"To Catch Up With The Sun" Chapter Two notes

References:

- The title of this chapter again comes from a line in the song "Time" ("Home, home again, I like to be here when I can"). The idea is that the palace hasn't felt like home to Esteban in the longest time, but with the return of his family, it's beginning to feel that way again.

General notes:

- I didn't discuss this the last time, but I wanted to explain why I made the choice to write TCUWTS in second person perspective. It's thanks to being inspired by this Steven Universe/Kim Possible crossover, Sky Blue, Ocean Blue. Apparently it isn't a very popular style with some people, but I personally found it to be really interesting and engaging. Second person perspective has a more intimate feel to it, and with the story delving so deeply into Esteban's life and why he is who he is, I wanted to try it out for that specific reason. I did try avoiding the usual mistakes people make with both this and first person POV; I.E.: having Esteban know stuff that he has no business knowing. Everything is entirely from his perspective, so yes, that means that some moments and things are colored by his opinions/thoughts/etc. He can only guess at how someone else is really feeling. The next story in this series will be in one of the assorted third person POVs, I promise.

- I know nobody in the show ever considered the possibility of Shuriki surviving, and some people might think it's too much for Esteban to worry about her still lurking around (whereas we see in the final chapter Elena being very dismissive of the idea), but considering the fact that she destroyed his life, he's seen what her magic is capable of, and her body not turning up, yes, I can see him being that paranoid. 

Also, I think Shuriki would've, for all intents and purposes, made Esteban feel like a hostage in the palace. In the real world, there's been cases of kidnappers holding their victims hostage for years, and overtime feeling comfortable enough to start allowing them a little more freedom.

- Initially I was really confused as to why Shuriki would leave the portrait of Isa and the grandparents Flores just hanging there in the throne room. If she wanted to leave it there just to screw with Esteban, then why hide it? It took my going to the Disney wiki to learn that Alcazar magicked it so that it couldn't be moved or tampered with. Okay, that's perfectly fine as an explanation, but I never would've known that because EoA never stated that anywhere in the show AFAIK. You think that would've been explained or come up at some point.

- I guess the other Floreses (... would you say Floreses? Flori, lol?) never thought to ask about Victor after they returned in the show. Neither they nor Esteban seemed too shocked to see that he had a kid either when he popped up again.

- The show itself and sites like TV Tropes make it seem like Shuriki put Esteban to work running Avalor all by himself. Realistically though, he would not have been the only person doing every single job. Running even the smallest kingdom can be tough and complex, which is why royalty have people working under them to help, such as Tomas (Victor's pop per my setting), and they in turn have people who work for them. This is partly why I brought in Rodolfo as Finance Minister.

- Yes, I do believe that out of the entire family, Esteban is closest to his grandfather. We got that one scene in the show where Esteban and Francisco were hanging out watching the olaball game together (with Esteban wearing face-paint -- that slayed me), or Francisco's being the only one not voting to exile Esteban (although after that, did he or anybody else ever really talk about Esteban and what happened? The overall impression I'm left with is that unless the episode actually had Esteban crossing paths with them [like "Dreamcatcher"], none of the other protagonists ever act like what happened affected them any). Initially I intended to have Esteban interacting with Luisa here instead, but I couldn't think of something they could bond over. Uh, now I just headcanon that they love one another, but just really don't have much in common, especially since Esteban's no longer a cute little kid (TBH, I don't think either of the grandparents were really fleshed out as characters, so I feel comfortable adding my own stuff to them). Luisa and Elena, on the other hand, do seem to have fairly similar personalities, so yeah, I see those two gravitating towards each other more.

 - I wanted to name the song that Esteban and Francisco play together to add more detail, but 1) I am not a musician, and 2) I don't speak Spanish (barely. Certainly not enough to hold a conversation).

Also, real-talk, but I think villains who hate music simply because "Rrragh I'm the bad guy!" are kinda goofy. I may try to further flesh out Shuriki's reasons for hating it in future installments.

- I wonder if anyone ever considers just how rough Francisco has had it. Both his daughters are dead. It seems like the family would have more relatives out there though (something I lightly referenced in this chapter). What about people from Raoul's side? Esteban's father? Don't Francisco and Luisa have any siblings, nephews, nieces, etc? I refuse to believe that they're all single births (hmm... that'd be mighty convenient and pat). Personally, I'm really "ehh" at Christobel's existence (but the episode he shows up in is hot garbage to me anyways). If I ever do decide that I need him, maybe I'll retcon him into someone from Esteban's dad's side of the family or something.

Don't think people really think about the friends Fransisco and Luisa more then likely lost to old age and such during their imprisonment (hey, might as well call it an imprisonment) either.

- This chapter acknowledges something I've never seen an EoA fic discuss (I think the show very lightly touched on it with the "Gabe not liking sports" thing that one time, but didn't go all the way there) -- machismo. Not to hate on people for not exploring it -- could be that some people don't feel comfortable tackling a subject they may not be familiar with or something. Again, I feel it's something that would add more layers to Esteban. I think in this setting, where I approach Esteban as a gay man, he'd wrestle with and be insecure about whether or not he was a "real man". Francisco is the idealized man in their culture -- strong, he was this badass soldier, he has a wife and kids and was a good dad. Esteban doesn't have any of those things to his name. 

Even Francisco himself is unknowingly a victim of this mentality -- I headcanon him as someone who doesn't really like to appear vulnerable because he thinks he has to always look strong for everybody else. But it was a moment where he saw his grandson was really hurting, so he was willing to lower his defenses because of his love for Esteban.

Aww. I really like their relationship.

 - I decided Esteban has the rank of duke here (inherited from his father), the highest rank among Spanish nobility, right under your princes, kings, etc. He needed a place to be duke of, since you just can't have a title and not have it be connected to a locale. Vila Rica was the name of an old town in Mexico that's no longer in existence.

In Spanish, all lords are referred to as "Don", so as part of the royal family, Francisco would also correctly be called "Don Francisco" (BTW, I need to choose a rank for Francisco, since the show never says what he is). If you'd like more info about Spanish nobility, then try starting here. "But OLU, Wikipedia isn't a reliable source." Then go to the bottom of the page. There'll be links to other sites and resources, and they're usually pretty trustworthy.

- I don't think the show ever answered the question of whether or not Esteban is actually of the Royal House/Blood. We know his mother is Queen Lucia's sister, but is his father also a part of the royal line? I just went ahead and said yes (even though that means there probably was some intermarrying among the family in the past in order for that to be the case, like cousins. No, I don't want to focus on that in the fics or elsewhere, it's gross. It was a different world back then, but it's still gross to think about, lol). That gives Esteban a stronger claim to the throne and fuel Raoul's paranoia.

ETA: Okay, so apparently he's only related to Elena through his mother (her aunt). Well, this is an AU, so this won't be the last time I muck with canon. XD

- So the, uh, thing with Esteban and Shuriki actually hails from a short story written by JB Blackwood. However, said story is sadly no longer online. I think it's an idea that makes a ton of sense though. You have this good-looking guy and a psychopathic, power-hungry sorceress -- I can totally see her making gross comments at him and even forcing herself on him. No, neither certainly has any feelings for the other within my works. If someone else wants to ship them in their fics then they can, but I do not. Sorry. Also I could be wrong, but I don't see male rape perpetrated by women getting touched on very much in fiction. Certainly not fanfiction. 

I didn't want to outright say "she raped him", because I like being more subtle then that, but I do worry about being so subtle that readers won't catch it. I've had people miss stuff in my fics before that I thought I'd made pretty clear.

- We don't see Esteban in the scene in "The Secret Of Avalor" where Luisa gives Elena her amulet, but I imagine he most likely was present. As I worked on that part where he's recalling that moment however I had the same question Esteban did in the fic -- why is Elena the only one to ever get magical doodads in the show? Why not him and Isa too (that might make for an interesting AU in another Esteban fic idea I have)? Considering all the malvagos and other crazy magical stuff in Everealm, everybody should be packing some form of proverbial heat. Or something.

- I love writing dream and nightmare sequences. They're the best because you can get so surreal with them. XD

- I admit, I probably should've used the term malvago in the story at some point. I didn't. I'll try to keep it in mind for later fics.

- Suicide is considered a mortal sin in Catholicism. That plus general fear is why Esteban never acted on his old thoughts about jumping off the parapet.

- When I saw that EoA made Esteban thirsty for the throne, my reaction was "Why are they trotting out this old canard again?" I swear, if you're royalty in the Disney-verse, um, go ahead and kill your relatives and castle/palace staff, because A) they will either want to take over, or B) help somebody else take over. My original intention was to drop this element of Esteban's character, as I've always felt canon handled it very badly and awkwardly. However, someone very cleverly talked me out of doing so by spinning it as "ambitious male relative in line for succession, but the king changed the laws so his daughters could inherit the throne instead." I likes me a little juicy royal drama. Plus, now Esteban has real reasons for feeling the way he does instead of... whatever it was EoA was trying to do. Like, he wanted the throne there just 'cuz, y'know "I'm shady and way cooler then Elena, and the audience needs somebody to hate!" Then he stopped wanting the throne (after that Fountain of Youth episode, I believe it was?), but then in the third season randomly decided towards the end, "No. Let's go get that throne after all, because my dream was always to be king!" 

I just. Wut. I wonder would things have been better if Disney hadn't announced they were canceling the series after the third season? Again, did not want to make Raoul into an outright awful man. Between his sister-in-law's kid and his own, he picked his own.

The same person who suggested going that route with Esteban's behind-the-scenes scheming also supplied the idea for Esteban setting aside his own dreams in order to please his family (something which he mentioned once in the show, but which was never further explored -- who's shocked by that, lol?). And I wanted to play around more with Esteban's insecurity over constantly playing second fiddle to everybody else -- Elena, Victor, etc. Again, better motivations for his turning heel like he did, and therefore, makes for a way more compelling story (canon messed up there again). 

- I also envision Victor as pushing Esteban towards the dark side. Let me break it down for the Canon Cops and anti-Esteban folk -- no, that does not mean Esteban is absolved of everything he did. In "The King Of Carnival", the grandparents Flores made it pretty clear (to me) that they didn't like Victor, I doubt they were shy about their feelings before (and with his apparently being known as a frickin' thief around the palace, I'm sure the rest of the family didn't like him either, or had misgivings about him), it pissed Victor off, and he was like "I'll show them." And it was easy for him to light the powder keg that was Esteban, as he was already having issues with his relatives. I don't know, sounds like a Victor move to me.

Again, that is all just my headcanon. If people don't like it, then they're certainly more then welcome to go read something else. Just sayin' -- EoA isn't the first fandom I've been in where people are hella eager to tell you that you're wrong because X, Y, Z/or fancy themselves the morality police.

Fun facts:

- I saw a one-shot which had Francisco teaching Esteban guitar (I'm sorry, I don't know the name of the story). Made sense to me for that to be case!

- I headcanon that iris purple and silver are Shuriki's official colors, given that the palace was prominently decorated with those two colors in "The Secret Of Avalor".

- Until recently, I had no idea that the world Sofia The First and EoA occur on is called Everealm.