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osleyakomwonkru · 5 years

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5+1 Character Classes in The 100 and Why They Matter

So I’m spinning off a bit from @loganmarshallrps‘ excellent post “Why Killing Octavia Could Kill The 100″ because I really started thinking on all of the character roles and this is the result of that.

I’ve identified five character classes (classes being a term from Dungeons & Dragons, referring to a character’s key capabilities, strengths and weaknesses) that are elemental to The 100 universe. I use the term “class” instead of archetype, because this is more about their jobs in the narrative rather than their particular personalities, because sometimes they do have to function outside of their best class, and when that happens, the narrative usually suffers.

So these five character classes are: The Diplomat, The Leader, The Fixer, The Scientist and The Soldier. Then our +1 is the rarer Multi-Class Master - characters who are masters in two or more of the aforementioned classes (in contrast to the cases I mention in the previous paragraph where characters have to function outside of their best class, and therefore aren’t masters). The Diplomat, Leader and Fixer roles are the most vital to the narrative (and the ones that our main trio belong to), while the Scientist and Soldier are by their nature supporting roles.

I’ve classified our living members of Earthkru into these categories, with special mentions to some deceased characters as well.

The Diplomat

The Diplomat is a role that people may often pin as The Leader, but as you’ll see below in that section, they have different jobs. The Diplomat is also a leader of sorts, but their role is focused externally - they are the ones who represent their people to the other groups that are encountered throughout the narrative, who engage with them, and make deals for the benefit of their people. How successful they are at this is always up for debate, but they try.

As we’d expect, this is the category where we find our ambassadors Clarke and Kane. Back on Earth, the Commanders, like Lexa, would also fit this role, since they have to keep all of the clans somewhat happy. Had he survived past the first three episodes, Wells would have probably also been a Diplomat.

The Leader

While the Diplomat focuses outward into the wider world, the Leader is the one tasked with keeping order at home. Their primary concern is the well-being of their people in the here and now, rather than worrying about what might happen in the future (that’s the job of the Diplomat). This means they’re more involved in the day to day activities and storylines of the secondary characters, since out of the three lead roles (Diplomat, Leader, Fixer) they will be the ones who are around them more, since the narrative requires the Diplomat and the Fixer to be more mobile.

This is the most important narrative role for Bellamy, as well as Madi. While past Commanders would have been Diplomats, representing for all clans, since now we’ve just got Earthkru, the Commander moves more into a Leader role (assuming the adults don’t keep restricting her). This was also generally the main narrative role for Jaha, even with the City of Light plotline, because as Kane and Abby played Grounder politics games in season 2 and 3, Jaha was still focused on Skaikru (until he was chipped, and even then, he returned to Skaikru first). Roan would be another leader, though he did also try his hand at diplomacy to mixed success.

The Fixer

The Fixer is perhaps the most vital role in a narrative such as The 100 - they’re the ones who make first contact with new people, places and ideas; they connect different and sometimes conflicting parts of the narrative together, and so on.

They are the most mobile pieces on the narrative chessboard, since they’re often characterized by weak and/or divided loyalties to the different groups in play, thus outsiders either by circumstance or by choice, and that means they’re able to move between them as needed (though often still with some sort of personal sacrifices). This also means that they spend a large amount of each season away from the rest of Adventure Squad, bringing the pieces together in the final act of the season.

Fixers can also be categorized into three different types - Active (they seek out these connections on purpose), Reactive (they make connections based on moves others have made and provide course correction) and Passive (these connections happen upon them by accident).

Of our three living Fixers, we’ve got one of each type -

Octavia is the Active type of Fixer, and you can read @loganmarshallrps‘ linked post above to see more details on her vital role in the narrative.

Niylah is the Reactive type of Fixer. Some examples: She puts a human face on Farm Station’s grounder army massacre, setting Bellamy back on the right path; gives Jaha the knowledge he needs to find the Second Dawn bunker; releases Clarke from Wonkru custody so she can try to stop the ascension; wakes Octavia from cryosleep against Abby’s orders.

Murphy is the Passive type of Fixer. Generally speaking, his entire character arc has been about trying to avoid the narrative entirely, but he always keeps getting pulled back in, and this is why - he always happens across some sort of information that ends up being vital. This starts in season 1, when he’s cast out but then returns to the delinquent camp with the sickness, but is most apparent in season 3, when he figures out the Becca/Polaris connection to the Commanders before anyone else does, as well as the information about ALIE. In season 6, he seems to be back in this role again as Josephine taps him to be her way into Earthkru’s secrets.

As to our dead Fixers, there are two main ones - Lincoln and Finn.

The Scientist

The Scientist is the character (or characters, rather, since there’s quite a few of them) that is the keeper of knowledge. While the Diplomat and Leader are ideas-oriented, the Scientist is results-oriented. Their role in the main narrative is to take the pieces of information fed to them by the Fixer and turn it into something that the Leader and the Diplomat can put to use, as well as keep people alive through whatever day-to-day shenanigans are going on.

This is the class where we of course see our tech master Raven, but also the medical professionals Abby and Jackson, as well as Flamekeeper Gaia. Our list of deceased Scientists is long, but Sinclair and Monty are the biggest names.

The Soldier

As the name implies, the Soldier is the one who carries out the orders of the Leader and/or Diplomat. They may sometimes take on some minor Fixer roles, if the person they answer to is the Leader or if the main Fixers aren’t around at the time, but they don’t generally have the same connections or narrative reach. If the person in charge that they answer to is a Diplomat, however, they may also take on some minor Leader roles.

We don’t have many remaining living named characters who fall into this class, since they’re generally the most disposable of the five and would be the default classification for all minor characters. But with us still we do have Miller (who has worked as a Fixer under both Bellamy and Octavia when they’re Leaders), Indra (who has worked as a Leader under Diplomat Lexa) and Brell. Then we can take a moment for all of our deceased Soldiers, chief among them Harper, David Miller, Jasper, Monroe and the rest of the Delinquents.

Multi-Class Master

This is a special category, with three special ladies and (perhaps) one special guy.

Diyoza is the master Jack of All Trades, as it were - as long as she’s not trying to do everything all at once. Trying to do that is when she ends up failing at all of them. But we’ve seen her excel at both Diplomat and Leader, she’s been a Soldier in the past, and it wouldn’t be surprising if she also had some Scientist skills from her time as a terrorist leader. And now in season 6, she’s joined Octavia on the Fixer journey that she’s usually off on by herself.

Echo, as a trained spy, specializes in both the Fixer and Soldier classes. She has the Fixer skillset, but only utilizes it as a Soldier due to the intense loyalty she exhibits to her Leader, and thus doesn’t have the same mobility or flexibility that a regular Fixer would have.

Emori started out in the Fixer category, but her six years on the Ring have also given her a complementary Scientist skillset, and she uses this one more often now than she does her Fixer skills.

Jordan is still something of a question mark - his parents were a Scientist and a Soldier, and while Jordan certainly does have a Scientist skillset, since he’s been in Sanctum he’s been playing both Diplomat and Fixer roles instead. As the story progresses, we’ll see if he fits one category better than the others.

Now, for the story to flow well and for our protagonists to “win” (however winning is defined in the story arc), three things are necessary:

The three leads - Clarke, Bellamy, Octavia - must play the narrative roles they’re best at - Diplomat, Leader, Fixer, respectively

They must all be on the same side

They must be communicating with each other as much as possible

The first half of season 3 is the first time we have discord here - while the three of them are in their best narrative roles, they’re not communicating effectively, and not on the same side after Bellamy sides with Pike. The Pike problem is dealt with in Clarke’s absence by Kane stepping into the primary Diplomat role in Clarke’s stead, and then Clarke returns and the narrative goes on as it should for the rest of the season.

Season 5 is when everything is turned on its head. The trio had all switched roles, and this is why they end up having to flee Earth. Well, McCreary is the reason they had to flee Earth, but really the success or failure of our protagonists generally rests on the the Fixer, and in this case the Fixer was Clarke. Who shouldn’t fix anything, ever. Octavia was tied down by her Leader role, and Bellamy failed at being the Diplomat. Result? Earth go boom.

Thankfully, in season 6 everyone has returned to their usual roles, but we’re back in the same problem as at the beginning of season 3 - while Clarke is the Diplomat, Bellamy is the Leader and Octavia is the Fixer, they’re separated by distance, enmity and brain occupation, meaning that unless the three of them can unite again, we’re currently headed into the shitstorm that was the middle of season 3.

Will they be able to solve their inner discord to be able to tackle the greater storyline? Which we may not even know yet? Will one of the supporting characters have to step into one or more of the roles that usually belong to the leading trio? Could they do so successfully?

I guess we’ll see.

#the 100 meta #the 100 #clarke griffin #bellamy blake #octavia blake #character classes #leader #diplomat #fixer #scientist #soldier #multi-classing

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