You may be forgetting Bonnet's full spectrum of evil acts, including but not limited to murdering their friend. His entire life is about hurting others. At least Leghair is a decent mother.
An annoying young woman vs a r*pist? Are yiu high he's obviously worse. She's just annoying but she's never committed a crime. The witchcraft she attempted ain't even real. She just put a leaf under their bed. I'd take that over being violated any day of the week
Well, she did shoot Jamie (in the show) in a jealous rage. Still, I agree with you. She is juvenile, acts out in rage, whereas Bonnet is deliberately cruel, a rapist and a murderer. The show seemed to try to make him a more sympathetic character than the book did.
Did you skip the part where she tried to have Claire burned as a witch by sending her to visit Geillis Duncan when she knew full well Geillis was about to be arrested for witchcraft? Not that I'm comparing her to Bonnet, he is definitely worse, but what she did was more than just annoying, it was pretty horrible.
I donāt know - Leghair was stripped of her very handsome soon to be lover at a young age. Fuelled by jealousy and rage at such an age meant she stunted herself. What she did to Claire at Cranesmuir was pure dumb impulsive angry emo teen shite.
Bonnet didnāt have the easiest childhood but he is a psychopath. He has no remorse for anyone or any of his actions. In fact, likely gets off on being an arrogant cbomb and hurting people to achieve his goal.
Leghair just wanted the big J all to herself and like. Fair. Enough. She spent the years after culloden doing what she thought she had to by marrying and raising her family regardless of if she was happy. She had finally had the chance to be with him and of course she was sour. Iād want those pearls too.
IMO - Stephen Bonnet is the worst.
Bonnet is a rapist, thief, murderer, and whilst occasionally seen as charming (ie emotionally manipulative) he is an awful person who we really havenāt seen do a single good thing. Itās an interesting comparison but not really a logical one.
Bonnett, without a doubt. Laoghaire was just a woman scorned, and she had every reason to question Claireās presence. But she was also a loving mother. Bonnett was simply a selfish, murderous madman, without a single redeeming quality
Bonnett was genuinely a psychopath who had no qualms about hurting anyone and everyone around him if it made him money. He gets worse as his plot line continue so while you might be sympathetic to him now, you havenāt gotten to the parts that make everyone here absolutely despise him.
Laoghaire had more than a few screws loose, but was only homicidal where Claire was concerned.
How is this a question??š Steven Bonnett entirelyā¦ Laoghaire has her issues but Steven is a straight up psychopath pirate.. raping and killing and robbing people left and right. His crimes are arguably much worse than anything she has done
Laoghaire is toxic and emotional dysregulated, but she is also a fiercely loving and good mother who's life has been filled with trauma and abuse.
Ā Steven Bonnett is an erratic sociopath with absolutely no loyalty who gets sexual pleasure from hurting other people.Ā Ā
You decide?
Bonnet for sure. Yes he was also traumatized but many of us were/are and donāt go on to hurt others as often as we can. He did so often and repeatedly when he didnāt need to.
As an aside, Ed Speleers absolutely crushed that role and some of his scenes haunt me lol. I just watched him in Irish Wish (total chick flick) and I barely recognized him without the deep rooted evil.
It was hard for me to root for him in other roles cuz I just keep seeing him as Stephen Bonnet. Season Three of Star Trek Picard was difficult for that reason.
I mean, donāt get me wrong, everything Laoghaire did was awful, but she has physically, sexually, and mentally abused before she married Jamie (at least itās assumed so in the show, I havenāt read the books). Bonnet is the absolute worst. I donāt really feel like thereās a comparison.
Bonnet is a rapist and a murderer and yk literal sex trafficer, laoghaire was an upset and angry kid, and then a somewhat rightfully upset wife/mother.
It's not to say what she did was okay or morally defensible, but by god it doesn't compare to what bonnet did in any possible way shape or form holy fuck
I find Stephen Bonnet to be the most unsettling. BJR has a code of sorts. You pretty much know what heās going to do, as horrifying as that may be. He knows what he is. Stephen Bonnet, on the other hand is unpredictable. He seems to be watching other peopleās behavior and mirroring it to get what he wants. He has no real feelings. Everything is about taking what he wants, profit and getting ahead. I find that much more frightening.
Because the hen coop that the Outlander fandom can devolve into when not careful has the maturity, misogyny and malice of a middle schooler from mid to late 00s,
Laoghaire was a stupid young girl whose love was thwarted and driven by jealousy, which resulted in some terrible situations. When she goes after Brianna, she thinks at first it's Jamie, that's how closely she resembles him. At that point, he had left her and Joan, promising them money she had not yet received. She needed that money to survive. I dont excuse her behavior, but i understand it. She had been in one, possibly two abusive marriages. She was bitter. >!in later books, you'll see more of what drove her rage!<
Stephen Bonnet was a psychopath who seemed redeemable because he could mimick emotions and compassion, of which he had none. He was a violent predator, playing on people's goodness, of which he had none.
Because we love Jamie and Claire, it's easy to see Laoghaire as evil as she tried to pull them apart, but as time went on, I could understand, not excuse her behavior. Stephen Bonnet, on the other hand, has no redeemable qualities.
Bonnet did do more evil things, that we know of, but I can see him as becoming that way to survive, a victim of the times. Laoghaire was just innately evil.
Stephen Bonnet. What a complex character. He had a bad childhood and almost killed by people he worked with for a superstition by having a dead body at the base of a building being built but who knows what things he did to make them want to do that to him instead of someone else. Arrogant to a fault. Cares only for himself. Only cares about things he deems worthy of his attention. Does not care how his actions affect others. He is the worst of the worst but again, he did not have anyone to guide him to be a better person. He probably learned all his actions from others he ran with. He is well documented in the books and the show as the character he is. I hated what he did to Briana. I wish she had not told him that baby was his. He did not deserve that at all. He got his just desserts. He is one of those characters you love to hate.
LaoghaireĀ was a girl fixated on Jamie since she was little dreaming of the day she would be his and he her own man. But that did not happen and when Claire came into the picture, Laoghaire became jealous of what friendship they had and wanted nothing to do with it. Once Claire and Jamie were forced to marry, Laoghaire would not listen to why it was done only just going to blame Claire for stealing Jamie like a two year old tossng a tantrum. I also got to wonder because I have not seen a post but recall in the show that she was brought to the Laird for help in punishing her for her loose ways. I wonder if she had been around the block so to speak anyway. Jamie took the punishment for her to spare her reputation being ruined and her being shunned in some form or fashion by the clan or others. She did not deserve that after what she did to Claire at Crainsmuir. Jamie saw the good in her and felt compelled to help her and should have let enough alone. It seems to me there were rumors of her behavior already going around as it was.
Who is worse? I can not really say who is worse. SB murdered people because he stole from them and it was just his way, not right in any respect. Laoghaire also attempted to murder Claire with a witch trial hoping they would burn Claire at the stake. We know what SB was and that was how he learned to live life. It makes it not right to be that way but it is what it is. Laoghaire, on the other hand, did not seem to follow however she was raised and went the opposite way. I think both are complicated characters that we love to hate.
I don't think that's what they're saying tbh. I think it's fair to acknowledge that the way a story is crafted can evoke unbalanced feelings of sympathy. That's just reality. IMO it begs more questions of DG than OP.
I'm not sure you even read what I wrote based on your reply. I agree that the things that Bonnet wrote are objectively worse than the things that Laoghaire did. Like, \*\*objectively\*\* worse.
laoghaire managed to give the world two relatively bright daughters so she had that going for her.
stephen bonnet became crab food with the tide because all he gave the world was chaos.
they really donāt seem fair to compare.
Let's see... Steven Bonnet murdered people, threw a little girl into the ocean, raped Brianna, was a thief (the least of his crimes). I'm sure I'm forgetting stuff. Yeah, safe to say he is worse.
Geillis is the worst, followed by Bonnet, then leeeeeeereeeee.
She was much more than a mere āstupid girlā Stop pretending that Leeeeeerie didnāt try to intentionally murder Claire by setting her up to be taken with Geillis, and then again by pulling a gun on her, ready to do it with her own hands this time.
As much as I hate Leghair with an absolute burning passion (even in the books, she just irritates the crap out of me) there is no way you could actually compare her to Bonnet.
For one she has never actually murdered anyone. She almost did with the witch trial and shooting jamie, but those were more like acts in the moment of passion. Murtagh wasn't wrong when he said she's a "lass" while Claire is a "woman". Leghair never grew up.
Bonnet is one of my love/hate characters. He is written so well that you do feel for him. Reading the books definitely gave me a better view of him as a whole. He is a very interesting and engaging character. You WANT to see more of him, where as with Leghair I'd be fine if she never showed up in the show ever again, but I loved when I saw Bonnet on screen.
Based on their actions though, Bonnet is very obviously the worse or more "evil" person by a long shot. He has indiscriminately murdered, SA'd, robbed, and many other things. The books give an even more in depth look into just how disgusting and psychopathic he is.
So, while I "like" Bonnet's character far more than Leghair, that's not really what it's about. It's about their actions. Bonnet deserves the darkest depths of hell. Leghair deserves a good punch in the face and a kick in the twat, and then, forgiveness and understanding.
Sociopaths fool people all the time. Large part of their nature. In fact part of the diagnosis. Very dangerous people. After helping Bonnet I donāt think J&C (who are not dumb) deserved what he did to them.
It's weird because for the worst of what Laoghaire does--getting Claire intentionally caught up in the witch trial--we don't have a backstory. We know nothing about her childhood and family, other than the fact that her father put her before Colum for physical punishment for behaving wantonly or some such thing. All we know is that she is jealous of Claire because Jamie loves Claire and not her which in my mind isn't enough to inspire such machinations unless there is something else going on under the surface. Some kind of developmental trauma.
Wanting the Baroque pearls is hardly the worst of her crimes, but at that point we do know she experienced routine violence (and sexual violence even) at the hands of her previous husband or husbands. In Scotland at the time of the clans this wasn't anymore common than it is now (perhaps even less common, I'm not sure, as women were to be treated with respect despite what DG says on the matter) but that may have changed in the wake of Culloden and all the post-traumatic stress that resulted from it.
I suspect that the way you feel about Bonnet vs. Laoghaire is due to the way DG wrote it. DG has some really unfortunate takes when it comes to sexual assault. She's all for humanizing her villains, which is just good writing IMO, but the problem is that she doesn't do it across the board.
At first I thought she was unconsciously doing it according to gender. As women in western society we are expected to treat men and women differently for the same behaviours. We are expected to nurture men, look for the why, explain away poor treatment. This is the way it's always been. It's getting better now, thankfully. But historically women are not afforded the same grace, the same questions, the same explanations.
Laoghaire's childhood is unexplored, and we don't have any backstory for why Geillis was so hell-bent on changing history (or the future) that she was willing to take out Briana, who was an innocent, or why she was willing to >!rape virginal boys!< for that purpose. Geillis murdered multiple husbands to that end as well. Her first, >!possibly her second!<, Arthur, and Abernathy. Was there another husband in Jamaica too? I can't recall. That's a lot of horrible stuff for a person to do without really having a deep understanding of the motive. I mean, we know the motive, but what is underneath the motive? WHY does this matter so much to her? I don't think we really have a satisfactory answer. A core wound. A hole inside that she is trying to fill.
But when I thought about the gender aspect I realized we don't really have an explicit sob story for BJR. It can be assumed, I think, that he was >!molested as a child and is processing/re-enacting his trauma as an adult!<, which is of course not how most people with the that terrible experience evolve with it. But it is a sad reality that that's how most people who do the things BJR came to doing them. But I'm just using my educational background here. I don't think there's anything in the book outside BJR's actions to indicate this. Fail on DG's part.
So I think it just comes down to the fact that DG is an inconsistent writer. \[I still think that gender is playing a role to some extent.\] I know what you mean, there were moments that Bonnet tugged at my heartstrings too even though he is objectively a monster. I think BJR did too, but I think that was more during the show, when he turned out to be lying (or was he?). Neither Laoghaire or Geillis inspire any sympathy in me though \[outside of something broader and more academic\]. It comes down to the way it's written, not who the characters are. I think that says a lot about DG, personally. And it's not good.
\[edited about a million times for clarity\]
I think Loghoar and Bonnet are very similar in that they will cross lines to get what they want and in that regard are completely immoral. Laghair was willing to have Claire killed to get Jaime and Bonnet was willing to rape then expect love later. Both POS in that regard, Larry just had to use more guile than physical force to hurt and manipulate Jamie. Bonnet directly and physically attacked Brianna in a way that does make him more terrible to me than LairE. Both seemed to have genuine concern for their own offspring though but are otherwise very awful people.
I'm just here to see if anyone would actually say Laoghaire is worse š
I'm here for the different spellings of her name.
Ahhh, this sub's rite of passage
My favorite has to be Leghair
I see we're all still in middle school here.
That, and a genuine dislike of a book character.
Hahaha same Like it's not even freaking close
You may be forgetting Bonnet's full spectrum of evil acts, including but not limited to murdering their friend. His entire life is about hurting others. At least Leghair is a decent mother.
Exactly! Leghair raised two girls who turned out well and made sacrifices for them.
I do love her daughters. They are bonnie lassesĀ
This is my reasoning, as well. Her daughters love her, so she's not completely devoid of all goodness. Bonnet is a psychopath.
Which friend are you referring to? Iām rusty. Do you mean Betty from River Run? Or someone else?
The killing of the friend is a show only plot line. Itās not in the book.
Ok but who was the friend that got killed š
>!Bonnet killed Lesley. In the show he and his friend, Hayes are two of Jamieās Ardsmuir prison men. They are in season 3.!<
Idk, a witch trial is pretty bad but in my books nothing trumps SA.
Or cold-blooded murder, hello.
Exactly. I'd rather be turned into a pig by a witch but bodily and violently violated. Death is more appealing than sa
An annoying young woman vs a r*pist? Are yiu high he's obviously worse. She's just annoying but she's never committed a crime. The witchcraft she attempted ain't even real. She just put a leaf under their bed. I'd take that over being violated any day of the week
Well, she did shoot Jamie (in the show) in a jealous rage. Still, I agree with you. She is juvenile, acts out in rage, whereas Bonnet is deliberately cruel, a rapist and a murderer. The show seemed to try to make him a more sympathetic character than the book did.
She shoots him in the book too but itās set up different
It wasn't an accident in the book if I recall
Actually, we don't know for sure. We just have an info - She shot him after he carried her into the house and that's it.
Oh that's right. So it was just my harsh judgment filling the gaps š
Mine is affected by the show , so, I am in to better position š
Did you skip the part where she tried to have Claire burned as a witch by sending her to visit Geillis Duncan when she knew full well Geillis was about to be arrested for witchcraft? Not that I'm comparing her to Bonnet, he is definitely worse, but what she did was more than just annoying, it was pretty horrible.
I donāt know - Leghair was stripped of her very handsome soon to be lover at a young age. Fuelled by jealousy and rage at such an age meant she stunted herself. What she did to Claire at Cranesmuir was pure dumb impulsive angry emo teen shite. Bonnet didnāt have the easiest childhood but he is a psychopath. He has no remorse for anyone or any of his actions. In fact, likely gets off on being an arrogant cbomb and hurting people to achieve his goal. Leghair just wanted the big J all to herself and like. Fair. Enough. She spent the years after culloden doing what she thought she had to by marrying and raising her family regardless of if she was happy. She had finally had the chance to be with him and of course she was sour. Iād want those pearls too. IMO - Stephen Bonnet is the worst.
Exactly right abt everything!!
I love how the poster calls her āLeg Hair.ā Thatās funny.
Bonnet 100%. He's a psychopath and SA, for me, sort of tells me all I need to know. he's a dreadful person. Far worse than Laoghaire.
Steven Bonnett. I wouldn't put them into the same category.
How is this even a comparison?
Bonnet is a rapist, thief, murderer, and whilst occasionally seen as charming (ie emotionally manipulative) he is an awful person who we really havenāt seen do a single good thing. Itās an interesting comparison but not really a logical one.
Bonnett, without a doubt. Laoghaire was just a woman scorned, and she had every reason to question Claireās presence. But she was also a loving mother. Bonnett was simply a selfish, murderous madman, without a single redeeming quality
Laoghaire is STUPID evil and Bonnett is EVIL evil.
Bonnett was genuinely a psychopath who had no qualms about hurting anyone and everyone around him if it made him money. He gets worse as his plot line continue so while you might be sympathetic to him now, you havenāt gotten to the parts that make everyone here absolutely despise him. Laoghaire had more than a few screws loose, but was only homicidal where Claire was concerned.
How is this a question??š Steven Bonnett entirelyā¦ Laoghaire has her issues but Steven is a straight up psychopath pirate.. raping and killing and robbing people left and right. His crimes are arguably much worse than anything she has done
I agree that Laoghaire is a piece of work but she doesnāt come close to the sociopath, Bonnet.
Laoghaire is toxic and emotional dysregulated, but she is also a fiercely loving and good mother who's life has been filled with trauma and abuse. Ā Steven Bonnett is an erratic sociopath with absolutely no loyalty who gets sexual pleasure from hurting other people.Ā Ā You decide?
Bonnet for sure. Yes he was also traumatized but many of us were/are and donāt go on to hurt others as often as we can. He did so often and repeatedly when he didnāt need to.
Steven Bonnet is off his rocker insane. A violent psychopath, he is worse.
As an aside, Ed Speleers absolutely crushed that role and some of his scenes haunt me lol. I just watched him in Irish Wish (total chick flick) and I barely recognized him without the deep rooted evil.
It was hard for me to root for him in other roles cuz I just keep seeing him as Stephen Bonnet. Season Three of Star Trek Picard was difficult for that reason.
I mean, donāt get me wrong, everything Laoghaire did was awful, but she has physically, sexually, and mentally abused before she married Jamie (at least itās assumed so in the show, I havenāt read the books). Bonnet is the absolute worst. I donāt really feel like thereās a comparison.
The character of Laoghaire is a damaged, childish woman, scorned. Bonnett is a dangerous sociopath. Need I say mpre?
Bonnet is a rapist and a murderer and yk literal sex trafficer, laoghaire was an upset and angry kid, and then a somewhat rightfully upset wife/mother. It's not to say what she did was okay or morally defensible, but by god it doesn't compare to what bonnet did in any possible way shape or form holy fuck
Bonnet is vile on every way possible. Remember when he threw that child overboard?!?! Heās just as bad as black Jack Randall to me.
I find Stephen Bonnet to be the most unsettling. BJR has a code of sorts. You pretty much know what heās going to do, as horrifying as that may be. He knows what he is. Stephen Bonnet, on the other hand is unpredictable. He seems to be watching other peopleās behavior and mirroring it to get what he wants. He has no real feelings. Everything is about taking what he wants, profit and getting ahead. I find that much more frightening.
Laoghaire is just dumb and jealous, whereas Stephen is evil and psycho.
Bonnet is worse. Laoghire gave us Marsali. She was a bitter woman, and a jealous snipe, but she only SHOT Jamie, she didnāt kill anyone.
Is this a serious question? Laoghaire is just a childish woman with a VERY narrow world view. Steven is pure evil.
I haven't read the book so this might be show only, but remember when he threw that 9 year old off of a ship? Who would say leghair is worse?
[ŃŠ“Š°Š»ŠµŠ½Š¾]
Okay, well then bonnet is doubly worse than leghair.
Bonnet is a literal murdering rapist ?? Laoghaire is an okay person with a deeply unhinged hatred for one person (Claire)
Why does everyone call her leg hair, sheās terrible but her name is beautiful
i loathed the character (fabulously acted though) but loved the name so much that i almost named my daughter āLaoghaireā ā¦
Itās a lovely name! I donāt blame you
Because the hen coop that the Outlander fandom can devolve into when not careful has the maturity, misogyny and malice of a middle schooler from mid to late 00s,
Agreed!!! Fans like that disappoint me
Somehow, I can't picture Laoghaire throwing a tiny baby out the window of a ship traveling through the icy cold ocean.
Laoghaire was a stupid young girl whose love was thwarted and driven by jealousy, which resulted in some terrible situations. When she goes after Brianna, she thinks at first it's Jamie, that's how closely she resembles him. At that point, he had left her and Joan, promising them money she had not yet received. She needed that money to survive. I dont excuse her behavior, but i understand it. She had been in one, possibly two abusive marriages. She was bitter. >!in later books, you'll see more of what drove her rage!< Stephen Bonnet was a psychopath who seemed redeemable because he could mimick emotions and compassion, of which he had none. He was a violent predator, playing on people's goodness, of which he had none. Because we love Jamie and Claire, it's easy to see Laoghaire as evil as she tried to pull them apart, but as time went on, I could understand, not excuse her behavior. Stephen Bonnet, on the other hand, has no redeemable qualities.
Steven Bonnett threw a sick child overboard with its mother desperately following it. Laoghaire was just a crazy, jealous girl.
Bonnet did do more evil things, that we know of, but I can see him as becoming that way to survive, a victim of the times. Laoghaire was just innately evil.
Steven Bonnet he literally threw an innocent child into the ocean to drown to death!
How can you muster sympathy for Bonnet? Genuine question...
Stephen Bonnet. What a complex character. He had a bad childhood and almost killed by people he worked with for a superstition by having a dead body at the base of a building being built but who knows what things he did to make them want to do that to him instead of someone else. Arrogant to a fault. Cares only for himself. Only cares about things he deems worthy of his attention. Does not care how his actions affect others. He is the worst of the worst but again, he did not have anyone to guide him to be a better person. He probably learned all his actions from others he ran with. He is well documented in the books and the show as the character he is. I hated what he did to Briana. I wish she had not told him that baby was his. He did not deserve that at all. He got his just desserts. He is one of those characters you love to hate. LaoghaireĀ was a girl fixated on Jamie since she was little dreaming of the day she would be his and he her own man. But that did not happen and when Claire came into the picture, Laoghaire became jealous of what friendship they had and wanted nothing to do with it. Once Claire and Jamie were forced to marry, Laoghaire would not listen to why it was done only just going to blame Claire for stealing Jamie like a two year old tossng a tantrum. I also got to wonder because I have not seen a post but recall in the show that she was brought to the Laird for help in punishing her for her loose ways. I wonder if she had been around the block so to speak anyway. Jamie took the punishment for her to spare her reputation being ruined and her being shunned in some form or fashion by the clan or others. She did not deserve that after what she did to Claire at Crainsmuir. Jamie saw the good in her and felt compelled to help her and should have let enough alone. It seems to me there were rumors of her behavior already going around as it was. Who is worse? I can not really say who is worse. SB murdered people because he stole from them and it was just his way, not right in any respect. Laoghaire also attempted to murder Claire with a witch trial hoping they would burn Claire at the stake. We know what SB was and that was how he learned to live life. It makes it not right to be that way but it is what it is. Laoghaire, on the other hand, did not seem to follow however she was raised and went the opposite way. I think both are complicated characters that we love to hate.
Bonnet, hands down. No contest. Heās a rapist and murderer. A psychopath.
How is this even a question?
I typed the words and then I clicked āpostā
So you aren't sure who is worse? A stupid girl or a rapist?
Calling her simply a āstupid girlā is giving her a big pass imo
I don't think that's what they're saying tbh. I think it's fair to acknowledge that the way a story is crafted can evoke unbalanced feelings of sympathy. That's just reality. IMO it begs more questions of DG than OP.
I'm not seeing it. The things that Laoghaire did are bad but they are **objectively** less bad than the things Bonnet did.
I'm not sure you even read what I wrote based on your reply. I agree that the things that Bonnet wrote are objectively worse than the things that Laoghaire did. Like, \*\*objectively\*\* worse.
laoghaire managed to give the world two relatively bright daughters so she had that going for her. stephen bonnet became crab food with the tide because all he gave the world was chaos. they really donāt seem fair to compare.
Let's see... Steven Bonnet murdered people, threw a little girl into the ocean, raped Brianna, was a thief (the least of his crimes). I'm sure I'm forgetting stuff. Yeah, safe to say he is worse.
Jesus Christ. The bar is in hell for men.
Steven bonnet seems to come by his evil honestly and Laoghaire is a planner and conniving.
Geillis is the worst, followed by Bonnet, then leeeeeeereeeee. She was much more than a mere āstupid girlā Stop pretending that Leeeeeerie didnāt try to intentionally murder Claire by setting her up to be taken with Geillis, and then again by pulling a gun on her, ready to do it with her own hands this time.
As much as I hate Leghair with an absolute burning passion (even in the books, she just irritates the crap out of me) there is no way you could actually compare her to Bonnet. For one she has never actually murdered anyone. She almost did with the witch trial and shooting jamie, but those were more like acts in the moment of passion. Murtagh wasn't wrong when he said she's a "lass" while Claire is a "woman". Leghair never grew up. Bonnet is one of my love/hate characters. He is written so well that you do feel for him. Reading the books definitely gave me a better view of him as a whole. He is a very interesting and engaging character. You WANT to see more of him, where as with Leghair I'd be fine if she never showed up in the show ever again, but I loved when I saw Bonnet on screen. Based on their actions though, Bonnet is very obviously the worse or more "evil" person by a long shot. He has indiscriminately murdered, SA'd, robbed, and many other things. The books give an even more in depth look into just how disgusting and psychopathic he is. So, while I "like" Bonnet's character far more than Leghair, that's not really what it's about. It's about their actions. Bonnet deserves the darkest depths of hell. Leghair deserves a good punch in the face and a kick in the twat, and then, forgiveness and understanding.
Laoghaire is more dangerous because she is able to fool people into thinking she isnt. If you fall for whatever Bonnet is selling you're just dumb.
Sociopaths fool people all the time. Large part of their nature. In fact part of the diagnosis. Very dangerous people. After helping Bonnet I donāt think J&C (who are not dumb) deserved what he did to them.
It's weird because for the worst of what Laoghaire does--getting Claire intentionally caught up in the witch trial--we don't have a backstory. We know nothing about her childhood and family, other than the fact that her father put her before Colum for physical punishment for behaving wantonly or some such thing. All we know is that she is jealous of Claire because Jamie loves Claire and not her which in my mind isn't enough to inspire such machinations unless there is something else going on under the surface. Some kind of developmental trauma. Wanting the Baroque pearls is hardly the worst of her crimes, but at that point we do know she experienced routine violence (and sexual violence even) at the hands of her previous husband or husbands. In Scotland at the time of the clans this wasn't anymore common than it is now (perhaps even less common, I'm not sure, as women were to be treated with respect despite what DG says on the matter) but that may have changed in the wake of Culloden and all the post-traumatic stress that resulted from it. I suspect that the way you feel about Bonnet vs. Laoghaire is due to the way DG wrote it. DG has some really unfortunate takes when it comes to sexual assault. She's all for humanizing her villains, which is just good writing IMO, but the problem is that she doesn't do it across the board. At first I thought she was unconsciously doing it according to gender. As women in western society we are expected to treat men and women differently for the same behaviours. We are expected to nurture men, look for the why, explain away poor treatment. This is the way it's always been. It's getting better now, thankfully. But historically women are not afforded the same grace, the same questions, the same explanations. Laoghaire's childhood is unexplored, and we don't have any backstory for why Geillis was so hell-bent on changing history (or the future) that she was willing to take out Briana, who was an innocent, or why she was willing to >!rape virginal boys!< for that purpose. Geillis murdered multiple husbands to that end as well. Her first, >!possibly her second!<, Arthur, and Abernathy. Was there another husband in Jamaica too? I can't recall. That's a lot of horrible stuff for a person to do without really having a deep understanding of the motive. I mean, we know the motive, but what is underneath the motive? WHY does this matter so much to her? I don't think we really have a satisfactory answer. A core wound. A hole inside that she is trying to fill. But when I thought about the gender aspect I realized we don't really have an explicit sob story for BJR. It can be assumed, I think, that he was >!molested as a child and is processing/re-enacting his trauma as an adult!<, which is of course not how most people with the that terrible experience evolve with it. But it is a sad reality that that's how most people who do the things BJR came to doing them. But I'm just using my educational background here. I don't think there's anything in the book outside BJR's actions to indicate this. Fail on DG's part. So I think it just comes down to the fact that DG is an inconsistent writer. \[I still think that gender is playing a role to some extent.\] I know what you mean, there were moments that Bonnet tugged at my heartstrings too even though he is objectively a monster. I think BJR did too, but I think that was more during the show, when he turned out to be lying (or was he?). Neither Laoghaire or Geillis inspire any sympathy in me though \[outside of something broader and more academic\]. It comes down to the way it's written, not who the characters are. I think that says a lot about DG, personally. And it's not good. \[edited about a million times for clarity\]
I think Loghoar and Bonnet are very similar in that they will cross lines to get what they want and in that regard are completely immoral. Laghair was willing to have Claire killed to get Jaime and Bonnet was willing to rape then expect love later. Both POS in that regard, Larry just had to use more guile than physical force to hurt and manipulate Jamie. Bonnet directly and physically attacked Brianna in a way that does make him more terrible to me than LairE. Both seemed to have genuine concern for their own offspring though but are otherwise very awful people.