Personally I hate Elena. When you play in her favor she's a traitorous conniving cunt. Favor D and she's ok. But she's always completely self serving. I want to slap the shit out of her.
I don't really see how she's a "conniving cunt". The girl just actually wants things and are prepared to act in order to do something about it, in stark contrast to the daughter who wants nothing until other people suggest it to her. It's some kind of clueless "command me master" fetish going on, which fine, if that's your thing then ok, but I prefer girls with a bit more conviction. I mean, Elena has plots, schemes and plans and some of them are kinda manipulative but they're not at the expense of the people she cares about. She pushes people to explore their sexuality and break personal boundaries, for her own enjoyment sure, but she does back off if someone doesn't seem into it. In fact, she's quite similar to the father, except way more efficient in her corruption skills. And if anything the father is way more self serving and manipulative, although less skilled at it. I mean, if the daughter wasn't so feeble she would have gone back to her home country by now and the game would be long over. So hating on Elena seems hypocritical, maybe you're threatened by the competition...
Although I fully admit that I'm probably bias towards her, just as you as probably biased against her so maybe the truth is somewhere in between...
I agree with you about Elena, she's not a real friend of the daughter, she's out to use her just like Elena lets guys use her. She has confused sex with intimacy. The daughter hasn't linked intimacy with sex, or rather she likes the emotional, supportinge, loving (non sexual for now) aspects of things.
I'd say your phrasing is more accurate... Like I do thinks she really is a good friend to the daughter at the core, but you're right in that sex and intimacy are definitely linked in her mind. She's a broken individual with some issues. Wouldn't be surprised if there's some sexual abuse in her backstory. But I do think she genuinely cares about the daughter, in her own messed up way... And again, she's doing nothing the PC isn't doing 10 times worse...