#the capacity bellamy and octavia have to hurt each other more than anyone else and how to some degree it's neither of their faults because

[meredithbeckham]

[osleyakomwonkru]

The Failure of Experience: Team Adults and the Destruction of Octavia Blake

(No S6 information here, this is all from S5)

Let’s be clear about one thing. Regardless of whether or not you agree with any of the characters’ specific actions or not, or which character’s side you come down on, there’s one indisputable truth about season 5: The adults of the bunker (Kane, Abby, Indra, and to a lesser extent Jaha and Gaia) made a traumatized and unstable teenager with anger management issues their leader, forced her to make impossible and horrific life-or-death choices, and then abandoned her to face the repercussions, both personal and political, on her own, disavowing any responsibility or complicity in what she became.

This is despicable on so many levels, and the reason why Kane, Abby and Indra occupy three of the five spots on my “most hated The 100 characters” list for the season - which is a damn shame, because Kane had been one of my favourites since season 2. His relationship with Octavia, as well as the relationship between the Blake siblings, have always been my favourite non-romantic relationships on the show, and having both of them shattered to pieces in season 5 was just devastating.

Jaha

One of the biggest tragedies of Octavia’s story is that the bunker forced her to become her greatest enemy - the same kind of ruthless leader that controlled the Ark of her childhood and forced her to live under the floor. For Octavia, Jaha was the embodiment of all she hated, since he had been the Chancellor, though Kane and Abby were also complicit.

So the conversation she had to have with Jaha in 5x02, and where he told her to make the Grounders stand down otherwise he wasn’t going to open the doors to the farm - you can see the light go out of her eyes when she knows the kinds of decisions she’s going to be faced with now. What she’s going to have to do to keep her people alive. And she hates him - and herself - for needing to do it.

But at the same time, while Jaha gave her the tools and blueprint to follow, thus beginning the creation of her tragedy, but he wasn’t the one responsible for breaking her. For destroying her. That blame sits primarily on Kane and Abby’s shoulders, as we’ll get into below.

I think that had Jaha lived, he would have been the guidance that could have prevented Octavia’s destruction - unlike the other adults, he didn’t judge the younger generation, but tried to provide guidance whenever he could. This is because he knew he had no moral high ground to judge from. He has a similar discussion in 4x02 with Clarke as he does in 5x02 with Octavia, and I don’t think that’s an accident. His words to Clarke there also wouldn’t have been out of place to Octavia here: “No leader starts out wanting to lie, or imprison, or execute their people. The decisions you face just whittle you down piece by piece.”

Jaha was the best surviving member of Team Adults (I liked Sinclair better), but now he was gone too - leaving Octavia with those of questionable morals and advisory capacity.

Gaia

Now, Gaia isn’t an adult like the others, she’s probably of the same age as Octavia herself (and Tati Gabrielle is in fact a decade younger than Marie Avgeropoulos), but her position of authority as a Flamekeeper and her resulting influence on Octavia merits her inclusion on this list.

I think the biggest flaw when it comes to Gaia in season 5 is that we didn’t see the alleged “influence” that she had on Octavia. Indra references it a number of times, and we see Gaia there with her in 5x02, but that’s all. Gaia is completely absent from the Dark Year flashbacks, and as I described in this post I don’t think that’s an accident on the show creators’ parts. Nor was the fact that we didn’t actually see Gaia’s alleged influence on Octavia. Those are all points I will address in a later post, however.

What we do know, however, is that Gaia was instrumental in creating the Blodreina cult (whenever it happened, it didn’t after the farm mutiny, that much is clear and again something I’ll get back to), she was even the leader of it, as we saw at the fights in the arena. But despite this intense loyalty to Octavia, Gaia was ready to turn tail as soon as a Nightblood showed up. Her old faith wasn’t as dead as she thought it could have been.

However, it should be noted that Gaia was still loyal to Octavia, even after discovering what Madi was - she was only turned against Octavia when Indra, her own mother, manipulated her for her own purposes, so that she would in turn manipulate Madi into taking the Flame. I don’t think Gaia (or Madi, for that matter) knew the truth of why Octavia was “sick”. Indra and Bellamy did, but they kept their cards close to their chest and didn’t reveal that to anyone else, especially not Gaia or Madi, who were loyal to Octavia.

Indra

To her credit, Indra does (privately) acknowledge the part she played in destroying Octavia, unlike Abby and Kane. However, that does not absolve her of her sins.

One thing that bothers me about Indra - and always has, I guess you could say - is that she’s simultaneously loyal to a fault and the traitor behind the curtain. This hypocrisy is a dangerous combination. Take her early appearances in season 2 and 3 - she’s exceedingly loyal to Lexa and the throne of the Commanders, even when it pains her to be so. But at the same time, she goes behind Lexa’s back when the moment suits her - such as when she gave Lincoln the means to escape at the end of season 2.

It could be said that she did this for Octavia - because each instance where she was pained by her loyalty to the Commanders was also a situation where Octavia was somehow involved (such as leaving when Lexa sounded the retreat, and when she left Bellamy in the cave when the new ascension call sounded). And indeed, by the beginning of season 4, with no Commander on the throne, Indra’s loyalty shifts completely to Octavia, as it were. Indra is the first to embrace the idea of Wonkru, and even the one who inspires her to think in that direction in the first place - “I taught you to fight. But who you fight for is up to you.”

But I guess it shouldn’t be any surprise that her old behavioural patterns continued in the bunker, except this time Octavia was the leader she simultaneously supported and undermined at the same time.

She didn’t appear to try to convince Kane of the necessity of cannibalism, even though she was the most pragmatic of the bunch about it. She bent rules to allow Kane and Abby to see each other before Kane’s fight. She released Kane and made it possible for him to escape - subsequently setting in motion all of the conflict of season 5. Then she worked alongside Bellamy and Clarke to foil Octavia’s plans and ultimately depose her.

But why? That’s the answer we never get. She even agreed with a lot of Octavia’s more brutal plans - she clearly says to Bellamy and Clarke “good plan” with regards to the worms - but still for some reason works against her, under the guise of “protecting Octavia from herself”.

Indra knows Octavia better than almost any other living character. She knows the pain that Octavia went through as a result of the Dark Year - and she knows that she stood by and let it happen. But instead of supporting her and fighting with her, she worked against her, taking away her agency - which she would know is the most hurtful betrayal of all.

Indra spent 30+ years as a Trikru warrior and war chief, ready to fight at the slightest insult (not even provocation, just insult was enough), especially against Skaikru or Azgeda. But after six years in the bunker, she wants to make peace with an enemy that they have absolutely no reason to trust? Gaia lampshades this entire situation in 5x09 - “Suddenly you’re a peacemaker, mother?” Gaia doesn’t buy it either. None of it makes sense.

So for all of Indra’s claims at the end of season 4, where Octavia says that she didn’t do this on her own and Indra replies “No leader ever does” - Indra was no different than the others, where she abandoned the girl she molded into the leader she became. Great mentoring there, seda.

Abby

One thing I didn’t expect 5x11 The Dark Year to do was give me sympathy for Abby. I’ve never liked Abby, ever, and while she’s still on my top 5 hate list, this episode did bump her down a spot or two. Because there’s a reason why we’re watching Octavia’s tragedy through Abby’s eyes in this episode - because it isn’t only Octavia’s tragedy, it is Abby’s too. The big difference, however, being that no one seemed to know the role that Abby had played.

Of course, it still ate her up inside and that’s why she was consumed by her addiction, but leaving the public burden on Octavia’s shoulders, that’s the part that I consider unforgivable. There was so much that Abby could have done to make the Dark Year less awful than it could have been, for Octavia as well as Wonkru as a whole.

As a doctor and a part of Octavia’s inner circle, she would have commanded respect. She should have stood up with Octavia in the cafeteria, and told them what she told Octavia - that choosing death by starvation wasn’t just a personal choice, it was a choice that would affect everyone, because if people starved to death, they wouldn’t be able to supply adequate nutrition to those who were willing to eat and make sure the human race survived. In her capacity as a doctor, people would believe her. Instead, she just stood by and watched.

Some might say that Abby didn’t know that Octavia would kill to get resisters to submit, but I don’t think that’s true. When Octavia asks “So what do you want me to do? Make it a crime not to be a cannibal?”, Abby nods. She knows what it means to be a criminal in the bunker. She knows that means death. When Kane questions her as he comes in with “what’s with the guns?” she says nothing, clearly understanding why they’re there.

Abby knew exactly the burden she was placing on Octavia’s shoulders. She said “the Blight generation, they had a choice, and they never recovered from it. The people who ate, had to watch the people who didn’t eat die slowly. And their guilt nearly destroyed them” - this isn’t to convince Octavia of the necessity of everyone eating, this is to convince her to take the burden of that guilt onto herself by removing their choice.

Abby asked a 19 year old girl to bear all of the guilt and horror of roughly a thousand people, the last remnants of humanity, so that they would survive. No wonder Abby has flipped perspectives with Kane since S1 - in S1 she wanted to make sure the human race deserved to survive, now she was willing to sacrifice the soul of a teenage girl to make it happen. S1 Abby would have never done that.

Kane

Kane, Kane, Kane. Where do I even start? As I said above, Kane was one of my favourite characters in seasons two through four, so I’m really disappointed that he’s now at the top of my most hated list.

I know a common complaint about season 5 is that people feel that they don’t recognize the characters they’ve come to know and love. In most cases, I don’t agree. I do recognize most of the characters, they are the same characters we know and love, just with six more years on them in differing extreme circumstances. The cases I do agree on, however, are Kane and Bellamy (an to an extent Clarke, but Bellamy and Clarke we’ll talk about in another post). Kane has often played the part of a self-righteous bastard, but in doing so, he’s usually provided options, solutions, other ways from what people were doing at the time.

However, here he offers no such options, and that’s the part that I find most frustrating. He’s opposed to cannibalism, but he knows what the stakes are, and still doesn’t suggest another option, even when Octavia begs him for it. As I outlined in this post, he knew exactly the situations Octavia had to lead through in the bunker - because he’d done it himself. If he knew where and when he made mistakes in his time as a leader on the Ark, he damn well should have been speaking up with other options to Octavia, instead of just offering “no”.

And then to discover in 5x12 that Kane knew that Abby had forced Octavia’s hand into making people eat - and that he didn’t hold Abby responsible at all - that was despicable on so many levels. I mean, what level of cognitive dissonance is there at play in this man’s head? Yes, Octavia made the choice to pull the trigger, but she wouldn’t have put herself in that position in the first place if Abby hadn’t convinced her of the necessity of it. Abby definitely has moral culpability on this matter, as does Kane himself, yet somehow he feels he can blame Octavia for all of it? As if.

That horrific situation aside, there’s the difference between Kane in the bunker and Kane out of the bunker. Let’s dive into this one shall we?

No one liked the bunker. Everyone wanted out of it, Octavia included (and perhaps more than anyone else, given the burdens she carried). The sealed bunker was the circumstance that created all of the horror, so when the bunker was opened, that meant everything finally had the opportunity to change, after six long terrible years.

So then why is it that when that obstacle was removed, that Kane went running for the hills, when up until the very moment the bunker was opened, he was still trying to reach out to Octavia? Even as she was about to take his head off, he’s telling her “it’s not too late”.

Had the bunker stayed sealed, it would have been too late for him. But it opened, and he survived. This was the prime opportunity for him return to those words - now that everything could be different since they weren’t trapped anymore. But he didn’t. He and Abby told Clarke that talking to Octavia would be hopeless, but had they even tried, now that the bunker was opened? Nope. Instead they helped along a war that would then last the rest of the season.

I also wonder just how much he told Diyoza. Did he tell Diyoza about the cannibalism? About the rise of the Red Queen? What they all did in the past - both on the ground and on the Ark? In 5x08 he also starts his sanctimonious pageantry at Diyoza, and while he talks about how he knows what it’s like to make the bad choices, I don’t know if she knows the extent of the one’s he has made. 

But really, all of the above details really pale to what Kane’s most horrible deed was - and that was the betrayal of Wonkru to McCreary.

There was absolutely no justification for that. None.

I don’t care what he thought about Octavia. I don’t care if all of the evil that he believed of her was 100% true. I don’t care if she spent six years sitting on a throne of blood eating babies and cackling like a maniac (I mean, she didn’t, but for argument’s sake). That does not justify sacrificing the innocents of Wonkru in the hopes of taking her out too.

Maybe Kane believes that McCreary wouldn’t have slaughtered them all. Which would make him a naive idiot, because he knew exactly what kind of a man McCreary was. And even if he wasn’t completely clear on it, his partner in crime Diyoza certainly was. Expecting anything but total annihilation from McCreary was monumentally foolish and has no justification.

Octavia never wanted to lead. She never wanted to have to make horrific choices to keep what was left of humanity alive. And she shouldn’t have had to - she had plenty of people whispering in her ear with what to do and what not to do. She took their advice, she learned their lessons, she tried to do what they hadn’t ever been able to do - unify people and give them a chance to survive instead of being sent straight to the execution chamber. 

But instead of congratulating her for her achievements, or helping her through the hard times, or taking some goddamn responsibility for their own roles in the drama - they abandoned her. They disowned her, they tried to kill her, they destroyed her.

They put the world on her shoulders, and let it slowly crush her. And that’s unforgivable.

[mbtizone]

Clarke Griffin (The 100): INFJ

Dominant Introverted Intuition [Ni]: Clarke isn’t trying to preserve her former way of life. She doesn’t want things to stay the same. Clarke advocates for change. She works towards a better future. She wants peace between the Arkadians and the Grounders. Clarke is skilled when it comes to devising plans. She can see the big picture and knows the value of forging alliances with other clans (Ni-Fe). She’s good at focusing and doesn’t get sidetracked from her goals. When the group of prisoners land on the ground, everyone else gets caught up exploring and marveling over the many wonders of the Earth. They soak up the sunlight, jump into the water, and run around, enjoying the new sensations. Clarke, however, is determined to get to Mount Weather. She scolds the others for not keeping up on their journey because she has her goal in sight. She needs to get everyone to Mount Weather, where they can seek shelter and get food. Survival is the most important thing. Everything else is just a distraction. Clarke tries to be prepared for any situation, and has contingency plans just in case her original one goes awry (taking over the bunker in case Octavia loses the conclave). Clarke’s Ni and Fe often team up to allow her to persuade people into doing what she wishes. She can sense what other people want and what their motivations are and exploits that to convince them to do what she tells them.

Auxiliary Extroverted Feeling [Fe]: Even though Clarke is able to put her emotions aside in order to do what needs to be done, she is extremely empathetic and feels every decision that she makes. While Clarke is capable of making impossible decisions that get people hurt or killed, she has a difficult time in the aftermath because of her capacity for empathy, and has a difficult time being around her people because of the guilt she feels once the deed is done. However, her reason for making the choices she makes is for the greater good of her people. Her main priority is the survival of humanity. She thinks in the long-term, beyond just her people, to future generations (Ni-Fe). Clarke believes that she knows what’s best and immediately falls into a leadership position because of the way she takes charge and tries to keep everybody safe. Clarke is able to make sacrifices for others, even if she has to do something unspeakable to get the job done. When Finn is to be mercilessly tortured before being killed, Clarke steps up to put him out of his misery so he doesn’t have to suffer a slow, painful death. She makes tough calls that will get a number of people killed, but will ultimately save more people. She is accepting of having the weight of the world on her shoulders, because that means nobody else has to carry the burden of guilt. She understands the value of building positive relations with the Grounders and strives for harmony.

Tertiary Introverted Thinking [Ti]: Because Clarke has a sharp, analytical mind, and is very good at speedily assessing situations, she is quickly able to come up with the most efficient solution to a problem. As long as the decision makes sense to Clarke, she acts on it. She doesn’t need to discuss it with anyone else. Clarke trusts her own logic and, even though the decisions are difficult, she makes the call she feels is necessary. During times of stress, Clarke can loop, ignoring her auxiliary function in favor of making her Ni vision a reality through her Ti rationale. Clarke is inquisitive and asks a lot of questions so she can understand the specifics of a situation. When Finn tells her to make a wish on a shooting star, she wants to know why because it’s “just a rock burning up in the atmosphere, why would that make your wish come true?” Clarke can become frustrated when she determines the best resolution to a problem and somebody ruins it because that was clearly their best option.

Inferior Extroverted Sensing [Se]: Although Clarke is a planner and focuses on the future as opposed to living in the present, she does have an awareness of her environment. She can think quickly on her feet if a situation arises suddenly, and can react to it accordingly with her surprisingly good reflexes. When Octavia is attacked by a sea creature, it is Clarke who immediately thinks of distracting it by throwing a boulder into the water. Her quick thinking works, and Octavia is freed. When Clarke arrives at Mount Weather, she breaks the glass and holds it to Maya’s neck, forcing her to take her to her friends. She doesn’t understand when someone make reckless a decision with no regard for the consequences and often chides people when they do. When she first meets Finn, she reprimands him for going on an illegal spacewalk that costs the people on the Ark a month of oxygen. Clarke takes action in dangerous situations if it’s to serve her Ni goals, as opposed to just doing so to enjoy the sensations. For instance, while Finn and Wells are trying to figure out a way to procure the seaweed without being attacked by the creature in the water. Clarke is charging right in and grabs it. She enjoys in the feeling of shooting a gun and, though she doesn’t do it often, she is capable of letting loose, having fun, and enjoying the moment.

Note: I know that a lot of people will disagree with my typing of Clarke. I don’t think I’ve ever seen her typed as anything other than XSFJ, but I just don’t see Si or Ne in her. Everyone’s entitled to their opinions, of course, but I really wanted to get this typing out there to give people a different perspective.

Enneagram: 6w5 So/Sx (Tritype: 628)

Quotes:

Clarke: Hey, guys, would you try to keep up? Finn: Come on, Clarke. How do you block all this out? Clarke: Well, it’s simple. I wonder, ‘why haven’t we seen any animals?’ Maybe it’s because there are none. Maybe we’ve already been exposed to enough radiation to kill us. Sure is pretty, though. Come on.

Clarke: Follow me. Bellamy: And why would I do that? Clarke: Because you want them to follow you, and right now, they’re thinking only one of us is scared.

Bellamy: Look. If you need forgiveness, I’ll give that to you. You’re forgiven. Please come inside. Clarke: Take care of them for me. Bellamy: Clarke! Clarke: No. Seeing their faces every day is just gonna remind me of what I did to get them here. What we did. Bellamy: You don’t have to do this alone. Clarke: I bear it so they don’t have to.

Abby: The rules have changed. This gives you a chance to live. Your instincts will tell you to take care of everybody else first, just like your father.

Bellamy: You’re up? Clarke: Yeah, knowing that hundreds of people might be dying on the Ark makes it pretty hard to sleep. Bellamy: Raven’s flares will work. Clarke: A radio would’ve worked better.

Clarke: So, what does this seaweed look like? Wells: Like that. Hey, that thing that bit Octavia, how big was it? Finn: Big. We could rig this into some kind of a net. Find something to lower it into the water. [Clarke walks straight into the water] Finn: Or we could just do that. [Clarke starts grabbing the red seaweed and then walks back to shore with it]

Clarke: Well, I don’t know. Do you want the people you love to think you’re dead? Do you want them to follow you down here in two months? Because they won’t if they think we’re dying.

Finn: Unity Day is a lie. The Ark only came together after the 13th station was blown out of the sky. It’s just not the version of history we like to tell each other at parties. Clarke: The Unity Day story gives people hope, though. And peace came out of that violence.

Clarke: I tried… I tried to be the good guy… Abby: Maybe there are no good guys.

Clarke: Show my people how powerful you are. Show them you can be merciful. Show them you’re not a savage.

Clarke: I love you, too. Finn: I’m scared. Clarke: You’re gonna be okay. You’re okay… [draws back her bloody knife] Finn: Thanks, princess.

Clarke: It can’t be that simple. You said there’s fuel in those rockets, right? Enough to build 100 bombs. Raven: I also said we’ve got no gunpowder left. Clarke: I don’t want to build a bomb. I want to blast off. Raven: Draw them in close. Fire the rockets. A ring of fire. Bellamy: Barbecued grounders. I like it. Finn: Will it work? Raven: You give me enough time, I’ll cook them real good.

Clarke Griffin (The 100): INFJ was originally published on MBTI Zone