Legacies: Why Landon Needs to Stay Dead

Legacies has backed itself into a corner with Landon Kirby, the son of Malivore.

Landon was seemingly killed off on Legacies Season 3 Episode 4, while Legacies Season 3 Episode 5 strongly hinted that he had survived and was trapped somewhere outwith his control.

But, for Legacies to progress, the character needs to die. As long as he is on the show, Malivore will still be lurking in the shadows, with monsters waiting to strike the characters.

Unfortunately, the Malivore plot doesn't have the legs to sustain a full series and should have concluded at the end of Legacies Season 1, but here we are, several years later, and it's still going on.

If you watch Legacies online, you know Malivore has seemingly been confined to a prison world in a similar vein to the way Kai was held in one of those worlds for years.

Malivore will continue to recur for as long as Landon is in the narrative because of the link to his father.

As a character, Landon hasn't been developed as much as the others, and when you consider the amount of screen time he gets, we should know him much better.

The writers have recently tried their hand at giving him more to do with the whole Salvatore Musical, as well as his short-term phoenix powers, but some of the biggest flaws of the series are down to the lack of progress for Landon.

Had Legacies Season 1 dealt with Landon and gave him his powers, we could have moved on to something fresh and exciting for Legacies Season 2.

Instead, we got more Malivore monsters, and even with Landon in a state of limbo and Malivore in another dimension, it's hard to believe there not being more Malivore monsters on the horizon.

What Malivore in the prison world highlighted was that the show is using a plot device that was used sparingly on The Vampire Diaries.

The prison worlds were introduced on The Vampire Diaries Season 6 were only utilized as and when required from that point forward.

But Legacies is using them as a means to advance a plot that is already languishing. The prison world appears to be the Bonnie Bennett of Legacies.

Bonnie always found a loophole to save her friends on the original series, and it appears that the prison world is that loophole on the third series in the franchise.

Even more concerning is that Hope has largely been reduced to Landon's girlfriend in the series, barely getting any storyline to work with that doesn't involve Landon.

When the series was announced, it was supposed to be centered around Hope and Lizzie and Josie Saltzman, but many of the characters that need storylines are simply not getting them.

It's downright bizarre that the writers have reduced such a powerful character like Hope Mikaelzon to the girlfriend role.

The Vampire Diaries and The Originals thrived on teen drama conventions, but those shows managed to balance the plots out much better and had a better variety of villains.

Malivore and its association with Landon are dragging the show down considerably. I fear that, even when Malivore is defeated for good, Landon will still be haunted by the past.

The series would be wise to move on from the plot if it wants to stand the test of time.

Unless there is a meaningful development for Landon in the cards, it would probably be best for the show to cut its losses and move on to a new and darker arc.

Another big concern was the lengths Hope went to save Landon with the wish. For the show, Hope probably wished to have Landon back, but that wouldn't track well with what came on The Originals.

Hope may love Landon, but why would she not choose to bring her mother, father, or uncle back from the dead instead of Landon?

Bizarre storytelling like this makes me question whether Legacies' creative forces forgot what happened in the previous two series.

Honoring the past would be the most respectable way of approaching the creative process of the series.

The only way I see the plot actually progressing is by killing Landon, keeping him dead, and wiping the slate clean with a soft reboot for future seasons.