| “ | Reentry depends on the prisioner's willpower, not on instututions. Some may say, after jail, they have been conditioned to relapse into criminal behavior. But maybe change isn't what they want, or isn't possible. | ” |
| — Ari Blanco, in "Reintegration" | ||
Ariadna Blanco Commerford[4], commonly referred to as Ari, is a main character through Seasons 4-6 of the Netflix series Elite, serving as one of the two secondary antagonists (alongside Benjamín) of its second overall story arc. She is portrayed by Carla Díaz.
Biography[]
Ari is the daughter of the new principal in Las Encinas. She used to live in London with her siblings but after her father bought the school, he decided to move them back to Madrid.
She's very close to her father and has the strongest bond with him. She and her two siblings grew up very wealthy thanks to their father being the former CEO of a conglomerate company.
She's the twin sister of Patrick and the eldest daughter of the three. She's always trying to have a closer relationship with her sister Mencía, in spite of Ari's close relationship with her father, which makes them have a strained relationship. However, she has a close relationship with Patrick.
Throughout the Series[]
Season 4[]
Ari is the new girl at school and immediately makes an impression on Guzmán and the swim team when she shows how strong of a swimmer she is. However, she loses to Guzmán but seems intent on beating him. Once Guzmán realizes she is the daughter of the strict, overbearing principal, he loses interest. His friends, however, convince him to butter Ari up so that she tells her father to not make Samuel and Omar take a placement exam to stay at Las Encinas. They go on what Ari believes is a date, and it almost works, but Mencía tells her it was just a ploy and she seems hurt. She doesn't tell her father to not give the placement exam and she pushes Guzmán away, telling him that no one messes with her.
She gets invited by Samuel to his Towel Party and she shows up and gets drunk, showing her alter-ego "Ira". She sleeps with Samuel but wakes up in the morning and seems ashamed because Samuel is "beneath" her.
Later, she asks Guzmán to be her date to the Prince's ball and eventually he accepts. They start dating but it's clear that Ari still has feelings for Samu. She starts to sleep with Samu, which complicates things.
At the end of the season, Ari gets hurt and pushed into the pool. She gets rushed to the hospital and the doctors aren't sure if she will make it. Her family is distressed and worried but eventually Ari wakes up and explains it was Armando who did it.
Elite Short Stories: Patrick[]
Season 5[]
One month after Ari's attack, Benjamín is enforcing stronger disciplinary measures at the school. Ari reconnects with Samuel, believing she still has feelings for him, but quickly realizes she was only dating him to upset her father. They amicably part ways. She soon moves on to have an on-again, off-again relationship with new student Iván, who is struggling with his sexuality and feelings for her twin brother, Patrick. Despite this knowledge, she continues to confide in him as a close friend. She returns to school, but quickly becomes despised when the students and her classmates discover that the strict regulations in place are due to her, and begin to mock her. As a result, she starts to ditch her studies, and party more with random men to cope with the bullying.
Later in the season, she gets the reality check she was looking for when her father starts to get questioned by the police who think that he was connected to Armando's death, and decides to change her ways as a way to put her family back together. She also starts to get closer with Mencía during this time, and the two start to have a sisterly bond with each other.
Season 6[]
Ari has been seeing Benjamín in prison during the summer and is struggling to operate a family on her alone now that she and her siblings are orphans. It's also revealed that Ari hasn't processed Samuel's death four months later, as she has acquired a strong drinking habit to cope with the newly additional stress in her life. Nico, a transgender student who underwent surgery over the summer in time for the start of the new school year, quickly catches her eye. They argue, however, because Ari does not consider Nico to be a real guy because he lacks real genitals and does not consider him to be relationship material. Later in the season, she decides to give Nico another chance, and she soon sees a soft side that he keeps buried at school. They sleep together, but Ari finds the whole situation repulsive as she realizes she was just with him to cover the void left by Samuel. After some convincing from Patrick, she decides to visit Samuel's grave for the first time in 4 months since his death and comes to the realization that she needs to change herself as she kept defending Benjamín for too long.
Finally feeling free from her incarcerated dad, Ari explores her newfound freedom and what it has to offer and spends more time with Iván as he processes his father's death. As they spend more time together, they hook up again. Later in the season, she finds out that she is pregnant with his baby, but knows she doesn't want to keep it given all that has happened over the past month. With the support of Sonia, she gets an abortion. She cleans up her act and quits drinking. Feeling that there is nothing holding her in Madrid anymore, she reconnects with Benjamín and convinces him to move to another country where they will be safe and become a family again. She is last seen in the car with Benjamín who was released after found not guilty in Samuel's death, and her other siblings driving out of Madrid.
Physical Appearance[]
Ari is a gorgeous girl with short black hair and prominent facial features, such as doe-eyes. She is found really attractive by a lot of the male students, especially Guzmán, Samuel and Iván.
Personality[]
She is competitive, a perfectionist and always on the right side of the law and life. Too used to covering up her feelings so as not to show weaknesses and not to lose the course set for her. Loyal to her father to the end, Ari will confront all of her classmates about it and her feelings when she meets the odd classmate. Or a couple of them.[5] Ari cares a lot for her family despite their differences, and as a result she will always attempt to protect her loved ones. Ari likes to entertain her suitors by hooking-up with them, although she's does not always reciprocate their feelings.
After Ari lost her mother very early in her life, her father Benjamín made her act like a mother to her siblings, making her having to grow up since a very early age, with no room for mistakes or deviations to success. As a result of being forced to perfection since she was a child, Ari ended up repressing herself so much that the only way to access her “imperfect” side is to get drunk. This side of her is called Ira (Ari spelled backwards and wrath in Spanish) which is very fitting as Ira is everything Ari tries to inhibit, impulsiveness and unpredictability, wickedness and malice, lack of empathy or respect for others, thinking only on what will do her well and hiding her toxic side with her natural charm. Ari is a very proud and spoiled person, she doesn't think about the consequences of what she does and doesn't even apologize for the chaos she causes, like when she cheated on Guzmán with Samuel and on Samuel with Iván, or when she had sex with Iván while he was dating her brother, Patrick. But despite her flaws, Ari is extremely loyal to her people, being willing to do anything for those she loves, including covering up a possible murder, as she did with Mencía, she is very protective and really kind with those she cares about and it leaves her unpleasant and distrustful exterior aside.
Relationships[]
Patrick[]
Ari shares an extremely tight bond with her twin brother, Patrick. They frequently go to each other for comfort and advice, and during family disputes Patrick and Ari will always have each other's backs. Patrick loves his sister very dearly, and treats her with a lot of affection. The two are often spotted holding hands, sitting beside one another in class and like to peck each other on the lips at parties. Together, they can be a manipulative pair, and will instigate each other into getting in trouble.
Trivia[]
- Between her siblings, she is the only one who is not LGBT.
- However, she did kiss a girl during Patrick's non-stop party on Samuel's request.
- When she drinks, she becomes impulsive and unpredictable, which Patrick calls Ira, because it's Ari spoken backwards. This is fitting since ira means "wrath" in Spanish.
- According to Patrick, Ari once "got busy" with garbagemen at a party at 7am in Biarritz while drunk. He even has a video of it.[6]
- She is one of the five main characters to be only called by a nickname instead of her name (Ariadna), after Lu, whose name is Lucrecia, Polo, whose name is Leopoldo and Nano, whose name is Fernando and Nico, whose name is Nicolás.
- She is one of the Las Encinas Queen Bees. The others include Carla Rosón Caleruega, Lu Montesinos Hendrich, Isadora Artiñán, and Chloe Ybarra Silva.
- They all have high ranking status of influence over the students, and connections to back it up. They are all seen as sex symbols as well.
- She is one of the antagonists in Season 6, alongside Cruz's killers and Sara and Raúl, since she was the one who covered up for Mencía (who she thought she was responsible for running over Iván).
Appearances[]
Season 4[] |
Season 5[] |
Season 6[] |
Elite Short Stories: Patrick[] |
Gallery[]
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See also[]
| Main Characters |
|---|
|
Nadia • Omar • Isadora • Iván • Sara • Nico • Sonia • Chloe • Eric • Joel • Dalmar • Luis • Emilia • Héctor |
| Past Main Characters |
|
Marina • Christian • Nano • Yeray • Polo • Lu • Valerio • Malick • Carla • Guzmán • Ander • Armando • Samuel • Rebeka • Cayetana • Phillipe • Cruz • Benjamín • Bilal • Hugo • Álex • Javier • Patrick • Ari • Mencía • Jessica • Raúl • Rocío • Dídac |
| Recurring Characters |
|
Azucena • Inspectora • Ventura • Laura • Teo • Beatriz • Yusef • Imán • Pilar • Begoña • Andrea • Antonio • Victoria • Sandra • Martín • Estefanía • Sebastián Abaga • Greta • Jess • Felipe • Virginia • Roberta • María • Alfonso • Pau |
| Minor Characters |
|
Alexis • Pablo (student) • Felipe Montesinos • Fer • Nasser • Fatima • Ander's doctor • Pablo (waiter) • Sadelagu • Elodie |