You have officially given me an entirely new perpective on Elena's character and I'm overcome with the urge to rewatch so many episodes so I can cement it =O
I've always liked Elena, but tbh I've never had the same zest for her that I do for Caroline and Bonnie(who two of my favorite TVD characters). I was even actually annoyed at times with her "lack of quirks" and what have you--but NO MORE because you hit the nail over the head with this post: what makes her so extraordinary is that she is an ordinary girl with some of the greatest and (sadly) most underrated traits and that is what makes her AMAZING!!
But Elena doesn’t have that. It’s okay, because other female characters have more “masculine” traits, and because not all women in real life have those traits anyway. Besides, Elena has plenty of virtues (which Stefan was kind enough to list for us). She’s warm, kind, caring, selfless, the ultimate giver. She empathizes with everyone around her, often even if they don’t deserve it. She keeps cool under pressure, by fighting back against vampires, protecting her family, and making choices that will protect the most people. She’s smart – she can piece together patterns of events, she can recognize danger and act accordingly. Those qualities are all desirable ones, and possessing them makes her an admirable character. The fact that they’re almost all stereotypically “feminine” does not lessen their value, because Elena uses them to reinforce her agency.
I could quote this entire post tbh (lol) but this bit particularly resonated with me because I was, sadly, one of those people who often (subconciously) looked for masculine traits in female characters as a demonstration of their strength, but the danger in that is the fact that women in the real world more often than not won't have Buffy's superpowers (or even the physical strength of a much lesser caliber tbh) and for that reason, while such characters are not without their merit, they don't illustrate something girls/women can generally relate to--and herein lies Elena's merit: her relatability.
And, by extension (like you said) her overall credibility as a character =)
gaah so much love for this post, thank you for giving me an entirely new perspective on a character that I often overlooked =)<3
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You have officially given me an entirely new perpective on Elena's character and I'm overcome with the urge to rewatch so many episodes so I can cement it =O
I've always liked Elena, but tbh I've never had the same zest for her that I do for Caroline and Bonnie(who two of my favorite TVD characters). I was even actually annoyed at times with her "lack of quirks" and what have you--but NO MORE because you hit the nail over the head with this post: what makes her so extraordinary is that she is an ordinary girl with some of the greatest and (sadly) most underrated traits and that is what makes her AMAZING!!
But Elena doesn’t have that. It’s okay, because other female characters have more “masculine” traits, and because not all women in real life have those traits anyway. Besides, Elena has plenty of virtues (which Stefan was kind enough to list for us). She’s warm, kind, caring, selfless, the ultimate giver. She empathizes with everyone around her, often even if they don’t deserve it. She keeps cool under pressure, by fighting back against vampires, protecting her family, and making choices that will protect the most people. She’s smart – she can piece together patterns of events, she can recognize danger and act accordingly. Those qualities are all desirable ones, and possessing them makes her an admirable character. The fact that they’re almost all stereotypically “feminine” does not lessen their value, because Elena uses them to reinforce her agency.
I could quote this entire post tbh (lol) but this bit particularly resonated with me because I was, sadly, one of those people who often (subconciously) looked for masculine traits in female characters as a demonstration of their strength, but the danger in that is the fact that women in the real world more often than not won't have Buffy's superpowers (or even the physical strength of a much lesser caliber tbh) and for that reason, while such characters are not without their merit, they don't illustrate something girls/women can generally relate to--and herein lies Elena's merit: her relatability.
And, by extension (like you said) her overall credibility as a character =)
gaah so much love for this post, thank you for giving me an entirely new perspective on a character that I often overlooked =)<3