#never believed i'd say ''elise is the best written character in sonic 06'' but here we are

[felikatze]

ok yeah i do think i like elise now.

like her character writing is actually pretty good outside of her Dogshit Circumstances? There's a definite evolution you can see in her interactions with Eggman, how at first she's just sitting around waiting for rescue, but then she starts ignoring him and talking back, and then she fucking Jumps Off The Eggmobile, because Fuck You, that's just a great microcosm of Sonic's influence on her.

Plus the game's willingness to have her outright state that she doesn't care about the world when she's holding the eternal flame. Sonic's writing is pretty Bad in this game he is the weak point of all 1 on 1 scenes w Elise but it's palbatable in Elise how being around him changed her, and encouraged her to be more selfish. Elise asking Sonic if he always sees beautiful places like this when he takes her to the meadow... It's not at all about being In Love With Sonic at the forefront (in fact, in their scenes, Sonic is the one who acts lovestruck, which is another point against his characterization in 06 i think...), rather that she admires Sonic's free lifestyle and she wants that. She wants to run like that after the first time Sonic took her hand and told her to run, she wants to see so much more of the world than just Soleanna.

And that clashes veeeery nicely with her duty as The Princess. She says she loves her people and her country, but she truly wants to be free of her duty. AND YET she still chooses to negotiate with Eggman when the city is threatened, and she still chooses to put out the flame even if it means losing her memories of freedom, and all her time with Sonic.

There's a pretty clear dichotomy of duty vs freedom, selfishness vs selflessness. In fact, I'd wager to say that Elise might be the best written character in the game. She has the clearest arc and the clearest emotional conflict with the strongest resolution.

It truly is just the circumstances... The constant kidnappings immediately after rescue are trite, Sonic's blandness drags her down and there's a lot of missed opportunities. For example, she never gets to connect the dots that her father sealed Iblis within her. She never gets to talk to Blaze, who has the same struggle with duty.

Her "hateable" moments really are pretty minor. The "I was able to be myself… a girl." line for example has a pretty bad delivery, but looking under the veneer of the forced romance, the preceeding line of "It [this adventure] allowed me to be something other than a Princess." really just means Elise is delighted that she just gets to be... a person. outside of her duty, for once.

I've talked about this with idw amy before, I think, but I really do like using Sonic as a Symbol like this, where love for him is not really love for him as a person in a romantic way, but for all he represents and brings to others. And it's the same with Elise here. She doesn't want to let go of him, she thinks about how he's going to leave once the day is saved and she hates it, not just because she loves Sonic as a guy, but because it means going back to her confined day to day life. That the fresh breath of air that is Sonic in her stale days will be gone, and she'll be back to square zero.

hrgh. yeah.