The Vampire Diaries

 They didn't even try to wake her up

I understand that the writers put Elena into a coma so Nina Dobrev could leave the show, but story wise it never made sense.

After Kai puts Elena under the sleeping spell, he leaves a video telling Bonnie that if she tries to break it, they will both die. The first problem is that everyone immediately takes Kai at his word. This is someone who lies constantly and enjoys manipulating people. There is no real reason Bonnie or anyone else should have trusted that warning without question. At the very least, Bonnie should have tried to test or challenge the spell. Honestly, finding a workaround or even resurrecting someone has always been easier on this show than accepting a magical dead end, especially considering how many times the characters have cheated death.

Even if Kai was telling the truth, the situation later becomes even harder to justify. When Bonnie traps Kai in the prison world in Season 8, he is completely at her mercy, chained to a chair with no leverage of his own. Why would she not force him to undo the spell on Elena? Kai absolutely would have done it to save himself, yet this option is never even mentioned.

What makes it worse is that Bonnie eventually does attempt to wake Elena days later anyway, despite Kai’s original warning, and the show offers no real explanation beyond a vague line about Bonnie finally figuring out her magic. That feels lazy and unearned. If the spell could eventually be challenged without consequences, then the original justification for Elena’s coma completely falls apart.

What I have never understood is how accepting everyone was of Elena’s fate. Canonically, this group has always fought relentlessly to protect her, often at the expense of logic, morality, and even the world itself. Yet in the later seasons, there are no meaningful discussions, no debates, and no serious attempts to explore alternative solutions. The characters simply accept it, which feels wildly out of character and makes the entire arc feel forced rather than tragic.

EDIT: I wanted to add that I would've preferred for them to have just stuck with Kai's plan. The show could have ended with a flash forward of Bonnie's death, after she's had a long life and had her own family. Then Elena wakes up in the future to maybe Caroline and/or (old) Damon?