Elaine...
First of all: Hi, everybody, this is my first post!
Alright, I just finished playing the first episode of Guybrush's new adventure. And what should I say? I'm flabbergasted! Everyone's favourite pirate is back at last!! Great job, Telltale team!
Now, my only concern about all the sequels to Monkey Island since the unequaled MI2 is the development of Elaine. Up to the third game, she has always been the clever, tough, hot, in-your-face pirate lady. She was everything Guybrush always wanted to be. Not even LeChuck could really have harmed a hair of her. So Guybrush admired her pathetically. She was unreachable.
These characteristics made the love story between them so charming and fascinating. It was something that made Guybrush look even more like a poor teenage wannabe.
Then, even though MI3 was good fun too, Elaine became the classic weak girl to be rescued from the evil guy. Not only that, she even married Guybrush!!! Ron Gilbert would never have done that. And that decision made Guybrush and Elaine a complete stereotypical couple you know from millions of stories.
So, the only thing I'd wish for future episodes is: Make Elaine become the cool, roughnecky pirate chick she once was! I know, LeChuck already kidnapped her in the very beginning of this episode. But please, please don't let her become the stupid damsel in distress. Add some rudity and superiority to that character!
Nevertheless, keep up the good work, guys! It's so great to be back in the carribean again with that ol' Guybrush of mine!
And, you know, sorry for my bad english, I'm german. Whatever. Yadda-yadda
Alright, I just finished playing the first episode of Guybrush's new adventure. And what should I say? I'm flabbergasted! Everyone's favourite pirate is back at last!! Great job, Telltale team!
Now, my only concern about all the sequels to Monkey Island since the unequaled MI2 is the development of Elaine. Up to the third game, she has always been the clever, tough, hot, in-your-face pirate lady. She was everything Guybrush always wanted to be. Not even LeChuck could really have harmed a hair of her. So Guybrush admired her pathetically. She was unreachable.
These characteristics made the love story between them so charming and fascinating. It was something that made Guybrush look even more like a poor teenage wannabe.
Then, even though MI3 was good fun too, Elaine became the classic weak girl to be rescued from the evil guy. Not only that, she even married Guybrush!!! Ron Gilbert would never have done that. And that decision made Guybrush and Elaine a complete stereotypical couple you know from millions of stories.
So, the only thing I'd wish for future episodes is: Make Elaine become the cool, roughnecky pirate chick she once was! I know, LeChuck already kidnapped her in the very beginning of this episode. But please, please don't let her become the stupid damsel in distress. Add some rudity and superiority to that character!
Nevertheless, keep up the good work, guys! It's so great to be back in the carribean again with that ol' Guybrush of mine!
And, you know, sorry for my bad english, I'm german. Whatever. Yadda-yadda
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Comments
In Escape from Monkey Island, (with the American accent) she seemed a little more independent, with the whole going off and doing the Govenor campaigning while leaving Guybrush to his own quest for the Ultimate Insult.
Still, I like the fact that they used the Elaine voice actress from the Curse of Monkey Island again, and isn't she also doing the Secret of Monkey Island remake too? At least that adds some consistency to the character.
I don't mind the fact that they got married at all. I love all the wife jokes Guybrush does in all the recent games. I laughed at one of the response lines you could select in Tales of Monkey Island - the one where Nipperkin says "Deep Gut" and you can choose "Deep Gut? Elaine's mother is here?". Hilarious.
I really hate all those love stories where they drag out the relationship and it never goes anywhere and then it's lasted for so long that it breaks apart. Smallville Lana Lang anyone?
Give Elaine a more important/less damsel-in-disress role by all means, but keep the marriage to Guybrush. It works!
Yeah, I know that, lol. I was trying to find a popular media example.
How about Lois and Clark in New Adventures of Superman? That was dragged out for ages to my annoyance. She finds out he's Superman zillions of times including when H.G Wells and his time machine show up and take her back to the 60s, Lex Luthor makes a clone of her which takes up a whole bunch of episodes, then she loses her memory and doesn't even love Clark any more and then after that there's just obstacle after obstacle. But at least they finally get married.
I was just saying it's OK with me that they got married at the end of Curse of Monkey Island. After all that's the third game and it could have conceivably been the last if the series was just a triolgy and you wanted to see Guybrush have a happy ending.
P.S. I'm not sure why I keep giving Superman examples... maybe I just consider Guybrush to be as cool or ever cooler.
Yeah, I liked the bit at the beginning where
I mean, she's gone through this process 5 times now. I'm sure it's hard for her to *care* at this point.
But if anyone's going to make sure she stays tough, it's Telltale. I feel confident that Monkey Island and all it's characters have fallen into the right hands.
Yeah, I thought that was awesome. And true to the tough and smart Elaine from the early Monkey Island games.
EDIT: I'm referring to MI1 and 2, here, not necessarily MI3 and 4.
I miss the old Elaine. In the third part, she suddenly fell in love with him, which made absolutely no sense if you look at her in the first ones. Sure, she still is tough, but a lot nicer then the original one.
I would bring to your attention the dock scene from MI1 and the scene where Guybrush *nearly* wins her back over by some smooth lines when visiting her at her mansion in MI2.
I was glad when they got married in the third one. Would have been completely unsatisfying for Elaine to keep developing feelings for Guybrush, only to keep dumping him at the end of every game.
Okay, you got a point there. Of course there's something that draws her towards him. But all that tension between the two of them got lost as soon as she said "yes" at the end of CoMI. So I'd love to see at least a few problems in their relationship. She has got to be the strong part, so she could be more uptight. Seeing Guybrush fail is a good part of MI's humour and that is a matter of their love, too.
this.
But please, Telltale, pay more attention to that character and look at the old Elaine. One of the strongest scenes of SoMI was the introduction of her. We immediately fell in love with her. She did not only impress Guybrush, also the player was fascinated by that mysterious, tough and attractive pirate lady. Tell Alexandra Boyd to have a few whiskeys (or grogs) before the next recording sessions. I know she can make more of that character than the typical girl MacGuffin.
E.g. for one episode Guybrush is incapacitated or off doing something else and you have to have direct control of Elaine to solve puzzles and go pirating.
And so what if it isn't what Ron Gilbert was going to do? Some people in the fandom really need to get over him.
"Porcelaine" ends with an "Elaine" :eek:.
There's no E at the end of Porcelain.
I don't think they have turned Elaine into a damsel-in-distress or demeaned her character in any way. Sure, Guybrush likes to think Elaine depends om him, but even at the end of episode 1 she doesn't look that distressed. I'm sure that once he actually catches up with her, she'll let him know that she didn't need to be rescued, or scold him for messing something up during his rescue attempt, as he usually does.
But now I don't really care for her anymore. She doesn't have any cool dry one-liners, anything that makes her special. Yeah, she can do some tricks, okay. But somehow I feel that the new, nice wife is not really true to the original character. MI 3&4 couldn't handle her so well, too. Elaine isn't strong or interesting because she can kick pirate asses, that's what I mean. She has got to be a superior personality and that's what made her shine in the glorious first parts of the series.
She is the only real pirate character I remember. Most of the men in Monkey Island were stinking, dirty pirate hobos and you couldn't take them seriously at all. Elaine always stood out. She's not a typical wife and not just a stooge for Guybrush's silliness. She just has it. But now she turned into a mixture of any other "adventure lady who kicks men's asses" and a nice, loving housewife.
Well, I don't really know how to describe it, as I said. I just hope Telltale will feel more dedicated to Elaine. She just deserves a better writing, more edginess and maybe even more pride.
Um... housewife?
I understand what they mean, even if 'housewife' was the wrong term. She seems to have mellowed out now which is a shame because she was cool before, but I don't mind... people change in real life and in video games.
I have to believe that its the very goofiness that she finds attractive in Guybrush. (otherwise, its hard to see how they work together) She's an intelligent, but has a goofy streak, herself. However, I'm sure its true she hasn't had a lot of terribly profound conversations with Guybrush over the years, and when one has only had vanilla ice cream for a while, chocolate can become tempting . . .
However, there may be more forces at play, here than a simple love triangle.
She's got to have some more spunk in her. Pirate spunk.
I hope Telltale explores that more.
Which I thought was strange because in Monkey Island 1, One of the Pirates in the Scumm Bar says Human LeChuck tried to fall in love with Elaine and she told him to drop dead. So I always thought her lack of attraction in LeChuck wasn't just cause he was dead, but that him and Elaine never really clicked. But maybe in Tales when Guybrush and Lechuck linked, part of Guybrush went into Lechuck. That could be why Elaine looks interested in Lechuck...
Now i HAVE to get CMI in english just to hear her in there
And about the damzell in detress thing, has anyone noticed than even though that was pretty much all there was to her in the CMI's story, you actually had to save her from guybrush's own sillyness ? She clearly didn't have much to worry about with LeChuck's attack, but Guybrush stupidly put the curse upon here and had to fix his own mistake.
Just thought of that, i think it's interesting to point out
You defintely have to see the first game's ending, you'll probably love it
What you guys have described Elaine as though seems like it might be what Telltale are going for with the lady who has Guybrush at swordpoint at the end of Chapter 1 (the pirate hunter?). Perhaps what Guybrush found attractive in Elaine originally has somewhat dulled over the years, and this new woman will take his fancy.
I think it would be great to have Guybrush smitten with a woman who is after his head, but the constant mix of goofy ingenuity/luck he uses to evade capture frustrate her to no end. This interaction between Guybrush and the new woman could push/anger Elaine into giving Le Chuck a chance, thereby complicating matters further.
You're the type of person who made John and Kate break up aren't you!? Aren't you!?
Guybrush wouldn't have to fall in love with this woman, just have an interest in her due to her posessing the traits that originally attracted him to Elaine. Deep down Elaine probably thinks of herself as better than Guybrush, and his interest in another woman would undoubtedly be a shock to her. How this shock would express itself is anyone guess. Hell, the whole thing could happen without Elaine being aware of it at all. Perhaps it could exists simply as a moral dilemma for Guybrush to overcome?
We all know Elaine isn't going to end up with Le Chuck, and that however the games progress, their relationship - in whatever form - is going to exist for only one purpose: to entertain us.
120.
Maybe she's not actually falling for LeChuck, and she's just going along with it until she can escape him. They are kind of stuck on a drifting ship in the middle of nowhere, after all.
Except for that big flaming voodoo cannonball which was only prevented from being used by Guybrush.