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As weird as it might seem, those are actually adults

Les Légendaires (The Legendaries) is a French fantasy comic book written by Patrick Sobral.

Set in a universe named Alysia, the comic focuses on the eponymous characters, a group of five heroes who were once famous and praised by people for protecting them from the Evil Sorcerer Darkhell. However, during their Final Battle with him, they accidentally break the Stone of Jovénia, a powerful artifact once used by the Gods to create Alysia that Darkhell was intending to use to get his youth back. As a result, the stone's energy seemingly kills Darkhell, but also irradiates Alysia and its neighborhood planet, the Elven World, turning every inhabitant into children with no way to grow up. Blaming and despising them for the incident, the people of Alysia banish the Legendaries, causing their group to disband.

The series starts five years after this event, when the leader of the Legendaries, Danael, reunite the group so they can find a way to restore Alysia to normal. Of course, the attempt fails, and the group decides to stay united in order to find another way.

The comic uses a very animesque style, and often plays with a weird equilibrium between serious and silly, alternating between silly humor and a darker, more violent storylines, especially in later issues. Characters die, get tortured (physically and psychologically alike), and, while initially comical, get a large amount of Character Development.

Though the comic has yet to be published in other places (though the series is available in English through Comixology note ), it has been quite successful in France (over 3 millions fans), and eventually spawned a spin-off Origins Episode, Les Légendaires: Origines, that relates how the protagonists met before the Jovénia Incident. Another spin-off Les Chroniques de Darkhell about the origins of the villain has been announced. An animated adaptation is currently airing on Tfou.

A reboot in black-and-white manga format (right-to-left reading and all) was announced for 2020 and will be drawn by Guillaume Lapeyre, previously known as the artist of the French manga City Hall. A sequel spin-off series, with the subtitle of "Résistance", has started in 2021.

The Protagonist, the Legendaries, include:

  • Danael, a knight from the Kingdom of Larbos and The Leader of the group. He is the one reassembling the Legendaries in order to find a cure to Jovénia Incident. Good-hearted and willing to do the right thing, but can sometimes be willing to do dirty actions for the sake of Alysia. Fight with a Golden Sword forged by the Elves from his blood, which he can summon no matter where it is.
  • Gryfenfer "Gryf" (Ironclaw "Claw"), a beast-man from the city of Jaguarys and Danael's best friend. When compared to Danael, Gryf tends to be slightly more anti-heroic and more pragmatic, displaying more concern about things like payment and having less strict moral (though he still displays concern about the sake of Alysia, and makes a rule to never break his word). He tends to have crude manners compared to the rest of his group, including displaying some Chivalrous Pervert tendencies. He is still the bravest of the Legendaries.
  • Jadina, a Magician Princess from the Kingdom of Orchidia. She is the owner of the Eagle Staff, a powerful Magic Staff who has the abilitie to turn into an giant emerald eagle for transport purpose. Jadina tends to act shallow and silly occasionnally, but she is probably one of the nicest person in the team. Has feelings for Danael.
  • Razzia, a former Barbarian from the country of Rymar who the Jovénia Incident turned back into a fat little boy while leaving him with his humongous strength. Seems to be dumb at the first look, but actually possesses advanced knowledge about monsters and archeology. Is also a Big Eater. Fight with a large saber named the Leviathan.
  • Shimy, a female Elf from the Elven World, who is actually the current Elementary Elf (the Guardian of the Elven World granted with the abilities to control and merge with the Four Elements). A strong-willed girl who doesn't express her feelings much, constantly argues with Jadina due to their contrasting personnalities.


This series provides examples of:

  • Absent Animal Companion: Shimy's lion Lionfeu was initially meant the be the Team Pet but the author hated drawing him, so he vanished after the second book.
  • Absurdly Sharp Blade: Danael's Golden Sword and Razzia's Leviathan Saber are blades strong enough that they can cut through absurdly resilient substances, such as steel or rock.
  • Action Mom: Shimy's mother, Captain Shamira, is well known for being the leader of the Elven Fleet, a surpringly competent fighter and probably one of the most authoritarian characters in the books. She is far more impressive and intimidating than Shimy's father.
  • A God Am I: Anathos; justified in that he is one.
    • Abyss doesn't outright say this, but he does define himself as beyond human;
  • Alas, Poor Villain: Darkhell/Elysio. Despite the fact that Darkhell was pretty much the most despicable character of the series before Anathos showed up, it's hard not to feel sorry for him when his last thought before he dies at Anathos's hand is of his beloved daughter Tenebris, and Anathos gaining the upper hand through cheating only adds salt to the wound.
    • Subverted with Abyss; having explained the reasons behind his actions, Tenebris admits she feels a bit sorry for him... only for the Not Quite Dead Abbyss to snatch her up and proceed to Curb-Stomp Battle her comrades.
  • The Alcatraz: Prison Barek seems to have this reputation.
  • Always Chaotic Evil: Averted with the Pirahni: when first introduced, they served as villains, but it was quickly revealed their antagonism with Elves was because of a mistake and that they were being manipulated. By the end of book 4, they have a Heel–Face Turn.
    • Kinda justified with the Darkhellions, the Zar-Iko and the Dragonites, as they seems to be few more things than magically/genetically engeneered drones with limited intelligence and considering Darkhell as their father.
  • Ambiguously Brown: the inhabitant of Orchidia and Sabledoray are this, though Orchidia seems to have some white men as well. The Marakas and Comanshawas as well. Captain Ceyderom too, though his origin is undefined.
  • And I Must Scream: After he defeated Skroa, Darkhell chose to keep him as a lab rat instead of just killing him, trapping his old rival inside a magical cage and doing experiments on him. Skroa describes this to Danael as "tortures beyond your imagination."
    • Ironically enough, Book 15 reveals that Skroa did exactly the same thing to Amy before it happened to him.
    • The people abducted by Apehros and possessed by the souls of the fallen Chiridan civilisation are not only still present, but conscious of everything the spirits see and hear without them having any control over their own bodies. This is brought up by Shimy as a way of revealing that she was there the whole time Gryf was confiding in Lheïra, but the implications are absolutely horrifying, especially when in the background of one scene you notice a Chiridan man flirting with a woman by complimenting her on her new body.
  • Animesque: The art style has some noticeable manga influences, such as the voluminous hairstyles and big eyes.
  • Anime Hair: Several characters, elves most prominently, are portrayed with unusual hair colours: Shimy's hair is turquoise and later turns white, Regen's hair is pink, Ceyderom, Shun-Day and Halan all have hair in different shades of green, and some Jaguarians even have blue fur. Tellingly, most humans tend to come with more... well, human hair colors.
  • Anti-Villain: General Rasga; the only reason he teamed up with Darkhell was that he believed this would help his people find a safe place to live, and he displays absolutely no villainous traits, and even refused to kill his defeated opponents. Unsurprisingly, he ends up having a Heel–Face Turn.
    • The Guardian, though it's hard to say due to his Lawful Neutral alignment and how much of a jerk he is.
    • Elysio becomes this during the Anathos Cycle after the Guardian selects him and Darkhell to be his champions.
  • Arch-Enemy: Darkhell to the Legendaries.
  • Artifact Title: The spin off Les Légendaires: Les Chroniques de Darkhell. The first part of the title is this since it takes place long before any of the Legendaries were born.
  • Badass Adorable: Many of the characters. Considering this takes place in a world where almost everyone has been turned into a child, this shouldn't be surprising, right?
  • The Bad Guy Wins: Played with at several points:
    • In Book 2, all Legendaries but Danael die trying to reach the Stone of Crescia, only to have Skroa taking it for himself and getting away with it (They got better, of course).
    • Similarly, in Book 6, Jadina is the only Legendary to survive their encounter with time-travel, as the others all get killed by past Darkhell, though still zig-zagged in that starter villain Captain Ceyderom definitely didn't get what he wanted, and with the destruction of the Temporhell he gets permanently stuck in a completely different timeline with no hope of return.
    • The second book of the Anathos Cycle is probably the most straight exemple: even though the Legendaries are able to prevent Anathos from possessing Shimy, Anathos takes Danael instead. He then single-handed defeats the four remaining Legendaries, leaving them horribly scarred and crippled, kills Darkhell/Elysio in disloyal combat and obliterates the Guardian. By the end of the book, he's set out to wreak death and destruction to all of Alysia, with a quartet of demonic servants made from the blood of the Legendaries at his command.
  • Base on Wheels: The Castlewar. More accurately a base on legs.
  • Battle Couple: Danael and Jadina. Interestingly, those two were the founding members of the Legendaries.
  • Beach Episode: Subverted/downplayed at the beginning of the Anathos Cycle, where the Legendaries seem to be in the middle of a summer swim break. It doesn't last more than two pages however, as they are attacked by Darkhell and Elysio, throwing them is the darkest adventure they have even been through. We still get to see Jadina steal Shimy's bikini top...
    • Parodied on the front page of Book 11, which displays a postcard of the Hellions on a beach, with the caption "Kisses from Hell".
  • Becoming the Mask: Shun-Day is sent by Skroa to infiltrate the Legendaries and lead him to the the Horn of Sygma, but the Legendaries actually treat her a hell of lot better than Skroa does, which comes back to bite him the ass.
  • Belligerent Sexual Tension: Gryf seems to have this kind of relationship with both Shimy and Shun-Day, and both tend to either verbally abuse or beat the snot out of him at the smallest provocation.
  • Berserk Button: Hitting Darkhell in the face is enough to send him into a murderous rage, and he has never forgotten the name of the person who gave him his scar. Hurting Tenebris is also not a bright idea.
  • Betty and Veronica:
    • In book 5 "Heart of the Past", Jadina is the Archie to her dutiful friend and love interest Danaël's Betty, and to her womanizing "fiancé" Prince Halan's Veronica.
    • If Gryf is Archie, his long-time teammate/on-and-off girlfriend Shimy is the Betty, while his reformed Dark Action Girl fiancée Shun-Day is the Veronica.
  • Beware the Silly Ones: both Jadina and Razzia are part of this. Despite his apparent sillyness and fat bookworm look, Razzia is actually smart and incredibly powerful, while Jadina, despite her clumsyness and sillyness, is proven to be extremely dangerous when angry (Ceyderom found out the hard way).
  • Bickering Couple, Peaceful Couple: Gryf/Shimy and Razzia/Tenebris, respectively.
    • Gryf and Shimy start out with mere Ship Tease that soon turns into full blown Belligerent Sexual Tension. They finally kiss in book 10, but they break up when Gryf admits he's been seeing someone else. Said someone else turns out to be Shun-Day, whom Shimy was already butting heads with back when she was introduced, but THEN Gryf turns out to have been leading Shun-Day on the whole time, and then Shun-Day dies. Gryf and Shimy get back together but still keep butting heads and arguing, especially since Shimy hasn't completely forgiven Gryf for lying to her. Their reality gets erased and their characters altered, but they still manage to find each other again, so you think they'll finally get their Happily Ever After, right? Wrong. Years later in Resistance, we meet their son Shain who as it turns out has a bone to pick with his old man for abandoning his mother.
    • Razzia and Tenebris initially have their issues, mainly due to the fact that Tenebris is pretty much a walking reminder of Razzia's dark past (not to mention the fact that her father's forces murdered his parents and laid waste to his hometown). Despite their complicated history they have never stopped loving each other, and if anything this complicated history means that they are long past the more tedious relationship milestones, issues and misunderstandings. Razzia and Tenebris tend to act more often than not like a happily married couple, to the point where she calls him "love" and he calls her "sweetheart".
    • Danaël and Jadina land somewhere in between. They have a rather classic knight/princess setup and get along a hell of a lot better than Gryf and Shimy do, but they lack Razzia and Tenebris's solid foundation. Though they noticeably suffer from a case of Twice Shy, their main obstacle has always been bad timing; you'd think death would be more inconvenient, but even that's just temporary.
  • Big Bad: Darkhell, later replaced by Abyss.
  • Big Bad Wannabe: Kasino appeared to be the main villain in book 13, until he gets killed through Abyss's machinations. Book 14 reveals Abyss was actually planning to use him for his plans, but ended up using Jadina instead, making Kasino expendable.
  • Big Damn Hero: Darkhell and Elysio to Tenebris when she was about to stand against Anathos in a hopeless fight.
  • Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: when first introduced, Dr Vangelis is portrayed as one of the nicest characters ever, being both a father figure to Jadina and a responsible person. The next book however, reveal a darker side of him...
  • Brainwashed and Crazy: Tenebris, though Abyss hints it might have been More than Mind Control. Danael too, in some way.
  • Break the Cutie: This happens to the Lengendaries a lot, most notably during the Anathos Cycle.
  • Calling Your Attacks: Anathos's "Devil Breath" and Darkhell/Elysio's "Bolt of Divine Execution".
  • The Cavalry: Anathos guenuinely thinks he has Jadina's plan all figured out, until a distant rumble informs him that all exits from the canyon have been blocked off; cue the Elven fleet flooding the canyon with Captain Shamira at the helm. The Castlewar blast isn't waterproof, so Anathos sends in his armies of Vultures... which promptly get overtaken by General Rasga's Pirahni army and Sabledoran flying machines.
  • Cerebus Syndrome: The first book has some minor darker elements but is mostly comedic and light-hearted in nature; book 2 has more instances of Disney Death, but remains relatively standard otherwise; Books 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 and 8 introduce some increasingly darker elements, including but not limited to Fantastic Racism, guilt, many deaths and betrayals; the Anathos Cycle goes full Darker and Edgier and literally shatters the Statu Quo to pieces.
  • The Chessmaster: Skroa seems to use this as his trademark. He manipulated the Legendaries twice so they'd lead him to what he wanted.
    • Abyss is shown to be quite an impressive one as well. Pretty much everything that happens from book 13 to the beginning of book 14 turns out to have been part of a bigger plan of placing Tenebris on the Orchidian throne before conquering all of Alysia.
    • Kalandre is the true mastermind, since her plan to take her revenge on the Gods has been in the motions for millenia, and she has been inconspicuously flitting in and out of different time periods and steering the events to her advantage.
  • Chickification: Arguably with Shimy; in the first books, she was portrayed as having more of a Sugar-and-Ice Personality, a Tomboy and a Deadpan Snarker who rarely expressed any emotion other than anger and smugness. After her Heroic BSoD in the Anathos Cycle however, her new outfit is markedly a lot more feminine (which tends to make her the main source of fanservice) and displays more emotion than before, to the point where she veers straight into Tsundere territory. This is made even more blatant when you consider that the original chick of the group, Jadina, Took a Level in Badass and Jerkass and succeeded Danael as the leader, making her appear a lot more stoic and uncompromising than Shimy. Granted, this is justified because of everything that Shimy went through (including a possession attempt from a God of Evil, getting her eyes burnt and learning her boyfriend was cheating on her), but it's still pretty sad. She however completely averts Badass Decay by remaining very competent.
  • Chuck Cunningham Syndrome: In the first two books, Shimy had a pet lion named Lionfeu note  who was initially meant to be the Team Pet (and he appears on the back cover of every book preceding the Anathos Cycle). However, he inexplicably disappears come the third book and is never brought up again. Sobral reportedly got rid of him because he was hard to drawn. Lionfeu briefly returns in Book 4 of the Origins and in the animated series, and also makes a reappearance in World Without.
  • Create Your Own Hero: Played with where Darkhell actually gets wise about this trope; after slaughtering a entire city, he pins the blame on an army of heroes by planting their banner on the premises. As a result, one of the only two survivors ends up directing his hate toward said heroes, grows into an assassin and eventually gets taken on as Darkhell's Dragon. However, he eventually does find out the truth and pulls a complete Heel–Face Turn.
  • Crouching Moron, Hidden Badass: The Legendaries are often portrayed as clumsy and kinda goofy when on minor side quests, but they definitely kick some serious ass when faces with a real treath.
  • Curb-Stomp Battle: The Legendaries' first encounter with a reincarnate and subsequently far more powerful Anathos is a quick and disturbingly bloody affair; by the end of it Jadina has been stabbed in the gut, Gryf's chest has burst open, Shimy's eyes have been bisected and Razzia is missing his right arm.
  • Daddy's Little Villain: Tenebris to Darkhell.
  • Darker and Edgier: The series goes straight into this during the Anathos cycle.
    • Origins as well, due to it taking place back when Darkhell was still in power and the characters were still adults. The series still has a lot of comedic gags, but for the most part it's a lot darker, more tragic and really drives home just how messed up the protagonist's lives were before they all met.
  • Dating Catwoman: Gryf with Shun-Day. Arguably Razzia and Tenebris, though their romance was allowed to exist only when they were on the same side.
  • Death is Cheap: And how. The Legendaries all got killed twice so far, usually with only one survivor left at the end, yet in both cases they are somehow brought back to life in a matter of minutes. And let's not even talk about what happened to both Jadina and Danael.
  • Demonic Possession: Anathos's only way of getting back his lost godhood and powers was to find a human host marked with his insignia.
    • Abyss's main modus operandi, since he's a symbiotic parasite.
  • Did You Just Punch Out Cthulhu??: Gryf punches Dusk, the God of Destruction, in the face in book 8, much to everyone's shock. Fortunately, the God doesn't get pissed off and is actually rather amused.
  • Domed Hometown:
    • The hidden city of Jaguarys has a protective dome that makes it invisible to the outside world. This magical dome is powered by the Horn of Sygma.
    • The City of Barabath in Razzia has a magical shield powered by the egg of a god.
  • Dramatis Personae: Each books opens with a descriptions of the Legendaries. These are updated in Book 11 Versus Inferno.
  • Enemy Mine: Darkhell and Elysio when they were both working for the Guardian.
  • Even Evil Has Loved Ones: Despite being a cruel, homicidal, insane megalomaniac sorcerer, Darkhell is shown to deeply care about his daughter Tenebris, to the point the concept of sacrificing or losing her is unthinkable to him, even after she turns against him.
    • Abyss also expresses admiration for his "father" (despite the fact that, unlike Tenebris, Darkhell cast him aside as a failed experiment and seemed unaware that it was even sentient), and is shown to care a lot about Tenebris (though his "love" for her is quite twisted).
    • Tenebris and Razzia also fell in love while working for Darkhell.
    • Averted with Skroa and Shun-Day; while Shun-Day thinks of Skroa as her father and loves him as such, he actually finds this annoying and only sees her as nothing more than his servant.
    • Ceyderom plays this straight; even though he's shown to have been evil from the start, his motive for wanting to eliminate the Legendaries was to bring his beloved wife Sigyga back to life.
    • In a similar fashion to Ceyderom, Sheiba's motivation to eradicate humanity is to get revenge for what happened to her beloved son Razorcat.
    • The series as a whole actually seems to use this a lot; so far, the only examples of Big Bad who have no loved one are Skroa and Anathos.
  • Evil Chancellor: Dr Vangelis/Abyss became this in book 14 during Tenebris's short reign as queen of Orchidia.
  • Evil Genius: Darkhell, Skroa and Abyss all are shown to be brillant minds with very advanced skills and knowledge of both magic and science, and are also extremely cunning. Anathos arguably counts as well, though he's another kind of genius.
  • Evil Laugh: Darkhell is rather fond of doing this.
    • Anathos does one after he kills the Guardian he has another one in Book 12, only to end up with a Oh, Crap! face when realizing Jadina owned him.
  • Evil Sorcerer: Darkhell and Skroa.
  • Evil Twin: Inverted with Elysio for Darkhell;
    • Played straight with the Hellions, a quartet of demonic clones of the Legendaries who serve as Anathos's top henchmen;
  • Eviler than Thou: Skroa vs Darkhell. Also, Darkhell vs Anathos, though at this point Darkhell couldn't really be considered "evil" since he's working for the Guardian.
  • Explaining Your Power to the Enemy: Averted; Darkhell explains how the Krea-Kaos works to General Rasga, and Tenebris explains to the Legendaries how her armband can absorb and send back magic attacks, but both Rasga and the Legendaries were their respective allies at that point.
    • Dark-Shimy and Dark-Gryf both explain their amplified powers (respectively infinite energy and permanant Chakounia state) to their respective Legendary counterparts. In both cases, they had no reason not to do so and Dark-Shimy especially was trying to methodically chip down at her opponent's confidence. Gryf does wind up explaining his One-Winged Angel form's weakness to Dark-Gryf, who immediatly tries to take advantage of this... only to find out the hard that he's actually too exhausted and beat up to stand a chance, since Gryf himself already figured out his weakness and defeats him in regular form.
  • Failure Is the Only Option: Every attempt to reverse the effects of the Jovénia stone has to date ended in failure.
  • Fanservice: There isn't much of this in the original series, considering the characters are (save for flashbacks, time-travel and other occasional exceptions) trapped in child form. Most of the time, fanservice is actually parodied.
  • False Flag Operation: Razzia initially joins Darkhell to avenge his village destroyed by the army of 1000 Wolves. :It turns out that it was Darkhell's army posing as the 1000 Wolves.
  • Fantastic Racism: Played straight with the Jaguarians, Gryf's species; they are seen as monsters by humans, who hunt them like beasts even when they don't mean any harm, and even use them as slaves for bloody arena fights. The persecution went so far that their species was almost reduced to extinction; the god Misery took pity on them, and gifted them with a magically hidden city in order for their species to live on and thrive.
    • Partially hinted at between Elves and Pirahni, though it was portrayed more as hereditary hate fueled by prejudice (similar to the French and the Germans during World War I) than actual racism: apparently, Piranhi considered Elves to be backstabbing, arrogant oppressors, while Elves seemed to see the Pirahni as monstrous, brutish barbarians. By the end of book 4, the two species settle their differences after finding out they were actually allies in the past, and from then on peacefully coexist.
  • From Nobody to Nightmare: Razzia goes from a chubby, nerdy little kid to a terrifying one-man army who refers to himself as Korbo. Cf Took a Level In Badass above.
  • Futile Hand Reach: Danael and Jadina desperately reach for one another as he's being assimilated by Anathos's essence, but it's already too late.
  • Generic Cuteness: Save for a handful of characters, such as king Larbosa, Artemus or even Razzia, every de-aged adult is pretty much drawn the same way, so you can only take the characters' word on who is more attractive. Case in point, Jadina is frequently singled out as "the pretty one" when she looks no different from Shimy, especially in later books.
  • Girl on Girl Is Hot: In book 13, Shimy drunkenly plants one on Tenebris in front of several people in an attempt to show up Gryf. Two or three backgrounders are shown to be obviously delighted by the scene.
    • The World Without version of Gryf quite clearly believes this, since he sleazily spies on his teammate Solaris as she's having a romantic moment with her girlfriend. It's as gross as it sounds.
  • God of Evil: Anathos.
  • Handicapped Badass: Shimy loses her sight to Anathos. She compensates for it by not only brushing up her already formidable elemental abilites, but acquiring the power of Aura Vision.
  • Heroic BSoD: Danael has one in book 2 when he finds out that he had no control over the quest and was actually walking right into the palm of the Guardian's hand. It takes him the entire night to recover from the shock.
    • Shimy gets a pretty brutal one during the Anathos cycle after she finds out she is marked as Anathos's chosen host, and that she is at fault (at least according to Danael) for letting her thirst for power get the better of her.
    • Jadina has an even more spectacular one in book 14 after her teammates find her corpse, causing her to doubt who she is.
  • Hero with Bad Publicity: The Legendaries are heroes turned pariahs up until the end of Feather and Claw, but are re-villified as criminals in the Alystory.
  • Hidden Elf Village: The city of Jaguarys lies secluded from the rest of the world and is hidden by a magic shield that prevents outsiders from finding it. Justified in that the Jaguarians had no choice but to isolate themselves in order to escape from the hatred and prejudice of humanity.
  • Hotter and Sexier: Origins, due to showing the characters as adults, involves a lot more fanservice than the main series.
  • Humans Are Bastards: Not pointed out that much, but occasionally hinted at; the people of Alysia seem to take the Legendaries utterly for granted since they're very quick to turn on them, and not only blame but outright despise them for the Jovénia Incident, conveniently ignoring their history of saving everyone's asses by taking it upon themselves to fight back against Darkhell. When learning the Legendaries were holding a possible cure for the Jovénia Incident in book 7, they immediately assume the Legendaries were planning on hoarding it for themselves (when they were actually charged with bringing it to the King for mass production) and attempt to lynch them, only being stopped in extremis by the Gods Dawn and Dusk scaring them away. And that's not even getting into their Fantastic Racism of Jaguarians.
  • Identity Amnesia:
    • Elysio. He's eventually revealed to be have been Darkhell.
    • Gryf is later revealed to have suffered this as well.
  • I Have You Now, My Pretty: Abyss towards Tenebris; despite his own assertion that he considers her as his sister, the way he interacts with her (seizing her with Energy Tentacles, giving her passionate declarations of love) sounds a hell of a lot more incestuous than genuinely fraternal.
    • Anathos uses this to provoke Jadina when he has her cornered. She immediately tryies to punch him.
  • Jerkass Gods: Subverted with Dawn and Dusk; though they do act like jerkasses when they show up, it eventually turns out they were doing so as a test to see if the Alysians had grown mature enough for their world to warrant saving. Once satisfied, they leave, leaving the planet unharmed.
    • Played straight with the Guardian; though he claims to be a neutral being that must only serve as a guardian to the Gods' magic stones, he wasn't above freely handing out the Stone of Jovénia to Darkhell as part of a deal. He also gave mortals fake maps leading to his castle so they would die trying to go through deadly traps in order to get the stone from him, all of this just for his amusement. When he attempted to prevent Anathos' return, he recruited and upgraded Darkhell and Elysio in order to kill ALL the Legendaries because he didn't know which one was going to serve as Anathos' host (guess sitting them down and explaining the situation would have been too much of a hassle...)
  • Large Ham: unsurprisingly, Darkhell, Skroa, Anathos and Abyss all have hammy moments at some point.
    • Even lampshaded in book 1 when Danael rescues Elysio from being eaten by a Troll. Elysio states he could have defeated the Troll by himself and has a very hammy moment, laughing maniacally as he gloats over how he would have reduced the troll to dust had his powers work (a probable foreshadowing of who he actually is). Danael mentally refers to him as a "megalomaniac".
  • Last of His Kind: Skroa is said several times to be the last survivor of a bird demon specie called the Galina.
    • Shaki also is the last of his tribe, the Comanshawas, due to Darkhell killing all the others in order to get their Shamans' herbs
    • Gryf was once thought to be the last Jaguarian alive when actually the others were only hiding themselves from the humans.
  • Little Sister Instinct: Razzia was bullied as a kid, and his little sister Sheyla routinely went around beating up the ones responsible... only to then irritably beat up Razzia for not manning up and defending himself.
  • Love Redeems: The very reason Tenebris eventually switched sides.
  • Love Makes You Evil: The very reason Prince Halan became a villain in book 5 was because of his feelings for Jadina.
  • MacGuffin: The comic makes a heavy use of them, but the author usually makes sure they disappear once they have served the plot by having them either destroyed (the Stone of Jovénia, the Krea-Kaos, the Temporhell and the Alystory) or taken away (the Stone of Crescia).
  • Magitek: Alysia's Gods' magic sometimes has much similarities with alien tech: the Guardian's castle, especially, has very spaceship-like features (including the abilties to fly in space).
  • Meaningful Name: Darkhell; Need we say more?
    • "Shimy" is a pun on the french word "chimie", which mean "chemistry" (for a character with the ability to merge with the Four Elements);
    • "Skroa" sounds like a crow scream. For a bird-like demon.
    • "Tenebris" is the latin word for "Darkness";
    • "Gryfenfer" is a pun on "Griffe en Fer", which means "Iron Claw" in french.note 
    • This one's more sutble, but the word "razzia'' refers to a brutal surprise attack after which looting ensues, where oftentimes the assaultee were captured and sold into slavery. This sounds like an oddly negative name to give to one of the good guys, until you find out just what he used to be.
  • Mind Rape:Dark-Jadina is heavily implied to have done this to Tenebris in Book 11.
  • Mood Whiplash: the serie is a big fan of this; not only, almost all the arcs start with the Legendaries getting themselves embarrassed in some silly mission and end up sending them in a serious one, but at several points, serious moments suddenly turns into jokes, and vice-versa.
  • Morality Pet: Tenebris refers to Razzia as "her part of light".
    • Tenebris herself came to become this to Darkhell in some way, though is arguadable to say Darkhell "redeemed" himself.
  • Mordor: the country of Shiar, where Darkhell built his castle, is pretty much portrayed as this. Klafootynote , to a minor extent, might count as well.
  • Naked on Revival: Danael rises from his grave naked when a mysterious adult woman bring him back to life. A rock covers his crotch thought.
  • Names to Run Away from Really Fast: Darkhell, Anathos (from the greek "Thanatos"), Abyss.
  • No-Holds-Barred Beatdown: Anathos in his first battle with the Legendaries. this scene is pretty considered as the most violent battle ever in the whole serie.
  • Not Quite Dead:As you can guess, Darkhell isn't really dead.
  • Nothing Is the Same Anymore: Pretty much the result of the Anathos Cycle.
  • Older Than They Look: Justified; because of the Jovénia Incident, virtually everyone on Alysia and the Elven World looks like a 12-year-old kid, not matter what their actual ages might be.
  • Offing the Offspring: In Razzia, King Absalon impales his treacherous son on a ice pick.
  • Omnicidal Maniac: Anathos is basically the embodiment of this trope: he successfully destroyed the original Alysia, and attempted to destroy the second one as an act of revenge for what the Gods did to him. Not to mention he created a magic plague to wipe out those villages and towns he deemed not worth the expedition...
  • Our Elves Are Different: Elves are technically aliens to the inhabitants of Alysia, since they have their own planet Astria which can be reached by using portal-summoning magical keys. Aside from the obligatory Pointy Ears, they seem to frequently have anime hair and share the planet with fishmen-like beings called the Pirahni. They don't seem to be regarded as particularly better-looking than humans, and did age normally before the Jovénia effect stuck them all in child form, (Shyska, the Arbores headmaster, very clearly is an old lady), though how long-lived they are is unclear. Dark Elves exist, and have the traditional dark skin and white hair, but aren't particularly eviler than regular elves, though they are met with horrible prejudice, and many of them have to resort to petty crime in order to survive. Both regular and Dark Elves can on rare occasions develop innate Elemental Powers, in which case they are taken to the Arbores Elementa, a school where they are taught how to use these abilities, though only one, the chosen Elemental Elf, is allowed to use them outside the Arbores.
  • Out Gambit: Danael's plan in book 10 technically works, but Anathos is able to out-gambit him.
    • Ironicallly enough, Jadina later outgambits Anathos during their final battle.
  • The Paladin: Danael, though he does have his dark moments.
  • Psycho Rangers: Anathos creates evil twins of the Legendaries, the Hellions, from their blood.
  • Putting the Band Back Together: In the first book, Danael reunites the Legendaries after they disbanded following the Jovenia Incident two years prior.
  • Ready for Lovemaking: In Razzia, Tenebris offers Razzia to reconciliate in bed after an argument. Unfortunately for her, he isn't in the mood because someone kicked him in the groin earlier.
  • "Reason You Suck" Speech: Darkhell does an impressive one to General Rasga right after betraying him, commenting about how naive he and his people were to team up with him and revealing them their whole reason to fight with Elves was a silly mistake.
  • Redemption Equals Death: Played with repeatedly:
    • In Book 4, Elysio lampshades this by saying that his crimes as Darkhell can only be brought to justice this way, right before he blows himself up along with Darkhell. This is then double-subverted when the two of them are revealed to have survived in Book 9... only to actually die in Book 10 saving the Legendaries from Anathos.
    • In Book 6, Prince Halan, having betrayed the Legendaries in order to gain Jadina's love (which failed miserably), commits an act of Heroic Sacrifice, saving Jadina from Past-Darkhell and at the very least earns her respect. He is resurrected off-screen thanks to Jadina's time reset, and his subsequent appearances solidly place him on the side of good.
  • Red Oni, Blue Oni: Gryf and Danael fit the trope in some way. A rare case where the hero is the Blue while the Lancer is the Red.
    • Elysio and Darkhell could be considered this as well, and even dress the part.
  • Relationship Revolving Door: Gryf and Shimy's relationship is, to put it mildly, an absolute mess.
  • Retcon: Deliberately invoked when it comes to Origins; Sobral admitted on his site that he took liberties with the pre-established backstories of the Legendaries in the main series so he could better flesh them out, and considers it worth the ensuing continuity errors.
  • The Rival: The Fabulous act like this to the Legendaries in the first issue, but eventually became friendly allies. Skroa also used to be this to Dakrhell.
  • Screw Destiny: In book 10 of the Anathos Cycle, as the Legendaries are preparing themselves to fight Anathos, Danael destroys the Alystory as a sign of denial of the prophecy that foresees Anathos' return. This didn't work sadly
  • Screw Yourself: There is a fair amount of Ho Yay between Darkhell and Elysio, and they keep fighting over who Tenebris's favorite father is... but that's also because they're literally the same person split in two.
  • Sealed Evil in a Can: Anathos when he was trapped in the Bearer. Abyss is a literal example, since he was floating around in a little glass jar.
  • Secretly Dying: Gryf has a shard from Anathos' sword imbedded in his chest that is getting progressivley closer to his heart, which leaves him only about one year to live. He decides to keep that information from Shimy to spare her the heartbreak.
  • Series Fauxnale: As the title suggests, Book 18 La Fin de l’Histoire? (The End of The Story?) almost wraps up the series. The Greater-Scope Villain Kalandre is defeated, almost all the heroes dies and it ends with a literal reboot of the universe where Danael and Shimy live happily ever after. It turns out it's not the end and the series will finally come to an end in Book 23.
  • Sexy Discretion Shot: Played for laughs in the Anathos Cycle, as Ikael calls for Halan and Shamira's help, the two are shown in their underwear, lounging upon a queen size bed and jolting apart in embarrassment, having apparently been interrupted in a very private moment.
    • Les Légendaires: Origines, on the other hand, plays this trope much straighter.
  • Shout-Out: Done several times, most notably through puns in the names of place and characters. Notable examples include:
    • The mountains of Lovinah, home to the hidden city of Jaguarys.
    • A creature resembling Pikachu is shown twice;
    • In the first book of the Anathos Cycle, the high security prison where Tenebris is kept is named Prison Barek.
    • Jadina's plan to take down Anathos' Castlewar takes place in the Canyon of Gold-Orac. The plan itself was named Operation Gold-Orac Go (Michi-Gan offers the audience a sheepish apology for the lame pun).
    • Toopie was seen using inventions such as a gorilla mecha named Ding-Dong and pumpkin-like bombs reminiscent of the ones used by the Green Goblin.
    • When Gryf transforms into DeathGryf to rescue Jadina from her execution in book 14, he states: "You want the Beauty, you'll have to go through the Beast". Even funnier considering the author once put his own spin on the fairy tale in comic form.
  • She Is All Grown Up: Ironically inverted in book 6, where following some involuntary time-travel, Danael meets Pre-Jovénia Jadina and, being used to the child version, realizes he'd forgotten just how beautiful she was then.
    • Played straight when little Toopie reappears in book 9, having hit a growth spurt since our heroes last saw her.
  • Slasher Smile: Darkhell just loves doing this. Anathos and Abyss are good at it too.
  • Spin-Offspring: The sequel series Les Légendaires: Resistance stars the gang's children, namely Danaël and Jadina's twins Aidan and Nadia, Gryf and Shimy's son Shain, and Tenebris and Razzia's daughter Amy.
  • Spoiler Opening: If you are reading book 11 Versus Inferno, you'd better skip the character descriptions because it spoils many plot points notably the fact that Razzia made a pact with a demon.
  • Start of Darkness: The spin off Les Chroniques de Darkhell reveals how Darkhell became the infamous villain. He once was a little boy named Galen and everything began when his mother and little brother were murdered by a tax collector.
  • The Symbiote: Abyss is both of this and Puppeteer Parasite. Amy serves as the first to Razzia.
  • Take That!: An animal bearing a resemblance to Jar-Jar Binks is brutally killed at the beginning of Book 15.
  • Tomboy and Girly Girl: Shimy and Jadina respectively, at least pre-Anathos cycle. Jadina later grows out of her pampered princess habits and becomes a lot more serious as she falls into leadership, whilst Shimy drops the Ice Queen attitude and is as a result a hell of a lot more belligerent.
  • Took a Level in Badass:
  • Took a Level in Jerkass: Jadina; in the first book, she was a kind and somewhat sheltered person in a mildly Good Is Dumb way, who while she had moments of anger was still arguably the nicest person on the team. Post Anathos Cycle, while she sure Took a Level in Badass, her experiences seem to have jaded her as she is all of a sudden a lot more acerbic and brusque; she violently ambushes her own teammates to "test" their reflexes before the fight with the Hellions (and verbally abuses them when they fail to react fast enough), mocks Shimy for her blindness and expresses no compassion for Razzia when he announces that Tenebris has been captured (to be fair, she let herself get caught on purpose as part of The Plan, but still). At the end of book 14, she turns out to have refused to fill her original purpose as ambassador to the centuries-abused Gamera Tree because she wanted to focus on Anathos, and bitterly shrugs off her mother's offer of reconciliation (something even Shimy accepted from her own mother in Book 4).
  • Unresolved Sexual Tension: Danael and Jadina. They get together, though sadly it doesn't last.
  • Vile Villain, Saccharine Show: At least three of the main villains (Darkhell, Abyss and Anathos) are what nightmares are made of. Skroa, the fourth, comes quite close and was in fact Darkhell's rival.
  • Villainous Breakdown: Anathos has an especially nice one towards the end of the Anathos Cycle, to the point where he completely loses his cool and makes a quick succession of impulsive mistakes.
    • Abyss when her realizes the Legendaries have freed Tenebris from his influence, though his is more creepy than awesome.
  • Vitriolic Best Buds: Shimy and Jadina often butt heads, since Shimy counters Jadina's superficiality with a fair amount of snark and enjoys riling her up, while Jadina dislikes Shimy's superior attitude and tends to admonish her. When the chips are down, they care deeply for one another, to the point where Jadina slaps Shimy for listlessly accepting her own death as a solution against Anathos's return.
    • Darkhell and Elysio start out as ennemies, but when they're forced to team up by order of the Guardian, they seem to gradually evolve into this. Of course, the fact that they are two halves of one person probably helps.
  • We Can Rule Together: Anathos pitches this to Tenebris, mentioning that unlike the Legendaries, she was most likely to accept the offer. She declines.
    • A weird subversion with Abyss, who tried to force Tenebris into doing so by brainwashing her.
  • What Could Have Been: Sobral initially wanted to end the series after Book 6, and then after the Anathos Cycle, but eventually altered the plot so it'd go on. He has now confirmed he would at least do 20 Books, and even announced what Books 15, 16, 17 and 18 would be about.
  • What the Hell, Hero?: Jadina gives one to Danael in book 5 when he treatens Halan with a Darkhellion's stinger, blaming him for putting his jealousy before the mission and making things more difficult than they already are. Ironically enough, it eventually turns out that she was mistaken: the actual crazy jealous guy was Halan, who betrays them to Ceyderom.
    • Gryf gets two in book 7: One from Jadina when he mutters that he should have slaughtered the villagers for hunting his kind like beasts, and one from Danael when he threatens Jadina and leaves her thoroughly shaken.
  • Why Don't You Just Shoot Him?: Inverted; when the Legendaries prepare to infiltrate the Castlewar, Anathos sees it coming and initially plans to sic his Vultur army on them and nip their plans in the bud. However, a mysterious adult woman appears and mocks him for taking the easy route, when he could have them face up against his Hellions instead. This clearly hits a nerve, and Anathos chooses to follow her suggestion.
  • The Wrongful Heir to the Throne: Count Kasino believed he deserved to rule Orchidia and tried to kill the rightful heir Jadina and her sister Tenebris to get them out of the way. Sadly for him, he didn't get to live long enough to reach that goal. Also Tenebris, though she was being controlled by Abyss and most likely didn't actually want to be queen.
  • You Have Failed Me: Anathos does this to Dark Jadina after Jadina defeats her. Even creepier considering he told her he forgave her right before doing so and that she was in love with him.
  • You Have Outlived Your Usefulness: Darkhell tries to dsipose of his ally General Rasga in book 4. Luckily, Rasga is rescued by Shimy in extremis, and ends up joining the heroes' side against Darkhell.
    • Ceyderom not only betrays Prince Halan by abandoning him to Darkhell, but also thanks the Dark Sorcerer for ridding him of Halan.
  • You Killed My Father: More accurately "You Killed My Parents"; Razzia and Tenebris killed Fabulous member Toopie's parents when they were under Darkhell's orders. Ironically enough, they could have killed Toopie too, but chose to let her live because she was just a baby.


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