I’m not the first person to say this, but I’ll say it again anyway—one of the things I loved about Coco was that the adults were adults. There’s a feeling of real, complex relationships, with all their ups and downs and in-betweens, especially for Héctor and Imelda. I originally liked the idea of Un Poco Loco being written for Coco, because the nonsensical answers seemed just right for a toddler playing with her papa. But after hearing the commentary about it being written for Imelda, I got hooked on that idea—that the person you love can make you a little bit crazy, and yet things persevere anyway.
This was originally supposed to be a lighthearted 3-page comic, but then my own experiences kicked in and it turned into something a little deeper about the trials of young parenthood, fledgling careers, and the sacrificial give-and-take of marriage.
Special thanks to @mygardenofmuses for proofreading the Spanish!
—millenial/gen z stuff that miguel loves and how his dead family reacts to them—
miguel def shares game accounts with his cousins and he’ll talk about either some crazy steam fad or his latest POTG on overwatch and his family’s just wondering how and when he met these friends from los angeles and houston and friggin seoul and moscow
let’s plays and podcasts they can broadly put under the “it’s just like radio” umbrella
miguel joins the dnd club in middle school and his first character is a bard so blatantly modeled after hector that hector himself gets absorbed in the adventures of “fernando del fuego” and can hardly stand the fact that updates are YEARLY
(it’s a pretty relaxed and loosely-scheduled campaign though, so most of the important stuff really does take months to happen)
miguel is a HUGE ‘my hero academia’ and ‘haikyu’ nerd, though he’ll say he only watches shows like ‘fruits basket’ and ‘your lie in april’ totally just because he shares an anime site subscription with rosa and he keeps getting her recommendations
his family’s honestly fine with whatever he’s watching; they can glean that he’s not into anything too risqué.
though those horror survival games that he’s got tucked away under his bed definitely raises some brows.
(out of curiosity, hector finds a copy of resident evil 7 at a rental shop back in the land of the dead. three hours and two weeks of uneasy sleep later, he’s written down some STRONG words for when miguel crosses that bridge again)
(one sentence includes “if you’re here before you’ve even reached 40, I THINK WE BOTH KNOW WHY”)
OKAY, FIRST OFF, YES I THINK ABOUT THIS A LOT SO THANK YOU FOR THIS.
SO, I stand firmly in the camp of “Ernesto disassociating himself from his actions and consequences” and “he deeply romanticizes himself and the world.” So the theme of this ask is “storytelling.” (This was the big theme I worked with on the “My Best Friend” comic and have been dying to talk about)
Short answer, though, is YES but with a catch!
Everywhere you go throughout the movie, you get Ernesto the Story. We’re introduced to the “legend” through Miguel’s idealized story of him, we hear about his early days from the always-positive-and-always-avoiding-the-subject Héctor, we see his films… we see him cultivated as a story again and again. I think, largely, this is because he presents himself as a story. Some examples of this are: we see him narrating his life to Miguel in his mansion, showing off HIS grandson to everyone, and the film reels playing. He LOVES being the hero. He LOVES being a celebrity. He loves living up the role. ( And nothing, NOTHING can intervene with his “truth.”
With that level of disassociation of himself, I imagine he romanticizes his friendship with Héctor. He’s so kind to Héctor when they meet up in the tower– well, you know, riiiiight until Héctor figures out the truth. It’s only when Ernesto’s “truth” is questioned that he takes action to fix the narrative. Ernesto may miss his friend but certainly doesn’t recognize what he did… as he…. proceeds to do it again…
Remorse can go two ways. Either you regret your actions or you regret the consequences. I think he falls more into the latter rather than the former (Héctor being the former and why they’re SUCH GOOD FOILS). I believe for a hot moment, Ernesto was ready to be friends again but when Héctor didn’t play into the role, the touching memories are shattered. The narrative has to be corrected. I touch on it in my “Remember Me” comic but I think Ernesto does miss his friend, or rather, the moments/memories Héctor gave to him. He regrets losing that but *shrug* the show must go on. The story must continue. The legend must live on.
i'll apple your turnover 