Not saying you are wrong. But on one hand, Pike was raised and raised children to believe that they were the last fucking people in all of existence, and everything they do has to justify their (Skykru's) survival. Nothing else. Grounders don't count, etc. And he's definitely been further pushed this way because of Farm Station's interactions with Ice Nation. And yeah, to Pike, it is a little ridiculous to basically put all your faith on a barely adult woman who thinks she can sit in court and keep the one other barely adult woman from ordering everyone under her to wipe you all out.
Meanwhile Kane has kinda reversed on that point of view. You see that in Polis earlier this season when he tells Abby how shocked he is to see how many people actually survived, and how insignificant Arkadia is or can be in the bigger picture. But he may be a little to idealistic at times. Pike sorta has a point about the whole Finn debacle last season and how it looks on paper, and he's not wrong. It looks like utter shit and somehow they just barely managed to escape from under that by sheer luck somehow.
Totally. I think both Kain and Pike have their problems which have screwed over Arkadia. Kain is too idealistic and I would say to willing to bend the knee to the Grounders. If you remember at the beginning of the season Kain simply wished to negotiate a trade deal with Lexa and her Coalition to improve relations and ensure the survival of Arkadia. However, once he arrives in the capital not only does he learn that Lexa was the one that had Clarke kidnapped but also the terms of the deal is being changed, Lexa no longer wants a trade deal but for Skykru to bend the knee and become the 13th Clan.
Now, Kain at that point could have used some wisdom and said "no" or "I'll have to speak with my people about this." But, instead he decides all on his own to agree to these new terms and literally brand himself as a supplicant of Lexa. It's no surprise that a great many people back at Arkadia are appalled that he would have them all bend to Lexa and the Grounders who have been their enemy for some time all without consulting anyone back in Arkadia.
Pike, on the other hand, is too militaristic and prideful to understand that he cannot fight off all the Grounders alone. His concerns regarding any peace or bending the knee to the Grounders are justified but he goes about maintaining Arkadia's independence in the dumbest way possible. Rather than simply declaring Arkadia an independent nation, setting up delineated boundaries, and communicating his intentions to the Grounders he decides to simply massacre a force designed to "protect" them. He unnecessarily invokes the ire of every Grounder clan and then somehow acts surprised when they end up surrounding them. However, at this point he can't really turn back any alleged deal from the Grounders cannot be trusted as has been proven many times and his actions have all but insured a peaceful resolution cannot be reached.
I believe that the only way this conflict resolves itself is if another outside presence threatens both parties again necessitating a tentative peace.
