Talk:Lexa/@comment-26189128-20150425094958/@comment-26288439-20150429133319

To @TheOmegaWerewolf:

No, I totally get you. I absolutely see why they had to execute people on the Ark, especially with the failure in their....oxygen system. And also considering that probably living in a closed envirement like that, if they weren't that harsh, the whole place would have been chaotic with crime in 2 days. So I am absolutely not saying that they are "worse" than the grounders.

What I am saying is that either both of them are savages, or neither. Of course, living on the Ark, the Sky People couldn't afford to not punish everyone that dramaticly, and couldn't afford to be merciful. But I think it's very similar with the Grounders.

If you think about it, there are two possibilities: the grounders either lived underground for a while, after the bombs were dropped, being somewhat protected from radiation, but not entirely so, or they survived somewhere above ground all this time. Either way, there was no government or and "higher power" to protect them, there were no policemen, so if another survivor came to kill them to take something they wanted (probably for survival too), it was to kill or be killed. There was probably chaos, one group of people fighting another over a place of shelter, or some weapons or anything. So, when they did come to have some sort of leadership, they had to install some laws. They were used to people killing each other for a chunk of meat or medicine, because they were all trying to survive, but you actually can't live in a society like that, so they had to stop that. If you are trying to survive, the possibility of I dont know...having to pay a fine or whatever, is not going to stop you from trying anything, especially if you have lived your whole life in fear of someone coming in the night and cutting your throat for something small, so they had to stop that. Obviously, floating someone is a lot less bloody, and maybe more civilised than cutting them to piesces, but I think the grounder laws areas much of a product of having to survive, as the Sky People's are. And then there was the threat of the Mountain Men, which meant that if they used guns, their entire village was killed (that story probably roots from some event before) and that they were constantly picked off, one by one and disappearing, sometimes coming back as man eating monsters.

And yes, it's a in a way, more revengeful, but I think it's easy to say that surviving on the Ground for 100 years have been a lot harder for them, than surviving for 100 years on the Ark (or even MW) has been for those people, and they needed to rely on their instincts, and cruelty to stay alive, while on the Ark and MW, they didn't have to (at least not in this sense).

So what I am saying, is that Grounders indeed needed to execute people, to stay alive. If you look at any footage of a city when there is a catastrope, or actual riot, people are beating each other up for a piece of bread (especially when food becomes more rare). You can't live in a society for a prolonged lenght of time, and for them there was no end to this, unless they made it. So, yes, the Grounders didn't need to worry about over-population, but they did need to worry about someone taking something of their's, or killing them, just because they could.

The Sky People are new to this kind of survival. it's easy to monitor people on a spaceship, full of cameras and a closed up place, but on the ground, there was none of that, and anyone could just go into someone's house, slit their throat while they slept and then be gone in 30 minutes. Also, the Sky people Had the option to execute people bloodlessly (I don't think that word exists but hey ho). The Grounders didn't. They also didn't have the option to shoot anyone, since they were not "allowed" to use guns (nor did they have any). No electric chair, no lethal injection. They could have hanged someone, but I actually don't think that's much better than simply stabbing someone.

And finally, I think there are revengeful people everywhere, moreso, everyone is revengeful to a degree. I suspect that people who have lived their lives in fear, and having to fight for their food, medicine, shelter, are also slightly more bitter when it comes to dealing with the person who took something that they had to fight for. And If some of the grounders used their way of execution as revenge, than that's that, but we have no way of knowing that that also didn't happen on the ark too. Their way of execution is not for revenge, but to scare people away from commiting serious crimes, at least, it seems to me :)