Elena Gilbert Appreciation Week: Day One. I used to be more fun
Elena Gilbert Appreciation Week timetable can be found here: LJ Tumblr. It has absolutely nothing to do with my individual “appreciation week” I tried to have here at some point. I just saw something shiny on tumblr and I couldn't resist participating ;). I'll try to keep my posts short, because, ugh, so little time! Anyway:
Elena Gilbert Appreciation Week, Day One (Nov. 5) - why you love her -or-something you admire about her
This whole journal is mostly about why I love Elena Gilbert, so summing it up in one short post? Undoubtedly a challenge :). But I'll play, and I'll try to limit myself just to one reason.
This post is brought to you by TVD 4x04, and also by my recent 1x11 rewatch.
I used to be more fun.
You did ok.
There's more to Elena Gilbert than meets the eye.
When we meet her, she's the sad girl, the grieving girl, the graveyard girl. From day one she has too much on her plate, she's hurting and she's feeling guilty, people die around her. But she's too much of a well-developed character to be defined only by her loss. There's a party girl buried beneath the graveyard girl, and she's so much more fun.
We only get glimpses of her. She watches Bonnie float feathers, she asks Damon if he needs a bib, she wants to superglue Alaric's desk shut, she does dumb beer keg hand-stands. She dances her legs off at the frat party like a teenage girl she is, genuinely happy, carefree and indulgent. Because Elena Gilbert is not the Stern Judge of Morality. She's a three-dimensional, wonderfully written character who doesn't fit any box you'd like to put her into. She won't be easily labelled. She has high emotional intelligence and she's more or less a decent person, but she also gives a frat boy a bright smile right before she bites into his neck. She's all those things at once, and I think you can't read Elena Gilbert if you forget just how fun she can be. And that her idea of “fun” is not always as innocent as you'd expect from a protagonist of a teen show.
Sometimes I think that the whole point of her journey is to come to terms with Elena The Party Girl again. To acknowledge that it's not true that people die when she does what she wants, to find a way to enjoy herself without feeling guilty. Elena The Party Girl gives me hope that one day, Elena will tell herself: “It's okay to want things. It's okay to enjoy yourself. It's okay to not feel responsible for every bad thing that happens. It's okay to be selfish.”
Elena Gilbert Appreciation Week, Day One (Nov. 5) - why you love her -or-something you admire about her
This whole journal is mostly about why I love Elena Gilbert, so summing it up in one short post? Undoubtedly a challenge :). But I'll play, and I'll try to limit myself just to one reason.
This post is brought to you by TVD 4x04, and also by my recent 1x11 rewatch.
I used to be more fun.
You did ok.
There's more to Elena Gilbert than meets the eye.
When we meet her, she's the sad girl, the grieving girl, the graveyard girl. From day one she has too much on her plate, she's hurting and she's feeling guilty, people die around her. But she's too much of a well-developed character to be defined only by her loss. There's a party girl buried beneath the graveyard girl, and she's so much more fun.
We only get glimpses of her. She watches Bonnie float feathers, she asks Damon if he needs a bib, she wants to superglue Alaric's desk shut, she does dumb beer keg hand-stands. She dances her legs off at the frat party like a teenage girl she is, genuinely happy, carefree and indulgent. Because Elena Gilbert is not the Stern Judge of Morality. She's a three-dimensional, wonderfully written character who doesn't fit any box you'd like to put her into. She won't be easily labelled. She has high emotional intelligence and she's more or less a decent person, but she also gives a frat boy a bright smile right before she bites into his neck. She's all those things at once, and I think you can't read Elena Gilbert if you forget just how fun she can be. And that her idea of “fun” is not always as innocent as you'd expect from a protagonist of a teen show.
Sometimes I think that the whole point of her journey is to come to terms with Elena The Party Girl again. To acknowledge that it's not true that people die when she does what she wants, to find a way to enjoy herself without feeling guilty. Elena The Party Girl gives me hope that one day, Elena will tell herself: “It's okay to want things. It's okay to enjoy yourself. It's okay to not feel responsible for every bad thing that happens. It's okay to be selfish.”