(adjective) involving many carefully arranged parts or details; detailed and complicated in design and planning.
(verb) develop or present (a theory, policy, or system) in detail.
When I'm in my AP English Language Composition class and AP English Literature Composition class, we often use elaborate as a skill to explain more in depth of themes of a certain book, character, or just the writing of the essay, novel, or poem it self as an analysis. You can elaborate whether the idea is good or bad. There's isn't really a wrong answer of where you go because you must put evidence based on the claim you believe based, on researching, reading, etc.
