At SDCC, both Eliza Taylor and Lindsey Morgan expressed their pride in The 100‘s complex female characters.

As The 100 heads into its fourth season, Clarke (Eliza Taylor) is faced with having to save the world, while Raven (Lindsey Morgan) is ready to take advantage of her newly super-powered brain.

Meanwhile Octavia (Marie Avgeropoulos) is on a dark path of revenge, Abby (Paige Turco) is struggling to reconnect with her daughter, and the show’s many other female characters all have their own struggles.

In the world of The 100 there is no such thing as traditional gender roles, which means the show’s multitude of female characters are allowed to be just characters, doing the best they can while battling their own personal demons.

At San Diego Comic-Con 2016, the female stars were full of admiration for the show’s approach to female characters.

Related: The 100 at SDCC: Jason Rothenberg teases how the characters will split up in season 4

At the main panel, a fan asked how it felt to play such complex characters, and Eliza Taylor said, “It honestly gets me emotional, because it makes me so happy. I love that we’re in a day and age now where women can be portrayed that way.”

Lindsey Morgan added, “I personally am extremely grateful. As a woman, especially as a woman of color, it’s funny how Hollywood wants to put you in a box. It’s demeaning and degrading, because women are so much more than that. Women have always been strong, complex, capable, and amazing at life.”

Marie Avgeropoulos also chimed in, saying she’s happy that her nieces are given great and complex role models to look up to on TV.

Interview: Why Lindsey Morgan is grateful for ‘The 100’s’ female characters

Interviewing the cast ahead of The 100 panel, Hypable spoke to Lindsey Morgan about Raven’s future, and her thoughts on the show’s diversity.

When asked how she feels about playing such a complex female character, Morgan says, “It is extremely rare. And for that, I am so grateful, and I feel so privileged.”

She continues, “It saddens me that it’s 2016, and this [trend of female characters] has just now emerged. And I wanna shake everyone and be like, ‘why?!’ Women are badass, women are completely capable.”

And this is why shows like The 100 are important. “With the representation that we bring — the more representation you have of anything — the more it seems like the norm to people, and once they see it, it’s no longer strange or abnormal, and then you see it everywhere,” Morgan explains. “And I think our show has really helped start a trend of it, which I feel really grateful to be a part of.”

And, with society being what it is, “I think we need stories like this, that inspire us to be better than ourselves.”

Previewing ‘The 100’ season 4, and ‘the Raven upgrade’

We also spoke to Lindsey Morgan about Raven’s arc in season 4, which she likened to Raven “rising from the ashes like a phoenix.”

“She basically upgraded,” Morgan explains. “She’s smarter than she’s ever been, and wiser. I feel like Raven’s on the brink of something extraordinary, that she’s exploring for herself.”

While her pain has come back, “It’s taught her such a profound lesson about her true inner strength. To be able to overcome that. And to choose human pain and free will and humanity over being numb and a zombie just to be pain-free. So I think she’s on the brink of something good.”

But don’t expect too much good, because this is The 100, after all. “I don’t know about [her story being] lighter,” says Morgan, “but she’s stronger. She can endure anything now.”

Although filming season 4 hasn’t started yet, Lindsey Morgan has already had conversations with showrunner Jason Rothenberg about where Raven is going to go next year.

Related: Should The 100 give Raven Reyes a girlfriend in season 4?

Morgan says that Raven has upgraded “mentally, emotionally, spiritually” — and, although she’s still dealing with a physical handicap, she is now “learning to manage her pain,” and is “grateful” to have it back, because it comes with her humanity.

The ‘Raven upgrade’ is going to fall in line with her character arc, says Morgan. “She’s basically gonna be getting her hands dirty. Real dirty […] Raven is on her own level now. Like a whole new plateau that no one else can really understand or master. So what happens when you’re the smartest person in the room?”

When we asked her whether we could expect any new romance for Raven, Morgan said, “I do think that she’s gonna be very distracted and very focused with the matter at hand. So she’s a little busy. But, with that said, what do you do when you know you only have six months to live? Do you fight? Do you die? Do you fuck?”

And there’s the big question of the season, according to Morgan. “What do you do? And I think that’s gonna be a big question for everyone, but a really big one for Raven, who’s always been so disciplined and so righteous in that sense. If this is really the end of her life, is she gonna go out with just studying?”

We can’t wait to find out when The 100 returns for season 4 in early 2017!