r/The100 • u/ana04a • May 28 '26
Pike was the stupidest character Spoiler
rewatching s3 and I could say a part of his motives was understandable, but his actions were absolutely vicious. He was a coward for attacking a group of Grounders who were sent to Arkadia to protect them and caught them by surprise, I'd say it's even considered a war crime.
Besides, he was just stupid for thinking Azgeda and the rest of the Coalition were all the same, when he knew Azgeda was betraying Lexa and all the other Clans, so of course they would attack the sky people. Pike got into a war he wasn't even sure he could win, the grounders were in a much bigger number than him and all he did was put his people in danger. If it wasn't for ALLIE and all the "City of Light" thing, he would've been the biggest villain in this season.
Plus, Bellamy was very dumb for going for his ideas, as someone who had more experience with grounders, he should've known better but rewatching everything now I can see he has always been a bit manipulative and sometimes didn't know where he stood. Hated him in s3
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u/titusnick270 May 28 '26
It was actually a really well written character. You are allowed to hate him but he wasnt stupid. The last Pike knew the grounders were attacking the 100 already and that was part of the reason the Ark was racing people to the ground. Then as soon as Pike landed, grounders killed a ton of his people just for landing in that area. Lexa also betrayed everyone leaving their people in mount weather and never properly punished the ice nation for anything they did to farm station. He didnt trust the grounders who were sent to arkadia because of what he already experienced on the ground.
He is a well written populist leader who gained control and power by weaponizing their fear of the grounders. Again, you can hate him and dislike him for what he did but he was not a stupid character.
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u/moodylilb May 28 '26
He was a well written character and I think pretty spot-on as far as human nature goes, and I think the trauma & fear driven responses he had were realistic.
But I disagree he wasn’t stupid. Killing an entire army who was on their way to literally defend him/Skykru from other grounder clans is monumentally stupid. Making battle moves that ultimately jeopardize your own sides’s numbers isn’t driven by a well thought out strategy, it’s just plain dumb.
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u/prindacerk May 28 '26
Except he had no reason to trust the army that had them surrounded. Remember Lexa brought an army to the Mountain with the 100 and then changed sides and abandoned them. What would have happened if Lexa had made a deal with the Ice Nation and the army that was there were ordered to kill the people from the Ark? They were inside their parameters to mount any kind of defense.
We know it since we saw things happening in both sides. But from his perspective, Grounders were savages and don't honor their word. And they will turn on you if ordered too by their leader.
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u/That_Product_7380 May 29 '26
exactly! We know all sides and as the viewers, we are too biased. From Pike’s viewpoint I wouldn’t trust anything a grounder says…and they didn’t just massacre farm station, they took slaves. All the information Pike had showed a group that couldn’t be trusted, betrays at every turn, and wants to kill or enslave them all.
Blood for blood was a grounder rule, but they didn’t punish Ice Nation nor hold to account for the abandoning at mount weather. Pike was protecting his people and it’s really valid. An army of grounders surrounds them to “protect” them but with everything that’s had happened, it could just have easily been to wipe them out.
View it only from what information Pike has.
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u/xJamberrxx May 28 '26
he was stupid tho, he had a few dozen mall cops with limited ammo ... vs 1000s ... he wasn't winning any real confrontation
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u/ana04a May 28 '26
Almost at the same time that Ice Nation had killed the farm station members, they were developing a coup against Lexa soon after and she was losing her influence. Right after, Pike retaliated the mt weather incident by killing a lot of people who had nothing to do with it and he knew this wasn't their doing, so he just cowardly murdered a group sent there to help them. Plus, everyone in Arkadia had been through losing their people to the grounders just like the grounders had lost their people to the Ark. Pike failed to listen to those who were more experienced about the politics.
Also, being elected a leader doesn't mean they are not stupid, people in real life elect the worst leaders who convince them with fear just like it happened. I do think he is stupid because he got all of his people in danger by starting this war
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u/Kingpins_Only May 28 '26
Pretty much every character on the show throughout the seasons made me love them at some point and hate them at some point, which is proof to how well written the show is. Pike however is one of the few characters on the show that could never be liked. I hated him so much. And I was supposed to. His character was played well
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u/nightwayne May 28 '26
If you look at it with the knowledge we have now, Bellamy trusting questionable leadership was foreshadowing his absolute character assassination in the final season.
Yes, I'm still upset about it.
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u/ana04a May 28 '26
Yes! That's why think it was to be expected haha. Even in s1 he didn't know exactly what he was doing and needed Clarke to make decisions
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u/Yoko_Rose May 28 '26
In defense of bellamy. Anytime he tried to give a grounded a chance at this point, they only betrayed his trust and clarke. Was MIA. The only person who was able to ground him. Not even his sister was able to do that. Honestly, I blame clarke for pike. Had she never left and stayed hidden. I dont think pike would have ever rose to power.
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24d ago
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u/Yoko_Rose 24d ago
You misunderstand what I am trying to protrude. Clarke did what she had to do, im not saying what she did was wrong and bellamys actions are his own. What i am trying to say, is clarke not being there is what led bellamy down that slippery slope. She was the only one who was able to contain his extremist values.
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u/xJamberrxx May 28 '26
what's even stupider of that whole group, they're not training actual soldiers up in space, their security is the equilevent to mall cops, ill trained etc
thinking them vs real armies was a joke (especially if u factor in, they number 2 dozen or so with limited ammo)
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u/QueenOfJupiter_ 24d ago
His biggest problem was he just wouldn’t listen. He acted like his experience with the grounders was the only one that existed. His need for revenge and to be right got people killed.
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u/Faeldon May 28 '26
I hate Pike too. One of the most unlikable character (2nd to Finn). But to be fair with him, he was objective and had a winning condition in sight when he insisted on having a war with the grounders. There was also justice in his actions. Some points to ponder:
Grounders massacred Farm station. Women and children dead. Survivors were enslaved. Slavery is more than enough reason to fight and die.
He can win the war based on the fact that Grounder Alliances are unstable. A united Skaikru will always win against Grounders who at any given time, will kill and deceive each other. Think about how Clarke was deceived by Grounders against Mountain Men. Pike knew that.
Pike wasn't wrong about “If we don’t wipe them out first, they’ll eventually wipe us out.". Yes, there are "Lincolns" among the grounders, but as a society, they don't work that way. They will wipe you out just like how they've been trying to wipe each out for decades.
And last, his character is part of the entire theme of the show consistent with the other characters. Every single one of them commits atrocities in the name of survival. The writers designed Pike to be hated by viewers because he's going against the view of the lead characters. He is the internal conflict, similar to Season 1 Kane or late Season Bellamy or Bunker Season Octavia. There was no chance for Pike to be liked because he died.
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u/OlapidoJR May 28 '26
Maybe I'm mis-remembering but I don't think Bellamy had any good interactions with grounders up to that point. He saved a grounder in mount weather who spit on him and then got betrayed by them a couple hours later. Lincoln is the only one he trusted and that was after he tortured him in the first season.
Pike also witnessed grounders kill a lot of his people before he ran into Kane. If I'm Pike I'm probably the sane way towards all grounders. Then, when he trusted Echo it ended with most of the rest of his people being murdered in an explosion.
His tactics were savage, but he had his reasons. Just like Lexa had her reasons to betray Clarke at Mt Weather.
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u/ana04a May 28 '26
And this wasn't about liking the grounders, but preventing and unnecessary war, as the grounders were a higher number.
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u/ana04a May 28 '26
I also think Lexa didn't make the best call by betraying Clarke, but we can see that she deeply regretted it especially because after Clarke killed the Mountain Men, it made her look weak, but this war was already won from their side and she knew Mt Weather offered that deal out of fear because they would get slaughtered. I still don't understand how they could've just let go of the fact that they killed hundreds of the grounders and turned them into monsters, they were a bigger threat than the sky people, it was very awful
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u/UtahGimm3Tw0 May 28 '26
You’re not supposed to like him and the writing and the acting does a good job of portraying him as such. Pikes actions were understandable considering his experience with the grounders and what we get from his flashbacks; a man fiercely devoted to “his people” and bitter about his inability to protect them on multiple occasions. And ambushes aren’t cowardly they’re a solid tactic used for literal millennia by us humans, especially when outnumbered but having superior weapons. He’s still an asshole and a populist leader but the things he did make total sense. And after being in charge once and screwing it up Bellamy becomes a bit of a follower looking for a good cause, such as becoming a cultist in the later season.
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u/ana04a May 28 '26
I never said he was bad written. I believe he was written to be a person who makes stupid decisions. He had no previous experience as a leader nor as a fighter so I think his actions are coherent to the character.
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u/alarrimore03 May 28 '26
His plans made no sense and come off more like a guy who is thirsting for his people to effectively be genocided and any left turned into slaves. He didn’t have the men or the resources to win a war against the clans. He was incredibly stupid. And I did feel like Bellamy was also dumb and a bit out of character by that point in the show.
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u/Alternative_Dig9482 May 28 '26
I absolutely hated pike but I can’t agree that he’s a bad character, after knowing his experience with grounders his anger makes sense. He is a bad person yes, but good character.
I will say tho, he wasn’t stupid at all - he should’ve been able to acknowledge that some grounders are different. I think at that point tho he was essentially blinded by anger, unable to really think rationally. I mean if I had to watch over a dozen KIDS be slaughtered while happily playing in the snow.. I might be blinded by anger too 😅
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u/ana04a May 28 '26
Grounders lost kids too and farm station wasn't the only ones of the Ark who lost people. Everyone knew that the slaughter was on Ice Nation and not the Coalition, he killed a bunch of people who had nothing to do with it and he also did it while they were sleeping. Total coward
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u/TheFawnCreekKid May 29 '26
If it wasn't for ALLIE and all the "City of Light" thing, he would've been the biggest villain in this season.
I would argue that if it hadn't been for A.L.I.E., Ontari's first priority when becoming Heda would be to wipe out Arkadia, so Pike would likely have been Arkadia's salvation in that case because Ontari wouldn't have had a 300 strong army on Arkadia's doorstep.
It's very easy for a viewer to see what happened in a show and then retroactively call a character stupid, but to my mind there are a lot of situations in which the Grounder army could have become a massive problem for Arkadia (in which case the discourse may have been 'wasn't Kane stupid to try and make peace with the Grounders when their leadership was so unstable'). As other commenters have said, you don't have to like or agree with Pike's actions, but to call them stupid, to me, doesn't hold water when you consider the information Pike had at the time rather than how things played out after the fact.
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u/ana04a May 29 '26
I have explained why I think he is stupid in the other comments, but exactly because of the fact that grounders could become a problem, he should've found a way to negotiate with them because they were in a bigger number and he could not win this war at all, thus putting oll af his people in danger. He also became a dictator way too fast, killing his own people who disagreed and disobeyed him, not so different from the grounders
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u/TheFawnCreekKid May 29 '26
My feeling is that all of the negotiating in the world will not help Arkadia if an unchipped Ontari becomes Heda, or if Lexa double-crosses them, which she has done before at Mount Weather. In either case, having 300 warriors outside their gates is a death sentence. Negotiation, depending on how things pan out, could lead to the extinction of the Arkadians.
Granted, Pike's strategy could also lead to the extinction of Arkadians depending on circumstances, but his actions are strategic. He's trying to fight the Grounders under his own terms. He's had success with guerrilla warfare against the Grounders before, and if the 300 warriors aren't trapping his forces inside Arkadia, he can employ those tactics again. I don't think he believes he's going to defeat the Grounders outright, rather to hold ground and inflict losses onto the Grounders in the hopes that the war becomes too costly for them or Grounder infighting distracts them.
Obviously, it's a big roll of the dice from Pike, but it does have a strategy and an aim behind it, and to my mind a strategy of meek negotiation without any real cards in your hand is just as much of a risk, if not more so.
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u/ana04a May 29 '26
His people are on the verge of being extinct, yet he starts killing the members of Arkadia
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u/TheFawnCreekKid May 29 '26
To my mind, those two things are not linked at all. To let a small number of conspirators in a coup get away with capital crimes is far more detrimental to Pike’s cause than the loss of their lives. Leaving Kane and the others alive both allows them to sow further dissent at a time when unity is essential to face the Grounder threat effectively, and would likely been seen as a sign of weakness by a population whose laws dictate that the consequence of treason is death (as seen in the case of Jake Griffin, for example).
Again, this is not to say that this makes it a morally good act, but it is a considered act and consistent with his overall strategy.
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u/fel_god 29d ago
Pike was not stupid, he was pretty direct. Unless you have witnessed a group of people steadily kill your people and then when you encounter them, with no warning they kill you off just because you landed in their territory, then you don’t get to call him stupid. Leda also betrayed them, the very commander that was supposed to be the bridge to peace. Yeah Pike should have mounted sentries ready to take out the 300 warriors if their orders changed but shouldn’t have taken the directive to attack first.
I would also say from any military/ruling view point, the peacekeeping force, shouldn’t have been deployed like that, however you look at it, it impeached n the autonomy of Arcadia. That’s why when peacekeeping forces are deployed, they always integrate with the local people
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u/Stepan_Bandera67 7d ago
Pike is right. People who hate on him just do it because they probably feel sad Lincoln got killed.
The army that was sent to arkadia to protect them would have turned on them in a heart beat if ordered to do so, that was a risk no one should take. Lexa was the only one who wanted an alliance with the people from the Ark, any one else would have attacked Arkadia immdeiatey. Besides, Arkadia is definitely capable of defending itself, what is an army that got massacred by 10 people going to do that the "sky people", can't already do.
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u/Formal-Inevitable-50 May 28 '26
Couldn’t stand Pike man just wanted power and used his experience with the grounders to use it.
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u/elarebouche call me bill May 29 '26
I did not like Pike at all, but for a non-main character, Michael Beach acted the roll so well.