Elyza Lex

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Character
Name: Elyza Lex
Occupation:
Relationships: Alicia Clark (significant other)
Fandom: Fear the Walking Dead, The 100, Clexa
Other: Fanmade character, often understood to be a reincarnation of Clarke Griffin (The 100)
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Elyza Lex is a fanon character created by Clexa (Clarke/Lexa) shippers after one character in their ship, Lexa, was killed in the third season of The 100. The actress who played Lexa, Alycia Debnam-Carey, appears on another show, Fear the Walking Dead, where she plays Alicia Clark. Elyza Lex was thus created to be a crossover between the two shows. She is shipped with Alicia Clark and their ship name is Lexark.

Since Elyza is fan-created, her characterization is determined entirely by headcanons.[1][2] Due to her origins in the Clexa fandom, she is often understood to be a reincarnation of Clarke Griffin (retaining Clarke's memories to varying extents) and therefore "played" by the same actress Eliza Taylor, with Alicia Clark similarly being a reincarnation of Lexa.

Some of the most popular characterizations for Elyza include that she is a badass who is adept at slaying walkers (zombies in The Walking Dead universe), wears a leather jacket, uses multiple guns as weapons, is Australian, is gay rather than bisexual (Clarke is bisexual), has tattoos (often relating to Clarke or Lexa's character on The 100), is immune to walker bites. She is often personified as being sarcastic, proud and open about being gay, reckless when fighting walkers but protective of Alicia, and aware of how attractive she is.[3][4][5][6][7][8][9]

History

When Alycia Debnam-Carey's character on Fear the Walking Dead was revealed to be named Alicia Clark ahead of the August 23, 2015, premiere, the Clexa fandom began joking that the show should introduce another character named Elyza Lex played by Eliza Taylor, giving her a name that is complementary to Alicia Clark's--Elyza, instead of Eliza (Taylor), Lex, as derived from Lexa.

An example of an early exchange between fans on The L Chat (a lesbian web forum frequented by Clexa fans), dated August 10, 2015:[10]

Guest wrote:

Heda doesn't fuck around :lol:

Maybe he will get a guest role on FTWD as a zombie/infected and Alicia Clarke will get to decapitate him in self defense (for Clarke's honour)

Guest replied:

Oh! And ET can guest as Elyza Lexa, the de facto leader of another group of survivors.

Guest replied:

No girl, it's Elyza Lex. Not Lexa. Like Alicia Clark. Not Clarke

Guest replied:

Ooops thanks anon consider me schooled :$

Now can we please make this happen :pray:

Guest replied:

Yes. They will become the most badass survivors, married by Daryl in Atlanta. Then they'll have two sons, Kent and Luthor.

By February 2016, the idea of "Elyza Lex" had become somewhat of a running gag:

Guest wrote:[11]

Sorry for the OT but Alicia Clark? What? My brain just sprained itself trying to understand that name, that's so weird lol

Guest replied:

Ikr. Tune in to Fear the Walking Dead and catch Eliza Taylor guest starring as Eliza Treecrew on the season 2 premiere.

Guest replied:

?? The equivalent to Alicia Clark would be Elyza Lex.

Guest wrote:[12]

And that's how Alicia Clark meets Elyza Lex (Clarke's secret identity name) in the big fwd/The 100 crossover ep.

Guest wrote:[13]

Can't wait for this FTWD scene with the new lesbian character Elyza Lexa!

Guest replied:

i just spat out my oatmeal

Guest replied:

OP just got the character's name wrong, it's Elyza Lex, we had already stablished this :P

Guest wrote:[14]

Elyza Lex needs to guest star on FTWD. :shifty:

And again in February 27, 2016, as fans were discussing the possibility that Lexa would die on The 100:[15]

Guest wrote:

Only if ADC's char on FTWD is revealed to be a lesbian and then ET is hired as her love interest, Elyza Lex. ONLY then would I be okay with this

Guest replied:

Same!

:rofl: :rofl:

Guest replied:

alicia clark/elyza lex, holy shit :rofl:

Rise in Popularity

Fans only began taking the character of Elyza Lex seriously after the March 3, 2016, airing of season 3 episode 7 of The 100, when there was an overwhelming fandom uproar over the death of Commander Lexa. The popularity of Elyza Lex's character was set in motion by a Tumblr post made the following day that read "Here's hoping that Alicia Clark gets a girlfriend in the future and that that girlfriend is played by Eliza Taylor,"[16] to which another user's responded "and call her Elyza Lex"[17]. This post gained over 5,000 notes and after that, many other people in the fandom jumped on board and began creating headcanons, making fanart, and engaging with The Walking Dead fandom and the Fear the Walking Dead show.

A Tumblr user joked:[18]

The 5 stages of grief, by the Clexa fandom:

Denial, anger, bargaining, depression and acceptance Elyza Lex.

Initially, most of posts on Tumblr about this character and her relationship with Alicia Clark were tagged with Fear the Walking Dead or FTWD, as well as under the Alicia Clark, Elyza Lex, Lexark (the ship name for Elyza Lex/Alicia Clark), and occasionally The 100 tags. However, over time the fandom became more aware and conscientious of Fear the Walking Dead fans who did not want their tags invaded, and so there was a call to tag posts as QTWD, or Queer the Walking Dead.[19][20]

Relationships

Elyza Lex is shipped mainly with Alicia Clark and their ship name is Lexark. Because the character was popularized by the Clexa fandom in the wake of Lexa dying, and so the apparent end of their ship in The 100 canon universe, she was created in order to allow for this femslash ship.

Alicia Clark/Elyza Lex was the 7th most popular crossover pairing on AO3 in 2020.[21]

On the AO3, there are also a few fanworks for the pairing of Elyza Lex/Lexa.

Fan Opinions

clarkegriffinsleftbuttcheek wrote:[22]

The best thing about Elyza Lex is that we all kind of know what she's like. Even the things we haven't discussed, we just....we're all imagining the same character. I've never been so in sync w/ so many people

gleek4snix reblogged and added:

So true. It's like the character already existed in some shape or form, except it didn't and somehow when the name Elyxa Lex came up all our brains thought of the same person and I just don't know how this is possible.

Guest wrote:[23]

all the alicia clarke/elyza lex stuff is hilarious :rofl:

Guest replied:

I'm fucking trash, I love it so much. it's the only thing giving me joy right now. Alicia as this grumpy teenager secretly in awe of this brash, confident chick who has the name of a bisexual hooker :rofl: who I'm also headcanoning as Australian

Guest wrote:[24]

I'm shipping Elyza Lex and Alicia Clark badly!!!! :wub: :wub:

AMC please make this happen B-)

Guest replied:

They wouldn't :lol:

But I'm liking the fanarts, hope people do a few short stories on them

Guest replied:

:rofl: So am I. This is the most amusing coping method I've ever come across in all of my days of fandom. The 100 fandom not only bailed and went to FTWD, but we fucking took Eliza with us, created a character for her, and created a fandom around it.

Guest wrote:[25]

Am I the only one who couldn't get into FTWD (too much zombies, gore and the bleak hopeless future don't do it for me) but I absolutely love Elyza Lex / Alicia Clark fanfic?

Guest replied:

I like zombie stories but I found FTWD boring because I was expecting something like World War Z(the novel, not the shit movie) but they decided to make it a family drama instead.

I like the Elyza Lex / Alicia Clark pairing because it's an extension of Clarke/Lexa. Really, I'm just thirsty for any pairing where the women have action and adventure. I'm soooo bored of stories where it's about a gay person being scared to come out of the closet. Clarke and Lexa were appealing to me because their conflicts were about things other than coming out as gay, and because they were played by talented actresses with chemistry.

Praying that anons come through and flesh out Elyza Lex in a full novel or graphic novel :fingcross:

Guest wrote:[26][27]

I'm going to rewatch Fear since the beginning and maybe write a NORMAL fanfic, without Elyza Lex, because the amount of fictions with her is disgusting. As much as I love Clarke, I can't stop hating Elyza Lex. I need more fictions focused on mother-daughter relationship instead of brainless smut.

Guest replied:

You can have both. How many popular Lexark fics are pwp and not reincarnation or plot or romance focused? It's a bit uncharitable to say the inclusion of a lesbian reduces everything to brainless smut.

Guest replied:

The problem with the Elyza Lex fiction was that when it was first imagined, Alicia was far from being badass, so they made Elyza THE badass of the duo. If authors rethought their dynamics, this kind of fic could be a lot better.

Guest replied:

Elyza Lex is just another way to have Clexa. Some people don't like FTWD and only watch because Alycia is in it, in all honesty I think that's perfectly fair.

Guest replied:

The initial reactions went straight for reincarnation, as I recall, people so incredibly shell shocked and trying to give Clexa a happy ending in some world. If you sort by kudos, you'll probably find those. Otherwise, coeur's got a fic that isn't reincarnation.

Guest wrote:[27]

I don't like Lexark fics, I tried it and it was not me thing. I like some of the artwork and gifset purely for Clexa AU vibes but nothing more. With that said, I don't see the problem with it (as long as it's not tagged as FTWD in a way that annoys people who actually like the show).

Guest wrote:[28]

I've been trying to get into Lexark fics but I can't, and I just realized why: Clarke >>>>>>>> Elyza Lex. At least to me.

So I'm sticking to Clexa AU fics for now.

Is it RPS?

Some fans are turned off by the similarities between the character Elyza Lex and the actress Eliza Taylor:

Guest wrote:[27]

Lexark or whatever seems more RPS to me. The fact they made Elyza Lex an Australian just gives me that vibe you know. They just needed to change Alicia's accent to Australian too. Alycia plays Alicia yet they don't give her an Australian accent but they give one to Elyza just because Eliza is Australian. Never liked it but I ignore it and move on.

Guest wrote:[29]

I really want to be able to enjoy Elyza Lex fics because it seems like a few of them are really well written but the few times I tried it was too close to RPF to me. I wish there were more Clexa zombie AUs that's not FTWD related. :ermm:

Example Fanworks

Fanfic

Fanart

Fannish Resources

Further Reading

References

  1. ^ When the Fandom Gets Creative: Who Is Elyza Lex and Why Does She Matter by Jin Jet Cava, March 22, 2016 (Accessed April 4, 2016).
  2. ^ Elyza Lex™, Riot Grrrl, and Creativity in the Face of Grief: A Fandom Love Letter by Elizabeth Bridges, March 15, 2016 (Accessed April 4, 2016). Archived version.
  3. ^ more elyza lex/lexark headcanons by ohapocalypse, March 2016 (Accessed April 4, 2016). Archived version.
  4. ^ more elyza headcanons by commanderofthe12raccoons, March 10, 2016 (accessed on April 4, 2016). Archived version.
  5. ^ elyza lex headcanons by damnlyza, March 13, 2016 (accessed on April 4, 2016). Archived version.
  6. ^ my elyza headcanon by gaysassheda, March, 2016 (accessed on April 4, 2016). Archived version.
  7. ^ More on Elyza Lex's zombie bite immunity. by jaspies-yabos, March, 2016 (accessed April 4, 2016). Archived version.
  8. ^ things i know about elyza lex by lexaspirit. Archive version.
  9. ^ Let me make sure I'm getting this right. by blaqpanther, March 11, 2016. Archived version.
  10. ^ "The 100 part II; Honestly, what is this? The 100 or The Lexa?" (page 640), The L Chat. Archived version.
  11. ^ "The 100 - Part V" (page 284; #8520), The L Chat. Archived version.
  12. ^ "The 100 - Part V" (page 390; comment #11712), The L Chat. Archived version.
  13. ^ "The 100 - Part V" (page 528; comment #15839), The L Chat. Archived version.
  14. ^ "The 100 - Part V" (page 1033; comment #30987), The L Chat. Archived version.
  15. ^ "The 100 - Part V" (page 1822; comment #54653), The L Chat. Archived version.
  16. ^ "Here's hoping that Alicia Clark gets a girlfriend in the future and that that girlfriend is played by Eliza Taylor." by thealiciaclark, March 4, 2016 (accessed April 4, 2016). Archived version.
  17. ^ "and call her Elyza Lex" by alyciasass, March 5, 2016 (accessed April 4, 2016). Archived version.
  18. ^ Tumblr post by toodrunktofindaurl. Archived version.
  19. ^ TAGGING COURTESY: QTWD, LEXARK, ELYZA LEX, ELYZA X ALICIA by theheartspeaksloudest, March 14, 2016 (accessed April 4, 2016)
  20. ^ QTWD tag on Tumblr
  21. ^ [Fandom stats] Crossovers, fusions, and crossover pairings on AO3 by toastystats (destinationtoast). December 31, 2020.
  22. ^ Tumblr post by toodrunktofindaurl. Archived version.
  23. ^ "The 100 - Part VI; Maybe someday is now" (page 1700), The L Chat. Archived version.
  24. ^ "The 100 - Part VI; Maybe someday is now" (page 1706), The L Chat. Archived version.
  25. ^ "The 100 - Part IX; Our fight is not over" (page 71), The L Chat. Archived version.
  26. ^ "Alycia Debnam-Carey - Part II; Read rules before posting" (page 946), The L Chat. Archived version.
  27. ^ a b c "Alycia Debnam-Carey - Part II; Read rules before posting" (page 947), The L Chat. Archived version.
  28. ^ "The 100 - Part VII; Maybe someday is now" (page 963; comment #28875), The L Chat. Archived version.
  29. ^ "The 100 - Part X; Our fight is not over" (page 220; comment #6595), The L Chat. Archived version.
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