#bellarke development

I think it’s what broke their relationship, actually.

Because it had been growing until then, and had reached a new level of trust and intimacy. 

And then all of a sudden, she went from “I can’t lose you” to “It’s worth the risk.”

He did not know the context of “love is a weakness.” Nor did he understand that she was trying to protect herself from that weakness because of her pain and grief. Essentially she sent him in because she needed to put a barrier between her and him because she was feeling love emotions for him and that made him a liability, a weakness.

But to him, it was that he was unimportant. That she did NOT care for him.

I don’t think he ever got over that, because he never again believed that she cared for him, even as his feelings for her grew. 

I think he was starting to get a clue at the end of s4, but then they were separated. And he had Echo, so she pulled back, again, and then she felt betrayed and ditched him in the fighting pit. So he never thought she cared after all... until Madi told him the truth about the 2199 calls. 

Even then, he was still rebuilding their relationship and learning to trust that she cared for him the way he cared for her, leading into the lantern amends scene. So he believed she cared and he was important to her... but then with the Cillian dancing scene, he was being told AGAIN that she didn’t care for him THAT way.

Until he didn’t care anymore and needed her to come back and nothing was as important as saving her, not Madi, not Jordan not Echo. THEN she felt his love and he felt her love at the same time.

Let me tell you.

The reason why this romance is such a slow burn is because of the classic “Misunderstanding/miscommunication” obstacle.

Clarke loves Bellamy, but Bellamy is convinced that she does NOT love him and it is ROOTED in that scene where she sent him into the mountain.

HE thought it was because she didn’t care.

But it was because she cared too much. 

MIS.

UNDER.

STANDING.

And they talk to each other ALL THE TIME but not about this. They talk about morals. They talk about saving their people. They talk about disasters. But anytime Clarke wants to talk about feelings, she talks about OCTAVIA. 

Just walking along looking like a snack

She sees him.

He sees her.

The music swells.

The crescendo as they throw themselves into each other’s arms. 

And the way she nuzzles her face into his shoulder before releasing him. 

She breaks down about her mother.

The way he’s looking at her while he comforts her I can’t.

One last embrace.

I think that their relationship was broken in season 2, when Lxa told Clarke love was a weakness and Clarke immediately decided that meant that she had to sacrifice Bellamy  to the mountain. This was *right* after Clarke told Bellamy that he wasn’t allowed to go into the mountain because she couldn’t lose him, too. And it wasn’t long after she ran into his arms in Camp Jaha, and he watched her sleep. Their relationship was GROWING until “love is a weakness.”

Clarke pretty quickly realized it was wrong to send him into danger like that and spent all of season 2 trying to make sure he was safe in there, but Bellamy squashed any hopes he had about Clarke caring for him, because to him, sending him into the mountain meant he was expendable to her and she could bear losing him, so therefore did not care for him.

HOWEVER, for Clarke, it meant she loved him and he was a weakness that she needed to get rid of. This action meant two different things to both of them. 

And THEN, Clarke left him. She didn’t think he’d accept her back (Roan told her that.) And THEN she turned him away in Polis, I think out of fear, fear that Lxa would target him and fear that seeing these people she loved would be too much to bear. And THEN she called on him in Hakeldama and made her proposition that he THREW IN HER FACE and told her how horrible she was. 

See. Bellamy has been given ample evidence that Clarke doesn’t love him. She sent him into the mountain. She left him. She chose Lxa over him.

And Clarke has been given ample evidence that Bellamy can’t forgive her and thinks she’s horrible-- a monster. 

They are both frightened to show how they really feel because they are SURE the other doesn’t feel the same way.

And then he comes back from space and has a girlfriend, so no matter how she’s in love with him, she can’t act on it. Meanwhile he “betrays” her by putting the flame in Madi and that means to her that he was as rotten as the rest of humanity and not at all the idealized hero in her mind, so she leaves him in the fighting ring.

This of course is evidence that she doesn’t care for him. And he turns from her. 

But none of this turning away from each other works, because they are in love with each other and they need each other.  Bellamy admitted he needed Clarke. Clarke came back from death for him.

They’ve finally gotten to the place where they are both running into each other’s arms and sharing their souls, and what he says make things better, and instead of turning away, she turns to him. 

Clarke realized that love is not a weakness, that he IS her hero. And Bellamy realized that he loved Clarke and couldn’t lose her and he wouldn’t let her go.  That’s where they are now. 

I always thought that she knew that she’d fallen in love with him at that point, but she couldn’t handle being with anyone (that was part of what she told Lxa,) so when she was kissing his cheek goodbye, it was not only her leaving because she needed to be alone, but also saying goodbye to the romantic potential.

I can tell you precisely.

It was during Day Trip Season 1, after they’d killed Dax. They were leaning up against the tree and she said, “I need you...” and he looked at her, full of hope, then she finished, “we ALL need you.” And he looked so disappointed.

And I went, 

Wait.

Does he like her? Like like her?

And I rewatched that moment like 20 times. 

So by the time she told Jaha that he had to pardon Bellamy because Bellamy was awesome, and then Bellamy was looking at her like she was a star in the sky I was like.

That has honestly puzzled me so much.

It is straight up like a love triangle, soulmates, dead wife back from the dead, enemies to best friends to partners to lovers, slowburn bellarke fic, with incredibly romantic tropes built in, like everyone sees it, and jealous!clarke, and he’d do anything for her, and all is lost, and lessons from the dead, and parent trap.

But there is a lot of angst. And I guess the obstacles to a romantic bellarke love story seem insurmountable. If you BELIEVE in bellarke, they just seem like romantic tropes and romantic obstacles on a long term romantic bellarke story and you can watch as it all falls together. 

But if you believe that Bellarkers are DELUSIONAL, and JR is evil and just fucking with us, and Bellarke is just PLATONIC, then you can’t trust that all the obstacles set up in s5 are just OBSTACLES, not an entirely different narrative arc in which Clarke and Bellamy do NOT end up together. 

I just reblogged a post which basically said “I love romantic angst, but if it doesn’t lead to a happy ending and LOVE being the point of everything then I don’t want it.” I think that’s what’s happening to the fandom. They have been convinced that romantic bellarke is NOT the point and there will be no happy ending. So therefore, season 5 is an angst they are not here for.

I think a lot of people feel that s5 is a betrayal of them. Personally almost. They think Bellamy betrayed not just Clarke by dating Echo, but also them. I’ve seen people rate s5 Bellamy as the worst Bellamy, and I’m just amazed at that because he’s so heroic and strong and protective and he saved all those people. He was the hero of season 5, not Clarke, and with all those people saying that Bellamy has been sidelined, this is his season to shine. But I guess the people who hate Bellamy in that season might be the Clarke stans who think it’s spacekru vs Clarke, and think Bellamy’s loyalty to spacekru makes him worse as a character. Or OOC, even though Bellamy IS protective so it’s not ooc for him to be protective of spacekru. It’s not like he isn’t protective of clarke also? He sacrificed his sister for her! BUT they may also be looking at it from Clarke’s POV. She idealized him and when he came back from space with Echo, she realized he was NOT her imaginary boyfriend, and then when he “betrayed” her and put the flame in Madi to save Clarke’s life, she believed he was against her and just as awful as everyone else. So fandom’s opinion of Bellamy is Clarke’s opinion--- but Clarke is much more forgiving than fandom.

Alternately, in the spacekru vs clarke fanwar, some people come down on the spacekru side. And they declare that Clarke is now the villain and they hate her. and Bellarke is declared dead now, as they love B/E. They love Bellamy from that season, but think him OOC in s6. Both factions hate Bellamy not because he’s *changed* but because his loyalty seems to focus on the woman they DON’T ship him with. I think both are inaccurate interpretations because in both seasons, he’s focused on CLARKE. Just because Echo is his girlfriend does not mean that he’s not still in love with Clarke. He doesn’t know what to do with it until he loses her again in s6.

BUT because season 5 has both Clarke AND Bellamy confused about what it means to be in love with each other and neither are ready to act upon it, the fandom sees that confusion first, instead of the love. 

The thing about a good love story is that we want to SEE the development. And a good love story should not all be POSITIVE development. Without the obstacles, we are not as invested in the love story as we would be if they had to FIGHT to love each other and to be together. Because it has to be IMPORTANT enough to the characters that they would overcome anything to be with each other.

Now, I know that Bellarkers are frustrated with the super slow burn of bellarke, and that’s fair. But that means they want a quicker love story than is shown. And that’s just not what they’re writing. I’ve heard people say, “Okay I know you’re supposed to show not tell a story, but it’s time to stop showing and TELL us they’re in love.” And that. Is just not how you tell a good story. And the people who say it KNOW that. They want to sacrifice the story being told in order to get culmination of bellarke, what they want. 

Look, I may be captain of #teamfuckingkissalready but I stopped posting that. There’s a reason. It’s because I didn’t understand the timing of the story before and now I do. It’s a SEVEN SEASON LONG EPIC LOVE STORY. JR told us that we would eventually get to the bellarke story, but not yet (he said that in s2 I think?) He told us that bellarke was the main relationship (that makes it a bellarke fic.) He told us they were soulmates. (and if that meant platonic soulmate then he would not have made B/E a thing only to have Clarke jealous of them kissing because THAT ONE SCENE made it clear their connection was indeed romantic, reinforced with Octavia saying “another traitor you love” and comparing b/e to b/c.)

They have been holding onto bellarke as a romance since season 1, doling it out in drips and drabs. ARGUING in the writers room about when to show romantic bellarke. They don’t argue it in the writers’ room anymore because THEY ARE WRITING A BELLARKE ROMANCE NOW.

BUT if people were convinced by the CL fandom, and gaslighted into not believing the textual evidence they saw with their own eyes that it was romantic, and bullied with toxic gossip from people who claim themselves as “authorities” and “in the know,” then they don’t see the romantic storyline anymore, but only that the obstacles have stopped the forward momentum of romantic bellarke.

That’s not true. Bellarke romantic development has continued forward, but a few canon scenes of B/E makes them thing none of the romantic bellarke matters anymore. Bellamy was STARING at Clarke, jealous of Cillian, and picking a fight with Echo because she wasn’t more like Clarke, and THEN abandoned Echo at the shield to disappear with Josephine so he could save Clarke... and people think Bellarke is less important than B/E? When after the fact, he’s like “oops, i saved you and forgot about my girlfriend” and STILL tried to keep her from going back to save Echo et al if it was going to put Clarke at risk?

A story is not about disparate canon scenes. You CAN’T separate them out and say you know what’s happening. A love scene with Echo does not mean Echo is endgame... unless you have scenes before and after that MAKE it endgame, make it the primary relationship. INSTEAD, whenever there was a love scene or intimate scene with B/E, it was SURROUNDED by scenes putting Clarke as the hero, Bellarke as the primary relationship, Clarke as the one Bellamy would do anything for. But when Bellarke was in an intimate scene, it was surrounding with... more bellarke. Feelings. Discussions. History. Partnership. Devotion. OR in other words, the development of the bellarke narrative arc. 

I get very frustrated, because the people who think s5 sucks because B/E exists and Bellarke had their “all is lost moment” where it seemed impossible for them to get together, and Bellamy seemed to care for spacekru more than Clarke (not really,) are taking fandom analysis, which is often wrong, as more real than the canon.

IDK. I don’t really think it’s that confusing. It’s a BASIC love triangle plot. It’s just slow. So to me, it is clearly and canonically a romantic love story between Bellarke, which means I KNOW Bellarke are getting together. And all the evidence supports that. And so I can handle the angst. It’s “OMG CLARKE LEFT HIM TO DIE!! HOW WILL THEY OVERCOME THIS?!!” not “OMG CLARKE LEFT HIM TO DIE!! BELLARKE IS DEAD!!”

People who hate s5 seem to think Bellarke is dead. 

People who love the angst and pining and romantic tension of season 5 seem to think Bellarke is full steam ahead.

I find that when I don’t watch with my Bellarke goggles, I can see the larger plot better, but when I am trying to pick out the bellarke of it all, it’s much more glaring.

Now that I know Bellarke is happening, since we got what we got in season 6, and it was so intense and Bellarke focused (and romantic!) I can see other subtleties... which is kind of fun.

There’s a real difference between Bellarke at the beginning of the season and Bellarke at the end. 5.01 they were so awkward together. He was welcoming and reached out to her, but he hadn’t forgiven her yet. He hadn’t come to grips with everything yet, not her leaving him or 2199 calls. He was much MORE with Echo than he was at the end of the season. There was a difference in THAT relationship, too. And also, until Clarke was bodysnatched, there was a real c/b/e love triangle, comparing echo and clarke and his feelings for them both. 

But once she died, it was like Echo was no longer important. And then when she came back... his whole focus changed. 

What we got to see was DEVELOPMENT.

That’s why I try to counsel people to patience, because the beginning of the season shows us where they’re STARTING at, and the STORY is about their growth and how they get to the END and how they change. Bellarke has always had reversals from beginning to end.  Actually, s6 had the least reversal. They went from kind of awkward to intensely intimate and understanding, but it wasn’t a REVERSAL. That kind of fits with the overall feeling that the finale of s 6was really an intermission. So we should get the end of that reversal by s7. 

I--

don’t

think Clarke is less obvious with her feelings for Bellamy.

She has been giving him heart eyes all season. 

She called him for 2199 days. 

I think she’s HIDING her feelings for him FROM him. 

But as the audience, we’ve seen plenty of Clarke’s feelings for Bellamy. 

Do you know, every year, fandom switches off and on which one of them “doesn’t” love the other.

S1 had fandom thinking Bellamy was in love with Clarke and Clarke was not in love with Bellamy. IMO he had a crush on her and tried to minimize it and  she developed feelings for him and didn’t know it.

S2 had fandom thinking Bellamy was in love with Clarke like a knight and princess. And Clarke not in love with Bellamy, because she sent him into the mountain. IMO bellamy was in love with Clarke like a knight and princess (courtly love) in the first half then he thought she didn’t care for him and went into the mountain pushing away his feelings for her. While CLARKE was told that love was a weakness so she pushed him away then IMMEDIATELY realized she was wrong and focused her entire being on protecting bellamy like a knight and prince (courtly love) and by the end of the season realized she was actually in romantic love WITH Bellamy, partly because Lxa was pursuing her and saw him as a rival and so made Clarke realize she DID have feelings for him.

S3 had fandom thinking that Bellamy was in love with Clarke and Clarke either had no feelings for him or ACTUALLY HATED HIM. IMO Bellamy figured out he loved Clarke during Hakeldama but Clarke already knew she loved him and was afraid of that love (so what you say fit in season 3) so she ran away but when he rejected her in Hakeldama, she, because she’s not a masochist, turned to the one who wanted her, aka Lxa, aka rebounding, got her heart broken but then returned to Bellamy and made sure he knew she valued hm and never took him for granted again. They were in love with each other then but he felt rejected and she was still grieving and in shock.

S4 had fandom thinking that Bellamy was in love with Clarke but Clarke was not in love with Bellamy because of L, and IMO this was a mutual pining season with both in love with each other but CONVINCED that the other did not love them back. Bellamy thought Clarke loved Lxa and couldn’t love him, and then she hooked up with Niylah and he was mad (my interpretation) while Clarke thought Bellamy didn’t thnk of her like that because she made a move on him (the list) and he rejected her again. By the end of the season their mutual pining turned into mutual flirting and the hope that they could begin something in space, but she died so there went that.

s5 had fandom thinking that Bellamy was not in love with Clarke because he was with Echo, but Clarke was head over heels with Bellamy. IMO, what we had here was a love triangle with Bellamy treating Clarke like his deceased wife, although he now had a new partner, and still not reconciled with her survival, and Clarke treating Bellamy like her current boyfriend because he had been her fantasy boyfriend in her head for 2199 days except now he was real and she was freaking out and then when she saw him with Echo she realized he wasn’t the man of her dreams at all and she was heartbroken, and when he called Echo his family and not her and put the flame in Madi’s head, she thought that he had betrayed her, as her fantasy boyfriend/hero and she went full wanheda over it. He meanwhile is deep into the love triangle problem of another traitor who he loved, and actually chose Clarke, but then she discarded him (again) which told him she didn’t love him, so he should go with the girl who loves him (echo) which is a familiar pattern with Bellarke. But Clarke herself has to face her feelings for him when she talks to echo, and in fact, face also her fear of love when she talks to flameLxa who says, finally, that LOVE IS NOT A WEAKNESS. So if you’re talking about the fear of love, it’s right there. I don’t think it’s about the trauma of her loves dying anymore, I think it’s about the vulnerability read as weakness. However by the end of the season, they are back together as soulmates and partners, and Bellamy is her hero again and Clarke is his family again.

s6 had WHAT? How can you say she doesn’t love him? This one I don’t get. I get the others. She is straight up MOONING over Bellamy. Even though she can’t have him because of Echo. She is DESPERATE for him to forgive her. She’s torn apart when he says he doesn’t need her. Yes it’s the eclipse psychosis but it leads into her psychosis of trying to kill herself. Is it because she faces the fact that Bellamy is with Echo, she backs off? Even though that’s always been what she does? Him too. When there is someone else in the picture or the other expresses lack of interest in them, they both back off. That is not a sign that they don’t LOVE each other, that’s a sign that they respect the others’ choice and free will.

See KIDNAPPING the girl you love and holding her hostage and bargaining for her love is NOT free choice or respect. Letting her go because she doesn’t want to be there IS. NOT pursuing her because she’s in love with someone else or isn’t interested or is taken is RESPECT. 

After Clarke makes her amends with Bellamy so she knows he knows how much she cares for him (but not the romance part, she still hides that) she, yes, respects his choice and tries to move on and have some fun (this is a HEALTHY way to deal with unrequited longing, I promise). And then he sees that as evidence that she doesn’t care for him and turns back to Echo. See, they’re both being so respectful of the other’s wishes that neither of them will actually SAY how they feel about each other and they’re each trying to be the better person and be noble and self sacrificial. 

Clarke was ready to DIE in the mindspace, because she believed that Madi and Bellamy would be better off without her. And Bellamy was willing to live a life half lived because Clarke, and therefore part of his heart, was gone and he would sacrifice his feelings to keep his people safe. UNTIL he found out she was alive.

It’s canon that Clarke was afraid to face Bellamy because she thought he didn’t really forgive her. And yet, she reached out to him and he reached back. He heard her. And he came after her. And perhaps this is what you’re reacting to. His GOAL for the second half of the season was to rescue Clarke and he then came to grips with his feelings for her and how much she meant to him. So this is what his story was about while hers was about finding both her strength and her self esteem again, and ALSO recognizing the power of love, BECAUSE Bellamy came after her.

I don’t know how you could look at her face after he rescues her and say she doesn’t love Bellamy and it’s not obvious. Or the way she grasped at him. Or the way they talked the next episode, so intimate and caring. MUTUAL. 

Season 6 was such a freaking Bellarke love story. They weren’t always at the same place and yes I think that was because of Echo. Because Clarke couldn’t forget her place in his life. Bellamy was seeing past Echo, because that’s what he was coming to grips with, but Clarke couldn’t because it wasn’t up to her.