spacexualkids:

it doesn’t bother me when somebody hates bellamy blake (well i mean it does, but it isn’t automatically gonna make me get my fighting gloves). 

it bothers me when somebody hates bellamy blake simply because they hold him to a double standard.

“oh but i liked him in season one and season two!” so you conveniently liked him when he was following clarke’s lead? when he was willing to sacrifice his feelings and quietly suffer for the greater good? 

“he tried to hold clarke against her will!” for what he believed to be her own good, just like lexa in season three, and abby in season two.

“he killed 300 innocent grounders!” first of all imo innocent is a stretch. these are the same grounders that killed many of the original delinquents, after all. it was an army, not the grounder peace corps. second of all bellamy killed 20 to 30 grounders at most, if we’re speaking realistically, and he was trying to spare the wounded so its probably less than even that. third of all he took out what he perceived to be a threat to his people (does that make it right? no but its not like he just went out to slaughter a bunch of kids for shits and giggles, like a lot of yall make it seem). 

fourth of all clarke and lexa have just as much innocent blood on their hands and i don’t see yall outraged over that. “they were just doing what was best for their people at the time!” yeah, so was bellamy. “they had no better options!” yeah, bellamy thought he didn’t either. “the sacrifice was necessary!” yeah, bellamy thought so too. 

and the truth is we don’t have PROOF that there wasn’t a better option to letting that bomb fall on tondc, just like we don’t have PROOF that azgeda hadn’t somehow infiltrated the grounder army and were planning another attack, or that members of the grounder army themselves were planning an attack because–surprise surprise–THEY didn’t like the sky people either. the truth is yall are just more easily able to understand things from clarke and lexa’s point of view, and forgive them their wrong doings.

“he’s abusive towards octavia and clarke!” honestly, if you believe bellamy is abusive because he reminds you of some sort of abuse you suffered personally or witnessed, etc, okay. i’m not going to argue that. everyone’s history with abuse is different, and we are all triggered by different things.

but speaking as an abuse victim myself, it’s just….extremely difficult for me to look at bellamy blake and see an abuser. if anything i see a fellow victim. someone who was forced to take on a responsibility that was way too big for a six year old, who lived in constant fear that he would lose his sister and get his mom killed, who was just as trapped as octavia for his whole life. someone who grew up poor in a classist society, someone whose life was never really his own, someone who carries the guilt of his own mother’s death just because he wanted to give his sister a good memory. someone who felt so guilty and filled with self hate that he was suicidal, willing to let another boy shoot him in the mud. someone who has put himself in lethal danger time and time again in order to save and protect others, and because he has so little self worth. someone who was caged like an animal, who was drained and tortured, and still managed to ask if a girl he barely knew was okay. someone who allowed his only living family, the person he loved most in the world, beat him half to death, turning away the help he was offered because he believed he deserved it. 

it bothers me when people defend his abuse, praise octavia, going so far as to say “he deserved it” or “he had it coming.” not just because those are the sort of things i grew up hearing after my parent hit me, but because it is literally glorifying abuse, and specifically abuse from a family member, which can be even harder for the victim to deal with, because even with all the shit that we’re put through, they’re still our family and we still love them in a fundamental way that it’s hard to ignore. and so we’re forced to forgive them, not just for them but for us as well, and we have to try to do so in a way that still holds them accountable for the way that they hurt us. bellamy has already forgiven octavia–for her, not for him–and she has yet to be held accountable.

it bothers me when people cite his history with trauma and PTSD as “man pain” because it is literally ableist. and it erases the fact that for the majority of this season, he has actually been seen putting his own feelings aside so that he could do what needs to be done, to protect his people. it also supports the idea that men aren’t allowed to cry or feel things or show emotions. bellamy has been rightfully angry, sad, and upset this season, and every single time his feelings have been completely invalidated and chalked up to him being a whiny man-child. even though he’s such a good example of an alpha male who subverts so many alpha male tropes, so many toxic masculinity tropes, so many south east asian and especially asian male tropes. 

it bothers me when people call him white or white passing, because that is literally white washing and racist. the writers have said he isn’t white. bob has said he isn’t white. bellamy’s own fucking skin is not white. stop yourselves.

“he gets white male treatment, like getting away with everything, and being paired with the lead female.” this statement is factually wrong and racist. first of all being paired with the lead female is not “getting white male treatment” and even if it was, it shouldn’t be, so bellamy is breaking a lot of your racist stereotypes right there. second of all he has literally never gotten away with anything in canon. canon has always held him more accountable than any other character except for maybe murphy, and even then that’s a tight argument. 

it bothers me when people say “he doesn’t deserve clarke.” since season one, bellamy has been following clarke’s lead, sticking by her side when possible and racing to get back to it when not. he’s supported almost every single one of her bad decisions, because he trusted her to make it work and do the right thing for their people. he watched over their people while she was gone, picking up the slack that she left behind. he has never hesitated when it came to helping clarke, even if sometimes his idea of helping was warped by miscommunication or misconceptions. he has always forgiven clarke for her mistakes and flaws–maybe not right away, as like most of us he needed time to heal and move on–but he has always forgiven her. and even before he’d forgiven her, he was more than willing to risk his life to save her, because her safety has always been his top priority. so why exactly does he “not deserve her” ?

it bothers me when people say they liked him better as a follower. i hope you can see why that bothers me, and why it should also bother you.

it bothers me when people say he killed lexa, both because he literally didn’t, and because that completely warps the story itself. lexa died because she wanted to change a violent and strict regime into a peaceful one. lexa died because her adviser had shitty aim. lexa died because she let clarke convince her to go against her people’s customs. lexa’s death was tragic, and poorly executed, but bellamy had little to nothing to do with it. if you think she only died because he killed those grounders, i’m not sure why you do? her people were upset with her from the very beginning. she’d already had one (possibly more) assassination attempts on her life. even if titus hadn’t pulled the trigger, it wouldn’t have been long before another unsettled grounder did. her rule was on shaky ground all season; it was only a matter of time.

it bothers me when people hate bellamy because they see him as an obstacle to their ship, or because they see bellarke as an obstacle/enemy of some sort. bellamy is his own character. he is so much more than just one half of a ship. he means so much more than that.

so no, i’m not bothered (too much) when somebody hates bellamy blake because they just “don’t really get him” or they think he’s an asshole or they think he’s stereotypical. 

it bothers me when they hate bellamy blake for the same reasons they glorify characters like clarke, lexa and octavia. it bothers me when he is so clearly held to a double standard for no real discernible reason. it bothers me when he is only allowed to be a hero, if he’s following the orders of someone else, and is not allowed to have his own autonomy. it bothers me when he is hated for something he’s never even done, or because of something he has nothing to do with. 

it bothers me that in so many anti-bellamy blake posts i find victim-blaming and ableist and biphobic and racist rhetoric. it bothers me that some people hate bellamy because they think it’s a show of respect for lexa/cl.exa. 

it bothers me that some people go out of their way to force their hate onto bellamy fans, by flooding the tags, by coming into our inboxes, by hijacking our posts, by nominating him as “best villain” or swarming the polls.

and it bothers me that the minute i post this i’m going to be bombarded with comments and messages like “well i liked him in seasons one and two but now he’s so shitty” or “you only stan him because he’s hot” or “but bellamy DID kill lexa, because–” etc etc etc because yall just never seem to understand when your opinions just aren’t wanted.