S03.E02: Wanheda (Part 2)

[millennium]

I, too, am not really all that amazed by the acting for Bellamy. I just don't see it as complex and 'layered' as everyone else seems to think it is.

 

It's layered all right, like a ham and cheese sandwich.

[millennium]

I guess this is what they mean when they say YMMV because Bob Morley's performance is about the only thing saving me from wanting the character to die painfully and soon.

 

Maybe the character is partly to blame, especially now that he's reformed   He was far more effective as an evil bully in the early episodes.   I hated him, wanted him to die, which means the actor was pulling his weight.

 

But in Season Two, it felt like all he did was take orders from Clarke.   Then he spent three or four episodes sneaking around Mt. Weather in that lame disguise, till I was just like "somebody kill this guy already."   In some regards, the character seems to have been castrated (figuratively) by Clarke.

[AudienceofOne]

Just... sliding awkwardly past the implication that a man taking orders from a woman and working cooperatively to achieve a goal has been "castrated", Bellamy's growth in S2 was to me a natural extension of the way the actor had portrayed him in S1. I know in S3 they're playing with him backsliding in Clarke's absence but he's not behaving like S1 Bellamy. He's behaving like a good little soldier taking orders even when he doesn't agree with them. And that's never been a part of his character at all. But IMHO Bob Morley is doing his best with the material and I think he's one of the stronger actors on the show.

[millennium]

Just... sliding awkwardly past the implication that a man taking orders from a woman and working cooperatively to achieve a goal has been "castrated"

 

Maybe neutered would have been a better word.   Or tamed.   I would have said the same thing whether it was Clarke or Caine who brought him to heel.   Bellamy was the "do whatever we want" guy, hurting people on a whim, being an all-around asshole.   Personally, I never got that he changed his ways because it was the right thing to do, but rather due to the realization that the anarchy he inaugurated had exceeded his ability to control it, and it scared him (Charlotte going off the cliff).  I think Clarke recognized his uncertainty and used it to manipulate him.   YMMV.

[Solace247]

I post over on reddit and there are a lot of lengthy posts covering his arc from season one, two, and three showing how little good Bellamy has seen with his encounters with the Grounders to show how his actions are understandable, but I'm like: "Cool read, still a dick." Maybe that makes me a simpleton, but whatever. I like a little consistency in my storytelling. If Finn has to die for his massacre (and I had no problems with that), why should Bellamy get off? 'Cause it was a pre-emptive strike? I'm really getting frustrated with too many of the characters and unfortunately, I think all the annoying ones make it through. Pike, Jaha, Bellamy--my enthusiasm for season four is dwindling.

[AudienceofOne]

I post over on reddit and there are a lot of lengthy posts covering his arc from season one, two, and three showing how little good Bellamy has seen with his encounters with the Grounders to show how his actions are understandable, but I'm like: "Cool read, still a dick."

 

Even at his worst, Bellamy was never like,

"Murder a village of unarmed civilians to steal their land? Sure." Even if (and it's a big if) you accept he really believed that the Grounder army was a threat and so he wiped out his own allies while they slept for a "good reason", once he agreed to the village he was done for me. That's worse than Finn's crime by far. And even then, even if you compartmentalise and decide that these were targets he didn't know and so was maybe able to dehumanise, that doesn't excuse him allowing Lincoln to be locked up.

 

Maybe the writers will try for redemption and maybe I'll even eventually accept it. But at this point,

these kinds of war crimes are unforgivable to me.

 

EDITED for spoiler bars because I got confused about what episode I was commenting on. Sorry everyone.

Edited April 7, 2016 by AudienceofOne

[blixie]

 

Even at his worst, Bellamy was never like, "Murder a village of unarmed civilians to steal their land? Sure."

 

IMO he still isn't which is why I'm not taking it seriously Rothenberg et al don't intend it to play it for serious and they did zero work to make me believe Bellamy would do it, so eh whatever, as long as he has the shit kicked out of him by Octavia and as many other people as possible, I'll just ignore dumb offensive stuff that makes zero character sense to me. I haven't had to do this since my soap opera OLTL went down for the count. For real, next season Clarke should wake up in the forest with Lexa in the shower. 

[Jack Shaftoe]

There are already posts on Reddit in which people are voicing their indignation about Octavia daring to lay a hand on Bellamy in the promo for the upcoming episode. I just have to wonder exactly what Bellamy needs to do to make other characters' disgust with him acceptable for certain fans. Mass murder obviously didn't do the trick, so what will it take? It's one thing to not want the character to be killed off and another to think other characters should cut him some slack after all the things he has done lately.

 

And speaking of going beyond the pale, I am somewhat surprised Rothenberg is yet to go even further with trying to earn darker and edgier street cred by adding sexual assault to the endless string of murders and torture. After all, this is another thing he could copy from BSG and GoT.

[Solace247]

IMO he still isn't which is why I'm not taking it seriously Rothenberg et al don't intend it to play it for serious and they did zero work to make me believe Bellamy would do it, so eh whatever, as long as he has the shit kicked out of him by Octavia and as many other people as possible, I'll just ignore dumb offensive stuff that makes zero character sense to me. I haven't had to do this since my soap opera OLTL went down for the count. For real, next season Clarke should wake up in the forest with Lexa in the shower.

I've hand-waved a lot with this series to keep it as my favourite current TV series, but this season is proving too frustrating to continue on with that practice. Bellamy's ability to coast through this arc with only

beating is infuriating me. I can't ignore it. Especially since none of these dickheads will ever know how close they came to being obliterated. Even if they did pit in the work to convince me, this entire storyline with Pike et. al. is one I have no interest in exploring.

I just have to wonder exactly what Bellamy needs to do to make other characters' disgust with him acceptable for certain fans... It's one thing to not want the character to be killed off and another to think other characters should cut him some slack after all the things he has done lately.

Most of the time people are writing these long-winded posts on being open-minded about all characters because "it's about perspectives" and reserving judgement on characters until the end of the season--all good points, but I know they're Bellamy apologists (it's always the same people making the arguments) so it's a weighted argument. Take the whole season, by all means--I'm just going to take what the episodes tell me as they come and right now, they're telling me I'm done with Bellamy. No amount of tear-face is going to change my mind and when they inevitabley make my current fave, Clarke, completely disregard his acts and their ramifications, I'm going to choose to re-invoke my hand-waving in regards to what that says about her character.

EDIT: Trouble with tags.

Edited April 7, 2016 by Solace247

[kdm07]

There are already posts on Reddit in which people are voicing their indignation about Octavia daring to lay a hand on Bellamy in the promo for the upcoming episode. I just have to wonder exactly what Bellamy needs to do to make other characters' disgust with him acceptable for certain fans. Mass murder obviously didn't do the trick, so what will it take? It's one thing to not want the character to be killed off and another to think other characters should cut him some slack after all the things he has done lately.

 

Not sure if it's against forum rules so I'll place spoiler tags just in case:

 

Reddit used to be a great sub to follow along with the show (I used to lurk but never post) but now it's mainly made up of Bellamy apologists as most reasonable posters left between 3x07 and 3x09. I'd suggest staying away from there from now on because you'll get nothing but "Support Bellamy Blake" posts from here on out. As far as I'm concerned, a beating from Octavia isn't near enough punishment for him. I'd suggest his death along with Pike's, Hannah and that stupid Farm station guard but since Jason is prepared to defend Bellamy's characterisation this season to the hilt, the beating by Octavia is all the punishment he's going to get apparently. His reward will be the start of his romance with Clarke *eye-roll* and there will go Clarke's character development as a whole.

[Jack Shaftoe]

I think it's not against the rules but I will put spoiler tags too.

 

And predictably now many reddit posters claim think Ontari didn't actually rape Murphy. I visit that subreddit just to kill some time while at work and/or to marvel at the mental gymnastics of some posters. Okay, admittedly there are still some quality posts but they are currently buried beneath a mountain of "darker and edgier is the best thing ever, more murders the better!".

Edited April 8, 2016 by Jack Shaftoe

[STOPSHOUTING]

When the red hair came off so easily in the water, I just assumed Clarke had smeared her hair and face with blood from her kills to hide her blondness, which is super bad news for the trading post keeper she'd had sexy time with a few nights ago. Imagine the smell. Maybe she was just pretending to be asleep when Clarke snuck out all, 'Thank god she finally left! Ewww.'

I think it's interesting that they found more Ark survivors, as I said early on that having 12 separate bases and only 3, to this point, discovered, gives the show endless abilities to add new characters without being all, 'This is Stan he's been standing over the here the whole time, we just never mentioned him.' Yep, looking at you, "Ice Nation," our new Big Bad, apparently.

But, seriously, how the frick would it take them more than 30 seconds to recognize Bellamy and the others? Kane was a council member -- Chancellor even, for a time -- on the Ark and Bellamy and his sister were legendary not only for their deception, but the fact that (remember this?) Bellamy shot Jaha. It'd be like the Secret Service saying, 'Hey, John Hinckley and Dick Chaney, sorry we didn't recognize you there. Our bad.' Pretty sure the uniforms alone would have instantly ID'ed these folks as fellow Ark survivors to Pike's crew.

As someone who has been slowly binging the seasons, 2-3/week, for the past couple months, I, too, have zero interest in Jaha or the stupid City of Light plot and don't give two shakes how it works, because I can already tell it isn't gonna make a lick of sense when they try and explain it. Which is a bummer.

[Lady Calypso]

Well then, I guess it's Bellamy's turn to be on my Out Of Character list. I mean, I still like Bellamy, but his whole "we have to find Clarke" mantra, almost leading him into death by being a Lone Wolf, just made me roll my eyes. He was such a great character in season 1. Season 2 had him on the sidelines for most of the season and then marginally better when out on the mission in Mt. Weather. Now, he's...gaga over Clarke? Maybe it's because I'm not a romantic Bellarke shipper and only care about them as friends and co-leaders, but I'm getting the feeling like this whole thing is really just throwing the romantic shippers of the two something. 

Also, once again, both Bellamy and Octavia show more care toward their love interests than to each other. I want more sibling scenes. 

So....I'm pretty positive that the whole story Pike told about the snow and the Grounders killing 15 kids and Monty's dad is pretty false. At the very least, Monty's dad probably didn't die right off the bat. Monty's mom made it seem earlier that his dad was trying to look for Monty, which means that he was alive for a while. I'd like to know more about Pike's hatred for the Grounders, but I also know he's going to be a pain in the ass to watch as he clashes with Kane and acts like a dick as he tries to probably kill Lincoln and other Grounders (I guess Octavia included). 

Roan is a pretty good character, though. So at least we get an interesting new character. And Clarke and Lexa reunite, only to have Clarke still hate her. Beautiful, I say. She needed to have that anger being released. Lexa seems to detach from her emotions pretty well, but not surprising that Clarke is going to have a few choice words with her when they meet again. 

Murphy's great, and I like seeing the return of Emori. Too bad we're still stuck with the Jaha and the City of Light plot. That shit is going to bore me to tears; I really just don't care.

Jasper cries it out with Octavia. I hope that's the end of the majority of his issues. At least have him stop with the drinking and stupid decisions on missions. If he wants to snark and hate on Monty, Bellamy, and Clarke on occasion, that I can deal with for a little longer. Just have him stop being reckless on missions. 

I know they explained a little about Ice Nation last season with the backstory to Lexa, but I already forget what happened with that and why we're getting it full force this season. 

[CooperTV]

3 hours ago, Lady Calypso said:

Well then, I guess it's Bellamy's turn to be on my Out Of Character list.

Welcome to season 3, lol. Bellamy's character assassination coincides with Lexa's actions completely whitewashed, and that's just the beginning of the season.

Edited September 16, 2017 by CooperTV