Luna From The 100: Who Played Her? What was Her Part? What Happened to her?

The greatest warrior in The 100 universe is not Lexa or Octavia, let alone Clarke; it is Luna, leader of the pacifist Boat People. Portrayed by German actress Nadia Hilker, the character Luna from The 100 doesn’t have much impact on the story. She spends most of her life hiding from the world and her death makes almost no difference. It does sound harsh, but it’s true.

Luna is a Nightblood, which means she is a descendant of a genetically-modified ancestor with the ability to stay immune to solar and nuclear radiation. However, her people do not share the same trait.

Luna From The 100 Appearances

First mentioned in Season 1 Episode 10 “I Am Become Death” by Lincoln during a conversation with Octavia. Luna will not make her first appearance until Season 3 Episode 13 “Join or Die” when Clarke, Bellamy, Octavia, and Jasper finally find her, or rather she finds them.

After Lexa’s death and Titus hands the Flame over to Clarke, there have been talks about finding Luna. After all, she is the only person worthy of the Flame and therefore the title of Commander. It is a tradition that only a Nightblood can be a leader of the Grounders. The search only starts in Season 3 Episode 12 after Octavia discovers sketches of Luna and a map of her location in Lincoln’s book.

There is actually another Nightblood, Ontari, the former bodyguard of Queen Nia. But she has never actually defeated other Nightbloods in a conclave; after Lexa’s death, she kills all other Nightblood children in training to declare herself the Commander. Let us not forget that she has fallen under A.L.I.E.’s mind control too.

Following the direction from the book, the small team of four arrive at a rocky place where they end up being drugged by mysterious people and taken to an oil rig. It turns out they were captured by the Boat People, under Luna’s command. Clarke wakes up in a container and meets with Luna for the first time.

The Boat People live on an oil rig, in an attempt to stay away from all the conflicts in the world. Luna was born Nightblood, and as such she was taken as a child to Polis for the purpose of honing her skills to be a future Commander. During the Conclave that Lexa won, Luna was supposed to be part of the battle but she fled the scene. The main purpose of the search for Luna is to give her the Flame, or the A.L.I.E. 2.0. chip previously implanted in the back of Lexa’s neck. Now that Lexa is dead, Luna is the world’s best chance at defeating the first-generation A.L.I.E.

Personality

Luna was not born a Floukru or Boat People. As a matter of fact, the Floukru is a clan of her invention with the purpose of providing a safe place for anybody who despises all the fighting and violence in the world. It is a pacifist clan among all the aggressive ones in the Grounders’ society. Unlike most Grounders and Nightbloods, Luna never seeks to establish power and dominance. She stays away from “civilization” and leads a peaceful life on an oil rig in a location unknown to anybody outside the clan, except a few.

When Luna fled the Conclave, she made a point of wanting to abandon the constant fight-for-survival life and chose a pacifistic way instead. Before she ran away, however, she had killed her brother in a duel; an incident which might shape her view toward being a Commander. The Boat People welcome anybody who has had enough of violent conflict, including orphans of war seeking refuge.

Despite the quiet non-warrior life, Luna can still fight and defend her people when necessary. For example, when some men under the control of A.L.I.E. tried to take over the clan, she killed them all. Luna once said that she would have defeated Lexa in the Conclave had she not fled the scene.

Declining the Offer

Clarke comes to Luna to make the offer of a lifetime. She brings the Flame and wants to hand it over to Luna, making her Commander of the twelve Grounder clans. Assuming she accepts the offer, Luna can theoretically lead the Grounders into an entirely new era of peace, among the clans themselves and outsiders including the Sky People. Bear in mind the offer comes to Luna long after the downfall of Mountain Men. A strong alliance with Clarke can be the beginning of a better life for everyone. The catch is that before it happens, Luna has to be willing to tap into her warrior side and fight against A.L.I.E. In the end, Luna declines the offer and sends Clarke—along with her companions—back to shore.

Final Violence

During the time between her last appearance in Season 3 and the on-screen comeback in Season 4, all her people on the oil rig died of radiation poisoning. She arrives at Arkadia with Adria, but the little girl succumbs to radiation; by the end of Season 4 Episode 3, Luna is the only Boat Person alive. She eventually resorts to violence again during the Final Conclave only to get killed by Octavia.

It is possible that Luna is not actually trying to run away from the world of violence but from her violent past. While she practically claims to be a pacifist, she can easily flip the coin and go back to being a fearsome warrior when the circumstances force her to confront a threat. That said, her complete transformation from a peaceful warrior into a rogue maniac in Season 4 seems a tad bit too fast. Luna is possibly an untapped potential for the show, but then again, the series is rarely, if ever, predictable.

What do you think of Luna from The 100? Do you think she deserves a longer arc or is her death indeed necessary to push the plot forward? Let us know. We’d love to hear from you.

Other things you might want to know:

What is Nadia Hilker up to now?

As of 2023, a sizable portion of Hilker’s acting career is filled with appearances in German TV shows and films. She made her acting debut in 2010 in a TV movie titled “Zimmer mit Tante” as Marie-Luise Seelig. Hilker portrays Nita in the 2016 American film The Divergent Series: Allegiant. After her days in The 100, she joined the cast of The Walking Dead as Magna and appeared in the episode The Twilight Zone Season 2 Episode 6.

In what episodes does Luna appear in The 100?

Luna appears in 7 episodes throughout Seasons 3 and 4 in the following episodes:

S3 E13 – Join or Die
S3 E14 – Red Sky at Morning
S4 E3 – The Four Horsemen
S4 E4 – A Lie Guarded
S4 E6 – We Will Rise
S4 E8 – God Complex
S4 E10 – Die All, Die Merrily

In The Walking Dead series, is Hilker part of the main cast?

Hilker, as Magna, is a recurring role in Seasons 9 to 11, appearing in a total of 30 episodes. In the first episode of the eleventh season, Magna appears but she has no line.

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