#legatrash

[bluephoenixdruidicprincess]

Are you still watching Legacies?

Not since the first episode of season 2.

I haven't really officially dropped the show or anything. Work has picked up a lot for me and I just don't have a lot of time right now. So I am being a little selective in what I watch. Like, as much fun as it is making fun of Legacies (Or Legatrash as I like to call it), when I'm finished with work these days, I don't really want to be watching a show that I'm not particularly invested in, you know? I don't really care that much for the plot or the storylines, I really only like one character which is Lizzie and season 1 has proven to not really do a great job with handling her.

But I do want to get back to watching it eventually. I'm not sure if I'll do an episode by episode review as I did with season one. Episode by episode reviews do take a lot of time and I feel like they work best if you're watching a show week-to-week which is what I did with Season 1. I might just do a full binge, watch all of season 2 in a few sittings and then write an overall thoughts kind of post and then you all can kind of have a Q&A session with me. If there's specific things about season 2 or just the show or lore in general that you want to know my opinions on, you all can send me asks and I'll give you those opinions. Maybe in the next couple of weeks, I'll do a binge and let you know when I'm ready for season 2 asks, opinions, hot takes, specs, you-name-its.

[bluephoenixdruidicprincess]

Legacies Season 2 Episode 1, I'll Never Give Up Hope -- Review

Here it is, it's official. I've decided to stick it out with another season of Legatrash. Aish...how much of a masochist must I be to put myself through this again. But,we're here. So let's try and enjoy ourselves...as much as we can.

As always, a disclaimer to start us off on this journey? of mine. My reviews are not meant for those who maybe are fans of Legacies. If you are, that's great, I won't judge you. We like what we like, I'm sure I have some favs that others would be asking "why?" I do watch Legacies in a critical sense and I tend to be very critical of the show. I am not dissing on what other people might like, I'm simply stating things I don't like in a review of a show I don't like. If you happen to be like me and are open to contrasting opinions, welcome and let's have fun. If you're like me and are also critical of this show, welcome as well. Let's have some fun and beware that these reviews are not spoiler-free. Definitely do not read this if you haven't watched this episode.

So what happened in the premiere of the second season of Legacies? Hope gets out of Malivore. Rafael's still a wolf. Josie still lacks a personality. And when Landon isn't searching for a cure for Rafael, he's literally drowning himself in the lake which leads to Josie shifting her co-dependency issues towards Landon and so they become romantically involved as Hope watches. MG crushes on Kaleb's sister but because this show is written by a misogynistic woman, of course Kaleb tells MG that's a no-go, thus disrespecting his sister's bodily autonomy and then he decides to help MG gain the affections of a girl that's already turned MG down numerous times, thus disrespecting Lizzie's autonomy. Isn't that nice? This is a great show to help teenagers navigate through the dos and don'ts of relationships, right? But on the bright side, my girl Lizzie is finally getting the therapy I've been wanting her to get since this show started. So that was a plus. Sure we could see this alleged therapy, though. Alaric is a little hurt that he got booted out of the headmaster position which has me confused because wasn't it his idea to have a vote on whether or not he stepped down? And Hope has a really weird conversation with her sub-conscious wherein she's trying to determine if she should go back to the school or not.

Alright, so in this episode I was beginning to wonder if the writers named our miracle baby protagonist Hope simply so they could make as many bad puns on the word "hope" as they possibly could. Because, there sure were a lot of them in this episode. There were also a lot of bad puns being used for the word "meat". If there's one thing I dislike about these types of shows nowadays, it's that their shows revolving around teenagers are really unnecessarily over-sexualized. I'm certainly not saying teenagers should be practicing abstinence and that should be reflected in pop culture, but maybe stop glorifying it in these shows so much; it's kind of creepy thinking that there are probably some sleazeballs watching this show who are getting off on watching a bunch of teenagers being provocative.

But one of the biggest gripes I have with this episode is that it somehow, simultaneously moves too fast but is yet super slow all at the same time. And I say this in the sense that nothing plot related is really happening in this episode but yet things related to characters are moving at plus-ultra speed (kudos if you get the reference). There's this whole romance being built up between Landon and Josie and it's literally done through a montage. I want to know why these two are finding happiness with each other. A few shots of them playing guitar over some cheesy pop song is not going to cut it for me. I don't typically praise Shadowhunters a lot but as bad as they were at developing relationships on that show, at least they never used a montage sequence for relationship development. But at least my girl Lizzie calls it out and literally tells Josie she's become a montage which that line was probably the funniest moment in the entire episode. Forget about all the jokes about meat and naming your "meat". Lizzie saying that Josie is a montage was the best part of the episode to me. But I guess how else were they going to build a relationship between Josie and Landon? Josie has no personality beyond her co-dependency and Landon barely has a personality that goes beyond his usefulness as a plot device. So really, I imagine the writer's room was finding it difficult to write character-building scenes for these two. Montage was probably the only way to go.

And let me tell you, I'm getting real sick of this excuse of Caroline being in Europe and that's why she's not around. Exactly how long is this show going to be milking that excuse? It was already wearing a little bit thin when she didn't show up for her own daughters' birthday party last season and I'm sure we can all recall that parties (specifically birthday parties) are very important to Caroline. So this excuse that she's busy tracking down some miracle cure for the Gemini curse in Europe is already being stretched way too thin. I'm sure Candace is distancing herself from this show so we'll probably never see a re-emergence of Caroline on screen but please, they need to come up with a better excuse of why she's not around.

But just in general, I dislike how little of this episode is actually "showing" me anything. They're telling me about Landon and Rafael, they're telling me about Lizzie's therapy, they're telling me Alaric is doing research, it's just really difficult to get invested in anything when nothing's really happening but yet character stuff is happening all over the place except we don't get to see any of it.

All in all, I'd give this episode a C+. It wasn't anything too terrible but not necessarily something I enjoyed all that much.

[bluephoenixdruidicprincess]

To Watch or Not to Watch Season 2 of Legacies

I finished watching the premiere of SPN Season 15 and the first episode of season 2 of Legatrash is just staring at me on the CW app. I've reached the point now where I need to make the decision...to continue with Legacies or to write it off.

On one hand, I haven't hate-watched anything in a while, not since Shadowhunters ended (and good riddance). I've been watching a lot of good shit lately. But a good hate-watch is also nice to embark on as it keeps my critical analysis skills fresh.

But I also don't want to subject myself to more of Hope Mikaelson or her creepy relationship with Alaric. Or Alaric's abysmal abilities as both a teacher and a father. Nor do I want to subject myself to the blandness of Rafael or the annoyingness of MG.

But then there's also Lizzie of whom I completely adore and I'm real interested in seeing how this whole gemini curse thing goes down.

Choices, choices, choices.

Who am I kidding? We all know I'm a total slut for a good hate-watch. Plus, how can I ignore the awesomeness that is Lizzie? I can put up with all of the other things I hate about this show as long as Lizzie still exists within it.

[bluephoenixdruidicprincess]

Julie Plec: "[...] I feel like in Legacies, a show where everything goes, we could absolutely cross paths with the Winchesters." Me: Please don't do this. Just don't. Seriously, this one of those things that I think would be either okay, or really bad.

In the words of Ian Malcolm, JP is spending all this time contemplating if she can do it, when in reality she should be contemplating on if she should do it.

This is JP just really really trying to find a way to keep her dying franchise relevant. She would be willing to attach anything to her show if it could keep it from fading away into obscurity. And even though I have talked about crossover ideas between the two franchises on this blog before, I NEVER want to see the network attempt it. I don't think it'll work. The ideas are fun to explore in fandom but the execution just will not work in a practical application on a network, imo. The reason why crossovers on the CW work with the DCTV shows is because they have always belonged in the same TV universe as well as the shows having similar writing styles. SPN and TVD have never been a part of the same universe, the mythos within the fantasy element of both shows is completely different and the writing styles are completely different. The only way I could see some essence of a crossover is if it were treated like a joke. Maybe something akin to The French Mistake where tfw finds themselves in TVD universe and the boys are just like, "wtf? What the hell are we in?" And the episode just proceeds to be some sort of parody. But definitely a crossover meant to be taken completely seriously with the two shows should not be attempted by the CW (or really by anyone for that matter).

Plus, I'm just really uncomfortable with Dean right now and I shudder to imagine what they'll do with his character being around a bunch of school kids (who are also supernatural). I've already discussed a little bit how I feel like Dean is really bad with kids, particularly teenagers, plus he's a character that doesn't understand shades of grey so being around a school full of kids who are supernatural, mostnof them have violated his strict code of "good" before, they have to be morally grey in order to survive, I just don't think he's a good fit for that world.

[bluephoenixdruidicprincess]

I can't believe the CW choose Legacies over Wayward sisters. Legacies is a shitty show.

I ask myself that every time I force myself to watch an episode of Legacies. For me, Legacies is just a reminder of what we could’ve had but unfortunately lost due to the CW unwilling to let this franchise go despite the fact that it has long since reached its expiration date. And I feel this on a couple of different fronts.

The first front is obviously the loss of Wayward Sisters. While I wasn’t the hugest fan of the backdoor pilot we got for Wayward Sisters – I thought the writing was rather clunky and I was a little uncomfortable with how Kaia was initially brought into the story (toxic!Dean is something I wish the show would hurry up and acknowledge and end that character arc) – Claire Novak is my favorite female character in SPN so I really wanted to see what this franchise could do with her, and just in general, there was a lot of places the show could go and all the characters were interesting enough to make me want to keep coming back. So watching Legacies is a reminder that I’ll never really get that story.

But also, Legacies serves a reminder of another thing that I lost in the sense that the concept behind Legacies isn’t altogether terrible? I like the idea behind Legacies and that’s kind of why I kept on watching and reviewing it despite it disappointing me at every turn. I like the concept but the execution of it is awful. For me, Legacies is at its best when its as far away from its TVD roots as it can be. When it’s just about this school for supernatural kids just trying to understand their powers and get over their own prejudices towards each other and saving the world one cliché pop culture reference at a time, that’s when I like the show (a little tropey and been done before but hey, tropes exist for a reason and I don’t hate that kind of trope). Like in the second episode of Season 1 where the school works together to win a football game or in the Season 1 finale, they have this scene where all the students work together to take back the school from the evil organization threatening them and I thought that sequence was super fun and I wished more time was spent throughout the season actually building up to that moment instead of so much time being spent with Hope “I’m Not Like Other Girls, Blandest of the Bland” Mikaelson and her completely uninteresting romantic love interests. If the season actually spent time having us get to know this vast assortment of characters at this school, learning to care about them and their struggles, watching them get over their prejudices with each other and then that culminates at the end of season 1 with them working together as a cohesive team to take back their home, that’s the potential I saw in the show and the show just delivers on none of it. I’m not saying that if this show did deliver on these things, it would be good or anything. No, I think it would still be absolute trash but it would be “guilty pleasure” trash and I like my “guilty pleasure” trash. This show is a disappointment on both fronts. It’s a disappointment that Wayward Sisters got passed over for this and it’s a disappointment in being a show that can’t live up to its own potential. It just feels like a waste of space. Am I going to watch season 2 of Legacies? I might. I still do feel an investment towards Lizzie and I do want to see what the show does with her even if season 1 was largely about bullying her and showcasing a startling lack of awareness on bipolar disorder from the writing staff. Here’s to hoping they quit doing my girl Lizzie dirty. And also ending the creepy romantic subtext between Alaric and Hope would be a real plus.

[bluephoenixdruidicprincess]

Is Alaric in a love triangle with a girl more younger than him (again!!) ?

Well, at least this girl is of consenting age. So #progress for Alaric, you know? But I suppose this therapist could be closer to his age than she really looks like. Some people are just blessed with good genes. I'm constantly being mistaken for being 10 years younger than I actually am so I suppose it's possible that a woman who looks like she's in her late 20s could be approaching her 50s in actuality.

And the love triangle came as no real shock to me. This show only has 4 adults featured on any kind of consistent basis. Alaric, the other guy (for the life of me I can't remember his name), the therapist, and Matt Donovan. I was assuming this therapist had standards so I automatically crossed off Donovan so I knew it had to be the other guy. But really, I want the show to dig up wherever they stashed seasons 1-3 Alaric, get rid of this body snatcher they have masquerading as Alaric, and bring back Jenna so Jalaric can be back in my life.

And thinking about Jenna and Jalaric and how I believe Jenna was Alaric's epic love, I suddenly came across a horrifying epiphany.

I'm now convinced that Alaric has this creepy infatuation with Hope because he's projecting Jenna onto her. Alaric sees Jenna in Hope which is all kinds of messed up. For starters, he's projecting his love for his dead girlfriend onto a teenager(which is messed up all on its own), plus, said teenager is the daughter of the reason why the aforementioned girlfriend is dead. Why did my mind go to this terrible place? This realization just makes it that much more creepy.

Also, I've always had a difficult time believing based on Hope's physical attributes that she's Hayley and Klaus's daughter. But, I could kind of buy her as Jenna's daughter. Holy crap! Was Jenna reincarnated into Hope? No, I refuse to believe that. I refuse to believe that any reincarnation of Jenna Sommers would turn into someone as unlikable as Hope. Not Jenna Sommers aka pretty much the coolest parental figure ever. She's far too pure to be even remotely related to Hope Mikaelson. Plus, we saw her chilling in the afterlife when Damon and Elena passed on. But it's not as if JP doesn't have any plotholes at all in her framchise so I could see something like this being pulled.

[bluephoenixdruidicprincess]

With the latest episode of Lega-trash, what did you think of the bracelet that Lizzie was wearing? I'm equating it to Pavlov's dogs experiment with classical conditioning.

Yeah, that’s basically what the bracelet is. It’s essentially a shock collar that shocks her whenever she attempts bad behavior. And you know, when I first started watching this episode, I was getting really angry about this bracelet because the show wasn’t making it super apparent that Lizzie was the one who had spelled the bracelet to shock her. For about ¾ of the episode, I thought it was Caroline who had given her the bracelet and I was like, “WTF, Caroline/JP?!” Giving a shock bracelet to deter your daughter from hitting the manic points of her disorder is seriously messed up, not to mention dangerous, it would be completely unaffective and would just cause an even bigger blow-up somewhere later down the line. But I calmed down once I realized it was Lizzie’s idea to do it and it would seem none of the adults were in on this idea. And Lizzie making the decision to do that to herself makes sense. She knows she needs to make a change, and being self-reflective, she’s pinpointed what she believes causes her problems so she decided to be pro-active and figured out a way to help herself. Its the wrong thing to do but I commend her for being self-reflective and trying to find a way to help herself. Granted, all of this would be completely unnecessary if JP understood anything about bipolar disorder and how to treat it. As I’ve said before, with the type of manic depression Lizzie seems to be exhibiting, I feel like she would benefit greatly from cognitive therapy. Her biggest problem in regards to her disorder is that she doesn’t know what triggers the moods and therapy sessions would help her immensely in figuring that out. Once she figures out those triggers she can work towards not only avoiding them, but also potentially working through them. Granted, I’m not a therapist, I’m not a doctor, this is just speculation based on the research I’ve done on the subject once I realized Lizzie was bipolar. So if I was a doctor, that’s the first step I would take in helping Lizzie.

[bluephoenixdruidicprincess]

Legacies 1x16, There’s Always a Loophole

It's finally here. The prophesied day has arrived. We are finally at the season finale of Legatrash. And I'm sure to no one's surprise, the episode wasn't that great, it was pretty cringey, actually. 

As always, this is a critical review of Legacies, I'm not a fan of the show. If you are a fan, that's totally cool, I don't judge, you do you, we like what we like but you may want to avoid this one. It's not exactly Legacies-positive. And of course, there will be spoilers for the episode and the entire season potentially. 

So, Legacies, 1x16, There's Always a Loophole happened and I'm just like, "Is this really the finale? Why on earth was it so boring?" 15 minutes passed in this episode and it felt like I had been watching for 30. So, I guess it was a typical Legatrash episode. What did I really expect? This episode doesn't exactly have me counting down the days until season 2. The only thing that could possibly get me to watch Season 2 is Lizzie and I honestly don't know if I'm willing to put myself through that despite my adoration for Lizzie...because, boy howdy, they did her dirty in this episode.

So let's do a recap. The previous episode left off with Landon agreeing to help his brother find the final artifact that will free Malivore. In this episode, Hope begins to assemble the Avengers (and I hate that they call themselves that) to rescue Landon from the Triad but as they're about to leave, the Triad invades the school because they believe the final artifact is some chalice that's supposedly at the school. The students are unable to defend themselves as there's a creepy blood fountain in a hidden passageway underneath the school that when activated, stops magic. So the students are completely defenseless and since there are no fucking teachers in this school to help protect these students from this exact situation (aka the reason this school was started in the first place) and the headmaster is conveniently MIA to recruit Dorian (who I still have no idea what exactly he does for the school or why it's so important that he's there) the students have no choice but to comply. Hope despite Alaric telling her otherwise and in all of her typical self-entitled glory, decides she's going to disobey the Triad but Josie, trying to protect Lizzie, gets shot with a magic witch bullet forged from Malivore so at least Hope faces some sort of consequences for her self-entitled bratty behavior (more about this scene later, I have intense feelings of rage about this scene that I need to let out). Hope, Lizzie, and Josie end up locked in the school's dungeon and Josie is slowly dying but MG shows up to rescue them. Hope goes to try and figure out the off-switch for the Magical Fountain of Blood and MG rallies the school to get ready to attack the Triad. Alaric eventually shows up, turns off the fountain, makes a brief excuse on why he knows how to turn off the fountain, and the students are able to get to work. The Triad gets defeated and MG has his totally undeserved coming-of-age moment. Lizzie is in huge distress because she can't siphon away the magic in the bullet that's currently residing in Josie's chest and she now fears that Josie is going to die. But Hope has that covered as she gave Alaric a vial of her blood as she deduced that her blood would be able to counteract Malivore's effects. Josie is saved. Alaric reveals that the Triad was able to take advantage of them because of him. He was the one who set up the fountain as a precaution in case things at the school got out of hand and he also, for some reason, taught the parents how to use it, so since MG's mother is a member of the Triad, she told the Triad how to use it. Alaric tells the school they need to decide if Alaric should still continue to be the headmaster. I vote no but that's for reasons completely unrelated to this. We cut over to what's going on with Landon and the brother (for the life of me, I can't remember his name so he's just known as the Douchey Bro from here on out). Douchey Bro realizes Landon is double-crossing him and that he lied about the chalice being the final artifact but he's in luck as Landon unfortunately possesses this ability to subconsciously steal artifacts without realizing it. The final artifact appears to be a magical shiv (it was either a shiv or a magical box-cutter, I couldn't quite tell). But as per usual, a monster shows up, the headless horseman to be exact, and Landon decides to take the shiv and allow the horseman to abduct him and take him to Malivore. I don't necessarily understand why he does this if his goal is to stop Malivore from being opened but whatever, I've just learned to roll with it. Landon also found out that he exists to be the host for Malivore so yeah, that's a thing. As the horseman throws the shiv into Malivore, Hope arrives in all of her Mary Sue glory and uses her Mary Sue powers to stop the shiv from falling into Malivore. She then fights the horsemen and eventually kills it, she and Landon have their reunion where they exchange proclamations of love (which made me want to barf) and they're eventually interrupted by Douchey Bro showing up and throwing the shiv into Malivore. And by the powers of plot convenience, Hope conveniently forgets that she has the ability to stop the shiv in midair and instead lets the shiv fall into Malivore. Landon, in an uncharateristic and impulsive fit of rage, kills his brother. Landon killing his brother felt extremely uncharacteristic for him to do, if anything, that feels like something Hope would do but whatever. Hope realizes that as the Mary Sue plot device that she is, she's the key to closing Malivore. She snaps Landon's neck which I found kind of uncalled for seeing as if her goal was only to stop Landon from interfering, she could've just used some witch mojo and knocked him unconscious, why put him through the trauma of resurrection if she doesn't have to? Something tells me we're eventually going to get the Gilbert ring plot point where Landon eventually turns evil from going through the trauma of death and resurrection so often. Hope calls Alaric and in a scene that frankly made me feel very uncomfortable, Hope says goodbye to Alaric and instructs him to burn anything that could remind anyone of her. And she takes Douchey Bro (who just recently resurrected himself) down into Malivore with her. And the episode ends with people feeling like they've forgotten something. 

Well, let's start with positive first. My favorite part of the episode was the students rising up and fighting back against the Triad. Those are the kinds of moments that makes Legacies kind of work, in part because it's less about the show hanging onto its TVD/TO roots and moreso about it being its own thing. One of my favorite moments in this entire season (and yes, I do have some moments I didn't hate in this show) was early in the season when we had the students playing that football game. You see, this show, premise-wise, isn't actually that bad if it weren't attached to TVD franchise. If this show were its own thing wherein it's just about students attending a boarding school for the supernatural and saving the world one episode at a time while also trying to figure out how to live with eachother with no ties to TVD, it could actually be pretty self-sufficient. Sure, it's a trope done to death, but tropes are tropes for a reason. By not being tied to TVD franchise, it allows the characters and the story to morph into its own thing in ways that the story as a spin-off can't really do. It'll always be tied to the rules of TVD and never be able to evolve into its own thing. 

And of course, another thing I liked was the return of Lizzie's overall outfits. I totally love Lizzie in overalls and I sincerely hope season 2 has more of that kind of wardrobe for her.

So let's get into this. Can I just point out how incredibly rich it is that Josie calls Lizzie, of all people, a victim? Josie is doing an awful lot of deflecting here to avoid dealing with her own victim complex. There was also a lot of bickering between the twins regarding the gemini curse. Mainly dealing with Lizzie's insecurity that when the merge happens, she feels she'll lose the merge and be absorbed into Josie. She feels this way as she's the "broken" twin, the weak twin, and I just want to hug Lizzie and tell her everything's going to be alright. Lizzie truly is too pure for this world. And I actually still maintain that if the merge does happen, Lizzie could potentially win because what Lizzie doesn't understand is that even though she does have some real issues she has to contend with, those issues have morphed her. It's given her an extremely understated strength that no one else has really noticed because they're not paying attention, they're only seeing her illness and not the person behind the illness. So yeah, Josie's magic might be stronger, Josie might not be the “broken twin”, but Lizzie has a strength about her that Josie could never hope to achieve. 

Alright, lets talk about the scene where Josie gets shot. I hate that it was Josie that got shot. I certainly don't want to see Lizzie get shot but it would've been amazing for her character arc and to really hammer into Josie that things aren't so black and white with Lizzie, Lizzie does care about things. But instead the show made it about Josie taking the bullet for Lizzie, essentially making everything about Josie and I didn't like that, it just plays more into the Josie-victim complex. It really doesn't take a genius to see which sister is the writers' favorite. In fact, I mentioned earlier that this show really did Lizzie dirty and that's from a standpoint of they really didn't give Lizzie anything to do here besides crying for her sister. This is the season finale, the time for some witch bad-assery and we got nothing from Lizzie. Hell, even when Hope was sacrificing herself and everyone was starting to forget Hope, we didn't see Lizzie at all in those sequence of events. You know, the one person whose relationship with Hope I actually liked and we didn't get to see the moments of her forgetting about Hope. Or it could've been done intentional. Maybe the whole thing next season is that for some reason, Lizzie remembers Hope and tries to bring her back. Although, honestly, it would make more sense for Josie seeing as Josie is the one who ingested Hope's blood. And I get how I might be coming off here. Being super angry about not enough Lizzie content and I could feel bad about it, but screw that. Lizzie is the only reason I put up with this show. I'm not too big into stan-ing culture but when you're watching a show and you only like one character, it's hard to not stan. But really what makes me angry about how this episode all went down in terms of Lizzie is that everything that Lizzie's character arc throughout the season had been buliding up to...nothing happened, there was no pay-off to it. They put Lizzie through so much and then they did nothing with it. So I think I’m allowed to be angry about that.

Let's talk about Hope's good-bye and the weird relationship she and Alaric continue to have. They first meet up in the blood fountain area and once again, the energy between these two is super weird and uncomfortable. They see each other and it looks like they want to run into each other's arms and make-out. Then, in Hope's good-bye call, it doesn't feel like she's saying good bye to a friend or a family member, it sounds like she's saying good-bye to a lover. Writers, if you fix anything at all next season, please fix this weird creepy feeling Alaric and Hope seem to be exuding whenever they're in the same scene together. You may be going for a Buffy and Giles, mentor/student type of relationship, but trust me, it's not working. And then we have this moment with Hope where she talks about how all of the kids at school are her friends and she was a fool to not see it before and I couldn't help my eye-roll. The show spent so much time making Hope the tragic hero who everyone is against and the fact that she's so self-absorbed she would put Clary Fray to shame, I find it difficult to believe she even knows a quarter of the student body's names. This is a nice proclamation but not at all earned. 

And I also want to point out just how incredibly unbelievable it is that this boarding school is an actual school. They have like 50 some kids there of differing ages and only 3 adults we ever see at the school and one of them is the headmaster, another is a therapist and I don't know what the other one does. How are all of these students being "schooled"? This episode really hammered that question in for me. I always knew there were only three named adults at the school but I always just kind of figured there were other teachers just hanging out in the background but apparently not. It's just Alaric, the therapist and Dorian. I have no idea how these kids are getting a fully fledged education nor do I understand how this school maintains its accreditation. 

So MG has this completely undeserved moment where he's revered as "becoming a man." First off, I hate the character of MG. I think he's super cringey and the actor while maybe not a bad actor, he definitely isn't doing the character any favors with his portrayal. A nerd character should be fun, full of fun and socially awkward quirks that exude charisma, that is not the case with MG. I should find his nerd quirks charming but instead, I find them annoying and I find him as a character annoying. And of course, there's also the part where he's barely spent half the season on screen so I definitely don't buy into this "becoming a man" part of his character arc. I buy way more into Kaleb as a character than I do MG. But essentially, one of the Triad soldiers gets turned into stone by the Medusa creature that's still hanging around for some reason and Kaleb attempts to shatter the stone. MG stops him and says that they need to be better than this guy. And I'm just like, "really? Better than this Triad soldier guy who shot a defenseless teenage girl simply because he could and was going to shoot a bunch of defenseless six-year-old kids?" I'm not saying kill the guy but letting him off scot-free is not my idea of justice. It's also really rich coming from MG who basically had Rafael wolf-out just moments before to seriously maim the Triad soldiers. And then MG's mother pops around and apologizes for what the Triad soldiers did and tells them it was never meant to be taken as far as it did and assures them the scumbag soldier will never be allowed on the field again. And I'm just like, "Again, this guy shot a defenseless teenage girl with a magical bullet designed to kill her in excruciating pain because he wanted to and was going to do the same thing to a bus load of six-year-old kids." You better do a hell of a lot better than just putting this guy on "desk duty". There better be a trial and he better be sent to prison. This guy clearly is not fit to be around any living beings, human or otherwise. 

As is typical for any Legatrash episode, this was really boring and when it comes right down to it, the most egregious thing about this show is just how boring it is, how badly structured the episodes are. The show, while not only boring, also had very little pay-off that frankly did a huge disservice to the show premise-wise. Here's my idea for the finale. Hope and the twins decide to go after Landon but are stopped by the Triad as they attempt to leave the school. The Triad is doing this because they have a nefarious plot to do with Landon and they want to stop the school from interfering. The student body then rises up against the Triad and is able to get Hope and the twins out of the school. This entire season should've been built around the student body learning to put their differences aside all to culminate in this moment where they can work together to defeat this army and as Hope and the twins are about to leave the school to go save Landon, Hope asks the students why they would do this for someone they barely know and the students could respond with, "Landon's one of us, we protect our own". So the three girls go out to save Landon, we have a moment when infiltrating the Triad where Lizzie takes the bullet for Josie and Hope, she's dying and Hope and Josie are in tears over the thought of losing Lizzie and in this moment Hope realizes she's resistant to Malivore and realizes her blood can save Lizzie. Hope leaves Lizzie and Josie as Lizzie recuperates from being shot and Hope goes to save Landon and much of the same thing  from the episode plays out. This way, there's actual pay-off to things this episode was trying to allude to but did nothing to legitimately earn.

This episode had some fun stuff so I'll give it a C+ but really, this was an absolute disappointment of a finale. No finale should be as boring as this episode was. But bright side is that it’s finally over...at least for a few months anyway.

[bluephoenixdruidicprincess]

Legacies 1x12, There's a Mummy on Main Street -- Review

I bring you another episode of Lega-Trash. And considering how this episode says it in the title -- it's all about mummies -- you would think I would like this episode since the Brendan Frasier Mummy films are my favorite films of all time (excluding 3, I refuse to acknowledge that film's existence) but this episode, real shocker, was beyond boring. This episode just kept dragging on and on. It brings shame to the Mummy genre.

This is going to be an honest review of my thoughts and feelings regarding Legacies, the spin-off of a spin-off that should never have come to pass, but here we are. I'm not a fan of this show, have never pretended to be one, so if you're looking for Legacies positivity, this is not the place for you. Move along, this is not meant for you. I'm very critical about this show. Keep in mind these are my thoughts and feelings about this mess of a show. Opinions are never right or wrong. I'm not telling you how to think and feel. You don't have to agree with my opinions but I would ask that you respect them, please. Also, spoilers for the episode. So if you haven't seen the episode yet, watch the episode and then come back...otherwise, read at your own risk. But let's be real here. I'm sure my followers who end up reading this have no desire to watch this show and use my ramblings in these reviews as a substitute for actually watching the show...those selfish jerks...just kidding, I love all my followers and please, only watch the show if you really want to. I'm making a sacrifice watching the show so you don't have to.

I honestly don't know what to say about this episode that I haven't said before. It's not even so much that Legacies is a "bad" show (well, I mean it is) but the real grievance I have with this show is just how damn boring it is. 10 minutes go by and you feel like it's been 30 minutes. Everytime I watch an episode, it's the longest 42 minutes of my life. Beyond all the rampant misogyny disguised as feminism, beyond all the lack of understanding pertaining to mental illness, beyond all the cringey dialogue, this is just a boring show to watch. The episodes are badly structured, it barely has a plot, and most of the characters are either dull and bland or just super annoying and unlikable (and in Hope's case, both). Really, these episodes should not be 42 minutes long. There's not enough story to the "monsters of the week" to warrant 42 minutes and the character drama occurring isn't interesting enough to hold my attention for the remainder of the time. I think what really bothers me about this show's formula is that the monsters have very little to do with the internal character struggles within the narrative. A good Motw show incorporates the monster as a tool to explore certain themes within the characters' development, plus also adding onto the show's seasonal mytharc and plot. But that isn't the case with the show. The monster and the character drama are always kept self-contained and separate from each other. And that's not a good formula for a MotW show and I think that's why the episodes feel stilted and badly structured. The episodes are missing a sense of cohesion that would make you enjoy an episode all the way through. And then you tack on the show's other problems and it just becomes a mess.

But anyway, enough with the rambling. What happened in this episode? Alaric feels guilty about letting a slug infect him and causing him to throw the urn into the river so he's on a mission to get the urn back. He realizes, somehow, that the urn is stuck in a dam near this small town so Alaric takes Dorian (the therapist's boyfriend), Emma (the therapist), Hope (because why wouldn't he) Kaleb (the teenage vampire who loves feeding on humans) and Josie and Lizzie. Don't ask me why Alaric thinks it's a good idea to bring teenagers along with him on this very dangerous mission, we all know he's a horrible headmaster. But anyway, the group ends up in this small town, Dorian goes scuba diving for the urn and there's a mummy on the loose going after the urn and bringing lots of African hornets to help it out on this venture. After this town gets attacked by hornets, some government operation shows up to give aid but it turns out these are the people in charge of Malivore. They ask for Alaric's assistance in dealing with the mummy (that's where the Charmed Ones come in) and compelling the townsfolk into forgetting everything (that's where Kaleb comes in). The mummy gets taken care of, it pops up for round two, it gets taken care of again. The government organization makes a vague threat about paying a visit to the school and Alaric and the teenagers leave. But not before getting the urn back as Kaleb compelled one of the government peeps to steal the urn and give it back to them. But unfortunately, they end up giving the urn back to the shady government organization as said organization is holding Dorian and Emma hostage. So this entire episode was a waste of time.

Now let's get into the drama of this episode because this show being a MotW show is a farce, this show is a soap opera, plain and simple.

So there's drama between the Charmed Ones and we're finally starting to see some sort of female something build between them but it's still pretty weak and pretty bland. And yes, I'm calling them the Charmed Ones because that what they are. JP doesn't have a single original thought in her head, we all know this. But basically Lizzie is angry with Hope for being on this trip with them because once again, Hope is infringing upon her time with her father, there's that abandonment trigger again we all know Lizzie has. Lizzie accuses Hope of setting a fire in Hope's room on purpose a few years back that lead to Lizzie losing father-daughter time with Alaric because Alaric then had to deal with the fallout on that. Hope is adamant that she did not set that fire, why would she because she also lost half of her belongings including the only drawing she ever made with her father. And Lizzie also accuses Hope of being responsible for spreading a horrible rumor about Lizzie's bipolar disorder as this fire incident was what lead to Lizzie's first manic episode. Hope swears up and down she did not set that fire and she certainly would never spread horrible rumors about Lizzie's disorder as she also hails from a crazy family and she could just as easily have these kinds of issues. And here's what I don't like about how the show approaches mental illness. Having a family who have displayed psychotic behavior causes you to be crazy. I don't like that. And I don't like that Hope feels she can compare her situation to Lizzie's. They're completely different situations. All the horrible things that the Mikaelsons did, that all came from vampirism. Being a vampire wasn't what made them horrible people who needed redemption. That was a product of specific situations, and really there's very little proof beyond Hope's self-entitled narcissistic personality that she's likely ever to display. Before the Mikaelsons became vampires, they were relatively stable. Hope is relatively stable. She's bland and irritating but stable. The things that the Mikaelsons did that were bad were a result of specific situations leading them to make those decisions, if Hope doesn't have those kinds of situations, it's entirely possible she won't display their kind of behavior. Basically, if Hope ever goes dark, it's most likely less of a trait she inherited through blood and more of a learned trait. What's going on with Lizzie is something that's completely different, this is something that's manifesting within her own body. This is a chemical imbalance inside of her brain (which is a popular theory among the medical community on what causes bipolar disorder) that causes her to make the decisions she does or lose control. I certainly don't excuse Lizzie for any of the things she does as a result of her disorder but what's going on with Hope and what's going on with Lizzie are two completely different things and should not be compared on the same level. Plus, I don't like the insinuation that because you have a crazy family, that means you're privy to bad behavior or a mental illness or on the flipside, if you don't have a crazy family and you have a mental illness, then you're just crazy.

But it's eventually revealed that Josie was the one who started the fire in Hope's room. Josie had left a love note in Hope's room basically saying she had a crush on Hope. Josie immediately regretted it and was ashamed for doing such a stupid thing but couldn't get back into Hope's room to get the note back so she used a fire spell to get rid of the note but the spell overshot and caused a massive fire. I don't understand why Josie had a hard time getting the note back considering all the insane things we've seen magic do in this franchise but I guess teleporting an object is just too much for this world's magic system, that's where the line is drawn. But wait, there's more to this drama. Josie felt so ashamed and didn't want Lizzie to find out that Josie actually spread the rumor about Lizzie's disorder and told Lizzie it was Hope. Her reasoning is that she was worried that if Lizzie ever found out about the note, Lizzie would try and destroy Hope because that's what Lizzie always does whenever Josie forms a connection with anyone else. So once again, we're making Hope and Josie these pure and innocent creatures and painting Lizzie in a horrible light. I just, I don't even know where to start. First off, Hope is super intrigued to learn that Josie had a crush on her and Josie's response was, "well, who wouldn't." Considering Hope has no friends and indeed in the previous episode, it was remarked on how weird it was to see her socializing and gasp! being friendly with other people -- I find this really hard to believe. And also, why is it necessary for everyone to love Hope? If you needed further proof that Hope is Elena 2.0, here it is. Everyone loves her for no apparent reason and it's remarked on as, "who wouldn't love Hope?". Well me, for starters, but that's beside the point. So moving on, while all this kind of sort of tracks and kind of sort of works even though it's at Lizzie's expense, it's not how I would've done it. Because Josie is continually becoming so one-note on how pure and perfect and innocent she is with her only flaw being her co-dependency, I would capitalize on her co-dependency flaw here. Here's how I would approach it. Josie was noticing that maybe Lizzie and Hope were starting to aknowledge eachother and starting to become friends and she got jealous. I actually could kind of see a potential playful teasing kind of frienship between Hope and Lizzie if cultivated. Josie has spent her entire life being so co-dependant on Lizzie that the prospect of Lizzie moving on and not needing her help anymore was a frightening thought for her. Josie exists, at least to her, to be there for Lizzie and Lizzie suddenly not being there and taking away Josie's sense of importance caused her to lash out a little. Maybe instead of a love letter, she sends a hate note or something saying to stay away from Lizzie but after she left the note, she immediately regretted it and was ashamed about it and but couldn't get into the room to get it back so she tries to use a spell to insinerate it but an actual fire starts, the fallout happens, Lizzie is angry they lost time with their father and out of Josie's own anger she makes a comment to Hope about Lizzie's disorder and it all goes from there, thus eternally making Lizzie despise Hope and Josie got what she wanted, Lizzie's continued dependance on her. Basically, I want to see Josie in more of a selfish light. I want to see that not only can she be selfish but it can also be petty and childish and vindictive much like Lizzie's behavior can be. While it makes sense that Lizzie's narcissism can play into jealousy, it also makes sense that Josie's co-dependancy can play into jealousy. Josie is selfish in the sense that she needs Lizzie to be dependent on her dependence and if Hope were to endanger that, Josie may have a difficult time being faced with the prospect if finding her own worth. Thsrd are selfless ramifications in co-dependency behavior but there are also selfish ramifications in co-dependent behavior.

We also get treated to this line said by Dorian while he and Emma are on a date. "You wouldn't have worn those shoes if you didn't like me a little." I don't speak for all women here but I don't choose to wear high heels for anyone else but me. I like the way they look on me, I like the way they make me feel, I don't do it for anyone else's gain but myself. You, good sir, can take your misogyny and shove it where the sun don't shine. And then it gets worse at the end of the episode where Emma comes clean about kissing Alaric while being infected with the slug. And this leads to Dorian punching Alaric and quitting. Good riddance, he won't be missed. But I'm sure he'll be back to rain more misogyny on this show. And the whole escalation to the punch is really weird. The slug doesn't possess you. It lowers your inhibitions which means there was a part of Emma that wanted to kiss Alaric. And I don't think Alaric even knew about Dorian. It was just two people getting caught up in the moment, I'm certainly not defending Alaric or Emma here but hey, sometimes it happens. Plus, I get the feeling Emma and Dorian haven't been together very long so was all that really necessary? Did we need to go all caveman and be all, "How dare you touch my woman, I must defend her honor and also prove she has no agency in her decisions". JP's feminism at her finest.

I'm also confused on the plot of this show. I don't really understand what Malivore will do if it's opened. It'll unleash all the monsters locked inside and somehow that brings an end to all supernatural creatures?

I'd give this episode a C. It's more of the same. A blah episode in a blah show.

[bluephoenixdruidicprincess]

Hey, just wanted to say first that your reviews are still awesome and I'm glad you put some humor into them. Now my questions for this week, I remember in one episode where Josie felt Lizzie's pain and knew she was in trouble. But during their sweet 16, Lizzie didn't know that Josie was in trouble. Do you think this is the writers saying Lizzie is a bad sister or was it a point they forgot about? Also, what do you think about the possible friendship between Hope and Lizzie?

Once again, thank you! I’m so glad you’re enjoying them. Thank you for enjoying my humor as well, I’m not super confident in my sense of humor, so it does warm my heart to know that people do enjoy the humor I interject in these reviews. And I do try to put in as much humor as I can, if I didn’t laugh at this show, I’m pretty sure I’d end up crying on account of the show being so terrible. I really do wish this show was funny intentionally, though. The plot sucks, most of the characters are carboard cut-outs, the least the show can do is make me laugh genuinely, you know? If it managed to do that, I might’ve been able to cut it a little more slack and while still calling the show absolute trash, I could at least also call it funny trash that I don’t mind watching. But sadly, the only thing JP has for humor are really cringey pop culture references.

Alright, with these writers’ track record, it could legitimately be either or. Plot holes and inconsistencies are nothing new when it comes to TVD universe. It could very well mean that the writers forgot about it and really will only use the “twin link” when it suits the narrative. But also, the writers have also been pretty consistent with trying to paint Lizzie as the “bad” sister and Josie the “good” sister. They really have not been super subtle about it.

But I do have somewhat of an idea on “twin links”. Twins run in my family. My aunts are identical twins and at a family reunion, I once asked them if it’s true if twins can feel the other when they’re in pain. And they told me it’s somewhat true. But it’s less about feeling each other’s pain and more so about having a sort of alarm bell going off in the back of your head. You know how sometimes you’re minding your own business but you’ll have that nagging thought in the back of your head telling you you forgot something but you can’t quite remember what it was? That’s how my aunts explained it. When the other is in pain, it’s this feeling they have in the back of their mind telling them something is wrong but they can’t quite determine what it is. Granted, as we are all individuals, it’s possible separate sets of twins experience this phenomena in different ways. Apart from how the writers may be interpreting the “twin link”, how I interpret the Salvatore-Forbes twins’ “twin link”, I think it’s a little different for both of them based on their personalities. I think Josie feels it more because of how dependent she is on Lizzie. She’s so dependent on Lizzie to the extent that so much of her own identity is attached to Lizzie. Lizzie is basically Josie’s center so if something’s off with Josie’s center, it’s going to resonate a lot with her, her very being is going to be thrown off-balance. And while Lizzie is certainly dependent on Josie as well, Lizzie has more of a sense of self that isn’t directly attached to Josie. So I do believe Lizzie feels the ‘twin link” as well, but more to the extent of what I described above with my aunts, it’s more of a feeling in the back of her head, she may feel that’s something’s off but she can’t quite place what it is. And since Lizzie, by her nature, is narcissistic and self-centered and she was at a party where she was basically the center of attention, she most likely just shook the feeling off. She was already being stimulated by all of these other things, she could’ve mistaken that feeling for anything. So me personally, I don’t think it’s because she’s a bad sister, we saw when she was trapped in that alternate universe, when she found out that her sister was dead in that universe, it destroyed her. Josie is also Lizzie’s center in a way, but it’s a little bit different. Josie is Lizzie’s center in the sense of her self-control. You can see in that same episode that whenever Lizzie felt like her bond with Josie was weakening, she was losing her ability to be in control of herself.

And being completely selfless for your siblings isn’t what necessarily makes you a “good” sibling. Me and my three brothers love each other but I’m sure we’d never want to sacrifice everything for each other. We’d never ask that of the others, either. We love each other and we want each other to be happy and just knowing that is all we need to feel like we’re “good” siblings. But how I interpret sibling relationships is very different from how these writers are interpreting sibling relationships. They may not be subtle about what they’re trying to do but I’ll be subtle on their behalf and add these little nuances to the characters since they’re so inept at it.

Honestly, I’m way more interested in a Hope and Lizzie friendship than I am in a Josie and Hope friendship. From what little we’ve seen, Josie and Hope just don’t have a whole lot of personality to the friendship but in the short snippet we got in the mummy episode, I saw sparks for a really interesting friendship between Lizzie and Hope. Even though I don’t necessarily like how Hope is all doom and gloom all the time, I do feel like Lizzie and Hope can benefit each other greatly. Their darknesses they hold within themselves are obviously very different and as I pointed out in that review, they really shouldn’t be compared to each other but I do believe they can help each other with that. Lizzie can help Hope with her sense of belonging. Lizzie does have a confidence about her that could enable Hope to learn how to involve herself more with the day-to-day activities of the real world, thus finally giving her a sense of belonging and inclusion and Hope might be someone who can help Lizzie in dealing with her darkness. One of the biggest issues Lizzie has is that she doesn’t really have anyone who understands what it’s like to not feel like they’re in complete control of their feelings and thus their magic, and I feel like Hope can be the person that can give her that understanding and also be the one to call Lizzie out on her destructive tendencies in a more constructive way than what we’ve gotten with Penelope. Hope can give Lizzie that understanding and help Lizzie to be better and Lizzie can also give Hope the same. Basically, they have the ability to understand each other in ways no one else at the school really can.

Thanks for the ask! Hopefully I made sense somewhere amidst all this rambling. And hopefully you continue to enjoy my commentary on Lega-Trash!

[bluephoenixdruidicprincess]

Legacies 1x11, We're Gonna Need a Spotlight -- Review

Here we are with another episode of Lega-Trash. I wish we had a longer hiatus. I hate having to break up watching Brooklyn Nine Nine for this show but the masochist in me feels compelled to suffer this show for some reason.

This is going to be an honest review of my thoughts and feelings regarding Legacies, the spin-off of a spin-off that should never have come to pass. But here we are. I'm not a fan of this show, have never pretended to be one so if you're looking for Legacies positivity, this is not the place for you. Move along, this is not meant for you. I'm very critical about this show. Keep in mind, these are my thoughts and feelings about this mess of a show. Opinions are never right or wrong. I'm not telling you how to think and feel. You don't have to agree with my opinions but I would ask that you respect them, please. Also, spoilers for the episode so if you haven't seen the episode yet, watch the episode and then come back...otherwise, read at your own risk. But let's be real here. I'm sure my followers who end up reading this have no desire to watch this show and use my ramblings in these reviews as a substitute for actually watching the show...those selfish jerks...just kidding, I love all my followers and please, only watch the show if you really want to. I'm making a sacrifice watching the show so you don't have to.

As per usual, this episode was very "blah" and underwhelming. How is it possible that in an episode where the characters supposedly lose their inhibitions, they still continue to be bland and uninteresting? The pacing was also horrible in this episode. Here's the thing that JP does in this show that really makes this show dull and a chore to watch. She centers each episode around a MotW idea and that's it. There's very little story behind these monsters so we're literally just spending 42 minutes of each episode watching these characters go through their daily lives and there's a monster on the outskirts they have to deal with. The entire episode structure surrounds the idea of the monster and not an actual story of the monster. But it doesn't succeed with characters either. JP uses ideas for characters as opposed to actually fleshing out characters. And if you're only going to use the idea of a monster, this show would be better served to be 22 minutes long as opposed to 42 minutes. There just isn't enough substance to the plot to justify 42 minutes of air time. If you're going to have a MotW show that's 42 minutes long and you don't have an actual story for the monster and you're just centering the episode around the idea, then the character dynamics have to make up for the empty air space. But that's not what JP does here. This show is literally written like a plotless fanfiction. You're just watching characters go through their daily lives, and for a school that centers around magic - they lead incredibly boring lives, sometimes they run into the plot by accident, there's no actual character arcing just an idea for it and its just really dull to watch.

But anyways, let's get into this.

A unicorn shows up, in theory to go after the urn but as it turns out, there was a parasite slug infecting said unicorn and the slug is the real monster. The parasite slug infects everyone in the school except seemingly Lizzie, Landon, and Alaric. The slug's goal is to by lowering inhibitions, compel its victim to toss the urn away thereby giving it to Malivore, I guess? Don't ask me the specifics, the show didn't really get into it. Like I said, this show incorporates ideas moreso that tangible plot and character dynamics. I'm fairly certain the writers don't even understand the specifics of the plot. But anyway, our "heroes" realize that they can evict the slug from their body by getting an electric shock. I know, it's super original and it's not like its been done a million times before in other MotW episodes. We realize that Lizzie wasn't infected because she's wearing a magical bracelet that shocks her everytime she says a mean thing. Landon wasn't infected most likely because of his connection to Malivore. And the episode ends with the slugs being destroyed save for one which got Alaric at the last minute and he chucks the urn into the river. So win for the slug, I guess.

And you know what, I was actually enjoying myself for like the first 15 minutes in this episode when Hope got a complete personality transplant. Oddly, lowering her inhibitions actually gave her a personality. Which means her not having a personality 90% of the time seems to be by design so let that one sink in. But then I realized that I had only been watching 15 minutes when it felt like 30 minutes so that dampened my experience quite a bit.

Also, the amount of singing that was going on in this episode, I was seriously asking myself if I missed the memo on this episode being a musical episode. A character bursting into song happened like 4-5 times in this episode. I mean, I'm not complaining. These actors have beautiful voices but it was starting to get to be a little much. It would seem all these characters have been repressing their urge to be a pop star.

I also think its laughable in this episode that everyone comes up with perfect dance choreography in a matter of hours for this talent show. And apparently, witches also double as gymnasts and cabaret dancers. There's not a single uncoordinated one among the bunch.

So the school therapist takes Alaric out for drinks. Why? Perhaps her inhibition is to show Alaric there are actual adults he could be socializing with and not teenage girls. But there's a moment when they're taking shots and she asks Alaric why he's so hard on himself? And Alaric responds that he has hundreds of kids who are his responsibility and if he makes a mistake, it could impact them. And I'm just like, "really?" So that's why he's keeping the urn on school grounds with the hundreds of kids he's trying to protect and using the urn as bait to bring in the next monster? Trust me, Alaric, those mistakes you're afraid of making, you're already making them.

And I will talk about a Lizzie moment I really loved. So Josie was infected with the slug so she and Penelope go after the urn. Lizzie and Hope arrive to stop them. When Lizzie grabs Josie's arm to stop her from using magic, Lizzie slips her magic bracelet on Josie and then asks Josie if Josie believes Lizzie is a terrible sister. And because Josie is under the effects of the slug, she responds that Lizzie is a horrible sister. But since this is a mean comment, the bracelet shocks Josie and evicts the slug. And I just loved this moment a lot. Lizzie asks this question knowing what the answer would be in order to save her sister. She knew that with Josie's inhibitions lowered, Josie would say that and that the bracelet would be able to get rid of the slug because of it. It's a truth she's always known but been afraid to face but she decided to face it for her sister. She managed to put aside her ego in order to save her sister. And that was a really great Lizzie moment. Once again, Lizzie being the only character I'm even remotely invested in.

Then there was this really weird family meeting on the couch with Alaric, Josie, and Lizzie where Lizzie talks about the bracelet and realizes that using it to change who she is was a bad idea and that she needs to be who she actually is so she's just going to be a bitch full-time now. Which is all well and good if a bitch is actually what Lizzie is. But that's not who she is. The "bitch" comes out of her as a result of her not really understanding the highs and lows of her personality. I've said it before and I'll say it again. Medication may help Lizzie but I feel like she would benefit way more from therapy. How about you actually put that school therapist to use and instead of using her to give Hope boyfriend advice or take Alaric bar hopping (because more alcohol is exactly what Alaric the Alcoholic needs) you use her instead to help Lizzie understand why she feels the things she does. What causes her to lash out? Help her see both the best and worst sides of herself and teach her how to mediate those sides of her. There's more to treating bipolar disorder than a vague comment about being on medication. The medication alone isn't enough to help. A lot of it comes from also understanding your moods and what drives those moods.

I'd give this episode a C. It's not great but it didn't really do anything too offensive. It was just really dull and badly paced.

[bluephoenixdruidicprincess]

Legacies 1x13, The Boy Who Still Has a Lot of Good to Do -- Review

Yup, we're here with another Lega-Trash episode. This came a day later than it normally does on the account of me being sick. I was on Nyquil and I didn't want to watch and review this episode while my mind was in that kind of groggy, cloudy, addled state...if I did, I might've thought this episode was actually good and we can't have that, can we?

This is going to be an honest review of my thoughts and feelings regarding Legacies, the spin-off of a spin-off that should never have come to pass. But here we are. I'm not a fan of this show, have never pretended to be one so if you're looking for Legacies positivity, this is not the place for you. Move along, this is not meant for you. I'm very critical about this show. Keep in mind these are my thoughts and feelings about this mess of a show. Opinions are never right or wrong. I'm not telling you how to think and feel. You don't have to agree with ny opinions but I would ask that you respect them, please. Also, spoilers for the episode. So if you haven't seen the episode yet, watch the episode and then come back...otherwise read at your own risk. But let's be real here. I'm sure my followers who end up reading this have no desire to watch this show and use my ramblings in these reviews as a substitute for actually watching the show...those selfish jerks -- just kidding, I love all my followers and please, only watch the show if you really want to. I'm making a sacrifice watching the show so you don't have to.

So, this episode takes place immediately after the last one. Everyone is back at the school but they notice that Rafael, Landon, and MG are missing. They find Rafael who has no memory of what happened. So the entire episode is spent trying to figure out what happened. Through some magical potion Hope concocts (because of course she does) Rafael is able to remember more but it's only until they find MG who is suffering from a werewolf bite Rafael gave him that we truly understand what happened. Upon hearing that MG's relationship with his father is non-existent, Landon urges MG to meet up with his father, MG eventually does and when his father realizes MG is a vampire, he doesn't take it so well and this distresses MG immensely so in his anger towards Landon for thrusting this on him, he goes all ripper and kills Landon. Rafael bites MG in retaliation. And we're back in real time looking for Landon's body, we find it, everyone's sad, and then it catches on fire and Landon rises from the ashes still in the same clothes he was wearing despite the clothes being burned in the fire...YA nonsense, what are you going to do? So we realize here that Landon is supernatural, he's apparently a Phoenix.

Alright, so this episode...it actually could've been competent, maybe borderline good. Except it takes entirely too long to get to the climax. There really was not enough story for 42 minutes in this episode so they just kept on splicing in parts where Rafael suddenly starts remembering and then conveniently forgetting and then also conveniently falling unconscious. Instead of telling a cohesive story throughout the entire episode using the concept of unreliable narrators throughout and then having the two stories meet and through that meeting, you're able to figure out what happened, we end up getting a very choppy episode that only barely makes sense, convenient amnesia, convenient hallucinations and it was all very boring to watch unfold. This episode would've been better served had Rafael and MG both been found by separate parties in the beginning of the episode, throughout the episode the two groups are moving towards each other in the woods all the while getting these individual stories. But the problem is that they're unreliable narrators and they're only remembering the events in the manner they want to remember. Until they finally meet and see each other and that's when they can finally remember everything that happened. That's how I would've done it but hey, Legacies writers, you do you. I'm not going to tell you how to do your job, I'm just telling you a more interesting and more interactive way to tell this story.

You know, for a split second in this episode, it felt like Landon was actually going to be dead for good and I had almost a modicum of respect for the show, I almost started tearing up a little at the end. But then Landon caught on fire and I realized they were doing the whole Phoenix myth and that basically ruined it for me. I originally thought, "oh shit, Landon is dead. Is he the final key to opening Malivore? Is the apocalypse going to start next episode? Is MG actually going to have character development? Is Landon's death going to be something that's going to haunt him?" But no, Landon comes back, basically no consequences. Yay.

Although, didn't TVD already do the whole Phoenix myth thing? I honestly don't remember the season too well but there was something about a Phoenix slaying vampires. Is Landon gonna get a hard-on for killing vampires? If so, I imagine that's going to make breakfast at the Salvatore boarding school cafeteria a little awkward.

And with every episode, I just continue to despise Penelope that much more. So in the beginning of the episode, Hope couldn't track the boys because Penelope gave them a cloaking spell as a gift for Rafael breaking up with Lizzie on her birthday. Does this woman's spite have no limit? I'm certainly not going to say that Rafael is in the wrong for breaking up with Lizzie on her birthday. It's kind of mean, sur,e but as opposed to his heart not being in it and potentially leading her on, I respect Rafael a little for it, and I think at the end of the day, Lizzie is probably better off for it. But Penelope taking glee in something like this, something that has nothing to do with her, it's just her getting off on someone else's pain, is truly horrible. She is a horrible person and while I may not particularly enjoy the way Josie is written, Josie deserves better. I'm honestly beginning to wonder if Penelope is a psychopath. The thing with Lizzie is that while she does selfish things, hurting people is never her intention. Penelope does the things she does because she wants to hurt them. I'm pretty sure the show is trying to say, "Look, how bad-ass this girl is, she's a total bitch and she doesn't care." Being a bitch may be the "in" thing to do these days but there's being a bitch because of your own desires and the things you want to gain and then there's being a bitch for malicious intent.

And on the note of the twins, it's super weird they weren't in this episode at all. Especially since supposedly both the girls have a thing for Rafael. It was just really weird. Hmm, almost like the show doesn't have that big of a budget and couldn't afford to have all of the actors in this episode. This kind of thing happens a lot on networks like the CW. The beginning episodes typically have the most budget but usually it's the middle to tail end of a season where the budget starts failing, they still have money but they're going to save that money for the finale. So sometimes actors get cut from the episode or the special effects take a bit of a dive.

All in all, this episode was really boring. It gets a C. It does what it needs to do and it's just kind of there.

[bluephoenixdruidicprincess]

Legacies 1x14, Let's Just Finish the Dance -- Review

Coming at you all with another Lega-Trash review. This week is 1x14, Let's Just Finish the Dance...and my sentiments exactly. This episode was so boring, I too wanted the dance known as this episode to just end. Please, let's just hurry up and finish this season.

You all know the drill, hopefully. Do I really need a disclaimer anymore? Lega-Trash is a trash show, I'm super critical of it. If you love Legacies, this is not the review for you, move along. There will be spoilers.

So welcome to the obligatory Miss Mystic Falls episode of Legacies. And in typical Lega-Trash fashion, they managed to make one of the most iconic events within the TVD show super bland and super dull. What happens in this episode? Well, the Salvatore School has to host this year's Miss Mystic Falls pageant and to no one's surprise, Hope wins. Also, Josie and Lizzie have a falling out which I've been waiting for all season, Hope and Landon have a falling out, Penelope spelled a bunch of pens to tell her everyone's secrets, Medusa makes an appearence and at the end of episode, Landon gets kidnapped by the evil government organization.

Yeah, this episode was just a sequence of events. It was super boring but as it turns out, there were a few scenes I didn't completely mind. Namely, all the Lizzie and Hope scenes. This might be the first relationship on this entire show that I legitimately believe. Seeing Lizzie and Hope bond together over their anger fueled magical tendencies was really nice to see. And the friendship is legitimately believable. And then it ends in these two making a pinky promise that they'll help each other get Josie and Landon back whom they've recently had falling outs with. Although, if Lizzie wants to help get Landon back with Hope, she's first going to have to rescue him from the evil government organization that kidnapped him.

Speaking of which, what a huge coincidence that apparently MG's mother also works for this shady government organization.

And can I just say that everyone in this school are idiots. So apparently around Christmas time, Penelope, I guess, gifted pens to everyone but really the pens were spelled so anything they wrote ended up in her own notebook so she knows all of the Salvatore inhabitants' secrets. Penelope, at best is The Mean Girl, and at worst, she's a psychopath. No one at all thought it was strange that Penelope of all people was giving away pens and they never once considered it was for nefarious purposes? Also, it's super convenient that apparently not a single person lost one of these pens and just used a regular pen to write down their secrets in their diary. I mean, I have like a dozen pens in my apartment at any given time because I'm ALWAYS losing them. It's also super convenient that everyone in this school has a diary. Of all the unbelievable and convenient things that have happened in this show so far, this is the worst. So Penelope knows all sorts of juicy details like that Hope is keeping secrets from Landon and that there's something called a merge that Alaric has been writing about. Penelope is actually leaving the school now but she gives the notebook to Josie and warns Josie about the merge. Caroline and Alaric really should have told the twins about the Gemini merge before. And this whole falling out Lizzie and Josie are currently in isn't going to help.

What is this falling out? Well, Josie has finally realized that Lizzie is very self-centered and rarely thinks about anyone but herself. This all started when Lizzie drops out of the pageant because Dana, the mean girl who died in I think the 3rd episode of this season, well her mother is one of the judges and Dana was notorious for her dislike of Lizzie so Lizzie realizes there's no way she could possibly win with Dana's mother on the judge's table. And can I just say real quick how incredibly weird it is that Dana's mother can talk so nonchalantly about her own daughter's death? I don't get the feeling that a whole lot of time has passed. At best, maybe six months and that's pushing it. You don't talk about your daughter's death as if your daughter is off traveling abroad or something. Like I said, it was weird. But then again, this show is really weird with death, in general. Even in this episode, Hope just kind of casually talks about her parents' deaths which really wasn't that long ago and in the previous episode, MG makes a speech to the school and makes this off-handed remark nonchalantly talking about the majority of the students who have nowhere to go for the spring holidays on account of their families being dead and it's really insensitive. These are adolescents and you're just nonchalantly bringing up their trauma in passing? But anyway, Lizzie decides that if she can't compete and she's so sure she was going to win, she's determined to make sure someone from the Salvatore school wins. She chooses Hope since Hope's an orphan and will have the sympathy vote. This understandably hurts Josie and it just kind of festers on from there. But I don't particularly understand Lizzie's logic in Hope being the winner because she's an orphan, though. Caroline went against an orphan as well and she won. But I suppose Lizzie is thinking her mother was amazing so that accounted for her victory. Which I would agree with Lizzie on that. Caroline was pretty amazing and she worked her ass off to get that crown. I suppose in a room of people who weren't necessarily training their entire lives for this moment, an orphan would be the best bet. But by the end of the episode, Josie realizes she wanted that crown and is angry at Lizzie for giving that opportunity to Hope instead, for giving Hope the dress that Klaus gave Caroline without any regard to Hope's feelings on the matter. But in Lizzie's defense, up until this point, Josie had never been vocal about the things she wanted (I'm not excusing Lizzie's behavior, just simply saying it's not as if Josie was ever being bullied into doing these things for Lizzie, she did do those things because she wanted to) and Lizzie didn't know the dress had come from Klaus and it's kind of understandable why she didn't. I think it would be pretty awkward for Caroline to tell her daughters that Hope's father was once obsessed with her but with that said, I have no idea why Josie knows and not Lizzie but whatever. It's probably just a plot contrivance to show why Lizzie is awful. But once Lizzie realizes the implications of that dress and Hope wearing a reminder of her father, she instantly feels terrible about it. And Hope conveniently finds out in the middle of the dance where the dress came from because her ex-vampire boyfriend can hear Josie and Lizzie's conversation, I also don't understand why Hope can't hear them though, she is a hybrid, I thought werewolves had that ability as well. But her ex tells her about the dress, she starts to freak out about it and as she's announced the winner, her magic is about to go on the fritz again so Lizzie, noticing the signs, immediately walks up to Hope and hugs her and tells her to cry it out because that's what she needs. A great moment for Lizzie and Hope by the way and I think this was the first time this show illicited genuine emotion from me that wasn't despair over how bad this show is.

Speaking of the dress, let's play Who Wore It Better. Let me know what you think. I think it looks better on Candice. I feel like her blond hair contrasted better with the blue and brought the blue in the dress out more. But Danielle also looks gorgeous in it, too, her hair just doesn't quite bring out the colors as well as Candice's did. Or maybe they used a slightly different color palette on Danielle's dress.

But anyway, ultimately, this episode was more of the same. Just very boring, no real structure to it. Once again, this show is hanging on the coattails of TVD success and it cannot stand on it's own. There were some nice scenes in it, thoughand we are at last getting some character progression. However, I'm not a huge fan that it's taken 14 episodes to get some character development. This episode gets a C+ from me.

[bluephoenixdruidicprincess]

Legacies 1x15, I’ll Tell You a Story -- Review

The end is nearly upon us, guys. We're almost done with Legacies Season One. We can see the finish line. This week we have 1x15, I'll Tell You a Story.

As always, this is a critical review. Legacies is not a show I think highly of. And also, there will be spoilers. 

Well, holy crap, guys. You know how all this season I've been asking where is the show's plot? Well, apparently it was all jam-packed into this episode. But that doesn't make this episode "good". In fact, just the opposite. This episode had far too much going on, way too much was shoved into it, not nearly enough time was spent on anything. Really some of what happened in this episode should've been spread out a little more in this season. Here's a list of the stories that happened in this episode:

- The Malivore Backstory (it's incredibly convoluted, btw) - The Twins Co-Dependency Drama - Rafael's Mind Split - Alaric Fearing He Can't Control the School - Hope Trying to Figure Out How to Apologize to Landon - The Hope and Rafael Romance - Hope Tells Alaric to Spill the Beans on the Gemini Twins Merge

So yeah, entirely too much going on. Let’s talk about the thoughts I had on this episode.

First off, the adults in this school are idiots. They get a voicemail from Landon saying that he's gone on a camping trip to get in the right head-space and tells them to take care of Rafael and Jed. Hope rightfully points out that there's no way Landon would mention Jed, the guy who attacked him, and Alaric and the therapist think there's no hidden message in that. And also, they seem to not care that one of their precious students who literally had a known kidnapping attempt done on him just a day prior, they apparently don't think that's strange and maybe they should at least find out where Landon is "camping" to make sure he’s safe. I don't know how boarding schools typically work, but I'm pretty sure you can't up and leave without the headmaster at least investigating where you'll be. But of course, the adults needed to be willfully dumb in order for Hope's subconscious at the end of this episode to tell her that she should go after Landon. 

And on the topic of Hope, can I just say I'm getting real sick of Hope treating her parents as if they're just vacationing in Europe or something and abandoned her at a boarding school. All season, Hope has been all, "Poor me! Everyone keeps on leaving me and I hate it!" Hope, listen to me. NO ONE LEFT YOU!!! THEY DIED!!!!!!! And furthermore, they died FOR YOU!!! Have a little respect for the people who loved you so much they were willing to sacrifice themselves to give you a chance at a good life. Sheesh, I'm getting really sick of Hope's Mary Sue victim complex. I can only hope this is a part of her character arc in truly coming to terms with her parents' deaths because it really doesn't feel like she has. And I also still can't believe this whole forced romance angle between Rafael and Hope is still going on. I don't ship them, I don't care about them, just stop. How is this in any way necessary to the story being told? It doesn't even create decent drama either. It just needlessly takes up time and is super boring to watch. 

But we got some positivity here as well. We got this amazing line from Lizzie to Hope, "For once, your weird relationship with my dad actually comes in handy". Although, this is kind of a double-edged sword. On one side, it's great that the show is self-aware about it but on the other side, it means that Hope and Alaric's creepy relationship is potentially intentional which is painful to think about. Josie does a fair amount of pushing the blame on Lizzie and especially in saying something I find really difficult to just forgive Josie for. Upon hearing from Hope that Lizzie is starting to lose control again, Josie says it's Lizzie's fault because Lizzie chose to not take the medication. That she hasn't been taking the medication since the incident with zombie!Jo. Josie is literally shaming her sister for not wanting to take medication that makes her feel dead inside. I really hope this is a part of Josie's character development and she's going to feel bad for saying such an awful thing. And really, both girls have things they need to apologize for and I just hope it's going to be treated like that and less of Lizzie being treated as if she's a horrible person and she deserves everything she gets. Should she be more cognizant of her sister's feelings? Sure. But on the flip side, Josie has never once been honest about what she wants. Just expecting Lizzie to automatically know what Josie's feeling at all times is unfair to Lizzie. Lizzie didn't tell Josie about Penelope leaving because Josie never let on to her that she still cared about Penelope. Lizzie slept with Rafael because Josie never let on that Rafael was someone she wanted. Lizzie chose Hope to be the Miss Mystic Falls contestant and Josie never let on to Lizzie how disappointed she was. Can Lizzie work towards being more proactive about thinking about what her sister wants more? Sure, definitely. But Josie also needs to work on being more aggressive about the things she wants. And I'm really glad that at the very least, the show did put in Lizzie telling Josie that with co-dependency, it takes two. Lizzie may be dependent on Josie taking care of her but there's also Josie being too afraid to be her own person, hiding in Lizzie's shadow makes her feel safe because if no one can see her, that means she doesn't have to worry about people not liking the "real her". Josie was never forced into being Lizzie’s support beam, she could choose to walk away at any time but she doesn’t. The girls have a magic-off in which Josie wins. I'm sure people are interpreting that as Josie being the one to most likely win the merge but I don't really think it's all that conclusive. We've seen Lizzie's blowouts before and they can be quite destructive. And Lizzie wasn't in a full-scale blowout here. She was still very much trying to keep herself under control and it's a huge point for her to keep her magic under control around others. My own thought is that Lizzie was holding herself back as she does whenever she’s around others. That and I also don't believe the winner of the merge is entirely reliant on magical ability. I think another factor to consider is the innate strength, the foundation of a person (that doesn't necessarily reflect magical ability) plays a big role on who wins the merge. But at least Alaric has now told the twins about the merge so there's progress on that front. 

In this episode, Alaric realizes that he's a human running a school full of supernatural creatures. And he got hurt during a whole vampire and werewolf stand-off. So he's talking with the therapist and she tells him that the only thing she can do to help is leave. Thereby leaving the faculty member to one person and 0 magical ability. I don't understand the logic here. And supposedly she does this to spur Alaric to ask Dorian to come back and I don't even know what it is Dorian does or how he in any way controls these students. But as far as the therapist leaving, that's of no real loss. She seemed like a pretty bad therapist to begin with. I don't know  if she's legitimately helped a single student in that school that isn't Hope and I could make an argument that I don't think she's even really helped Hope. 

So this episode gets a C-. Lots of stuff was happening but this episode was far too busy to leave you invested in anything.

[bluephoenixdruidicprincess]

Legacies 1x08, Maybe I Should Start From the End -- Review

Guess what? Legacies is back in our lives. I know, I know, how have we possibly survived the past month without Julie Plec's trash in our lives? It was a little touch and go there, but we were strong and made it through so we could live to be tortured by this trash show another day. This week, we continue our Lega-Trash journey with 1x08, Maybe I Should Start From the End.

This is going to be an honest review of my thoughts and feelings regarding Legacies, the spin-off of a spin-off that should never have come to pass. But here we are. I'm not a fan of the show, have never pretended to be one, so if you're looking for Legacies positivity, this is not the place for you. Move along, this is not meant to be meant for you. I'm very critical about this show. Keep in mind these are my thoughts and feelings about this mess of a show. Opinions and ever right or wrong. I'm not telling you how to think and feel. You don't have to agree with my opinions but I would ask that you respect them please. Also, spoilers for the episode so if you haven't seen episode yet, watch the episode and then come back...otherwise read at your own risk. But let's be real here. I'm sure my followers who end up reading this have no desire to watch this show and use my ramblings as a substitute for actually watching the show...those selfish jerks (just kidding, I love all my followers and please only watch the show if you really want to). I'm making a sacrifice watching the show so you don't have to.

Throughout this episode we get treated to Hope narrating the entire thing and it's super annoying. I just generally find all things about Hope annoying but the sultry edge in her voice Danielle gives to the role of Hope is one of the things I find most annoying about Hope. She isn't coming off as sexy with that voice, she sounds pretentious. Kat McNamara also does the same thing with Clary in Shadowhunters and I hate it there as well. They don't come off as sexy when they use that voice, they sound like they think they're better than everyone else. Or at least that's what I hear. But anyway, we get to hear Hope narrarate at us in her pretentious voice for the entire episode, my poor ears, they truly suffered.

But in case you need a refresher of what happened in the last episode of Lega-Trash, The Avengers totally think they can dupe The Necromancer and are super surprised to find out that the chick he necromanced was actually being manipulated by him the whole time (perish the thought, a necromancer using someone they necromanced for nefarious purposes, shocking, I know). The Necromancer wins, Alaric and Hope continue to capitalize on their sexual tension (eww) and are super mad at each other, and Hope's bracelet glows which means Ele-I mean, Landon, is in danger. So Avengers unite, sort of. Despite Rafael seeing the bracelet glow, he doesn't actually go after Landon which is weird considering he's totally in love with Landon but anyways. Hope decides to go after Landon, so she dons her super sneaky high heeled boots and tries to sneak out of the school at 3am. And Alaric inevitably catches her. Hope, pro-tip here, if you're going to sneak out, maybe change up your choice for footwear or at least wait until you're not stomping around on a wood paneled surface to put said footwear on. And are you telling me that in all her vast knowledge of good and dark magic there wasn't a way for her to sneak out her window and avoid venturing into the foyer of the manor? I'm just saying, if you're not going to be smart about sneaking out than you deserve to be caught.

But Alaric decides to go with Hope to find out what happened to Landon. The two have really cringey conversations while on this roadtrip to #savelandon. One in particular where Alaric is all hurt that Hope seems to only see him as an authority figure. First of all, Alaric, you're giving yourself way too much credit. I highly doubt Hope even sees you as that, more like a pet whom she can use as the need arises. And second of all, how is she supposed to see you? You're the headmaster of this school, you ARE an authority figure. There shouldn't be anything extra going on with you two in any capacity because it's generally frowned upon for school officials to play favorites. Unless, you expect all of the students to look at you like a father, in which case, no wonder Lizzie and Josie have abandonment and self-worth issues when it comes to you. And if this is in reference to the completely inappropriate sexual tension you two have, you shouldn't want Hope to see you in that light. And I know its crazy to remind you, but you do have two daughters already who are suffering from loads of abandonment issues with you, maybe don't focus so much on Hope and start focusing on your daughters. Alaric has this horrible line, "Lizzie and Josie are with Caroline in Europe, thank god." Why are you happy that your daughters are gone? And also, why did they go to Europe? When Alaric was talking to Caroline in the birthday episode, it sounded like Caroline was amidst some pretty big shit and considering Caroline is searching for a way to stop the Gemini twin sucking curse and the girls don't know about it, the girls being in Europe seems like a pretty bad call.

But we also see what's going on with Landon. He finds his birth mother, hooray! The catch? His birth mother then proceeds to drug him and threaten to torture him because she doesn't believe he's her son. And then the creepy latex guy from Season 1 of American Horror Story shows up, mommy kills it and the two go to a motel because motels are totally safe and well-known for their escape routes...just ask Charlie Bradbury from SPN, oh wait, you can't...because she died in a motel room she couldn't escape from.

Oh and also, get this, Landon's mother appears to reside in Lawrence, Kansas. And this isn't the only parallel to SPN this episode makes, they make plenty of others. Julie Plec, you hack, write your own shit. There is no way this was a happy accident. There's no particular reason for his mother to be in Kansas at all so you can't tell me that choosing Lawrence, Kansas is just a happy coincidence.

But anyway, after being duped once by Landon's mother, Hope and Alaric finally catch up to them in the motel. The episode then spends entirely too long explaining the mother's back story and Landon's supernatural immaculate conception. Basically, Mom worked for a shady government that was trapping monsters in a hell dimension. It's like a cross between the SPN season 6 plot and the BMoL plot. But anyone who goes into the hell dimension (it's really a pit, though) is immediately erased, no one remembers them. Mom was betrayed by the government and thrown into the pit and for some reason, a couple of years later, she's thrown out of the pit, and surprise surprise, she's pregnant and has no idea how it happened or who the father is. I'm beginning to think Julie Plec has a fetish for miracle babies.

But Mom decides that since these monsters seem to be following Landon around that the only way to protect him is if she throws herself into the pit. I'm not sure what this accomplishes, how this in any way protects Landon, I guess it just makes it so that nobody remembers her which I'm also really confused about because then Landon shouldn't remember her...should that picture he has even exist? Why does it exist? Who took the picture? No one should remember her so they definitely shouldn't know about Landon. It's weird, maybe it'll be explained later but this is Julie Plec so I'm not counting on it. But while Mom is off sacrificing herself, the others get treated to another monster attack. This one is a merman, I think. He's strangely mobile on land, though. Landon has a supernatural urn with him the monster wants, they decide to use the urn to lead them to the pit to stop Landon's mother in her completely pointless self-sacrificing mission. Spoiler alert: They fail. The mom sacrifices herself...the merman gets blown up for some reason...and they decide to take the urn back with them, I'm sure it'll go just as smoothly as it did with the knife. But, everyone but Hope seems to have forgotten about their adventures that day. Because Hope just isn't special enough. So they all drive back to the school and Alaric decides that Landon can stay and I'm very confused by that decision. Wasn't the point of him being to forced to leave was because Landon is vulnerable being the only without supernatural abilities to protect himself? Regardless of the circumstances of his birth, he's still as vulnerable as a regular human so I feel like that whole debate a couple episodes ago is now completely pointless and that episode was a complete waste. But they get back to the school, Hope asks Landon if he wants to be her boyfriend and he agrees (I hadn't realized this was a conversation people actually had). And then its revealed that in Hope narrating this episode, she was actually telling Alaric everything he forgot. And then the urn starts glowing. I'm sure nothing bad is about to happen. Really, you decide to take the urn, something you have no idea what it is or what it does, to a place filled with children? I see no problems with this logic. And thankfully, the episode finally ends with a shady government official pushing another shady government guy into the pit because he found a picture of Landon's mother. Which is weird because everyone should have forgotten about her.

Once again, I find Hope irritating and without Lizzie around to give me some enjoyment, these episodes are really difficult to stomach. But Landon on occasion, can appear to be interesting so I will give the show that. It's too bad the actors for Landon and Hope have 0 romantic chemistry. Scenes with just these too being romantic? They're painful to watch. The dialogue was atrocious in this episode, I don't think there was a single line I liked. But we are getting plot now so I will give the show that. But the episode also takes entirely too long to get to the point. I'd probably give this episode a C+. Not great but it tries...sometimes.

[bluephoenixdruidicprincess]

So someone recently liked one of my Legacies reviews (I affectionately dub them the Legatrash reviews). So that got me to starting to re-read all my other Legatrash reviews and I'm now beginning to see why youtubers don't like to come back to their own content or they cringe when they react to their old content. I understand the feeling because, man my jokes are cringy...but I also remember people liking my reviews in part because of the humor I inserted in them, so maybe they're not as cringy as I think they are and I think its cringy because I'm embarrassed of this piece of me I put out for all of Tumblr to see, or maybe my audience just likes bad jokes.

But anyway, I've become curious. Is Legatrash still airing? Is it still as bad as season 1? I'm tempted to go back to it even if it does mean I'll have to watch them butcher Kai again and shame Lizzie all the time for being bipolar.