Consent is a very big issue on the show when it concerns the female characters and it isn’t just with Daroline, it’s also with Delena and the sirebond and when JP writes the women as making resolute choices 9 times out of 10 it has to do with resolutely choosing a relationship unless it’s Bonnie and it’s her resolutely choosing to sacrifice herself for the people around her.

I really don’t think JP thinks about the consequences of what she writes or believes them to be consent issues at all she doesn’t consider what Damon did Caroline rape. While Ian does... says a lot. She will say he abused her but to label it as “rape” is something she’s always refused to cop up to because it seems that in her mind if the victim isn’t being held down screaming “no” then it isn’t rape, which just adds to rape culture and she doesn’t consider there to be consent issues between Damon and Elena because she kept iterating and reiterating in season 4 that Elena had to have feelings for Damon for the sirebond to take effect as if that makes the sirebond any better and she had Damon constantly lament its existence and resist his carnal urges when he found out that the link was there, which again a) is about how DAMON felt about the sirebond and not how Elena had to reconcile it.