Princess Elise

Princess Elise The Third is a character from Sonic franchise, she makes her debut on Sonic '06 as one of the main protagonists.

Childhood
Elise was born to the Duke and Duchess of Soleanna. Her mother died at some point when she was a child, an event that which saddened Elise deeply. The Duke conducted experiments on the Flames of Hope (aka Solaris), known as the "Solaris Project", to allow time travel to let Elise and her father to see her mother again, as well as allowing humanity to correct its past sins.

When Elise was seven years old, however, the project became unstable, the machine they were using exploded, and the flame was split into two villainous forms; Iblis, Solaris' raw power, and Mephiles, his conscious mind. Elise was present when the machine exploded, but was protected by her father who used himself as a human shield to protect her from the worst of it, leaving himself mortally wounded in the process, though she was knocked unconscious. While unconscious, Elise was carried through the research facility by the Duke, searching for the parts of Solaris. The Duke eventually found Silver, who had time-traveled with a Chaos Control back to find out what had happened during the Solaris Project, who had paralyzed Iblis with his psychokinesis. With no other option other than allowing Iblis to run free, the Duke was forced to seal Iblis within Elise's soul, as only one of the royal family could contain this being and keep it at bay. Using his opportunity, the Duke used the silver Chaos Emerald in a ritual and succeeded in sealing Iblis within Elise. Elise, still being unconscious, was then entrusted to Silver by the Duke and told him take her to a safe place. In his dying words, Elise was told by her father to be brave and not to cry no matter what happens (as her tears and despair could release Iblis from within her) and to live happily.

Elise was then taken out of the laboratory by Silver, who left Elise nearby to wake up on her own while Shadow left the Scepter of Darkness with her. Before Silver and Shadow returned to the present day, however Elise silently called out for her father in her daze. Silver then decided to give Elise his blue Chaos Emerald as a good luck charm, before leaving. During these events Elise managed to get a glimpse of Silver, who would remain in her memories for years to come.

Attack of Eggman and Meeting Sonic
Ten years later, Elise, now seventeen years old and sovereign of Soleanna as heir to the throne after her late father, and the denizens of Soleanna were celebrating the Festival of the Sun. While lighting the torch which appeared to be the main focus of the festival, Elise had a hallucination of Soleanna in flames, along with Iblis. As she snapped back to reality and continued with the festival, suddenly, the festival was attacked by Dr. Eggman. As Eggman was persuading Elise to come with him, however, Sonic the Hedgehog arrived (whom Elise mistook for Silver at first) and he destroyed a few of Eggman's robots and escaped with her. As the pair made their getaway, Elise was confused and asked Sonic why he was helping her, but he merely said that he had "no special reason" for doing so. As Eggman sent a few more robots after them, Elise got captured by Eggman while Sonic was distracted fighting the robots, though Elise managed to give Sonic the Chaos Emerald that Silver had given her, before Eggman took off. As Elise was taken away, Sonic assured her that he would rescue her and Elise responded that she knew he would.

Rescued and Recaptured
After her capture, Elise was brought to Eggman's base in Dusty Desert in the Egg Carrier where she was imprisoned. While being locked in her cell, Elise felt hopeless about her situation, but she tried to stay strong by recalling her father's words. Not long after her capture, however, Elise found Sonic arriving with Tails to save her, the hedgehog staying true to his words. Elise, who was happy to see Sonic, embraced Sonic and told him that she was so happy that he came. Unfortunately, their reunion was cut short, as Eggman arrived and unleashed his Egg Cerberus on them, which Sonic defeated.

Elise, Sonic, and Tails eventually managed to escape Eggman's base, but are then chased by a massive army of his robots. To escape, Tails created a diversion, allowing Sonic and Elise to escape unnoticed. As the duo got some distance from the robots, they arrived at some grassy plains, where they stopped. With the danger passed, Elise thanked Sonic for his help, but then noticed a wound on his arm. Sonic told her that was nothing serious, but Elise was not convinced and used a handkerchief to bandage Sonic's arm. After treating him, Elise apologized to Sonic for his injury, blaming herself for it, but Sonic merely told her to smile, which was all he needed. As they walked through the plains, Elise told Sonic more about the Flames of Disaster and Solaris, the deity that Soleanna worshiped, which was the primary reason that Eggman was after her. Elise then worried about what she could do to stop Eggman from unleashing Solaris' furious power, but suddenly found Sonic dragging her through the fields. Elise told Sonic that she could not run that fast, but Sonic told her not to worry and keep running, and Elise started to cheer up. After running through the field together with Sonic, Elise felt much better and Sonic gave her some advice to go by: "Nothing starts until you take action. If you have time to worry, then run." Afterwards, Elise was escorted back to the city by Sonic.

Upon their return to the city, they were attacked by Silver. Elise was captured by Eggman again in the confusion and was eventually brought to White Acropolis. When Sonic, accompanied by Tails and Knuckles, reaches Eggman's base, Eggman and Sonic negotiated a deal; if Sonic gave Eggman the Chaos Emerald that Elise had given him earlier, then Eggman would let Elise go. Sonic willingly (and somewhat reluctantly) did so, but, Eggman proved not to live up to his end of the bargain. and propels Sonic, Tails, and Knuckles into the distant future with his prototype time machine, much to Elise's horror and despair. Eggman assured her that Sonic and the gang were still alive as they had merely been transported to another time period, though he has no idea where or when they ended up. After Eggman finished gloating to Elise about his plans and left Elise to herself, she silently prayed for Sonic and his friends to be okay. Later, Elise took Sonic's earlier advice to heart and attempted to escape from Eggman's snowy mountain base on her own, and, with help from Amy, succeeded. When they return to the city, Amy gave Elise some advice on love, but Elise is captured by Eggman again when she returns to the castle.

Return of Sonic
Fortunately, Sonic, Knuckles, and Tails returned to the present via Chaos Control, and Sonic chased Eggman down again and saved Elise from an exploding train. As Sonic brought Elise to safety, she told Sonic with great joy that she knew he would be back.

Soon afterwards, Silver attacked them again, and Eggman captured Elise again while Sonic was preoccupied. Sonic managed to escape due to the timely arrival of Shadow, and caught up to them. Elise, stating that she would rather die than be Eggman's prisoner again, fell off of Eggman's Egg Mobile in a desperate attempt to get away from him, but Sonic caught her just before she hit the ground, and ran with Sonic off into the jungle in order to escape Eggman after he unleashed the Egg-Genesis on them. On their way Sonic told Elise to return to the castle, where she would be safe. When Elise showed visible depression at being told this, Sonic took a shortcut to a lake in the middle of the jungle, where Elise was fascinated by the area's beauty. Elise asked Sonic if he plans on leaving Soleanna once he defeated Eggman; he told her that he does, but assured her that he would remember the city. Desperately fighting back tears in remembrance of her late father's warnings, Elise hugged Sonic in an emotional scene, who told her to smile once more as words of comfort.

Soon afterwards, however, Eggman returned, threatening to destroy the city unless Elise agreed to negotiate with him by four o'clock. Having witnessed and heard Eggman's ultimatum from the royal castle, Elise willingly surrendered to his demands in order to protect the city, and Eggman revealed his plans for the Flames of Disaster: he plans on using them to control time itself.

Elise is later seemingly killed when the Egg Carrier exploded due to an unstable engine, as well as Eggman (it's also implied that her death as well as the unstable engine is what resulted in Iblis' released in Silver's timeline), but Sonic and Silver used Chaos Control to go back in time and saved them both, as Sonic is able to board the Egg Carrier before it departed the hangar in Aquatic Base, thus confronting Eggman on the bridge as he discovered his ship was on the verge of destruction. Sonic and Elise jump across the exploding pieces of the Egg Carrier, but fall short of solid ground and began to fall back towards the ocean; fortunately, the remains of the Egg Carrier then explode and propel them upwards. Elise and Sonic made it out unharmed, and then suddenly crack up laughing. Sonic then congratulated her for her smile.

Elise's Tears
As Sonic and Elise returned to the city after the events, Mephiles emerged from the ground, blinded them with a flash of light, and impaled Sonic through the back with a beam of energy, killing him instantly. Elise frantically attempted to revive him, but, upon realizing that he was dead, was unable to control her grief and cried, inadvertently breaking the seal on Iblis and allowing Mephiles to merge with him. After the game's cast is transported to a bizarre dimension, they discover Elise, cradling Sonic's head in her lap, and all mourned his passing. As everything seemed lost, however, Elise sensed Sonic's presence around them, signifying that he was not quite dead yet, and that they could use the Chaos Emeralds to resurrect him. While Tails, Knuckles, Amy, Shadow, Rouge, Omega, and Silver all split up to gather the Chaos Emeralds, Elise looked after Sonic's body. Once they managed to gather them as reality itself fell apart around them, Elise resurrected Sonic with a kiss and the Chaos Emerald's power, which also transformed him into Super Sonic. Exhausted from performing this miracle, Elise fell into Sonic's arms, who thanked her for saving him. Super Sonic, with Super Shadow and Super Silver then when into battle against Solaris, while Elise provided support from the sidelines. After Solaris is destroyed, Sonic and Elise were suddenly transported through another time vortex.

Just Smile
The pair eventually arrived in the Soleanna ten years ago, before the Solaris Project, where the Duke of Soleanna and a young Elise were observing Solaris, then only a tiny flame. After the Duke explained his plans for the flame and as they leave, Sonic and the present-day Elise arrive. Elise took the flame and told Sonic that if the flame was extinguished, it would result in her and Sonic never meeting. Overcome with despair, Elise began to cry and shouted that she did not care what happened to the rest of the world, only that she and Sonic would never meet. Sonic told Elise to just smile, meaning to accept life's ways for what they are and to go with the flow, even when things were not going satisfactorily. Elise considered this and, with tears in her eyes and a small smile, gently blew Solaris out from existence, thus erasing the whole game's events and happenings.

With this being done, time is reversed back to where the Festival of the Sun is taking place in Soleanna, except that Eggman did not come to abduct Elise since there was no so-called "Flames of Disaster" secret, though Sonic was still visiting the city. As the ceremony is taking place, Sonic rushes past the boat that Elise is on, and the "wind" of his rapid pace caused one of the feathers in Elise's hair to detach. After staring in wonder at the floating detached feather for a while, one of her maids comments that it was probably just the wind that gushed by. Elise acknowledges this, but stated that this "wind" felt familiar somehow, and smiled. Elise then returned to the festival, unaware that Sonic kept a close eye on her the whole time.

Crossover Appearances
Project X Zone 3: War of Infinite Worlds

Elise appears as an NPC.

Project X Zone 3: Sacred Destinies

Elise appears as a paired Solo Unit alongside Sonic, in the game she is just a friend with Sonic and explains the real reasons of the kiss.

Project X Zone 4: Fate at Hands

Elise appears as an NPC.

Trivia

 * The apparent romance between Sonic and Elise was one of the criticisms against the game, some even accusing Sonic Team of supporting bestiality (when a person is in a romantic relationship with an animal). When asked about this in an interview with GameSpy, Lacey Chabert stated, "Ha! No, you're just being silly. It's not an inappropriate relationship. Let's just say Sonic and Princess Elise have an attraction for each other."
 * Another theory suggests that Elise is giving Sonic CPR (when giving mouth to mouth blowing inside the mouth). Even that, fans of the series still disapprove the way she transforms Sonic into Super Sonic.
 * Elise's English voice actor was originally Veronica Taylor, until she was replaced by Lacey Chabert.
 * Despite the fact that both of her parents were dead during the events of Sonic '06, she is still referred to as the princess, and not the queen. This may be due to the fact that Elise, at 17 years old, is not of age in her culture yet and therefore unable to receive the title of queen yet.
 * In Sega's internal spreadsheet for the game, there are character profiles written in corresponding English and Japanese that talk about their personalities and some of their origins. In the end of Elise's English profile emphasizing her role in the story, it says, "On one side, she is a prim and proper princess, but on the other, she is a typical confused and anxious young woman. She tries to make light of her fate, but her encounter with Sonic is what shall truly set her soul free."
 * The leaked script also occasionally refers to her as "Oliga", likely as an early name.
 * Elise is carried by Sonic through the levels of Tropical Jungle and Dusty Desert in Sonic's story. However, Dusty Desert is played without her on Very Hard Mode for Sonic.