User blog comment:SierraFanGuy/Why Does Everybody Like Ella?/@comment-31556666-20151026170644

I surprisingly enjoyed Ella, as surprised as most people were. Someone expected to be a fodder lasted a relatively decent amount of time, being six episodes. These episodes were enough to transcend Ella from a funny gimmick to a legitimately complex character.

For starters though, I thought Ella was funny in the beginning of the season, as her chirpy nature and friendly outlook to everyone would not only make her a relaxing sight to watch that kept me grounded in the midst of intentional craziness surrounding the cast, but she was also funny in the sense that she did actions that would make characters react in a variety of funny ways. Vice versa she had hilariously welcoming and relaxing reactions to a lot of crazy stuff other characters did, such as Leonard's wizard tower or not realizing the cruel implications of words Chris would say. She was automatically a unique character and a pleasure to watch from the start. Her songs didn't really grate on me because they always fit into what was going on, so offered a variation of a way at looking at a scene. I also liked her innocence in personality. In a season with Lust, sloth, laziness, greed, wrath, envy, and pride (ironically the 7 mergers of PI had these sins lol), Ella stood out as someone above all that and was just a genuinely nice person who never meant harm.

This is all fine and good, but it's her interactions with Dave and Sugar that really secured her as a good character for me. I'll begin with Sugar, which is the more controversial interaction. Sugar immediately disliked Ella as soon as Ella shown grace and integrity. As someone who loves Sugar, it's clear she crosses the line here, but the reason she does is because she comes from an unhealthy pageant lifestyle she has been forced to be accustomed to. Ella reminds her of a typical pageant girl who can easily beat Sugar at pageants. I like this really tragically complex interaction even more once I view it from Ella's point of view. Even though Ella recognises that Sugar is cruel at times, she never gives up on trying to befriend Sugar, even if it always blows up in Ella's face. There's a great attention to detail during Ella's elimination though. Even though Sugar caused it, Ella has this delusion that she befriended Sugar, believing Sugar's glare at Ella to actually be Sugar being upset at the elimination. This is such a small, yet well-done bittersweet moment. On the one hand, Ella failed to realize how bad Sugar's actions were, but on the other hand, she finally seems happy at the prospect of befriending Sugar even though that's not the case.

Then there's her interaction with Dave. Whereas Sugar's interaction was to show that life isn't all sunshine like Ella believes it is, with Dave it's a lesson not to be so naive and fall for someone so easily. She romanticises Dave as soon as he sticks a shoe on her. Her fairy tale delusions make her see this too romantically. From there she lusts after Dave in a fairy tale fashion, only to be horribly rejected by him in the end. For us, who have watched Ella be an over the top positive presence, we end up seeing this moment in a much more complex and tragic way. Because in a way, it teaches both Ella and us that not everything in life will always go okay. It's a simple yet valuable lesson taught through the entire basis of a character. Ella got better once she finds out Dave is actually attracted to Sky. They could've took the easy way out and made Ella mad and hateful towards Sky, but instead, in spite of the heartbreak she gets, she decides to still be noble and generous, not having harsh feelings to Sky and instead telling her that Dave is attracted to her. The framing of the moment shows massive development in an otherwise gimmicky character, all the while making her personality still consistent at its core.

That is why people like Ella, or at least why I like her. Can she be too over the top at times? Yes. But overall she's still a great character for me, and I don't mind if she's really popular.