Let me tell you a little story about The 100. When the previews first came on I had no desire to watch this show. It looked like a bunch of teenagers doing shit together while trying to survive an unknown planet.

…okay that is pretty much what it is, but it needs the benefit of the doubt (especially being on the CW, which a lot of people criticize it for.) The 100 exceeded all of my expectations, especially the main character Clarke.

To be honest at first I thought she would annoy me: the pretty blonde girl voicing her opinion too much. Clarke does love to say her peace, but she is so much more than that. Right at the beginning Clarke established herself as a leader. Even though most of the kids didn’t want to follow her, a small group did, and she earned respect quick. Unlike her co-leader Bellamy, Clarke had common sense. Her first plan when they got to the ground was to find food and water, she had the medical skills and knowledge to put herself out there. She cared about these people, no matter how much they annoyed her. And she quickly learned she would do anything for them.

Clarke has been paired with numerous people, the first (canon) being Finn. Instantly the two had chemistry, but once Clarke found out Finn had a girlfriend (Raven, who was not part of the group to go to the ground, but found a way), she backed off. What could have been a love triangle never happened, and Clarke and Raven became friends.

Clarke also became rather close with the Grounder leader, Lexa. After forming a truce the two became rather close, which resulted in romantic feelings and Clarke being announced as a bisexual character. But eventually, this would end (well, for now.)

And finally Clarke and Bellamy (my, ahem, ship.) Not only do you love the idea of them together but watching them grow from basically hating each other to the absolute joy of seeing each other again after believing the other was dead. They work well off each other and as co-leaders have to listen to one another. At this point in the series, one look at each other and they know.

But Clarke is FAR FROM someone who needs a love interest. Most of the time this is rarely in her mind, because she has other shit to do, like keeping her people from being murdered by a group of Grounders. Or uniting her people with the same Grounders to fight ANOTHER enemy bent on killing them both. Even trying to get the rest of her people in space to the ground was not an easy task, but it was done.

But let’s be honest, when do our favorite characters get off the hook that easy? We need to see them suffer. And poor Clarke, she’s been to hell…and she’s still there.

During the first attack from the Grounders, Clarke (although it wasn’t all her) killed at least 300 people to save hers.

This led to them being captured by another group of people living in the mountains who needed their “radiation-blood-cure” to survive outside the walls. When Clarke discovered the truth she found the rest of her people, and tried to convince the Grounders to join them, but a little (murderous) incident with Finn caused the trust to falter and there was only one way for Clarke to make this work

Once a trust was formed and the groups worked together Clarke had to put her emotions aside and do what needed to be done to save her people. And she did WHATEVER needed to be done, no matter the reactions from her family and friends. I also might add, the two leaders of the united army was a teenage Clarke and Lexa. No words needed to be said, Clarke was in charge of her people.

Clarke became hard and let hundreds of people die from a bombing to killing some herself. She was determined and nothing was getting in her way, even her own morals.

In the end, Clarke was betrayed by the Grounders, and had to make a tough decision: let the mountain take all of her friends lives, or she would take all of theirs. With the help of Bellamy, the two (pretty much) murdered all the adults and children in the mountain, saving their people.

So where are we now? Well with the remaining people rescued and returning to their camp, Clarke will have to live with what she did forever. To do this she left the camp and all her friends to live with herself. She will take the burden so no one else will.  Clarke walked into the woods, away from Bellamy, and her people. Clarke went from desperately trying to save everyone to killing some just to make a point. She was strong from the start, not letting anyone change her or her ideas and got even stronger as her confidence grew. But over time, the pain of watching her people die caused her to grow hard and unforgiving. She killed the boy she loved, she killed hundreds of people, only for an alliance to fall apart. Clarke went through it all, but now must live with what she did.