The Game Of Thrones Connection You Missed In Legacies
The CW series Legacies, while being part of the larger universe that started with The Vampire Diaries and continued with The Originals, has managed to successfully carve out its own niche. Focused on the Salvatore School for the Young and Gifted, the show follows members of the next generation of supernatural entities, headed up by Alaric Saltzman, a returning character from The Vampire Diaries, as the headmaster and guide. The student body includes Hope Mikaelson, daughter of Klaus and Hayley, as well as Alaric's own twin daughters, Lizzie and Josie Saltzman, with a slew of new characters who all band together to take on new threats that plague their town — the likes of which their own parents never faced.
At first glance, it may appear that the show shares only the broadest of similarities with the HBO series Game of Thrones, in that both shows have fantasy elements to them. While Game of Thrones was filled with political intrigue, the situations depicted on Legacies focus more on fighting previously unseen supernatural creatures that emerge from an ancient entity named Malivore — that was designed to trap them — with the added effect that anyone consumed by Malivore is forgotten by the world at large.
Surprisingly enough, though, the third season of Legacies made a major connection to Game of Thrones.
Both Legacies and Game of Thrones feature zombie dragons
The first creature the students faced, back in the second episode of the first season, turned out to be a dragon, which came as a shock to all involved: it was the first time anyone in the show's universe had encountered a dragon, believing them to be fictitious creatures. Among the other creatures to emerge from Malivore in the first season was the Necromancer, a recurring antagonist who tries to seize power in the third season by resurrecting a number of previously defeated creatures in zombie form to, once again, wreak havoc on the school, and Mystic Falls. The first zombie creature that the students encounter, then, is the dragon.
A dragon's zombie resurrection is also a major point in the seventh season of Game Of Thrones, where Daenerys' dragon Viserion, one of a trio who follow her command, is felled in a battle with the White Walkers when the dragons and Daenerys try to save Jon Snow. Viserion falls into a frozen lake, but after the battle, he's pulled out by the White Walkers, and the Night King, who had struck the killing blow, brings Viserion back to life, in zombified form (I.E., with blue White Walker eyes).
Needless to say, zombie dragons aren't a widespread trope, so the twist in Legacies is a pretty clear homage to what happened in Westeros. This connection especially underlines how the writers of Legacies are not afraid of displaying their influences on the show, and this is just one example. As the show's third season continues, it remains to be seen what other influences audiences will spot in upcoming episodes.