Doctor Elise: The Royal Lady With the Lamp is adapted from the Korean novel of the same name written by the author Yuin, the same author for A Capable Maid and The Lady Wants To Rest.
Both the webnovel and manhwa are completed. The Korean version can be found in Kakao here
and an English localization is done by Lezhin which can be found here. The English localization can also be found on Tapas and TappyToon.
An anime adaptation by Maho Film was announced on February 27, 2023. It premiered on January 10, 2024, and ended on March 27, 2024.
Doctor Elise contains the following tropes:
- The Ace: Elise was already considered as a medical Ace as Song Jihyun in modern-day Korea. Keeping all of that knowledge and skills in 1850s Britta was practically overkill.
- Adaptational Nationality / Adaptation Name Change: The anime makes Elise's second life Japanese instead of Korean, and changes her name to Aoi Takamoto.
- Adaptation Expansion: The anime shows a bit more of Aoi's life in the modern era, adding in a scene of her treating other passengers on the plane before she dies.
- Aloof Older Brother: Elise's oldest brother, Lenne, is the only one who is skeptical of her change in behavior at first. Even after she proves she really has changed, he treats her no differently than before and keeps her at a distance. Despite that, however, he's the only member of her family who respects her choices—when she volunteers to join the Crimean War in place of Chris, he's the only one who doesn't try to change her mind. Instead, he gives her a gun and teaches her how to shoot so she can protect herself.
- Alternate History: Among her other actions, Elise takes the place of John Snow in the Cholera Outbreak of 1854 and Florence Nightingale revolutionizing military medicine in the Crimean War.
- Always Someone Better: Doctor Fallon is, by all accounts, a genius surgeon and one of the greatest in Londo at the time. It's just that Elise, as Jihyun/Aoi, was exactly that kind of Ace with the advantage of over a century of advancements in the field for her to study and the lifestyle of a high-flying top-of-her-field specialist in constant demand to keep her skills sharp.
- Ambiguous Situation: It's never clear just what kind of crimes Elise committed in her first life to warrant being burned at the stake. All allusions to her behavior before her reincarnation as Jihyun show her to be a Royal Brat, but not much more than that, and several people such as Mihl, Minchester, and her family still managed to get along with her. Later in the story, it's implied the punishment may have been Disproportionate Retribution caused by Linden turning cold in the wake of his revenge purge.
- Arch-Enemy: Linden and Mikhail both despise "The Desert Scorpion" Louis Nicholas, the son of the Francoine Republic's dictator and one of its main generals; they both fought him in a war two years before the start of the story, one that caused the death of their oldest brother and the previous Crown Prince. Louis is more amused by the princes at first and relishes the idea of fighting them again during the Crimean War, only growing to genuinely despise both of them and Elise for foiling his strategies once the war begins to turn against him. Both Linden and Elise physically scar him (with the latter ruining his hand beyond repair to the point that only amputation will save his life), and Mikhail shoots him in the face, killing him.
- The Atoner: How Elise lived her reincarnation as Jihyun and reincarnated as Elise in her third life. Elise wanted to fix and make amends for all the horrendous wrongs she had done in her first life.
- Compressed Adaptation: The anime significantly compresses the events of the story as a result of being only twelve episodes. Most notably, it cuts out the Crimean War, which is where Elise earned her nickname "The Lady with the Lamp".
- Cycle of Revenge: Furious for being jilted in favor of a commoner, Queen Marian (then the first concubine) and her brother Marquess Amsel Childe framed then-Queen Evelyn and her daughter for treason, forcing Minchester to exile the latter two to the Ivory Tower just to avoid executing them. Their incarceration drove Evelyn to complete despair, eventually leading her to commit Murder-Suicide with her daughter by jumping off the top of the tower... with their bodies landing right in front of Linden. Linden has dedicated almost every moment of his life to avenging their deaths since then, and in Elise's first life, he succeeded by purging all of the Childes and their supporters, including his brother Mikhail, an act that emotionally destroyed him. To save Julienne, Mikhail, and Linden's soul, Elise begs him to show the faction mercy, something that will end the cycle. Despite initially resisting at first, Linden does spare them (though not without punishment), and finds that it was the right choice for him in the end.
- Distant Finale: The final chapter takes place back in modern Korea, but in a new history where Jihyun is just a medical student and admirer of Elise instead of reincarnation. While taking a tour of Elise's old estate, she runs into a man who looks like Linden, strongly implying that these two are the couple's new reincarnated selves.
- Dramatic Irony: Early on, Elise and one of her brothers agreed that due to Elise being a Spoiled Brat and a complete Jerkass, Elise ultimately had no right to be empress. However, all the Character Development that Elise went through due to her Reincarnation made her so humble and more virtuous than her initial self that she eventually ends up being far more qualified for the position than she initially could have credited herself for with Elise eventually coming to accept her position as future empress.
- Dub Name Change: The Japanese translation and dub for the Anime named Jihyun as Takamoto Aoi.
- Expository Hairstyle Change: Old Elise wore her hair loose with a hairband, while the current one generally ties it up into a bun or ponytail, demonstrating her more practical attitude.
- Fantasy Counterpart Culture: The Britta Empire and Francoine Republic are dead ringer names to Britain and France respectively.
- First Boy Wins: While Elise and Linden are officially engaged, she also gets ship teased with both Linden's brother Mil and Doctor Fallon before finally overcoming her belief that Linden couldn't love her and marrying him.
- Game-Breaking Injury: Julienne's older brother Albert suffers multiple injuries during the Crimean War, including an amputated leg. While Elise manages to save his life, his injuries are so severe that he can no longer return to politics and has to step down as heir to the Childe family in favor of his sister.
- Giving Radio to the Romans: It's subtle, but Elise introduces modern-day medical techniques to Britta on several occasions.
- Goal in Life: Elise considers being a doctor her life's work and admits she would rather move to another country and be a doctor there if she can't be a doctor in Britta. When she holds a scalpel for the first time as Elise, she says she's never felt more at home than in that moment.
- Good Stepmother: Marquess Clarence's current wife is actually his second one; his first one and the mother of his children, Teresa, passed away when Elise was a child. This being said, the new Marchioness is shown to be a loving mother figure to her stepchildren, who are all fond of her and address her as "Mother" with little difficulty.
- Hard Work Hardly Works: Zig-zagged. Dr. Fallon certainly feels this way due to Elise showing up on her first day at the hospital with no formal training and already showing him up, despite how hard he studied to reach his level. Of course, Elise did exactly that in her past life to get to where she is now, just with the added benefit of doing so in the 21st century instead of the 19th.
- Heroic Self-Deprecation: Elise often has moments of self-deprecation because she still feels that she Must Make Amends for her past as a tyrannical empress in her first life.
- Hoist by His Own Petard: To turn the war back in Francoine's favor, Louis tries to use biological warfare to wipe out Britta's forces. This action backfires on him massively—not only does the plan fail because of Elise, who manages to contain The Plague before it can affect a relatively significant number of people, but Linden and Mikhail spread the word of Louis's actions throughout the continent, publicly ruining his reputation and delegitimizing Francoine's claim to the peninsula.
- Hopeless Suitor: Julienne Childe, Elise's eventual best friend, has feelings for Linden. However, as the daughter of the man who helped facilitate the deaths of Linden's mother and sister, she knows that she has no chance with him and never makes any attempt to pursue him. She later moves on and finds a Second Love in Elise's older brother Chris.
- Internal Reveal: Elise finally learns Linden is Ron in Chapter 82 after she discovers the necklace she gave Ron on Linden.
- I Want My Beloved to Be Happy:
- Due to memories of her first life and being aware of how horribly one-sided her relationship with Linden was, Elise decided to break off the engagement that was set between them due to her demands to not hold Linden back anymore. However, Linden eventually comes to love Elise back, having noticed how much she's grown from her spoiled and Jerkass personality, and eventually gets engaged to her again.
- Both Graham and Mikhail have feelings for Elise, but neither of them tells her their feelings because they know she loves Linden.
- Jerkass Realization: In her first life, Elise had a late realization of this as she saw her brothers and father sacrificing themselves for her and eventually executed, lamenting that she never properly returned the love and care that they had for her and be a good daughter they are proud of. Being born as the orphaned Jihyun only enforced this further, and she eventually made it a goal to become a great surgeon and doctor to save as many lives as possible and make amends for her past.
- King Incognito:
- To ensure she gets no special treatment and receives proper training, Elise goes under the name of "Rose" while working at Teresa Hospital. The ruse ends when her colleagues meet with her at the palace under her real name to consult her about her treatment of Duchess Harber.
- Linden frequently inspects the city while using a magical amulet to disguise himself as a blonde-haired man named "Ron". He later uses this disguise to meet with Elise without having formalities color their interactions.
- Laser-Guided Karma: After dying in her first life, Elise reincarnated as a Korean orphan named Jihyun. She feels that being reincarnated as an orphan is her karmic retribution for being such a tyrannical Royal Brat in her first life and being an unfaithful daughter and sister to her father and brothers, hence, she strived to become a doctor to make amends for all the lives she had killed in the past and the mistakes she made in her past life. And then she died from a plane crash just as she's about to succeed and reincarnated into Elise de Clarence again.
- Must Make Amends: After her execution as the tyrannous empress that ruined the country in her first life, Elise, as Jihyun, becomes determined to make up for all her past mistakes and works hard to be a skilled surgeon. When Jihyun died and she reincarnated as Elise de Clarence again, this mindset is her greatest motivator as to why she wanted to become a doctor once more.
- My Greatest Second Chance: How Elise treats being reincarnated as Elise again after her life as Jihyun was cut short by a plane crash.
- O.O.C. Is Serious Business: After dying from a plane crash as Jihyun and reincarnating again as Elise, the people that used to know Elise as the Spoiled Brat Jerkass lady, including the servants are at first alarmed at her change in character. But after the initial shock passes, they all treat it as Elise finally getting her Humble Pie treatment, with one servant at least praying that the "new" Elise stays around.
- Normal Fish in a Tiny Pond: In modern-day Korea, Jihyun was a world-class surgeon and one of the most sought-out medical specialists on the planet, but she got that status through hard work, and she wasn't the only person on Earth with such capable skills. When she is reborn as Elise again in 1850s Britta, she's lauded as the greatest genius the medical field has seen in centuries.
- Past-Life Memories: Elise has the advantage of being reincarnated as Korean surgeon Jihyun after her first death and then reincarnating again as Elise de Clarence. Not wanting to waste any chance to make amends for all the things she had done in her first life, Elise now makes use of all the medical knowledge she had as the orphaned Jihyun to help as many people as she could.
- Peggy Sue: Elise suddenly finds herself back in her past, but unusually for this trope, it only occurs after she's lived another life in Korea, leaving her with knowledge of 21st-century medicine.
- Post-Final Boss: Elise's second-to-last on-screen surgery was performing heart surgery on the King himself after he collapses with Prince Linden as the primary suspect. Her last one by comparison, is a relatively routine (to her) Pancreatectomy.
- "Reborn as Villainess" Story: Inverted; instead of a normal person reincarnating as a villainess, a villainess has reincarnated as a normal person. Elise de Clarence has a reputation for being a horrible and selfish lady who eventually ruined the kingdom, which would make Elise a typical "Villainess" in personality. She's reincarnated as Jihyun, a modern Korean woman who is working as a master surgeon. And then she's deincarnated right back into her original life as Elise, which is seen as her second chance to fix all her wrongdoings in her first life.
- Reincarnation Romance: In the ending, Elise, having reincarnated as Jihyun again, minus her memories as Elise, meets a man who himself looks to be Linden's reincarnation, with the two implied to once again restart their romance in modern-day Korea.
- Royals Who Actually Do Something: Britta practices noblesse oblige, whereupon every noble family is required to have at least two members serve in the military during times of war. When the Crimean War breaks out, Elise is unable to convince her brother Chris (who died in the war in her first life) to withdraw from the army because the Clarence family is obligated to have two of their members enter service. So, in order to save Chris's life, she leverages her success in stopping The Plague in Londo to convince the king to let her serve in the army in Chris's place.
- Sanity Slippage: Queen Marian, Mikhail's mother and Julienne's aunt, is completely insane in the present-day for reasons that are never fully disclosed. It's implied that her madness is a result of her part in the tragedy that befell her rival, Queen Evelyn.
- Sins of Our Fathers: Elise reveals that in the first timeline, Linden's revenge purge included both Julienne and Mikhail, people who had nothing to do with what happened to his mother and sister and were only guilty of being Childes and supporting the Marquess.
- Sweet Tooth: Elise in both lives has a fondness for sweets, especially strawberry cake. This is how Linden starts to win her over after she had turned down more expensive gifts like jewelry.
- Underestimating Badassery: At the beginning of the story, Minchester makes a wager with Elise to allow her to dissolve her engagement to Linden and become a physician if she can prove her value as a physician will outweigh her value as an Empress. He fully expects her to fail, but just to make sure things go his way, he ups the difficulty of the physician's exam just to be sure. Unfortunately for him, he has no clue that Elise has Past-Life Memories as a top-call surgeon from modern-day Korea, which in 1850s Britta makes her the greatest medical genius on the planet.
- Vengeance Feels Empty: In Elise's first life, Linden managed to get his revenge for his mother and sister, purging the Childes and all their supporters, and it ruined him. Instead of making him happy, he couldn't handle all the bloodshed he caused, leading him to emotionally cut himself off further, hardening his heart, and permanently souring his relationship with Elise (who was best friends with his brother, one of the people he killed).
- Villainous Breakdown: Once the Crimean War starts to go south for Francoine, Louis Nicholas slowly begins to lose his mind, becoming obsessed with getting revenge on Linden, Mikhail, and especially Elise for ruining his plans. To mirror his mental breakdown, he undergoes a physical one as well, starting with a scar across his eye and marring his face. Then he gets shot in the hand by Elise, ruining one of his arteries and making amputation the only option to save his life. This is quickly followed by Linden slicing his body with several different cuts, putting him in severe pain, and then Mikhail shooting him in the face, killing him.
- You Can't Go Home Again: Downplayed. In order to avoid bloodshed, Linden offers to exile Queen Marian instead of executing her and allow Mikhail to go with her. The catch is that Mikhail cannot return to Britta as long as she lives. Mikahil accepts the offer, having always wanted to go traveling again and having no real desire to kill his brother.
