The Vampire Diaries

I finally caught up on last week's episode of The Vampire Diaries. I really didn't expect to watch this show at all, much less get caught up in it. I thought I'd check it out purely because I miss Buffy a lot, and I wanted to see how Nina Dobrev did outside of Degrassi. And what I found was a clever, dramatic, well-written show. So if you haven't checked out this show yet, I recommend it.

But that's not the point of this post. In this past episode, I started really noticing Bonnie (played by Katerina Graham). She's Elena's (the protagonist) best friend. Her relatives are witches (Salem witches, but don't get me started on that...I'm a self-proclaimed Salem semi-scholar, and the misuse of Salem witches irks me...but it is the CW), and she fears she might be a witch as well. At first I thought she was just a sidekick and her powers were just there for convenience and to give her something to do. I didn't expect much out of her. Certainly not depth. But I realize now that her character might be the most compelling. She's crafted very well, very subtely, and though her journey is very much a subplot, it is fully-thought out and engaging. There's a great deal about character building to learn by examining Bonnie.

And yes, the rest of this will be a spoiler. Mostly.

Since the first episode of the show, Bonnie's been freaked out by her strange premonitions and odd feelings that she sometimes gets from touching people. At first, she tried to convince herself it was all in her head. That she was perfectly normal. And while she believed that, the audience didn't really have any reason to care about her. In fact, I thought she was a bit whiny. Just accept your powers, you know? But come to think of it, if I started being psychic and witchy I don't think I'd just ease right into it. And neither does Bonnie. She has a vision of numbers, and something really horrible happening with those numbers. And it turns out the coach gets murdered and those numbers appear at the murder scene. So Bonnie's a bit more freaked than usual. She kinda sorta predicted it. What does that mean? What else will she predict? Is she responsible? Hey, maybe she is a witch, and isn't that kind of cool in a scary kind of way? So in this week's episode, she comes into it with all these wrapped up emotions and trepidations. And she doesn't talk about her fears with anyone much. She just comes to grips with her powers slowly and subtly. She realizes she can light a candle with her mind. She doesn't try this, it just happens. She's a little scared, a little proud. All silent emotions written on the actress' face. And later, when presented with the opportunity to try this again, she takes it. And at first it seems not to work. And we see disappointment. We see that she wanted to be a witch, even though she's terrified. And when she looks back at the candles, they're all lit. And she's excited. And terrified. Because even though she wants her powers, she is scared. It was easy to want them when she didn't have them. But now it's all real.

Watching Bonnie deal with this discovery of powers is compelling. We see an entire internal conflict, even she's in only a few scenes. We understand this girl. She's real. She's not just some sidekick built so that Elena can have someone to think aloud to.

That's what makes Bonnie so great. She's not the most important character in the show (yet...I have a feeling she will become important) but she's an actual character. Too often, side characters are faceless nobodies. They exist only for the protagonist. But a better story is told when all of the characters are developed and real. When they all have arcs. I heard a powerful quote once that I always keep in mind when writing: "We are the hero of our own story." That's how it should be for secondary and tertiary characters. (And especially antagonists). They are the heroes of their own stories. If someone wanted to tell a story from their perspective, they'd have all the tools. This emphasis on secondary characters makes The Vampire Diaries must see TV, and it will make your scripts must reads.