The phenomenon of the Beloved Aspect Character is one which I’ve all the time had a good time with. Whereas the primary characters anchor a TV present, the facet characters who encompass them add colour, context, and battle to the story. Steadily, facet characters find yourself being the fan favorites, elevating them to a most important character by sheer drive of will. And oftentimes, that pure love they’re proven is a protect between character growth and fading into the background, accumulating mud other than once they’re helpful to the plot.
One of many mid-2000s’ most iconic facet characters who turned most important characters is Bonnie Bennett from “The Vampire Diaries” (performed by Kat Graham). She’s the über-powerful Black witch and finest buddy of the primary character, Elena Gilbert. Virtually 20 years after the present’s finish, we nonetheless discuss her. Bonnie was a literal drive of nature, and whether or not you’re somebody doing all of your first watch on TikTok proper now or an OG rewatching for the millionth time, Bonnie is a kind of characters who sticks with you, particularly for those who’re a Black lady.
Bonnie begins the sequence because the skeptical finest buddy of the love-blind Elena, and, regardless of her personal journey to find her witchy items, Bonnie is commonly on the whim and can of the three most important characters. As a basic in 2008, Elena, Stefan Salvatore, and Damon Salvatore’s love triangle anchored the present, and its generally convoluted plot all the time comes again to their particular person and collective feelings and motivations. Bonnie, regardless of always attempting to keep up distance from the vampires about city in season one, is drawn into their drama and rapidly turns into a fixture.
It’s laborious to pinpoint when Bonnie turned a most important character, each within the eyes of the general public and the eyes of the producers (The Vampire Diaries universe was all the time swirling with rumors of stress between creators and the followers over how they handled the character). I simply know that one second you wouldn’t see her for a number of episodes after which, out of the blue, Graham was bumped as much as a sequence common, and Bonnie was always within the combine. Transferring ahead, we see Bonnie play an ever-present and essential function in our tangled three and the remainder of the ensemble.
Bonnie is commonly used as the answer to, or the fixer of, their issues all through the eight-season sequence. She’s casting or breaking spells that may make or break their ill-fated plans; she’s consulting her grimoire to dispense essential knowledge she barely understands herself. She additionally serves as an ethical compass within the morally grey world of the supernatural, in addition to a sympathetic ear for human companions. She actually embodies what witches are likely to symbolize on this universe: nature’s steadiness. Whether or not she’s consulting the human members of the group or the supernatural contingent, she is ceaselessly sustaining their humanity.
Humanity is one thing that “The Vampire Diaries” facilities itself round, whether or not characters are rediscovering it or attempting desperately to carry onto it. Bonnie actually is without doubt one of the present’s true ethical compasses, although some would say it’s Matt Donovan, a blonde-haired, blue-eyed, poor white child who’s the beloved highschool quarterback. Nonetheless, whereas Matt is allowed to enter and exit the plot as he needs, on account of his ineffective humanness, Bonnie is ceaselessly placing others first, whether or not she likes it or not. Like many Black ladies, she’s seen by her counterparts as a superwoman past human limits. Bonnie is all the time seen as bigger than life, above all of it, even when she’s mentally and emotionally crumbling earlier than her buddies. We not often see her take a step again or make time for herself by eight seasons, and when she does, it’s met with complaints and gripes from these round her who’re all questioning, “The place is Bonnie? We want her to repair this!”
As many Black ladies are, Bonnie can be the perpetual noble sacrifice. One factor Bonnie Bennett, as a personality, will do is sacrifice her peace, dignity, and even her life (on a number of events) for the sake of different, extra egocentric individuals. The examples are limitless: setting apart her personal discomfort about being bodily assaulted by Damon in season one to help Elena in considered one of her first hairbrained schemes; when her grandmother dies after overexerting herself for one of many Salvatore brothers vendettas; when her mom is unceremoniously became a vampire to avoid wasting Elena; when she herself is anticipated to sacrifice herself with the intention to save one other one of many most important solid. She is all the time the martyr, generally of her personal accord and generally as a result of the plot places her again towards the wall.
It was clear from a really early time to each critics and followers alike that the writers really noticed Bonnie as a method to an finish, her character’s woes be damned. Do they want somebody raised from the useless? Let’s get Bonnie in there. Do they want a spell that may save the season? Have them name Bonnie. There’s an omnipotent immortal being who can’t be killed? No worries; we made it in order that Bonnie’s bloodline is the one one that might probably be of any assist. Oftentimes, the trials and tribulations that resulted had been swiftly settled or swept below the rug, labeled “plot gap.” When a personality’s whole arc is considered one of sacrifice and repair time and time and time once more, you start to surprise why that’s.
For Black ladies particularly, Bonnie could be a laborious watch. Whereas I see white followers, each new and outdated, praising Bonnie for all the time saving everybody, irrespective of the implications, for all the time being the voice of cause, and all the time placing others earlier than herself, I can’t assist however see so many real-life Black ladies who’ve been pressured to do the identical. The writers configure her into nearly each stereotype of a Black lady doable whereas nonetheless making her palatable for a white viewers. Our first actual introduction to her, she’s the overly tough Black lady who’s “making issues more durable than they should be” in season one. Generally she suits into the basic Mammy trope, typically for Elena and Caroline, the place she’s like a consolation blanket to them, regardless of their disregarding each sound piece of recommendation she tries to present them till the circumstances are dire sufficient.
Then again, she is ceaselessly the tough-hearted, no-nonsense voice of cause for everybody from Damon to Matt to Alaric Saltzman, their barely creepy English teacher-turned-friend. She’s even been the disposable Black girlfriend for Elena’s frankly annoying youthful brother, Jeremy. Bonnie Bennett, whereas being a really spectacular character due to Graham’s portrayal, is a painful reminder of the few containers that fashionable tv thinks Black ladies can match into. We’re {powerful} and good and crafty and loving, however solely on sure phrases and solely at our personal expense.
This brings us to the “fashionable” day interpretation and love for Bonnie. Virtually twenty years after the premiere of “The Vampire Diaries,” persons are nonetheless calling for “justice for Bonnie Bennett” and acknowledging that the lady suffered greater than Jesus for the sake of her silly white buddies, similar to we had been lamenting in 2011.
Whereas Bonnie stays standing nonetheless in time, the audiences that love her don’t. Upon my first watch as a younger faculty scholar, I appeared as much as Bonnie. Many I see watching now are awed by the grace she has whereas enduring the unending stupidity of her buddies and the selflessness with which she helps and protects them. Additional into my life—publish absolutely shaped frontal cortex—Bonnie enraged me. I discovered myself yelling on the TV when rewatching. How might she simply allow them to trample over her like this when she’s proper? Why is she saying sure to this silly plan, which she advised them wouldn’t work? Why on earth is she doing this spell she is aware of will kill her for the sake of people that by no means see her as something greater than a method to an finish?
As I discovered myself, Bonnie has challenged me, and plenty of different Black ladies. Like all type of media, whether or not it’s a beloved, well-worn guide or a TV present or film you’ve rewatched a million occasions, Bonnie is a personality I expertise in another way each time I witness her journey. A few of it’s nonetheless extraordinarily painful to see. The one time she actually will get to expertise a real love curiosity who will get her, he’s carelessly ripped away for the sake of the plot within the poorly executed remaining season of “The Vampire Diaries.” Watching Bonnie die for the primary time, sacrificing herself to ensure that Jeremy to come back again to life and for Elena to be completely satisfied, is one other. Ultimately, Bonnie Bennett is simply one other Black lady who’s additionally been the catalyst for others’ progress at her personal expense. It’s a painful dose of actuality {that a} comparatively foolish present like “The Vampire Diaries” doesn’t typically carry.
Bonnie Bennett’s endurance is a hilarious and unhappy coincidence. It’s typically been reported that showrunners wished to kill Bonnie after season one, however the love she acquired from followers stopped them; then the identical occurred after her first actual loss of life on the finish of season 4. Bonnie was typically used as a plot gadget and driver for the writers, with out care. The rumors of Kat Graham’s personal wrestle and mistreatment on set are notorious and converse to the bigger remedy of Bonnie as nicely. Many beloved facet characters face such fates; they could final by a present that likes to kill its darlings, however at what value? For Bonnie, it finally ends up costing her nearly all the pieces. However, in the long run, Bonnie, like many people, perseveres and survives towards all odds. I simply want she—and we—didn’t should struggle so laborious.