Diminished TV Characters Part III

Read Part II here

Bonnie Bennett- The Vampire Diaries

The Vampire Diaries is entering into it’s 8th season. Eight seasons and the treatment of the only black female character on the show has been annoying. The reason why I think Bonnie is diminished (or to be honest, never really given the proper treatment she deserves) is because she has “heroine tendencies” in which she literally saves everyone in the show. Why would that mean she is diminished? It’s because she’s compassionate, empathetic, helpful, extremely selfless almost a martyr, and very self-sacrificing that makes her a diminished character. I cannot even begin to think of how many time she has lost her magic, sacrificed everything or died for the idiots in this show. She started off being very bubbly, bright and optimistic but as things continued to happen to her, with the things she’s seen, had to do or had done to her, she became a more serious person. I’ve been trying to keep this one from being uber long so please bear with me.

In Season 1, Bonnie’s character starts off already interesting. She learns her family is descendent from a long line of witches and they were considered very powerful. When she first uses them in front of her best friend Elena Gilbert, there is a nice moment where she makes feathers float in the air and also has a tendency to light every candle in a room. There’s a lot that happens with her great great great great grandmother Emily Bennett, where she’s possessed and tries to prevent Damon Salvatore from releasing a bunch of “dead” vampires from a cave. While trying to help Stefan Salvatore save Elena, Bonnie and her Grams perform magic to help them escape the cave that prevents vampires from leaving. It takes a toll on her Grams and she dies causing Bonnie’s dislike and distrust of vampires to grow. So even though Bonnie does not like or trust vampires, especially the Salvatores, she decides to help them because Elena is her best friend and apparently she would do anything for her friends. This starts the cycle for Bonnie Bennett. Always doing what she can to help everyone even if she doesn’t agree at first.

Season 2

Caroline Forbes, Bonnie’s other best friend was turned into a vampire, which Bonnie has a hard time accepting. She struggles with agreeing to make a daylight ring but because she is her friend, she does. Bonnie also begins to learn the inner workings of magic and if a witch uses too much magic then it will “push back” which could explain her Grams’ death.  An Original vampire Klaus wants to use Elena’s blood to make hybrids (vampire werewolf mix) because she is a doppleganger but Bonnie is willing to die for Elena to prevent this from happening. Damon and Bonnie work together to formulate a plan to save Elena and prevent Klaus from succeeding. Bonnie dies in front of everyone to fool Klaus. Elena is emotional because she witnessed her friend’s death as it was a sacrifice for her which it was. 

• Her death is to trick Klaus into thinking she’s dead in order for her to surprise him later and ruin his ritual. When she shows up to ruin the ritual, the scene is so awesome that the audience can truly see just how powerful she is. Such a boss witch.

Even though the plan is foiled, she’s willing to die to prevent the death of Elena and Jeremy’s Aunt Jenna. Look, I know she wants them to be happy and save them, but that’s stupid. Why does Bonnie need to die for their aunt? Sure, if she wants to save her sure, but I don’t think her life needed to be exchanged for someone else’s. Especially someone she doesn’t even have an emotional connection with. That’s two times she’s willing to die to save someone else but who’s willing to die for Bonnie? Jenna still dies though.

• Again, she’s willing to die to kill Klaus because using that amount of magic would kill her. I mean… that’s three times to be willing to die.

• She loses her magic due to expending so much but once she gets it back, the Salvatore brothers make her keep it a secret she would be their “secret weapon”.

• Jeremy (Elena’s younger brother and Bonnie’s love interest) dies, so Bonnie takes him to a mansion where witches were massacred in order to channel their magic and revive him. She loves this kid for some reason now and begs her witch ancestors to help her save him and their magic helps revive him. Bonnie is such a BOSS.

Overall, this season shows us that Bonnie is powerful and very much wiling to die for those she loves. It’s quite amazing actually just how many situations they are in where it seems to require Bonnie’s death. Also, I guess it’s sweet that she and Jeremy start having a thing but it definitely seemed like she liked him more than he liked her. Bonnie does have a tendency to be harsh and judgmental towards her friends due to their company, choices and unwanted circumstances (mainly Caroline) but in the end Bonnie shows true loyalty by always having everyone’s back. I cannot even remember in this season anyone else willing to die to save everyone else.

Season 3

In this season, the veil between the “other side” and the living has fallen and certain people are able to communicate with dead loves one. Jeremy is seeing his ex-vampire-girlfriend who he definitely loved which is why I don’t believe he loved Bonnie in the way she loved him, Jeremy even kisses Anna when they’re reunited even though she’s dead.  Matt Donovan is seeing his sister Vicki (vampire) who was killed by Damon. Bonnie magically sends Vicki away to prevent her from killing Matt “to be with him”. Through a dream she finds out that Klaus is magically keeping coffins hidden and where they’re located. Along with Stefan, they find the location and discover a fourth which she tries to open but it’s magically sealed. Bonnie is reunited with her mother, she learned why she left them, and why she lost her magic. Bonnie also loses her magic  (AGAIN) temporarily. So, again, Bonnie and her mother try to help everyone by performing magic in order to help her friends, but Elena is still in danger. So Stefan and Damon reveal that either Bonnie or her mother has to die in order to save Elena, to break the witch connection that Klaus’s resurrected mother formed to murder her vampire children. Since Bonnie refuses, Damon forces her mother to turn into a vampire ending the connection.

In the midst of her mother’s transition into a vampire, Elena calls asking Bonnie to cast a spell to keep Alaric (Jenna’s exboyfriend) violent tendencies inside as he was magically turned into a vampire hunter. Bonnie is kidnapped by Klaus to remove the linking spell his mother created. She refuses at first but complies because Jeremy was being threatened. When she is allowed to leave, she calls Elena to apologize for ruining their plan, and also for leaving Damon behind as he was captured by Klaus’ sister Rebekkah. I was still trying to figure out why she was reacting that way. Shouldn’t everyone understand that she had to do what she had to in order to save Jeremy, the boy she claims she loves? I mean, he’s Elena’s brother… wouldn’t she want Bonnie to save him? She also had every right to be pissed at Damon as he didn’t even allow her to make the choice of saving her mom instead he just made it by turning her. As much as I like the idea of Bonnie and Damon together, if we’re being real, at this point in their lives, it wouldn’t have worked as he was obsessed with Elena, which we’re not even going to talk about in this thing, and she couldn’t stand him. When Damon is saved later, he tries to apologize to Bonnie but there wasn’t a choice he just had to save Elena. Bonnie says there’s always a choice. Which there is. Everyone just always chooses Elena over Bonnie. The writers choose Elena, the fans choose Elena… no one chooses Bonnie.

She ends having to do a spell that requires the stopping of a human heart in order to stop a vampire’s heart. Jeremy is the human as she casts the spell to stop Klaus’ heart. Yup, once again Bonnie is doing something that potentially could kill another person she loves just to save someone else. 

Bonnie makes a ton of sacrifices this season in order to save Elena who is becoming a damsel in distress more often. Bonnie finally reconnects with her mother personally and magically but her human/witch life is stolen for Elena and Bonnie didn’t even have a say. It’s not fair. Elena even manages to call Bonnie for a favor while she’s trying to support her mom through her transition. I mean… what?? Really?? Her mother leaves to protect Bonnie as she thinks she can’t control her new vampire tendencies, thanks Abby for actually caring about Bonnie. She is constantly threatened/forced into doing magic because someone is threatening Jeremy. I mean… can the girl just live without everyone calling her up to save them? You’d think that the show would center around Bonnie Bennett considering all of the stuff she does for everyone but nope, everyone cares about Elena, even Caroline has dramatic storylines.

Season 4

Elena is transitioning into a vampire so Bonnie drives herself crazy trying to prevent that and bring Elena back to life. She even hatches a plan to go to the “other side” to bring back her soul. Why do all this for Elena? I mean… she’s annoying at this point. Just let her be an annoying vampire too, which she definitely was. But this spell requires dark magic so when she goes through with the plan, her Grams’ spirit stops her saying that Nature will punish her if she continues to dabble in dark magic. Klaus (magically trapped in Tyler’s body) demands she restore him, threatening to kill Tyler if she refused so she relents. The spell requires Bonnie to tap into dark forces and she was once again confronted by her Grams. However, Nature decided to punish her Grams instead, leaving Bonnie distraught and guilt-ridden. Once again she lost a loved one because people want to make her do things she probably shouldn’t.

She loses her magic again because of this, Professor Shane takes advantage of her vulnerability and starts to manipulate her into using a form of dark magic “Expression”. She tries to bring her best friends together as they don’t have friend time much anymore as Elena is busy bouncing between the Salvatore brothers and Caroline is being the best vampire ever also with love triangle issues. Due to a magic ring that revives those killed by the supernatural, Jeremy is turned into a vampire hunter; he has urges to kill Elena. Bonnie helps him keep those impulses under control through the teachings of Shane. She learns “Expression” is dark magic and tries to stop but Shane continues to manipulate her. Now, Bonnie has proven in the past that she is incredibly bright and wise for her age, I know she has been through a lot but I would think that would make her even more distrustful of strange people who claim to know magic but can’t use it themselves. That’s fishy and the fact that Shane successfully manipulates her so much this season is out of character for her. It seemed like the writers just didn’t care about continuity with her personality unless it was her being willing to be the sacrificial lamb. 

She learns that Shane is connected to the Town Council massacre and she asks her father the details as he is the one who had Shane arrested. She learns Shane is responsible for manipulating Pastor Young to kill himself and eleven other people. Shane admits this to Bonnie as it was a ritual and not a massacre because they would all be revived. Bonnie freaks out but Shane tells her she can see her Grams again. Being all emotional, she starts to use “Expression” which allows Shane to manipulate the situation saying he’s the only one who can help her control it. He says Bonnie could become the most powerful witch in the world. We already know she’s awesome and powerful, she has proven that many times, so I don’t understand why anyone would fall for this rubbish. She is threatened by Kol, an Original, and uses “Expression” to escape. Her parents try to prevent her from leaving to protect her but Jeremy comes and says this matter isn’t important. Pause, I know you’re the boyfriend and everything but… can she have this moment with her parents? I mean this will be the only time we see them together again. Her parents drug her and try to wipe her memory of the Expression but she wakes up and fights back. She swears no one can control her anymore but we know that’s not true as Shane still is. 

Using Jeremy’s Hunter tattoo as a map, the group goes to an island to find the cure for vampirism. Shane accompanies to keep Bonnie from using “Expression” until she needs it. She learns Shane’s wife was a witch, who died trying to use “Expression” making her mad. Shane tells her it’s okay because he knows the warning signs and can help her better, but Damon overhears and says that Shane has manipulated the situation by being the only person who can help Bonnie if she loses control so now Bonnie can’t let Shane die. Jeremy and Bonnie go into the cave to find a stone encased Silas, the first immortal in the world, who is mind manipulating Bonnie to make her think her Grams is there. Before they can attempt to kill Silas, another vampire hunter shows up and stabs Bonnie and she watches as Jeremy’s neck is snapped in front of her. I mean, why can’t the girl just succeed for once without someone trying to kill her or someone she loves?? Bonnie is emotionally devastated and is easily tricked into helping Shane, who is a revived Silas in disguise. He wants her to commit another massacre to complete the final step in the ritual. However, she quickly deduces that Silas is posing as Shane which is why I said her being manipulated is out of character because she figured this out quickly but she is tricked into almost killing 12 witches to complete the sacrifice. Caroline tries to stop the ritual but accidentally kills the witches instead. I think this the first time someone does something in order to save Bonnie from doing something she doesn’t want to, or doing something in general. 

Jeremy dies and Elena turns off her humanity off, blames Bonnie and tries to kill her but Bonnie fights back making Damon having to stop Bonnie from killing Elena. Bonnie wants to stop Silas, so she lowers the veil to speak with the witch who imprisoned him the first time. Silas tries to stop her, Damon saves her and helps subdue him while Bonnie turns him to stone. With the veil being down, she wants to bring Jeremy back but her Grams warns her not to do it but because Bonnie loves Jeremy, she does it anyway and ends up trading her life for his. Graduation comes and Bonnie doesn’t tell anyone she’s dead, she says it’s too much for everyone but I mean… you’re dead Bonnie, and you keep worrying about everyone else. Amazing. She suggests to Caroline about cancelling graduation so she can try to accumulate power to raise the veil. But Caroline refuses. Grams tells her to say her goodbyes. Bonnie gets her diploma and sneaks away with a dead Kol, who wants the veil to remain down as he wants to live in the living world. Bonnie tricks him and traps him in the room with her lifeless body. When she is finally able to lower the veil Jeremy is able to live and Bonnie being dead is solidified.

Ultimately!! BONNIE DIES IN THIS SEASON AND NO ONE NOTICES! I don’t even have anything else to say! That one was long, sorry, but a lot of stuff happened this season. 

Season 5

As a ghost, Bonnie remains to keep an eye on her friends even though they think she’s staying with her mother. Only Jeremy and Matt can see her thanks to their previous abilities to see ghosts but Matt doesn’t know she’s dead, he finds out later. The spell she cast against Silas is broken and Bonnie is powerless as she watches Silas kill her father yep so that’s two family members killed, three if you count her mother being turned. Jeremy ends up telling Damon because everyone needs her help again. He explains there has to be a balance, people can’t be brought back without a consequence so Bonnie died so Jeremy could live. Damon tells Elena who mourns Bonnie I give her points for this because there are some nice times when Elena and Bonnie have moments. They hold an extremely emotional memorial for Bonnie and the one time the show honored her character. I sobbed it was so beautiful. Though I think it’s funny that the note she leaves for Elena pertains more to Bonnie than it does to Elena “You think you have to be there for everyone but you don’t… you can live your life” buuuut Bonnie herself couldn’t do that and she died for it.

Bonnie meets Amara (another Petrova doppleganger… not important) who is the anchor to the other side, which means dead people have to pass through her in order to move on. So Bonnie discovers in order to live again, she must become the anchor. Especially as the “other side” is going to be destroyed. As a result of a ritual, Bonnie becomes the anchor and is brought back to life though being the anchor means that every time someone dies, they must pass through her and it causes extreme pain because she feels all of the supernatural deaths. Yay. She also has, once again, lost her magic. This is also the first time she and Jeremy are intimate. Bonnie is probably the only character in the show who had a “decent” relationship with someone, where she did not flip flop between two men, and didn’t sleep with him after like two days but ya know, I still don’t think Jeremy loved her to the extent that she loved him. Besides, he basically cheated on her with his dead girlfriend so, it’s almost kind of weird. She and Jeremy have a moment but Damon kidnaps Jeremy forcing Bonnie to do a locator spell for a witch or Jeremy dies. Bonnie discovers a classmate is a witch but she seems to not control it well. She hopes to teach her so she could help her friends magically while Bonnie cannot. Bonnie continues trying to teach Liv magic but it’s all a front. Liv is very experienced.

A group of Travelers, annoying witches, sacrifice themselves for a ritual to revive Markos, their powerful leader. They have to pass through Bonnie to get to the other side, they all do at the same time causing pain and she passes out. Markos is revived unknown to Bonnie. The “other side” is dying which means as the anchor, Bonnie would also die which means, she’s preparing for her impending death… again. After talking to Liv, Bonnie says she is okay with dying, just as long as her friends are safe and whoever is on the other side that she cares about, makes it back alive. According to Liv, there is no hope and Bonnie should (once again) say her goodbyes. Later, Grams appears, angry with Bonnie about all of the lying and false hope about the life she will never have because of the death of the other side. Grams accidentally knocks over a lamp and Bonnie realizes the other side is worsening… death is close. During a bunch of traveler nonsense, Bonnie is the first one to figure out what their plans are by connecting the dots see? She is smart, which is why I don’t understand the inconsistency the writers do with her being easily manipulated by other people. Bonnie has always been perceptive. Bonnie and her friends believe there is a chance to save the other side, but instead they’re forced out of Mystic Falls and if they return, they’ll be turned human and die their original deaths. Stefan is killed and Bonnie is emotionally affected when he passes through her.

Silas, who is Stefan’s doppleganger, begins teaching Bonnie and Liv the spell to help the other side but it starts to crumble quickly. Liv begins a spell to lower the veil so ghosts can pass through Bonnie (anchor).  Silas dies and is sucked into oblivion. Elena and Damon blow themselves up killing all of the Travelers to prevent Markos from returning again. All of her friends who died pass through her: Luke (Liv’s twin), Enzo (Damon’s best friend from the 40s I think), Tyler, Stefan forces Elena through who was trying to wait on Damon. Stefan also tried to wait but accidentally goes through himself. Markos tries to pass through again but Stefan’s best friend Lexi fights him off, he disappears and she finds peace. The spell ends and Damon and Bonnie are stuck on the other side. It was actually a beautiful scene, Damon comes but he’s too late and the darkness approaches the two. They hold hands and admits that they are ready to face whatever happens together.

Bonnie obviously goes through a lot and does a lot. She went from being a witch, to not having magic, to faking her death, to practicing Expression, to actually dying and not having magic, to being the anchor to the other side only to die again. Through all of these roles, she continues to help her friends without any complaint or thought of what she wants and what is taken away from her. Yes, she grieves but it’s almost like she doesn’t truly get the chance too as someone always needs her just when she gets the chance to grieve. It doesn’t seem like her friends realize how great of a friend Bonnie is. The memorial was the only time everyone realized that she was… great.

Season 6

Bonnie and Damon survived, they are in Mystic Falls reliving May 10, 1994 repeatedly. There always an eclipse. They decide to use magic to get back home but Bonnie is still without magic. Bonnie and Damon bond and playfully bicker with each other the two actors have always had chemistry but it became more noticeable and fully realized in this season. Damon makes pancakes, Bonnie tries to finish a crossword puzzle every day. She’s frustrated about not solving a certain word and Damon is frustrated because she hasn’t regained her magic. He calls her useless and she storms off. Later, Bonnie makes dinner, she comforts Damon and they make peace, Bonnie explaining she misses their friends and family too. They discover, thanks to the solved crossword that someone else is stuck too.

It’s been a couple of months, they’re shopping and they hear a store front ride turn on. Bonnie thinks someone did it while Damon tries to be reasonable. Just because someone else may be there, doesn’t mean they’ll escape. They argue about hope and Bonnie tells Damon “Hope is the only thing that keeps me going, Damon. So if you’re really done, if you have none, then BE done …” and leaves Damon alone. Damon goes back in the store and meets Kai, who tells him his “bickering” with Bonnie’s boring and that’s witnessed Damon push Bonnie away 13 times in an argument. After a few threats and sarcasm, Damon drinks a bourbon laced with vervain. Kai tries to kill Damon but Bonnie arrives. Kai teases her a bit and Bonnie, tries once more to magically light a candle. She does. She tells Damon to run and  chants a spell casting a fire circle around Kai. Damon returns to knock Kai out and apologizes to Bonnie for calling her “the most annoying person because Kai is”. Kai wakes up, says he’s on their side but Bonnie doubts it as he tried to kill Damon. He says since Bonnie has come back she always does, like for real thirteen times, he knew she would come back to Damon and save him which would give her the proper motivation to reactive her powers because her magic is the key. Bonnie gathers items needed for a locator spell to find an item called the “Ascendent” that would help them get home. They learn that Kai’s had it all along and that he was trapped for killing his entire family. He is a witch who siphons, meaning he drains magic from others. He proves it by touching Bonnie and hurting Damon. When they get to their destination for the spell, Bonnie refuses to perform unless Kai actually teaches it to her. He never knew it and explains that since a Bennett witch created his prison, only a Bennett witch can destroy/escape it.

Due to his crime, Bonnie attempt to kill Kai to prevent him from coming, he shoots her with an arrow and Damon tries to heal her but Kai stops him and they fight for the Ascendent. She uses her magic to separate the two and forces Damon home leaving her stuck in the dimension with Kai once again, even though at this point, she and Damon have gotten really close, which I loved, she sacrifices herself for someone else. She cries, happy that Damon’s gone but sad that she didn’t make it and could be dying from her wound. Kai brought her back to the Salvatore house, he threatens her to fix the broken Ascendent. She tries to escape in Damon’s car but Kai shows up in the backseat and they go to the cave to cast the spell again. She puts her magic in her bear and sends it through time leaving them once again stuck. Bonnie is such a boss!! Kai drugs and kidnaps Bonnie and takes them to his childhood home, they have Thanksgiving dinner and agree to go their separate ways. He finds the knife his twin sister hid her magic in, absorbs it and stabs Bonnie, revealing that he’s watched her perform the spell twice, he only needs her blood. She passes out only to wake up alone.

Damon and Elena go to the dimension to bring her home but the spell was ended early and when Bonnie finally makes it back to Mystic Falls in the other dimension, they’re gone and she’s alone again. She tries to make the best of the situation and starts to decorate for Christmas but after reminiscing, she sets the tree on fire. Kai, sort of a changed man, casts a spell in the real word in order for some of the others to see Bonnie but they cannot interact with her. She makes herself breakfast, watch videos she and Damon recorded and she starts to drink a bottle a bourbon. Damon reveals it to be their “suicide bourbon” stating they made a pact where when they can’t take being stuck anymore, they’d open the oldest bottle of bourbon, drink it, and then kill themselves, which is what Bonnie is doing. She starts to commit suicide via carbon monoxide poisoning but Kai was able to send Jeremy through and while unknown to Bonnie, he tries to encourage her. After remembering the words of wisdom and strength from Grams, she wants to live but collapses. Jeremy manages to become physical and saves her, he also leaves a map marked for Silas’ magic touched headstone. She remembers Damon creating the route and drives to Nova Scotia. Before she sends herself home, she meets a mysterious woman but goes home. She and Damon have a great and emotional reunion. He recognizes the woman to be his dead mother.

Bonnie tries to adjust being back. At a rave, a man pulls her to dance with him but she burns his hand after he got to grabby. Leaving, she calls Damon “just wanting to hear his voice” *dies*and tell him what happened. He asks her if she could listen to Kai’s apology about everything but she refuses to ever forgive him. Damon comes to the rave, Bonnie is happy to see him until she sees that Kai is with him. She is upset and leaves. Damon comes to her room and tries to apologize for bringing Kai. Bonnie makes him magically feel everything Kai did to her by inflicting all her wounds but she can’t make him feel the worst one: being left alone. Elena, Damon, Bonnie and Kai go back to the spirit world. Elena and Damon go for Damon’s mom while Kai and Bonnie try to find that world’s Ascendent. Kai tries to apologize by saying he’s changed but Bonnie gets revenge and leaves him, magically traveling back to Damon and Elena with the Ascendant. She and Damon have an argument about Lily (his mother) getting her friends (who are still stuck in the spirit world but are vampires who can also do magic) out. Bonnie does not want to help but Damon already gave his mother the Ascendant. She and Damon have another argument when Bonnie tries to destroy the Ascendant she snuck away from Lily. She tells him that if he really wanted to be human with Elena (who took the cure and is now human) then he would have told Elena about the second cure by now. He leaves without taking the Ascendant. Lily confronts Bonnie about getting her friends out of the spirit world, Bonnie refuses causing Lily to attack her and get something embedded in Bonnie’s neck. Jo takes her to the hospital but Damon heals her with his blood. Kai manages to return to the real world and crashes his twin sister’s wedding (Jo and Alaric) and he kills everyone. Elena was injured but is ultimately fine, in a “coma”. Kai explains he’s linked Bonnie and Elena’s lives meaning they can’t be alive at the same time. Matt tells Bonnie to leave town but she refuses, Matt is sure that since Damon only cares about Elena *rolls eyes* he’ll kill Bonnie to get Elena back. Bonnie confronts Kai, he insults her about her friends caring more about Elena than her he’s not wrong due to the evidence in the past.

Bonnie tries to her magic and face Kai, but he siphons magic and slams her against the wall, collapsing her lung. Damon arrives, she cries out to him as she’s about to die. Kai tells Damon he can either let Bonnie die so Elena can wake up, or save Bonnie. Damon apologizes to Bonnie, kisses her forehead and leaves. Bonnie starts to cry and Kai is angry that his plan didn’t work. Damon decapitates Kai and saves Bonnie by giving her his blood. He asks her if she really thought he would leave her alone, and that he hasn’t run out of nicknames for her yet. He carries her out. Later everyone goes to the Salvatore house to mentally say goodbye to Elena. Bonnie tells Elena that she’s sorry. They talk and Elena asks Bonnie if she could do her trick one last time by levitating the feathers.

Season 6 is my favorite season for various reasons: Kai was a great addition and a great villain, I’m glad Damon killed him but I also kind of wish he was able to stick around for a bit. I loved the Bonnie and Damon dynamic and how much it’s grown and matured over the years. They started off hating each other, mostly Bonnie hated him for the things he did but over the years they warmed up to each other and learned how to respect the other. They got to spend more time around each other and care for each other in a way they hadn’t before. They became best friends on their own, no one was in the way to make them be friends, they didn’t help and care for each other because of Elena, it just happened. Bonnie continued to have hope of returning home even though it seemed like she wouldn’t ever get that chance was amazing. It showed me how much I actually love her character, her strength is one of her stronger aspects and throughout everything, she’s never lost that. I was so glad that Damon chose to save her over Elena because it shows his growth as a character. Before, he would have chosen Elena without hesitation but the fact he chose Bonnie, especially for her to live out her human life shows his growth because he knew that while he “loves” Elena he also can’t live without Bonnie. 

Season 7 (last season until season 8)

I actually enjoyed season 7 because for one: Elena was gone and I have been over her character for many seasons now. But to see Bonnie and Damon team up and their friendship carry over from season 6 was great, their chemistry is very palpable. They’re “stuck with each other” as they say. The story was also pretty interesting.

Bonnie is with Damon and Ric in Amsterdam. She checks out this mysterious stone Ric finds, with the hopes that it will resurrect his dead wife but Bonnie has a vision of people being killed and tortured and asks him to destroy it as it’s dark magic. She later finds out that while he told her he destroyed it he didn’t. I get that Ric and Bonnie haven’t been super good friends in the past but she has helped him a lot in the past too, I couldn’t believe he was so willing to look her in the face, knowing that it was painful for her with that stone around, but kept it anyway. No matter how Bonnie explains that the other side is gone, there is no veil, Jo has probably moved on, he will take any chance regardless. All I heard was “I don’t care if this affects you Bonnie, I don’t care if you don’t want to use your magic to bring her back because it may hurt/kill you… I just want my wife” which I understand being devastated and the pain but it’s just not right. But being the person she is, Bonnie is willing to endure the painful visions and tapping into dark magic for him because she cares for him and wants him to be happy.

Then flash forward, Bonnie is angry and hurt towards Damon for choosing to leave her, again. She even says while in a psych ward that she “I loved someone but they hurt her and she couldn’t handle it at first but eventually decided to live with it” or something along those lines but he had to choose someone who’s basically dead. Elena has been gone for some episodes now but the writers just couldn’t seem to let her be asleep. The actress left the show but they continued to find ways to keep her relevant when she legit no longer is. Bonnie is right there, literally right at Damon’s side, not behind him but beside him, as they are pretty much equals. They season starts off with them being in a different country together, and they’re teaming up to save their town… I mean she’s right there. Stop ghosting over Bonnie for a character who hasn’t been interesting since season 3. They are forced to work together because Bonnie is dying, due to taking magic blocking pills, they are hiding her from the organization called “The Armory” as they want her to open a magically sealed vault in order for the leader to find her sister, who is likely dead. Damon sees that Bonnie and Enzo are together and visibly is uncomfortable with it.

• In terms of the Bonnie/Enzo relationship, when they showed it in the flash forward, I was like “Meh, I don’t like it” but then they later showed how it progressed to that point, I don’t dislike it but I’m also not shipping it. The actors do have chemistry but my main problem with that “ship” is that Enzo hasn’t been an interesting character for a long time. He was Damon’s best friend after they were captured, tortured and experimented on in Whitmore but felt betrayed because Damon was able to escape and he left Enzo after he failed to rescue him. I think the writers kept him around with the intent of making him a “less interesting” Damon as they are very similar. It’s almost like their way of giving fans who want “Bamon” in the show a “Bamon- like” relationship. It’s a cop out and a slap. If Enzo was more developed then maybe I’d be more open to it but as Enzo is kind of useless, I can’t feel emotionally attached to them at all. I don’t see any growth in Bonnie as a character with Enzo, I see her being “happy” with him and she does say to him “I’ve always wanted someone to love me the way you do” but no matter how much everyone wants to ride the Delena train, I think Damon already does. Maybe it’s Ian Somerhalder and Kat Graham’s fault for having such great chemistry and them wanting their characters to be together in the show but it looks to me, quite often, that Damon does love Bonnie more than a best friend and vice versa.

Bonnie is slowly dying from the magic blocking pills so Damon and Enzo are trying to figure out how to save her. Damon finds and capture Rayna, a vampire Huntress and bargains with her to give up her last life to Bonnie (She had 7 lifetimes due to an ancient ritual), she agrees if they hunt down the vampire souls who escape her Phoenix Stone prison. They all become awesome vampire reject hunters and as Bonnie gets weaker, Damon makes a deal with the armory that if they kill the remaining 100 vamps, he’ll hand Bonnie over to them. Of course everyone is upset with him because of this deal but The Armory follows through and kills the remaining vampires. Bonnie goes to them and opens the vault, but after getting all of her friends out of the building she seals the entire building so no one could get out, including the mysterious Creature. Bonnie is still a boss witch.  Rayna tricks them just as the ritual is being completed to give Bonnie her life and she has her shaman give Bonnie her life as the Huntress too. So now, if Bonnie wakes up, she’ll want to hunt all of her friends. She doesn’t want to wake up as her new life will be to kill them all. Especially the two people who she cares about the most and who seem to care about her the most: Damon and Enzo.

• This is the first time Bonnie is actually an antagonist in the show.

• Caroline tries to appeal to her friendship with Bonnie in her dreams, though the writers have not really allowed them to have any screen time together this season; it was almost as if they were no longer friends. Bonnie dream kills her and marks Caroline who Stefan takes on the run.

• Enzo tries to appeal to their love for each other, shows her the times they spent together. With her learning the guitar, him cooking for her etc but she kills him with the guitar marking Enzo, to his surprise and dismay because he couldn’t reach her.

• Damon is the last resort to wake Bonnie, but instead of trying to appeal to her kindness, he appeals to her anger knowing it would wake her. He uses Elena as a tool to make Bonnie angry and she kills him in her dream marking him. She goes after him to kill him, she chases him to her “In memory” tree stump from when she died and Damon tells her “You’re so strong Bonnie Bennett, you have been many things: a witch, a ghost, a corpse, the anchor and you’ve stronger because of it”, he tells her that he envies her strength, admires her, believes in her and that he loves her. He eventually says the wrong thing and it reignites her anger and she almost kills him but Matt knocks her out.

  • Now, when he says all of this it seemed to help her want to try and stop. But then… he tacks on “I love you… the way Elena loves you” and I say stop right there! Why does Damon have to love anyone the way Elena loves them? Why can’t he just love Bonnie because he actually loves her? 

• So now Damon and everyone else is trying to find out how to break this curse on Bonnie as she is actively chasing Caroline. They discover if they can burn the last body that represents Rayna’s last life, then it would sever the link between that body and Bonnie’s releasing her of the curse. They are able to do this just as Bonnie catches up to Enzo and almost kills him even as he’s prepared to die because if he dies, then at least he’ll die still loving her and with her.

  • That scene first of all, mirrored the Bamon scene before so I wasn’t truly able to feel the emotions they were trying to put forth because it just an “instead of”. The writers seemed like they were definitely trying to say ‘well here’s the next best thing to a romantic Bamon’.

• Damon kills the last remaining body, breaking the link between the two and Bonnie stops just in time. Bonnie calls Damon to thank him and forgive him for saving her and just as he tries to leave, he hears Elena’s voice *rolls eyes* and is attacked by the mysterious creature that was supposed to remain locked in the vault and it does something to him. Bonnie and Enzo go to find out what’s happening, Enzo goes to find Damon and is also attacked by the mysterious creature. Now they’re both gone.

  • So now Bonnie loses both Enzo and Damon, Oh! She also doesn’t have her magic anymore either.

I really tried to do this one without making it long but I just couldn’t and I hope you’ve made it through this post. This one needs the information to understand my point. Considering there are so many fans who dislike Bonnie, or who did hate before, or want her off the show (which I really don’t understand), I had to do it this way to show that Bonnie Bennett is amazing character whose potential is not realized.

I understand Elena Gilbert was the main character and the show revolved around her, which would have been fine, if Bonnie’s character hadn’t gotten smaller and smaller over the seasons. You would think with everything I’ve outlined here she would have a larger role but this is literally all she does. Outside of dying and sacrificing over and over, what else has happened to her? Nothing. Matt Donovan who is the most useless person ever on this show is still around and he even gets more storylines than Bonnie does. Caroline, who is also one of my favorites became a large focal point in a lot with the show when she started off being the most annoying girl. She had the storyline in being Damon’s toy (which she has ever right to hate him and never forgive him), of being turned into a vampire against her will, the choosing between Matt and Tyler, the choosing between Klaus and Tyler, her mother’s death, being the last vampire to turn off her emotions, having a relationship with Stefan, having to carry Alaric’s magical twins because Jo died… I mean there’s variety for her but Bonnie keeps getting the same story retold over and over again and her life and happiness is always at stake.

The “relationship” she had with Jeremy seemed one sided for a very long time, the relationship she has with Enzo currently seems like a carbon copy of what she could have Damon Salvatore and it did seem like Kai started to have romantic feelings for her and that could have been okay if handled properly, but he was killed. Even the friendship between Caroline, Bonnie and Elena weakened over the course of the show, it started off strong but due to Elena’s back and forth between the brothers, anyone else who wasn’t involved in some sort of ridiculous romantic plot, got sidelined and Bonnie is the biggest victim of that.

We know she’s powerful because she has taken on the Original vampires who are considered to be the strongest vampires, she took down Silas, she suffered through being the anchor where those killed by the supernatural have to pass through her, her family has died in one way or another, she’s watched Jeremy die many times, only for them to not even end up together. It’s just a cycle. No one seems to be grateful for everything Bonnie does for them.

I continue to watch this show for Bonnie’s character (among Damon, Caroline and Stefan) and with these past two seasons, she was able to grow in different ways. Her strength remained and will always be there, but she was able to push past her dislike for Damon and allowed herself to really care for him when before they hated each other. He grew as a character on his own while in her presence. He didn’t grow for anyone but himself and Bonnie continues to be who she is.

I just hope the writers quit messing around and with this last season, treat her well. If Nina Dobrev (Elena) indeed returns, I hope there is a way around this curse preventing Elena and Bonnie from being alive at the same time because if Bonnie dies prematurely just so Elena can live… I will throw my TV at the wall. She deserves to actually be happy. Not in the ‘she can’t have Damon so here’s Enzo’ way, or a false sense of security, or hopelessly hopeful… she deserves to be rewarded for everything she’s done and gone through by having the best send off a character should have.

Bonnie Bennett deserves the world from this show and so much more.

P.S. I will probably do a companion piece directly to this about Bonnie and Damon because I need to talk about that too.