The Televerse #236- The 100’s “Thirteen” and Traumatic TV Character Deaths with Mo Ryan

I miss Lexa so much :c
Im stopped watching it’s nothing without Alycia ??

Since you’ve invited your listeners to share their thoughts.. I felt compelled to comment. There are small spoilers about the finale. It was all over twitter list, anyway. Just like the show intended, I’m sure.

It took me about 2 days to get over Commander Lexa’s death (character wise). It was devastating and at the same time, it was unusual. I’ve never been this affected, and I watch a lot of television. I had to get away from the internet. The emotion I was feeling wasn’t the direct result of the death storytelling (It was bad. The death overshadowed the rest of the episode. It was well written. However.. ). I can’t be objective about the episode. The death was that glaring to me. I enjoyed Lexa. Her background and her story. She loved her people. She fought for her people. She fought for Clarke. She was strong and fearless. She was caring and passionate as seen by her time with the nightbloods. She was so good. She ended tragically. It was not a good tragedy. It didn’t serve the real purpose of the meaning. It was a tragedy in a way that the show failed to delivered.

It made it harder for me to get over such a nuanced and a well written character who happens to be queer and a bright beacon of LGBT community. She was the symbol of hope to a lot of people. Adding to the difficulty of getting over a character, her death was cheap. It cheapened the story of what she was and the relationship between Clarke and her. If she had died for her revolutionary cause or like you said, at the very least, jumped in front of Clarke, I would have accepted it a little easier. I would understand. But I don’t. She died because she loved and was concerned Clarke. Costia died because she was Lexa’s lover. Clarke’s life was threatened because of her relationship with Lexa. Niylah was beaten up because she was involved with Clarke. The message may have not been intended. But it does not mean it does not have an impact.

Also, the sadness I felt was the feeling of such a wasted potential. I was in denial for about ten minutes of what just happened. Then I was angry. Angry that the show pulled such a stupid death. Then I was angry at the people who said, “It’s just a TV show. It’s just a character.” Well, we wouldn’t have the Emmy awards if it’s just a character. A queer character’s death holds more weight. You won’t find a character like Lexa in the next TV show as opposed to straight white male characters in literally every other show. We’re not saying a gay character could never die. We’re saying that when you treat Lexa’s character in a disrespectful way, put her in a dangerous trope and not expect backlash, you are blind and lacking self-awareness. Check yourself. Media does not exist in a vacuum. Maybe in a hundred years, where Bury Your Gays trope are long forgotten, LGBT representation’s history are backed with decades of positive progression, maybe Lexa’s death would not matter as much as now. Right now, it’s not the case. It is the showrunner’s responsibility to research about these issues. The scene was not a good job well kind if the goal was getting an emotional response. It was bad. It was stupid.

But I got angrier by the fact that the show had baited and used an already vulnerable community for buzz and ratings. The weekly teases. The constant assurances. It was too good to be true. After day 3, I breathed and was resigned. It was due to unwavering weariness and distraught that came from a community that used to joke about candles and raccoon and heights. Tumblr was filled with incredibly depressing and sad posts. No pictures. No jokes. No gifs were made. The main source of my pain/heartbreak truly really came from that. Young teenagers scrambled to older voices of the fandom for comfort. The adults who had to go through another traumatic death. People sharing emergency links. It’s difficult enough to talk about it. Because every time I do, I’m heartbroken all over again. There’s a fear attachment to this community when we see a queer character and the initial thoughts that will come to mind will be “She’s going to die. Isn’t she?”

Is she? Will she? When will be time? Story wise, I had a feeling she was going to die. I was prepared a little. Years of poor representation had prepared me for the inevitable. When it really happened, I was caught off guard. It was NOT shocking that a queer character had died. It was shocking in a bad art fashion. There was no agency to her death at all. But what frustrates me the most is the show and their interaction with their fans. The show dangled the equal representation in front of them. They created a safe space. Staff sharing pictures of the bed. Like ooohhh a bed!!!! Jason invited fans to the Vancouver set and people were shown that Lexa was there. It created a false hope that maybe Lexa truly survived. It did not help at all. They just made it worse. They took queerbaiting to a next level. I could accept Lexa’s death. But I would never accept the way they used the community. They may have not realised it. But they should have known better than to dangle a nice carrot in front an already desperate and starved community. People are angry because they were betrayed.

Pacing and compression have been tearing this season apart. It was so especially cruel that the death scene took place literally 2 minutes after the love scene. Because that was it. The pinnacle of happiness. This was the moment that people have been waiting for. The love scene was heartbreakingly beautiful. The lighting, the acting, the little tear ADC made that was never scripted. People were over the moon. That was it. It was a high point. Then the death scene. People did not have the right amount of time to process the love scene. Then this? It was cruel. Hope literally crushed in front of their eyes. I’ve watched the reactions and you could see the stark difference. The stupid stray bullet made it worse. The reason of Lexa coming into the room pushed the knife further in people’s already broken hearts. She was killed because she loved. She had been taught early on to prepare for death. She was prepared to die at any time. She talked about death like a countless of times. Love is weakness was embedded in her brain. But Clarke came. Clarke loved back. Love is strength. And Lexa was killed at a moment where she most wanted to live. I laughed when I think about it now. Because it was such a stupid death. The rest of the episode was enjoyable. But it was tainted by the death scene. And the death scene tainted every past interaction of Clarke and Lexa had. I could not watch reruns of past episodes knowing what I know. Maybe in the future. Maybe ‘someday’.

‘Someday’ another message the show gave. Maybe someday. Interpret it how you wish.

The past week on the internet has been interesting. The casts and a PA and Javier have been lovely. Then you have the showrunner only sharing good articles and not acknowledging the grievances of his distraught viewers. His silence speaks volume. An apology or an acknowledgement what you did still comes a long way. It may not get rid the anger but it may help them to heal. It does. It really does. I don’t know whose idea for some of the writers to come on the periscope. Because it sparked a new found anger in the fandom. Someone asked about Bellarke. A writer said something along the lines “The looks he gave her… Lexa was not Clarke’s soulmate something..”. It does not help when the writers deleted their periscope and disallowing people to replay the video. It spreads misinformation. Who handles their PR? Do they even have one? Then I remembered on how they handled their fans and the shipping aspect. All I could say it’s disaster. After the EP8 had aired, the showrunner retweeted a Bellarke fan’s tweets that said bullies, cowards.. basically the LGBT community. Disaster.

This season have been rushing the plots, overshadowing the characters’ development. The plot should always be secondary to the character or at least go hand in hand. That’s why Bellamy’s character this season is hard to watch. That’s why it’s hard to understand where Pike’s xenophobic views coming from. If we had spent some more time in learning what they know, I would understand but still be against their agenda. But they rush that to get to the plot. The Polis storyline was clearly spent more time on and well written, hence was more enjoyable. I already have other problems with the show. This was the last hit. Frankly, I’m not here for this show anymore. The representation made me stay, I’ve realised. But now, it has been crushed terribly. The other characters do not interest me. I love Clarke, Raven, Octavia, Bellamy. But I don’t feel it in me to watch this show anymore. I love sci-fi shows. Unfortunately, the 100 is no longer that for me.

Anyway, I enjoyed this podcast. I don’t mind being emotionally manipulated if it’s a well-made scene. I’ve watched death scenes. There were good ones and bad ones. However, for the 100, I can’t say the same. Because it was made in such a way that made me question loudly of the integrity of the show. I apologise for the lengthy comment. I didn’t realise.

On a personal level, this woman conveys the pain. vimeo.com/157873919. On Lexa’s death, this person explains it well. deathtodickens.com/post/140627903075/how-do-you-feel-about-lexas-death-on-the-100.

Thank you for doing this podcast, you guys said a lot of things that I have been trying to say but couldn’t find the words. This whole week has been a rollercoaster of emotions for me. I was sad, then in denial and then sad again and angry, like really angry. And right I just don’t care, Im not going to watch the show anymore, I was planing on still watching it even after 307, but Thursdays episode just made me even more angry and I refuse to give this show anymore of my time and feelings. But through this whole thing the good thing that happened was we managed to raise over 30.000 dollars for the trevor project and that makes all of this a little bit better. So again thank you for saying what I couldn’t find the words to say.

I just wanted to thank you all for this. Hearing it put out there and explained in terms that even someone not familiar with the show or the characters could understand really helps. I felt a bit foolish for having such a strong emotional reaction to Lexa’s death, but over the last week or so, that feeling left to be replaced with sadness and even a bit of rage. It IS a trope. It is severely overused, and it is harmful. Watching Lexa die on screen like that pulled me back into all those self-doubts and fears I had as a fifteen year old lesbian growing up in the very deep Bible Belt South. It opened a lot of old wounds for me and made me feel like that scared, alone kid all over again. So I get it. I understand how the young queer girls watching it felt. It was like watching yourself die. Watching yourself be punished for your feelings of love and attraction to another woman, and by the man that supposedly loved you as a father no less. I just wanted to say thank you. I feel validated and I feel a little less foolish. Good, rich, wonderful stories are supposed to pull us in and make us feel, otherwise, what’s the point? Lexa is the one character death I don’t think I will ever get over. Some wounds never heal, as I was so blatantly reminded last Thursday, and some scars never fade. That is real important message here.

I listened to this podcast last night (and am now a subscriber). First off, I want to say thank you for the thoughtful and insightful treatment of what’s been going on in this fandom.
That said, this episode helped me parse my own reaction as a gay woman. I’m in that notorious 18-35 demographic and joined The 100 fandom fairly recently- mostly because of the LGBQ+ representation that I understood (erroneously) to be promised by the show runner. When I say that my understanding was erroneous, it’s because I mean that I wasn’t intentionally mislead- though that is a recent understanding. I think that Jason in all of his promises regarding treating the story line and characters correctly- understanding what progressive representation meant- was just saying that (as far as he thought) his story about artificial intelligence and reincarnation in a (already problematic) narrative about colonialism would be so awesome that the LGBT+ audience he had recruited and used as a street team would be okay with how he resolved Lexa’s story. Clearly, this was incorrect, but I don’t think it was a cynical grab so much as privilege running rampant. That doesn’t make it okay. And I fully support my community’s efforts to not only publicly drag him, but also seek change in media representation point blank. I just no longer feel betrayed, though I do feel tired and a little more jaded and cynical.

Part of what made this truly devastating (because I was devastated- after the episode I alternated between numb, despondent, and frustrated until I was drunk enough to sleep) was watching the rest of my community go through varying degrees of similar reactions. I watched the younger members lose a little of the brightness that they had previously had in almost real time in reaction videos. I watched people my age feel like their grief was inexplicable, but also be very concerned for our younger counterparts. I know older gay women who loved this show because of the light it seemed to promise, and felt heartbroken in new ways as I thought about growing up under the Hays Code and seeing the same LGBT+ stories repeated even when it was no longer an official thing only to find hope and have it dashed so brutally (as if to say “You will never see a day when the world you live in doesn’t want you and your love dead”).

The amazing reaction of this fandom, both in a creative and activist sense, has helped me keep going. You’re understanding of our hurt, frustration, and anger is also a beacon of hope. Thank you.

You have no idea how much your words mean to me.All i needed was understanding from someone outside of all this mess.I am really really grateful.

I loved the podcast, but there was an information that was wrong, I think. Fear the Walking Dead doesn’t have 22 eps per season. The 1st had 6. The 2nd will have 15. It’s basically a mid-season show. And the timeline for filming would work for her to come back, because The 100 starts airing in january and FTWD just in april or whatever. So , filming The 100 would start much earlier. Plus, AMC and the people involved in FTWD said that they were okay with borrowing Alycia for The 100. Jason Roth said this himself.