#credit to lovie as well because she helps me dissect characters

[gedonelunemayhem]

Elias: The Basics

Emotional expression: Elias never got encouragement to openly express his emotions, especially with the weight of his family’s expectations. He’s always had to have controlled emotions, and that shows through his reactions to his own emotions (such as when he becomes shocked after he has a sudden outburst).

Often described as ‘tsundere’, Elias hides most emotions he has to protect himself from being seen as unfit for his family. He grew up in a place where he likely had to have rehearsed responses in order to appear appropriate for his relatives, the press, business partners, guests, and more. Because of this, he seems to always have an appropriate response for situations where he isn’t overwhelmed.

In a context where he feels overloaded, he’s more likely to express emotion through anger or guilt due to his inexperience with articulating emotions. We’ve all seen him get upset when he doesn’t know what to do in a romantic context. This is an example of his difficulty with emotion, which is often mistaken for being “uptight” as many people describe him to be.

Elias overall is the type of person that is insecure about his own feelings, and he is, therefore, more attracted to people that seem very sure of themselves. This could put him in a very healthy situation (where the person helps build him up) or an abusive situation (where he’s kept in the same place emotionally and forms a reliance on the person taking advantage of his insecurity). This is an important thing to consider when it comes to his dynamics with other people.

Relationships with others: To the general public he always presents himself as respectful, put together, trustworthy, and focused. Because he’s constantly trying to emit this he is often very stiff and it’s quite easy to see what parts of his behavior aren’t natural to him. This is also very commonly seen when he’s interacting with authority figures. He seems to have difficulty forming relationships with others, likely due to his own insecurities.

Klaus is treated as an authority figure by Elias due to the moderate age gap of five years and Klaus’ previous position as Elias’ magic teacher. Elias looks up to Klaus for these reasons, which leaves him vulnerable to Klaus’ opinions about him. Klaus often harshly criticizes Elias on his magic, specifically about how he does it “by the book” and not going too far beyond the standard which he was taught. This is another factor that plays into Elias’ insecurities. Their relationship is strained and has been shown to be unhealthy, but they have both given evidence that supports the fact that they care about each other. 

Luca is another special case, but for a very different reason. Elias has revealed that he has been quite attentive towards Luca with his in depth analyses on why he acts out so much. I think it’s very possible they may have had some form of relationship that didn’t end well, but there’s also a possibility that they’re jealous of each other. Elias has everything, Luca was left with nothing. Luca has a natural talent for magic, and Elias has had to work to get to a level people consider admirable. Luca’s negligence may upset Elias because he sees it as wasted potential. I find that even their competitions may be Elias trying to push Luca to work a little harder. And thus, their rivalry began! Either way, they definitely feel something about each other since they have both expressed anger about the other. That’s a sign of caring to some extent. 

Personal details:  As I mentioned before, his difficulties with emotions have often been interpreted as being too serious or uptight, but I’d like to debunk that in this section. The law abiding, focused, goody two shoes Elias we all see is actually quite loose with the rules! Does anyone recall when he let Yukiya just walk out of the dorm? Yeah, he got mad at Yukiya but only because he was seeing MC, the person he had affection for. What about when he punched Merkulova in the face? Or broke curfew to help MC? Yeah, he only looks like a good kid. He’ll break rules when he feels the need to. And he gets away with it because people see him as the good kid! Take notes, people.

Now for his interests. I find that there’s some evidence that he doesn’t actually like magic. He’s constantly studying to keep up, and yet shows no creative improvement as Klaus (and other teachers) have stated. If he cared, he would probably improve greatly. I find he’s probably rather indifferent to magic. What he does like, is working with his hands. Although he doesn’t like magic overall, he has been shown to enjoy inventing greatly. He also has a love for music and plays violin, piano, flute, and has had singing lessons. Books are another form of entertainment he likes. Elias seems to really like creating and finding an escape through his hobbies.

A final detail that is quite cute about him is his love for sweets. This boy has been said to always need chocolate, so he probably makes sure he’s got a good stash in his dorm.

That’s all for Elias!