#flamekeepers

Okay, so hear me out, cause I really feel like this would have made his storyline more interesting, more nuanced, and more thematically resonant. 

We first hear about Sheidheda from Gaia (a flame-keeper) as the “dark commander” who killed three of his flame-keepers before being killed by his fourth. And that’s really all the evidence Gaia gives for why this commander was evil. But from what we see of the flame-keepers... they do not have the nightblood novitiates or the commanders interests at heart and are in fact a danger to them. From what we see in season 3, for example, the nightblood novitiates seem to only have Titus and Lexa as guardians/teachers/adult figures in their lives- and Titus (and Lexa but we’re talking about flame-keepers), besides essentially raising these children for the slaughter, was emotionally distant/unequipped to raise a bunch of kids (”love is weakness”) and played favorites- in which kid he wanted to live and kill all the others (as Luna says about Lexa being Titus’ favorite and what Lexa says about Aden being commander after her (in front of the other kids, even) supports this as just a thing that the people surrounding the nightblood kids did). And then Titus kills Lexa (unintentionally, but still he killed her while he was trying to control and manipulate her). And I feel like it’s worth noting that the whole system revolves around child commanders that aren’t expected to last long, with other (younger and more pliable children) in the wings should the they die- this is the perfect system for allowing (head?) flame-keepers to discretely (or not so discretely, see Sheidheda) do away with commanders that they deem too troublesome- that don’t follow their advice or, like Lexa, try to change traditions. And then the flame-keepers are still alive and institutionally powerful enough to control the narrative of the dead commander’s legacy.

So it’s easy to Sheidheda as having been made a commander as a child (say the same age as Madi, even), who’s just been forced to kill the children he grew up with to survive. And now, he’s friendless, surrounded by people watching with hawk eyes for weakness, with only a flame-keeper as an ally. A flame-keeper who’s emotionally distant (probably neglectful), who probably views Sheidheda as replaceable, maybe even would have preferred another child as commander and now resents Sheidheda for it. (And with how much power the flame-keepers have, especially over the nightblood children; well who would have stopped the flame-keeper if they were outright abusive). It’s to see how Sheidheda would see violence as the only way to survive (that is after all how he’s commander and his classmates are dead) and resents his flame-keeper or feel like his flame-keeper is a danger to him. So he kills his flame-keeper. And the next flame-keeper distrusts Sheidheda and Sheidheda distrusts the flame-keeper and eventually murders this flame-keeper, too. And so on, until the fourth flame-keeper murders Sheidheda, at say, age sixteen, confirming to Sheidheda that flame-keepers are dangerous, out to get him, and that he was right to kill the first three.  

So, what? Am I saying that Shiedheda should have been the good guy, an unfairly maligned commander? Not really. I still think Sheidheda should be a ruthless, merciless, violent commander who, paraphrasing from Luna, was taught by the flame-keepers to revel in his anger and violence. I am saying it would be more interesting if he was painted (at least somewhat) sympathetic villain, as a teenager who embodies of the cycle of violence. 

I also think it would be interesting if he genuinely had what he thought were Madi’s best interests at heart.

Maybe he sees himself in Madi (a child commander of a society that uses and discards nightblood children) or maybe he sees the nighblood children he grew up with before he was forced to kill them. 

And this could have easily fit with his actions for most of season 6. He repeatedly tells Madi to kill Gaia, because from his experience with flame-keepers, they’re dangerous so you’d better kill them before they kill you. And hell, Sheidheda is not exactly wrong about Gaia, either. Yes in the end she decides to sacrifice the flame to save Madi, but before that she stated- multiple times- that she would murder Madi before allowing Sheidheda control of Wonkru.

Sheidheda’s plans for murdering all the primes? Well, Madi clearly wants revenge for them murdering Clarke and they’ll be a threat to Madi if they find out she’s a nightblood. Better to kill them all now.

Telling her to kill Jackson while he’s forcibly taking her bone marrow is pretty self-explanatory (especially when you consider he didn’t seem like he was going to do anything when Russell ordered them to take enough doses that would kill her).

Even threatening to “kill this child” if Raven doesn’t stop trying to delete his code fits with this if you view it as self preservation (he’s looking out for Madi but he’s not willing to die for her) and/or a bluff because he thinks he’s the only one looking out for Madi and he thinks she’ll die without him (he’s projecting his experiences of being a child commander onto her).

And can you imagine the reveal, if for episodes we’d been hearing about this scary, evil commander and oh no, he’s starting to control Madi and telling her to murder Gaia, and then we go into Madi’s mindscape and holy shit Sheidheda’s sixteen.

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