I still say the most unrealistic part of Harry Potter was that there wasn’t a scene where Hermione found 16 year old Harry in a shopping cart on top of the Astronomy Tower while 16 year old Ron stood by with Colin’s camera because if the prophecy says that he has to die via Voldemort then that means nothing else can kill him ergo there’s no way this could possibly go wrong…
So I was talking to a friend of mine, and in casual conversation he let it slip that Pixar’s Coco pisses him off. I was curious about this, as the movie is well loved amongst most of the people I know, so I asked him the reason.
He brought forth a point I had never considered about this wonderfully made, heartwarming movie:
The day of the dead is, by definition, the only day in which the souls of the deceased can move freely between the land of the living and Mictlán (the land of the dead) with no restrictions, equal in death unlike they were in life.
An American company made a movie about this concept…
And put a frontier line in it, determining who can and can’t cross.
Which is… More than a tad problematic, considering the history between the two countries.
THEREFORE I PROPOSE
Everyone can come out at will during day of the death, but those without pictures in any ofrenda are unable to find their families, even if they’re standing right in front of them.
Héctor roams the streets of Santa Cecilia, lost and frustrated, because the house he built with Imelda should be here, where is it?! Giving up for the whatevereth year in a row, he returns to the graveyard to cross back and bumps into a scared boy calling for his parents, a boy that seems… Living?
After a slight hesitation, the boy introduces himself as Miguel De La Cruz, and Héctor sighs and takes him (and his silly-looking dog) back to the land of the dead. They go see Chicharrón, and old deceased who finds no joy in visiting the land of the living anymore, and he tells them this kid is cursed, and needs a blessing from his family.
Meanwhile, the dead Riveras are stirring up a storm because mamá Imelda physically cannot see the house even as the others try to guide her into it, because Miguel took her picture from the ofrenda. They hear the living looking for the kid, and realize what happened, and that they must find Miguel before it’s too late.
In the land of the dead, Miguel knows his family (Mamá Imelda and the others) won’t give him the blessing because of their dislike of music, and so decides to look for De la Cruz. The dead Riveras come back to the land of the dead, and begin looking for him.
The concept of the final death is still there, but instead of depending on the last person who remembers you forgetting you, it’s the last person who remembers you (or has heard your stories ofc) dying what takes you away. This can work with Mamá Coco and Hector as Coco’s health is shown to be so fragile that she passes in less than a year after the events of the movie. She could be having a sort of health crisis in the world of the living, which also hinders the living Riveras from looking for Miguel.
The rest of the movie works perfectly well without changes IMHO but in the end, Héctor and Imelda are led by the family to what they are only as an empty room. Suddenly, a candle lights up. And then another, and another, and the whole ofrenda lights up gradually as Miguel just placed the picture with both of them back.
Héctor and Imelda are suddenly surrounded by family, dead and living. Hector sees his daughter for the first time in 60+ years. She looks weak and tired and so beautiful, and he jumps a little in surprise when Imelda holds his hand.
And then Miguel brings out the guitar, and for the first time in more than sixty years, Coco sings again.
I alprove of this and double dare Pixar to fix it! Or fanartist! Whatever happens first!
“Obviously ‘bihet’ offends a lot of bisexuals, so we need to come up with a better term for bisexuals in m/f relationships.”
How about… and hear me out… this may sound crazy…. but you… continue to call us bisexual… because (and I realize this gets confusing for you people so read this next part slowly) it turns out we continue to be bisexual regardless of who we’re dating.
Okay, this shit gets me all heated up. I’m just a cisgay dude up in here, but I have Some Opinions about this nonsense.
Bisexual people in relationships with folks of the other gender are not only themselves still bisexual (I’m really ashamed of a bunch of all that this shit even needs to be said, like c’mon), but their relationships are queer.
Yes, I just said that straight people can be involved in queer relationships without they themselves being queer.
The reason for this is simple: folks who are in relationships with queer people will always have to deal with their partner’s marginalization impacting their relationship. Always. Even if their bisexual partner chooses to be entirely stealth about their queerness (and that’s their right, by gods, fight me about it), their relationship is still impacted by that very choice existing. It’s a facet heterosexual relationships never have to negotiate.
Frankly, bisexual folks have to deal with active marginalization from multiple angles: heterocentrist and homocentrist. And in case I actually have to say this aloud? We should not be fucking marginalizing our own, y’all. That makes you a bad person, and you should feel bad.
To sum up: Bisexual folks are queer as hell. Straight folks can be in queer relationships without themselves ever being queer. And FFS please stop harassing bi- and pan-folks already, man. It’s 2018. Find hobbies that are not shitty.
I love this addition to my post so much thank you.
Artisan Scribbles 