darkspellmaster:

(Warning Spoilers
ahead. Read at your own risk)

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.