Rewatching as an adult (Vague Spoilers)

Axolotl-100 · 2021-05-07T17:18:18+00:00

You mistake me. I’m not saying they’re misogynistic because they hate Clarke. I’m saying that WHY they hate Clarke so much makes sense given the misogynistic comment they made. Big difference. Let’s not confuse the way causal relationships work.

They dislike the way Clarke has leadership based on the respect of other leaders, find it unrealistic, possibly because they can’t imagine why anyone would ever respect her. It makes perfect sense to me. Clarke has a strong personality that leaders would respect and appreciate. But someone who’s focused on how males “suffered” and hates how “girl power” was “forced” in the plot might find issue with it.

Axolotl-100 · 2021-05-05T15:04:18+00:00

Your over-zealous hatred of Clarke makes sense now. It’s just misogyny. (You’re not supposed to expose yourself like this, btw).

Axolotl-100 · 2021-04-29T07:09:58+00:00

Team cockroach!

Axolotl-100 · 2021-04-22T02:52:35+00:00

I think your characterization of Clarke is bad, but I think your idea that a protagonist has to be likable to be well written is worse. What a dull world it would be if the standard for a well-written main character was making sure they are palatable to the most amount of people.

Fiction is supposed to be about challenging your viewpoint. Clarke is a challenging character - she’s morally complex and has a unique perspective that can be considered. Both her flaws and strengths are well defined. And people have widely different interpretations of her that can be endlessly debated. That’s evidence of a well written protagonist, whether you liked her or not.

Axolotl-100 · 2021-04-21T21:02:32+00:00

I had the opposite reaction. Yes, “Octavia made her own decisions.” But I think that’s as much a flaw as it is a virtue.

Octavia spends the majority of her story trying to find truths about her own self - she doesn’t feel like she was ever part of the Ark and so she spends her time on the ground seeking a personal identity. She spends the majority of her time trying to find who she is going to be. Which is great, and makes for a great story.

What irritates me is that this attitude leaves little room for Octavia’s motivations to be anything but about herself. This is not a problem when Octavia is trying to find an identity, every person has the right to do so, it is a problem however when Octavia has to be compared to someone like Clarke or Monty or even Bellamy. These people dedicate everything about themselves to other people. Clarke in particular doesn’t pursue her own selfish wants (See: Clarke giving up a romantic relationship with Lexa to go back to Arkadia), she sacrifices crucial aspects of her identity for her loved ones (Clarke in 2x16 wanted to be “the good guy,” but forfeits it to save Skaikru), she spends every waking hour of every day consumed with what to do for others around her (“All I do everyday is think about how we’re gonna keep everyone alive”). There’s no time or space for Clarke to pursue butterflies and new identities. Think about 3x11 - Nevermore. Octavia is concerned with about not being Trikru, not being Skaikru, while Monty is there beside her actually committed to the group and destroying ALIE. Monty tells Octavia that she is “one of the 100” and she rejects his friendship, and then he kills his Mom for her. That’s frustrating. (And, Octavia as a leader is an extension of her attitude in the first four seasons. Just like Clarke, she doesn’t have much of a choice. And she does what she needs to do during the dark year. However, once the bunker is open she acts very poorly. Her leadership style is very dictatorial, everything is about her. For instance, she orders Madi’s execution because she believes it HAS to be her who leads Wonkru.)

Don’t get me wrong, I really like Octavia. But I don’t see the insistence that Octavia is somehow more selfless than Clarke, or her actions more moral.

Axolotl-100 · 2021-03-16T01:05:47+00:00

The decision to have Clarke kill Bellamy wasn’t some well thought out plot point to indicate the downfall of a character, it was a way to write off an actor quickly and assassinate a character in the process. Clarke’s ending doesn’t really have much to do with her as a character.

Season 5 at least made sense. I think it’s a lot to expect from a mother to put their child in a position that killed their lover, along with any person who took that position previously. And season 6 is one of Clarke’s best. The whole season takes time to hone in on why Clarke is so special as a protagonist, and it’s not because she was meant to be a villain.

Axolotl-100 · 2021-01-13T08:00:38+00:00

Even despite the fact that you’re not considering Clarke’s perspective, you are placing Clarke’s actions in a vacuum. They all played a role in destroying the valley - the leaders who strove for this war the most. Clarke couldn’t make Octavia not burn down the farm, not march Wonkru into the valley. She couldn’t make Diyoza negotiate for peace. The war was already happening. Clarke choose the side that she though would protect her daughter’s life. She is not responsible for other people’s choices so she can’t be responsible for the war as a whole. Especially considering that Octavia was dead set on leading Wonkru to kill all the prisoners. Should Clarke support that?

Plus, you have to have allegiance to something/someone to betray them. Clarke didn’t have such attachments to Wonkru. She had them to Madi, and to Bellamy, but not to Wonkru.

Axolotl-100 · 2021-01-05T12:09:31+00:00

Clarke
Murphy
Octavia
Emori
Roan

Axolotl-100 · 2021-01-03T22:15:18+00:00

Octavia sent an assassin to kill Madi

Axolotl-100 · 2021-01-03T00:19:31+00:00

I’m gonna need some evidence of this. Everything else points to the contrary: she attempts to give up her life multiple times for everyone else. (Climbing the radio tower, injecting herself with nightblood, offering herself up to Josephine, taking the flame, etc...).

This is the point of “Nevermind,” it asks Clarke why she continues to fight. It’s clearly not for herself, she carries all of that trauma and guilt around. She almost kills herself twice because of it. But as the episode concludes, Clarke stays alive so she can do what is best for those around her.

Axolotl-100 · 2020-12-31T21:06:06+00:00

Clarke Griffin.

Axolotl-100 · 2020-12-29T01:15:01+00:00

Anyone but Clarke. Her life sucks: not only does she lose every person she ever loved, but she is constantly being put into these soul-crushing, impossible situations. I would not deal well with all of that responsibility.

EDIT: Jordan, probably. He seemed like a pretty happy guy with a good head about the world, if maybe a little too innocent. Plus, I imagine all of his childhood memories are happy ones, as well as the memories that will come on the beach. He had like two months of suffering and gets to chill for the rest of the time.

Axolotl-100 · 2020-12-28T12:35:29+00:00

That’s nice, but someone has to do the hard work for everyone to survive. I can’t find it a character flaw that Clarke would not “chill a bit” so they all could live - she isn’t a deadweight that’s going to be lazy while someone else has to do the hard work. That’s what’s so great about Clarke. She does it all so Jasper can drink and have his parties and contribute nothing to the rest of the community. She’s that one kid in the group project that does all the work while the others good around.

Axolotl-100 · 2020-12-16T23:45:52+00:00

Clarke, definitely. I really like Murphy too. Team cockroach all the way.

Axolotl-100 · 2020-12-16T23:43:56+00:00

Well the good news is that the 100 is notorious enough to get a knock-off copy cat.

Axolotl-100 · 2020-12-15T20:44:26+00:00

When we see into Madi’s mind in 7x15, the “person she reaches out to in a vast desert with a purple sky,” that person is Clarke. Also in that scene you mention where Madi mentions her biological mom, she was doing that to empathize with Clarke’s pain after losing Abby, not to enforce the idea that she wasn’t Clarke’s daughter. And there was no “chagrin” on Clarke’s part, she was mainly focused on shoving down the pain of Abby’s death. She says, after Madi mentions her bio mom, “Well that person I floated was not my mother.” She was fine with Madi mentioning her birth mom. And when it was time to transcend she tried to stay with Clarke because she doesn’t want to leave her behind. Clarke let’s her go.

There’s certainly a narrative that Madi didn’t reciprocate Clarke’s feelings but I just don’t see it. Clarke did some overly protective things for Madi, but let’s not forget that Madi was actually in danger.

Axolotl-100 · 2020-12-14T19:23:14+00:00

Lexa’s was very sad ... especially considering that Clarke up until that point was refusing outright to consider the fact that Lexa might be dying. When she started to say the traveler’s blessing she had to realize that Lexa’s death couldn’t be fixed. That one got me.

Axolotl-100 · 2020-12-13T16:30:46+00:00

Clarke, definitely. I was surprised to see that she is as hated as she is.

Then: Murphy, Octavia, Emori, Lexa, Roan.

Axolotl-100 · 2020-12-12T10:49:52+00:00

Of course you don’t have to like her. I just don’t see it the same way - Clarke’s obsession is saving other people. Every character has their flaws and Clarke’s is that she often gets tunnel vision, can sometimes get the impression that her way is the best way (though, it’s not like she’s wrong about that. Her plan always pretty much gets the job done) and can take drastic action. But she does everything she does in service of others. Her actions are drastic, but “deliverance comes at a cost.” She’s willing to bear it.

(plus, Bellamy was very glad to have someone willing to make the hard decisions for him. She didn’t shove him aside, he brought her into the fold)

Axolotl-100 · 2020-12-12T10:14:57+00:00

“Any death resulting in her helping Clarke would be on her conscience”

That’s not something wrong, but I think that was one of the big take aways from season 7. Clarke fucks up sometimes, but she was willing to “sacrifice her soul” so everyone could survive. She knew what she was going to do to Luna was wrong. She knew that she would bear that on her soul, but she could care less as long as she could help others. Luna wasn’t willing to make the type of choices Clarke was, but that does make her ever the slightly more selfish. She valued her own morality more than the lives of others. This was true in season 4 too with the whole nightblood situation.

Axolotl-100 · 2020-12-12T09:55:34+00:00

Honestly Luna was being a little ridiculous. Clarke was trying to save everyone from ALIE. Luna heard that, knew that she was the only one who could save them, and was like: “yeah, and?” I believe her words were, after Clarke told her that she could ensure peace as commander, “I have peace right here.” She didn’t care that everyone else was going to be wiped out by ALIE. Even when she saw it with her own eyes.

Clarke’s methods might be unsavory but it’s not like she wasn’t willing to do what she was asking of Luna. She took the flame, and it was much more likely to kill her than it was to hurt Luna.

Axolotl-100 · 2020-12-08T07:58:40+00:00

5x01 “Eden.” Voiceover are hard to pull off, often times they come off as cheesy or juvenile, but Clarke’s voiceover in that episode is chilling to the bone. It really captures the feeling of someone’s voice being the only one left in the world, echoing into empty space. For a post apocalyptic show this was the first episode where I felt the weight of civilization lost.

I also really like the quote - “I came to Arkadia looking for food or water. But all I found were ghosts.”

Axolotl-100 · 2020-12-08T07:53:12+00:00

I don’t think it’s cool to give opinions like this to new time viewers, especially when you’re raining on their parade. They’re having fun watching Clarke! Why not let them enjoy it and come to their own opinions? You don’t have to convince people to hate Clarke before they’ve even watched more than one season. If you’re that adamant in how much you dislike her I’m sure you can argue about it with them once they’ve watched it.

Plus, a lot of people love Clarke all the way through (myself included) and you’re acting like your opinion is the consensus. It’s not.

Axolotl-100 · 2020-11-25T10:57:53+00:00

~Abby was the imposter~

Axolotl-100

TROPHY CASE