Rattle the Stars @acourtofbellarkeandshit - Tumblr Blog

Listen… the setup for a future confrontation between Bellamy and Clarke this episode was… so much. And I feel like I have a pretty good handle on where both of my idiot children were at mentally and emotionally this episode, so I wrote a ridiculously long meta about it which I’m putting under a cut.

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#*violin plays*#it's just #so #sad

scuttleboat

the concept of a tragic flaw as a lens for looking at 5x09

What’s happened with Clarke and Bellamy in 5x09 is a tragedy (separated! hurt! maybe gonna die!) that is informed by their personal flaws, as tragedy in fiction should be. I call it tragic because for me, tragedy happens when everyone is trying to make the right choice but it still falls apart. And when the root of why something falls apart comes from the same protagonist who is trying to make it work, you have the concept of a tragic flaw: hamartia, or a fatal flaw leading to the downfall of a tragic hero or heroine.

In this case, it’s not “fatal” in the full greek drama meaning (the heroes haven’t died), but I’m not looking at the whole series. For this little detour I want to examine this episode and the rise and fall of Bellamy and Bellarke’s fate within it. So I’m treating 5x09, the A-plot in Polis, as a story unit, with a little spillover from the poisoning at the end of 5x08. Within the context of this episode, things hit rock bottom for the heroes, especially Bellamy. Clarke and Bellamy’s actions are both reflective of their flaws, but Bellamy in particular intrigues me because he risks the most this episode and ultimately loses the most as a result. He goes through the complete arc over the course of the episode; the same trait that brings him seeming success in the first half becomes a tragic flaw that leads to his downfall by the end.

Bellamy’s tragic flaw in 5x09 is singlemindedness: he cannot see beyond the idea that he must stop the war to save everyone, and changing leaders is how it can happen. That end goal, manifested in the plan to overtake Wonkru, is all he can see; he doesn’t give due consideration to the rest of the picture. Eg: He poisons Octavia to save Clarke and overtake Wonkru. He shuts Clarke out of his plan and leaves her chained in order to overtake Wonkru and save Spacekru. He uses a child for political power, again to save Spacekru, and to save the valley and Clarke…by overtaking Wonkru. That’s three MAJOR lines he crosses because he believes that doing so will have the outcome he wants: peace under a new leader. Those lines may not be big for other characters, but for Bellamy Blake, it’s huge. People like Clarke and Madi warn him against these actions, but he doesn’t listen. And at different stages in the episode, it seems to be working: Bloodreina is down, Indra is on his side, Madi is agreeing to be Commander. By the end though, instead of success his actions actually cause an even worse outcome state: he’s gonna die for his conspiracy, his ally Indra is gonna die, the war is still on, his friends will still die because of the worms, he’s lost Octavia’s trust and he’s lost Clarke’s trust. Now Bellamy and his loved ones are in more dire straights than they were when 508 ended, because of his actions and his plan. Which he did fully believing that it would save them. That’s the tragedy: his singlemindedness doesn’t help the situation, it aggravates it.

In his singlemindedness, he can’t accurately see Clarke’s POV and thus fails to anticipate her response… which directly leads to the collapse of his plan. He doesn’t properly plan to contain Octavia, leaving it to one person (Indra.) He doesn’t have someone monitoring Jackson’s progress, doesn’t stay in the room with Octavia because he thinks he needs to be at the ascension ceremony. He believes the people will follow the Flame. Instead of those choices working out… Jackson rehabilitates Octavia, many people still follow Bloodreina, and Clarke pulls a gun on Indra to set Octavia free. Those were things that Bellamy didn’t anticipate because he couldn’t see beyond the single focus of ‘this is how we save everyone’. And it’s not just enough to try your hardest: to win at politics you have to anticipate, something Octavia did the best in this episode, ironically.

So did he HAVE to have this plan? Well, in-universe, no. There could have been any number of other ways for Clarke and Bellamy to take on Wonkru. But in-universe, Bellamy thought those were more dangerous, involved more lost lives, and were less likely to succeed. He believed that his plan would work. Outside the show, in a meta sense, any alternative plans where Clarke and Bellamy work together are off the table, because they wouldn’t serve the goals of the episode’s story. Those goals: to end in a climactic downfall of Bellamy’s plan and the B/C relationship.

The plan that Bellamy chose (betray Clarke to make Madi Commander and steal Wonkru) ultimately reflects his tragic flaw in the episode. In multiple ways, actually. In his singleminded belief that having a Commander was the way to end the war, he was blind to the unpredictable nature of Wonkru loyalists like Jackson and Niylah. In his singleminded need to save his own people, Bellamy prioritized his needs over Clarke’s, and was blind to the real-time consequences of doing so. He assumed that her response to the betrayal would be a future emotional conflict, not an immediate tangible conflict. If he hadn’t looked at the situation these ways, hadn’t made these choices, then it would be a different story. BUT OF COURSE, this is the story that the writers wanted to take him through. They wanted to have him hit rock bottom in the arena, at odds with the two people he loves the most. They wanted Clarke running scared, Madi chipped, and Octavia driven farther into isolation than ever before. This whole episode was constructed to take these characters to these points and cross these thresholds. ((side note: I could write another two pages on how Clarke’s flaws in the last two episodes resulted in her having lost the ability to protect home or family, or how Octavia’s flaws brought her to her own heartbreak. But Bellamy was the big one whose agency shaped this episode.))

Keep in mind, I’m not saying this to bash on a character: I’m explaining why bad things happen around characters who mean well. Meaning well is part of the whole deal in fact; flaws are difficult to see in yourself, but they come out negatively via your actions. It’s a tragic flaw if it those actions unwittingly lead to your ‘end’. In this episode the writers wanted to reach a specific ‘end’: a wedge between B/C and B/O, and characters picked to fight in the ring. The irony of a tragic flaw is that its inescapable because it’s part of who you are, and often the same trait is a strength under different circumstances. Ex: Bellamy’s singlemindedness (his ability to focus on achieving one goal without being held back by everything else) kept the kids alive in season 1 and saved many of his friends in season 2, and it’s implied to have kept his small family alive in space. And singlemindedness is not his only flaw/strength of course; in other episodes or storylines it may not even be a significant factor. But in 5x09 it leads him to his ‘downfall’: a powerless prisoner. Very DRAMATIC set up for next week, right? ;D

So, yeah! That’s just a little spiel about tragic flaws in media, and how this episode is a nice example of how to write one effectively. If bad things are gonna happen to your characters, it’s always much richer when the bad things are tied to their own choices and motivations. Gives it that old-time Aegean flavor.

Side note #2: if you wanna look at the Bellarke relationship as similar model, then the flaw in Bellarke is that they will accept any horrible consequences to save the ones they love. In this episode, because of narrative context, that flaw is in both of them: Bellamy doing anything to save his family and Clarke doing anything to save hers. But since those needs are opposed, it becomes a tragic flaw that leads to the ‘downfall’ of their relationship. ..But just for now, lbh.

BTW, this is a very broad approach I know, not a deep symbolism dive or anything, but even so if I misrepresented any specific term or concept, let me know in the replies.

#i really have nothing more to add

trueloveisdelena

#too hot #hot damn

#yummy yum yum yum #don't get me wrong #i'm really into s5 grunge bellamy #the beard and kinda slick hair #but i miss the fluff #and the chin dimple #he so pretty #and sexy #so versatile

Classic Bellarke Campfire Coquetry | 5x05 “Shifting Sands”

↳ “I can see why my mom was terrified but you gotta admit, it’s impressive” “So is surviving alone.”

hawthornewhisperer

Emotional Reticence and Role Swapping: Clarke and Bellamy in 505

I have so, so many bellarke related thoughts from last night’s episode, which was a delightful and sincerely appreciated surprise, but what I really want to talk about is Clarke’s reticence to opening up to Bellamy.

Before I get started, however, a disclaimer: this is gonna talk about E.cho and be.cho and yes, I am bellarke af BUT I also genuinely enjoy the be.cho dynamic and the complications that will bring. So that means by continuing to read this, you’re making a deal with me: I will not try to make you ship be.cho and you, in turn, will keep all “wow I hate that bitch” comments off my post, up to and including the “I really dislike be.cho but I actually liked this!” type comments because honestly, I do not need to know you dislike be.cho. Comments like that majorly bum me out, even if you think you’re being positive and respectful. And if you think this disclaimer is overly dramatic: you’re right, it is! But please take a look at any post and/or ficlet I have written for s5 that includes a mention of be.cho because right now, 90% of them have SOME FORM of I-hate-echo-itis in the comments anyway and I promise you, I’m just as tired of having to make these disclaimers as you are of reading them.

But back to Clarke and her feelings. Something that has stood out to me in 504 and 505 is how quiet Clarke is. She’s never been the loudest or most talkative of the characters, but she’s usually fairly communicative, especially with Bellamy. In fact, she’s usually the one prodding him to reveal his feelings, as in 108/313/406, where she’s basically like “I can tell you’re having emotions now, want to process them with me?” and Bellamy is like “no honestly I’d rather just be alone in my sadness, thank you, also here’s everything that has been bothering me since childhood.”

Except now, that dynamic is almost completely reversed: Bellamy is the one pressing Clarke for more details on her emotional state and she’s the one withholding. The difference is, of course, Bellamy of seasons 1-4 generally caved and bared his entire bleeding, aching soul to Clarke after .05 seconds of patient silence from her, whereas Clarke– who has always been a little bit more guarded in her emotions– has more practice at Conceal Don’t Feel-ing her way through life.

In 504, after their reunion in the holding cell, Clarke actually says *nothing* to Bellamy for the rest of the episode, and what she does say to him in 505 is very restrained. And when she does open up to him in the head and heart conversation, it’s not about herself, it’s about him. I think once Clarke got over her initial disbelief that Bellamy was really there, she started mentally cataloguing the changes she noticed in him. There’s the beard, obviously, but there’s also the general softness he’s let come to the surface. Clarke knew that gentleness existed, but Bellamy usually tried to hide it from everyone else and now he’s not even bothering. He’s also far more strategic, but notably Clarke only seems to recognize that by saving her life he saved Madi’s, which is a very Season One Bellamy thing to do in terms of My Life Doesn’t Matter, Only My Sort Of Daughter’s Does.

Now, I’m not sure Bellamy has noticed how different Clarke is yet. He’s always been incredibly emotionally intelligent, but I honestly think that the shock of finding out she’s alive has blinded him to noticing that she’s changed. Clarke spent six years talking to a static, imaginary version of Bellamy with the assumption that he would one day return to her, but Bellamy has spent six years mourning a very-real-but-still-static version of Clarke. Clarke probably knew he would come back a little different, so now she’s busy ascertaining just how different he is, whereas Bellamy is still processing the fact that she’s even there.

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#i love everything about this #I can't wait #gimme all the bellarke angst #it's clarke's turn to realize how in love she is