#vs flashback to your best friend telling you to run away from your abusive mother

[lagtrained]

heart lungs liver nerves vs i think its ok to run away

[senttotheshadowrealm]

Imelda Rivera: A Character Study

Big rant under the cut. Just some venting I’ve been holding in for almost a year. Do note if you choose to read on that this is my opinion. If you like her, that’s totally fine with me. I just had to put this out there.

As it is now out there, I really don’t like Imelda Rivera. But I’d like to explain why. A lot may jump to a conclusion that I don’t like her because I’m a butt-hurt Hector fangirl, and while that certainly doesn’t help, it also has nothing to do with why I originally didn’t like her. But let’s break it down piece by piece:

1. Imelda’s attitude towards Hector

It’s completely uncalled for. Now I understand that she was hurt, but what she does is so extreme and so crazy, I refuse to let that be an excuse. As @disgrxced-luminxry pointed out, it seemed that she completely banished a man she supposedly loved because he had different wants than her. It would be a different story if it actually did unfold the way the beginning of the movie presented it. It said “One day, he left with his guitar...and never returned.” Yes, this makes what Hector did sound very one-sided and selfish, but remember that Miguel is telling this story. He only knows it the way his family, and therefore Imelda, told it. She didn’t mention the oodles of letters that he continued to send home for Coco, which I have no doubt that she opened and gave to her daughter. After all, Coco was only three. This tells me that Hector was writing frequently to her and most likely sending whatever little money he could to them. He was still trying to support his family and keep his dreams. This pissed her off. She said it herself.

“I wanted to put down roots....He..wanted to play for the world...we both made sacrifices to get what we wanted...,” In her mind, because Hector didn’t just stop pursuing his dream and do what she wanted, he choose music over his family. The letters sent home prove otherwise. She choose to exile him because of his different opinion. That’s called fascism, folks.

And knowing that he, at the very least sent a bunch of letters home, why did Imelda just...not seem to give a fuck when they just stopped coming? Giving her the benefit of the doubt, let’s say she didn’t really think he abandoned them until after the letters stopped. Why was she not curious at all? This is a man you supposedly love. Why did she not press into what happened to him? I refuse to still believe it was hurt if she didn’t in fact believe he abandoned them yet. AND to compound this, we recently got confirmation that the white guitar that is so pivotal to the film was actually a gift to Hector from Imelda. When?...IDK. Apparently before Imelda made the decision that she was done with music. But music ban or no, she had to have seen Ernesto pictured with that guitar somewhere between 1921 and the 1970s when she most likely passed. Did that raise no questions? Seems to me like she just didn’t care what happened...She just was still pissed that he had a different opinion than her own.

Now let’s jump to the next time these two interact, after they’ve both passed away. Or at least attempted to interact. Imelda once says herself in the move:

“How many times must a turn you away!?” This was not the first time Hector had tried to explain what happened. She just didn’t want to hear it. She could tell how young he was when he died, given his hair is still pitch black while hers has grey streaking. She wasn’t interested in what he had to say. But I’m sure she was quick to tell him how awful he was. What a horrific person he was, just as she did in the scene we actually did see. But this isn’t the first time Imelda is abusive. 

When Hector finally does get to say what happened, she responds with, “AND SO WHAT IF IT’S TRUE!?” Actually it matters a lot. I don’t know if she was just back-peddling because she realized how ignorant she had been, but it’s still plenty cold-hearted to say to someone who was murdered trying to come home to you.

Finally, can I mention how super horrible it is that she NEVER, not even ONCE, showed any remorse for almost making Hector suffer the Final Death? And, sure, she didn’t understand the consequences of the music ban when she did it, but once she found out, after her own death, she STILL is able to say to Hector’s face:

“I wanted to forget you. I wanted Coco to forget you too, but...” She knows that’s the equivalent of telling someone you wanted them dead. This line is actually what made me really not like her...But speaking of Coco...

2. Emotional/Mental abuse of Coco

Yup. Yes she did. More obvious in the book though. There is a particular flashback scene where Coco as a young woman wants to dance but has to go to a secluded place so her mother can’t see her doing it. Mind you that Imelda also refuses to make shoes for dancers because music. But that aside, she even forbids her daughter from doing something she loves because she disagrees with it. So Coco gets injured dancing in the middle of nowhere so Imelda won’t see her. Imelda uses the fact that she got hurt to push that dancing and music is evil and that she was making her daughters upset. This makes Coco give up dancing for good. Imelda has taught her that showing support for your family must be to give up what you love. 

Even bigger so, Imelda forced Coco to not talk about her father. She couldn’t with the music ban. This decision didn’t only affect Imelda when it was put in place. It affected a little girl too. A little girl who was already so confused as to what happened to her father. How much that must have hurt her...She clearly loved her father, she kept all of his letters and even the picture Imelda ripped out. She clung to the memory of her father, which Imelda tried so hard to force out of her over the years. She, “wanted Coco to forget him too, but...” But...she didn’t. She wouldn’t. And thank God she didn’t.

3. Legacy on the Family and Miguel

This point isn’t as important to me as the others, but Imelda’s legacy left quite an imprint on the family. As you recall, the story told at the beginning of the movie is Imelda’s version of events. “Hector up and left. The end.” This is the story Imelda told her granddaughters, poisoning them against a man they never meant. Elena then went on to pass down this misinformation to her children and even to her children’s children. Thankfully, Miguel shared his great grandmother’s fight and ambition. If he hadn’t run off to pursue his dreams, he would never have found out the truth. And it’s not only Miguel who suffered from the music ban. As we see at the end of the movie, Abel and Rosa are playing instruments too. Lord knows, they might have had the same struggles Miguel had, enjoying music in private, they just weren’t strong enough to bring it up like Miguel was. 

What does matter A LOT to me is that Imelda was ready to let Miguel die in the Land of the Dead before she let him play music. This is so sickening to me that I can’t dwell too long on it with stooping to calling her more names. I’m trying to avoid that here. It’s really fucked up. That’s all I’ll say.

4. Vs. Ernesto

This is a more personal point. When I first put it out there that I was an Ernector shipper, I got A LOT of comments with people saying: “But Ernesto MURDERED Hector...How could you support that?” Allow me to explain. I don’t believe for even one moment that they actually loved each other. I more so like the tension between the two. I also like Ernesto having super confusing feelings toward his best friend that in 1920s Mexico is so taboo that it just makes it more inciting. Ultimately, I like Ernector because it’s fun. The problem with Imector is...it’s canon. It happened and is currently happening. But people seem to ignore that Imelda is not that much different from Ernesto, both in personality and action. 

Both of them over-reacted when Hector tried to change their plans with plans of his own. They both moved to get rid of him. Ernesto was successful. Imelda was not. That’s really the only difference. 

In conclusion, I don’t like Imelda because she took her hurt and spread it to everyone around her. People could have died or disappeared because of her bitter, spiteful attitude. Others suffered mentally and emotionally because of her words. In Hector’s case, he was both. I actually believe that her continued belittling lead him to have such low self-esteem that actually caused him to forgive her in the end. She taught him that he was garbage over nearly 40 years of him begging to her for her to toss him aside. 

But if you still like her after reading this, that’s perfectly fine too. She was strong in opening up her own business after all. Actions of a character can mean different things to different people. I just wanted to put my thoughts out there :3

[archive-creamycomet]

Finished the Vol. 2 of the Erased dub!

Long and short of it: ohhhh man it’s good. I was worried it would mess up somewhere along the line, but the dub stayed consistently good the whole way through. I didn’t get to grab clips of the reveal + after, but I uploaded a few from episodes 7 through 9 my Twitter if you want to check them out. (I am weak for Kenya’s adult voice, though.)

Like last time, this came with a bunch of information inside the bonus material! I’ve included some takeaways below the cut!

The manga included this time is Kayo’s perspective on Satoru approaching her and trying to be friends. One really interesting thing is that we see the logic behind her asking Satoru the question: “Could you kill someone for me?”

“I couldn’t help saying such a thing. He seemed to be a completely different person from a few days ago. I could tell he was talking to me like he really meant it. Satoru is heading down the path opposite from where I want to be. He’s pretending to be someone who he wants to be and is actually becoming that person. For some reason that frustrated me and made me jealous. So I said something I knew he could never do. I was nothing but a jerk.”

Kayo had previously said that she wished the snow would cover her up, and completely erase her from existence. But when Satoru finally gives her the birthday invitation:

“Just like the snow falling down on earth... and white enough that it paints over the entire place... Satoru seemed to have fallen in front of me in order to erase my surroundings.”

And the final line, which just breaks my heart:

“I found myself wanting to see the future that Satoru would change.”

There’s also the character file, which includes an interview with the director. It’s pretty dense with information, so let’s start with some points on Yashiro:

In the character chart, Yashiro’s arrow to Satoru reads: “Target; can’t live without him.”

The file describes Yashiro watching over the comatose Satoru “like a man possessed.” It also said he spent all fifteen years “praying that he will wake up again one day.”

Yashiro’s own spider thread “seems to have been severed when he acknowledges his defeat at Satoru’s hands.”

It is confirmed that Yashiro was the one trying to force Dr. Kitamura’s hand in Satoru’s treatment. He knew the director of the hospital, who would then call and put pressure onto Kitamura. The character chart refers to this as “pulling strings.” 

Yashiro’s monologue at the start of Episode 11, where you only see Spice running, was to show someone who “obviously wasn’t normal” and to show that you (the viewer) and hence Yashiro couldn’t focus on anyone but “Spice.” (“That’s you, Satoru.”)

Some quick notes on Satoru:

The reason Satoru remembers everything when he touches Mirai’s hand, is because it reminds him of when he touched Kayo’s hand in the park.

It was the “Fight, Wonder Guy!” theme song that triggered Satoru coming out of his coma.

The director said that from Episodes 1-4, Satoru is “complacent” because he’s scared of changing the future and doesn’t remember details. The theme after episode 7 is: “Do it as if your life depends on it!”

There’s two interesting tidbits on Kenya as well:

Kenya is referred to as someone who would “more often than not observe from a step away rather than get involved.” Until he is inspired by Satoru, that is.

In the scene where Satoru runs into the classroom and sees everyone again, the director called Kenya’s tears “the best of the best.” Specifically, he said: “you can see that someone who’s always bluffing his way through life is finally showing his true nature.” It’s one of his favorite parts of the anime.

And some other miscellaneous notes:

Kayo’s mother sees her former, abusive husband in Kayo, triggering a “fear” that then “escalates into abuse.”

Yuuki “must have been praying for Satoru’s recovery all along,” leading him to cry when he first sees Satoru again.

The director tried to scatter shots of everyone looking suspicious (the red eye shots?) because “Yashiro would look suspicious to anyone, but you’ll see Kenya staring at Satoru in a suspicious manner too.”

The director said he didn’t view ERASED as a thriller where you were supposed to solve the crime, “but as a thriller that allowed you to enjoy the process.” He bring up Stephen King here.

The Revival butterfly -- which isn’t present in the manga -- was used because in anime, the director said you needed a second to “brace” for Revival. The simple black/white inversion was too sudden and too simple for anime.

However, the director didn’t realize the symbolism of Satoru’s butterfly vs Yashiro’s spider until the anime had aired and some viewers pointed it out.

Some flashbacks have a blue “tint.” The director said it’s because Hokkaido is naturally blue, but also to give the feeling of old film.

In the OP for Episodes 11 and 12, not only can you see everyone’s eyes, but only Yashiro’s are red.