Understandably, Sega hasn't been eager to make many references to Sonic the Hedgehog 2006 - especially not its human love interest, Princess Elise. However, a new piece of official art depicts her in the Sonic universe for the first time in fifteen years, and even gives her a much more fitting redesign. In this new piece of art, we see the reimagined Elise ice skating with fellow Sonic '06 survivor, Silver the Hedgehog. This reunites the duo for the first time since one of Elise's very few cameos in Sonic Rider: Zero Gravity, and shows that Sonic Team hasn't forgotten about the character completely. While this isn't Elise's first appearance outside of the disastrous Sonic '06, it is the first time we've seen her in an art style that's much more reminiscent of the Sonic series, not the strange Final Fantasy-like design we got before.
Best of all, the artwork is accompanied by a short story that's inspired by the piece. This tells the story of Elise, now Queen, pursuing her love of ice skating. Silver comes to her aid after the song she has to perform to reminds her of her deceased parents, making it harder for her to memorise the routine. Silver helps her practice and the duo dazzles all of Soleanna - with Elise even pulling off a triple axel. This would make her the twentieth woman in the world to pull one off, so not bad going for a character who couldn't put up much of a fight in Sonic '06.
Despite Sonic '06 largely being seen as an all-time low for the series, the replies are full of love for Elise here. It seems that many would love to see her get a second chance in the games, perhaps given a role that doesn't involve playing a constant damsel in distress. I mean, the number of times she got kidnapped was really excessive, c'mon Sega.