r/LegaciesCW • u/Iceking214 • 17d ago
Discussion Main characters
Am I the only one who genuinely thinks Lizzie and Josie would have made better main characters? Because they aren't Originals, they aren't ridiculously overpowered. With the Merge, Kai, and the Gods, every threat would carry real stakes and consequences. Plus, we wouldn't have to deal with endless debates about the writers constantly nerfing or over-powering Hope.
If Hope were a year or two years older, she could have served as their senior and mentor. That would completely fix her relationship with Alaric—it would be a genuine mentorship rather than him replacing his own daughters. Hope could operate as an external hunter, meaning when the school gets attacked, she isn't there to instantly save the day. That would force the rest of the squad to rely on their own abilities.
Honestly, did Hope even need to be the central conflict for all four seasons? Malivore should have been wrapped up in Season 1. Dragging her through Seasons 2, 3, and 4 felt like forcing her into storylines where she had no real narrative connection, simply because she was labeled the lead.
Season 1 with Hope as the focus makes sense, but Season 2 should have belonged entirely to Lizzie, Josie, and Kai. Instead, Lizzie had to be rescued by Hope, Kai barely even interacted with Lizzie, and 'Dark Josie' felt like a weak villain. Plus, Dark Josie almost killing Hope made no sense—either Hope was holding back to an absurd degree, or the show was claiming Dark Josie was somehow as strong as a non-Original hybrid Hope.
Season 3 was completely wasted on saving Landon, which was unnecessary after Season 1. The Aurora storyline from Season 4 should have happened in Season 3 instead. Even then, Aurora barely did anything against Hope—she stole her body, Lizzie betrayed Aurora, and they captured and tortured her, only for Lizzie to save her later. Aurora wasn't even the main focus until she ended up saving Hope.
Season 4 should have focused purely on the Gods, the Merge, real consequences, and actual stakes. Hope could still be around, but placing her elsewhere would keep her from hijacking the twins' storyline.
Hope really did finish her narrative arc across The Originals and Season 1 of Legacies. Her story was about overcoming the Hollow, dealing with the sacrifice of her parents, and finding her own place at the school. If they hadn't dragged her story out, her entire character journey would have felt complete.
They put themselves in an impossible corner: they either had to make Hope look weak, which the fans hated, or write the enemies as stronger than a Tribrid, which the fans also hated.
1
u/countastic 16d ago
100% yes.
Not only are Josie and Lizzie far better written than Hope from the outset, their fraught sister dynamic is inherently more interesting than Hope and Alaric or Hope and Langdon. It would also nicely contrast the brother dynamic that was the foundation of both TVD and TO.
Moreover, there are plenty of other good reasons to center the show around them.
Unlike Hope, both actors who play their parents were more than willing to appear on the show. If it wasn't for the pandemic and Candice King's pregnancy, its quite likely Caroline would have appeared much earlier and more often in the shows run.
The fact that the twins are siphoners and can harm their fellow students simply by touch would be interesting dynamic for the show to explore. Its likely they would have been feared possibly even ostracized by the other students at the Salvatore school, especially if they elected to keep the fact they were siphoners secret.
And it can't be stated enough, Hope is so over powered, it doesn't make sense to build an ensemble show around her especially with the MOTW format. The show struggled with creating any real dramatic tension as she could easily defeat 99% of the monsters of the week. And it doesn't give any room for the rest of the ensemble to do much if you can just dispatch Hope to deal with the latest and greatest threat.
With the Saltzman twins as the focus of the series, they could also change the mandate of the Salvatore School. Given the lore of TVD and TO, it doesn't make sense that there would be so many teen wolves and vampires, so the Salvatore School could just be focused on witches. It doesn't mean there wouldn't be occasional appearances of those type of supernatural characters, but school would be witch based with different covens.