while getting the frames for this post, i was struck by how effective this scene is despite being so brief.
judy insists that nick should leave, which is the safest option for both him and the whole city. she’s not a dumb bunny. she knows she’s risking death, but it’s worth it to do the right thing.
nick refuses. he can’t bring himself to abandon her, and instead trusts they’ll “think of something”, relying on blind faith.
in other words? in this moment, judy is smart enough to make the cold, logical choice. nick is the mushy idiot who trusts his heart instead of his head.
Analysis: When Terra finds out Aqua has been spying on him, he bitterly thinks he can no longer count on anyone. Aqua and Eraqus are obvious reasons, but couldn’t he able to rely on Ven? On the Destiny Islands, worried about her and friends’ future, Aqua asks Terra what is going to become of the way finder trio’s friendship. Not ‘Ven, Terra’. Terra.
Conclusion: Terra and Aqua rely and depend on each other in a way neither of them do with Ven. Aqua depends on Terra to keep their friendship group *cough*cough*family*cough*cough* together, and Terra depends on Aqua to be there for him. To be on his side.
Platonic, or romantic, Terra and Aqua are definitely partners.
They are also very patient/understanding with each other. When Aqua’s ‘betrayal’ is revealed, Terra doesn’t yell at her or accuse her the way Ven does-he simply walks away. When Terra admits to Aqua he helped Xehanort kill Eraqus, Aqua is shocked but doesn’t start attacking him, verbally or physically. Instead she listens as Terra explains his motives.
Which leads into another point: When they are upset with each other, they don’t immediately yell at each other. Admittedly, Terra’s walking away was not the best way to handle what happened in Radiant Garden, but the fact he did not yell at Aqua right away proves he was intentionally trying not to blow up at her, most likely because, given how mad he sounded when he did yell, he knew whatever he was going to say would only make the situation worse, and he didn’t want that. He didn’t want to say anything hurtful to Aqua. And when Aqua finds out Terra helped kill Eraqus, she is shocked, saddened, no doubt disappointed, but she doesn’t get angry at him. When she sees Terra’s intentions to kill Xehanort in vengeance, she firmly tells him he is going down a dark path. She doesn’t get frustrated, although at this point no one would have blamed her if she had yelled at Terra. Even now she’s still trying to keep a cool head, to talk to her friend, to find a solution to their problems.
These two care about each other, they trust each other, they depend on each other but not to the point of codependence, they try their best not to hurt each other. These two have the makings of a wonderfully stable romantic relationship and that makes my shipper heart very happy.
Now if only we can get some blatant hints ala Sokai…
Let me start this by saying that I define human Villains as
characters that don’t use magic or powers to do evil, they’re being bad on
their own volition using things that every day people can use, and that’s what
makes them scarier in my opinion then most of the other characters in the
Disney/Pixar Staple of Villains.
The reason I’m starting to think that Ernesto is by far and
away a great villain is because he is human in nature. It’s an interesting
situation here in Coco with how he’s presented. Unlike other villains, who don’t
have a claim to fame in the same sense as he does in world, Ernesto oozes the
whole issue of what we see on screen vs. who the actor/actress truly is. We’ve
seen in recent years that people equate a person’s character on screen to who
they are off screen. Which leads to some very awkward moments for fans and
actors alike. Ernesto has that going for him. He’s a person that shows himself
to be one way but ultimately is not as he appears. On top of that he died
young, making him a character that has the added mystique of people putting
their own views and spins on his history, and making him a tragic figure.
In Coco, we are painted a picture through Miguel’s point of
view on Ernesto. He’s being forced to not play music and so becomes infatuated
by Ernesto and sees him as a larger than life person. What’s interesting about
this is that, while the town embraces him, they also seem to be using him as a
tool for their own revenue stream. We see with his monument that there are
marigolds in there, but they are limited unlike the other grave sites. Clearly,
while the town does respect him as one of their “favorite” sons, they also only
see him as someone at a distance, an image on screen, a character and not the
real person. Miguel ups that, wanting to be like the image that Ernesto shows
the public in interviews and movies, and we see that Miguel is infatuated with
Ernesto the character that he plays and not the real person who he is.
When we finally do get to the land of the dead, again, we
see Ernesto the celebrity, and not the person. People seem to adore him as a
musician, but also are using him for their own push forward. To play at his
party is a big thing, and Ernesto seems to revel in that celebrity as we see at
the party he likes to smooze (to ingratiate himself) with some of the bigger
people in Mexican (and Spanish) history. He employees a number of people for
his event, much like he probably did in real life, and creates an event where
he makes it seem like they are important but he’s clearly the star of the show.
This much like the whole town using him for the contest and other events happening
during Day of the Dead.
But how much of this image is a cultivated thing and how
much is the real Ernesto. I propose it’s half and half.
Ernesto diving into the
water to save Miguel was a legit thing, he wasn’t doing this for fan fair and
for the audience it sets him up as a decent person, which, he at first, seems
to be. Now does this make him a good person, no by no means, but it does paint
him as more human, as we see that he can be capable of doing the right thing. However,
this only adds more to the whole fact that he is, in fact, not a good person,
but a very narcissistic, cowardly, criminal one.
Taking a look at his actions in film we can see a very
different Ernesto in regard to the real person based on his actions and what we
have to look back on after the revelation of his murderous act. So where do we
even start with finding the real Ernesto, well we have to start off at the
beginning of his career with Hector. We know both men grew up in the same town,
and given how Hector calls him his friend and such, we have to assume they are
about the same age, so likely boy hood friends, or at the very least they knew
one another growing up. If not growing up, then at least when they were teens
or older.
We know that Ernesto can sing and play on his own, this much
is clear from the movies and his actions during the party. This is important as
it puts a rather big mark on his reasoning. Ernesto is a good singer and
player, but he can’t write his own songs. He can perform Hector’s works but can’t
write them himself. Meaning that he was never trained in creating music, just
playing and possibly reading it.
This puts Hector as someone very important to
Ernesto’s goals, and he sees his friend much more as a tool and something that
he needs with him at all times. During the moment of Hector’s death, we pretty
much get that from Ernesto as he pleads with him to stay.
The thing is I think that the fact that Ernesto was good
looking, could play, and sing, probably got the attention of a lot of people in
town. Unlike Hector who, let’s be honest, while good looking, is still skinny,
tall and during the time period that they were alive, would have been seen as
gangly and unattractive for a movie star. Ernesto probably, being fed from a
young age, that he was good looking, and gifted, became more narcissistic and
probably became heavily interested in becoming a star at a young age.
From the look of the flashbacks and the films that we see,
we can assume that Ernesto got his start during the 30s and 40s, maybe into the
50s of cinema. It’s clear that the movie style is based on the period of time
of black and white cinema, but not so far back that it’s the Silent Movies.
This means that Ernesto more than likely had the goal, early on, of becoming
famous as he felt that he could never just sing for one person, that he had to
have the world love him, and that he wasn’t about to let anyone get in his way.
This adds a lot to how he is as a person. He’s determined to the point of
murder, he’s so determined to be seen as someone great and amazing and loved by
all that he’s willing to kill to get to that point and his Ego is beyond the
pale.
Which brings us to his actions with Hector. Again, assuming
that the two knew one another and were probably good friends, Ernesto more than
likely saw talent in Hector and realized how useful to him he could be. If he
were to sing Hector’s songs he could become well known, as the songs were
amazingly beautiful and meaningful. So the plan more than likely was for Hector
and Ernesto to travel to Mexico City or the surrounding area where a good
percentage of Mexican movies were being in the 1930s and 1940s. Ernesto most
likely didn’t care that much about Imelda and her relationship with Hector
outside of the fact that it could throw a wrench in his plans. We get the
impression that Imelda probably was not too keen on Hector leaving with
Ernesto, who undoubtedly made a plea to Hector about making a lot of money if
they became famous to help fund his family.
In the moment when Hector was leaving Ernesto we saw that
they were nearly at the goal that Ernesto was looking for. The duo more than
likely had traveled for quite some time, as evidence from Mama Coco’s letters.
So this wasn’t a simple case of a year or so, this was possibly a number of
year that they were on the road preforming. Eventually the fact that Hector was
home sick and realized that it was not going to happen for him and Ernesto in
regard to getting well known for their music made him want to go home. This is
where I think Ernesto’s fears and desires trumped his moral code.
We know for fact that Ernesto pleaded with Hector not to go.
Not because he was going to miss his friend, but because without Hector’s music
and skills, he was going to not have a way to make it big for himself. It
became evident to Ernesto that he didn’t need Hector if he had his song book. So
that became the obvious thing to him. Get the book from him at all costs. We
clearly see he’s willing to poison his friend, but, what makes it so much
worse, is what he does after.
He took the guitar, something that had significance to
probably Imelda, Coco and Hector. The fact that he was willing to take the
guitar, use the Guitar, and clearly care for it brings to light some info about
Ernesto that either makes him out to be a real scumbag even more, or someone
that has some semblance of guilt, no matter how small. We know the Guitar was
taken well care of. If Ernesto truly hated Hector, he probably wouldn’t have
taken it and still took care of it. However, the issue becomes why. The more
reasonable thought could be that there was a bit of guilt on his part for
killing his friend and keeping the guitar with him was a way of both keeping Hector
with him and dealing with that guilt. It was, in some subconscious way, a way
for him to say “I’m guilty of a crime” since Imelda, if she saw the movies,
probably would have recognized the guitar and, being a clever woman, possibly
would have put two and two together as Hector more than likely wouldn’t have
given away a guitar like that willingly. We also know that it was put in the
tomb for Ernesto, so clearly he did make sure that it was kept safe.
On the other hand, we’ve seen later how much of a jerk he
can really be, and that brings us to the fact that he possibly took the guitar
because it was worth a lot as a gimmick and had no regret of really killing his
friend. I’m more inclined to think it’s the later seeing how cowardly he
becomes when Imelda and the others go after him to get the picture. There’s
also the fact that his reputation trumps everything else and we also see this
in how he talks to Miguel after the big reveal and even before that.
When Ernesto first discovers that he has a grandson, his
reaction is interesting. He doesn’t deny it, and embraces it, but the look on
his face says that he both doesn’t understand and at the same time is freaking
out mentally. It’s pretty clear, given the ladies in the movies, he’s known as
a romantic lead, and it wouldn’t be that hard to believe in that period of time
that he willingly went to bed with a few different women. This means he’s probably
wondering which one he got pregnant, so clearly he probably does have some
unknown kids or a child running around if he’s willing to buy Miguel’s story
without any proof of who the woman was. He doesn’t even ask about his
grandmother. He just goes with it.
Later when he was going to give Miguel a pass back to the
land of the living, he points out that he doesn’t want people to know that
Miguel is his grandson, as if that would ruin his reputation. It’s made more blatant
that Ernesto doesn’t seem to care about anyone but himself, since, rather than
sharing all the “love” that his fans gave him, he hoards it and shows it off to
Miguel.
It’s an interesting moment because you realize how alone Ernesto really
is since if you go back to the town, while he has a lovely tomb, there is no
food or drink or wine on his alter, meaning that there was no one there other
than the locals to tend to it. So clearly the town even knew of his attitude if
they were not willing to put up more offerings on the alter.
This brings us to the point about his actions with Hector,
Miguel and the family during the ending. We see that he is willing to throw
both Hector and Miguel into a hole to hide the truth. This begs the question
of, who else did he get rid of to keep his face? If he’s willing to kill
Hector, then it’s not that big a shock that he could be willing to steal and
kill to get other roles and get rid of people he doesn’t want in his life. He
throws Miguel off the roof, and pretty much threatens the family due to, what
he believes, is his power and influence in this world. Now while I would love
to believe that he would be punished for his actions by fading. The problem is
that, while there is proof of him being a thief of music, there’s no proof of
him killing Hector. This means that there are probably people out there that
either don’t buy the idea that Ernesto stole the music, or they don’t care as
he went on to become the singer of their favorite songs.
This brings me back to the point that as far as Villains
come, Ernesto is probably one of the best human ones that Disney has had in a
long while, and I hope that people really do support him in that sense. We need
more nuanced villains in stories, and Ernesto probably will be a good start to
that.
Things I learned from the ingenious and somehow more heart wrenching Junior Novelization of Pixar’s Coco!
-Hector is truly infamous in the Land of the Dead’s Grand Central Station. The woman who stops him at the gate not only knows him by name but remembers Hector’s previous attempts to cross the marigold bridge, and has seen through all of his hair-brained schemes. She even warns him, “You know the drill…” before calling security. I wouldn’t be surprised if all the security guards placed a bet around Dia de los Muertos, All of the guards and receptionists and greeters trying to guess what Hector’s plan will be, when he’ll try to crossover, how long it takes before anyone hails him in, etc.
-Hector actually has 2 dimples, and not just one like I’d previously imagined! Though in his photo in the film, it looks like one is deeper than the other, favoring the same side as Miguel’s single dimple. But the book explicitly says he has 2.
-Shantytown and the poor souls who live in it are a treasure and Deserved Better (I wish some of their dialogue had made it into the final movie). When the deceased Riveras are tracking Miguel, they passed through shantytown and the place where Tia Chelo and her friends were playing poker, only to find that their game table is abandoned, along with other sad scenes of other souls fading away. Those poor dears… (The Land of the Dead should SERIOUSLY consider opening some kind of a Retirement home for the nearly forgotten!)
-Before going on stage and singing Poco Loco, Hector tells Miguel that the secret of the perfect performance is to sing with the people you care about in mind, like your singing to them and only them with all your heart. Hector implies that he does this whenever he sings, thinking of “someone still in the Lamd of the Living”. When Miguel finally gathers up the courage to sing, he thinks of singing to Mama Coco, the only Rivera who ever loved music as much as Miguel. Although we don’t know it at the time, in that moment, Hector and Miguel both think of the same person when they wish to Sing For The Person They Love Most. (And yes, I had to take five minutes to cry before continuing)
-Miguel once wrote a song for Ernesto de la Cruz and spent all of his allowance on a mug as offerings to his hero. Upon discovering the piles of gifts Ernesto has received from the Many ofrendas raised in his honor, he realizes Ernesto has probably never even see his offerings.
-During Hector’s flashback, he recounts how during his travels with Ernesto, he’d wake up in so many hotel rooms, all of them so alike and repetitive that he often forgot what town he was in and would feel very disorientated from homesickness. Pobrecito…
-Mama Coco never stopped thinking about her Papa, in spite of years of living under her mother’s scorn of him and music. She even pretended to dance to music that Hector used to play to her, and sang to baby Miguel! (Possibly sparking the child’s love of music) I wonder if the song she hummed to him was Remember Me… 💛💜💀 I Hope So
-It’s implied in the book that Mama Coco passed away “a few months” before Dia de los Muertos, possibly implying she died some time in July or August. Assuming that Miguel’s mother looks about 5 or 6 months pregnant earlier in the film, this could mean that the baby was born in February or March, implying that Mama Coco got to meet her baby granddaughter! At least, I hope so anyway.
-Upon finally being allowed to cross the bridge, Hector sings as he walks (in a brand new pair of Rivera shoes, blister free! Thanks to Imelda), Coco dances to his singing, and Imelda harmonizes with Hector. They can finally sing, dance, and count their blessings together, for the first time in nearly a century.
-When Miguel learns that crawlspace he used as his musical haven in the attic was the same space that Mama Coco used to dance, he finds an old pair of dance shoes she used to wear and polishes them all sparkling and new. He brings it to Mama Coco’s grave as an offering, so that she may dance to her heart’s content in the afterlife.
-Hector, in spite of being much more put together than the previous year, still carries some cheeky skeletal habits. Unseen to Miguel, he uses his own skull as a drum, and his ribs as a washboard to add more rhythm to chamaco’s music.
So yeah. This book killed me in the best possible way. 💜💛💜💛💜💛💜💛
ALSO!!!! THERES AN AUDIOBOOK FOR IT TOO, DUBBED BY THE AUTHOR!!!! AND ITS SO GOOD YOU GUYS ITS SO GOOD
Tbh I love how in Coco the characters have alebrijes that actually, like, represent them as spirit animals.
Miguel and Dante are both goofy and energetic characters loyal to each other and arguably have one of the best dynamics in the movie.
Imelda and Pepita are both stern and sassy (and powerful af) characters at the beginning of the movie that eventually both shed their cold exteriors and reveal well-intentions towards their loved ones,
Ernesto has, oddly enough, chihuahuas, which seem completely out of character when they’re first introduced. When it’s revealed that Ernesto is in fact the antagonist, it shows that he himself is like a chihuahua; sure, pretty charming and harmless at first, but underneath those adorable facades are heinous, malicious monsters.
I personally think that he’s one of the best Twist Villains Disney/Pixar showed to date, maybe not to the levels of King Candy, but pretty close.
I guess it helps that all we knew about him was from the perspective of a fan (Miguel), so the twist worked better.
I usually feel pretty indifferent about twist baddies after they’ve revealed their true colors (Hans, Bellweather, Callaghan…), maybe because they kinda lose their charm after they spill out the beans (I myself am more of a fan of deliciously evil bad guys: they’re not realistically evil in any way, but they’re dang funny!)
But Ernesto? He’s actually clever: he killed Hector, and kept it a secret for almost a century, while at the same time boasting about it in his movies. It’s so disgustingly evil, that only a good amount of charm on his part could make that work, and I can’t help but applaud that.
And he was Hector’s childhood friend: the thought of someone killing his own brother figure just to get fortune and fame is absolutely despicable; Ernesto is a ruthless villain, and a well written one at that.
And that’s why he deserves everything bad happening to him! ^_^
I’ve been reading theories about the end of the movie and how quickly people in the land of the living seemed to “forget” Ernesto. A good explanation for this is that some people might have already been suspicious of Ernesto.
Imagine the inheritors of Ernesto’s possessions after his death. They might not have critically analyzed the song book right after he died, but eventually someone would notice it was not written in Ernesto’s handwriting. People who research every detail of a celebrity’s life might have checked the ledgers of old hotels looking for Ernesto’s name, and they’d find Héctor’s name right along with it. They might have even looked up birth records from Santa Cecilia to find this mysterious
Héctor and confirm that Héctor and Ernesto likely grew up together.
Of course, those who questioned the Rivera family about a musician were immediately shown the door, so no leads there. Nevertheless, there would probably have been conspiracy theorists who wondered what happened to
Héctor
and predicted foul play before Miguel’s journey. Evidence from the suddenly-musically-inclined Rivera family likely fueled the fire to a decades old unsolved mystery.
I would honestly love to see the de la Cruz historians because you KNOW they mapped out EVERY INSTANCE OF THIS MAN’S LIFE.
Like, even before Miguel goes to the Land of the Dead, there’s all this debate about H. Rivera–who pops up in ledgers and in a few notes Ernesto made–and who they were. Were they a music partner? Just a travel buddy? A lover? Like, there’s at least one documentary made trying to uncover the secret identity of H. Rivera.
(Miguel watched it before and after going to the Land of the Dead; the first time he brushes it off because this H. person isn’t important to the music and the second time he just screams because the conclusion they made about Papa Hector is SO WRONG.)
Can you even imagine the slap-in-the-face feeling Miguel gets when he first watches that documentary a second time, realizing that Hector was right in front of him the whole time??
I love this headcanon because it’s a reminder of how easily facts can get shuffled over with time, and how clues in plain sight can be taken waaaay off the right trail. Surprisingly this ESPECIALLY happens with the hyper-famous as historians (and mostly the non-historians) latch onto tiny scraps of non-clues and run with them.
(I’m an English major and don’t even get me started on how much amateur historical headcanon there is on Shakespeare precisely because 100+ years of speculators have been imaging up extra bits of his life that have no real historical backing.)
I’m pretty sure the reining theory on H. Rivera was that they were a “Helena Rivera,” a b-list actress and suspected lover of Ernesto’s who was often spotted around the sets of his first movies. (Or some such speculative nonsense.)
DO YOUR GENEALOGY PEOPLE, these are the stories that matter. (And more importantly, resist the urge to prune your family tree!!)
So I saw a post about Ernesto and it made me think and realize something.
Spoilers for Coco. Last chance, amigos.
Ernesto literally had no reason to try and kill Miguel or trap Hector or ANY OF IT.
Like, honestly. What danger did they pose? The Lands of the Living and the Dead adored him. The podunk town he was from had a beautiful monument, the Land of the Dead had a plaza named for him and he hosted huge parties with the best of the best. He was the crowning event on Dia de los Muertos. Hell, there were people who seemed to either not go see their families or cut their visits to the Land of the Living short to try and meet him or see his concerts.
So what threat did this family pose? Hector is a Forgotten conman with a rap sheet a century long from years of trying to cross the Marigold Bridge illegally. Miguel is a twelve-year-old. The Rivera clan appears to be respected (the novelization goes into more detail about how many people know them for their shoes and the quality thereof), but they’re still not about to pose a threat to De la Cruz, especially when the information they have is learned second-hand from the aforementioned conman.
And if Miguel went back to the Land of the Living? What then? I’m pretty sure the only reason they were able to make sure Hector got his due credit was because Coco kept the poems and letters and had the picture scrap, which Ernesto had no way of knowing about.
Which makes me think that as paranoid, self-obsessed and irrational as he was, there may have been something different at work.
Ernesto wanted Hector Forgotten. Not just dead, not just out of his way. Deader than dead. Completely gone. He was willing to go to insane, pointless lengths to do this: kill a child, his own great-great-grandchild as far as he knew, assault several people with the help of his guards, and I would go so far as to say he’s done similar things before, what with the speed that the guards ‘take care of’ troublesome ‘guests’ by flinging them into that sinkhole.
Ernesto is, without doubt, some kind of unstable. A narcissist certainly, maybe also a sociopath. I’m not an expert. But as far as he’s concerned, Hector was his best friend. And maybe he was, but maybe Ernesto’s view of what a best friend is and what our view of what a best friend is are different things.
Ernesto canonically feeds on praise. His parties are towering, over the top ways for him to have hundreds of people fawn over him in person, and then immediately go outside and be showered with praise and love from thousands more. Hector and Ernesto grew up together from childhood, and a lot of people headcanon them having been orphans or otherwise reliant only on each other.
Hector is a very openly affectionate person. It’s one of his great qualities, how open and honest he is about who he cares about and how much he cares about them. He’s pretty shameless about it really. His interactions with Imelda make this rather obvious, but there’s also his interactions with Miguel, a kid he just met. He’s very physically affectionate, gently gripping him by the shoulders to reassure or lead him away from celebs, literally holding him in his arms during the Un Poco Loco number, holding him when he’s panicking after being thrown into the sinkhole. There’s an obvious instinctive paternal quality to him, but there’s also the fact that he’s just very open about his feelings.
Ernesto needed adulation. Needed affection, love, praise. Hector, for a long time, was how he got it. At first directly, with this younger boy looking up to him as a primo, and then indirectly, with his songs being the reason for the applause he received after shows.
This is just my personal view, but Hector seems like a very easy-going guy. Not a pushover by any means, but I’ve had this thought that being a father and being with Imelda made it easier for him to put his foot down. Sure, Imelda might have been the better disciplinarian, but a united front is important so he needed to be able to learn how to stand firm on things. And while I think he couldn’t be with Imelda if he wasn’t easy-going and willing to let her take the lead, I think if he wasn’t at least a little stubborn, Imelda would trample him underfoot. A man who can bend without breaking is necessary for someone like Imelda, but a man without a backbone isn’t someone she can respect.
So I imagine Hector and Ernesto being all the other had for years… and then Imelda comes into the picture. And Hector is smitten. Enamored. Maybe Ernesto doesn’t get it; the fiery, dominant Imelda isn’t to his tastes but sure, whatever. It’s not like anything’s going to happen. Except something DOES happen. Imelda falls for Hector, they get married, have Coco… And suddenly, Ernesto doesn’t have Hector all to himself. Maybe it’s a romantic thing, maybe it isn’t, but I think it definitely turns into a sort of “If I can’t have you…” Because Hector is all Ernesto had. He was it. He was the one who put Ernesto on a pedestal when they were kids and here, now, he’s the one who can put him on a pedestal for the world.
But then, in Mexico City, Hector puts his foot down. And while we know that he cares about Ernesto and doesn’t want to lose him as a friend, to Ernesto, it’s a betrayal. It’s a declaration that Imelda is more important and to someone like Ernesto…? No. That is not allowed.
Maybe some of the horrible things Ernesto did in the movie was out of fear for his reputation, but the more I think about it, the more I think it was spite. You left? Fine. Suffer.
Watch me ruin this song you wrote for your precious kid, who is apparently more important than me.
Want to go back to Imelda? Why would she want you? You left, and you think I’m about to go cover for you? Maybe if you’d been a better friend, I would have.
Oh, this is your great-great-grandson? That’s even better. Watch me chuck him over the side of this tower and then listen to me go back out there to the adoring crowd, singing your songs while you fade away.
And that’s why I left the cinema saying “it’s been YEARS since I watched such a villain in an animated movie”
Yessss, welcome to the Ernesto-has-so-many-layers train. 🙂
This is the kind of emotionally complex thinking I thrive on!
y’all need to understand that miguel adored ernesto de la cruz, he looked up to this man, wanted to be him, his face showed nothing but adamance and devotion for this guy and even jumped to the conclusion that he was his great-great grandpa because he just couldn’t be any more excited about the whole thing
cue to the scene where they are in the sinkhole and he now knows that hector was the one he was related to all along but doesn’t even bat an eyelash before he’s screaming ‘im proud to be his family’ and i know what ur thinking–thats only because he found out ernesto was a murderer–but watch the scene where he’s backstage and hector doesn’t fight back because he’s just pleading for ernesto to let miguel live
hector was there with him the entire time, he was the first person miguel saw playing the guitar in the flesh (bone?) that it mesmerises him, hector then performs with him and let’s him know that he’s proud of him,
with this, miguel realises hector is the one person he’s been missing and yearning for his entire life, the person he feels connected to, the one that loves music just as much as he does, not ernesto and that right there is why he’s proud and that his family has been on his side supporting him the whole time
miguel then looks into the eyes of ernesto, this man who he has a personal altar for, decorates with candles and records and gives more offerings to than he does with his family, watches that same tape over and over again and goes through the whole night looking for this man just to prove to him how much he’s worthy to play music, to then throwing that all away and calling him a—coward
this is the type of buried symbolism i need in my life, coco is ART
Stop talking and start doing: My Fallout Shelter for my Tumblr blog 