destroy the second one as an act of revenge for what the Gods did to him. Not to mention he created a magic plague to kill humans...
  • Our Elves Are Different: Elves are technically aliens to the inhabitants of Alysia, having a whole planet of their own which can be reached by using portail-summoning magic keys. Aside from the obligatory Pointy Ears, they seem to frequently have anime hairs and share the planet with fishmen-like beings called the Pirahni. They don't seem particular better-looking than humans (we see plenty of fat or bulky elves), and did age before the Jovénia effect stuck them in child form, (Shyska, the Arbores headmaster, clearly is an old lady), though how long-lived they are is unclear. Dark Elves exist, and have the traditional dark skin and white hair, but aren't particularly eviler than regular elves, though they do suffer prejudices from them, and many of them tend to be criminal. Both regular and Dark Elves can on rare occasions develop innate Elemental Powers, in which case they are taken to the Arbores Elementa, a school where they are taught how to use their abilities, though only one of them is allowed to use it outside the Arbores.
  • Out Gambit: Danael's plan in book 10 technically works, but Anathos is able to out-gambit him.
    • Ironicallly enough, Jadina later outgambits Anathos during their final battle.
  • The Alcatraz: Prison Barek pretty much the definition.
  • The Paladin: Danael, though he does have his dark moments.
  • Psycho Rangers: Anathos creates evil twins of the Legendaries, the Hellions, from their blood.
  • Putting the Band Back Together: In the first book, Danael reunites the Legendaries who disbanded two years before when they caused the Jenova accident.
  • Ready for Lovemaking: In Razzia, Tenebris offers Razzia to reconciliate in bed after an argument. Unfortunately for her, he isn't in the mood because someone kicked him in the groin earlier.
  • "Reason You Suck" Speech: Darkhell does an impressive one to General Rasga right after betraying him, commenting about how naive he and his people were to team up with him and revealing them their whole reason to fight with Elves was a silly mistake.
  • Redemption Equals Death: played with repeatedly:
    • In Book 4, Elysio lampshades it by saying his crimes as Darkhell can only be redeemed that way, just before blowing up himself with Darkhell. This is double-subverted when both of them are revealed to have survived in Book 9... only to actually die in Book 10 when they save the Legendaries from Anathos.
    • In Book 6, Prince Halan, after betraying the Legendaries in order to get Jadina's love (and failing miserably), commits an Heroic Sacrifice by saving her from Past-Darkhell in order to at least get her respect back. He was resurrected off-screen thanks to Jadina's time reset, and his appearances after this portrayed him as a good guy.
  • Red Oni, Blue Oni: Gryf and Danael fit the trope in some way. A rare case where the hero is the Blue while the Lancer is the Red.
    • Elysio and Darkhell could be considered this as well.
  • Relationship Revolving Door: Gryf and Shimy's relationship is, to put it mildly, a mess.

  • Retcon: Deliberately invoked when it comes to Origins; Sobral admitted on his site that he took liberty on the already established backstories of the Legendaries in the main series so he could better flesh them out, and considers it worth the continuity errors it can cause.
  • The Rival: the Fabulous act like this to the Legendaries in the first issue, but eventually became friendly allies. Skroa also used to be this to Dakrhell.
  • Screw Destiny: in book 10 of the Anathos Cycle, as the Legendaries are preparing themselves to fight Anathos, Danael destroys the Alystory as a sign of denial of the prophecy that foresees Anathos' return. This didn't work sadly
  • Screw Yourself: There is a fair amount of Ho Yay between Darkhell and Elysio, and they keep fighting over who Tenebris's favorite father is... But that's also because they're literally the same person split into two.
  • Sealed Evil in a Can: Anathos when he was trapped in the Bearer. Abyss too, kinda.
  • Secretly Dying: Gryf got a shard from Anathos' sword in his heart which leaves him only one year to live. He decides to keep that information for himself and pretends he no longer loves Shimy.
  • Series Fauxnale: As the title suggests, Book 18 "La fin de l’histoire ?" (The End of The Story?) almost wraps up the series. The Greater-Scope Villain Kalandre is defeated, almost all the heroes dies and it ends with a literal reboot of the universe where Danael and Shimy live happily ever after. It turns out it's not the end and the series will finally come to an end in Book 23.
  • Sexy Discretion Shot: Played for laughs in the Anathos Cycle, as Ikael calls for Halan and Shamira's help, the two are shown in their underwear, lounging upon a queen size bed and jolting apart in embarrassment, having apparently been interrupted in a very private moment.
    • Les Légendaires: Origines, on the other hand, plays this trope much straighter.
  • Shout-Out: Done several times, most notably through puns in the names of place and characters. Most notable include:
    • A creature resembling Pikachu is shown twice;
    • In the first book of the Anathos Cycle, the high security prison where Tenebris is kept is named Prison Barek.
    • Jadina's plan to take down Anathos' Castlewar takes place in the Canyon of Gold-Orac. The plan itself was named Operation Gold-Orac Go (Michi-Gan offers the audience a sheepish apology for the lame pun).
    • Toopie was seen using inventions such as a gorilla mecha named Ding-Dong and pumpkin-like bombs reminiscent of the ones used by the Green Goblin.
    • When Gryf transforms into DeathGryf to rescue Jadina from her execution in book 14, he states: "You want the Beauty, you'll have to go through the Beast". Even funnier considering the author once put his own spin on the fairy tale in comic form.
  • She Is All Grown Up: Ironically inverted in book 6, where following some involuntary time-travel, Danael meets Pre-Jovénia Jadina and, being used to the child version, realizes he'd forgotten just how beautiful she was then.
    • Played straight when little Toopie reappears in book 9, having hit a growth spurt since our heroes last saw her.
  • Slasher Smile: Darkhell just loves doing this. Anathos and Abyss are good at it too.
  • Spin-Offspring: The sequel series Les Légendaires: Resistance stars the gang's children, namely Danaël and Jadina's twins Aidan and Nadia, Gryf and Shimy's son Shain, and Tenebris and Razzia's daughter Amy.
  • Spoiler Opening: If you are reading book 11: Versus Inferno, you'd better skip the characters description because it spoils many plot points notably the fact that Razzia made a pact with a demon.
  • Start of Darkness: The spin off Les Chroniques de Darkhell reveals how Darkhell became the infamous villain. He was a boy named Salen and it all started when his mother and little brother were murdered by a tax collector.
  • The Symbiote: Abyss is both of this and Puppeteer Parasite. Amy serves as the first to Razzia.
  • Take That!: An animal bearing a resemblance to Jar-Jar Binks is brutally killed at the beginning of Book 15.
  • Tomboy and Girly Girl: Shimy and Jadina respectively, at least pre-Anathos cycle. Jadina later grows out of her pampered princess habits and becomes a lot more serious as she falls into leadership, whilst Shimy drops the Ice Queen attitude and is as a result a hell of a lot more belligerent.
  • Took a Level in Badass:
  • Took a Level in Jerkass: Jadina; in the first book, she was a kind and somewhat sheltered person in a mildly Good Is Dumb way, who while she had moments of anger was still arguably the nicest person on the team. Post Anathos Cycle, while she sure Took a Level in Badass, her experiences seem to have jaded her as she is all of a sudden a lot more acerbic and brusque; she violently ambushes her own teammates to "test" their reflexes before the fight with the Hellions (and verbally abuses them when they fail to react fast enough), mocks Shimy for her blindness and expresses no compassion for Razzia when he announces that Tenebris has been captured (to be fair, she let herself get caught on purpose as part of The Plan, but still). At the end of book 14, she turns out to have refused to fill her original purpose as ambassador to the centuries-abused Gamera Tree because she wanted to focus on Anathos, and bitterly shrugs off her mother's offer of reconciliation (something even Shimy accepted from her own mother in Book 4).
  • Unresolved Sexual Tension: Danael and Jadina. They get together, though sadly it doesn't last.
  • Vile Villain, Saccharine Show: At least three of the main villains (Darkhell, Abyss and Anathos) are what nightmares are made of. Skroa, the fourth, comes quite close and was in fact Darkhell's rival.
  • Villainous Breakdown: Anathos has an especially nice one toward the end of the Anathos Cycle. So does Abyss when her realizes the Legendaries has freed Tenebris from his control, though his is more creepy than awesome.
  • Vitriolic Best Buds: Shimy and Jadina; they keep fighting and insulting each other, Shimy is often exasperated by Jadina's apparent shallowness and keep snarking about her. Yet, it's quite obvious they both care for each other, as both display alarm or shock whenever they believe the other dead.
    • Darkhell and Elysio started out as ennemies, but after being forced to team up under the Guardian's order, they seem to gradually evolve into that. Of course, the fact they used to be the same person and share the same memory probably helped.
  • We Can Rule Together: Anathos offered this to Tenebris, mentionning that unlike the Legendaries, she was most likely to accept the offer. She declined, however.
    • A weird subversion with Abyss, who tried to force Tenebris into doing so by brainwashing her.
  • What Could Have Been: Sobral initially wanted to end the serie after Book 6, then after the Anathos Cycle, but eventually changed the plot so it'd go on. He has now confirmed he would at least do 20 Books, and even annonced what Books 15, 16, 17 and 18 would be about.
  • What the Hell, Hero?: Jadina gives one to Danael in book 5 when he treatens Halan with a Darkhellion's stinger, blaming him for putting his jealousy before the mission and thus making things dangerous. Ironically enough, it eventually turns out she was mistaken: the actual crazy jealous guy was Halan, who betrays them to Ceyderom.
    • Gryf gets two in book 7: one from Jadina when he hinted he would have gladly slaughtered the villagers for hunting Jaguarians like beasts, and one from Danael when he almost threatened Jadina.
  • Why Don't You Just Shoot Him?: inverted; when the Legendaries prepare to infiltrate the Castlewar, Anathos sees that coming, and actually plans on sending his Vultur army against them in order to end this quickly. However, a mysterious woman appears and advices him to let them come and defeat them with the Hellions instead. He chooses to follow the advice.
  • The Wrongful Heir to the Throne: Count Kasino was attempting to become this. Sadly for him, he didn't survive long enough for that. Also, Abyss was most-likely trying to make Tenebris this.
  • You Have Failed Me: Anathos does this to Dark Jadina after Jadina defeated her. Even creepier considering he said he had forgiven her right before doing so and that she was in love with him.
  • You Have Outlived Your Usefulness: Darkhell does this to his allie General Rasga in book 4. Lucky for him, Rasga was saved by Shimy before Darkhell could finish the job, and ended up having an Heel–Face Turn.
    • Ceyderom does it to Prince Halan by not only leaving him to past Darkhell's hands, but also thanking the Dark Sorcerer for seizing him.
  • You Killed My Father: more accurately "You Killed My Parents"; Razzia and Tenebris killed Fabulous member Toopie's parents when they were under Darkhell's orders. Ironically enough, they could have killed Toopie too, but choosed to let her live because she was just a baby.


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