LETS TALK ABOUT BLODREINA.
here is my thread on my observations, thoughts, opinions on her. i see a lot of slander about her and everyone labelling her as "annoying" etc so i want to clarify a few things.

before i begin and tweet out my essay, i just want to say these are my opinions and observations after rewatching s5, and reading more into it. there will also be a lil bit of sensitive content but i'll put trigger warnings. if you disagree w something, remember it's my opinion

octavia was never born to be a leader. she wasn't even meant to be born. she never wanted to be a leader. she was always a warrior. as soon as she won the conclave, everything changed though. suddenly she was responsible for 1200 people in a bunker

she had to become a leader to save them all. a 17/18 year old girl was responsible for all of these people who viewed her as a leader who saved them from praimfaya. she had to do what was necessary to save them, the majority remainder of the human race.

from season 3 onwards octavia was on a rapid decline, in particular her mental health. losing lincoln broke her. she had been broken since he died. she also lost jasper, was separated from her brother for 5+ years and she had even lost ilian as well.

in order to lead this bunker, octavia had to unite 12 different clans into one to ensure some sense of unity in the bunker, in order for everyone to survive. if you weren't wonkru, you didnt belong. you were essentially her enemy. those were her rules and thats what she had to do

to save them and be a leader.

being in the bunker, essentially under the floor which was representative of octavias entire life on the ark, created blodreina: a character who was completely broken, ruthless but a necessary leader. it is so evident that her mental health deteriorated in the bunker and

throughout the entire season (more on this later)

octavia became her own worst enemy. she was convinced that she was behind repair and eventually saw herself as an enemy of wonkru, hence symbolically painting her face with her own blood, instead of the blood of her enemies

lets get into kane and abby. they are a bunch of hypocrites. "we stood by blodreina during the dark year" no, you didn't. what they did was manipulate a young girl who was vulnerable and desperate to save her people into doing what they believed was right, and they both didn't

take any responsibility for their actions regarding cannibalism at all. they let octavia take all of the blame and they played innocent. screw kane for forgiving abby but not octavia and betraying wonkru, and all of the people he lived with for years

510: this episode was the start of octavias extreme breaking point. when monty told her that he was using the farm successfully, octavia was not happy. personally, i was convinced that octavia would rather die than live/step foot into that bunker one more time. her actions at

this point in time we're based on her trauma of the dark year and everything that followed, and her fear of continuing to live in the bunker and not escaping

octavia burning down the farm was her desperation showing through. she didn't necessarily want the war, she really needed it. she needed to get out of the bunker, she needed an escape. at this point, i don't think she cared about whether or not she died in shallow valley,

she just needed a war to get out of that bunker for good. some people say that she felt no remorse for anything at all, when it's the opposite: all she felt was remorse for everything she had to do, but she hid it behind her blodreina mask. she would have rather died than live-

with what she did in the bunker.

TW//suicide, self harm

throughout s5 octavia showed no care for her life at all, she was throwing herself into danger and willing to walk into a war she knew she couldn't win. she didn't seem to care if she died or not. this was clear when she threw herself in front of the guns

TW//suicide, self harm cont

in the wasteland, which was the parallel to lincoln's death, she was putting herself in the face of death. i believe she truly may have been suicidal in this moment because her people had turned on her and she knew she had lost. she needed a way out

and she thought she was past coming back from being blodreina, and no one supported her because everyone she trusted (bellamy, indra etc) turned on her and betrayed her.

octavia was forced to become a monster to save her people. everyone stood around while octavia made the hard choices that she was influenced to take with hardly any support

indra: she forced octavia into leadership, then sat by while octavia took responsibility for everything and did everything to save her people, then had the audacity to call octavia a monster

abby: she told octavia to make not being a cannibal into a crime and told her to do it through kane. with this, abby basically encouraged octavia to kill her people to force kane into cannibalism, yet abby took no responsibility for it whatsoever

kane: he called octavia the devil when he forced a 19 year old to make a decision that broke her. she so evidently broke and was a mess when she shot those people to force kane into cannibalism. once again, abby got 0 blame for it even when it was her idea

it's clear that blodreina was a mask octavia used to hide how broken she was. when bellamy came down into the bunker for the first time, that mask instantly fell and the actual octavia came through. bellamy is her weakness.

"i knew you would come" - that's the mask breaking and the real octavia coming through for a moment. she needed her brother there to save her

bellamy eventually betrayed her this season which drove her past her breaking point. when bellamy said he wanted her dead, he wanted the BLODREINA part of her dead. not all of her. if she died bellamy would be absolutely broken

so many characters have done horrible things to save their people and octavia is no different. blodreina was a product of being broken, manipulated, desperate and vulnerable. all of the adults should've taken accountability for their influence instead of acting innocent and

placing all of the blame on octavia.

once again, she did what she needed to do to save her people. just because it may be more "extreme" than what other characters may have done/would do, it doesn't make octavia any worse of a character. blodreina is a byproduct of a mental illness and is not "annoying"

finally, octavia does not need any redemption. she did what she was influenced to do and needed to do to save her people. wonkru. she destroyed her humanity and her mental health to become heartless and save the human race.

thank you for coming to my ted talk

I ALSO WANT TO QUICKLY ADD: throwing bellamy, gaia and indra into the pit. she had to do that to 1) show no weakness and 2) they betrayed her, they were enemies of wonkru so why should they be an exception to not getting put in the pit?