Problematic Faves + The 100

Spoiler warning for season three of The 100!

Don't say I didn't warn you.

So I just watched Kat Blaque’s "AZEALIA BANKS + PROBLEMATIC FAVES" video and it made me want to talk about one of my problematic faves, The 100.

In you need a refresher or simply didn’t know, in episode 307 of The 100, after all of this queer baiting, Lexa is killed by a stray bullet right after getting together with Clarke for the first time. Like, right after.

And people were upset and angry. I was, and still am, upset and angry. They bought right into the Bury Your Gays trope.

They screwed up. Understandably, some people were upset enough that they decided to stop watching, as well as due to some more shit that went down in some of the following episodes as well.

Which is fine. You’re totally in your right to not want to watch a show.

I, however, did not stop watching it. Though I agree that it’s problematic, I still find it entertaining. I still want to know what happens. I’m still invested in some of the characters.

I can continue to consume the show while at the same time remain critical of it.

And yet I feel really uncomfortable saying that because now the show has a pretty significant group of haters who seem to want everyone to boycott it, for it to be cancelled, and for everyone to hate on it together.

But if I boycotted every show that I found problematic, the only thing I could watch would be Steven Universe, which is totally awesome, but kind of limiting.

Let me be clear, I’m not trying to defend The 100 or the people who make it. I think they screwed up. I think they’ve made mistakes. I think they’ve done things that are very "problematic".

But I still like certain things about the show. I still want to watch it, and that’s okay.

As Kat Blaque says in her video, just because someone watches “Ghost in the Shell” doesn’t mean they necessarily support white washing, but that “we should be aware of the oppressive nature of white washing”.

Just because I watch The 100, doesn’t mean I support queer baiting and the Bury Your Gays trope, though I am aware of how these things are oppressive.

Most, if not all, media is problematic, and we should absolutely criticize it and expect it to get better, but this stuff is very complex. Just blanketing a piece of media as purely “bad” and as something we should all hate kind of oversimplifies things and tends to lead to angry mobs, which aren’t always the most productive.

If you’re somebody who stopped watching The 100, I totally respect that. That is up to you, my friend. But please don’t go around telling me that I have to stop watching it, enjoying it, or otherwise finding it entertaining because I’m not done with it yet. Maybe I will be in the future, but for now I’m still riding that train, and I’m not afraid to admit it.

So, let me know, do you still watch The 100? Is it one of your problematic faves? How do you feel about people's reactions to the show as of late?