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sometimesrosy · 4 years

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Do you think it's a good idea that they're introducing new characters in the last season like Nikki and the other guy. I feel like the ones we have now need more screen time to wrap up their stories. And he did say that in season 4 or5 a guy from one of the coalition would be very important yet they weren't

Yes. I think it’s a good idea that they are introducing new characters in the last season.

They are needed for the umbrella plot that is our seasonal storyline.

And the even larger plot that is about the apocalypse and humanity’s rebirth.

While we have our main characters, the secondary and tertiary characters are needed to help tell their story.

This idea that secondary or tertiary characters aren’t needed, and they either shouldn’t be there or should be main characters is not a good idea for telling good stories.

The 100 has an expansive world that requires a large cast of characters. The main characters are Clarke and Bellamy, Octavia, Murphy, Raven, Monty, Jasper, Finn, Wells, Abby, Kane, Jaha

The strike throughs are the mains whose stories have wrapped up.

We also have a handful of secondary characters who have stories that are in the midst of wrapping up. Madi, Echo, Emori, Gaia, Miller, Jordan, Diyoza, Hope, Jackson. There are too many of those who have ended their stories for me to give you a strikethrough of them.

And there are the antagonists, some who have moved into the secondary category. Russel and Sheidheda seem to be the only ones left of those who are still alive.

But. I mean. WHY have all those characters if all we care about is the mains’ storylines and character development????

WELL I’LL TELL YOU.

Because you use the secondary and tertiary characters to TELL the story of the mains. Antagonist or supporting. Lets link up some minor/added even secondary characters to the mains whose stories they tell and see what happens.

Clarke Griffin: Jake Griffin, Abby Griffin, Wells Jaha, Finn Collins, Bellamy Blake, Jasper and Monty, Raven, Charlotte, Anya, Lincoln, Maya, Dante, Lxa, Roan, Titus, Luna, Niylah, Gaia, Octavia, Echo, Murphy, Emori, ALIE, Becca, Madi, Diyoza, McCreary, Shaw, Kara Cooper, Russell, Josephine, Gabriel.

Bellamy Blake: Octavia Blake, Clarke Griffin, Wells Jaha, Finn Collins, John Murphy, Atom, Charlotte, Raven Reyes, Thelonious Jaha, Lincoln, Miller, Monroe, Kane, Gustus, Maya, Echo, Lovejoy, Dante, Cage, Jasper Jordan, Monty Green, Harper MacIntyre, Pike, Bryan, Riley, Kara Cooper, Indra, Gaia, Josephine, Gabriel.

Octavia Blake: Bellamy Blake, Jasper, Monty, Finn, Atom, Lincoln, Clarke, Indra, Kane, Pike, Illian, Echo, Roan, Gaia, Jaha, Gaia, Kara Cooper, Diyoza, Gabriel, Hope.

Raven Reyes: Abby, Finn, Clarke, Bellamy, Monty, Jasper, Sinclair, Wick, Kane, ALIE, Becca, Luna, Echo, Emori, Murphy, Harper, Monty, McCreary, Shaw, Diyoza, Madi, Ryker, Josephine, Russell, Simone, Jackson, Sheidheda, Gaia

John Murphy: Bellamy, Clarke, Charlotte, Wells, Raven, Jaha, Emori, Ontari, Titus, Kane, Indra, Abby, Monty, Echo, McCreary, Madi, Josephine, Russell

Monty Green: Jasper, Clarke, Bellamy, Raven, Harper, Miller, Dante, Dr Tsing, Maya, Mr Vie, Hannah, Pike, Kane, Octavia, Jordan.

Jasper Jordan: Monty, Clarke, Bellamy, Finn, Raven, Octavia, Maya, Abby, Jaha, Harper

Abby Griffin: Clarke, Raven, Kane, Jaha, Jake, Cece, Murphy, Bellamy, Jasper, Jackson, ALIE, Simone, Josephine, Russell, Vinson, McCreary

Marcus Kane: Abby, Jaha, Bellamy, Octavia, Miller, Harper, Lincoln, Pike, Lxa, Indra, Murphy, ALIE, Diyoza, Vinson, Raven

Thelonius Jaha: Wells, Abby, Kane, Murphy, Clarke, Bellamy, Octavia, ALIE, Ontari, Emori, Jasper

I can’t even continue. It’s too many. Not including the tertiary characters and I for SURE missed a lot. In order to tell these complex stories, we need a lot of supporting characters.

The supporting character SUPPORT the stories of the main characters. A character like Emori helps us understand Murphy, Jaha, Raven, Echo, Bellamy, Josephine... and is a lynchpin in understanding the worldbuilding, morality, themes, and also acts to TURN the plot. Without Emori, Clarke would not have tested the nightblood on herself.

It isn’t bad writing that Emori is a supporting character. It’s necessary for her the story as well as for the other characters.

We also have a tendency to go through antagonists pretty quickly even if they become friends along the way. If an antagonist died, we’d need a new antagonist. If an antagonist is redeemed and joins our heroes (like Bellamy, Kane, Diyoza, or Gabriel,) we’d still need a new antagonist.

And then we have characters who act as a shadow or mirror to our mains.

For instance. Clarke has MULTIPLE shadows and mirrors and foils. Bellamy, Dante, Maya, Lxa, Murphy, Emori, Becca, Diyoza, Josephine, some of whom were antagonists allowing us to compare and contrast, some of whom are allies, where we can see similarities or differences in situation or choice. I am this: you are that: because of this you can see that. Sometimes the character dies, and sometimes their foil becomes no longer relevant as the characters develop in different directions. LIke Emori had us comparing Clarke’s being loved with Emori’s being abandoned, also HAVING love (with Murphy) while Clarke was alone, and eventually led to Clarke taking her experiment. Actually, Memori and Bellarke may still be up for more comparisons. So that maybe isn’t done yet.

BUT we’re missing the characters who can act as foils next season. So we’re gonna need new ones. Never mind the antagonists. ALSO, we’re gonna need characters to make the new worlds seem real. People LIVING in them. AND we need characters who can take us to those last corners of our plot.

You cannot write a long term, involved story like this without having a rich cast of characters. And with seasons that need to reinvent themselves and expand on our worlds, we need NEW characters.

This concept that we want to keep the story only for our beloved characters is a bit stingy and controlling. You NEED new characters to keep going.

First of all, Raven keeps losing her love interest. If she’s getting one for her endgame, we need to meet him. None of our current characters will do. THEN we need to really meet Hope, who has been around since s5 but not born yet. She’s also a symbol of ‘hope’ and the future, which is our main goal. THEN there’s sheidheda. We need to really meet him. Or get to know him. THEN there’s the mess on sanctum. We need to meet the sanctumites more than we have. And the eligius prisoners have been around since s5 and they’re being woken. We need too see the end of that story so we need new characters to do it. So hope, sheidheda, eligius prisoners and sanctumites are hanging stories we need new people to understand. And that’s not even counting the new worlds and stories we’re getting next season to take us back to the apocalypse and the rebirth of humanity.

I don’t think it’s a ‘good idea’ to introduce new characters. I think it’s a NECESSITY.

#the 100 #supporting characters #story telling

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sly2o · 7 years

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Unlocking Season 4′s potential: a Riley story (I swear this isn’t crack)

TL;DR: I think Riley was supposed to be a LI for Clarke, and Monty + Harper filled a story-line that Bryan + Miller was supposed to have, and that Miller was supposed to go to space.

We know that when the actor who plays Bryan abruptly left the show to pursue another role, which resulted in the parts written for him being given to a new character named Riley. So with the information we have, what was Bryan supposed to be doing in 4A and 4B?

Well first let’s ask ourselves…

What was Riley supposed to be doing before this shift in plot line?

Answer: Clarke.

I call forward as evidence:

1. The awkward hug.

Clarke clearly recognizes Riley, and clearly has a history with him. This is never resolved (and evidently never will be). Why waste the audience’s time with this?

2. Niylah’s out of character return

When the actor who got cast as Riley had to shift into Bryan’s role in 4A, someone else had to shift into what had originally been carved out as the Riley role. Hence the return of Niylah.

Why on Earth would Niylah want to climb into bed (so to speak) with the very kru that killed her family? Why would she want to tend bar for the people who executed her father? After the violent interaction she had with Skaikru in Season 3 where they stormed her home - which resulted in it being attacked by ALIE - why would she want to be anywhere near Skaikru ever again?

Clarke’s magic ladybits can only explain so many of these questions without some very explicitly stated plot - and helping make rations is hardly good enough.

How Niylah turned around to accepting Skaikru is 100% glossed over... almost as if it wasn’t planned for.

3. Niylah’s extremely lacking season 4 character arc.

If Niylah’s presence in the Skaikru area was planned all along - why didn’t she play a role in helping free Bellamy in 4x11? Surely she’d want to help all the people she had traded with in the past survive the radiation blast.

If her presence was planned all along, why did she play a bizarrely helpless role in stopping Illian when he arrived at Arkadia to blow up the place? What happened to the capable Niylah who lied to the Prince of Azgeda in the premiere of Season 3?

98% of Niylah’s role is season 4 was to be a place of comfort for Clarke to go to, where Clarke could exposition her internal thought process.

Because that was what Riley’s role was supposed to be - and it would make sense in the context of a new character whose role was crafted to serve this piece of plot.

4. Timing of Riley’s and Niylah’s appearances

Niylah doesn’t show up until episode 5, which is a few episodes after Riley is introduced. In theory, if Riley had stayed in his original role this would have been enough time for Clarke to catch up with Riley and do her usual grief bang move with her old love interest.

Furthermore, the fact that Riley gets a reaction, introduction, and hug - and Niylah just sort of shows up should raise some alarm bells about how she was not originally supposed to be in this season.

What was Nathan supposed to be doing this season?

Last year Jarod Joseph tweeted he would be back in Season 4 in a “big way”… and yet the season showed us otherwise. Aside from break up with Bryan, sharing moon-eyes with Jackson, and being a guy with a gun when you need a guy with a gun.

So what was he supposed to be doing?

Answer: part of the Monty/Harper 4B plot.

Supporting evidence:

1. Riley being built up in 4A and then being sidelined in 4B just to die.

The writers had to dispose of Riley after he filled in the role of Bryan in 4A. As much as we all love Riley, let’s be real, he was never Spacekru material. There also wasn’t space to resolve his character in the finale (see below) because Niylah had taken his role so he just got... disposed of.

2. Bryan’s planned path of descent in 4A.

We know that the episode where Bellamy talks down Riley from assassinating Roan was supposed to be Bryan. We know that Bryan was headed to a darker place with respect to his mental health. The break up with Nathan (or what was at least going to be the start of a line of major fights) likely didn’t help either. Season 3 had already established that there was strain in this relationship (Bryan and Miller taking different sides in the Pike/Kane leadership) so this also wasn’t coming out of nowhere. Speaking of which…

The scene where Harper accidentally is linked to an Arkadian dying was probably Bryan’s last straw. But for Harper it was... the only straw? How did she break so fast? Being cut from the list could have added to that... but it seems a bit like she was shoehorned into a role meant for someone else.

3. People arguing that they want to live in 4A and then deciding to die in 4B?????

Both Harper and Riley are a part of the mob that are pissed at Clarke for creating the list and excluding them. Now just a few weeks later they are OK with dying? That’s not right. How did their anger turn in that direction so quickly?

4. Monty on double comfort duty at the DNR den

For me this one of the most compelling reasons for why Harper was supposed to be Bryan.

I believe Monty and Harper were still supposed to both be at Arkadia, but they were both supposed to be there because of Jasper’s importance to Monty. This would have been mirrored by Nathan and Bryan also being there and having a very similar fight to the one Harper and Monty had in the actual episode. By having these two pairs there (Monty + Jasper, Nathan + Bryan) it would have really drawn out the parallels between these journeys with respect to mental health.

But instead we essentially had an understaffed Monty running back and forth between two people to comfort them which made for awkward pacing during the episode.

The impacts of Bryan’s replacement on the finale.

Nathan and Bryan were supposed to go to space.

If the above scenarios had come to pass, then Nathan and Bryan would have been with the Arkadia group, meaning they would have been able to go to space. If this had happened, it would have really helped frame Octavia as alone again underground isolated from her peers.I also get the impression that Nathan + Dad Miller were filling in a storyline that someone else was meant to have, to echo back to Tor Lenkin and his kid and really emphasize that “are we really doing this again?” parallel. I think the kid everyone joked that Jaha adopted was supposed to be that kid. Instead that new Tor and his kid got sort of shuffled to the side as the writers scrambled to shoehorn in how they would save Nathan when he had been left off the list.

Emori was supposed to be kicked out of the second dawn bunker.

The Arkadians pushing around and then kicking out Niylah didn’t make very much sense... Why would her [grounder] people abandon her? Because she spent 2 months hanging out over at Arkadia? That seems a little bit like an over-reaction. Are we supposed to believe she was so bad at trading that she had no favours she could use to get picked by her people? I hardly believe that. Again - what happened to the Niylah who could boldly lie in the face of the prince of Azgeda?

Now go back to the finale and imagine it was Emori who got kicked out by the Arkadians — this is a highly believable scenario because Emori has no people to speak for her since she was cast out for being different. John following his heart again because they are going to make it together in the bunker. Clarke giving her helmet to Emori would have meant so. much. more. on the heels of Emori being thrown out of the second dawn bunker, combined with how Clarke used the nightblood on herself instead of Emori. And then Emori saying “can’t we wait a little longer?” for Clarke after all that? Ugh my emotions.

...And now the crack

(Look I have no self control - I can’t write meta without including crack)

Was Clarke supposed to be pregnant?

YEAH I KNOW, OK, BUT HEAR ME OUT.

1. Why has Jason insisted on calling Madi “Clarke’s child” as opposed to her little sister? Is it a hang-up from where the plot was supposed to go?

2. Consider this: what if for “science reasons” the nightblood only worked because of the child inside her? Quite frankly we had an entire episode around why nightblood can’t be made in a laboratory on Earth, and it was enraging to see it work in the end because that means more people could have survived. It would have been much more satisfactory to see that it was Clarke’s unique scenario that that saved her life. (Also explains the throw up in the finale). Plus it would help stress in season 5 that Clarke owes her very life to her child which is why she always puts the child first. It also explains why it was six years of time gap. A five year old (remember, we lose almost a year because pregnancy time) is old enough/big enough to get into trouble on their own. Four years old is kinda pushing it on the “this is way too young” spectrum.

Some Last Thoughts

Something I hope I haven’t stirred up, but that I will mention in case I did, is that I hope this doesn’t come off as anti-niylah/niylarke. My complaints are really that Niylah and her relationship with Clarke could have been done way better in this season. Ultimately it was great relationship for Clarke to have (and honestly, probably a better pairing than Riley + Clarke would have been), but the execution was really off for all the reasons I named above.

I think a lot of the pacing problems with the season can be traced back to Bryan’s exit. It makes me ask - why didn’t they just recast? But I guess that’s not really something they do with this show (except for Madi?? IDK)

I’m sure there are other pieces to this puzzle I am missing, but I find this concept so easy to lock in with the season that I just can’t help but believe it was what was originally written.

Either way it’s unprovable and not canon... but I thought I’d share my speculation for what might have been with you all. Hope you enjoyed.

#the 100 #the 100 meta #the 100 speculation #the 100 riley #clarke griffin #nathan miller #I wrote a version of this before the finale #and then became doubly convinced it was true after watching the finale #anyways this is all speculation at this point since it's entirely unprovable #but I wanted to share

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