My mind was still reeling from the utter betrayal at the hands of Jason when the fandom did something I’d never seen before and created the character of Elyza Lex. An Australian badass stuck in a different apocalyptic world seeking the other half of her soul; Alicia Clark.
A lot of our frustration, hurt, and rebellious creativity went into her character. I loved it and started imagining a version of my own. At the time we just really needed a character we could call our own, a character the TV industry couldn’t infect with the lesbian death syndrome, a character that would survive against all odds no matter what.
The essence of Elyza Lex
But who is she really? Most stories seem to have a common consensus on who she is; originally from Australia, a bit of a loner on the road, and utterly loving her bike and shotguns, if not a bit trigger happy at times. Details of her past vary per story or don’t matter all that much while romancing Alicia.
Like most everyone else I began exploring her character too and while I wanted to work on a story starting her adventure at the beginning of the apocalypse, the most important conclusions I came to probably weren’t how Elyza’d work as a photographer for a private investigating bureau in Los Angeles, or that she’d live with one Linzi Reyez, a genius mechanic, majoring in automotive engineering. Nor how she’d become involved in a case of missing teens dying mysteriously from isolated ‘animal’ attacks in shooting galleries.
The essence of her character lies within all of us. When Lexa died by that stray bullet something changed, enough was finally enough. Burning down Hollywood was not an option from the other side of the pond, but we certainly could flip a finger or two and turn our backs on canon TV and movies. The soul of Elyza is rooted in that heartache and a rebellious hunger for something more than the scraps we’re given. To find that place where we could burrow in loving arms. We put a little piece of ourselves in her character that continued to grow right alongside us as we crawled back out of that hole and started fighting for better representation on TV. Elyza Lex is the refusal of letting the negative things rule our life, but instead to fight for more, for better, to not give up even if we have to change the world by sheer determination alone.
The balance in the relationships
This is exactly what I found that most if not all of the Elyza Lex stories I’ve read have in common. And while I love all the romances out there between Elyza and Alicia, what I love even more is the Clexa story. It’s different from most Lexark stories in the sense that it’s not solely focused on the romance and set in a world we get to explore. Aside from how that love story arc is grounded in the overall story, the power dynamic between Clarke and Lexa is more or less balanced, where they each complement one another. This I see is missing in a lot of stories.
Clexa had on the one side the soft and squishy hearted badass that can physically out perform any woman or man in a duel to the death, on the other side we had a sly genious still learning to survive on the ground, but with a razorsharp mind and able to influence the minds around her. Even Lexa with the added benefit of Alie 2.0 was at times outclassed in strategizing against Mt. Weather and the steadfast determination of Clarke to save the ones she cares about.
@leeshy-loo-squid-squad is right when she brings up the power dynamics between Elyza and Alicia. The roles seem switched in this universe, with Elyza being the physical badass, but Alicia often lacks the characteristics that made Clarke a badass in her own right. That’s not to say that I want to see a complete role reversal, but upping Alicia’s character wouldn’t hurt.
The thing is, a lot of stories take the Alicia Clark from S1 and set her up with a (more) fully developed Elyza Lex. And at this point there’s been little development yet in Alicia. Though I’m often joking that we’re seeing Commander Lexa grow up in a different kind of world, because Alicia’s character certainly has that potential to become a great leader. Over the course of the seasons I certainly can see her character developing more and more towards that strong young woman who’s becoming a threat, not to be taken lightly, all on her own.
