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Old 06-13-2019, 05:14 AM
  #219
destroyer of worlds
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That GIF, Mel. I'm CACKLING. I don't think that it's a Grounder because that would feel pretty random ... but it is weird if she did draw that since she wasn't there. Though it's very possible that they spoke about it on the way back to camp, after they rescued everyone.

This is a good read of the entire Bellamy/Clarke/Echo dynamic :

Quote:
It’s been my theory for awhile now that Bellamy bottles his strong emotions when it comes to Clarke. He did it in the months between the season 2 finale and 3x03 where seemingly he was fine and carved out space for himself in Camp Jaha and with their group that did not include her. He found out that she was being hunted and then kidnapped and all of that went out the window. When she did not come home after the second tragedy at Mt. Weather his equilibrium was thrown off and that’s how we got the Grounder Army massacre. He didn’t truly open before that period or during until 3x05 and everything came to the surface because Clarke was there and he talks to Clarke. Consistently, the person Bellamy talks to, the person he wants to open up to and be vulnerable with is Clarke.

After Clarke “died” in Praimfiya Bellamy didn’t have her to lean on, and so he didn’t really lean on anyone. We know this because he presents as someone with a panic disorder triggered by separation and in the previous seasons that was not the case. Bellamy panicked multiple times last season and each time he was placated. Murphy invoked Clarke’s name, Raven lied to him, and Echo shushed him and redirected his thinking. All of those things are pacifying tactics, but they don’t actually fix the problem. They’re band-aids; a way to get him to focus on the task at hand or their primary objective. They don’t really soothe him though and there in lies the problem. Spacekru doesn’t know how to comfort Bellamy. It’s been six years and none of them have figured it out, and I don’t think Bellamy noticed that until he truly got Clarke back.

To me, the fight he picked with Echo at the rave showcases this because tbh it’s not like Echo hasn’t been trying to be there for him. They’ve broached the topic of his sister on several occasions. She attempted appealing to his pragmatism to get him to see Octavia as useful to them despite his feelings on her; he didn’t want to hear or entertain it. Echo disagreed about cutting Octavia out of the group because she sees her as useful, but she accepted his decision and supported him. She offered Bellamy a viable solution to his guilt and inner turmoil by going to get his sister when she saw it was eating him up, he didn’t want to do that. Nothing Echo has said or done has resonated with Bellamy in any meaningful way when it comes to his grief. Even tonight when she immediately rallied behind the idea of attacking the Primes for murdering Clarke, Bellamy had already left that particular station and gotten on another train. They have yet to be on the same emotional page this whole season.

Bellamy reached out. He pulled Echo into that hug for comfort because he needed to be held, and it didn’t help. Echo isn’t who he needs. She doesn’t center him and that shot by the reflecting pool makes that clear. Bellamy feels alone and so he is alone shouldering his grief and mourning the one person he feels comfortable being completely vulnerable around. Bob said after season 3 that Bellamy’s only really ever had that ability to be vulnerable and open with Clarke, and I think the show is further emphasizing that this season. Personally, I think it also highlights that the Ring was a bubble. Whoever Bellamy thought Echo was on the Ring was only a perception that he created based on a projection of what he needed at that time. That is not to say that she didn’t grow as a person but this notion that she’s an emotionally vulnerable person that talks about her feelings and is open about them is a false one. I think Echo does that as much as she is able and is comfortable, but she is not a heart on her sleeve kind of woman, and Bellamy knows this so this expectation he had of them speaking openly about Marper’s passing in a way that helps them grieve only makes sense if we take Clarke into account.

Bellamy cannot be emotionally dependent on Clarke because it’s inappropriate considering he’s supposed to have Echo for that. Problem is Clarke centers him, and Bellamy may have forgotten how powerful that truth is but he sure remembers it now that she’s gone. Because he had her. He had her comfort and her faith in him and full support in doing better in Marper’s names and he had her love. He had everything he’s been missing for over a century, and suddenly the emotional connection he had with Echo wasn’t enough even though she really wasn’t acting any different than she had in season 5. Suddenly she had changed when really it’s Bellamy who’s been changing. He wasn’t taking lead anymore, he was sharing it with Clarke. ‘We’ stopped being spacekru and it returned to him and Clarke. He’s been a unit with one person and it hasn’t been Echo. So, of course, he’s alone. He’s isolated himself because once again he’s lost his partner, and Echo can’t comfort him because how could she? She doesn’t get his partnership with Clarke because he’s never opened up to her about it. The woman is still in the dark about what Clarke means to Bellamy and that is largely Bellamy’s fault because he’s never opened up about it to her or to anyone really though the others have picked up on it over the years.

Bellamy is vulnerable with Clarke. She’s his person. But he can only really get vulnerable about Clarke to other people when he’s been emotionally pushed to do so, and the show has never put Echo in a place to be someone who witnesses that first hand. She thinks his grief is due to his loyalty to and love for his family and Clarke is a part of his family, but it’s more than that, and I think it’s telling that the woman Bellamy is in love with and who is in love with him not only doesn’t know this but is consistently pushed out of the narrative so she can’t ever observe Bellamy’s need for Clarke in action. That might change this season, it might not but it says a lot that Echo is in the dark about this particular aspect of Bellamy’s life.
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