#lajds

i can’t find what you’re responding to but i remember saying something related to this.

actually CLARKE called for Nia’s blood, which is why she’s not a hypocrite bc the Nia and Emerson situations ARE the same and - like she said - enacting justice/revenge on the guilty party is different from retaliating into war - the latter is MUCH less desirable. (But I really like how Lexa was like: oh yeah? here you go have yourself a damn knife then this time around )

then again Clarke and Lexa have seemed to commit to a no-kill, no-retaliation philosophy entirely. And honestly look, my whole sense of morality is mostly harm-based but goddamn. Jus Drein Jus Daun prevents war as long as the Commander continues to be viewed as the ultimate authority enacting legitimate violence in the name of justice - limiting a vengeance violence cycle to the parties direclty responsible. Both were totally ok with that in Nia’s case, but now there’s this thing where actually Lexa and Clarke want to bomb that violence-curbing social mechanism ALONG with retaliation into war. like??? wtf Lexa??

like that’s what this whole episode was about. that Clarke had to own up to her own goddamn words and support the notion that - though previously they had been agreeing that killing the responsible parties is totally justice - now they’re actually gonna scrap all capital punishment for crimes (have the law enforcement people been informed that stealing in the woods is no longer a capital crime?? like has this filtered downwards?)

I don’t really get why people are like: omg look Clarke is compromising, she’s giving up her revenge for Lexa

ummm. no. Clarke has never been particularly capable of executing people (see: Quint) unless extremely pressed. she’s not a revenge type of person. Like Lexa, she takes no joy in it. She also realised that she personally, selfishly wouldn’t even get any peace out of it, and that she could make Emerson suffer much more by sparing him. So basically she wasn’t giving up anything. Politically Clarke not killing the last Mountain man probably only weakened Lexa’s position tbh. 

I don’t understand the line ‘the crimes of the mountain cannot be answered by one man’ ok??? so who can answer for them? the whole mountain?? the whole people? that establishes the OPPOSITE precedent that you want to set. that is the opposite of what Jus Drein Jus Daun accomplishes. JDJD doesn’t blame the whole people unless they declare war.

Look. Let’s imagine Grounder circumstances for a sec. all these wolf pack families trying to survive, coming together at one point to create small communities, other people trying to survive (’bandits’) raiding them, little cultural reproduction because of extreme survival pressures, lots of survivalist innovation probably, ‘bandit’ packs forming out of banished criminals/outcasts/people with no hunting ground or arable land to leech off resources from villages doing well, warlords providing protection emerging from the militias forming in communities (the development of a warrior class), different villages banding together to quell banditry, inter-village raiding and to trade resources making the beginnings of clans due to natural boundaries isolating trikru & azgeda etc, polaris coming down and a cult around Rebecca and the station comes into existence, creating a hub of purposeful people with superior direction/knowledge/technology /advantages out of the community that surrounded Polis, boosting their position, resources and thus size of their warrior class. At the same time Heda gains a kind of indisputable authority for her black blood being precious and venerated. Polis becoming a heavy weight trade hub, Heda a heavy weight military chief policing both polis and also ‘trikru’ boundaries (azgeda incursions now common), and the rumours of her being a reincarnated soul with superior wisdom. Heda offering to protect each village from bandits and external threats if they swear the loyalty of their warriors, and maybe a tribute of resources - as well as! Trikru willingly sending their Nightblood children to be the next Heda and live in the safe Polis (which is what Rebecca wants of course). This probably became much more possible because of the new threat of Reapers kidnapping their people, and the relatively effective way Polis did indeed provide protection though. Lots of development of ceremonies to reinforce all these new social relations. I imagine there was quite a lot of feuding in the past, and Jus Drein Jus Daun must have meant, if you attack our village we will attack yours and you will die. This is why strength is so important to Grounders. If you do not show you are a threat, you will be killed. it is a form of peacekeeping that depends on intimidation, on the threat of violence, and it is not super effective because it can spiral into lots of death. Heda becoming actual head of Trikru and mediating disputes - making no-one Other - would have stopped this from happening. Jus Drein Jus Daun applied to Us is some wicked social control that satisfies the demand for vengeance and removes the undesirable person from society. The attribution of ‘higher power’ to the Commander in punishment(her taking the final stab, her being responsible) allowed Jus Drein Jus Daun to take on the different and more effective meaning of justice, not just vengeance (which spirals into feud). Legitimate violence in response to social transgression, not just war kill everybody the whole people is horrible and responsible death death death. The same thing occurred on a larger scale with the Coalition, which was likely set up on the basis that the clans shouldn’t afford to war with each other when they were already at war with the Mountain/Reapers. The Ice Nation is not warred with over an act of war towards a different clan, no. The party responsible is killed. Which honestly is extremely impressive that Lexa managed to make the other Clan leaders submit to such an arrangement because it seriously weakens their positions. Then again, it maintaiins peace so well! Reapers can be much more easily dealt with. Jus Drein Jus Daun towards the Other, the Other being entirely inhuman is easy. How ironic that their blood is literally taken, but how sad that they must continually kill their own blood to prevent that.

And now. Now the Mountain is dead. Skaikru are very like them and clearly a threat. They committed an act of war (several actually) and turned away from being Us, the Coalition. They will not give the parties responsible for Jus Drein Jus Daun. The old rule of strength, Other version of Jus Drein Jus Daun should apply (or they will invade further and kill more - as they did). But that will mean war, it will mean lots of blood-shed, just when their greatest threat is gone, when the coalition holds. Honestly, killing is bad mkay, torture killing is pretty damn horrific, i am in favour of banishment, but damn, Lexa TRIED to banish skaikru to the wasteland from the start. Skaikru right now are always going to be Other, even if you executed Pike as Us according to Jus Drein Jus Daun and that WOULD continue a cycle of violence. And it’s noble not to go to war but what the FUCK are you going to do instead!??!?!?! TELL ME. show! clarke! Lexa!

this got long