Last month at the TCA (Television Critics Association) press tour, I spoke to several cast members from The 100 , shortly before a panel for the show comprised of female cast members, joined by executive producer Jason Rothenberg.

Marie Avgeropoulos as Octavia Blake in The 100.

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Marie Avgeropoulos ("Octavia") and Devon Bostick ("Jasper") in The 100.

Given I’d already seen the first few episodes of Season 3 at this point, some of these interviews needed to be held until viewers had a chance to witness some of the content we discussed, which is why you’ll see a few pieces of content from this day going up this week.First off is Marie Avgeropoulos, who talks about Octavia’s continued discomfort amongst the Arkers, an upcoming rift with Bellamy, reconnecting with Indra, The 100's fandom and more…Yeah, Octavia worked her butt off to finally become accepted with somebody and that somebody being the Grounders, through Lincoln. He’s pretty much the only one that’s ever believed in her and when she chose Bellamy over the Grounders, Indra revoked her position as the second in command and that definitely left her feeling back to square one again and not belonging anywhere at all. So in Season 3, she’s back with the group, but she’s at odds with Bellamy, and he does something horrible that will forever change their relationship.Their relationship is going to be forever changed...Octavia and the horse sort of helps complete the arc of who she has become, similar to how last year it was Octavia and her sword. She didn’t want to be a gunner she wanted to be a Grounder. It symbolizes the independent young woman she’s become, compared to the defensive, unpredictable young girl that landed on that dropship with the rest of the group.Yeah, it’s nice to have sweet, quiet moments on The 100 and that usually happens after something horrible has happened. [Laughs] They have a second to be there for each other until some epic disaster unfolds that they have to handle. Octavia will always care about Jasper and they have a very sweet relationship. Octavia understands him because he was isolated too, in his own way and so was she. She’s got a special place in her heart for Jasper.And now he’s kind of becoming an Arker in his weird way... That jacket symbolizes the people that used to come in and do the inspections while she was under the floor and her brother worked for the guard and all the people that floated her mother and did all of these horrible things. She wanted to get away from that and run away from them and start over again. She thought that’s what they were working toward so it’s kind of a blow to the gut when he walks out with that jacket on and they’re staying. That’s not what she had in mind for their happy ending together.[widget path="video/embed/playlist" parameters="slug=the-100-season-3-set-interviews"]Yeah, she always looks up to Indra as a mentor. Indra helped and Indra gave her the position as her second in command and she was flattered by that because she worked so hard for it, rejected her own people for it, and pissed a lot of people off along the way for it. Later, you’re going to see a shift where Octavia is almost mentoring Indra in her moment of weakness so it’s interesting to see that flip. Not to mention I love working with Adina Porter. She’s such an amazing actress and woman and friend. Our chemistry is great.I’m just really happy that the fans and these young girls look up to us and all of the wonderful characters on this show. But me personally, it’s really nice to see that these women are feeling empowered from a place where they didn’t fit in, or made a decision that wasn’t the mainstream choice and they did it anyway. Octavia was a young, scared, defensive girl that wasn't really liked all that much in Season 1, and she became a fan favorite when she became a warrior. There’s a warrior inside everyone. You just have to make the choice to be brave and do something that might scare you, but the results can be pretty phenomenal. I’m just flattered to be a part of this movement of strong female characters on TV where we don’t need a man to save the day or help us. We can do it on our own. I’d rather be looked up to in that department and feel good about that because it’s scary with young girls looking up nowadays to young pop stars that are taking their clothes off… I don’t know, I think young girls are losing their innocence too quickly nowadays. The new generation has changed. I know I’m not that old, but even compared to my day, thanks to the internet and social media and all this stuff, they’re losing their innocence too quickly. They’re looking up to us on this show for other reasons and I’m really happy for those reasons.Absolutely. Her transformation has been remarkable. it’s been such a pleasure to play her. I’m enjoying Octavia as a warrior for sure. The fact that I’m now proficient with a sword and can sword fight, riding a horse, is amazing. I’m getting to do all these things I’ve dreamed about doing. I love being an actress and the craft and being artistic but also learning all these really cool, physical skills that I now have. It’s just so much fun. It’s great.I’m proud to say I do all my own stunts and it’s so fun for me to that. It’s amazing. I’ve always been a tomboy, my whole life and an athlete. It’s really exciting to exercise those skills and make them come to life at work. The fans love the side of Octavia too so it’s fun to play that out.The City of Light isn’t all it’s cracked up to be. it’s not this perfect, amazing place. There’s a lot of artificial intelligence that you’ll see in Season 3. The show gets really sci-fi, which there wasn’t a lot of in Season 2, so you’ll see how these worlds interact and cross with one another. it becomes a major threat to the group.Yeah. It’s coming out in all different counties. It’s funny to see your voice in French or something when they dub it over. I’m just really thankful that people like our show and like our work because we like it too. I’m really proud of it.

The 100 airs Thursdays at 9:00pm ET/PT on the CW.Eric Goldman is Executive Editor of IGN TV. You can follow him on Twitter at @TheEricGoldman , IGN at ericgoldman-ign and Facebook at Facebook.com/TheEricGoldman