He transformed into an awful person after his deathly for his people experiences with the ice nation . Because he couldn ' t accept that all grounders aren ' t the same . People who don ' t like Pike attempt to paint him as such , but I disagree . There is a lot of hypocrisy and gut reaction involved . People call him Xenophobe because of the way he acted toward grounders ignoring that the Delinquents and Grounders in S 1 S 2 acted the same toward each other . Bigot , asserting that he couldn ' t accept that all grounders aren ' t the same Either ignoring that in S 2 Clarke said I want the Mountain Men dead . All of them , and that eventually she did massacred them all men , women , children elderly most of whom was innocent and or was helping them Or assign black and white motivations based on their role i . e . that Pike wanted to and Clarke had no choice . And forget that grounders intended to massacre them all before Lexa decided that they can be useful . Bigot , because he didn ' t listen to Kane opinion Ignoring that they both were convinced that their is right way , and both didn ' t listen to the other Kane who was shown to make mistake after mistake , and had to be saved by Clarke from grounder prison and then from MW one . dictator ignoring that he was elected , or dismissing his opinion as fear mongering or Bigotry by ignoring hisskypeople POVexperience . Calling him for detaining grounders so they don ' t reveal secrets during war time . Ignoring that Delinquents used torture , Clarke wanted to use torture again in S 2 , and grounders not only used torture but used people for biological warfare , and was ready to massacre them all . And that while Pike executed people who attacked himthe president during war time treason , Lexa kicked ambassadors who disagreed with her which was their right by lawOverall both Kane and Pike had valid opinions but both was driven to extremes Kane adopted an extreme appeasement policy , giving up their freedoms to be part of a brutal , uneducated , warriors society , with quasi religious commander cult he didn ' t really fully understands but went all in on Lexa and could easily become a subject of Ice Nation if thing went slightly different . Pike was an extreme war hawk , who made extremely questionable decision with that village which seem of the ' kick the dog ' verity we seen with MW in S 2 , to make his flashbacks reveal more surprising