On #Lexa’s death.
Y’know what, I’m not done with this.
This story was supposed to be revolutionary*.
This story entwined “love is weakness” with visible strength found in Lexa when Clarke supported her, and in Clarke when Lexa did the same. This story entwined “they’re trying to wipe us out, survival is hard” with “life is about more than just surviving, so let’s do that together so we can have that”. This story was on a trajectory that suggested they might literally change the fabric of the universe so these women could be together (really together, not ‘maybe someday’ goodbye sex half-together).
It stacked the deck against the love story, but kept implying, both in-text and in PR, that they’d somehow magically win anyway. That they’d get the straight love story treatment, where love conquers all 99% of the time.
And when I say ‘stacked the deck’ I’m not talking about just the whole “love is weakness” thing being applied to the love story. That’s an overarching theme subverted in many a narrative, as I just said.
I’m talking about the fact that Clarke had friends, and family, and none of them trusted her, none of them were supporting her at this point.
I’m talking about the fact that Lexa didn’t have friends, just a dead lover as a cautionary tale and patriarchal advisors she trusted who tried to control her, and who, obviously, didn’t support her either.
I’m talking about the fact that nobody in the entire narrative supported their love story, though it clearly made them happy, and the narrative justified this and then used it to kill Lexa and say her death was inevitable and necessary. I’m talking about the fact that they were alone in a sea of discord and disdain, just like so many wlw relationships are in so many homophobic communities, and the creators set that up and then used it to heap tragedy upon us.
I’m talking about the fact that Jasper almost got his throat cut, and someone stopped his would-be murderer. I’m talking about the fact that Jasper got a spear through the middle and they doctored him. I’m talking about the fact that Clarke choked Roan, but Roan turned out to have the support of the narrative and of Lexa, and thus lived. I’m talking about how the narrative set Emerson, last of his murderous kind, up to survive a literal discussion of putting him to death. I’m talking about how Murphy was hanged, and yet people stopped themselves killing him. And Murphy robbed someone and only got hit, not killed. And Titus not only tortured Murphy, but shot a gun with him in the room, yet he magically survived this.
I’m talking about the fact that they fought really hard to keep Maya alive. And if Gina’s friends hadn’t been off trying to stop people she cares about from being killed, Gina would’ve been saved because she’d have had support. I’m talking about how hard Monty and others fought to get Monroe out of the gas. I’m talking about the fact that Wick was in an explosion, and not only lived, but lived to be chivalrous and help save Raven, then got written off without dying. I’m talking about how Lexa couldn’t kill Octavia, dangerous as she was, because Octavia had a loyal friend who refused to let it happen. I’m talking about how hard almost the entire camp fought for Finn to live, after he killed people in cold blood.
I’m talking about the fact that the reason this lesbian died was because nobody supported her loving a woman or the woman loving her, nobody fought for them but themselves, and that rings true to way too many people’s horrific experiences to call it anything like “unfortunate” or coincidence. “Love is weakness”, okay, but no, love is strength, they were showing us that, and a big part of why this amazing woman died is nobody loved her in a way that supported her happiness with the woman she loved, either in-text or out of it. Nobody lent them any strength, and that was justified by the narrative.
...Evidently utterly contrary to the way they treat straight people.
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And furthermore, the way they’re defending this is despicable.
First of all, the audacity to call this a ‘loving normal relationship’ that just ‘faced the same issues regardless of sexuality’ is unbelievable.
They weren’t in a relationship. They never got to be. They got ‘not yet’s and ‘maybe someday’s and ‘when do you leave’s and goodbye sex, living in the in-between because of the danger being together presented for both of them, and before someday could ever come, to make this slow-burn buildup a real, established relationship (like B/G, like J/M, like B/M), one of them died for feeling what they felt and getting the little bit of happiness they could.
How dare they call this a normal relationship, when they killed her before they ever actually got to that point and kept this as tragic as possible.
How dare they say ‘faced the same issues regardless of sexuality’ when the only two people who have thus far been killed explicitly as a consequence of being in love have been lesbians. Everyone else has died for another reason. Everyone.
How dare they say that, when Abby kisses Kane and says “let’s call it hope” (the realization of a ship that strengthened itself with Abby saving Kane’s life), while Lexa, the lesbian commander chokes out “life should be about more than just surviving” as she dies for trying to do just that. Tell me that’s justice. Tell me that’s unbiased. Tell me that counts as regardless of sexuality.
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This story was supposed to be revolutionary, and it could and would have been, if they’d used their fucking themes right and treated lesbians (/wlw in general) the way they deserve to be treated.
Instead, they made homophobic choices that led to a ~tragically homophobic “inevitability” and now they are acting as though they had no power in this at all** so that they need take no responsibility for it.
I refuse to let them get away with that.
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(*Not in all ways, of course, the racism is fucking blatant and very disrespectful, but we don’t get much choice of racism-free dynamic wlw stories, so we took what we could get, and if Lexa had lived, if that link had happened, it still absolutely would have been revolutionary to have a happy wlw endgame.)
(**I’ve discussed/boosted discussion of bigoted creators and the situations they create, only to act like the situations they created narrowed themselves down to ‘unfortunate’ bigoted outcomes--like they had no choice but to watch the car crash when they BUILT THE CAR AND PUT THE BRICK WALL IN FRONT OF IT, repeatedly, with situations like those of Charlie, Meg, Ruby, etc. as written in Supernatural, and this is no different than everything I’ve said before. This was a homophobic [more than sexist, but that too] choice, set up as ‘inevitably what would happen’, and justified in-text as partially what should happen, by dozens of preceding homophobic choices.
When you look at a narrative and you go ‘well this choice is oppressive but it makes sense’ ask yourself WHO created the universe’s logic, who ordered events, who positioned everything in it so the oppressive choice would make sense. It isn’t free-standing, it didn’t spring up out of nowhere, it was made. Narratives are created, and the creators create both cause and effect, event and justification. Fans get to point out the fact of in-universe reasoning to discuss why they are manipulated into feeling ways that are valid--because you cannot logic yourself out of feelings, 9 times out of 10. Creators do NOT.)
