The Character Corner: Esteban, Part Two

'I wonder how long it's going to take her to notice the 'kick me' sign I stuck on her back?...'

You thought we were done baby but I'm back for round two with a follow up to this post: link. I know it's a very last minute addition, but I decided to take this particular approach to my character analyses from The Spiral Writer. She writes for multiple fandoms like myself. If you like Henry Stickmin or Sonic The Hedgehog especially, then go check out her blog.

But yeah, it's a great way to keep headcanon separate from my discussing the characters as canon presents them.

INSPIRATION

My approach to writing him honestly stems from just my watching the show, really. I draw my own conclusions about his character. I think I've mentioned this elsewhere before, but Esteban does not prominently feature in a great deal of fic in the fandom, so it isn't like I really can find a whole lot of inspiration there anyways. There is one author who I can say has inspired me though, J.B. Blackwood. Unfortunately however, she's taken her stories down. One particular fic of her's featured a drunk, depressed Esteban mourning his parents during Dia de los Muertos, and their distressed ghosts could only look on sadly (if you thought it was tough finding Esteban-centered fics, think about how hard it is to find fics that actually touch on his parents). There was another dramatic fic she wrote exploring how things could've played out between him, Shuriki, and Victor right after the coup. Both were terrific little one-shots. You can check out the headcanon section below to see a few things she graciously allowed me to borrow.

FUTURE PLANS

Outside of my ongoing Elena Of Avalor rewrite, I actually have about three ideas in total. One is a fairly older idea I've had for a Friendship Is Magic crossover which has evolved quite a bit from when it was first devised. Of course it's an AU, diverging from canon right before the start of EoA's third season. Over time it's become more influenced by the concept behind isekais, except for lacking that particular subgenre's more annoying cliches, IE, there will be no harems, Esteban is not going to be an overpowered MC, etc. 

The second story idea is inspired by another fanfic concept I heard about and thought sounded interesting, called infinite looping. Basically, a character finds themselves involuntarily jumping from one different version of their universe to the next. So the basic premise will be about Esteban hopping about assorted realities. 

The last idea is a relatively new one, so I really don't have very many details about it to share just yet. I will say that it's yet another AU, a drama with romantic (as I'm gonna use it as an opportunity to write about a crossover pairing for Esteban that I think could be interesting) and supernatural elements.

HEADCANON

- He actually does not have a horse or ride in the show I believe (if I'm wrong then someone correct me please). I can see them giving some dumb reason as to why, like “He thinks horses are icky.” I’m sure if cars were around in his world he’d get one, but since there aren’t, he’s stuck with horses and it’d be incredibly impractical for him not to know how to ride one. In my headcanon, he is an equestrian who has grown up with horses and is pretty comfortable with them as a result. His newest horse is a buckskin Andalusian gelding named Arpegiar. 

- Speaking of cars, for a modern AU I imagine him being an aficionado of sports cars.    

- Due to the trauma he’s been through as well as his feelings of guilt he’s become a functional alcoholic. I was inspired by the aforementioned J.B. Blackwood.
 
- I would describe my interpretation of Esteban as being far less clownish and dimwitted then his canon self; IE, in my fics, he would never just grab unwrapped tamales and toss them into a cooking pot, no matter how hungry or impatient he was.

- Aside from the palace, he sometimes also stays at his parents' estate in Villa Rica.

- Both the names for Esteban’s parents here as well as what happened to him at Shuriki’s hands in the aftermath of coup is courtesy of J.B. Blackwood again. Regarding the latter... yes, she did rape Esteban. I don't know how obvious that was to readers. I do know that at least one person picked up on it. The 'rents names are different here so as to differentiate my fanon from the source material. 

- I love the idea of Esteban's father being voiced by the late great Raul Julia. His parents were largely ignored in the show, so I'd like to explore who they were here. 

- Time for a fun headcanon! If he gets enough alcohol in him and there’s music playing, then Esteban will cut loose and start dancing. He’s actually pretty good at it.  

- EoA is inconsistent as to whether or not he’s supposed to be a coward. The Disney wiki write-up flat-out calls him one, and he was shown in this light in a few episodes. But earlier on when an evil fairy was invading Avalor and had giant vines attacking the palace, Esteban was right up there with Francisco chopping away at them. And he was the one who stopped Shuriki from casting a spell on Elena and Sofia. So?.... Look, he’s got plenty of flaws as is. I don’t even mind his being scared of Shuriki. That’d be completely understandable, especially within my setting. But does he really need to be a coward too? That said, this does tie into my idea about his having PTSD. I’m dead certain the show didn’t even intend for this to be a thing, but some of his behavior (the irritability and his fear when in Shuriki’s presence) could be construed as his having it. 

- It was confirmed on Twitter (I think? I was only told this secondhand) that canonically Esteban is not of the Royal House/royal bloodline, being only related Elena through his mother. Here however, he is actually part of the Royal House, which gives him a stronger claim to the throne and further fuels his feelings towards the matter.

- I plan to play up an "opposites" angle between him and Elena in a couple of ways: I.E.: she's a swordsman... girl, while he prefers the musket and enjoys target shooting.

- I do intend for my Esteban to actually possess a sense of humor. We did see him try to joke around that one time with Isa in "King Of The Carnivale", and he's had some excellent snarky comments here and there, but otherwise, he was set up to be the humorless killjoy as yet another way to make Elena and the rest of the perma-happy characters look good (refer to Isa's reaction to his joking around). So I made him dry-humored to counteract that (plus I prefer dry humor and find it works really well in prose form). I think it fits his personality.

- In my fics, Esteban's last name is not Castillo-Flores. That's Elena and Isa's last name. Since Spanish surnames combine the mother's first surname and the father's first surname, it'd have to include his dad's surname. And since the father is a non-entity in the cartoon, I decided to make his surname Bandera-Mazariegos. So Esteban's surname in my works would be Bandera-Castillo.

PERSONAL

What else could I add here that hasn't already been said? He's one of the most relatable characters in the show for me (under different circumstances I might've included Mateo as another relatable character, but meh, I'm not really big on EoA's younger characters). In addition to his more dramatic moments and deeper characterization, he has some pretty funny lines and scenes, like his spats with Doña Paloma, and he winds up stealing the show for me. I would argue that he is more complex than the characters we tend to see from these sorts of shows.

As much as I detest the last season of the show, and for all the issues I have with how Esteban was approached early on and his blatant character assasination later, I'm still glad that we got to have a character like him around. 

No major updates to share, but while working on a scene for A Brush With Danger, I arrived at a pretty messed-up realization about Elena Of Avalor:

Francisco and Luisa are both pretty bad grandparents. Yes, even Francisco, and I've called him the more tolerable of the two.  

Sure, when Elena is sad or needs encouragement they're there for her, but they're really passive when she does impulsive stuff like run off to confront Shuriki all by herself, just sitting back staring like goons when I realistically think most family members would (hopefully) be like "What? No, don't do that, that's really dangerous!" I mean, is that not a normal reaction? Am I being out of line here? They could've even just told her "Hey, why not bring some backup with you in case you end up in a bad spot?" Esteban was the only one who disagreed with Elena's leaving, but with the way the show was framing both him and the situation, of course it was to make him look like the bad guy for telling her to just let the royal guards handle things.

So the grandparents basically just exist to cheer Elena on. Enable her behavior, even. I don't think EoA intended for that to be the case, but with the way the storytelling was handled, they were simply yet more victims of "Elena's always Right" and "no one's allowed to have a reaction to anything but Elena, unless it's to back up whatever Elena says or does." Isa was the only one who was able to kinda avoid this trend, because the writers actually let her be upset about Esteban's departure in the third season. Same for Gabe that one time he got mad at Elena in the episode "Shapeshifters", but of course there was no fallout from that situation in the next episode. I mean, you'd think he'd start being more protective of Elena, or openly questioning her (often poor) decision-making abilities, something.

I've been trying to think of animated shows in which the grandparents were better handled, but the only examples I could think of where the grandparents are fairly prominent are things I either haven't seen enough of (Hey Arnold) or haven't seen in a long time (Rugrats). So I guess I'll have to look to a movie to highlight an example of a parent who alternately knew when to be stern when times actually called for it, and then when to be affectionate, as well as actively teaching his son about their world -- Mufasa from the original Lion King. His and Simba's relationship is significantly more well-balanced and healthier then the that of the grandparents Flores and their grandchildren.

But back to EoA and the grandparents' existences revolving around making Elena feel better -- note that it's only Elena. They never did the same for Esteban (Isa I don't know, I think Elena was the one to primarily be her source of comfort IIRC). I guess the argument could be made that he's a middle-aged and they just think he's doing fine (which is fair if you take into account the culture as well as them being older folk), but given that they've given him dirty looks or disapproving comments whenever he acted like a vain butt or scared... yeah. No, I'm not being "a butthurt Estefan durrhurr" 🙄, and I'm not saying they should justify him in his bad moments, but outside of the finale (which I didn't watch, but I'll be fair and assume they were actually nice to him in its conclusion), did they ever have any sweet moments with him?

I'm sure that looking after grandkids after a major tragedy is not easy. I'm not saying it is. But if two of my grandchildren had real beef going on between them the way Elena and Esteban do (and I'm not even referring to Esteban's betrayal; this was an issue long before Francisco and Luisa even gained knowledge of that), then I'd get together with my spouse, if not talk to the grandchildren myself, and try to see what's wrong and how could things improved. If EoA showed Francisco and Luisa even doing that much, then at least then I'd give them props. But both sit there and never say a word about it ever, or are completely absent. Zuzo had to say something to her in the third season.

I hate this kind of stuff because I -- surprise -- prefer good writing and a main character that doesn't have a stranglehold on a series, but I guess that's where fanfic and a deconstruction more specifically comes in handy. My OFC who isn't even related to the family is more proactive at being a parental figure then the grandparents are. He actually tells Esteban and Elena to keep calm and try to figure out what's going on, because being overly defensive and going at each other isn't helpful in the situation. Of course, with the way fandom is I'm sure 95% of fans don't see an issue with Francisco and Luisa all. Family members are supposed to just praise and comfort you all the time. Everything else is clearly abuse, and anybody who says otherwise is just being a character basher. :) 

All I'm saying is just constantly praising a kid and letting them do what they want when they want, even if they're a good kid at heart like Elena is, may not be a great parenting style.

The Character Corner: Esteban, Part One

 

Spill that tea, brah.

Before I begin, I feel like I should say these kinds of posts aren't really even true character analyses. They just cover what I think about a particular character, how the fandom perceives them and my thoughts on that, my theories and ideas for them and how they originated, and my preferred romances for them.

Now, if you think Esteban is evil or deserves punishment or what have you, then I'm probably not going to be able to convince you of anything or vice-verse (plus, you're more then likely gonna get really mad at me for several of the things I'm going to say in this post). You're better off going to go look at the 90,000+ Elena ship fics on Fanfiction.net and Archive Of Our Own. For those of you willing to listen to my TL;DR verbal diarrhea though, please continue.

(And yeah, I swear some in here.)

What a fascinating character he is. It's a damn shame that the number of times he's actually used to his full potential in canon I can count on one hand. He exists mostly just to be made fun of and for the other protagonists to be favorably compared to (and later, to serve as one of the third season's major antagonists). It would be so amazing to see a kids' show that says "It's okay to be introverted, and it's okay to be afraid of stuff, just as long you don't let it stop you from doing the right thing." 

Oh wait, I guess Steven Universe has done all that. Unpopular opinion time (which there'll be plenty of in here): SU, even with its flaws, is still a way better show then EoA is, IMHO.

Like everyone else, my first exposure to Esteban was in "First Day Of Rule". Right away I noticed that he wasn't enthusiastic or constantly smiling like everybody else was. He was grumpy and sarcastic, and it was kinda refreshing. He was different, and that made me want to keep watching further to see what was going to be done with this guy. Really though, in the early episodes, watching him turned out to be very cringey. No way around it. His depiction swung between being this Machiavellian schemer, right down to being shown skulking in the shadows in FDOR, to acting like this complete and utter doofus the other half of the time. What was that one episode where that dude from Satu was visiting, and Esteban was dancing around in front of him like he was having an episode? That's the kind of cringe I'm talking about. I'm not sure what the writers were going for, but the show felt like a knock-off of Sofia The First (Cedric = Esteban, Sofia = Elena), and I actually l feel like the latter is the better series.

Things did start improving as EoA went on, as the writers did give him a few moments that cemented him as more then just "Cedric, but Latino" as well as the standout character of the series for me (off my head, the entirety of "King Of The Carnival", his interaction with Isa towards the end of "Three Jaquins And A Princess", to name a couple). I touched on this earlier in my story notes, but Elena of Avalor does have several episodes that I genuinely like, even now. I remember my saying at the subreddit that I was worried the writers weren't going to be able to sustain that momentum. And sure enough, when it got to the arc where a major villain came back, it turned out to be one disappointment after another. Then after four or so episodes of this they abruptly switched back to the slice-of-life style episodic storytelling without even acknowledging what had just happened. It was really bizarre, and to top it all off, these episodes ranged in quality from "okay, but I don't care about any of this" to completely pointless.

In general, I don't like the third season (wasn't the show always pushing "familia" and forgiveness before than?). I feel Esteban's characterization went off the skids there, plus they assassinated not just his character but Doña Paloma's as well by having them both team up to try and one-up Elena yet again, even though previously they both had respectively come to a better understanding with Elena. But nah, screw character development, time for some forced conflict instead! Or how Esteban was stated to be the guy who had held the kingdom together during Shuriki's reign? I don't like how the show retconned this and talked like he hadn't done anything in an effort to make him look even worse then he did already. And Victor was allowed to come back and be Mateo's apprentice? Did that seriously happen, or is that just fanon? If that is canon, then that's some straight-up bullshit.

At any rate, I think Esteban has immense potential if one just chucked the buffoonish stuff and gave him a more consistent personality. He's a compelling character because he's done legitimately crappy things, but also has genuinely sympathetic qualities, instead of either being all one thing or all the other. I think that people, for all the clamoring we've seen for years about wanting more complex characters, especially in Disney, ultimately just prefer simplistic characters with desirable traits in order to be able to project themselves onto said characters. I aim for something a little more complex in my depictions of Esteban while relying on the basic framework EoA gave us. If I change something, it's usually because I thought it was either dumb or goes against what we viewers were told before (I.E.: not having him be a dumbass in my storyverse. No, I still have not gotten over this man throwing unwrapped tamales into the oven).

But at the same time, I don't take everything the shows says super-duper literally either. A ton of it focuses on Elena and her POV, so even up to the end Esteban is still kind of a mystery (I mean, do they ever show what his parents even look like? We saw Elena and Isa's parents several times). Case in point, I know fans literally think Victor was his sole friend outside of his family because the show just barely touched on his childhood, but I don't buy that. In my AU, he does have more friends. Reserved people can have friends, even if it's just a handful of people.

I'll discuss another bit of canon I totally ignore. Remember when he prevented Shuriki from attacking Elena and Sofia in "Secret Of Avalor", then threw Shuriki's wand over to Elena? But oh no guiz, he's a huge coward, even though what I just mentioned indicated he's willing to act when his loved ones and innocent people are in danger. I also point to when those enchanted vines were attacking the palace, and he and Francisco were out there hacking away at them. In my fics, he's more super-cautious then anything. He's not about to pull an Elena and just run up on bad guys -- not before analyzing the situation or coming up with a plan first (so he has more in common with Isa then he does Elena), and that is if he just can't have the guards do it. There's nothing wrong with that Elena, that's what the guards are literally there for. *eyeroll* 

Now I'm going to discuss something I've seen in relation to Esteban on places like Tumblr -- the people who say that if you feel bad for Esteban, it means that you okay everything he did, and outright imply that you yourself are immoral for liking an "evil character". This is such a bizarre mindset. Yes, people should not idolize people who do bad things, but... Esteban is a fictional creation. No one was actually hurt because he isn't real, Avalor isn't real, etc. I've just been waiting for someone to come along and scold me for writing fics that are sympathetic to him (even though I don't shy away from pointing out his faults or how he did something terrible). as well as the elements of Catholicism, like I previously mentioned It doesn't help matters any that a bunch of people project onto Elena like an IMAX or view her as their fictional squeeze, so any slight against her must surely be one against them as well. Esteban did something that hurt Elena, and you like Esteban? Well, why would you support an evil murderer, unless... you're pro-murder?! Uh... 'kay. LOL. 

I think calling people like myself who sympathize with his story bad people is simply just a way for them to bully someone for liking a character that they hate (also, aren't these the same people who want Loki, Scar, CP9, and all those other bad guys forgiven?). Fandom purity culture really is all about control, entitlement, and getting off on putting your boot on somebody else's neck. It's sad that other people seem to listen to this rabble instead of just ignoring them, calling them out, etc. Unfortunately, most Esteban-centric fan art is located on Tumblr. I'm still trying to decide if I want to plunge back into that mess or not...

I consider Esteban to be a tragic character. He's this incredibly flawed person who's recognized his wrongdoing and struggles to atone (so yes, I do approach him as a repentive character, not as a villain or anything like that. Sorry not sorry, EoA fandom). I find that not only deeply gripping, but something to respect. He strikes me as being this isolated, lonely figure with no one around to really talk or relate to, even prior to falling out with his family. His "friends" in canon (and canon compliant fics) are people who I don't feel he has much in common with or even get him (Naomi and Doña Paloma). The person he's closest to is Francisco, and even then at times there's this gulf between them. I would really love to see more fics about his going on journeys of self-discovery and finding new happiness -- with or without his biological family (I love found family stuff too) and Elena's friends. I value things in which he does finally achieve real happiness instead of just continuing to live out his days in... well, I'd call it a purgatory. However, I've seen only one story to date in which I thought he succeeded in that regard. :(

I'm not close to my own family. I'm not going to get into why much further then that other than one reason for this is that I don't have much in the way of common ground with them. So I see where Esteban is coming from when he feels like he's only second-best compared to Elena and such. That's not a good feeling to have. And it's not that hard for me to look at his relatives and go, "Yeah, they probably did some crappy stuff to him." Not outright abuse, but Esteban was expected to go along with the program with no fuss. Add in the factor of my interpretation of Esteban being gay (per my main series, anyways) and a bit of an oddball, and that just adds more pressure on him. Sounds like EoA was like, "Well, Esteban wasn't treated right... but maybe that's just how he feels and they really didn't anything wrong!" Y'know, that half-assed fence-sitter way of trying to absolve them of any wrongdoing while not outright condemning Esteban for his feelings either. Because God forbid the protagonists you want the audience to like have any imperfections or make any mistakes. Look, it's okay for your main characters to have flaws. Really. That just makes them more interesting. I'm tired of the fanbase ignoring all their missteps while constantly condemning Esteban for his. I don't go along with the "perfect wonder family" portrayal the show uses, and I do intend to explore that further (especially Lucia, who the writers seemed scared to make anything less than "awesome grandma").

Speaking of the f-word, whew boy... well, if you've gotten this far and you're not pissed at me yet, then good for you. 'Cause you might get mad about what I'm going to say next. In terms of storytelling, I feel the family honestly holds him back a lot of the time. What I mean is that he can't go places or undergo his own character journey (literal or otherwise) because his identity is tethered to them. I'll be blunt: they're not why I watched EoA. Never have been. I've gone off Luisa's character since the third season and have never cared for Elena (although I tried to in the beginning), to mildly put it. But Francisco is fine and I don't mind Isa too much, although I do think her episodes are boring. Sorry. Neutral towards Raoul and Lucia, since they're just blank slates. So that's why I don't romanticize or fixate on the Castillo-Flores like fandom does. I get that family is one of EoA's major themes, but I'm not really interested in them. I don't even want Elena or Luisa to die or anything like that. My reaction to them is just "Go away. You two are really annoying and taking attention away from my favorite character." (The rabid Elena stans do not help her case any in my eyes.)

I haven't seen any fans discuss the fact that Esteban knows how to pickpocket, or can dance his way through the booby traps in the royal treasury because he literally designed them himself (who taught him how to build booby traps in the first place?? That's both insane and amazing), his time in Satu, or other ideas delving into who he is (there is one specific thing I could add here, but I'm not gonna say what because it'd spoil upcoming stories. It's something I've NEVER seen anyone ever bring up in relation to Esteban). All that stuff could be very easily mined for new story material, but people ignore it because everything has to be all about his relationship to his family, Naomi, Victor, Armando, and Doña Paloma. Granted, yes, his earlier betrayal is a very interesting bit of character drama and relates to his family. But the family should not define who he is.

I circumvent this issue by giving Esteban his own corner of Avalor/the EverRealm to actually evolve in, as well as a cast of supporting characters and friends uniquely his own -- not his relatives, not Elena's friends, not the servants, but his own (though that isn't to say that these new characters aren't also friends with or won't become friends with the other protagonists). Also, I find it pretty weird that we have a nearly sixty-year old man often running around with teenagers. Naomi, Mateo, and Gabe are Elena's friends. No, Armando shouldn't be Esteban's friend either. Ugh. That's also why my EoA fics will either be AUs or crossovers. It's pretty easy to have Esteban mingle with completely new faces, instead of characters I'm bored by if not outright dislike.

I've seen at least two or three people pushing for him to get with Cedric, Armando, or Higgins. Even barring the age difference, those just aren't ships I can get behind. I'm not even against noble/servant ships in fiction, but in this case it doesn't work at all. For one, EoA had a whole episode demonstrating that Esteban didn't really respect anybody that wasn't nobility ("Finders Leapers"). And look at Esteban. I admit this is just how I see the character, but everything about him suggests somebody who'd appreciate a partner not only on his level intellectually, but was attractive as well. Armand and Higgins are certainly neither of those things. I'm sorry, but they're not. What would Esteban even have to talk about with either guy? And Cedric, while brainy, ain't exactly a looker. Maybe I'm the wrong person to be saying this, but I really don't understand why some EoA fans are so fixated with minor characters like Armando either.* He's just a really bland stock character. At least with, say, My Little Pony, fans can take minor characters like Yona the yak or that one pony that DJs (Vinyl Scratch) and make up some crazy backstory and stuff for them. I feel like things are so much more limited with Armando.

Also, the same person who was pushing for an Esteban/Armando ship said that the royal family needed to be overthrown, because they equate monarchy with a benevolent dictatorship (if you don't like monarchies, then why watch a show about princesses in the first place, lol?). But you're perfectly fine with a nobleman having a romantic relationship with a servant who is very much a submissive, subservient yes-man to him? Like, no troubling power balance dynamics there? I mean, sorry person if you ever happen to stumble over this, but your logic genuinely baffles me.

The logic for Esteban/Cedric seems to be "OMG they both have issues with the rightful rulers!!!", but that seems like a pretty shallow basis for a romance. Is there anything more to this ship then them discussing their pasts? Why on earth would they even be drawn to each other (honestly, I don't think they'd care for one another very much if at all).

I really do hate that so many fans nowadays are so adverse to OCs -- limiting the options for romantic partners solely to other characters from EoA and StF. I've yet to see any canon ship for Esteban that I've liked. "Incestuous" is the the wrong term to use for it (well, not for the folks who actually want to have him to get together with Elena -- which I can't even with), but these pairings do tend to feel hella contrived for one. I just don't get people who want him to be with Naomi, and most of them aren't even trying to use some sort of AU scenario. Like... this is why bringing OCs in would be welcomed with open arms, so that we're not shipping teens with (near) 60 year olds/or blood relatives. I have seen a few Esteban/OC fics and so far, one piece of fan art (which is pretty cute) though. The fics themselves are a mixed bag of promising and then not very good.

This is why I have a strong preference for bringing in characters from others canons or OCs as friends/love interests for Esteban. Actually, one canon character I'd love to see him with is Baileywick. That could be interesting. He is a servant and average-looking, yes, but he's also a cultured, intelligent dude. He's cooler-headed then Esteban is as well as more down to earth, which I think are two good qualities for a partner of Esteban's to possess. And no, it would not be an insta-love situation for either, but a slowburn situation. At least that's how I'd play it anyways.

Also, not gonna lie, but Esteban is good-looking... for a cartoon character, lol. And I'd definitely add his voice to the list of reasons why Esteban appeals to me. Christian Lanz did such a great job with him. I wonder if I'm the odd person out in that I actually pay attention to characters' voices and feel that a talented, fitting voice actor is just as important as a good design and personality?  

*You wanna write about Esteban hooking up or whatever with Armando, Naomi, Shuriki, etc, or like the idea of such? Hey, you do you. But none of those relationships jive with me.

"To Catch Up With The Sun" Chapter Three notes

REFERENCES: 

N/A

GENERAL:

- I went ahead and made Esteban's Elena regent here. Since Elena has not been officially crowned as queen at this time, realistically, he should be her regent. When he was reflecting on his circumstances at the start of this chapter, Esteban wasn't blowing smoke -- in the real world, nobles really didn't have very many options available to them. The following info comes from someone I was speaking to about this subject:

• They were not allowed to own businesses because it was viewed as "disgraceful", and was even illegal in some places. So either Luisa won't be an aristocrat here, but just someone who comes from a wealthy family, or I dump the chocolate shop thing or whatever it was she had in canon.
  
• They could join the clergy, but that came with issues of its own (what kinds of issues I'm not sure of though), especially if you lived in a Catholic country. 
• They could look pretty and sponge off their relations who did have money. XD
• If they couldn't support themselves or if no one else was willing too, they'd be dirt-poor and turn to things like literal mercenary work, subsistence farming, or even banditry. And most nobles would apparently turn to brigandry before "breaking caste" and shaming themselves by opening up a business. 

So someone like Esteban would be expected to either govern a fief, take on an administrative role within their country's government (like he's presently doing), or join the military, and be a model noble at the same time. The following is something else I was told and which I thought I'd share here:

"I do want to observe that nobility has nothing to do with wealth or power, everything to do with blood and/or title. A noble could be dirt-poor, and a commoner be running the kingdom behind the scenes. (And the noble would probably still look down his nose at the commoner.) Though on the other hand, commoners who gained wealth and influence were often given (or purchased) noble titles."

- I'll discuss the new Grand Council more and why I chose to adjust the membership later on, as they'll officially debut "on-screen" in my upcoming story (hopefully. If I can make it not feel shoehorned).

- Have another shout-out to Sofia from Sofia The First, courtesy of Elena and Esteban! Anytime anyone brought up an issue with the character of Elena on the EoA subreddit, a number of the stans there were quick to yell, "Oh yeah? Well, look at what a Mary Sue Sofia is!" and just trashing her. To me this just felt like them trying deflect all criticisms of Elena, no matter how reasonable and constructive they were. The subreddit didn't used to be that way, and I'm not sure why it turned into such a hivemind of rabid fanatics who flipped out anytime you went, "I liked that episode, but it could've been better." And IMHO, yeah, as STF went on, things with Sofia did get to be a little too much, but what saves her character for me is that she continued being likable.  

But yeah, all the salt made me make sure to give Sofia lots of praise for rescuing Elena and helping to restore Avalor. ;) Plus, the Flores totally seem like the kind of people who'd feel really grateful towards Sofia and her family. Think about what would've happened if Sofia hadn't been called to Avalor. I'm guessing the rest of the fandom doesn't have a weird hateboner for STF, because I do recall seeing a bunch of STF/EoA crossovers on FF.net before. Heck, I'm hoping to do a few in the future myself.

- I'd be all too happy to explain what I was going for with Elena's behavior in the scene where she gets overly excited about seeing birds and the sky (which I suspect put off two readers. ETA: You know, now I have a sneaking suspicion about why one of them reacted the way they did, but I won't get into it here). My line of thought is that having been stuck inside the amulet for that length of time has messed with her head some. Now, she's finally free and gets to see all the things she's missed -- nature and everything else -- again. So yes, she is a bit loopy, but it's not gonna be a permanent thing. By the time the sequel takes place, she'll be more like the Elena we see in the cartoon. It's just my own conjecture, since EoA never discussed what it was like for her in there. I thought it'd be really interesting if there were actually some repercussions or side-effects from that whole experience. Heck, I'm just spitballing here, but maybe she has claustrophobia now.

- Yes, I think Esteban would be facing some citizens who don't quite trust him. In their minds, he was Shuriki's willing right-hand man.

- Man it was hard to end this thing. And it did feel weird, because as events in the show progressed and I heard about what was going on, it seriously dampened my enthusiasm for any protagonist not named Esteban, Francisco, or Isabel. I do feel that by admitting to that here and elsewhere in this blog, if anything even remotely troublesome happens to the rest of the cast in my upcoming fics, some people are going to automatically assume malice on my part towards them. I've seen readers flip when somebody wrote a Pokemon fic in which Ash caught a cold and accused the author of bashing him. Let me emphatically state that I don't believe in character bashing, even of characters I personally dislike. I try to be fair towards them and show that they're human too. And I felt like I was being pretty fair towards the other EoA characters here. 

At other times, if I don't want to be bothered with characters I don't care for or don't need them for anything, they'll either "be on vacation/visiting elsewhere/busy with work/etc" ("Where's Luisa?" "Oh, her nephew took sick, so she's off visiting!"), or I bring my preferred characters around characters that I do like/or don't mind, like I will do with Esteban in my My Little Pony and Disney crossovers. Problem solved.

This goes for anything I write in.

FUN FACTS:

- For my storyverse, I knew I wanted to give Esteban some more hobbies, since he didn't have very many in the show. I immediately landed on the idea of him being an equestrian, since it's something I don't think a lot of people believe he'd like. I've seen a screencap of him with a black horse, but aside from my not knowing what the context of that image is, I have no clue what EoA has him thinking about them or if he can even ride/do so well. Now, I headcanon that if EoA took place in modern setting he'd be a car aficionado (sports cars specifically), but since cars don't exist in canon proper, it'd only be practical for him to know how to ride horses. I thought it'd also be a good way for him and Elena to bond. AFAIK, he didn't have a horse in the show. But I noticed I just enjoy giving my protagonists pets or other creatures to bond with, or giving them a fondness for animals/or certain animals. So in this setting, Esteban isn't simply limited to just being a shipping tool, a "bad guy", or Elena's stuffy ass of a cousin. He is totally capable of forging a loving bond with a "lower animal". 

Atrevido (his first horse) means "daring" in Spanish, while Arpegiar is a musical term: a type of broken chord in which the notes composing a chord are sung or played in either a rising or descending fashion. 

Prior to the film Spirit: Stallion Of The Cimarron, I'd never heard of a buckskin horse before. It's such a striking color pattern. So that's why Arpegiar is a buckskin. Initially he was going to be a breed of horse called a paso fino, which originates from South America if I'm remembering rightly. Then I went to YouTube to check them out in action:

This is their natural gait. Gorgeous animal, but that is not a horse meant for stealth. If Esteban ever wanted or needed to sneak off for whatever reason, he'd probably be better off just leaving the horse at home, lol. So I just went ahead and made Arpegiar an andalusian horse instead. I doubt Canela actually is a lusitano in canon or not, but both her and Arpegiar's respective breeds are sometimes referred to as "Iberian horses." The lusitano hails from Portugal, while the andalusian is Spanish.

Oh, and I guess this is my headcanon on how Elena got Canela. Isabel doesn't seem like she'd really care about horses. I do remember liking the fact that she enjoys drawing though.

- Meet some more of the Flores' servants, Antonio, the (only named) stable hand! I figured it'd be both realistic and kinda funny to give Gabe some competition for Elena's attention. Of course, Esteban cockblocks him too. XD

"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.

"To Catch Up With The Sun" Chapter One notes

I'm finding that many of my stories stem from things I don't like in canon/fanon, as well as a desire to see the kinds of storytelling elements I prefer. There aren't many good stories around in the EoA fandom which actually focus on Esteban (I've seen a scant few I like or which seem promising, but that number is more then likely less then ten in total), and often he gets shipped with a canon character I don't like in a bunch of them. 

I remember initially playing around with the idea of doing a story that stuck closer to canon. But after realizing that EoA's writing was just going to continue to disappoint (aside from a handful of decent episodes sprinkled here and there), I decided the AU route would ultimately work better for me. I think taking the characters in a more adult direction makes them more fascinating to follow. Looking through my blog, I see that I've had this idea since December 2018 (a three chapter story I only finished this year... =D). It originally stemmed from a few people at the show's Reddit community saying that it would be interesting to see what it was like for the Castillo-Flores to deal with everything that happened after being reunited. 

Uh, a lot has changed since then. Still liked the idea enough to develop it however, in part because I realized I needed a way to show how my universe was different from the show's and set things up. With TCUWTS done, I can now move onto other stories set within this AU (which I still need to name. I've been jokingly calling it Esteban Of Avalor).

My take on the EoA world is intended to have more historical elements and less... goofy stuff, but still maintain that Disney flair. It's sort of a kinder, gentler version of our world (for example, there was no slave trade carried on by any of the major world powers, probably not a Crusade as we would know it, etc), but only up to an extent. Like, it's still not a place where you can really run around openly as a gay person (well, unless you're rich like Esteban, and even then most people don't actually know about his sexual orientation XD). It's also not set in any specific time period that we'd recognize from our own world history. 

I saw people at the subreddit saying EoA is set in the 1800s (I think), but I don't believe that anymore. For one, there are still knights in plate armor running around in Enchancia. Knights had gone the way of plague doctors well before the 1700s. Much of the fashion in both series also looks newer then the Middle Ages, but too old for the 1800s. Of course, it could also be that they took a lot of stylistic liberties with clothing too. At this point I feel pretty comfortable in saying Disney just pulls whatever from the past and throws it into Sofia The First and EoA. That's not me hating on them for that; I mean, that's one way not to tether your fantasy series to a certain time period. It's it's own thing.

Also, let me say here and now that just because I criticize the show/or most of its characters does not mean I personally hate if you if you do happen to like them. I fully support your right to enjoy them. I only take issue with fans if they feel the need to belittle me/other people for not agreeing with them, or are otherwise behaving inappropriately.

- The story title is taken from the lyrics of the Pink Floyd song (which is one of my favorite of theirs) "Time". Originally I had been calling my fic When We Dead Awaken. One day I happened to be listening to "Time" though and thought some of the lyrics could apply to Esteban's situation. Like TCUWTS, the song also deals with the theme of the passage of time. Here's a character who's fixated on his lost youth and fears old age. In the story proper a few times I allude to the idea that at one time Esteban was this kid who thought he has all the time in the world... but before he knows it, that's not the case anymore. He's nearly sixty. 

Each chapter title are lyrics taken from "Time". Here's the part that inspired both the title and the first chapter:

So you run and you run to catch up with the sun but it's sinking
Racing around to come up behind you again
The sun is the same in a relative way but you're older
Shorter of breath and one day closer to death

And here's the song itself if anyone's interested: 

 

- You know that river that runs by the palace and which Shuriki ended up falling into? I have no clue if it's ever been given a name in the show or not. I didn't see anything about it, so I just went and named it myself. Mitotiqui is a Nahuatl word meaning "dancer".

- I have no clue where Castillo-Flores as a surname for Elena and her family originated from. I just saw it someplace and was happy I didn't have to come up with my own surname for them. It mean "castle flower", which is cool.

- "Don" is Spanish for Lord. Ergo, when people are calling Esteban "Don Esteban", they are calling him "Lord Esteban", which is appropriate for a man of his station. Also, in the show he's simply just the Chancellor, but I refer to him as "Lord Chancellor" here for extra fanciness, lol. It's something I borrowed from the Brits.

- Another thing I really wanted to do was add more palace staff and people who the Castillo-Flores knew/or know as a way to flesh out the world. Unless it was some kind of special occasion, I remember the palace almost always looking huge and empty. A real palace would have servants, courtiers, guards, etc all over the place. Same for the city itself (this kinda seems to be a reoccurring issue with modern cartoons, I've noticed). I'll make a character list so readers can keep up with who's who.

- For the life of me I couldn't justify any reason as to why Esteban would have Higgins/or Armando working for him in my setting. Like, my Esteban's intelligence is supposed to be pretty consistent (unlike the series) and he's a pretty pragmatic dude, so he'd want to have a competent manservant, y'know? If you haven't seen the show, then Higgins and Armando both are just your standard goofy bumbling sidekicks, nothing more. Not only that, but I don't even know what Armando was doing in canon at this point, since he has like a hundred jobs there. Like, he's a personal servant, a puppeteer, and a cook who gets on some kind of committee in the second season?... And to top it all off, he's not that strong a character to carry whole episodes by himself, so I don't care about him and only became more and more actively annoyed that canon kept shoving this boring unfunny doofus into my face and telling me to care. Time wasted on Armando-centric episodes could've been spent on more worthwhile characters, or moving the plot forward.

I'd ask whatever happened to Higgins, but that'd actually require me to care about him. He was the same character as Armando, but white I guess. Thankfully, the freedom of fanfic allows me to replace them both with someone else entirely (Sancho). I will enjoy making Armando a very minor bit player on the periphery of things.

- That bit with Esteban thinking about executioners not being successful in decapitating prisoners the first time around? That is actually something real that I've heard before... probably in something discussing Henry VII and his wives, if I recall correctly.

 Also, high treason refers to acts of treason committed against a sovereign.

- From what I understand, rice pudding (arroz con leche) is a popular comfort food in Mexican culture. Have a recipe.

- Poor jaquins. They were not used well. I remembered in one episode (it might've been the special where Elena goes to Vallestra) it was stated that they were the guardians of Avalor -- okay, so why did all we see them do was pester Shuriki in "Elena/Sofia And The Secret Of Avalor" then? If you knew Esteban was the last member of the royal family around, then why not just grab him, fly him somewhere safe, then go back and attack Shuriki? I'm sure Esteban would've been more then happy to provide info to them in order to aid in a successful revolt. But no. They were just cute animal sidekicks who were cheerleaders and transportation for Elena. There's writing a show for little kids, and there's making characters stupid because you can't write. If they'd tried putting up a fight against Shuriki then that would've been something at least. They never really did anything to make me believe they were these stalwart guardians, much less be taken seriously as such. And I was actually intrigued by Cruz and his sister, but they were wasted too (you wasted A.C. Slater, writers!)! 

Uh, I have different plans for the jaquins here. Also, because I'm not limited by a Y-7 rating, expect to see them, as the kids say, "tear shit up."

- I wanted to add more depth to the feud between Victor and the Castillo-Flores clan. I do not see the guy as having any interest in religion, and that would not make him kindly disposed to a bunch of staunch Catholics (Francisco the traditionalist, anybody?). Does anyone remember it being stated that Victor's father was the royal treasurer? Was that ever brought up again?

- I don't think a person confronting a sorceress by themselves without some kind of backup or protection is smart, no (IMHO, Esteban would think the same). Yes, I still feel that way even if the other protagonists keep on telling us how awesome and brave said person is for doing so. I'm guessing Elena just charged in like she was just gonna straight-up body Shuriki with no strategy or plan because that's precisely what she did when Shuriki returned. She's a really frustrating protagonist to watch. :-/

- So initially my fics were going to be neutral towards the issue of the characters' religion. If EoA's Reddit community is anything to go by, I feel like several of the fans would react negatively to the religious elements. But a person I knew made the argument that Christian analogues do crop up in fantasy settings, such as Lord Of The Rings, The Chronicles Of Narnia, and Dawnflight. And EoA itself did seem to be implying that the characters are Roman Catholic, considering the fact that they observe Carnival ("King Of The Carnival"). And they are Latinos, so... more then likely, Catholics. Come on, if Hanukkah is a thing in EoA, then why not Catholicism?

I hope people are not going to take any of this and accuse me of being okay with the bad things the Church has done, even though there is absolutely nothing in TCUWTS to even suggest that. Nor do I think that an EoA fic is really the right kind of vehicle to criticize the Church with. One could probably better do that if you were say, writing for the series Evil (a more grounded series that does deal with real world social commentary). But it is the Internet, so I've resigned myself to someone saying something eventually.

I thought it'd be a nice change of pace from what we tend to see in fiction (the Church practically declaring war on anyone who uses magic/magical creatures) to have the Church here view good magic as a gift from God instead. It's just something you don't see too often. The more I thought about it, the more I think introducing religion wouldn't just add more depth to the cast, but give insight into how they engage with the world around them, other people, and even see themselves. I'm not Catholic, but I do find the architecture of their churches beautiful and the services have a certain... gravitas to them. And there's another reason why I wanted to touch on this matter...

- The chapel scene in my fic was inspired by this: link It's a really memorable moment in the movie, and you have no idea how much I just love the twisted juxtaposition of a character pretending to be pious and sitting in church while dark things are going on outside (though in Esteban's case, I make it clear that unlike Michael, he didn't know that anyone was going to get axed. He is a lot of things. Psychotic isn't one of them. Even EoA for all its flaws usually makes that clear). No one gets baptized in my scene, so I devised the idea of Esteban and Victor going to Mass early as a cover story instead. I was told about the Confiteor, a prayer in which evil is rejected and which occurs early on as a ritual cleansing before the Sacrament, and wanted to specifically feature it in place of Godfather's baptismal prayer. I don't know how canon played it or if they even did, but I knew I did not want to have a scene with Esteban and Victor sitting around sneering and cackling evilly because OMG SO EVUL. That's very cartoony and lame.

I'm actually not sure if Victor knew Shuriki was going to kill the king and queen or not.

- I figured Esteban would have pet names for his grandparents, so I did some Googling and landed on Lita and Papito respectively for them. He also calls Francisco "old man" (in his head), something which started out as an insult but morphed into a term of affection with time.

'Esteban Of Avalor' character listing

Esteban Of Avalor is a bit of a jokey placeholder name that I've been using for my EoA fics. Anyways, some of these entries, like King Felipe's existence, will probably clash with canon. I don't know if Avalor's early rulers (I'm not talking about the Maruvians) were ever touched on or not. This list will be updated whenever a new character of note is introduced.

 

~ Humans ~

Ana: Twenty-something serving girl in the Castillo-Flores household.

 

Antonio: Teenaged stable hand in the Castillo-Flores household.

 

Don Jorge Benevente-Ruiz: Old friend of Francisco's; nobleman who owns a large cacao farm. Father of Rodolfo.

King Felipe I: Avalor's first king. Elena, Isabel, and Esteban's ancestor.

 

Marta: Elderly nursemaid of the Castillo-Flores. Deceased.

 

Father Martinez: Catholic priest who served as chaplain to the Castillo-Flores family when Esteban was younger and who oversaw the royal chapel. Deceased.

 

Don Rodolfo Benevente-Ruiz: Avalor's current Minister of Finance. Son of Jorge Benevente-Ruiz and a childhood acquaintance of Elena, Esteban, and Isabel's. Married to a woman named Inez and the father of three (Santiago, Juan Pablo, and Leonore).

 

Tomas Delgado: The former Chief Royal Treasurer and father of Victor Delgado. Also Carla's paternal grandfather.

 

Sancho: Esteban's valet; older man who suffers from muteness.

~ Animals and other creatures ~ 

 

Arpegiar: Esteban's horse, a Spanish Andalusian gelding.

Atrevido: A horse owned by a younger Esteban; died from natural causes.

A master list of my fandoms

Having seen other people comprise lists of their favorite fandoms to write in and why, I felt inspired to do one of my own. It will be updated accordingly whenever I branch out to new fandoms.

Please note that this is all just how I personally feel about these particular programs/films/books/etc. I'm fully aware that a number of people out there won't agree with my viewpoints, which is perfectly fine. I hold no ill will towards normal fans of these series. All I ask is that people please be respectful in return. Telling me how I should enjoy something, or saying I don't understand the brilliance of [BLANK] is not going to suddenly make me start liking a series I've criticized out of the blue.

A character's name in bolded letters means I really love them. Just because I don't include certain characters as my favorites doesn't necessarily mean that I dislike them. I mean yes, there certainly are some characters I dislike, but there are also plenty of others that I'm just fine with but just really can't call favorites.

Major

Disney
Buckle up buttercup, 'cuz I got a lot of thoughts on this fandom.

Well, I felt it would be easier to just have a catch-all Disney category, instead of separately listing every single Disney show and movie I like. If I had done that, then this list would be significantly longer then it already is! Anyways, yes, I’m a Disney kid -- grew up on their shows and movies. I credit Disney (as well as Warner Bros and, to a minor extent, Don Bluth's movies) for inspiring my lifelong love of anthromorphic/animal characters, drawing, animation, and voice acting. I really don't have much interest in the theme parks though, the priciness of which puts me off. Plus, on this one Disney roleplaying game forum I used to be part of, there was a clique made up of staffers and popular roleplayers who would act like if you hadn't been to the parks in years you weren't worth talking to. Sorry I wasn't born into money, you guys. 😒

Very few people know this about me, but in my teenage years I went through an edgy phase where I was vehemently anti-Disney – I thought their films were childish and promoted a false view of reality, the company was bad, etc. I still think the company itself has done some pretty crappy things (for one, the late Peggy Lee being forced to take them to court just so she could get royalties for her work on Lady And The Tramp), and have some big problems with the direction they've been going in for some years now -- for starters, their ongoing quest to become a monopoly. But I fault the corporation for making these bad decisions, rather then the animators, producers, writers, etc who work hard on their animated properties. So I feel comfortable with watching the movies (and my preferred shows) because it's the characters and animation that are the main draw for me.

I'm not fond of all these mediocre sequels and live-action remakes that have been coming out in recent years either (or will be coming out eventually), and don't care for a number of their newer animated TV series like Elena Of Avalor and The Lion Guard. But I came to realize that blaming the films and characters for making young girls into docile housewives or whatever is about as absurd as blaming video games for causing violent behavior – for one, it’s ultimately up to parents to explain the differences between fantasy and reality to their kids. For the record, I never once had the idea that I needed to be rescued by a man or give up everything for one or something after watching Disney princess movies as a little girl.

I am a big fan of several ‘90s Disney Afternoon programs, many of the animated films, and a handful of their older live-action films. On the other hand, I don't really like most of the animated movie midquels/sequels/prequels (although some of the characters in them are pretty cool) and don't count them as canon. I also admit to not really liking Beauty And The Beast (the original version) like I used to, but that's due to its fanbase ruining the movie for me with their obnoxious antics. I had similar feelings towards The Little Mermaid for the same reason, though rewatching TLM years later I discovered that my bad memories have subsided (thankfully). I'm hoping the case will be the same for BATB. But I have a problem with the terms "Disney Renaissance" and "Disney Revival", as well as the fans of those two eras in general. 

I also don't care for the classic villains stans who carry on like those particular characters are the only noteworthy things about the movies, and in some cases, totally reimagine them as these unfairly persecuted saints. Like, the animation, the themes of the overall story, the score, none of that matters until this one character shows up and begins singing. Kinda superficial, that.

Seriously, every time I see a classic villain stan, this springs to mind:

In case you couldn't tell, I've always found the discourse surrounding the various films and characters to be very exhausting (it happens with some of the shows too, but not to the extreme that it does with the films). The bulk of it borders on outright absurdity, a refusal to look at the actual source material, and bad faith arguments. Sometimes I say that no one hates Disney like Disney fans do. Seriously, with some of the people out there who say they like Disney, it's like "Do you really? Doesn't seem like it (if you want to know specifically what I'm talking about here, then just ask. There's a difference between normal criticisms and then the stuff I see)." People, your preferences for certain characters and such are just that -- preferences and your own personal opinion, not indisputable fact. The fans seem to thrive on toxic negativity, not something I want any part of. 

Meanwhile, those who have a more open hatred for Disney are equally annoying, calling anything that appears twee and sentimental "Disney-fied" or any other number of similarly dismissive names when there's a massive variety of films and shows. Don't wanna watch something something cute like, say, Aristocats? Fine. There are several other films and shows which have intense/or thoughtful moments, or even dark elements -- off the top of my head, many of the elements in The Hunchback of Notre Dame, Pinocchio, Gargoyles, the dinosaur and Chernabog scenes respectively in Fantasia.

Well, back to nice things about Disney, lol: It's so amazing and interesting to me to see their catalogue of movies through time and how each decade offers something different. There are films I prefer to certain other ones, and a scant few that I have no interest in watching ever again, but I am hard-pressed to actually call any of them awful. The ones I'm not big on I find simply aren't to my tastes/or are very mediocre. I've seen much worse animated fare from other companies. 

The sheer variety of characters and settings one has to work with when writing Disney fic is just plain awesome. So it's frustrating seeing fics which just parrot the same handful of ideas over and over again: Disney high school or college (which, granted, I have seen some fun fan art dealing with this concept), bland human OC goes to the characters' world/or worlds, all the classic princesses are subhuman. Several of my favorite characters are openly reviled by the overall fandom however. Oh well, that's just par for the course for me. As to how I choose which characters to feature in a story, I try to shuffle them around as well as give the less popular guys the spotlight. I love that the company seems to actively encourage crossovers. So my stories will either be crossovers, alternate universes, or just focus on certain films and series, such as Elena Of Avalor (the appalling writing of which I want to try and fix).

Favorite characters: Cinderella, Robert Callaghan, Dawn Bellwether, the Tramp, Scrooge McDuck (OG version), Hercules, Hermes, Councillor Esteban, Lexington, Matt Bluestone, Tiana, Prince Naveen, Aladdin, Dr. Delbert Doppler, John Silver, Darkwing Duck, Chief, Tod, Mr. Incredible, Basil of Baker Street, Genie, Jake, Bernard, Percival McLeach, Cedric (Sofia the First), Hans Westergaard, Lumiere, Bruno Madrigal, Camilo Madrigal, Pepper Ann Pearson (although I don't think there was a single unfunny character in the whole show), waaaaay too many others to try and name.

My Little Pony                                                                                                                                       Primarily Friendship Is Magic (Generation 4), though I don't have the absurd hateboner for the older series that a lot of other G4 fans do. After all, I did grow up on the original '80s show, and actually prefer the heavier fantasy/adventure bent and cool villains present there, things FiM lacks, IMHO). 

Now, there are FiM episodes which are cute and fun, I enjoyed the Rainbow Roadtrip movie, and there are some good things about the series, but it's not the greatest cartoon of all time to me. The series actually does have some potentially fascinating elements, but the show tended to bypass them in exchange for boring crap/or appeasing bronies, especially later on. Personally, I actually like certain characters way better then I do FiM itself. Some of them weren't utilized as well as they could've been. I didn't even bother to watch a number of episodes as well as the newer seasons simply because they don't appeal to me in any way. I also think the IDW comics are terribad. I'm honestly fine with just cherry-picking from the better elements of FiM for my works. 

But the fanfiction for this fandom? Quite a bit of it is just jaw-droppingly inventive, as well as being pretty solid. I tell people that this fandom churns out a much greater quantity of readable material compared to many of my other fandoms. I feel like the fans' minds go to much more creative, wilder places then canon does. Plus, fan works aren't restrained by having to target children and don't have all the show's excess baggage (the Harmony Tree! The Friendship School!) and bloated cast weighing everything down. I mean, there's bad stuff and overused cliches of course, but I will readily read a MLP fic before I will anything written for, say, Sonic The Hedgehog or certain Disney fandoms. There are a lot of good ideas to be gleaned from the fan art as well.

As for my ideas for this fandom? Well, most of them were crossovers that came and went. The one that's actually stuck around is a Elena Of Avalor crossover/AU that'll hopefully develop certain characters further, as well as some side stories that'll play around with certain characters and wordbuilding for this idea.

Favorite characters: Rarity, Prince Blueblood (yeah yeah, feel free to call me names or whatever. Don't care, take your salt elsewhere), Zecora, Steven Magnet, the FlimFlam brothers (who shouldn't be these hardcore villains, come on canon writers), Tree Hugger, Filthy Rich, Yona, Maud Pie, Fancy Pants, Ember, Heavy Weight, Granny Smith, Capper, Captain Caelano, Grubber. There are a number of other characters that I like the look of and seem interesting, but there's either not much meat to them (Fleur de Lis, Scootaloo, Spitfire, Somnambula [I'm still not sure why they choose to name her that]), or I hate what canon did with them (Iron Will).

Road Rovers
I was being too nice when I was talking about RR before. XD This isn't the worst cartoon ever, but I would definitely never use the word good to describe it either. At this point in my life I don't even wanna spend the cash to get the DVD set of the series. Sad to say, Hunter and Colleen aren't exactly favorites of mine's. Sorry guys. Exile, Blitz, Shag, the Master, and Hubert are much more likable and potentially interesting to me, but were never fleshed out any. Like a friend of mine's who's on the same page as myself said, the writers sacrificed storytelling, character development, and even logic all for the sake of telling jokes (many of which I don't think even have much staying power after the first time you've heard them). 

Oh my gosh, the freakin' jokes. A few of them aren't particularly horrible, and I enjoy a good action-comedy as much as the next person, but more often then not the show doesn't pull comedy off very well. A bunch of it is slapstick (which, y'know, if you're writing a story and you want to include humor, just goes over so well in prose). As a result, Road Rovers' tone is all over the place and the main heroes come off as being indifferent if not outright callous towards one another, as well as self-involved a lot of the time. This also set off a very obnoxious trend within the fandom of fans not just expecting but outright telling you to include goofy jokes in your stories because it's what the show did. The BNFs, who have stories referencing torture and rape and have stuff like angsty OCs who either get or have been tortured and abused in every way imaginable, do not appear to get this same sort of treatment from these reviewers. 🤔

The fanbase largely was and still only is vaguely interested in Road Rovers' core concept and fawn over some of the main heroes' designs, and that's it. This is a fandom where self-inserts and such took over with a vengeance. Aside from Hunter and Colleen, who are the major designated shipping tools (either with each other or with somebody's self-insert respectively), everybody else largely gets treated as animate props/or plot devices for fanfics. Blitz simply exists to be emotionally and physically abused by just about everybody else, including all of the Mary Sues and Marty Stus, Exile occasionally gets a few Mary Sues and evil siblings chasing after him and is never written well, etc. There's an unusual reluctance on the part of fans to worldbuild and explore the implications and effects of having a device like the Transdogmafier existing. Then you've got the stories and such that make you question if the creator even likes any of the canonical Rovers, given that their ideas center around having their Sues and Stus show up to humiliate and sometimes even literally assault and brutalize Hunter and co. And there's no character development whatsoever in any of these stories. As a result, the majority of the fanfics are just angsty action/adventure stories with furries and bad shipping. My friends and I literally quit reading RR fic because of all this.

Also, NGL, but I find how people gush over the Rovers as being so sexy weird. To me they're just generic cartoony-looking anthro dogs. At least when people say they had or have a crush on characters like Mr. Wolf or Nala I get it, because you often have the trifecta of appealing character design/personality/vocal performance at work there. The Rovers meanwhile are shallower then a dishpan, and there's kind of a hint of personality with the guys (certain ones more than others), but again, not very much. But the lack of a real personality makes it even easier to project one's fantasies onto whichever Rover you thirst after.

BTW, a few BNFs over on deviantART have stated before that they do not want people drawing porn of the characters, yet they themselves will draw fan art that is either highly suggestive/or literal fetish art. ಠ_ಠ

So with that shining endorsement of the series, let me talk about why I choose to write fanfic for it. XD I like superheroes. I like animals and anthro characters. Animals are true innocents, so the idea of them literally gaining the power and ability to help both themselves and others is an extremely appealing idea to me. I appreciate the fact that the heroes are an international coalition. The show’s universe has both supernatural and sci-fi aspects that offer plenty of story potential. I also knew one lone fan who actually wanted to develop the six canonical Rovers further. Even if I do have some disagreements and such with this particular author regarding his interpretations of them as characters (please note that when I use the word "disagreements", it's not like I think this guy is horrible and he deserves to be stoned. I just developed a different take on the characters is all), his ideas were still instrumental in pushing me towards creating my own storyverse. 

Later on, seeing how actual good shows like Steven Universe, One Piece, and Transformers Animated developed their characters, as well as remarkable fanfics for such fandoms as My Little Pony of all things made me go, "Why hasn't anybody ever tried doing that for the canon Rovers and co before?" Why not give them backstories and actual lives, you know, make them more then just one-note jokes, stepping stones to show off how l33t your OCs (donut steel) are, and ship fodder? Even if it is just a silly doggie cartoon, I still like for my heroes to have actual emotional cores.

So that's what I want to achieve with my fanfics -- let OCs help flesh out the world while alternately developing the canon characters. My fics also borrow a lot of fan characters and concepts from a few older fics, but I will try to explain these elements rather then just throwing them at readers and expecting them to know everything already.

Favorite characters: Blitz (doesn’t deserve all the bizarre hatred heaped upon him by the fans), Sport, Exile, the Master, Professor Hubert.

Sonic The Hedgehog
Well, I've played the older games and read the Archie comics as a wee one. A tiny minority of side characters are my primary reason for dabbling in this fandom in the first place, as is the root concept of the western canons. You have kingdoms and other exotic locales being menaced by both magical and technology-based villains, as opposed to the games/game-related media, where it's basically just a small group of kids fighting a mad scientist out in the middle of nowhere. Personally I prefer having lore and a more expansive setting to play around with.

But Sonic has some things in common with several of the other fandoms listed here which frustrate me and in turn makes me want to write for them. Aside from Sonic Underground, my feelings towards much of the source material ranges from "meh" to outright disdain (SatAM and Archie). SatAM is just an obscenely overrated kids' show and Archie a convoluted, wannabe edgy soap opera. Like I said before the games are simplistic, so I have zero interest in writing for them (doesn't mean I didn't have fun playing them though). The live-action films are just okay. That's all. And just to make something clear, I don't even think Underground was perfect or anything. Certainly not. I'm not too familiar with the anime stuff or the IDW comic, so I have no thoughts there.

ETA: Live-action Sonic is kinda adorable though.

I think the cast in the incarnations I am familiar with are painfully underdeveloped and banal, even the characters I'm fond of. For the most part I strongly dislike the major/popular characters, sorry. The modern character designs are completely unappealing to me -- massive spherical heads, hands that appear to be the same length as their heads (somehow), the Betty Spaghetti limbs... I could go on, but they look less like animal people and more like plastic dolls. The fact that the females must be fully clothed while male characters can't is also pretty silly. You can't see anything revealing on them, and secondly, the overwhelming majority of the females are so cartoony-looking that I don't even see what'd be so scandalous if they weren't fully clothed? I mean Rouge I get, but I've seen people freak out over SatAM!Sally and I'm like "Maybe the problem is less with her design and more with you?" I mean, God forbid characters just wear whatever best suits their personality and preferences lol.

The fandom (which completely deserves its bad rep) doesn't help matters at all. I'd daresay Archie fans are the most combative, obsessive branch of the Sonic fanbase. They seem hellbent on making me dislike Archie Sonic even more then I already do by acting like it's on the same level as the world's greatest literary classics, and no one should ever dare to criticize its depth, brilliance, and profound beauty (though SatAM fans aren't much better in regards to that particular series). Or they're just plain weird and cringey. I know that's saying a lot since so many Sonic fans in general often come across as childish and, well, extra about nearly everything. That's not to say that every Archie fan is bad though -- there are two I know of ATM who don't make me roll my eyes endlessly and can actually hold reasonable, intelligent conversations with me and other people. I know there are more then likely other chill Sonic fans out there, but unfortunately the nutbars stand out more, and it seems like you can't help but to run into them.

Another major issue for me is how a number of fans hate and discourage other people who want to try doing things which deviate from the source material. Stuff like people being advised not to make female fan characters that aren't stereotypically dainty animals, or pushing what are very obviously their own headcanons onto you as actual real canon. Wild overbearing nonsense like that. Oh well. So much for doing something fresh and unique with a series that's decades old now. This is also why almost every SatAM and Archie "reboot" or "alternate universe" fanfic I've seen just repeats the same mishmash of ideas again and again -- Sally is always the Freedom Fighters' leader and she/Tails/Nicole (if her furry form is being used)/or Sonic must get fifty+ power-ups -- nobody else is ever allowed to shine, because they just exist to be the cheerleading squad for the aforementioned characters and/or the writer's lame FCs (... much like the source material, actually). And that's if any of them even show up. If they do, then Antoine must always date Bunnie, Sally's brother and dad must literally act like the Malfoys, there's no character development anywhere in sight, etc. These fics are near-indistinguishable from the canons they're based on. I don't see the point of acting like they're something brand-new when the writing never takes any risks. I'm sorry to be a butt about this guys, but that's why I gave up on reading Sonic fics years ago. Most of them are about as boring and stale as a box of fifty-year-old crackers. At least you can eat crackers, which is actually a point in their favor against these unoriginal bore-fests.

Anyways, my fics are AUs. All of them. I'm just gonna go full steam ahead and tackle concepts and ideas I feel are fun and take risks rather then play things safe just to appease the fanbase and appeal to nostalgia.                     

Favorite characters: Antoine, Bartleby, Sonia, Knuckles (the Paramount movie version), Agent Stone, Lupe (admittedly more for her design and potential than anything else. Otherwise there's nothing at all to her character), and Hershey (see Lupe). Likewise, the potential of Prince Elias and Geoffrey St. John's characters was there, but the comic writers just failed spectacularly at handling them both. ETA: Okay, so I guess Paramount!Sonic has grown on me quite a bit. I'll add Infinite as well, but it sounds like he's another character like Lupe/Elias/Hershey/Geoffrey.

Secondary

Bravestarr

Somebody I knew referenced Bravestarr a couple of times before while discussing one of his original fan characters. I'd never heard of this cartoon, so, being curious, Googled it in order to learn more. It sounded interesting enough for me to look up the episodes online and watch a few of them. 

The show can be a little cheesy at times, but I still love it. What can I say, I'm a sucker for westerns and science-fiction. The heroes are all pretty upstanding people, as well as fallible (Bravestarr and Thirty-Thirty disagree with one another sometimes, for example), which makes them both good characters in my book, as opposed to the “perfect heroes who can do no wrong” I tend to see in my other fandoms. The heroes are also pretty badass, which gives them even more cool points, and it’s refreshing to have a show where a Native person is both the lead and a hero.

The mystery surrounding the Equestrians, the race that Thirty-Thirty belongs to, inspires me enough to write a story about them -- well, one of them anyways, and her meeting and subsequent adventures with the canon crew. Yes, that's right, it's the dreaded (female) original fan character! XD Don't worry, she's not going to be stronger and faster than Bravestarr is and immediately marry Thirty-Thirty and have a billion kids with him.

Favorite characters: Thirty-Thirty, Bravestarr, Judge J.B.

Danger Rangers
I got into this show late (apparently it debuted on PBS back in 2008), in 2012. The only reason I even started watching it in the first place was because I happened to be channel-surfing one morning, saw what looked like either a sea lion or seal character (who turned out to be Sully), and was intrigued, as I like pinnipeds and rarely ever see them as major characters in media. And that was my introduction to Danger Rangers.

It took a while for my interest in it to snowball, but my attitude slowly went from "Eh, this is okay", to really liking most of the Rangers as characters. I say "most" because at this point I feel Kitty is a big ol' Mary Sue. Anyways, the show's pretty cornball, especially the music videos (which I fast-forward right through), a number of the antagonists and incidental characters tend to be total stereotypes, and the designs for the supporting and background characters are more often than not ugly with a capital U. But the Rangers (aside from, ahem, that one character I just mentioned...) are actually interesting and fun. Also, the writers gave three of them backstories (or hints about their pasts anyways), which is rather surprising for a cartoon like this. Supposedly some of the safety tips featured in Danger Rangers really did help save lives (at least according to Wikipedia... heh). How awesome is that, if that actually is true (I hope it is)? I also managed to get a few other people I know hooked on DR too.

ETA: Something that I should mention is that my stories do make the characters a little more... eh, I won't say edgy, but I do give them more teeth, as it were, than what the show does They're adults, so I approach them as being such.

Favorite characters: Sully (I love this guy so much), Gabriela, Burble, Burt, Squeaky.

Digimon
I can still remember that weekday afternoon I came home from high school and began channel surfing to find something to watch. I came across this anime featuring an assorted bunch of weird but cute creatures, like dogs with unicorn horns and mini-dinosaurs. That show turned out to be Digimon Adventure. At first I just watched out of boredom and didn't give the show much thought afterwards, but after a while, decided to give it another try. And that time, I enjoyed it. I started watching the rest of the seasons when I could. Part of the fun of the series is seeing what forms the digimon end up evolving into.

I like all the previous seasons, even though Tamers annoys me for a couple of reasons (sorry, Tamers fans). For one, I find "Tamers" to be a weird name, as it seems to imply that the digimon are wild animals needing to be tamed. Most of them obviously aren't, so what's up with that? I never did see the rest of Savers due to Toon Disney abruptly changing their scheduling mid-season and airing the show at weird times (they had a really annoying habit of doing that with a couple of their shows). I did start watching Digimon Fusion on Nickelodeon. It was alright at best, but Nick stopped showing it (sensing a pattern here?), so I don't know how it ended. I'll have to see if it's available elsewhere. My favorite season has to be Adventure though. As to whether I prefer the dubs or the originals, there are things I like about both actually. While the original versions don't cut out important info or distort certain characters, I actually prefer the English voice actors for the most part. Too bad there's not a way to combine both versions.

Digimon is one of those canons that allows people to create their own takes on the whole concept, and I like that openness. I also enjoy seeing the relationships that develop between humans and their digimon partners, as well as among the digimon themselves. But in many stories, I notice the digimon are either basically nothing more than talking weapons, or take a backseat to poorly-written romance and melodrama. My story idea would be more in the spirit of the show. It's an untitled Adventure 02 AU that would explore elements of the show that could've been handled better, as well as adding in some completely new stuff. Like, I would not even make any kind of attempt to rewrite Ken's redemption. That was perfection. Instead, I'd go another route with the Digimon Emperor altogether... 

Favorite characters: I'm going to break this part down by season. Also, this list might be subject to change, just because I haven't seen any of the seasons in a long time.

Adventure:
Humans: Joe, Mimi (she gets a bum rap in the fandom I feel), Izzy, Tai, Sora, T.K.
Digimon: Gomamon, Agumon, Gabumon, Biyomon, Palmon, Patamon and his digivolutions.

Adventure 02:
Humans: Davis, June, Yolei (even though she tended to not be the most logical person at times), Ken, Cody (see Yolei), Rosa.
Digimon: Veemon, Hawkmon, Armadillomon (I don't care for Shakkoumon's design though... sorry ya'll. Yes, I know he's supposed to be based on a shakōkidogū. I still feel the same way), Wormmon, Pegasusmon, Nefertimon.

Tamers:
Humans: Kazou, Suzie.
Digimon: Terriermon, Renamon, Antylamon, Cyberdramon (I think I'm more partial to him now after reading Nolaqueen265's story Digital Realms)

Frontier:
Humans: J.P. (he reminds me of a human version of Blitz, lol), Koichi.
Digimon: Kazemon, Mercurymon, Ranamon.

Savers: Need to re-watch this one.

Fusion:
Humans: So far, Jeremy and Nene.
Digimon: No one yet.

Garfield 
Write-up coming soon!

How To Train Your Dragon                                                                                                                   These films are so good. Likable characters, compelling storyline, few if any of the annoying kids' media tropes I tend to see repeated elsewhere. The third one is... superficially good. What I mean by that is that I admit to liking it after watching it (the ending very much reminds me of stuff like this, which greatly charms me), but then later on, seeing a few (mature, rational) people online point out all the flaws with Hidden World's plot, I must agree that it disregards everything in the prior films. I'm aware there are books that the films are based on, but have yet to read any of them.

It's so wonderful watching Hiccup and his people develop over the course of the films. Yes, that's another big reason why I love this franchise: actual. Character. Development... for the most part. Admittedly they don't really delve into the other Riders like Fishlegs so much, and Astrid feels pretty generic, but it was Hiccup's show, so... Likewise, the twins seem stuck as idiots and comic relief (AKA Pumbaa and Timon Syndrome, lol). I feel Ruffnut was at her best in the first film. But this issue isn't as bad as it is with another Dreamworks franchise, Kung Fu Panda, which I used to like but at this point have zero interest in because any character not named Po or Tigress feels so wasted and one-note. At least we get to see Stoic change both his way of thinking and understand his son better. Also, let me just say this -- while I do find Astrid uninteresting, I don't hate her or anything. I do think it's nice Hiccup got his dream girl. 

I've not seen the spinoffs. I hear they're more kiddified then the films, but it sounds like the Dragon Riders get more focus there, which intrigues me.

I've seen some really good fanfics out there, but I've also seen some that just feel like Hiccup is the author's stand-in and the writer was evidently bullied in school or some such, so s/he has Hiccup beat up all his oppressors in the village and become the coolest kid on the block. I'm sorry, I thought I was reading a story about How To Train Your Dragon, not someone's personal power/revenge fantasies. That's not my thing at all. There are ways to handle Hiccup's confronting the other kids or whoever about his treatment without having the plot very obviously be the author's venting and such. 

Anyways, all fic ideas I have for this fandom are crossovers with Disney -- Aladdin, Mulan, and Sleeping Beauty respectively. I'm particularly excited about the Aladdin one because it involves Mozenrath. Snarky wizard meets snarky viking. This gives me life.

Favorite characters: Hiccup, Toothless, Ruffnut (I prefer fanfic!Ruff, since she has more depth and an actual learning curve), Tuffnut, Valka.

Littlest Pet Shop
I tried collecting the toys as a little girl, so any cartoon based around them will more then likely pique my interest. Yes, even now. This is one of the many fandoms I dabble in where the main characters are the only real draw for me. The 2012 series is the one I most prefer, even though it ranges in quality from cute to "good grief, what the heck did I just watch?" I didn't mind Blythe having some episodes revolving around her (she makes a good den mother and voice of reason for the pets), but the show's called Littlest Pet Shop, not Blythe And Her Boring Friends (I swear half the first season was like that). I'm sorry, I wish I could find Jasper and the other kids interesting, but they’re not, and they work better as the supporting cast.

The animals on the other hand have way more colorful personalities. Compared to the majority of the pet characters in the previous LPS series, they’re more likable and amusing. Unlike most of the fandom however, I hate the Biskitt sisters and absolutely do not find them sympathetic in any way. I'm not into the whole shipping scene that's so prevalent in the fandom either. Those people take hooking up brightly colored cartoon animals way too seriously for my tastes. But heck, I guess you could apply that to all the fandoms on this list.

I've had story ideas for this series come and go, with most of them being crossovers. The one that's looking the most likely to be written is this weird 2020 Sonic The Hedgehog crossover inspired by some fan art on deviantART I've seen.

Favorite characters: Sunil, Vinnie, Penny-Ling, Pepper (she grew on me like a fungus, lol), Captain Cuddles.

Loonatics Unleashed
Loonatics… Um, well... the less said about it the better, lol. I wanted to really like this show because I dig the goofy concept, so I watched the first season and about half of the second, but the second season is so bad I gave up on it. Looking back, the first season was a cliche blah-fest, but at least somewhat tolerable compared to the second one. Still, it's not exactly a series I feel revved up to revisit. That said, the Loonatics themselves have potential -- they just need personalities, Ace, Lexi, Danger, and Slam especially.

Another one of my issues with the show is that the execution was very flawed. For starters, why did Zadovia hire Danger Duck in the first place when she clearly greatly disliked him, or kept him around for that matter (well, on second thought, I do know why -- the show needed a buttmonkey)? Why is this woman who’s supposed to be a professional, respected leader playing favorites with her team (sorry Zadovia fans, but her character has never impressed me one bit with her attitude. No, her being a woman has zip to do with anything, if she were male I'd dislike her just the same)? What exactly was the point of humanizing Pepe Le Pew and Foghorn Leghorn’s descendants? My boy Pepe gets done so dirty

I’ve seen a few fanfics that are way more entertaining than the show itself is, and in turn was inspired to write one of my own. Coming up with ways of improving on the show also seems to become a thing with younger generations, which is really cool. I decided to go for a total reimagining and overhaul of the whole series, since I don't want my ideas to be confined by canon. The setting will be post-apocalyptic (a comet hit the freakin' planet for cryin' out loud), and the Loonatics hopefully more interesting characters to follow. It will have elements of a deconstruction fic too in regards to certain characters and canon plot events, but the whole idea is still a work in progress. Some characters from the show will still be sticking around though.

Favorite characters: I don't know if I even have any, lol. They're not really... characters. I saw somebody once refer to them as watered-down Looney Tunes. That's a very accurate description. Even some of the Sonic cast have more to work with, and those characters are hella flat.

Transformers
I'm a relative latecomer to this franchise. I didn't see the '80s cartoon as a kid. Beast Wars wound up being my first introduction to it. I wasn't a regular viewer though, and admittedly think I only watched just because I like the idea of robots that turn into animals. I've also seen the first four Michael Bay movies (though I've grown pretty bored with Bayformers since then), but the only things I like about them is Optimus Prime's being a badass with a cool voice. But I can see that in other better written series, so.... 

Some fan art and a friend were responsible for further getting me into Transformers. After deciding to write Beast Planet (see below), I realized I was going to have to learn more about the Transformers and their world. Shauni (the aforementioned friend) suggested watching Transformers Prime. So I did, and really wound up getting into it. The characters are fun and the writing is for the most part engaging. These days I do get why some people aren't that keen on it (a lopsided focus on certain characters for one). Anyways, out of curiosity I followed up with Transformers Animated, which I enjoyed even more, some Generation 1 (um, no comment), and 2015's Robots In Disguise, which was flawed, but there are things to enjoy about it too, IMHO. Rescue Bots is so-so, but I do like a few of the characters in it.

I intend on trying to watch Transformers Armada and the Robots In Disguise anime just to see what they're like, as well as re-watching Beast Wars at some point. The newer cartoons, Cyberverse, Rescue Bots Academy, and Earthspark have not been to my tastes, and I wound up drifting away from them after a few episodes. I am considering watching the Netflix shows however. And the movie Bumblebee surprised me with how fresh and entertaining it actually was. Originally the previews and plot synopsis didn't strike me as being interesting at all and I thought it was just going to be more Bayformers, but I'm glad I decided to watch it.

So far, my Transformers story will be a crossover called Beast Planet, which is a Disney/Transformers fusion/AU.

Favorite characters: Optimus Prime, Prowl (Animated), Ratchet, Bulkhead, Knock Out, Jetfire, Jetstorm, Blurr (I actually kinda like G1 Blurr too), Starscream (namely his Prime incarnation), Bumblebee (RiD version -- I liked him just fine before, it's just that with an actual voice his personality really emerged), Chase, and Boulder.