something something "the Elle series undermine's Elle's growth as a character in the movie if she is just being put through a similar scenario" things are valid but since i like Legally Blonde in a much deeper and more autistic way than anyone else ever will, i would like to explain how that is not necessarily the case.
this mostly comes from the fact Legally Blonde takes Elle Woods into a a place where she, as a blonde, does not fit in. in the new trailer for the Elle series, it seems to take the same scenario. instead of Boston, it's Seattle. she says in the trailer that she "feels very... blonde" and her mom (who is with her in the car) tries to comfort her.
a lot of what we have seen/heard about the show so far implies it will take a similar route (as in being underestimated by her peers and overcoming that) but i do think it actually does expand it in a way, and i haven't even seen it yet.
Elle in the movie is very confident and does not let what people think get to her too easily. while I do think this is a fundamental part of just who she is at her core, i also think she had to grow into that version of herself we are all familiar with. and the way she did that was facing this as a teenager with the direct support of her family nearby. no matter what happens at school, she gets to come home to her parents. she isn't completely isolated in the way she is in the movie.
when she is moving into her Harvard dorm, she says (to Bruiser, it seems) "now don't be scared! everyone will love you." which i also think is something her mom will end up saying to her, and something she is channelling because it worked out for her once.
i think a lot of people somehow miss the fact that Elle moves across the country for Warner. while she spends an unknowing amount of time in Washington (which is still on the West Coast), Massachusetts is so much more foreign to her. we know she went to university in California which i think also shows how much that part of her means to her. putting her on the other side of the country in a similar scenario to one she faced as a teenage sort of really amplifies why she is the way she is. the experience of being in an unfamiliar place seems to come easy to her because she has done it before.
part of it is general maturity, yes, but tl;dr i think it is easier to believe she faced these similar things as a teenager and overcame them which is why it is not so unnatural to shape into the person she thinks Harvard wants her to be. stuff like shifting her wardrobe around so quickly is part of that.
and the fact she returns to California for at least university means she also somewhat reflected the way her life was before Seattle. she spends the next 4 years being the popular girl she used to be and expects her life to be back on track so idk to me the series doesn't undermine anything...
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