...

Man, ISAT keeps derailing my post plans. What I wanted to write was a short post on how I think the whole "AU where another character loops" thing would go for each character. And then, naively, I thought to start with Bonnie, because I thought they'd be the easiest one. And now here I am giving them a full post just for them because I fell too deep into the rabbit hole. You got me, Bonbon. You got me good.

Anyways. A question, for all of you: why is Bonnie looping?

You could just go the Siffrin route with "Bonnie's true wish is for the family to stay together," but I think that's boring. All these people love each other and it's great, but Siffrin's separation anxiety is born from a very specific cocktail of trauma no one else in the groul has. I don't think anyone else would loop for a 1:1 "I wanna stay with everyone."

So. What is Bonnie's wish? They want "their sister to be okay." You could read between the lines and play with something like "Bonnie doesn't want any of their loved ones to get hurt" but I'm gonna take a different option: what if Bonnie's wish did result into the very simple "the wish is for the King to be defeated, killing him once is enough of an end condition for the loops"?

Now that sounds like an easier loop journey than Siffrin goes through, until I thought a bit more about it and realized something important.

Unless the "Saviors of Vaugarde" have been wiped out, it is still possible to defeat the King. The loops will not restart unless they all die or, presumably, Bonnie dies.

Meaning that in Bonnie's very first loop, they're going to witness Siffrin get crushed by a giant rock. And it won't loop.

Considering that one loop where the gang goes on without Siffrin, I think I can say that the crew would still manage to reach the King without Siffrin's help. And they would die here, because it's loop 1 and no one has any shield skill here.

But Bonnie wouldn't die. No one would let Bonnie die. I'm fairly certain there's at least one King death dialogue that confirms that Bonnie manages to run away safely.

And it won't loop. Because one of the Saviors of Vaugarde is still alive.

Can you imagine? Bonnie growing up in a frozen wasteland. Completely alone. Presumably, deeply plagued by guilt. They could flee to another country, but I don't think they would. They're the last person left who can take on the King. God, can you imagine? The pressure that thought would put on them? Every day they'd be trying to survive. Grow stronger. Grow tougher. Until, decades later and much more trained, they go back to Dormont to fight the King.

Maybe they could defeat the King then, but honestly I don't like their chances. Bonnie would die, surrounded by the frozen bodies of people he used to love...

And that's when the loops start.

So. Depending on how to play this. You've got either a kid with years worth of traumatizing memories suddenly uploaded in their brain. Or an extremely maladjusted adult who was suddenly shoved back into a body much smaller and more fragile. This shit happened so long ago Bonnie probably barely remembers the specifics of what happened, how they used to act with these people they still love, maybe they barely even remember how to cook at all (can't imagine a frozen post-apoc land would have much in the way of spices.) They're in a weak body that can't participate meaningfully to any fight (something that already bothers them in canon so imagine how much fucking worse it'd be in a timeline where Bonnie witnessed everyone die protecting them.) They spent years in debilitating isolation cut off from any meaningful human interaction.

Okay. NOW we can start our time loop story.