#and then there's illian and niylah which is. another thing entirely

[random-french-girl]

you know what really frustrates me lately re: the 100 is the whole “lets replace the characters we killed off for shock value with brand new characters who will fulfill the same function in the narrative and pretend like nothing happened”

and by that i mean : anya => echo, lincoln => luna, lexa => roan

a gifted warrior/second-in-command who’s ruthless and not afraid of violence and extremely loyal to her people and her leader. This character forms an uneasy bond with an enemy (a sky person) which ends up somewhat shaking up their sense of loyalty, while allowing the sky person some perspective on grounders lives. they save each other’s lives and respect each other’s skills, but there’s also betrayal and resentment and a lot of complicated history.

=> they killed anya, and gave us echo instead. seriously, look at the parallels between anya x clarke VS echo x bellamy. and i’m not unhappy about echo, i think she’s a cool character and her relationship with bellamy makes for good content but. hello anya 2.0, the “antagonist who becomes a complicated ally’’ and offers a lot of tension and story potential when paired up with our protagonist.

a pacifist who wants nothing to do with war but who will fight if cornered. Someone who’s ready to go up against tradition, even if it means being shunned from their own people and becoming an outcast. the character who’s gonna make our protagonists feel guilty about all the terrible things they’ve done, while also providing forgiveness and maybe another, better way of life.

=> they killed lincoln, and gave us luna instead. this one is particularly infuriating because the narrative had linked luna and lincoln plotwise before his death and so her appearance feels even more like a shoddy replacement for what they lost when they killed him off. which imo doesn’t make luna very likeable. And i know people complain that they made out luna to be the straight  new and improved version of lexa, and it def makes sense on some level, but i mostly disagree. luna is meant to replace lincoln as the ~voice of peace, the non-violent fighter, not lexa, who never had that role. 

a grounder leader, with more experience than clarke, to act as her main counterpart among grounders. sometimes an ally and sometimes an opponent, as clarke and them try to balance loyalty to their respective people and fighting for the greater good (peace and the survival of the entire human race). Ruthless and practical, yet ultimately wants peace for everybody. Acts as a mentor for clarke, recognizes her as a leader and an equal, supports her leadership decisions and calls her out when she favors her own people above anyone else. 

=> they killed lexa and gave us roan instead. If you take out the “romance/personal connection with clarke” part of lexa’s role in the show, that’s exactly what they’re doing with roan now. which is especially clear since i think he’s the ONLY character who has mentioned lexa twice to clarke now, in two different conversations about clarke’s leadership. Plus that entire scene where she gives him the chip. 

anyway all that to say that i am ANNOYED. you cant just replace characters that you’ve spent some time establishing in your story, and expect the audience to care as much for the new versions of them?? And also like... if you KNEW those characters were important - so important in fact that you need to have them replaced when they exit the story - THEN MAYBE DONT FUCKING KILL THEM OFF YOU IDIOTS. That’s what you get when ~a shocking death is privileged over anything else.

#forever bitter #and then there's illian and niylah which is. another thing entirely #anyway this isn't me hating on the new characters - i dont mind new characters at all. in fact i think echo and roan are compelling #and luna's characterization has greatly improved from that disastrous s3 episode. i like that they paired her up with raven for example #but i would love them so much more if it wasnt tainted by the bitterness of it all #the 100 #t100 s4 #sometimes i meta i guess #anyway. rant over.

[sly2o]

The Butterfly Effect of Bryan’s Altered Storyline: The 100 Season 4

TL;DR: I think Riley was supposed to be a LI for Clarke, and Monty + Harper filled a story-line that Nathan + Miller was supposed to have.

We know that when the actor who plays Bryan abruptly left the show to pursue another role, which resulted in the parts written for him being given to a new character named Riley. So with the information we have, what was Bryan supposed to be doing in 4A and 4B?

Well first let’s ask ourselves... 

What was Riley supposed to be doing before this shift in plot line? 

 Answer: Clarke. 

I call forward as evidence:

1. The awkward hug.

Clarke clearly recognizes Riley, and clearly has a history with him. This is never resolved (and evidently never will be). Why waste the audience’s time with this? 

2. Niylah’s acting out of character 

When the actor who got cast as Riley had to shift into Brian's role in 4A, someone else had to shift into what had originally been carved out as the Riley role. Hence the return of Niylah.

 Why on Earth would Niylah want to climb into bed (so to speak) with the very kru that killed her family? Why would she want to tend bar for the people who executed her father? After the violent interaction she had with Skaikru in Season 3 where they stormed her home - which resulted in it being attacked by ALIE - why would she want to be anywhere near Skaikru ever again? Clarke's magic ladybits can only explain so many of these questions without some very explicitly stated plot - and helping make rations is hardly good enough. 

Can we all agree that the only thing Niylah has in common with herself from prior seasons is the fact that she is doing Clarke? This is why I believe she was shoehorned into this role, as she is closest thing Clarke has to a living ex on this planet. 

3. Niylah’s extremely lacking season 4 character arc.

If Niylah’s presence in the Skaikru area was planned all along - why didn’t she play a role in helping free Bellamy in 4x11? Surely she’d want to help all the people she had traded with in the past survive the radiation blast. 

If her presence was planned all along, why did she play a bizarrely helpless role in foiling Illian when he arrived at Arkadia to blow up the place? What happened to the capable Niylah who lied to the Prince of Azgeda in the premiere of Season 3?

Let’s stop beating around the bush and ask the key question: why was Niylah’s entire role to simply be a place of comfort for Clarke to go to, where Clarke could exposition her internal thought process? Because that was what Riley’s role was supposed to be - and it would make sense in the context of a new character whose role was crafted to serve this piece of plot.

4. Timing of Riley’s and Niylah’s appearances

Niylah doesn’t show up until episode 5, which is a few episodes after Riley is introduced. In theory, if Riley had stayed in his original role this would have been enough time for Clarke to catch up with Riley and do her usual grief bang move with her old love interest. 

Furthermore, the fact that Riley gets a reaction, introduction, and hug - and Niylah just sort of shows up should raise some alarm bells about how she was not originally supposed to be in this season.

What was Nathan supposed to be doing this season?

Last year Jarod Joseph tweeted he would be back in Season 4 in a “big way”... and yet he’s barely done anything this season aside from break up with Bryan,  share moon-eyes with Jackson, and be a guy with a gun when you need a guy with a gun.

So what was he supposed to be doing?

Answer: the Monty/Harper 4B plot.

Supporting evidence:

1. Riley having a lot of build up in 4A and then being sidelined in 4B just to die.

The writers had to dispose of Riley after he filled in the role of Bryan in 4A. Having to make a decision about one of the last members of farm station, would clearly add too much distraction to what will inevitably be a jam-packed season finale.   

2. Bryan’s planned path of descent in 4A.

We know that the episode where Bellamy talks down Riley from assassinating Roan was supposed to be Bryan. We know that Bryan was headed to a darker place with respect to his mental health. The break up with Nathan (or what was at least going to be the start of a line of major fights) likely didn’t help either. Season 3 had already established that there was strain in this relationship (Bryan and Miller taking different sides in the Pike/Kane leadership) so this also wasn’t coming out of nowhere. Speaking of which...

3. People arguing that they want to live in 4A and then deciding to die in 4B?????

Both Harper and Riley are a part of the mob that are pissed at Clarke for creating the list and excluding them. Now just a few weeks later they are OK with dying? That’s not right.

4. Monty on double comfort duty at the DNR den

I believe Monty and Harper were still supposed to be in the area due to Jasper’s importance to Monty. But we essentially had an understaffed Monty running back and forth between people to comfort them which made for awkward pacing during the episode. It would have made more sense for two different pairings to be there, which would have helped draw out  the comparisons of the different paths one can take with respect to suicide.  

Some Last Thoughts

Niylah deserved better.

Given the fall out about the way Clarke’s love interest was treated last season... this seemed like a bizarre choice. It felt like Niylah really didn’t get to be herself which during my watching felt like it undermined their relationship.

Riley deserved better

What a bizarre character arc. I’m not even sure if it’s worth rewatching “Heavy Lies the Crown” since the episode really has no point any more.

Brian deserved better

Or maybe the audience did? I can’t help but feel like this role should have just been recast. The season would have felt less disjointed if they had done this.

Nathan deserved better

I hope we get to see more of him during the finale. 

#the 100 #clarke griffin #the 100 season 4 speculation #the 100 meta #nathan miller #jarod joseph