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I know everyone is about done talking about this, but I just wanted to get out this last little bit before I shut the book on this nightmare viewing experience.
People's anger and frustration isn't just about the character.
1/17
People's anger and frustration isn't just about the character.
1/17
Not that I need to, but I want to preface this: Bellamy Blake used to be one of my favorite characters. As someone who basically in charge of the complete caretaking and parenting of two children from the time I was 4, his particular forced adulthood trauma reverberated.
2/17
2/17
But over time his character was whittled down into a vague echo of what it was, and by the time the show tried to convince that child abuse is the greatest indicators of parental love, I was done with him, Clarke, and the rest of the whole damn mess.
3/17
3/17
This wasn't a devastating character death for me personally (though it was for many, many people, and that's before you get into the heavy thread of racism running through it all), but it was enraging all the same.
4/17
4/17
This era of gritty television has led to some of the most redundant, boring, faux!edgy storytelling, and as people have grown tired of these overused, shallow mechanisms, creators have become resentful of their fanbases.
5/17
5/17
We, the fans, just aren't intelligent enough to understand this deep storytelling. We are all ignorant followers who have no capability to fully engage with the creator on their level of oh-so-clever writing.
6/17
6/17
The unfortunate result of this is that showrunners/writers have started writing in ways to either teach their audience a lesson (ala Logan on Veronica Mars or Q on the Magicians) or punish their audience for caring about the wrong thing (Pike, Kabby, etc on t100.)
7/17
7/17
This is all on top of the fad of killing characters of for shock value (Dany, Carl on TWD, Madison on FtWD, Lexa, so many others).
8/17
8/17
And this is where Bellamy and the writers of the 100 come into play and why, even outside of the just utterly racist treatment of the character and the actor, this death has been so vehemently called out as bullshit.
9/17
9/17
The writers, Jason and Kim in particular, have a disgust with not just shippers, but fandom engagement as whole, unless it serves as an uncritical, ego boost. They lap up praise and then get outraged when someone doesn't respond "How high?" to their "Jump!"
10/17
10/17
This isn't unique to them and the 100 (see Rob Thomas, SJH, D&D), but their reactions seem particularly agressive and hateful. So Bellamy and his particular relationship with Clarke becomes the emblem of of everything they hate.
11/17
11/17
They not only killed Bellamy, they had him killed by Clarke, as a traitor, completely cut off from everyone and everything he has ever cared about. This wasn't just killing the character. This was killing him, tossing him over a cliff, and doing a dance on his memorial.
12/17
12/17
It was a death that falls into every category- they were teaching the fans that they needed to care about different things, punishing them for so heavily criticizing the treatment of the character, and of course, it was shocking! (The favorite word of this type of writer.)
13/17
13/17
Fans got hit with a gut punch before being spat on and given a moralizing lecture.
And ALL OF THIS, is just the final tipping point, as it is just the perfect example of everything people have complained about over the last 3 years.
14/17
And ALL OF THIS, is just the final tipping point, as it is just the perfect example of everything people have complained about over the last 3 years.
14/17
It was insulting. It was cruel. It was pointless. It was nonsensical. It was the opening of the final nesting doll to reveal the turd that been residing in the center the whole time.
15/17
15/17
It's not just about Bell, just like it wasn't just about Dany, like it wasn't just about Kabby, like it wasn't just about Logan, like it wasn't just about Q, like it wasn't just about the numerous other characters killed off to stroke an ego.
16/17
16/17
It's about the pattern of ignorant choices made, up to the point of being willing to burn your show's legacy to the ground out of contempt for your most loyal fans.
17/17
17/17
