Clarke Griffin: The Useless Heroine | Analysis of The 100

"Read obsessively. Write furiously. Edit carefully," -Sissy Gavrilaki

Back in Seasons 1 and 2, I actually really liked Clarke Griffin. She was strong and sensitive and a great leader. However, she has been on a slow de-evolution since Season 3, although it has rapidly gone downhill since Season 4. I wasn't able to quite place why this happened and my subsequent disliking of her as a character. 

But it hit me in 4x11, "The Other Side".

Clarke's cold, stupid, and almost rash decisions are motivated by one thing: nothing. That's it. She's completely lost herself. In this whole battle to save the human race, she's become this archetype trying to save humanity, but also being a total asshole in the process. 

https://fsmedia.imgix.net/db/08/26/30/e42d/4b31/a240/a556ff3daa2f/clarke-griffin-in-a-lie-guarded.png

Clarke has lost her motivation. In Season 1, her motivation was to keep her people safe and to help them survive. In Season 2, it was to get them back home safely. In Season 3, it was pretty much Lexa for a while there, and then it was to save everyone from ALIE. In Season 4, it's become even more generic with 'saving humanity' plotline. But the wider Clarke's motivation gets, the less she feels like a real person, the less we connect with her and root for her. She is lacking a meaningful character arc or motivation, which is necessary for any character. It's like, Step 3 in creating a character.

Another problem is Clarke's lack of relationships. Now, don't get me wrong, I'm not saying that Clarke needs a love interest or should just get with Bellamy already. While that would be nice, what I'm really talking about is how Clarke doesn't have any strong relationships we can root for, whether that be friendships, family members, or someone romantically. These relationships make a character more realistic, human, and make the audience want the main character to succeed. With people that the main character cares about, this raises the stakes. However, Clarke's friends or lovers are all dead, and the ones who aren't, their relationships have been severely neglected. 

Why do we love Bellamy, Octavia, Jasper, Monty, Murphy, and Raven so much?  Because they have people they love and who love them, and they fight for what they want and have clear and realistic character traits. They have interesting motivations that compel them to act and drive their storylines in dynamic and emotional ways. 

On the other hand, Clarke has become flat. Almost a Deus Ex Machina of sorts, where she always is the savior and always has to solve the problem. Without an interesting or emotional motivation, her actions seem, well, bitchy. Because Clarke never has emotional depth, change, or true struggle, she has become a gray slate, stagnant and uninteresting. 

And it's a real tragedy.

~

An amazing little post about the missed opportunity of great character conflict in 4x11:

http://wellamyblake.tumblr.com/post/160552229725/purging-2-disappointments-from-411 

~The WordShaker