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Everything Mcog related

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Master list

I have a lot of assorted mcog posts, so I want to organize them and make them easier to find for myself but also for anyone else who might be interested

So under the cut is just my mcog post master list, containing basically EVERY post I’ve made.

Side note: although this is an mcog blog, I do like other things and I’d be happy to talk about them as well! :)

- mcog

- babar

- Tintin (comics, movie, cartoon)

- moon knight

- gravity falls

- orb on the movements of the earth

- Filinta

- a series of unfortunate events (I’ve only seen the Netflix show!)

- lolirock

Mcog questionnaire

Mcog Analyses

Miscellaneous posts

Mcog fun facts

Mcog AUs

Mcog headcanons

Art

Memes

Fake tweets

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Love watching season 2,3,4 cause every end of episode, the narrator lady is like: “Will the kids find X? What’s Ambrosius’ evil plan? Will Mendoza die?”

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Post season 4 headcanons

Immediately after the show ends, Esteban and Zia go off to that weird dimension with the naacals and the cities

Meanwhile, Tao, Mendoza, Isabella and Gaspar get ready to leave for Patala. They say their goodbyes to Pedro and sancho, who stay in Zimbabwe.

Obviously they take the condor, but Tao has never driven it before (no one has. I mean Mendoza did once, in season 1, but he immediately crashed it, so…). It takes some time getting used to (Tao almost crashes into the wall. Again), but they make it in one piece.

When they arrive in Patala, Tao announces his idea of building the new order of the condor in the raja’s palace, who likes the idea (although the last time he let a scientist conduct his research it ended badly, he trusts Tao and his friends cause they saved him and his village from said scientist). Furthermore, Tao plans to make the order like a sort of hub for scientific research and knowledge. He also wants to share the knowledge of Mu with the rest of the world (cause what’s the point in having so much advanced scientific knowledge if you can’t use it?). And of course, he wants the world to appreciate and respect his ancestors just like he does, and make sure the knowledge is used for good.

Mendoza and Isabella are 100% behind his project (even Gaspar helps, not cause he wants to, but Isabella kinda forces him so yeah)

Once Esteban and Zia are finished running around the 7 cities and chatting with the naacals, they go to Patala to join Tao, who’s extremely happy to see them, obviously.

And so, slowly but surely, they begin establishing the order of the condor and blabla.

Tao remembers the old order of the hourglass, and how its basically been defunded by the king. And so, he offers Athanaos and Nostradamus to come continue their studies in Patala. Athanaos immediately accepts cause 1) he likes it there and 2) he gets to be with Esteban (finally, it was long overdue). Nostradamus on the other hand, doesn’t really wanna go cause he’s lived at chambord for so long, it’s hard to just leave everything behind. But once Tao tells him about his plans for a huge observatory, he immediately packs his shit and joins him

So yeah the rest of this is just slice of life moments of everybody chilling in Patala and of course setting up the order of the condor

Unfortunately not everything can be cute and fluffy. Because uhhhhh. Ambrosius is still out there. And he’s got a flying machine with like,,, lasers and stuff? And he’s like immortal now?? Or at least very hard to kill. So yeah we don’t get to relax just yet

Isabella and Mendoza essentially decide they have to figure out where tf Ambrosius is, if he’s planning anything and how to stop him. They’re even more worried cause they know how much Ambrosius wants to have tao at his side, and that now he’ll really stop at nothing cause he’s lowkey immortal (fun fact: the name Ambrosius means immortal).

And soooo they get a ship. Just like they wanted. And of course Gaspar just has to come cause 1) I love their trio and 2) they need all the help they can get

So yeah they periodically go on missions and stuff but they always come back home (to the kids in Patala)

Meanwhile, Pedro and sancho are in Zimbabwe and set up their tavern just like they wanted. Pedro gets married to Nyamita and maybe they’ll have a kid soon, maybe? (Fun fact: I didn’t like their relationship at first but it grew on me and I think they’re cute)

Back in Patala, Mendoza obviously misses his old friends, even though he doesnt say it. I mean, sure he’s really happy and proud of them for starting a new and healthy chapter in their lives, but they are his first and dearest friends. Zia immediately realizes that he’s upset, and the kids offer to periodically fly him to Zimbabwe to see them (and the kids obviously wanna see them too! They’re the kids’ uncles after all!)

And I can just imagine like. One day, they receive a message from Zimbabwe that Pedro and Nyamita are soon having a baby and they all cram into the condor, fly to Zimbabwe to see them 😭

Esteban, Zia and Tao are super excited about having a cousin. Pedro is freaking out cause he never imagined he’d be a dad one day. sure, he wanted to but now it’s actually happening and he doesn’t know if it’s all gonna work out. Esteban, Zia and Tao reassure him that he’ll be great, since he’s already so good with kids. And of course, Mendoza couldn’t be happier for his friend

Etc etc you get me

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Fake tweets: Part 15

I included marinche now! Since some people were asking

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Sexism

I love season 3 but there’s a moment that always bugs me

The part where Mendoza first meets Isabella and refuses to fight her because she’s a woman

I hate it cause 1) it’s obviously really sexist and 2) it’s also out of character

First of all, it really shouldn’t be that strange for Mendoza to fight a woman, given that he’s DONE THAT BEFORE. Remember in season 1 when they met the Amazonians, the blonde one attacks him and he fights her. Her being a woman is never brought up. Now you might say he only fought her cause she attacked him first. But I don’t think so. He never treats the Amazonian women differently, and doesn’t think it’s wrong to fight them. For example, when they’re brought to the queendom, Mendoza remarks that it’ll be hard for them to escape because the amazonians clearly have a well trained military. It doesn’t matter if they’re women or not. And He hasn’t said this about anyone else before

But then in season 3. He had no problem fighting Isabella when he thinks she’s a man. But once he learns she’s a girl, he stops??? It makes no sense at all

And now you might say. Perhaps they added this scene to show the struggles a character like Isabella might face in that time period, because she’s doing things women didn’t traditionally do. To that I say

1) Mcog has never been historically accurate

2) Isabella doesn’t face any struggles due to being a girl:

Her father brought her around the world with her and saw no problem in her learning to fight. Despite being a villain, he’s pretty open minded

Ambrosius chooses her as his right hand man (or I guess woman) because of her skills. He hates her because of her betrayal. Again, despite being the big villain of the show, he’s…. NOT sexist??

When Gaspard first meets her, he decides to buy her a dagger. So clearly. Fighting women isn’t weird

Nobody in the order of the hourglass seems to care that she’s a girl

This is looking bad for Mendoza cause the only other people that make sexist comments are… the olmecs. And it lowkey makes sense for them, since they have no female olmecs

I also wanna say that Mendoza being sexist is out of character. If he was sexist in season 1, it would be impossible for him to reach his goal (find the cities) because he wouldn’t give any weight to whatever important info Zia would give him. Or anyone they met. If he was sexist he’d miss out on a lot of potential allies that could help him find the cities

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Board games

Here is what I think would happen if the Mcog fam played various card or board games

Playing uno….

Esteban: wins all the time

Mendoza: loses all the time. Hates the game

Tao: gets mad cause he can’t play a strategy game

Zia: forgets the rules

Pedro: thinks they’re playing poker

Sancho: surprised whenever he loses

Playing chess….

Esteban: takes 5 hours to make one move

Mendoza: always wins

Zia: falls asleep, has never finished a game

Tao: memorized a bunch of chess moves, is here to win

Pedro: thinks they’re playing checkers

Sancho: likes to play with the little horse

Playing monopoly…

Esteban: gets angry if he can’t have the a tiny car

Zia: strategy is just to buy as much houses as she can

Mendoza: makes everyone go bankrupt, takes loans from others with insane interest rates, stopped following the rules hours ago

Tao: is the banker, argues with people not following the rules

Sancho; falls asleep cause it takes hours to finish a game

Pedro: ends up bankrupt, spends whole game in jail

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Olympics

what Olympic sport would every Mcog character do?

Here’s the list of all the sports in the summer Olympics (I’m not gonna include the Winter ones cause I don’t think they would do them)

Esteban: gymnastics

So in the first episodes of season 1 especially, we see Esteban do a bunch of gymnastic-y stuff, like balancing on his hands while on a moving ship, walking on his hands, climbing walls, etc, so I think he’d be good at it

Zia: Beach volleyball

Okay hear me out. I think she’d like sports that are kinda beach related, like volleyball or surfing. I know it would technically be cheating, but her telekinesis powers would really come in handy in this this of sport, so like it could make sense

Tao: Archery or triathlon

So we know what Tao has a crossbow, which he’s even able to use with his feet. So I think he’d be good at archery. I also think he’d be good at the triathlon cause he grew up having to fend off for himself on an archipelago, so he’d be good at running and swimming, obviously. We also know he can bike since he had one in his old village + he rides one at chambord (and he’s pretty quick too, since Nostradamus can’t keep up)

Mendoza: swimming

I think this might be obvious. That scene where he faces off against a shark demonstrates how great of a swimmer he is, so I think he’s getting gold for sure

Pedro and Sancho: sailing

I don’t think they’d be good at any sports, given how they’re kinda lazy. However, I think they’d be good at sailing cause it’s literally their job and they enjoy it. But I could also see them doing rowing cause that’s essentially what Mendoza is always making them do

Isabella: fencing

This one is also pretty obvious. She’s great at fencing and fighting in general, and she also enjoys it a lot

Gaspard: shooting

I mean he can fence too but I see him as a guy who prefers firearms. Idk it just fits his vibe. Although he’d probably try weightlifting and fail miserably

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Navigator, not captain

Okay I talked about season 2,3,4 inconsistencies before, and now I’ve thought of another one

In season 1, Mendoza is a navigator, and that’s it. But in season 2,3,4 he’s a captain.

Now idk if the writers thought navigator and captain were synonymous. I mean I guess you do have to know navigation to be a captain. But in season 1, the captain of the Esperanza couldn’t pilot the ship in rough waters and so he hired Mendoza. And we know Mendoza doesn’t have the same title as other captains around him (like Gaspar or Perez). If he WAS captain they’d call him that?? But they don’t

And then in season 2+ they call him captain and he also refers to himself as such. Which isn’t a huge deal plot wise but I think it is an important aspect to him and lowkey ruins his characterization. But that analysis is for another day.

What I want to do now, is fix the sequel’s inconsistencies, as in: propose situations where calling Mendoza “captain” would be accurate, but without him actually being one

First scenario: the word “captain” here is used the same way one would use “leader”. As in, the leader of the mcog team. I wouldn’t mind this as much honestly. The mcog fam could’ve started calling him that, other people heard it and thought it meant he had the actual rank of captain

Second scenario: He decided to take up the mantle of “captain” because it allows him a little more diplomatic strength in a way. Like if he’s met with some Europeans outside of Spain he can declare himself as a Spanish captain and idk it can be useful sometimes. Also more respect is given

Finally I know this doesn’t really work but he decides to be called captain cause it really annoys Gaspar, who’s a REAL captain

But anyway. This is how we can call Mendoza captain without him being a real one. Because uhhh he’s not. Unless he gets real certification/license

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Part 14!!!!

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Sancho

Although he’s one of the main 6 characters, Sancho is one of the most underrated. And that’s unfair! So here are some of my favourite things about Sancho cause yeah no one talks about him enough.

1. Out of all the Spanish characters, he’s probably the kindest one

When Mendoza brings Esteban and Zia on the Esperanza, Sancho seems to be the one that looks after them. For example, when Esteban is playing and walking on his hands very close to the side of the ship, Sancho tells him to be careful. Compare that to esteban almost falling off the crow’s nest while Mendoza laughs at him.

We also see Sancho bring Esteban and Zia their food. He’s such a mom ❤️

When they meet the old man in that cave, Sancho is the one to carry him around. And when the cave starts collapsing in on itself and everyone is trying to escape, Sancho goes back for him and offers to carry him out. So sweet.

2. Calls out Gaspard’s injustice

When Esteban steals water, Gaspard gets really angry at him because they only have a limited amount of resources. Sancho, on the other hand, is like: “Well we’d have more food if YOU didn’t eat so much…” and he’s right! I find it funny that he’s the one saying that and not, say, Mendoza. Instead, Mendoza tries to get Esteban exempted from punishment because he’s a child and doesn’t know better. He does not point out the root cause (probably so as to note escalate the situation).

3. One of the first to define the main team’s relationship

In season 2, Esteban clearly states that he already has a family (his new friends), and he calls Tao his brother. The others also love their friends but don’t outright say they’re all a family. But in season 3, when the adults are reunited with the kids, Sancho hugs Tao and says “it’s nice, the family”. Don’t tell me that’s not adorable

4. The only character with a disability

So I was curious and did some research. Stuttering can be considered a disability if it interferes with your everyday life. And I think in Sancho’s case it lowkey does. It takes him longer to share his ideas and he struggles to make himself understood. Sometimes people might guess what he’s trying to say before he actually says it, instead of waiting.

(I haven’t forgotten about the old blind man, who is obviously disabled. But he’s a very minor side character)

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Powers

Time to talk about Esteban and Zias powers cause they’re either overlooked or misunderstood

Sun summoning

The first magical ability is quite obvious, it’s literally in the theme song. Esteban has the power to control the sun, but hold on! He doesn’t have complete authority on the sun! Here’s what he can and can’t do:

Can:

Disperse cloud or fog that may be blocking the sun

Can’t:

Influence day/night cycles

Influence eclipses

Where does he get his powers from? I will assume it’s from his Atlantean heritage (ie, his mother’s side). I’m not saying his mother has magic powers (but she was a priestess so maybe!) nor am I saying that all Atlanteans or Muans have powers (Tao doesn’t, for example). But maybe they used to? That could be interesting to think about.

How do his powers work? I made a post talking about this particular aspect, but in general, let’s just say it has something to do with confidence and mood. The sun will listen to him easier if he believes he can control it.

Telekinesis

Next is Zia’s special ability. She’s able to move objects around with her mind. This can be physical objects, like people, but also immaterial things, like fire. This wasn’t explained but I’m gonna guess that the larger a thing is, the harder it is to move it. She can make rocks float pretty easily, for example. When she lifts people it looks like she needs to concentrate.

Where do her powers come from? She’s a child of the sun, just like Esteban, so let’s assume it’s from her Muan heritage again. Is it from her dad or her mom? We don’t know. It looks like her powers were “awakened” after using the crown from sundagatt. The crown lets anyone use telekinesis.

How do her powers work? It looks like the crown makes the job easier (she can make complex shapes with the golden cubes while wearing it). Without the crown, it’s harder and she needs to practice her skills, as we see in the scene where she makes pebbles float.

Animal telepathy

Another of Zia’s powers, closely linked to the first, since they’re both related to brain stuff.

Where do her powers come from? I’m gonna give the same answer as before. Her powers might be from the Muans. But we can be even more specific. Some people have noticed that Zia looks similar to rana’ori (this is most likely due to the artists’ limitation in character design, lots of faces get reused). Rana’ori also has a pet lion, while none of the other nacaals have pets. So we might like to headcanon that rana’ori could understand animals, and therefore so can Zia. This power wasn’t “awakened” like telekinesis was. It’s vaguely hinted at in season 1, where Zia says she took care of a baby condor. In another scene, they wave goodbye to some animals and Esteban remarks that it seems like Zia understands them.

But how does it work? From my understanding, animals don’t “speak” to her in languages humans can understand. She doesn’t interpret growling as words, for example. Instead, she can feel the animals drives, impulses and desires, then interprets a meaning from them. For example, she didn’t talk to the tiger in India. She understood that it was thinking about its kittens and wanted to protect them. In season 4, when they meet the gorillas, she uses her powers and can sense their intense drive to kill them, which is why she gets scared. It’s so strong, that she can’t even reason with them. I say that, because she is also able to make animals understand how she feels. For example, with the jaguar in season 3. It understands that she has no bad intentions and comes in peace, which is why the jaguar lets its guard down.

Precognition

The third of Zia’s powers, which, again, has something to do with mental abilities. Sensing a pattern here. This one shows up before the other 2, and only gets stronger as the series progresses. As the name suggests, she’s able to predict future events through her dreams, or small glimpses if she’s awake.

Where does this come from? The Muans were able to predict a lot of things so it might not be too far fetched to say it might come from them (again).

How does it work? She’s actually able to do it in three different ways. Firstly, she gets random glimpses into the future, like when they’re in Japan during the earthquakes. Second is when she wears the bako. She’s the only one who can do that (cause she’s the child of the sun, but does that mean Esteban could as well?). When she puts it on, she can see events from the future, but in metaphorical ways, because, magic, duh. The third way she can see the future is through dreams. After she faints from saving Esteban and tao from the rocks falling on them, she has a dream related to the Bako, predicting her finding it and wearing it. As if it was calling to her. Very theatrical.

Intuition

This is a power that’s actually shared between Esteban and Zia. It’s mentioned only once, when Yu Chunhe asks them to pick a jar out of 7 seemingly identical jars. The ones Esteban and Zia pick contained lotus flowers (symbol of purity) while the ones they didn’t pick were filled with sand. According to Yu Chunhe, it’s not a coincidence. They were never able to explain this phenomenon further, but I think it might have some link to some magical abilities.

Where do they get it from? Since they both have it, I’m guessing it’s a special child of the sun power.

How does it work? It an innate ability that doesn’t really get better or worse with practice. It’s just something they can do.

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Mcog Twitter

I did this before, and now here’s part 2 with some other characters

Who else should I do?

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Family night

Some Mcog headcanons for yall: what movie would they pick for family night???

Esteban : He chooses Mamma Mia! and everyone gets ABBA songs stuck in their heads for weeks. Zia is stuck on “our last summer”. Tao has “lay all your love on me”. Pedro won’t stop yelling “the winner takes it all”. Mendoza was found absentmindedly humming “money money money” etc

Zia : When it’s Zia’s turn, she picks a Disney movie. At the start, no one really wants to watch it but they end up being way too invested. It probably leaves everyone crying at the end. She might also pick stuff like Bridge to Terabithia or Labyrinth.

Tao : He chooses Star Trek. It ends up not being popular with the fam, which makes him really upset with them. He might also make them watch Doctor Who, which they appreciate a little more.

Mendoza : He is banned from picking movies for movie night cause one time he put Oppenheimer and everyone was so angry at how boring it was. After apologizing, they grant him one last chance at picking a good movie. He chooses a documentary and they banned him again.

Pedro : he picks the Pirates of the Caribbean. Mendoza thinks it’s historically inaccurate. Pedro swears it’s all real and he knows Jack Sparrow personally. He also makes them watch The Road to el Dorado. They had a long post movie debrief after that one.

Sancho : I think he’d rather put a sitcom instead of a movie. So they binge a few episodes of Friends or Modern Family instead. Everyone gets hooked either way.

Gaspard : He makes them watch Fast and Furious and Mendoza falls asleep. The kids seemed to like it. I guess the family part got to them. He’d also get really excited to show them Die Hard.

Isabella : She makes them watch horror movies, only because she wants to see who’ll get scared. Everyone gets mad at her cause now they can’t sleep. But if she’s feeling nice, she’ll put on the Matrix or something.

Athanaos : idk why but he really likes Night at the Museum for some reason. And knows wayyy too much about Star Wars.

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The Reunion

(The aftermath of Zia’s dad’s death)

This is actually one of my favourite scenes from the entire show, and I’ve always wanted to talk about it in detail, so here we are :)

I’m sure I’m not the only one who feels this way. It’s one of the rare, emotional and character driven scenes of the show. A lot of important information is revealed about a lot of the characters, which makes it a perfect clip to analyze. But this also means it’s going to be super ultra long, since I’m gonna talk about 5 characters at once.

I will proceed chronologically, starting from when Papacamayo dies until the end of the scene.

Immediately after Papacamayo dies, Esteban, Tao, Mendoza, Pedro and Sancho quietly leave the room. They understand that they’re intruders in this tense, emotional moment. Zia and Maïna are left to grieve their father.

Pedro and Sancho come to see Mendoza and voice their concerns about Papacamayo dying before revealing information about the golden city’s treasure.

Before Mendoza even responds, he does something very interesting.

As you can see in this clip, he takes a long time to reply, as if he didn’t expect the question or he didn’t know how to answer it.

He closes his eyes and the way it’s animated is very interesting to me. When he shuts his eyes, the lines that are created seem to move a lot, as if he’s holding back tears. Then, when he opens his eyes, he looks up, which is something people do to keep tears from falling.

It’s very hard to believe Mendoza would (or could) ever cry, since it’s never happened before, so this my explanation would make a lot of sense. He never cries cause he tries really hard not to.

He finally answers the sailors, telling them that the city’s treasure is not important to them, since all they care about is gold.

So in this way, he’s repressing his emotions both physically (with the tear thing I described) and also by literally saying that he only cares about money. Which is a wild thing to say after you just witnessed a man die.

Also, even Pedro and Sancho are surprised, as you can see by their reactions:

But they quickly get over it, obviously. I think they model their own thoughts, feelings, etc, after Mendoza’s. That’s why, whenever they’re unsure about something, they ask him for his opinion first.

After that clip, Mendoza walks away and starts calculating the position of the city of gold based on the stars. He stops when he notices Esteban and Tao quietly sitting at the edge of the river.

He asks Esteban (and only Esteban, for some reason) what he’s doing there. To any normal person, the answer is obvious. He’s upset and wants some space to feel his sadness. Is Mendoza just that clueless or is he only pretending to be?

Then this exchange happens:

Esteban: I might ask you the same question; what are you doing?

Tao: I’ll bet he’s finding out exactly where the gates of the cities of gold are according to the stars

Esteban sounds a bit angry and annoyed. Tao’s got a sort of sardonic tone to his line as well. They’re both really fed up with Mendoza’s behaviour. I think they always were, but they never said so out loud. They’ve been tolerating it for so long but now they’ve reached the limit.

Even though Tao basically answered Esteban’s question for Mendoza, he decides to comment it with: “there’s no law against that”

Look at his face man 😭 this isn’t a laughing matter.

I think it’s really interesting that, from all the things he could’ve said, he decided to make a joke, because:

1) Esteban is already angry at him. You don’t really make jokes when someone is upset about your behaviour. Either Mendoza is actually clueless or he’s pretending to be. Maybe he’s trying to lighten the mood? But idk it’s a weird way to do it.

2) A man just died. Not only is this not the time to be looking for the city, but it’s also not the time to joke about what you’re doing is no big deal. Bro, read the room.

This line could also be a poor attempt at rationalization, which is a defence mechanism that involves explaining an unacceptable behavior or feeling in a rational or logical manner, avoiding the true reasons for the behaviour.

Esteban answers with: “How could you do such things? Don’t you mind about Zias sadness?”

When he says that, the camera (well I know its an anime, not live action) cuts to Mendoza, and his face goes from smiling to:

whatever emotion this is supposed to convey. I’m pointing this particular image out because it’s only visible to us, the audience. So it’s worth noting.

I find it interesting that he actually seems upset by what Esteban said.

1) is it guilt? He just said something insensitive and Esteban calls him out for it. An analogy I have for this is when you pull a prank on your friend and they go “wtf? You think that’s funny?” And interiorly you go “yeah okay that wasn’t the best move I admit” and you feel uncomfortable for the rest of the day, because “why did I do/say that”

2) or is he upset that Esteban is angry at him? But why should the kid’s words affect him so much? Mendoza has made it clear that he doesn’t care about the children (or anyone else). But we know that that’s just not true. Esteban being angry at him makes Mendoza realize that, although he loves the kids, they don't love him back, or at least, they don’t have a positive opinion about him, because of his insensitivity.

Enough about Mendoza though. I wanna talk about Esteban in this scene as well.

He says: “how can you do such things?” As I said before, he’s lowkey fed up with Mendoza’s behaviour (and who wouldn’t be?). And I think he’s been keeping his annoyed feelings inside of him for a long time, because he says “such things”, where “things” is plural. This is not the first time where Mendoza has been shown to not care about other people. Esteban has always noticed this, but only just decided to say it out loud, because, well, it gets to a point!

For Esteban, it’s simple. Mendoza not showing that he cares about Zia is clear proof that he just doesn’t care at all. He finds it insane that Mendoza does not have any sympathy for her, although he tries to help him find some, since he says: “She just found her father, and he-“ (he gets cut off but we can guess the rest of that sentence).

After that, we get the iconic line:

Mendoza: I’m sorry Esteban, but death no longer upsets me.

After feeling emotions for like, 2 seconds, he decides he’s had enough and puts the emotional walls back up again.

Esteban has “accused” him of being insensitive, and instead of trying to prove him wrong, Mendoza agrees with him, saying “yes, you’re right, I don’t care”. The “I’m sorry” (or in French, “pardonne moi” which means “forgive me”) seems like he’s aware that he’s done something wrong/bad, but he justifies it, saying that this is the type of person he is. This only helps to reinforce the opinion the kids have about him.

But… why does he say that?

1) Does he want Esteban to think he’s heartless? We know the relationship Mendoza has with the kids is transactional. He protects them and they bring him to the cities of gold. Beyond that, he has no reason to care about them, or feel anything for them other than indifference. So there’s no point in trying to make the kids believe he cares about them. There shouldn’t be anything deeper than that. It creates more distance between them, distance that Mendoza wants/needs because anything else would interfere with his goal (being rich).

2) he might also just be telling the complete truth. We know he’s a sailor, we know he’s been on the Magellan expedition (for example). Many people died on that trip (as do sailors on many marine journeys). He’s certainly seen many people die, which has desensitized him to death. That would make sense, because he says “death no longer upsets me”. This implies that he used to get upset over death, but doesn’t anymore, probably due to some events that we have no knowledge of.

But no matter what Mendoza might say, we know he’s not uncaring or unfeeling. I think that line could be an example of reaction formation, which is a defence mechanism that reduces anxiety by taking up the opposite feeling, impulse, or behaviour. Mendoza saying “death no longer upsets me” might be his way to convince himself that he doesn’t care about the events that have transpired that night, when in reality, he does.

I also wanna point out Howard Ryshpan’s (Mendoza’s voice actor) line delivery in this scene. Mendoza’s voice in this scene is really flat, but in a special way. He sounds like someone trying to sound emotionless. It makes it so much more obvious how hard he’s trying to push back his real feelings!

Whatever nuances implied by this line are completely lost by Esteban. Even more upset at his attitude, he says:

Esteban: you really have a heart of stone.

This is a very simple sentence but I wanna focus on a specific word: “really”

“Really” can mean 2 things here:

1) Esteban used to think that, maybe, Mendoza was a little bit of a good person, but now, he’s learned that he was wrong. This could work because, despite Zia insisting that Mendoza was a wicked man, Esteban would sometimes speak in his favour and try to bring up instances of Mendoza being kind and heroic.

2) Or, the “really” can mean “very”, like “you're VERY heartless”, more than just plain regular heartless (is that even possible?).

How do we know which one is the right meaning? I guess it would depend on the intonation of voice, but that differs depending on actor. So I’m not gonna choose one or the other.

I know this is long, but we’re getting near the end! The last line is spoken by Tao:

Tao: I think you’re wrong, he is really very sad too. Yes, I understand. That’s just how I was after the death of my father. I started to build those houses up in the trees straight away. I just couldn’t stop, I had to keep busy. To survive.

What tao says here is very interesting because he seems to be the first and only person to really, truly understand Mendoza in a way that eludes Esteban (and even zia).

Both Mendoza and Tao deal with grief in similar ways; they have similar coping mechanisms. What Tao described here is sublimation, which allows us to act out unacceptable impulses by converting these behaviors into a more acceptable form, something more productive.

Instead of feeling sad over his father’s death, Tao channels that energy into something productive (building houses). Instead of feeling sad over Zia’s dad’s death, Mendoza uses that energy into something more productive (looking for the cities).

Okay, i don’t know if looking for the cities of gold instead of talking about your feelings is actually productive or healthy.

But the point here is to busy yourself into something else, so that you don’t lose your mind in grief, as Tao says, “to survive”. It can be helpful if done well. But it can also result in you pushing your feelings aside, which is obviously not healthy.

I think it’s interesting that Tao and Mendoza have this very deep link and similar coping mechanisms!

What Tao said really strikes Esteban. Before today, he used to think that: if you’re sad, you cry. If you’re sad for someone else, you cry for/with them.

But now he realizes it’s not that simple. People can feel one way and act another way.

He’s been sequestered in the monastery for so long (his whole life) and I think it’s only now that he’s being opened to how strange and complex human beings are. The world isn’t just black and white. People are not just what they seem on the surface.

That’s why he turns to look at Mendoza, who has since walked away and distanced himself from everyone else. He’s no longer calculating locations, and is silent, similarly to Esteban and Tao at the very beginning of this scene. It’s almost like he wants to check if what Tao was saying was true.

He then turns to look at Pedro and Sancho, who are also sitting very sadly. Just like Mendoza, they originally pretended to care about money (when they asked about the treasure in the city right after papacamayo died). But now, they look pretty depressed. Turns out they’re not as unfeeling and greedy as we were led to believe.

The scene lingers on Esteban’s face, with his eyes widening, as if he’s discovered an important secret of the universe.

Finally, the music playing in the background really sells the scene. It’s calm, melancholic, but also climaxes at important moments, like at Mendoza’s iconic line and Esteban’s understanding of his older friends’ behaviour.

And of course it’s just so beautiful!

[sabastet13]

Episode 5 - Zia and Mendoza

I really like how Zia is the one correcting Mendoza here. After their arrival in the Galapagos Islands, Sancho and Pedro ask Mendoza where they might be. Mendoza suggests that they may have drifted on their raft long enough to have come closer to Lima. However, as Zia points out, the sea has drawn them away from South America.

It's funny to see Mendoza admit that he's wrong - it may be the first time in the series so far – and it's also a bit curious that he didn't calculate their position from the Sun, as he does in later episodes. It also subtly establishes that Zia indeed knows a lot more about the region than he does. This is said earlier in the show, when Gomez tells Gaspar / Perez that the girl will lead them to the Cities of Gold or when Zia herself tells Esteban about her country ; but here's the first time she actually proves it.

It also shows a slight development in her relationship with Mendoza : while she has done her best not to speak to him aboard the Esperanza, here she not only highlights his mistake but also corrects him. Even if she doesn't trust him (yet), she's gained enough confidence to stand up to him (and she'll do it again later). Mendoza even sounds impressed when he admits that she's right.

Another interesting thing the series subtly builds is the parallel between those two characters. If Mendoza quickly became a father figure to Esteban, he also became kind of a model for Zia (even if she'll never acknowledge it). I'd have to make another post about it, but it's really obvious when rewatching the whole series : Zia is as smart as he is, as cunning as he is, and from time to time she can be just as cold and distrustful as he is (particularly toward the Spanish because of what they did to her). She also knows how to use people sometimes, just like he does. She may be the member of the trio who is the most like Mendoza.

Of course, a good part of these traits comes from her bad experience with the Europeans, since she probably had to grow wary and people-smart to survive at the Spanish court. But I think Mendoza played an important role in her evolution because in a way he showed her how those traits could be useful and help her turn situations to her own advantage (like she does with Gaspard and Gomez when they meet again).

On another note, I never fully appreciated this episode before; it's probably because of this red snake mask that Tao uses which scared me to death when I was a kid (also, the whole sequence where he slides behind Zia is absolutely terrifying).

[queats]

I absolutely love Mendoza and Zias dynamic so I’m happy to see someone talk about it (I think I’ve made more Mendoza and Zia posts than any other relationship)

You expanded on something I’ve said only briefly before (cause I wanted to develop it later), so I’m glad to see that i wasn’t saying absolute nonsense 😭 (if 2 people have the same idea, it must be correct, right??)

My explanations are kinda all over the place but you used the term “people smart” ugh yes. That’s exactly it.

Both Mendoza and Zia are able to lie really well to get what they need, and I find it a little funny in a way because Zia originally hates that about Mendoza (remember the scene with Lana’s dad). However, she later uses a similar tactic with Gomez and Gaspard, as you said. I always saw it as either character evolution (in the negative direction) or her being a little hypocritical (which she lowkey can be sometimes)

Do you think Zia even realizes the effect Mendoza has had on her? Because we know she hates him. So she might pretend that she’s “not like him” because she has all the traits she dislikes about him. Kinda like How she says Esteban isn’t really Spanish cause he’s too nice to be one. In her brain, Spaniards are associated with evil/cruelty.

But we’ll never know! Cause seasons 2+ got rid of that. They forget about all the tension between the both of them?? they never even bring up their very first interaction: Mendoza kidnapping Zia. I always found it weird that he’d kidnap her in such a violent (ish) way when he needs her to trust him. Kinda getting off track but it would be cool to hear what you think about that, since you’re good at analyzing and stuff.

(Also final observation. I think it’s hard to find which kid is most similar to Mendoza because they all share different traits with him, but it looks like we both agree it’s probably not Esteban 😭 which is funny cause he’s the one who’s most attached to him. But then again I think him being different is why he’s more attached to him in the first place. But okay this isn’t an Esteban post it’s a Zia post)

[sabastet13]

I'll try my best to answer everything and be concise, but I can't make any promises !

I'm happy if you found it interesting, the relationship between Mendoza and Zia is indeed a fascinating subject ! I totally agree that Mendoza's personality and character traits can be found in all three children; it's even more visible in the writing of the later seasons. As you've pointed out elsewhere, some of his postures or behaviours are identical to those of the children. This is not surprising : Mendoza was already a paternal figure for Esteban in the first season, but his fatherly role is stressed in the later seasons, which works really well (I love the family dynamic that they built in season 2-3 and it's interesting to study Mendoza's dynamic with each one of them, or to see the influence he's gotten on them!)

Back to Zia and Mendoza : Zia was kind of a « secondary » character in the first season, in that she talks and acts less than Mendoza or Esteban ; so it's really difficult to know what she really thinks sometimes. I don't know if she hates that Mendoza lies, or if she « just » hates him for being Spanish and the one who kidnapped her. I don't think she's hypocritical towards him (by the way, what makes you think she can be sometimes ? I'm very curious about that, because I've never paid attention to it) and I don't think that her lies are an evolution of her character.

The idea of Zia being hypocritical reminded me of this scene aboard the Esperanza when Esteban is sick and he leaves her in Mendoza's cabin to get some air. Zia suddenly become really cold towards him and acts offended ; she reminds him of his promise of not leaving her and even says that he's not being nice to her. I always found those lines strange, but now I'm wondering if she wasn't trying to manipulate Esteban to convince him to stay with her – the same way we see Mendoza manipulate other people in the series. Of course, she would have done this out of fear of being left alone (left alone in Mendoza's room, which is even worse for her) and she would have tried this out of habit after spending so much time at the Spanish court. If that's really the case, this scene would prove that she was perfectly capable of lying and using other people from the beginning of the series. This would mean that she wouldn't have had such an evolution throughout the series : the cartoon would only have shown more of this aspect of her personality. With time passing by, she would have learned to use her « talents » with people to help in their quest of the Cities of Gold, just like Mendoza put his schemes at the service of the group to ensure their progress ?

About the influence of Mendoza over Zia : if she really evolved since the beginning of the series and became more like him, she must probably be disgusted or worried to grow more and more like the Spaniards that she despises / hates. But if these traits are in her personality from the beginning, then it could justify her hate against Mendoza even more. She doesn't hate him for the effect he could have had on her, but rather because she sees herself in him. Her first hate towards him comes from the fact that he kidnapped her and that he's as bad as the other Spaniards ; but if her hate goes on for such a long time it's maybe because she acknowledges that she's becoming just like him. Maybe seeing so many common points between them makes her really angry, which would explain why she insists so often to pursue the quest without him (out of distrust toward him, but also because she sees herself in him and she doesn't like it. But I'm probably going too far with this).

It also makes me wonder about the conversation Zia has with Esteban, where she reassures him that he can't be Spanish because he's too nice : to what extent does she wonder about the influence of the Spanish over her (her personality, her way of interacting with people, her vision of the world, etc) after all those years ? As you've said, the effects of her childhood in Spain are very intriguing.

About season 2 : it's frustrating that Zia doesn't even criticize Mendoza for taking gold in the City, or that she doesn't express her deception to discover that he still acts and thinks like all the Spanish she's met. Even if the first episode was supposed to revolve around the conversation between Esteban and Mendoza about Athanaos, it's a shame we never got to see the anger of Zia towards the very Spanish behaviour of Mendoza (after all they've faced and the trust she might have developed towards him, it's really a missed opportunity!). It's also sad that season 2 got rid of all this tension between them : it was indeed more logical to see Mendoza and Zia fight each other considering their past rather than what they've tried to install between Tao and Mendoza, which feels a bit more clumsy (even if I can understand why Tao could get pissed at Mendoza after the navigator stole some gold in the City).

That's really nice, and I'm glad you asked ! To be honest, I've never really thought about the encounter between Zia and Mendoza. Her kidnapping always felt weird to me because, as you said, Mendoza needed her to trust him, just like he needed to convince Esteban at the beginning. It's once again too bad that their encounter was never shown in the series (but because it's not really a « kid friendly » moment, I guess we can understand why it wasn't), but it's also sad that it was never mentioned again nor explained elsewhere...

At first, just like you, I thought that Mendoza might have tried to persuade her by manipulating her, just like he did with Esteban; but he probably didn't know enough of her past to do so, and Zia was already well-trained to Spanish trickery to be easily convinced. Furthermore, we must not forget that Mendoza was in a delicate situation himself : he needed Zia and had probably already found out about her some time before the beginning of the series, but he was under the orders of Perez and Gomez ! So he may not have had much room for manœuvre, and if his orders were to kidnap Zia, then he probably obeyed and did it like that.

As for how he did it, I was wondering if Mendoza could have had some accomplices inside the palace ; those men/women would have helped him to get Zia and bring her to the Esperanza, but this seems very unlikely. Perez had chosen him for this specific and difficult task, and Mendoza himself would rather have acted alone to have free hands. It's impossible to say how he planned and executed this, but he still must have had privileged access to the palace to sneak inside and find Zia. As for their first encounter... He may just have knocked her out ; if he was lucky, she fainted out of fear when he appeared, just like she did when Tao kidnapped her in episode 5. The whole expedition must have been epic, and I'm really curious to know how Mendoza fulfilled this task. I don't think he was really glad of the way the events turned out : after all, he was manipulated by Perez and Gomez here, so they could get their hands on Zia without risking anything, and his first encounter with the girl deprived him of her trust for a very long time. But in the end, it served his interests well and he probably just went with it. I hope I've added something to what you've already said on this subject ; unfortunately, we have so little information about this scene that it's hard to interpret it a lot more...

(You give me an opportunity to stray onto the Mendoza-Esteban dynamic ? I'll never be able to end this post haha).

I agree that it's hard to tell which of the kids resembles Mendoza the most because they share a lot of traits with him, but I think Esteban might still be the best candidate here (based on the first season, but I think the later ones will complete my thought). Tao and Mendoza share some personality traits that are linked to their intelligence : they're both smart, curious, cunning and are very good strategists. Zia and Mendoza are a lot alike, but it's more subtle : they resemble in the way they think, in the way they see the world and in the way they act with people. As for Esteban, he's building his personality through contact with Mendoza. The navigator is presented early as his father figure and Esteban takes him as a model (even if he knows about Mendoza's flaws early and doesn't agree with the way he acts : but that's also part of his construction). As you've pointed out, Esteban is the one who's the most attached to Mendoza, and I think that the similarities between them become more apparent as the series goes on. Esteban takes a leading position and guides the group/ the trio when he can, just like Mendoza does when he's there. Esteban is also as brave and intrepid as Mendoza can be, the difference being that Esteban rushes headfirst without planning and can be excessively stubborn when he's decided on something (while Mendoza changes his plan to match the situation better). The boy also faces his enemies with the same talent for quick replies that Mendoza, and he knows how to negotiate and use them : from Pizarro to Gomez or Menator, Esteban has learned from Mendoza how to think and manipulate these men to obtain what he wants.

Also ! This reminds me of a really cool moment in episode 14, when Esteban intervenes to save Mendoza and the sailors from the Incans. Esteban stops Yupanqui from killing them by saying that Mendoza might have acted badly, but that he did it for a good cause because he wanted to give him his medaillon back. It's a big lie, and both Mendoza and Esteban know it ; but the boy uses the Incans as witnesses and backs Mendoza into a corner (which he is literally, because he's tied to the wall, ready to be executed). I think that Mendoza here sees the evolution of Esteban : at first, he's very unhappy at the turn of events, but he ends up by accepting Esteban's deal to save his life and his sailors'. When he does, he admits that the boy has won and that he deserves to get his medaillon back. It's a really cool and interesting scene, and also a good proof of the evolution of Esteban (or of the influence of Mendoza over him, because the tactic he uses in the Black Eagle fort is clearly Mendoza-coded).

I agree that Esteban is still very different from Mendoza : he's braver, a lot more stubborn, but also kinder and more naive than the navigator ever was. However, Mendoza is written as his new fatherly figure, and Esteban grows by following his example on several occasions.

All of this to say that, in the end, it's still impossible to tell clearly which one of the kids is the most like Mendoza ; but it's another fascinating debate that we could extend for a long time !

Sorry if it took so long for me to answer, but I tried really hard to make it more coherent than it was at first. I also wanted to make it shorter, but tant pis !

[queats]

First, NEVER apologize for writing a huge Mcog post (especially when it’s about Mendoza and the kids). Your timing is great; I’m counting this as a birthday present.

Second, since your post is long, I’m basically gonna highlight some passages and reply to them individually, so all my thoughts get to be presented clearly.

I don't think she's hypocritical towards him (by the way, what makes you think she can be sometimes ? I'm very curious about that, because I've never paid attention to it) and I don't think that her lies are an evolution of her character.

I know I don’t really have much proof for what I’ve said, but there’s a scene where the team meets Lana’s dad, and Mendoza is very nice to him and says it’s thanks to the god viracocha that they were able to help her. Zia gets really upset and goes “he’s lying he’s never been that nice”. Which is a line that doesn’t add much to the plot so it may add something to Zias character. And then later on when they meet Gaspard and Gomez again, Zia lies tells them that Mendoza + Pedro + Sancho were killed. So I kinda went “hm she critiques Mendoza for lying but then lies herself…”

So I was thinking, if they both lie, then Zia has no reason to call out Mendoza for that

But, since the Zia lying scene happens wayyy later, then maybe she’s learned to realize that lying isn’t so bad (if necessary).

I know I’m making a big leap when I bring up hypocrisy, so take it as a head canon if not an analysis. Because I think it could an interesting direction to take the characters.

The idea of Zia being hypocritical reminded me of this scene aboard the Esperanza when Esteban is sick and he leaves her in Mendoza's cabin to get some air […]

I like this whole paragraph cause you bring up another scene I didn’t pay much attention to. Once again we have another common point between Zia and Mendoza

I really like the next paragraph too:

About the influence of Mendoza over Zia : if she really evolved since the beginning of the series and became more like him, she must probably be disgusted or worried to grow more and more like the Spaniards that she despises / hates.

I think this is what I talked about in one of my posts that I’ve mentioned. The show kinda focuses more on Esteban becoming a mini Mendoza (which is cute obviously) but remember we’re talking about Mendoza. He’s great in some ways and horrible in others. Even if Zia didn’t hate Spaniards, Mendoza himself is just a bad enough person that anyone would shudder at becoming more like him.

But if these traits are in her personality from the beginning, then it could justify her hate against Mendoza even more.

She doesn't hate him for the effect he could have had on her, but rather because she sees herself in him.

Okay this is really interesting because it brings up a lot of new questions. If Mendoza is just like Zia, then Mendoza (and in extension, Spaniards) stops being the “other”. She can no longer say “Spaniards are evil” because what would that mean for herself, who’s like them?

but if her hate goes on for such a long time it's maybe because she acknowledges that she's becoming just like him. Maybe seeing so many common points between them makes her really angry, which would explain why she insists so often to pursue the quest without him (out of distrust toward him, but also because she sees herself in him and she doesn't like it. But I'm probably going too far with this).

Cause I guess in the end it would mean: either Zia is as bad as them (which is something she wouldn’t want) or her whole ideology, that Spaniards are bad, would collapse. They would no longer be the “other” that she has known to fear and distrust.

Given the lack of information and character development, any other person would say that this reading is way too in depth. But like, who cares? 😭 I think it’s fun to talk about these things. If we’re analyzing stuff that isn’t there, we’re at least giving reasons to why it could’ve been.

it's a shame we never got to see the anger of Zia towards the very Spanish behaviour of Mendoza (after all they've faced and the trust she might have developed towards him, it's really a missed opportunity!).

Uh huh and you best believe I’m never shutting up about it !!! Season 1 Zia was not one to mess with, in the Japanese dub, she said she’d bite Mendoza if he tried some sneaky stuff 😆 where did that Zia go 😔

Here’s the line if you’re interested: “But he's (Mendoza) the same man that took me and brought me on this ship. He's a bad man, and if he does that again, I'll bite him! Haha, don't worry, I won't bite you (Esteban). After all, you freed me from the crate.”

(but because it's not really a « kid friendly » moment, I guess we can understand why it wasn't),

Real but I’m also thinking about all the non kid friendly stuff (Tao kidnapping Zia, Tao and Esteban almost getting eaten by ants, Zia watching an Incan man get whipped, the documentaries, etc)

it's also sad that it was never mentioned again nor explained elsewhere...

The closest thing we have to them mentioning Zia and Mendoza’s tension is Zia in season 4 saying “you know, I didn’t like [Mendoza] in the beginning, he used to scare me”

He may just have knocked her out; if he was lucky, she fainted out of fear when he appeared, just like she did when Tao kidnapped her in episode 5.

I never thought of her fainting out of fear (although it makes sense cause it happens a lot to her…) because she knows who Mendoza is. She knows his name and why he’s kidnapping her. So she must’ve had a conversation with him, or something like that. Maybe she overheard conversations, but idk. When she tells Esteban that Mendoza is a wicked man, it seems like she knows him to some extent. True, she might just be assuming things but her assumptions are correct so who knows.

So I guess him knocking her out makes more sense. But in that case. Goddamn Mendoza you’re evil 😭 I’m hoping it wasn’t his first course of action. I know Mendoza is uhh a bad person but he’s not the devil either

Kinda sidetracking here but this is another reason why I hate that Zia (or the show’s narrative itself) never brings up the kidnapping again. Because Mendoza does so many bad things yet the characters (AND the audience!!) are expected to forgive him. Uh yeah no. He’s my favourite character but we all know redemption arcs don’t work that way! Mendoza might look like he’s a good guy now, but does he even feel bad about all the stuff he did?? Would he still justify them???

The boy also faces his enemies with the same talent for quick replies that Mendoza, and he knows how to negotiate and use them : from Pizarro to Gomez or Menator, Esteban has learned from Mendoza how to think and manipulate these men to obtain what he wants.

You know what, I never thought of that similarity between them. I think it’s funny that Esteban being kinder than Mendoza is actually where he gets the advantage over him (while Mendoza treats his enemies the opposite way). Remember when the doctor had his sword to Zia’s throat and asked Mendoza to hand over his gun. Mendoza hesitates, probably taking time to weigh the pros and cons, but Esteban immediately complies and snatches the gun from him and saves Zia. And we know that was the right move. It happens again, when marinche and the doctor fall off a cliff and ask Mendoza for help. He flat out refuses but Esteban wants to save them. Again. This is kinda beneficial. They get their gun back (and Mendoza doesn’t die obviously. Ah I love that scene).

Also! This reminds me of a really cool moment in episode 14, when Esteban intervenes to save Mendoza and the sailors from the Incans […]

I love this scene so much, glad you brought it up. Indeed, you could even say that Esteban is beating Mendoza at his own game. The way Esteban says (I’m paraphrasing): “you came back to give me my medallion, isn’t that right Mendoza? There couldn’t be any other reason” is just like how Mendoza says to perez in episode 2: “I’m sure you know about the state of the ship, captain. When the sailors realize the sad state of the masts, sails, ropes, how do you think they’ll react? It’s too late to turn back, isn’t it?”

Which kinda explains, as you said, why Mendoza said Esteban “won”. Mendoza is usually playing mind games with people, and this time, Esteban turned the tables on him. Or however the expression goes idk

However, Mendoza is written as his new fatherly figure, and Esteban grows by following his example on several occasions.

It’s funny cause they literally say this, word for word, season 4: “Mendoza? He’s the strongest man I know. I’d really like to be like him later”

Mendoza clearly had an effect on all the kids. If Esteban sees that in a positive way, then it could be cool if Zia saw it negatively (what! I’m making this full circle by bringing up Zia again??!)

All of this to say that, in the end, it's still impossible to tell clearly which one of the kids is the most like Mendoza; but it's another fascinating debate that we could extend for a long time!

Honestly, i think trying to find which one is “most” like him is already a lost cause. I mean, can you really say which of your siblings is more like your parent? I remember looking at old pictures of my mom and sometimes I saw myself, sometimes I saw my sisters. I couldn’t pick one

BUT. Highlighting the ways the kids are similar (and different) to Mendoza is undoubtedly extremely fun. Proof: 2 people are writing extremely long posts about it and 5 people have read and liked them.

I guess the reason why I said (in an old post) that I thought Tao was the most similar to Mendoza is probably cause their similarities are the most evident. And also because I really like Tao 😭(my second fav character). So it’s only natural for me to make that point. But yeah, obviously, I see That they’re all pretty similar to him, in their own ways.

(Also this has GOT to be the longest exchange in Mcog history 😭)

[sabastet13]

Well, I wish you a belated happy birthday then ! 😄

I see what you mean. For Lana's dad, I always thought that she was upset either because he was lying once again or because she didn't want to let him use the people of the Lake. As for Gaspard and Gomez, it's a more ambiguous lie : we don't really know if Zia lied to them to protect Mendoza and the sailors (by hiding the fact that they were alive and near them) or if she was already planning to « use » Gaspard and Gomez by gaining their pity. Either way, it does show that she's come to learn that lying could be necessary, which is an interesting progression (and if she didn't then, yeah she may be quite hypocritical towards Mendoza).

Damn, Zia doesn't joke in the japanese dub ! I can't remember hearing something like that in the French dub ; I guess they went with a flatter line to fit better with the « polite » vibe of Zia at the start of season one (I hope you see what I mean, I can't find the right word). Anyway, thanks for sharing this ! It's really fun to see the differences in characterization between the different dubs !

About her kidnapping, maybe she didn't know Mendoza ? Maybe, just like Gomez, she heard about him at the Spanish Court ? I'm not sure it would make sense, because Gomez is known thanks to his title in the army while Mendoza is just a random navigator, but maybe some soldiers knew Mendoza and talked about him in front of Zia at one point ?

It's so true that he gets away with everything he's done, even if it's something he shouldn't be forgiven for (like the kidnapping). It reminds me of episode 8 where he talks to Zia to convince her to tell the secrets of the quipu to Pizarro. Mendoza tells her something like « listen, you know me now, you know I don't want to hurt you ». Now that you've brought up the kidnapping of Zia, it feels odd to think about this line again. Because of course Zia doesn't trust him, of course she hates him, and of course she has no reason to trust him here... Yet, this episode may be one of the first where she really puts some trust in him (because he helps her and the others to escape from Pizarro).

All the encounters between the Doctor/Marinche/Teteola and our group are so tense ! I love the running gag of Mendoza and the Doctor asking for the pistol, the bullets and the powder. They're both in position of power, they both abuse of it, and it also shows a darker side of Mendoza that we don't get to see that often.

(To be fair, even if Esteban obviously made the right choice by saving them from that cliff, I would've sided with Mendoza on this one. The Doctor and Marinche cannot be trusted, they even betray the group once more later, and they've already done so many bad things in only a few episodes...)

« mind game » is exactly the expression I was looking for, thanks ! I never made the parallel between Esteban/Mendoza and Mendoza/Perez, it's so funny. Esteban really took after him, right ?

This line from Esteban in season 4 is really heartwarming. That's something he could never have said out loud in season one (and certainly not to Zia), but that he might have thought. I'm sad that they simplified Mendoza in the later seasons but, in the way, this « friendly » version of him brought him closer to the children and gave us scenes like that, so I can't complain too much !

Maybe we can ask the question from another angle : we cannot tell which one is most like him, but we can tell which one wants to resemble him the most ? Which would still be Esteban, because he said it out loud as you've pointed out. I guess that Tao would get to that point too after season 4 : he's already learned to trust and like Mendoza, but without Esteban and Zia, he might grow to be more like him ? Or to take after him ?

It is very fun indeed to theorize about them, and I think there's still plenty of examples we could develop about the links between the children and Mendoza (so more long posts in the future, hooray!)

[queats]

Damn, Zia doesn't joke in the japanese dub !!

Yeah I only found out about that by reading the mcog wiki, where someone took the time to write out all the differences in dubbing between the Japanese and English versions

but maybe some soldiers knew Mendoza and talked about him in front of Zia at one point ?

Maybe. But I think he’d be more known by sailors. But again we’ll never know what actually happened 😭

Yet, this episode may be one of the first where she really puts some trust in him (because he helps her and the others to escape from Pizarro).

Mendoza is pretty lucky if you think about it. There are lots of instances where he gets the chance to swoop in and save Zias life, kinda forcing her to start to trust him. Or maybe that’s his plan, to continually save the kids so that they like him more and realize that they need him (so it would be kinda on purpose).

All the encounters between the Doctor/ Marinche/Teteola and our group are so tense !

For reallll I know everyone always talks about Gaspard and Gomez, but I think the doctor and marinche are as interesting (or maybe even more…). Cause they’re A) not stupid (unlike Gaspard) and B) don’t trust Mendoza at all (unlike Gomez, who trusts him multiple times after being tricked).

(And side note, marinche being the “main mastermind” is so cool cause we have a female character scheming and plotting for gold! We don’t get that often enough in the show. Also I realize why I like her so much. She’s basically like a female Mendoza. I always wanted to find female characters similar to him cause imagine how cool that would be)

They're both in position of power, they both abuse of it, and it also shows a darker side of Mendoza that we don't get to see that often.

It’s funny cause Marinche literally says that: “He’s (Mendoza) abusing of the situation, that dog!”

Also about the “darker” side thing you mentioned. Now I have an excuse to bring up one of my favourite dialogues from the show 😈(also you speak French right? I can only find the scripts in French and I don’t feel like translating 😭):

Mendoza : Les aider, tu n'y songes pas ? Ils n'ont que ce qu'ils méritent. Allez, allons-nous-en !

Le Docteur : Hé ! Mendoza, ne bouge plus !

Le Docteur arme et pointe soudain son pistolet sur le dos de Mendoza qui tourne la tête.

Le Docteur : (déterminé) Un pas de plus, Mendoza, et je te jure que je n'hésiterais pas à tirer.

Mendoza : Hé bien allez-y, Docteur, tirez ! Mais vous perdrez votre seule chance de sortir de ce trou.

Le Docteur : Je n'ai plus rien à perdre. Mais si je dois mourir, je t'emmènerai en enfer avec moi.

Esteban really took after him, right?

Hard to believe Esteban’s dad is Athanaos when Mendoza is right there 🤣😭

I'm sad that they simplified Mendoza in the later seasons but, in the way, this « friendly » version of him brought him closer to the children and gave us scenes like that, so I can't complain too much !

These are my exact feelings about the sequel! Sure he’s not sneaky and evil anymore but the hugs???? The cute family moments??? Him saying the kids are his children???? Oh please give me ten more sequels if that’s what you’re gonna do to him

we cannot tell which one is most like him, but we can tell which one wants to resemble him the most?

Omg you just opened my eyes to so many more possibilities. But yeah it would totally be Esteban without a doubt.

Tao is interesting because I’ve noticed something that kinda relates to what you’re saying. One day I was making a Mendoza and Tao edit (since I made edits for every Mcog relationship). And I realized that most of their important interactions take place after Ambrosius leaves the group. Ambrosius was clearly manipulating him so once he was out of the picture, Tao just naturally got closer to Mendoza. And we see this in season 1 as well, where Mendoza and Tao have some sort of intellectual connection that the others can’t really understand (not cause they’re dumb, they’re just not nerdy enough)

[sabastet13]

Thanks for sharing this ! It looks like the English dub was made with the French dub as a reference, because it's closer to French than to Japanese in a lot of ways. The Japanese dubbing is so interesting to read ; it gives a whole new dimension to the characters. The bond between the kids seems stronger (like in episode 11 when Esteban says Zia should see Tao and him as siblings – which disappeared in both the French and English dubs) ; Esteban seems to think more often about his father and tries to imitate him (like he says in episode 5). As for Mendoza, he's even more ambiguous and two-faced. This sentence in particular :

«  Mendoza: Esteban, now I've saved your life twice. And Zia, I've saved you once ».

It's a nasty way to manipulate them, by « guilt-tripping » them and by implying that they are in debt to him now. The exchange with Zia right after is also more interesting because she responds the same way : by reminding him that he kidnapped her, she says that she owes him nothing. I kinda prefer the English/French line though, where he says that they'll be safe with him because neither Gaspard nor Gomez will try anything until they reach Lima.

Or maybe that’s his plan, to continually save the kids so that they like him more and realize that they need him (so it would be kinda on purpose).

I think it's more likely ; after all, it worked well with Esteban. He does his best to make himself irreplaceable and to remind them that they'll need him to continue their journey. Saving them is like a bonus to his first plan : he has to help them in order to find the Cities of gold and by doing so he gets closer to them and convince them that he's important.

Marinche is indeed a fascinating character, not only because she's like the female equivalent of Mendoza, but because she's far more dangerous than everyone else. From her first interaction with the kids (when she guesses what they discovered in the Mayan temples) to her complex schemes and her way to manipulate people, she may be one of the biggest threats they have to face.

I have to admit that I still prefer Gaspard and Gomez ; they're the main opponents of our group (after all, they come back often and are here at the start and at the end of the story) and their progression/history is intertwined with the children. I also really like the interactions they have with the children and the Mendoza : they all use each other to get what they want. As for Gomez, I'm not sure he ever trusted Mendoza (except for the cannon episode, but to his defense Mendoza did tell the truth about the Incans' attack), but he seized the opportunity to use him every time he could and it backfired each time.

My main regret about the Doctor and Marinche would be their lack of development/appearance : their introduction is interesting, the episodes where they're involved are tense and our heroes are really challenged by their cunningness, but once the Olmecs are introduced they have no more role in the plot. They make one or two appearance later with the Olmecs, but their part in the story ended in episode 28 with the discovering of the last manuscript.

I'm French so don't worry about that ! This dialogue is really nice indeed, Mendoza was so cold here ! To link this with what I was saying above, it's also funny to see that Mendoza and Gomez can chat politely almost everytime they meet because they both want something the other have and they both think they can use the other to get what they want ; while the Doctor despises Mendoza since the beginning and then hates him a little more after each of their encounters. The confrontations in the series are always interesting, and it's nice to see that each bad guy is different and interacts with the group in his own way (I don't know if I'm clear there lol).

And I realized that most of their important interactions take place after Ambrosius leaves the group. Ambrosius was clearly manipulating him so once he was out of the picture, Tao just naturally got closer to Mendoza. And we see this in season 1 as well, where Mendoza and Tao have some sort of intellectual connection that the others can’t really understand (not cause they’re dumb, they’re just not nerdy enough)

The starting situation of season 2 was disappointing for the Tao/Mendoza relationship : not only Tao was now the one to distrust Mendoza, but he also ceased to share this intellectual bond with him too. These nerdy conversations were the major interactions between them from the start of season 1 (I think one of the first – if not the first – conversations they have together is about the Solaris in Episode 7, when Mendoza asks Tao about the signs of Mu and the functioning of the ship). I was happy to see Tao slowly getting closer to Mendoza again after Ambrosius revealed his true face !

[queats]

It's a nasty way to manipulate them, by « guilt-tripping » them and by implying that they are in debt to him now.

Yesss that’s the word, guilt tripping

My main regret about the Doctor and Marinche would be their lack of development/appearance:

Exactly they should’ve had more scenes. And they even had the perfect opportunity To bring back the Doctor in season 3 and 4 (since he used to be Ambrosius’ and Athanaos’ friend).

it's also funny to see that Mendoza and Gomez can chat politely almost everytime they meet because they both want something the other have and they both think they can use the other to get what they want; while the Doctor despises Mendoza since the beginning and then hates him a little more after each of their encounters.

When Mendoza insults Gaspard or Gomez, it’s pretty subtle. He makes remarks about Gaspard’s intelligence and undermines Gomez’ abilities. But when it comes to the doctor and marinche, he’s more direct with “and you can go to the devil!” 😭 calm down sir

but he also ceased to share this intellectual bond with him too. These nerdy conversations were the major interactions between them from the start of season 1

I know I hate this too. And it’s not something only we’ve noticed. I read the book “secrets d’une saga mythique” which explains how season 1 was made and they make a LOT of Tao-Mendoza connections in it. And then I watched an interview where the show runner of season 2 describes the new character, Ambrosius, and says that he’s basically vampirising (idk if this is a real word but that’s what he said) on all of Mendoza’s traits. No wonder ambrosius is the one to nerd out with tao 🙄

[queats]

The Sun Summoner

(Oh wait, wrong franchise)

Alright today we’re gonna address one of the biggest questions I have about mcog: how on earth do Esteban’s powers work?

We know he’s been chosen by the nacaals to be the chosen one. This is also due to the fact that he’s Atlantean. So do only Atlanteans and muans have powers? Given that Esteban is Atlantan from his mom’s side, did she have powers too? How does it get passed down?

Okay, the inheritance laws of magic in Mcog aren’t really the subject of this post. However it happened, Esteban has powers and that’s that.

He’s called “the child of the sun” and that’s a pretty big deal in the show. The iconic theme song includes the line “children of the sun…”. As such, Esteban’s powers are related to the sun. In the show, they say he can “make the sun come out”. But how does it work?

The first time Esteban’s powers are displayed Mendoza saves Esteban from drowning. According to the story, Magellan took the baby in his arms to make him laugh, and when he did, the storm calmed down and the sun immediately came out. This might lead us to believe that the sun follows Esteban’s mood: when he’s happy, it comes out. They even say it seemed that his smile commanded the sun.

Only… that’s not how it works.

The second time Esteban uses his powers is during the ceremony at the port. It had been raining for a long time and the people of Barcelona wanted good weather for the Esperanza’s departure the next day. Esteban does not want to participate despite everyone forcing him to. He’s very upset (especially cause they hoist him high up in the sky) and he starts yelling to the sun, saying that he wants it to rain even more.

Following the logic I previously established, the rain should continue to pour. But that’s not what happens. The sun indeed comes out, despite Esteban’s wishes. So how can we even say that he can control the sun, when the sun does whatever it wants?

Another time that Esteban’s powers are seemingly used is when they’re about to be sacrificed by the amazons. Esteban prays for the sun to come out, despite not believing it actually will. And sure enough, it stops raining and their lives are saved.

There’s a line in the show, I forgot which episode, but it says that Esteban gets energy from the sun. As in, the sun affects his mood, not vice versa. That’s a little bit more confusing to us now.

In season 2, Esteban uses his powers to dissipate the fog and make the second city visible. He doesn’t believe he can do it though, and makes fun of the notion by saying “ooh hey sun!! Can you come out, we need you 🙄”. Zia gets angry and tells him to summon the sun with meaning. With feeling. And he does. And it works.

The last time Esteban uses his powers is in the last episode. He tries to stop the storm so they can use the laser cannon. Although he’s fully concentrated in his task, and believes in himself, it takes some time before it works. But it does, in the end.

It looks like the sun comes out whether or not he wants it to and whether or not he believes it will. In other words, it’s a complete coincidence.

But that just doesn’t make sense, given the context of the cartoon.

It was unclear in season 1 but I think the sequel wants us to think that his powers are a skill he needs to train. Which makes sense of course. He also needs to believe in himself for them to work. Again, this seems logical. Lots of kid’s shows are often about “believing in yourself” (I know it sounds like a cat poster, but it’s true!).

But even when he doesn’t believe, even when he doesn’t train, it still works. So what’s up with that?

[sabastet13]

I think that the link between Esteban and the Sun was more spiritual in the first season than it is in the later ones : in the first, it's never certain that Esteban has such powers. Even if everyone around him believes so, Esteban does not and each time the Sun appears, it is made to look like it could have been a coincidence.

In season 1, it's hard to say whether he has powers or not, and as you pointed out, there's no way to know if it really works. Once again, it looks more like a coincidence when the sun finally appears when he needs it (and that's what Esteban himself often believes).

As for the transmission of the powers, the only clue we get is that his mother was a priestess of the Sun and was sacrificed to appease its anger. Either her link with the Sun was passed on to Esteban in some way after that, or she may have become « one » with the Sun after her death and would then protect Esteban when he needs her (I may be reading too much into it, but I feel like it goes well with the spiritual theme to have his dead mother look after him from above after her sacrifice).

As for the scene in Barcelona, Esteban is clearly unhappy with his role and wants the whole thing to end. He's so upset to be here that he yells and asks for rain – which he gets. However, the moment he falls back and is in danger, the rain stops and the sun comes back. So this scene would go well with the idea of the sun protecting Esteban : it doesn't appear because the boy wants to, but because he needs it. That's how it works in Barcelona, and also how it works with the Amazons : Esteban prays for it without result and it's only when Omouro is ready to kill him that the sun appears. Same at the beginning of episode 9 when they need the sun to start the engines of the Solaris or for the Condor in later episodes : the sun rises when the Spaniards are coming after them and when they are in real danger.

In season 2-3, the link between Esteban and the Sun is made more obvious, and he really seems to control it when he truly wants it. It's not a matter of protection anymore : each time he calls the sun, the sun appears (in Badalom, or for the Condor at the beginning of season 3). As for the line where they say that he gets energy from the sun, I'd say that it comes from season 2, when they are in Buddha's cave and Esteban is bit by a scorpion. He's sick and almost dies, but he survives thanks to Zia's remedies and the arrival of the Sun (to which he reacts positively, almost getting back on his feet immediately after getting some light).

You're right about the differences between season one and later seasons : Esteban's powers would be more spiritual and protective in the first, while it would be more of a skill that he needs to develop in the later ones. I would never have thought of that and it's an interesting point, because as you said, that also explains why he needs to focus each time he calls the sun and why he has to concentrate/talk with his heart to get something!

[queats]

Esteban having a “spiritual” connection to the sun is basically what I was going for since I wanted to make a post about religion in Mcog (but I still didn’t). Also I just remembered that it’s been talked about before. In the book, “secrets d’une saga mythique”, there’s this image and caption:

“Notice the placement of the characters: Esteban under the sun, his spiritual father; Mendoza, as father of substitution, is found at the same height as the diurnal star”

Also I really like the idea of his link to the sun being related to his mother. I know it might not fit perfectly, given that the sun is seen as “masculine” so naturally we’d assume the sun would be his father. But they never say that word for word in show so it doesn’t need to be the case.

What you said kinda reminds me of Yue in Atla. She was born very sick and so her parents prayed to the koi fish (representing the moon) so that she survived. Then when the fish are harmed, she becomes the moon. I don’t remember it super well but yeah. Anyway. What if Esteban’s mother was sacrificed but in doing so, she “became” the sun. It makes sense cause there’s a mother’s sacrifice, which transcends all materiality. And Esteban would still be, literally and metaphorically, the child of the sun.

And you’re right to say the sun seems to be protecting Esteban, not necessarily listening to him. And that’s such a mom thing. Esteban is yelling for it to rain, his mom is like “okay sure” and then once it goes too far she’s like “alright play time is over”. I’m giving the sun human characteristics so that I can explain myself easier, but obviously, it’s all very metaphorical and spiritual. I don’t think the sun is “thinking” but I don’t wanna make this more complicated.

As Esteban grows up, maybe the Sun realizes that he’s more, idk, mature, and she’s willing to cooperate. So in season 1, it’s like “mother knows best” and later on, Esteban is able to make better choices himself, so the sun listens to him more. The Sun doesn’t “jump in” and now it’s now Esteban’s duty to protect his friends by himself.

This would not be the first time they were protected by some force of nature.

In a magazine talking about Mcog, they use this caption:

“Esteban, son of the sun. Mendoza, son of the sea”

At first I found it funny, and kinda cute that they were trying to link Mendoza to Esteban. But I realized that they weren’t technically wrong to say that. In the Esperanza episodes, there are a lot of scenes where the gang get in danger. You’d think it’s because of how rough the seas are, but the main danger comes from Gomez, Gaspard and Perez. The sun doesn’t save Esteban, Mendoza does. And when Mendoza is in danger, the ocean saves him. For example, when Gaspard is about to kill Mendoza, he gets hit in the head by a flying fish. The fish signify a huge wave coming at them, which forces the captains to keep Mendoza alive to pilot them safely. So the ocean going crazy was actually beneficial, if you think about it. Son of the sea indeed.

But Esteban is narratively the Son of the Sun. And what do parents do first and foremost? Protect their kids. So with the previous example, Esteban’s link to the sun makes a lot of sense

[queats]

The Sun Summoner

(Oh wait, wrong franchise)

Alright today we’re gonna address one of the biggest questions I have about mcog: how on earth do Esteban’s powers work?

We know he’s been chosen by the nacaals to be the chosen one. This is also due to the fact that he’s Atlantean. So do only Atlanteans and muans have powers? Given that Esteban is Atlantan from his mom’s side, did she have powers too? How does it get passed down?

Okay, the inheritance laws of magic in Mcog aren’t really the subject of this post. However it happened, Esteban has powers and that’s that.

He’s called “the child of the sun” and that’s a pretty big deal in the show. The iconic theme song includes the line “children of the sun…”. As such, Esteban’s powers are related to the sun. In the show, they say he can “make the sun come out”. But how does it work?

The first time Esteban’s powers are displayed Mendoza saves Esteban from drowning. According to the story, Magellan took the baby in his arms to make him laugh, and when he did, the storm calmed down and the sun immediately came out. This might lead us to believe that the sun follows Esteban’s mood: when he’s happy, it comes out. They even say it seemed that his smile commanded the sun.

Only… that’s not how it works.

The second time Esteban uses his powers is during the ceremony at the port. It had been raining for a long time and the people of Barcelona wanted good weather for the Esperanza’s departure the next day. Esteban does not want to participate despite everyone forcing him to. He’s very upset (especially cause they hoist him high up in the sky) and he starts yelling to the sun, saying that he wants it to rain even more.

Following the logic I previously established, the rain should continue to pour. But that’s not what happens. The sun indeed comes out, despite Esteban’s wishes. So how can we even say that he can control the sun, when the sun does whatever it wants?

Another time that Esteban’s powers are seemingly used is when they’re about to be sacrificed by the amazons. Esteban prays for the sun to come out, despite not believing it actually will. And sure enough, it stops raining and their lives are saved.

There’s a line in the show, I forgot which episode, but it says that Esteban gets energy from the sun. As in, the sun affects his mood, not vice versa. That’s a little bit more confusing to us now.

In season 2, Esteban uses his powers to dissipate the fog and make the second city visible. He doesn’t believe he can do it though, and makes fun of the notion by saying “ooh hey sun!! Can you come out, we need you 🙄”. Zia gets angry and tells him to summon the sun with meaning. With feeling. And he does. And it works.

The last time Esteban uses his powers is in the last episode. He tries to stop the storm so they can use the laser cannon. Although he’s fully concentrated in his task, and believes in himself, it takes some time before it works. But it does, in the end.

It looks like the sun comes out whether or not he wants it to and whether or not he believes it will. In other words, it’s a complete coincidence.

But that just doesn’t make sense, given the context of the cartoon.

It was unclear in season 1 but I think the sequel wants us to think that his powers are a skill he needs to train. Which makes sense of course. He also needs to believe in himself for them to work. Again, this seems logical. Lots of kid’s shows are often about “believing in yourself” (I know it sounds like a cat poster, but it’s true!).

But even when he doesn’t believe, even when he doesn’t train, it still works. So what’s up with that?