New story up!

It's a one-shot merging Digimon Adventure 02 with the Netflix series Trollhunters. You can find it it at both my FF.net and A03 accounts.

October 2023 status report

New Dogs, New Tricks And A Brush With Danger are still being worked on, in addition to a one-shot idea I've had for a few years now. People who've heard me say stuff like this before may be rolling their eyes right about now, because I tend to struggle with one-shots, but the thing is 80% finished. It's more minimalist in terms of description and detail, while on the flip-side there's a lot of dialogue. Hopefully the story won't read like an info dump. I'll discuss it more when it's finished and posted, which'll probably be sometime this month. 

Working on it made me realize I didn't like my writing style for New Dogs, so I decided to rewrite its scenes but keep the dialogue. I can say that the beginning and the conclusion are mostly done.

Also I deleted Into The Spotlight off my FF.net account, and Gold With Envy will more then likely be following shortly. Both are extremely old and do not fit the current look of my AU, plus my OCs in the former fic have evolved significantly. 

Lastly, I'm looking at doing some "just shooting the breeze" type posts for this blog, like talking about my present stance on romance and the whole "shipping" scene.

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.

"Loyalty" commentary & notes

References:

- The plot is based around the Ultimate Spider-Man episode "Second Chance Hero". Shocking, I know.

General:

- I wanted to write something about Norman and his son. A little while ago I decided to try looking for some Norman-centric fanfics on Fanfiction.net. There were none. And one fic I came across depicted him as an incestuous pedophile. If there had been a bunch of positive stories about him out there Loyalty would've been written regardless, but the fact that it's the exact opposite situation just gave me extra incentive to write it.

I'm a fan of the daemon concept that's presented in the books that I'm crossing over with Ultimate Spider-Man here, the His Dark Materials series, not so much the rest of the books (which I suspect is the case for a bunch of people, because when I typically see HDM crossovers, they usually just use the daemon concept and that's all). I liked the first and even the second book as a kid, but the third one really confused me at times and turned out to be my least favorite entry. As an adult, I don't like any of them. 

ETA: Okay, let me go more into why I don't like this series. I don't recall much of the third book, The Amber Spyglass (thankfully), something I can't say for the first two books. 

Stuff I distinctly do remember about it? Well, it had big (excuse my French, but this is the most fitting description I can give) "Screw you mom/dad/grandma, stop showing the pastor my Twitter account!" energy. Lord Asriel and Mrs. Coulter are both despicable characters; they did not deserve redemption. Oh, and Will and Lyra having sex, and that saves the multiverse. 

Will and Lyra are twelve years old. Mmm-hmm.

Looking at reviews for The Amber Spyglass over on Goodreads, I saw critics make some excellent observations. One I'll share here is that Philip Pullman doesn't seem to be anti-religious. He just rejected organized religion and replaced it with a religion he made up for HDM, topped off with some New Age woo. Angels, Dust, witches, daemons clearly represent souls... those are all concepts either from or inspired by religion. If you're allowing room for the supernatural to exist, then you're opening up the door for just about anything, and that includes God.

All that said, the idea of having your personality be represented by a talking animal (I headcanon that they also represent one's subconscious) is a really cool idea. So I figured why not toss two things I like together? It's really fun to think about what kinds of daemons our favorite characters might have.

Fun facts:

- Daemon talk time. I'm pretty sure some people choose animals simply because they like them and think they're cool, not because they actually fit a certain character. For example, I saw a fic once where Harry Potter had a husky daemon. Now, I'm not even an HP fan and don't feel like a husky is really appropriate for him. I don't know what kind of animal he'd have, but husky seems like it was picked simply because the writer liked them.

I also think HDM is too on the nose about daemons."OMG that person has a rat/polecat/snake daemon so they must be the evulz!" "All servants have dog daemons, so that means they're born to serve others!" Wow. So if you wanted to be an archaeologist and your daemon settles as a dog, boom, that's it, you have to go work as a maid or something instead? What? What's up with these British children's books authors treating classism as something perfectly natural and even acceptable? HDM, Redwall, Harry Potter... I'm sure people can toss me some more titles. Even "evil animals" have their good qualities, and the reverse likewise goes for the "good animals". For example, rats are adaptable and pretty smart. Wouldn't things be more interesting and nuanced if a totally normal person had a rat daemon, and they had to go through life being side-eyed simply because his/her daemon happens to be a rat? So I really don't even like how Philip Pullman handles his own concept.

- Onto why the USM characters got the animals that they did in here. Right off the bat I knew Norman's daemon was going to be something predatory. On a whim I looked up the symbolism of the cougar as a totem animal at What's Your Sign.com, It's traits are said to be action, strength, nobility, patience, silence, decision, leadership, guardianship, and self-assurance.

Puma meaning (as well as symbolism of mountain lions or cougars) speaks to us of inspection, observation and scrutiny. In the wild, this creature will stare at an object, unmoving [sic], for what seems like an eternity. Further, she does this with stillness, patience. To those of us who heed the puma as a guide, we would take great care to observer our own lives with the kind of intese [sic] focus the puma does.



People who have identified the puma, mountain lion, and/or cougar as their animal totem are people who typically come into this world with a spiritual knowing. Those who attract this animal totem have a deeper understanding of spiritual things. They are very psychic, intuitive, and are likely to be artistically inclined.

Furthermore, the puma is a very protective energy. If you have this creature as your animal totem, you are blessed to have such a fierce and aggressive guardian with you. When called upon you will be amazed at the resourcefulness and assistance the puma meaning can offer.

In closing, it is important to recognize the puma and it's relatives are cats of sudden, vigorous action. This being the case, those who share the puma as their totem should be mindful of their tendancy [sic] to lash out too quickly, or act out in haste. Call upon the patience and observation of the puma before taking action in order to avoid quick and unsavory consequences. 

Sounds quite a bit like Norman to me.

Harry's daemon was hard to pick. He's sort of generic I guess, and they didn't develop him as much as I thought they could've. I do like him more here then I have in other continuities. I've never disliked him, but he was never someone I got excited about or anything. I think the "rich kid who tries to buy friendship and isn't that great at school" approach has more potential then "he's a geek like Peter too!" I did consider all his qualities before deciding that his loyalty, especially to Norman and his hopes for their relationship to improve, was noteworthy. So Harry was going to have a dog, which, in the world of HDM, would be a startling choice for someone from such a privileged background. I thought I'd play around with the silly "only servants have dog daemons" deal. That choice also helped the story come together.

But what breed of dog? Right off the bat I said no to the German shepherd, the Siberian husky, or anything husky-like due to their overexposure, the husky/spitz types especially, and just being overrated in general (JUST MY OPINION PLEASE DO NOT SEND ME DEATH THREATS). Sighthounds can be very lazy dogs, but when it's time to go, they can go. Sounds like Harry to me. I picked the whippet over it's more well-known cousin the greyhound.

Since Norman's father Amberson was a horrible person in the comics, again, I went with an intimidating animal, the European eagle owl.

Spider-Man gets a spider monkey! It might be uninspired, but I wanted an animal that could keep up with him all over the city and be easy to get around with. Plus, I think a monkey matches his personality. I don't know exactly how old Peter and Harry are off the top of my head, but I do think they're old enough to have settled daemons.

- Several of the daemon's names in HDM canon have a special significance behind them. It's no coincidence that both Osborns' daemons have names starting with the letter A. Astrakhan comes from a book I'm reading about pre-Communist era Russian rulers, and is a city in that particular country. Astra is Latin for "star", and Khan refers to a ruler in Turkic and Mongolian culture. It sounded like a good strong name for Norman's daemon.

I can't recall how or why I chose Aloisa, but it means "famous warrior".

That's pretty much it. My next HDM fusion will more then likely either be about the USM version of the Rhino or Big Hero Six.

ETA: I would like to revisit the "What if some fictional characters had daemons?" concept again!

Block well. Block hard. Block often. ❤️

This is still a hill that I will die on.

----

So I'm not the biggest fan of the Fanfiction subreddit... over on Reddit. But one of the good things I have gleaned from it is how its made me much more comfortable with a certain concept I'd shied away from previously: blocking other fans who become problems. Blocking generally seems to be regarded with contempt by many. People believe it's done to silence someone you don't agree with, it's cowardly, exclusionary, etc. But several Reddit posters repeatedly championed blocking for peace of mind in fandom (or anywhere online I guess).

I've been doing it for a while now. It's so pleasant to be able to post something with the knowledge that weirdos aren't going to be able to show up to ruin your day.

So I like to think I'm fairly lenient when it comes to people commenting on my stuff. I mean, fic writers these days (or at least many of the ones on R/Fanfiction do) legit get upset when someone gushes over their fics and say they want to see more. But a comment like that wouldn't make me bat an eye. Neither do I mind having things suggested to me as long as it's nothing whacked out; IE: "My OC needs to come in and start tickling [insert character name here]!"* Mmm, let's not and just say that they did. Heck, I'm fine with one word comments! I just think hearing what people have to say about your work can be really interesting.

However, I will block without comment a person when I encounter the following types of people or behaviors:

-- People being demanding or inappropriate with their comments. This includes fans who freak out about other fics not written by them/or a BNF because they can't tell the difference between headcanons and the actual source material, therefore your fic is wrong in their eyes, fans becoming aggressive over ships, "this didn't happen in canon!", etc. That's not fun to deal with and doesn't help me become a better writer (or artist, in the case of pictures). So meet my dear friend the block button.

-- People with mental/emotional/personality problems and, who, as a result of this, cannot control themselves (or will not seek the appropriate help in order to be able to do so), communicate badly and reactively, state things poorly, are abrasive or creepy, or all the above. As an example of what I mean, some years ago there was this one person on deviantART I was starting to get to know know who lashed out at me twice -- the first time was because I said I like a character she hates. Then, she got into a fight with another user (which she instigated, might I add) and noted me in order to vent/seek sympathy about it. When I wasn't like "aww poor babey" at her (I can't recall exactly what I said, but it wasn't anything antagonistic, I know that much), she flew into a rage. So I finally quit speaking to her. Only later on did I discover that she had a history of harassing people on the site for no real reason and wallowing in victimhood afterwards. Afterwards, she acted like nothing had even happened, left a sappy comment on a pic of mine's, then noted me several times to hawk some discord she had or update me on her life. At first I would delete them without response, but it quickly became clear that she wasn't going to stop contacting me. So I eventually blocked her. 
 
People like that girl and even other people around them expect you to simply tolerate their bad behavior, and in some cases, either enable it, be their "fandom mom", or their emotional punching bags (that girl BTW still gets a ton of people who pour out their sympathies for her and treat her like she's the most misunderstood, marvelous human being in the world. It's really weird). No. That is not my job. I get online for fun, not to play therapist or mommy or whoever. Sorry not sorry if that sounds insensitive, but seriously, I'm not a therapist. I have problems of my own to deal with. I can't help these kinds of people with their issues, and they'd be much better off if they looked for people who actually could. 

-- People who have overly aggressive/pompous/etc profiles, or who leave such reviews and comments on other peoples' work. I will say I actually like these kinds of folks, because they let everyone know right away what kind of people they are.

So as you can see, no one is being blocked for having a differing opinion or anything like that. People are being blocked because they're absolute nightmares to be around however. Let me ask, is it cowardly or childish to block a person who tells you that you deserve to be raped to death simply because you wrote a story about, say, nonexistent magical people they read and didn't like (thankfully that hasn't happened to me, but I have seen and heard about other people being told horrible things like that before)? 

"Why don't you try reasoning with them first?" Because that doesn't work a lot of the time. I wish it did, but instead, you end up getting people who are manipulative and will turn things right back around on you, just plain do not want to listen, will block you because you don't think they're the Second Coming, and so on. You have screwed-up people who enjoy the fact that they've gotten under your skin with their remarks. Remember, don't feed the trolls. Truthfully, these days, I don't even engage with other fans in my fandoms unless they say something to me first. Fandom is often stifling and outright annoying to me.

But anyways, if something or somebody in your fandom makes you uncomfortable, even if that person doesn't speak to you or you don't follow them, block them. Block. Block. Block! It's your internet experience, and you have every single right to tailor it to your tastes.

*In case I get accused of kinkshaming, tickling is one of the milder fetishes, but bringing up any fetish in public without prompting to total strangers who show absolutely no interest in them is just not appropriate behavior, sorry.

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