Well, That's A Strategy That I Can Support.
Notes on episode 3.13 of The 100, 'Join or Die':
I laughed very loudly when Pike started hitting Murphy in the flashback to lessons on the Ark. Everyone just beats Murphy up! Everyone, all the time!
I also feel Murphy ends up hovering awkwardly in the background of a lot of fucked-up shit (e.g. the torture in this episode, the drawn-out death in 'Thirteen'), with an expression that says 'why do I have to sit through all this fucked-up shit?', which is also hilarious.
And I didn't mention him being locked alone in a bunker for three months! That was incredible. This guy is just the world's punching bag and it is a joy.
(In 3.14, I'm delighted that Murphy's response to the suggestion that they kill Jaha is essentially 'that is a fucking great idea. I mean, don't get me wrong, it won't actually achieve our goal, but I love the idea.' I love how much he hates Jaha.
While I'm taking a brief excursion into 3.14, apparently I've been headcanoning Monty as gay this entire time and didn't realise until the show tried to pair him up with a female character and I went 'wait, what, no.' I mean, I've been going 'Monty and Jasper are obviously boyfriends' this entire time, but I've kind of been able to buy Jasper having girlfriends. I can't buy it with Monty at all.
ALSO HARPER STOLE THE 'WE CAN'T JUST WAIT AROUND FOR THE NEXT DISASTER' CONVERSATION FROM MY KANE/ABBY FIC
I mean, I realise that this episode technically existed before I wrote the fic and Harper's 'Are we just supposed to spend the time between attacks dreading the next one?' line probably didn't spring into existence the moment I wrote Abby saying 'We can’t feel like we’re just waiting around for the next tragedy,' but I'm still going to slightly resent Harper/Monty for yanking concepts right out of my Kane/Abby fic, meaning that people who read it will probably think I was ripping off that Harper/Monty scene. Ah, the risks of writing fanfiction before finishing a canon.)
I went 'OH NO, THIS IS GOING TO REALLY UPSET ME' when brainwashed Abby tried to recruit Kane. I'm glad he caught on quickly that something wasn't right. Although I'm amused that he essentially went 'hey, wait, you're making out with me too enthusiastically, we're supposed to be a slow-burn, clearly you're being controlled by an AI.'
I'm struggling a bit with Bellamy at the moment.
Clarke: Octavia will forgive you eventually. The question is, will you forgive yourself?
Riona: Clarke, he's committed two separate genocides, only one of them for anything approaching an understandable reason. Should his largest concern be forgiving himself? Should it really?
I'm not sure if it's really possible for Bellamy's character to come back from the grounder massacre. Mount Weather was a horrible decision he made in the moment to save the lives of his friends and sister, and to take some of the burden of guilt off Clarke. It made sense that he did it; a lot of people in that situation would probably make the same call, even if they're not particularly murderous under normal circumstances. But premeditatedly murdering people under the argument 'oh, they're grounders, they're obviously going to attack us if we don't attack them first' is pretty irredeemable, and also makes me less sympathetic over the Mount Weather decision; I feel he probably can't have felt that bad about the corner he was forced into there if he trotted out three months later to commit another genocide.
Is there a way the show could redeem Bellamy? I don't know. You certainly can't take an 'oh, no, this poor boy made a few mistakes' approach by this point, particularly as I don't think he's really displayed understanding of how wrong his actions with the grounder army were.
Is there a way he could become a character I like again? That's a different question; Murphy hasn't redeemed himself for the murders he's committed (two! two paltry murders! are you really a The 100 character?), he's shown no remorse, but he's so enjoyable to watch that I've come to like him a lot.
I suppose we'll see.
I laughed very loudly when Pike started hitting Murphy in the flashback to lessons on the Ark. Everyone just beats Murphy up! Everyone, all the time!
I also feel Murphy ends up hovering awkwardly in the background of a lot of fucked-up shit (e.g. the torture in this episode, the drawn-out death in 'Thirteen'), with an expression that says 'why do I have to sit through all this fucked-up shit?', which is also hilarious.
And I didn't mention him being locked alone in a bunker for three months! That was incredible. This guy is just the world's punching bag and it is a joy.
(In 3.14, I'm delighted that Murphy's response to the suggestion that they kill Jaha is essentially 'that is a fucking great idea. I mean, don't get me wrong, it won't actually achieve our goal, but I love the idea.' I love how much he hates Jaha.
While I'm taking a brief excursion into 3.14, apparently I've been headcanoning Monty as gay this entire time and didn't realise until the show tried to pair him up with a female character and I went 'wait, what, no.' I mean, I've been going 'Monty and Jasper are obviously boyfriends' this entire time, but I've kind of been able to buy Jasper having girlfriends. I can't buy it with Monty at all.
ALSO HARPER STOLE THE 'WE CAN'T JUST WAIT AROUND FOR THE NEXT DISASTER' CONVERSATION FROM MY KANE/ABBY FIC
I mean, I realise that this episode technically existed before I wrote the fic and Harper's 'Are we just supposed to spend the time between attacks dreading the next one?' line probably didn't spring into existence the moment I wrote Abby saying 'We can’t feel like we’re just waiting around for the next tragedy,' but I'm still going to slightly resent Harper/Monty for yanking concepts right out of my Kane/Abby fic, meaning that people who read it will probably think I was ripping off that Harper/Monty scene. Ah, the risks of writing fanfiction before finishing a canon.)
I went 'OH NO, THIS IS GOING TO REALLY UPSET ME' when brainwashed Abby tried to recruit Kane. I'm glad he caught on quickly that something wasn't right. Although I'm amused that he essentially went 'hey, wait, you're making out with me too enthusiastically, we're supposed to be a slow-burn, clearly you're being controlled by an AI.'
I'm struggling a bit with Bellamy at the moment.
Clarke: Octavia will forgive you eventually. The question is, will you forgive yourself?
Riona: Clarke, he's committed two separate genocides, only one of them for anything approaching an understandable reason. Should his largest concern be forgiving himself? Should it really?
I'm not sure if it's really possible for Bellamy's character to come back from the grounder massacre. Mount Weather was a horrible decision he made in the moment to save the lives of his friends and sister, and to take some of the burden of guilt off Clarke. It made sense that he did it; a lot of people in that situation would probably make the same call, even if they're not particularly murderous under normal circumstances. But premeditatedly murdering people under the argument 'oh, they're grounders, they're obviously going to attack us if we don't attack them first' is pretty irredeemable, and also makes me less sympathetic over the Mount Weather decision; I feel he probably can't have felt that bad about the corner he was forced into there if he trotted out three months later to commit another genocide.
Is there a way the show could redeem Bellamy? I don't know. You certainly can't take an 'oh, no, this poor boy made a few mistakes' approach by this point, particularly as I don't think he's really displayed understanding of how wrong his actions with the grounder army were.
Is there a way he could become a character I like again? That's a different question; Murphy hasn't redeemed himself for the murders he's committed (two! two paltry murders! are you really a The 100 character?), he's shown no remorse, but he's so enjoyable to watch that I've come to like him a lot.
I suppose we'll see.