Perhaps if the only person who was acting rationally didn't die in the episode, I might have enjoyed it more.

 

Just binged first 2 seasons over the weekend, holy moly. The quality jump from start to end of 2nd season is ridiculous, i think the season finale is definetly near among best tv episodes i've seen. Caught myself enjoying the show a lot more after the Finn situation resolved. The tensions between/within factions are delightful and the actual drama is fantastic. I think for me romance is actually the weak spot for this show, even though i usually like it in others. The things hit the fan this show definetly gets on another level. Awesome characters on the show overall. Looking forward to wathing S3, Clarke's a beast.

 

Personally, I think all the Pike stuff is responsible for a lot of the problems. I don't know what bothers me more: how anti-Grounder he is to the point of stupidity, or how so many people seem to be behind him.

I actually like the rest of the show. The AI stuff is getting better and better, we're getting some great world-building into the origins of the Grounders, and props for the two lesbian sex scenes-er, I mean the great representation of LGBT people.

Random question: am I the only one bothered by the fact the nuclear apocalypse happened less than a hundred years ago, but everyone acts like it's been more like 300 years? At least some of the people (Grounders and Arkadians) should be able to remember at least a few people from before the nuclear apocalypse, and yet the Grounders managed to create an entire language and forget stuff like who the first Commander was.

 

Holy hell 3x07. How can an episode be so amazing and utterly disappointing at the same time? Feel like writers took an eas way it, very jarring kill-off. Looking forward to the whole Arcadia resolution in 3x09 and further

 

After letting the last 7 or so episodes pile up on my DVR, I watched them all today. I was surprised to find myself really liking it, I remember losing interest in the series due to Bellamy's character assassination, the Pike storyline, and even the AI storlyline. But the second half of the season really stepped up. I enjoyed Bellamy, Pike, and the AI stuff. I even found myself liking Pike at times, especially seeing how different a person he was in the those flashbacks.

Murphy remained awesome throughout the entire season. I never would have thought at the beginning of the series that he would end up a favorite of mine. Kanetoo, actually.

All in all, my faith in this show is restored.

 

I still need some more time. I think there were more bad episodes this season than good ones.

 

Can anyone recommend me some good fics? All I can find is badly written AU romance fics, badly written fix-it fics, badly written Bellarke and Clexa fics, and more Fear The Walking Dead crossovers than you'd think there'd be.

There has to be some good stories out there.

 

Cyclops, are you avoiding romance fics in general?

I've been on a weird Bellarke kick -- AU -- since I haven't gotten around to finishing Season 2 on Netflix and didn't want to run into spoilers. Haven't been introduced to Lexa yet but I know she exists.

I agree with a lot of comments here -- I sort of feel like the show was planned to be an adults suck and Lord of the Flies combination but it's surprised me a lot. In a good way. The characters are all given enough flaws to be real, no one is ever evil just to be evil, and even the whole dystopian premise ("any crime gets you killed; one child only") gets explained ("no choice, had to support an entire society with limited resources") in a very understandable way.

Since getting into Season 2 I'm not sure how I feel about the status quo shift because I was just getting comfortable with the "base camp" setup, but the world's been opened up more and a lot of questions are being answered, so I guess I'll see.

 

I'm not avoiding romance fics at all. In fact, I'd love a good Clarke/Lexa fic. Heck, I'd even like a good Clarke/Bellamy one. Unfortunately all of the fics in this fandom just plain suck, whether they have romance or not.

 

I hadn't really given it much thought until you mentioned it, but you're completely right Cyclops. There really isn't anything objectively good in this fandom.

I took a look through my archives to see if anything sparked that I would be willing to recommend. It's sort of sad, but, I realized that of the 53 authors I have in my 100 folder I don't remember the plots of any of the fic I have saved in there at all...

I think the main problem that the 100 has fanfic wise (at least in the Clarke/Lexa tag) is that roughly 90% of it is modern AU fic and another 9% is alpha/beta/omega. Which causes problems for series like the 100 where the setting really shapes the characters. You end up losing something when you start changing the setting.

I'd also be totally interested if anyone knew of anything good.

 

Yeah I see what you're saying. I think the problem is that a lot of the fanfic writers go the modern AU route because it's easy... compared to capturing the landscape, cultures, and ethical dilemmas of the 100-verse. I haven't read anything (yet, hopefully), that compares. And even then, having read more of these modern AUs I'm starting to see a lot of repeated tropes that are starting to annoy me, like characters being best friends, just because it was convenient (e.g. Lincoln and Clarke being best friends just to match perfectly with the Blakes).

Harry Potter in contrast is a pretty accessible universe as far as extending on the colorful characters and world JKR built so I completely understand why there's not a lot of amazing gems for The 100. The show is still young though, so I'm still hoping to find something... if I recall, a lot of HP fanfics were just okay the first couple years out from when the first movie came out (which is when I think around the time HP became big? at least that's what it seemed like when I was in school).

 

Bump for great justice because credit must be given where it's due. I remember watching the first season in the crusty old days of 2015 and I was honestly impressed by how the show evolved from the average first half of the season to the engaging second half, but I forgot about it before season 2 premiered.

Now, while I found some plot threads contrived

Spoiler

Finn's massacre, Murphy's Slytherin ways, Jaha's faith and dear God, why wasn't anyone securing the rope when that guy was trying to save the girl

I overall have enjoyed the second season very much. Clarke, Bellamy, Octavia and Lexa were all badass and awesome, especially when Clarke went "I'm the captain now" on her mom. I'm going into the third season with pretty high expectations.

I feel embarrassed that it took me until the 15th episode of season 2 to realize that Tondc is Washington D.C. I mean, they even showed the Lincoln Memorial statue plain as day.

 

While I enjoyed the third, and fourth season, I feel like the third was the weakest of the lot. There is a huge transition from 2 to 3, and the AI plotline is kind of interesting, but drags on a bit too long in my opinion. I enjoyed a lot the world building though, it was super interesting to see where the grounders traditions came from. Blood Must Have Blood also makes a lot of sense and not in a vengeance way here.

 

Wow, Bellamy just went full retard. I thought we were past this. But must manufacture drama I guess.

Tbh not a fan of the S3 plot so far. S2, where art thou?

Edit: Octavia is still badass though. May be my favorite character right now.

 

The entire series is "____ went full retard, how are we gonna fix shit this time?"

I can't remember what's going on at the point where you're watching, but it was probably just his turn to mess everything up again.

 

Yeah...they completely butchered Bellamy's character in S3.

 

S4 was a huge improvement over S3. Bellamy's retardation was off-putting, but the assholery in S4 makes sense given the approaching apocalypse. I understood why Clarke and Jaha took the bunker for Skaikru and it made for a delicious moral struggle, the inter-faction conflict was much better handled than in S3. Bellamy returned to my good graces and Octavia continues to be badass and I think my favorite character. Loved how she basically became queen of the grounders.

I have to say though, I'm not sure how to feel about the closing minutes. I mean I like the timeskip. I'd hate to go through another season of Ark space drama. But what the fuck was that ship at the end? Some heretofore unknown space station that was never part of the Ark? And I'm assuming the bunker can't open the doors because of the rubble of top of it and their comms are fried, so Clarke can't tell them it's okay to leave. Sucks that I have to wait a year for the next season, The 100 is one of my top anticipated shows now.

I still think S2 is the best of the bunch, but I'd put S4 second. (moar Octavia in S5 plz)

 

So the ship at the end is actually foreshadowed in S4. There is an article title "Contact Lost With Asteroid Mining Penal Colony" on one of Raven's monitor when she explains the 2048 nuclear reactor technology. This one I didn't catch myself.

After that, when Abby and Jackson are in Becca's lab, Jackson explains that Nightblood was first developed for the Eligius Corporation for miners on long space journey.

Finally, the ship has the "Eligius" logo, and "prisoners" written on it.

So yeah, it's the penal colony coming back home. I don't know why they wouldn't have had any contact with the ARK, but I think the most logical conclusion one can draw is that they got overrun by the prisoners and the prisoners didn't want to chance someone sending armed forces to retake control. Something tells me that they went by the ARK en-route and acquired some Bellamy/Echo/Raven/Monty while there.

 

Just watched the S5 premiere.

Spoiler

I think half of the episode is wasted. Fucking flashbacks. I didn't need to see Clarke's survival, it's all just tropey survival shit we've all seen before. Could've done without it, but whatevs.

Shippers got a slap in the face, kek. I have no stake in shipping since Lexa got killed off, but other people, yeah...

What the actual fuck, Octavia? *watches 5x02 promo* WHAT THE ACTUAL FUCK OCTAVIA. Fuck your greater good pragmatism, Jaha, I was done with you in S1. Octavia, you have a manpower of 1200 people. I'm sure there are tools. Blowtorch the hatch open, get to digging. You have enough people to goddamn chew through the rubble.

If you're gonna go with the Bunker Fight Club, Dog Eat Dog World, at least go all out and crank it up to 11. If there's no cannibalism, I will be disappointed.