#the commander wanting to make amends with shadow after all thats happened between them makes sense but its still funny

[sonknuxadow]

thinking about the part in the most recent twitter takeover where sonic calls commander tower who very awkwardly invites shadow over to dinner to meet his grandchild . did they think nobody would notice that they already did that in shadow 05 or is the implication here that shadow never went to that first dinner so the commander just keeps inviting shadow to his house over and over until he finally shows up

[sometimesrosy]

Personally, what bothered me about the season 3 Bellamy massacre of the grounders was not the fact that it happened, or that it was OOC (it was very much in character IMO) but that a) it was too rushed; Bellamy required little to no convincing, b) it resulted from a lack of communication between Polis and Arkadia more than anything else, and c) it was never really addressed much after it happened. Bellamy isn't punished at all for what he did, besides being beat up by Octavia.

I disagree with your assessment of Bellamy’s lead up into the massacre and the results after.

There was a CLEAR development of Bellamy being pushed too far by the grounders and swallowing it and accepting it because Kane told him he should. Because Octavia did. Because Clarke did. He had a break when MW blew up, when Gina died, when Clarke turned her back on him. It triggered his trauma from MW, and since all of s3 stems from the trauma of s2 (caused by Lxa I might add,) it is in NO WAY rushed. It is sustained.

In fact, it goes back to season ONE. But Arkadia decided to be allies with the grounders because that was the “right” thing to do. Except the grounders kept BETRAYING them. Lxa SOLD them to MW. And then kept them confined to Arkadia, not allowed to travel, trade or even use MW as a resource or residence, despite it NOT being the grounders, and THEIRS by fair right of victory. What right did Lxa have to keep them from living in a perfectly sustainable mountain that no one else claimed? Arkadia had no FOOD. They had no defenses. And here was MW, and they weren’t allowed? And when they DO go to use it, the grounders attack. And that wasn’t even JUST the Azgeda, because there was a whole discussion about how they would attack if sky crew USED too much of the mountain they won. 

Go back and watch again and pay attention to the way the grounders were oppressing sky crew. To keep them weak. And defenseless. And THEN Clarke, who has been KIDNAPPED and held as a hostage, and Kane, who has been making concession after concession to the people who betrayed them and left them all to die, decides that everything is okay, including the attack on MW and massacre of farm station, because she and Lxa took care of it? 

What did they take care of? Lxa’s political problems. What she did for sky crew was make life MORE dangerous for them. She set up an armed and dangerous army right there. Within easy reach. The only way it’s safe is if they can trust Lxa not to betray them and turn on them again. Which they cannot. ALL the grounders agree that Lxa has no honor, has treated sky crew badly, and is making poor political decisions. ALL of them. Warriors, villagers, ambassadors, counselors. Every grounder with an opinion thinks Lxa is wrong and not trustworthy in season 3. 

When have the grounder alliances NOT ended up in grounders trying to kill sky crew. No really. When did the coalition not try to destroy their people. NEVER. They never stopped doing it. And they started when Jasper swung across the river. BEFORE any signal flares caught fire. They hung him up. As bait. As a trap. As a message?

So when you say Bellamy’s decision was too fast and he needed no convincing, I have to think you’ve forgotten the narrative where grounders, the coalition, trikru, and Lxa KEEP TRYING TO ELIMINATE THEM. You also ignore the psychological manipulation of Pike, which is actually so obvious you could call it grooming. Pike WORKED Bellamy, who had just had a terrible shock. Pike wanted vengeance, and he wanted Bellamy on his side to get it.

And when you say he was’t “punished” for his actions, oh yeah except for being vicuously beaten, because well that doesn’t COUNT apparently, you aren’t paying attention to the narrative which keeps bringing up Hakeldama, far more than it brings up Lxa betraying Clarke and the delinquents at MW, or their attack on the dropship. No one even MENTIONS how they poisoned Arkadia’s watersupply, along with blockading them. Season 3A is like, completely shadowed by grounder attempts to wipe sky crew out of existence. And it’s like you don’t even notice. But instead say BELLAMY wasn’t punished for the TERRIBLE act of following Pike in the Hakeldama massacre.

We even have a witness, Indra. Who says that Bellamy actively tried to stop it and keep Pike from going so far, and saved her life, and you’re still blaming BELLAMY like he had no right to defend his people against the people who were trying to kill him and whose presence felt like a threat.

YES. He was wrong. YES. There was no communication between Pike and Polis, but part of that was because when Kane WAS in communication, he ended up conceding EVERYTHING. Pike made the point that the brand that they got in joining the coalition was a lot like the brand you give cattle before slaughter. 

Kane messed up. He didn’t consider the fear and stress of his people. He spent too much time wanting Lxa to like them and accept them and gave up too much of their power. Arkadia voted Kane OUT, by a landslide, because they wanted to stop being at the mercy of the grounders, WHO WERE ACTIVELY WEAKENING THEM AND KEEPING THEM TRAPPED. 

I would say that the narrative didn’t tell you this so you missed it BUT THE NARRATIVE DID TELL YOU THIS. We heard it with the boundaries they weren’t allowed to cross. We heard it with the limits place on using MW. We heard the dangerous decision they had to make to use MW to save Nyko or let him die. We heard about when Farm Station started living in MW and they were concerned about how Polis wouldn’t like it. We heard about it when Bellamy and the delinquents were off on a mission and they had to be careful about crossing boundaries and they were worried that the incident where they killed the grounders who attacked them might cause another war. We heard about it where the grounders had a price on Clarke’s head. We heard about it when the grounders killed arkadians and brought their heads back as messages. We heard about it when the lake was poisoned. 

So, when you act like Polis were the good guys who wanted peace and Arkadia were the bad guys who just wanted to kill the good guys… WHO are you listening to? Lxa may have wanted peace, but her peace required domination of everyone else. This is not actual peace. It’s OPPRESSION. Her solution of killing Nia was for HER benefit. She got rid of her rival. It did NOTHING for Arkadia. It did not make up for what they did to Farm Station or what they were doing to Arkadia, or what they did to the delinquents. Clarke wanted Lxa’s help. She wanted Lxa to stop killing her people, to be friends. Lxa was NEVER going to be real allies with the sky people because she wanted them to remain without power. THAT’S why she didn’t let them take possession of MW, even though it would have solved territory problems. It was because the stability and technology of MW would have given the sky people POWER over the grounders. Lxa was not a peacemaker. She was a tyrant. And Kane and Clarke were trying to make nice with her and it did not work. 

And then you say that Bellamy was somehow the one responsible for Hakeldama? 

That was PIKE. IN CANON. First of all, the grounders ALWAYS give credit and blame to the leader. Thats why Clarke is given credit for defeating MW, not Bellamy. Because she’s the leader. Credit and blame. Bellamy was a soldier in Pike’s attack. Pike is the one who was punished. He was the chancellor and he was the general leading the attack. He was REMOVED from power… by Bellamy, I might add, and given to the grounders and imprisoned and tortured by Indra (who, I might add, has come to terms with Bellamy in s3 s4 and s5 and has now forgiven him.) He was also killed by Octavia. So, I mean, if you’re going by the grounders’ view point, since it was a crime against the grounders, then you should be following the GROUNDERS’ rules for it. Pike. Not Bellamy.

I don’t understand why you’re acting like Bellamy had no reason to do what he did. Held all the blame for the hakeldama massacre, and hasn’t been punished for it, despite an actual on screen, brutal beating, capture, blame from Niylah and another slap, condemnation by Kane, his mentor, clear and continued regret and active decision making from then on out where he is not only determined to make amends for what he’s done, but to change his behavior, be a better man, and MAKE SURE OTHER PEOPLE DON’T MAKE THE SAME MISTAKE. 

He had a scene in s3 where he learned his lesson and tried to impart it onto Octavia. He had a scene in s4 where he tried to impart that lesson onto Riley and succeeded. ANd a scene in s5 where he taught Madi that killing and vengeance was not how you made a better world.

I mean, the grounders run around blaming sky people for EVERYTHING. Even things that are their own fault, like the attack on the drop ship leading to the ring of fire. Like they want to wipe out all skypeople because of something that was created 100 years ago, by their first commander even. Sky people come up with solutions to a global catastrophe, and they’re still like, no we’re going to kill all of you. But you think BELLAMY doesn’t get punished enough. 

So wait. You think blood must have blood should be the way it works. Although Hakeldama was retaliation for MW. So it WAS blood must have blood. ONly. If you believe in blood must have blood, what you will have is a never ending cycle of violence. Because you’re ALWAYS trying to get retribution.

What I suggest is actually, instead of trying to understand why Bellamy was so wrong, you STOP trying to place blame on one person or another, stop trying to decide who the bad guy is, and start trying to understand what the cause of Hakeldama was, and what the results were, and what that string of events led to.

And then you might notice Bellamy trying to halt that string of events, whose causes went ALL THE WAY BACK to the first apocalypse and before, and continue ALL THE WAY into the season we haven’t seen yet. 

Blood must have blood is NOT a good philosophy. It leads to destruction. Doing it for your people is not a good philosophy. It leads to xenophobia, war, and dehumanization of the other. I bear it so they don’t have to is not a good philosophy. That leads to people refusing responsibility for their own actions. Who we are and who we need to be to survive are two different things is not a good philosophy, because it means you believe the ends justify the means and your current evil actions do not define you. ALL WRONG.

And Bellamy learned that in s3, because of Hakeldama, and he’s been trying to change the world since then. And in season 5 we see him succeed, and set the world on a BETTER path.

So. 

You actually need to think deeper, I think. Because what personally bothers you comes from a shallow reading of the essential meaning of this show. It IS about doing the right thing. And it’s about taking responsibility for your monster. And it’s about making sure that humanity deserves to survive, and at this point, only Bellamy has managed to learn that lesson and influence other people to change the world around him.