the far shore - application

[arealhardnose]

Character Information

Name: Elsa Randall
Canon: Power Rangers Dino Thunder
Canon Point: About a year after the end of Dino Thunder. While there's
No further canon to update her to, Elsa will have had time to process what happened to her and settle back into her life in Reefside. She'll come back a little more level headed, but still capable of making terrible decisions for herself in particular. c:
Age: mid 30s
History: RangerWiki entry for Elsa. The wiki focuses exclusively on Elsa as a villain, which is the majority of what canon actually gives us. From that and her few scenes when freed from mind control, we can safely assume she started her career as a high school teacher (probably in one of the sciences, possibly involving genetics) and progressed to being a high school principal (as it's highly unlikely the school board would have given her a job at the end of the season without a resume and experience to back up her credibility). We can also assume that she and Anton Mercer ran in the same or similar social circles and had begun to get to know each other long before the series began, possibly with the intent to become a couple. This seems never to have happened, likely because Mesogog took control of them both (though his control over Mercer seems to have been touch and go early on).

Personality: While under Mesogog's control, Elsa was loyal and devoted to her master, straying from his will only when she believed he might kill her. She was creative in her strategies to defeat the Rangers (attacking them in their dreams, attempting to seduce their mentor/science teacher/fellow Ranger, creating a monster from a card in a trading card game), and she took sadistic delight in tormenting her students when she posed as an average high school principal. In battle, she enjoyed taunting her enemies before launching vicious physical and magical attacks. In her master's island lab, she would mock her co-general and regularly meet with Mesogog, to talk plans, perform experiments, execute attacks, or be punished for her failures. Sarcastic as much as she was strong, Elsa believed in Mesogog's ideals and pursued them despite her failures, out of fear and loyalty both.

Once released from Mesogog's power, she lost the special abilities she'd been given, and her overall attitude shifted towards a more balanced baseline. Immediately after being reverted to her original form, she is frightened and confused. After a nap in the Rangers' base, she regains her memories of what she did while under mind control and doesn't hesitate to tell her rescuers the truth (that she was under Mesogog's control) and wish them luck in their plan to destroy her former master's lair. When she's kidnapped by her former co-general, rather than plead with him to let her go like a regular damsel in distress, she tries to reason with him, reminding him that their former captor is dead (or so she thinks), offering to speak to his most hated enemy (Tommy, the season's Black Ranger) on his behalf, and finally (when both of those have failed) to his sense of self-preservation, stating that there is no way he can win a fight against the Rangers. Once rescued (again), she gets a front row seat to the final battle and looks delighted, darkly so, by Mesogog's destruction. With that chapter of her life closed, Elsa salvages the good from all the bad and is able to stay at Reefside High School as the school's principal and pick up where she left off with Anton Mercer, another of Mesogog's victims.

This all says that Elsa is someone whose focus and resolve are unshakeable. When she decides on a goal (whether her own or one she's made to believe in), she will stop at nothing to reach it. In spite of all she did while using her position as principal to spy on Mesogog's enemies, once she was herself again she was able to convince the school board to give her a chance to show them how she can really perform in that job. Her ability to dive back into normal life shows that she is extremely resilient in the face of what happened to her and all the memories of trying to kill four high school students and their teacher, to say nothing of the civilians that got caught in the crossfire. She was not herself then, and so she doesn't spare the time for guilt. Instead, she pushes forward to make things right. Even when she's kidnapped (twice!) by the same person, she neither loses her composure nor resorts to violence, a trait which she may have developed or honed as an educator. At that year's prom, she walks in with all the presence she possessed as a villain, and jokes that the new principal is "a real hard-nose." She probably wasn't lying too much, given a student had said way back in the first episode that they'd heard she used to work at a prison. (That's probably not true, but why let a good rumor die if it'll help her run the school well?)

But having said that, she softens just slightly when Anton Mercer asks her to dance, and is seen to enjoy doing so to Kira's (the Yellow Ranger) music. That paints a picture of a professional who cares for her students and wants them to succeed at whatever they do, and a woman who wants to feel valued in her relationships as she gives back the same. Her motivations as a villain can be read two ways: blind devotion to a master who could just as soon kill her, due either to zeal or self-preservation, or even both; or absolutely not her own but wired into her mind by Mesogog's power. In many ways, it's irrelevant, because even if Mesogog tapped into her flaws, he was still the one who changed her into the perfect servant. Now that she is herself, what drives her are a need to perform at her best in spite of the evil acts she committed, the dedication that got her so far as an educator in the first place, and the draw of her relationships-- the ones that had been abruptly interrupted when Mesogog took her for his own, and the ones born of the nightmare of her servitude, with the Rangers and their close friends who were in on the fight that nearly killed them all. The show (unsubtle as it is) leaves us with the impression that she will reconnect with Anton and develop friendships with Tommy Oliver and the other Rangers and their allies.

Abilities: As a villain, she was skilled in swordfighting, martial arts, lightning magic, evil genetics, and sarcasm. As a civillian, she has the qualifications for a high school principal, may still be able to fight, and is still in possession of a dry wit. She appears also to be skilled in ballroom dancing.
Strengths: Confident, disciplined, compassionate, intelligent, graceful
Weaknesses: Ruthless, sadistic, bossy, self-preserving, vindictive

God/Shinki: God
Why?: Where before it was a case of wanting to see her as a leader, this time around it's because I'm interested in seeing her collaborate with other characters to interact with the plot, and to have her use her prior experience as a god to be... a better god, pretty much. She'll want to be a good support for her shinki now that she knows better how that will go, and she'll be interested in helping followers too (especially as a way of keeping herself from doing hings that might get her and her shinki into trouble with the heavens).
Top 3 Choices: Menrva (Etruscan), Ereshkigal (Mesopotamian), Anat (Canaanite)
God Type: Elsa will be a god who helps people through their worst struggles, a powerful ally to the forgotten and abused. While she will have associations with knowledge and teaching, her primary focus will be on comfort and protection through encouraging people to find their own strength. She will help people find that strength in their troubles and failures, and will send them assistance in the same matters as well as scholarly pursuits. Especially loyal devotees may receive her favor in any area, and all who receive her favor even once will know her mercy.
Power: Escape intuition