I hate how Elain is the favorite sister. The good sister. The better sister. She’s quiet, and she likes to garden and she likes to cook- and I’m not saying those are bad things. Those are all very valid parts of a personality.
But that shouldn’t be the only parts of her personality. Elain went through the same things Nesta and Feyre did when they were children. She drowned in the cauldron like her oldest sister.
She should be rough, and angry, and just as bitter as both of them.
Not to say she can’t be kind- she could be sweet, and also mad at her father for never stepping up to do anything. She could be a ‘gentle grower’ and still feel rage. Years upon years upon years of rage should be piling up inside of her, spilling over like it did with her sister’s. (Yes. Plural. Because frankly, all the Archeron’s make shit choices and use people.)
On top of her mothers neglect, there was her fathers depression. He did nothing -his favorite or not, he was still willing to let her starve. To let her rot in that house. Even if she was his favorite it wasn’t enough to push him into doing anything- and she should be mad about this. And then, with the war, and being turned fae, stabbing the King of Hybern. Trauma after trauma was piled on top of her. (Not to say it shouldn’t have been done, she was in the right. But imagine- you’ve just been kidnapped and literally killed, then brought back as something you were raised to hate- and then you’re sent off onto a battlefield.)
She should be struggling. She should not be— over it. Like that.
Like none of it happened, like she was to “pure” for it to have an effect on her.
In conclusion; When I write Elain she will be out of character- she won’t be a quiet, gentle grower of things. She will be mad. She will be hurt. She will be piecing herself back together just as slowly as her sisters did. She will still keep that kindness that she had- because you can smile and play house with people you barely know, while still raging about the things that happened to you.
TL;DR: Elain can and should be angry, broken, and depressed. She should not have just magically healed from her trauma overnight.
