a novel idea

hey! coming out of the woodwork here to answer this because… why not.

my AO3 account is oliveodyssey! here is the link: https://archiveofourown.org/users/oliveodyssey

ohhh man okay, i thought captain mateo was hilarious on so many levels, especially the back-and-forth song between mateo and gabe that was basically a big you-know-what measuring contest. i like that the show addressed the obvious question of how wizards and royal guards are used differently in combat (and why the kingdom doesn’t just use one over the other).

overall, i like the conclusion the episode came to where mateo is the advisor to the royal guard, and honestly kind of think they should have just done that to begin with (but then the episode wouldn’t have had conflict, there would have been no character development, yeah yeah). as much as mateo rocks, he can’t do what gabe does and vice versa! their differing jobs, despite collaborating and sometimes overlapping in combat, require different skillsets and mentalities, and therefore work best to complement one another instead of choosing one over the other.

because of that, i see the practicality of mateo having a bigger hand in how the royal guard is run and decisions they make, especially because the villains in the show were (as the argument was made) magical. and mateo is right— unless you have a huge element of surprise on your side, you need to magic to fight magic in this universe. should he be captain? no, but it was a lot of fun to see him try his hand at it, and totally own gabe when it came to deciding which direction to send the squad in! plus, that uniform was hilarious. i love that mateo got so many different outfits in the show hehe :)

in terms of troops being taught magic, i will say i don’t love that the show went that route. maybe that’s a little hypocritical of me because i just said it’s good to have both forces working together, but i feel like it just takes away from the royal wizard title just a bit. i see the reasoning behind it however, and i don’t even really have a great argument against it. so, i’ll move on. :)

anyway, we see throughout spellbound how gabe seems to have a little something against mateo— he thinks he’s too young to become a wizard, he struggles to trust his abilities, and he even questions if mateo was the one to turn everyone in the ballroom into stone. honestly, he kind of appears to view mateo as a living, breathing, incompetent klutz.

however, we of course see at the end of this episode how seeing mateo’s bravery and skill firsthand leads gabe to do something of a one-eighty and even call him a hero. clearly, it seems like mateo had earned some of gabe’s respect and admiration by the end of this episode; in gabe's mind, mateo proved himself to be trustworthy and capable. yes? yes. i thought so, too.

BUT (big but) then we have crash course, which made me rethink that whole assumption about gabe and mateo’s friendship (and the way gabe views mateo) altogether. of course this far into the series the two are good friends, and have a kind of mutual respect for one another and their abilities. and yet, bronzino shows up and gabe is so quick to throw in the towel with mateo’s attempt to train his guards— just because a “better” wizard (to him) is now an option.

and yes, as gabe explains later in the episode, his behavior was largely due to the fact that he felt a strong need to make up for his mistakes and failures trying to handle the villains in avalor. however, one comment he made really bothered me and lead me to think his reasons for replacing mateo stem from something else as well: when he said something to the effect of, “now we can train with someone who teaches us actual magic!” and sorry gabe, that doesn’t fly with me. :)

it’s such a small thing, but enough to make me believe a part of gabe still does not wholly trust in mateo, and doesn’t think he’s particularly skillful. his comment makes me feel like in his mind, he’s thinking “oh yeah, it’s just my friend, good old mateo who’s trying to become a wizard, he’s kind of goofy and clumsy but he means well! and he’s so understanding, of course he’ll get why i asked bronzino to take over!”

am i crazy? i don’t know, the whole crash course episode really just gave me that feeling, and while gabe does apologize for basically picking bronzino over mateo, he never apologizes for undermining mateo and his ability.

don’t get me wrong, gabe is a fantastic character in the show and i like him a lot! i just think he was a turd in these episodes (lowkey i think elena probably lit into him so hard after he told her what happened in crash course), and i’m really protective of my boy mateo. :)

oh boy, oh boy. i probably have so many headcanons banging around up here, but i tend to forget them soon after i think of them so it took me awhile to compile a true list. but i’m finally delivering!

starting off, this one might be kind of wild, but i seriously would not be surprised if fiero is related to mateo in some way. i’m not going to propose something insane like fiero being his father or anything (and anyway, the timelines for that just don’t match up and it would be kind of bizarre considering the age difference between fiero and rafa at the time). however, i just have this feeling there’s something deeper connecting the two characters and the fact that mateo’s paternal side of the family is practically never mentioned. is fiero an estranged great-uncle? could he even be mateo’s paternal grandfather? now that would be crazy. but i do wonder about them… even if it isn’t a familial connection, i just get the sense that fiero has ties to the de alva family that go deeper than just a feud with alacazar.

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next, i think out of the entire castillo-flores family, isabel was the one who struggled the most with returning to normalcy in the months after she and her grandparents were released from the magic painting. unlike elena, who had maintained some form of consciousness in the amulet, and her grandparents, who were older and already had lived the majority of their adult years, isabel was in a complete state of unawareness and was forced to process changes that likely appeared even bigger to one so young. therefore, it was extremely difficult for her to return to the real world and realize everything she’d once known was different or no longer there. she drew comfort from the fact that her grandparents and sister elena are exactly as she remembered them, but for a while was very uncomfortable around and even a bit afraid of esteban, who looked and acted so different from the teasing, playful cousin she once knew. isabel awoke to realize all her childhood friends were gone— likely having fled avalor during shuriki’s reign or well into their adult years with independent lives and families of their own. the avaloran games and songs she grew up with were all but nonexistent, and even her bedroom showed signs of time passing; needing to be cleaned and redecorated after being used as what they all assumed to be a spare guest room during shuriki’s reign. though, in time and after many sisterly talks with elena— the one isabel found most comfort in besides her abuelos— she begun to blossom in her new life. this of course leads us to where we see isabel later in the series; forming wonderful new friendships and rekindling her close relationship with estaban, who became something like a big brother or uncle figure for her (well, until he betrays them all of course)!

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as we all know, we never really got to see any of mateo’s afterthoughts in the show following rise of the sorceress, where he unknowingly played a large hand (poor guy) in victor and carla’s schemes that allowed shuriki to regain her magical prowess. though technically not his fault, i think we can all agree that carla’s manipulation of him is essentially the reason fiero was resurrected (which still shouldn’t even be possible, according to what we learned of that spell earlier in the show, but whatever) and shuriki regained her wand. and, knowing mateo’s character for what it is, i can imagine he would have been absolutely devastated that his obliviousness led to the endangerment of his kindgom and his princess. especially since we know how much mateo always wanted to prove himself not only to be a skilled wizard, but a noble person in general. he would have been beating himself up, hard. and yet, we never really get to see that internal struggle of his. yes, i am going somewhere with this! here it is: i believe mateo’s behavior in the scepter of night is directly correlated with the events that occurred involving him in rise of the sorceress. maybe this is one of those headcanons where you’re wondering, “why does this matter?” because. after rise of the sorceress, one would assume mateo is in an absolute pit of despair. he feels guilty for letting his princess and his kingdom down, stupid for being so easily fooled, and horrible in general because he could never imagine his grandfather falling for something like that. he wants to try even harder to make it up to elena, to do something right and to prove once again that something about him is worthy enough to be the royal wizard. thus, “the wisest wizard in the world.” the desperation to secure the scepter of night, and desire to learn its powers. the refusal to listen to anyone else’s commands because he can’t let shuriki and her minions bring one more speck of destruction to avalor when he feels it’s all his fault they’re even loose in the first place. i also kind of feel like mateo and elena had a long talk about his actions after the events of the scepter of night if they hadn’t already; probably a pretty deep one, too. i can imagine elena was concerned about this very out-of-character behavior for mateo, and probably urged him to open up about it. being as close as they were, they likely were able to draw comfort from one another— elena gently helping mateo to not feel so down on himself, and mateo encouraging elena and reminding her that he and their other amigos would always be right alongside her through any challenges. :) phew, this was a long one!

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this next one is kind of a crack headcanon, to be honest, but! esteban and ash! you can’t tell me there wasn’t some kind of romantic tensions there! who knows, maybe it’s just me, but i definitely get the sense that they at the very least had a fling while they were on the run together— especially when it was just the two of them. yes, they often appeared to despise each other, but i also couldn’t help feeling that underneath it was a sort of affection neither of them wanted to admit. they spent time in the jungle together, evaded the royal guard together, sailed together, crossed kingdoms together, trained in magic together. enemies turned brief lovers kind of thing? who knows?

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again, kind of an insignificant one (and practically confirmed anyway based on reading-between-the-lines context), but i think mateo used his way more that he let on before revealing it to elena in shapeshifters. it was clear that when he transformed with elena that it wasn’t his first time as a jaquin; mateo was definitely a more skilled flyer than her and mentioned that he also struggled to walk on four legs during his first time, too. so obviously he’d used the potion before… but what was he doing? i’m just so curious. i mainly picture him going on midnight flights over avalor bay to clear his thoughts, or spying on certain affairs around the city. i also wouldn’t put it past mateo to use the potion to help him get out of certain situations, such as gabe’s attempts to run him through drill exercises or his madre’s attempts to lecture him on his royal wizard duties (and how he never seems to be doing them to her standards!).

this is amazing, and i also simultaneously hate it. like i literally searched up a transcript of the episode so i could examine the rhyme sequence of some of the songs in there that ordinarily would have been discussion, so i can try my best to match it. also, it’s just kind of hard to describe a character singing a song in regular prose.

Anytime I see them being cuties on screen I have to suppress myself from getting all giggly!

oh my goodness yes! funnily enough, the first time i watched elena of avalor i was around eight or nine years old, and i would say mateo was probably my first fictional crush haha! however, i stopped watching cartoons before disney released the rest of the show so didn’t get to see the other seasons until much later.

however, the older i’ve become the more i’ve jumped back into watching cartoons… maybe for the nostalgia, maybe because many cartoons are actually super well done, or maybe because it gives me a little break from the craziness of life.

either way, just this last spring and summer my younger sister asked if i’d watch elena of avalor with her, so i finally got to see the rest of the show and its conclusion. and let’s just say mateo still has a very special place in my heart! he and elena are my favorite together and though the show itself did not give us a confirmation of anything beyond friendship, i believe leaving it open-ended was the second-best thing the showrunners could have done.

just thought you’d love to know that as a little Christmas gift for you all, i jumped onto ao3 once again and dropped the epilogue for through the night, aka the very last chapter for this story! i hope this was kind of a nice surprise for everyone, as i haven’t exactly been the most consistent with my uploading schedule (and probably will never be hehe).

it’s not too much more, just a fun extra scene with more elena and mateo shenanigans and even rafa (mateo’s mamí!) making an appearance! i had a good time writing it, so why not share it?

as you’ll see more about on ao3, i probably will go into hibernation mode for quite a while after this— but never fear! i will simply be hard at work on my next fanfiction piece for ya’ll, throwing ideas at the wall until they stick and then running wild with them. :) one day sooner than you think, i’ll be back!

and until then, i wish each of you a Feliz Navidad y Próspero Año Nuevo!

yes, it also took me a while to finally drop this chapter (faithful diligence). finals finished for me around december 12th, and right after that i did some traveling for an out-of-state conference. so needless to say, i’ve been pretty swamped these last couple weeks.

but i’m here now, and that’s what matters! right? anyhow, faithful diligence is a chapter i’m very proud of and one where we get to see mateo and elena’s opposing personalities (yet that i feel complement each other very well) on full display. there are so many tense and tender moments that i loved dreaming up and putting down on paper for ya’ll to read! elena and mateo are my heart!

i always value making the original characters sound authentic when i write fanfiction pieces, so i was constantly second-guessing myself and reworking things if i thought they didn’t sound quite like elena or mateo. i hope ya’ll can bear with me and my crazy overthinking brain… my writing mindset has always just been to put out my best or not put out anything at all.

we get to see a little bit of geeky mateo in a turn of the latch— and a bit of what his life looks like when he isn’t at the palace— which i enjoyed writing a lot. i always found it so funny when he would go off about some cool magic fact in the series, so i tried my best to replicate that here.

elena and mateo also get to see one another again for the first time after the crazy events of the previous chapters… needless to say, it’s just a bit awkward. see for yourself. :)

as always, thanks for tuning into the updates on my dumb little fanfic, and i appreciate anyone who has deemed it worth their time to read!

chapter three of through the night is OUT!!! life got in the way and it took a little longer to drop than i first expected, but it is the longest chapter of the series so far by a few hundred words.

we get a whole lot of angst (once again… i mean really this whole piece is angsty), a whole lot of contemplative behavior from miss elena, and the appearance of zuzo, which is always fun! as always, i hope ya’ll are enjoying how this story progresses and are looking forward to seeing more!

i’ll try to make my next post a little more within the time period of a week— i have finals coming up, but i still want to make it happen! a big thank-you to everyone who’s been following through the night so far!

it is a little shorter than inconveniences, but i hope for what it lacks in length it makes up for in content! i just love the banter between elena and mateo, and i had a ball coming up with their comebacks and ridiculous little jokes.

anyhow, if you’re liking how this story is progressing so far go check it out!

“Mateo de Alva,” she drew his name out seriously, and though she tried to keep her anger in check, the concern in Mateo’s eyes told her he saw it there.  It felt strange to say his full name out loud– the two were never ones for formality– and Elena realized with a shock that the last time she had, she was announcing her best friend as the new royal wizard of Avalor. Elena nearly laughed, despite it all.  How different of a situation they were in now.  For a moment, the crown princess recalled the pride she’d felt in giving her closest friend the title; the pride in her voice as she spoke Mateo’s name to tell everyone that this was the boy who had helped her defeat Shuriki. The boy who had selflessly stuck by her side through it all. The boy in front of her who was still doing just that, even to his own detriment. She intended to command Mateo to tell her all that had gone on in the Maruvian ruins, why he wasn’t being honest with her, but her mouth formed different words.  Elena realized with a jolt that the hand on Mateo’s chest was gripping the fabric of his shirt tightly, distorting the skeleton decals of his Día de los Muertos costume. The wizard glanced back at her with an unreadable expression, and she realized just how close her face was to his. Sighing, Elena unclenched her fist and softened her expression, begrudgingly letting the frustration go.

are you hooked? maybe, sort of, hopefully?

the first chapter of my first ever eleteo fanfiction is up on ao3!!! i am just so excited to go on this journey with you all, and can’t wait to see how my work is received by a more public audience.

maybe my writing is great, maybe it’s the most terrible thing you’ve ever read… but either way, i’d love for ya’ll to give it some feedback and tell me what you think!

(elena of avalor and eleteo fans especially! :))

i also plan to post on fanfiction.net at some point— which i already mentioned— but i really despise the formatting and it’s my first time working with it, so there’s a bit of a learning curve.

it was also my very first time posting on ao3, so apologies if the formatting is super cheeks… i’m trying to get it to work with me!

for anyone interested in reading, the title is through the night and you can find me under oliveodyssey on ao3.

i spent so much time on this little fic, so i hope everyone who reads gleans some joy and entertainment from it (and that i do my part in continuing to feed your eleteo delusions!).

this will be my first long(er) fanfic, and only my second written fanfiction overall (the first was for the how to train your dragon fandom, and is posted on wattpad).

for those interested, it will of course be eleteo and probably posted on both ao3 and fanfiction.net… maybe wattpad too, if i’m feeling extra, but i feel like it’s not really the right scene for elena of avalor works.

it’s based on the jewel of maru episode, where i’m adding my own missing scenes that address two things frequently glossed over in the show— trauma elena undoubtedly has after spending forty plus years in an amulet after seeing her parents get murdered in front of her… and injuries.

i read this book a while back, before i began watching the show again, so only recently made the comparison and realized how similar these two pieces of media are… and why i was so fond of rumi ;) let’s just say he resembles a certain someone very closely, who just so happens to be my favorite character in the actual disney show.

of course woven in moonlight isn’t the spitting image of elena of avalor. but i’ve read a lot of novels, and it comes pretty darn close.

wizards and malvagos, magical and evil rulers, sibling dynamics, delicious food, deep traditions, death-defying danger, mythical animal friends, a strong female lead… oh, yeah. it’s all there.

hopeful and violent, ugly yet so insanely beautiful. the pain in this novel, and the love, and the brotherhood, and the grit, and the things that one does to survive. friendship, and family, and the line that blurs between. humanity that hardens beneath the hurt.

undoubtedly this is the best book i’ve read in a long while, and i wish i could read a thousand more like it.