When does shes manipulate anyone? She's confrontative and pushy (she did this with vi too at the pool) but thats because she wants to force a reaction. Even anger can be relieving. I dont see her manipulate anyone, she pushes people to conclusions but shes very upfront about that.Intimidated isn't the right word. On his toes, maybe. My MC is very weary of Els' motivations because of all the reasons I've mentioned before. She's a master manipulator.
My issue with her isn't that she challenges Valentine, but that she doesn't follow through when Valentine challenges her.
It both serves the same goal (to make a deeper connection) imo. Sometimes confrontation is nessecary to break walls and can create passion.And that's the crux of my issues with her. Els should've made a choice. In the pool, either she should've kissed Valentine, or break his walls. Not both. She muddied the waters. My impression was that she got off on the confrontation, and her "afraid of a little domestic?" (paraphrasing) in Mallorca reinforces that feeling I have about her.
She at least knows about him having unresolved issues and him not having a single serious relationship since she knows him even tho there are lots of woman interrested. And its safe to assume that she could see at least that he's not really happy.Devil's advocate... But is she really seeing through him, or is she seeing things in Valentine that aren't there? If we use some meta reasoning, and consider that Els is 100% right about Valentine... Then no other Love Interest would have a shot, Els would be the perfect partner. Obviously that isn't the case, which means Els is fallible. We don't have to take her on her word. She could be wrong about Valentine.
Considering how nosy she is and how close she and McNab are, its possible to imagine that he dropped some hints at some point too.
The first thing she tells valentine when she meets him for the first time is how McNab is talking about him all the time or something like that.
I didnt said he's afraid of commitment, i said he's afraid of commitment to a woman and that was obviously true for quite some time before the AVN even started. How long do Valentine and Els do know each other? Something about three years (im not really sure anymore)?I don't think he's afraid of commitment. The Centre, training Amrit, becoming a champion... All of those are huge commitments. Valentine himself says it at a certain point, he discovered that women just threw them at him, and he lost himself and made bad choices. All things considered, he just wasn't over Zaida yet, not ready to actually love and be emotionally open with a partner. He's clearly working on that now, though.
So in short, afraid to love again or afraid to be hurt like that again like you said too.
She tries to help him the same way no matter if you reject her or not so i dont really got where you get your conlcusion from?It's funny, I'm thinking the same, but draw the opposite conclusion. Maybe I'm misunderstanding, but it sounds to me like you're saying "She wants the perfect partner in Valentine, so she's making sure to help him.". I think I'll like Els a lot more on the friendship path, where she'll help Valentine unconditionally, not because she stands to gain from it. ;-)
And she stakes her claim in him in front of everyone without having his issues figured out. He told Vi for example way more compared to her and she knows more about is issues in general.
But as i said, she isnt like Vi or Amrit, shes the heir of a super wealthy old family and a prodigy while having at the same time a deep trauma and inferiority complexes. She's not looking for her next boyfriend, shes looking for a man to share her (rather complex) life with and of course she has expectations for the guy. Valentine probably wouldnt date some hobo-girl either.