#*pats blorbo on the head* this baby can fit so much trauma and psychoanalysis in it

[notmoreflippingelves]

It suddenly occurs to me that although "Island of Youth" seems at first a relatively innocuous fun little adventure on the surface, it's actually one of the more quietly devastating Elena of Avalor episodes when you consider it in the context of Esteban's backstory and stop to think about its wider implications. I'm going to put the rest below the cut as it got VERY long and because I do briefly touch on some character headcanons that may be triggering for some people. (warning for some discussion of abusive power dynamics especially as they relate to sexual harassment/coercion).

The episode is set on Esteban's birthday but even though the show does not explicitly remind us of this, this isn't just any old birthday for Esteban. This is specifically during the first birthday that he's had since the liberation of Avalor. It's set during the first birthday in forty-one years (!) that Esteban will be able to celebrate with his family again.

And while Esteban himself is acutely aware of its special significance, the rest of his family is probably not. Because from their perspective, they celebrated Esteban's birthday with him only last year--even if they did so with an Esteban who looks and acts distinctly different from this one. (Elena is the only probable exception as she was the only one besides Esteban to really feel the passage of those long years, even as they did not physically age her as they did him. It's probably why she organizes the surprise party in the first place and charges herself to keep Esteban company while"distracting" him from the surprise).

And though it's only just-barely alluded to in the show itself, this is also the first birthday Esteban's had since he was a teenager--the first birthday in over four decades--where he wasn't eking out a miserable existence trapped under Shuriki's thumb.

His decision to look for the fountain of youth is not the rather pathetic wish of a vain, bitter older man wants to relive some of the glory days of his youth. It's the very understandable wish of a tired, jaded (if also admittedly vain) older man who who never got have a proper youth in the first place--let alone any glory days to cling to.

He did not have the opportunity to squander his own youth, because that youth was taken from him by Shuriki--just as she took Esteban's family, country, and innocence away from him. (And yeah, I know he is partially to blame for his own bad situation, but in Esteban's defense, he was an insecure, frightened and stupid teenager at the time and as a result made the same sort of bad decisions that insecure, frightened, stupid teenagers are wont to make.)

In order to survive--not thrive, merely to survive--under Shuriki's thumb, Esteban was forced to grow up and grow up fast. And grow up in ways that no one should ever have to.

This is true in general but especially true if one tends toward the interpretation that Shuriki may have abused her power over Esteban to take advantage of him in other ways (i.e. sexually) .

In which case, his vanity throughout the show might also have this underlying Freudian excuse undertone to it that Esteban himself may not be consciously aware of. Over the years of Shuriki's reign, Esteban learned to view his looks as perhaps the only thing keeping him alive. So he learned to meticulously maintain his appearance, because as long as he remained handsome, virile and charming, Shuriki would be less likely to have him executed.

And I highly doubt that Esteban would be able to break out of this conditioning--that losing his looks might mean losing his life-- even after Shuriki's defeat. In Esteban's paranoid mind, finding the Fountain of Youth is just another way of protecting himself in the event that Shuriki should return (because there's no way he's not going to be looking over his shoulder for her the rest of his life).

All of which frames his ultimate decision--his choosing to save Elena rather than the canteen of youth-restoring water in a much more complex and noble light.

He's not giving up on a second chance on a youth that he'd voluntarily squandered; he's sacrificing his last opportunity at a real "first chance" of youth on his own terms. Because he recognizes that Elena's life is worth more than the life Esteban never got to have.

He's not reluctantly conceding that his cousin's life is worth more than Esteban's own vanity. He's conceding that his cousin's life is worth more than his own means of survival. In a small, understated way, he's making the choice that he should've made decades earlier: putting his family's safety before his own.

Although the show really doesn't dwell too much on the meaning of this (unsurprisingly), this episode provides a really interesting parallel with the finale. We see early signs that when it really comes down to it, Esteban can be much braver and much more selfless than even he realizes.