makeashadowblr:

so re: bonnie stabbing and leaving kai behind in the 1903 pw…

it can be deduced that damon and bonnie conspired to betray kai (i think there’s a deleted scene where bonnie tells elena as much right before they portal jump back to the real world). we, the viewers, also see a very different kai bc we saw the effects of the merge on him. bonnie did not. she saw his half assed apology and his flirting at the dinner about the 1903 ascendant… she didn’t really spend enough time with post-merge kai to see there’s a new him, not really.

my question is…had kai not made that comment about gutting her all over again, (which was enough provocation given he played nice on thxgiving and then stabbed and abandoned her), do we think bonnie would’ve followed through on stabbing and leaving kai? like, had he been nice and mildly annoying the entire afternoon and made no off the wall comments about the potential of him hurting her again would she feel justified in stabbing him in the back (literally and metaphorically)? would she have attacked him? or just tried to stun him and then leave him? would he have had a chance to explain himself (or her to find out she couldn’t kill him)?

thoughts?

I’m going to preface this by saying I was completely on board with Bonnie leaving Kai and for me this was never some big injustice to the characters. While I agree that more consequences should have been doled out towards Damon for me that doesn’t equate every evil character gets the same treatment as Damon i.e slap on the wrist. It just means Damon needed consequences.

With that out of the way I don’t think it would have changed much. I remember the episode when Kai tries to apologize and she has it out with Damon. She has a phone call right after to Jeremy where she essentially breaks up with him and tells him she’s different now via voicemail. She was out for blood to begin with and I always felt crediting Damon with the idea was an injustice to Bonnie because I felt like that was something she would have done on her own regardless. The only reason the idea is credited to Damon is because the writers needed a way for him to get back into Bonnie’s good graces.

But back to the question at hand, had she seen his change more would she have reconsidered? No, her speech after her grabs her and shouts “listen to me” explains why because even with Luke’s empathy the old Kai is still in there and seeing the change wouldn’t make her think otherwise because for her that’s not a real change.

Which brings me to the issue I have with most redemption arcs on TVD, the change is always due to someone else, it’s never a conscious decision on their part. With the exception of Tyler–because you can trace back to the first episode of season 2 when Tyler decides to be better for himself because he doesn’t like himself in his current form, and you can trace several actions where he works at this that aren’t related to other people–every character who goes through “a change for the good” it’s all due to someone else, usually romance. Kai is an exception since it’s not due to trying to get the girl, but it still a change he wouldn’t have otherwise done himself and when that’s the case the change is otherwise fleeting for as long as those circumstances are in place.

And feel like Bonnie knows that. She didn’t trust him when he started “changing” for Elena especially since he threatened her life often after. She never trusted Klaus when he “changed” (which is weird to say since he has a redemption arc but stays absolutely the same, it’s almost as confusing as Damon’s), and she definitely never trusted Katherine like every smart person. So seeing him changed really doesn’t seem like the factor that would change her mind about him.

In fact, based on what makes her feelings change for a person, “being good” does not seem to be a factor at all, time is. Spending 4 months alone with Damon is what makes him a friend to her. Spending 3 years in forced confinement with Enzo is what changes her opinion on him. Hell, even Nora, spending more time with her, getting to know her is what sparked that friendship (and the route I feel they should have went romance wise in S7 instead of B*nzo). So the only thing I think would have stopped her from stabbing and leaving Kai was the one thing he did not have, time.

And that’s what I mourn most with this ship, they never had enough time. They’re only alone in the prison world for 2 episodes before he gets sent back and she’s left there. And they’re only together back in the real world for about 2 episodes before she leaves him in 1903. They needed time that was never granted.

TL;DR: No, I don’t think that would have changed things.