Tag: lexa deserved better

justicarlexa:

Touch-starved Lexa who’ll never admit it but practically lived for the brief moments of comfort/pride/encouragement in which Anya would lay a firm hand on her shoulder and squeeze gently. Who wishes more than anything she could look to her right and see her mentor’s hand there once more.

Touch-starved Lexa who’s completely caught off guard by Costia’s predilection for physical affection. Who only just starts getting used to the warm sensation of arms wrapped around her shoulders when it’s taken from her forever. Who has never felt she needed someone’s embrace to keep her from falling apart more than when she loses the one person always willing to supply such a comfort.

Touch-starved Lexa who very visibly flinches the first time Clarke tries to hug her. Who’s never afraid in the face of danger and steadfast even when people reach for her with the intent to harm, but is completely terrified of becoming reliant on an embrace that may not always be there.

Touch-starved Lexa who doesn’t quite know how to vocalize her gratitude when Clarke doesn’t let that initial hesitation and stiffness discourage her from trying. Who gradually learns how to relax into Clarke’s arms and melt at her fingertips, without fear of that sensation disappearing.

Touch-starved Lexa becoming not-so-touch-starved.

The way fans have interpreted this character – all complex, beautiful, heartbreaking – speaks so much to how we have often felt about ourselves, I think.  The lack of ‘touch,’ of ‘understanding,’ of compassion from others.  The fear of the repercussions should we accept it.  

Lexa is seen as a broken child with so much to offer, ultimately left behind, something we all fear.  Ultimately diminished. Something we all fear.  Beautiful, fragile in places, full of strength no one sees.  

Shame the show never saw her that way.  The disconnect between the show’s narrative and the audience’s version is so very disconcerting.  

hedalexatrikru:

“I swear fealty to you, Clarke kom Skaikru.”

I know this scene is so well-loved, but it’s such a dangerous moment for Lexa (and Clarke, as well).  It is the moment where she accepts and concedes Clarke as a better leader than she is, putting the fate of their people in Clarke’s hands (harken back to Lexa’s ‘advice’ to Clarke in s2: to be a leader her people can put their hopes and dreams into. For Lexa, Clarke is exactly that kind of leader.). From here on, Lexa will look to Clarke for advice or direction. 

We always think in terms of her ‘betrayal’ of Clarke (at Mt. Weather), but that’s not how Lexa is a Betrayer.  Her betrayal is of her people (to colonialist invaders in s2 – something Gustus warned her about) and here, after having been ‘tricked’ back into putting her people first (at Mt. Weather), she completes her betrayal of her people by putting Clarke first, swearing loyalty, on her knees, no less.  

Lexa, of course, does this out of love and devotion, out of fear of Clarke’s endless hatred for her, in hope that Clarke will understand why Lexa had to protect her people first, an act just as devastating to her as it was to Clarke. As Clarke and Lexa, they are just troubled, lovestruck young women who would probably, happily, wish the world (and all their responsibilities in it) away.  As Heda and Wanheda, Lexa wants them to rule together – something completely offensive to the likes of Titus (and others) who only see Skaikru as those who will (eventually) destroy their way of life.  

The massacre of Lexa’s army might be the catalyst for Lexa’s death, but it is in a way as Titus told Clarke: I may have pulled the trigger, but you killed her.  

It’s cruel: how do you blame someone for falling in love? For the likes of Titus, love, the ultimate weakness, is the ultimate betrayal.  

Will Titus (and Gustus’) premonitions about the end of their people haunt Clarke in series 4? She suffers from enough needless guilt. Lexa sought to lift it from her shoulders. Will that haunt her as well?   

finn: *kills an entire village of innocent people for basically no reason bc he had no proof of anything, it was all speculation*
fandom: NO HE’S JUST MISUNDERSTOOD HE JUST WANTED RAVEN AND CLARKE BACK

bellamy: *gets 300 people floated by taking the radio from raven and destroying it so the ark won’t know earth is survivable*
fandom: NO HE JUST WANTED TO SAVE HIMSELF AND OCTAVIA HE DIDN’T KNOW

lexa: *makes a logical decision to save hundreds of her people by sacrificing less than 50 people, and it was still a difficult decision for her to make (unlike finn and bellamy who didn’t think twice)*
fandom: WHAT A FUCKING PSYCHO BITCH SHE BETRAYED CLARKE I HOPE SHE DIES

me: ok

Poor Lexa. She lost…300 warriors, then about 300 people in TonDC…not sure of the numbers rescued from Mt. Weather, maybe in the hundreds (300? seems to be a recurring theme). She betrayed the best interests of her people (and her mandate as their Commander) by allying with the Sky people in the first place (narratively, she is ‘The Betrayer’ of her tribe to a colonialist invasion), but she’s got a big heart-on for Clarke and has hope for victory that is sickeningly robbed from her by the devilish mountain people. She makes a pseudo-Faustian bargain that tricks her back to the path of protecting her people (a job, that, thanks to the colour of her blood, she was ripped away from her family to forcibly train and kill her friends for, lost her love to and otherwise sacrifice her life without any compromise), and ultimately forces a confrontation with her Ice Nation enemy.

Through her own will and cunning (and devotion to Clarke) Lexa manages to come up with a solution where she doesn’t have to make the horrible choice of choosing between her people and Clarke (and her people), AND defeat the Ice Queen, only for the Sky people (some of whom felt betrayed by her at Mt. Weather, though she had no choice) to bookend her history with them by making a Faustian bargain of their own (through Pike, killing another 300 of her warriors – my that number comes up a lot), actions that ultimately led to her death.

She was never getting out of that story alive.

alyciadayumcareys:

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.  

Know what I’m just getting around to being seriously irritated about?

Lexa’s Nightbloods.  

If she had any sort of legacy, it was through them and even they weren’t allowed to survive.   They were her, like her, formed by her beliefs, her teachings and without them, there is NO ONE to carry on what she would have brought to her world.  There is no one now who could take what she taught and built on it to help others and make way for something better.

They were clever, resourceful, good little people who would have protected and cared for the things Lexa cared for and they would have been enormously helpful to Clarke and – they are just gone.  

Their deaths were done for shock, hardly necessary. They could have run away, gone to Luna – who better to lead Clarke there (if something had come of that story line) and they would have fit in better, espousing blood must not have blood.  

And, no doubt, Aden and Luna’s girl would have got on famously.  

An OTP that will never be.  Shame.  

ETA: Another pissy note on this – this is a post-apocalyptic world.  Human beings are near extinction.  Killing off perfectly healthy kids for no good reason is just a flat-out stupid bit of storytelling and so annoyingly grim just for the sake of being grim and who’s idea was this, anyway?  Holy mother of hell and gone and whatever.  

Favourite little headcanon: Lexa with a broad Australian accent (with no semblance to reality) trying to get Titus to accept Clarke.

Titus:  Everything you do elevates her.

Lexa: Aw lighten up, Tito.  She’s a good Sheila and I’m gonna marry her. 

Aden: Heda, I respectfully offer myself as your Maid of Honour.

Lexa: That’s good of ya, sport, but I think you mean Best Man.

Aden: No, Heda, I believe I read that there is a Maid of Honour.  

Lexa: Crickey.  Didn’t know ya could read.  All righty then, you’ve got the job, my son.  

Titus: *Closes eyes, pinches bridge of nose, wonders why he has lived so long and when will it all end*