The 100/Characters

Characters from The 100 include:

Clarke Griffin

The protagonist and one of the 100, she was imprisoned just for knowing that the Ark was dying. As the story moves on, her self-righteousness changed to a harder, more pragmatic form of leadership, taking over as the leader of the delinquents and later all of the Sky People.

Tropes exhibited by this character include:

Abusive Parents: While Clarke genuinely loves Madi, there's one time we see this in full force. To keep Madi from running off into battle, Clarke tackles Madi and puts a shock collar around her neck. When Madi still tries to run off, Clarke turns on the collar causing Madi to fall to the ground, shrieking in pain.
Action Girl: While she's far from the best fighter on the show, she can hold her own. Invoked with Josephine in Season 6 when she lets Clarke take back control to fight off the Children of Gabriel, who were going to cut her head off.
Alien Blood: In season 4, she's tested with an experimental treatment to give her Nightblood, which turns her blood black, giving her the ability to metabolize radiation.
Bi the Way: When she finally kisses Lexa, it's not treated as a big deal.
Cartwright Curse: Clarke has a pretty bad track record here:
- She had a short relationship with Finn in the first season, and was forced to Mercy Kill him in Season 2, when the Grounders were going to torture him to death.
- Right after Clarke first realizes her feelings for Lexa, she's betrayed by Lexa taking the deal from Mount Weather to take her people and leave. They manage to repair their relationship, but then Titus attempts to kill Clarke, but accidentally kills Lexa instead.
- While Clarke and Wells were never in a relationship, he was clearly interested. As soon as she might have been open to a relationship, finding out that he wasn't responsible for her father's death, Wells is stabbed to death.
- Niylah is the only exception to this, though her and Clarke's relationship was never really that close.
A Child Shall Lead Them: Justified when she takes over as leader of the Delinquents in season 1, which makes sense because they're almost all children. Played straight when Kane recognizes that she is the de facto leader of everyone from the Ark in season 2.
Fighting from the Inside: She barely manages to survive being overwritten by Josephine's Mind Drive in Season 6, spending a lot of the season trying to get control of her body back. She finally does in episode 10, just to immediately have to turn around and pretend to be Josephine to keep Russell from killing everyone in revenge.
Grand Theft Me: After Russell and Simone discover that she's a Nightblood, they implant Josephine's Mind Drive in Clarke, taking over her body. Thanks to ALIE's chip, it's not entirely successful, so she spends the majority of the season trying to get control of her body back.
He Knows Too Much: She's kept in solitary confinement in the Ark to keep her from telling anyone else that the Ark is dying.
Heroic Sacrifice: At the end of Season 4, she goes out to the radio tower to try and communicate with the Ark, allowing them to dock with it. Since it takes longer than expected, she doesn't get back in time to go up in the rocket. Luckily for her, she gets back into Becca's lab before Praimfaya hits and the Nightblood treatment allows her to survive the radiation levels afterwards. It doesn't stop Bellamy and everyone back up on the Ark from thinking that she died to save them, however.
Ice Queen: Starts going down this route after killing Finn, believing that "Love is Weakness", which she gets from Lexa. After a while, they start to help each other realize that love can be a good thing.
In-Series Nickname: Has a couple of them:
- Since her mother was part of the council on the Ark and she was good friends with Chancellor Jaha's son, many of the 100 call her "Princess" in the early episodes.
- After defeating the Mountain Men, the Grounders call her "Wanheda", meaning "Commander of Death".
Interrupted Suicide: Happens a couple times:
- At the beginning of Season 5, she's stranded in the desert after Praimfaya, about to shoot herself, when she hears a bird. This ends up leading her to the Shallow Valley (the real-life Shenandoah Valley), which was untouched by Praimfaya.
- In the Season 6 finale, upon seeing that Sheidheda has taken over Madi, she points a gun at her head and says she'll shoot herself if Madi isn't still in there, since she can't lose her mother and her daughter in the same day. Madi takes back over, stopping Clarke from killing herself. How much of this was just a tactic and how much was being Driven to Suicide is left vague.
Kill the Ones You Love: Happens a couple of times:
- She's forced to kill Finn to save him from being tortured to death for massacring the Grounders.
- She's forced to push Simone, in her mother's body, out of an airlock. It's not technically killing her mother, since Abby was already dead, but it feels like it, especially after Simone plays at being Abby having survived the mind wipe the same way that Clarke did.
The Leader: Fights with Bellamy for this position throughout the first season, then with Camp Jaha in the second season. By the halfway point of that season through the end of season 4, however, she is firmly entrenched in that position.
Living Emotional Crutch: She has been on both the giving and receiving end of this:
- Clarke is this to Lexa. Lexa has to keep up the appearances of being the brutal Commander of the Twelve Clans, while being with Clarke gives her the opportunity to show her softer, more emotional side.
- Clarke and Bellamy are this to each other, especially as Bellamy and Octavia's relationship gets more strained.
- Madi is this to her, being the one person who kept her sane. Quite justified, as Madi was her only companion on a nearly dead Earth for nearly six years.
Mama Bear: She's this towards Madi. Clarke has turned on her friends to protect Madi, whether it meant siding with McCreary for a short time or leaving Gaia, Indra, and Bellamy to die in the fighting pits after they put Madi in danger by giving her the Flame.
The Medic: She has some skill as this, since her mother was the main doctor up on The Ark. It's especially useful in the first season, when she's the only one of the delinquents who has medical experience or knowledge, but still comes in handy in later seasons when Abby or Jackson are unavailable.
My God, What Have I Done?: Shares this with Bellamy after irradiating Mount Weather. While they felt they did what they had to do, the fact that they killed hundreds of innocent people, including children, is not lost on them.
Parental Substitute: To Madi, who is seemingly the only other survivor on Earth. The rest of Madi's family/clan was killed by radiation when Praimfaya came through at the end of Season 4. After some initial hostility, Clarke starts to care for her, calling Madi her daughter, which she happily accepts.
Second Love: She's this to Lexa. Lexa's first love, Costia, was brutally murdered by Nia, Queen of the Ice Nation.
Thou Shalt Not Kill: She tries to be this early on, but it doesn't last. The first person she kills is Atom, as a Mercy Kill in episode 3. By the time the beginning of Season 3 comes around, she's killed so many people (especially the Mountain Men) that she's known by the Grounders as Wanheda, meaning "Commander of Death".
Would Hurt a Child: In her darker, more desperate moments, she isn't above this.
- There were many children in Mount Weather when she and Bellamy pulled the lever.
- In the season 5 finale, Clarke points a gun at Diyoza's pregnant belly. Even McCreary is taken aback at this.
- Also in the season 5 finale, Clarke does this to Madi, knocking her to the ground, snapping a shock collar around her neck, and turning it on. Clarke clearly knows what she's doing is wrong, but Madi wanted to go lead Wonkru into battle, which probably would have gotten her killed. Even though Clarke had a reason and felt justified, it doesn't make it any easier to watch.
Young and in Charge: She's 18 when she's recognized as the de facto leader of the Sky People.

Abby Griffin

Clarke's mother, a doctor, and a member of the council on the Ark. She's typically one of the more compassionate, emotionally driven characters, for both good and ill.

Tropes exhibited by this character include:

Alien Blood: She gives herself Nightblood in season 6. The alternative was killing Madi by harvesting all of her bone marrow, so Abby gives it to herself so some of her marrow can be harvested instead. For her efforts, she’s made the next (and final) host for Simone).
Brainwashed and Crazy: When taken over by ALIE, she uses a scalpel to try and torture Clarke into complying. When that doesn’t work, she tries to hang herself. Neither of them manages to get Clarke to break.
Functional Addict: She’s become this in Season 5, due to the headaches that came from having ALIE’s chip forcibly removed from her brain. She’s able to function pretty well when she has her pills, but when she can’t for some reason, she goes to desperate lengths to get them.
Heel Realization: Has this a couple times. In ‘The Dark Year’, she has this while going through detox and explaining what they had to survive in the bunker. She then has another in late season 6, just in time for an unintentional Heroic Sacrifice.
Last-Minute Reprieve: She’s going to be executed in the pilot, only saved by Chancellor Jaha staggering into the room and pardoning her at the last minute.
The Medic: She’s the main doctor on the Ark, which makes her incredibly valuable.
Parental Substitute: She’s this to Raven, whose mother was an alcoholic who would trade Raven’s food rations for alcohol. When Abby lies about why she’s working with Eligius and lets them hurt Raven just to get her pills, this bond between them is almost completely broken.
Screw the Rules, I'm Doing What's Right: She’s a doctor, it’s almost to be expected. Overlaps with Establishing Character Moment in the pilot when she uses more medicine than is rationed to save Jaha’s life.
Second Love: Kane is this to her, with her husband having died before the series started.
Unresolved Sexual Tension: Has this with Kane. Resolved in season 3, when they get an upgrade to Official Couple.

Finn Collins

A bit of a devil-may-care idealist, Finn acts as the conscience and peacemaker of The 100, being one of the few who tries to actually communicate with the Grounders.

Tropes exhibited by this character include:

Cruel and Unusual Death: Being tortured to death by Grounders for the massacre. This is averted when Clarke mercy kills him.
Heroic Sacrifice: While everyone else is trying to figure out a way to save his life and the tenuous alliance with the Grounders, Finn turns himself in instead.
Love Makes You Crazy: Clarke’s disappearance causes him to go from the main advocate for peace with the grounders to starting a massacre of innocent civilians when he thinks they’ve taken her.
Your Cheating Heart: Within days of coming to the ground, he starts a relationship with Clarke, even though he already has a girlfriend. When Raven comes to the ground and finds out this is happening, there’s some serious trouble.

Wells Jaha

Chancellor Jaha’s son, he gets arrested so he can be with Clarke when the delinquents are sent down to Earth. He tries to be the moral center of the group, but being the son of the man who ordered everyone else imprisoned (and often executed their parents) makes him an enemy of almost everyone there.

Tropes exhibited by this character include:

Childhood Friends: He and Clarke were quite close growing up.
Forgotten Fallen Friend: Despite he and Clarke being best friends growing up and his death being such a pivotal moment for the delinquents, his father is seemingly the only person who remembers him past the first season.
Love Martyr: He committed a crime so he could be arrested and sent down to Earth with Clarke. She’s not even remotely interested, especially since she thinks Wells turned her father in to be executed.
You Killed My Father: While he didn’t do anything, his father is the one responsible for executing many of the other characters’ parents. He’s killed by Charlotte for exactly this reason.

Octavia Blake

Bellamy’s younger sister, who is jailed on the Ark for the crime of being born. At the start of the series, she’s spent her entire life either hiding in a room or being kept in a prison cell. Thanks to this, she has no particular attachment to the Ark and takes going down to Earth as an opportunity to start over and find who she really is.

Tropes exhibited by this character include:

Action Girl: She starts going this direction in season 2, but is firmly in this camp by season 3 after months of training with the Grounders.
Asskicking Equals Authority: How she sets herself up as the leader of Wonkru. First by winning the final conclave, then by killing anyone who refuses to follow her orders about how to handle Kara and her fellow conspirators.
Badass in Charge: As Blodreina in the bunker between seasons 4 and 5.
Big Bad Ensemble: One of members of this in Season 5, along with McCreary and Diyoza. Not a Villain Team Up, as most examples of this are. Instead, the fact that she’s on a different side is what causes the conflict in the first place.
Can't Get Away with Nuthin: Bellamy takes her out of their room, for one night, to go to a masquerade party. By the end of the night, she’s found out and arrested, leading to her being imprisoned, Bellamy losing his place on the guard, and their mother’s execution.
Dark and Troubled Past: She was a second child when the Ark only allows a single child per family, so her family had to go to great lengths to keep her existence hidden. Her existence being found out ends up with her family being torn apart and even the other kids kept in lockup won’t get along with her, so she’s really eager to start over again on Earth.
Death Seeker: A couple times
- Starts down this path after Lincoln’s death, including intentionally stepping off a cliff during a fight with Echo rather than get captured.
- After realizing the magnitude of what she’d done as Blodreina, both in and out of the bunker, she becomes this at the beginning of season 6. When Abby stops some members of Wonkru from beating her to death, she seems devastated, and a few episodes later she eagerly puts her forehead against the barrel of Diyoza’s gun.
Disappeared Dad: We never see her father, just her, Bellamy, and their mother. Word of God says that she and Bellamy have different fathers.
Felony Misdemeanor: Her crime? Existing. The one child per family rule on the Ark is very strictly enforced.
Going Native: Having never felt she fit on the Ark (due to being locked up for existing and always having to hide), Octavia finds herself particularly drawn to the Grounder culture.
Heel Realization: Her story in Season six is realizing that she was a bad guy in the bunker and the battle against Eligius.
Like a Daughter to Me: She gets this from Indra, who says this right in front of her actual daughter.
Ms. Fanservice: For the pilot, and dropped almost immediately afterwards.
Never My Fault: Her biggest vice in season 5. She refused to take the blame or credit for anything that she did wrong in that season, even though different decisions on her part could have drastically deescalated the conflict.
No-Holds-Barred Beatdown: She’s been on the giving and receiving end of this.
- In season three, she beats the hell out of Bellamy because of the role he had in Lincoln’s death.
- In season six, several members of Wonkru who lost family members when Octavia expelled the Arkadians from it start beating Octavia, seeming to intend to beat her to death. They only stop because Abby tells them the better punishment is to make her live with who she’s become.
Odd Friendship: She and Diyoza have this in season six. To them, it was just a couple days ago that they were going to war over the Shallow Valley, and yet both being exiled from Sanctum means that they’re forced to work together. It helps that they turn out to have a lot in common, both being extremist leaders who did horrible things to hold on to power.
Redemption Quest: Starts to go on one in season 6 after coming out of the anomaly.
Star-Crossed Lovers: With Lincoln. She starts a relationship with him when everyone else in the camp still hates Grounders. It doesn’t end well.
Took a Level in Badass: After she starts training with Indra, Octavia goes from not much of a threat to anyone to one of the more accomplished fighters in the series.
Took a Level in Jerkass: Early in the show, she’s one of the more grounded and moral characters on the show. The six years they spent in the bunker changed her completely, not only damaging her sense of right and wrong, but turning her into an outright member of season 5’s Big Bad Ensemble.
We Have Reserves: This is how she justifies going to war against Eligius to take the valley. She’s not wrong for that particular battle, but considering that they think they’re the last humans left in the world, she’s incredibly wrong in the big picture.
With Us or Against Us: Her motto and approach to Wonkru is this. “You are Wonkru, or you are the enemy of Wonkru.”

Bellamy Blake

Octavia’s older brother, Bellamy is a nobody on the Ark at the start of the story. He takes a deal to kill Jaha in exchange for a place on the ship going down to Earth so that he can continue to protect his sister. He tries to take over as leader on the ground, advocating for anarchy, though it doesn’t last that long.

Tropes exhibited by this character include:

Advice Backfire: He tells Charlotte, who’s having trouble sleeping at night, to slay her demons. Charlotte takes that a little too literally and stabs Wells in the neck.
Big Brother Instinct: The reason that he’s even a part of this story to begin with. He’s had to take care of Octavia for her entire life, and upon finding out she’s being sent down to Earth, he’s willing to shoot Jaha to get a place on the ship going down there with her. It’s his only redeeming quality for quite a while, until the character development starts.
Control Freak: Despite his early support of anarchy in season 1, he’s still very controlling of his people, especially where Octavia is concerned.
Disappeared Dad: We never see his father, or Octavia’s (Word of God says they have different fathers).
Dressing as the Enemy: He pulls this a lot. So far, he’s masqueraded as Mount Weather security, Ice Nation, and a Sanctum guard.
Easily Forgiven: Averted in season 3 and his part in the Grounder massacre and Lincoln’s death. Everyone refuses to trust or forgive him for this, and Octavia takes the first opportunity she gets, even after he captures and hands Pike over to the Grounders, to beat the hell out of him for it.
Fantastic Racism: Goes back and forth on his hatred for the Grounders. Hates them for most of season 1, eventually trusting Lincoln with Octavia. He works with some of them in Season 2 to overthrow Mount Weather, while falling right back into hatred when they’re betrayed by Ice Nation in early season 3. By the end of the season, he realizes his mistakes and treats them like any other people again.
Heel Face Revolving Door: He spends most of season 1 as an antagonist against Clarke, then firmly in position as co-leader with her in season 2, then the first half of season 3 has him siding with Pike in anti-Grounder sentiment until he flips back halfway through the season.
Heel Realization: In season 3, he realizes he’s become the bad guy when Pike orders Kane executed. He then uses his position to stage a coup, handing Pike over to the Grounders.
- “We’re killing our own people now?”
Living Emotional Crutch
- Octavia is this to him for the first couple seasons, lessening as their relationship starts to sour.
- Bellamy and Clarke are this to each other, as he admits to Jaha in season 4.
Promoted to Love Interest: Inverted. He and Clarke are together almost from the beginning in the books, while they start off as antagonists in the series. We’ll leave it there, lest the shipping get to be too much.
Ship Tease: With Clarke, and we’ll leave it at that.
Son of a Whore: It’s heavily implied that Aurora traded sexual favors for being warned about “surprise” inspections, to help keep Octavia hidden.
Survivor Guilt: Spends a lot of time between seasons 4 and 5 feeling this over Clarke's Heroic Sacrifice to get them to the Ark, since he had no way of knowing that she survived.
Undying Loyalty: To Octavia. After she’s become Blodreina, the only way he can deal with it is to claim “My sister died years ago”.
Well-Intentioned Extremist: He will do anything for Octavia, even assassination and genocide.
Wouldn't Hurt a Child: He doesn’t want to hang Charlotte (who’s 12) for killing Wells, even after advocating that they hang Murphy (who’s 17) for it. Then Mount Weather happens, where he and Clarke irradiate the mountain, killing everyone there, even young children.

Callie "CeCe" Cartwig

Abby’s best friend, Kane’s ex, and an envoy between the council and the people on the Ark. Despite this, she only appears in the pilot and is never even mentioned again.

Tropes exhibited by this character include:

Advertised Extra: She was pretty well established in the pilot and used in advertising, just to be dropped without further mention after the episode.
Dropped After the Pilot: Not only was she dropped, but no one has so much as mentioned her, even obliquely, since the pilot.
Forgotten Fallen Friend: We have to rely on Word of God to tell us that she was executed sometime off-screen after the pilot. She’s never been mentioned since the pilot.
Honorary Uncle: Seems like she was this to Clarke, even though we never see them interact.
Take Care of the Kids: Abby asks her to take care of Clarke after her execution.
What Happened to the Mouse?: Word of God is that she was executed sometime after the pilot, but it’s never addressed in the series.

Monty Green

One of the 100 and Jasper’s best friend, Monty is the resident tech geek (at least until Raven shows up). He’s one of the most level-headed of the delinquents, often being the voice of reason when everyone else seems to have gone insane.

Tropes exhibited by this character include:

Character Death: In the season 5 finale, he and Harper decide to stay out of the cryopods, waiting for the Earth to become livable again. It never does, and after Harper dies and he’s set the ship to navigate to Alpha, he dies in some unspecified manner off-screen.
Conflicting Loyalty: He sides with his mother and Pike against his friends at first, but eventually goes back over to their side.
The Conscience: Acts as this for most of the group. Even though he follow’s Clarke’s order to reverse the ventilation in Mount Weather to bring all the radiation in, he tries to talk her out of killing everyone in there.
Heterosexual Life Partners: With Jasper.
Out of Focus: Once Raven is brought into the story, Monty’s role as The Smart Guy is taken, so he slides out of focus for a lot of the first season. Once he finds his place as The Conscience, he gets more attention.
Self-Made Orphan: He shoots his mother, who was possessed by ALIE at the time, to keep her from killing Octavia. He’s forced to do it again by deleting the remnant of her consciousness from the City of Light.
The Smart Guy: He gets slightly bumped from this position after Raven comes down to Earth, but he’s still one of the smarter characters on the show.
Those Two Guys: With Jasper.

Jasper Jordan

One of the 100 and Monty’s best friend, Jasper is a geeky, goofy stoner. As the trauma starts to accumulate, starting from the pilot, he starts to lose a lot of that innocence.

Tropes exhibited by this character include:

The Alcoholic: He goes from goofy stoner to angry drunk in season 3.
Alliterative Name: Jasper Jordan.
Beard of Sorrow: His hairstyle changes a lot in season 3, including facial hair he never had before.
Brainwashed and Crazy: He takes ALIE’s chip somewhere off-screen in late season 3. It’s actually a pretty small change to his demeanor, but still obvious.
Death Seeker: He becomes this in season 3 after Maya’s death. He tries to kill himself in the season 4 premiere until he hears about Praimfaya killing them all in six months.
Expository Hairstyle Change: Goes from clean shaven with goofy, floppy hair to a nearly shaved head and facial hair between seasons 2 and 3, to show just how much Maya’s death affected him.
Goggles Do Nothing: He never actually uses his goggles for anything, either when he first has them in the first season or after he gets them back. After his death, Clarke finds them and uses them to protect herself from sandstorms.
Heterosexual Life Partners: With Monty.
I Let Gwen Stacy Die: While he blames Clarke for Maya’s death, he also feels like he could’ve prevented her death if he’d had the chance to kill Cage Wallace.
Impaled with Extreme Prejudice: At the end of the pilot, he triggers a trap that spears him in the chest. He was only saved by the fact that the showrunner loved Devon Bostick and wanted to keep him around for more than just a single episode.
The Smart Guy: He’s not quite as smart as Monty but has some of this himself.
Took a Level in Cheerfulness: After finding out Praimfaya was on its way, he suddenly gets a lot happier.

Thelonious Jaha

The chancellor on the Ark, Jaha tries to be the moral center, encouraging everyone to think about their actions in order to do the right thing. After the Ark is brought to the ground, his leadership starts to take a turn for the more zealous and over the top.

Tropes exhibited by this character include:

Brainwashed and Crazy: Throughout season 3, he’s under ALIE’s influence and possibly control.
- The Dragon: To ALIE throughout season 3.
Desperately Looking for a Purpose in Life: After he gets down to Earth, seeing that his people are getting along well enough without him, he tries to find something worth doing. He ends up seeking the City of Light, leading a bunch of other followers on this journey that might have nothing to be found at the end of it.
The Determinator: He will get to the City of Light, no matter what happens
The Engineer: Before he was chancellor, he was an engineer.
Going Down with the Ship: He beats Kane to setting off the bombs on the Ark that will let them send it down to Earth, staying up on the Ark. He doesn’t actually die there, however, later riding in a missile down to Earth.
Heroic Sacrifice: A couple, only one of which sticks.
- He stays behind on the Ark to let everyone else go down to Earth at the end of season 1. He makes his own way down in season 2.
- In season 5, he dies to open a door in the bunker to prevent Kara’s coup from succeeding, saving all of the Grounders in the bunker.
Mouth of Sauron: He’s ALIE’s main presence in the human world, though she occasionally talks through other characters.
Sanity Slippage: Season 2 involves him slowly losing his mind as he tries to find a new purpose in his life.
Secret Stab Wound: He gets one in the coup in the bunker led by Kara Cooper. He eventually dies from it.

Marcus Kane

Second in command up on the Ark, Kane is at first militant and seen as an antagonist to Abby, if not an outright villain. Over time, he shows more of his actual personality and development as a good person stuck in a horrible situation, not a power-hungry tyrant.

Tropes exhibited by this character include:

Character Death: In season 6, he kills himself rather than live on in another body, believing it’s not right to kill someone else so he can live.
Last-Name Basis: Only his mother and the other council members call him Marcus. To everyone else, he’s Kane.
Looks Like Jesus: His beard in season 5 makes him look very much like Jesus. The fact that Henry Ian Cusick has played Jesus before makes it even more intentional.
Number Two: He was this to Jaha on the Ark, and later to Clarke on the ground, serving as the main ambassador to Polis.
Ooh, Me Accent's Slipping: Henry mostly manages to keep his Scottish accent down, but occasionally struggles with it.
Parental Substitute: He tries to be one to Bellamy, though it’s never quite mutual.
Second Love: He’s this to Abby, whose husband died before the show started.
Well-Intentioned Extremist: His seemingly evil behavior early in season 1 is eventually revealed to be this. He knows that the Ark is dying and that drastic measures need to be taken to keep everyone alive, he’s just more pragmatic than most about it. He later becomes more principled than pragmatic.

Raven Reyes

A young, prodigy mechanic, Raven is approached early by Abby to try and sneak them down to Earth. Raven ultimately ends up being the only one to go, at which point she becomes crucial in helping the delinquents on Earth get back in contact with the Ark.

Tropes exhibited by this character include:

Alliterative Name: Raven Reyes.
Animal Motifs: A raven, obviously.
Back From the Dead: Does this herself to solve the headaches and seizures that plague her in season 4. She kills herself while submerged in ice water, building an apparatus that will shock her back to life in 15 minutes, and it works.
Big NO: Her reaction when Clarke stabs Finn.
Blessed with Suck: Her luck, in almost all parts of her life, is pretty terrible.
Brainwashed and Crazy: While everyone who takes the chip for the City of Light is this, Raven takes it a lot further. When they try to get the chip out of her in Nevermore, she’s acting like she came straight out of the Exorcist, trying to corrupt everyone around her into taking the chip, and when that doesn’t work and she’s probably going to have the chip removed, ALIE makes her try to kill herself.
Butt Monkey: While Murphy is the funny Butt Monkey, Raven is more of a tragic version. Before the show starts, she had an alcoholic mother who gave away her rations to get more alcohol. Her boyfriend is jailed for giving her the chance to walk in space, he gets sent down to Earth, then she goes down after him only to find him in another relationship. She gets shot in the spine, then has to go through surgery without anesthetic to be able to walk again, which works but still requires she use crutches to walk. Then Clarke mercy kills Finn, Raven takes the chip from ALIE, she’s forced out of the City of Light in a way that leaves her much smarter, but suffering from seizures and headaches that she can’t cure without killing herself for a short time, submersing herself in ice water, and shocking herself back to life. In season 5, she’s used repeatedly as leverage by the Eligius prisoners but grows close to Shaw, only for him to die almost immediately after starting their relationship. Then she spends season 6 at odds with Parental Substitute Abby, only to repair that relationship just before Russell kills Abby to use her as a host for his wife, Simone. Nothing tends to go that right for Raven.
The Engineer: She’s quite a bit more skilled than any of the delinquents when she gets down to Earth.
Frame-Up: Is framed for trying to kill Lexa right after Finn’s death.
Genius Cripple: She’s a genius to start the story and is crippled by Murphy in the season 1 finale. She keeps the ability to walk, just with crutches, though as the show goes on, she improves enough that her leg is rarely an issue.
I Owe You My Life: While her relationship with Finn isn’t built around this, the strength of her devotion is. He set up an illegal spacewalk for her, then when things went wrong wasting a bunch of oxygen, took the blame for it. If Raven had been caught, she would have been executed.
Idiot Ball: Her plan to avoid Finn’s death is to have Clarke stab Lexa, the Commander of the Grounders, in front of hundreds of witnesses and warriors. Justified in that she was desperate and willing to try anything at that point. Clarke is smart enough to listen to Raven and then not attempt it.
Parental Neglect: Her mother traded Raven’s food rations for alcohol.
The Reason You Suck Speech: She delivers several of these in Nevermore, though how much of it is her and how much of it is ALIE is a little ambiguous.
The Smart Guy: She takes over for Monty in this role once she gets to the ground.
Super Intelligence: She’s already smart, but ALIE takes a particular interest in her, boosting her intelligence greatly. Due to the chip being removed by force, she has headaches and greatly boosted intelligence even long after ALIE has no more control over her.
Trauma Conga Line: See the entry above for Butt Monkey - everything seems to go wrong for Raven.

Lincoln

The first Grounder we spend any time with, Lincoln is considered a traitor to his people for not wanting to live their way of life. He’s the first Grounder to make friends, as tenuous as it is, with the Sky People.

Tropes exhibited by this character include:

Character Death: Is executed for his part in a prison riot meant to overthrow Pike. He turns himself in so no more of his people in captivity are harmed.
Combat Medic: Learns some of this from his friend, Nyko, the actual healer in his village.
Cultural Rebel: Has never been comfortable with living in Grounder culture.
Mr. Fanservice: Even when being tortured for information, the camera loves to linger on his muscles.
Star-Crossed Lovers: With Octavia, given the disputes between the Grounders and Sky People.

John Murphy

One of the delinquents, Murphy is considered a psychopath by most of the others, putting him at odds with them from the start. While he eventually comes to consider some people family, he is still mostly focused on himself and his own survival.

Tropes exhibited by this character include:

Abusive Parents: His family seemed to have been pretty good at first. Then he got sick, his father stole medicine to treat the illness, which got him executed and didn’t even help the illness. From there, his mother started drinking and blaming him for his father’s death.
Asshole Victim: Given how he’s treated everyone, even if you feel bad for how they treat him, it’s hard to argue that he doesn’t deserve at least some of it.
Born Lucky: Strangely, he manages to be this and the Butt Monkey at the same time. He’s lucky enough to find some way to survive every situation he finds himself in, but just barely.
The Bully: At the beginning, he’s a massive jerk who seems to push people around for little more than the joy of it.
Butt Monkey: Doubles as Trauma Conga Line, though because of Murphy’s snark and the sheer number of bad things that happen to him, it almost comes off as funny. He had a loving family until his getting sick caused that to fall apart, he became a juvenile delinquent, was forced down to the ground, framed for murder, exiled for trying to bring the actual killer to justice, mercilessly tortured, infected with a disease and sent back to camp as germ warfare, fires off a gun that accidentally cripples another major character, tries to go off looking for redemption, ends up present when Finn starts massacring Grounders, is partially blamed for not stopping the massacre, ends up going off with Jaha trying to find the City of Light because no one wants him around, gets close to Emori on the way only to be betrayed by her, gets to the island with Jaha and goes to the mansion, only to get locked in the basement for almost three months running out of food, reunites with Emori without the betrayal only to be arrested and taken prisoner and tortured in Polis, is almost framed for Clarke’s murder but instead becomes a witness to Lexa’s, has to pose as Ontari’s flamekeeper to keep her facade as Commander going (which includes her raping him multiple times), is eventually thrown into the dungeons where he has to work with Pike and Indra to get out, is with Clarke when she takes the Flame and the chip, where he’s forced to reach into Ontari’s chest and physically pump her heart to keep the Nightblood flowing so Clarke doesn’t die, tries to rejoin his people just to be rejected by them, he and Emori decide to go to Becca’s lab and live as long as they can in the bunker then, Emori is almost pulled into being a human experiment with Nightblood, then he finally has his security with being taken into the bunker by Clarke until Bellamy opens the bunker and they’re forced out, so he escapes with them to space, where he lives on the Ark for 6 years, is baited by Raven into staying in space when Eligius arrives, starts a riot with the factions of Eligius prisoners that almost destroys the valley, is shot in the arm in the final battle over the valley, becomes part of the landing team on Sanctum that gets caught in the red sun psychosis where he’s stabbed by Emori, tries to make a deal with Josephine to live forever, switches sides several times back and forth between his friends and the Primes, barely talks his way out of being burned at the stake, is allowed to take on the identity of two of the Primes who had been wiped only to find Sanctum in complete chaos when he is now masquerading as one of its leaders, and is almost burned to death again when one of the believers discovers that he’s a fake.
Character Development: Over time, he becomes less selfish and concerned with just himself, though his base motivation of just trying to survive never really changes.
Deadpan Snarker: Even as his character development gets rid of some of his worse tendencies, Murphy never loses his snarky sense of humor.
The Dog Bites Back: After he comes back to camp in season 1, he starts killing people who were involved in his attempted hanging.
Double Standard: Rape, Female on Male: When he’s posing as Flamekeeper for Ontari, we see at least once that she chains him up and forces him to have sex with her. This isn’t addressed until the next season, when Emori calls him out for enjoying “what he had to do to survive”, he does make it clear that none of it was his choice, and Emori lets up on him.
Everyone Has Standards: Even before his character development, he’s appalled by Finn massacring Grounders and tries to talk him down it. Of course, the main reaction everyone else has is asking why he didn’t do more to try and stop Finn.
The Exile: He’s exiled from camp by the rest of the delinquents for trying to kill Charlotte.
Freudian Excuse: His father was killed for trying to treat his illness and his mother was an abusive drunk; Murphy has a lot of this.
Jerkass Has a Point: Quite frequently, he has a really good point even if the way he makes it isn’t well-received.
- He’s in favor of killing Charlotte, who’s 12, for Wells’s murder. Considering that he was hanging in a noose minutes before, put there by the same people who don’t want to kill Charlotte, he’s more than right to call out their hypocrisy.
- Jaha tries to tell him that the City of Light will take away pain, hate, and envy. While those may be bad emotions, Murphy’s right that they make him who he is.
- When yelling at Bellamy for opening the door to the bunker in late season 4. Sure, Bellamy was doing the right thing for the most people, but Murphy is right that no one likes him and Emori enough to let them stay inside under Octavia’s “100 per clan” rule.
Last-Name Basis: Almost everyone calls him Murphy. Calling him John (unless it’s Abby or Emori) comes across as sinister.
Love Redeems: Being in a relationship with Emori has done a lot to sand down some of his rough edges. Murphy is still incredibly snarky, abrasive, and interested in their survival more than anything, but he’s so much better than he used to be.
Only Sane Man: On the journey to the City of Light with Jaha, he seems to be the only one who hasn’t bought in to religious side of things.
Phrase Catcher: “Shut up, Murphy!” is said a lot.
Real Men Cook: Clarke is very surprised to find out that he’s actually a pretty skilled cook.
Undying Loyalty: To Emori.
Wild Card: Murphy’s greatest interest is his own survival, until he meets Emori... at which point it’s both of their survival. And occasionally his other friends. He’s improved, but will probably never be a saint.
Would Hurt a Child: He wants to hang Charlotte for killing Wells. Somewhat justified, in that the mob was way more than willing to hang him for it and he was calling them out on their double standards.

Roan

Part of the Ice Nation royalty, Roan starts as an exiled prince, trying to capture Clarke in hopes that he’ll be welcomed back to his people. When he’s made king of the Ice Nation, he becomes a strong, if suspicious, ally of Clarke and the Sky People.

Tropes exhibited by this character include:

Awesome Moment of Crowning: Rather than kill him in their duel, Lexa throws her spear through Nia’s chest, then declares Roan as king of Ice Nation.
Character Death: In the Final Conclave, he and Octavia are barely holding their own against Luna when the black rain starts. This incapacitates him, letting Luna throw him into some water and hold him in it until he drowns.
I Am Not My Mother: His mother would have fought dirty so long as she won. Roan refuses to fight without honor, to the point of exiling Echo from Ice Nation when she’s found to be interfering with the Final Conclave.
Klingon Promotion: Played with. His people wouldn’t accept him as king if he killed his mother, so he tries to get Clarke to do it. Ultimately, Lexa does it for him, killing Nia and proclaiming Roan as the king of Ice Nation.
Promoted to Opening Credits: Became a regular member of the cast starting in season 4.

Echo

A spy and warrior for the Ice Nation, Echo first appears as a captured Grounder in Mount Weather. In Season 4, she comes back as the right-hand to King Roan, helping to lead the Ice Nation.

Tropes exhibited by this character include:

Action Girl: One of the best examples of the main cast.
Alien Blood: As of the episode Ashes to Ashes, she’s now a Nightblood, though she manages to kill Ryker to avoid being used as a host for the Primes.
Ascended Extra: From 2 episodes in season 2 and 1 in season 3 to recurring character in season 4 and series regular from there on out.
Battle Couple: She and Bellamy go out into battle as one in the Season 5 finale.
Belated Backstory: We don’t start to get her backstory until season 6, when we find out a little more about her childhood, including her actual name. Even Bellamy, who she’s been in a relationship with for 3 years, doesn’t know this information.
Despair Event Horizon: Exiled from Ice Nation and facing at least 5 years living on the remnants of the Ark, she’s about to commit ritual suicide when Bellamy finds her.
Evil Chancellor: She’s this to Roan in season 4.
From Nobody to Nightmare: We meet her in season 2 as a random Grounder being held in Mount Weather. When she becomes a recurring character in season 4, she’s fully in place as an Ice Nation warrior and the Evil Chancellor to Roan’s Reasonable Authority Figure.
Given Name Reveal: She tells Ryker that her name is actually Ashe, her childhood best friend was named Echo. The original Echo, who was being trained as a spy and killer, lost her nerve, Ashe killed her and was forced to take on her identity and place as a spy.
Heel Face Revolving Door: Works with Bellamy in Mount Weather, then blows up Mount Weather and many of the Farm Station people living there, setting her up for being Roan’s more brutal right hand in season 4. Then she saves a bunch of the main characters near the end of that season, putting her back on their side, even if no one really trusts her.
My Country, Right or Wrong: She is fiercely loyal to Ice Nation, for good or ill. When she’s exiled from it, first by Roan then by Octavia, she loses all sense of what to do with herself until she’s taken up to the Ark and takes the rest of them on as her new family.
Promotion to Opening Titles: She was added to the main cast in season 5.
Ship Tease: With Bellamy in seasons 2 through 4, until being upgraded to Official Couple.

Jordan Green

Monty and Harper's son. He lived with them on the Eligius IV while they were waiting to see if Earth could come back. Becomes a regular character in Season 6 once everyone has reached Alpha.

Tropes exhibited by this character include:

Alliterative Name: Jordan Jasper Green.
Brainwashed: Possibly happened to him during the Adjustment Protocol. Bellamy finds him holding a mind drive, angry for their destruction of the Primes and Priya in particular, despite being staunchly against the Primes earlier in the season.
Last Episode, New Character: Introduced at the very end of the season 5 finale.
Saying Too Much: Had an unfortunate tendency to do this, especially when he meets Delilah. He tells all the stories he heard of Clarke from when they were on Earth, leading to Russell and Simone’s rejection of everyone possibly living in Sanctum. At least, at first.
Walking Spoiler: Just his existence spoils Monty and Harper getting and staying together, their deaths, and the fact that Earth didn’t recover in 10 years, like it was supposed to.

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