The Vampire Diaries

 Season 5 should’ve been Elena’s Single Era

It would’ve made more sense that after turning, the sire bond, losing Jeremy and her humanity-less era, Elena should’ve elected to be single. Honestly, it would’ve made more sense for her to proclaim her feelings for Damon at the end of season 4, but let him know that she needs space and time to get her mind together after everything she had been through that year. Stefan could’ve overheard and misinterpreted that as her choosing Damon, which still would’ve made him want to leave town, and the events still unfold with Silas.

We then could’ve gotten season 5 Elena with a fresh start as she begins college, focusing on her friends (finding out about Bonnie’s death , and her Caroline working on a way to bring her back) and family (being a better caretaker and sister to a newly resurrected Jeremy). We still could’ve gotten all that Delena angst but probably later in the season, or Damon trying to earn the love that he knows she had for him. Similar to how they got close looking for Stefan in season 3 we could’ve gotten that again with more romantic overtones, since she’d been single and had time to adjust to herself over the summer in between season 4 and 5. Instead of their break up in the mid season finale, we could’ve just gotten them fully embracing their feelings and becoming a couple, and then enter all the doppelgänger silliness from the travelers that causes them both to have doubts about their relationship or whether or not her and Stefan were fated to be together because of the curse Markos placed.