#eoa analysis

[dittomander]

What are your thoughts on Isabel becoming Royal Inventor? I know inventing is Isabel’s hobby, but when somebody is titled as “Royal” then that implies that they work for the Royal family. But Isabel is not only part of the royal family, but she is heir presumptive. If Elena dies or abdicates without children, then the throne will pass to Isabel. Isabel’s arc was about learning to become a ruler like Elena. So why make her Royal Inventor, if she could potentially become ruler of Avalor one day?

Narratively speaking, I think it actually makes perfect sense. For starters, while there are certainly themes of leadership in some of Isabel's episodes, I'd argue that her arc is less about becoming a "ruler like Elena" and more about her becoming a leader unlike Elena.

(True to form, long-winded essay below the cut.)

Isabel starts the show as a clingy little kid - from her perspective, she just lost her parents, and she doesn't understand that her sister's new responsibilities mean that she can't spend as much time with her as she used to. A lot of her episodes involve her learning to act independently of Elena. She must develop and defend her own identity, even as she reckons with the limitations of her age.

She goes to school for the first time in "Crystal in the Rough" and struggles to make friends her own age, so she smothers her own identity and tries to just fit in instead. She has to learn to be herself and rely on her own strengths - her skills with math, science, and invention. This episode also gives Isabel her own friend group, independent from Elena and the other amigos. Later, in "Science Unfair", she has to learn to rely on those friends for help. Her sister gives her some advice, but ultimately, she and her new friends finish their project themselves.

Later still in "Class Act", Isabel has to learn to recover from her own mistakes and work with even more people outside of her family, to the point where she's able to teach Elena a lesson about working with difficult personalities in "Norberg Peace Prize". By "Shooting Stars", she's totally confident in her role as a scientist and her ability to give directions related to that role. And in Isa's final focus episode, "Heart of the Jaguar", Elena is literally taken from her, and she must learn to stand up for herself and solve her problems entirely alone.

But even as she learns to become a more independent and confident leader in her own right, she has to deal with the fact that she is still fundamentally Different from her sister. At first, this is largely framed as a function of her age. In "Blockheads" and "Three Jaquins and Princess", she is ignored and doubted because of her youth, though it's her knowledge and ingenuity that solve the problems of the day.

Still, she tries to be one of the "big kids", and in "Sister of Invention", she makes her plea again to be treated as an adult and seen as part of the team. She's ultimately allowed to join the amigos, but it's not because they see her as being like them. In fact, they explicitly say that Isabel can't do what they do... but that they can't do what she does, either. She's allowed to work with them because of her inventions and mathematical skills - that is, because of her differences.

(Arguably, "Science Unfair" has a similar conclusion. Isabel is invited to go to college - that is, invited to join a group of adults - specifically because of her skills with science. Beyond just being her hobby, those skills are at the core of her identity, and they are what tie her to being recognized as a grown-up.)

The point is hammered in further in "Team Isa", where Cristina outright tells her that "you're not Elena and you never will be." Isabel was trying to be a "leader like Elena" and failed, only succeeding when she utilized her and her friends' own unique skills instead of trying to just be like her sister. Isabel and Elena have distinct skill sets, and episodes like "A Gecko's Tale" and "The Family Treasure" emphasize this. Their differing skills allow them to complement each other and give them opportunities to learn, but throughout the show, it's made clear that they are not each other and cannot fully fill each other's roles.

Because again, it's not just that Isa can't do exactly what Elena does. It's also that Elena can't do what Isa does. She tries to handle invention plans in "Sugar Rush", but it only adds to her anxieties, and at the end of the episode, she hands the responsibility off to Isabel, the expert. Elena has to learn to delegate what she can't handle herself.

That's what the Royal Inventor title means. It's respect for Isabel's unique skills. It's an acknowledgement that she's a part of the team. And it's not an act of subordination, but rather a delegation of authority.

So the narrative comes together there. Isabel has gone from a clingy little kid that would hide her interests to fit in to a confident young lady that knows where her skills lie and can be trusted with the responsibility to use them for the kingdom's benefit.

The promotion scene at the end of "Coronation Day" exists primarily for these narrative reasons rather than for making perfect logical sense in-universe. It's meant to showcase how the character arcs have developed - most of them fall apart if you put them under the slightest bit of realistic scrutiny - but if we do want to look at them through that logical, in-universe lens, then frankly, Isabel's promotion probably makes the most sense.

There is a precedent of members of the royal family still working for the royal family. Esteban was chancellor for most of the show and both he and the abuelos were on the Grand Council. None of those three may have had a claim to the throne like Isabel could, but even her claim is pretty meaningless at this point in the timeline.

The only reason Elena had any governing authority as Crown Princess was because there was Literally No Other Ruler at the time. Current heir or not, Isabel won't actually be expected to lead the kingdom unless something happens to Elena, and if Elena ever has kids, then Isa's practically off the roster entirely. So... what's a princess to do in the meantime? Being named Royal Inventor gives her a degree of authority within Elena's court that she may never have otherwise and gives her something to do for the kingdom other than wait around until Elena dies. It's even a job that's in her wheelhouse.

Besides, if Elena does die or abdicate, it's not like being Royal Inventor now somehow cancels out Isa's ability to rule later. Presumably, she'd just ditch the title when she took the throne.

[a-lilac-lyric]

This analysis is great the one thing I have to add:

So in the middle of my rewatch, I suddenly got really distracted by Francisco's black-with-gold-accents "formal" court attire, specifically in regards to the leaf accents on the sleeves. And I could help but think of the *other* black-with-gold-leaf accents look that we see on a Flores family member--Esteban's in "Elena and the Secret of Avalor." Although the designs between the two suits are distinctly different, there is enough of a similarity to make me want to think about them as a set and how the differences actually reflect the differences in the characters/their roles as well.

Although the silhouettes are similar overall, I would go far as to say that Francisco's look creates more of the classic "storybook prince" vibe than his grandson's. His costume is ornate and grand without seeming ostentatious. Think of how Prince Charming is costumed in pretty much any Cinderella adaptation. He must look striking and appropriately heroic--but specifically in a way that enhances our heroine without overshadowing her. And in nearly every adaptation, Prince Charming is more than okay with this, and the same is true of Francisco. He is at some level aware that he is on a show called "Elena of Avalor"--not "Francisco Flores of Avalor" and has no desire to pull the spotlight away from where it rightfully must be. In fact, he is far prouder to be the grandfather of Elena (and of Esteban and Isabel as well) than he would hypothetically be as the protagonist of his own story.

(Esteban meanwhile exudes "main character energy" and I mean that in both the complimentary and derogatory sense. In his mind, he is on a show titled "Chancellor Esteban of Avalor and His 41-Year-Old Guilt Complex That Not Even Tres Leches Cake Can Heal." But like if I had four decades of trauma to process and no one else seemed to notice, I would probably feel uncomfortable when we are not about me as well. And fittingly, his black-and-gold outfit is much more attention-grabbing than Francisco's, but much more on that later).

Two big parts of what leads to the "fairy tale hero" look in Francisco's outfit (and also to his "default" blue version) are: 1) the two medals pinned to his chest and 2) the epaulettes at the shoulder (I believe this is still the correct term even if they lack the tassels we normally associate w/the term, but like fashion historians can feel free to correct me).

Either epaulettes or medals of honor --or both-- are often seen on characters of his type. (Pick any Disney prince and you have a 50% chance of seeing one of these. Heck, King Roland's main outfit in SoA has both as well). A large part of what leads us to associate these particular sartorial touches as "hero-coded" are their association as part of typical military dress uniforms throughout history. (And yes, I recognize the problematic nature of such a trope, but just bear with me and accept it for now).

By including these as part of Francisco's costume (and its original blue equivalent), the animators are implying that he has a long, proud of history of serving his country and that at least some of this service came as a soldier and/or commander on the battlefield. And that he won honor--military and practical alike--in doing so.

Esteban's ensemble, obviously lacks the military touches (the epaulettes and medals) of his grandfather's. Because for all that he too served Avalor for decades, his service was of the bureaucratic rather than the military variety. (Shuriki obviously won't let Esteban wear a sword with his uniform--even he wanted to. Hardly surprising considering the whole "I killed your aunt and uncle. Doesn't that make you want to go apeshit?" thing they've got going.) But I digress.

The arms (esp the shoulders) and trousers of Esteban's ensemble are also much more form-fitted than Francisco's,as befitting a younger, more athletic man who wants to better show off his physique. (The real "secret of Avalor" is how Esteban singlehandedly managed a country for 41 years and somehow did so without skipping "Leg Day"--am I right, folks?")

Compared to Francisco's much plainer jacket, the design of Esteban's coat is also more ornate (the leaf accents are larger and more detailed) and colorful with the red collar, cuffs, and lining. This makes sense given that Esteban is established as much vainer and more flamboyant than his grandfather and that he has as mentioned, a much stronger need to grab attention.

However, the elaborateness of Esteban's jacket makes even more sense we consider it in the context of his role in Shuriki's court. He is a skilled diplomat, yes, and a capable administrator. But like every courtier, his primary function is to be ornamental first and everything else second. His looks, his charm, his attentions are expected to always be in service to the Queen first and foremost--not even in service to his duty or his country but specifically to the Queen herself . Certainly not (!) in service to his own will. (And damn, that must sting extra hard for someone who has only ever wanted to be seen and listened to and valued for himself.)

As such, Esteban is treated as an extension of the Queen--yet another pretty-if-powerful tool in her Almighty hands and fundamentally little different from her pretty crystal wand.

And yet, we see little tiny little hints in Esteban's SoA costume that he remains more than just Shuriki's shiny little Avaloran ornament. Let's go back to the red accents--shall we? Obviously, the show as a whole establishes red as Esteban's "signature color"--an honor he shares with Elena (and Mateo..but like he's less relevant tbh). Moreover, red, along with yellow/gold (and blue but again less relevant here), is one of the official colors of Avalor. Indeed the jaquins on the royal flag are red against a gold backdrop. So we can see an subtle wardrobe-related foreshadowing of where Esteban's loyalties truly lie and of the decision that he will make at the end of the episode.

And finally, as the artists among you will attest, red's complementary opposite on the color wheel is green. As in Shuriki's signature color, and this is reflected in nearly everything about her--from her eyes and eyeshadow to her dress and earrings to her green magical smoke, to her Emerald City-core dressing room to the teal background on her little silhouetted flag redesign. And complementary colors are often paired together so that the unique, striking shade of each is shown off to its full potential--and such is the case here. (Often, the effect is even achieved by using the "opposite" color as a key part of adding "shading" to the object).

A string of red lights wrapped around a Christmas tree may be overshadowed at first by the massive green boughs that it is entangled around. But nevertheless, it is because of the contrasting green that we are fully able to grasp just how bright and red those lights are able to glisten in the light. And so it is with Esteban's red collar shining forth like a beacon through Shuriki's haze of green smoke.

But when it comes down to it, red is still green's perfect, natural opposite. Red is a primary color, a true chromatic original unlike the artificially-created secondary shade of green. Moreover, red is Avalor, red is Esteban . The little dab of invading, interloping Shuriki green that has been added to the red paint only serves to heighten its fiery, crimson hue all the more.

[deeply-unserious-fellow]

My favorite bit of foreshadowing- probably ever but ESPECIALLY in EoA, is during the two part Syrena special in season 2, when Elena is on the float and uses vanish to get away from Shuriki. It's established early on that she can't use it fully yet, and one part of her always remains visible. During the scene where she's trying to escape Shuriki and co, she uses it(as previously stated), and her necklace, given to her earlier in the special by her cousin Cristobal, remains visible, giving her postion away to the bad guys and costing her her escape. In the next part, it is revealed that Cristobal actually sided with Shuriki in order to gain more power. The necklace betraying Elena's location was a brilliant bit of foreshadowing to her cousin that gave it to her doing practically the same.

[raptorladylover6969]

Again back to my last EOA post, and a comment I saw on a repost of it, I am 1000000% on board with the idea of the whole plot of Elena of Avalor, and some of the things in it, being a whole metaphor for Elena trying to keep herself from being driven to insanity aka becoming an evil dictator. Based on the personal research I’ve done, and connecting the dots to Elena’s character, I’ve noticed some key things in the show that sort of represent many “symptoms” of what a “clinically insane” person goes through.

Elena witnessed her own parents death right in front of her eyes. This alone should be traumatizing enough, but not even like 5 minutes later, Shuriki blasts her, but the amulet pulled her inside of it to save her. (Or at least, I like to think she did die, but her soul was sucked into the amulet, thus her possessing it, Five Nights At Freddy’s style). Elena is now sitting in the amulet, in what I think was a sort of state like Locked In Syndrome? Because when she did get out the amulet in Secret Of Avalor, she looked like she was sleeping, AND she forgot how to walk, hell even move around. So I think since she was in there for so long, she started “fusing” with the amulet, thus falling into a sort of coma, but still highly aware of whats going on around her + outside the amulet, but thats besides my point. She spends 40+ years, isolated from the world, with no one to talk to, no source of brain stimulation, no form of movement, just NOTHING. Shes trapped in a void. (*Void by Melanie Martinez starts playing*). Now looking at irl facts, there is no absolute way Elena didnt go insane in the amulet.

Looking at neuroscience, and the world of EOA, we can see the way Elena interacts with the world, and apply those statistics to Elena herself. In an article from The Royal Society Publishing, The Article titled “Perceived Social Isolation, Evolutionary Fitness and Health Outcomes: a LifeSpan Approach.” Written by Louise C. Hawkley, and John P. Capitanio states: “A sampling of recent studies shows that socially isolated housing of various social animal species at various stages of life and for various durations results in altered behaviour (e.g. anxious, depression-like, aggressive, passive, cognition/memory), physiology (e.g. changes in basal or stress–reactive corticosterone, blood pressure, inflammation, immune responses, hippocampal function) and mortality (e.g. post-stroke outcomes)” In the show, we can see Elena suffer through majority of these affects. Especially when it comes to her cognitive ability and critical thinking skills. We see her struggle hard in the show to solve problems, regarding the kingdom, and when communicating with other people.

I will also talk about the fact Elena can see ghosts, and Spirit Guides. I know, she has this power because “The amulet gave it to her.” But think of it this way: The amulet; her trauma, and Elena had to face “the trauma” for a LOOOOONG period of time. Another key factor when it comes to isolation, hallucinations. An Israeli adventurer/author Yossi Ghinsberg spent 3 weeks stranded in the Amazon rainforest (they actually made a movie about him‼️) Ghinsberg stated, due to him being isolated from society without any social contact/interaction, he experienced hallucinations. So what if metaphorically, Elena seeing the Spirit Guides, and ghosts, are her having hallucinations from spending 41 years away from society?

Elena’s dress. That goddamn dress. Its mentioned earlier that isolation can affect the brain’s cognitive abilities, and emotional health. So you basically would have trouble regulating your emotions, and your emotions would be all over the place. RING ANY BELLSSSSS⁉️⁉️⁉️⁉️ Her magic dress is a metaphor for her decline in her cognitive skills.

I now conclude my essay on how crazy I am about this damn kids show. I love Elena sm shes such a complicated character and I LOVE ITTTTTTTTT

[tale-of-two-queens]

So....this:

I was talking with my bfff @justmystufff about designing my OC "Sokushi", which led to a conversation about Shuriki's ethnicity (this would make much sense later I promise once I finished Sokushi's final design) and I told him about a headcannon Meiwakunatto and my bestie @aurorasilverthorne had over Shuriki being some sort of Eurasian character, more specifically half Satu (which is the Japan of the series.) This was mostly about her name having Japanese Origins (which fun fact the source are some Japanese texts written in a Chinese form)

So I went: What if the show creator and the people behind the designs gave subtle hints that perhaps she's actually half Japanese instead of giving her a Japanese meaning name as a reference. So I decided to gather some screenshots and look closely at her eyes as I was sure I noticed her eyes were shaped more oval and I was curious if they were similar to the Satu eye shape in the series (as I can't recall if he ever got a female Satu character)

I noticed that Shuriki's makeup actually makes her eyes look bigger than they actually are. I took a reference from King's Toshi's eyes as a guide to what the Satu (or Japanese) eyes would look like in the Show cannon, which is slightly different to Shuriki's eyes as her eyes look more rounded, but I think it does add to the possibility that she could be from a Satu descent or is half Saturian (Not sure how to describe it)/Satu and half European (based on her clothing alone)

I did try to look into more features that give some clues about her actual ethnicity. I am not Asian but Hispanic myself, so I had to read a lot of articles to determine the features and watch videos from Japanese and Korean people talking about their differences. This is just speculation, so don't treat this as an expert opinion, I am open to criticism and I would love to hear from someone who is an expert on this, so feel free to correct or add more

So, Shuriki's mos prominent features are the sharp lines and of her very established cheek bones and her narrowly sharp jaw. So, this is more inclined to a more European or a white descent.

Not to mention her hair is wavy instead of being straight, + her outfit does give the vibes she's from a European country (Most likely the Northern Islands are more European like more than anything)

Yet, she has softer features like the slightly roundness of her face, her eyes having a more oval like shaped but look more exaggerated due to the sketchiness and her makeup looks them look much bigger, give off a sorta Asian like look to her once you break down her face and trace the actual shape of her eyes.

Not to mention Shuriki' eyes have a peculiar way of closing in that has a curve, which is not particularly prominent in other villains like Ash.

The closest I can see might be Paloma Hortensia whose eyes are more shaper and slightly oval but they don't close the same way as Shuriki's eyes does + looking closer at her design, I think her eyes give off more of the elegant Latina woman type as they are more sharpened cat-like that anything.

(I was not expecting this image to look so small-)

So, this is what Shuriki's eyes would normally look relaxed when this lady is not making faces like 80% of the time (It was basically some sort of "Shuriki stop making so many faces challenge: Impossible lol)

Here's a contour of how her eyes look, which is quite unique from Paloma's or Ash's eye shape

Right here she does look a lot Asian, but it's hard to determine with the show itself as she's a character who is very exprexionate, but this is what I mean that her eye-shaped is a lot different, but this is sorta what her normal eyes look without her stretching or widened them.

Am I claiming that Shuriki is canonically a Hāfu?

No. Unless Craig Gerber says she's half Japanese (or Satu), this is just expeculation. Although I think perhaps the show did imply Shuriki might be one (More likely an Eurasian person) or have some sort of Satu descend. Take this with a grain of salt

The fact that she canonically made Esteban visit Satu multiple times. It most likely because she didn't want to make treaties and such, but why going to Satu multiple specifically? Could it be also that strategically she feared that she could lose the throne if she left, but also could imply she particularly wanted the Satu gift's due maybe a heritage she has?

Her Name is of Japanese Origin from some old writings in a Chinese style. I was wondering why would they use a Japanese type of name on her. Most likely to set her off as an interesting name that is memorable and rare, but if there could be a chance that She could be from a Japanese descent.

There could be a change her earrings could be from jade. I am not sure nor I am an expert to tell.

Either way, this is just expeculation and a fun analyzis into seeing how true or far fetched the whole theory of Shuriki being part Satu might be true

[glorytoukraine2022]

This was brilliant. I love your thoughts about Gabe, so reading them all in this one post was amazing!

My humble takes on Gabe’s development.

So, my friend and I talked about Gabe some time ago, namely his development, since it being subtle has always been one of the hottest takes in the fandom. She pushed me to share some of my thoughts, and I couldn’t resist, sure thing, so catch a little analysis that is actually not little.

***

I’d like to start with his relationship with Elena, since this is the aspect where his development is the most noticeable and I already brought it up in some of my previous posts, like my thoughts on Gabe’s relationship with Elena and Naomi and I also made a gifset displaying their growth. But this time I strictly focus on Gabe.

In early season 1, we can see Gabe acting like “a tough macho” but the thing I want to point out is that he acts like that around Elena only (we can see him being formal with Francisco and Esteban in the early episodes and strategizing how to stop the lava in All Heated Up) because he wants to impress her (I’ll elaborate it below). However, it comes to nothing almost completely after Olaball where he opens up about his insecurities to her.

The take I’m truly stuck with is that Gabe is deeply concerned about his origins. It doesn’t make him think he’s worthless or useless, though, but he still strives to impress people (especially Elena, because she’s the crown princess and he’s just a baker boy) around him and prove that he’s capable of doing everything that other guards can.

Once he lets Elena see his true self, he doesn’t need to impress her anymore. She sees him as her friend (which she directly tells him) and it allows him to see her as someone beyond a crown princess as well.

Their relationship is super dynamic, and it does affect Gabe as a person.

Early season 1 - he’s cocky, overconfident, and overprotective because he sees Elena and himself in the princess and her guard pattern. He’s a knight, she’s a princess, therefore, he has to protect her.

Mid-late season 1/early season 2 (aka post-Olaball/pre-Shapeshifters) - he’s Elena’s friend. It makes him more flexible and cooperative, although his protectiveness doesn’t leave him which means this is simply one of his personality traits that gets more or less intense depending on the situation. Another interesting thing is that his guard self around Elena gets nearly erased. He’s not bothered by being bold towards her in The Princess Knight, he joins her in the friendship activities like going to the beach (unsuccessfully), playing olaball, and even calls himself her best friend.

Season 2 - Gabe gets promoted to captain. He gains a higher rank and more responsibilities which affects the way he sees Elena. He’s back to his guard mode but from a different perspective this time. He’s not a knight in the shining armor who needs to protect and impress a princess anymore - he’s an officer who holds a huge responsibility. He becomes more overbearing even when he’s out of duty since we see how he basically gives orders to his friends and sees their search for Shuriki as a military mission (The Scepter of Night). I think he chills out a bit in the second half of season 2, but it’s hard to say anything about it, specifically about his relationship with Elena, since he goes on a mission and barely interacts with her. But it also speaks about how much his new position changes him, he embraces it and understands what he has on his shoulders now (although I wouldn’t mind seeing how he gets used to being a captain but it’s a topic for another essay).

Season 3 - their relationship is balanced out, as is Gabe. Season 3 really is the best at showing how much Gabe and Elena grew at understanding each other, and Captain Mateo is the display of it. Gabe does get hurt by the Grand Council’s decision but he still agrees on it after he has a conversation with Elena. He understands that her decision has nothing to do with how she views him as her friend (and at this point we can imagine a late season 1 Gabe being much more offended by her decision) - this is how the crown princess is supposed to act. They both get more professional and learn to see the border between friendship and duty without erasing one of these components. It’s balanced out. Gabe understands when he should let Elena take a lead and doesn’t stand on her way, while he’s able to see when she actually needs his help, too.

Elena forms Gabe as a person, as does the relation between them (a princess and a guard), and in my opinion, this is really one of the core aspects of his development. Gabe wouldn’t be the person we know without Elena.

***

Back to Gabe’s inner self and origins. As I already mentioned, the reason he could be considered “cocky” in early season 1 is his wish to impress people around him. We see these insecurities pop up in The Curse of El Guapo when he interacts with other guards in the barracks (“if I make captain, it’ll be because I earned it”; “I don’t need a fancy sword to win the competition”), and an interesting thing is that he steps back each time Rico talks about Gabe’s family which is why I think he does care about his origins a lot and it hurts him when it’s used in a derogatory manner.

But in this episode it’s shown from a bit different perspective than from what we see in Olaball (where he tries to make his father proud), because Gabe has no reason to doubt his worth as a guard here. He’s friends with a crown princess, his dad accepted his choice, he’s among the guards who are chosen as the next captain. But all his achievements get erased only because he was born in a humble family (and because of Rico’a envy, to be honest), and this time his problems basically get solved by the same solution again: he talks to Elena.

Gabe’s conflicts come from his desire to be respected, and it got developed because of his relationship with Roberto, aka his father, aka one of the most important people in his life. Gabe couldn’t gain his approval, and it made him strive for other people’s respect or even admiration so he could feel satisfied. And it overlaps with his insecurities about his origins plus his disability to talk about his feelings with other people (although we don’t know what caused it, perhaps it’s Roberto’s influence again).

I think this is a pretty neat detail, since this is not as obvious as his relationship with Elena, yet I still wouldn’t say it comes from nowhere. We get to see Gabe as a round character in Olaball, and this episode does explain why he acts the way he acts in the first episodes plus it gets a bit deeper in The Curse of El Guapo.

***

Gabe’s development in season 3 is one of the things I talked quite a lot in the past, when the show was still going, but I’d still like to highlight it a little here as well.

Season 1 is mostly about Gabe’s growth as a person. We meet him in his roughest and by the end of this season, we have a clearer and deeper picture of him. Season 2 is about his guard self. He gets promoted to captain, and we see him growing in this area. And season 3 is about his relationship with magic. This is how I would characterize his role in each season.

Magic has always been foreign to Gabe which can be easily explained by the atmosphere of his childhood/adolescence when magic was forbidden. He doesn’t trust it at first and then simply doesn’t take it seriously, occasionally teasing Mateo. But what’s the most important: he can’t confront it which erases his skills in magical battles. He’s the first one (and basically the only one) who gets defeated in The Scepter of Night, he can’t fight Fiero in Song of the Sirenas, he becomes a magical snow storm victim in Snow Place Like Home, he ruins his own plan in Naomi Knows Best, and finally, he lets Delgados and Esteban escape.

Gabe never realized any of his failures until Doña Paloma directly pointed it out. It brings us back to the previous points I made in this post: Gabe wants to be respected. It is important for him to be respected by other people. But in Captain Mateo this wish is crashed down, he’s neglected, and it explains his rage at the Grand Council’s decision.

In Crash Course, Gabe gets a chance to make up for his mistake and it happens through learning magic. We all know how “stick to the plan” Gabe is, but despite this feature of his, I do find the way he acts in this episode valid. We basically see him at his lowest here, since Gabe is not good at talking about his feelings and he had to keep everything he told Mateo about to himself since Captain Mateo which is quite a long period of time. He doubted his worth as a captain and had to prove he deserved it via something he was terrible at.

Gabe learns magic because he understand that this is his main weakness and it prevents him from being the one he wants to be. But in Coronation Day, we see him combining his swordsmanship skills, something that determines who he really is, and magic, something that he had to grow on to complement his strengths.

His relationship with magic is also connected with his relationship with Mateo. He doesn’t trust magic, therefore doesn’t trust Mateo, a wizard, and it explains why Gabe treats him like that in Spellbound. He becomes friends with Mateo which makes his attitude towards magic either more playful and teasing-like or even admired. Generally, the way Gabe sees magic is usually linked to his mood around Mateo at the moment. Mateo broke the rudder? Ewww, magic is bad. Mateo shielded him and Naomi from Shuriki’s attack? Ooo, nice spell!

To conclude this part, I just want to say that through learning how to cooperate with Mateo and understand his strengths, Gabe also learnt the necessity to know magic. And the other way around. Through learning magic, Gabe learnt to appreciate Mateo and be patient with the differences between them.

***

Why did I even write this post? Yes, my friend inspired me to, as I already mentioned. But also, as somebody who has been a silent observer of the fandom for a very long time, I really often saw the takes I disagreed with but never debated with. I never considered Gabe’s development subtle (although at this point I just don’t know what development even is, perhaps) because I can clearly see how different season 1 and season 3 Gabes are.

One of the reasons Gabe became my favourite character is how much he grew on me. I didn’t like him in season 1 at all, but something turned upside down inside of me in season 2 and now he’s possibly my favourite fictional character of all time. It wouldn’t happen if he didn’t change.

Anyway, it got a bit personal at the end, so I’ll finish here! Thanks everyone for reading and feel free to share your thoughts!

[materialsscienceandengineering]

Researchers have identified buried kimberlite, the rocky home of diamonds, by testing the DNA of microbes in the surface soil. These 'biological fingerprints' can reveal what minerals are buried tens of metres below the earth's surface without having to drill. The researchers believe it is the first use of modern DNA sequencing of microbial communities in the search for buried minerals. The research published this week in Nature Communications Earth and Environment represents a new tool for mineral exploration, where a full toolbox could save prospectors time and a lot of money, says co-author Bianca Iulianella Phillips, a doctoral candidate at UBC's department of earth, ocean and atmospheric sciences (EOAS). The technique adds to the relatively limited number of tools that help find buried ore, including initial scans of the ground and analysis of elements in the overlying rock.

Read more.

[courtiers]

really good youtube analysis video <- extremely powerful EoA attack

[industrialresearch]

The robot end effector market was valued at $3.3 billion in 2020, and is expected to reach $ 15.6 billion by 2030, registering a CAGR of 16.9% from 2021 to 2030.

[ailtrahq]

According to blockchain security experts, the highly popular crypto betting platform Stake has fallen victim to a major exploit, losing over $40 million in funds.  The crypto casino is backed by the rapper Drake, and many from the crypto community have speculated that the attack could be linked to North Korea.  Stake Targeted In Major Exploit  The exploit was first reported by on-chain analyst Cyvers, who reported that nearly $16 million was withdrawn on the Ethereum network following a private key link. The gambling firm reportedly experienced several unusual transactions on Monday morning Eastern time. Initially, $16 million in ETH, Tether, DAI, and USD Coin left the platform, as reported by Cyvers.   “Our AI-powered system has detected multiple suspicious transactions with @Stake. address received about $16M in $ETH $USDC $USDT and $DAI All the stable coins are converted to $ETH and distributed to different EOAs.” Following this, hackers drained an additional $25 million on Polygon and Binance Smart Chain, as reported by the pseudo-anonymous blockchain sleuth ZachXBT. This brought the total amount siphoned from the platform to $41 million.  According to blockchain security firm PeckShield, the transfers looked suspicious if the platform was not under maintenance. However, Stake confirmed after a few hours that the wallet transfers were indeed unauthorized. This meant someone was able to gain access to the company’s wallet and move funds. Stake issued an update on X, stating,  “Three hours ago, unauthorized [transactions] were made from Stake’s ETH/BSC hot wallets. We are investigating and will get the wallets up as soon as they’re completely re-secured. User funds are safe. BTC, LTC, XRP, EOS, TRX + all other wallets remain fully operational.” The Stake wallet that was targeted still holds around $340,000 worth of ETH and $2.1 million in other altcoins, according to data from Etherscan. As of now, withdrawals from the wallet appear to have been halted, as several social media users claimed.  North Korea Involvement?  This is not the first time a crypto-gambling platform or casino has been targeted. Alphapo, a crypto payment service provider for gambling websites such as Bovada and HypeDrop, was targeted by hackers earlier this year. The platform lost around $60 million after its hot wallet fell to a security breach. An investigation into the attack by the FBI concluded that North Korea-backed hackers orchestrated the attack.  However, cryptocurrency researcher Tayvano noted it was too soon to pinpoint those behind the exploit as being linked to North Korea.  “too soon to tell with just these limited txns. Biggest indicator will come from Stake themselves. e.g., if one of their devs has been applying for a lucrative, high-paying job at cryptocom.” North Korea has been behind several major exploits in the crypto space and has been heavily involved in illicit cryptocurrency activities. This has been primarily done through state-supported actors like the dreaded Lazarus hacking group. According to a Nikkei-sponsored Elliptic analysis, North Korean hackers were responsible for stealing around $497 million in crypto from US businesses since 2017.  Last year, the crypto space lost around $3.7 billion worth of crypto to hacks and exploits. However, the first quarter of this year has seen this figure drop by 70%.  Stake is an Australian Casino and Sportsbook that allows users to deposit and play with crypto. The platform generated over $2.6 billion in revenue in 2022. Major Hacks In 2023 The crypto space has seen several major exploits during the year. Just a week ago, the Ethereum automated market maker (AMM) Balancer fell victim to an exploit. Balancer disclosed it had lost approximately $900,000. The news of the exploit came days after the protocol highlighted a vulnerability impacting several of its pools. Curve Finance also suffered a major exploit, with hackers siphoning off around $70 million from the protocol, in a significant blow to the decentralized finance (DeFi) ecosystem.

[blueflyingturtleontheway]

ask game - 11 32 40 73

11. Link your three favorite fics right now

Hm, alright, I'll try to go a bit unconventional here and not mention any EoA fic.

Therefore the ones I have recently read, in no particular order: Dear Jay by AnagramRMX (I stumbled on it by accident while browsing the Descendants tag and stars am I glad I did!), A place for crows (to rest their feet) by Acewithapaintbrush (we love some good Encanto angst, fluff AND analysis)(I need to catch up on it tho...) and Gardening by Irhaboggle (every now and then I'll remember how much I love disney fairies and Enchanted and this fic connects both!)

32. Name three of your favorite fanfic writers.

Gah, difficult... Okay I definitely have to mention HisWarrior because their stories (especially the Narnia and disney fairies crossover) are just amazing, lauraschiller has absolutely stolen (and broke and restored and then broke again...) my heart with her EoA stories and I just couldn't not mention Sealgirl for her Poirot fics.

40. If someone were to make fanart of your work, what fic or scene would you hope to see?

First of all, if someone were to make fanart of my work, I'd die of happiness and then name my firstborn after them-

And about scenes... I don't know, I like to think I'm good at creating atmosphere and descriptions so I hope there are a lot of good ones x) The ones that come to my mind are for example the concert on the ship from Off key? You know, like your singing or the moment when Victor and Elena find the crown in Treasure hunt or just something silly like Gabe and Rico teasing each other and playing tag in Gabe's birthday fic.

73. What do you think makes your writing stand out from other works?

Stars, this ask really wants my ego to get out of control huh XD

I like to think it's my ability to convey emotions and create an atmosphere? Even if my stories are usually very short and not much happens in them, I think they at least manage to make the reader feel a certain way (even if this way is just "aw how cute" or "ouch".) And I also hope my descriptions are as vivid as I think, but obviously I'm not the best judge of that.

Thank you so much for sending this ask! And for allowing me to do some advertising for my favourite works and creators 😌 and myself

Ask game

[katrinkunze]

Will Account Abstraction Pave The Way For A Brand New Paradigm?

Do you agree that Account Abstraction will spark and encourage the mass adoption of blockchain? Even if you don’t, that’s what industry experts anticipate. So far, smart contracts are the most significant entities that exist in the crypto industry. Let us dive deeper into this blog to learn more about account abstraction in detail. 

Account Abstraction - A New Paradigm

Account Abstraction, some people name it “Smart Account, ” which indeed is an emerging brand new paradigm. Using ERC-4337 is a cultural reset that facilitates programmable blockchain accounts. This paradigm redirects user authentication to smart contracts, allowing the wallet developers to decide how they like to authenticate the users. With this, the developers will have more freedom in the network, which is a revolutionary step.  

What Is The Need For ERC-4337 Standard?

If you take Ethereum as an example, it offers two types of accounts– smart contract accounts and Externally Owned Accounts (EOA). The latter type works similarly to regular user accounts. However, you need a private and public key pair to handle an EOA. At the same time, you should remember that the private key is quite vulnerable. 

Based on a recent analysis, there was almost $1 Billion lost in 2022 due to private key exploits, making this one of the most lucrative hacks of 2022. Also, other safe alternatives are quite risky.  Whether it is a multi-signature wallet or a custodial wallet, both are almost susceptible to hacking and other malicious activities. 

Luckily, we can use account abstraction wallets which lay a strong foundation for resolving this ever-existing problem. 

Features Of ERC-4337

As soon as smart wallets went live, they helped users not to worry about remembering the complicated seed phrases (nothing but private keys) while setting up their wallets. The upcoming users will not have to think about cryptographic keys because ERC-4337 will improve the usability of wallets, similar to banks. These wallets are designed to provide the best opportunities for Web3 users to develop customized wallets. You can build your smart contracts with Ethereum with the help of an expert developer. 

Now, let us take a look at “Smart Contract Wallets.”

As we said earlier, most of the Ethereum wallets are EOA types, for example, MetaMask. So, if we incorporate account abstraction here, smart contracts wallets will hold the crypto assets instead of EOAs. 

What does this mean?– ERC-4337 provides features starting from 2FA for automatic recurring bill settlements and subscription plans. 

To describe in simple terms, users can get a similar experience to banks, along with the advantage that you can actually recover your account even if you lose the key. If needed, you can also set alerts to get a notification whenever an unauthorized person tries to access or withdraw from your account. 

Additionally, users can use digital signatures of their preference, set a spending limit, add or remove devices, including recovery options with a friend, securely authorize transactions, and more. It is possible with the assistance of a leading smart contract development company. 

This shows that Account Abstraction will entirely change the user experience for crypto users. ERC-4337 is accessible on all EVM-compatible blockchains like BNB Smart Chain, Polygon, and Avalanche. So, these infrastructure providers can offer developers tools to create and personalize Web3 wallets for users. 

Conclusion

Ultimately, this new paradigm will help to remove the prolonged reliance on EOAs, shifting users to adopt ERC-4337 integrated accounts. Even though this looks like a small step up the front, it will surely evolve into something big in the future Web3 market. The time will reveal!

[dittomander]

In “Spellbound” Mateo said that the reversal potion for the stone/petrification spell could only be found in the Codex Maru. Another thing that was found in the codex Maru was the information on the Scepter of Night. However, Ash was able to recognize the Jewel of the Scepter upon seeing it. Does this mean that information in the Codex Maru, is known to other Wizards and Malvagos, even if they’ve never had access to the Codex Maru before? Or does only the codex hold certain information?

I think it's probably a bit of both. Like I doubt that everything in the Codex Maru is universally known among wizarding communities, and I also doubt that everything in it is exclusive. Realistically it's just gonna depend on the exact piece of information, but we don't see enough of its contents to really assess where that line is.

More rambly analysis and headcanons below the cut.

Mateo's explanation of the Codex in Spellbound is:

"The kind of magic we need can only be found in the Codex Maru. [...] It's an ancient Maruvian spell book passed down through generations of royal wizards. It contains the most ancient and powerful magic in the kingdom."

Note that Mateo doesn't say that this spell can only be found in the Codex, but that this "kind of magic" can. Personally I didn't interpret this as strictly meaning "the Codex is the only thing that will have this information" but rather "only something like the Codex will have this information." Only a powerful spellbook would have that info, and the Codex is the most powerful spellbook that Mateo, at the time a relatively inexperienced (and honestly pretty naive) wizard, can think of and knows is in the palace. It's also an incredibly lucky guess - Mateo hasn't seen the Codex at this point, he only knows of its existence. He has no way of knowing that akatok and its reversal potion will be in there for sure, but the amigos have no other leads to go off of.

I find the latter two sentences more interesting than the first, honestly. It's an "ancient Maruvian spellbook", but it's not written entirely in Maruvian, since the cover and akatok pages are written in modern Avaloran. And it's clearly not the most "powerful magic in the kingdom" when we consider the secret library of master level spells from season 3, containing spells that even the Codex didn't cover.

Since the Codex was "passed down through generations", written in multiple languages, and not kept with the other advanced magic in the palace, I like to headcanon it as a collaborative work that's added to by each Royal Wizard in turn rather than an ancient relic that's been preserved in that exact state for centuries. It's not necessarily the most powerful spellbook, but it includes whatever each Royal Wizard thought was most important to write down for the next one. A lot of times that will happen to include more powerful or obscure knowledge, since more commonplace spells could be easily learned elsewhere. This could include spells, potions, or relics they learned about elsewhere, justifying why other people might know about them without having ever seen the Codex, and it could include things they figured out themselves during their research that no one else would likely know in advance.

Mateo, of course, would have little to no context for that, and it would be easy for him to assume otherwise without anyone to fill him in.

(I hope he at least jots down that akatok is, in fact, reversible after the next sunrise.)

Re: the Scepter of Night - I feel like that's probably one of the more obscure tidbits of info contained in the book, but we do see it depicted on a mural in Tepet Muul, so we know there are some other places Ash could have learned about it.

[disneymiraculousefandomsblog]

That’s okay! There’s nothing wrong with liking more than one ship! People are free to like whichever ship they want, as long as they don’t get too carried away, which, unfortunately, it seems like many people in the fandom have. I’ve seen some people who like Gabelena and Eleteo so much, they ignore that Gabeomi and Carteo even happened. I love shipping, but I hate it when it gets to the point where canon relationships are ignored.

Yeah I can understand your point of view on that too. I haven’t really been into the fandom of Elena as much as I have been in TTS, I’m a huge fan of Elena when the show came out. That’s the whole reason why I created this blog in the first place heh🙂.

But then TTS came out and kinda steered me away from the Eoa fandom heh😅. I only recently went back because both my shows TTS and Eoa are over I got back into the Eoa fandom after it ended. I know kinda late for that heh 😅. As for the ships I know a lot if people can get carried away by ignoring certain ships or hating certain ships others like.

That’s why I myself don’t like talking about the ships I like because I don’t want people to argue or start sending hate asks to me about it. (I’ve gotten a lot of hate anons before for my ships).

Aww thank you! Well there’s a whole lot that I caught when I see these two dorks together. I’m not sure if this is the picture your talking about, but if it is I mean just look at them. You can tell they do have crushes on each other, from this scene I get that they are both super shy about telling each other how they feel.

Also you can tell in this picture that it’s kinda awkward at first because I think Mateo really liked Elena, but since she never said anything that she had feelings toward him Carla was the second one he actually in my view really liked. I think they would have a really good relationship because they both know Magic, they both fight in a way, they are both shy and have a hard time showing their feelings.

honestly I don’t think any of them expected to have feelings for each other, but things change and the future is not predictable. These are my thoughts on the ship which I really like and I can see why Disney confirmed this ship, but I also really wish they would have confirmed it with Elena but oh well.😅

[phoenixlionme]

A Possible Love Interest for Mirabel

I made a previous post stating how I would support the crossover shipping of Mirabel Madrigal from Encanto and Mateo de Alva from Elena of Avalor. And again, it was a cropped image another shipper made of them on Instagram. I know this movie won’t have time to give Mirabel a love interest but if the movie does well, a sequel TV series or movie may be greenlit. And I know that the cross-ship is unlikely to happen but what about a love interest who is an expy (meaning inspiration) of Mateo? And said expy would be a foil to Mirabel and have parallels to her family?

1. Foil to Mirabel - Despite being a foil, he and Mirabel would have a Birds of a Feather type of romance -> Friendly, goofy, kind, awkward, brave, and sardonic. Both would also have issues with their families (Mirabel’s is obvious and I would like to see those struggles be continued in a proposed sequel because you don’t just get over it after 10 years; her love interest’s situation would have him have a typical loving if embarrassing family that aren’t well known like Mirabel’s); In terms of magical status, Mirabel was born without a gift in her magical family but her love interest could have a curse that his family were unsuccessful in relieving but he handles it pretty well. Mirabel’s family stays in one place while her love interest travel a lot.

2. Parallels to Mirabel’s Family - Not to an extreme and it would vary in extent, but Mirabel’s love interest would share some certain traits with her family. I just thought the parallels would be interesting to do. It won’t be too deep more like clothing and similair personality traits.

    *  Alma - I saw Alma has some sort of watch pocket on her waist. I think the love interest woul look good with one.

    * Julieta - he can’t heal people with food but he’s a great cook 

    * Bruno - While the love interest can’t predict the future, he does look forward to it. Always planning ahead for any chances.

    * Pepa - Not dramatic but can sense changes in the weather. Only because he’s used to it by now

    * Agustin - I know we haven’t seen Agustin’s level of clumsiness (at the time of this posting), but the love interest would be somewhat klutzy in a dorky kind of way.

    * Felix - Like Felix, he’s a mellow person who doesn’t worry about stuff too quickly.

    * Isabela - He can’t grow flowers but he has an appreciation for nature in general.

    * Luisa - His curse grants him super strength. He and Luisa would be about equals. Also, I see with a scrawny physique (like a combined version of his named expy and the human Hector Rivera from Pixar’s Coco) but only when wearing clothing. He would actually turn out to be pretty muscular for a lithe body. Also he’s shorter than Luisa but only by an inch; meaning he would tower over Mirabel

    * Dolores - Dolores has super hearing. The love interest is a good listener.

    * Camilo - Camilo is something of a jokester, and the love interest would have a playful personality

    * Antonio - Both would get along because they both adore animals. Like Antonio, animals naturally trust the love interest because they can sense his genuinely pure soul. And while he can’t talk to them he does respect them.

    * Pedro - We don’t know much about Pedro. But canon info states he sacrificed himself for his family, the circumstances are unknown (as of this posting), but that tidbit shows a level of familial love. As such, the love interest would share that kind of love.

[lieutenant-amuel]

Hi! I just want to let you know, that your analysis of Gabe’s looks from his parents was probably the BEST analysis of genetics of a character that I’ve ever seen! I honestly never noticed it before, but you’re right, that the characters in EOA do definitely bare resemblances to their parents, but don’t look like a mini version of them, which is exactly how genetics are supposed to work anyways! As someone who loves genetics, your analysis has me on cloud nine!

Thank you so much!!

I really love genetics too, and it honestly was very fun to analyze! EoA was doing a great work showing how children inherit the features from their older relatives! Like, Esteban actually looks a lot like Francisco, both Elena and Isabel inherit a lot from Luisa and their mom! Seriously, this is amazing!

Oh, and analyzing it, I just get so soft that Gabe inherits more from Blanca! He's a true son of his mom :')