In the linear I5 -chain, ERMBs cannot be formed since there are two 2c-1e bonds, i.e. EDMBs; 21 however, the bending of the chain around the central atom as shown in Figure can improve the stability of the system. The central atom might employ one of its LEPs to restore 3c-4e bonds around atoms 2 and 4, improving the number of bonding electrons in the chain. By doing so, it reduces its LEP count, and finds itself surrounded by 4 domains of electrons instead of 5: VSEPR theory easily allows to justify local chain bending. Thus, by doing so, the bending around the central atom is introduced and explained. Such electron displacement has to be carefully made though, in close analogy to I3 -, in order to avoid exceeding the 8 electrons count for atoms 2 and 4. Consequently, we can state that hypercoordination rather than hypervalency is a feature of 3c-4e bonds. This uneven sharing of bonding electrons, required by the octet rule, brings experimentally observed I5 -anions to be V-or L-shaped. In the V-shaped pentaiodide, the experimental bond distances are: 2.78( ) Å (external 1-2 and 4-5 bonds) and 3.1(1) Å (internal 2-3 and 3-4). In this way, the linear 1-2-3 and 3-4-5 chains can be seen as perturbed 3c-4e bonds with short and long bonds. While the short external (1-2 and 4-5) bonds can be considered closer to 2c-2e bonds, the long internal (2-3 and 3-4) bonds can be considered as intermediate between 2c-2e and 2c-1e bonds. L-shaped pentaiodides, traditionally pictured as an [I3 -•I2] complex, are just cases where one of the two resonant limit structures for the V-shaped anion (i.e. 3c-4e system on the left or right side of atom 3) is favored over the other (e.g. by packing forces in the crystal). The bond distances in L-shaped I5 -were quantified as follows: formal I2 fragment 2.8(1) Å, formal I3 - fragment 3.0(1) Å, bridging bond 3.1(2). Still, in comparison to the unbent chain (2.84 Å and 3.40 Å, Scheme 1 ref. 21, clearly showing 2c-2e and 2c-1e bond lengths), the bending process overall shortens bond lengths along the chain, and thus bond orders improve, formally reaching an 8-electron count for 4 bonds. The noticeable stability of the angular I5 -anion (V-or L-shaped) is perhaps to be ascribed to its nature as two fused 3c-4e systems, as also noted in ref. 24, a situation only possible for exactly 5 atoms. The necessity for bond length alternation emerges naturally from our depiction. In any case, the dot model helps to see that bonds cannot be equal and to foresee which will be the long ones (i.e. those that achieve a formal 2-electron count due to the bending process).