How to Write The 100 Fanfiction ✓

50 | echo, pt. ii (rant 5)

Hi everyone, I'm back because 7x04 made me irritated beyond relief. This rant includes spoilers for that episode, so if you haven't seen it and don't want to be spoiled, I suggest you avoid this. 

Happy 50th chapter! What better way to celebrate than a huge, extremely detailed rant? 

I have a lot of things I want to say but no clue how to organize them, so I'm sorry if this ends up being a mess. (Update: Wow, this is really long. I would say I'm sorry, but I'm not. Consider this an analysis of Echo's character as well as the writing, camera angles, and acting involved. I also touch on Becho.)

After the episode, I am genuinely confused about how we are supposed to be viewing Echo this season (and in general). As we know, all of Echo's supposed character development happened off-screen during the six-year time jump. She apparently redeemed herself on the Ring, but we have never been given an example of anything she did. Not even Raven saying, "Hey, remember when you saved my life because I almost started a fire when I didn't realize a spark had lit?" or something. We have gotten. Nothing. 

This is what I don't understand. It's like the writers genuinely do not care enough about Echo. In the past few seasons, she has just existed. She has stayed the same (for the most part, which I will discuss later) as she did before, but with different loyalties. The writers have yet to give her a personality that isn't "Azgeda spy" because it's literally her identity. She is still playing the part of Echo, the Azgeda spy, instead of Ash. She isn't being herself. And for what reason? She had every opportunity to reveal to the others that she's really a girl named Ash who was forced into being a spy. Why didn't she tell them? Does Bellamy know he's dating a character?

The amount of lazy writing when it comes to Echo physically pains me. As a writer myself and a person who has studied film, I have picked up on several apparent leads of foreshadowing that have merely been a) forgotten, b) never mentioned again, or c) glossed over:

1. Echo strangling Clarke in front of Madi in season 5. I thought for sure that Bellamy would find out about this and break up with her. Regardless or not if Clarke had left Bellamy to die, we know that, despite their disagreements, they still deeply care for one another. Echo had watched Bellamy mourn Clarke for six years. She had seen what it had done to him and how he'd become "the head" because Clarke hadn't been there to balance him out. Not to mention that Clarke has just said she'd kept Echo alive because of what she means to Bellamy. Echo, in return, tries to kill her with her bare hands in front of her child. 

To me, this seemed like a clear moment of "Ooh, this is a dealbreaker for her and Bellamy" but Bellamy still doesn't know about this. Nobody ever told him that his girlfriend tried to murder Clarke right in front of a kid. Not to mention that this further got swept under the rug when Echo and Clarke hugged in season 6. I'm sorry, but what? They never talked about it. There was never a moment of understanding or an apology. It was strange because we have never seen them get along before then. The fact that Echo is the first person to hug her was even stranger. To me, the whole "I knew it" line should have come from Miller, who is actually her friend and has known her since the beginning. 

(Side note: can you imagine her explaining that to Bellamy if she had succeeded in killing Clarke? Like "Oh, yeah, I killed Clarke." How did she think that would go down??? Especially since it was in front of Madi – and I think Raven was there, too – so she couldn't have lied and said that Clarke got lost or something.)

2. Echo killing Ryker in season 6. This comes right after the flashback of her backstory where she had to kill the real Echo. That was an instance when she had no choice except kill or be killed. We see genuine remorse on her side when she says "I'm sorry, too" and how she cries for the loss of her friend. However, that situation is not, in any way at all, similar to the one with her and Ryker.