#decided to send him to the conclave instead Just In Case something bad Were to happen for whatever reason

[mojaves]

thinking about atticus my inquisitor again. and all the lore i uncovered yesterday,,, im allowed to have one [1] very powerful mage i think. as a treat

[wootensmith]

Shartan

(full fic fixed on AO3, all chapters in their proper places right now. Will post second new chapter tomorrow)

“Wait, don’t go up yet,” Varric said abruptly. “You do realize what we’ve just done, don’t you?” His voice echoed off the large pillars of stone that ringed the cavern. Cassandra paused halfway up the small slope back into Winterwatch Tower. She squinted back down into the dark at them. “Closed the rift, of course.” “Exactly. And?” Cassandra shook her head. Solas glanced up from the Herald’s hand. The anchor was stabilizing and she didn’t need his assistance as badly as he’d thought she would. “We took away a gift of their Maker,” said the Herald suddenly. “Yeah. Not really sure how they’re going to react to that. Might want to go up there together instead of one at a time,” said Varric. “The whole thing is blasphemous!” cried Cassandra. “What were we supposed to do, leave it to spew demons?” “Relax, Seeker. I’m not saying we were wrong, exactly. Just that— Chantry folk can get a little stabby on occasion.”

“The speaker at the gate seemed to want to be convinced that the rift was not divine,” offered Solas. “Perhaps we could appeal to her better judgment.”

Cassandra sighed and descended back into the large cave. “Maybe if the Herald hadn’t flatly denied that she—” “I told you I was uncomfortable,” said the Herald. Solas was surprised. She hadn’t shown much propensity to stand up to Cassandra to this point. “I agreed to join the Inquisition because we’re all in peril. And because you assured me that you wanted peace, Cassandra.” “I do—” “We know nothing about how the Breach came to be. Or how I survived the Conclave. Lying about it won’t help us find out the answers.” “They want to believe in something. You don’t have to lie. You said it yourself. You do not know how you came to be in the crater. Perhaps you really were sent by Andraste. What harm is there in allowing them to think so if it brings them comfort?” “Because if she did, she didn’t send me with any instructions. I’m lost, Cassandra. As lost as these people are. You can’t let them think I have all the answers. Especially if you value their faith. When I fail—” “If—” interjected Varric. She glanced at him. “If I fail, they’ll be shattered when we need them to be at their strongest. They don’t need another idol to replace the rift we closed. They need to go home. Be with their families. The fighting between the mages and the templars may be at a standstill now, but their villages are in ruins. Hiding here will not replant their crops or heal that boy’s mother.” Solas touched her shoulder to calm her. “What do you want to tell them lethallan?” he asked.

She looked at him, as if just now remembering he was with her. “I— cannot say.” She blushed. He was certain she knew exactly what she wished to tell them, but feared repercussions if she did so. Cassandra took it to mean that she didn’t have any good idea. “Then perhaps we say nothing and allow them to assume what they will?” she tried. The Herald started to shake her head, but Solas intervened. “Vindhru? Eshan tel’dhrua ma.” “I have to try,” she whispered. “To accomplish what, lethallan? You have a choice. If you tell them exactly how it happened, most of them will not believe you. Some will decide you are sent by their Maker anyway. Others will decide that you’ve played a trick. At best, they’ll stay here away from their families until starvation or cold takes them. At worst— they may strike at us. But if you say simply that the rift has closed, and allow them to draw their own conclusions, many will come to the truth on their own. The ones who do not may be— amenable to listening to your suggestions. If you tell them to go home and help their families or to help the refugees outside, some of them will do it out of awe and some will just see that the fear of the rift had driven them mad and what you’ve asked of them makes sense. What is your goal, Herald?” She always flinched when he called her that, just as she’d flinched when he’d called her a hero in Haven. It bothered him. She never so much as blinked when Cassandra or Varric called her “herald”. “Ar tel’vara,” he added.

“It’s not right,” she insisted. “No. It’s shitty,” said Varric. “But so is all the rest of it. Chuckles is right. We aren’t going to be able to talk sense to these people, their families have already tried over and over and they still ended up here. We’ve got to make the best of a bad hand. What’s more important? Whether or not these people believe you’re sent by the Maker or if they live to talk about it?” “But if I can’t close the Breach—” Varric shook his head. “I don’t think it’s going to matter much in that case. If we can’t close the Breach, nobody’s going to be around long enough to have theological arguments. You don’t have to like this— I don’t like this, but we have to tell them something.” She hesitated but then nodded. “All right. If it helps them, then my pride shouldn’t be what stops us.”

When they emerged from the cave several cultists knelt in their path. Solas willed her not to recoil. It seemed once she’d decided, however, that she did not leave herself room for doubt. She didn’t protest when Speaker Anais claimed she was a believer. And when the Speaker asked what the Herald of Andraste would have of the people in the tower, the Herald only gave simple instructions to help the refugees in the valley. He wasn’t the only one startled by the apparent ease she had playing the part. As soon as they cleared the tower, Varric let out a long gust of air, as if he’d been holding his breath. “Remind me never to play Wicked Grace with you, Herald. Your bluffing face is too good,” he said. It won him a laugh. Solas was pleased to hear her again at ease. “I’m afraid my skill doesn’t extend to cards, Varric,” she said, “You’d take whatever I had of worth within the hour.” “Ah, well, consider this a standing invitation, then, if we ever get back to the Singing Maiden before the sky collapses.”

The rest of the day was spent fairly pleasantly, hunting for resources to help feed and clothe the people still stuck in the crossroads, and Solas put the entire incident almost completely out of mind until that evening. The Herald waited until Cassandra had gone to write a report and Varric was playing cards with the scouts. She sat grinding embrium at the large stump the camp was using as an apothecary table. He sat on the other side of the stump studying a tracing of the veilfire rune they’d found, wondering who would have left such a thing in plain sight. “Solas,” she said. He looked up. “You said— you said you saw Shartan, in the Fade.” “Yes, I’ve seen memories of his deeds many times.” “Did he believe Andraste was divine?”

He put the tracing down, suddenly wary. “Alas, even the Fade cannot show all things. I have seen his deeds, but not his heart.” She turned back to the mortar and pestle for a moment. He thought the conversation had ended and began folding up his notes. “From his deeds then,” she asked without looking at him, “what do you think he believed?” It concerned him that she was so insistent on it. “I think,” he said slowly, “I think he believed she was a good strategist. And that throwing in his support was the last best chance his people had to win their freedom. But in the moment— no. I don’t think Shartan believed Andraste was anything more than a mortal woman. It’s highly unlikely she thought of herself as divine either.” She put down the pestle. Cleaned the debris from her hands. “Do you think— did he pretend he believed in more than her martial prowess to gain that freedom?” “Yes, lethallan. Or, at least— he used the belief of others to that end. When he led the charge of elves to her pyre, he knew they would not save her. A hundred against thousands? It was doomed from the start. But Shartan knew that while battles may be won with weapons, wars are won with symbols. If he had let her burn without trying to aid her, he and his people would have been lost to history. There would be no Dales and elves would still be enslaved across Thedas. When she was captured, the struggle could have been utterly lost. But already the common people whispered that Andraste was blessed. Shartan was no fool. His goal was not self-preservation, but the preservation of his people. That charge was his last attempt to give them what he otherwise could not. He used her martyrdom— and his, to save the People.” “Did he? If he used the belief in Andraste to give us the Dales, then at the same time he must have given over the rest of Thedas to worship of her. That— falsehood might be why the Chantry exists. And this war.”

Solas leaned forward, surprised. “And if he’d stood on the pyre and loudly proclaimed his faith in Elvhen gods? Do you think that would have stopped the Andrastians?” “No,” she admitted. “But if he’d lived instead— maybe she wouldn’t be seen as a martyr. Maybe it would have been little more than a cult like the people we helped today. Maybe he would have found another way.” “Maybe. But his goal was not to create a religion, it was to free the people he loved. Just as yours, I presume, is not to proselytize about Elgar’nan and Mythal, but to close the Breach, correct?” “Of course. But the way I close it should matter. We let them believe Andraste sent me to close the Breach. Afterward, once it’s gone and I remain, what will they believe in then?” Afterward it will not matter, Mouseling, he thought, but did not say so. “Those people were unharmed, lethallan. They will go on with their lives, provided the Breach does not swallow them, and largely forget about us. The few that don’t may tell their grandchildren a fairy story about the Herald of Andraste who healed the sky, but they will be few and far between. They will not even need to suppress a verse about us in the Chant. They will only remember that the Inquisition saved them, not us.” “That is worse,” she said, abruptly lowering her voice to a heated whisper. “I thought you didn’t want all this. That you’d rather go home to your clan—” “Yes, I would.”

“Then how is it worse that they forget about you? If you are forgotten, you’ll be allowed to lead your life as you see fit.” “It’s not my ego, it’s the Chantry.” She covered her ears for just an instant and then let her hands drop to the stump again. “Their god is already so loud. And ours have been… silent for so long. If I do this in Andraste’s name, maybe I’m only repeating Shartan’s charge. Maybe I’m helping them cover the whole world and drive us out. I don’t want to be hunted, Solas.” He touched her fingertips. “Your legacy, like Shartan’s will not be yours to control, lethallan. Despite our best efforts what people will remember is not always what we would wish. The story will get lost, bit by bit. I know. It’s happened to m— many in your situation,” he stumbled over himself, remembering that she did not know, could not know. Even if she knew, she wouldn’t understand, he reminded himself. “You must remember your goal. Do nothing that does not further them. Only time will determine the rest.” She shook her head and pulled her hand back from his. “I cannot promise that. I have a terrible feeling that whoever opened the Breach had the same idea. So many are left to suffer for the goals of people who have power. How can I do that?”

Her disappointment and shock confused him. She would be right, of course, if they could truly see their situation. The world would be a torture chamber if they really knew how stunted they were. Illusion. Play-acting, he told himself. Just a degraded recital of all the denigrations that came before. And yet— what harm is there in making their lives easier? Kinder? Even if it is only for a short time. He’d rest easier, in the end, if he could say he left them with some modicum of peace. “You are the only one with the ability to close the Breach, lethallan. You have power, whether you’d choose to wield it or not. And for us to even approach the people who might be allies, you must allow the stories around you to grow. You could not alter it even if you wished. Focus instead on the good you can do while you have that power. You sent those people back to their families. That is a tangible good, regardless of the tale they tell after. If you wish to help the Dalish, do so. Now. While you can. For nothing can guarantee what will happen afterward. Use the Chantry’s awe and ire to aid them. And the Inquisition. And any other you can.” “Even if it means being dishonest?” “I cannot say. That is for you to decide. What is more important? The task? Or the way you complete it? I do not think they will always align.” She had no answer for that. She bent over the mortar again.

Solas was frustrated with the sudden silence, frustrated by his own inability to say what he meant to her. Frustrated by her lack of understanding, though he knew that was unfair. “Do you think he would have regretted doing it if he could see what he had wrought so many years later?” she asked after a moment. “I think he had more than one reason to lead that charge. It would— complicate his feelings in the matter.” “Would you regret it? Had you been forced to make a similar decision?” “Vin. Bellanaris.” She looked at him, surprised at the sudden emotion in his voice. He looked away. “But even knowing that, I would do it anyway,” he added. “After all, what is one man’s guilt compared to his people’s freedom, limited though it ended up being?” He shook his head and gave her an uneasy smile. “But come, you need not take Shartan’s path. We need only convince the mages in Redcliffe to aid us and the Breach will close. There is no call for such somber talk. You’ll soon be on the road back to your clan, a hero.” The doubt in her face was plain to see. It sent a deep ripple of doubt through his mind, but Varric interrupted before they could speak longer and Solas tried to push the entire conversation from his memory.

[travllingbunny]

The 100 rewatch: 4x08 God Complex

Together with 4x07 Gimme Shelter, this is one of my top 5 episodes of season 4. What I’ve always loved most about season 4 is the way that having an unavoidable natural catastrophe as the Big Bad made it completely different than any other season of the show, and gave it that sense of desperation, bringing up the best and the worst in people. It’s the only season where I can really say that, most of the time, there were no good choices – characters were left to choose whatever they thought was the best of the two or more terrible options.

This episode was basically about three different approaches to the problem of Praimfaya – two attempts to find salvation: 1) through experiments with Nightblood, which could save everybody, but which led to some uncomfortable, morally ambiguous moments, and 2) through the search for the Second Dawn bunker that could not save everyone, but could certainly save quite a few people; while some people, like Jasper, were taking the third option of - not to trying to survive at all.

The biggest and most intense part of this episode was the drama in Becca’s lab, where a group of people were struggling with the issue of whether to conduct unwilling human experiments and potentially murder someone that way – knowing that the stakes were the survival of the human race and that, if they don’t find the solution through these experiments, everyone will die in less than two weeks. (Reminder: this is after Arkadia has been wrecked and cannot be used for shelter, and before Jaha manages to find the bunker. As far as the people in Becca’s lab knew, the Nightblood solution was the only way to prevent the extinction of the human race.)

This is a really serious and compelling moral dilemma. The characters present in Becca’s lab reacted in a number of different ways, and it’s hard to call any of them villainous or evil over it, as all the responses were understandable. However, in this case, there was one morally right choice: volunteer to be the test subject and risk your own life for the benefit of saving everybody. And just 1 (one) person did that: one Clarke Griffin. Which I could see coming when I watched this episode the first time, because this is what Clarke is like, ready to take responsibility and risk or potentially sacrifice her life, when saving everyone is at stake. The episode drags it out, hiding Clarke’s intentions till the last moment (though I’m sure she made her mind quite some time before she injected herself – around the time when she promised Murphy that Emori would be fine), but the fact that the “twist” was not a surprise to me, was not a bad thing at all: what matters is that characters act in character and that the story makes sense, and when you can predict it based on characterizations, it is actually satisfying to see the story unfold and stay true to who the characters are.

But this is also one of the examples of how much my outlook has changed since I first watched season 4 (even though that was less than a year ago) – because I have seen how it all turns out, and probably even more so, because of the way this episode has been referenced in season 6 (specifically, by Murphy). When I watched this the first time, Somehow, since the only references to what happens here were through Murphy’s weirdly selective memory, 4x08 has become all about how Clarke Griffin is such a baaad guy, ya all. Evil Clarke wanted to put Emori in the oven! Well, actually, a bunch of people (Clarke, Abby, Jackson, Miller, Roan, and Raven, who was complaining but not doing anything to stop it) were planning to put Emori in the oven, but just one (1) of them tried to take Emori’s place – yep, it was Clarke, after she listened to Murphy desperately pleading for Emori to be spared, and was moved by his love for her.

But, hey, details. Just like it’s a minor detail that Emori had previously (in 4x07) framed a random thief as a monster just to get him experimented on instead of her – and Murphy was very impressed by that as a “survivor’s move”. He likes to complain about evil Clarke treating people as “disposable”, but it only bothers him if it’s him or his girlfriend, while he himself treats people as disposable to a much higher degree – when it’s a random dude, rather than Murphy’s girlfriend.

Yes. I’m bitter and snarky about this, thanks to certain character behaviors in season 6 and certain fandom responses. I was sympathetic to Murphy and Emori in this episode, and to everyone involved, and the first time I watched this episode, I was mostly worried about Emori and scared that our protagonists, in particular Clarke – because she is my favorite character – would not go too far in their ruthlessness under the motto “End justifies the means”. Even though the end was, in this case, saving the human race from extinction that was coming in ten days. I was uncomfortable with the whole “oh, no – they are almost like the Mountain Men now!” parallel. Now I feel like rolling my eyes and pointing: no, they weren’t like the Mountain Men – because they were trying to save everyone, and if they didn’t find the solution, everyone, including Emori and Murphy, was going to die in ten days. (That’s what being in the fandom that takes moral grayness way too literally does to you. After seeing “there are no good guys, Clarke is as bad as the Mountain Men/Primes/Josephine” one too many times, I’ve had enough of the moral relativism and I prefer to point out that these parallels doesn’t mean that those completely different situations should be treated as the same.) The first time, I liked Raven pointing out the parallels, because I saw it as a warning: let’s try not to be the bad guys. But season 6 Raven has made me see season 4 Raven in a harsher light, too – now I can’t help but see it as one of the instances of her criticizing how immoral something is, while participating in it or not doing anything to stop it, and while not offering any other alternative options.

I was rooting for Clarke to do the right thing, and was happy when she did it, because of what it meant for her character. People kept telling her that she was the leader and had to make the tough decision. (Because everyone always keeps giving Clarke all the credit or all the blame, even though a bunch of people were involved in what was done. In this case, Roan was the most in favor and the first to suggest testing Emori, while Abby and Jackson were most directly conducting the experiments, and while Clarke was seen as the decision-maker, it’s not like she had the power on her own to force anyone to do this or that, if they had refused to. Actually, Miller and Roan were the ones physically restraining and forcing people – Emori, Luna, Murphy.) She told herself that “she bears it so they don’t have to”, But she interpreted that differently – not to mean deciding to risk or sacrifice others as “disposable”, but to risk or potentially sacrifice her own life. Which is really the old school, original view of what being a leader/ruler is: leaders and kings were originally those who led armies, fought on the frontlines, and, in some ancient cultures, were even literally sacrificed to the gods – before the of the ruler or leader changed to that of a person who remains safe and sends others to risk their lives to fight their battles.

…And then I was shocked by what Abby did right afterwards, smashing the machine, though I could understand why. When Abby told Clarke she couldn’t let her die, the camera focused on Emori, who was understandably thinking “So, you really thought the machine would kill me and you still wanted to test me?” But, to Abby’s defense, she freaked out because she had seen a vision of Clarke covered in radiation burns.

The first time I watched season 4, I still didn’t take Praimfaya as seriously. You keep waiting for some solution that would save most of the people – and things just got worse, all the solutions kept falling apart, except for the bunker – which presented a bunch of problems in itself. The first time, I was worried about Clarke losing so much of herself by focusing on the Big Picture. Now I like and relate to her even more than before, knowing how season 4 turns out – because if a natural disaster that’s about to wipe out the entire human race is not a reason to focus on the Big Picture, what is? Abby’s emotional reaction is human and understandable – similar to Murphy’s over Emori – but it is still a fact that the Nightblood solution worked, and that, if not everyone, than many more/most people could have been saved if they had tested Clarke  and found out that the solution worked. But that would have jettisoned the entire plot of the finale and season 5. No need for the bunker, or going into space, no Conclave, no Osleya or Blodreina, no Spacekru, no horrors of the bunker, no single mom Clarke all alone with Madi, etc. Everyone would have survived and settled in Eden. It’s a bit off how rarely people mention this – even now that hating on Abby is such a popular sport, no one mentions the fact that she basically doomed thousands of people to die because she was worried about her daughter dying. It’s odd that we never see Abby explicitly feeling guilty over that, instead of just conducting experiments or suggesting cannibalism.

Are the sins of doing ruthless but necessary things for the survival of the group considered less forgivable, at least when women are concerned, than the sins of dooming a lot of people to death by prioritizing your child? Abby certainly seems to think so. She repeated Kane’s old line: “First we survive, then we get our humanity back” to Raven, and then felt so guilty over the experiments she conducted, that she wanted to die in Praimfaya and asked Kane to leave her outside. But even in season 5, she was arguing to Clarke that throwing everyone under the bus for your daughter is right and reinforcing Clarke’s decision. And in season 6, she is convinced that saving Kane is worth doing inhumane things. As if she, since Jake’s death, has decided she would rather do horrible things to save her loved ones at the expense of other people, than risk/sacrifice her loved ones for the common good, which is what she, sort of, did with her husband.

There’s also the fact that, if Clarke had been more selfish and less willing to risk and sacrifice herself instead of others – if she had gone through with it and let Emori be tested, Abby wouldn’t have smashed the machine, they would have found out that the Nightblood solution worked, and saved everyone. But I don’t know how to feel about that, except to see it as a painful irony.

While the plot A found and then threw away a solution to save people, plot B came up with some hope as Jaha managed to find the real Second Dawn bunker, after hearing the lines from the Grounder prayer “From the ashes, we will rise” and recognizing the motto of the Second Dawn. Jaha was, in a way, uniquely qualified to realize that there is another bunker, and that the one they found was just a red herring to keep the real one from being overrun, since, by his admission, he figured it out because that’s what he himself would do. Jaha has never had a problem with treating people as disposable and focusing on the Big Picture while sacrificing some individual lives.

It should be noted that Jaha didn’t find the bunker on his own, but that Monty, Kane, Gaia and Indra played crucial roles as well. (So much for the argument that Jaha had the right to steal and keep the bunker in 4x10/11 because he found it. He was going to leave all of those other people outside.) Gaia helped compare and decipher the symbols, and Monty was the one who managed to find a way in, Kane used Roan’s symbol to get Azgeda warriors to let them through the temple where the bunker was in the first place (though Indra then shot them anyway), and Indra helped by ordering Trikru warriors to leave the tower to Azgeda and focus on defending the temple instead.

If there is a way to make any sense out of the Grounder culture and religion, it is through this major revelation about the role of the Second Dawn cult. It never made sense that these descendants of regular 21st century people from USA/Canada somehow forgot all technology (even with memories of a top scientist on a computer chip their leaders had in their heads), developed a pidgin language, a medieval-like warrior culture, a love of fake tans and a culture-appropriation-mishmash fashion sense, in less than a century. But if these people were descendants of members of a Doomsday cult whose members hated technology and wanted to cosplay Game of Thrones? Well, that explains a lot.

The C plot was about the group of people back in Arkadia who chose not to fight to survive Praimfaya, but to spend the last days before it having the party of their lives. (And to eventually kill themselves, going out on their own terms, before Praimfaya has a chance to kill them – but we only find that out in later episodes.) Aside from Jasper, that was also Harper, and Riley and Bree.

Harper’s depressed state and lack of will to live was becoming clear with the way she acted when Monty said goodbye to her. She even let out that she wasn’t expecting him to come back (saying “If you come back”) – maybe because she really didn’t think she was worth it?

Bellamy was worried about Jasper – who tried and eventually got him to join their party (with dancing, drinking, and drugs – aka jobi nuts), throwing Bellamy’s own line from early season 1 at him: “Whatever the hell we want… Really mean it this time”. Bellamy decided to relax and let go, and flirted with (and possibly had a one-night stand off-screen?) with Bree, his old friend with benefits from the threesome days of early season 1, after she had approached him and hit on him. (Judge for yourself if the hairstyling department intentionally gave Bree a similar haircut as Clarke’s, and if that was meant to mean something.) But this is a two-part plot that only gets resolved in the next episode, when Bellamy will change his attitude after learning that there is, after all, some salvation in the form of the bunker.

Timeline: This episode starts exactly where the previous left off, which means that it’s about two weeks since the start of season 4. But Clarke and Kane are now saying that the death wave is coming in 10 days. This means that, not only was ALIE’s initial calculation that the death wave was coming in 6 months wrong, but so is Raven’s calculation from 2x03 (which took place 10 days from the start of season 4) that the death wave would come in two months. There can’t be more than 4-5 days since 4x03, based on what was going on, so the new calculation must have been made in the meantime. This means that the death wave would actually come, according to these newest predictions, 20 days from the beginning of season 4/end of season 3. Unless it comes even faster… As far as I remember, episodes 4x09-4x13 happened over a short period of time.

Maybe the writers miscalculated how much season 4 would actually last and ended up writing everything happening much faster – just as it was in every other season. In any case, this means that the timeline of seasons 1-4 is even more compressed than I thought, because, as of 4x08, it’s been a little less than six months from the Pilot. I’ll do the full calculation when I get to 4x13.

Body count:

The thief from the Rock Line clan, aka fake “Baylis”, in the radiation chamber

An unknown number of people died from the black rain in Polis (this technically happened during the timeline of the previous episode)

A number of Azgeda warriors were shot by Indra (which is another instance where a major supporting character simply goes and murders a bunch of enemy warriors while they were not posing a danger, like Roan did to Trikru warriors in 4x04, but no one cares or has much of a problem with that, in the show or the fandom… What a contrast to Bellamy participating in something similar in season 3 and then feeling guilty forever and getting endlessly called “Genocide King” and whatnot in the fandom…)

A number of Azgeda and Trikru warriors probably died in the fighting outside the temple

Rating: 9/10

[alwaysaprille]

Anyway...

I’m back for my regularly scheduled “April Attempts to Break Down the Trailer” post. This will be a long post (obviously) as I like to do these frame by frame. I’m going to be honest, I thought the trailer was good, but also that it lacked a certain punch. I’m pretty sure this is mostly due to the fact that nothing actually new was revealed, but we’ll continue on with the speculation (This will be a two parter btw):

Our opening shot is a barren wasteland, lots of dirt and sand and hot sun, with a lone figure walking across the screen:

The first lines are “Bellamy, I doubt you can hear me on this piece of crap radio....” which (in my opinion) confirms the theory that Clarke has been sending her radio communications almost exclusively to Bellamy and Bellamy alone.

We hear lots of bits about Clarke’s time alone on Earth, but some of the opening narration we’ve heard before (in the S4 finale), which leads me to believe that these are VARIOUS lines taken from multiple radio broadcasts.

Here we’re given our first of (many) parallels with the line: “Please don’t feel bad about leaving me, you did what you had to do.” Reminiscent of Bellamy telling Clarke the same thing around the fire after their 2x05 reunion.

I’m a big fan of this shot of Bellamy. It appears that he is alone (although we can’t see around the corner so this could be misleading). I’ve stated numerous times over the course of the hiatus that I’m really excited to see Bellamy’s development as a leader and I think a part of that is bearing the weight of that leadership alone (even if you don’t have to). I like the idea of a story line where we really get to see Bellamy as a leader (alone) and what that means for him-in both a negative and positive light.  (I’m also a fan of the fact that both Clarke and Bellamy are wearing blue shirts here)

As I suspected, this image:

overlayed with the words “By now Monty should have the algae farm producing, how bad does it suck.”, confirms that they’re not mourning anything but their taste buds and good food.

I wonder if this is the moment that Clarke found “Eden”. Terrible CGI aside, it is nice to look at.

The following two images are some of my favorite of the trailer:

This one I love simply because of the symbolism found in the fact that Bellamy’s page is the only one (that we see) that has come free of it’s bindings. This typically means that someone has spent a long time looking at or manipulating that particular page in a book. I wonder who that could be.

This one I enjoy because it confirms that Clarke didn’t just tell Madi the fairy tale we heard in the S5 Sizzle Reel, she also created the book. These four images taken together tell a story in almost chronological order, Octavia in her war paint with her sword at her back as she prepares to begin the conclave, Bellamy as he looked when he chastised Clarke and Jaha for considering cheating, Octavia after she won the conclave and created “Wonkru” and that last page is a bit unclear, but it’s Clarke running into Becca’s lab as the Death Wave approaches. I can’t help but wonder if Clarke didn’t draw a scene for every part of the 8 months she spent with her friends and family on the ground.

I don’t know if anyone has pointed this out, but in this shot you can clearly see the small patch of green where Clarke and Madi reside, and it makes my heart a little warm to know that Clarke’s friends are looking at the place where she lives even if none of them recognize the significance of it.

The lines over this scene:

“We should light up the ring so they can see us.”/”First we find out who they are and then we ask them for help.” confirm what a lot of you all have been saying from the start, Eligius and SS7 arrive together. If that is indeed the case, then this sets us up for a Clarke and SS7 reunion no later than Episode 2. I’m also a fan of Raven and Emori in the back near the computers, and the general blocking of this scene (with Bellamy to the front and centered-showing that he’s the leader).

The Eligius ship is HUGE. A lot bigger than I thought it would be when we originally saw it coming in for landing in S4. There are probably a lot more people than we expected to be in that behemoth.

 My man Zeke makes his first appearance in the trailer (but not his first appearance in my heart), and we can tell there’s already some division between his ideals and those of the apparent leader of Eligius, Charmaine. She’s certain they have to go to war to maintain their piece of green and Zeke doesn’t understand why they have to go to war at all.

These next to screencaps are posted out of the order in which they appear, but that’s because I believe this is their actual episode order, i.e. I think several of the scenes in this trailer are from the same episode and these particular scenes fit into a certain order that’s undeniable (this part compiled with the help of @octanakin ):

We see a shot of a small white craft heading towards a spot labeled “Docking Bay A”. I believe the craft contains several members of SS7 and they are docking on the Eligius. Recall Bellamy’s earlier line about figuring out who they were and asking if they can help? It seems they get right on that and physically head over to the Eligius.

This is definitely Bellamy entering the Eligius ship. Note that he’s not wearing a suit, and his face is not bruised here. 

We have a moment that matches this scene:

Raven and Echo have joined Bellamy outside of the rocket. They’re clearly in an airlock, and Echo has pulled her knife, so she must see something threatening or at least wants to be prepared. 

This scene is next:

I think Bellamy’s line about “Clarke didn’t die so that we could get back to the ground and make the same mistakes.” probably comes after someone in the group expresses doubt about trusting Eligius. I say this because the largest issue over the previous seasons was that it was always someone vs someone else. Grounders Vs. Arkadians Vs. Mt. Weather Vs. The Planet. Maybe Bellamy thinks it might be wise to try to work with people instead of against them. 

Then this shot is likely next:

I imagine they’re exploring the ship and find at least 30 Eligius prisoners in sleeping pods, with Echo saying: “What happens when these guys get to the ground.” implying that they’ve perhaps wandered into something they shouldn’t have or that everything isn’t what it seems. 

Murphy saying “What the hell, let’s be good guys” to Echo and Bellamy here could be in space or on the ground, although I’m leaning towards space because of the outfits and locations. So perhaps after they realize Eligius is up to no good, they decide to sabotage that somehow which leads to: 

Bellamy is fighting for his life here, he’s definitely on the Eligius ship, but he’s no longer wearing his jacket. So I’m thinking they initially believe everything is all good with Eligius, stumble across the cryo pods, Echo being the spy she is realizes this is literally a sleeping army, a Trojan Horse if you will, and then everyone else is like...”Oh, shit!” 

A continuation of the fight here, this is definitely Echo as she’s the only one wearing short/cap sleeves and she’s slashing him with something (probably the knife she pulled in the beginning of the episode). 

This tragically blurry snap of Murphy and Raven running is also in Eligius, so I imagine this is about the time they also realize something is just..not right.

Here we have Murphy, strangely  not wearing a jacket (but carrying a bookbag) telling Emori (or maybe the whole group) “See you on the other side.” (Nice Jasper shoutout here).

Emori looks understandably worried, and you can see that she’s wearing the orange suit, while Echo (and someone else, likely Raven) put on their suits, on Emori’s other side are Monty and Harper, both already in their black suits.

And that means that the above shot, with only 5 figures in it, one piloting (likely Raven), another copiloting (likely Emori), two black garbed figures sitting closely together (Harper and Monty) and one figure behind Raven) are heading to Earth, without Murphy and Bellamy.

Now, we’re going outside of the trailer and to a picture JRoth posted a while ago:

Bellamy is bruised here, they’re still on Eligius and he’s wearing the same shirt he was wearing in the scene with Raven and in the fight. Murphy is wearing his jacket again, so I’m wondering if  they managed to make piece with Eligius by keeping the leader of SS7 and Murphy volunteered to stay (here I’m thinking of Richard saying that Bellamy might be Murphy’s one real friend). 

Which leads me to believe that Clarke’s first glimpse of Bellamy will actually be relatively early on in the Season perhaps episode 1 or 2, through the scope of her rifle, as he exits the Eligius ship as a prisoner, similar to this shot:

This ends Part 1! Part 2 coming in a few hours!!!