On Thursday March 3, 2016, yet another beloved fictional lesbian was killed off in a cruel and unoriginal way. This cruel and unoriginal trope involving character death is this: an LGBT, usually female, character often reconciles with a former lover of the same sex or finally has a romantic scene with her only for the aforementioned LGBT character to be killed shortly afterwards. Does this sound familiar?

The death I am writing about today is the death of Commander Lexa on the CW's television show The 100. This show is notorious for killing off characters. I am not disputing that. However, it is the way in which Lexa died and what she stood for to so many young LGBT people that makes this all the more upsetting. Historically, lesbians and women of other orientations who love women have not been treated very well by TV shows. The fact that there is an actual well-known trope called Lesbian Death Syndrome/Bury Your Gays is a good indication that this happens entirely too often. LGBT women do not see themselves in the media nearly as often as heterosexual people do. Writers often take advantage of this and use it to "queer bait" fans into following a show.

In the case of The 100, prior to when episode seven of season three aired on March 3, show runner Jason Rothenberg and the writers of the show had been highly praised in the LGBT community for The 100's well-written LGBT characters, most notably Commander Lexa and Clarke Griffin. Clarke Griffin (left) is the main protagonist of the show. She is a strong, flawed, caring 17-year-old bisexual girl who has a relationship with Commander Lexa. Lexa, who is close in age with Clarke and openly a lesbian, is the commander of 12 clans. She is strong, always looking out for her people, and is emotionally closed off...at least until Clarke worms her way into her heart. They shared a kiss in season two but had no other romantic interactions until last week's episode in which they had a love scene.

The relationship was being built up a lot this season. The scene was beautifully and tastefully done and everything fans of Clarke and Lexa (better known as Clexa) shippers could have hoped for. Then shortly after, Clarke was dressed and ready to leave when Lexa's second in command, Titus, shot at Clarke because he believed the feelings Lexa had for her put Lexa and the clans in danger. Guess what happened next? Lexa just happened to walk into the room right into the path of a bullet intended for Clarke.

To those who do not understand, the fact that 15,000 people unfollowed Jason Rothenberg on Twitter after this happened may sound like an overreaction. People boycotting the show may sound silly to some, but the death of Lexa cuts a lot deeper than you may realize. Many young girls were either contemplating harming themselves or actually doing it after this episode. When your only representatives are killed over again, it is damaging to young people. For this reason,fans of the show made a page to raise money for the Trevor Project, which you can donate to here. Lexa was important to the LGBT community for multiple reasons. She was strong but not a robot. She was gay but not defined solely by it or used as a punchline because of it. She was well-written and played superbly by Alicia Debnam Carey. Some argue that we should be content with Clarke in the representation department, but bisexuals and lesbians are not the same. That would be like saying that Asian fans of a show shouldn't be upset about lack of representation because it has a black character.

As a bisexual woman who loved this show, Lexa's death has affected me very deeply. If she had to die, she deserved a death befitting her character, a death with meaning. She deserved more than an accidental death after the one shred of happiness she had been allowed in God knows how long. She had finally let herself believe that love was not a weakness only to die moments later. Intentional or not, that sends a strong message to LGBT women and girls that we don't get or deserve happy endings. We have been used for nothing more than plot devices for too many shows for too long. We deserve better.