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yana125 · 1 year

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Okay, I didn’t have many MCoG thoughts recently and it’s not even midnight it’s midday (when I started writing this but then I got carried away and I wouldn’t be surprised if it would be midnight by the time I post this.....) (aaaaand it’s not midnight yet but it is dark outside X’D) so ideas like that shouldn’t come to me at daylight, but I was watching an amazing video about why Princess Momonoke is better than Avatar at teaching a lesson about nature vs technology and how this conflict should be solved, and there was the part starting at 30:18 that then made a connection to MCoG, making me think about the real historical conflict behind the fictional characters, and it then all reconnected to what those earlier 30 minutes were about in the video, and that in return made me realize what an absolutely wasted potential we are facing right here.

So the part starting at 30:18 talks about the European conquest of the Americas. But it doesn’t put the conquerors on the side of absolute evil and the Native Americans on the side of absolute good like Avatar does. Like in Princess Momonoke every side has good reasons and bad decisions. And everything started with an other conflict started by an other conflict started by an other conflict. The Europeans were pushed by the Ottoman Empire pushed by the Mongols. It’s a domino effect. A cycle of hate and violence. Everyone wants to get their hands on resources to fight against the invading forces to protect their home (good reason) and in the process do to others exactly what the invading forces did to them (bad decisions). (Also there’s this video about Attack on Titan and violence made by the same person also connecting to this.)

So in regards of MCoG, obviously there are the European conquerors in the Americas robbing and enslaving the natives. The resources they get from the Americas would then be shipped to Spain where they would use those resources to fight the Ottoman Empire. (Also this is the part where I’d like to make the sidenote that I won’t expand here that the video also mentions, that kudos to MCoG for not showing the natives as inherently good, because there ARE bad and good people among them too with good and bad decisions, like the Urubus who kidnap people from the tribe who live on the lake. [Who don’t fight back to defend themselves thus dooming themselves, because they can only survive if they defend themselves, but if they get overwhelmed by the hate and violence they feel against their invaders and attack them not out of defense but out of revenge than they would enter the cycle of violence and become just like the people that invaded them.])

But what I really REALLY want is for all of this to affect the relationship between the children. For them to have a REAL conflict of beliefs and opinions that would test their bond originated from this bigger conflict that surrounds them.

There ARE conflicts between the characters, like Esteban being an extrovert dreamer/idealist vs Tao being an introvert thinker (ExFx vs IxTx in Enneagram terms, if you prefer that) and Esteban pushing or pulling Tao into situations he’s at first very against and is very uncomfortable about. What comes close to what I’m thinking about is Esteban’s trust and Zia’s distrust in Mendoza. Zia’s always very vocal about not trusting Mendoza, and Esteban is always ensuring her that they can trust him. Both of them have their own reasons, neither of them are inherently right or wrong but this doesn’t generate any long-lasting and bond-breaking conflicts between them. So let’s start with this, I always like talking about the more complex and important things last.

The Zia – Esteban conflict

Zia is full of anger and hate. Period. Zia’s home was attacked by Spaniards. She was separated from her people and her family, her mother was most likely killed in the conflict, and she was taken to Spain against her will and was given to the royals as a gift from the New World like she wasn’t even a human being. Then she was kidnapped again and was put on a ship heading back to her home so her knowledge could be used against her own people. Returning back to her home continent all she sees is that the Spaniards are still killing her people, they capture her again with her friends, they threaten to kill her friends if she doesn’t help them, and so on. Zia has every right to be angry and hateful. She is basically treated by the Spaniards as a ragdoll, the same Spaniards who, as mentioned before, attacked her home and now kill her people all over the continent. Zia being only a child means that she couldn’t protect herself physically from all of this. She was most likely traumatized by all those events and probably how she was treated by the royals. That led to her overgeneralization of the Spanish. I only know the dub version since the Japanese episodes I have are not subbed ಥ_ಥ So, in the dub version of episode 2 she says:

“He’s like all the Spaniards. All Mendoza cares about is his gold.”

(In Japanese she says she would bite him next time X’D)

The only Spanish she knows are the conquistadors and the royals, of course she overgeneralizes the Spanish. She probably wasn’t let outside to see what kind of people live in Barcelona. And either she didn’t know anything about the Ottoman Empire or didn’t care about it. For her the Spanish are greedy conquerors who want to kill her people.

And I think this should’ve radicalized her a bit more. She should’ve been more hateful and angry and as she was getting older she should’ve been more aggressive to the point that if the series were continued right after the first season ended, she should’ve gotten her hands on a knife or a rifle by the time they find all the Cities and point it at a Spaniard. (And I’m pointing here - without a knife or a rifle - at Avatar The Last Airbender – that I haven’t watched yet – and the Southern Raiders episode and Katara. What I’m saying is that Zia could’ve very well been a mix of Katara and Azula. Just imagine.)

On the other side is Esteban who as Zia say as the continuation of the previous quote:

“I didn’t mean you when I said that. Anyway, you’re not really Spanish.”

Yeah, he’s not really Spanish. His mother was an Inca, his father had unknown origins, and he only lives in Spain because he was found by Spanish explorers on the Pacific.

But, if he doesn’t know anything about his origins, looks like an average white person and passes as European by looks, and lived all of his life among Spanish people, doesn’t nurture is a dominating factor here over nature thus making him also Spanish not by blood but by upbringing? The monks were Spanish, they weren’t conquistadors. We don’t know what business they had with the royal family but looking at Esteban and what a kind boy he is they had to be good people. Good Spanish people. So that makes Esteban a good Spanish person by upbringing.

In the Japanese version of episode 2 the following conversation happens between the two during the medallion scene (and I don’t know how many times I had to listen to this as I was writing it into google translate, but also thank you google translate):

Esteban: So you were brought here from the New World. That Pendant is from the New World? I have the same thing.

Zia: Eh?

Esteban: Look! Mine’s Sun part is kept/protected by Mendoza./Mendoza took the Sun part when he saved me. (? I couldn’t really understand what he was saying.)

Zia: It’s just as I thought. You’re not Spanish.

This is the first time Zia speaks, and it’s ‘oh, so you’re not one of them’. So when Zia learns that Esteban is not Spanish she immediately opens up to him and talks to him because she doesn’t considers him one because of his origins by blood. But Esteban doesn’t have any connections to his blood relatives apart from being born. In all of his known life he considered himself a Spanish orphan. One among the many Spanish orphans who were most likely orphaned because their parents either died in war or illness (and this would mean that Esteban also knows about the Ottoman Empire). And he only found out that he wasn’t Spanish when Father Rodriguez told him on his death bed. But does it make him not-Spanish when he was socialized among Spanish monks and sailors all his life? His first hand experience about the Spanish is that they’re kind (the monks) and merry (sailors). And sometimes they lift him high in the air to chase away the clouds.

So Esteban didn’t go through the same as Zia. He knows all kinds of Spanish people, good and bad, and doesn’t generalize them. He judges them by their actions and not where they come from. He’s also naïve and let’s Mendoza manipulate him for a bit at the beginning, but he’s also a good judge of character. (AGH Season 2!!!! (╯°□°）╯︵ ┻━┻)

AND! He’s able to forgive. Esteban is someone who doesn’t hold grudges for long. And he’s able to help others in need even if they did something wrong previously. He’s careful with them, but he’s also a good kid, because Father Rodriguez and the monks taught him to help others.

So this conflict between Zia and Esteban could’ve naturally escalated to something bigger. Zia’s hate, profound distrust and overgeneralization of every nation ever that conquered an other nation (mainly natives) vs Esteban who judges individuals by their actions. In their journeys they could’ve come across more Spanish people who’d never done anything wrong in their lives (maybe they are slaves of the Ottoman and the children meet them when they somehow get to that area), but because they are Spanish Zia could’ve treated them like they were also responsible for what happened to her people. And Esteban could’ve stood up against her in this matter because he knows there are good Spanish people. But Zia is still full of anger and hate and does Esteban really side with the Spanish? After everything? And then there could be a moment where Zia realizes that Esteban is Spanish. No matter where he originally came from and where he was born and who his parents were, he thinks and acts like a Spaniard and what if he deceived her all this time, what if he wanted to use her like all the conquistadors, how can she trust him after all of this! (Ohmygod, the potential of this! ⚆_⚆)

Also how cool it could’ve been if Esteban was the one who stopped Zia with his reasoning if Zia had gotten her hands on a knife or a rifle around the end of the series. Saying that by doing this she would be the same like those people who attacked her home and he knows she’s a better person than that.

But the main conflict! Between the characters who never really had a conflict!

The Zia – Tao conflict

So why this would be the more complex and important conflict? Well, the Zia-Esteban conflict is personal but this would be more… global.

You see, Zia as an Inka has a closer connection to nature. She has a pet condor, she talks to animals, she respects traditions, and so on. For her technology is for destruction. The Spaniards used rifles to kill her people. Technology must be bad then.

Tao is the last descendant of Hiva/Mu. It was an advanced nation with incredible technology and they were so advanced and they used solar power for ships and flying machines. Technology is so good!

But that very technology destroyed Hiva/Mu and Atlantis during their conflict. And the natives of the 16th century had their own technologies too. And the Inkas were most likely the descendants of the Empire of Hiva/Mu. So what now?

For me Tao is someone who because he wasn’t influenced by outside conflicts on his island can look at everything from an outsider’s perspective without swaying to either sides. He lived alone on his island close to nature but also he was surrounded by the technological inheritance from Hiva/Mu. So in a way there is perfect harmony between nature and technology where he lives.

When we look at all of this from Zia’s perspective, since Hiva/Mu is connected to the Inka’s since she as an Incan girl has the medallion made by the King of Hiva/Mu, it has to be good technology then. She would most likely consider the people of Hiva/Mu natives like her who are in no way similar to the Spaniards, no way.

Then we get to the Olmecs who in the Japanese version were always from Atlantis, and I have no idea if the children knew about that or not, but if they did then Zia could easily connect them to the Spaniards. Because how I think Zia with all of the anger and hate is that she doesn’t see grey. Everything is either black or white, good or bad, and the good doesn’t have any bad in it, and the bad doesn’t have any good in it. Hiva/Mu and Atlantis was a war of good and evil, and since Hiva/Mu is connected to her people and they are on a quest finding the Cities made by Hiva/Mu they had to be the good ones.

This is where Tao’s outside perspective could come in. I have this scene in draft form right after Season One. They stop for the night, they look at a map they got from Mendoza, agree that they should be careful around here because there could be Spanish patrols since there’s a port north to them:

Esteban: After what we’ve been through with the Olmecs, some Spaniards are nothing.

Zia: You shouldn’t be so unwary, Esteban. In many ways the Spaniards are as cruel and unmerciful as the Olmecs.

Esteban: You’re right, I just…

Tao: They were fighting for their survival.

Esteban & Zia: ?!

Esteban: What do you mean?

Tao: Exactly what I mean. Everything the Olmecs did, they did it so their people would survive.

Esteban: They tried to freeze us.

Zia: They killed my father.

Tao: I know. And that’s exactly why I’m not siding with them. What they did was wrong, but for them it was the only way to save themselves from extinction.

Esteban: I wouldn’t hurt others so I could stay alive.

Tao: You’re saying that now, but you won’t necessarily do the same when you get there. People start acting differently when it’s about their survival.

Zia: …

Esteban: Survival…

And this could build up over time. Like they go to North America where they would’ve met the proto-Ambrosius an English scholar or something who the natives were about to burn, and later the children would talk to the chief who mentions that these people (Europeans) lost their touch to nature. And Tao would call bullshit because he knows this is the natural progression of a society, that people would come up with new technologies to make their lives better, and then he would point at the fire and the weapons and everything around them and says that all of this is technology.

And then they would travel the world and find new Cities and they would learn more and more about Hiva/Mu (I almost wrote Ancient Kingdom, but that’s One Piece X’D) and see the good and the bad side of its technology and the conflict between Tao and Zia could gradually escalate, because wherever they go Tao would engage in science talk with everyone no matter where they come from and it would bother Zia because conquering nations are all the same.

Then in the end comes the truth. That Hiva/Mu and Atlantis were also conquering nations. They enslaved tribal people (maybe to mine resources or something related to resources), like the Spaniards did to the Native Americans, like the Ottoman Empire did to the Spanish, like the Mongols did to the Ottoman, and so on. And then after the fall of these nations the tribes created their own nations who then enslaved other tribes, who then enslaved other tribes, who then enslaved other tribes…

I can hear Zia’s world view shattering to pieces. Because her people were descendants of the Hiva/Mu Empire. How could they do something the Spaniards did? (Or what if the ancestors of the Inka were slaves who fled from the conflict to South America?)

The video about Princess Momonoke and Avatar says that humans are part of nature, because nature and civilization are part of the same cycle, and the world is cruel because it needs the death of something to keep something else alive, and technology can improve lives. The Attack on Titan video says that the cycle of violence will continue until people from different backgrounds decide to come together and learn to forgive.

So the lesson in The Mysterious Cities of Gold could’ve been that there will be always conflict when it’s about resources until there is a technology that can provide unlimited resources, like the power of the sun. But that technology has to be used wisely and shouldn’t be turned against others. And the people of the 16th century are not mature enough to use this. Maybe Hiva/Mu and Atlantis evolved too fast technologically and the collective maturity of their societies weren’t able to keep up the pace with it. Maybe their conflict started with something stupid and it escalated too fast and got out of hand so much that these two destroyed not only each other but themselves too. And the King of Hiva/Mu maybe saw where this would all lead to. Maybe he repurposed the Cities of Gold because the Cities originally were something else, like palaces of different noble families or the capitals of the seven main tribes of Hiva/Mu or something, and since these were the safest places of the world he hid the greatest scientific achievements and technologies and other things that should be preserved there (like the Svalbard Global Seed Vault) because all of these are for the good of all. And it’s the children’s responsibility to decide what would happen to the Cities. Should they be hidden forever and either never be revealed to the world or potentially be taken over by someone with ill intents, or should it be destroyed and future societies have to come up with a solution themselves if they want to survive.

Wasted potential! щ(゜ロ゜щ)

#mcog #les mystérieuses cités d'or #mysterious cities of gold

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