how did john view bellamy pre "murphy's law" vs durring the episode and thne post.
before murphy’s law, murphy saw bellamy as his leader— he was pretty content to listen to him, to do what he wanted, because it gave him power over the rest of the 100. sure, he had to listen to bellamy, but no one would have listened to just him. bellamy’s influence behind his actions, though, is what gave him the control he craved. he couldn’t control anything that happened to him or his family on the ark, but down here he could control what 99 other kids were doing, and he was very driven by that.
i think his craving for power made him very weak to bellamy’s influence, but i also think that bellamy knew all the right words to say, that bellamy was against everything murphy was against, that he was strong and capable and charming, and that murphy didn’t mind listening to him because their views aligned and bellamy made it so easy to be on his side.
the way i play murphy, too, is that he had a crush on bellamy. a pretty unhealthy, dependent sort of crush— one where he would have done what bellamy told him pretty much no matter what it meant, one where he was determined to have his attention and do right by him— and that was what made murphy’s law so much harder. because he thought he was important to bellamy, that bellamy might have liked him, too, bc he put him above everyone else, and he was wrong. all it took was for the people BENEATH them to turn against him, and bellamy turned on him, too.
the way he sees it, bellamy had the power to stop him, and that evidently he meant so little to him that he didn’t.
so, post murphy’s law, bellamy’s influence over murphy has melted away. the spell has worn off, so to speak, and so when bellamy gives murphy an order, murphy no longer feels obligated to obey him. in fact, when he gives him an order, murphy makes a snide comment about him being the boss and then knocks him out. ( which i’m super proud of him for, by the way. )
then bellamy BEATS THE HELL OUT OF HIM AND BANISHES HIM, and murphy loses any respect he once had for bellamy. because sure, assuming that he killed wells and trying to hang him was bad enough, but even once he knew he wasn’t guilty, even once he knew that clarke had wrongly accused him, he was left out to die as if he really was the criminal they’d made him out to be ( as if they weren’t all criminals ). bellamy’s completely dropped and become the top of murphy’s shit list at this point, and he couldn’t care less what happens to him.
he tries to kill bellamy because he’s very revenge driven, because he thinks that if someone tries to kill you, then they deserve the same thing right back. he tries to kill him because he doesn’t care anymore about what he felt for bellamy before because bellamy betrayed him, because bellamy is the reason he was tortured and used as a biological weapon. all he cares about is how much bellamy hurt him, and how much he can hurt him back.
this obviously changes over time— he fails at the revenge plot, winds up working with bellamy more than he wants to, and they grow— but for a long time, he’s really not happy with bellamy and he really couldn’t care less what happens to him. now that they’ve had time, he cares more. he knows they’ve all made decisions that they’d rather not, and he doesn’t want to kill bellamy anymore. i’m not 100% sure bellamy’s completely forgiven, but i think they’re on the way to being actual friends again ( as long as bellamy can get over the things he thinks about murphy being selfish and horrible ).
