New Chapter Update!
I posted the new chapter of AE today.
If you haven't read it yet, I would definitely recommend reading it before reading this post.
I just wanted to expound on my thoughts about the chapter a bit. I feel like the reception to this chapter might be a little divisive.
It's no secret that many of us in the Bamon community have some strong feelings about Elena, myself included. I debated how I wanted to approach Elena's involvement in this story and relationship - I had several ideas about it.
Would she stay in the dark and be like, "what the hell is going on?" when dynamics shifted around her? - Kind of fun, but Stefan would probably fill her in eventually, wouldn't he?
If confronted about her stuff with Damon, would she get defensive and upset. - Possibly. It definitely felt like an option to explore, but then I thought seriously about who Elena was early season 2. She felt more grounded and capable of self-reflection then in later seasons.
Do I think her feelings are as neat as she's making them out to be? No, but I definitely think she wants them to be. I know that i'm not interested in demonizing any of the characters, and I'm mindful that, surprisingly, some of my readers are actually Delena fans. I think it's much more interesting to write Elena as a normal girl with the best of intentions, but still having flaws.
ALSO, I wanted to portray the girls as actually being friends. The show did a piss poor job of this, imo, especially since Bonnie was so willing to die for Elena at the drop of a hat. Like, we rarely, if EVER got to see Elena being a good friend to either of the girls, but especially Bonnie.
That was just poor writing on the show runners part. So, it was important to me to actually have their relationship feel like a valid friendship.
