I was hoping for Princess Mechanic this season, but am not sure we’re gonna get it. I’m especially uncertain where Raven’s storyline/arc are going since we just got a little insight into what’s going on in her head in 6x08. I guess the lack of PM makes sense since Josephine story is lasting so long. I hope we do get her reaction to C’s apparent death, but again not sure if that‘ll happen for her or Abby until after they’ve already gotten C back. Seems like that’d have less emotional impact tho.
I also have been hoping for Princess Mechanic. I saw it in the c/b/e parallel with c/f/r. But the conflict of c/b/e never became a FIGHT where people would take sides. Because it remained with the people involved. Clarke and Bellamy and how they feel about each other, and we are starting to get Echo and her feelings about it. Just feelings. Clarke choosing to let go. Bellamy choosing, officially, to stay with Echo, but in action and feeling, choosing to prioritize Clarke always. His head says Echo and his heart says Clarke, which is a story that is coming to a head.
BUT I always said I was most nervous for PM because it is NOT in the main themes or storylines. I can’t see it as well, because I’m mostly doing my spec based on the larger narrative. I see connections, but it’s not required to move the story forward or create the meaning they are developing, like Bellarke is.
It can be very hard to predict the bellarke storylines, because they are NOT told along the romance genre narrative lines, NOR are they told with the soap opera dramatic tension and melodrama. I think the best way to do it, is to keep the tropes, that ARE romance genre tropes, but put them into the adventure/scifi structures, and then pull WAY back on the melodrama, because all the melodrama comes from life and death moral decisions, not romance.
And connecting Raven’s story to Bellarke’s story to bring us Princess Mechanic is a melodramatic soapy storyline. My hopes have again taken over my spec in the case of Princess Mechanic.
I think that Raven’s story this season has instead been about HER OWN morality. How her pragmatism and judgments on others are in conflict, and when asked to make the moral decision herself, she finds it’s not so easy to be “pure.” In a way, she might be a stand in for the audience, who expects all the characters they love to be pure, and then when they are not, heaps judgment down upon them. Hmm. Maybe.
Princess mechanic might still come together, but not until RAVEN makes it right within herself. HEY, that’s like the blake siblings. It’s not a question of them hashing out their differences, it’s a question of Raven and Octavia both coming to some conclusions about themselves, their responsibilities and their treatment of their respective “siblings.” Clarke is definitely posed as Raven’s sibling… and always has been. Abby adopted her a long time ago in the narrative, comparing her to her own daughter, and now we’ve had plenty of comparisons of Abby to Raven’s mother.
They’re tying the remaining delinquents even more tightly into a family unit. Emori was married into it. I believe Echo still is uncertain of her place within it, and the “spy” thing has been reinforced multiple times by Bellamy, Emori and Madi. Spy, not family. Family also has… but it’s up and down, thus illustrating her uncertainty.
Back to princess mechanic. I think it’s still coming, but it wasn’t a main relationship or plot. It is tied to Raven’s character development, which is pretty low key considering the high drama of Clarke and Bellamy’s.
Just as when we’re looking at Bellarke romance, though, I think we should probably pull back from the melodramatic expectations of soapy emotional impact and conflict. Life and death moral decisions are where we get the high melodrama. Interpersonal relationships get a lower dramatic impact… except where they intersect with life and death moral decisions.
That means that it is not their intent to make every relationship conflict highly emotional. Maybe they are keeping pm more lowkey to offer a contrast to the more high drama bellarke and memori and bohunkabby. All of which are connected to the immorality of this brand of imortality. High drama. Life and death moral decisions. See? But make it romance! lol.
I mean, the sibling relationship of bellamy and murphy is low emotional impact, too. Murphy saves B from becoming a murderer, but B’s apology is like ‘whatev dude’ and he calls murphy a traitor then tries to jump in to keep Josephine from hurting him. Subtle and affecting, but not high drama. Even the blakes? High conflict, then separation, where Octavia is left to deal with her own shit and Bellamy is busy with the next drama. That’s the same description of princess mechanic s6 narrative arc, with the conflict being Raven’s sharp tongue instead of Octavia’s sharp sword. interesting.
