#to be clear i would NOT fuck his t100 character

[agentmmayy]

i would 100% fuck timothy "dum dum" dugan

#re watching agent carter and got hit upside the head with the howling commandos #SPECIFICALLY MR DUGAN #i didnt realize in catfa..... #then again the last time i watched that i hadnt yet entered my dilf phase #lmao me realizing hours later his actor was in t100 #me: hmm i guess he looks familiar #me three hours later: WAIT A SECOND #to be clear i would NOT fuck his t100 character #ONLY mr dugan #personal #its the mustache and the dad bod for me ok

[caswlw]

no wait what did beliza say about bellarke i didnt. i havent paid much attention to stuff re the 100 in like ~a year or 2 cause it started to make me legitimately insane and if i couldnt throttle jroth with my own bare hands then i refused to remain a tortured bystander any longer but now im like. they had me in a vice grip for so many years i need to know everything. also any time i think about destiel/bellarke parallels and THEN how beliza fucking eloped at the height of it all it makes me want to commit to a life of crime so thank you for the reminder <3 currently on my way to burn down the cw headquarters

ah yes ! beliza eloping and then the CPR scene were like the light of my life in 2019 i literally was in the fuckin clouds

but essentially they miscarried and it started a Whole domino effect. bob AND eliza asked for time off and that threw the writers and jroth off bc they’re the mains so bob was only ina few eps (7x01 at the Very beginning and i think some others that were short clips including a short flashback be/cho scene) and then he got a solo ep which was shortly followed by his death on the show. meanwhile, clarke spent like four episodes in the same scene bc they were doing a bunch of eps that didn’t take place where she was and some flashback shit so that also gave her time off. clarke kills bellamy four eps before the finale, her kid dies (kinda), and everyone else “ascends” (which. bellamy believed in ascension and he was killed for it only for them to realize he was right all along) and clarke Doesny ascend only for her friends to come back and live with her until they die- but they can’t procreate so they’re literally just living out the end of the human race while they have clarke a fake alien lexa that only she can see and didn’t bring back bellamy or madi bc “that’s how ascension works” as if they didn’t kill emori in that ep AND as if they didn’t make these bullshit rules

as for the bts, jroth was PISSED that they were trying to take time off, so instead of dealing with it like a grown man, he decided they would instead take all of the bellamy storyline and give it to the other male characters (which is so obvious with how gabriel was in that season) and then kill him, with clarke behind the trigger. he also made eliza act out losing her kid and have this whole traumatic “my baby my baby” screaming moment which makes the whole thing starting w the beliza miscarriage even Sadder. after bellamy died, bob posted abt it on ig which cemented that he wasn’t coming back and then shortly after the show ended he was at some kind of panel ? and he said that yes the plan after s6 was that bellarke was supposed to go canon officially (not missing any stops and no deaths with them either) in season 7, but it was cut bc of jroth changing how the season would work. beliza Together have since made a cameo acc and they have said on multiple occasions that they wanted to do it and that it would’ve been great but in the end it just was scrapped during the 11th hour before they started s7 and if jroth wasn’t a Child he wouldn’t have messed up the last season of this show (which was meant to have a prequel) bc his main actors needed time off to process a loss. his deliberate mistreatment of poc, and especially moc, is so evident in the show but also so clear with the way they handled the death of the male lead. anyway tho bellarke was the true ending and the fake lexa was just another way they tried ro fix the mess they made (which also like. they were saying shit like “maybe she’s in the prequel !!” as if the prequel wasn’t set like 100 years before her time) and yeah! that’s the scoop on how s7 of t100 was

#anyway! this got long sorry #anon

[scuttleboat]

It's gonna be hard, it is gonna hurt, but Bellarke can and will grow beyond this.

(a comment on this post where I mention it’s impossible to classify ‘regret’ on tv)

(FYI record this kind of general-thoughts comment doesn’t need to be anonymous, you can just send it with your name on it. I’d prefer that because then we can have future conversations and I will know who I’m talking to.)

*smacks hands* OKAY MANY THOUGHTS HERE

I more or less agree with you that probably neither character truly regrets their actions, because they think that they were necessary. The show made it crystal clear why both of them thought they had to act to protect their loved ones, at least to this viewer typing now before you. So ‘forgiveness’ may not unfold for Bellarke this time the way it has in the past.

LIMITS OF THE MEDIUM

The thing is, with television one can only go to a certain level of understanding a character's inner feelings. With a book you can explain EVERYTHING they feel. With a musical or voice over, you can explain most of what they feel. With a traditional drama like t100, we can only go so-so deep. There's the script, the acting, the cinematic atmosphere, the music, and the editing. Each of those factors is subjective; even the script is up for interpretation as for how candid it is about a character's true feelings vs their presented feelings.

It's pretty unlikely that we're ever going to get a full explanation of how each Clarke and Bellamy are feeling about what happened, and that's fine. For myself, as a writer my natural inclination is to immediately build up headcanons for what I guess that each of them may be going through, such as I might turn into a fanfic. What I come up with is going to be a lot more specific and multilayered than what the show could possibly communicate through the screen medium. Sometimes I think people in fandom trick themselves into thinking that a show can explain it all, and when it doesn't, they think it means that character isn't feeling those things. The character isn't showing enough sadness, or not showing it the right way, for example. But there's only so much television can do, and the fact that we must fill in the rest is kind of... our privilege. That's where a viewer has the power to create their own experience in the story. So I could talk for ages about the micro nuances for how I think Clarke is feeling, but most of that will be my headcanon, at the end of the day. Which means it won't match up with everyone else.

REGRET, REMORSE, AND ALL THAT JAZZ

People put a lot of weight on words like "regret" or "sorry" but those can be complex emotions. Also, side rant, I think people really mean remorse, not regret. I think Clarke and Bellamy both felt extraordinary pain this episode, but I also think that overall, both of them would stand by their choices and their reasoning (Chash has a fanfic up right now actually that explores this dilemma thoughtfully.) However, looking at how the episode actually ENDED, I think its possible to have regrets that you did something, now that you've seen it fail. Like when you start a thing, you hope it will work and you feel justified in doing it. But then it fails and you're up shit creek! Might actually be executed! Lost your BFF! Those are major and valid reasons to regret doing something. Time machines WOULD BE SO USEFUL TO UNDO THAT WHOLE MESS. But feeling "omg if I'd known it would end like this I would have done something else" does not invalidate the logic path or the emotional context of why you did it. It doesn't mean you weren't making what you thought was your best choice in that moment, given the information you had.

That's where I think Bellamy and Clarke will be at next week. Bellamy probably regrets his plan for the fact that it ended so badly--but he won't apologize for trying to save his family and do the right thing. Those motives were not wrong, to his eyes. But yeah, if someone had prophesied "btw if you try this Clarke will get out and flee with Madi and instead of a peace alliance you'll just end up in a death ring" then of course he wouldn't do it. Similarly, if back in 508 someone told Clarke "Hey this plan to kill Cooper will start a chain of events where Bellamy puts the Flame in Madi, you leave him to die and Octavia wakes up worse than ever" then of course she would not do it. I'm sure she's regretting the hell out of how all this went down. But that doesn't mean Clarke would ever apologize for prioritizing her daughter, or that she would /regret/ trying to sabotage the Ascension. Clarke has achieved her immediate goal of stopping Madi from being Commander, and to Clarke that is worth anyone's life, even Bellamy's. Clarke sees being Commander as a death sentence, especially for 11-to-12 year old nightblood children. It was like three days ago that she stopped Gaia from murdering Niylah over this. People were already willing to kill to put Madi in power or to keep her out of power; the threat is real. Clarke won't regret escaping with Madi. But I do think, if I were writing a story about her inner thoughts, that she's gonna be plagued with remorse that she didn't do it sooner, that she didn't have a better plan or anticipate what was going to happen. Clarke loves Bellamy and leaving him to maybe be executed is a terrible thing. She could spend A LIFE TIME replaying the last couple days in her mind and speculating how both she and Bellamy could have made better choices. Smarter choices. Choices that didn't take them to this awful end.

In a response to another post that I wrote, @jeanie205 described Bellamy in 509 as "making one seemingly reasonable but ultimately unsuccessful decision after the other." I think that's an excellent way of looking at all of their choices over 508 and 509: The plan to kill Cooper. The plan to destroy the worms. The plan to put Octavia in a coma. The plan for Indra to lead a surrender. The plan to make Madi Commander. The plan to stop the Ascension before Madi is chipped. All of these were founded on the logic and emotions that the characters had at the time, and all of them were unsuccessful. The worst outcomes happened instead. On t100, mistakes have life & death consequences.

I think that Clarke and Bellamy have a lot to regret about the decisions that they made to take them to where they are now. But I don't think either of them regret doing everything that they can to save their loved ones. I don't think Clarke needs to aplogize for picking Madi's life over Bellamy's life. I don't think that Bellamy needs to apologize for trying to save Raven, Echo, Murphy, and Emori from being consumed alive by worms from the inside out. How do you apologize for pain you've caused someone without conceding that your motives were somehow wrong? Because what if your motives WEREN'T wrong at all... But you're still so fucking sorry that someone you love is now suffering? And there's always that gem t100 goes back to: How do you respect yourself when you will sink to any depths of behavior to achieve your goals? When you manipulate and mortally endanger a child that trusts you, or leave a man you love behind to be held for treason and likely execution...can you forgive yourself? Can you at least suck in your breath and swallow your pain and endure til tomorrow?

GOING FORWARD

This is where Clarke and Bellamy are gonna be, headspace wise. Struggling to absorb the internal conflicts. Struggling to move forward past these terrible things while knowing that they partially brought it on themselves and each other. Also accepting that some of what happened wasn’t their fault because they couldn’t control the actions of others who would do them harm. 

They've both been in these situations before. They've accepted and moved on before, and the foundation of love between them hasn't changed.  It's gonna be hard, it is gonna hurt, but Bellarke can and will grow beyond this.

#the 100 meta #bellarke #clarke griffin #bellamy blake #the 100 season 5 #the 100 5x09 #bellarke meta

[novalian]

At this point I feel like the only thing that could make me *slightly* less upset about how Bellamy's character was handled in 4x05 would be if the repercussions of his thinking Octavia was dead shows some sort of change in Bellamy's character throughout the next few episodes. Maybe through a conversation with Octavia about what her "death" did to him.. honestly i don't even know bc whatever verbal iteration we would ever get is gonna be 100x less impactful than actually seeing it play out (1)

... ina PERFECTLY SET UP SCENARIO WITH SO MUCH POTENTIAL FOR CHARACTER DEVELOPMENTFOR BELLAMY HIMSELF AS WELL AS THE BLAKE RELATIONSHIP.... I'm just genuinely sopissed off bc, like you said, you have a characters WORST nightmare and centralmotivator for 3+ seasons come true and the plot purpose doesn't even involvehim. From what I can tell, Octavia's fake out death served as a plot device toget Ilian into arkadia and push some sort of Echo-feels-guilty storyline. (2)

I guessthose two things are fine, but they're at the expense of the character whoshould CLEARLY be the MOST AFFECTED by the plot and I can't get over how shittythat is. And on top of that I doubt we'll ever get any further look into whatOctavia's death did to Bellamy even if it's just through one or two scenes bcthe plot sets up and resolves shit so fucking fast these days..... UGH i'm soso annoyed and I'm usually someone who admires many of t100's writingchoices....

I mean,I agree with you. I’m open to the writers proving me wrong and having Bellamyshow some clear, trackable development rooted in those hours he thought hissister was dead (although as you say, it doesn’t make up for the wastedopportunity to show it onscreen and in-depth). I’m trying to speculate aboutwhat that might look like.

Maybeonce Octavia recovers a bit and retreats from Bellamy again, he tries to talkto her and brings up the fact that he thought she was dead and she shuts himdown with zero compassion; maybe that evokes some rare anger towards her, aturning point for their dynamic. Or maybe believing she was dead gave him some moment ofclarity about her that allows him to reach her when she’s mired in angertowards Ilian. Maybe it’s not brought up again until episodes later when they’rein a dangerous situation and he wants to protect her. Or maybe Octavia makes acomment about Bellamy being selfish in front of Kane and he tells her howdestroyed Bellamy was when Echo told him she’d killed her. There are definitelyways for it to stay relevant to the plot, and I really hope the show doesn’tjust forget about it, but it’s still inferior to what they could have done hadthey stretched the illusion out over a couple of episodes, or even justslightly altered the structure of Tinderbox.

I’mgenuinely a huge fan of the 100 writing staff as a whole; they’ve made mistakes(case in point) but I think they are clever and original and insightful. That’spart of why I’m so annoyed; I want to see what they could have made out of anarc that honours this plot point.

#gabi makes words about the 100 #Anonymous

[ragnarssons]

“the too long dragged ship, that generally ruins the viewer's interest" Yes! This! I think sometimes writers of shows feel that if they make a ship canon fans will lose interest, but it's kinda the opposite. I love the slow burn, but there's a moment when the ship has to happen because the narrative "demands it". You can make the story look interesting and put some obstacles without dragging the ship until the end.

2. What happens? Writers get desperate to keep the mistery will they/won’t they and start to write characters ooc, nonsense, forced plots…. I really hope T100 writers don’t take this way to drive the story.        Yeah, I totally agree. Let’s take an example, lol, not gonna lie I’ll talk about Stydia. I was suuuuch a hoe like, at the end of s3, and then they pulled the “twins” bullshit, the Malia stuff, and on and on again. You could think that Ethan? (or was it Aidan? Ugh no matter) didn’t mean anything to Lydia but then there is this whole scene at the end where she’s shoOoOoOk cuz he’s dead and all and… UGH they. fucking. dragged. it. And then Holland and Jeff Davis went around on SDCC saying “HEY STYDIA WILL HAPPEN THIS SEASON” and I was like “BITCH I WATCHED SIX SEASONS OF UR SHIT FOR YOU TO SPOIL THE SHOW FOR ME???” ugh I was so annoyed tbh, when everyone was freaking out, there wasn’t even AN OUNCE of me being happy. Because it took too long. In comparison, when Olicity happened (when Oliver told her he loved her on s2) tbh, I think I got a heart attack. Like I stopped breathing for a moment. And I DIIIIIIIIIEEEEEED. And I ascended to heaven. Now obviously Bellarke never happened on s2 lol, and now Olicity isn’t a good example cuz Arrow writers didn’t know what to put in their story so they put some BULLSHIT drama that made no sense whatsoever. But there obviously is a balance to find. And I’ve watched several reactioners on youtube/read stuff/interacted with fans outside the fandom, who are saying that Bellarke NEEDS to happen now if it’s meant to happen on the show. And we don’t mean sex, we don’t mean them getting married and their romance completely outshining everything on the show. But a freaking confirmation, and a clear sign from the writers that YES they’re going there, the characters are ready, and the characters know it. Like, nothing happened between stydia for the entire season, and yet it was confirmed because both Lydia and Stiles were ready to GET ON with the relationship and accept their feelings. And yes, honestly, that’s what needs to happen with Bellarke now, they need to stop backing away, they certainly need to stop putting “obstacles” between them (especially if these obstacles are the same over and over again - ie, separaaaatioooooooons) Again, we don’t ask the writers to make Bellarke snuggle every two seconds and the whole show being about them, they CAN find the balance between a romance between the characters and the fact that the plot is still here. A lot of shows are unable to find that balance, until now, Westallen got on a different path and HECK THAT WAS COOL. Savitar was still a really interesting plot and Westallen was just HERE and around and making people happy (including barry who got tons of shit for his entire life). I really hope they won’t make last ep into a drama that will be draaaaaaaaagged just to put shit between Barry and Iris, because considering the build-up, that would be as stupid as it was for Olicity. Anyway, there is a moment where the viewers “attention” for a ship is at its peak, and it’s right now for Bellarke - right now being s4. We need something, anything, and I do think the writers are heading towards that direction. But if they don’t this season, and come back for s5 with the same ingredients put together ALL OVER AGAIN in the same way (like, sorry but EVERYONE sees it, it’s been at least obvious for TWO SEASONS now so coome oooon), then the viewers will be annoyed, that’s for sure (including the non shippers, cuz at some point, a too long build-up takes over the plot AS WELL as a “too much” romance-orientated show). I don’t think that JRoth will put canon Bellarke for the very last ep. Honestly as he said himself, he loves dramatic relationships and I do think that Bellarke becoming canon would give him a lot of material for dramatic effects/scenes/and all (it certainly won’t prevent it lol). I do think he has ideas that go beyond canon-Bellarke for their relationship so yeahhh.

#answered #anonymous

[kinetic-elaboration]

January 3: The 100 2x08 Spacewalker

Spacewalker is probably a bad episode to watch when I’m feeling sad like this but... what can you do? (I’d say ‘skip the episode’ but I mean... it never gets cheerier so.)

The Grounders as a whole don’t intimidate me at all since I’ve seen their ineptitude too many times but I will never be over those costumes/masks.

See okay this Finn thing... On the one hand (I know I’ve said all this before), Raven is right that asking for Finn in exchange for a truce isn’t an offer. The offer has already been made. Clarke made it. The Reaper cure for backing the army away/maybe even forming an alliance. (This is a win-win-win for the Grounders btw: the war they’re so intent on fighting has no clear cause or purpose, so they lose nothing by just forgetting about it, and they gain a lot from the Reaper cure and anti-MW allies.) And Lexa accepts that offer, but then when she gets what she wants she demands more. I recognize that she is in a position of power and Clarke one of weakness, but I still think her attitude is dishonorable and bad faith and it pisses me off.

BUT I also don’t think that it’s inherently wrong for Finn to be punished by the Grounders for a crime against Grounders. I think their method of justice and punishment is bad but this isn’t actually a “Blood must have blood” scenario. It’s more like... how societies operate now? Because it’s, you know, pretty reasonable? Like if I went to France and killed someone, you can bet I’d be tried and imprisoned in France. So it’s really not, as Bellamy says, “insane.” (But then of course they have no concept of international law because they have never known any other ‘nation’ before so I guess..IC??)

Similarly, if the Grounders committed crimes against Arkadians, it would be fair for the Arkadians to punish them. (And I’d like to say ‘and they would and wouldn’t think twice’ but then I remember Ilian in S4 and just....ugh.....) (They should have killed him is what I’m saying.)

BUT it’s also gauche that Finn’s people are so quick to just hand him over. Unsurprising--from a world-building perspective I appreciate when the delinquents are considered nobodies, as they should be--but gauche.

Clarke always wants to save everyone, to find solutions to everything. Promise first, figure out the details later.

Also love Bellamy in the background pushing people away from Raven and trying to diffuse the situation, too.

“You’re running fluid dynamic specs while we’re having sex” is honestly such a self-burn though? Like if that’s what she’s doing, the sex isn’t good.

I love the set of Raven’s room. Whenever I picture the Ark, I always blur the details but these spaces are so cool. Hers looks basically like a mechanic’s workshop.

Every SINGLE time I see one of Finn’s pieces of metalwork art I think about that post laying out how Finn/Murphy could have been a thing and I just physically can’t stand it it made so much sense.

Speak of the devil.

All these people have their issues with Finn but when it’s time to protect one of their own (one of t100) they are all in. Like literally they are willing to turn Alpha Station into a fortress for one person.

And like honestly turning on Murphy though? I guess I understand it if we’re willing to say they were truly Finn’s friends, and given that Murphy uh killed some people and tried to kill Bellamy but--I never got the impression that Bellamy liked Finn and Clarke has many reasons to be upset with him. But I guess people are just like this: good at compartmentalizing. Murphy is just an easier target for anger right now, and you can’t be second guessing your defense of Finn when there’s literally a whole village of warriors out to get him. I guess from Clarke it’s a practical position, which she’s very good at. In a way perhaps... she is more practical than strictly loyal?

And Murphy always available to tell unvarnished truths. (That Finn was looking for Clarke isn’t relevant to blame or morality--it doesn’t make it her fault--but it does go to the heart of why she’s looking for scapegoats.)

I agree with Lincoln, obviously, over Octavia: Lxa would 1000% sacrifice one of her own in Clarke’s position, no question. Because she’s cold, but also it’s tactically and arguably morally the right thing to do. Lxa’s positions are often black and white--so are everyone’s--but O’s are like downright naive. (”She can’t ask us to hand over one of our own! Would she do that??”)

I can’t believe Clarke is so shocked that Lincoln would turn on Finn. Oh yeah this guy who was nice to him once but subsequently massacred his village? Yeah, they’re not friends anymore lol.

I feel like I didn’t have much sympathy toward this when I first watched it but I do like Lincoln’s line “We all have a monster inside of us. We’re all responsible for what it does when we let it out.” I think I disliked it because it made me uncomfortable tbh. (What still makes me uncomfortable is how much blame Lincoln gets, from the narrative, for actions he took when he really wasn’t in his right mind. Like... yes it was still him and something to live with, but he wasn’t just an addict, he was made an addict through torture by an enemy... seems perhaps a situation where more slack is warranted. Anyway.)

That said the Grounder torture machine is just...... leave me alone, I don’t need this gratuitous violence. I’m neither shocked nor impressed.

What they should have done was try Finn initially themselves because while I do stand by everything I said about facing Grounder punishment for crimes against Grounders, by the standards of his people, that torture is itself a moral wrong. And that’s reason to refuse extradition. But you can’t take the high ground about acceptable punishments when you let a war crime go with a ‘well, we don’t have a judiciary so I guess you’re pardoned?? idk??’

Another thing that I wish Clarke or someone had mentioned is that “He must suffer the pain of 18 deaths. Then we can have peace” may not be true at all because L has already shown that she does not act in good faith. There is every chance Clarke will hand over Finn, he’ll be tortured and killed, and then L will say “I also want [x arbitrary number] of your people as penance for frying my warriors” or “I also want access to your magical ship because I said so” or “I also want you to do a song and dance for me because it would be funny”--and she can say this because she has this army. And if Clarke says no at any point in the long litany of requests, L can just send the army in. She’s made no gestures of good will at all. So it would be nice if someone showed some skepticism about what good handing over Finn would really do--based on what they know at this point in the narrative.

Abby versus Jaha: I’m with Jaha not because I really agree with him--this is the period where he’s pissing me off--but because Abby taking the high ground is just so......... I mean yeah when it suits her?? I’m not sending a child to his death bitch please you already did that.

Clarke was legitimately disgusted by Finn just like 1-2 eps ago and now she’s ready with the excuses? It’s too much. I semi-understand her, as I said before re: compartmentalizing, but also I expect better from her. He wasn’t trying to look for anyone or save anyone; he was off his nut in a rage.

That love confession is so manipulative. And so weird... I mean he obviously doesn’t love her lol. But then again I always complain about these characters not acting like teenagers and then whenever one does I’m like “stop being so unreasonable CHILD.”

And Clarke with the awkward ‘mmm just gonna ignore you said stuff about love and forgiveness.’

Love the Griffin / Blake power walk.

This was back when I was still invested in Kabby (I loved them up until the moment they got together, then my interest level plummeted tbqh.) Kane’s return with such like off-center romance.

Legit question but considering the pretty amazing defensive structure they have in Alpha Station plus their guns and, like, General Technology... could they have won a battle? All of the negotiations, private and public, rely on the assumption that they could not but... I mean the 100 won at the end of S1 with, arguably, less.

I love that you can see the trees through the windows of the Ark, and some of the trees are coming in.

“I wasn’t a prisoner, but I wasn’t allowed outside either.” So.... you were a prisoner?

Abby, Kane, and Marcus are one fucked up trio. “The former Chancellor is being detained for treason.” Aka disagreeing with Abby. Kane: wide-eyed wtf??? Abby: oh and btw I’m keeping this job for as long as I feel like it; who’s the chancellor now bitch? Like power’s just a hot potato they throw among the three of them.

I do not at all believe L would actually agree to letting the Ark prosecute and execute Finn as a sufficient fulfillment of their end of any bargain. I think that would be a smart compromise but I don’t believe it of her tbqh. Still it is a best case scenario and Abby putting up her nose at the possibility of Finn being guilty of “war crimes” (which like he definitely is???) (except in the sense that there’s probably no real ‘rule of war’ in this universe and thus ‘war crimes’ is impossible to define but other than that...)--just drives me nuts.

I know I’m saying a lot of inconsistent things--that I think Finn should be punished but that I also think Grounder “justice” is gross and immoral and L is inherently untrustworthy--but basically it comes down to: they keep talking in terms of practicality, and no one is bringing up the moral dimension. Does he deserve to be punished in some way by some one for massacring 18 innocent civilians? Because I think just about anyone with any sort of moral dignity would say yes.

Anyway Raven’s really hot.

Really wish there’d been more a sense of where the delinquents are versus the main population. They only seem to use the majority of the Arkers when they need some conflict or some extras, but they don’t have, like, a real or consistent pov.

We NEEDED those Kane & Lxa scenes honestly. He keeps on saying things like “I spent time with her” and “I know her” and “she’s a visionary” but I’m gonna be honest I saw 0 visionary qualities in her, I legit do not get this, and you can’t say shit like this without backing it up. Like is she a “visionary” for keep them alive this long or is she just being reasonably intelligent by attempting to extract as much as she can from them, knowing she could kill them at any time? I mean her calculations are pretty easy as long as she has no honor--which she doesn’t--so I don’t see anything visionary or remarkable, even, about it. If she had to decide whether or not to accept non-torture punishment for Finn, that might be somewhat harder--but even then, nothing like what Abby, Clarke, et.al. are going through. She could prob. just lie and say she saw them torture Finn and now he’s dead (even if he weren’t even dead lol) and get away with it since she’s such a good liar generally and has no qualms about it.

What about anything she has experienced here makes Abby think that “showing Indra she understands her pain” will do literally anything?

I actually think Finn’s desire not to shoot that Grounder when he could, and would have had some reason to, is interesting--like he really did snap at the beginning of the season, and now he’s more “himself” again. I know this whole story line was devised to get him off the show but it actually could have, hypothetically, been a good exploration of living with long-term guilt, integrating a part of yourself you didn’t think existed into your more general, and still mostly accurate, vision of yourself. (There are a lot of other characters who could do this too obviously... Finn’s really the only one that I can think of who just snapped out of and then back into place, though.)

Damn that burned out dropship. (Definitely did not describe it right in that fic whoah-well.)

“Murphy, what are you doing here?” / “I believe I was invited.” Murphy just wants to be one of the group, ultimately. I really do believe that. I find it kind of touching and sad. (Especially since he’s only there to be thrown to the wolves by Raven lol. Not quite as hard to watch as him shooting her but close.)

Nurse!Murphy back at it again, helping Bellamy with Clarke.

I’m sorry but I just really don’t get why Finn is the hill Abby wants to die on lol. Yeah he’s your daughter’s friend and you’re rightfully guilty about the 100 situation and he’s only 17 or so but--he actually did what the Grounders said he did? NOW is the time to go all peace and love with Indra like ‘let’s stop the blooodshed!!!’?? Okay well you can start with not condoning war crimes.

People get so up in arms about the Finn cheating thing and honestly, not a great move--but I have some sympathy for the situation. Finn and Raven were not romantically compatible; they’re all young; and feelings really do change. They handle the situation with a remarkable degree of maturity overall--Finn admitting he shouldn’t be let off the hook, Raven emphasizing that they’re family, Clarke refusing to be the other woman in S1, Raven and Clarke becoming friends.

“The things that we’ve done to survive, they don’t define us” is all well and good--for someone suffering from guilt over actual impossible decisions, or self-defense killing, or killing in war. But Finn really didn’t have to kill a bunch of civilians, he didn’t rationally think he had to (he had Murphy there telling him he was being irrational), and he didn’t accomplish anything or serve any loftier goal by killing them. So basically what I’m saying is, Clarke, let him be guilty. He should feel guilty about this. And if you think he should live, he’ll never be able to move on until he acknowledges his wrong-doing.

Similarly, though, “maybe this is who we are now” is also rich--speak for yourself, buddy.

“It’s a capital crime” is such a dumbass thing to say, since the pilot established that “capital” is tied to the age of the perpetrator not the action taken. But I guess just as an audience reminder of the stakes.

Also this says “a year ago” but it clearly wasn’t a year ago--Finn says he’ll only be in the Sky Box for a few months, and he’s still there as of the pilot, and S1 is only about a month long--so Raven is 18, not 19 as she’s usually portrayed.

Anyway saving Raven from getting arrested was a legitimately good and noble thing he did.

I feel like we as a fandom collectively underestimate Raven’s ruthlessness. Like she really would have turned over Murphy instead of Finn and I truly find that sickening. I know that he shot her and that probably contributes to her sense that he’s expendable but it’s just such an obviously insanely wrong thing to do. Even Bellarke, not exactly paragons of virtue here, are like ‘woah, that’s a bridge too far, even for us.’ Also I really think Murphy has a thing for Raven and I really think that he was touched and complimented when she asked him to be part of the group, which just makes the betrayal so much worse--and really hits me in a softer part of myself, because this is more relatable to me than, like, guns and war.

Never a good sign when your friend says a prayer to you solemnly before just leaving for a few minutes.

Honestly it’s so... like darkly comic that after an entire episode of people talking about Finn, he ultimately just surrenders himself. Fitting. Satisfying.

Ugh, Kane’s that annoying guy who calls men younger than him “son.”

Okay the last ten minutes is just like gratuitous sadness.

So like basically we’re to assume from that conversation with Lincoln that Kane’s allegedly great idea about Ark justice wouldn’t have worked out, I guess?

I don’t agree with Lxa on anything but this isn’t a hill I would die on if I were her, either. Like maybe sometimes showing mercy can be revolutionary and maybe you can even get away with it--but this isn’t the situation where that’s possible. Finn isn’t a child by their standards (he’s probably about Lexa’s age?) and he isn’t an innocent. So “show my people how powerful you are” isn’t a great argument. She isn’t powerful enough to stop an execution like this, one so popular and--unnecessary torture aside--basically justified according to the laws and customs of the relevant societies.

Also super pisses me off that Clarke is comparing herself and Finn. Burning 300 warriors during a battle in order to save yourself is absolutely not the same as opening fire on a village of civilians and she is certainly smart enough to know the difference. I know--an emotional time, a last ditch effort. But I’m annoyed because having watched 4 seasons of this show and tumblr-watched a couple more I LEGITIMATELY do not know if the writers understand the difference. Like I think I might be supposed to be taking Clarke seriously here.

Like Clarke does need to wrestle with her own guilt--but this is still nuts.

Also she has never actually wrestled with her own guilt and neither has anyone else: it’s either ‘woe is me I’m so guilty’ or ‘what guilt? lol’

I mean Olav has already done the whining about his own un-atoned sin thing WAY better so....

ALTHOUGH back to everything I said about Kane’s proposal--ultimately, that’s what Clarke just unilaterally did: she executed Finn, which is probably what any fairly applied bit of Arker justice would have decreed--without torturing him--dealt with his very real crime on Camp Jaha’s terms, basically, not the Grounders’. And Lexa accepted this because it was too late to change it and ultimately she’d already gotten pretty close to what she wanted and could see that there was more to extract from Clarke’s people (as anti-MW allies) alive than dead.

This is obviously a very emotional and wrenching scene but I just can’t allow myself to feel it right now because I’m very upset and this is my distraction.

I do remember being actually floored when I watched it the first time though.

I’m going to tentatively say I agree with the opinion that Raven never got over Finn’s death and Clarke’s part in it--that they were never truly friends again after this.

Bravenlarke are such a physically attractive ot3.

Overall a good episode but not a fun or enjoyable episode. I miss my MW kids.

#the year 2020 #2020: t100 s2 #the 100 rewatch #the 100

[kinetic-elaboration]

April 19: Thoughts on 1x11 We Are Grounders Pt 1

It’s late, I’m all upside down, and I just reread some of my old meta so I’m thinking about how Smart I am and also how bitter I am about this show. So here’s more of my rewatch!

Today’s episode, We Are Grounders Part One

I wonder if Jaha was so quick to throw up his hands and walk away from the DNR group in S4 because, especially prior to what was basically a religious conversion, he has a similarly strong death instinct himself. I’m not saying he didn’t do everything he could in favor of survival many times, but honestly how many other times has he been like ‘well, okay, tried everything, time to die’? Like compared to other characters? I’m not saying he actively wants to die so much as that he is more comforted than the average bear by the possibility of a ‘good death.’ (Also I think this has a lot to do with having lost his son tbqh.)

Note to self: someone I’m assuming is a station rep referred to her constituents.

An incredibly bleak but fitting ending for this show would have been to kill the Ark in S1 and then to have the delinquents and grounders kill each other in an escalating S2 war. It would have fulfilled certain foreshadowings/themes of the first season (all the war escalation stuff, the nuclear-age throwbacks) and it also would have been an appropriate ending for all these truly terrible, morally rotten people.

Literally Jaha v. Kane is Jasper v. everyone else (or at least, like, Clarke and Monty) in S4. Truly this show ran out of original ideas after 2 seasons, see again my previous point lol.

Speaking of Jasper there is my angular boy.

There is nothing about the delinquent camp I don’t like. Raven in like a council-level position, ish, Bellamy’s speeches and blatant emotion, everyone’s outfits.

I completely forgot Tristan existed.

I also forgot how many fake out main character deaths this show used to do. Abby, Finn. Can’t get away with that 4 seasons in. The audience knows anyone important is getting a real death scene.

Omg Bellamy has a whole like war plan with little figures and stuff.

Bellamy has this reputation for being all emotion and I think that’s him at heart but ignoring Clarke, Monty, and Finn’s disappearance is a logic-based decision. A sort of...overcompensatory logic-based decision. Also not in line with the show’s morality, like, at all. Hence why he drops it later.

Yet again impressed by how Jasper managed to change more than any other character over 4 seasons while still remaining IC. Even young and comparatively innocent he could be snarky and sarcastic and he also was honest and straightforward in his confrontation with Bellamy, and he kept on being all of those things later, but with bitterness and bite.

Murphy (having just obviously suffocated a boy): He stopped breathing. I was trying to help him. Jasper (nodding slowly): Yep, sounds about right, totally legit, lots of evidence that that is what went down. Yep.

Also I’m like 99% this ep is basically their last canon interaction so btw this was the end of what is absolutely, canonically (see the pilot and the Pike-class flashback) a same-station-forged friendship. And probably also explains why Murphy’s reaction to Jasper’s death was like ‘Jasper who???’ though that doesn’t make it any less an unforgivable sin.

There’s nothing not perfect about this scene overall, but the most perfect thing is “Tell Bellamy what?” coming from Jasper’s pocket. I love both that he tried to be sneaky and the comedic value of it.

TWO HEADED HORSE TWO HEADED HORSE TWO HEADED HORSE.

Lincoln was criminally underused. He not only saved Finn and Clarke, he “killed one of his own people to do it.” This isn’t about Octavia. He’s just been looking for an excuse to rebel his whole life.

Jackson’s being so lovely and supportive and Abby’s still calling him by his last name. Knowing this show they probably forgot it was his last name.

Today’s reminder that Octavia likes literally 4 people in the universe lol. And one of them was Jasper. Until the show forgot about that too but whatever not bitter.

RE: Raven getting in under the floor. I’m thinking about my fic and my work around for opening the dropship from the outside and okay on the one hand if such a device existed, Raven would probably know about it as much as Monty but on the other hand, there has to be a way to close the dropship from the outside, because it’s closed in S3 and there’s no one in it. So logically it should open from the outside too, without recourse to loose panels and stuff. So maybe I was a little, like, short-cut-y in my solution but the show is not consistent so we’re even. (We’re not even but I’m self-conscious now.)

Bellamy talking on the walkie with Murphy might honestly be the most beautiful he’s ever been.

Legit question: who do the Grounders battle? They have this coalition, with like Ambassadors and shit. Which doesn’t mean they can’t battle each other but there’s also some diplomacy going on, like, clearly. Which should make battling less necessary, one would think. And even if they do battle each other, over fucking what??? Land? Literally never seen solid evidence that land boundaries matter to them. Shits and giggles? Bragging rights? They have an enemy in Mount Weather but Lincoln sure as shit wasn’t fighting battles against them.

T100 drinking game: take a shot any time says ‘cauterize the wound. Take two if they actually cauterize a wound.

“We lost Clarke, we can’t lose Bellamy too” is probably the first indication literally anywhere in the show that anyone acknowledges Clarke as an delinquent leader.

I miss the Raven + Jasper dream team. Tbh Raven has so few people who can appreciate her professionally. It’s literally Monty, Wick for a hot second, and Jasper (even though his skills aren’t the same as hers, they fit with hers nicely).

I miss my alternate universe where Jasper lives but becomes pacifistic in nature, where he abandons this ‘give me something to shoot through’ attitude and eschews the use of weaponry entirely.

I don’t think this show is 40% as badass or sick as it makes itself out to be but every now and then it lives up to that ideal. I mean this extended psychological torture sequence in which Murphy makes Bellamy hang himself is super fucked up.

The young Jaha and Griffin families were adorable.

“If you were never [in the tunnels] how did you map [them]?” / “Spoils of war.” I realize this is probably just quick plot-hole filling but nevertheless I sense a story here.

The Reapers were also a sick and twisted invention of this show. I feel like in S2 it was pretty clear that the Reapers were given dead bodies to feed on, so either I’m wrong/the Mount Weatherians were more efficient in their use of their limited resource of Sky People bodies versus Grounder bodies/the show has bad continuity/that living dude in the cart is an outlier/some combo of the above.

“The Eastern Sea” lol. The Chesapeake probably.

I never cared for Luna but she could have been cool and also she and Lincoln are ex’s pry this headcanon from my cold, dead hands.

I’m pretty sure Finn pounding in the Reaper’s head was his first kill. Would his S2 story be possible without that moment?

“They look up to you. Almost as much as they look up to Clarke.” Okay I’m sorry, this is just textually, canonically wrong. This is the show retconning Clarke’s position as a leader. And it’s so unnecessary! Her story line works better if she isn’t positioned as the main delinquent leader, imo. Like, lines like that are outliers that don’t make sense within the universe; they’re obviously outwardly pointed: here audience, Clarke is protag 1 and Bellamy is protag 2 and she’s the REAL leader, don’t forget that order! If you do, you might occasionally question her leadership credentials later, when we lazily write everyone just following her regardless of their actual interactions with her or the most recent developments of her storyline! (Not that I think they were already setting up the laziness of S4 this early, but I do think they were tipping the hand of their own biases and their inability to tell the difference between what’s going on in-universe and what the audience sees and understands.)

On the other hand “Well I think the princess is dead, but I know the king’s about to die, so who’s really going to lead these people, huh?” is a good line and I do like positioning Bellamy as king (of these people specifically) versus Clarke as a princess (of the Ark--an old position based on a class background that is irrelevant to their current society).

Lol @ Murphy’s plans being delinquent-domination though. Like that was going to happen.

Actually I think Finn’s S2 story line is created in the moment when he washes the blood off his hands: he’s killed, which changed him, and Clarke comforts him in that critical moment, and he comes to associate her with that event and its aftermath. He also says “I should have fought for you,” which I see as this...hard to describe but like...the creation of a devotion beyond what he’s so far felt. Not that he loves her more but that he’s convinced himself he loves her more, that she can save him in some way, that she is necessary to him. He has a lot of idealistic notions and I think this narrative gets created within him with Clarke at its center and everything else gets blurred out. Or something.

This Jasper and Bellamy scene is the best because it combines two things I love: Jasper’s hero-worship crush on Bellamy, and Jasper’s intense devotion to Monty. I’m a little sorry that Clarke and Finn’s return/these loser Grounders robbed us of a Bellamy and Jasper rescue mission though.

I guess it’s possible Bellamy said “Whatever the hell we want” all the time but really I think it was just the one time and the writers have already forgotten that Jasper never heard him say it omg sometimes I just want to knock their heads together their memories are such shit. (Yes I’m also bitter about Jasper’s pilot outfit returning out of nowhere in S4 and Clarke wearing his intact goggles in S5 even though he already smashed the plastic out of the lenses sometime in S3.)

Poor Jasper. He thinks Monty’s come back with them. He barely even has time to process that disappointment before they start debating whether or not they should leave.

Basically I have a lot of Jasper feelings.

Bellamy’s speech is better than Clarke’s. Come on Griffin, never start with ‘my opponent is right’ that’s a bad rhetorical move. I also find it intensely unrealistic that they’re all like ‘yes, Clarke, we will do what you say!’ when, I cannot emphasize this enough, she has literally never led them before. All of her leader decisions have been strictly BTS. Her only real advantage here is that they know they have no gunpowder and few other resources, so it’s probably just a straight up fear-flight.

“Crowds make bad decisions. Leaders do what they think is right.” I mean basically the theme of the show there lol.

I’m going to rant about this next time I watch but just gonna say here that Clarke is definitely, unequivocally, ultimately wrong in this and Bellamy was right. They should have stayed. People literally died because Clarke tried to take them out when she shouldn’t have.

The camp doesn’t look like I expect or picture in my head...where are their tents? How much land did they claim?

I remember watching this the first time and thinking Jaha’s plan to get them to the ground on the Ark itself was the outright coolest thing I’d ever see and you know what? It holds up. I stand by it.

#the year 2018 #2018: the 100 s1 #2018: fandom thoughts