Bellarke News

It’s with immense sadness that we announce that we are leaving InfoBellarke inactive for an indefinite amount of time. It wasn’t an easy or rushed decision. In fact, this has been in our minds since the beginning of season five.

First, we have been struggling with the writing and fandom management decisions by the writers and cast for quite some time, but the reason why we stayed as long as we did was because of you guys. The fandom. Even at our worst moments, even when we had every reason to quit (reasons which we’ll list in this letter), we decided to stay for you, because it’s the least you deserve. Our fandom has been so strong, talented, and smart throughout all of the hardships, and it deserves the absolute best. We tried to deliver it by running InfoBellarke all these years, and we hope we were able to make your fandom experience a better one. We love you guys, more than you’ll ever know.

But, unfortunately, it’s our time to leave, at least for now. During the years we ran InfoBellarke, we sat front row watching our fandom be belittled and dismissed, and the very thing we love slandered at a Comic Con no less. At every hardship, we told ourselves that things would get better, that it was a temporary issue, that the crew and cast didn’t mean the things they had said, or that they were misinterpreted. Ultimately, we held on because the show seemed fine at the time. However, in the past year, it has become apparent that things haven’t changed and won’t change in the immediate future. Our complaints haven’t been heard, and when they are, the only response is that we don’t have the right to voice our opinions or that they aren’t the “truth”. We have tirelessly promoted this show through the good and the bad (mostly the bad), and the only time we were noticed was when we decided to point out one bad thing. This is a reflection of how our entire fandom is treated. Despite our fandom promoting this show endlessly, we are never thanked and only criticized.

Please know that this letter is only trying to explain our point of view and the reasons behind our decision (archiving InfoBellarke), and we hope you will understand after reading it. We do not expect you to stop watching the show or stop supporting Bellarke and the cast, if that is what makes you happy. However, for us, we realized that running InfoBellarke feels more like a job, as every episode and the cast and writers’ attitudes leave us feeling infinitely discouraged. We will not write a whole breakdown of all the issues we have had with this season, but we would like to address the major ones that have made it hard to update our account.

To begin, Bellamy and Clarke have been the main characters for the past five seasons. Jason himself even labelled them and their relationship the core of the show. Unfortunately, that is no longer what’s happening on screen. Clarke Griffin spent six years isolated from her family and friends, and there’s no doubt that it affected her significantly. But instead of giving her what could have been a great arc focused on PTSD and finding a way back to her loved ones, she became a supporting character for a new character and got involved in a recycled storyline that the majority of the fandom hates. Bellamy Blake, who found his “new family”, was once again caught in a storyline revolving around his sister and things that happened two seasons ago. He also became a prop in an ex-villain’s redemption arc that wasn’t even properly written.

It wasn’t only Bellamy and Clarke who got sidelined; the second half of the season felt like it was filler episode after filler episode. Instead of developing their lead characters, we witnessed ridiculous amounts of side plots without the main plot moving forward. We felt extremely disconnected from both Bellamy and Clarke, as their reasonings seemed to be based on actions that happened off-screen.

Old storylines were not the only things that were reused. The writers decided to recycle our favorite quotes and lines, but instead of making meaningful parallels or using them as a way for us to connect to the characters, they made them empty and repetitive. They were simply used as throwaways to keep Bellarke fans placated long enough to keep watching.

Lastly, season five completely destroyed Bellamy and Clarke’s bond. Instead of rediscovering their relationship after 6 years of separation, they barely shared a scene. There wasn’t a single proper conversation about what happened during their time apart from each other and how it changed their dynamic. The most ridiculous thing is that when they did happen to share a scene, we were given romantic hints which, as we now know, only serve as a bait to keep us watching. Not going into a romantic direction would be fine if Bellamy and Clarke were not paralleled with other canon couples, called ‘hostage taker and his girlfriend’, or if writers didn’t write cryptic lines and quotes with double meanings, leaving it up to interpretation. But that wasn’t the worst part; what we consider the biggest blow is the fact they ruined Bellamy and Clarke’s friendship when they made them not care if the other lived or died. The destruction of the Bellarke friendship symbolized the destruction of the entire show in our eyes. Bellarke has been the core of the show since the very beginning, as Jason has constantly reiterated, and now it’s gone. Even if their relationship gets fixed in the future, it’s tainted and will be affected by this fall-out forever.

The characters are unrecognizable, and the core dynamic is ruined. The 100 is not about the Hundred anymore… The show we used to love no longer exists.

The show, the writers, and even some of the cast members have been toying with the possibility of Bellamy and Clarke’s relationship for five years now and since most of us have been in the fandom since the beginning and have seen the constant baiting and teasing, our interest in that "game" has disappeared. The decision of which story to tell obviously belongs to the writers, but if the show keeps giving us romantic subtext for Bellamy and Clarke while denying a romantic relationship, dismissing it in interviews by saying how, “[they are] non-romantic partners and soulmates and it is my favorite place for them to be," we get discouraged.

While we know that the opinion of some cast members doesn’t affect the writing, we do not understand why they have to constantly voice their negative opinions (“a boring ship,” “they are like siblings,” “Bellarke shit” – “she said ship”) at every convention and interview. We are tired of seeing people in our own fandom asking those going to conventions to not ask questions about Bellarke because they are afraid to be treated like that again. We knew this was thankless job, but we aren’t archiving because we aren’t getting attention. We are, simply, just tired.

While some of you may think we are overreacting in some aspects, please know that we have been promoting the show every single day for the past few years while doing countless positivity projects before InfoBellarke even existed. We have done appreciation days for all of the cast members and writers, and after all that, we decided to start InfoBellarke to promote the show and our ship and unify the fandom. We have spent days and nights (just like all of you) voting in polls for Bob, Eliza, Bellarke, and the show. While we do understand that there is some part of the fandom that still enjoys the show and promoting it, it is time for us to move on. We just hope you will understand our decision

Of course, we will be always thankful to the writers for creating such a beautiful relationship between Bellamy and Clarke based on trust, support, respect, caring, and understanding in the first place. We will be always thankful to Bob and Eliza, who brought us to tears and laughter while watching Bellamy and Clarke scenes. Both are incredible actors and we wish the best for them in everything and their future careers.

Additionally, we would like to say thank you to all the past InfoBellarke members. Without you, we wouldn’t be in the place we are now, so a huge thank you for your contributions. Another thanks goes to all the update accounts that participated and helped us plan our projects such as appreciation days, trend posters, voting parties, etc. We are also thankful to everyone who directly sent us exclusive content (anonymously or not) and to all convention organizations - we were honored to work with you.

Lastly we are most thankful for all of you. Our fandom. You have been the best company we could ask for on this journey, and even though it may be the end for us, it was worth it because of all of you. We continued running this account and being part of the fandom even when we thought it is over, for you. For you all, who turned whatever negative thing they threw at us into a big joke. For you all, who made us laugh when we felt discouraged and disappointed. We love each one of you and we will always be thankful that Bellarke’s story let us know so many of you personally.

We also decided to not give this account to anyone else, keeping in mind how much work we put in over these last few years and how much it means to us. So, as much as it pains us, this is our goodbye, even if it is only for now. Maybe one day, things can go back as they once were. Maybe one day things will change. But for now our team cannot continue with our work promoting the show and we hope all of you will understand our decision.

Until the day we hopefully meet again.

I assume you mean the scene where Bellamy, Clarke and Jaha go to check out the Second Dawn bunker, Clarke goes further into the forest and Jaha and Bellamy talk about guilt. This scene happens in episode 3 of season 4 (The Four Horsemen).

And the quotes go like this:Jaha: She’s lucky to have you. Leadership is a lonely pursuit. But you… you keep her centered.Bellamy: You got it backwards.