Lake Ripple

“*Following in Mom’s wake.*”
―Lake Ripple to Ember Lumen

**Lake Ripple** is a character in the 2023 Disney/Pixar animated feature film *Elemental*. They are the younger sibling of Wade Ripple and Alan Ripple, They are a student at the Element City School for the Arts.

## Background

### Personality

Lake is a very open-minded and friendly individual like everyone else in their family. Lake is very accepting of other elements where they warmly welcomed Ember Lumen and accepted their second older brother, Wade's relationship with the fire girl. In addition, Lake is very artistic individual like most of their family members where they were impressed with Ember's glassmaking abilities.

### Physical appearance

Lake's body is made of translucent turquoise blue water. They’re slender and shorter than their mother and older brothers.

They have small waves on the top of their head, giving off the appearance of having pixie-cut hair. They also have blue eyes and a small nose. They wear dark blue earrings, a choker necklace, and a dark green sweater with pale green diamonds over a pale green shirt.

## Role in the film

Wade encounters Lake and the rest of the Ripple family at Wade's apartment, where Wade introduces Lake to Ember, alongside Ghibli, which Wade describes Lake and Ghibli as students of Element City School for the Arts. Lake replies, "Following in Mom's wake" just before Brook replies that she is an architect as the real artist is her brother Harold. Lake is later seen having dinner with the rest of the Ripples to which they find Alan's story about Wade being afraid of sponges as a child interesting. After Alan accidentally breaks the pitcher he is using, Ember uses her fiery ability to fix the broken pitcher, impressing Lake and the rest of the Ripples.

Later during the Crying Game where Wade tells Ember that the light inside her made him feel like that he wants her to be near him, Lake and the rest of the Ripples emotionally react to Ember and Wade's relationship. During the climax of the film, Lake and the rest of the Ripples are seen bidding a farewell to Wade who is leaving just before Wade's relatives began crying together, only for Wade to notice Ember in danger, due to the water bursting through the glass wall Ember made, flowing through the canal. Lake does not appear again throughout the rest of the film.

## Trivia

* In both *Unlikely Friends* and *Elemental - The Junior Novelization* Lake is non-binary and is introduced as using they/them pronouns, just like their voice actor Ava Kai Hauser.
	+ Lake is Pixar's first non-binary character.
* Lake is non-binary and is introduced as using they/them pronouns. Lake's voice actor, Ava Hauser, is also non-binary and uses they/them pronouns.
* Ava Hauser is not directly credited as the voice of Lake and is simply listed under Additional voices. Nevertheless, Hauser was confirmed to be the voice of Lake.
* Besides Wade and Ember appearing in the teaser trailer, Lake is the only other named element to appear in the teaser. In it, Lake is seen putting lipstick only for the train to bump, causing the lipstick to be absorbed within Lake's body, which they react in shock.
* Despite being described as a canonically non-binary character and Wade referring to them as his sibling, he calls Lake 'her' when referring to Ghibli as 'her' girlfriend rather than 'their'.
* It's possible that Lake does not mind the use of gendered pronouns, or perhaps goes by they/them or she/her.