#i NEED a kane goal btw

[ynwa4eva]

Ulreich learn how to cross challenge.....

[kallypsos]

Aww glad to help on this stupid evening! 💗 ok here’s a fun ask: top 5 (or more) Mbappé hot bitch moments! 😜😍😊

ahh thank you for this! i love talking 💗

ok let's see...not in order btw

this moment in the euro 2020 press conference before the france-germany match. sorry i can't find a video with an english translation but basically he's being asked specifically about giroud in a very roundabout way (it seems like you pass the ball more easily to certain players or something like that, sorry my french is like middle grade lmao) and he just goes off. even if you don't speak french his expressions alone are chefs kiss lmao

france - argentina world cup final 2022? need i say more? bde

kane's missed penalty in the france - england wc 22 match lmao the pettiness jumped out

after he almost dropped out of the french nt when he felt that the french football federation wasn't taking racism in the sport seriously: “I said, ‘I cannot play for people who think I’m a monkey. I’m not gonna play. But after, I take the reflection with all the people who play around me and root for me, and I think it was not the good message to give up. Because I think I’m an example for everybody. This is the new France. ... It’s for that, that I didn’t give up the national team. Because it is a message to the young generation to say, ‘We are stronger than that.’ ”

because it's so fresh in my mind, the goal against lille last week. that was hot

ummm realised i wrote a lot sorrey. also these may look a bit random (it's because they are) and i interpreted your "bad bitch" SO broadly but they're the ones that popped into my head

edit: forgot to ask!😔 do you have any fav moments?

[plainvanillapotato]

the 100 diaries S2 E12

quarantine: may 31 2020

season 2 episode 12: “Rubicon”

the guy is running. watch he just die and no one gets clarkes message. i would love it if clarkes plane just backfired but of course they save him. 

ok but wait why was cage just random carrying a oxygen tank when he himself doesnt even need one.

tsing out here with her own personal army. then just plucking these kids one by one. damn 

these grounders really be listening to clarke just because lexa said so?? damn these grounders be loyal minus gustus and that one guy that tried to kill clarke but then got eaten by king kong

is raven really the only person out here doing all this crap?? like does clarke not realize how big of an ask shes asking of raven? raven is magic and shit but she has some limitations just to be somewhat realistic. just chill the fuck out clarke raven is doing the best out here arguably more than clarke.

i love how bellamy is still wearing that hat still looking like sean malto. but also how has someone not noticed him? but i guess bellamy like joe from you as in if he wears a hat he magically blends in.

“...all of this is for nothing” way to put pressure on prettyboy bellamy like he didnt already know that. chill clarke everyone is trying their best out here. ngl i would hate to have clarke as a manager cuz i think she would micromanage the shit out of people. 

remember in the last episode when clarke asked what her job was well i think that i figured it out:

i also wanna mention that finn literally died idk less than a week ago but clarkes in charge being out and about commanding people years her senior. i get that we had that whole episode dedicated to how finns death affects clarke but still she got over that pretty quick. a little too quick. but i guess that if youre a sky person your emotional metabolism is just through the fucking roof...

ooo clarke still be salty toward her mom. but yeah kane is kinda an enabler

but why do these people have clear paper. the art department is feeling themselves on that one. like is it because they wanted to be edgy and futuristic or is it from an actual realistic viewpoint that the space people dont have trees to create paper................does this also mean that the space people didnt have toilet paper???????? but also back to the paper thing did these kids never learn how to write in cursive??? since i would imagine actual writing utensils are limited so idk if they waste it on teaching kids cursive. actually tho does anyone have an answer to these questions??? 

where did jaha get that antler stick. i kinda want one. i like to imagine that he just saw it lying somewhere on their way to the desert and said to himself i would look epic holding that stick and then went to pick up and started using it even tho he doesnt actually need a walking stick....any hunter x hunter fans?

jaha’s mask at 8:29 is an example of what not to wear during corona season

“thanks for the water?”...while looking down a bit flustered ”its, uh..it was no problem” emori and murphy? ship?

bellamy crawling through air vents to save the day...magenta from sky high who??

also bellamy’s ear piece is giving me everything. *i know that the following meme is just a tiny phone but i just really like it so idgaf

again with the inaccuracy of bone marrow extraction.

but what really gets me is clarke recognizing what procedure is going o just by the sound of a drill. ok who is she? she be like the boy that can identify a vacuum just by the sound. For those that don’t know what I’m talking about:

https://youtu.be/Ar5nLNku0CM

A missile?? where did these people get a missile

But also imagine if clarke was like actually i didn’t catch any of that conversation and bellamy just had to recap it like Luis in ant-man. I would die

thats a lot to ask of raven clarke. Like i could never get that shit done no matter how long you gave me. Yeah ppl be screwed if i was part of the 100

That hug btw Clarke and raven...ship? Jk i know it was just a friendship hug but yah can never know with these writers. Like i honestly wouldn’t be surprised if the writers said enemies (being part of that love triangle with finn) to friends to lovers

murphy and emori are definitly a ship. walking together behind with everyone else. Murphy said “i killed two people. I had my reasons but nobody cared.” Fuck you murphy you killed them cuz you a salty bitch. I also hate how he says this so blasé. Like dude want?? Ugh. Ugh. Ugh. Murphy also said im the bad guy. Murphy is a billie elish fan?? Duh.

woah when that girl pulled out her claw????? I fell out of my seat. its actually huge. she could grab a whole basket all. They did a great job concealing/ not drawing attention to her hand before like i was so fucking surprised.

“Its pretty badass” and murphy looking at that claw tho...murphy is into kinky shit. But also that look he gave her while she walked away that was the most genuine look I’ve ever seen out of murphy.

Bellamy shoving jasper into a wall and whispering...bellamy and jasper? ship?

this secret talk between bellamy and Dante....bellamy and president Dante? ship?

But i also like to imagine that during this meeting that bellamy has the song dont be suspious. Dont be suspious playing in his head

woah. Mountain man said inconito mode activated. Reminds me of one of those green soldiers in toy story especially during the opening scene of i think the first movie

This character development in clarke is something else like remember when she talked about the grounders wanting finn out in the open and not in private causing a huge public uproar. Look at her now talking in private with Lexa about the missile. Phenomenal character growth if you ask me.

they really put all their eggs in one basket with bellamy. But bellamy be a really good basket tho. Trust Lexa trust.

where tf did this guy get an RPG??

Woah Emori be the real bad guy. But honestly she could slit Murphy’s throat and he would still live because cockroaches can still live without their head.

raven you should have just shut up. You really dropped the ball there.

lincoln???? What are the chances??? Isn’t he still a druggie?? Honestly octavias little speech would not motivate me at all. If anything it would make me want to take more drugs. At this point i would just say to Lincoln “dont fight it”

i like how they took everything but they let jaha keep his stick.

caspian is reall dressed like a hipster that sells artisanal kombucha

Jaha really has some faith in murphy...jaha and murphy? ship?

Also that was a really good shot of them murphy, jaha, and their crew climbing up the hill with a giant moon in the background

Lexa is giving me padme vibez wearing that head scarf like that

they were going to let kane and indra die

yeah sorry to break it to you abby but your child is a killer but then again so are you sooo..you really cant be out here to judge your kid like that. Like mother like daughter. But you really cant lecture clarke on this. you literally gave your husband up and you let your daughter blame her best friend for it. And on top of this you were part of the council that sent 100 kid down to earth without even knowing if earth was survivable. ma’m get the fuck outta here.

but all those lives for bellamy. i think its worth it. Because bellamy is worth everything.

theyre linking arms they got monty no!! absolutely not. they took jasper but i gotta say better he than monty bc Monty is king. Yeah jasper really fumbled with that gun. Really not smart. jasper should have just shot tsing instead

Oof a containment breach. wow what an epic door stop. Sooo loong tsing. That was such a cruel death tho but yeah she kinda deserved it.

Does Dante play the cello?? A real renaissance man isn’t he?

wow this makes octaiva and lincoln like an epic couple that conquered the world. power couple. Goals *gag* but ok does that mean that Lincoln just stopped cold turkey just like that?? Hes just automatically better? No this is not how drug addiction works. But ok sure Jan.

[shanie-the-toyaddict]

ACTION FIGURE SHELF UPDATE 9/8/2020

Hey guys! Just a quick set of new photos from my current setup!

If any of you have been keeping track or paying attention, you might notice that the top shelf, left side is far... sparser than it was before! That’s because I moved the Doctor Who figures to their own shelf (not shown), leaving me some room to grow with the Marvel Legends figures. My eventual goal is to get a full MCU Womens setup, which is gonna get tricky to manage if my idiot ass keeps buying comics and men’s figures instead. (That said, I have zero regrets over the Ms. Marvel figure in the back, Kamala Khan rocks.)

Some new additions include the entirety of the Star Trek TOS crew, Several other new Star Trek figures (I still need to put Chakotay and Dr. Soong up), Ultimate Edition Becky Lynch (Headswapped) and John Cena (Thanks again, Mom), Feel The Glow Naomi, Sonya Deville, Attitude Era Kane, Otis and Hacksaw Jim Duggan.

Oh, and BTW: That front row of the Women��s shelf is temporary. When the new Elite Heel!Bayley comes out later this year, she’ll be going up there, as will the new Elite Blue-Haired Sasha Banks when she comes out. They will also be getting their own Smackdown and RAW Women’s titles respectively as well. (And/Or the Women’s Tag Team Belts if I can get them)

And yes, once again, that is a custom figure of myself front and center of the Women’s shelf and yes, I’m wearing the NXT Women’s belt. Deal with it.

[sillyfudgemonkeys]

Persona 5 Problems: Makoto/Sae’s father

Everyday I’m more pissed that their father wasn’t some two faced cop who worked with the Mafia (yeah I know we already have two not so good father figures but EFF THAT developing an existing character is more important)......Because it would’ve been SOOOOOOO beneficial to their development. 

No you don’t understand a lot of things would make SO much sense! Sae’s attitude towards her father in this case especially. This time it’s not just “oh he off and died on us” (I mean he died from a mafia hit??? in the game it sounds like he was just walking around minding his own business when the hit happened, it wasn’t even in like a mafia shoot out where he tried to be a hero), instead it’s “This person who I looked up to, who I held as a moral beacon, turned out to not be who I thought he was. Everything about him is now tainted, even the profession I chose because I wanted to be like him and catch criminals, it’s now tainted. I hate him, but I still love him. I can’t let Makoto know who he really was, I won’t let her view be tainted either.” It makes more sense why she gets prickly about her father when brought up, it makes sense why she can’t/won’t talk about him in Makoto’s presence. Why Makoto thinks so highly of her father, but Sae does not. Instead “he just left us” becomes a cover up for how she truly feels.

Sae finds out via the higher ups at the police force (either they brought her in or she accidentally overheard and then confronted the people talking), apparently a few other officers were the same, it was the police’s way to make sure order was maintained between them and the mafia. But to the public, they covered that up with a lie, saying how upstanding he was. It saves the force’s face this way, and they talk Sae into the same thing. “It’d do horrible things to your reputation, it’d hurt Makoto, and so on and so on.” That’s why Sae keeps quiet, but it’s eating her up inside.

Makoto, she doesn’t know. Now it can go a few different ways (depending on the rewrite, but in this case let’s pretend it’s as close to the main game as possible). Her arc is more super focused on questioning authority rather than not following orders (I know it kinda has both, but in the game it’s more the latter or it’s framed as more the latter and it doesn’t really work since she still does follow orders, so we’re just gonna triple down on just questioning authority). And it’ll be more fleshed on on the why (which is not what the game did, which is key imo to fleshing out her character), and let’s change the whole “useless thing” to “you’re just a child who doesn’t know anything” and “can’t you just do as you are told?” (more broader and targeted towards her issues atm). Until the Kane arc she’s never needed to question authority, her father instilled that people in higher power usually know what’s best for society (yeah I know kinda insidious). 

Now let’s just hop and a skip to when she meets Kane, in this case after finding out his name she’s instead kidnapped instead of her running in like a moron. Because Kane heard her last name was “Niijima,” a familiar name in the underground. Both from her famous sister and infamous father. This is where she finds out about her father’s history, here world is flipped upside down. Instead of a pointless stress out that she caused to Kane, he instead proactively chooses this as a means to make money. Mako’s sister has been throwing her guys in jail left and right, which means less guys to collect money, which means less money for him. He doesn’t like that, and he has blackmail. Before no one in the underground opening revealed the Hero Cop Niijima was actually dirty, the reasoning could be because there was no real need plus info is profitable in it’s own right so don’t just give it out willy nilly. In this case, holding out proved that Kane can turn it liquid and get money outta it. He blackmails Makoto, saying he’ll go public with this info, with undeniable proof (maybe he had it on his phone to begin with), and ruin their lives. Sae would be disgraced, Makoto might even been looked over from getting into a good college or getting a good job. 

Now that her world has been rocked, this is probably when Makoto really starts questioning authority. The school staff, Sae, the police, everyone, all her doubts over the course of the arc start to come to a boil. She thinks about the PT. And here might be where I’d tweak how they are involved. See, Makoto got dirt on them, she was going to go to the principal, but the PT stop her. Instead THEY tell her “We’ll prove we’re just, please just wait.” She wonders how, and that’s when the MC reveals that they’ve heard rumors of a mafia boss hurting students in the area on the subway (which is true, in-game you hear this before Makoto mentions anything), you tell her mafia bosses are bad and that if they stop him that’d mean they were good right? Makoto isn’t.....completely convinced, but it won’t hurt her to hold out for a bit, not like she has anything to lose. This takes away the BS blackmail thing, and makes the PT more proactive. Flashforward to after meeting Kane. Makoto walks out of the building, the PT had just caught up to her, Makoto is fine but shaken up. She falls to the ground crying, saying how everything she knew was a lie, saying she can’t trust the adults. She says she doesn’t know if the PT are just or not, but she knows they take down those abusing their authority from how their past targets have been described. The PT tell her yes, she explains the situation. This leads to them realizing that Makoto is a “customer” of Kane and she can let them in (by the PT not being their like in the main game, we can’t say that they are also customers and thus don’t need Makoto btw). 

Everything else plays about roughly the same. Makoto awakens more to the fact of her rage at authority figures abusing their power. She doesn’t tell her sister of the knew knowledge she obtained, but she does see her sister in a different light (one that’s capable of lying, but also someone who was trying her best to protect her, is a mixed feeling). She feels more closer to Futaba too, knowing what it’s like to be lied to in a sense. Her CoOp also focuses more on her dream to become a Police commissioner, something she never forgot about and was actively striving towards, but now is questioning and seeing how she could handle it in a new light. 

Back to Sae, her sister’s dungeon has an additional somber taste to it. We see a woman who fought so hard to not be corrupt like her father, that she ended up going down a similar corrupt route. Her pure goal to not be like her father, almost turned her into him in a sense. Makoto is also fearful of this (possibly stemming from/explored in the CoOp).

Lastly, the dream world would make a lot more sense. Not only that he’s alive, but achieving such a high status/reward (I forget which). He’s not corrupt like he actually is! See he’s good? Everything is ideal! If we do have to wake our teammates up in P5R, it’s a lot more meaningful/understandable to have her go through the realization of what her father actually is, rather than just be like “yo he ded.” 

Last thing, I like this idea not cause it ties her into Kane being like “oh I killed your father” no in this case, Sae already prosecuted the guy who killed their father. There’s no revenge to be had here. Her father was just well known by the underground, possibly never even met Kane. But it does provide a way to connect her to Kane, using her as a pawn more naturally too. 

I dunno, I just feel like it makes more sense and it cleans up the story????? 

[travllingbunny]

The 100 rewatch: 4x10 Die All, Die Merrily

I solemnly swear to myself that I’ll start writing short rewatch posts starting with the next episode, because I would like to finish this rewatch before the end of season 6. This will have to be the last long one...

This entire episode is basically JRoth and The 100 trying to do a Hunger Games episode, only without the essence of The Hunger Games series – where this violent death match between (usually) 12 participants was portrayed as a terrible thing, an example of the cruelty, privilege and voyeurism of the ruling classes and the oppressiveness of the system, while here, in The 100, it’s just a Grounder tradition that the show doesn’t seem to pass any judgment on and that’s just a way to have some cool sword fighting action on screen.

But a lot of people really love this episode. It’s probably the most overrated episode of the show. Now, don’t get me wrong, it is a very good episode. What is does – the fights are well staged, unlike the one in 3x04, and the action, the drama, even some the emotional moments, it all works very well. That’s why I gave it a pretty high rating. It would be in my top 30. Maybe not my top 25? But I’ve seen so many people, including media articles, call it one of the best episodes of the show, put it in top 10 or even top 5 best episodes…and that’s just odd. Come on, it’s not top 10 material. It’s not in my top 5 episodes of season 4 (let alone the entire show). But I guess people really love sword fighting?

In retrospect, the main purpose of this episode was to set up Octavia as the Osleya – Red Queen/Blodreina, making her the winner of this version of Grounder Conclave, and the ruler of the bunker. Now, pretty much every viewer could have guessed she would win, because she’s one of the main characters and has a massive Plot Armor, but in-universe, Octavia was the dark horse, the least likely to win out of the 13 participants. She’s been training in Grounder fighting for some 6 months, but that’s nothing compared to all the others, who had been training and fighting all their lives. The show hasn’t often been too realistic about her fighting skills, but this time, to be fair, her victory is made to look a little bit more realistic because her tactic is to do what she is uniquely qualified to do – hide, let the others kill each other, and wait for the moment when she can kill the last living opponent.

This is Octavia’s most triumphant moment, when she wins, and then when she decides to not keep the bunker just for Sky people (who would have filled just 400 out of 1200 places) but to share the bunker between all the clans. * And with that, Octavia becomes the Queen and Savior in the eyes of the Grounders and unite all the clans, living the dream that Lexa tried but failed to make happen.

* …Oh wait, wasn’t that the exact same thing Clarke suggested to Indra, Roan and the other Grounder leaders in the previous episode, and they all ignored her, because they preferred war over the bunker, and then to fight the Conclave, and flat out told her that they wouldn’t listen to her because she’s not a Commander? If you want Grounders to listen to you, you must either kill a dozen other people in the Hunger Games-like sworf fight, and/or have “special blood” from birth and then have a chip with dead people’s voices put in your head. You may have good ideas, Clarke, but it means nothing if you can’t fight with a sword.

From the point of view of the characters in-universe, they gained absolutely nothing with this Conclave that they wouldn’t have had if they had accepted Clarke’s suggestion – except 12 of them would be still alive. Roan, who suggested the Conclave, only managed to get himself killed. But in terms of the narrative purpose, this is the show raising Octavia high, making her the hero/savior/queen, just to make her a tyrant and a villain in season 5. It’s also why some other characters needed to die so Octavia’s dark story could happen – Roan, because having a strong and sly Grounder leader in the bunker would prevent the same power dynamic; Ilian, because his relationship with Octavia was starting to become (gasp!) healthy and healing, and we can’t have that. And then there’s Luna, who goes full grimdark, wiyh the worst “DEAATH TO EVERYONE! Humanity doesn’t deserve to survive!” nihilism, so she could be the main antagonist, and also push Clarke into her own desperate actions.

Luna’s character turn used to be one of my two main problems with this episode. I used to really like her, and this seemed like a completely OOC twist. But she is the character I’ve changed my mind the most on during my rewatch, and now I think this turn was foreshadowed and in character for her.

But my other big problem with this episode still stands. It de-protagonizes Clarke, and pushes her into a pseudo-antagonist role, by framing the episode as a battle where the audience roots for Octavia (and Bellamy) and spends all the time with them and other people involved in the Conclave, directly or indirectly, while not letting us see Clarke’s perspective and her decision-making for more than a few short moments early on, which are easy to forget when you’re watching the episode for the first time. Obviously, the goal was to make the twist ending more surprising. And because of that, I was really confused the first time I watched this, and didn’t understand how Clarke went from asking for everyone to share the bunker (and refusing to let Roan be assassinated, so only Arkers people and Trikru would share the bunker – which, apparently, even saintly Kane agreed to!), to stealing the bunker for the Arkers with Jaha. But on rewatch, Clarke’s motives and state of mind are so much clearer and more relatable to me throughout season 4 – and, to be fair, this episode does set up her reasons early on. It just distracts the viewers too much with the Conclave itself, which the viewers know Octavia is likely to win. But looking at the situation as the characters themselves see it, Clarke’s decision to steal the bunker makes sense – certainly a lot more sense than the Conclave itself, which is an incredibly stupid way to make decisions on the survival of the human race.

 I used to be one of the people who really liked Luna and thought she was this wonderful voice of morality and non-violence, and when she appeared with the whole “I fight for death!” thing, it seemed out of nowhere. But she’s the character I’ve changed my mind the most on rewatch. What was I thinking? I guess I was just tired at the time of all the people celebrating violence and ruthlessness. Rewatching seasons 3 and 4, I realized that 1) this turn was, actually, in-character, and that 2) even before that, her pacifism was of the wrong kind and her moralizing was always hollow. She was running away because she was scared of humanity’s, or rather, her own capacity for violence, but she was OK with letting the rest of the world fall apart, as long as she could stay in her little bubble and not get her hands dirty. Maybe that’s a bit harsh. I’m aware that she’s been through terrible things – Grounder traditions are awful, she had to kill her own brother, and then everyone she loved died and she remained the last of her people. But even before the latter happened, she was flat out refusing to take the Flame and save the world from ALIE. Which, fine, her choice, and having voices of dead people in your head is pretty messed up – but she didn’t care if the rest of the world was enslaved by ALIE, as long as she thought her people would stay safe on their oil rig. Then, in season 4, after all of them had died of radiation, she didn’t want to help save the entire human race from Praimfaya, and had to be convinced to do it. Instead, she was moralizing about how humans may not deserve to survive. If you don’t want to save people because they aren’t morally perfect enough for you, there’s something wrong with you and your own morality. Having that in mind, it’s not OOC that she ended up making the step from letting the human race die, to actively trying to kill everyone.

(BTW, does Nightblood give people superpowers – and I don’t mean the ability to survive radiation and have the Flame or mind drives in their heads, but things like superior strength, agility, speed…? In season 4, I was definitely under the impression that it does, since Roan made that remark in 4x08 about Nightbloods like Lexa and Luna being superior fighters. And that would explain why Luna is supposed to be the most dangerous warrior of them all, which otherwise wouldn’t make a lot of sense, since she hasn’t done almost any real fighting for about a decade (I don’t know if she trained, I guess she should have just done it for sports), but she’s better than all of those other people, many of whom are physically much stronger than her if Nightblood doesn’t give you superstrength and who have been training and fighting all the time. You can’t even headcanon something like “she has the skills of all the previous Commanders in her head” as you can with Lexa.  But nothing we’ve seen with Clarke, Madi or the Primes suggests that about Nightblood, so I’m very confused now. To be fair, The 100 was never very realistic about fighting skills, especially not when it comes to the Girl with a Sword characters.)

In any case, for the purpose of the show, Luna is the clear favorite, and Octavia is the least likely to win. Clarke is well aware of it, though she pretends otherwise in order to give Octavia encouragement. Bellamy is also aware of it, but he has to put all the hopes in his sister, because he loves her so much and can’t accept the idea of her dying. He also gives Octavia the best advice - use her experience of hiding as “Girl under the floor”, hide and let the others mostly kill each other.

While Kane also decides to hope for the best, Jaha really isn’t happy about having the Conclave as a way to decide who survives, and thinks it’s stupid (of course, he’s right), but, unlike the others, also doesn’t believe the Grounders would honor the deal if Octavia won. However, Kane assures him they take the tradition as sacred. We can see Clarke listening carefully – and, no doubt, thinking that Luna is most likely to win, and if they really honor the outcome, that would mean everyone would die (except Luna, that is – who really would be the last person on Earth). Clarke then goes to find Roan and tell him they have to stop Luna (while Echo is listening), but Roan blames her for disrespecting their traditions etc. Clarke tells him that she wants the humanity to survive, even if it’s not her people. (Which shines more light on her motivation. As she points out in 4x11, excluding any of the Arkers from the bunker means that the Grounders wouldn’t have anyone to run hydro generators and produce artificial food etc. But she made her decision to steal the bunker only after Luna entered the picture, and the possibility of the human race all dying became very likely.) Roan doesn’t listen and tells her to leave before she “dishonors her people even more”. Huh. Interesting views on honor. This is a guy who has no problem ordering assassinations and wasn’t upset when his army was burning villages and killing people just for the sake of it, but he takes Grounder traditions very seriously, as seen later when he banished Echo for cheating at the Conclave. However, Clarke’s words seem to have gotten more than he was ready to admit, because, in the end, he came to his senses and offered Octavia an alliance against Luna, deciding that, after all, the most important thing is for the human race to survive.

There are hints of what would happen that I didn’t notice the first time: Close-up of Clarke in thoughts. Close-up of Echo, also deep in thoughts, and deciding to cheat at the Conclave. IMO, Echo’s actions in this episode are more defensible and understandable than anything else she’s done up to this point. Everything else she did was for Azgeda to get more power, or she used the “I was following orders” excuse, but this time, it really is a matter of survival, so I can’t even blame her for deciding to kill a bunch of people to ensure that Azgeda gets the bunker, in the sneaky way, rather than by the rules, as Roan is trying.

One of the strengths of this episode are all the emotional moments. There is a big one between Indra and Octavia, as Indra genuinely gives her advice to help her, which Octavia finds strange, since, if she won, it would mean her people wouldn’t get the bunker, but Indra tells her she’s her people, too. The meaning of the phrase “my people” means is something the characters are constantly defining for themselves. (Interesting that same phrase “You are my people” was said in season 2 by Clarke to Lincoln, at the time when he still wasn’t living in Arkadia.) Indra is Octavia’s surrogate mother in a way, and considers her family. Besides, I don’t think it’s that odd to wish her luck, since the odds of her directly facing the Trikru warrior aren’t high anyway.

Gaia and Indra get a rare mother/daughter moment, when Gaia cries in her mother’s arms after the Trikru warrior is one of the first to fall. As far as they know at that point, this means death for them and all other Trikru.

Octavia and Ilian later do their best to pretend they are Katniss and Peeta in the first Hunger Games, since he is saving her and offering her alliance against the others, while she is rejecting it because she’d then have to kill him. He claims he didn’t volunteer to be there because of her, but it could have been a combination of motives. His entire family is dead, he will also die, but in a much worse way, of radiation, in a few days, unless one of this people wins the Conclave, but I’m sure he also wants to give Octavia more chance to possibly win, and the odds of the two of them being the last are very slim.

Of course, this episode also has big emotional moments for the Blake sibling relationship, and brings them together after almost two seasons of conflict – or rather, of Octavia being angry at Bellamy. Which leaves me halfway between feeling its’s heartwarming. and feeling bitter that it’s still all about Octavia forgiving Bellamy, after beating him bloody at one point. It’s a two-episode storyline - at the beginning, Bellamy regrets he wasn’t able to tell his sister that he loves her, even at the end of the world. (He gets the chance to do that in the next episode.) When Bellamy realizes that Echo is cheating, he decides to go in there to stop her. (I like how the show made it look for a moment like Kane will be against it, but then it turns out he just tells Bellamy to wait till it’s dark, so he wouldn’t be discovered.)

After killing a few people including mortally wounding Ilian, Echo tries to kill Octavia, again, and Bellamy stops her, and in their fight, almost chokes her to death. Bellamy chokes or strangles people quite often. Four episodes later, these two will be an item. Sure, it’s 6 years in-universe, but for the viewers, very short time, and Bellamy and Echo will have just one one-to-one scene together before they become a couple. I guess trying to kill each other counts as setup for romance on The 100, it’s like an equivalent of at least six months of dating.

Roan stops him and then banishes Echo, and Octavia overhears Bellamy talk about his love for her – telling Roan that he was the “lucky one” to have her as a sister. Is feeling unconditional love lucky, even if that person treats you like crap most of the time? Anyway, Octavia is very moved. I guess she really did not realize before how much Bellamy loved her, which is almost unbelievable - if anything was always super-obvious, it was how much Bellamy loves his sister and how much he was willing to do for her.

There are a lot of mentions of Lincoln. Octavia’s final decision to share the bunker is obviously supposed to be something inspired by what Lincoln believed in - and Octavia and Luna even argue over who Lincoln would be ashamed of. Which is silly, because Luna must be aware she’s talking nonsense and that he wouldn’t approve of what she’s doing. But most of what she says in this episode is BS, as when she goes on about how Skaikru taught her that people are selfish and awful. (Really? The Mountain Men didn’t, the Grounders fighting each other all the time didn’t, making her kill her own brother and fight other children in the Conclave, nothing? But when Skaikru tried to find a way for everyone to survive Praimfaya, which ended with Clarke injecting herself with Nightblood and volunteering to risk her life and be tested? That convinced her that people are awful and selfish? OK then.) She only starts making sense when she finally admits it is all about herself – she clearly has been traumatized and afraid of her own capacity from violence and darkness since she killed her brother in the Conclave.

Twist! Bellamy is kidnapped. And then we get the twist ending OMG! Shock! They stole the bunker! “They used the gas to knock everyone out, as in Mount Weather". Dum dum dum – another comparison to Mountain Men OMG, they are as bad as the Mountain Men, because they can use gas and… they knocked those people out that stood in their way, instead of killing them all (as Azgeda and Trikru had a habit of doing this season)? Uuum...

Timeline: There are 3 days left until the death wave comes, and the conclave lasts  one day and one night.

Body count: All the people who die in this episode die in the Conclave: 12 Grounder warriors, chronologically:

Two warriors, including the Fio of Trikru (recurring character – he’s the guy who used to beat up Octavia in 2x11), killed by Roan;

two are killed by Echo’s arrows;

one warrior killed by Ilian, who was helping Octavia, another by some other warrior, one by Octavia (this was during one four-way fight);

two by Luna;

Ilian, mortally wounded by Echo and then Octavia mercy-killed him at his request (dramatic irony – she threatened earlier that she’ll kill him the next time she sees him);

Roan, killed by Luna, in a pretty horrifying manner, slicing his stomach and drowning him in a fountain of radioactive rain;

Luna, stabbed from behind by Octavia, after falling for a pretty cheap trick.

Rating: 8.5/10

Bonus:

Episodes 4x09-4x10 in a nutshell:

Grounders * fight a war for the bunker *

Clarke: The end of the world is coming! Instead of fighting, we could all share the bunker instead! There is place for more than just one clan!

Grounders: Meh. We don't care, we prefer war, and we would only listen to you if you were a Commander!

Clarke * is exasperated by everyone's stubborn and stupid behaviorand the probability of everyone dying * OK then, I'll make myself a Commander *

Roan: She became a Nightblood through science! Blasphemy!

Grounders: What an insult to our sacred traditions that were started 90 years ago by a bunch of nutty cultists and a scientist who made Nightblood through science so people could get computer chips in their heads! So, let's have war.

Roan: Let's have Hunger Games instead. The one tradition we love more than hereditary special blood that lets you get a computer chip in your head. A dozen people killing each other with swords is the best way to decide the fate of the human race!

* everyone agrees*

Luna: Hi. I'm the strongest fighter by far, and I want to fight so I can destroy the entire human race. DIE DIE DIE! DEATH TO EVERYONE!

Everyone: Well, that's fair. She will probably win and everyone will die. Reasonable. Let's hope that it doesn't happen.

Clarke * is really exasperated * Oh, hell no. I better make sure at least some people survive. * steals the bunker *

Octavia: * wins against all odds * We should all share the bunker!

Everyone: This is such a great idea, because someone who can fight with a sword said it! Hey, wait, what happened?

Clarke: .........

[wonwoos-tracksuit]

Hi ! It's interesting that in life, our admirable attributes can sometimes be our downfall and Poche's loyalty to Kane ultimately failed us .( other factors too, but this was huge ) We even analyzed it in depth the night before the match, we got it spot on ! Anyway, I'll be in mourning for a few more days but Thursday's game will be a welcomed distraction. Btw, interesting that E walked in front of his teammates to get the metal, what was that about, I wonder? LA

I just was thinking about how we pretty much predicted that Kane would be in the line-up, and not starting Lucas would be part of our downfall. In some ways, I understand why Poch started Kane; if he benched Kane, it would undoubtedly fuck up his self-confidence.

HOWEVER, after half-time, Poch had to swap Kane for Lucas. Kane literally got the least touches of any Spurs player in the first half. We needed Lucas’s speed, finesse, and dribbling (all attributes Kane lacks), especially against a defensively-BLESSED Liverpool. When Kane plays, the whole team has to work to get him the ball because he is a striker that relies on being at the right place at the right time…of course, Virgil and Matip won’t let Kane do that. And Kane can’t compete with their physicality, either. Lucas, on the other hand, has the creativity and dribbling to potentially work around these threats.

Although Kane had a poor performance, I will also stress he was not the only problem. Liverpool’s midfield completely shut down Winksy - most of his passes were back to the defense, instead of forwards. This slashed the build-up of offensive momentum through the center. In fact, most of our successful attacks on goal developed on the wing with Son and Dele because nothing could get through the center, especially pre-substitutions. So quite frankly, Winks was a weak link - or at least, could not compete with the beasts of Liverpool’s midfield in this line-up. Poch should have subbed him out sooner, too. 

These are just two problems in Spurs’ play…I could go on about how Poch should have subbed in Llorente earlier. I think Spurs could have used Llorente’s  physical presence to receive long balls and bypass LFC midfield and defense, and therefore give Spurs better chances in LFC’s final third…but this post is already long so I’m going to stop ranting now xD

Honestly, I was not surprised Eric was the first one to receive the medals - Eric always becomes a stoic, strong leader when his team needs him. His team was in emotional shambles. Everyone is devastated: Lucas and Son are sobbing, Dele put on his guarded, vacant face (which killed me), etc. But what does Eric do? He puts on his brave face, straightens his shoulders, and leads his devastated team to accept the medals. This moment was gut-wrenching, but it also struck me how much of an emotional leader - and indispensable leader - Eric is at Spurs. When he walks to receive his medal, he even shakes Trent’s hand…if Eric isn’t the picture of class and leadership, who is?

I’d also like to mention that we have seen emotional leader Eric before - after the Croatia semifinal. Everyone on the England nt is devastated. Everyone is crying, aloof, despondent, crouched on the ground…but what does Eric do? Eric goes around to several teammates and consoles them. He helps them get to their feet. And of course, we all know the heart-breaking, intimate moment when he crouches down, holds Dele’s wrists, and comforts him. Only after Eric consoles all these teammates does he let himself cry, pulling his kit over his face. 

I am so grateful Eric - our compassionate, emotionally resilient Eric - supports and leads his teams when they need him most.

[sometimesrosy]

I'm part of the fandom and I don't see Clarke, or Octavia, as bad people. They've made bad choices, yes, but that doesn't make them bad people. And frankly, a lot of those bad choices were forced by the hands of the adults (mt. weather adults torturing kids/innocence, Abby and Indra putting Octavia into a leader position when it was clear she didn't want it/wasn't ready for it, etc).

We’re all part of the fandom. Just because we are doesn’t mean we have to share opinions.

I personally am surprised you think Octavia is NOT a bad person. She’s rather the unrepentant villain and she listens to nobody and considers nothing but her desires and goals. 

What makes a bad person? I don’t think anyone is inherently a bad person, but I have to judge people on their actions. Clarke has made some terrible decisions, but her intentions are to try and cause the least harm she can, and when she does the wrong thing, she tries to make up for it, and she admits her faults and she accepts responsiblity for what she does. So she’s always trying to do better and be better and make amends. The trying to do better, the trying to fix things, the taking responsibility... this is what makes her a good person.

At this point, Octavia doesn’t try to do better. Doesn’t try to fix anything but make up rationlizations for WHY she had to sentence so many people to death despite not actually having to. She blames other people for her choices, ignores her own horrible actions and says the other people were to blame and other people are the monsters, acting as if she didn’t have choice and power in this all. And she ignores anyone else’s wisdom, anyone else’s needs or intentions, and anyone else plans, instructions or leadership.

I do not think she’s INHERENTLY evil. I believe she can be redeemed, but as it stands. No. She’s absolutely a bad person. I don’t care how much she wants people to kill her. Even that is bad. She wanted a glorious battle in death where she was martyred, instead of having to live with what she’d done. She wanted them to put her out of her misery so she didn’t have to face it. And she’s STILL going on about how if she’d only WON the valley, then all her sins would be washed away by being the victor. That’s not how it works. 

And I find it remarkable that you’re blaming “the adults” for something that AN ADULT, aka Octavia, who was the SOLE leader, the TYRANT, did. 

Forced at the hands of adults?????? Seriously? Kane was nearly EXECUTED trying to STOP her from doing what she was doing. Indra couldn’t stop her. Abby felt as guilty as Octavia did and that’s why she self medicated herself into a stupor. NOT, btw, creating a death cult and becoming a tyrant.

EVERYONE IS RESPONSIBLE FOR THEIR MONSTER WHEN THEY LET IT OUT.

Including Octavia. She IS a monster. No one made her that monster. She looked at the horror of her life and chose to become a monster. We have several examples of other delinquents who DID NOT TURN INTO MONSTERS even if they lost as much or more than Octavia did. 

Honestly, I don’t understand how you guys ignore the characters actions when you come to conclusions about who the characters are. Maybe this is what gets me into trouble with fandom, because while fans are stanning their faves, I’m looking at the character onscreen and evaluating their behavior, which is NOT heroic or kind or wise or selfless or good or responsible, and then I’m like, nope this character is not good and I hold her to task, and then her stans are OFFENDED that I could possibly judge their fave character without the bias of loving her without reason. Octavia is responsible for what she did, although she thinks she’s not. Clarke doesn’t get a free pass for how she betrayed her friends, even though she does think she’s responsible. 

[thrashermaxey]

21 Fantasy Hockey Rambles

Every Sunday, we'll share 21 Fantasy Rambles – formerly 20 Fantasy Thoughts – from our writers at DobberHockey. These thoughts are curated from the past week's ‘Daily Ramblings’.

Writers: Michael Clifford, Ian Gooding, Cam Robinson, and Dobber

  1. Blue Jackets’ Matt Duchene had a fantastic Round 1 series with seven points in four games. Aside from the points, he led the team in adjusted shot share at five-on-five and Columbus outscored Tampa Bay 4-1 when he was on the ice at five-on-five.

Duchene didn’t do a whole lot in the regular season post-deadline but his play in the first round made his acquisition completely worth it. What a marvelous series. (apr18)

  2. On the topic of Duchene pulling through, how about Max Pacioretty and Jordan Eberle? Remember when those two were players a franchise couldn’t rely upon for big performances? Pacioretty has 10 points in five games with the Sharks on the verge of elimination Sunday, while Eberle had four goals and six points in the four-game sweep of the Penguins. Their respective performances are just a reminder to casual hockey fans that they’re very good players. (apr18)

  3. Antti Raanta and Darcy Kuemper: which goalie is the sleeper next year?

How far does Raanta’s injury and uncertainty surrounding his grip on the starting role push down his ADP? Does Kuemper’s great season and potential push for the top job drive up his ADP? Will these two be drafted in relatively the same tier as, say, Matt Murray and Marc-Andre Fleury were a few years ago?

I am fascinated to see where these guys are valued by the market, especially if the Coyotes make some moves this offseason either in the trade or free agency markets. Or both. (apr16)

  4. Kyle Connor is the least talked about upcoming RFA this summer. People are whispering about offer sheets all over the place but the Winnipeg cap, coupled with his strong production, may lead to some interesting negotiations. (apr17)

  5. This won’t be an easy offseason for the Jets, who will have as many as 15 pending free agents to sort out. For example, Connor and Patrik Laine will need contracts, which means that the Jets might not be able to afford UFAs Kevin Hayes and Brandon Tanev.

Then there’s the defense. Have Jacob Trouba and Tyler Myers both played their last games as Jets? Beyond pillars Dustin Byfuglien and Josh Morrissey, this group could look very different. At least fantasy owners should finally be able to see Sami Niku on the Jets for a full season.

Then you also have to wonder whether coach Paul Maurice’s job is safe after what appeared to be a missed opportunity. Needless to say, they’ll be lots of fantasy implications to break down with this team this offseason. (apr21)

  6. The Blue Jackets’ four-game sweep of the Lightning has easily been the surprise story of the NHL playoffs so far. The Islanders’ four-game sweep of the Penguins will come in as a not-too-distant second in that department. And there’s the Flames, out in five against the Avs, as well. That isn’t good news if you’d built your fantasy playoff roster around the likes of Nikita Kucherov and Sidney Crosby.

There’s the old expression “when you lose, don’t lose the lesson.” So, can fantasy owners learn anything from these surprise quick exits of the Lightning and Penguins, two teams that have been on the short list of Stanley Cup contenders over the last few years? Follow this link for at least three takeaways about the topic. (apr20)

  7. Rookie Alexandre Texier’s developmental arc has been something to marvel. As the youngest player in the crop, he was drafted halfway through the second round in 2017 out the top league in France. All he’s done since is make the Columbus scouting staff look like geniuses.

He had a very strong year in the Finnish Liiga as an 18-year-old in 2017-18. This past season, his 41 points in 55 contests were the second most by a U20 player. He came over to the American League to close out the campaign and scored five goals and seven points in as many games. That earned him the call to the big club and I’m guessing he won’t be heading down any time soon.

Texier will be an extremely interesting player to rank heading into fantasy hockey drafts next season. Keeper leagues need to be all over this guy, but his original draft slot coupled with a bit of no-name vibe could push him into sleeper territory. That is, of course, if he doesn’t go off this postseason.

The 19-year-old has been skating on a line with Nick Foligno and Josh Anderson at even-strength and seeing some second unit power play deployment. With Artemi Panarin almost assuredly out the door this summer, a left-wing spot in the top-six will be wide open. If the Blue Jackets don’t fill that hole with a big fish (a big if), then I like Texier to put his name on it. (apr17)

  8. Current Red Wings coach Jeff Blashill was signed to a two-year extension earlier this month, so his job for at least next season is secure. However, I’d think that new GM Steve Yzerman would immediately raise the bar for a former contender that has now missed the playoffs for three consecutive seasons.

The Wings have some nice pieces centering around Dylan Larkin, but Stevie Y will need to add more in the way of draft picks. With some cap space, Yzerman could even dip into the free agent pool as early as this summer. Optimism abound in the Motor City.

For a more detailed analysis of the Yzerman hire, see Mike Clifford’s Fantasy Take. (apr20)

  9. Your Vezina Trophy finalists were announced on Saturday and they are Ben Bishop, Robin Lehner and Andrei Vasilevskiy. Bishop led the NHL with a .934 SV% and trailed only half-season starter Jordan Binnington with a 1.98 GAA.

In spite of those impressive ratios, you know that Vasilevskiy will receive a lot of first-place votes because he led the league with 39 wins, which had a lot to do with the team in front of him.

Hockey media hasn’t paid enough attention to Bishop’s season, perhaps because he plays in a non-traditional hockey market for a team that squeaked into the playoffs. Because of their goaltender, the Stars might be better than we think as they are on the verge of upsetting Nashville. (apr21)

  10. James Neal was a healthy scratch for Game 5. As you might expect, he had no points in the previous four games. Neal has quite simply been a bust for the Flames since signing a five-year contract worth $5.75 million per season last summer. His 19 points in 63 games is his lowest point total in his 11-year NHL career and he doesn’t seem to fit into the Flames’ younger core going forward. Hopefully, you didn’t draft him hoping he’d play on the Flames’ top line. We could now be seeing why Nashville left him unprotected in the expansion draft.

  11. The Flames have a major decision coming up with respect to their goaltending. The team’s ousting is by no means entirely on Mike Smith (his 188 saves were lead all playoff goalies at the time), but he was easily considered the biggest question mark for the Flames entering the series.

You’d have to think that the 37-year-old Smith won’t be returning and that the Flames would instead turn to a tandem with RFA David Rittich and a goalie that they find as a UFA (maybe they circle back to Smith?) There doesn’t appear to be anything waiting in the system, as the numbers for both Jon Gillies and Tyler Parsons don’t suggest that they’re NHL-ready. Maybe a trade? (apr20)

  12. The metrics from Puck IQ don’t paint a very flattering picture of Drew Doughty’s 2018-19 season.

Was it his defense partner? That’s very possible, considering how much better Doughty has fared over the last two years when not playing with Derek Forbort. Was it the coaching staff and their systems? It may be, and we’ll have a better idea of this now that Todd McLellan is behind the bench. Was it just an off year? I don’t want to dismiss that, either.

I’m pretty comfortable saying that Doughty going from playing with Jake Muzzin to playing with Forbort had a massive impact on his performance. But does he have a better partner next year? We’ll see. (apr19)

  13. As when all teams get eliminated from playoffs, we find out about all the injuries players were going through. Pittsburgh’s locker clean-out brought us that as Jared McCann informed us he was playing through a separated shoulder. Also, Brian Dumoulin was playing through a torn posterior cruciate ligament (PCL) in his knee.

We also got more rumours that Evgeni Malkin will be traded, which seems to be almost a rite of passage whenever the Penguins don’t win the Cup. That always overlooks the fact that even if the Penguins wanted to trade Malkin, he has a no-move clause. Honestly, these types of rumors exhaust me because there is never is a kernel of truth and people are just looking for clicks. I guess that’s just the online world we live in now. (apr19)

  14. Tampa Bay also told us that Victor Hedman was not medically cleared for Games 3 and 4 after being so earlier in the series. It’s pretty obvious Hedman was nowhere near himself in Round 1. General manager Julien Brisebois also said there will be changes, but as I stated in my Ramblings yesterday, it’s just a reality of their cap situation rather than blowing up the roster.

Again, this roster is loaded top to bottom. It seems Brisebois understands that making significant changes would not be in the team’s best interest. It’s nice to see him take a measured approach.

BTW: Alex Killorn had a slight tear in his left knee’s MCL but will not require surgery. (apr19)

  15. It was a rebound, or career year, in many ways for Patrick Kane. Not something easily predicted for a 30-year old on what was thought to be a declining team.

An early lesson I learned in fantasy sports is to always bet on talent. Originally, for me, this applied to relief pitchers in fantasy baseball, but it’s very much true in almost any sport; elite talent usually finds a way to be productive almost regardless of circumstance. This certainly isn’t always the case (see: Kopitar, Anze) and I would bet on a modest step back for Kane in 2019-20. All the same, doubting elite talent is a bet I do not often make. (apr16)

  16. Something that caught my eye in Cam Metz’s Eastern Edge column a couple of days ago. He wrote about production against expected production from right wingers in the Atlantic division. One guy whose name stood out: Jason Pominville.

In 837 minutes of five-on-five ice time, Pominville posted 2.01 points per 60 minutes. Among the 252 forwards with at least 800 minutes, only 86 forwards managed at least two points per 60 minutes at 5v5. Pominville’s rate was the same as Brayden Schenn and Joe Pavelski. Pominville accomplished this despite playing only about a third of his ice time with Jack Eichel.

Going back three seasons, Pominville’s aggregate points/60 minutes at 5v5 (1.93) is the same as Gustav Nyquist, and higher than other wingers like Pavelski, Alex Radulov, Evander Kane, and Justin Williams.

Now, there is a lot more to hockey than just simply a points rate at five-on-five, but it’s clear that Pominville can still be productive in the NHL in a lesser role, and can do so even in a low-scoring environment. However, he turns 37 in November and it’s a wonder how much he does have left. I’ll be interested to see where he lands this summer. (apr18)

  17. I’ve written about this before, but the 40-goal scoring Jake Guentzel is one of the few players who I believe can consistently live in the mid-to-high teens for conversion rate. It doesn’t hurt that he’s locked to Sidney Crosby at even-strength. I imagine he’ll finally take a full-time spot on the top power-play unit next fall as well. (apr17)

  18. At the outset of the season, I envisioned a transition year for the Ducks. Guys like Ryan Kesler and Corey Perry would still be productive, but likely on the third or fourth lines, while guys like Sam Steel, Troy Terry, and Max Comtois would step up and lead the next wave of the Ducks core.

That wasn’t entirely the case.

Steel’s first foray in the NHL saw three points and 17 shots on goal through 13 games, averaging under 15 minutes a game. We have to think back to the state of the Ducks in October, though: Ryan Getzlaf missed two weeks due to injury, Ondrej Kase was not in the lineup due to his own injury, and Perry was injured as well. With guys like Rickard Rakell, Jakob Silfverberg, and Andrew Cogliano in the top-6, Steel was playing on the third and fourth line most nights with guys who were either unproven or without a lot of offensive skill. He wasn’t exactly put into a position to succeed, and he, Isac Lundestrom, and Terry were eventually sent down either for the rest of the season, or until after the trade deadline.

In all, the underlying numbers weren’t great for Steel but I wonder how much of that is Anaheim being a disaster most of the season. Those numbers were really bad in October, but after his recall at the end of February, he had very strong shot share numbers for the remaining games he dressed. It really was a tale of two seasons for Steel.

I’m still a believer in his talent and think he can be a good second-line center in the NHL. I thought that might start in 2018-19 but clearly he needed another year of to get up to speed. I think my mistake was my own beliefs in a player’s potential clouded what I should have seen as a clear development year.  It’s a mistake I’m certain I’ll make again. (apr16)

  19. Well it’s done. A week ago I didn’t expect this to happen. Not even when I had my ‘interview’ with Nikita Gusev’s agent a couple of weeks ago. I thought this would come in the form of a signing in late June, or an announcement in August. But things have moved quickly over the last week and Vegas has actually signed Gusev to a one-year entry-level contract.

The 26-year-old has dominated the KHL – and the international stage – for a couple of years now, and he’s ready to step into the lineup right away. Not only that, but he is actually eligible to play, since he wasn’t signed as an unrestricted free agent. Whenever he does, he could have an Artemi Panarin-type of impact. Vegas already has their first two lines in stone (or ‘Stone’, if you will): (apr15)

  20. Gusev wasn’t the only Russian star to sign with an NHL playoff team. Columbus signed Vladislav Gavrikov, a defenseman who played with Gusev on SKA St. Petersburg. There were also questions as to whether or not Gavrikov would sign, too. Funny enough, the Jackets have two defensemen hurt and had to actually dress Adam Clendening in Games 3 and 4 of Round 1. Gavrikov is 23 and his offensive upside is minimal (mid-30s) but he’s close to a sure thing when it comes to making it into the NHL. At least, as much as one can be a sure thing. (apr15)

  21. In early December, I traded Vince Dunn for Nazem Kadri in my keeper league. At the time, I wanted the depth forward as it would keep me in the hunt. I also wanted a playoff guy and Kadri was a lock for the playoffs, whereas clearly Dunn and his St. Louis Blues were, uh…done. They were bottom dwellers at the time. And as a bonus, Kadri had a great second half last year and although that was due to playing with Mitch Marner (which wasn’t going to happen again this year), I figured there would still be an uptick.

Well, that entire transaction has derailed and I feel like I gave up a good quality young defenseman for nothing. With Kadri’s track record of dirty hits, he’s going to miss time and likely lots of it. So, as a playoff asset, he’s done. And he never had that second-half uptick so he really didn’t help the bottom of my roster very much, either. (apr15)

  Have a good week, folks!!

  from All About Sports https://dobberhockey.com/hockey-home/21-fantasy-hockey-rambles/21-fantasy-hockey-rambles-14/

[ynwa4eva]

700th club match for neuer? It could be his 1000th if he didnt get injured skiing every year

[tipsoctopus]

"Unbelievable player" – These Tottenham fans stunned by veteran star's performance

Tottenham Hotspur were beaten on penalties by Chelsea in the second leg of their Carabao Cup semi-final on Thursday night, as per the BBC.

Spurs headed into the game with a 1-0 lead, afforded to them by a Harry Kane spot-kick at Wembley.

But without the likes of Son-Heung Min – away at the Asian Cup with South Korea – Dele Alli and Kane – both injured – Spurs were vanquished by Maurizio Sarri’s Blues.

Chelsea will now face Manchester City in the final at Wembley after Pep Guardiola’s side beat Burton Albion 10-0 on aggregate in the other last-four tie.

The west London outfit took a 2-0 lead in the second leg at Stamford Bridge through N’Golo Kante and Eden Hazard, but a goal from Fernando Llorente sent the tie to penalties, where both Eric Dier, who had scored the winning penalty for England against Colombia at the World Cup, and Lucas Moura missed. The hosts scored all four of their efforts from 12 yards.

CheekySport’s Joel claims Spurs badly need to invest in January after not having “the balls” to beat Arsenal. Check out his uncensored opinion in the video below…

Nevertheless, the performance was a gutsy one from a depleted Spurs, with captain Jan Vertonghen at the heart of their fightback.

The centre-back played with calmness and accuracy, distributing the ball as well as he tackled it, and made one goal-saving challenge on Hazard in the second-half.

And Spurs fans on Twitter were impressed with the Belgium international’s performance, even in defeat.

How good is Vertonghen?!?!!!! Unbelievable player!

— Paul Harrington (@PaulHarrington4) January 24, 2019

Vertonghen has been absolute class today. #COYS #THFC

— Jim Ciolek (@JimUfoC) January 24, 2019

Two superb tackles by Vertonghen, love it!#COYS #THFC #CHETOT

— Trevor Durham #FBPE 🇪🇺🇬��🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿 (@TheTrevorDurham) January 24, 2019

Vertonghen & Rose brilliant tonight.

— Sam (@thfcswils) January 24, 2019

Vertonghen was quality tonight. If I do say so myself.

— gracey (@gilinskysjano) January 24, 2019

That could be the best I’ve seen Vertonghen play

👏🏽👏🏽👏🏽

— glory glory (@gloryglorytott) January 24, 2019

Vertonghen MOTM btw , more passes and tackles than any Spurs player 💪🏻

— Shanobie (@ShanobieSpurs) January 24, 2019

How good is vertonghen on a scale from 10-10

— ⁷ (@S0NALDO) January 24, 2019

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[kartiavelino]

Are ‘The Masked Singer’ stars Donny Osmond, Rumer Willis and Cee Lo?

What in Gritty’s title did we simply watch? That’s the query we will’t shake after watching Wednesday’s premiere of FOX’s infectiously entertaining singing competitors, “The Masked Singer.” It’s so convoluted and corny — and we will’t wait to tune in subsequent week together with the opposite 9.2 million viewers who watched final evening. This revamp of the favored South Korean actuality present “King of the Masked Singer” incorporates a dozen “celebrities” clad in loopy Gritty-like garb warbling tunes earlier than a studio viewers. Hosted by former “America’s Acquired Expertise” escapee Nick Cannon— sporting what seems to be Samuel L. Jackson’s afro-sheen wig from “Pulp Fiction” — the present incorporates a surreal panel of judges: Robin Thicke (recent from his $5 million payout to Marvin Gaye’s household), Jenny McCarthy (billed as a “popular culture guru”), humorous man Ken Jeong (“Loopy Wealthy Asians”) and the vocally gifted Nicole Scherzinger, who appears decided to increase her run of actuality TV slumming, I imply judging, on either side of the pond. For the file, none of those judges do any judging. They’re too busy doing an entire lotta guessing — largely of the clueless selection. McCarthy is very susceptible to shouting out the names of A-listers (Hugh Jackman, Justin Bieber, to call two) who would by no means stoop to showing on this sequence — but. Nonetheless, the singers’ identities are saved refreshingly secret (btw: arduous to imagine they haven’t leaked, seeing as how this taped in June) because of beastly disguises — and their disspeaking voices are distorted. The way it works: The studio viewers votes for his or her fave singer in every face-off, whereas the panel of professionals determines which celeb from the underside three goes house on the finish of every episode. Performances by the Peacock, Hippo, Monster, Unicorn, Deer and Lion immediately lit up the Twitterverse — with the present’s official Twitter account dropping clues and viewers throwing out doable names behind the masks. Listed here are a few of the high guesses for the hidden identities, beginning with the primary contestant to get the hook: THE HIPPO: This massive fella carried out an brisk model of Bobby Brown’s “My Prerogative,” however since he couldn’t actually sing (Thicke known as him out for singing over a monitor), the judges panel instantly pegged as an “athlete.” [embedded content] Guesses ranged from Deion Sanders (due to his iconic landing dance strikes) and Odell Beckham Jr. I believed for certain it was Von Miller due to these distinctive eyeglasses. Alas, it was Antonio Brown — capping a high-profile week for the Pittsburgh Steelers huge receiver. Brown reportedly had a dramatic falling out with teammate Ben Roethlisberger, one which is reportedly irreparable sufficient for him to request a commerce. Certain, Brown was the primary to get the boot — however not earlier than whipping off that hippo head and flashing these pearly whites and washboard abs for the thirst-trappers tuning in at house. [embedded content] “And girls, I imply, how good-looking is that this man?” Thicke hyped. “You gotta see him with out his helmet extra usually, proper?” Cool down, sir. Did you be taught nothing from all that “Blurred Strains” backlash? The Peacock:  This colorfully costumed contestant teased himself as a showbiz veteran from the age of 5 (“it’s been some time since your mother had a poster of me on her bed room wall”), one who knew Michael Jackson and stands 5-foot-9-inches. The Twitterverse thinks Donny Osmond is a no brainer — however was the King of Pop actually his pal? (And does Donny have the pipes to bust out that soulful model of “The Biggest Present” from the hit Hugh Jackman/Zac Efron flick?) [embedded content] Alfonso Ribeiro is likely to be a greater match. Lengthy earlier than he danced the Carlton on “Recent Prince of Bel-Air,” he was a toddler star who bought his massive break in Broadway’s “The Faucet Dance Child,” circa 1983. The aforementioned King of Pop was even his mentor for a sizzling minute — Ribeiro co-starred within the notorious Pepsi commercial-gone-awry that ended with Jackson’s hair set aflame. Plus, Ribeiro is a veteran of this type of factor after 2007, 2015 and 2017 stints on ABC’s related however not almost as enjoyable “Dancing with the Stars.” One peacock-eyed viewer proffered Neil Patrick Harris since he does magic. Sure, sleight of hand was name-dropped as half as a facet ability on this contestant’s in depth repertoire. [embedded content] The Unicorn — Rising up in one of many richest neighborhoods (Beverly Hills), Unicorn at all times needed to be a singer — however her goals have been silenced by neigh-sayers. “I haven’t seen this kind of stellar efficiency from a horse because the Kentucky Derby,” Jeong mentioned because the Unicorn struggled sweetly by means of Rachel Platten’s “Struggle Tune.” Armchair pundits’ high decide: Tori Spelling — this tracks. The spawn of legendary TV producer Aaron Spelling talked overtly about her mom, Sweet, criticizing her appears as a small little one, and critics have been unkind to her continuous actuality TV rotation and well-publicized cash woes. Full disclosure: We hope it’s Tori. There’s one thing oddly transferring about wrestle for acceptance. Plus: Unicorn mentioned her nickname is “Chicken,” and Reddit says Tori means chook in Japanese in order that settles that, proper? Resort heiress and DJ extraordinaire Paris Hilton is one other sizzling take. Yeah, plenty of individuals have mentioned she will’t do plenty of issues properly, however she went proper forward and did them anyhow, so — not one of the best match. A darkish horse guess: Rebecca Black of “Friday” infamy. Nicely, phrase is she is searching for a comeback. [embedded content] The Lion — Earlier than launching right into a strutting rendition of Fergie’s “A Little Occasion By no means Killed No person (All We Acquired),” this contestant supplied this pre-performance tidbit: Lion comes from “Hollywood loyalty” (she later admits “there are loads of girls in my delight.”) This sparked the highest on-line guess of the evening: Khloe Kardashian, in fact. “Her posture was excellent, her legs have been in entrance, she shook her hips proper on time. I’m telling you that that’s a well-trained skilled,” Thicke raved “Robin, cease hitting on the livestock,” Jeong mentioned. Certain, long-legged Khloe suits — however there are two different intriguing breakouts: Rumer Willis — she’s leggy, she sings (FOX’s “Empire”), she dances (“DWTS”) — and she has a litter of sisters and one very well-known Mama in her “delight.” “One of many Braxton sisters” was one other guess tossed on the market, however Aubrey O’Day was the opposite guess that grabbed our consideration. The previous Danity Kane frontwoman could possibly be an excellent match. She has actuality TV expertise from Diddy’s “Making the Band” — and with all her tabloidian distractions, individuals neglect she truly has a giant voice. After all Jenny McCarthy saved making dumbass guesses like “Woman Gaga.” Get it collectively, Jenny, you’re a Pop Tradition Guru now! You understand a soon-to-be Oscar nominee just isn’t going to let the likes of you being the choose of her anytime quickly. [embedded content] The Monster — This top-heavy, one-eyed ball of fur narrated his intro-package with a aptitude for the dramatic: “I’m a monster as a result of that’s what the world labeled me. I used to be on the high of my recreation, however the recreation turned on me. So I retreated into my cave to take a break from the general public eye.” As manipulative maudlin music swells in to underscore The Monster’s hard-luck story, Jeong quips, “I believe he’s completed a while.” We’re drawing a complete clean on this one: Who would truly go on TV and cop to being a monster with belting out Queen’s “Don’t Cease Me Now”? This dude truly can carry a tune. Oh, it simply dawned us: That is Cee Lo Inexperienced. The “F*** You” singer ticks all of the packing containers. He was a pop-culture juggernaut who burned vivid — then burned out amid a sequence of controversies, from an exploding cellphone to accusations of sexual assault. [embedded content] The Deer — This engagingly goofy critter crooned “Thunder” by Think about Dragons. Gridiron guesses ranged from Ben Roethlisberger to Peyton Manning (“he was a COLT AND A BRONCO!,” one fan tweeted) — however NFL legend Terry Bradshaw got here out on high. Terry is an effective match: Social media warriors say he runs some type of a horse farm, he’s one a number of Tremendous Bowls (a clue within the intro bundle) — and that Southern twang sounds oddly acquainted to anybody who’s watched “Failure to Launch.” Oh, and the Deer and Terry each stand 6-foot, 3-inches tall. Tune in at 9 p.m. Wednesday to catch the subsequent installment of this responsible pleasure. Missed the primary episode? Meet up with it any time on FoxNow or Hulu. Share this: https://nypost.com/2019/01/03/are-the-masked-singer-stars-donny-osmond-rumer-willis-and-cee-lo/ The post Are ‘The Masked Singer’ stars Donny Osmond, Rumer Willis and Cee Lo? appeared first on My style by Kartia. https://www.kartiavelino.com/2019/01/are-the-masked-singer-stars-donny-osmond-rumer-willis-and-cee-lo.html

[sometimesrosy]

Do you have any new takes on the S4 L mentions now that some time has passed, Rosy? Do you think she'll be brought up at all in s5?

I should probably watch S4 again to have a new perspective on it.

Niylah mentioning it was to help Clarke get over it. I think. This was about grief and healing. And CL. Relationships. Moving on. Niylah was there for Clarke. It was about CLARKE. 

Roan mentioning it was to try and manipulate her into doing what he wanted. It was about politics and about Roan. He was a politician. He liked Clarke, but he also wanted things to go his way. And part of why he liked Clarke was because they had similar views that could sometimes be on the same side and sometimes could come together and sometimes could be influenced. His words about L in season 4 didn’t seem to match the what happened in season 3. 

Whenever a character says something on this show that seems to contradict what they’ve said or done before, I try to compare and contrast their past action/words with their current action/words and make sense of the difference. 

Are they lying? Did their opinion change? Is this growth or regression? Is it fear? are they lying to themselves? Are they trying to manipulate someone? Were they lying before? Did someone influence them? Does it fit their character? Do they have ulterior motives?

One possibility is that L put Roan on the throne, so he wants to reinforce her memory because her action made him the king and it strengthens his claim on the throne. One possibility is that he always liked L in the first place… but that does not reconcile with the way he did what she asked, and she reneged on her promise to free him. 

People really underestimate the negative consequences of L constantly dishonoring her own promises. Her words mean nothing because she will go back on them whenever it serves her purposes. All alliances with L are shaky, because she will stab you in the back if she decides it’s “for her people.” What is “for her people” changes according to what she wants. Whether that is blood for blood or to get Clarke to like her or to make her subjects afraid of her. (which btw, is a terrible leadership policy.)

Roan does not want Clarke to take on this aspect of Lxa…. although, with the stealing of the bunker, she does, and from his pov, also when she tried to become Heda. She tried to work with him and he refused because of what he saw as her betrayal. And so she stole the bunker as her only choice, because it was best “for her people,” or humanity. So, we’ve got a replay of Lxa’s betrayal at MW, a major trauma, but this time with Clarke taking on the role of the betrayer. 

In all the shipwars and stanning, I think people overlook that fact that betraying your allies and breaking your promises is, OBJECTIVELY, a bad thing to do. L has a history of betraying people, and going back on her agreements. It starts out framed as beneficial, something to help her people, her allies, to strengthen everyone, but by the time we get to TonDC, it has ALREADY become a sacrifice of her own allies to strengthen HER position and get HER the ends she desires.

 If you betray people, no one will ever trust you, all of your alliances and connections in the future will be weaker, because your friends will always be looking out for you to betray them and they ALSO will be looking for opportunity to get you before you can get them. It is not “for your people” when you have declared an alliance already, for your people. When none of your people agree. When your people’s goals align with the allies, not the enemies. And the narrative reinforces this by having her allies, the coalition, lose faith in her, the Azgeda work against her, the ambassadors challenge her, Nia attack skykru to get at her, and the coalition leaders stage a coup to get her deposed, and Titus telling her she is wrong and desperately trying to stop her disastrous policies. When you betray your allies, they will betray you. You cannot keep them together. Your community, your society, will fall apart, because no one will trust the bonds of agreement you make. And this is PRECISELY what happened in the story. (I can’t believe I have to explain to people that betraying your allies and breaking your promises is a BAD thing and how it affects you.)

Clarke, as a character, has ALWAYS been too easily led by persuasive leaders, from Jake to Bellamy, to Dante, to Lxa, to Jaha. This is one of her flaws. She takes on many of their most harmful lessons along with their wisdom. So from Jake she gets the desire to protect humanity, but also a foolish self sacrifice. From Bellamy, she learns how to work together, but also this idea that what you do to survive does not define you. From Dante, she learned a responsibility to her people, however she picked up the inaccurate “I bear it so they don’t have to.” They all have to. And it doesn’t take away the evil. From Lxa she learned how to have conviction in her decisions, but also, apparently, that “I did it for my people” is actually a valid excuse. From Jaha, she learned how to play to the masses, but also to sacrifice those not deemed worthy. 

I said in another post that maybe the “big bad” of season 4B is actually humanity’s flaws,as those are what keeps them from working together to survive the apocalypse. We see the grounders and sky crew taking on their previous destructive habits, grounders wanting to fight everyone and sky crew’s lack of value for individual people. Both people invalidate human suffering on the grounds that if they harm someone else, they can protect the people they have declared as chosen. Tribalism.

And in season 4B, Clarke herself is struggling with her own tribalism, replaying the bad leadership lessons of these past leaders. She flirts with the greatest evil– and pulls back. We not only got callbacks to Lxa, using mainly Roan, I think, as the finger pointer, but also to Dante. She nearly tortures Emori before she repeats Dante’s words, and transforms the meaning of sacrifice, by taking the nightblood herself. They use Clarke’s list, which was declared to be Jaha-esque. And Clarke closes the door, saving only her people, with Jaha’s approval. A betrayal of the coalition, Roan, Kane and Octavia, just like Lxa, in TonDC and at MW. 

BUT, because Clarke is the hero of the show and despite being a grim show, it really is about finding hope and trying to make the world a better place, we are finding Clarke LEARNING and growing, and she’s taking the bad lessons she has learned and making better choices. I believe she’s using the Bellamy influence…Bellamy who has reversed his original “who we are and who we need to survive are two very different things,” in his attempt to redeem himself for the deaths he’s caused and do the right thing, rather than what is right for his people. She is pulled back from each of her regressive leadership choices with thoughts of Bellamy, Bellamy himself, and a reassessment of what it means to lead, to make choices, to sacrifice others or yourself, to make the world a better place.

You know, Abby has always represented a kind of evolved leadership philosophy, although she was better as a doctor than a chancellor. And Kane was transformed by his first culling into the evolved leader. (How will the regression of the second culling affect him?) And they’ve both given Clarke and Bellamy leadership advice that has led to them making better choices. 

Oh. Was this post about Lxa? Right. That’s what I think. She is important, within the narrative, for how she affected Clarke and the politics and the grounder plot lines. To put Lxa first in consideration, whether because you love her or hate her, is a misleading interpretation. Even when L had her biggest role, it was not ABOUT L, it was about CLARKE. Because the story is and was and has always been about Clarke. Who is the hero. 

I do not have it in me to get upset about L mentions in season 4 anymore. I’m just going to look for how it affects Clarke and the grounders. In other words. The story. Of The 100. Which is not The Lxa Show, because she is neither the hero, nor a main character, nor the center of the story, nor the most important anything. She is simply another character/storyline. And that’s how I’m reading her part. She’s on a par, for me, with Maya, who I liked better, and who was a better person. Or Roan, who was more fun. But as for importance? Maya is underrated and Lxa is overrated by both sides of the fandom. And I wish we still had Roan around. 

[sometimesrosy]

What main characters in the 100 do you consider as selfless?

All right. I think there are selfless characters in this story, but I am not considering being selfless to actually be an admirable trait. Or not totally admirable. Let me explain why.

Someone like Abby will risk her life to do the right thing or to save her daughter or both. But she is definitely doing it for herself and her love of her daughter and self identity and such. And what that means is she actually thinks about the repercussions of things and how what she wants interacts with what is right and how the rest of the world works. She isn’t BLINDLY selfless. 

Someone like JAKE, was selfless. He risked his life in order to do what was right, and was willing to give up his life to do it. This was actually kind of stupid and defeated his purpose, because he didn’t recognize the effect this would have on people around him, notably his daughter, who, in echoing his selfless behavior, threw herself onto the same sword and was imprisoned and given a death sentence for it. Not only did his selflessness affect his loved ones, but it also affected the outcome of his goal– to save everyone on The Ark and tell the truth– because the truth was silenced, the oppressive regime continued their oppression enacting even more draconic punishments, AND the head of engineering was no longer around to work on solving this problem, whether that entailed simply fixing the air system, which he couldn’t do, or finding creative solutions to the problem… which ABBY found. And she found it out of selfISHness, because she was desperate for a way to save Clarke from being floated on her 18th birthday. 

I think there are some characters that people THINK are being selfless, when really they are sacrificing one thing so they can have another that they want more. That’s not selfless. If you give up love so that you can have power, that’s not selfless. You want to have POWER. You are doing it in your self interest. f you decide later that you want love more and then sacrifice your power for that love, you still aren’t being selfless. You are then wanting to have LOVE. Still self interest. This can be seen in both Lxa and Jaha. Where their personal self interest is subsumed into their zealotry. What they want for themselves isn’t their motivation (until it is) but rather, their dominance over other people. They believe they are the only ones who truly understand and their beliefs, wisdom and power comes first. Not selfless.

I think there are some characters who are selfless, but perhaps have a really twisted idea of what selfless means and how they give themselves to their people. Like, a character like Dante Wallace is pretty selfless in that he’s willing to take on the burden of evil so his people don’t have to worry about it, but it doesn’t really work like that, as those people are STILL bearing it and still responsible for their acceptance of the evil so that they can benefit. He’s just giving them an excuse for pretending they don’t have a choice in the atrocities they are taking part of because they didn’t order it themselves. Because they follow him. Is that selfless? Or does he want his people to survive so much that he would do anything to reach his goal? Is his self interest driven by the survival of those he considers his tribe? I think so. Thus not selfless but self interest.

So let me think about who the selfless characters are and which ones I think are most effective in their selflessness. Maybe these won’t be surprises.

Maya Vie. She saw that what her people were doing was wrong, and while she went along with it for years, knowing it, when she reflected upon who her people really were and what they would do for their self interest, she stood up and faced down her own selfishness, her own desire to survive (which she never gave up btw) and did the right thing, not only sacrificing her loved ones and her entire people, but her own life. Willingly. And she weighed her selfless goals with her self interested survival and she chose to give up self interest.

Lincoln. He also saw that his people were doing wrong and stood with the side of the others who were being wronged. Again and again he made the choice to side with the sky people, and it wasn’t just for Octavia’s sake. He would have left with her when the kill order was lifted if it WAS for Octavia’s sake. He wanted peace. He wanted another way to live. He wanted to protect his people who were also interested in unity and working with the sky people and followed him. He stood up to tyranny, whether it came from his own people or the sky people. Like Maya, he ALSO sacrificed his life so that the world would be a better place and to face down tyranny and oppression. I say his selflessness wasn’t quite as successful as Maya’s because in his selflessness, he lost a little too much self. He WAITED. He always waited for someone else to make the decision (except in regards to Octavia) he let Lxa or Indra or Bellamy or Kane make the decisions and he passively accepted what they decided. He knew what was right and he tried to convince others that it was right, but his proactive attempts to right wrongs was mostly limited to Octavia. So his self interest is what made him be more effective. See? I think he should have believed more in his understanding of right and wrong. Because he was right. So he should have been more selfish.

Bellamy. Bellamy as a person is pretty selfless. giving up his life to keep his sister alive and safe. This was not good for him. And when it failed to work, he went into a spiral of self hate and acting out and selfish behavior in reaction. Over the course of the story he’s learned to expand his selfless protection beyond just those he loved. I think he was the most effective and the best in his selflessness in season 2 when he sacrificed himself to at first just save his people, but then, upon recognizing that it wasn’t just about his own people, attempting to save the mountain, too. But while he succeeded with his people he failed with the mountain and this was so traumatic that he, in way, gave up his self in season 3. Rather than selfless, he erased his self, and gave away his power to other people, so he no longer had to make the decisions that led to horror. And in doing so, he let his selfish desire for revenge and his need to protect only those he loved be manipulated. He became a weapon for someone else to use, because he did not recognize anymore that his understanding of right and wrong was the right thing, even though it could fail and cause him personal pain. I think Bellamy regains a lot of his sense of self in season 4, when he makes choices to do the right thing, not just what was in his people’s best interest, or in revenge for what was done to him and his people. Bellamy still struggles with the positive and negative aspects of self interest and selflessness, and in the end, he might be the most effective– but it might be because he has learned NOT to erase his own sense of self in service of humanity. huh. interesting.

Clarke. Clarke has her father’s self destructive selflessness. She will sell her soul in order to protect other people. She took her father’s short sighted selflessness and combined it with Dante’s false selflessness, Bellamy’s self sacrifice in the name of his people, and Jaha’s and L’s egotism in deciding who is worth saving, and just made a mess of it all. She didn’t want to do it, but it was given to her, and she did it. She did things that she believed were wrong, because she was sacrificing her own morality. She erased her own self so many times in order to save people, that I think it’s possible there was little left of her. UNTIL she was forced to sacrifice very personal love in order to do it. She would NOT sacrifice Emori. She would NOT sacrifice Bellamy. She would NOT sacrifice Raven or Monty or Harper or Murphy or Emori anymore. She loved them and it wasn’t worth leaving them behind or testing on them or shooting them. Not even if it meant humanity would collapse. So she was beginning to remember her own sense of self and weigh it with self sacrifice, morality, long term cause and effect, and giving her self up for a cause. 

 this went on longer than I planned. It turns out to be a complicated question.