Bonnie Appreciation Week, Day 1: Favourite Magical Moment
It’s no secret that some of my favourite Bonnie magical moments are either the ones where she’s making humans and supernatural creatures alike suffer mind-wracking pain or those in which she transcends magic as utilitarian weapon and actually starts to enjoy it, to take visible pleasure in whatever she’s doing, whether it’s transforming a withered flower into a bloom, floating feathers, or doling out aneurysms, or holding someone’s life in the balance.
But ultimate favourite moments are when Bonnie attains apotheosis through magic, and becomes something like a god in human flesh. Some people call that plot device, and I can see where they’re coming from because this show is lazy when it comes to magic. Regardless of how magic is used, there’s something really exciting about what her using magic says about her (and it does say a lot, not many people seem to grasp this and it drives me mad) and how big she becomes (fact: she’s too big for this show, for this narrative, and they don’t know what to do with her plus they’re forced by the premise of the show to confine her to the periphery when they shouldn’t).
I’ve not answered the question. So, since I’ve already made a long post about my top eleven magical moments over two seasons, I’m going to pick two (I do what I want) from seasons three and four and then talk too much about them. Oops.
1. Bonnie kills Jeremy. And then brings him back to life.
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If this isn’t the most magnificent of witch goddess moments, then I’m not sure what is. Seriously, it’s played as a triumph, Bonnie’s drunk with it, the power she wields-she’s practically ready to burst with it. There’s a boy on a metaphorical altar in front of her, and she kills him and brings him back to life. I’m sorry, but why do others even bother? I’ll forever be obsessed with the way Jeremy’s chest cavity swells unnaturally, how painful it is to even look at that, and she’s seated above him grinning and looking like she might be on the tip of a really amazing orgasm. What.
(Yes, yes, Klaus is on the other side of this scene. Bonnie's tapping into this "dark" magic through a connection to three vampires, one of whom she hates, two of whom are directly responsible for killing her mother. She is also finally fulfilling a goal she's had since around 2.18-neutralising Klaus for, what some of us hoped, good, a thing not even her ancestors were able to help her do. How twisted is all that? But I'm mostly really just into this black-veined goddess ending the life of the boy she once loved in order to get shit done and getting off on it.)
2. Bonnie crosses over to the other side to bring Elena "home".
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Given my Orpheus-stanning life, this scene obviously speaks to me on a deeper level (Bonnie and Elena are tragic as fuck to be honest. To have someone who is willing to scale the depths of the underworld for you. To be a person who is ready and willing to do that perhaps knowing that there's a serious imbalance in the shape of your friendship, sigh. Also, Bonnie as the Orpheus to Elena's Eurydice, especially given the direction this season is going with Elena's exploration of the darkest parts of herself, is a comparison rife with meaning for me ). But I think it’s also a pretty sharp microcosm of everything that’s right and wrong with Bonnie’s place in the narrative; and a fairly brilliant example of who this character is at base level.
Bonnie being driven by love and loyalty and extraordinary levels of self-abnegation, and yes, a certain amount of hubris to do the unthinkable, the impossible, the foolish and the brave is one of my favourite things about her. This isn’t about Bonnie being used as a plot device, it’s about the lengths and depths to which she’s willing to go in order to DO, to help, to protect and save the people she considers her own.
Perhaps the strongest lesson she learned from Sheila, the one she internalised most is: witches protect their own. And for better or worse, Bonnie has a very tight-knit circle of people who fall under that umbrella. It doesn’t matter that these people use her. It doesn’t matter that for the most part they evaluate her solely as a weapon and make little attempt to even see her outside of that. It doesn’t matter that she’s embodied this identity so thoroughly that when she finds herself incapable of fulfilling her supposed role-she doesn’t quite know what to do with herself, is unsure of her place in not only her own self-narrative but within the group as a whole (if she can’t do magic, then what use is she to anyone-a feeling that is reinforced sometimes unintentionally by her friends).
What does matter? Bonnie will literally cross over to the other side, challenge Nature and all the rules of the supernatural universe, pull the finger at her own ancestors or beg them for help, flirt with death and grievous personal injury, compromise whatever lines of morality she’s chosen to abide by and use “dark” magic-in order to save someone she loves.
This is not to say this kind of batshit behaviour isn’t problematic (particularly in the context of the show), after all, they aren’t her “problems to solve.” And I am 100% sure that Bonnie’s journey this season is moving towards finding the balance or tipping it in favour of witch as independent agent who does whatever the fuck she wants; witch as “architect” of the supernatural universe and actually the most powerful being in this one-horse town who doesn’t need to answer to anyone.
But this god complex is so great to me. I say “god” because it’s actually far more complicated than her wanting to be a “hero”, wanting to do the right thing, needing to make sure people don’t get hurt. It’s also explicitly about power-in early season two she understands it as not being weak because there are people who might hurt her and then as a mission, an almost 'divine' calling to DO this even if it means dying, or suffering the stigmata that come with being a witch (bleeding nose, rupturing skin etc.).
It’s about having the power to change things, to hold life and death and pain in her hands, to bring her enemies to their knees while they scream in agony, to flout lines of morality because she (and magic and Nature) can’t actually be confined by it-they are too big for things like right and wrong, good and bad. And there is a part of me that believes that if you're the most powerful beast on the block, you don't have to listen to anyone's rules, you get to MAKE the rules and break them, even if you're punished for it. That's shady obviously but it's also fascinating, especially when you're watching someone who hasn't mastered their abilities yet, who is still learning to inhabit the role Fate's accorded them because it is messy and difficult, but it's supposed to be, no?