Found myself angry today at the umpteenth reblog of a post that basically reduced the good and honourable deeds of the Clexa fandom into egotistical bragging rights over the number of notes they have on their posts vs. BeIIarke fans. The post(s) was a pile-on of bludgeoning a blarke in question with so many ‘Look! We’ve got more than you! You could never! Neener Neener Neener’ moments it was absurd and ugly, from the beginning.
They reduced the good and honourable deeds of the Clexa fandom into weapons for a shipping war. Into ego-driven bragging. Into a shallow pursuit of putting one over on a fandom so hated that the poison is clearly running both ways.
Let’s get this clear: the Clexa fandom has NOTHING to prove to anyone, ever.
If you’re going to take the bait over everyone who says ‘we’re better than you’ or ‘our ship is better than your ship’ or whatever BS someone pulled, if you think everything this fandom did in the name of better representation and charity is just so a handful can have a field day using it to bash and smash other human beings (no matter who they are or what they do) in a juvenile display of Social Superiority – you’ve lost the thread. If this is just about numbers, you need to recognise that no matter how many ‘notes’ or ‘views’ or ‘likes’ you have, this does not equate to ‘we’re better than you.’ If it did, various Youtubers wouldn’t be reviled human beings. More equals better is a fallacy. A humiliating one, at that.
It’s also beyond the point.
The good and noble deeds of the Clexa fandom – shifting an entire industry toward better representation, raising money for a school and other charities – were not done in order to bludgeon others with the data. They were and are done, hopefully, in selfless service to others, to improve our world and our community. No one has any right to use those good things for their own personal vendetta.
The show is coming back, the cons are on and dragging is going to happen. We can have fun with that without turning it into bloody target practice. Stop caring what any blarke thinks. If they are trying to reach into your space – block them. Don’t engage, block them. Ignore. Rise above.
I was told once that the best revenge is to live well. We have nothing to prove. NOTHING.
Because if we’re not building up, making things better for ourselves, our community, for others – what are we doing?
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.
‘But the invaders stole it all from them?’
‘Yes, they did.’
Clarke says nothing the entire journey.
This is from an old ask that I probably already answered long before: why are the 100 not heroes? Note: this is just my considered and rambling opinion, feel free to agree/disagree on your own blogs.
The 100 come from a largely autocratic/fascist way of life with a top-down society that only benefited the most powerful, useful (and, even then, not much). The 100 themselves were problematic misfits who, once on the ground, resorted to an almost primal survival system that involved bullying, threats, withholding food and physical violence. They destroyed a grounder village and Finn would later murder 18 in another village. They tortured Lincoln. Even if you try to justify their behaviour as defensive, they still acted against common sense and murdered at every opportunity (this includes Mt Weather). Anya, shot in the back. The mass incineration of soldiers. The mass-murdering of Lexa’s protection forces (in an effort to steal land and terrorise the locals). Bellamy openly murdering two messengers. They offered nothing to the coalition they joined, never tried to integrate or have a better understanding of grounders, seeing themselves as superior. Their ambassador (Clarke) manipulating the grounder leader to change her laws in order to benefit her own people, Jaha aligning himself with Alie and helping her subjugate and kill grounders (even if under her control, he, unlike Raven, never fought it). Lincoln’s murder. Octavia’s turn to assassinate grounder leaders, including her poisonous judgement and killing of Luna (who was, conveniently villainised by the writers) and her offensive assumption of the Commander title. Later in series 4, they would have left all of the grounders out to die, taking the grounder’s bunker (and origin story) for themselves. They basically helped wipe out all of grounder culture – and their leadership in just under a year. With no obvious remorse.
This show centres its story around the sky people, making them the protagonists so we see things (mostly) from their point of view. We learn to like Clarke and Raven and Monty, etc. We like them on an individual level, but they are very much of our own society that rarely acknowledges how racist we can be, how indifferent to suffering, how inured to a oligarchic state we are, or does much about it.
On The 100, the sky people represent the lowest common denominator in survival while believing they are the most advanced society. The Grounders were more often than not, portrayed as savages which made ‘the 100 as heroes’ seem palatable. It really isn’t. When Lexa ascended to a point of importance on the show, it looked like Grounders might have their day and be treated with some equality in the narrative. Of course, this didn’t happen.
The show continues to return to Clarke and the others (since the show is about them) as the ‘hero protagonists’ but rarely if ever allows itself to question whether they really are heroes (’maybe there are no good guys’). Bellamy, in particular is highlighted the most in this, as his murderous actions are swept under every rug and he is given a ‘redemption’ that he does not earn (and is now labeled by JR as ‘valiant’). Clarke, too, is given more consideration even though she has been responsible for killing more Grounders than anyone (she knew of the bombing of Ton DC and warned no one, she ordered the mass incineration of the 300 grounders, she – with Bellamy – threw the lever that killed all the people in Mt. Weather, she convinced Lexa not to retaliate against Arkadia after Pike’s rampage (setting up the conditions for Lexa’s death) and, grotesquely, it was her idea to steal the bunker from the grounders (she almost made herself Commander, except Roan, for better or worse, called her out for mocking his culture).
If the show had been more even-handed with its portrayal of the differences between Skaikru and the clans, offering a more balanced view (you can still have drama), gave more thought to the Grounder’s backstory and offered (whether in Lexa or some else) a long term foil to the Skaikru’s plans and isolationist identity, the characters of The 100 might have shown more nuance with its characters and the storytelling might not have resorted to superficial tactics (like making the Grounders so simplistic and savage as to be unrelatable, save for a few recurring characters like Lincoln, Lexa, Anya, Indra).
I’m disturbed when I see fan posts about how awesome Octavia or Bellamy or Raven are: within the context of the show, they are mass-murdering colonialist usurpers (this might be accidental, but it is still their choice to carry it out). Clarke, as the only Sky person to be written with any nuance or resolvable complexity, is given more of a hero’s notice because, within the narrative’s terms, she is only doing what she can to help her people survive. This is the excuse. But she has spent enough time amongst the others who live on the planet to know they are all human beings with value and also worthy of ‘more than surviving.’
It’s hard not to see Clarke as merely a desperate manipulator of others to achieve a frightening goal (what could she have had other than to remove the obstacle that was the Grounders and Mt. Weather?) that would only benefit her people. ‘Doing it for my people’ is often made fun of, but it is also Clarke’s version of ‘my country, right or wrong.’ What makes this worse is, we know how intelligent Clarke is, how insightful she can be, how close she got with Grounders like Lexa and Niylah, and how, in the end (before the radiation blast) she was willing to let all of them go just to save her own (more valued) kind. Metaphorically, we might see Clarke as the privileged white woman of power who won’t use it to benefit other, more marginalised voices. That she was left alone on the surface, to raise a Grounder child, whom, in the teaser narrative of last summer, she is already telling fairy tales about her people to (whether that squares up with the upcoming series, who knows), is a chilling moment of a colonialist triumph – did Clarke never learn the lesson? The child is so clearly a reminder of Lexa (brown-haired, green-eyed Nightblood), we want to believe Clarke is finally at peace with the two cultures she helped make war amongst (and, if she really did love Lexa as she claimed, wouldn’t she want Madi to know more of her own history and follow Lexa’s example).
It would be a fine bit of turnaround if the show ended with the final decimation of the Sky people’s ‘superiority’ – but the show has been so deep in the POV of Clarke, et al, who would appreciate it? It might just be seen as more destruction for destruction’s sake. For the Sky people to really become ‘grounders’ – losing their connection to technology – is a strong narrative urge that would round off their misadventures against the original clans. It won’t make them heroes, but it would realign the plot to something that might be close to some kind of karmic justice.
Yes, all of this can be twisted any way you like to come up with a viewpoint favourable to your own, but I’ll stand by this as a troubling interpretation of a story I found too troubling by far.
So what you want is an alternate season 4? Right. You asked for it. It is Long.
**
Instead of returning to Arkadia with Bellamy (in this universe, Bellamy gives himself up to Indra after the fall of the City of Light to await punishment for his participation in the massacre – Jaha is arrested as well), Clarke takes off with Murphy and Emori, meeting up with Raven and Monty – they will all travel back to Becca’s home/lab (Emori being the guide). Raven isn’t convinced of Alie’s tale of melting reactors and a radiation deathwave (sounds hokum to her) – she sees no spike in background radiation from Arkadia.
In Polis, Indra works with Kane and the other ambassadors to calm the people and get back some sense of normalcy. Bellamy is sent to work farmland for some northern villages – Indra deciding to follow ‘blood must not have blood.’ Octavia sees him off, telling him she might forgive him one day – but it will be years. For his punishment, Jaha is assigned to clean up Polis and help with the wounded. In too much shock at all he’s done, Jaha doesn’t resist.
It has been agreed amongst the ambassadors that no new Commander will be chosen for now, but all the ambassadors will work together to maintain order. Kane affirms Skaikru’s desire to remain part of the coalition and is accepted as their new ambassador. Abby remains in Polis as well, helping with all the wounded. Indra reminds the people not to forget the wisdom of Heda Lexa, and to respect her wish for peace. Many saw Lexa in the City of Light and is it generally believed that she acted as a sort of guardian angel, returning from death to protect her people from Alie.
**
Clarke has kept the Flame.
When her small team arrives at Becca’s lab, there is a surprise: a Flamekeeper named Gaia is present with several women warriors – whom Clarke immediately recognises as Lexa’s handmaidens/personal guard – and Luna (there is no insane security perimeter covered by hundreds of armed drones).
Clarke is surprised that any Grounders know of the place, much less seem familiar with it. Emori explains how she used to distract Alie while The Commander and her people used the lab – though she never knew what for.
Clarke has Questions right off the bat – why are they there, are they aware of what has happened in Polis, and, angrily – why did Lexa’s personal guard abandon her on the night she was murdered?
One of the handmaidens, an older woman named Kell is offended, telling Clarke that they never abandoned Lexa.
In Polis, Indra privately grieves the losses of the last several weeks – she asks Octavia if she hates her for sending Bellamy away, but Octavia is surprised Indra didn’t just kill him for what he did, he deserved it. Indra tells Octavia how, after the massacre, Lexa turned her back on ‘blood must have blood,’ how Lexa had plans to further involve Skaikru in the education of their people, wanting to build a school, and how besotted she was with Clarke, she just wanted peace for all of them. Still bitter about Mt. Weather, Octavia tells Indra that if Lexa was so interested in being friends, she shouldn’t have abandoned them. Indra shocks her with a revelation about Lexa’s choice (or lack of it) at Mt. Weather.
Bellamy, with his guard, meets Echo again – he is not pleased to see her, but she points out he cannot judge anyone. She asks him about the massacre, were they so afraid of Azgeda? Bellamy says they didn’t distinguish between Grounders and Lexa’s betrayal had stung them all. Echo tells him he’s a fool. Lexa was betrayed, not Skaikru. She tells him Skaikru set themselves apart too much, hiding behind walls. If they’d made some effort to integrate a little, many misunderstandings and tragic events might have been avoided.
**
In Arkadia, Jasper keeps busy writing. Harper questions him – he’s clearly changed. Calmer, no anger or resentment. He tells Harper he’s writing of everything that has happened to them since they came to Earth, how they came to be there, all the people they lost. He wants to write a history of sorts so that others will know. Harper asks him about his experience in the CoL. He tells her it was perfect but all wrong. Nothing should be perfect.
**
At Becca’s lab, Kell explains to Clarke how they were misdirected by Titus on the day Lexa was shot. Afterward, he brought her body to them for them to prepare for cremation. Angry at him for not contacting them immediately (and knowing far more about Lexa’s anatomy than Titus), they disobeyed Titus’ orders and took Lexa’s body to the lab, putting an unknown cadaver in her place for the funeral.
Clarke is stunned to learn Lexa is alive, but comatose, and Luna was called upon to be a blood donor. Luna points out that Lexa did save her life more than once. She owed it to her.
The handmaidens and Gaia are guilt and grief stricken that they did not take the Nightbloods with them – but Titus had them under a full guard (one that, ultimately betrayed those poor kids).
Kell is concerned that Lexa might have brain damage since she was under for over ten minutes and the Flame was removed. She hopes the Flame’s return might restore her.
Whilst Raven and Monty use the lab to explore Alie’s doomsday story (as well as all of Becca’s work), Clarke goes with the handmaidens to give Lexa the Flame.
Luna isn’t impressed with anyone, is hateful of the whole Flame/Commander/Becca/Alie business, gives Raven, Monty, Murphy and Emori a little-known history lesson about how the Grounders and their system of government came to be.
**
Passing near the remains of Mt. Weather, Echo tells Bellamy how Queen Nia had been working with Mt. Weather, promising them she’d deliver ‘donors’ in exchange for guns. Bellamy asks her if they have them. Echo confirms that Roan forbade them, had them locked away.
In Polis, Octavia is assigned to help Abby and slips to her how Lexa had been told by Emerson that Skaikru and Ice Nation and Mt. Weather were working together to betray Lexa and her army – told right in front of her warriors (including Indra). Lexa didn’t believe it, but her generals did and she knew that if she didn’t get her army off the mountain, quickly, her people would probably slaughter Skaikru. Demanding the return of her people, Lexa left. Octavia acknowledges they might have misread Lexa. She’s still angry, still hurt over Lincoln, but doesn’t know who to blame anymore.
**
At Becca’s lab, Gaia administers the Flame to sleeping Lexa. The handmaidens and some of the Flamekeepers and the Commanders had always known of the place, though it was largely avoided to isolate Alie. They needed to keep an eye on her and to make sure her code never infiltrated the lab network.
Lexa wakes, confused, wondering where is Clarke and Titus and Aden. Is Alie gone? Clarke enters and the others leave them alone – Clarke overwhelmed and Lexa apologetic, telling her that she would have told Clarke everything – she just didn’t get the time. She hopes Clarke will give her that time now, and Clarke affirms she can have all the time she wants, forever if that will do. Lexa is despondent over losing her Nightbloods.
In the lab, Raven and Monty learn of Alie’s deception, but find something else they didn’t expect – they are not part of the only human colony. There are other survivors – groups located in Norway, Africa, South America and New Zealand. Raven, curious how so many people could have survived a vast nuclear apocalypse, learns of strange environmental factors that led to these pockets of habitable space. She decides they need to try and contact these survivors somehow.
No longer needed, Luna intends to return to her people, but not before seeing Lexa again. Their reunion is bittersweet and proves they were once close and Lexa did all she could to protect Luna and her people on the rig from exposure. Luna wishes they’d kicked Titus off the tower when they were kids.
Gaia and the handmaidens confer about the best way to return Lexa to Polis and restore her as Commander. Lexa is nervous about this, wondering, since now all the Nightbloods are dead, if it isn’t time to try a new form of government. She plans on returning as soon as possible to help oversee the changes and work with Skaikru to better integrate the clans into a stronger social structure that benefits all. Clarke isn’t happy about this, telling Lexa she has a chance now to be her own person, to not be a servant to her people. Lexa takes Clarke to Becca’s mansion.
In the mansion Clarke marvels at the comfortable home and how it has been maintained. We learn Alie employed robots and drones to keep it clean and tidy. They wonder together about having a home of their own, what it might be like. Lexa’s sense of obligation is going to win out, but Clarke tries to convince her they could have their time, now and let the world go on without them. Lexa reminds her of all the sacrifices made, how she must honour them and help her people rebuild. How she wants Skaikru to be teachers. Clarke could teach art, if she wanted. She promises Clarke they will have their own home and tells Clarke she loves her and reaffirms her oath of faithfulness.
**
Bellamy, Echo and his guard reach the northern villages to find they’ve been destroyed. They find some bodies – with bullets in them. It is a harsh reminder of the last massacre. Bellamy demands who is in charge in Azgeda now that Ontari and Roan are dead? Were any of them ‘chipped?’
Tracking the attackers, Bellamy and the others are horrified to see a well-armed army of Azgeda warriors. They are captured and the leader, a dark-skinned woman with a mad look about her and tattoos that suggest she was once with a clan other than Azgeda – is angry at her people being used by the woman in red, blaming Skaikru for bringing her to their people and causing havoc. She claims to be Nia’s rightful heir – after Nia had kidnapped her and tortured her – she is owed Azgeda – and the Coalition.
The woman tells Bellamy and Echo that she died for the Coalition and, therefore, she will take it for her own. Bellamy is confused by what she means – Echo explains to him how Nia had traded her from Mt. Weather with a dozen of her own warriors, twisted her mind, meant to use her as a weapon against Heda Lexa.
The woman rouses her warriors, telling them to prepare for invasion. They chant her name: COSTIA.
Terrified, Bellamy and Echo plan on their escape to warn the others.
**
In Arkadia, Kane and Abby have returned and are discussing the likelihood that they will have to tear down their wall and further integrate with the Grounders in order to survive. Abby isn’t sure they’ll ever be able to, but Kane assures her there is a way and they will find it. Raven radios from the lab and confirms Alie’s lie, but that there are other pockets of humanity around the globe. She thinks they should make it a priority to contact them or find a way to travel. Abby openly considers the possibility – there might be better options than staying with the clans. The other survivors might be more like them. Kane points out that hasn’t always been a good thing.
Abby wants to talk to Clarke, but is told she is busy and that they will be returning to Arkadia soon.
Nyko arrives with some more sick Grounders – though they were never chipped. Abby is able to take a better look at what is causing their illness – it wasn’t radiation poisoning, but something akin to Mt. Weather’s acid fog. Some of the survivors confirm a ‘cloud’ of sorts – from the north. Kane orders Miller and a few others to investigate.
**
In Polis, they have also been updated on the new acid fog survivors and that Alie’s story was a lie. Indra is told that Kane has sent some people to investigate where this new ‘acid cloud’ came from. Having a bad feeling, Indra orders Octavia to take a group and investigate as well.
**
Learning of the new acid cloud business, Raven and Monty programme some drones to have a look. Emori speculates Azgeda might be up to something. Gaia, Kell and the other handmaidens agree, with Kell particularly concerned about possible new leadership in Azgeda.
At the mansion, Clarke and Lexa have hardly got out of bed, unaware of what is brewing beyond the walls. Murphy interrupts them to let them know they need to start heading back.
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).
Makes you wonder how those who founded Mt. Weather knew the end of the world was coming, decided to collect all the art they could (are they supposed to be the originals, how were they obtained, how long before the end have they been there?) and preserve it in the mountain.
Sadly, it’s all gone now, so.
I would like to read how the dregs of humanity that have survived have no real consideration of the world before, so all that we once accomplished now means nothing. Art, music, film, literature – it’s all gone in this series, but there’s hardly any conversation about it (we got hints of culture within Polis – Lexa reads and has some statuary in her room – would have been interesting to explore what the Grounders really knew of the world before the bombs and if they had a connection to arts of the past).
The emphasis on ‘survival’ vs. having something to live for – that’s a narrative disconnect I’d like to see healed.
On the Ark, food and its discussion had to be strictly regimented. Meals might not have been ‘social’ occasions since food, in its scarcity, would be a reminder of ongoing and future lack. Videos or films or books discussing food or recipes would be all but forbidden since it might create desire that could not be fulfilled and add to further social discomfort.
Food was, simply, a source of energy and survival, nothing more.
On the ground, food is also a source of energy and survival, but, being more abundant and varied (and sometimes requiring great physical sacrifice to acquire), is also part of social customs, celebrations and even considered sources of pleasure, comfort and well-being.
We only saw glimpses of the Arkers appreciating things like meat – something that, first eaten (as we saw them in the first episodes), might have caused sickness amongst the delinquents, their bodies being unused to such strong proteins (and how did they know if the meat was cooked properly?).
In Polis, we should have had scenes of Clarke wandering the markets, trying different foods (perhaps not the bbq rat), learning, perhaps for the first time, what it is to associate food with pleasure, comfort and well-being. Perhaps there is one particular food she grows fond of and through food she learns more about the various clans and their customs.
Watching her integrate with the grounders and understand them through something so seemingly simple might have made her a true ambassador, especially if she were able to take such things back to her people and, through the common need for sustenance, helped them understand their neighbours a little better and learn to open their minds.
It’s a well-known fact: if you want to learn about the locals of a place you are visiting, eat where they eat. Through food, you can make friends and find common ground.
It should go without saying, we were robbed of a moments of dining in Polis tower, where we could have had scenes of Clarke sitting down with the other ambassadors, slowing learning about their lives, their interests, their goals – and what they love to eat. What are common dishes served? What does the Commander enjoy? Do the Nightbloods dine with them? Does the Commander enjoy sharing her favourites with Clarke?
Since ‘food’ is so new to Clarke, does she ask the cooks to show her how they make certain things? She might be curious enough to visit the kitchens and learn a little. Perhaps she tries to prepare something for the Commander and the council and it goes so wrong no one can eat the offering, but it opens a door that shows Clarke is willing to learn from them. Some of the ambassadors offer her guidance or give her recipes to try. At least one is paranoid she is trying to poison them and the Commander has to intervene. At last, she has a success and is offered some appreciation for her efforts.
When an embassy is finally completed for the Sky people, Clarke arranges a banquet with some old Earth recipes she has Raven obtain for her. Sky people and the other clans enjoy an evening with food that hasn’t been prepared in over a hundred years. It is such a success, members of the other clans want the recipes as well. The Sky people are inundated with advice for their crops and offers to share hunting grounds and where the best fishing is.
Through food: peace and community.
Aside from the food, Jasper introduces the clans to their music and, with Raven and Monty’s help, sets up the first radio station in over a century, broadcasting to Polis (and, in the future, other villages) via Arkadia. He finds his purpose at last.
[Though she initially finds it noisy and annoying, the Commander does find a few favourites. Jasper gossips to his fellow Arkers how the Commander is a ‘metal head’ – a moniker that, unbeknownst to them, has more than one meaning for her.]
Something I’d like to have answered though is what the hell happened to Clarke’s horse and what happened to the
drawings she did in s3?
I hope we see Abby finding a little leather folder in
Clarke’s room in Polis, filled with her sketches: the Nightbloods, the view
from the tower – and Lexa. So many unfinished sketches of Lexa. I hope we see understanding dawn on Abby
as she gives the folder to Clarke, the only memories of a brief, golden moment
when so many good things might have happened.
A storm destroys Polis in the events of The 100 Season 4
In freshman year of film school I saw better CGI than this. Please love yourself and quit this show.
If I get anything from this, it’s that Lexa really was a non-character for them, just a point of brief angst – her people, her entire way of life, her legacy, were nothing. We hardly got to see any of it.
The Doctor Is Out 