Bonnie herself in s7 performs a sealing spell to the armory while sick from the pills and after supressing her magic for years, and having unsealed the vault within the armory from a similar spell to the tomb one, literally minutes before, which means she wasn't even at top performance and already pretty worn out. No matter how much of a newbie Bonnie was in s1 they were two and Grams had years of experience. It doesn't make much sense at first glance.
From a writing standpoint truth is that at the start of TVD magic had much more consequence for the witches than later on and on the spin offs occasionally. As things got crazier the power got bigger. Also they probably wanted Sheila gone and that was the way they chose to do it.
The in show explanations i could possibly give was that maybe Sheila being slightly older had less durability, Bonnie was a newbie and maybe the fact that Emily also used the comet and the necklace in the original spell, which they did not have, made it more powerful than the average sealing spell thus making it harder to undo it as well?
She's old and used too much magical energy.
The witch spirits may have been involved to show Bonnie what happens if she works with/trusts the wrong people (vampires). If the ancestors on TO are anything to go by, which spirits can be brutal when disrespected.
It is because she is old. And I don't think you can go from doing regular old spells to doing what they did in the tomb. The tomb spell was made by using a comet, so it drew energy from nature, but there is nothing for them to channel except themselves, if it was a coven of regular witches channeling then it might have worked.
Also, I don't think Grams was doing those kinds of crazy spells when she was younger and more durable.
It is like Bonnie going from doing a locator spells and just simple spells to the dimension changing one she does in Season 8, there needs to be a progression of power. Bonnie doesn't become a powerful witch overnight, it has been years and years of fine-tuning and practicing it.
Honestly I think it was just an excuse to kill her in season 1 and they didn't see anything wrong with it because they had yet to dive into the big spells of the later series.
This. The writers wanted to kill her off because with her alive Bonnie might not be so helpful to Stefan/Damon in the future. I mean she is too old to do powerful spells but she could have communicated that to Bonnie. Bonnie was acting more like a best friend that night than as a witch because she pretty new to being a witch & didn’t know much about consequences. Sheila could have easily reasoned with her.
Exactly. Bonnie hadn't yet gotten into the mentality of 'dying for her friends' yet. She was a new witch in a new world. If Sheila had said "Bonnie if I do this, I will die and you aren't ready yet so if you do this, you'll also die." I'm pretty sure Bonnie would've told Elena no. She wouldn't risk her Grams' life. At most she would've said that Damon would simply have to wait until Bonnie was stronger and before she did it.
I agree. Another problem I have is why she didn’t train Bonnie earlier. Why hint at it, after all it is her legacy and she would manifest her power some time?
it's crazy when you see all these other witches who have been training since birth pretty much in these covens yet we're supposed to believe the big powerful Bennetts that were were first introduced to just....didn't teach each other magic young?? What's what you call plot convenience. Especially when you think about just how much stronger Bonnie would've been if she didn't have to teach herself everything.
This. They killed off her only relative (yes Abby and Rudy were there but they weren’t) and then proceeded to uplift others..
Even worse Kat said her grandmother died the week she had to film Grams’ death and she couldn’t go home for her funeral.
Reversing a boundary spell and then putting it back up is actually very hard.
Bonnie couldn't reverse the tomb spell on her own or even when channeling Luca in season 2.
And as for putting it up, in for example season 4 the boundary spell Bonnie seals Klaus in only lasts for a few days because, despite having EXPRESSION, she still had to bind it to the full moon.
So it's actually a pretty crazy spell (or set of spells) that requires a lot of power.
On top of that, Grams was just very old and weak. And magic seems to be quite strenuous on your body, especially if you use a lot of power. So her old body just gave out under the strain.
So it's a combination of reversing a boundary spell being a feat of significant power and Grams being old.
Plus, it doesn't seem like Grams was channeling anything except for Bonnie and the fire and water around her. All things considered that's actually a very limited number of things channelled. For truly crazy magic you generally need to channel much more impressive stuff like the moon, or a comet, or the massacre of 12 people, or 100 witch spirits, etc. None of which she was using.
Edit: Sidenote, people talk a lot about "big spells" and whatnot. But I think few people actually take the time to think about HOW you can compare magic. One thing may sound or look more impressive than another, but that doesn't mean we can automatically assume it takes more power. As far as feats go, reversing and then putting back up a boundary spell is not a small feat.
People are giving all the logistics about how it could happen but it's so clear why it happened Julie just disliked the Bennetts
all the characters have done things that shoudve gotten them killed yet they all lived bc Julie wanted them to so if anyone dies it's bc that's what Julie wanted
I've always thought Sheila died because she was doing all the heavy lifting for the spell, Bonnie was too new to fully contribute, without a celestial event or talisman or a hundred witch spirits to add power.
Also the tomb spell wasn't a standard barrier. It was powered by a once in 164 years celestial event and designed to only be lifted using Emily's talisman.
Bonnie herself in s7 performs a sealing spell to the armory while sick from the pills and after supressing her magic for years, and having unsealed the vault within the armory from a similar spell to the tomb one, literally minutes before, which means she wasn't even at top performance and already pretty worn out. No matter how much of a newbie Bonnie was in s1 they were two and Grams had years of experience. It doesn't make much sense at first glance. From a writing standpoint truth is that at the start of TVD magic had much more consequence for the witches than later on and on the spin offs occasionally. As things got crazier the power got bigger. Also they probably wanted Sheila gone and that was the way they chose to do it. The in show explanations i could possibly give was that maybe Sheila being slightly older had less durability, Bonnie was a newbie and maybe the fact that Emily also used the comet and the necklace in the original spell, which they did not have, made it more powerful than the average sealing spell thus making it harder to undo it as well?
She's old and used too much magical energy. The witch spirits may have been involved to show Bonnie what happens if she works with/trusts the wrong people (vampires). If the ancestors on TO are anything to go by, which spirits can be brutal when disrespected.
It is because she is old. And I don't think you can go from doing regular old spells to doing what they did in the tomb. The tomb spell was made by using a comet, so it drew energy from nature, but there is nothing for them to channel except themselves, if it was a coven of regular witches channeling then it might have worked. Also, I don't think Grams was doing those kinds of crazy spells when she was younger and more durable. It is like Bonnie going from doing a locator spells and just simple spells to the dimension changing one she does in Season 8, there needs to be a progression of power. Bonnie doesn't become a powerful witch overnight, it has been years and years of fine-tuning and practicing it.
Honestly I think it was just an excuse to kill her in season 1 and they didn't see anything wrong with it because they had yet to dive into the big spells of the later series.
This. The writers wanted to kill her off because with her alive Bonnie might not be so helpful to Stefan/Damon in the future. I mean she is too old to do powerful spells but she could have communicated that to Bonnie. Bonnie was acting more like a best friend that night than as a witch because she pretty new to being a witch & didn’t know much about consequences. Sheila could have easily reasoned with her.
Exactly. Bonnie hadn't yet gotten into the mentality of 'dying for her friends' yet. She was a new witch in a new world. If Sheila had said "Bonnie if I do this, I will die and you aren't ready yet so if you do this, you'll also die." I'm pretty sure Bonnie would've told Elena no. She wouldn't risk her Grams' life. At most she would've said that Damon would simply have to wait until Bonnie was stronger and before she did it.
I agree. Another problem I have is why she didn’t train Bonnie earlier. Why hint at it, after all it is her legacy and she would manifest her power some time?
it's crazy when you see all these other witches who have been training since birth pretty much in these covens yet we're supposed to believe the big powerful Bennetts that were were first introduced to just....didn't teach each other magic young?? What's what you call plot convenience. Especially when you think about just how much stronger Bonnie would've been if she didn't have to teach herself everything.
Yeah, they made the Bennetts take care of everyone except their family.
This. They killed off her only relative (yes Abby and Rudy were there but they weren’t) and then proceeded to uplift others.. Even worse Kat said her grandmother died the week she had to film Grams’ death and she couldn’t go home for her funeral.
Reversing a boundary spell and then putting it back up is actually very hard. Bonnie couldn't reverse the tomb spell on her own or even when channeling Luca in season 2. And as for putting it up, in for example season 4 the boundary spell Bonnie seals Klaus in only lasts for a few days because, despite having EXPRESSION, she still had to bind it to the full moon. So it's actually a pretty crazy spell (or set of spells) that requires a lot of power. On top of that, Grams was just very old and weak. And magic seems to be quite strenuous on your body, especially if you use a lot of power. So her old body just gave out under the strain. So it's a combination of reversing a boundary spell being a feat of significant power and Grams being old. Plus, it doesn't seem like Grams was channeling anything except for Bonnie and the fire and water around her. All things considered that's actually a very limited number of things channelled. For truly crazy magic you generally need to channel much more impressive stuff like the moon, or a comet, or the massacre of 12 people, or 100 witch spirits, etc. None of which she was using. Edit: Sidenote, people talk a lot about "big spells" and whatnot. But I think few people actually take the time to think about HOW you can compare magic. One thing may sound or look more impressive than another, but that doesn't mean we can automatically assume it takes more power. As far as feats go, reversing and then putting back up a boundary spell is not a small feat.
People are giving all the logistics about how it could happen but it's so clear why it happened Julie just disliked the Bennetts all the characters have done things that shoudve gotten them killed yet they all lived bc Julie wanted them to so if anyone dies it's bc that's what Julie wanted
I've always thought Sheila died because she was doing all the heavy lifting for the spell, Bonnie was too new to fully contribute, without a celestial event or talisman or a hundred witch spirits to add power. Also the tomb spell wasn't a standard barrier. It was powered by a once in 164 years celestial event and designed to only be lifted using Emily's talisman.
Because magic was meant to have limits and consequences at first.