Listen, nonny, if your theory is that JR intended to make Bellarke canon in s1 and 2 but got scared away by the L backlash and isn’t doing Bellarke anymore, then you’re not paying attention to the show.
Because not only did he CONTINUE to tell the story of a Bellarke relationship, but every season the Bellarke relationship gets more and more romantic. That is the OPPOSITE of not doing romantic Bellarke, that is doubling DOWN on romantic bellarke. Track the romantic development across the five seasons. It did not stop with s2. Nor did it stop with CL, in fact she canonically, and literally turned from L towards Bellamy, and from then on it has been a dance that only brought them closer, DESPITE the obstacles and detours that seemed to take them away from romance.
s1. enemies to partners to friends. A crush.
s2. devotion. It just makes sense. You care about him more.
s3. conflict then commitment.
s4. mutual pining then 2199 radio calls for six years of hopeless love
s5. reunion and CANON love statements. Bellarke TOGETHER and on the edge of the future.
Please. Go ahead and track the development of B/E. I’ll give you a break and not ask you to track it for 4 seasons. All you need to do is track it in season 5.
Where does B/E start out? Where does it end up? Is their relationship EXPLORED during the season? No. They are nominally together, but what it is the connection that is seen? What is explored is a comparison between B/E and Bellarke. I don’t actually want to anti-ship b/e. If people love it, that’s awesome. I think B/E is actually pretty healthy and sweet, I just don’t think it can last, and I do think that Bellarke is the narrative center of the show. But this is an issue that keeps coming up.
B/E begin romantically, tender and intimate. Family. 5.01. We see their partnership and Echo’s role in the family in 5.03. It is not romantic and doesn’t address their intimate relationship. 5.04 and 5.05 has no B/E at all until the last moment, and that is to WATCH as Clarke has Big Feelings about their kiss. 5.06 is the only episode that explores their relationship and it is defined by defending her against Octavia, and then focuses on their separation. It is a real relationship. They care about each other a lot. However, after Echo leaves, all mentions of Echo by Bellamy are not romantic in nature, but more about her mission, or about her being family. It is almost 7 episodes before we see a B/E reunion and it is awkward and not intimate. The only mention of B/E in that entire time is Emori telling Echo she’ll see him again and Echo responding vaguely. That’s it. By 5.13 after being separated for more than half of the season, they hug, are battlefield comrades, are in the same room during a council, and then he puts her to sleep-- although their goodnight is not significant enough to warrant an on-screen scene. If you can find more development of B/E in canon, on screen, whether they are together or apart, be my guest. Put the scenes together that tell the story of the B/E relationship. Use that storyline to show that B/E is being developed as something that will last. Show us how Bellamy’s 5.01 statement to Echo that “nothing will change,” is foreshadowing of B/E endgame, and not foreshadowing that B/E is doomed, and the return of the TWO women he loves, Octavia and Clarke, will be the end of B/E.
In contrast, s5 Bellarke begins with Clarke longing hopelessly for their return, and Bellamy thinking she is dead. But it ends with her concern for his safety, his anger and immediate forgiveness when he finds out she actually cares for him, him inviting her back into his life, flirting and smiles, nonverbal communication at the good night scene, tender and intimate good morning when they wake up, team back in place. Bellamy. Who technically is still with Echo, until we see proof that they are not together, even though we haven’t really seen them together-together since 5.06. BELLAMY pulls Clarke into his side in an intimate embrace, that, while it is still a platonic hug, is not something that he would have done if Echo were there in the room. AND as JR has stated, in the finale, 5.13, Bellamy is “complete.” So what makes him complete? Is it his girlfriend who is sleeping and we see no intimacy with? Or is it him standing at that window, a parallel to him standing at the window in 4.13, but this time, with Clarke at his side, in his arms. Clarke completes Bellamy. So, to sum up. The s5 development is this:
5.01 Bellarke is separated by space (he’s in space she’s on earth,) time (6 years or 2199 days,) and death (he thinks she’s dead.)-->5.13 Bellarke is together, through light years of space, 125 years of time, and the literal death of their planet.
I am not delusional. I did not make this up. This is the story of Bellarke in season 5. DESPITE betrayals that nearly destroyed them. They came through, together. Little reminder. 5.01 had Echo telling Bellamy that it took 3 years for him to forgive her. 5.13 had Bellamy forgiving Clarke in 3 seconds when he found out she cared so much for him.
When B/E and Bellarke are compared directly, you can clearly see that Bellarke is endgame. I did NOT write this story. This is what is onscreen.
So look. I do not want to write metas disproving someone else’s ship. But y’all keep sending me things telling me that Bellarke is dead and B/E is endgame. The rules of my inbox are to ship and let ship, and that means you’re not ALLOWED to hate on Bellarke or ANY ship in my inbox. (not even B/E) And if you come into my inbox telling me that Bellarke isn’t happening I will block you and you won’t be able to ask me any more questions. I decided to write this, to show you WHY I am not concerned with b/e, why Bellarke is STILL endgame, because these anons keep happening. I want to show you how I came to that conclusion according to the narrative development for EACH relationship. There is, indeed, a lot I did not bring up about Bellarke’s storyline, and that is actually more proof, because there is SO MUCH, that the narrative is directly addressing Bellarke and how much they love each other, even when Bellarke are not together, not in the same scene and have been separated for episodes. THIS is in stark contrast to what happens when B/E are not on screen together. Because then it’s like... “B/E? What’s that? Where? Huh? Who?” TWO mentions when they are not together and one of them is to point out how he loves Clarke, his other traitor. And the other is, you’ll be together again, *shrug* ok.
A story is not just separate scenes strung together. It is a journey using the scenes as a stepping stone to take you to a certain place. You can map out the journey of the characters by paying attention to each scene and figuring out it’s place within the story. Where did it come from? What obstacles get in the way? How does it move to the next scene? What DON’T they talk about? What detours does it take? Where does it end up? Can you extrapolate the direction it is going in the future?
Track the development. Put it together. Compare and contrast. Figure out what it is saying.