Legacy, by Ean. W. Lanning

Characters

Please note: There may be some slight spoilers here.

For the purpose of this review, I’d like to focus on the following four characters: Manhattan, Lord Maddus, Ford, and Tess.

First, allow me to introduce Manhattan. As a young boy, he was raised by Tom, an elderly man in whose care he was placed. Manhattan never knew his parents and loved Tom whole-heartedly. One of the first things I noticed about Manhattan was the special necklace he wears around his neck at all times, a gift from his mother that he was told to ‘guard with his life.’ Manhattan starts the story as a somewhat shy but helpful and caring boy, naïve and afraid of the world around him. However, when his life is turned upside-down and he has no real choice but to join the Renegades, he steadily becomes more confident in himself and is willing to take more risks in life. As he grows, he becomes more curious about the world around him, wanting to do as much good as he can for the people living in Old LA. Ultimately, he desires to take down Lord Maddus himself, to have vengeance over losing Tom, the only family he had ever really known.

Secondly, I’d like to discuss Lord Maddus himself. My first impression of him was of an immaculately-dressed man who had people constantly bending to his will, or else. Over the course of the story, I came to learn that Maddus was a callous and highly-corrupt individual, a man who long ago had become power-obsessed, apparently feeling no remorse for his heinous actions towards those who live in his city. In every scene he appeared in, Maddus didn’t seem content unless he was in control of everyone and everything in his immediate vicinity, a habit which only served to emphasize his overwhelming sense of power and corruption. As the primary antagonist of the story, he felt easy to dislike. However, there was something about him which suggested more depth than the usual classic ‘bad guy’ character trope.

Next, we come to Ford, a young man slightly older than Manhattan. At the start of the story, we are introduced to Ford as a self-assured and confident young man, whose bravery and hot-headedness can get him into trouble. However, as the story progressed, Ford seemed to lose his earlier confidence and enthusiasm for fighting on behalf of the Renegades, becoming a cold shell of his former self. This came to a head at the end of the story, where Ford’s entire ‘self’ appears to have been beaten out of him, leaving the faintest traces of the young man he once was.

Finally, we come to Tess, the Renegade’s resident badass. From the get-go, we are shown just how complex a character Tess is. Smart, beautiful, fierce, and brave, I liked her immediately. She doesn’t take any crap from anybody and knows how to take care of herself. She is always the first to head into a fight, but unlike Ford who doesn’t think things through, Tess’ moves always appeared well thought out. I came to admire how she would swallow her fear, taking action whenever needed, to achieve her goal. Toward the end of the story, we learn about Tess’ background and how she came to be so tough. If it’s possible, learning such information only made me adore her character more as it proved just how much she had overcome so far in life.