If the show had a bit more honesty about it, we would have had a scene where Lexa, wanting to teach her Nightbloods a little history, takes the children, and Clarke out for a ride.
They reach the bombed out remains of another city, one much larger than whatever Polis might have been. We can see the range of devastation. They can sit on a hill and look down upon it.
Lexa tells the children how it used to be a great city, full of people, how the land they live on was once part of a great nation that stretched from one ocean to another. But. The people who built that nation weren’t honest. They were greedy and arrogant. They’d stolen the land from others, the ones who came before them. She tells them how the people were subjugated, murdered, pushed out of their land, their way of life, their homes and left to all but die out.
When Aden asks ‘why,’ she explains, looking directly at Clarke, at how the invaders had superior weapons, how they thought the natives were savage and inferior. They thought nothing of taking what they had, destroying their way of life, because the invaders saw themselves as superior, of more value.
But even if the natives were savages, if you can even believe that word, they were not without value. They were not inferior. They deserved to live and to grow and to thrive. They weren’t monsters. And they did their best to protect one another and what they had made and were proud of.
We never got to see Lexa’s closest relationships: taken from her
parents as a toddler, raised by the Flamekeepers, namely Titus, along
with several other Nightbloods we never knew (aside from Luna). Lexa’s life was bookended by those who would use her for their own ends, but Lexa proved quietly defiant and could not be broken by their will. Instead, her very nature was questioned and and embraced in spite of itself by someone who shared so many qualities as to be twin-like. A soulmate.
Who
were the other Nightbloods? Did Lexa have a sibling (like Luna)? Was
she close to any of the others? Luna’s talk with Clarke gave us no
suggestion as to the status of her relationship with Lexa before she
became Commander. We did learn how brutal their lives could be, and what
they were ultimately subjected to in the conclave system. Very little
of it made sense, to the point of it being almost surreal (which, given
our own times, might not have been so unrealistic), so it’s easy to see
Lexa as a lonely figure growing up in a privileged but fragile
environment where only one can be left standing.
We never saw her relationship with Anya, though we saw the impression she made. Anya was stoic, ruthless, pragmatic. She was our introduction to Lexa before we ever met her, but what were they like together? Anya, not much older than Lexa herself, would have helped trained Lexa in combat and tactical thinking. She would have subjected Lexa to hardship and even humiliation in training her, to ‘toughen her up’ as it were. Some have speculated her as a mother figure to Lexa. If Lexa was her second before she became Commander, it’s possible Anya knew the other Nightbloods and would have had to have treated them similarly. If Nightbloods are raised to die, or become Leader, no one would be encouraged to be close to them, to be friends with them, much less family. Anya would have kept an emotional distance, knowing her time with Lexa might be very short. Anya was a practical warrior, not an emotional one. She could care for her people, but she might have held Lexa at arm’s length, also for very practical reasons. Lexa might have admired Anya and, no doubt, mimicked her as a warrior, but did she have feelings for Anya? Lexa appeared to show some vulnerability on this point when Clarke presented her with Anya’s braid – but Lexa never brings up Anya again. She moves on.
We never saw
her relationship with Costia. Who was she? There is speculation she was
one of the Commander’s handmaidens or maybe a soldier, a guard or
someone who worked some menial job in the tower. We know Lexa cared for
her – ‘She was mine’ – though we know little else of her feelings beyond the
outrage of her murder. Was Lexa incensed because something of her ‘hers’ was taken, or did she really love this girl as she implies to
Clarke? This was a relationship not to be, as Lexa was raised to believe ‘love is weakness’ and ‘to be Commander is to be alone.’ Who was
responsible for Costia falling into Azgeda hands? It’s easy to speculate
that, perhaps, Titus might have betrayed the girl in order to get what
he wanted from Lexa: the Commander herself.
We saw, briefly, her relationship with Gustus, her closest advisor until we met Titus, and both these men mirror one another in their point of view: Lexa is important to both of them ‘You are the coalition,’ Gustus tells her, ‘You are special, Heda,’ Titus tells her, later. These seemingly protective father figures are also the most critical of Lexa, both convinced an alliance with Skaikru will kill Lexa or worse, fracture their world. She listens to both Gustus and Titus with detachment and, sometimes, visible impatience. She doesn’t like being questioned. It is Kane, a stranger, who points out Lexa is a ‘visionary’ who sees a bigger picture than probably anyone around them. Neither Titus or Gustus see this ‘bigger picture’ and it is the great tragedy that none of these Grounders lives to see its potential, that they worked so hard against it. Gustus and Titus are, in each their own way, men of war who would have had Lexa wipe out Skaikru for the very real (and historic) threat they posed, and not without justification, but for Lexa’s hidden dimension: she saw a bigger picture and she saw it through her soul’s twin, Clarke.
In her
relationship with Clarke, we saw Lexa soften, become hyper focused on
Clarke’s well-being and state of mind. She knew Clarke would suffer for
killing Finn and wanted her to get through it as quickly and painlessly
as possible. Don’t love, she implies to Clarke. Don’t do that to
yourself. You’re a leader. Do not suffer. Detach, become what your
people need you to be.
If we imagine for a moment that Lexa,
underneath her warpaint and armour is just an exhausted and frightened
young woman, clever and proud and strong, yes, but also bending a little
with the weight on her shoulders, we can see her plea to Clarke to ‘be
the leader her people can look to, put their hopes and dreams into’ as a
personal need for Clarke to lead her, as well. ‘Be my hope, stand with me, we will make the world over and it will be a wonderful thing.’ But Lexa is surrounded on all sides by immovable objects: her culture, Skaikru’s, Mt. Weather, Azgeda.
As
a child on the Ark, Clarke also grew up in a privileged but fragile
environment where any minor infraction (for an adult) could mean death.
It made little sense, it must have been surreal at times. In a sense,
the 100 being sent to Earth was a kind of conclave, too. Who would be
left standing at the end? It’s hard not to see Clarke as the ultimate ‘victor,’ surely the way Lexa saw her ‘I told you my spirit would choose wisely.’
It is Lexa’s faith in Clarke that becomes the unstoppable force that takes on her own way of life, head-on, and will not compromise. ‘We must love one another or die’ might be Lexa’s unspoken mantra. Offering her life and loyalty to Clarke, Lexa, reminding Clarke she is ‘born for this,’ makes herself Clarke’s subject (in Hakeldama, Lexa angrily tells Indra how Titus is her subject ‘they are all my subjects’ – it is a petulant moment of self-hate. As Clarke’s self-imposed subject, Lexa is reflecting her own failures – at Mt. Weather and, now, with the massacre) Clarke is the leader Lexa looks to, has put her hopes and dreams into. She cannot insult Clarke further by putting this into any other words than she did, on her knees, in total supplication: ‘I swear fealty to you, Clarke kom Skaikru, I vow to treat your needs as my own and your people as my people.’
Did Lexa swear an oath to Costia? Did she bow to Anya? She killed Gustus for his betrayal, setting up the conditions for her own (and the punishment that should have awaited her, by her people’s law), she berated Titus for his one-sidedness. In the other Nightbloods, she lived with and lost what should have been close comrades. It is hard to not feel her anger at all those losses when she shouts at Titus for not believing in her ‘I am more than capable of separating feelings from duty.’ It is not just of Costia’s death she speaks, but of all of them she has suffered at that point. Killing the other Nightbloods. Losing Anya. Killing Gustus, walking away from Mt. Weather. Countless others we may never know about. And yet, the worst: the damage done to the one person she looked to as a great hope – Clarke.
Has anyone ever stood up to Lexa the way Clarke did, just days after first meeting her? Did anyone move Lexa to such immediate protectiveness as Clarke did? They hardly knew one another, but Lexa was already prepared to kill to save Clarke (bye, Quint) and would rather Clarke have run and save herself from the pauna than try to save her. It is after this moment we learn how little Lexa regards her own life, a confession Clarke mistakes as a belief in reincarnation. Lexa smiles at Clarke not in flattery that Clarke would save her because she is better than her generals, but because Clarke doesn’t understand, there is a secret only Lexa really knows. Lexa was raised to die with the promise of living on in the Flame. But even Lexa could not know what that meant until it happened.
If Lexa had lived, it is more than possible she would have changed her people’s way of life far beyond ‘blood must not have blood.’ She likely would have ended the conclave system, likely would have shared the secret of the Flame with Clarke (shared everything, no doubt). It is possible her entire government would have changed to something more democratic, not relying on rare Nightbloods to supply a small pool of potential autocratic leaders. Clarke would most certainly have done her utmost to end such a terrible system, having grown up in one herself.
Clarke is now all that is left of Lexa, forever incomplete without her, robbed of the Flame, Lexa’s half of their soul, that should have been hers, and all that Lexa wanted to accomplish, so much ash and dirt.
In Madi, though, Clarke seems to have found a piece of Lexa again, a reminder of what she was, and has not failed her so far. In Madi, there is a reflection of the young, ill-fated Nightbloods that Lexa was a mother-figure to, and, so, through Clarke, Lexa lives.
Lexa Appreciation Week, day 3 – favourite relationship
In honour of this ignominious anniversary, reposting some thoughts on Lexa.
There will be a trend LexaLivesOn on Twitter today, perhaps think of participating, remind the world why she was important (if you’re in the UK, it’s 8pm).
We never got to see Lexa’s closest relationships: taken from her
parents as a toddler, raised by the Flamekeepers, namely Titus, along
with several other Nightbloods we never knew (aside from Luna). Lexa’s life was bookended by those who would use her for their own ends, but Lexa proved quietly defiant and could not be broken by their will. Instead, her very nature was questioned and and embraced in spite of itself by someone who shared so many qualities as to be twin-like. A soulmate.
Who
were the other Nightbloods? Did Lexa have a sibling (like Luna)? Was
she close to any of the others? Luna’s talk with Clarke gave us no
suggestion as to the status of her relationship with Lexa before she
became Commander. We did learn how brutal their lives could be, and what
they were ultimately subjected to in the conclave system. Very little
of it made sense, to the point of it being almost surreal (which, given
our own times, might not have been so unrealistic), so it’s easy to see
Lexa as a lonely figure growing up in a privileged but fragile
environment where only one can be left standing.
We never saw her relationship with Anya, though we saw the impression she made. Anya was stoic, ruthless, pragmatic. She was our introduction to Lexa before we ever met her, but what were they like together? Anya, not much older than Lexa herself, would have helped trained Lexa in combat and tactical thinking. She would have subjected Lexa to hardship and even humiliation in training her, to ‘toughen her up’ as it were. Some have speculated her as a mother figure to Lexa. If Lexa was her second before she became Commander, it’s possible Anya knew the other Nightbloods and would have had to have treated them similarly. If Nightbloods are raised to die, or become Leader, no one would be encouraged to be close to them, to be friends with them, much less family. Anya would have kept an emotional distance, knowing her time with Lexa might be very short. Anya was a practical warrior, not an emotional one. She could care for her people, but she might have held Lexa at arm’s length, also for very practical reasons. Lexa might have admired Anya and, no doubt, mimicked her as a warrior, but did she have feelings for Anya? Lexa appeared to show some vulnerability on this point when Clarke presented her with Anya’s braid – but Lexa never brings up Anya again. She moves on.
We never saw
her relationship with Costia. Who was she? There is speculation she was
one of the Commander’s handmaidens or maybe a soldier, a guard or
someone who worked some menial job in the tower. We know Lexa cared for
her – ‘She was mine’ – though we know little else of her feelings beyond the
outrage of her murder. Was Lexa incensed because something of her ‘hers’ was taken, or did she really love this girl as she implies to
Clarke? This was a relationship not to be, as Lexa was raised to believe ‘love is weakness’ and ‘to be Commander is to be alone.’ Who was
responsible for Costia falling into Azgeda hands? It’s easy to speculate
that, perhaps, Titus might have betrayed the girl in order to get what
he wanted from Lexa: the Commander herself.
We saw, briefly, her relationship with Gustus, her closest advisor until we met Titus, and both these men mirror one another in their point of view: Lexa is important to both of them ‘You are the coalition,’ Gustus tells her, ‘You are special, Heda,’ Titus tells her, later. These seemingly protective father figures are also the most critical of Lexa, both convinced an alliance with Skaikru will kill Lexa or worse, fracture their world. She listens to both Gustus and Titus with detachment and, sometimes, visible impatience. She doesn’t like being questioned. It is Kane, a stranger, who points out Lexa is a ‘visionary’ who sees a bigger picture than probably anyone around them. Neither Titus or Gustus see this ‘bigger picture’ and it is the great tragedy that none of these Grounders lives to see its potential, that they worked so hard against it. Gustus and Titus are, in each their own way, men of war who would have had Lexa wipe out Skaikru for the very real (and historic) threat they posed, and not without justification, but for Lexa’s hidden dimension: she saw a bigger picture and she saw it through her soul’s twin, Clarke.
In her
relationship with Clarke, we saw Lexa soften, become hyper focused on
Clarke’s well-being and state of mind. She knew Clarke would suffer for
killing Finn and wanted her to get through it as quickly and painlessly
as possible. Don’t love, she implies to Clarke. Don’t do that to
yourself. You’re a leader. Do not suffer. Detach, become what your
people need you to be.
If we imagine for a moment that Lexa,
underneath her warpaint and armour is just an exhausted and frightened
young woman, clever and proud and strong, yes, but also bending a little
with the weight on her shoulders, we can see her plea to Clarke to ‘be
the leader her people can look to, put their hopes and dreams into’ as a
personal need for Clarke to lead her, as well. ‘Be my hope, stand with me, we will make the world over and it will be a wonderful thing.’ But Lexa is surrounded on all sides by immovable objects: her culture, Skaikru’s, Mt. Weather, Azgeda.
As
a child on the Ark, Clarke also grew up in a privileged but fragile
environment where any minor infraction (for an adult) could mean death.
It made little sense, it must have been surreal at times. In a sense,
the 100 being sent to Earth was a kind of conclave, too. Who would be
left standing at the end? It’s hard not to see Clarke as the ultimate ‘victor,’ surely the way Lexa saw her ‘I told you my spirit would choose wisely.’
It is Lexa’s faith in Clarke that becomes the unstoppable force that takes on her own way of life, head-on, and will not compromise. ‘We must love one another or die’ might be Lexa’s unspoken mantra. Offering her life and loyalty to Clarke, Lexa, reminding Clarke she is ‘born for this,’ makes herself Clarke’s subject (in Hakeldama, Lexa angrily tells Indra how Titus is her subject ‘they are all my subjects’ – it is a petulant moment of self-hate. As Clarke’s self-imposed subject, Lexa is reflecting her own failures – at Mt. Weather and, now, with the massacre) Clarke is the leader Lexa looks to, has put her hopes and dreams into. She cannot insult Clarke further by putting this into any other words than she did, on her knees, in total supplication: ‘I swear fealty to you, Clarke kom Skaikru, I vow to treat your needs as my own and your people as my people.’
Did Lexa swear an oath to Costia? Did she bow to Anya? She killed Gustus for his betrayal, setting up the conditions for her own (and the punishment that should have awaited her, by her people’s law), she berated Titus for his one-sidedness. In the other Nightbloods, she lived with and lost what should have been close comrades. It is hard to not feel her anger at all those losses when she shouts at Titus for not believing in her ‘I am more than capable of separating feelings from duty.’ It is not just of Costia’s death she speaks, but of all of them she has suffered at that point. Killing the other Nightbloods. Losing Anya. Killing Gustus, walking away from Mt. Weather. Countless others we may never know about. And yet, the worst: the damage done to the one person she looked to as a great hope – Clarke.
Has anyone ever stood up to Lexa the way Clarke did, just days after first meeting her? Did anyone move Lexa to such immediate protectiveness as Clarke did? They hardly knew one another, but Lexa was already prepared to kill to save Clarke (bye, Quint) and would rather Clarke have run and save herself from the pauna than try to save her. It is after this moment we learn how little Lexa regards her own life, a confession Clarke mistakes as a belief in reincarnation. Lexa smiles at Clarke not in flattery that Clarke would save her because she is better than her generals, but because Clarke doesn’t understand, there is a secret only Lexa really knows. Lexa was raised to die with the promise of living on in the Flame. But even Lexa could not know what that meant until it happened.
If Lexa had lived, it is more than possible she would have changed her people’s way of life far beyond ‘blood must not have blood.’ She likely would have ended the conclave system, likely would have shared the secret of the Flame with Clarke (shared everything, no doubt). It is possible her entire government would have changed to something more democratic, not relying on rare Nightbloods to supply a small pool of potential autocratic leaders. Clarke would most certainly have done her utmost to end such a terrible system, having grown up in one herself.
Clarke is now all that is left of Lexa, forever incomplete without her, robbed of the Flame, Lexa’s half of their soul, that should have been hers, and all that Lexa wanted to accomplish, so much ash and dirt.
In Madi, though, Clarke seems to have found a piece of Lexa again, a reminder of what she was, and has not failed her so far. In Madi, there is a reflection of the young, ill-fated Nightbloods that Lexa was a mother-figure to, and, so, through Clarke, Lexa lives.
Lexa Appreciation Week, day 3 – favourite relationship
Lexa betraying Clarke on the Mountain makes absolutely no sense and I am 100% not referring to her feelings for Clarke. I’m saying that from a tactical stand point, Lexa made the worst possible decision by simply leaving the Mountain. Lexa is an intelligent leader, talented soldier, and brilliant tactician. She would need to be for her to unite 12 warring clans under her banner. Those warrior cultures would not allow someone who didn’t know anything about war, tactics, or fighting to lead their armies. In canon, Lexa is shown to be a shrewd, intelligent leader who can inspire both fear and hope in her warriors and people.
So someone who is so smart and has the tentative trust of 12 societies in her hands would not make such a terrible tactical decision at the climax of the battle as there is only one of two results that can come from her making the deal.
One, which was probably the most likely scenario in Lexa’s mind, is the Mountain Men successfully capturing the necessary amount of Skaikru and harvesting their bone marrow, which obviously means killing them. This is giving the Grounder’s greatest enemy the one thing they didn’t have before the war, which was agency. The Mount Weather Fortress was both a blessing and a curse to Lexa’s people. Sure, the Grounders couldn’t get inside of it, but it was a prison for the Mountain Men. They could not leave it without their suits and oxygen tanks. This severely limited their mobility while Lexa and her army had the freedom to move around wherever necessary to fight.
Lexa now has the ability to make it inside the Mountain, thanks to the truce and technology of the Skaikru. She has eliminated the greatest obstacle in her path to defeat the Mountain Men and free her people from their reign of terror. But by accepting this deal, she is handing her greatest enemy, on a silver platter, the ability to permanently leave their prison without any fear of radiation poisoning. Lexa is not naive. She would know that the Mountain Men would need land to build their new civilization on and that they already think of her and her people as savages, as less than human, as expendable. She knows they would leave their fortress and then kill and/or forcibly move her people from their homes. This would mean more of her people would be killed, certainly more than the number of those who had been trapped in the mountain that she had saved.
The second scenario would be that the Skaikru (which ends up happening) somehow defeat the Mountain Men. This is almost worse than the first scenario because Lexa has, through betrayal, created a new enemy for her people, one who would now have access to the safety of the fortress, its technology and weapons, and the Skaikru would not be restricted to Mount Weather since they do not get radiation poisoning. And she just gave them a perfect reason to hate and distrust her.
There could possibly be a third scenario, however quite unlikely, in which the Mountain Men and Skaikru simply destroy each other, but that would only eliminate a small portion of the Skaikru, allowing the majority of them to plot their revenge against Lexa and her people if they wished to.
So her making this decision to take the deal offered by the Mountain Men makes no sense. I understand that she is being weighed down heavily by the guilt from sacrificing all those people in Ton DC, but she tells Clarke that she is making this deal with her head and not her heart. In no way is her taking that deal logical or good for her people in the long run. I admit that it’s good drama and it sets up a juicy obstacle for her and Clarke to overcome in the next season, but it makes Lexa look unintelligent and that she doesn’t know what she’s doing.
Former military officer, military operations planner, and doctrinally-trained military academy graduate here.
*cracks knuckles* Let’s talk hypothetical military strategy here. All in fun, nothing personal here. And also, hopefully I’m not too fuzzy on remembering the sequence of plot events 🙂
Actually, Lexa leaving Clarke at the Mountain is strategically and tactically the best option to her with the resources and military intelligence she has at the time. She essentially has three options available to her before the military campaign:
Option 1: Do nothing.
As awful as it is, Mount Weather and its inhabitants are a known entity. She knows how they fight, move, and what they have access to. Their strengths and weaknesses. You’re totally right, if Lexa does not intervene, the Mountain Men will gain radiation immunity and be able to leave their prison and have greater range of movement. However, she’s not going to sit idly by if they do, obviously, and even immune to radiation, once they leave the mountain they are incredibly vulnerable. Why?
I just schooled in the most polite and knowledgeable way imaginable. I am honestly thanking you. I can’t even be mad cuz that was too interesting to read. *Bows down to the new heda*
I’ve been meaning to post some follow-up thoughts on this for awhile and I’m so behind – I, too have been of the mind that Lexa’s actions were designed to shock the audience vs. being of any real use (aside from the idea of maintaining the status quo with the Mountain and just waiting them out – great analysis here from @msmayhem1515) – but I look less at the military aspect of it and how the narrative built this in to give Clarke a terrible decision to make more or less alone (thus a moment of shock) and make Lexa’s talk about weakness reach some kind of fulfillment.
I think it is still a ‘weak’ move for Lexa (not an unintelligent one, though) simply because her people would find it so: we are led to believe that she’s created a personal mandate as Commander to build a coalition with an attendant army specifically for the purpose of taking down the Mountain and freeing their people. This is literally what she is all about: we see her on more than one occasion urging her army to the fight (kom war!) – only to lead them away at the last minute. If we followed the rules of their society, the next thing we should have heard about was how Lexa was tied to a tree and hacked to bits and a new Commander has been chosen.
But it begs another question: what WAS Lexa’s plan BEFORE the Sky people ever showed up? She has an army, yes, but what good is it against the Mountain people who have all sorts of advantages? What was she going to do? It doesn’t seem to have been thought out by the writers, which is frustrating (unless there is something in the story I missed).
It got me thinking how Lexa (who is supposed to be connected to an advanced AI that is designed to help humanity make good decisions) could have used the arrival of the Sky people to a greater advantage by giving a reverse angle to the ‘deal’ she made on Mt. Weather (and keep her from looking weak). Imagine if she’s had some foresight:
Lexa orders dozens of her warriors to a large tent to wait, then orders remaining soldiers to round up all of Skaikru and bring them to the tent as well, making a big show of it (in case *anyone* is watching, ahem).
Once all are in the tent, together, she reveals her scheme (perhaps already shared with Clarke) – the Skaikru in the tent will trade clothes with the warriors Lexa selected earlier (those without facial tattoos or braids).
Lexa cuts her own hair and has one of her female warriors put in her clothes and wear her warpaint, whilst Lexa dresses in Skaikru clothing.
The plan is, ‘Heda’ will march this group of Skaikru ‘prisoners’ to the mountain to make her own deal: she knows the Mountain want Skaikru for the blood, so she threatens to kill them all then and there if her people are not released immediately. She knows she can’t fight from the outside – she has to get in somehow.
The Wallaces, not wanting to lose their one chance at freedom, agree to the terms (though there should be some in-fighting over it). They recognise enough of the Skaikru prisoners (Clarke, et al) and agree to the deal.
‘Heda’ takes the freed prisoners off the mountain and ‘Skaikru’ enter the Mountain (with hidden weapons, of course and the other Skaikru in the mountain forewarned) – aka a Trojan Horse approach.
This avoids that awkward and unnecessary ‘betrayal’ and making Lexa look ‘weak’ – but you can still wind up with a tricky situation that ends in mayhem and explosions and…who knows what.
I always thought they missed the boat with Lexa being a cyborg, with Becca’s memories and the AI’s enhancement – and how she should have been aware of Alie and perhaps concerned the Mt. Men were in collusion with her or with Ice Nation somehow (imagine a scene where Lexa steals off to a private office after the battle, and watch her use a computer as she searches for a sign of Alie’s code. With the audience not knowing what the ‘Flame’ is – this would be a shocking revelation).
With deal coming from Mt. Weather’s end (instead of Lexa taking advantage of knowledge she already had), it forces everyone up a chimney (and this show loves writing its characters up chimneys).
In this mental chess match, I poke a home where the Mountain knows what Lexa looks like without warpaint (recon photo…although, did that make it back to them or was that dude killed?). And they’d be searched on their way into the Mountain.
But damn, I don’t care, because the idea of Lexa stealing off to get into a computer to fulfill an inexplicable drive (suggested by the Flame, which wants info) (I always like the idea of a subliminally suggestive AI, or at least complementary, but not wholly controlling Lexa) and seeing the code, and then keeping it secret from Clarke is such a delicious plot twist. I would have liked to have seen that.
A1 Lexa discourse.
I’d thought about that hole meself and figured one way they could solve that problem is if Lexa (and other Grounders/Skaikru) let themselves be pummeled a little bit – a few bruises to make it look like they’ve been ‘roughed’ up by Lexa’s troops. With her hair cut and in different clothes, big black eye, maybe – they probably wouldn’t pay her much notice (neither Jaha or Kane did).
If they played into everyone’s desperation – ‘I’m killing them NOW’ – and since they clearly do not have guns (’Heda’ could make a show of throwing some empty Skaikru guns in a pile) – they might just be ushered in anyway. It’s always a gamble. Even if they didn’t take in any obvious weapons – once they saw what they were up against inside the Mountain, they could make a decision how to act. Either way, the Mt. Men guards see them as ‘Skaikru’ and it might take them a little longer to realise most of them are NOT Skaikru.
Raven could have them wired, as well – literal bombs in their boots – that prevent the guards from firing on them for fear of their own death. It’s a typical film trick, but it might have been effective?
Lexa betraying Clarke on the Mountain makes absolutely no sense and I am 100% not referring to her feelings for Clarke. I’m saying that from a tactical stand point, Lexa made the worst possible decision by simply leaving the Mountain. Lexa is an intelligent leader, talented soldier, and brilliant tactician. She would need to be for her to unite 12 warring clans under her banner. Those warrior cultures would not allow someone who didn’t know anything about war, tactics, or fighting to lead their armies. In canon, Lexa is shown to be a shrewd, intelligent leader who can inspire both fear and hope in her warriors and people.
So someone who is so smart and has the tentative trust of 12 societies in her hands would not make such a terrible tactical decision at the climax of the battle as there is only one of two results that can come from her making the deal.
One, which was probably the most likely scenario in Lexa’s mind, is the Mountain Men successfully capturing the necessary amount of Skaikru and harvesting their bone marrow, which obviously means killing them. This is giving the Grounder’s greatest enemy the one thing they didn’t have before the war, which was agency. The Mount Weather Fortress was both a blessing and a curse to Lexa’s people. Sure, the Grounders couldn’t get inside of it, but it was a prison for the Mountain Men. They could not leave it without their suits and oxygen tanks. This severely limited their mobility while Lexa and her army had the freedom to move around wherever necessary to fight.
Lexa now has the ability to make it inside the Mountain, thanks to the truce and technology of the Skaikru. She has eliminated the greatest obstacle in her path to defeat the Mountain Men and free her people from their reign of terror. But by accepting this deal, she is handing her greatest enemy, on a silver platter, the ability to permanently leave their prison without any fear of radiation poisoning. Lexa is not naive. She would know that the Mountain Men would need land to build their new civilization on and that they already think of her and her people as savages, as less than human, as expendable. She knows they would leave their fortress and then kill and/or forcibly move her people from their homes. This would mean more of her people would be killed, certainly more than the number of those who had been trapped in the mountain that she had saved.
The second scenario would be that the Skaikru (which ends up happening) somehow defeat the Mountain Men. This is almost worse than the first scenario because Lexa has, through betrayal, created a new enemy for her people, one who would now have access to the safety of the fortress, its technology and weapons, and the Skaikru would not be restricted to Mount Weather since they do not get radiation poisoning. And she just gave them a perfect reason to hate and distrust her.
There could possibly be a third scenario, however quite unlikely, in which the Mountain Men and Skaikru simply destroy each other, but that would only eliminate a small portion of the Skaikru, allowing the majority of them to plot their revenge against Lexa and her people if they wished to.
So her making this decision to take the deal offered by the Mountain Men makes no sense. I understand that she is being weighed down heavily by the guilt from sacrificing all those people in Ton DC, but she tells Clarke that she is making this deal with her head and not her heart. In no way is her taking that deal logical or good for her people in the long run. I admit that it’s good drama and it sets up a juicy obstacle for her and Clarke to overcome in the next season, but it makes Lexa look unintelligent and that she doesn’t know what she’s doing.
Former military officer, military operations planner, and doctrinally-trained military academy graduate here.
*cracks knuckles* Let’s talk hypothetical military strategy here. All in fun, nothing personal here. And also, hopefully I’m not too fuzzy on remembering the sequence of plot events 🙂
Actually, Lexa leaving Clarke at the Mountain is strategically and tactically the best option to her with the resources and military intelligence she has at the time. She essentially has three options available to her before the military campaign:
Option 1: Do nothing.
As awful as it is, Mount Weather and its inhabitants are a known entity. She knows how they fight, move, and what they have access to. Their strengths and weaknesses. You’re totally right, if Lexa does not intervene, the Mountain Men will gain radiation immunity and be able to leave their prison and have greater range of movement. However, she’s not going to sit idly by if they do, obviously, and even immune to radiation, once they leave the mountain they are incredibly vulnerable. Why?
I just schooled in the most polite and knowledgeable way imaginable. I am honestly thanking you. I can’t even be mad cuz that was too interesting to read. *Bows down to the new heda*
I’ve been meaning to post some follow-up thoughts on this for awhile and I’m so behind – I, too have been of the mind that Lexa’s actions were designed to shock the audience vs. being of any real use (aside from the idea of maintaining the status quo with the Mountain and just waiting them out – great analysis here from @msmayhem1515) – but I look less at the military aspect of it and how the narrative built this in to give Clarke a terrible decision to make more or less alone (thus a moment of shock) and make Lexa’s talk about weakness reach some kind of fulfillment.
I think it is still a ‘weak’ move for Lexa (not an unintelligent one, though) simply because her people would find it so: we are led to believe that she’s created a personal mandate as Commander to build a coalition with an attendant army specifically for the purpose of taking down the Mountain and freeing their people. This is literally what she is all about: we see her on more than one occasion urging her army to the fight (kom war!) – only to lead them away at the last minute. If we followed the rules of their society, the next thing we should have heard about was how Lexa was tied to a tree and hacked to bits and a new Commander has been chosen.
But it begs another question: what WAS Lexa’s plan BEFORE the Sky people ever showed up? She has an army, yes, but what good is it against the Mountain people who have all sorts of advantages? What was she going to do? It doesn’t seem to have been thought out by the writers, which is frustrating (unless there is something in the story I missed).
It got me thinking how Lexa (who is supposed to be connected to an advanced AI that is designed to help humanity make good decisions) could have used the arrival of the Sky people to a greater advantage by giving a reverse angle to the ‘deal’ she made on Mt. Weather (and keep her from looking weak). Imagine if she’s had some foresight:
Lexa orders dozens of her warriors to a large tent to wait, then orders remaining soldiers to round up all of Skaikru and bring them to the tent as well, making a big show of it (in case *anyone* is watching, ahem).
Once all are in the tent, together, she reveals her scheme (perhaps already shared with Clarke) – the Skaikru in the tent will trade clothes with the warriors Lexa selected earlier (those without facial tattoos or braids).
Lexa cuts her own hair and has one of her female warriors put in her clothes and wear her warpaint, whilst Lexa dresses in Skaikru clothing.
The plan is, ‘Heda’ will march this group of Skaikru ‘prisoners’ to the mountain to make her own deal: she knows the Mountain want Skaikru for the blood, so she threatens to kill them all then and there if her people are not released immediately. She knows she can’t fight from the outside – she has to get in somehow.
The Wallaces, not wanting to lose their one chance at freedom, agree to the terms (though there should be some in-fighting over it). They recognise enough of the Skaikru prisoners (Clarke, et al) and agree to the deal.
‘Heda’ takes the freed prisoners off the mountain and ‘Skaikru’ enter the Mountain (with hidden weapons, of course and the other Skaikru in the mountain forewarned) – aka a Trojan Horse approach.
This avoids that awkward and unnecessary ‘betrayal’ and making Lexa look ‘weak’ – but you can still wind up with a tricky situation that ends in mayhem and explosions and…who knows what.
I always thought they missed the boat with Lexa being a cyborg, with Becca’s memories and the AI’s enhancement – and how she should have been aware of Alie and perhaps concerned the Mt. Men were in collusion with her or with Ice Nation somehow (imagine a scene where Lexa steals off to a private office after the battle, and watch her use a computer as she searches for a sign of Alie’s code. With the audience not knowing what the ‘Flame’ is – this would be a shocking revelation).
With deal coming from Mt. Weather’s end (instead of Lexa taking advantage of knowledge she already had), it forces everyone up a chimney (and this show loves writing its characters up chimneys).
The Doctor Is Out 