I’m still holding out hope for Clarke, because I really think she’s reached her bottom and there’s only one way to go from there. Also guys, please keep in mind, this isn’t out of context behavior for Clarke:
Season 1: It was Clarke’s idea to create the Ring of Fire that wound up killing 300 Grounders.
Season 2: It was Clarke’s idea to irradiate Level 5 (even though Monty made it possible and Bellamy helped her pull the lever).
Season 3: It was Clarke’s idea to enter the City of Light and pull the lever knowing that she would permanently kill all of those who had died in the City of Light.
And she makes those decisions every Season to keep her people safe just like she always! They haven’t ruined Clarke at all.
You know what’s different about Clarke’s actions as compared to other Seasons? For once, the narrative is not supporting her. Previously when Clarke would say things like “I had no choice.” or “I bear it so they don’t have to.” she was painted as a tragic heroine. But this show has always been about learning from your mistakes and has Clarke learned?
I didn’t intend for this ask to turn into a character study but it has. The very first time we hear the phrase “I have no choice.” is in the pilot episode spoken by Marcus Kane (” In that case, given your confession, in my role as Chancellor pro tempore, you leave me no choice but to find you guilty.”) to Abby Griffin, whose response, here is the conversation:
Kane: “In that case, given your confession, in my role as Chancellor pro tempore, you leave me no choice but to find you guilty.”
Abby: “We always have a choice, Kane. You chose to press charges against my husband, your friend, even though you knew he would get floated for it. You chose to include my daughter in those charges, and now you’re choosing this. Hiding behind the law absolves you of nothing.”
Kane: “Be that as it may, in accordance with penal code one, because all crimes committed by those above the age of maturity are capital crimes, you are hereby sentenced to death. Execution is set for the morning, and I choose at every turn and at any cost to make sure that the human race stays alive.”
Abby: “That’s the difference between us, Kane. I choose to make sure that we deserve to stay alive.”
Continued under the cut because I really got into this
The next time we hear it is in “Earth Kills”-103 in a conversation between Abby and Jake Griffin:
Jake: “Oh, the Ark's dying. There's no choice.”-*about telling the Ark Citizens the life support systems were failing.*
Abby: “Yes, there is. There's Earth. We'll at least have a chance.”
We don’t hear it again until Season 2 and it’s a conversation featuring Abby once more:
Kane: “I'm sorry it had to come to this, Abby. But you left me no choice. Abigail Griffin has confessed to aiding and abetting known criminals. And trafficking in firearms. Under the laws set forth in the Exodus Charter of the Ark, she's been sentenced to 10 lashes.”
Abby: “You can't be serious.”
Random Guard: “On your command, Chancellor Kane.”
Abby: “We don't have to do this down here.”
When we hear it again it’s coming from a certified villain (Human Trials-205):
Dr. Tsing: “Can I just say... the first human trial was a success. After what we saw tonight, in my opinion, we have no choice but to move ahead with the forty-seven.”
and instead of telling her she’s wrong, Dante dismisses her and then asks her Cage what he would do and Cage, who becomes the “endgame villain” replies:
“I’d use them.”
Dante: “Just like that?”
Cage: “Our people come first, right?” (which sounds really familiar doesn’t it? Who says things like that? Oh, wait...her name starts with a ‘C’ and ends with an ‘E’
It’s not until Remember Me (2x09) that we hear Clarke use it, and it’s in regard to Finn’s death:
Clarke (speaking to a hallucination of Finn): “Leave me alone. You gave me no choice. Why did you turn yourself in?”
Abby: “Baby, you ok? Listen to me, Clarke. I know how you feel, like the pain will never go away, but L/xa is wrong. You won't be haunted by this forever. The pain will fade. What got me through was loving you. What is it?”
Clarke: “You're talking about dad? What I did to Finn was nothing like what you did to him.”
Abby: “Don't do this now, Clarke.”
Clarke: “I was protecting everyone. I didn't have a choice. You did. You turned him in.”
Abby: “No. I trusted Thelonious to talk to your father and convince him not to go public. You knew Dad would never stop. You knew what would happen to him. I was protecting everyone, too. I was protecting you. Clarke, please. We are the same.”
The phrase makes another appearance in Rubicon (2x12), in another conversation between Abby and Clarke in the wake of a bomb dropping and it’s in stark contrast to their conversation in 2x09 :
Abby: “You knew. You knew, and you let this happen?”
Clarke: “We had no choice.”
Abby: “So many people. Our people.”
Clarke: “We had to protect Bellamy. Without him...”
Abby: “Oh, stop it! I don't want to hear it. Tell me this was Lexa. Please, Clarke. Please tell me this wasn't you.”
Clarke: “I wish I could. You can't tell anyone about this. If anyone finds out that we knew, the alliance of the 12 clans will break. We'll lose the war.”
Abby: “You crossed the line.”
Clarke: “Mom.”
Abby: “Their blood is on your hands, and even if we win, I'm afraid you won't be able to wash it off this time. Don't worry. Your secret is safe with me.”
Clarke: “Mom... Wait. Mom!”
The next time we hear it, it’s coming from Vincent Vie in Bodyguard of Lies (2x14). Vincent isn’t a bad guy, he’s just trying to make sure that his daughter survives. He has no other ulterior motives. :
Bellamy: “Where's Jasper, Monty, and Maya?”
Vincent: “They're OK. Thanks to Lee, we moved them to a wing that's already been searched.
”Bellamy: “Isn't that a risk?”
Vincent: “We had no choice. They've gone public with what happened on level 5. They're saying you killed 10 soldiers.”
We hear it for the last time in the Season in the last episode of the Season: Blood Must Have Blood-Part II (2x16), and maybe it’s true this time, maybe Clarke really didn’t have a choice, but we’ll never know, because nobody else was given the opportunity to act:
Jasper: “What did you do?”
Clarke: “We had no choice.”
Jasper: “I was gonna kill Cage. If you'd just given me one more minute, it would've been over.”
Bellamy: “Jasper, they never would've stopped.”
We hear it relatively early in Season 3-Ye Who Enter Here (3x03) in a conversation between L/xa and Clarke:
L/xa: “What would you have done if their leader had offered you the deal... Save your people at the price of mine? Would you really have chosen differently?”
Clarke: “I don't betray my friends.”
L/xa: “But you did. You had friends in Mount Weather. Those deaths are on you, too.”
Clarke: “The only difference is, you have no honor, and I had no choice.”
At this point it’s becoming clear that “I had no choice” has become Clarke’s method of excusing any and all negative actions that she has committed and maybe that’s not enough.
Clarke says it to Emerson in Bitter Harvest (3x06) and this time she even goes so far as to place the blame on an entirely different person:
Emerson: “I’ve heard what they call you now... Wanheda, Commander of Death.”
Clarke: “I should've known it was you who told them how to destroy the mountain.”
Emerson: “I didn't destroy Mount Weather. You did. 381 people... 182 men, 173 women, 26 children. Two of them were mine.”
Clarke: “Your president gave us no choice.”
Emerson: “What’s the matter? You don’t like to be faced with your demons?”
And here Emerson strikes at the heart of the issue, literally, because the first time Clarke ever says “I have no choice”, she hallucinates Finn (whose death L/xa had said earlier, would haunt her forever). In saying “I have no choice”, Clarke has been attempting to distance herself from the things that she’s done. “I have no choice” has become a barrier that keeps Clarke from accepting the truth of her actions.
The next time we hear it said, it’s coming from Kane in Terms and Conditions (3x08):
Pike: “I don't suppose you know anything about this.”
Kane: “As a matter of fact, I do. You left me no choice.”
He says this after shocklashing Pike, who is his duly elected Chancellor. Kane feels as if he has no choice, because the Grounder army is knocking on their door, but in choosing to shocklash Pike, he is ignoring what it is his people want, which is not peace with the Grounders. There were also other means of getting rid of the current Chancellor, that probably didn’t involve turning him over to be murdered.
We hear it again from an A.L.I.E. controlled Jaha in Fallen (3x10):
Jaha: “I'm not sure. We made more than we needed. It's possible there could be a few still hanging around.”
A.L.I.E.: “Find them.”
Jaha: “Why?”
A.L.I.E.: “She may have found a way to disconnect.”
Jaha: “Then we have no choice.”
Jaha’s “no choice” is about A.L.I.E. forcing Raven to surrender completely to her. It is a reflection of A.L.I.E.’s (who we know is the villain in this story) desire, not Jaha’s.
Luna says it in Red Sky at Morning (3x14)-the last instance of Season 3- and she’s right. There is always a choice.:
Clarke: “The Flame?”
Luna: “Remember, Clarke. The path of violence is a choice.”
A.L.I.E.: “There it is.”
Clarke: “When the choice is fight or die, there is no choice.”
I was honestly too tired at this point to continue to compile the list, because it has been said in Season 4 several times. But the point of pulling out these instances is to show you all that “I have no choice” has never been an acceptable answer in the world of this show.
There has always been a choice. There will always be a choice. The problem is, it’s not a choice that Clarke wants to make. No matter what it is, we always have a choice in how we react to a situation. Until Clarke steps up and accepts that her actions have always been her choice, even if it was the best and only acceptable choice to her, she can finally begin to climb out of the valley that she has been in since Season 2.
Season 4 has been, consistently, about highlighting the fact that Clarke’s decisions are not right. That she’s making mistakes and that she needs to own up to them.This is exactly what people have been asking for out of Clarke’s story line since Season 1 and for some reason it’s actually pulling people away from Clarke?
Maybe it’s because y’all cant handle a heroine who isn’t perfect, but...I’ve been a Bellamy Blake stan since the beginning and I’m well prepared.
Looks like Levy’s done streaming TFA. Anyone up for some old school war of the stars? I’m going to throw up A New Hope and go from there and we’ll see how much we get to by the end of the night. I got the file from Sam back when he did his stream, so we should even see Han shoot first, as it should be!
http://original.livestream.com/reesathegreat
ETA: Looks like Bookbabe threw up a stream just as I was writing this, so we’re going to be running parallel. You’ve got the option of two great classic scifi options!!!
I just. Both sets of trios are canon trauma survivors. I get reminded of this daily and I flap with happiness.
First we got the Light Side Trio
Rey grew up in isolation after being abandoned
Finn was a child soldier, indoctrinated and taken from his family
Poe lost his mother at a young age in her fight for the resistance
Then we got the Dark Side Trio
Kylo was emotionally neglected by his family and is a survivor of csa
Hux was abused by his father from a young age
Phasma was abused by Hux’s father too most likely from what we know
I am so god damn happy about this. I will always be happy about this. I love it. I love it so much.
