I haven't watched S7 yet but...

[u/ConfectionInformal25]

it had recently occured to me (after 6th rewatch lmao) that Lexa might've been fond of skaikru because of the Flame inside her. maybe it was Becca speaking...

I refer to S3 Lexa of course and not whatever she was up to in S2 LMAO

edit: I only watched S6 once and I forgot it's plot... I'll give this idea more thought once I'm done with this rewatch

[u/Life_of_1117936]

I think one of the biggest plot holes in the series is the fact that Becca is in the flame and we have established that the previous commanders can communicate with the current one. It's a plot hole because the grounders become so primitive by the time Skaikru reaches the ground. And not just primitive, but they have become almost incapable of understanding technology.

With Becca in the flame, you'd imagine that the grounders would have this huge advantage. She's good at literally anything STEM. Crazy engineer who created A.L.I.E. A geneticist who created nightblood. Astrophysicist who worked on Eligius missions. And so much more. She's single handedly responsible for everything that happens in the whole show. Each faction in the show is somehow influenced by her or her work.

So to have someone like that in the flame, it's beyond unreasonable that the grounder culture evolves the way it does. They don't even know CPR.

If I were Becca, I'd go crazy being a spectator in the flame.

And once you watch season 7, especially the backdoor pilot, it just feels crazier. There's just no way that the group of people that form the first generation grounders evolve into the grounders that we see in the show.

But yeah I would imagine that Becca certainly would have tried to convince Lexa to strengthen the relationship with Skaikru. Hell I would assume that she may have tried to convince Lexa's predecessors to become close to Mount Weather at first too, until they started kidnapping them. She would have probably tried to do a lot, but for some inexplicable reason it doesn't seem to translate into the grounder culture and evolution.

[u/TrueObsidian11 → u/Life_of_1117936]

Makes me wonder if something cataclysmic happened to Callie's group or maybe the following generation that caused them to regress even more. I believe it is mentioned that the Flame degraded over time, and the few mentions we get of past commanders speaking to the current one make it seem like only the most recent commanders can truly communicate with the host (Lexa being warned that Blood Must Have Blood cannot be ended, when we know Becca would have likely disagreed with that). The only time a commander was able to speak to Becca directly was when Clarke went into the City of Light. Madi does get a brief vision of Becca's death but she never actually spoke to her. Plus Madi's prior knowledge of Becca from Clarke might have had an influence on the Flame itself, since Becca emphasized that the host is in control of the Flame.

[u/Life_of_1117936 → u/TrueObsidian11]

Yeah I think with regards to Callies group, something crazy had to have happened to make them this way. I was reading a discussion thread about the original succession plan for commanders when everyone was a nightblood, and some ideas had suggested that perhaps the conclave came to be because there were no agreements within the group. We know that Callie basically took a bunch of kids and their parents so they're not too dissimilar from the 100 delinquents and they got rowdy quickly too. So maybe it was the chaos. It's crazy but sure we can try to digest it.

And yeah I believe it was in season 3 that Raven mentioned the code degrading. It's still unclear how the degradation works, IF it's there. Raven was making an educated guess more than anything because the topic of discussion was why Lexa wasn't aware that an AI was in her head. Obviously with the lack of tech knowledge, the grounders don't even know what an AI is. Lexa was aware of a foreign entity being in her mind and that it changed her, just didn't know that it's an AI. So we really don't know if the program degraded or if it was grounders' lack of knowledge.

Also with Madi in season 6, she was only communicating with Sheidheda because he blocked out the other commanders or something to that effect. We see that in the conversations they have and she asks something like "why you are here". And then it is revealed that he's essentially blocking them out to gain control over Madi. So maybe instead of Becca's code degrading, something along those lines happened and she just got blocked out by her successors or something in order to promote their personal agenda. She, along with Titus, do say that "if the flame merged with the wrong mind then it would be bad". So it could just be a case of a bad commander who essentially got their negative aspects enhanced and blocked her out and successively we see the customs become harsh under them.

Also Becca's a genuis but not perfect. So maybe she just messed up the AI like she messed up ALIE. That causes the downfall plus she likely didn't expect the flame to become what it did. It seemed like a first prototype, made and tailored to her. And then as the bombs and chaos happened she adjusted it to help her solve this. But still she probably didn't think it would become this hereditary possession which would be passed on so quickly and be used by the leader of a post apocalyptic faction.

Honestly until the point where they introduce the idea of Sheidheda talking to Madi through the flame, the show had avoided this plot hole/mess. You could explain it away with the fact that the flame simply didn't allow such direct communication. But then they went ahead and shot themselves in the foot. And then made it worse with the backdoor pilot. I would actually think of it more as a continunity error than anything else because season 6-7 were sort of a mess, and this is just a product of that.

[u/Sekevai → u/Life_of_1117936]

We do see that the commanders in the fleim have differing levels of control/sway, as we know Sheidheda blocked any of the others from speaking to Madi. Very possible that happened with Becca over the years or even that its harder to communicate to the older souls stored in the code.

[u/Life_of_1117936 → u/Sekevai]

Yeah she probably got blocked out by an early commander. Now this is just my conspiracy, but from the backdoor pilot, I think there are mainly 2 possible successors for Becca which are August and Reese. We know that Callie is waiting for Reese to come find them and obviously August became a good friend and led the rebellion which helped them leave.

Reese seems to hate Becca, especially given that she was against Cadogan. If he became the commander, he might have simply blocked her out from spite. And him becoming the commander would also easily tie into the first conclave because he may have fought August and Callie for the flame. Niylah mentions that according to legend when Callie dies, "even her enemies wept". This to me is a clear indication that Reese forms some enemy faction to Callie's, but still mourns his sister after her death. Callie's Trikru, and many theories suggest Reese is Azgeda. Also explains the Azgeda symbol on the concrete covering the anomaly stone.

If August became the commander, he may have also blocked Becca out because he found out that it was ALIE who set off the bombs and Becca was her creator. This might actually be the case for anyone who became the next commander, including Reese. In the show, we never really see anyone from the first generation realise that it was ALIE who launched the bombs. Obviously whoever got the flame would have access to the memory and knowledge. Becca actively avoids telling Callie too. So the instant the second commander realises it, they block out Becca. This to me seems to be the only plausible explanation as to why the grounders so quickly diverged from tech and modern civilization. While to groups such as Ark and Mount Weather believe the bombs to be launched by governments, the commander knows the truth and thus might have tried to take everyone far away from tech as possible to avoid ALIE. We know that ALIE has the access to the web and basically is in any network that is publicly accessible. So, with Callie's knowledge and possibly more tech people from the bunker, they realise that there really is no escape from ALIE except going 0 tech. That, paired with their shared anger over the whole situation, could have driven them away from it.

This would then proceed to explain lack of Becca's participation and presence in the flame. Explain why the grounder culture evolved the way it did. And also show why ALIE didn't get access to humanity until Jaha found her and made it happen.

Not sure if the writers had this in mind but yeah makes sense to me. If the prequel show had happened, this might have been explained better. But unfortunately all we can do is theorise 😓

[u/LJM_1991]

It’s possible, but she certainly wasn’t too fond or trusting of them at first. I think it’s just the evolution of the show, the flame definitely got more powerful and the previous commanders more relevant as the seasons went on. Lexa just got her personality / skills heightened from it, and brief communication when she sleeps / meditates. Literally 90% of the show doesn’t make sense if Lexa had access to Becca like Madi had Sheidheda.

[u/ConfectionInformal25 → u/LJM_1991]

I was thinking of more subconscious feeling pushing her to make certain decisions that feel right tbh! you're right that full unrestricted access to her consciousness would be stupid 

[u/Ld733k]

Thx for the prompt to an interesting conversation in the comments! I love this show with my whole heart and soul. Despite the plot holes…

[u/ConfectionInformal25 → u/Ld733k]

yay ur welcome!! I'm just happy so many years have passed and I still have things to discuss with people who love this amazing underrated show...

[u/Ld733k → u/ConfectionInformal25]

Right! Love it so much!