i think blair and eleanor’s relationship complicated because, okay. eleanor is not winning mom of the year awards anytime soon, that’s for sure. she’s not the best mother – she tends to be neglectful, she’s forgotten blair’s birthdays, doesn’t attend school activities when she’s expected to, etc. but i think she’s not really aware that she’s that way, and more importantly i think she’s not aware that the way she takes blair for granted affects her daughter more than she realizes. that’s where the problem really comes in, imo. based on dan and blair’s talk in 1.04, i get the impression that eleanor’s always just been… eleanor and blair just keeps how she feels about her mother’s problematic ways to herself. i feel like when she was younger, maybe she’s voiced it out a couple of times but they’d get ignored, and that’s partly why she doesn’t say much anymore. and then there’s the fact that blair seeks her mother’s approval so much and i think that’s also part of why she just swallows everything and keeps it in – smile and pretend that everything’s perfect, that she’s perfect and living up to all of her mother’s expectations ( and yet it’s still never enough ). i feel like there’s probably a mismatch in terms of their personalities to some extent, which causes majority of the problems. eleanor can be insensitive as well, and blair is the opposite of that which doesn’t help either. of course, i feel like it wouldn’t kill eleanor to make a little bit more effort but i do think that she does love blair and that shows throughout the series. ( like when blair asked her mom if she could move to france and eleanor held her, and eleanor checking in on her and making sure she was eating, etc ). i also think blair tends to notice the bad more than the good especially when she was a teen, and that definitely stuck and became her general feelings toward her mother. eleanor improves during the later seasons though, and i feel like blair is able to appreciate that more as she grew up as well. their relationship is definitely far from perfect, but at the end of the day, eleanor does love blair, and blair loves eleanor too.
