April7739

I'm just gonna post what I put on Bob's board here:

So after watching a video last night, I've come to realize that I've kind of shortchanged Madi as a character this season. I don't think I've really bothered to analyze her much as her own character. I've viewed her as an extension of Clarke, mostly, and she's a lot more than that. She's her own powerful person. She has her own sense of agency in this story. Yes, she's young, but that doesn't mean she's just Clarke's adopted daughter. She's MADI. I think that's magnified now that she took the flame, but she always was her own person. She questioned Clarke way back in 5x01 when she shot that guy, and now Clarke shot someone else who didn't necessarily need to be killed. In her efforts to protect Madi, it seems to me that Clarke is acting like the very same person she doesn't want Madi to become. She doesn't want Madi to be a killer, doesn't want her to have such darkness invade her soul. Because that's what happened to her back when she was just eighteen. But she's killed (perhaps needlessly) in front of Madi. She's shown her what that darkness really is.

Anyway, given that Madi questioned her even back in 5x01, it makes sense to me that she would make her own decision at the end of 5x06, that she would make her own decision about taking the flame. I also totally understand why Clarke would want to prevent her from it, but her method of going about it hasn't been perfect. Relatable. No parent is perfect.

And as for Bellamy . . . he has plenty of experience in not giving his sister a choice and trying to make her decisions for her, and that often didn't work out, so I could definitely see him being the adult in Madi's life who is more open to letting her make her own choices.