In season 4 of changes things for Hope Mikaelson (Danielle Rose Russell). By the end of Legacies season 4, episode 8 "You Will Me," Aurora has initiated a body swap with Hope, which leaves Hope terrified and Aurora elated to be in the body of a tribrid. This means that Aurora now possesses all of Hope's traits as a vampire-werewolf-witch tribrid, giving her access to special powers and abilities that she has never been able to cultivate before. Yet, despite these dramatic developments for Aurora, this narrative actually highlights how poorly Legacies is failing Hope.
In addition to wanting to harvest Hope's power, Aurora has another motive for wanting Hope hurt. Aurora was once in love with Hope's father Klaus Mikaelson (Joseph Morgan) before he left her for another woman and trapped her in The Garden, which is a prison designed for vampires. This lingering resentment causes Aurora to seek revenge against Hope because, in her eyes, all Mikaelsons are abusive and power-hungry monsters. Even though Aurora doesn't know Hope personally to corroborate this assumption, it is not too far away from the truth about Hope and her antics. The body-swap shenanigans end when Hope stabs Aurora and traps her in a coffin, giving Aurora even more reason to seek out revenge.
Despite all of the suffering that Aurora goes through for season 4, she still shows vulnerability and a hesitance to follow through with her plan for revenge. Hope, by contrast, stays bloodthirsty and with an emotional wall up. In Legacies season 4, episode 17 "Into the Woods," Aurora reveals to Ken (Luke Mitchell) that her major reason for hating the Mikaelsons isn't because of the pain that they inflicted on her, but because they tortured and killed her brother Tristan de Martel (Oliver Ackland). After bonding with Ken, Aurora can see that her brother manipulated her, which causes her to self-reflect and question the mindset that she goes through life with. In the end, she decides to help Ken on his mission to kill Hope because she wants to move past the anger and the loneliness that she bottles up inside of her. This complex arc is a huge contrast to Hope's, who barely undergoes any development or motivational shift. As a result, it's fair to say that Hope is being unfairly neglected by Legacies.
Hope's arc is particularly disappointing, mostly because she doesn't seem to change at all over the course of Legacies season 4. She even goes as far as to taunt and kill her childhood friend Lizzie Saltzman (Jenny Boyd) without so much as batting an eye in Legacies season 4, episode 8 "You Will Me." She is still rather violent and strong-willed while also not opening up to those who care about her. She comes across as quite cold and unfeeling with no reasoning as to why she is feeling that way most of the time. This shocking decision to kill her friend was even made after Lizzie pours her heart out to Hope about how she is unable to hurt her due to the love that she has for the girl she grew up with, and Hope has little guilt regarding this entire situation.
By contrast, Aurora's arc during Legacies season 4 shows that this story is capable of adding depth and vulnerability to characters who don't always do good things. With the story of the main protagonist Hope, however, this has not been the case so far. The contrast between these two only makes Hope's emotional walls and lack of empathy more apparent. Fleshing out Aurora's motivations and making her more than just a generic villain adds a great deal of nuance to the story, and it shows that there could still be a chance for Hope to receive the same treatment before the series ends.
The series finale of Legacies airs Thursday, June 16 on the CW.