destroyer of worlds

I think that my earliest memory of the Bellarke thread being LIT was the season 2 finale, with the cheek kiss and their beautiful goodbye scene. What a time.

April7739

I wish I had been in the fandom back then!

stlavin95

Me too

destroyer of worlds

Good times, and much less shipper drama. SIGH.

April7739

Less shipper drama is exactly the reason why I wish I had been in the fandom back then. Although maybe it’s better that I’ve never known what it was like?

Regardless, I am glad I’ve been in the fandom as long as I have, though. Season 3 onward is still a decently long time.

stlavin95

Less shipper drama is always the best

destroyer of worlds

Yup, i've been here since season 2 but I really have to give props to those who have stuck it out since 2014. Some dedication right there, it's not easy being a Bellarker.

April7739

It certainly isn’t.

destroyer of worlds

We've been through hell and back, as did Bellarke. The irony.

a little chaos

Adri followed me and they have like 13K followers and only follows 500+ and Lexa followed me too, and she only follows a few. It all happened when I changed my bio and started posting more about bellarke.

April7739

The power of Bellarke. Or more likely, people just feel hesitant about following multi-shippers because the other ships stress them out.

a little chaos

Yeah, that makes sense. Bellarke fans have nothing against Clexa weirdly enough, the shippers... yes. But the ship, not really. I think most Bellarke fans are rude about Clexa because of the association with the fandom itself. I know many Bellarke fans who like Clexa, or at least respect Clexa but are hesitant because of fandom wars. And vice versa, I know a Clexa who lost 50 followers for saying she likes Bellarke, which I think is a bit dramatic.

I do get it, one of my Barchie mutuals posted about Jafael and said Michael was boring, I obviously don't like seeing Jafael gifs on my timeline cause I think they're gross but I won't unfollow someone cause they don't love every ship I do, you have to expect overlap sometimes and learn to play nice and respect that people have different opinions. Now that I have lots of Bellarke mutuals I'm much more hesitant to post about Becho cause I don't want to upset anyone and that sucks for me because I deal with so many anti becho posts every day that stress me out but I get over it because I respect that my mutuals aren't always going to agree with me and thats ok.

Even today I liked posts regarding Varchie and Bughead, two ships I don't like but the person actually tweeted sweet things about the ship that were valid and I respected that POV, it's all about being open to different opinions.

destroyer of worlds

Just speaking for myself, my opinion of Clexa as a ship is definitely tainted/affected by my feelings about the fandom. I just think it's a mutual respect thing as you said, Becks. And perhaps I'm guilty of not respecting CL enough as a ship (sometimes).

On the flipside, I hate it when people invalidate Bellarke's importance because I feel like even if you don't ship them, surely you can agree that they're a crucial dynamic in the show.

a little chaos

Yeah, I can’t speak on behalf of either fandom but I think a lot of people are so blinded by the bitter rivalry in the fandom to ever give each ship credit. I don’t think that’s the case on here, but definitely on Twitter.

So many cls won’t open their mind for a second to even truly attempt to understand bellarke and their significance. I think it’s an ignorance thing but also a pride thing too. The fandom has the same fights over and over again that they truly believe the things they repeat like a mantra. Clexas love to deny any romance between Bellarke and Bellarkes love to bring up how long ago Clexa ended, and those are just two examples. The feud itself has become the ships.

But the thing I hate the most is when fandoms generalise, so many times I see “you guys hate Bob” in regards to clexas and that hurts my feelings because it feels directed at me.

April7739

Yeah, generalization is never good and never okay.

I personally don’t think Clexa was a very well-written or well-developed relationship, but I have no problem acknowledging that it was still an important one in the show, and I think Eliza and Alycia had a nice on screen chemistry and did a good job with what was written. The repeated Lexa mentions do irk me a lot, because I have always felt it’s pretty transparent, but that’s more so an issue I have with the writing than with the ship itself.

I feel like everything would be so much better if people would just try to find something positive to say about opposing ships, and then to be constructive in discussions after that. Like Becho . . . okay, I’ll admit, it’s hard for me to say something positive about that one. But . . . they’re an attractive couple? And Bellamy was clearly good for Echo? It’s better than just bashing, I guess. But that’s about all I can say positive about them, so moving on.

The Bellarke fandom in general has really disappointed me these past two seasons. The people I have met in real life are fabulous, but some of the behavior I have seen online is not something I want to be a part of.