Board Thread:Character Discussion/@comment-86.143.250.155-20150316000928/@comment-26867013-20150808015510

I would like to chime in.

Part of me wants to say Lexa was completely out of character with the Mt. Weather decision. This part of me argues that she is of the Grounder culture, and as Cage mentions "Grounder's never retreat" (or something to that effect). Also her own people refer to her as being "true to her word" and "ruthless." Now her words were "what happened today will not stand. The mountain will fall. The dead will be avenged", Then in reference to the mountain casting shadows etc. "that ends today (though technically a truce also ends that)." And let us not forget that "blood must have blood." She also herself mentions victory on the back of sacrifice, hard choices, telling warriors to go die for her, blah blah blah. So keeping in mind how others describe her as ruthless and true to her word and her own words about hard decisions and sacrifice, I felt that the decision was out of character.

But then there is this peice of me that looked at how her actions in a similar situation seemed to make this MM deal true to character based on her actions rather than her words and how others describe her. It was mentioned by Emerson "this commander does make alliances," and in a similar situation we not only see this but we see Lexa backing down from her word. She had given the Sky People 2 days to get the hell out or she would slaughter them. Clark presented her with a deal for a truce - knowlege on how to take down the MM and fancy reaper reversal techniques and she took it (with her own stipulation about Finn mind you). The alternative to the deal and truce was a war where the grounders had the numbers but the Sky people had the guns which probably meant heavy caualties on both sides but ultimately Grounder success. Now here we have a deal presented to her by the MM - truce and your people back if you turn back now and stay away from the mountain, the alternative being war where grounders had numbers but MM had guns and heavy casualties on both sides (not to mention the captive grounders probably slaughtered). So with this some-what similar scenario in mind, the decision is totally in character.

THEN there is also a third thought. this thought is that the decision was entirely out of character but was suppose to be out of character. How many times did Clarke do things that seemed just a little out of character and mayhap slightly influenced by Lexa's style of leadership? Now, why not the same for Lexa? Why wouldn't Lexa try adopting a little bit of Clarke's style of leadership too, making her decision a little out of character? I do believe Clarke says "what did you do?" and Lexa replies with "What you would have done." That was a pretty difficult choice to make. Perhaps her decision was literally based on what she thought Clarke would have done. Granted, that was not the greatest time to start experimenting with decision making processes and many might argue that she totally pegged what Clarke would do wrong (but that we will never know).