#extra kudos for him being written by a white male twenty two years ago

[piracytheorist]

Manny Calavera: Suave and Debonair

Having just finished watching a video essay on the “Nice Guy” trope in fiction, my mind, interestingly enough, jumped to Manny Calavera, whom the promotional work for described as “Suave and Debonair and Dead”. 

Now I say “interestingly”, because Manny isn’t a ”Nice Guy”, but he doesn’t fit the trope of genuine, good-hearted and supportive boyfriend that the video concludes on either. Sure he is that, genuinely, with his love interest, but it’s not his defining trait. He’s Suave and Debonair.

It’s not a persona he builds until he finds love and his defences drop and the genuinely good-hearted hopeless romantic bursts out - as much as I love that trope myself, heh. He truly is confident and elegant and flirty, and he is also supportive and respectful. And above all, he’s not creepy.

There’s a plethora of characters, most commonly male, playing on the “suave” trope but they just end up looking creepy, selfish, self-centered and arrogant. There’s a whole lot that can be said about what that says about their male writers, but let’s focus back on Manny, and what possible romantic interactions there are for him in the game. And frankly, there are a lot.

The whole style of the game is one that accomondates openly flirtatious characters, enough for the protagonist to be one. The setting, the feeling, the interactions, the other characters, but also the limits. Also bouncing off a video I made where I tried to “pick up” every single character, with various results and meanings of the term... Manny has strict limits he adheres to, not because the “rules” say so, but because he feels it.

First lady you can pick up, through dialogue, is Eva. She brushes you off, but on her own, through other dialogue options, can say she loves Manny, to which he replies, “You’re all I really need, Belleza”. Now considering where the dynamic goes and where Manny moves on to, you can safely assume they’re on a mutual state, where they respect each other but kinda sorta are not a couple. Like, don’t take my word fully on this, I’m not a relationship expert, but you can definitely see they’re on the same page. 

And before we go on to Meche, a significant detail; work issues. If you try to pick up Meche while they’re still in his office, Manny says “I don’t like to get involved with the customers that way”. His own words: “I don’t like”. Not a “shouldn’t”, “better not”, or whatever. Outright, clear, “I don’t like using flirt in a professional space.” Second, after he’s fired, if you try to pick up Eva, he says, “Well, I guess I could, now that we’re not working together anymore.” But he doesn’t actually sound like he was waiting for them to not be co-workers to hit on her. It’s more like a flirty joke between, again, two people who are on the same page. Third, Lupe. Direct reaction: “Not my employees.“ And if I may add, with a bit of “Are you serious?” tone on it.

Three separate cases, where he’s in three separate places - equal to equal, salesman to customer, employer to employee - and all have clear limits as to how far his flirting will go, or if it will even begin in the first place. So there’s a definite feeling of respect and knowing where your limits lay.

Now beyond that, the most we see of his suave nature is in his interactions during Year 2, most notably with Carla. The beginning dialogue between the two is one where Carla, on her own, suggests Manny stay until her shift’s over.

And considering they’ve already known each other for some time, the implication is loud and clear.

Manny leans on her desk towards her, and she leans forward on her chair towards him. The Puzzle Document, aka the first official “draft” of the story, has Manny suggest Carla (who is described as aloof) take a break by offering some booze. The end product instead has Carla being suggestive from her first interaction we see her having with Manny, but still following the rules - until Manny finds a loophole, in which case Carla is all too happy to strip-search him.

Which kind of blows up in his face, considering he, uhm, used the circumstances to get that damn metal detector. Still, the next possible interaction is to ask Carla if she’s still mad at him, which she confirms, and he respectfully backs off. He acts suave with the “Forgiven me yet?” but he doesn’t demand she does or have a fit over her being angry.

Next, there’s Lola. Manny advises her to stay away from Maximino, the “gambling racketeer”, and Lola says “Like you?”. Manny says “Oh, that hurts, baby.” Again, he neither takes full offense nor does he play it fully as a joke. Still, he respects her enough to not use what happens to her as an excuse to be violent. When he punches Nick, he says Nick deserved it anyway - and I like that Lola isn’t fridged only for Manny to have a moment of being a badass *cough*toxic masculinity*cough*. And even two years later, if you visit the lighthouse, you find that Manny still thinks of her and misses her.

Finally, Meche. With Celso and Bruno, Manny immediately jumps from “Mr. Flores” and “Mr. Martinez” to first-name basis. Meche is his first client that he keeps to last-name basis until she herself asks to be called with her nickname, even. But the real juice comes in Year 3, when, feeling confused and betrayed, he implies Meche is in a relationship with Domino. And frankly... we as an audience at that point can see where the dynamic between Manny and Meche is going to, so Manny’s behaviour can sound very selfish, but what Manny knows is that he tried to jump aboard the Lambada to warn Meche about Domino or help her escape him and instead got kicked out by her. He is crass but he has the right to feel confused. 

However, Manny openly apologizes to her for how he acted, without becoming a welcoming mat either. He gives her his trust (and his gun), he saves her from Domino’s vault and the island, he opens up about his feelings, but he stands his ground and stays true to his character. Because his slip-ups weren’t because of strikes to his confidence or his masculinity, but on his own ego itself - and it’s on that part that he grew.

Being suave is not a defense mechanism for Manny and it doesn’t express itself in an unhealthy, creepy way, so it’s not a character trait he has any need to grow out of or learn better from. He’s truly, positively debonair in a way many male characters wish they were, and overall I feel that’s worth mentioning.

#Grim Fandango #Manny Calavera #extra kudos for him being written by a white male twenty two years ago #and that's why I even mention the puzzle document #the draft was a bit more shifty #the end product was definitely more mature #long post