#something about parallels of two delinquents fallen into darkness with another friend who wants to save them... or something

[revengesworn]

i desperately want kojiro and mikey in a fic and/or thread together for some reason. maybe they kill a man together. i have no clue

[thelegendofclarke]

can you explain why you still like octavia? i'm not trying to troll you or anything i am just wondering. i used to really like her a lot and she was one of my favorites but i just don't like her character that much anymore so i am wondering what people still like about her?

Hey Anonny! Yeah sure, since you have asked so nicely I guess I can talk about my thoughts on Octavia…

Ok so ~caveat lectors~ before I start: I usually avoid answering questions like this tbh because 1) I tend to get really rambley, and 2) I feel like people have a tendency to equate liking a character with condoning/agreeing with all their actions and trying to excuse/justify everything they do. That’s NOT how I personally approach liking a character. So yeah, I preface this by saying that even though I love O and find her character really interesting, I absolutely don’t agree with everything she has done or every choice she has made. 

So one of the first things I find really interesting about Octavia is how she is kind of a commentary on what happens when people are taught to deal with their problems/emotions through violence. At some point in the series, O has acted out physically against the very people who she loves most in the world: Bellamy, Lincoln, and Indra. As I discuss below, I think she uses force: a) because she never learned that it was wrong (she has actually been taught to use it as a coping mechanism), and b) because she never learned to express herself in healthier ways. 

O spent the first 14 years of her life living in a hole in the floor; her brother and her mother were her entire world and the only people she had ever interacted with. Also, given how the other Delinquents reacted to her in “Join or Die,” it doesn’t look like she was permitted to interact with any of them either after she was locked up. Someone who lives such a solitary life like that probably isn’t going to have learned very well how to deal with their emotions or have a lot of emotional maturity. Then she was sent to the ground and she, along with all the other Delinquents, are basically immediately exposed to using violence as a means to survive. I mean Lincoln was probably the biggest marshmallow stuffed teddy bear on the whole show, yet he was the one who ultimately taught O to fight and to kill. Indra, who was probably one of the biggest influences on O’s life outside of Bellamy and Lincoln, taught her “a warrior does not mourn those she’s lost until after the battle is won.” Before Lincoln turns himself in to Pike O tells him “We fight together;” this is how she shows her support, this is how she shows she loves him and she is with him. Action, and often violent action, is how Octavia has learned to deal with things. But I think what Octavia’s character shows us is that this is a destructive way to live. It’s not only destructive to the individual, but it will end up being destructive to society, such as the grounder one, where children are taught to be warriors.  Changing this society built around war and violence (something Clarke and Lexa wanted to do and Luna is working to do) is something I think will end up being important. 

I also think O’s tendency toward aggression is tied to her lack of self-worth, as this post sums up perfectly:

Octavia makes herself large, throwing her weight and her words around to claim as much space as possible, and that’s rooted in her life under the floor. She feels like she has to fight for everything because back when she didn’t fight, she got nothing. Just being a human – a friend, a girlfriend, a sister – is not enough for Octavia. She sees no merit to just being herself; that never got her anything before. She has to fight, or she’ll wind up with nothing again.

Society on The Ark made people feel powerless. It took away so much of their freedom of choice and identity and essentially dictated who and what they were, and as I talk about right below, I think O is a prime example of this. And I think one of her greatest fears is feeling powerless like that again.  

Another thing I find interesting about O’s character and her arc is how she has basically gone completely from one end of the spectrum to the other in terms of agency. If you think about it, Octavia is the only Delinquent who was locked up, and then subsequently sent to the ground, through no fault or actions of her own. Her crime was existing. Every other Delinquent made conscious choices that resulted in them getting put in the Sky Box and then sent to Earth. Even Wells, who’s crime was the actual cutest and lamest crime I have ever heard of, still committed an actual crime with the express goal of being sent to Earth. In the Ark, Octavia lived a life of essentially total submission; she was completely controlled by the wills of those around her and basically had no free will of her own. Now we see her moving into a stage that almost seems to be complete rebellion. She’s pretty much saying “fuck it” to everyone else and their expectations and doing what she wants regardless of the consequences or who she hurts… I don’t think either of these are the true Octavia. Personally, I want to see O find a balance between the two; I think that’s where she’ll find herself. 

I also kind of see O’s arc so far as a ~How Far the Mighty Have Fallen~ kind of thing, and I think the cave scene with Bellamy in “Fallen” is the pinnacle example. During season 1 “Contents Under Pressure” when Bellamy had Lincoln chained up and beat him O was appalled. Yet at the end of season 3, we see her do the exact same thing when it is Bellamy chained to the wall and she is the one doing the beating. I think that parallel shows exactly how much O has changed since season 1, and not necessarily for the better. And I think it was also about how people can, in moments of extreme sorrow or desperation, let their emotions get the better of them and lash out and the consequences that may result from that. I can think of two other big examples of this in the series off the top of my head right now…

Finn, who was always a huge advocate for peace and non-violence and refused to hold a gun, holding a village of grounders hostage at gun point and killing some of them in season 2 when Clarke was missing. 

Bellamy participating in the killing of the grounder army in season 3 after the massacre at Mount Weather. 

Like other characters have, and will continue to do so I suspect, Octavia has reached her dark/breaking point. This is supposed to make us uncomfortable, this is supposed to make us squirm, we are supposed to be throwing shit at the TV and yelling “NO BB WHAT ARE YOU DOING?!” through our tears… I do hope that, like Bellamy, Octavia gets a chance to redeem herself from this; but I don’t need her to have a redemption arc for me to still like and appreciate her character and what she contributes to the story. 

I also feel that a lot of my ability to love and appreciate Octavia as a character is because I am good at separating fact from fiction. I don’t like O because I was to be her bff and have sleepovers and bake cupcakes (although I would totally be down for braiding each other’s hair!), I like her because I find her character and her arc and her journey interesting to watch and generally enjoyable. I understand that there are people who have a hard time with this, and I’m not even trying to be at all snarky or condescending here. I completely and totally understand and accept that some people have had experiences or relationships in their lives that can make certain types of media or stories or characters difficult to watch because it triggers an emotional reaction for them. Octavia beating up Bellamy was horrifying and heart wrenching to watch, but I see O and Bell as fictional characters and not real people going through this situation. I DO NOT agree with Octavia beating up Bellamy, I don’t think it was right in any way or that he ~had it coming~ or anything of the sort, nor do I agree with the way she has treated several other characters on several other occasions. But I’m also not going to completely write her off; Octavia is such an interesting character to me BECAUSE she is so adrift and is struggling so hard to process and work through what is happening around her and where she fits in. I just personally don’t need a character to be completely good or moral for me to like them, nor do I feel the compulsion to defend or justify every single choice made and action taken by the characters I like. 

I realize that I am kind of glossing over O’s relationships with Lincoln and Bellamy and those dynamics here, but tbh my focus was on Octavia herself and her character. I know that her relationships, especially these two, have done a great deal to shape who she is. But idk to me that is just a completely separate discussion from this one. 

And yep, this got superrr rambley… but I warned you!

P.S. if you are still curious or want to talk more about Octavia I definitely recommend checking out @raincityruckus if you haven’t already! She has written more articulately about O, and the Blake sibling in general, than I ever could.