Why The 100 prequel is the show we need after CoVid-19
The moral case for why The 100 prequel is something we need.
Many people have likened the current CoVid-19 pandemic situation to an apocalyptic scenario. There's a lot of hyperbole in that but it also provides us with an opportunity to explore the idea of what kind of society we want to live in afterwards. For that, The 100 and it's upcoming potential spinoff might be just the thing we all need.
Created by Jason Rothenberg based on a book proposal (at the time, there are 4 books now) by Kass Morgan, The 100 premiered in 2014, six years after the financial crisis of 2008 and during a surge in post-apocalyptic and dystopian fiction. That made it the perfect story for a post crisis recovery. Now with the show recently ended with its 7th season this year, we're dealing with a new crisis in CoVid-19 and the lockdowns happening around the world. A prequel about the time right after the nuclear fallout of the end of civilization as we know it seems perfect.
What's great about The 100 universe is the way in which it deals with the questions we're all going to have to ask ourselves. Such as, how do we rebuild society after a terrible event? What are the rules that we should have? Should we have any rules at all? Who decides what rules we should all follow?
These are all central to the story of The 100 and the best part is that it doesn't give you any easy answers. What initially appears to be a clear dividing line where good guys and bad guys are obvious quickly devolves into a question of who is actually the one in the right. Once you come to understand the motivations of the people who appear to be the villains (The Grounders, Mount Weather, Allie and Pike, etc.), you can't help but sympathize with them even if you still disagree with their methods.
Even the main characters like Clarke (Eliza Taylor), Bellamy (Bob Morley), Abby (Paige Turco) and Raven (Lindsey Morgan) who appear to be the good guys end up making decisions that force you to consider whether or not they're really all that good. At one point the main characters even begin to wonder if there's anyone who can claim to be the "good guys".
"Maybe there are no more good guys." suggests one of them at one point.
The 100 begins in a world in which absolute order is enforced under the strictest guidelines. On The Ark Space Station, where the last of humanity has been holding on by a thread for 97 years since nuclear war wiped out humanity, even trying to save someone you love can get you and the ones you love killed. The main characters, 100 teenage criminals (which is where the show's title comes from) are then thrust into a world without rules and the characters literally start shouting that they can do "Whatever the hell we want!".
There's even multiple seasons which asks, what does surviving a lockdown look like? Both of which could be explored in depth during the prequel.
In the aftermath of CoVid-19, it might be time to revisit this idea and it appears that the currently untitled prequel is the perfect vessel for an exploration like that. The character descriptions make it seem like that's exactly where they're going. Each of them appears to be dealing with what you do when your whole life is turned upside down.
Essentially, the character descriptions suggest what we're dealing with is a group of activists who were working to save the world thrust into living in a world where everything they'd worked for has been utterly and irreparably changed. With so much change happening every day in the real world, it's going to be something a lot of people will be able to identify with.
Having seen the backdoor pilot, Calliope has a lot of potential as the main character. Given her father's role in causing division within her own family, not to mention the fracturing of the last of humanity, and the many dangers rebuilding society can entail, some of which we learned about in The 100 itself, the story can really go places. When you have nothing, what do you value most? How much of yourself do you dedicate to rebuilding society? Can you still have things like love, hope, and loyalty?
We know how it turns out because of how The 100 begins and the things which were revealed in the original show. But what would cause it to come about that way is the much more interesting question. The original show tells you why the world ended, but not how it rebuilt itself. Obviously, the end of the world is an inherently unifying event. People come together in response to a crisis. That much is clear from the initial response to CoVid-19 and it's a major part of the backdoor pilot, not to mention The 100 itself.
Like with CoVid though, it's important to understand that this doesn't solve everyone's problems. Conflict is still a thing and people don't just forget what happened in the past, no matter how much we might think it best for people to do so. What happens when the shock of the initial crisis wears off has to be considered. Eventually the old problems come back and you have to find a way to deal with them. The world isn't the same as it was before though. Old ways of solving them no longer seem sufficient given everything. So what do you do?
You have to build new ones. However, just because you commit to doing things better doesn't mean it will actually work out that way. The new way of doing things might end up causing more problems than they were meant to solve. But you can't know that until you try it. And if you do try them and they don't work out, you could end up not being able to fix it.
That was the central idea A.L.L.I.E. was working from when she enacted her plan. Living with the consequences of that type of thinking was a central idea behind the original series. Now the question is how do you move beyond that? When you understand the consequences of what you're doing, how do you stop people from making the same mistakes? Is it even possible to avoid them?
Once the consequences are over, you have to be able to move forward. To begin again and let the anger and suffering those consequences brought upon you go. Forgiveness has to be a part of that. Otherwise you just end up suffering more and more. The cycle of violence continues. Calliope's character is the perfect vessel for exploring what that means.
There's a lot that we can learn from The 100 itself, but the show was created in response to a different crisis in society. One of the biggest lessons of The 100 is that humanity often makes the same mistakes of the past despite different circumstances. What we need is a different story for a different crisis to teach us the same lessons and maybe find new solutions to old problems.
One can only hope that Rothenberg gets the chance now that the final season made its bow. But until then, I offer this advice from the show:
"First we survive, then we figure out how to get our humanity back."
The 100's complete series is available on Netflix in most areas. The backdoor pilot for the untitled prequel series is episode 8 of the final season.
If you want to see a nuanced and well thought out understanding of how the world can work, make sure to voice your opinion about seeing the prequel come to life by watching the original series.
At some point I want to do a bigger deep dive into The 100 and its individual seasons.