it is the year 2020. season 3 came out 4 years ago and yet i still have people hating on bellamy in the comments of Rupture and on the internet in general, so i feel the need to write this seeing as it still seems to be relevant.

season 3, in my opinion, was a clusterfuck of plot holes and stuff i didn't care about. the only parts i liked were the bonds with the delinquents at the end, the ALIE storyline, and the fact that every minor character (jackson, miller, harper, etc) had something to do and some type of involvement in the storylines.

the biggest issue i have with season 3 and the ordeal with bellamy is that the grounders are placed on a pedestal when they never have been before. throughout the first two seasons, they proved themselves to be the type to kill first, ask questions second and also served as antagonists for the most part. they lied (acted like the sky people started the war in season 1 when THEY speared jasper in the chest first) and betrayed the sky people (who are by no means innocent either, but they're supposed to be the protagonists in our eyes).

this is suddenly flipped around in season 3. the grounders have this holy, radiant light shining on them by the narrative– and why? because jason rothenberg didn't anticipate for people to like lexa so much and decided to bring her back for season 3, but also needed to cater to the clexa audience. that's why clarke spent half the season in polis and so much of the storyline revolved around the grounders. jason admitted the audience's reaction to lexa was more than he bargained for and that her contract was originally for season 2.

the last impression we get of the grounders is them abandoning the sky people at mount weather because lexa made the deal with dante about keeping her people safe. in the sky people's eyes, they have every right to hate trikru. not to mention that they allegedly didn't allow the sky people to venture around and grow their own food (aka they placed limits on this). i don't think it was mentioned directly in the show but i believe it was confirmed by a writer (hence why i included "allegedly"). but i know that they did say that nobody could use mount weather, which seems stupid because they abandoned it.

then, without even like... apologizing, or even seeming sorry for what clarke (and bellamy and monty and the rest of the sky people went through), lexa just expected the sky people to join the coalition – which was literally formed to fight the mountain men, who no longer exist – so that seemed kind of redundant. kane was pretty fine with doing so (because, again, he seemed? really fine? with being abandoned?) but still. i'm surprised there wasn't more resistance because there still hadn't been a resolution to the conflict introduced in 2x16.

now, moving on to ice nation. i could rant for a long time about them, but since this is supposed to be about bellamy and we haven't gotten to him yet, i'll digress. people say "it was ice nation who blew up mount weather! not trikru!" yeah but... trikru still started the whole war and betrayed them in MW, among other terrible things like hunting the delinquents for sport and stringing up jasper as live bait when he was unarmed and already injured. ice nation is arguably the worst grounder clan, but trikru isn't innocent, either.

let's get into bellamy's role.

as we know, clarke is given most of the burden for mount weather. she's called wanheda, she's wanted by the other clans, and it literally follows her wherever she goes, even now. bellamy gets none of that. in fact, we hardly see the psychological damage that's been done to him. this glossing over of his emotions and PTSD is honestly one of the biggest mistakes season 3 made– also with the fact that the writers apparently just forgot that monty was the one who came up with the idea and set it up for them to pull the lever. remember that this choice was a direct consequence of trikru's abandonment.

one thing that adds to the psychological trauma is the fact that bellamy is given a girlfriend for the sole purpose of fridging her. this means that a character (usually a female) is introduced, only to be abruptly killed off and served as a device to further another character's (usually a male love interest) storyline. this is exactly what happened with gina. we saw them being adorable. we saw them being gentle with each other and bellamy giving her heart eyes.

and then echo comes along! she uses bellamy's trust in her to lure him to the coalition with a fake "plot" to draw them away from MW, utilizing bellamy's mistrust of trikru to her advantage as well. bellamy feels responsible for all of those deaths because it was echo's manipulation that encouraged him to leave the mountain. that's why he turns his guard jacket in during the next episode.

pike finds bellamy at his lowest point (clarke chose to stay behind in polis, his girlfriend is dead, echo betrayed him, the rest of farm station is dead, to name a few) and uses that to get him onto his side. bellamy is manipulated— pike utilizes his grief and insecurities to get him on his side. (you can skip to 2:20 to see pike's conversation with bellamy, but i think his talk with octavia beforehand is pretty important as well).

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"you're right. it was your fault." this is a term in psychology used to describe emotional abuse called gaslighting. it's when a person spins the tale of an event to make the victim question their sanity, perception of an event, judgment, etc and often results in low self-esteem. pike (a man in a former position of power as a teacher) tells bellamy (a grieving 23-year-old whose brain still hasn't fully developed it's decision-making skills, which happens at 25) that it's his fault he was manipulated by echo. pike says that it's bellamy's fault for trusting echo when he has no idea what happened between them in season 2. note that he's also having this talk with bellamy as they're drinking and both are intoxicated.

i'm going to split this rant into 2 parts because there are 2 major things that people like to argue about.

1 – THE MASSACRE

one big argument against bellamy that i've seen is: why does finn get hate for massacring 18 people when bellamy killed 300? i'll tell you why those scenarios are different.

in 2x05, finn and murphy visit a grounder village in their efforts to find the other delinquents (mainly clarke, in finn's case). this village is not made of warriors– it's comprised of civilians. some elders. some children. regular people. and they're completely unarmed. they use intimidation to force these villagers into a pen as finn interrogates them.

here is the scene for context:

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finn fires the first shot at an elderly man who is trying to run away and get help. his back is turned to finn. he is not trying to attack them. he poses no threat. after that, even as murphy (a former antagonist and literal murderer himself) is screaming at him to stop and for them to leave. finn goes on to kill 17 more (again, unarmed!!!!) grounders in a frenzy. you can see it in his eyes. even after it ends and people are wailing, he sees clarke and there's no remorse in his eyes. he simply says, "i found you."

and he does all of that singlehandedly.

in comparison, bellamy does not kill 300 people on his own! you can't compare finn with bellamy when those scenarios are not the same.

another thing: the army was absolutely not defenseless. it was not made up of unarmed civilians who are comprised of the elderly, young people, healers, and children who were just chilling in their village and had nothing to do with the horrors of season 1. it's exactly that: an army. the same army that hunted the delinquents and killed them for sport in 1x06. the same ones that captured murphy and tortured him in season 1. the same army that betrayed them in season 2 and broke their truce (which the grounders set the standards for, btw).

so the army was sent as protection, sure. but pike's faction has no reason to trust lexa. she backed out on her word once, so what was stopping her from changing her mind again and sending the army to kill them instead? nothing.

i don't want this to seem like i'm condoning or supporting pike's actions. i'm not. i'm simply explaining them and showing the sequence of events that lead the regime to that point. since the narrative of season 3 really liked painting the grounders as angels and bellamy as a monster, i think that caused a lot fo the feelings that people have/had toward this part of the season.

second, we don't know how many people bellamy killed. it's never confirmed. it could have been one. maybe four. maybe 20. but i do know for certain that it was not 300. he also begged pike to leave the wounded afterward, but only succeeded in saving indra for octavia. according to the wiki page, there were about ten other people in the regime as well as the members of the guard and other arkadians, so it's difficult to get a number on how many people were there. but still, it reiterates my point that he didn't show up and singlehandedly kill 300 people.

as for the remorse, although bellamy does attempt to explain himself later on, you can see that he's not proud of his actions. i can't find the scene on youtube, but i remember a specific shot where the faction returns. everyone else is still moving around, but bellamy is standing alone, seemingly staring at nothing, with his head down, and he's the only one in focus. i believe he stays like that until someone else gets his attention. it's not the same as finn's creepy robotic and apathetic "i found you".

that's my hot take on that part. moving on to the next!

2. BELLAMY BEING THE REASON LINCOLN IS DEAD

no no no NO NO NO NO.

i touched on this a bit in the octavia rant because the narrative (it always seems to hate bellamy) puts her on a pedestal and people seem to forget the events as they actually happened. i'm going to copy and paste from my other rant because it's a lot to write out.

at the end of 3x08, pike declares a death sentence on kane, sinclair, and lincoln after they are caught trying to stage an uprising. bellamy, who didn't suspect this would happen, confides in his sister to come up with a plan to get them all out. he poses no threat— in fact, octavia is the one who "goes for the hug" first when they meet (aka bellamy gives her the space to decide what to do). she tranquilizes him and chains him in some cave far away, not listening to his pleas to let him help. as an inside man, bellamy could have used pike's trust to steer him in the wrong direction and get the three prisoners out. did octavia listen? no! she wanted to play the hero and left him there with indra.

note: bellamy proves something like this would have worked when he leads pike straight to the grounders in 3x11 by pretending to still be on his side.

bellamy is often declared to be the "reason" why lincoln died, but, haha, monty is the reason they get caught. he intercepts their radio calls and sends the guards their way. they all could have made it, but lincoln gives himself up. he willingly walks into those guards, knowing he's going to die. nobody forces him away.

(end of copy and pasting)

although bellamy intercepted kane and prevented him from taking pike away, he didn't expect pike to sentence him, lincoln, and sinclair to death. i think that when his actions directly affected the people he loved, he instantly began to regret the side he'd chosen. you can see it here:

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the shock and disbelief on his face are immediate. his eyes become glassy with tears when kane looks at him. as the guards drag him out, bellamy steps away, covers his face, and turns his head so pike and the others can't see his tears. then he spends the entirety of the next episode trying to warn the others and come up with a plan, only to get locked away by octavia.

bellamy spends the rest of the season recuperating and struggling with the things he'd done. he even goes into season 4 with that mindset ("i'm not sacrificing any more innocent lives") and has clearly expressed remorse ("i don't know what i believe anymore, but just know... i have to live with what i've done."/"mine [a floating lantern carrying the weight of his sins] wouldn't float.")

again, this is not me excusing pike's faction and their behavior. however, i think it's interesting how people like to pretend that bellamy was this dictator-like villain in season 3 while completely ignoring the fact that pike manipulated him. additionally, the same people who hate bellamy also apparently have no problem with monty, who was a part of pike's regime and helped lincoln get caught.

one of the biggest problems i have with season three is that the narrative glossed over bellamy's inner turmoil and just presented him as an antagonist. we got to see more of octavia being like "nobody accepts me!!!! :( still gonna stay with the grounders tho" and her being the hero than bellamy grappling with the fact that his girlfriend was blown to little bits. we got to see more of lexa, a minor character, and grounder politics than this. and bellamy is the leading man of the show.

i think that jroth spent more time and effort catering to the grounder/clexa stans than bothering to touch on the psychological damage/reasoning behind pike's faction that caused them to act the way they did. even in season 2, we got to hear from dante & cage and why they were doing what they were doing and how they believed it was right. this season, we just got "grounders bad!!" and little callback to how pike & hannah watched literal children get slaughtered by azgeda (along with monty's father) and how, the last time they heard from the delinquents, they were engaged in an all-out war with the grounders.

can you imagine if you were in farm station under those circumstances and then came back to your people, only for them to tell you "yeah trikru abandoned us at mount weather when they were trying to drill us all to death for our bone marrow, forcing bellamy, clarke, and monty to reverse the airflow and kill everyone inside, but we're cool now! they didn't apologize or anything but we're gonna join their coalition!" and then ice nation blows up mount weather and kills the rest of farm station inside?? i would be pissed.

not to keep bringing this back to octavia, but i think it's funny how some of the people who hate bellamy for what he did in season 3 also love octavia for who she became in season 4– skairipa, which literally means "sky murderer." remember when she just like.... killed all those people on that farm? or tried to solve every problem of roan's by just murdering people to get them out of the way? and was STILL hailed as a hero by the narrative? (so much so that she was stabbed through the gut, shoved off a huge cliff and into a river containing sharp rocks when she can't even swim, carried for who-knows-how-long until she washed up on shore, and she still survived??? nobody else would have gotten that treatment). the double standard here by both the fandom and the narrative astounds me.

anyway, this rant was long and i still get angry over this.