✔ MALLEABLE When Emil was rich, his world was very insular. It is never spoken of that he had friends outside of family members, so there was never anyone to give him a reality check and give context to any world outside of his own. His relationship with other cleansers also doesn't seem to be very prominent in his life, later saying that the hiring process with them has "
[no] standards." After joining the rest of his crew and experiencing trials and tribulations, Emil has grown closer to people who aren’t like him. As a more definitive personality example, Emil is someone who is sheltered but can and will grow and change when exposed to new things that question his previously closed off world view. A first interaction with Emil might be one that's prickly, but there's the potentially there for mutual growing on one another.
In fact, part of Emil's most important character facet revolves around his ability to grow and change. When first introduced, Emil comes off as something of a pompous buffoon. He's prissy and high maintenance, which might be something you could stomach if he was a nice person otherwise -- but unfortunately that's not always how he can come off. He shows off some politeness, but
Emil cares more about being judged and what impression he gives to people, even if he has no respect for them. Everything he thinks is the best. Everything he knows should be the baseline. He has no room in his mind for things he deems weird or unnecessary.
This person is very different from the character present at my chosen canon point. He hasn't stubbornly stuck in his ways like some would. When confronted with change or new information, others might double down in fear or pride. Emil may not be perfect, but he
does have the capacity for growth. He learns to respect others, showing them he cares -- in one case, caring more than most others do. He's grown out of his stubborn belief that he should only have to know his own language, voluntarily learning Finnish in order to better understand a friend. Some people need to be pushed to more extremes in order to become better people, but Emil takes the task on rather breezily.
✔ IMPASSIONED Emil operates on whims, but they're certainly passionate ones. He essentially doesn't do anything without having a strong feeling about it, one way or the other. When Emil was young, academics were his life. Once his true intellectual caliber was called into question, that passion was thrown out the window -- however,
it was quickly replaced with throwing his everything into being part of the military, so much so that he went through a very intensive physical transformation.
His passion seeps into essentially everything within his life, from his interests and drive, to how he feels about people. No matter what his emotions are, they're typically extremely intense. Fear and happiness aren't so much in his wheelhouse -- try something more like "distress" or "elation." Even his stints with apathy and exhaustion are intense, much like his demeanor after returning from the expedition. Even his more negative displays of emotion have (somehow) helped him survive or brought him personal development.
Feeling strongly about something, whether the consequence is negative or positive, is part of why Emil is where he is during his current canon point. Without feeling passionate about himself, other people, certain situations, he wouldn't have grown as much as he has.
✔ COMPASSIONATE Despite Emil being a judgemental person, very used to his own views and ideals of things being The One True Way, he can definitely swing back around to being an incredibly compassionate person. If Emil respects or likes you, he'll do whatever he can for you. This even extends to
animal monsters he's just killed.
This goes back into how intensely he feels things, but also juxtaposes itself against his own ego (mentioned in flaws). Emil can be very focused on himself, but when he views someone as worthy of positive emotions, that's felt just as intensely as any other emotion he might go through.
With regards to Lalli Hotakainen (see below for more info), Emil goes above and beyond to try and maintain and grow their friendship. Lalli is someone he pays special attention to, trying to make sure that he's as satiated as possible at all times. When Lalli was in distress over his cousin's criticisms, Emil stepped in to try and comfort him as best he could,
lending him his jacket as a sense of relief. It's also worth noting that Lalli has a lot of nuances that other people find mysterious or even bothersome, but Emil is typically accepting and accommodating, even if he'd still tell you Lalli is a strange one.
Some of his flaws get in the way of truly making a mutual connection, at least at first, but he definitely isn't shy about showing his compassion for those he chooses to give it to. In fact,
Emil seems displeased when Tuuri suggests outright ignoring Lalli to him, mad at the idea of not acting within his best interest. Not only does Emil want to hold that person in esteem, he wants others to also conform to and share his viewpoint. He can be a pretty good hype man if you need one.
✘ EGOTISTICAL Emil is, for lack of a better word, flamboyant. He prides himself on his appearance and perfectly groomed and shining hair. He likes to look presentable and can be kind of a know-it-all. Emil is the kind of person that will say something with absolute certainty because he’s COMPLETELY SURE he’s the expert on a subject, despite being 100% wrong. It's not entirely his fault. It's shown that he had an interest in academics as a youth, but wasn't actually pushed to be an intellectual or well-rounded. What he wanted to learn, he learned. What he wanted to think, he thought. Emil isn't so uneducated that he can't read or right, but his assessment of what is actually a fact or not is very skewed.
Despite showing off a more vulnerable side to others on the mission, Emil's pride in himself and his appearance -- both physical and with regards to impressions -- is something he impresses upon with varying significance throughout the series. It's shown he can be more comfortable and revealing around people in times of stress or if he feels they're close enough, but it doesn't change this baseline anxiety he has about being viewed in a negative light by others. Even if Emil doesn't have a favorable opinion of someone, it's still important they see him positively -- because why wouldn't they? Why
shouldn't they?
He also thinks very highly of himself, though he becomes more realistic about his abilities and place among his team as the mission continues. Don't get me wrong -- Emil absolutely grows as the canon continues, but he never quite loses that self-focused personality. Does he care about others? Of course. But caring about himself is always going to be his number one priority.
✘ INEXPERIENCED When it comes to Emil's ego with his work, part of it is somewhat warranted –- he is military trained and has a decent understanding of his job as a cleanser. However, his ability to perform his duty is like comparing book smarts to street smarts: you can read a book on how to shoot a gun, but actually firing one off in the field is very different. This is actually quite a literal example when it comes to Emil. It's likely he's shot a weapon multiple times, but while on the mission, he's actually confronted with situations that are life or death.
Ads for cleansers look more like recruitment posters for fraternities, which is to say it's not common that they see a lot of danger in the field. Emil remarks that he's seen trolls before, but dead ones and that they're rare to even seen in his part of Sweden. When you live a sheltered life of safety and mollycoddling, the concept of real danger is lost on you, after all.
Which is why Emil changes so much when he's actually in the field during the expedition. He has to fight and escape from real creatures that could kill him, and that's all a very big shock to his very sheltered system. After his first run in with trolls, Emil -- concerned about his appearance and status within his party --
vomits on the floor of the tank. There was no true preparation for the reality of this excursion,
at all.
This isn't just related to the mission, either. Because he's lived an insular life, social interaction isn't at the forefront of Emil's wheelhouse. He adapts quickly to friendship, mostly out of a knowledge of how he would like to be treated, but he has his awkward moments. For as cool as Emil would like you to think he is, he's actually kind of a loser -- a well-meaning loser, but still
kiiiiiind of a loser.
Emil has a lot of potential, but he also lacks experience, which is one of his biggest personality defining traits in general. His inexperience extends to essentially all parts of his life, from the mission to his social awareness. He's not used to dealing with people, the real world, simple tasks dealing with basic parts of existence. Emil's essentially a fish out of water in almost all areas.
✘ IGNORANT This applies to a variety of areas in Emil's life. Unlike a lot of children,
Emil received a private education where he was effectively in charge of things, down to picking his own areas of study. Since it was The Emil Show™, his education is shoddy at best. He might understand the basic principle of things, but details and actual facts he spouts of can be questionable at best.
Emil can be insensitive at times, once even being
extremely foot-in-mouth about a fellow comrade's dead companions. When he's corrected he's readily embarrassed, but it doesn't stop him from sometimes saying the absolute wrong thing. In general, it's pretty easy for Emil to become embarrassed, but he's also the kind of person to try and brush it off in his favor, or step around it as much as he can. It's also initially hard for Emil to say he's sorry or to own up to his faults, like a lot of self-important people tend to not do -- and being a nineteen-year-old young man doesn't help that either. This gets better, and he's more receptive to reaching out and being emotionally honest, but it's still something he struggles with.
It still doesn't mean he's happy that he's been shown in a negative light. His ignorance also circles back to his ego. After essentially being told he could do no wrong for most of his life, Emil is completely sure of himself -- but this surety is almost always false. Even though he'll believe a fact or way of doing something is absolutely correct, the opposite is typically the truth. A lot of Emil's growth on the expedition is him coming to terms with the reality that he isn't the hot shit he thought he was, and he's actually just a scared young man who is in way over his head.
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