BONNIE MCCULLOUGH

 Physical Appearance

Physically, Bonnie is described as being a small, petite girl who is very innocent, vulnerable and fragile. Bonnie is described to be extremely pretty, very comely, fair and dainty in appearance. She has a classic, "avant-garde", and unconventional beauty. Bonnie is very small and petite, between 4'7" to 4'10" in height. Physique wise, Bonnie has a slim, petite frame. Her body is described to be somewhat diminutive and slightly underdeveloped in appearance (according to Damon), possessing a figure that is somewhere between that of a little girl and a young woman (Bonnie has an A cup bra size). She has very large, slightly wide set, childlike hazelish-brown eyes, which are almond shaped, with long, thick eyelashes. She has a small, cute heart-shaped face with a widow's peak and she has very soft, delicate, refined facial features. Bonnie has a small, straight and dainty nose, like that of a cherub angel. She has a very heartwarming, charming smile (Damon has referred to her smile as soulful and enchanting) and she has deeply defined dimples in both of her cheeks; giving her a cherubic, angelic and doll like appearance. Her complexion is very pale and fair (like that of snow, porcelain and swans) and her skin is smooth, opaque and translucent. Bonnie's skin is so fair that her veins and fjords are easily visible (Damon has taken significant notice of this). Although Bonnie is small in height, she has an exceptionally long and dainty neck like that of a ballerina in Swans Lake. Bonnie has long, luxuriously thick, strawberry-red gold hair, which is described as being softly curly (Bonnie's hair is straight; her hair is permed curly) and even slightly frizzy at times. Her red gold hair gives her the look of a 'fairy' or a 'pixie'. There is something innocent, pure, virginal, fresh, cherubic, angelic and childlike about her appearance. Bonnie is said to resemble a kitten—cute, small, innocent and fragile. Her physical appearance is described in The Return: Nightfall: "Bonnie, with her hair that was called something strawberry, but that looked simply as if it was on fire. Bonnie has the translucent skin, with the delicate violet fjords and estuaries of veins all over her throat and inner arms. Bonnie, who had lately taken to looking at him sideways with her large childlike eyes, big and brown, under lashes like stars." Another quote in The Struggle describes Bonnie's appearance: "Blinking, Elena brought a face into focus. It was small and heart-shaped, with fair, almost translucent skin, framed by masses of soft red curls. Wide brown eyes, with snowflakes caught in the lashes, stared worriedly into hers." Her appearance is also described in more detail in the short story Damon & Bonnie: After Hours: "The maiden, who was exceptionally dainty and pretty and had, to a vampire, the most exquisite feature of all, an exceptionally long and delicate column of a neck, was looking up at him soulfully. That was nice, that she was short. Damon didn’t care that much for tall girls because he wasn’t very tall himself. She also had—you couldn’t help notice—particularly large eyes in her small heart-shaped face, giving her the appearance of a kitten. They were clear brown eyes, with a dark ring at the outer rim of the iris, then a very light brown ring, as if light were shining through them in the middle, and then another dark ring around the pupil. Her hair was the color of a strawberry and curled softly all over her head in a way that made you think “pixie.” Altogether, she was a lovely little ornament, with fine blue veins in naturally translucent skin." Damon has described Bonnie's voice as charming, highly melodious and pleasant and he compares her voice to that of a nightingale, curlew and a songbird, hence why Damon has given her the nickname "Little Bird".

Personality

Bonnie is described to be a

sweet, bubbly, cheerful, likeable, charismatic, kind, and charming individual, but she is not considered to be overly bright or intelligent at the very beginning of the series. She is not an academic, scholarly person by any means and she does not take school very seriously at all. Bonnie starts off highly unsure about her identity and her future; who she is and what she really stands for. She is basically immature, naive, ditzy, childish, shallow, boy-obsessed, and insecure during the very beginning of the series. However, as the series progresses over a period of time, Bonnie begins to deeply develop, mature, deepen and evolve in many different ways, and she begins to get a much deeper and clearer understanding of who she really is. She becomes a more mature, stable, grounded, and strong-willed person as the series progresses. As well as developing as an individual, she also begins to develop very powerful, strong psychic powers and abilities (which are hereditary). She eventually dabbles and masters the art of witchcraft. Bonnie is a Wiccan and it has been hinted in the novels that Bonnie is not only a powerful psychic but that she has witch ancestry (according to Bonnie, her Scottish grandmother was a witch). Bonnie is stoically loyal, loving, kind, caring and fiercely protective and she will do absolutely anything for her friends, her family and the people she loves. She's a generous individual and she is always trying to lend a helping hand when it is most needed. Bonnie comes off as rather eccentric and "offbeat" and because of it, she is often highly misunderstood, even by her own friends. Bonnie is drawn to and attracted to the unusual and the bizarre and she appears to be the most unconventional out of everyone else. She is a highly adventurous, explorative and curious individual. In many ways, she is rather opposite of her best friend, Elena Gilbert. While Elena has a tendency to be more vain and selfish, Bonnie is more of a humble, selfless person. For the vast majority of Bonnie's life, Bonnie has always seemed to live in the shadows of Elena, her own best friend, and therefore, she has always felt like she is second best because of it. Although, Bonnie is not the overly competitive type in the way that Elena is and therefore, has felt absolutely no desire to try to compete with Elena in any way, due to the fact that Bonnie has always felt like she has lived in Elena's shadow. Bonnie is not the intense academic, scholarly type whatsoever but she has a habit of engaging her brain before her mouth. However, despite the fact that she is not an academic individual by nature, she is rather intelligent, sharp, quick and intellectual. She also possesses a rather off-beat sense of humour and she is known to provide much comic relief, especially in times of tense situations. Bonnie is extremely friendly, light-hearted, cheerful and charming, and therefore, all of her friends adore her because of it. Although, it has been seen throughout the series, that many of Bonnie's friends happen to treat Bonnie like she is a child and also, refuse to see her true and full potential as an individual. Because of this, Bonnie is highly misunderstood, even amongst her own inner circle of friends. She is best friends with Elena Gilbert, Meredith Sulez, Matt Honeycutt and Stefan Salvatore. She has been childhood friends with Elena, Meredith and Matt since kindergarden and was close friends with former friend-turned-rival Caroline Forbes since the first grade. Bonnie gradually becomes very good friends with Stefan after Matt befriends him. Bonnie is extremely close to Elena (Elena considers Bonnie to be her very best friend), and she also has a very strong bond/friendship with Meredith as well (who also considers Bonnie to be her very best friend). Bonnie used to be friends with Caroline until she turned against Elena at the very beginning of their Senior year and until Caroline became ultra competitive, especially with Elena. Bonnie develops a strong dislike for Tyler Smallwood and although she initially finds him attractive because of shallow purposes, Bonnie has said that Tyler possesses an unbearable and intolerable personality. Bonnie develops a good, solid, platonic friendship with Stefan Salvatore. She initially finds Stefan attractive, romantic and very polite and she thinks that Stefan is a good-hearted individual with the best of intentions. Stefan has described Bonnie as the "fiery little pixie", giving the nickname to Bonnie with the implication that Bonnie is a passionate, spunky, and fiery individual. Damon has said that Bonnie can be stubborn, impractical and naive at times. Bonnie starts off as very dependent on other people, but as the series progresses, she becomes a much more independent, confident, and self-assured person and she also matures and grows up rather fast in the original trilogy, showing much spiritual growth. Bonnie has extremely strong, powerful psychic abilities. Her powers seem to become most vibrant, active, or heightened whenever she is in Damon's presence. She is able to feel Damon's Power clearly on a frequent basis and she is also able to sense what he is feeling and thinking (this is seen in Dark Reunion). Most of the time, Bonnie seems to act as an unwitting medium for helpful spirits, most notably the spirit of a witch named Honoria Fell, who several times attempts to aid the girls (Elena and Meredith) through Bonnie. Bonnie does not remember anything she says or does while she is in this condition because she basically goes into a catatonic state or a hypnotic trance. She also has occasional prophetic flashes, such as when she jokingly (but coincidentally) reads Elena's palm on the first day of school and comes up with a genuine prophecy that she would meet a dark, handsome but not imposingly tall stranger (the same day that Elena met Stefan Salvatore). Bonnie uses her powers in times of significant purpose. Because of her powers and abilities, Bonnie is seen to be the most purposeful, useful and highly resourceful individuals in the entire series. In Dark Reunion, Bonnie begins to dabble in practicing the art of witchcraft (due to her witch ancestry), and successfully pulls off a summoning ritual to call Stefan (and later on, Damon) back to Fell's Church, then successfully manages to help Stefan communicate with a ghostly Elena by various means through a dream sequence. At the end of Dark Reunion, Bonnie is the one who screams about the unfairness of their tragic fate, which triggers Elena's unexpected return from the afterlife. It is unknown if Bonnie's powers played any significant role in making this occur, or if it was just a matter of lucky timing (it was the night of the summer solstice, when ghosts were said to be prone to returning to Earth anyway). As the series progressed, she slowly realizes that she is not as dumb as she believes herself to be (and, as a result, as she's convinced everyone else she is), and that she's actually intelligent and desperately needed by all of her friends. Even though Bonnie is known to be timid, fragile, delicate and vulnerable, she is significantly stronger and tougher (physically, mentally and emotionally) then she appears to be on the outside. Despite the fact that she can be rather naive and trusting at times, Bonnie is also rather sharp and challenging when she wants to be and she does possess a highly passionate, emotional nature, possibly more passionate then Elena. Bonnie is highly idealistic and she is a hopeless romantic. Although Bonnie's character generally appears to be light-hearted, Bonnie has an inherently dark streak within her personality; she is strongly drawn to the dangerous, unusual and unpredictable side of things. She is deeply fascinated with darkness, especially death and morbidity. Bonnie frequently talks about as well as romanticizes death, especially her own, and she constantly talks about her Scottish grandmother's prophecy that she would be young and beautiful in her grave. She also consistently talks about how romantically she might die. In the beginning, she is fickle in chasing after Stefan Salvatore, and then Matt Honeycutt throughout most of the series. By the end of the original series, however, Bonnie has become significantly more deep, mature, stable, and grounded; focusing on the important problems at hand rather than about the opposite sex. She even surprises herself a few times with her own insightful contributions to the fight against a powerful, original vampire named Klaus. Bonnie, who is a highly strong psychic witch, is overwhelmed by the strength of her powers at times, and she attempts to repress the true extent of them without very much success. She is sometimes very afraid of what she can and might do and is scared of her strong powers using her, instead of the other way around. As a psychic, Bonnie also has intense dreams, prophetic flashes, visions and predictions, which has sometimes caused her to pass out and become unconscious, due to its severe intensity at times.

Damon Salvatore and Bonnie McCullough

Bonnie has consistently been fickle when it comes to boys throughout her life. She has a tendency to consistently chase after boys for the hell of it and she doesn't take love or romance seriously. Because of this, she has been seen to be boy-crazy and unable to settle down with one particular guy for too long. Bonnie has had various boyfriends and none of them she has managed to take seriously or stick with. Because of Bonnie's immaturity regarding love, she seems to be highly fickle, flirtatious, coy and flighty when it comes to the opposite sex; unsure of what kind of guy she is really looking for or interested in. Bonnie is very idealistic, passionate and emotional when it comes to love and she is a hopeless romantic. In the beginning, she thought Stefan Salvatore was attractive, and she was very thankful to him when he saved her from an intense situation with the history teacher, Mr. Tanner. She also begins to develop some feelings for Matt Honeycutt, although Matt was still very much in love with Elena. Bonnie's relationship with Matt is highly platonic in nature. Matt has a brotherly relationship with Bonnie and he is quite protective of her (sometimes overly protective), especially when it comes to Damon. Bonnie has a deep, intense and complex connection and relationship with Damon Salvatore. There is an indescribable, electrifying, and magnetic bond/connection between Damon and Bonnie. Bonnie is described to be Damon's weak spot and Damon has a lot of indescribable inner tenderness for her. Their connection and relationship is known to be one of the most intriguing, unusual and interesting dynamics of the entire series (according to many readers), and their connection seems to be an intriguing combination of platonic, romantic, and sexual in nature; crossing a fine line between genuinely innocent or pure and intensely, dangerously passionate and erotic. Despite the fact that Damon and Bonnie have had many moments of deep tenderness and affection (Damon has kissed her many times throughout the course of the series), Damon and Bonnie have had a chaotic, tumultuous relationship sparingly throughout the series. Bonnie was the very first person whom Damon met immediately after arriving in Fells Church. She has frequently talked about how gorgeous and inhumanely beautiful Damon is (beyond his physical appearance). She has even admitted to herself that he is almost more gorgeous than Damon's younger brother, Stefan. She seems to be strongly, magnetically drawn to Damon for indescribable reasons but part of the reason is because he is mysterious and edgy with a bad boy image. She is also deeply, strongly fascinated by his dark, compelling and powerful aura, which often causes her psychic powers to react, heighten and intensify immensely. Bonnie deeply, strongly as well as unconditionally cares about Damon despite what anyone else thinks or says about him (including her own friends Elena, Meredith and Matt), and Damon has saved her life when she has been in trouble on many occasions throughout the course of the series, including unexpectedly before the original series began (After Hours). She frequently believes in Damon; believing that Damon is a good, kind-hearted, compassionate, affectionate and caring individual, despite him repeatedly trying to conceal it through committing incessant immoral acts. Bonnie strongly feels that underneath the cold, uncaring exterior that Damon puts up as a wall for self-preservation, that he is a kind, gentle, tender individual deep down within, who is simply highly misunderstood. She strongly believes in Damon regardless of the circumstances, even if Damon has treated her badly, due to his ego or selfish gratification. Bonnie was the very first individual to see Damon's deeply buried, inner humanity. Damon naturally and effortlessly brings out a significantly much stronger, deeper, passionate and mature individual/side out of Bonnie. Damon has managed to have a strong, yet silent impact on Bonnie's evolvement and personal development throughout the series. Because of Damon, Bonnie is able to see the world much differently then she did at the very beginning of the series (which was a highly idealistic, shallow view), and therefore, she has become much more mature, practical and much more aware of the world around her. Out of everyone in the series, Damon seems to be the one and only individual who sees Bonnie's true, ultimate and full potential as an individual and he sees her as a significantly strong, passionate and powerful young woman at the core of her being (though he still thinks of her as a woman-child at times), even though she appears to be very fragile and vulnerable on the outside. Damon and Bonnie have shared many deep, intense and meaningful moments together in the series, although many of these "special moments" in which they have shared together have not been revealed throughout the series and have been rather 'secretive' in nature (although the reason for this is not known). Damon is fiercely and strongly protective of Bonnie and he will do absolutely anything at all costs to protect her from harm and keep her safe. He is also very nurturing, tender and gentle with her, even though he won't admit his actions of affection towards her to himself. He seems to always be there for her whenever she's in trouble, or whenever she calls him for help. Bonnie seems to be the one person in the series who brings out the true human side in Damon naturally and effortlessly; the caring, affectionate, compassionate, tender side of him —the 'true Damon', which is deeply hidden within his soul. It is highly apparent that Damon has a strong, indescribable soft spot and tenderness for Bonnie, although the exact reason for this is highly unexplained and unknown. In terms of outer personalities, Bonnie is the complete and total opposite of Damon in many ways. Bonnie has a lighter personality; Damon has a darker personality. Bonnie is more selfless and humble; Damon is more selfish, vain and proud. Bonnie is more weak, fragile and vulnerable; Damon is more dominant, powerful and strong. Bonnie is moral; Damon is immoral. Bonnie is more emotionally weak; Damon is more emotionally strong. Yet, despite the many differences in their outer personalities, Damon and Bonnie share a special, deep, strong affinity and bond with each other.

Bonnie is frequently referred to in the novels, especially in The Return: Nightfall, as a maiden. Damon often thinks of her as a maiden because of her innocence, although she is the same age as Elena. In the novels, Damon often refers to her as a "woman-child". She is somewhat of a child and she faints constantly, as she lacks any control or self-restraint over her very strong psychic powers. Bonnie is considered to be very fragile and she can be easily frightened and overwhelmed, although she does become a significantly stronger individual as the series progresses. She is highly expansive and visionary, but she can be quite damsel-in-distress like. Bonnie has many, various nicknames throughout the series and most of them are nicknames in which Damon Salvatore has given her. Most of the given nicknames for Bonnie often refer to her hair colour. Bonnie is a feminine name of Scottish/Scots-Irish origin which means "pretty", "beautiful" or "attractive". The name also means "good". Bonnie has many nicknames which include 'Bon', 'Bon-Bon', 'The Little One', 'Sweet Bonnie' (coined by Shinichi), 'Pixie', 'Firebrand', 'Druid Priestess', 'Curlew', 'Songbird', 'The Redhead', 'Redhead', 'Strawberry-Haired Girl', 'Little Red-haired Girl' and 'Fiery Little Pixie' (coined by Stefan Salvatore). Aside from all of her usual nicknames, Damon Salvatore individually, has many nicknames he uses for Bonnie and he normally doesn't call her by her first name, although the reason for this is unknown. Damon's nicknames for Bonnie are notably highly affectionate and tender in nature and they also often refer to her hair-colour. Damon's many nicknames for Bonnie include Little Redbird (this is Damon's personal favourite nickname to call Bonnie), Redheaded Bird, Little Redhead, Little Witch, Redheaded Witch, Red-Haired Maiden, Red Songbird, Little Red-Haired Songbird, Little Bird, Baby Bird, Little Human, Human, Sleeping Maiden, Sweet Baby Bird, Sweet Red Bird, His Bird, His Bedraggled Little Bird, His Maiden, His Witch, The Redbird, Fiery Little Fury, Kitten, and Sweet Songbird Bonnie.