The original post: /r/television by /u/Wheres_MyMoney on 2025-04-10 20:24:47.
I actually find it shocking and borderline insulting? I’ll do a quick recap for those who might not be super familiar with the franchise.
The Vampire Diaries was a CW darling. Eight seasons, most of the fans think the first 4-6 are anywhere from good-to-amazing, it hit a rough spot trying to recenter after Nina Dobrev left before 7, and then 8 was kind of a quick and messy wrap-up. However, the lore of the show was actually pretty dang good with twists, turns, and surprisingly strong performances, specifically from the female cast. Vampires, Witches, Werewolves, some offshoots here and there, and that was that for the most part.
The Originals, a spin-off of TVD, focused on the Mikaelsons, and antagonistic family in the original series, as they strove (to varying degrees) for redemption after a millennia of building enemies and being awful peopl. Same universe as its predecessor, with most of the same rules but does a really good job of moving the tone away from high school drama towards adult issues. Four seasons were great, but then came along season 5 and teenage Hope Mikaelson…
At this point, a spinoff of a spinoff, Legacies, was confirmed with the intention of focusing on Hope, the newest member of the Mikaelson family, a witch/werewolf/vampire tribrid, and the central driving force for her family’s centuries-long quest for peace.
Although TVD and TO spent over a decade of building lore, plotlines, and a shared universe, Legacies didn’t really want to deal with that. The show literally retcons reality as we know it in order to be a Buffy-esque villain of the week type show where Hope battles different mythological creatures with the help of her high school friends. And family right since The Originals is all about family?
No, no family for Hope. Because, in order to set her up as the chosen girl for her own spinoff, the final season of The Originals has her roundabout responsible for her own mother’s death, has her father kill himself for, and I cannot stress this enough, NO ACTUAL REASON, and has the rest of her family suddenly be okay with sending her off to boarding school.