The Unpopular Woman Love Post

[fallingtowers.livejournal.com]

Guys, what's up with halfamoon this year? It's so very, very quiet... Anyway, to breathe a bit of life into this community, I decided to come up with the ever popular Unpopular Woman Love Post.







I simply nicked the rules from bofoddity's fabulous post in 2011:

1. Start a thread and put the character's name and the canon they come from in the subject line.

2. Those who love the character comment on the thread with squee, thoughts, fic/art/vid recs, picspams, essays, links and everything they can think of. Make sure your character gets all the love and the attention she deserves.

3. If a character has a thread and you want to talk about her, comment to the thread in question. General comments and threads for new characters go to the main post.

4. Focus on the love. This is an all positivity, all time post. Embrace your happy!

5. Absolutely no bashing allowed. Please avoid making negative comparisons to other characters, other character types and "well this character sucks more!" kind of comments as well as disparaging remarks about actresses or other versions of the same character. Those characters, character types, and actresses have their fans too and hey, it's a love post. Save negativity for other things.

In other words, this post is all about celebrating and loving our favorite unloved women. Now, love away!

Comments

[ladygawain.livejournal.com]

Subject: Bonnie Bennett (The Vampire Diaries, show)

I'm not sure it's possible to capture just how criminally underrated this character is, not only on her own show but by the fandom at large. The excessive hate she receives is troubling on many fronts, her being the only series regular who is also a woman of color on a show that is riddled with problematic racial/gender politics as it is.

Despite the problems with the show's writing, Bonnie's still one of the most compelling characters I've come across on any show. She's a witch, she's powerful but over the course of three years she's come to learn painfully that that power comes with not just a great deal of responsibility but also loss, and grief, and agony.

Witches occupy a very complicated text in the narrative as a whole and Bonnie exemplifies that in really interesting ways. They're tasked with being "servants of nature", with doing whatever they can to maintain the balance of a universe that holds monstrous creatures and humans (who can be rather monstrous too). At the same time, each one of these witches is human with all the frailties and flaws that implies. Too often their hearts and their loyalties can get in the way of them fulfilling their "calling", even as they spur them to do really amazing things, and yes: save the town (world, etc.) again and again. They get no thanks for it nor any praise. Because of what they are, they lead rather isolated lives (a theme of the show as a whole that plays out differently for different supernatural creatures and normals); and things rarely end well for them. As in, they are more than likely to die painful, miserable deaths than not. Nature gives and nature takes away, Bonnie's living with the specter of her own death or at least grievous personal injury every single time she does a spell. And too often, those spells aren't for herself. She's willing to die to protect her loved ones and protect the town, and that's awesome.

She's also kind of brilliantly flawed. And complicated. Fandom tends to treat that like it's a bad thing. Which, no one is surprised.

[cantarina]

I love how well-rounded the character is, how perceptively she often sees a situation or another character (Damon, you're fun, but she has every reason to be suspicious of you and the rest of vampirekind). And even so, I love that she's not always right, that there's nothing that's simple about Bonnie Bennett. So much love for the entire Bennet family, really!

[arsonarsenal.livejournal.com]

A fantastic post for a fantastic character. The thing that kills me is that instead of focusing on the never-ending saga of vampire manpain, the writers just use the goldmine interesting narratives and character traits that the female characters have. Like, the whole matriarchal Bennett legacy which always seems to go hand in hand with sacrifice, blood-debts, and having this higher calling in the face of moral failings and frailty is one of the most interesting things on the show but they just won't let the ladies be great as they can be.

As for fandom, I feel like Bonnie has a lot more agency as times than Caroline or Elena and people just don't know how to handle that or any complexity. I hate that fandom seems to want morality to be black and white when the vast majority of characters are grey as hell. I could go on a whole other tangent about Bonnie's ruthless pragmatism and how Elena is becoming hardened and mercenary in response to the fuckery of her life but that's another time.

Sorry if this became rambly, I have a lot of feelings regarding the show's wasted potential.

[such_heights]

I LOVE BONNIE BENNETT SO MUCH OMG. *___* Also her friendship with Elena is one of my favourite girl bff relationships in some time, it's just gorgeous.

BONNIE APPRECIATION LIFE.

[penny-lane-42.livejournal.com]

The amount of responsibility Bonnie takes on is amazing to me. She's completely internalized the idea that her power is indeed accompanied by intense responsibility. She holds herself to high standards and always tries to make the right decision. She's consistently ready to sacrifice herself but she also knows just how valuable what she has to offer is. Even her distrust of vampires makes total sense, for all fandom hates her for it--most of the time she's the only one acting like a rational human being would.

Also, she is a total badass.

(http://tinypic.com?ref=wweuj6)


from tvd-gifs on tumblr

[liseuse.livejournal.com]

I adore Bonnie Bennett. She voices her concerns, and she doesn't forget the things that have happened and she bravely faces everything that is thrown at her. She is a wonderful reminder that the vampires are dangerous and they do morally bad things. Sure they're fun and I love Damon a lot, but they aren't *nice* and Bonnie knows that.

[mfirefly10.livejournal.com]

BONNIE BENNETT IS MY FAVORITE!!!

Gah, you explained everything I love about Bonnie so very well that I don't have much left to say. I will only add that one of the things I love most about Bonnie is how much she CARES for other people. I love that she truly VALUES life on a show where people are killed off at the drop of a hat. I love that Bonnie FEELS every single loss of human life, regardless of how strong her relationship with the deceased was. And I think that's part of the reasons she feels such a responsibility to protect the people around her, because she knows how precious their lives are and she will do everything she can to ensure those lives continue, despite the many supernatural threats.

And I loathe the way the writers only seem to use her whenever they need something magic-y to happen. They basically forget she exists until they need her to do a spell or protect her friends or have a romantic relationship with someone. I have hope for her current storyline but I will not be surprised if it ends badly.

[pocochina.livejournal.com]

THIS. <3

[madcap-shiny.livejournal.com]

This this this. I stopped watching the show awhile ago, and the constant Bonnie-sidelining was one of the reasons why - I still love her so much, and I wish she could have a show (and a fandom) that treated her right.

[angryzen.livejournal.com]

When am I going to run out of things to say about this character? I LOVE BONNIE! She is my favorite, and I love that I can count on her. Nothing's out of left field. There was a while there in season 2 when I was lost as could be as to why she was willing to hurt herself "For Elena." It went against a lot I had come to understand about her at the end of season 1. Then in that beautiful scene in episode 17 she sprinkled some clarity and said she felt she had a calling and she was willing to do "this" for everyone. If it's her standing between the town and a threat, she will face the threat head-on, and I am so disappointed that the writers have been keeping her in chains this season. This show that purports itself to be a friend to girl power and female empowerment completely cowers when it comes to Bonnie and her matrilineal legacy.

Despite the writers' meddling, all of her characteristics shine through. She's very brave, she's very sensitive (and thus walks away when her feelings/heart are on the line), she's strict, she's observant, she's judgmental, she can be ruthless, and she is just amazing! I love that the show isn't biased when it comes to her decisions (although I wouldn't complain if they showed a little more care.......). She does something and consequences happen. And I love love love watching her deal with those consequences (when they let her. The House Guest, forever hated etc).