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TVDU AO3 Data 𖤓 Top Twenty Bonnie Ships

let's look at the sheer isolation of that 1994 snapshot. four months of just bonnie and damon. they went from historical grievances and mutual hatred to a deeply domestic routine. making pancakes every morning, arguing over crosswords, grocery shopping in empty markets, drinking bourbon on the porch. when you are someone's entire universe and the only person keeping them from existential madness, the line between intense platonic codependency and romantic undercurrents becomes practically nonexistent. it gave bonnie a sense of safety and earned warmth with a partner who was finally prioritizing her, grounding them in an incredibly tight emotional bond.

and then enters kai parker, completely shattering that safe little world.

the thing about developing a bonnie and kai dynamic here is that it wouldn't require some cheap, unearned redemption arc that erases his monstrous actions. the tension works precisely because he remains dangerous. kai spent twenty years entirely alone, treated as a defect by his family. bonnie arrives, this vibrant, resilient, morally unyielding force. for a siphoner witch who has been starved of power and connection, her ancestral magic is the ultimate intoxicating force. and because siphoning requires direct skin contact, there is a visceral, electric intimacy baked right into their physical dynamic that the writers completely left on the table. imagine a slow-burn forced cooperation where they have to map out celestial mechanics together away from damon's disruptive influence, creating a shared witch-heritage bond that damon can't touch.

the psychological chess match between all three of them would have been insane. kai is driven by deep-seated rejection and envy. seeing bonnie and damon's effortless domestic intimacy would trigger his worst insecurities. he wouldn't just try to kill damon; he would try to dismantle bonnie's trust in him. he'd use his knowledge of damon's horrific past to point out the hypocrisy of trusting a vampire who murdered bonnie's loved ones while treating kai as the sole monster. he'd be playing mind games to drive a wedge between them so bonnie is forced to rely on him instead.

meanwhile, damon's volatile, possessive love language would completely flare up. watching a literal psychopath circle bonnie, trying to charm her and constantly touching her to siphon magic, would trigger his most reckless, violent impulses. if bonnie showed even a flicker of strategic empathy toward kai to get them home, damon would see it as a betrayal. his explosive overreactions would end up pushing bonnie away, creating the exact friction kai wanted and fracturing their perfect domestic front.

and bonnie would be trapped right in the center, navigating this exquisite existential dilemma. with damon, she has safety, mutual survival, and the comfort of a shared humanity. but she’s also carrying the moral weight and trauma of their past lives in mystic falls. with kai, she's navigating a minefield, yet she’s also hyper-alive. they match wits in a way that is intellectually stimulating. she would detest his actions but find herself forming an unbidden psychological connection to the very person she needs to escape from. her conflict wouldn't be a superficial choice between two attractive guys; it would be a struggle over who she is becoming in this isolated world where normal rules don't apply.

"Bonnie, please, believe me. I've changed"

TVDU Women ↬ Maligned, Misunderstood, Murdered

Like I’m not even advocating for Kai to be redeemed and forgiven, it’s more so I am just disturbed that only Kai gets stamped with that label. And I literally cannot think of one thing Kai did that made him “worse” than the other bad guys. The Salvatores, Klaus all have killed their own family, terrorized people, hurt people to get what they want. And they never apologized for it or even really struggled with it. If anything Kai was the only one who seemed to be beaten up by guilt.

And I don’t wanna hear no crap about how “oh well Klaus and Damon are vampires, Kai did evil when he was human.” That’s irrelevant because NOTHING klaus and damon have done has to do with their vampirism. Stefan is probably the only one who can get away with this excuse since his ripper phase is a direct result of being a vampire.

So anyway I’ve thought real hard about why the “Kai is the most irredeemable” narrative really doesn’t sit right with my spirit. And i think it’s because Klaus and Damon canonically romantically pursued white women. Kai didn’t, he loved Bonnie. And we all know that’s what made him irredeemable to Plec.

So whenever I hear anyone say “at least Klaus and Damon had redeemable qualities Kai didn’t” all I hear is “Klaus and Damon are allowed to be anti-hero’s because they loved white women.”

Prove me wrong. What else about Kai set him apart from other bad guys other than the woman he was shipped with?