Series / Legacies

Heroes. Villains. Whatever.

"My dearest Hope, my littlest wolf, my miracle child. What a gift to be able to leave you one last message, so please carry it with you in the years to come. I want you to know this: You will make mistakes in your life. That comes with being a Mikaelsson. You will go through hard times, for no one with your power always knows how to use it properly. You will find love and you will lose it, for such is the burden of immortality. But the most important thing about your life is that you live it, because you are my peace. And I regret a lot of things, but I don’t regret a single moment I spent with you. I love you so much. Always and forever."

— Klaus Mikaelsson, "Just Don't Be a Stranger, Okay?"

Legacies is a 2018 supernatural horror series on The CW, as well as a spinoff of both The Vampire Diaries and The Originals. It is the third entry to The Vampire Diaries Universe. It was ordered to a series without a pilot in May 2018, and premiered on October 25.

Set two years after The Originals, Legacies follows Hope Mikaelson (Danielle Rose Russell), the tribrid (vampire, werewolf, and witch) daughter of Klaus Mikaelson —one of the original vampires— at the Salvatore School for the Young and Gifted, located in Mystic Falls.

Joining Hope is the human headmaster of the school, Alaric Saltzman (Matt Davis); his siphoner twin daughters Josie (Kaylee Bryant) and Lizzie Saltzman (Jenny Boyd); a boy shrouded in mystery, Landon Kirby (Aria Shahghasemi); Landon's werewolf foster brother, Rafael Waithe (Peyton Alex Smith); vampires Milton "MG" Greasley (Quincy Fouse) and Kaleb (Chris Lee); the alpha werewolf of the school, Jed (Ben Levin); Ethan (Leo Howard), a student at Mystic Falls High, which Hope attends while undercover; and Hope's witch roommate Cleo (Omono Okojie).

The series was cancelled in May 2022 after four seasons, bringing The Vampire Diaries Universe to a close after 13 years of being on The CW.

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Legacies provides examples of:

• Aborted Arc: Ethan and Maya were originally introduced as both being interested in Hope, but this was quickly dropped as soon as Hope went back to the Salvatore school. When Ethan hoped in Season 3, his interest in Hope was also all but gone.
• All-Ghouls School: The Salvatore School for the Young and Gifted is full of supernatural kids comprised of witch/warlock, werewolf and vampires.
  • Academy of Adventure: Other than being more the trope above this one. Every week the kids and Alaric have to face monstrous threats that threat the safety and security of the school which is basically their whole lives and identities.
• All Myths Are True: While the two previous series only featured vampires, werewolves, and witches (plus hybrids of those three, such as Hope), this series reveals that many more supernatural and/or mythological creatures exist in the Vampire Diaries universe. Within the first three episodes, a dragon and a gargoyle have already appeared along with strong implications that even more things are out there waiting to be revealed.
  • As of season 2, it's been confirmed that one student (Wade) is a fairy and another (Landon) is a phoenix.
  • Notable is when Alaric refuses to believe a fire-breathing woman is a dragon as "they don't exist" and his friend immediately points out how "a few years ago, we'd have said that about vampires!"
  • Notable is when the Necromancer is told no one knows who he is and compared to dragons and such and he actually scoffs "they don't exist!"
  • It's soon revealed that a long time ago something happened to cause everyone on Earth to forget all these creatures existed, explaining why they were never brought up on the previous two shows. It's revealed that it was a Golem created by a witch, a werewolf, and a vampire centuries ago to save humanity from evil supernaturals that started it all named Malivore. Malivore consumed many creatures and wiped existence of them from the public consciousness. Eventually, it was betrayed and turned into a tar pit, which now serves the same purpose but is under the control of Triad Industries, which capture supernaturals and toss them into the pit, and many humans too. They can't do the same to witches, vampires, and werewolves, since the original creators have placed a Restraining Bolt to that effect.
  • Episode 11 of season 1 takes this a step forward with a leech-like parasite that infects people and lowers their inhabitants as a step to controlling them. When Dorian can't find any myths or legends describing such a creature, Landon points out that the monster is something out of a Sci-Fi movie. Which, as he points out, are more-or-less modern day myths and could've been inspired by monsters someone one saw and forgot.
• Asskicking Leads to Leadership: The Alpha position among the wolves can be taken by a one-on-one challenge. When Rafael needs the vote on the Honor Council for Landon and Jed won't give it to him, Rafael challenges him and beats him severely. The fact that Rafael doesn't abuse the other wolves like Jed did helps, too.
• Assumed Win: When the school forms a council with leaders from each species, Lizzie and MG campaign hard. When the winners are being announced, MG stands right up, preparing to make his speech...only to learn its the imprisoned Kaleb who's been voted to represent the vampires. Likewise, Lizzie is asking about her dress and how she looks just before learning she lost to Josie (who wasn't even running) as the leader of the witches.
• The Aloner: Hope has now become this at the Salvatore School, alienating herself from her peers at the school after the tragic deaths in her family (Hayley, Klaus and Elijah) on the Originals.
• Back from the Dead:
  • Alaric's dead fiancée and the twins' biological mother Jo Laughlin is brought back to life in "Mombie Dearest". After realizing the danger her being there represents, she has Lizzie and Josie drain all the magic out of her, dissolving into thin air.
  • In "Death Keeps Knocking on My Door", Rafael's dead girlfriend comes back to life. She helps him come to terms with her death and even forgives him for kill her, before stealing the dagger under the Necromancer's control.
  • In "The Boy Who Still Has a Lot of Good to Do", MG kills Landon who luckily for both, is revealed to be a phoenix capable of self-resurrection.
• Big Bad Wannabe: The Necromancer announces himself in a dramatic way and acts like he's the worst thing anyone has ever seen, oblivious to how he's small fry compared to some of the guys Alaric has faced.
  Necromancer: This is hardly the way to treat a man of my stature!
  Alaric: Literally no one knows who you are!
  Necromancer: (scoffing) That's impossible...
  • Ends up justified when the Necromancer learns that, like so many other creatures, he was erased from human memory and existence and is being used by another power. He doesn't take it well.
• Beauty, Brains, and Brawn: Alpha Bitch Lizzie, Brainy Brunette Josie and Pint-Sized Powerhouse Hope fit this trope.
• Big Creepy-Crawlies: A human-sized spider makes an appearance in the fourth episode. It even wears an Edgar-style suit.
• Blonde, Brunette, Redhead: Lizzie (blonde), Josie (brunette) and Hope (redhead/auburn) are this as the main female trio of the show.
• Break Her Heart To Save Her: The reason Penelope broke Josie's heart before the start of the series. She found out about the merge and was afraid Josie, who she is head-over-heels for, would end up dying since she always makes her life about Lizzie. The hope was the it would spur Josie to be strong enough to win. It didn't work and most of her manipulations throughout the series revolve around her trying to make Josie stronger.
• Break the Cutie: Every teenage character gets a taste of this throughout the series, but special mentions to Josie (who gets driven into becoming evil) and Pedro (who gets drafted into monster fighting while still young enough to believe in Santa Clause).
• The Bully: Connor has bullied Landon for years. Landon finally decides to stand up to him, only to learn that Connor has been killed by a human-sized spider, which is wearing his skin.
• The Cameo: Quite a few characters from The Vampire Diaries and The Originals, who aren't transplanted from those shows, show up a few times throughout the series.
  • Jeremy Gilbert from The Vampire Diaries appears in episode three "We're being Punked, Pedro", revealed to do work for Alaric and rescues Landon and Rafael from a hunter.
  • Sheriff Matt Donovan appears briefly at the end of episode 1 informing Alaric and Hope of a bus of innocent people that were burned alive. He shows up again in episode 4 after some local high school girls go missing and warns Rick that if his students become threats he wont hesitate to take them down.
  • Freya Mikaelson from The Originals shows up in season 2 episode 6 "That's Nothing I Had To Remember", after Josie goes to New Orleans in order to get Freya to help her create a black magic spell that can restore everyone's memories of Hope.
• Cassandra Truth: After Landon's mom sacrifices herself killing a monster which erases all memory of meeting her from his mind, Landon wonders who his mom was. Hope tells him that "Maybe she's an international assassin who kills monsters and loved you very much." Landon just laughs "No way someone that cool gave birth to me."
• The Chains of Commanding: When the Honor Council votes on keeping Landon, Hope votes against him even though she wants him to stay because she knows the school isn't safe for him. Josie votes to send him away because his unknown nature is a risk to the school, even though she knows this will alienate Rafael. Averted with Lizzie when she thought she would win the seat; she bargained her vote to Rafael in exchange for him escorting her to her birthday ball.
• Coming-Out Story: Episode 4x11 reveals that Jed has romantic feelings for Ben, his new friend and Closet Key.
• Creator Provincialism: Episode 1x07 is set on Remembrance Day (November 11th), a holiday in British Commonwealth countries (such as Canada) to commemorate fallen veterans. However, in the U.S. Remembrance Day is not observed; the comparable holiday is Memorial Day which falls on the last Monday in May.
• Deadpan Snarker: Lizzie, Landon, Hope, Caleb, and Alaric are the most prominent.
• Even Evil Has Standards: As evil as he is, the Necromancer points out that no one likes Nazis.
• Evil, Inc.: Triad Industries, a company that seeks out supernatural creatures, then tosses them into a pool of tar that also magically wipes all knowledge of that creature from the public consciousness. While this may seem like a good thing, not all supernatural creatures are evil, and Triad doesn't limit its victims to supernaturals, having tossed plenty of humans in as well. The only creatures Triad can't toss into the pit are witches, werewolves, and vampires, since the pit has a built-in Restraining Bolt that prevents it from harming those three species, but they've been experimenting to change that.
• Evil Is Hammy: The Necromancer is this in spades. It gets to the point of everyone snapping at him to "knock it off" and just give straight answers.
• First-Episode Twist: Landon Kirby, the show's apparent Audience Surrogate is actually a bad guy who steals a mystical knife and apparently can't be compelled.
  • Subverted in later episodes after he correctly stated he doesn't know why he's drawn to the dagger or why monsters that aren't supposed to exist are appearing without warning and proves to be an innocent bystander.
• Friendly Neighbourhood Vampire: MG, who's nothing short of a Nice Guy and datively avoids harming the human locals and feeds off of animal blood.
  • Averted with fellow vampire student Kaleb.
  • Played with both ways when Kaleb finally convinces MG to drink from a human. MG starts drinking and can't stop, showing ripper behavior, and is just barely prevented from killing the poor kid he's feeding off of. Kaleb, for all his bravado about humans being food, clearly doesn't want anyone to actually be hurt and seems genuinely remorseful about what he almost led MG to do.
• Genre Savvy: Lizzie thinks she's this when she meets the Dijin, noting "I waste my first wish by not being specific enough, then my second fixing it only to make it worse so waste my third on having never had wishes in the first place!" As it happens, it's a bit different than that (as proven when the Dijin asks "what makes you think I only give three wishes?")
• Half-Human Hybrid: Landon turns out to be the son of a Golem and a human woman, although he has the Resurrective Immortality of a phoenix.
• Hollywood Exorcism: The opening has one of the students showing up at a Catholic church to give confession. Too late, he realizes the priest is trying to exorcise what he thinks is a demon, not realizing it's a werewolf. It's only the arrival of Hope and Alaric that prevents a massacre.
• Internal Reveal: After MG nearly becomes a Ripper, Dorian explains to Kaleb that his family was killed by Stefan Salvatore, and he spends every day working in the very building Stefan had once lived, in a library dedicated to him.
• It's a Wonderful Plot: Lizzie gets this when she starts making some wishes from a genie in "There's a World Where Your Dreams Come True":
  • The first is that "Hope never came to the school." Lizzie soon finds the school is nearly deserted and run down because, with Hope having never attended, Klaus had no reason to send the big fat check that's kept them running for so long. This becomes In Spite of a Nail as Alaric still recruits a darker Hope.
  • Lizzie then wishes that the school "never existed at all." This leads to the girls attending Mystic Falls high with Alaric mostly drunk. But again, things work out as in this reality, Klaus opened up the school and invites Alaric and the girls there.
  • Lizzie finally wishes that "Hope was never born." Without Hope, Klaus went totally over the edge and began a brutal war with humanity that's now led to supernatural beings hunted down with Josie among the casualties. This pushes Lizzie to use a "loophole wish" to set things right again.
• It's All About Me: Lizzie's primary characteristic. She gets called out on it several times but doesn't seem to learn her lesson. She always has first dibs on any cute guy in school, not caring if her sister likes him too. For their "Sweet 16" party, Josie spends all her time helping Lizzie get ready, leaving no time for herself to prepare for her own party. When a genie grants Lizzie's wishes, wish #2 ends up with her father and sister enjoying coming to Hope's school, but Lizzie is once again miserable and decides her own happiness is more important than that of her family.
  • At one point, the Dijin openly notes how Lizzie is just like all the other self-absorbed people making bad wishes she's used over the centuries.
    Lizzie: This is not about you!
    Dijin: I rest my case.
  • Lizzie's experience with the Dijin eventually leads to some Character Development where she realizes that there are things more important than her own personal happiness, only for that development to be immediately reversed when the "loophole wish" that Lizzie uses to fix her own mess also erases her memories of the whole thing, causing her to revert back to the same selfish girl she was before the Dijin episode.
• Jerkass: Penelope, who is a self proclaimed "evil temptress". She seems to go out of her way to spite Josie and Lizzie whenever she gets the chance, usually in some manipulative, tricky way that uses/hurts other people into the bargain.
  • Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Maybe. She does seem to truly care for Josie even with their breakup and the chaos she thrills in causing is geared towards what she thinks is best for Josie. Usually that involves trying to protect Josie from her admittedly self-absorbed sister.
• Large Ham: The Necromancer seems to really like the sound of his own voice. He also expects everyone to recognize him or, at least, his monicker. He's very annoyed that no one does.
• Laser-Guided Amnesia: Landon's mother explains the notes she took during her time at a government lab made her realize something was wiping her memory. She goes to "settle" with the lab, telling Hope Landon won't mind as "he won't even remember me and neither will you." Hope, Landon and Alaric show up just as the lab explodes after Landon's mother sacrifices herself inside the goo-like creature they had been studying. In the aftermath, Hope realizes she's the only person who remembers the woman or anything that has happened for reasons she can't explain.
• Let's Put on a Show!: The Salvatore School's annual talent show which takes place during Season 1 episode 11.
• Literal Metaphor: A gross example with Dana literally puking her guts out.
• Loophole Abuse: Lampshaded by Lizzie once in how "magic always has a loophole."
• Love Dodecahedron: It's a high-school drama so naturally unrequited crushes, hookups and relationship drama abound. Lizzie likes Rafael and is oblivious to the fact that her sister Josie also likes him and he likes Josie. Josie won't go after Rafael while Lizzie has "dibs" on him. There's also drama between Josie and her ex, Penelope, who broke up with Josie because she lets Lizzie walk all over her. MG likes Lizzie but he's pretty much invisible to her. Penelope coaches MG on how to go after Lizzie but it's really a ploy to get under Josie's skin, also because Penelope hates Lizzie and doesn't like MG pining after her. Rafael and Lizzie hook up after mutual disappointments but then Rafael crushes her feelings rather than lead her on. Rafael's feelings for Josie are also stifled when she votes against Landon staying at the school. And Josie and Penelope's feelings are rekindled after Josie's near-death in the graveyard. It is eventually revealed that Rafael has feelings for Hope and dreams about her, who is now dating his foster-brother Landon.
• The Main Characters Do Everything: Hope and crew do a lot of things you'd expect school staff to handle, not because they think the grownups have the wrong end of the stick and urgently need to correct it but because Alaric actually asks for their help.
• The Masquerade: As with the original series, the town elders of Mystic Falls (including Sheriff Matt) aid in making sure the inhabitants of the town don't know of the existence of the supernatural.
  • The athletic teams of the school are openly told to make sure they lose competitions with other schools so no one suspects their supernatural abilities.
• Mutual Envy: In Season 2, both Hope and Josie feel jealous of each other about Landon as Josie knows Hope is his One True Love and Hope saw how happy they looked when she came back from Malivore. Though this trope don't apply anymore once Landon chooses Hope.
• Necromancer: One apparently arrives at the school at the end of "Mombie Dearest".
• Never the Obvious Suspect: Some of the episodes point all clues at a particular person, only to reveal a completely different guilty party.
  • The second episode makes it seem as if the dagger Landon stole is what turned all bus passengers extra crispy. In fact, it was a dragon seeking the dagger.
  • In the fourth episode, it seems like a no-brainer that Kaleb is the one responsible for the mark on the girl's neck and the loss of blood, considering he was earlier shown drinking from a girl's neck. It's actually a human-sized spider.
  • In the eleventh episode, a unicorn randomly shows up on the school grounds and is assumed by everyone but Hope to be that episode's Monster of the Week. It's quickly revealed that the actual Monster of the Week is a Puppeteer Parasite possessing the unicorn, which wastes no time multiplying and dispatching its offspring to possess the majority of the students and teachers at the school.
• Next Sunday A.D.: The series begins on February 25, 2028.
• Off with His Head!: The final ending of Kai Parker.
• Our Monsters Are Different: Introduces a slew of different monsters never seen before on both shows.
  • Our Dragons Are Different: In the TVD universe, a dragon are portrayed as people who can breath fire as well as shape-shift into the actual giant, winged dragons seen in canon.
  • Our Gargoyles Rock
  • Our Zombies Are Different: The Necromancer starts raising the dead at the cemetery. They become the stereotypical zombies, and MG uses his knowledge of The Walking Dead to figure out that Removing the Head or Destroying the Brain is the only way to stop them. Fortunately, the zombies don't actually manage to hurt anyone, given that they're facing a vampire, a witch, and a vampire-werewolf-witch tribrid.
• Plant Person: One of the creatures that comes for the dagger is a Dryad. Dorian manages to trap her, and she turns out to be the first one willing to talk. She explains that all the creatures seem to be drawn to the dagger by a mysterious voice and name-drops "Malivore", before attacking and forcing Dorian to kill her.
• "The Reason You Suck" Speech: Penelope to Lizzie for the way she treats Josie in episode 5.
• Resurrective Immortality: When MG kills Landon in a fit of rage, Landon's body burns up the following morning, and then a fully-healed Landon bursts out of the ash, revealing that he has phoenix-like powers. In season 4, new characterBen is introduced and revealed to be an immortal god known as Prometheus in Greek Mythology; each time Ben is killed he resurrects before the following sunrise.
• Riches to Rags: When she uses a wish for Hope to have never come to the school, Lizzie is at first happy. But she finds that without Hope, Klaus never wrote a huge check and thus the school is barely in business. Lizzie asks "are we...poor?" as if she's been cursed to Hell itself.
• Running Gag: In "There's a World Where Your Dreams Come True", Lizzie constantly calls the Jinni "genie" and ignores the automatic correction.
• Sealed Evil in a Can: Malivore is this trapped in puddle form. But he can send one creature he's eaten out into the world with a compultion to get back what he needs to be free.
  • Sebastien the vampire. After a murderous rampage, involving the killing of many humans just for the fun of it, he was sealed in a coffin and left to rot until he eventually desiccated from lack of blood. Until he can convince someone to feed him he can only appear to one person at a time.
• Ship Sinking:
  • With Penelope's departure from the Salvador School midway through season 1, the good ship Posie was irrevocably lost to viewers.
  • During the episode that was initially set to be the season 2 finale, Lizzie takes advantage of MG one time too many and he abandons his feelings for her. Just in time for her to realize her feelings for him of course.
  • With Kaylee's decision to leave the show, the fans most hoped for ship, "Hosie", is canonically finished.
• Shout-Out: Several in This Christmas Was Surprisingly Violent. Specifically in Hope's list of suspects which include Heat Miser, The Grinch and Frosty the Snowman.
• Slap-Slap-Kiss: Josie's relationship with Penelope is shaping up this way. At the end of "Mombie Dearest" Josie declares "I hate you," to Penelope right before kissing her.
• Swapped Roles: In her second "Wish World," Lizzie is stunned beyond words to find that in a reality where the school doesn't exist and she and Josie attend Mystic Falls High, Josie is the head cheerleader dating the quarterback, Lizzie's usual "friend/minion" is serving Josie and Josie herself is the selfish bitchy gal showing off magic that Lizzie usually is while Lizzie is overlooked as a "loser freak."
• Throwing the Fight: The members of the school's athletics team hate the annual flag football game with another school as they always lose. The reality is that given the Salvatore team is made up of vampires, werewolves, witches and hybrids, they could easily wipe the floor with their opponents. But by Alaric's command, they have to lose on purpose so outsiders won't find anything odd about these strangely athletic kids. A fed up Lizzie encourages the gang to finally cut loose and win but Josie uses her own magic to make them lose.
• Time Skip: Set two years after the conclusion of The Originals.
• Transplant: Alaric Saltzman and Dorian Williams from The Vampire Diaries, Hope Mikaelson from The Originals.
• Vegetarian Vampire: MG and his vampire friend Kaleb have a fight about the latter feeding on humans. Kaleb reveals that it was when he tasted his first victim that he realized the blood bags of the school are only filled with animal blood as a way of ensuring the vampires don't become addicted to human blood. He quickly regrets his decision to convince MG to try human blood, as MG doesn't want to stop and nearly kills a human. Dorian explains that some vampires, usually ones like MG, become Rippers and keep on feeding and feeding, unable to stop themselves.
• Vampiric Werewolf: Klaus and Hayley's daughter Hope is not only a vampire/werewolf hybrid, but has also inherited magic from her grandmother.
• X Meets Y: Julie Plec has described the series as Harry Potter meets Buffy.
• You Have GOT to Be Kidding Me!: Said word for word by Lizzie in her first "wish world" when, even without having Hope come to the school at the start originally, she is still found in New Orleans to join up.

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