#My brother calls him Coldagan by the way which is the name of a toothpaste

[afaimscorner]

Bellamy Blake Story-Arc in Season 7

So, now it’s time to look at this narrative mess, I guess. Which actually, if you look closer, isn’t such a great mess at all. The problem is that the ending of 7x13 was rewritten - this is not the point where Bellamy’s Arc was originally supposed to end, which is very obvious, when you look closer. However they decided to bump him off in order to elevate Clarke (who actually was Character Assassinated in 7x13 and whom I don’t care for anymore right now. As far as I am concerned she is a lunatic who should be put down rather sooner then later, so ... yeah, good job, you succeeded in making your audience hate your Lead, dear 100 Writer’s Room), because appearently a show is only allowed to have one Main Character and everyone else is just spare.

But back to Bellamy.

The thing is Season 7 wasn’t really about getting Octativa back, it was about getting Bellamy back thanks to his unforseen abduction in 7x01 and the fact that we got Octavia back by 7x02. Which is why 7x13 is so frustrating, it just killed of the main story arc of the season - quite literally.

Now, the Bellamy Arc we got in the last three episodes and the couple of scenes we had with him in the other three eps or so was in was actually pretty interesting. Mainly because it was obviously leading somewhere, however we never got to see where.

But it is pretty obvious. It is all about the Vision Bellamy had on Etherea, the Vision that was a shared vision, Cadogan was in it, and obviously could remember after. Remember when Bellamy told Clarke he couldn’t lie to Cadogan? It was pretty strongly implied he meant that literally. Because Cadogan was somehow in his head thanks to the shared vision and would know if he lied. This connection obviously went both ways because Bellamy seemed to know thinks he was not told On-Screen. Now of course Cadogan could have just told him all this stuff Off-Screen, but this is not the impression I got. Bellamy was acting very self concsious around Cadogan in those  to episodes, always catching himself when he was acting normal (like in the scene with Emori) as soon as he was looking at Cadogan. Which could just be “holy cult leader” stuff of course, but it clearly wasn’t. He was submissive in a way no one else was, almost seemed to be afraid of Cadogan, always appeasing him, and at the same time he is  the one that pointed out the flaw in the Disciples logic to Ducette just an episode before.

It is also strange that Bellamy seems to exist outside the ranks of the Disciples. Everyone else, who was recruted, had to ungerdo training, achieve Levels, get numbers painted in their face - Bellamy was just in the minute he stepped foot on Bardo again, because he took a Leap of Faith, but how would anyone know if he wasn’t just faking it? Cadogan was the one, who declared him his honored side-kick, and Co-Messiah if you will, mainly because he was on Etherea and went through the Pilgrimage. But so did Ducette. Now Bellamy is the one who had the Vision and whose prayer did make the storm go away, which means he was touched by .... the Transcendents (I don’t know what they are called yet), which means he is higher up in the ranks of the Disciples than Ducette, howvever it was Ducette who became the new First Disciple, not Bellamy. But what did Bellamy became then? The Second Shepherd? Appearantly. But again: Why? Cadogan wouldn’t trust him, if he wouldn’t have a very good reason to.

So assuming the reason is that he was touched by the Transcendents, this is the reason why Bellamy is suddenly Number Two on Bardo. And maybe he always was supposed to.

Now, I never understood why Bellamy was kidnapped in the first place in 7x01. It could not have been to have leverage against Octavia, not really, because they already had her, and had leverage against her anyways, it could not have been to draw out Clarke, because ... honestly why did the just not kidnap Clarke in the first place, when they wanted Clarke? They ordered this as soon as the found out Clarke had the Key, but Bellamy was abducted sooner, so we are back to the leverage against Octavia theory, which makes no real sense given that they had Diyoza and a machine which could go into Octavia ‘s mind. I thinkt that is what they claimed the reason to be a some point, but as soon as Bellamy showed up, Anders said the did not actually need him. And he claimed to send him back to Sanctum, but did send him to Etherea instead. Why?

I think because Cadogan had always known Bellamy would come to Bardo and eventually become his Co-Shepherd. He knew since he had his own Vision on Etherea all those time ago. That is why there was a Standing Order to get Bellamy Blake as soon as someone with pictures of him in his mind would show up on Bardo. This happend when Levitt saw Bellamy in Octavia’s mind, therefore a team was send out to fetch him, and therefore Anders send him to Etherea because that also was a Standing Order or maybe Cadogan actually told him that flat out when he woke him.

So yeah, Bellamy is special because he has a connection to the Transcendents.

But that does not mean, he was really on Cadogan’s Side. Yes, he sincerly wanted to end all wars and knew the test was coming and was calling it the last war, however I think he actually understood it wasn’t an actual war but a war against oneself and one’s better nature.

Now, for some reason everyone assumed Bellamy was not undercover but had really joined the Cult. I am not sure why because this is exactly what Echo, Octavia and Gabriel themselves did: They pretended to join, even went as far as to betray their friends to proof their loyalty and played that charade for months. Bellamy was on Bardo for a much shorter period of time.

For some reason everyone always wanted him to say out loud he was only pretending. Again I am not sure why, because we know there a cameras and I never got why those don’t record sound, but after what Echo and Hope pulled, I sure as hell would record what my hostages are saying at this point. Also they own a mind reading device, so yeah, even if Cadogan weren’t in Bellamy’s mind, I would not go around and admit that everything is an act out loud if I were Bellamy.

Moving on to the bad things Bellamy did, which made him deseve death in Clarke’s Eyes: Well he did not do anything. He told Cadogan Clarke did not have the Flame, which would have come out eventually anyways, because that bluff had been stupid from the first moment on, and Cadogan might have even known at that point already, beause as you might recall Niylah did slip up and more or less told him Callie was the First Flamekeeper after Clarke had claimed she was a Heda, since then Cadogan was suspicious and might have shared this suspicion with Bellamy just before he presented him to his friends at the end of Etherea. The next thing was that Bellamy picked who to mind scan, which again would have happened anyway, since no one was cooperating any more. All Bellamy did was point at the persons who could know where the Flame was so that not all of his friends would get mind scanned but only two. And finally the reason Clarke murderd him: A fucking Book of Drawings, he had not even given to Cadogan at this point. Clarke did it to keep Madi safe, but who says Bellamy would have told Cadogan who made the drawings or that he would have let them mind scan Madi? He told Clarke and the others several times to trust him, and they decided just not to. Why? Mainly because he did not storm Bardo gunblazing but used his head instead of his heart to save everyone, just like Clarke told him to at the end of Season 5.

His last words were also: “This is how we do better” just like Kane:s were. Not killing and maiming anymore is how we do better - same message.

What’s more: Why the hell did Clarke assume she could keep Madi a secret from the Disciples anyway? And why did she not just shoot all the Disciples like she threatend to, took Bellamy hostage and with her through the Anamoaly or took the drawings instead? She already had Madi, she could have just kept her daughter save at her side, no matter what Bellamy might do with the drawings.

And of course: Why would she need to kill him? The threat was the book with the drawings, not Bellamy. She is a much better shot than that: Arms, Legs, fucking stomage, which is bad but not necessary deadly - she could have shot Bellamy, but did not need to kill him.

He was no threat to her or Madi at this point. The whole scene would have worked if Bellamy would have done anything bad before or during the scene, but like I said he did not! He was not holding a gun to Madi’s head, he was holding a book with drawings!

Also: Shedheda, Madi, Cadogan and Bellamy all seemed to know something important about the Anomaly/the Transcendents - and three out of four more or less worked together because of this. Knowing what those Aliens can do, maybe it would not be such a bad idea to listen to them? For Humanity’s Sake?

So overall: Bellamy was on principle right in those episodes, while his methodes might have been wrong and working with Cadogan might have been too, but I am not so sure that was what he was really doing. Maybe the overall Arc was going towards Bellamy replacing Cadogan as the Shepherd to get the Disciples on their side. Ducette certainly would have gotten along with this. (By the way: Why did Ducette have Night Blood? This was the most confusing thing about that horrible 7x13 ending scene to me, because I could make no sense out of it. The Disciples are the Second Dawn Spawns and therefore those without Night Blood, are they not?) Maybe the two even started planing that on Etherea.

It certainly would make sense with the theme of the season and Murphy’s and Emori’s and Shedheda’s Storyline about pretending to be a god. Why should Bellamy not pretend to be a Messiah, especially given that he actually is one by the definition of this Cult?

Whatever, I guess we will never know, because the writer’s decided they needed Clarke to go insane. Maybe it’s because they wanted her to do something unforgivebale and this it why they staged the whole moment that stupid, but at this point it just makes no sense.

Overall I also have to say that I am starting to find it worrying that as the season progresses the Disciples seem to become the ones that are actually right, and Clarke and the others are the monsters here. I mean of course the whole Final War, No Family, and No Individual Love is nonsense, but somehow the other are the ones who are doing the real horrible things here - killing of people for no good reason, planning mass murder out of revenge etc. It’s probably on purpose (by the writers), but everyone had come so far before, and now Nikki is the one who acts more sensible than Clarke by sparing Raven’s life, while Clarke murders Bellamy without good reason? Something has gone very wrong in the Writer’s Room in this season.