Has The Bold and the Beautiful forgotten that Will, not Electra, is the real victim?

Luna sexually assaulting Will has led to several consequences for characters across The Bold and the Beautiful, but not only is the show unwilling to call it for what it is, but they've also lost the plot a bit, and seemingly forgotten who the true victim in all of this is. Will was the one who had his body violated by a deranged criminal, and all viewers hear about is how this impacted Electra.

Why Electra isn't the true victim on The Bold and the Beautiful

It's understandable that Electra (Laneya Grace) wanted her first time with Will (Crew Morrow) to be a special experience. She waited for the right man, and she believed she found that in Will. It's also understandable that she'd be a bit frazzled after learning that he and Luna (Lisa Yamada) had intimate physical contact that night before they made love. However, what doesn't make any sense is the positioning of Electra as the true victim in the storyline. Not only was Will an unwilling participant in Luna's heinous plot, but it resulted in a horrifying pregnancy that tethers Will to her for the rest of their lives.

Luna is a known killer with a penchant for kidnapping and other nefarious manipulations. That is the woman with whom Will is having a child. His spiraling out of control about his future is completely understandable because he has no real way out of this. While Bill (Don Diamont) and Katie (Heather Tom) have promised to make Luna and the child their problem and have urged Will to focus on his own life, he's not convinced it will be that easy. Electra, on the other hand, has no physical or legal ties to the situation, and if she wanted, she could walk away with no strings keeping her in Luna's orbit.

Instead, viewers are subjected to several episodes per week of Electra lamenting the state of her life, torn between conflicting emotions about how to proceed. She has agreed to remain with Will on several occasions and has vowed to accept the situation for what it is, yet she still complains. The writers have Electra constantly standing alone in the Forrester design office, flashing back to times with Will, internally debating how she envisions the rest of her life. It's tired. It's old. Electra is entirely one-dimensional and not nearly compelling enough to find her as the victim in this already appalling story.

Electra victim complex isn't the only issue

The positioning of Electra as the biggest victim in this ongoing saga would be somewhat more tolerable if they didn't have random characters making the entire thing about her. Undoubtedly, the biggest offender in this regard is Ivy (Ashleigh Brewer), who has insisted on several occasions that Electra should cut her losses while she still can. Even when Electra seems on the verge of accepting the situation and recognizing how Will has suffered the most, Ivy inserts her opinion and plants seeds of doubt in her niece's head.

However, at this stage, it's not just Ivy that's propping up Electra as the biggest martyr in Los Angeles; it's everyone. Recently, it was Daphne (Murielle Hillarie) acting as a stand-in for Ivy, making it seem like Electra's life would be impossible if she remained in a relationship with Will. Not only that, but other characters are speaking about the issue in scenes that Electra isn't even present in. Brooke (Katherine Kelly Lang) and Ridge (Thorsten Kaye) have discussed it on a few occasions now, with the couple worrying about the relationship being too new and too young to survive the weight of Luna's actions.

Steffy (Jacqueline MacInnes Wood) and Finn (Tanner Novlan) did the same, spending an entire episode discussing things involving other characters that didn't pertain to them in the slightest. They also couldn't fathom the toll this took on Electra, despite Will being physically, mentally, and sexually assaulted by Luna.

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It's difficult to get behind Electra in this story, when it feels like she's the victim in every plot she's placed in. Whether it's this or Deke (Harrison Cone) and Remy's (Christian Weissmann) relationship, Electra is front and center as the spotlighted wronged party. Somehow, the entire future of Deke and Remy as a couple rests on the latter's past actions toward Electra. The obsession with making Electra the victim is so strong that the series fast-tracked a friendship between Deke and Electra after one or two scenes together to give it supposed weight. Not only is Electra not the victim here, but she is a shining example of much larger problems at the root of the show's storylines.

Catch all-new episodes of The Bold and the Beautiful weekdays on CBS and streaming on Paramount Plus.

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