“But Bonnie just can’t be with Damon!” Why?
“Damon has just done too many bad things to be with Bonnie!”
This is what TVD fans say all the time (and they are backed by racists like Julie Plec and Caroline Dries):
But this didn’t stop people from shipping D*lena or stop Plague and Dries from writing Delena as a couple in s4-6.
“Yeah but Bonnie just has morals!”
Again this is repeated by both TVDU fans and Julie. When Bonnie and Bamon fans respond with “Caroline and Elena are on the same side of the morality spectrum as Bonnie but you guys ship them with Klaus and Damon, respectively” they respond with “Okay yes but Bonnie has more morals than Caroline and Elena!”
Which is funny because Bonnie is actually the most morally gray girl.
She lied to her best friend that she despelled the device so the Tomb Vampires would die. Where does this become morally gray? Bonnie also wanted Damon to die. Damon is the brother of her best friend’s boyfriend. Damon also has formed a friendship with Elena at this point so killing him would put Elena in a tight position where she’d have to choose loyalties (because remember Stefan would never forgive Bonnie for this and Elena is in love with Stefan). She even tries to kill Damon again in 2x02 and Elena has to stop her. Why? Becaue Elena was supposed to be the most morally good one, not letting her friend kill even if it is Damon. Bonnie was never supposed to have that role.
“Okay but over time Bonnie had the most consistent morals of the three girls!” Wrong.
Elena became butchered over time (that alone deserves its own post) but Caroline was also consistent with her morals. The most morally gray thing Caroline ever did (until sleeping with Klaus but more on that later) was kill 12 witches to save Bonnie in 4x17.
Caroline is disturbed over this and it went against what she had said earlier to Klaus about how people “who do terrible things are just terrible people.” But we, the audience, didn’t blame Caroline because she did something terrible to save her friend. In this same season Elena kills Kol’s sireline to save Jeremy and get the cure. All the girls have done morally gray things but are still (supposed to be) on the same side of the moral scale. Yet only Bonnie gets limited by both the writers and fans about who she could be with.
“Okay, they all have their gray moments but it would just ruin Bonnie to get with Damon.” But not Caroline to get with Klaus? Delena had to happen in some way or the other, fine (I’m a doylist when it comes to these things. So I won’t mention Delena) but you all loved Klaroline! “That’s different!” How?
Caroline sleeps with the worst vampire of all. Someone who has abused her (ex) boyfriend, killed her bestie’s aunt and tried to kill her three times! This is even turned to a girlboss moment where she dismisses Tyler’s hurt over this because the writers see themselves in Caroline. Klaroline was never supposed to be endgame and Julie Plec disliked the ship but kept servicing it. Why? Two reasons: 1) Self insertion and 2) it stopped Klonnie.
So why can Klaroline be entertained but Bonnie can’t even get with Damon (or at least a romantic moment with him) when it occurs in the books.
“Um the books are not like the show so that means nothing.” The show isn’t like the books but they take inspiration from it. Actually they did all of the pairings/situations in the books:
1) Stelena
2) Damon chasing after Elena
3) Meredith and Alaric (they turned Meredith from a brown teen latina to a white adult but KEPT her relationship with Alaric).
4) Forwood
5) Katherine being romantically interested in Klaus at first (they have a messed up romantic thing in the books).
6) Matt and Elena
7) Sage and Damon (Sage is a man and romantically likes Damon. Damon does not try to stop his feelings and in the show Sage and Damon are intimate together).
8) Steroline (Caroline likes Stefan in the books just like the show but short lived).
Yet the one pairing that shared romantic and sweet moments in the books but didn’t make the show was:
And the simple reason is that Bonnie is Black. They took all these romantic pairings from the books but kept refusing to do it for Bamon because Bonnie is Black. It’s racism.
“But I just think men and women friendships are important-”
Oh spare me. Caroline offered Klaus a friendship yet yall didn’t want that. Elena wanted to just be friends with Damon (in the books they are like frenemies) but yall didn’t want that either. Yall never say you wanted more platonic moments with Matt, Tyler and the girls. In fact yall only say it for Bamon and Steroline, and the reason yall say this for Steroline is because they had NO romantic chemistry. Not because their story was bad but because they didn’t sell it well.
Bamon had romantic chemistry, with the actors purposely playing them as romantic (Ian confirms they thought it would happen) but yall don’t want Bonnie to get the guy so that’s why you’re all about “platonic soulmates” BS.
Speaking of this platonic soulmates BS, that was never even planned:
Ian had to wine and dine Julie just to get that s5 ending because he expected Bamon to happen on a romantic level but instead they got friendzoned with Kat/Bonnie being punished by getting stuck in the prison world for 15 episodes. They even gave BonKai the realistic villain treatment, where he traumatizes her. Bonnie doesn’t even get a villain that “wouldn’t hurt me.”
Julie Plague: I always said Bonnie’s got too much integrity to ever, ever, ever fall in love with Damon Salvatore. But even as we got later into the seasons, I remember thinking, “Well, if Stefan and Elena end up back together, maybe there’s a chance that we could go down that road.” But I just feel like Bonnie should be the only character that doesn’t let his sexy blue eyes compromise her morality. I held her to a higher standard, I guess, that she was going to be the one that didn’t fall for his shit. So once you set that rule, then it becomes, “Okay but everybody really likes their chemistry together, so how do we indulge that without compromising the core of Bonnie’s character?” And it was for them to be unlikely best friends.
Except in season 7 Enzo comments that Damon sends Bonnie’s morals into a titzy meaning he makes her more morally gray. So if this was allowed in her friendship with Damon, what was the point in refusing for them to be together in any way on a romantic level? Racism. They hated Bamon so much that the third character to ever compliment Bonnie, Sybil, was just used as a way to stop Bamon shipping (Sybil calls her pretty and Damon hot so she wonders if they were just platonic in the prison world. This is because Kat and Ian as well as Fans used to say that something sexual happened between them in there).
“I get that but look at Delena! How would Bamon work if delena didn’t?”
Are Elena and Bonnie the same character? Unlike Elena, Damon actually respects Bonnie. Unlike Elena, Bonnie can match Damon since she’s supernatural. Also, some people are just not meant to be while others are. It’s funny how first Bonnie is more morally pure than Elena then it’s well if it didn’t work for Elena then it just can’t work for Bonnie. In fact, I can write ways that Bamon would’ve worked but that’s its own post lol.
All of this was to highlight how the excuses about not making Bamon romantic in show canon is just to ignore the obvious: racism from both writers and fans. You don’t like it when Black women get the hot guy to the point you ignore book material. You find excuses as to why Bonnie has to stay in the magical negro role and how she must remain morally pure but others can be morally gray for their ships! There are no excuses that actually stick. The only opinion that works is if you wanted Damon to end up with nobody (understandable), but everything else? Nope. Anyways, Bamon was the superior ship that had everything going against it and in my head they are together in Italy with their daughter lol!
