Vesper Lynd is my favorite Bond girl and my favorite aspect of the Daniel Craig James Bond era. She was his emotional core, the character who led him through all five of his movies. As we continued on Craig’s journey, Vesper seemed to always be there in some way or another, her story leading him on to the next aspect of taking on Spectre.
And now that No Time To Die is out, we can explore their relationship and how it impacted James Bond and his choices throughout Daniel Craig’s entire arc. Because, if anything, Vesper continued to drive his actions long after she was gone from his life, and No Time to Die proved that.
**Spoilers for No Time To Die lie within.**
Vesper Lynd came in as the “money” for James Bond’s mission and slowly became a woman that he was willing to give everything for. It was an arc I understood, a love story I was behind, and both Daniel Craig and Eva Green had a chemistry that made you believe that these two characters wanted to be together. Flash-forward to Spectre and we’re, as an audience, meant to believe that James is in love with Léa Seydoux’s Madeleine Swann. While I don’t hate her, I just don’t think they’re that in love with each other.
No Time To Die sort of proves that, with James still having a connection to Vesper, even after all these years. No Time To Die gives me hot dad James Bond, which I love, and I think that Bond’s ultimate sacrifice, in the end, is more for Mathilde than it is for Madeleine, but before he could even think about having any sort of open and honest relationship with Madeleine, he had to go and make peace with what happened to Vesper.
James is seemingly in “love” with Madeleine, retired and hiding away with her, but even she knows that he needs to make peace, and so, when he brings her to Matera, Madeleine knows why. She tells him to go to her grave, go to see Vesper and forgive her, but when James goes, he burns a paper that says “forgive me” on it, telling me that James wasn’t holding a grudge against Vesper, but more that he felt responsible for Vesper’s death in some way or another and was holding on it.
Vesper Lynd may have betrayed James, but she clearly did care for him, and he clearly cared for her. The two of them navigating their secrets as well as their newfound feelings for each other ended badly for Vesper, but it also pushed James on to find out who Mr. White was and to discover Spectre and, therefore, to be with Madeleine and have Mathilde.
So, after all this time, after being in “love” with other women, he still came back to Vesper. James’ sacrifice was an easy one to make. It would protect both Madeleine and Mathilde from him, but would also free him from all the guilt and responsibilities he’d held on his shoulder throughout his entire time as 007.
I think that James was still in love with Vesper, even after everything, and going to her grave and clearly having an emotional reaction to Blofeld revealing he blew it up shows just how deep that emotional connection ran within him.
(image: MGM)
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