#like i get why my other esteships are controversial and/or unpopular

[notmoreflippingelves]

Esteban, Victor, and Shuriki for the bingo?

Esteban, my beloved <3

Unsurprisingly a double-bingo for the blorbo. Clarification for a few of the points.

I am mainly being hyperbolic when I say Esteban has never done anything wrong in his life. I am fully aware that he has done some very bad things. However, I still maintain that he has still done less wrong than the narrative thinks he has and that he had already been more than punished enough by the time his actions come to light. 40+ years of isolation, a guilty conscience exacerbated by survivor's guilt and the responsibility of being the only thing standing between your country and a ruthless tyrant. Adding to that the fact Esteban was at most 18--frightfully naive, very scared and lonely and extremely young--when he made the worst mistake a person can make and had to live with the consequences for decades. Yeah, he was definitely punished enough long before Elena banished him.

I am also being a bit hyperbolic when I say that "no one understands Esteban but me." There are actually a bunch of people in the fandom who understand him pretty well, though overall, there are even more who don't understand him or who misinterpret crucial aspects of his character. A big thing for me is that there's a lack of recognition that a lot of Esteban's supposed "arrogance" is a facade and defense mechanism. He hates himself far more than he loves himself--and a lot of fans seem to miss that. On a much smaller note, when "Wizard School House" headcanons were still socially acceptable to make, I notice that Esteban was consistently placed in the "snake" house, supposedly because he is cunning and ambitious. However, this has never seemed right to me. He's never really sought power in and of itself, but more as a means of self-protection and/or because he feels it's what he's "supposed" to want/ a decent enough alternative if he can't have what he really wants (love and belonging). This sets him apart from Shuriki, Paloma, and the Delgados--who I see as more "natural" Slyther*ns, since the power in and of itself is what they seek. Imo, there's a decent case to be made for Esteban in any of the other houses, but I'd put my money on the "bird" house personally.

"Suck" is wayyyyy too strong a word, but Esteban/Paloma is by-far the most popular ship for Esteban in the fandom, and I don't much care for it.

When I say that Esteban is done dirty by the creators, has wasted potential, and has not enough screen time, I am primarily talking about the "Shuriki Returns" arc in S2 as well as a general lack of exploration as to the impact that the Dark Times™ had on Esteban. Now I fully understand why this is the case. For better and for worse, Elena of Avalor is a kid's show, and therefore, it is difficult to fully-present a character's decades of untreated PTSD in a way that is both appropriate and comprehensible for the eight-year olds watching. That being said, there was still much more that could and should've been done with Esteban especially during the Shuriki returns arc. They could've had Esteban speak more in a somewhat vague sense about how he has personal knowledge of just how dangerous Shuriki is and that he can't allow his familia anywhere near her. Or there could've been a moment where someone checks in on Esteban and lets him know that they are aware of how hard this must be for him and that he isn't in this alone anymore. But instead, we got next to nothing during a part of the show which should've been just as emotional and meaningful to Esteban's development as it was for Elena.

My opinions about Esteban that would likely cause concern for most of the fandom are primarily in reference to some of the people that I ship him with and/or some of my darker headcanons about what exactly the Dark Times™ might have entailed for him.

Victor

In terms of wasted potential and not getting enough screentime, I think Victor and Carla should've joined Team Avalor midway through S3 as opposed to only a few episodes from the end. I also think Elena, Esteban, and Victor's characters would've all benefitted from another flashback episode set just before Shuriki's initial invasion and allowing us to get a better handle on the characters, their relationships, and their states of mind just before their lives were irrevocably change. It's also a bit of an overstatement to say that I "don't think about Victor much." The truth is that I don't think about Victor as an individual entity much (especially in comparison to some of the other characters), but I do think about his relationships with and to other characters (especially Esteban, Carla, and Elena) a good amount--and these are the specific "dynamics" in question that I particularly enjoy Victor as part of and of which I wish that I could see more. I am also aware that Victor/Paloma never interacted in canon, but the potential (shippy or otherwise) of their interactions lives in my head rent-free. Yet another reason that we were robbed of the Delgados getting redeemed earlier in S3.

Shuriki

I'm a bit conflicted regarding Shuriki. I actually mostly like the way that she is utilized in the work as is. I actively don't want her to get more complexity/a sympathetic backstory the way that some others do. She works best as an ominious, omnipotent presence haunting the characters and the narrative (Esteban and Elena in particular). That being said, I do think that the Shuriki returns arc was shorter than it needed to be and that crucial aspects were missing from it. (As I had already mentioned, we were owed more Shuriki & Esteban interaction post-Secret of Avalor. We also should've seen more about how her return impacted the characters other than Elena herself.) I also think that during parts of the return arc, she was taken a bit less seriously than warranted. It became harder to view her as intimidating, insensate evil when she's complaining that her cringefail minions Victor and Carla just burst into song.