Comment on Even In The Grave, All Is Not Lost

  1. welcometocaritas on Chapter 11 Fri 01 Jan 2021 12:18PM UTC

    Lmao no I love your tangents!

    I understand what you’re saying about Clarke and Lexa. I love them - and I absolutely adored them the first time I watched - but we have a very narrow lens through which to view their relationship. So much of it is tangled up in circumstance, so it’s hard to know whether they would fall in love with each other if they weren’t both leaders and dealing with all this shit (though that’s why we have wonderful fanfiction) and that’s why I’m endeavoring with this fic to make it clear that even if it wasn’t the end of the world, Raven and Luna would still connect with each other. I think, as it stands with where clexa were on the show, they were perfect for each other. And this is mostly because I don’t think there was anyone else who could ever understand them so well. And I think from that understanding is how they came to love each other. Of course, they could be soulmates but I’ve never really liked the whole soulmate thing because it’s too clean and simple. I prefer the idea that you choose to be with someone and it’s your experiences with them that make you love them, as opposed to just loving someone on sight and not really having much choice in the matter. I think soulmates can be very romantic but it’s not necessarily realistic.

    I would have loved if we’d gotten more scenes with Clarke and Lexa that explored who they were with each other outside of everything they were dealing with. Like really getting to know each other beyond what they’ve had to do as leaders.

    I’m one of those people who believes that it’s possible - and even likely - that you’ll fall in love with more than one person in your life. That just because you lose one love doesn’t mean you won’t find another. And I don’t think there’s anything wrong with that.

    On the show, I think Clarke’s monogamy was more caution on the show’s part because they realized they fucked up with what they did to Lexa in season 3 and were trying to be a little more sensitive towards the fans. They knew a lot of fans would be angry if they put Clarke with someone else so they didn’t, which I think was probably a smart move on their part. But I would like to think that Clarke will find love again after Lexa. And I don’t think that doing so means she loves Lexa any less. It just means that she’s still living her life. But of course, it takes time to heal. So maybe after enough years have passed, Clarke will be ready to love again.

    In this fic (when we have future flashbacks) Raven can’t move on from Luna’s death. And that’s not to say that she would never move on but in the time frame that we have in this fic, she’s not ready. And a lot of that is to do with the manner in which Luna dies. I think it’s harder to move on from the loss of someone if you have a lot of regrets or if that loss was extremely tragic. I think this might also be a reason why it’s hard for Clarke to move on from Lexa because of the terrible circumstances in which she lost her (and after only just starting to have her) and how it was also partly her fault (like not really, but you can’t tell me Clarke wouldn’t blame herself when it was her that Titus was aiming at). Anyway, luckily Raven doesn’t have to move on because time travel to the rescue.

    ‘To summarize, you've illustrated show don't tell perfectly. It really feels like they're friends, or at the very least two people able to find some clarity in a world of obscurity.’ This is so great to hear because writing two characters falling in love is honestly so hard for me cos I’ve never experienced it myself so I’m just like hoping that it works out and that it doesn’t sound completely fake or forced lol.

    Thankyou so much for your understanding :) and it might be that some weeks I’m less busy and an update will come regularly but others I’ll be more busy and unable to get one out. And it’s really just going to be playing it by ear and waiting to see what happens.

    The next chapter though should be posted either tomorrow or the day after. I’m just not happy with it yet so proof-reading is taking longer.

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    1. LimpidLiar on Chapter 11 Fri 01 Jan 2021 06:54PM UTC

      Wow thank you so much for taking the time to respond to my comment! I absolutely love hearing your thought processes while writing this, and it's so cool to hear someone analyzing characters that usually don't get that much love. And looking back (I might have re-read the fic haha) I can definitely see what you're aiming for, especially with the added context of your explanations here. You did an amazing job and conveying exactly what you were thinking! :)

      I really love your interpretation of Raven's character; hiding her trauma because of what she dealt with as a kid isn't an angle I've heard anyone come from before when analyzing her character, but boy does it check all the boxes. I really appreciate you bringing up her childhood because I feel like the show often either forgets about it or writes it off as unimportant to her current arc or development, which couldn't be further from the truth. It's very refreshing hearing you talking about it and applying it to this fic.

      I'm really curious about how you're going to handle Luna's death and how Raven reacts to it- it was such a horrible situation that could have been avoided, especially on Luna's end if a few things had happened just a little differently. I'm going back to re-watch bits and pieces of season 4 and man I have a feeling this fic is gonna kill me haha. Luna's death hits me really hard for some reason, especially when Octavia says that she isn't worth saving. It makes me so angry that throughout season 4 she's treated almost like an animal and that very few people actually attempt to understand her way of thinking and everyone acts as if her 'turn to the dark side' was inevitable or simply collateral damage without recognizing how horrible and tragic it really is. This probably isn't the first time I've said this, but I'm beyond grateful that you're exploring her character in-depth here.

      I can't wait to see where you take this and how you continue to handle their characters. Hopefully they both get the happy ending they deserve.

      Happy New Years! :)

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      1. welcometocaritas on Chapter 11 Sat 02 Jan 2021 07:05AM UTC

        no worries! sorry it was so long, I'm terrible at keeping things brief lol. I'm so glad you love how I analyze them - it's one of my favorite parts of writing. you re-read it, that's so sweet! well that's good to know, cos I always wonder.

        I feel like sometimes Raven's childhood gets ignored but there's no way it wouldn't have had an impact on her. and neglect is one of those things that really shapes you. i think also because Raven hasn't even been on the ground for a full year by this point so all that we see from s1-4 is just one snapshot of her life and there's so much more that she's gone through and that's shaped her. Just like Luna's own childhood and life experiences have shaped her. They were both let down as children by the people who were supposed to take care of them.

        not gonna lie, Luna's death and Raven's reaction to it were my own kind of therapy. They're basically little future snippets that appear throughout the fic and were basically me just trying to process what happened with Luna and find some kind of acceptance with it. This whole fic has been for that actually. Luna's death is very much dismissed by everyone on the show - which I hated - and like you said, it's treated as collateral damage or inevitable which it very much wasn't. I think the way Luna's death happened is the hardest part about it. It was horrific and she deserved so much better as a character. I hate that line from Octavia and it's one of the things that I have a hard time forgiving her for. It was completely unecessary. She'd already stabbed her in the back and she was going to die, what was the point of making her last moments as painful as possible? It was such a cruel thing to say - especially when Luna only became what she was because she spent the season trying to help Octavia's own people - and it was rather hypocritical coming from Octavia who spent the season going around killing people. There was no need for her to say that. To have that be the last thing Luna ever heard.

        You're welcome :) I was dying for Luna's character to get more explored so I just went and did it myself lol.

        They'll both get a reasonably happy ending - it's a tough one given the context of the show - but they'll both end up alive and together by the end at least. The other sea mechanic fic I'm working on (where the majority takes place after 4x08) probably has a happier ending because it follows Luna's healing after season 4, whereas this fic will be ending by the season 4 final, so we don't see Luna healing from those events as much. But they're companion fics so they kind of complement each other.

        Did you have a good new year's?

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        1. LimpidLiar on Chapter 11 Sun 03 Jan 2021 04:17AM UTC

          Oh wow now I'm really curious to see where you take this! I'm curious about your other Sea Mechanic fic now too- that sounds really interesting!

          I felt the same way about Luna's death too. The fact that she died without anyone to mourn her or give her a proper send-off despite the fact that she totally deserved one really hurts. And Octavia's final words to her are so cut and dry, as if the screenwriters want the audience to feel the same way about Luna- that she's irredeemable and that her death was deserved and inevitable. The disrespect smh

          Buuuut you're doing a great job writing her so I can't be too mad about it!

          My new year's was totally uneventful haha. I did get to watch the season finale of Westworld, if you've seen that. Definitely worth a watch. How was your new year's? I hope it was good! :)

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          1. welcometocaritas on Chapter 11 Sun 03 Jan 2021 11:07AM UTC

            the other fic is another au version of s4 where Luna is actually pregnant when she shows up at Arkadia and it changes a lot of things, but it also doesn't change a lot. Circumstances prevent her from going to the Conclave in 4x10 so instead of fighting in the Conclave, she lives and has to heal - emotionally and physically - from everything that's happened and she ends up going into space with Raven and the others. The beginning is a lot fluffier then this fic but then the middle is extremely angsty (basically everything after 4x08). Idk pregnancy is one of my hyperfixations (I'm autstic) and has been since I was like six, so I kind of had to write a fic where Luna was pregnant lol. and you know sea mechanic babies are cute. that fic also includes more of the 100 characters (the ones that are on the ship as well as Clarke) and their interactions with Luna and Raven, whilst this one is very focused on just Raven and Luna interacting with each other (aside from the flashbacks Luna has of people from her past). and stuff happens that means that Clarke ends up going up into space with them because I wanted to see her actually deal with what she'd done in 4x08 and face the consequences of it. Luna's alive, they're sharing a ship together, so she can't just brush it off and pretend that she didn't play a part in assaulting and traumatizing this woman.

            Luna died incredibly alone and it was like no-one cared. the writers were definitely trying to make us think that and I'm just 'are we watching the same show? have you seen everything that Luna has done? how good she is and all she's suffered?' I also think that Luna uniting the clans would have made more sense for her than Octavia. Because she never saw people as their clans. Floukru was made up of everyone from all over, she didn't turn anyone away.

            Lol thankyou ;)

            ooh i did start that show a while ago but I got distracted by other shows and then never got back to it oops. it's still on my list of things to watch. My new year's was pretty uneventful as well. I was able to go to dinner with my mum and next door neighbours cos where we live there aren't any cases (though that's changing now because we had a lot of people travel from other states over christmas and they brought Covid with them). got tipsy one glass of wine and spent the night spaced out on my bed cuddling my bunny Magna lol.

            Hopefully things are back to normal for next christmas and New Years.

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