Psychological Breakdown of Octavia Blake from 'The 100'

Octavia Blake is an intriguing character from The 100 who has gone through many challenges throughout her lifetime. Octavia was forced to stay in her room most of the time due to the fact she was a second child, and due to population control a second child couldn’t exist. When she was nine she was taken to one of the balls with her brother, Bellamy, and they had fun. Something happened in the middle of it and they put the room on lock down. This is when they took her ID and found out the family's secret. Her mother was floated, and Octavia was placed in the prison for existing. She was there till they sent her and 100 prisoners to the ground. There she made friends and became the link between them and the grounders. The grounders are other people who lived on the ground throughout. This is where she learned to fight among them, from her boyfriend Lincoln. Soon enough in the series she became the leader among a group that reunited all of the grounder nations, and the people from space in a bunker, as a nuclear storm came through. She made the rules and society, that could be compared to Rome where as a punishment for a crime they would have to fight in a gladiator war.

Trait Theory: The Gordon Allport Method—

Octavia Blake has many traits on a first glance. Loyal, rebellious, and determined. These traits named here are some of her most central traits.

She is very loyal. Once she decided her side she never betrayed it. Her brother, and Lincoln would be a great example throughout the first few seasons. Her boyfriend, Lincoln, she stood beside till his death, and even after his death she continued to try and get his motives done. Her brother, Bellamy, she protected. The two siblings have had their arguments, but even when they were at their lowest points, she still protected her brother. In one of the episodes after she had taken over, she stepped out from the rock and began shooting at them in order to give her brother a chance to live. Another way she showed Loyalty was through her best friend Indra. After becoming Indra’s ‘second in command’ she had not stepped away from Indra’s side. She had protected her, helped her. Indra had told Octavia to leave her as she was injured, but Octavia stubbornly refused, and took her to get medical help.

Octavia is not one to follow rules much. She is very rebellious and hates being told what to do. She does not listen and proved it through the first season. She took hold of the sense of freedom, and used it to do everything she knew she shouldn’t be. Her brother, Bellamy, was trying to stop her desperately, even getting his friend to watch her. Instead, she rebelled more. She decided that she wasn’t going to follow his rules. She went on the hike with Clarke, partied, and flirted with a few guys just to get on his nerves because he got on hers.

She is determined, and never backs down on something she believed in. Not even in a fight. After she was thrown down to the ground, she got right back up to her feet ready to go again. One of her signature quotes was, “Get knocked down, you get back up.” She followed it very much too. When she was first becoming the ruler, not everyone agreed with her. Her response eventually was to fight back, and she did. She stood in front of the crowd of those who did not support her reign shouting, “You are either one crew, or the enemy of one crew.” And as each one who opposed attacked, she fought them twice as hard.

One of her secondary traits would be her curiosity. I would say this because whether or not she is acting a certain way, she has the wanting to know more about subjects. She has the urge to go explore things, and take in the wonder and the beauty of it all. It's shown when she sees a butterfly for the first time. She goes over to it and tries to follow it to find more of them flying around. She also does crazy things first. This makes her a bit impulsive, but the impulsiveness of a lot of her actions is motivated by the curiosity behind it. On their way on the hike they come across water. She goes and jumps in, and is the only one in the group to even think to do so.

Another one of her secondary traits would be lost. Octavia doesn’t show this much directly, but her consistency to reply with “I’m not afraid.” and other denial quotes tends to show this over and over again. Along with a lot of her actions. She refused to be considered what her government considers her, because of the fact she hates them due to what they did to her. Nor does she really consider herself a grounder since she wasn’t born one. She is also not completely accepted into their cultures and such. Her leading the colony is one of the main ways that the fact that she is lost in some ways comes to the surface. The advice she seeks from the others on how she should run the place. And how by the end of the time they were under the bunker, how all of her motives were switched up in a way where they did not match the person who she once was.

Octavia Blake has always wanted control in a way, and this would be her cardinal trait. She has always wanted control one way or another, though it hasn’t always been control of the government. She wanted control of her life. She wanted to not be hidden, to be able to live free. She felt as though she never had control of her past. She was stuck in the mindset of the external locus of control. Becoming a warrior, Indra’s second in command, also known as apprentice gave her this ability. Along with this, it quickly became Octavia’s weakness. She was pushed into a position for power, making one crew. She didn’t want to be ruler at first, but she quickly became used to it. She came to enjoy it, and with that she didn’t want to give it up. The control over others gave her the feeling of justice she praised for.

Psychoanalytical/ Psychodynamic—

Octavia acts mostly under the id, especially towards the end. She ends up doing things such as killing those who escape to keep her ruler ship in the end, making her this way. In the beginning she wasn’t completely this, but still had that average act of doing what she wanted with disregard of what others thought about it.

Freud's theory of personality also refers to repression, a form of dealing with anxiety-arousing thoughts. Octavia’s version of this changes throughout the seasons. In season one the main one she used would be the reaction formation. This would be because she did what she wanted without thinking. She avoided a lot of the problems that she was facing. As she began to turn into a form of denial. The denial was what the grounders told her to feel, and to stay strong. Soon after when she mixed that with rationalization as she became leader. She began to convince herself she did what she had to killing those people who defied her. She convinced herself that having a gladiator war was the best way to deal with crime. She convinced herself that starting a war that would end up killing all of her people was better than communicated.

Octavia played a good portion of the real her in the beginning. She showed herself out to be a fun, outgoing, caring person. She was always down for an adventure, along with having a slight anger issue. She hid a lot of her feelings beneath and soon the outgoing energy she used to compel outwards began to dissipate. This was replaced by a shield of anger she got out through fighting. She also as the series went on she showed more maturity and stress. She also showed a tough side to everyone around her. The only two people she let see her not as tough was Indra and Lincoln.

In terms of Jungian Archetypes Octavia would fall under a shapeshifter. Even though she could have been considered a maiden when she was kidnapped by Lincoln since Lincoln ‘loved’ her. Her brother had tried and fight to get her back, not realizing that Octavia had eventually became in love with him to (stockholm syndrome). From here though, the plot took a 180 turn to having Octavia not side with either the grounders of the ‘sky people’. She had become neutral, and then eventually turned evil to even her own people. Even though this she was never just a villain, nor could she be considered any type of hero. She had saved a few life spans, such as Finns, but she did not always have that heart.

Humanistic—

Maslow had a theory of self-actualizing that had many components. These would include the self-actualization, esteem, love and belonging, safety and the physiological. The physiological referred to the process of breathing, and basic survival needs. Octavia’s safety concept was more of under the Lincoln and her brother. Those were the places that she felt the safest. She felt the least safe under the government and anywhere near it. This is also the love and belonging that she got.She also when she was younger played games with her brother in her room giving her a place of acceptance. Octavia is very confident in what she does. She has little thought of what she does, and little regret of her actions. She has very secure self esteem. She does lack a bit of empathy for others, as in understanding their circumstances. Octavia’s self-actualization system is interesting. She has answers that are between the lines of what one might usually think of. Even though this she is not open to many other solutions but her own.