While CW Legacy viewers know how most supernatural beings got their powers, the question of how originally human Ethan Machado (Leo Howard) got his powers is a little more complicated. A lot of superpowered teenagers from the Heritage will cause envy and inspiration for anyone, but even more interesting than those who are born with a gift are those who do not have it. The way they interpret and react to their abilities, or lack thereof, always provides a brilliant source of dramatic tension and character growth, and nothing more than Ethan.
Although Ethan didn’t appear in “Legacy” until season 2, he often had a complicated, interconnected relationship with Salvatore’s students, even when he didn’t know about it. Despite numerous cases of memory loss, when Ethan discovered the existence of a supernatural world, and then was forced to forget, “Legacy” paid for this mistreatment of Ethan, allowing him to establish deep and strong relationships with several students of the school. From his friendship with MG (Quincy Fause) to his infatuation with Hope and Lizzie, Ethan was often involved with supernatural students and just as often found himself drawn into the danger surrounding them.
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Ethan’s interaction with Salvatore’s students finally culminated in season 4 of Legacy, when he was possessed by Malivor and turned into a drone. While enslaved by the entity, he helped capture and possess several townspeople and students and eventually returned to Mystic Falls High School, where he encountered MG. In the ensuing battle between them, Malivor endowed Ethan with the power of pakwuji, allowing him to teleport, become invisible, and temporarily become intangible. Even after Lizzie and EMJIE freed Ethan from Malivor’s control, the entity’s DNA explains how Ethan retained his powers, even if he wasn’t always able to control them very well. But with the return of memories of the supernatural and his own abilities, Ethan joined the students of the Salvatore School, finally becoming part of the world to which he had desperately wanted to belong for so long.
How did Ethan’s powers affect him?
However, Ethan’s newfound abilities in “Legacy” were not in vain. Lizzie later revealed that Packwooji’s powers are related to their lifespan: the more they use them, the faster they die. The same was true for Ethan as his health began to deteriorate as he used his powers more, eventually killing him when he teleported the new Legacy heretic, Lizzie, to safety as she struggled to contain the powerful divine magic.
Ethan’s abilities didn’t just shorten his life. Since his first meetings with Salvatore’s students in the second season of Legacy, Ethan has changed a lot: he broke his arm, lost his football scholarship and was expelled from the team, and also left his family when they left Mystic Falls. He was no longer the leader he had been working on all his life, and he had to rediscover what kind of person he was, starting with his misadventures as a superhero assistant with MG and ending with building relationships with everyone else. Gaining his abilities, which were not as prominent and vivid as Caleb’s dragon heart (Chris Lee) or the witch’s spells, meant that Ethan had to adapt even more to his new role, eventually establishing himself in his title of “Rescue Guy”. His abilities symbolized his new, honest relationship with his friends, both in his knowledge of who they were as supernatural beings, and in his self-confidence and his sense of belonging to the Salvatore school, even if it wasn’t in the role he was using. play.
Even though Ethan got his powers, it was a painful and traumatic experience, his abilities brought him into a world that he had hidden from him many times. His powers came from a cursed source and cost him dearly, but in the end they helped him get the necessary character development, which was often lacking in Legacies. This brought him closer to his friends and helped him become a person worthy of going into the World. As the character most similar to the non-supernatural audience, Ethan’s journey has made him one of the most inspiring characters to watch in Legacy, especially since he wasn’t born with abilities, but earned them.
