throwback to season 2 where Lexa had already lowkey sworn fealty to Clarke + highkey took care of her wifey (▰˘◡˘▰)
This is what gets me about Lexa’s storyline. She was never written to be a romantic hero/foil for Clarke. She was written to be the Betrayer. The tribal leader who capitulates to the desires/needs of the would-be colonialist overlords. Gustus and Titus both see what the Skaikru are or what they could be (the end of the Grounder’s way of life) and are desperate for Lexa to uphold the will of their people instead of being swayed by Clarke. They know it will end badly.
Lexa was never intended to be anything but a tragic figure who betrays her people and must be punished by them for it. Her relationship with Clarke is the heart of that betrayal. Only when she is offered the ‘deal’ is she forced to return to the path of putting her people first. She means well. She wants peace. But her people will not accept Skaikru. In series 3, she tries to pull her people into her way of thinking, but Titus recognises she is so besotted with Clarke, she will not put her people first (even if she sees a bigger picture than he does). That he becomes the one to mete out her ‘punishment,’ adds another layer to her pointless tragedy.
And the fans saw something so much bigger and better in that storyline and completely rewrote the narrative to suit themselves. It created a disconnect between the audience and the show – which is a shame. The producers could have looked through the eyes of this audience and seen how much bigger their show could have been. Such a shame. A waste.
Love this.
I think it’s clear that Jason never intended for Clexa to be this massive thing that took over the show. Once he realized how popular it was becoming in season 2, he saw $$$ and brought Lexa back in season 3 to bask in the hype and positive press that Clexa was getting during the hiatus.
The problem was that he never actually cared about the character or the relationship the way the fans did. Storylinewise, Jason brought back Lexa SOLELY to kill her and reveal his “brilliant” AI plot twist. That was it. All the clexa stuff that happened before that was just for ratings and media hype.
Very well put.
The differences between ‘show Lexa’ and ‘fan Lexa’ are jarring. On one hand you have The Commander who is only a tiny sliver of the overall narrative, on the other, you have fans building an entire universe around all the possibilities of her character and her relationship with Clarke. The show isn’t going to explore those possibilities, likely not even if there was time to do so. I doubt the producers were ignorant of how the fans saw her, it was simply, as you say, nothing they cared about. A writer is going to write the story he wants, not the one his viewers want.
Where it took such a cruel turn was the naked greed of using and manipulating that vulnerable audience to increase numbers and achieve renewal.
Every showrunner looks for a hook to grab an audience. Lexa/Clexa was JR’s unlikely hook. He and his team played into it. They weren’t interested in investing anything real into Lexa – her death was assured from the first time she was seen on-screen – but they were going to play up the fan’s love of her. They wrote the first half of series 3 in the manner of total fan fiction: all of it designed to please a Clexa fan. All of it designed to keep them watching, keep them hooked. Big, crowd-pleasing moments like Lexa kicking the Azgeda ambassador off her tower or kneeling to Clarke or fighting Roan and killing the Ice Queen. Clarke sketching sleeping Lexa (how did that scene come about?). Nothing real. It was all fantasy-within-a-fantasy. If substance had been involved, we would have been given the Ice Nation as the big foe, we would have been given backstory on their history, on Nia and Lexa’s feud. It would have somehow paralleled all that was happening with the sky people and their struggle. All of it would have tied together into the greater narrative.
Sharing this again for my Lexa anon – I know you’re anxious, hope this helps a little.
The Doctor Is Out 