#echo analysis

[invisibledorkette]

How I Would Have Rewritten Echo Season 7

I've had a love hate relationship with Echo that mostly boils down to liking the character but she's ruined by terrible and inconsistent writing. Seasons 5 and 6 highlight that she wants to move past being an Azgeda spy, but she reverts back to her spy tendencies. This is how I would have rewritten her arc for season 7 to make it clear that her motivations have changed.

Disclaimer: this was written after the first episode in 7b, and spoilers abound.

Echo stays on Sanctum. In this version, Bellamy would either willingly go to Bardo or Clarke would chase the kidnapped Bellamy to Bardo. Since Spacekru trusts her and Jroth said she was Bellamy's co-leader (even though it was probably actually Raven), it makes sense that she, Indra, Murphy and Emori keep an eye on the powder keg that is Sanctum while the others go take care of Bardo.

She didn't live through Sheidheda's reign (at least I don't think she does in actual canon but in my rewrite she didn't) but she's heard stories. She remembers his legacy.

Indra still figures out that Sheidheda is back. That's an excellent scene and story beat and will stay intact.

Indra goes to Echo and is like, "We need to take care of this bitch boy," and they make a plan.

Indra and her Trikru guards, as well as Murphy, start dropping hints that Indra's really scared of Echo and since Indra's injuries in the past, Echo's the premiere fighter. Since Octavia isn't there, they could try to imply that Echo was Blodreina to make her feel like a real threat to Sheidheda.

So then, instead of Indra fighting Sheidheda, which doesn't make any sense because a) she's strong enough to not have been beaten in five minutes, b) Sheidheda is inhabiting the body of a middle aged guy who has lived in luxury his entire life, and has only been in that body for about a week, and c) Indra would never willingly throw a winnable fight, Echo challenges him. Echo is good enough to not be completely destroyed, she's just good enough to create tension around whether or not she'll win, and she definitely would throw a fight to get close to Sheidheda and take him down from the inside.

Echo loses the fight in a similar way to Indra, but since she's so strong, Sheidheda thinks it's a waste to kill her. So he tries to use her as his warrior, his enforcer. All the while, she gradually ingratiates herself to him.

Meanwhile, Memori is losing their minds trying to keep the peace between the faithful, COGs, and the Eligius crew. Eligius and COGs join together like they did in actual canon. Indra is trying to help them, but is mostly focused on building a Grounder resistance to Sheidheda, helped by Gaia.

There's a public falling out between Echo and Indra; Sheidheda tries to test Echo by making her go after Indra. Maybe Indra fakes her own death to prove Echo's loyalty.

Sheidheda thinks he's won, and tensions between the Grounders and others escalate until Indra shows up and challenges him to a fight.

Sheidheda tries to hurt Madi to get Indra to stop fighting him (she's kicking his ass) and then Echo takes the opportunity to kill him.

Then Echo and Indra make a speech to the Grounders about how they should not choose their leaders based on the Flame and bloodshed.

Things with the other Sanctum inhabitants descalate somehow, that's not really important to this specific storyline. I'm rewriting Echo's arc, not the whole season.

So what did she learn? Echo in this setup uses her spy skills not to stay alive and serve a leader without regard to her own moral compass, and not to commit genocide to avenge her boyfriend, but to protect people and do what she decides is morally right.

Let me know what you think, feel free to add stuff!

[invisibledorkette]

Is Echo Playing the Long Game?

Disclaimers: this was written after the season 7 midseason finale. While I definitely don't like Echo right now, this is not trying to be an anti-Echo post, just a critical analysis, so don't come at me.

I'm seeing a lot of people saying that Echo is obviously being a spy and is playing the long game. Putting aside that most of my problems with Echo this season stem from her ridiculous amount of screentime out of nowhere, let's talk about whether or not she could be playing the long game.

Evidence that she's playing Bardo:

She's been a spy her whole life.

She threw herself into the brainwashing willingly.

She made very public displays of betraying her bonds with the others.

The evidence that she isn't playing Bardo:

Even though Bardo demands strict emotional control, she made expressions both when she "kills" Hope and when she banished her indicating that she enjoyed it, whereas Octavia and Diyoza did not.

Diyoza and Octavia were both obviously to the audience playing along with the brainwashing, but Echo behaved differently from them.

She was canonically called out for trying to find a leader instead of thinking for herself, and she got mad, but didn't refute it.

She told Hope in private that she believed in Bardo. Now, they could have been watching her, but it makes more sense for her to say that in public, but it she may have calculated that she's more convincing in private.

Echo has spent the same amount of time with Hope as Orlando, barely any time with Diyoza, and she pushed Octavia off a cliff, so I don't know why her loyalty would be to them.

Octavia and Diyoza tried to give Hope advice to protect her, Echo told Hope not to "ruin this for me."

Last season Echo tried to separate her identity from that of an Azgeda spy.

She's loyal to people in power, and since Bellamy died, she doesn't have a leader.

So could she be playing the long game? Maybe. Unfortunately, she's poorly written so we never actually see her motivations, so we can only speculate. I think that she's having a mental breakdown after Bellamy died and is desperately clinging to authority. I think automatically jumping to "she's playing them because she's a spy" is a bit of a reach since while she is a spy, she's consistently serving leaders, and doesn't follow her own set of principles or morals.

Let's look at Murphy, who betrays people to save his own skin, but develops a sense of loyalty to the people around him. If this were him, I would say he's definitely playing them because villains pick up on his self-preservation instincts and think they can get him to betray the people around him, but he's evolved and wants to keep others alive. Echo hasn't changed much since s2, and she hasn't shown that she extends her loyalty to anyone other than the leader of the group she's in. She spent 5 years with Orlando and betrayed him without a second thought. She has no such ties with Octavia or Diyoza, especially since Octavia banished her.

[invisibledorkette]

Octavia told Echo that she was her family and they fist-bumped while training, they’re good. Echo quickly picks up on how Hope isn’t playing along. She constantly tells Anders exactly what he wants to hear so that he’ll focus on her. She publicly breaks their bonds by shooting her friends right after the scene where Diyoza privately tells them they need to hide their love. Echo whispers "theyre always watching" to Hope then loudly says she believes in what they’re doing. She’s so playing them

Hey anon! Yes, I think she could be playing them. My point is that there's so much evidence to suggest that she isn't that if she is, it's not very good writing.

The problem is we know that Diyoza and Octavia can and do choose who to follow based on their own morals (even though they are sometimes misguided). Echo has no moral compass, she follows her leader and tries to survive. I mean, Octavia thinks she's Echo's family, but I don't know how she feels. We can reasonably assume that Diyoza and Octavia are playing Bardo based on their actions, but with Echo all we have to go on is that she was a spy and she did some shit that didn't hurt Hope as much as she could.

Echo could be after that bioweapon, or she could have joined because she needs someone to lead her.