The 100... Things That Make No Sense

[kdm07]

I want to know where the Grounders get all their elaborate face-paint.  Is there a post-apocalyptic sephora?  

 

Same place Lexa gets her paint for her models? (Side note: I'd like to know who exactly makes those models: Lexa or her servants?)

[Agent Dark]

Same place Lexa gets her paint for her models? (Side note: I'd like to know who exactly makes those models: Lexa or her servants?)

"In the Grim Darkness of the Far Future, there is Only War."

 

And by 'Far Future' I meant 97 years, and by 'Only War' I meant only Warhammer 40,000.  The Grounders found a massive stash of miniature models that survived the war, which they use to indulge in their favourite pastime of tabletop wargaming.

[SpectreH]

Catching up with the series with Netflix (currently on 1.6 or so), and the thing that sticks out to me is this whole Octavia backstory. 

 

I get that there is a strict 1-child per person limit. 

 

I don't get:

1) How Mama Octavia became pregnant for the second time. Shouldn't they just employ foolproof birth control/sterilization after the one child?

2) How no one detected Mama Octavia's pregnancy during the presumed 9 months it took place. 

3) Why Mama Octavia would want to go ahead with Octavia's pregnancy, knowing that if she were ever caught, it could mean death for her and Bellamy, and even if it were not, it meant Octavia living underneath the floorboards.

4) How/why Bellamy latched on to Augustus/Octavia

5) Why Mama Octavia didn't work out some deal to have Octavia adopted by a childless couple

6) How in a tightly regulated society no one noticed that Mama Octavia was consuming for three instead of two for 16 years.

7) Why Bellamy was not subject to juvenile detention for his role in concealing Octavia

 

I'm in the same boat, just started watching on Netflix and am currently on 1.9.  Another thing I haven't seen mentioned is the whole 1 child policy, but I think this is actually a very common misconception in general.  Perhaps it's because China is famous for a 1 child policy that your average person may think that couples having 1 child only is population stability.  In reality it's not, it's a death sentence.  It's simple math:

 

2 couples(4 people) each have one child

Their 2 children get married and also have one child

 

That means in 2 generations you have gone from 4 people to 1 person, ie, you have lost 75% of your population.  If this has been going on for 3 generations at the station(assuming Clarke's is the 3rd generation and assuming 2500 people prior to the culling and the 100 being sent down), then they started with closer to 10000 people, and in another 100 years, per the original plan, they would probably be down to the 700 or so people that could fit in the lifeboats.  Maybe that was the plan all along, or maybe the producers failed basic math.  

 

In the real world, Greece has the lowest fertility rate in Europe at around 1.3* and their population has declined by about 3% in the last 5 years.  This is part of the unspoken reason why they can't fix their budget.  You need 2.1 children per couple for population stability.  The 0.1 is for the people who either die early or simply don't reproduce.  So, in a zero growth population society, you would be encouraged to have 2 and only 2 children.  Or perhaps couples with only 1 child could sell a voucher to couples who want to have 3 children.  Oddly enough, I have never seen that in dystopian SF, just the 1 child policy(which is mathematically incorrect).

 

PS: I take that back, in Ender's Game, the book, Ender is a 3rd child after his parents got government permission to have a 3rd child after they had their allowable 2.  So at least Orson Scott Card can do basic math.

 

*Greek Demographics here, for those curious about the numbers.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demographics_of_Greece

[ElleMo]

I'm in the same boat, just started watching on Netflix and am currently on 1.9.  Another thing I haven't seen mentioned is the whole 1 child policy, but I think this is actually a very common misconception in general.  Perhaps it's because China is famous for a 1 child policy that your average person may think that couples having 1 child only is population stability.  In reality it's not, it's a death sentence.  It's simple math:

 

2 couples(4 people) each have one child

Their 2 children get married and also have one child

 

That means in 2 generations you have gone from 4 people to 1 person, ie, you have lost 75% of your population.  If this has been going on for 3 generations at the station(assuming Clarke's is the 3rd generation and assuming 2500 people prior to the culling and the 100 being sent down), then they started with closer to 10000 people, and in another 100 years, per the original plan, they would probably be down to the 700 or so people that could fit in the lifeboats.  Maybe that was the plan all along, or maybe the producers failed basic math.  

 

In the real world, Greece has the lowest fertility rate in Europe at around 1.3* and their population has declined by about 3% in the last 5 years.  This is part of the unspoken reason why they can't fix their budget.  You need 2.1 children per couple for population stability.  The 0.1 is for the people who either die early or simply don't reproduce.  So, in a zero growth population society, you would be encouraged to have 2 and only 2 children.  Or perhaps couples with only 1 child could sell a voucher to couples who want to have 3 children.  Oddly enough, I have never seen that in dystopian SF, just the 1 child policy(which is mathematically incorrect).

 

PS: I take that back, in Ender's Game, the book, Ender is a 3rd child after his parents got government permission to have a 3rd child after they had their allowable 2.  So at least Orson Scott Card can do basic math.

 

*Greek Demographics here, for those curious about the numbers.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demographics_of_Greece

Lois Lowry also has the two-children policy In The Giver. They further controlled things by having  only certain women as breeders and controlled them so that only a certain number of babies were born each year.  Couples were assigned children in a yearly ceremony.

 

For the ark, though, I think the one child policy was purposely done to reduce the population size.  The population grew from a few hundred to about a few thousand.  At some point they realized that there were too many people being supported on the ark and they needed to reduce the number of people on it and that was when they initiated the one child policy.

 

I am with those who think it ridiculous that Olivia’s mom was able to have a second child.  If drugs were in short supply, sterilization would be an option.

Edited December 31, 2015 by ElleMo

[ElleMo]

I find it strange that after 97 years some new language was created, is understood by all the grounder clans, and they also speak perfect English.  If the different clans developed different dialects and then spoke English to each other, that would make more sense.  But why is everyone speaking that same two languages?  Speak one or the other.

           I know the grounder and the sky people have great radioactive-resistant genes and all, but I find it difficult to imagine that they can resist enough radiation that would kill a Mountain man in minutes.  That’s a heck of a lot of radiation.  Would make more sense if the mountain people got sicker a little more slowly, but I guess that takes away the drama needed.

         And if, as per Dante & Clark’s conversation, the Arc people were exposed to solar radiation that they adapted to -- to get that way in three generations is quite a feat. Women in the first generations would all have to be as fertile as Michele Duggar for the population to explode from 400 to thousands while also weeding out bad genes.  I would assume a high infant mortality rates for kids who are unable to adapt to the high amounts of solar radiation.

[viajero]

I find it strange that after 97 years some new language was created, is understood by all the grounder clans, and they also speak perfect English.  If the different clans developed different dialects and then spoke English to each other, that would make more sense.  But why is everyone speaking that same two languages?  Speak one or the other.

           I know the grounder and the sky people have great radioactive-resistant genes and all, but I find it difficult to imagine that they can resist enough radiation that would kill a Mountain man in minutes.  That’s a heck of a lot of radiation.  Would make more sense if the mountain people got sicker a little more slowly, but I guess that takes away the drama needed.

         And if, as per Dante & Clark’s conversation, the Arc people were exposed to solar radiation that they adapted to -- to get that way in three generations is quite a feat. Women in the first generations would all have to be as fertile as Michele Duggar for the population to explode from 400 to thousands while also weeding out bad genes.  I would assume a high infant mortality rates for kids who are unable to adapt to the high amounts of solar radiation.

 

I don't find the language situation so strange.  While grounders may have developed their own alternate version of English (more like an extreme slang than a completely new language), it makes sense that knowledge of more proper English would have been retained as the language by which the grounders communicate and trade with others.

 

But I agree that the whole resistance to radiation premise is complete nonsense.

[ninathena]

 

I find it strange that after 97 years some new language was created, is understood by all the grounder clans, and they also speak perfect English.  If the different clans developed different dialects and then spoke English to each other, that would make more sense.  But why is everyone speaking that same two languages?  Speak one or the other.

As I understand it, not all grounders speak English, only their warriors. Trigedasleng is the language of the grounders and they began speaking it so that Mt Weather would not be able to understand what they were saying.

[ninathena]

While I'm liking the show a lot more this season it's still too white as far as the cast is concerned. For a show that is supposed to be set in the future this is glaring to say the least.

Actually I think the 100 is pretty good when it comes to diversity (especially for a CW show). Could it be better? Of course, but to see a show that has diversity like this gives me hope for the future of all TV. MC's alone you have Bellamy, Lincoln, Raven, Monty, and Jaha. Then of course you have a bi-sexual lead in Clarke, a lesbian recurring character in Lexa, and a disable MC in Raven. So, yes it could definitely be better, but I still think the representation on this show is a step in the right direction. 

[FurryFury]

My theory on the Grounders and English and everything with them is that this was all a pre-war government/ALIE-related experiment. Because I really need it to make at least some sense. 

Edited January 3, 2016 by FurryFury

[ninathena]

I feel like the Grounders would make sense if they'd had more than just 100 years to become what they are. I just can't see what's left of civilization devolving so much in such a short period of time. But what do I know, I just try and take the show as it is because the rest of it is so entertaining.

[ElleMo]

As I understand it, not all grounders speak English, only theirwarriors. Trigedasleng is the language of the grounders and they began speaking it so that Mt Weather would not be able to understand what they were saying.

Was this something from the show or the books?  it makes a lot of sense but I don't recall anything hinting at this on the show.

As I understand it, not all grounders speak English, only theirwarriors. Trigedasleng is the language of the grounders and they began speaking it so that Mt Weather would not be able to understand what they were saying.

Was this something from the show or the books?  it makes a lot of sense but I don't recall anything hinting at this on the show.

As I understand it, not all grounders speak English, only theirwarriors. Trigedasleng is the language of the grounders and they began speaking it so that Mt Weather would not be able to understand what they were saying.

Was this something from the show or the books?  it makes a lot of sense but I don't recall anything hinting at this on the show.

[AdorkableWitch]

Was this something from the show or the books?  it makes a lot of sense but I don't recall anything hinting at this on the show.

I just binge watched the show over Christmas and I believe Lincoln mentions it to Octavia.

[In2You]

Actually I think the 100 is pretty good when it comes to diversity (especially for a CW show). Could it be better? Of course, but to see a show that has diversity like this gives me hope for the future of all TV. MC's alone you have Bellamy, Lincoln, Raven, Monty, and Jaha. Then of course you have a bi-sexual lead in Clarke, a lesbian recurring character in Lexa, and a disable MC in Raven. So, yes it could definitely be better, but I still think the representation on this show is a step in the right direction. 

Bellamy is white. The actor may be half Asian in real life( who looks more Caucasian than Asian regardless) but even in the flashbacks Bellamy was played by a white boy.  Raven is still lacking in character development. Yeah she's a bad ass ass but little has been touched upon outside of that. Monty still feels like a background character 2 seasons in. The Clarke/Lexa kiss felt like they through that in for LGBT brownie points.

[ottoDbusdriver]

The weird thing about the music in the S3 premiere is that in the 100Verse the Violent Femmes song they played -- twice -- is nearly 200 years old.

 

Per the video clips that Murphy was playing in the bunker, ALIE the hologram was brought into existence in 2085, and the show takes place 97 years after the nukes fell putting it somewhere around 2182.

 

Would the teens have really been rocking out to really old music ?

[blixie]

I feel like all earthling related Sci-Fi has people in the future digging on really old stuff from the "contemporary" past, we already saw the art/paintings that the Mountain people surrounded themselves with, it's reasonable to think they also had capsules of old music, that also happened on Star Trek, where Picard loved Shakespeare and Hammett, and Battlestar Galactica did as well IIRC. I think sometimes it's just a lazy lack of desire to world build the intervening years, but also necessary as a way to connect with an audience who is rooted in the contemporary now.

 

Having said that letting that tween emo Sean Mendez ruin Add it Up is unforgivable!

[ninathena]

Bellamy is white. The actor may be half Asian in real life( who looks more Caucasian than Asian regardless) but even in the flashbacks Bellamy was played by a white boy.  Raven is still lacking in character development. Yeah she's a bad ass ass but little has been touched upon outside of that. Monty still feels like a background character 2 seasons in. The Clarke/Lexa kiss felt like they through that in for LGBT brownie points.

A writer for the show (I believe it was Kim Shumway) confirmed that Bellamy and Octavia have different father's and have different ethnicities. I like Raven's character development; she's a girl whose alcoholic mother essentially abandoned her and, except for Finn's help, had to to take care of herself. She grew up thinking she always had to be tough, never show weakness, never ask for help, and now is slowly learning to do that. I agree about the Monty thing, hopefully this season he'll be getting more screen time. Lexa's definitely not my favorite and I don't particularly enjoy Clexa, but I felt that their kiss had quite a bit of build up throughout the second half of the season.

[In2You]

A writer for the show (I believe it was Kim Shumway) confirmed that Bellamy and Octavia have different father's and have different ethnicities. I like Raven's character development; she's a girl whose alcoholic mother essentially abandoned her and, except for Finn's help, had to to take care of herself. She grew up thinking she always had to be tough, never show weakness, never ask for help, and now is slowly learning to do that. I agree about the Monty thing, hopefully this season he'll be getting more screen time. Lexa's definitely not my favorite and I don't particularly enjoy Clexa, but I felt that their kiss had quite a bit of build up throughout the second half of the season.

If it aint onscreen its not canon

[ninathena]

If it aint onscreen its not canon

Well the writers write what's onscreen, so that's good enough for me (even if they do seem to be confused about their own world building a lot of the time) but to each his own. But saying a POC doesn't look enough of whatever ethnicity they may be so they're obviously playing a white person, is just wrong. You've no idea what the actor identifies as, or what he and the writers want his character to be since you need it confirmed onscreen.

[In2You]

Well the writers write what's onscreen, so that's good enough for me (even if they do seem to be confused about their own world building a lot of the time) but to each his own. But saying a POC doesn't look enough of whatever ethnicity they may be so they're obviously playing a white person, is just wrong. You've no idea what the actor identifies as, or what he and the writers want his character to be since you need it confirmed onscreen.

It doesnt matter what the actor identifies as in real life. It doesnt make the character automatically that. And last I checked flashback Bellamy was not Asian either.

[MostlyC]

Remember to play nice, you respectful, kind, and considerate Posters.  

 

 

[kingshearte]

I feel like all earthling related Sci-Fi has people in the future digging on really old stuff from the "contemporary" past, we already saw the art/paintings that the Mountain people surrounded themselves with, it's reasonable to think they also had capsules of old music, that also happened on Star Trek, where Picard loved Shakespeare and Hammett, and Battlestar Galactica did as well IIRC. I think sometimes it's just a lazy lack of desire to world build the intervening years, but also necessary as a way to connect with an audience who is rooted in the contemporary now.

 

Having said that letting that tween emo Sean Mendez ruin Add it Up is unforgivable!

I don't know that I'd necessarily call it lazy, per se. I mean, are sci-fi show creators supposed to create centuries' worth of classical and pop music, literature, technology, TV, and whatever other entertainment evolves in those intervening years? That seems like a lot to ask, especially if you tried to do it so there was an organic evolution to trace through it so you didn't just end up with some weird "futuristic" stuff that an audience couldn't even begin to relate to. And by using classics, instead of stuff that's current while the show airs, they avoid becoming almost instantly dated.

 

Which is why I quite concur with your last statement. Current pop stars have no business being tossed in like that, because it ruins all that effort not to date the show so much. My consolation there is that I'm not sure this dude has made a big enough impression* that his exact vintage will be wildly obvious to all future viewers of this show.

 

* At least, I don't think so. But I'm almost two decades outside what I assume to be his target demographic, so maybe he's huge among the people he's supposed to be huge among, and I'm just old and out of touch.

[piequinn35]

Where did they get the gas for their vehicles?

[Agent Dark]

Where did they get the gas for their vehicles?

Mt Weather I would presume.  LPG (or Propane or Autogas as you might know it) doesn't degrade over time like Diesel or Petrol/Gasoline, but it will evaporate at room temperature so it needs to be stored in pressurised containers.  Assuming the integrity of the pressure vessel used to store the gas was kept intact over all those years (through regular maintenance, inspections etc) Mt Weather could have had a significant storage of LPG buried under-ground.  LPG conversions are a relatively simple thing for an internal combustion engine, so that Jeep could be running on a LPG fuel.

 

The other explanation is that in the future, an additive or something was developed which extends the shelf-life of diesel so it could last all those years.  You would expect a shelf-life of maybe 10years for diesel at today's technology, and is under ideal storage conditions. 

Edited February 10, 2016 by Agent Dark

[Izeinwinter]

Eh, simpler: They are burning alcohol, or ammonia. Both of those fuels is really easy to manufacture, and it's not that hard to make a combustion engine accept them. Have to replace the internal hoses with copper because they don't play nice with rubber or plastic, but it is the kind of mod Raven will have completed before friday. 

[Solace247]

There's actually a solar panel on the roof of the Rover. And they seem to have given the Rover an electric whine and combustion engine rumble sound when it's running. I think the short answer is we're not supposed to know how they run, they just run.

[piequinn35]

I guess they are electric.

[Chyna]

I'm bingeing this show on Netflix so I'm only around late S2, but I'm pretty grossed out by Octavia/Lincoln. Even if he's saved her a few times since, he initially chained her up in a cave. Also, Octavia is what--17 or so, since she was locked up on the Ark instead of floated? Possibly she's turned 18 since they landed on Earth? So she's 18 max--and Lincoln looks to be around mid-30s. He's basically double her age. Ew.

 

I also appreciate those of you who fanwanked the birth control/population control issue, because with these kids having all the sex during what is pretty much humans' prime fertility years, I was distracted by the characters' lack of concern about pregnancy. -:)

[piequinn35]

^^there is nothing wrong with their age gap like there is nothing wrong with bisexuality on this show :)

[Carrie Ann]

I'm bingeing this show on Netflix so I'm only around late S2, but I'm pretty grossed out by Octavia/Lincoln. Even if he's saved her a few times since, he initially chained her up in a cave. Also, Octavia is what--17 or so, since she was locked up on the Ark instead of floated? Possibly she's turned 18 since they landed on Earth? So she's 18 max--and Lincoln looks to be around mid-30s. He's basically double her age. Ew.

 

The age thing is weird here, because IRL, Marie Avgeropolous is 29 and Ricky Whittle is 34. If MA is 11-12 years older than her character (who I agree is probably 18 by now), and if we say the same about RW, then we could guess that Lincoln is supposed to be about 23. Bellamy was supposed to be 23 in S1, so I'm guessing the writers were sort of writing them as peers.

[Chyna]

He just looks so much older than her, it squicks me out. Maybe I'll tell myself that life on postapocalyptic Earth makes a guy look older than he is. :)

 

Back to the topic: Why is Finn such a great tracker right away when he has literally never seen a real footprint in dirt before landing on Earth? And why do the women all have perfectly shaved pits? ;)

[kingshearte]

I suspect the facts that he's bald and considerably bigger then she is also contribute to this impression.

[STOPSHOUTING]

I'm closing in on the end of the second season on Netflix, having binged the whole thing in the last month or so, and while I've clearly become a fan I have soooo many questions. 

I really did think we were going to see so many of the young teens (i.e. Fertile Myrtles) becoming pregnant after all their early sexcapades in the first days on the ground. I sincerely expected it to be a plot point. (I was so waiting for, and dreading, the "But I'm having Finn's baby" thing from Clarke. Kudos to the show for not going there.)

Why do the Mt Weather people not weigh, like, 400 lbs each, as all they ever do is eat pancakes? I mean, that dining room is a 24-hour cruise ship buffet. Where are they growing that wheat? Milling it into refined, white flour? Milking the somehow-not-irradiated cows for the butter pats I kept seeing?

Also, and most confusingly/frustratingly plot-wise ... OK, so bone marrow saves the Mt. Weather folks. Now that they know that there are LOTS of other Ark survivors out there, and not just the 44 kids they haven't killed, why not a truce with a one-to-one donor ratio to cure the 300 or so people they've said are living in Mt. Weather? There are AT LEAST that many Ark survivors and, while somewhat unpleasant, a single bone morrow donation is very doable without any longterm damage. Plus, you know, no one dies or gets melted with acid fog and/or radiation, all of which seem pluses. Also, no longer needing to trap Grounders for their blood and create Reapers to deal with the bodies/protect the mountain would definitely go a long way to peace with them as well. The local population overall is very low, and if they all stopped fighting, there is plenty of room for all to start living again, setting up cities/towns/etc. Seems so incredibly obvious that the fact they didn't even ADDRESS it is bonkers. 

Edited May 8, 2016 by STOPSHOUTING

[STOPSHOUTING]

On 7 September 2015 at 9:59 PM, MiseryIndex said:

I know I'm a nitpicker and this isn't the show to do it with. But my biggest overall complaint besides people making silly decisions is how injured everyone gets. I know it may be more realistic than no one getting hurt in battles. But with such little ability to care for wounds and injures they get hurt pretty bad to end up fine.

Yes, like in one episode Kane was dying under rubble, bleeding out with a femoral artery tear and needed a tourniquet and the next ... Fine. I think he was even carrying someone else. And Lincoln has been shot what seems like dozens of times now, with zero medical attention, and he's okay-dokey in a jiffy. He immediately returns FROM BEING SHOT IN THE SHOULDER and lifts Octavia up to hug her ... Because that seems plausible (or necessary). 

Jasper was SPEARED THROUGH THE CHEST what, like, TWO WEEKS ago when season two rolls around? After having makeshift surgery with no drugs in an unsterile environment, he's not only fully recovered, but doesn't even have a scar. (According to a timeline I saw, the entirety of season 1 AND 2 takes place over less than two months.) Their blood must really, truly be magical.

Let's face it, unless they are bathing in penicillin, they'd all be dead already from the myriad of viruses and diseases they'd lost immunity to while on the Ark, not to mention the infections from all the cuts and injuries they've sustained with zero hygiene.

Edited May 9, 2016 by STOPSHOUTING

[RCharter]

On 3/7/2016 at 1:14 PM, Chyna said:

He just looks so much older than her, it squicks me out. Maybe I'll tell myself that life on postapocalyptic Earth makes a guy look older than he is. :)

 

Back to the topic: Why is Finn such a great tracker right away when he has literally never seen a real footprint in dirt before landing on Earth? And why do the women all have perfectly shaved pits? ;)

She looks amazingly young for 29.  He looks 34 to me, she looks 16-18.  She got those good genes!

On 5/8/2016 at 1:11 PM, STOPSHOUTING said:

Yes, like in one episode Kane was dying under rubble, bleeding out with a femoral artery tear and needed a tourniquet and the next ... Fine. I think he was even carrying someone else. And Lincoln has been shot what seems like dozens of times now, with zero medical attention, and he's okay-dokey in a jiffy. He immediately returns FROM BEING SHOT IN THE SHOULDER and lifts Octavia up to hug her ... Because that seems plausible (or necessary). 

Jasper was SPEARED THROUGH THE CHEST what, like, TWO WEEKS ago when season two rolls around? After having makeshift surgery with no drugs in an unsterile environment, he's not only fully recovered, but doesn't even have a scar. (According to a timeline I saw, the entirety of season 1 AND 2 takes place over less than two months.) Their blood must really, truly be magical.

Let's face it, unless they are bathing in penicillin, they'd all be dead already from the myriad of viruses and diseases they'd lost immunity to while on the Ark, not to mention the infections from all the cuts and injuries they've sustained with zero hygiene.

The humor in that is that homegirl on the oil rig got shot once in the shoulder....and died from something that looked like a flesh wound.  Almost everyone else has suffered worse injuries and lived to tell the tale.

[STOPSHOUTING]

51 minutes ago, RCharter said:

She looks amazingly young for 29.  He looks 34 to me, she looks 16-18.  She got those good genes!

Yeah, I think the guy who plays Lincoln's genes are just fine. Like, extremely, extremely fine. Yowsa! 

Though one of those "doesn't make sense things" is how Abacrombie model-buff he is. Let's fanwank the idea that folks in the Ark had daily access to a gym, hence their Yoga-Pilates-Crossfit bods, but the Grounders? I mean, fit, yes, but you don't get 10-pack abs from hard labor alone; that's a modern, fitness invention of what we expect physical perfection to look like. Hard to picture the Grounders finding time for multiple sets of crunches, done in different ways to work their obliques and lats and abs in between scrounging for food and fighting for their lives on a daily basis.

Edited May 10, 2016 by STOPSHOUTING

[RCharter]

44 minutes ago, STOPSHOUTING said:

Yeah, I think the guy who plays Lincoln's genes are just fine. Like, extremely, extremely fine. Yowsa! 

Though one of those "doesn't make sense things" is how Abacrombie model-buff he is. Let's fanwank the idea that folks in the Ark had daily access to a gym, hence their Yoga-Pilates-Crossfit bods, but the Grounders? I mean, fit, yes, but you don't get 10-pack abs from hard labor alone; that's a modern, fitness invention of what we expect physical perfection to look like. Hard to picture the Grounders finding time for multiple sets of crunches, done in different ways to work their obliques and lats and abs in between scrounging for food and fighting for their lives on a daily basis.

I agree...the only thing I can think of is that I thought bodybuilders would "starve" themselves to somehow highlight their abs....but yeah, its hard to hide his perfect teeth and body behind a few smudges of dirt....willing suspension of disbelief :)

[kdm07]

2 hours ago, RCharter said:

She looks amazingly young for 29.  He looks 34 to me, she looks 16-18.  She got those good genes!

The humor in that is that homegirl on the oil rig got shot once in the shoulder....and died from something that looked like a flesh wound.  Almost everyone else has suffered worse injuries and lived to tell the tale.

Bullets are the only thing that seem to keep a character dead in this show. That and explosions lol. Most other types of injuries barely seem to register after an episode or so. Raven is the only one who's still suffering long-term effects of an injury.

[Chyna]

Here's another: Bellamy can carry Lincoln's body all by his lonesome? Heh, OK.

[AKC]

I'm willing look over a lot of things, but not those that could be fixed just by changing the time line.  In 100 years you have four generations at the most, but somehow solar radiation ruled out all the people without a good radiation gene which would significantly lower the population and then within 3 more gens it would raise it to 3000+?  How did the Lincoln memorial building go from being this great marvel building to just being the statue and two pillars?  I get that they want to write cool story and sometimes you just have to accept that not everything is going to add up but these can fixed by making it 500 years rather than 100.

[Nay]

2 hours ago, AKC said:

I'm willing look over a lot of things, but not those that could be fixed just by changing the time line.  In 100 years you have four generations at the most, but somehow solar radiation ruled out all the people without a good radiation gene which would significantly lower the population and then within 3 more gens it would raise it to 3000+?  How did the Lincoln memorial building go from being this great marvel building to just being the statue and two pillars?  I get that they want to write cool story and sometimes you just have to accept that not everything is going to add up but these can fixed by making it 500 years rather than 100.

I agree, the timeline from the bombs dropping to the start of the 100 is way too short.  I haven't read them but I think the books have the gap at 300 years, which is better but still not great.  Grounder culture/language, the general environmental decay and the genetic adaptions all happening within less than a 100 years is a baffling choice.  At this point I am just hand waving it and enjoying the other parts of this charmingly crappy teen sci-fi.

[Solace247]

This is a series where you hand-wave from the start. It can be frustrating because in some cases it would take minimal effort to have it make sense--like calling up your buddy who took biology in undergrad for advice. I met my handwave threshold with the decaying nuclear power plants after swallowing the whole ALIE (Matrix meets BSG) arc, so the eps are piling up on my DVR. I'll probably check them out after the season is through.

For me, some of the most hand-wavy parts are actually character-related. The way in which certain characters act and how other characters react to them or do not react at all simply boggles the mind.

[ottoDbusdriver]

On 3/15/2017 at 2:48 PM, Solace247 said:

This is a series where you hand-wave from the start. It can be frustrating because in some cases it would take minimal effort to have it make sense--like calling up your buddy who took biology in undergrad for advice. I met my handwave threshold with the decaying nuclear power plants after swallowing the whole ALIE (Matrix meets BSG) arc, so the eps are piling up on my DVR. I'll probably check them out after the season is through.

For me, some of the most hand-wavy parts are actually character-related. The way in which certain characters act and how other characters react to them or do not react at all simply boggles the mind.

For me, the hand-wavy parts are mostly travel related.

Walking from Arkadia to Polis or TonDC in a day or so over uneven terrain, for example.

Or driving from Arkadia to New Jersey (Becca's Island is offshore) -- where there are no roads, let alone filling stations, with drums full of highly explosive hydrazine in the back.

Remember way back in S1 when they blew up that bridge over the river to keep the grounders out ?  Which turned out to be complete and utter BS, because there were apparently many routes to get to the drop ship all along.

I imagine that they made it only 96 years since the apocalypse instead of 300 or 500 so that there is the off chance that some equipment on the ground might still be functional.  

Then there is the inexhaustible supply of bullets.  I'm sure the fire at Arkadia would have cooked off any bullets in the armory, but nope.

[piequinn35]

Here is the map: http://the100.wikia.com/wiki/Locations?file=LocationsRealLifeMap.jpg

I'm guessing based on google maps that Arkadia to Polis or TonDC is less than 12 hours walking, Arkadia to NJ shore close to Becca's island is less than 5 hours driving.

[MostlyC]

So the black rain kills humans, but all other flora and fauna are fine.  Huh.

[Solace247]

2 hours ago, MostlyC said:

So the black rain kills humans, but all other flora and fauna are fine.  Huh.

Remember the acid fog that would cause deadly caustic lesions, but couldn't penetrate nylon tents? Yep.

[taragel]

12 hours ago, MostlyC said:

So the black rain kills humans, but all other flora and fauna are fine.  Huh.

And doesn't eat through rubber tires. 

[kingshearte]

Human-built infrastructure actually does degrade shockingly quickly, so I can buy the general state of decay. Most of the other stuff, though? Definitely a "shhhhhh" situation.

[alexvillage]

I watched a little bit of this show and I am not sure what to make of it. But apart of all the things already said that do not make sense, those are my "whaaaat?"

The incredible assortment of wardrobe and hairstyles in the rubbles of a city. I mean, the grounders see to be pretty clean when it comes to rituals, and the women (only the women) have time to clean up, have the hair done, change clothes as if they are walking a red carpet. And already mentioned: the make up.

Why would people decide to have the center of the leadership (whatever they call it) on the 50th (?) floor of a building where the elevator works only manually (!)?

Already pointed out: all the new cultural aspects fully developed, assimilated and successful passed on to one generation to another in only 97 years. Not to mention that, in only few months Octavia completely embraced, learned, and was accepted into that culture, including knowing the ritual after people die and things like that.

Radiation does not affect people like that and people do not recover from radiation poisoning. Or acid rain. Wounds don't just disappear.

 

My main WTF? though is pure sarcasm: I keep hearing the character saying that they need to "save the human kind" or something like that. After human beings launched nuclear weapons that destroyed the world, the few survivors created clans that only want to fight each other (they also seem to be fond of enslavement), they created castes, instead of learning from the history. Then some people come from the sky and decide that their people is more important than another (hello, European genocide and occupation of the americas).

All of a sudden, they are fighting again to see who has the right to survive because the first destruction wasn't enough, and there are nuclear plants ready to destroy the world, again.

I say: the human kind has no salvation. Save them* for what? So they can destroy themselves all over again? 

*them/us?

[CooperTV]

4 minutes ago, alexvillage said:

The incredible assortment of wardrobe and hairstyles in the rubbles of a city. I mean, the grounders see to be pretty clean when it comes to rituals, and the women (only the women) have time to clean up, have the hair done, change clothes as if they are walking a red carpet. And already mentioned: the make up.

It's on CW. Everyone is supposed to be young, clean and gorgeous, lol.

5 minutes ago, alexvillage said:

Not to mention that, in only few months Octavia completely embraced, learned, and was accepted into that culture, including knowing the ritual after people die and things like that.

What can I say, White Saviour narratives is strong with this one. Octavia, Clarke and Lexa are three glaring examples of not examined white savorism and cultural appropriation in that show, and the actresses were even given darker make-up to look more "exotic" and "native" on screen.

[alexvillage]

1 hour ago, CooperTV said:

It's on CW. Everyone is supposed to be young, clean and gorgeous, lol.

I see. I had never heard of this show until I tried it on Netflix. I don't really watch TV so I don't know when a show is part of a network, or the average network audience.

1 hour ago, CooperTV said:

What can I say, White Saviour narratives is strong with this one. Octavia, Clarke and Lexa are three glaring examples of not examined white savorism and cultural appropriation in that show, and the actresses were even given darker make-up to look more "exotic" and "native" on screen.

Yeah, I can see that too, even though I think that the characters are not defined by their race. I see it more as an analogy of (white) Europeans arriving in a land already occupied by native nations, and deciding that "whiteness" is better (whiteness here meaning the ones that came from the space, all of them, all races). The writers fell in the Hollywood trap or did it on purpose. I do think the idea of having Octavia join the grounders was good, but the way they did it was heavy handed. She instantly became a hero and savior, even though she was basically locked up all her life, had no knowledge of life, not even life on the Arc.

I do see a little more diversity in this show though. Since I watched all seasons (not all episodes though) on Netflix, I saw that they made Clarke bisexual, which I don't think is very common on TV (?). I also see that there are more Hispanic people than the average (again, from my very limited knowledge of TV shows). And I don't think it was pointed out that Henry Ian Cusick is also Hispanic (Peruvian, mother also Peruvian). 

Since you mentioned Clarke, why, oh why do people believe she is a leader. She is the worst of the worst.