Board Thread:Spoilers/@comment-25440448-20150312215244/@comment-16845200-20160204195156

hmm, you've brought up some really good points.

the mountain has been taking grounders for years upon years on end. you think that the only grounders that were ever in those cages were the ones lexa saved from the mountain? there were hundreds, if not thousands, kept in those exact cages beforehand. the mountain has been kidnapping grounders for generations on end and using their blood for their own means, turning countless men and women into reapers to do their own dirty work. 250 people killed in tondc probably doesn't compare to the total count of grounders killed in mount weather. taking the mountain out of the equation would be a psychological booster as much as a cultural one (blood did have blood).

i concede to your point about clarke needing to take a stand against lexa with her people.

but to do that, clarke will need to bow.

i should probably have mentioned this before, but i dislike the idea of clarke bowing to lexa. i dislike the idea of anyone bowing to anyone. when i first heard lexa say it, it gave me pause and made me feel distinctly uncomfortable. it still makes me feel on edge. but we're not talking about what i like or don't like, we're talking about what needs to be done. you claim that clarke can just form another alliance with lexa without bowing to her; that it happened last season. again, i reiterate that that was literally part of the reason why lexa left at mount weather. the skaikru weren't part of the coalition. lexa's duty is to her coalition and its people. end of story.

lexa is the coalition, clarke is the leader of the skaikru. whatever dealings lexa makes with clarke, is the dealing she'll make with the skaikru. she isn't going to throw the sky people away simply because they're sky people. lexa's ruthless, but she doesn't let her prejudice, whatever it may be, affect her leadership decisions. she's pragmatic.

in season 3, lexa wants clarke to join her coalition. that's different from the alliance the skaikru and coalition made in season 2. the grounders are a very tradition-based group, and i highly suspect we will find the process of joining the coalition out in tonight's episode. but until then we have no idea how grounder tradition works. there's bound to be some ritual, like pledging fealty to the leader of the coalition or something. so, clarke bowing to lexa will not taint her own honor or anything in any way, imo. lexa certainly is getting personal gain out of this; she needs clarke to bow to her like you said to retain her power. but clarke isn't losing her own honor in the process or subjecting her people to some death sentence where they'll 100% certainly be betrayed. she'd simply be following tradition. but why would she do this? to gain ethos among the other grounder clans.

never claimed there wouldn't be ramifications to what lexa did, and yes, i wholeheartedly agree with you that we will be seeing the consequences of that now. but lexa chose the best decision in the moment she could have made. again, lexa would be the first to sacrifice honor for survival. other grounders may obviously feel differently, but lexa's kept them alive for this long. there has to be some reason for that.

on the ice nation: that's exactly what i said. the ice nation chooses to march on lexa's coalition; why? because they're "militaristic" and their queen wants all the power. and the alliance doesn't necessarily harm its members more than it benefits them; we don't really know much of any other clans besides ice nation/trikru so far, but we'll probably be learning more about them later on. i doubt that all of them want to break the coalition because they're looking over their shoulders like startled rabbits that lexa's just going to randomly up and betray them.

alright, i see what you meant there. good point about the skaikru and pike and whatnot.

about abby: no, lexa wouldn't. to her, clarke is the leader of the skaikru. have you ever seen lexa deal with abby as an equal? or kane or jaha, for that matter?

(and i'm sorry if i came off as bitchy or like, "lexa can do nothing wrong!" in the past messages. lexa has a lot of heavy personal problems she has to work through, least of all her issues with clarke, but lexa's decisions when it comes to her coalition and leadership? i have no problem with that.)