Religious Themes

"More than Old Wine in New Bottles"

There are many religious themes in The 100, as fans of the show have pointed out. Popular culture embeds religious imagery in its content often, as I'm sure we have all discovered during this course. Some theorists describe religion in popular culture as "old wine in new bottles" as Mary Ann Beavis does in The Journal of Religion and Popular Culture.

Good vs. Evil

From the first episode to the very last, many of the characters in this series struggle with their identity. They face many challenges such as war, corruption, and natural disasters, and must fight for their survival. Often times, when people are trying their hardest to survive, they may do things that are out of character for them and go against their morals. They may be faced with hard decisions, as is seen repeatedly with Clarke throughout the series. For example, in one of the early seasons, Clarke must save her people from having their blood harvested to create "Mountain Men", who are vicious creatures that harm innocent people. To save her people, she must expose everybody in Mount Weather to radiation, which her people can survive due to their tolerance and previous exposure.

This is a continuous theme for Clarke throughout the series as she is constantly put in situations where she must decide if she wants to be the good guy or the bad guy, and often times, has no choice but to be the bad guy. In a study completed on the forces of good and evil, research found that "some individuals hold beliefs that good and evil forces exist, that these forces can inhabit people and act as agents that cause morally significant thoughts and behavior" (Bastien et al. 1078). This is shown with Clarke, as every time she has to face a hard decision, she struggles with the outcome and how she portrays herself. At one point in the series, people begin to call her Wahnheda, which means Commander of Death. When people meet Clarke, they automatically associate her with death, which adds to her internal struggle. She does not want to be seen this way, however, her actions have tainted her leadership and overall image.

Clarke clearly struggles with this decision as she does not want to kill so many innocent people, but if she wants her friends and family to be saved, she must bear the weight of her decision. Ultimately, she releases the radiation, her and her people escape as everybody else in Mount Weather dies, including innocent people. Clarke immediately feels the guilt sink in and struggles to accept that she made the right decision. She does not want to be the "bad guy" in their situation but feels like she has to protect the ones she loves, even if her actions go against her morals.

Sacrifice

The theme of sacrifice is also something that the characters in The 100 are challenged with regularly. To a degree, nearly every decision they make requires some sort of sacrifice. The biggest sacrifice of all was sending the 100 kids to Earth to see if it was habitable, as they did not know what the consequences of this would be. Even if the ground was inhabitable, the kid's lives were lost to save the rest of the Ark. This sacrifice was also a hard decision for their government, as both Jaha and Abby's children were delinquents and part of the 100 being sent to the ground. While this is an important example for the theme of sacrifice, I go into greater detail about the symbolism the Ark and the 100 hold on this page.

Another example of sacrifice in this series is the characters who lost their lives to help their people move forward and solve any conflict between the clans. Finn, Clarke's first love interest in the series, sacrifices his life for peace between Skaikru (the 100) and the Grounders, a clan that was already on the ground when the 100 arrived. From the moment Skaikru established their camp at the location where the dropship landed, there was tension with the Grounders. As these tensions rose and Clarke started making decisions on behalf of Skaikru, it came to a point where Clarke had to make the hard decision to sacrifice Finn for peace. Finn wanted this, as he wanted his friends to survive and have peace with the other clan.

Of course, Clarke also sacrificed her own life many times. The one that stands out the most to me is when her friends are trying to return to space before Praimfaya, a nuclear storm of sorts, and she must physically flick a switch on a tower for the ship to take off. She had hoped to make it back in time, but as always, there were obstacles along the way and they had to leave without her. Her friends knew when she didn't return that she wouldn't have wanted them to wait for her, so they made the decision to take off and save themselves. Clarke finds shelter before the storm and survives it, but she is all alone.