lotesse | in the garden I did no crime

-Octavia and Clarke. Both girls are looking for a belonging-place, a social system to integrate into; both keep thinking they've found one only to be sharply disappointed by others' disappointments with them, realizing that they don't fit after all. Clarke's conflicts with Abby and the Arker government are similar to Octavia's with Indra and Lexa: both girls are stung by their lack of belongingness, but are unwilling to bend to the mores of their respective cultural elders. Clarke's relationship with Lexa mirrors Octavia's with Lincoln, both Arker girls learning about new forms of strength from grounder lovers, becoming changed and hybridized by the closeness of that encounter. Abby's rejection of Clarke thus also mirrors and inverts Octavia's rejection of Kane: Clarke and Octavia are neither Arkers nor Grounders. They stand alone, save for their parallel connections back to Bellamy and his steadfast conceptualization of the delinquents as a family or tribe.

-Bellamy and Maya. Maya's arc is a version of Bellamy's in a minor key, set a full phrase behind. Maya in Mount Weather is Bellamy on the Ark: rebellious but secretive, habitually quiet and deferential as a form of self-protection, with a mother connected to radical/revolutionary/unsanctioned behavior. Neither's core biofamily structure survives the rupture intact. Bellamy, whose blood, we see, is strongest blood, is able to survive on the ground, but he has to lose Aurora before he can get there; in counterpoint, Maya, whose mother died early in her story, isn't able to survive unprotected outside of her version of the high-tech impermeable-bubble origin-world space they both share. Her story terminates while his continues.

-Abby and Murphy. Both are following dubiously in the wake of highly charismatic leaders - Clarke and Jaha - who are absolutely convinced of the rightness of their actions in spite of the potential evidence against them. Abby and Murphy both scold and snark but continue to follow. Murphy's arc underscores Abby's, running a few episodes behind hers like a reprise; Murphy in the finale is Abby in 2.12, finally fed up with being protected while others are callously sacrificed in the name of survival; but Murphy has something to discover, whereas Abby hasn't engaged much with the ground and its changes. Murphy is increasingly isolated, while Abby's screentime is increasingly tied toward her relationships with Clarke and Kane, to the point that they're nearly defining her atm. (whither Abby&Raven??)

-Kane and Wallace. Leaders who are perhaps no longer young, who have to deal with what the twisted rules they made have done to members of the following generation, in Clarke and in Cage. Kane does a better job of it, extending understanding and compassion to Clarke and taking his fair share of the blame; Wallace keeps wanting to think he can be a good guy by sparing the "civilized" high-tech 47 but continuing to maintain a way of life founded on the abuse of grounder blood and lives. For this, Wallace dies, and i say it's fucking righteous. Get him, Clarke.

-Jasper and Cage. How far will you go to buy a better life for your people? Who are you willing to kill? Cocky young men with inner weaknesses and uncertainties, sometimes seized by hotheaded or cold-hearted violence.

-Lexa and Raven. Bereft and mourning former lost loves, these two girls are both dealing with conflicts between their personal feelings and their political duties - Lexa wants to protect Clarke, Raven wants to be angry about Finn - in addition to their deep-seeded trust issues. Compare Clarke's prying at Lexa - you do care, you know it - to Wick's pokes at Raven. The issue resolves for each in contrapuntal opposition, with Lexa choosing head and Raven trusting heart; at the end of the season, Lexa is inscrutable while Raven is laid painfully bare.

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tassosss

I love this. I don't have many thinky thoughts, but I really hadn't thought about Jasper paralleling Cage before, or Abby and Murphy following their leaders. I love what you say about Bellamy and Maya, too, because since Bellamy becomes so outspoken in season 1, we've never really seen him be unobtrusive except in flashbacks, but that is what he was like to survive on the Ark.

I think it's interesting that you pair Kane and Wallace, since on the show they pair Wallace with Abby as the power overthrown in the coups, but I like it because Kane is still very much the Arkers leader with Abby, as opposed to Wallace who is sole leader with final word.

I'm totally with you on wanting more Abby and Raven together. I love their relationship.