Can we really even call it a white savior trope? I mean, both Lexa and Ontari were white so it's not a matter of race in terms of who can be heda. I'm deeply confused by people acting like Clarke was the only one shitting on religion (and she was) when Ice Nation kept the flame so they could pick their own commander. Yeah sure, Ice Nation lost the flame, but only through deception. Why is no one also getting after them for making a mockery of something sacred?
It’s not about which characters are white or not. I mean, Henry Ian Cusick is a MOC- when I say white savior, i’m not meaning ‘omg Clarke is white so racism!’
I’m talking Skaikru as a whole. Skaikru (and Clarke especially) fulfill the Mighty Whitey trope. Literally here’s an excerpt from that particular article
“Mighty Whitey is usually a displaced white European, of noble descent, who ends up living with native tribespeople and not only learns their ways but also becomes their greatest warrior/leader/representative. Extra points if he woos The Chief’s Daughter along the way; an unfortunately common variation that perpetuates into present-day media is that she will continue to love our hero even if he is directly responsible for the death of her husband, brother or even father.”
The folks @metastation do a great discussion about it in this podcast. You should listen to it.
It’s about a foreign, more “advanced” group of people descending, colonizing, and deciding the natives need to change and be enlightened. Esp. if, like they point out in the podcast, grounder culturewas initially centered on mistrusting science. And time and time again their science doesn’t actually help- Skaikru and Mt. Weather both used their technology to hurt, injure, and kill grounders. Skaikru and Mt. Weather who are both so separate from Grounder culture. (see: acid fog, blood harvesting, reapers, burning villages down with missiles, using guns, massacring armies, burning 300+ trikru warriors, harvesting bone marrow from Luna, sending a missile into TonDC, etc. etc. etc.) and both referred to grounders as savages.
When Kane says they can make nightblood, Echo hisses that it’s heresy. When Clarke decides she has to ascend, Roan (rightfully) explains she’s making a mockery of their religion because she’s a manufactured, not born, nightblood. Do you not remember Clarke saying “prove to them you’re not savages”?? Literally showing that Skaikru is the “civilized” group and grounders are the uncivilized ones?
And Roan throwing it back in her face in 4x09?
Ice Nation, whether or not Roan is white, is part of grounder culture. A central part. The leader, when he keeps the flame- and even then yes he does it for power but he does it to control it until another Heda can ascend. He acts as Fleimkepa when at the time, the Order seemed to be in hiding. Roan and Ice Nation weren’t shitting on religion. Skaikru having anything to do with the Flame, the Commander, etc. is the White Savior Complex.
I gotchyu some links, fam, do some research:
white savior narrative in film
what a white savior is and why it’s a problem
time for hollywood to say goodbye to white savior films
how americans are taught white savior complex
EDIT: also look up imperialism and colonialism in film it’s a grand read.
idk man just listen to the podcast they have research and degrees and are way more eloquent than I am
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