Legacies Is Finally Giving Landon The Story Arc He Needs
The Originals spin-off series Legacies has always anchored its heroine Hope’s character development, as well as her flaws, but season 3 of the show is finally offering her love interest Landon the character development that he's long-needed and deserved. Debuting back in 2018, Legacies followed The Originals to become the second successful spin-off series from the beloved ‘00s supernatural soap The Vampire Diaries.
The series stars Danielle Rose Russell as Hope Mikaelson, the orphaned daughter of Klaus and Hayley, and Aria Shahghasemi as her seemingly human, secretly Phoenix love interest Landon Kirby. The first two seasons of Legacies have thus far followed the duo's tenure at the Salvatore School for the Young and Gifted, with the on-again, off-again relationship between Landon and Hope being the main focus beyond the frequent “monster of the week” interruptions.
To keep The Vampire Diaries franchise fresh (despite being a spin-off series from another spin-off series), Legacies shifted audience expectations by subverting stereotypical norms of paranormal romance stories. Landon and Hope’s relationship dynamic has proven interesting thanks to its consistent twisting of audience expectations, with the pair flipping the anticipated gender dynamic of the dashing hero and the damsel-in-distress. However, as Legacies enters its third season, Landon's passivity is no longer as surprising as it was in earlier installments of the series, and if anything, his lack of agency is now starting to hinder his character growth. Fortunately, trapping the character alone in the prison world proves that Legacies is finally starting to give him the story arc he has needed for a while.
Legacies season 3, episode 6, "To Whom It May Concern," found the character escaping Malivore only to get stuck in a prison world, but instead of waiting around for Hope to save him (as always), Landon instead decided to make his own luck and find a way out on his own. This arc is finally giving the character the independence and agency he has lacked to this point, and it is proving as effective as a case of a more traditional damsel-in-distress picking up a sword to defend herself after countless cases of being rescued. The two seasons of Legacies that Landon spent as an unusually ineffectual deuteragonist on the show have proven to be time well spent, as the long-awaited subversion of this dynamic makes his newfound agency more satisfying. Since his return to the land of the living, he's shown himself far more willing to be outspoken and even to give Hope the doses of reality she often needs but doesn't want to hear. In other words, Landon is finally growing up.
Meanwhile, Hope is finally able to have some solo adventures that, while still connected to Landon’s subplot, don’t rely entirely on the connection between the characters. The daughter of Klaus and Hayley is an engaging character outside of her romantic relationship and the distance between the pair has thus far seen Legacies prove that its central heroes are more than just a solid screen couple. Sending Landon to the prison world is providing the character with the development has needed ever since Hope’s ability to act as his unexpected rescuer became more rote than subversive, and Legacies season 3 is thankfully breaking a dynamic that began interesting but has since become tired in the intervening seasons.
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