Some of my favorite episodes are the Christmas episodes because, while they still have chaos in them, they also just give the Mikaelsons time to be a family.

They created a whole show to be based off a miracle baby and then we hardly got to see them raise this baby. I would have loved to see more holiday episodes. We didn't get to see any of Hope's first anythings. She just kind of grew up off screen.

I would have also loved just a couple of cute romantic episodes. The closest we get is Freelin's wedding and I couldn't even enjoy it since Hayley had literally just died.

I loved Elijah and Marcel bonding and would have loved to see more of their relationship, instead of the show tanking that. Or more of Rebekah learning about what she wanted in life. More of Hayley actually being an alpha.

Obviously just more haylijah. I don't even believe we see the first "I love you." I find it hard to believe they waited until Season 4. I would have loved to see more scenes of Hayley actually getting to feel her emotions in Season 2 and 3, rather than just pushing her into things.

Also would have loved more flashbacks. I wanted to see how the Strix were founded. Or Kol working with witches. Rebekah discovering she wanted to be a mother. Just anything to flesh out the characters more.

The show just really could have slowed down slightly and let emotions land. I felt like a lot of big moments fell flat because the characters didn't even get a chance to feel their emotions. They just shoved them down and moved onto the next thing.

Thanks for the ask!

I will say one of my issues with Legacies is I prefer a closed world in my supernatural fandoms. Meaning, we have a set number of supernaturals and it can't vary much from that. TVD and TO do a good job with this. Yes, they add hybrids and heretics, but it's just a combination of what we already have, and it sort of makes sense. They even started to lose me when they introduced sirens and the devil, but again, they related it back to witches.

Legacies introducing phoenix and unicorns and everything else under the sun was just too much for me. But I do like the idea of Hope being with someone who could keep up with her, even just with mortality. She already lost so much and having someone she couldn't lose would be a comfort to her. I also could understand her becoming incredibly dependent on that. After all, she's a Mikaelson. They love their toxic, codependent relationships. A lot of this had to do with the fact that they were all immortal and could only count on each other living forever with them. So, again, it makes sense for Hope to develop this.

You lost me a little bit with the fake Landons, but I have heard Legacies is essentially a rip off of Buffy. I've also seen that the no humanity lasted far too long. I know everyone loves a heartless, badass woman, but it just makes me sad. Hope deserved better than a life where she felt the need to turn off her humanity at only, what, 18 years old? I've talked about how "no humanity" just doesn't make a whole lot of sense. They claim it means no emotions, but then are showing they are annoyed or frustrated or angry, all emotions. It's basically just them not caring about consequences and making the worst possible decisions.

I also have no idea who Clark is. But I have seen people like Hope and Lizzie and were excited to see Aurora back.

The limbo thing I have heard about. I feel like the show just kept getting rid of the afterlife but then essentially bringing it back but calling it something else.

I think it's so interesting that you only like the first two seasons. So many people have told me I just have to get to the later seasons and it gets better in Season 4. Again, I think people just like Hope behaving like a knock-off-version of Klaus. Which is just not my cup of tea.

Thanks for explaining all of that. I don't mind spoilers since so many of my mutuals love Legacies so I've seen a lot of it through edits.

First of all, thank you for reading TGW! I love hearing feedback and I'm so glad you've enjoyed it. I really wanted to give the characters more closure and happier (if not just as angsty) storylines. I can't wait to start posting the sequel!

But yes, Season 5 was an absolute mess for so many reasons, but mainly because the writing was just so bad. I know they lost their main producer and JP had to take over. I don't think she cared to follow the show's own lore. She just wanted to end it quickly and dramatically. If you read my story, Don't It Just Break Your Heart, I don't fully resolve all of the issues, but I do discuss how it wouldn't make sense for Klaus and Elijah to die with the Hollow. We saw other characters get killed with the Hollow inside and she just comes back, it doesn't kill her. They completely dropped the Labonair connection in Season 5 which was such a pivotal point in Season 4. Simply killing her on the one plane didn't solve anything as she just ended up back on the ancestral plane and come back.

Also, yes, where did that stake come from? Freya searched for any trace of the white oak in season 3 and only came up with the one bullet. How did she not find the one that Klaus kept hidden? Why would Klaus keep a stake that could kill him and his family hidden? None of that made sense. Like you pointed out, there was still a way to kill him, Marcel's venom. It would be kind of iconic for Klaus to be killed by both of his children -- Hope doing it to kill the Hollow but using Marcel's venom.

Very little about Season 5 made any sense. It was all just for rating and to launch Legacies.

Thanks for the ask!

I've talked about this briefly, but never in depth.

But this brings up a nature v. nurture debate in me. I do think a lot of Hope is just who she is. But we can't deny how her life shapes her.

The first time in canon we ever get a sense of Hope's personality is when we meet her as a seven year old, who is being raised by Hayley alone. Hope is a gentle, sensitive, and caring girl. I do think that is the baseline for Hope.

However, if she had been raised with all of the Mikaelsons, I can't help but feel that she would be corrupted slightly. We met Marcel briefly as a child and he was also a sweet and caring child. However, the Mikaelsons made him like them. Marcel was still caring, but there was an edge to it. He was willing to starve and imprison his best friend for betraying him. He was willing to lock Davina, a child, up for his own gain. He was willing to unleash a horde of vampires on New Orleans to defeat his enemies (the Mikaelsons). He was willing to hurt those he claimed to love for power. Marcel became a Mikaelson through and through. The same thing would have happened to Hope.

Legacies, from what I've seen, loves to talk about Hope being Klaus' daughter, but in reality, canon Hope is Freya and Hayley's daughter. And not even the Freya we first met, but the Freya they turned her into after they killed Cami off. Being raised by them and feeling abandoned by the rest of her family really shaped who she became. For better or worse.

I also have trouble with this question because it depends what version of Klaus stuck around. We saw various different versions of Klaus as a father, but one thing was consistent is that he wasn't a very good father. He wanted to be, but let his fear and quest for power interfere. Even when he was around for Hope's life, we see him often handing Hope off to Freya or Elijah or Jackson and Hayley or just vaguely to the bayou.

But, for arguments sake, let's say he was actively invovled in raising Hope. He would spoil her and teach Hope that the world owed her everything. We would have seen a much more entitled Hope. She would still be caring underneath, but like Marcel would feel that she was owed more than she was given and do questionable things to get there.

I do think Elijah would try to temper this more, he saw what his hands off approach did to Kol, Klaus, and Rebekah. Elijah and Hayley would have had to be the disciplinarians, constantly fighting Klaus and his inability to actually parent. I would hope that we would still see Elijah realizing that the pressure he put on Hope as a baby was too much and he would be able to tell her that earlier than he did in canon.

We also wouldn't see Hope feeling the pressure the way she did because their wouldn't be the sacrifices. Hope's point system she kept was because she felt like she had to make the Mikaelsons' sacrifice worth it. That she had to be worth it. No sacrifice, no pressure. Even if Elijah didn't realize his mistake, there would be nothing telling Hope that it was her job to "save" Klaus.

This is good, but also would just feed into the entitlement with nothing to temper her out. Rebekah and Kol would also spoil her, encouraging her problematic behavior. Freya, even in canon, often viewed Hope as an adult rather than a child, letting her make decisions that she was too young to be making.

But the saving graces would be the in-laws and Hayley. We see Hayley really mature as a mother. Part of this is likely because she was doing it on her own, but I think she would still have this growth with the Mikaelsons, encouraging them to have their own growth. Cami would have forced Klaus to confront his issues that made him a questionable father and showed him how problematic his techniques of parenting were. Davina would have been one of Hope's biggest advocates, knowing how much pressure was on Hope. Same with Marcel. He knew how much the Mikaelsons broke him and he wouldn't let them do that to Hope. Keelin would also have pointed out all of their problematic behavior, never letting them get away with it.

Hope would have been similar to the Rebekah we met in TVD. Kind of a bratty teenager who has a good heart underneath it all. She would grow and mature and hopefully find her own footing outside of the Mikaelsons. She would also be less afraid of the "darkness" inside of her because there wouldn't be the lingering ghost of the Mikaelsons hanging over her. They would just be her family. Instead of learning of them from books and people who hated them, she would be able to form her own opinions. She would learn to embrace all parts of herself as she got older.

Thanks for the ask!

Hi! First of all, thank you so much for reading my stories! That means so much to me! <3

I've talked about this a little before at the very end of my post about Klaus being a good father. I think him dying at the end of Season 5 was semi-in-character for Season 2 Klaus, but not where Klaus should have been in Season 5. People love to make it this great sacrifice, but in reality it was him running away from responsibility. A main character flaw for Klaus was that he wanted a lot of things without putting in the work. He wanted to be king of New Orleans, without having to do the political work necessary. He wanted the love of his siblings without being a good brother. He wanted the honor of being Hope's father without the responsibility of being her father.

We even see glimpses of this in Season 4. He spends all of his time spoiling Hope while Hayley does the work. I would have loved to see even one scene of Klaus doing Hope's hair or preparing her food (not compelling it) or disciplining her. Anything to show he was a father and not just a glorified babysitter.

We see the most improvement for Klaus when he takes the Hollow and separates from his family. I find it more impressive that he separated from Elijah and Rebekah more so than Hope. It seemed like every chance Klaus could "sacrifice" himself and be away from Hope, he did. I'm by no means saying he didn't love Hope. It's clear he did. But I think he allowed his fear of Hope seeing him for what he was to stop him from being a good father.

So in Season 5, when Hope has just lost her mother, he decided to orphan her rather than let Elijah die for her. Like you said, a lot of this was just due to JP setting up Legacies and Joseph not wanting to continue. They really couldn't set up Legacies with Klaus being alive without making Klaus look terrible. But honestly, at that point, he had already abandoned her for years, what's a few more? Him staying away is the same thing as him killing himself unnecessarily for her. She was still left alone. At least if he had been alive, he could check in with the family and keep pressure on them to raise his child.

But being dead was easier and Klaus tended to take the easy ways out.

As I said, this was a character regression. What would have actually been character development would be Klaus sticking around, without Elijah to clean up his mess or Hayley to raise his child or Cami to constantly set him on a better path. Hope needed Klaus to put her first and he didn't. He put his own fears above what Hope needed. Hope had to lose both parents in the span of a week because of him. Because there was another option. Elijah was willing and ready. When Elijah told him he had the Hollow too and would die by his side, Klaus should have let Elijah take it all and die alone. Elijah would have felt better leaving Klaus alive and Hope would have at least had one parent.

Klaus was good at showing up and doing the grand gestures for Hope. But he could never bring himself to do the day to day things that a child needs from her father. So, while I do think most of Klaus' behavior was OOC in Season 5, especially when the show was trying to pretend he had this great character development, it wasn't completely out of character for some of the earlier versions of Klaus.

Thanks for the ask!

To me, Marcel and Hope have always had more of an uncle/niece relationship than sibling. This is largely because of their age differences, but also because of the lack of father figure in Hope's life for so long. While Hope does feel protective of Marcel, it's not in the same parental way Marcel does for her. He watched her grow up more so than any man in her life.

It's why I found it harder to believe Marcel, out of all of the Mikaelsons, didn't show up to help Hope in Legacies. He knew exactly what it was to be Klaus' child. He also knew exactly what it was like to be abandoned by the Mikaelsons.

Even in TO Season 5, they didn't do their relationship justice. Marcel would have been a close figure in Hope's life. Mystic Falls is only about a six hour drive from New York City and Marcel didn't have a reason to stay away. He was one of the few Mikaelsons that could actively be in Hope's life. We get to see a handful of scenes with them and it does appear they've stayed in touch. I watched the one episode in Legacies where the Mikaelsons come back and it even seems like Hope is more excited to see Marcel than anyone.

I think, in a world where Hope had a stable life raised by her family, they could have had a more sibling-like relationship. But there would always be an unevenness about it because of Marcel's age compared to Hope. It would be similar to Elijah and Rebekah, but without the egotistical brother. Hope would still look to Marcel for guidance and expertise on dealing with the family. Marcel would have been able to guide her better if he was closer throughout her growing up. Marcel would be the person she would call whenever she was in trouble or felt like the Mikaelsons were suffocating her. Marcel would take her out for the day and they would talk about how difficult it all was.

We were robbed of more interactions between Marcel and Hope as she grew.

Thanks for the ask!

Hi! Thank you for reading! I'm glad you enjoyed them.

I think it was very clear that Legacies ruined The Originals. To the extent that even the cast discussed it. Daniel Gillies was always very open about this, which is why (in my opinion) they did what they did to Elijah's character. He mentioned rushing through the last couple of seasons in this interview. I used to be more into the cast and would watch interviews, but I unfortunately never saved them so I don't have all of the receipts. But here are some quotes by Daniel regarding TO:

There is also a video interview where I distinctly remember Daniel talking about feeling abandoned by the producers, but I can't find it. We do know that Michael Narducci left after Season 4, as well as a lot of the crew. Daniel talks about a lot of upheaval on set that I find hard to believe was just normal business. He also complains about so many new characters in Season 5 which cut into the main characters storylines. With actors who have devoted years of their lives to these characters, it must have been difficult to watch them get ruined by the writers.

It is clear that none of the actors were happy when they left, which is why so many of them refused to come back. Phoebe even refused to sign off on them using her likeness and was only a "guest role" in Season 5.

I also think it is very telling that there are so many rumors that TO was supposed to be more seasons. It had good ratings and yet they decided to not even give us five full seasons. JP was definitely rushing to get to Legacies. That was always her goal, TO was just a means to an end. Season 5 wasn't about the TO characters, rather about launching Legacies. So much of Season 5 made no sense.

You're absolutely correct. Hayley, Elijah, and Klaus all dying was simply so Hope would be orphaned. Although they should have just killed the entire family because how the rest of them abandoned Hope was terrible. But, Hayley, Elijah, and Klaus would never have done it. There was no way Legacies was happening with those three around. It goes to show just how much of a parental figure Elijah was because JP also wanted that same pattern for Legacies. All three shows' lead woman is an orphaned teen thrown into the chaos of supernatural. Hayley and Klaus were never going to survive TO because JP wanted that for Legacies. Elijah got thrown in because in no world does he abandon Hope. I guess they could have left him with amnesia, but she wanted more drama than TVD.

But yeah, JP can deny it all she wants but she rushed the best show in the TVDU to create the worst. She wanted to create her own legacy (pun in tended) by creating a never ending spinoff universe.

Thanks for the ask!

Also feel free to send me the interviews if you can find them!

Interesting question. They would all handle it so differently. This would be about two-ish years after the end of Season 4 so everyone would be separated.

Freya would be the most impacted by it. Not only is she mortal, but her girlfriend is a doctor. Keelin would be volunteering for every shift she could given her werewolf healing abilities. She would take it as a duty to save as many lives as she could since hers wouldn't be in jeopardy, unlike her follow doctors. But Freya wouldn't have that perk. Keelin would refuse to see Freya until the vaccine was created. She wouldn't risk brining home germs that could get Freya sick, especially since they didn't know the impact vampire blood would have on curing COVID.

Klaus would be the least impacted. He was already spiraling and wouldn't have let a silly thing like a pandemic stop him. He wouldn't even need to be worried about anyone in his family since they were all basically immune to human viruses. He would just assume Freya was fine. He would continue wrecking havoc on everyone he saw. He would be annoyed that everything was shut down and he had to actually go find his food the hard way.

Kol and Davina wouldn't mind. They would be bummed that they had to cancel all of their travel plans, but they would make the best of it. They had nearly lost each other so many times and would love to isolate together. They could finally, actually, get to know each other in a normal way since they didn't really know anything about the other before. Kol would begrudgingly wear a mask in public but often forget to cover his nose despite Davina constantly reminding him. He wouldn't let Davina out of the house in anything less than medical grade mask. He would be paranoid of losing her once again.

Rebekah and Marcel would also hunker down for most of the pandemic. Marcel would be concerned about New Orleans and how his city was coping, but other than that, they also would enjoy the peace. Rebekah and Marcel would play their part and wear masks in public, despite neither of them needing them. But Rebekah just wants to feel human and Marcel is happy to go along with it.

Hayley would be managing New Orleans and worried about Hope. But the Salvatore School would not shut down as most of their residence don't have anywhere to go and can't even get sick. Hayley would debate pulling Hope back home since travel was limited and she wouldn't want to be stuck away from her daughter for months. Hope would initially go back to New Orleans with Freya and Hayley but after a few months, she would miss her friends and return to school. Hayley would help the wolves who would struggle because a lot of their jobs closed. She would make sure they were taken care of. Hope and Hayley would also wear masks and Hayley would be very cautious to change her clothes as soon as she got home to make sure she didn't get Freya sick. Hayley would do all of their shopping to limit Freya's exposure, which would drive Freya mad, but she would appreciate the gesture.

Elijah would be in France with Antoinette. They would struggle since Antoinette doesn't use daylight rings and relies on hunting food at night. With everything closed, she would be limited in options. They would have to get creative on luring people out and would likely relocate to a bigger city where there were more options. They would both wear masks to not draw attention to themselves. But they also wouldn't mind isolating at home and getting to know each other better. This would have been early in their relationship.

Thanks for the ask!

Ok, this was actually so hard. I tried to do both time period accurate but also today what they would listen to.

Elijah

Elijah would be super pretentious with it and pretend he only has a Spotify account to listen to classical music in the car, because of course live or vinyl is the only way music should be consumed. But we all know he was in his room listening to some Lana, Adele, Dean Lewis, etc. My boy likes to listen to music that makes him feel his sadness. He also really just appreciates well produced music so I think he would really enjoy Billie and Finneas. I also think he would really have liked music in the late 1900s. He would have really enjoyed The Beatles, Billy Joel, Queen, Journey, etc.

Elijah would be obsessed with Hozier. The lyrics, the storytelling, the music, the history. He would learn all of the songs on piano. He would also really like David Kushner and Dermot Kennedy.

No memories Elijah liked to dance and I can just see him really enjoying Conan Gray. He gets to dance and cry all at the same time. But come on, Family Line is his song.

Hayley

I've seen people say Hayley would love Taylor Swift, but she was far too much of a "pick me" for that. She would have been listening to more rock or angry music. The early 2010s were peak emo music. My girl would have been listening to My Chemical Romance, The All-American Rejects, Green Day, Foo Fighters, etc. But she would pretend they were too mainstream for her. She would tell people she only listens to her version of the classics: Metallica, Pantera, Iron Maiden, Avenged Sevenfold, etc.

As she got older, it would be less angsty, but still emotional. Some Halsey, Lorde, Alessia Cara. Hope would get her to listen to Olivia Rodrigo and Sabrina Carpenter, she would enjoy it but tell Hope she needs to listen to the classic. They would both really enjoy listening to Heart, Pat Benatar, and Janet Jackson together.

Klaus

I honestly can't picture Klaus listening to music unless he is painting. So it just depended on his mood and his painting. I could definitely see him painting to Lana and Christina Perri, maybe even some James Arthur. I could see him getting high, listening to Bob Marley or Pink Floyd and painting. He would have enjoyed classic rock.

Hope would try to get him into pop music but he would only listen to the ones he didn't consider basic. He would vibe with Noah Kahan and Phoebe Bridgers.

Cami

Cami was definitely a party girl in Undergrad. She took her classes seriously but she knew how to let loose on the weekends. She was an OG listener to Beyoncé, Rihanna, Charli xcx, etc. Cami would also really love women empowerment music. She would love JoJo (not Siwa, the original), Julia Michaels, Kesha, Lady Gaga.

We just know she would love Because I Liked a Boy since she literally lived it.

She would have loved Paris Paloma if she had lived long enough.

Rebekah

I'm struggling with Rebekah a little bit. But I think she would listen to more soft pop music. Like Julia Michaels, Rachel Chinouriri, Lewis Capaldi, Mariah Cary (her older music), etc. But Rebekah would eat up boy bands too. She would definitely have fan girl'ed for the Backstreet Boys and NSYNC had she not bee daggered during their prime. She would enjoy Harry Styles and Jess McCartney.

She would have been so mad at Klaus for keeping her daggered during the 90s girl bands. She would have been obsessed with Spice Girls and Destiny's Child.

Freya

I see Freya being a country pop girl. She would have been exposed to such little music each time she was awaken. But I think she would have really liked Kelly Clarkson, Miranda Lambert, Dolly Parton, Kacey Musgraves, etc. She would be obsessed with Shania Twain. She would always stand up and dance to Man I feel like a Woman every time it came, loving living in a time where she could be a woman and free.

But she also liked to dance and have fun. She would have loved Bruno Mars, Rihanna, Sean Paul, Beyonce, etc. Beyonce's Cowboy Carter would be on repeat. But she would be willing to listen to anything. Hope would constantly be showing her new music.

She would love Chappell Roan, Renee Rapp, Kehlani, Fletcher, Muna, Hayley Kiyoko, Towa Bird, etc. Any sapphic artist.

Kol

All I know about Kol is that he doesn't like Icelandic folk music. He would like slow music to dance to and then just whatever Davina liked. Davina would be introducing him to Miley Cyrus, Taylor Swift, Selena Gomez, etc., and whatever club music Josh was listening to.

Also, just Kol listening to Rude by MAGIC! on repeat because we know Marcel never warmed up to him.

If they all had lived, Josh, Cami, Freya, Davina, and Kol would have been obsessed with Brat.

Finn

I don't know if Finn ever lived long enough to enjoy music. I think music would honestly be so overwhelming to him. He went from music being a harp and lute to the insane production we have today. I think just starting him off listening to Chopin or Mozart before throwing him into Ariana Grande would be wise. This man wouldn't even know what a piano is. I think he would eventually enjoy more soul or jazz music. Like Leon Bridges, Etta James, Frank Ocean. Especially being in New Orleans. He would like to go to jazz bars and just discover new artists.

Hope

Hope would get all of these people listening to modern music. She would be dragging them to go see Taylor Swift, Olivia Rodrigo, Sabrina Carpenter, etc. And I just know her and Freya would go see Chappell.

What do you all think? This is really interesting.

I like your theory about Hayley breaking the sirebond. I think she definitely would have needed to break it being so far away from Hope. She was already missing her the normal amount a mother would be after sending her newborn child away. But with the sirebond on top of it, it would have driven her mad. It would make sense that was what she was doing in the bayou. But I fear you have spent more time thinking about it than the writers. Much like the Damon/Elena sirebond. They wrote it in for a very specific purpose and then just pretended it didn't exist anymore.

I also hated how the writers changed the different bonds to fit the plot. Why would Klaus' sirebond operate any differently than a typical sirebond which requires preexisting feelings. Purely for plot device.

I absolutely hated that they centered Hope transitioning for the first time around Klaus. The man didn't even transition once after he broke the curse. He felt nearly no connection to wolves and didn't understand or try to understand pack life. It should have been Hayley with Hope. Hayley understood being a wolf on a deep level, and as you pointed out, helped people in the past. It was such an unnecessary dig at Hayley to kill her as a vampire. They stripped her of the thing that made her feel most her and then killed her.

I also agree that Klaus didn't care about being a wolf. He cared about power. He needed to be the most powerful, including next to his siblings. TO Season 1 kind of teases Klaus being interested in his wolf side but then it is completely dropped. Except for Klaus shouting about being a hybrid every five seconds.

I feel like all of Legacies was just one big joke honestly. They twisted the rules and laws of the world they spent nearly a decade establishing because they were lazy.

Thanks for the ask!

That post was in reference to a trend on tik tok. Essentially people were pointing out that a lot of teen shows would be a lot more disturbing if the actors playing the characters were actually the same age the characters were supposed to be.

In my initial post I showed a side by side photo of what Hayley looked like in TO Season 1:

But in this photo, Phoebe Tonkins is actually 23 or 24 years old when they filmed. When in the show, Hayley was only 19 or 20 in Season 1. So I showed a photo of what Phoebe looked like as 19/20 years old.

It's the same with all of the characters. Elena, Caroline, and Bonnie were all about 17 years old in Season 1. But the actresses were all in their early 20s. The Mikaelsons were teens, except Klaus and Elijah who were still in the early twenties when they were turned. But the actors were far older. So I put up age accurate photos of what the actors looked like when they were the age the characters were.

So, no, they weren't actual babies. But they were a lot younger than what they looked like. This happens in a lot of teen shows so that the audience can suspend reality. If they actually had 17 year olds going through what the TVD gang did, it would be pretty disturbing.

You would have someone who looks like Ian on the left flirting with, SAing, harassing, and inevitably dating Elena (Nina) on the right. It would be a lot harder for the audience to root for that relationship because the age difference is so obvious. When you have actors in their mid 20s it feels much more acceptable to date, even if the character age differences are still the same.

Also someone else pointed out how hilarious it would be for these baby faced teens to be the ones wrecking havoc across the world. The maturity of the actors definitely made them scarier.

I hope this explanation helped!

Ok that trend actually broke my heart with the different fandoms. It is so easy to forget how young they all are when things are happening. The show purposefully makes them appear older so that it's less creepy.

This is what it actually looked like when Stefan and Damon brought chaos into their lives. They were babies.

I also saw one with Mikaelsons on how they looked when they were turned. Finn looked the same as the oldest so I included Hayley to remind everyone how young she was.

And how young Hope really was when she lost her mom.

It really puts things into perspective of what everyone in TVDU went through when they were turned and how young they truly were dealing with everything.

Hayley is a baby and I remind people of this as much as possible.

We see the image on the left as Hayley but really it's the image on the right who died in child birth and was dragged into the Mikaelson's world.

I even think TO attempts to make us forget how young she is. In Season 2, Mary guesses at her age, saying she's around 25, when in reality she would have only been like 21 or 22. They worked so hard to make us view her in the age range of Klaus, Elijah, and Cami. When, as you said, she was basically the same age as Josh. They do so much work to age her. Even Cami is only 24 but they act like she is older. Her brain isn't technically fully developed at the start of TO. She is only eight years older than Davina. But like I said not long ago, they go out of their way to make Davina seem like a child but Hayley and Cami like full grown adults when in reality they aren't that different in age.

People get mad at Hayley for making dumb decisions and I'm like, yeah, she's young and naïve. People judge 20 year old Hayley who is fighting for her life harsher than the 1000+ year old vamps who are making a mess of her life.

I do not have any podcast recs but if anyone else does, please let us know!

Thank you for explaining the Legacies thing. I've seen enough spoilers to generally know what happens but clearly I don't see everything.

I wish Hope would have had that support system. Or even have had a moment like that with Freya and Hayley. She was old enough and even admitted to having a crush on Josie so I like to imagine she did have that conversation. It was such a waste to talk about baby "Nik" but never introduce him or have Hope interact with him. Did they even meet??

Thank you so much for reading so many of my metas! I'm glad they resonate with people!

First of all, thank you so much for reading! I'm glad you enjoy my posts!

Second, I'm right there with you. I tend to ignore most of Season 4 and 5. Hence all my rewrites. People will bring up things that happened in 4 and 5, and I don't even remember because I hardly rewatch.

I've talked about how Klaus would react to Hope brining home a girl before, here. I mostly just talk about generally how Klaus would react. It's been like 9 months since I wrote it and I still think it's true. It depends on so much. But in this scenario, I'm imagining Cami and him being together. Oddly enough, I think this would make him worse than if Cami had died. When Cami died, he, for the first time, truly understood what it was like to lose love. Which is why he is resistant to the idea of doing the same to his siblings. This is a big shift in his character. So if that hadn't happened, I could see him reverting back to his old ways and being possessive over Hope, not wanting her to fall in love and being angry if someone asked his permission for her hand.

The good thing in this scenario is that all of the people that can put Klaus in his place would be right there, waiting for the moment they are needed. Hope would calm him down, Hayley would put him in his place, Elijah would counsel him, and Cami would make him see reason.

It would also help if their family had spent years living in peace together. He wouldn't feel like he had so much to lose. He would feel more settled with his family. Hope was so important to him because it was the first time he felt like he had unconditional love, despite always having it from his siblings. Having his siblings and Cami around for so long would help convince him that he didn't need to hold onto Hope in a death grip to keep her. Cami, of course, would remind him what happened to his relationship with his siblings when he held on too tight.

I would love a scene of someone asking for Hope's hand and Hope storming into the room, yelling about feminism and how no one owes her. Klaus would just sit back proudly, watching his daughter tear into them. But I like to imagine, if Klaus approved, he would find an important piece of jewelry his family had held onto over the years and give it to the partner to propose.

People always focus on Klaus in these scenarios, but poor Hope and Hope's partner have to deal with all of the Mikaelsons. Elijah would be a formidable force since he doesn't warm up to people quickly. He would take a great deal of joy in making them feel uncomfortable every time they came over. Cami of course would try to overcorrect this and be overly welcoming. Hayley would completely depend on the person. If she liked them, she would be friendly and treat them like family. If she didn't, they wouldn't stand a chance.

I'm just picturing Hope and her partner awkwardly sitting on the couch, Klaus glaring at the teen, Elijah pretending to absentmindedly clean whatever weapon looks scariest, Hayley trying to get to know them through an interrogation, and Cami just offering refreshments and chatter.

We really missed out on a lot when they killed everyone off.

Thanks for the ask!

I've only seen the first 10 episodes of Legacies and then spoiled most of it with tik tok edits. So I generally know what happens and the dynamics but can't form a full opinion.

From what I've seen, I really like that Legacies seemed to choose to focus on the friendships of the three main characters rather than on ships. Yes, I know everyone still ships them and I kind of like both Hosie and Hizzie. But I like that at the end of the day, it was the three of them above anything. It's one of the things that will probably push me to give the show another chance.

I also really like the idea of them working together as witches. Throughout TVDU, we are told how important covens are, yet we really don't get to see it. In TVD, Bonnie is on her own 99% of the time and in TO, the coven and ancestors spend more time infighting than anything. This is the first time we really get to see three powerful witches learn and grow together.

I think the show does a better job keeping the characters the right age. They are teenagers dealing with supernatural issues, but also regular high school drama. They fight like most sisters who are close in age would. If anything, I blame Caroline and Alaric for their issues. I've seen discourse on who is right, Josie, Lizzie, or Hope. But again, they are teenagers. It was up to Alaric and Caroline, as parents and school teachers, to teach them how to discuss and handle mental illness. I'm not surprised the show didn't do a great job considering how they treated it in their other shows.

Without even watching the show, I was sad when Josie left because it felt like the trio was the heart of the show. But again, I only know the general plotlines and characters, so it's hard for me to have a full formed discussion.

Thanks for the ask! I promise I will eventually watch Legacies!