I think one of the issues with how much they don’t go into the Bennett family is I’m genuinely confused on things like if Emily was a free person or a slave both because the show CLEARLY wants to avoid this topic AT ALL COSTS despite their location choice and fixation on the civil war and because Emily is explicitly attached to Katherine who isn’t even from the americas. And like… this is kind of an important thing????? Like this is a very important factor in a LOT of dynamics and plotlines????
Like Ayana lived in the americas 1,000 years ago and wasn’t a slave. Okay.
Then the village is devastated by the originals so naturally she would dip. But we have nooooooo idea where she or the bloodline goes after that for several centuries.
Until at least ONE of them crops up somewhere around Italy to make the 5 hunters. Around this time slavery is more related to wartime captives and is largely replaced by serfdom. Okay.
Then again, several centuries of ?????
Then we get the 1690s coven immigration from Salem to Mystic Falls which until what? S8 has no solid canonical connection to the Bennetts and they’re pretty much completely wiped out in 1790 so this is a semi-dead end.
Katherine claims she was in Atlanta before Mystic Falls but this is a cover story so its veracity is unclear. Also add to this they’re also traveling with Pearl and Anna so the racial politics of this group are certainly something. Unclear on what but it’s something considering the era.
And free blacks did exist even pre-abolition, so it’s not like this is impossible. We also don’t know where the Bennett line Emily is from was living originally before she ended up with this life debt to Katherine and many states had phased out slavery by that time. So we have no clear concept on what’s going on here.
Add onto this that when you have people who can set others on fire with their minds it’s hard to believe they would stand by while this injustice is happening around them without like, some really solid logic as to why they can’t curse every plantation they happen upon to horrific devastation.
And it’s not that I think one story is better than the other or I’d prefer to have them not be enslaved for my own comfort or some shit, but like… these are fundamentally different historical experiences and it matters. This SHOULD matter a LOT and factor into the story! This is at MINIMUM CRITICALLY IMPORTANT to the dynamic between Katherine and Emily. Does Katherine own Emily or are they closer to equals with this tense toxic relationship because Emily owes her this massive debt and has to play act as her servant/slave because they’re in the deep south??? This is KINDA IMPORTANT especially since ELENA AND BONNIE ARE BEST FRIENDS AND THESE ARE THEIR ANCESTORS!!!! WHAT is the history of the Bennetts? WHAT is Emily’s history? WHY did they STAY in Mystic Falls after everything?
Like both roads have a lot of interesting and important elements and validity as stories but they portray EXTREMELY different things and it’s not something we can just vaguely handwave at.
This! I always wonder about this, the history and the dynamics, but these critical details were not important at all to the writers and clearly ignored. They never fleshed out the details of their characters who were POC. Their racial discrimination took so much more depth and detail from the show.
