Yu gonplei ste odon, Heda Lexa- Your fight is over, Commander Lexa, but ours has just begun.
CW's "The 100" is a monumental TV show. The characters are complex and have incredible story arcs as well as development. Jason Rothenburg, I applaud you for that. There are numerous female characters, and they all are incredibly strong. Not a single one is simply there for decoration.
Octavia Blake was born a secret on the Ark and had to hide her entire life. She is sent to earth as part of the 100 delinquents. She is young, timid and unsure of everything. She was a damsel in distress. She feels like she has no place to belong besides with her brother. Her character development is outstanding. She becomes a kick-ass grounder warrior. She has skill and is ruthless with weapons. She has pride fighting alongside Indra. She has heart for Trikru, warning them about attacks from her own people. She finds love in Lincoln, our beloved grounder warrior. So now we have Octavia, warrior princess.
Raven Reyes is a mechanic on the Ark and travels to earth by herself to make sure her boyfriend, Finn, and the others are alive. She makes it to the rest of the remaining 100 to find that Finn has fallen in love with Clarke. She is heartbroken, but she moves on. She is the main source of weapons for the remaining delinquents on earth, and she creates communication between the Ark and the delinquents. She is tortured by the hands of the grounders as well as the mountain men. She then loses control of her left leg because of a bullet wound. But she still does her job every day to the best of her ability. She is sassy and resourceful. Not to mention, she watched Finn not only fall in love with Clarke, but then become unhinged by her disappearance. She watched Finn die at the hands of Clarke and managed to forgive her for it.
Clarke Griffin is the main character, and she has been through it all. She is powerful, and she is strong. She is a leader and a healer, taught by her mother (yet another strong female character). She never stops thinking about her people and their safety. She ignores her desires and feelings through the entire series for the sake of her people. This is the case so often, people of the Clexa (Clarke and Lexa) fandom have adoringly teased about it.
Clarke is a canon bisexual character, which adds to her uniqueness. She is called the Commander of Death, after causing a genocide on Mount Weather. She has to kill her first love, Finn, to create a truce rather than a war. She makes so many sacrifices and she never gets to see happiness. She helps Heda Lexa learn that love is not weakness, it is strength, just to have Lexa ripped from her hands.
Lexa... Oh Lexa how we love you so. She is the canon lesbian character that puts her duty before her heart. In the second season, she betrays Clarke and their plan to free the people from Mount Weather. She makes a deal with the mountain men in the best interest of her people. She thinks that love is weakness. Her first lover, Costia, was killed by the Ice Nation, and her head was sent to Lexa. Lexa put her sadness and anger aside to add the Ice Nation to form the 12 clans. She fought a man nearly twice her size, won and killed his mother, who was the leader of the Ice Nation. She believes and follows "Blood must have blood," but changes her ideals to justice and peace.
You can visibly see Lexa breaking down her walls around Clarke. The build up of their relationship was painstakingly long but incredibly satisfying. They did not simply have a lustful relationship. It was filled with adoration and love. We saw small smiles from Lexa's normally stoic face. We saw Clarke's hesitation when she had to return to her people.
But love is weakness...Jason Rothenburg, is this what you are telling us when you take her from us? They finally get together. The Clexakru are the happiest they have ever been! Yes, Clarke is about to run to protect her people again, but they are intimate in the way we have finally been waiting for. Immediately after, Lexa is shot. She is hit by a stray bullet from her father figure who has been disapproving of their relationship from the start. Lexa is another number filed under the "Bury the gays" trope that we cannot ignore. You say that no one is safe on this show. We see that, but why did you have to kill her this way. Let the great Commander die a more heroic way. Look at this from the perspective of the LGBT audience. We had a strong lesbian representative and she is killed "by accident" immediately after she has sex with her love interest.
Also, why can't Clarke ever have any sort of happiness? She deserves more than just a moment of it.
Actress Alycia Debnam-Carey may have just done too well of a job making us love Lexa. I mean how could we not?
Commander Lexa, your fight is over. May we meet again. You deserved better. Your fans deserved better. The LGBT Community deserved better.
