not hating, but how can i tolerate a character like O, when she beat her brother up and treated him like the worst shit ever, it didnt help that she didnt seek out or fought for their relationship only he did. killed a few people who didnt deserve it. now please dont get me wrong, everyone in this show killed people and made mistakes but they all felt guilt and they all seeked out forgiveness. she didnt. she didnt learn anything. she only became a leader who never made a tough choice in her life
Not everyone felt guilt about the people they killed. Raven never did. Miller never did. And those are two characters everyone LOVES and think can do no wrong. Lxa never did. Jaha never did. Finn never did. None of the grounders ever did. Pike never did. They never sought forgiveness either. For forgiveness, we have Kane, Clarke, and Bellamy, and Maya, honestly. Those are the only ones who really tried to make up for the harm they did, even if they did feel guilt, like Monty or Dante or Luna.Â
I feel like weâve got a really black and white picture of this show. And we like to claim some people to be irredeemable villainsâ sometimes with no canonical evidenceâ and some people good guys, no matter what theyâve done, and I see this on both sides of the fandom.
I mean, you say right here that everyone killed people and felt guilt and thatâs just not so. But youâve decided who has betrayed YOUR trust and expectations, and let the others slide while holding Octavia accountable for things you donât hold other characters accountable for.Â
I feel like everyone is looking for this utopian ideal of how people should behave and how the world should repay all characters for their good actions or make them pay for their bad actions. And thatâs just not the world of The 100â or the real world for that matter.
This story is a dystopia, with some really messed up ideas about leadership, life, war, justice, value, survival. These ideas are toxic. Skypeople, grounders, mountain men, ALL.Â
You want your heroes to be beautiful, perfect people, goddesses, badass girls swinging swords with no consequences. And they arenât.
Octavia is broken. She broke in season 3 and is still climbing out of it. Just as Clarke and Bellamy broke in season 2 and are still climbing out of it. People were ready to write Bellamy off in season 3. They have been calling Clarke white savior for two seasons now.Â
Youâre all just picking which character you want to demonize and who you wonât forgive because you have your favorites.
Octavia beat her brother. This is a world where they are violent and vengeful and Octavia in particular only knows how to lash out.Â
If you want to understand Octavia, you actually have to put some effort into trying to understand her, not just write her off as intolerable. I canât force anyone to consider a character they hate as someone worth understanding, anymore than I can force them to consider the dark side to a character they want to hold up as perfect and unassailable. Like Luna. Iâve been hearing people say that her character arc made no sense⌠but it does if you recognize that Luna was ALREADY dark. She doomed people to die when she could have saved them because she didnât want to. She was never a humanitarian. She was an isolationist who just wanted OUT. And in the end she had nothing left to keep safe, so she wanted to end it. She wasnât kind to all those people who were dying at ALIEs hands. She didnât care. I know no one likes that interpretation because the fantasy idealized goddess is so much more beautiful, but it makes more sense in the word and the narrative and with the character arc.
Either way, if you think the characters are pure evil or pure good, youâre going to miss their character development, the way you missed Octaviaâs in season 4. The way a lot of us missed it.
You say she became leader without ever earning it. YES. Thatâs part of the point of the story. They went by the grounderâs stupid leadership rules and got themselves someone who was unprepared to lead because she was sneaky and wiley and lucky and made alliances⌠which isnât that bad a way to win that battle and does actually give her a better chance of being reasonable than someone who wins by brute force.Â
And part of the point, also is that now sheâs going to be responsible for ALL the tough choices for the rest of humanity, after being the victim of that situation for most of her life and looking down on ALL the other people who have made the tough decisions. Sheâs a girl who has a problem with authority. And now SHEâS the authority.
It should be Clarke and Bellamy. But thatâs not the story, and Clarke and Bellamy, frankly, earned the chance to NOT have the weight of all humanity on their shoulders. They earned their break. Let Octavia face up to the weight of responsibility and learn what happens when SHEâS the one who has to keep the population down and face the people who break the rules.Â
Itâs not a pretty story, but I mean, is leading and being responsible a pretty story? You think it means they âwinâ but ask Clarke. She doesnât feel like she wins by being the princess who has to choose who lives and who dies. Itâs not okay. Sheâs not okay. She had been broken a million ways.
So in a way, Octavia becoming leader of humanity, when she was not even recognized as a legitimate human, becoming responsible for everyoneâs lives and deaths when she was busy judging others for doing the same, itâs quite a bit of poetic justice. Does she deserve it? Kind of yes. If you think of leadership as a burden and a curse, rather than some sort of reward.Â
Like her? Donât like her? Who cares? Itâs a good conflict.Â
You want to know how you can tolerate her? Why is tolerating even a question? I donât get it. If you donât like the story, donât watch. If you donât love Octavia, donât love her. I donât. Tolerate her? Sheâs not real. Her story is there for a reason. Whatâs the point? Thatâs what you need to figure out.Â
Or donât. Skip her. Miss the storyline. Itâs your choice.Â
But when everything shakes out, donât complain about it coming out of nowhere and there was no character development and it was bad/lazy writing. You didnât want to pay attention to canon. Your bad. Not the writersâ. Â