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bio;
( CHARACTER ★ INFORMATION )
DOES THIS CHARACTER MEET SKELETAL BASICS? Yep!
NAME & AGE: Octavia Blake ( 17 )
CANON & CANON POINT: The 100 ( s2e10 )
CANON INFORMATION: season 1, season 2 & character centric wiki
PERSONALITY:
"how is someone raised beneath the floor not a total basket case?
"who says I'm not?"
Truthfully? Somehow, Octavia really isn't a basket case. She has a very clear head on her shoulders, and enough common sense and self confidence to get her through pretty much anything. But growing up having to hide from the inhabitants of the Ark for fourteen years, confined to one room and kept under the floor when she slept and when anyone came to visit their room ( only to eventually get caught and sent to prison the one time she left ) - it would be impossible for her to not be affected by that in some ways. On the Ark, there were laws against families having more than one child ( for the sake of population control ), and although her mother managed to keep her a secret for so long, eventually she did get caught, and her mother was floated for her "crime". There's definitely a lot of guilt there, but it was never enough to break her. And the resentment she feels towards those that decided her mother should die just because she didn't terminate her pregnancy is there, for sure, but it doesn't run her life. She isn't out for revenge. If anything, what she's been through prepared her for the future in ways she never could have anticipated.
She was very, very fortunate to have two people in her life that loved her and put her safety before anything else, so even though her circumstances were pretty messed up, she never thought of her childhood that way. Her mother and brother Bellamy taught her everything she needed to know, made sacrifices and took care of her in every way they could, so it was hard to find a reason to be mad about it, or feel the need to act out. She looks at her situation and sees a reason to be stronger than people expect her to be, uses it as a means of proving that no matter what people try to throw at her, she can handle it and kick its ass. So hey, all things considered, she turned out alright.
It's probably a little strange to be talking about the dynamic of her family right away, but Octavia literally would not be who she is today if her mother hadn't taught her how to stare down the things that scare her most and conquer them by thinking I am not afraid, or if Bellamy hadn't given her the same amount of attention and affection that he did, teaching her that making sacrifices and making the hard choices doesn't always mean sacrificing everything you are. Those two are the only people she had any contact with for more than half her life, so any positive or negative traits or habits she's picked up is almost a direct reflection to how they both lived their lives. Luckily that was a really good thing, for her. Through them she learned the merit in making sacrifices for those you love, as well as having the strength to do things her own way, without bending to the pressure of what others see as the "right" way or the "safe" way.
I think it's because of this that she's also learned the importance of loyalty, and conviction in your decisions. Octavia definitely has moments where she feels an outright anger towards the people of the Ark because of the fact that they put her in jail just for being born, and they floated their mother just for having her, but she feels a very strong sense of loyalty to the other delinquents who were sent down to Earth with her. She very quickly becomes loyal to Lincoln too, a Grounder that saved her from being killed early on in the first season. He saved her despite the risk of being punished by his tribe, which was more than enough proof that he was worthy of her trust and loyalty. Her loyalty to her friends and the people she loves is unbreakable, which is proven time and time again whenever she's faced with choosing between following some kind of set norm or order, or doing whatever she has to in order to keep them safe. There's no question, in her mind. She makes her stance known and sticks to it 100%, no matter what people think of her for it.
Octavia Blake is, simply, one of the bravest people brought down to Earth on that drop ship. She doesn't flaunt it, she doesn't do wild and crazy things just to get attention ( maybe she did at first, by doing things like jumping into a lake when she doesn't know how to swim, but she was mostly just trying to prove a point ), she just is. She's brave because diving into things and giving it your all right from the start makes more sense than trying to tiptoe your way through life. If she finds an opportunity to do something she really wants to do, she'll take it, no questions asked. She's a fighter, in every sense of the word, competitive in that if someone tries to tell her "no, you can't do that", she pretty much makes it a personal goal to do just that. And when she gets her mind on accomplishing something, there's nothing that can get in her way. Her impulsive nature lands her in trouble more often than not, but instead of backing down and trying to think of a way out of a scary situation, she powers through it in any way she can, and then strives to learn how to adapt and handle those things better in the future.
Her training with Lincoln is the best example of that. While most of the 100 were trying to think of ways to defend themselves against the Grounders, Octavia was trying to learn their ways, and their fighting styles. She saw it as an opportunity, not a threat. She knew in her gut that she could trust him, and she ran with it. It essentially turned out to be not only a good thing for herself, but she's been able to use those skills to try and help the treaty between the Grounders and the Sky People in a way that nobody else could. She wouldn't exactly consider herself a representative of either side at this point, but rather the result of the kind of person you can become if you learn to embrace both sides of a bad situation.
"no, I don't think so-"
"you don't think, O!"
On the flip side, her bravery comes with a very clear negative - she can be alarmingly impulsive, especially if she thinks she can help her people, or get something that she wants. She's bright, but sometimes her cleverness gets clouded by her tendency to "act now, think later". There's a side of her that can make quick judgment calls without thinking twice about it, but otherwise that impulsiveness usually just translates to her acting on what she thinks is right without thinking or worrying about the aftermath. At the start of the show, when they first arrived on the Ground, she was the type to just leave to go exploring on her own without telling anyone. Which she learned very quickly isn't an amazing idea, but it never stopped her. Her choices might be a little more focused now that she's training to be Indra's second-in-command, but when it comes down to it she'll end up doing whatever she has to in order to survive. ..Or whatever she wants to in order to have some fun.
Her emotions really do get the best of her at times, and that combined with her fierce loyalty to her friends usually means she'll choose to take the dangerous option if that means giving her people a better chance of being safe. That mantra of I am not afraid guides her in all of her decisions, gives her the strength to lock up whatever doubts or fears she has in order to do whatever she has to. There's no reason to think or worry about what might happen when she's doing what she knows she has to do. The first time we see this in a big way is when Lincoln was captured by a group of Reapers, and Octavia agrees to be live bait in order to lure them into a trap set by the Grounders to free those who were captured. It turns out that Lincoln wasn't with them, and despite how brave and almost stoic she was about doing her part in making the plan work, she snaps soon after realizing he wasn't there, screaming in frustration, then breaking down into tears later on when she tells Bellamy about it. "I couldn't save him, Bell." It's a very vulnerable moment that makes it clear that her ability to put on a brave face and take on the impossible isn't really an act of pride, but her simply doing what she feels she has to, what she thinks is the only "right" thing to do.
Her impulsiveness and recklessness can absolutely be attributed to how she spent her childhood for so long. Landing on the ground and being out of prison was huge for her, and she could have been a mess of anxiety having to deal with the sudden freedom, but instead she saw it as a perfect opportunity to take control over her life in a way she never really could before then, despite the fact that at that point, Earth was essentially unknown to anyone. Instead of feeling shy around all these kids that only know her as "the girl that grew up under the floor", she was very quick to engage with a lot of people, even flirting like crazy with a few. She's very social and outgoing, and her impulsiveness definitely shines in those situations too. At her current canon point, her brazenness is aimed more towards Indra ( one of the Grounder leaders ) because she wants to prove her worth as a warrior, but she's all-around just a very direct, forward person.
She's refreshingly fearless in a way that I think a lot of people just can't be. While most people have grown up learning that others aren't always going to approve of what you think is right or wrong, and that sometimes you need to censor yourself in order to fit in and not cause problems, Octavia never had that. She doesn't feel the need to explain herself to anyone, as long as her actions don't hurt anyone. She was forced to keep quiet and stay hidden for so long, that now, freedom translates to not only getting to do whatever she wants, but doing it how she wants, and for whatever reason she wants. Which is going to be really cool to explore once she's dropped into the Drabwurld with this whole new set of rules to bend and use to her advantage, with no one ( but her brother and Clarke ) to tell her what she is or isn't capable of.
COURT ALLIANCE & REASONING:
"maybe one of these days you'll realize - you can't control me."
While Octavia often makes decisions based on how she can best protect the people she cares about, she also makes it clear right from the get-go that she's not going to take orders from anyone ever again. At first she seems to only act on her own whims, doing whatever she wants just because she finally can, but she does start to find a sense of focus the longer they spend down on Earth. However! She's still pretty damn fearless, and reckless, and impulsive, even once she decides to focus on learning the Grounder ways of life. She thrives off of doing the things nobody expects of her, proving them wrong and doing things her own way. When it comes down to it, the only time she follows rules or takes orders is when it helps her achieve something she needs or wants. Once those orders stop serving her agenda, she stops following them, plain and simple. She would much rather find her own way through any kind of situation, even if that means putting herself in danger, than follow someone else.
She'll fight, but only if it's for something ( or someone ) she believes in. She'll keep herself in check and fall in line with everyone else, but only until she feels confident enough to go out on her own.
ABILITIES:
Octavia is very much baseline human! She has basic Grounder training under her belt already, which pretty much just means she knows how to be sneaky-stealthy as well as how to handle a blade ( she usually carries a machete, or a small knife ).
INVENTORY:
just the clothes on her back!