Character Review #2 : Elena Gilbert

Elena Gilbert started as really good. I liked her, I got her grief, sympathized with her. She was this girl next door with two besties and a brother. She loved them more than everything. After her parents died, she even pulled herself back together so that she can support and guide her brother Jeremy. Now that is the Elena that I would adore. I was happy when she found Stefan.

I never understood why she thought Damon was her true love, I never will. That guy raped her best friend, slept with her birth mother, killed her brother, killed her then boyfriend’s best friend to cover his tracks, slept with Rebecca moments after she tried to kill Elena. Damon was sexually harassing her from the beginning, trying to mind control her into his girl toy, flashing his naked body, sneaking into her and Stefan’s bedroom when they are sleeping and supposedly naked, going through her underwear, bumping into her chest purposely, forcibly kissing her, repeatedly sneaking into her bedroom and laying on her bed next to her, teasing to show off his man parts, leading her to his underwear drawer when she is asking for something, I could go on and on. Not exactly a dream guy, if anything it’s the opposite. Throughout the series, he goes back to his bad guy mode whenever she upsets him. It’s just like he behaves well as long as she is around. Ever since they met, all he tried was to seduce her. All the more reasons to go creepy. Yes, he is much hotter and charming than anyone else in the show but true love doesn’t fit that criteria.

Even after she knew that Damon is obsessed with her he made absolutely no effort to discourage him or stay away from him. If your boyfriend’s brother has a crush on you the first thing you would do is to stay away from him, changing your meeting place to somewhere else. At least wouldn’t encourage his advances. And even if you don’t want to upset their brother bond, if it reaches a point you couldn’t take it anymore, you go to your boyfriend tell him the truth. She did none of these things. There was one scene where she hugs Stefan after a painful meeting with her mother, she stares at Damon while hugging Stefan. It was creepy. No matter what her intentions were. All of this was actually encouraging Damon and his obsession.

Also Most of the time she was using Damon to get him do what she wanted, clearly knowing he would do that for her. She was in fact encouraging him. The most of the scenes where she was pacifying Damon was similar to what she does with Stefan, cupping his face and all that. Yeah we all do that with our boyfriend’s brother!!

I wouldn’t say that people don’t fall out of love, they do. But not like how Elena did. There was no time taken after her breakup with Stefan. When you come out of a serious relationship, most of the time you feel like you lost your hope in love like true love doesn’t exist or love is just a fantasy or something like that. It would take a while to get your head clear, to self-evaluate, to find out what you really want from a relationship etc.  It takes time to heal. It takes time to find your hope in love again. It takes time to fall in love again. But not for Elena, her three year old relationship just ended and she went and slept with her ex-boyfriend’s brother, that too in her ex-boyfriend’s house. Bravo!!

Another thing that bothered me was she had two amazing girlfriends in her life, who would even die for her. But she never goes to them for advice or comfort or anything. She just uses them when someone threatens her life and then goes back to her life, finds them again when the next villain comes.

After Jeremy tried to kill her she had to leave her house and she decided to crash her ex-boyfriend’s (who she broke up with moments ago) and his brother’s (who constantly tries to seduce her) place. Not Caroline’s, not Boney’s, not even Matt’s. In this situation anybody’s choice would be their best friend’s place, take a little time to think things through, but not hers!! Don’t say it was because she was sired, because even then she would  have obeyed only if he asked her to do so, here that wasn’t the case. Way to go Girl!!

I am not against morally grey characters, actually they can make a story really interesting. What I am against is painting the grey character as the good one, making them into something that they are not. Like saying Katherine is the bad girl and Elena is a pure and innocent girl. I don’t buy that. There are a lot of similarities between these two.

When she was with Stefan and saw Damon with other girls she was jealous, questioned him, and never even tried to hide her jealousy at least for the sake of her then boyfriend. Likewise when she chose Damon and heard that Stefan slept with other girls she was jealous and questioned him, in front of Damon of course!. Seriously what right did she have! Even after everything she put Stefan through. It was clear from all these scenes that she wanted to keep them both to herself. At least Katherine had the guts to say that to their faces.

In that way Elena is no different from Katherine. Katherine wanted both of them and said that out loud but Elena kept it to herself and when she realized it is not possible she went for the hotter guy. I am not against that decision but the writers constantly trying to paint her as pure and innocent after all this is a little bit extreme.

I always felt it was like she was in a stable and healthy relationship with Stefan, and then Damon came around he was more handsome, hotter, more charming with a bad boy image, someone she can fix or save, and he tried to seduce her constantly. Finally she couldn’t resist the sexual attraction and decided to go for him. That is what made sense to me. Ironically, since season 4 the Ian somerhalder’s aging was evident and he started losing his charm, but Paul Wesley started looking better and better!