#honestly it's surprising that there isn't more dark mateo content since i feel like even more than w/ elena; the potential is right there

[notmoreflippingelves]

Unpopular opinion: Elena of Avalor fandom edition! Mateo isn't the sweet dorky magician the wiki (and some fans) tends to present, he is just as competitive as (of not more than) Gabe and can be really selfish and arrogant. And he never really gets called out on his flaws or misdeeds as much as the other characters.

strongly agree | agree | neutral | disagree | strongly disagree

Yes, I'm not sure if it's my contrarian hipster brain seeing he's popular within the fandom and just doing it's natural "hype backlash" as result, or what. But my overall reaction to him is "meh" at best and low-key annoyance at worst. Maybe it's just me, but I definitely feel that whenever Elena, Naomi, Gabe, Isa, or especially Esteban are in the wrong, the narrative will have an explicit, impossible to ignore "what the hell hero" moment where they learn their lesson. But when Mateo is the one at fault, he's more likely to be met with nothing more than a brief slap on the wrist--and that's assuming he's called out for his selfishness/impulsiveness/shortsightedness at all. Which he often is not.

#elena of avalor #eoa salt #like i get it; he's a young; conventionally attractive guy but you know who else is? gabe #and the narrative is not nearly as forgiving of gabe's flaws as it is of mateo's. even when the flaw in question is the exact same flaw. #mateo's allowed to want to be the specialest wizard boy in all of the land but whenever gabe is competitive/wants to prove himself #it's somehow much more sus? #and that's not even getting into the double standards esteban is held to #elena holds a grudge for days after the feast of friendship debacle #yet somehow can forgive mateo right away after his selfishness nearly allowed shuriki and co to get the scepter piece? #which is like a much much bigger deal than the little diplomatic mess that esteban and dona paloma made? #i get it; mateo is the writers' and the fandom's fave but did they really need to rub it in like that? #honestly it's surprising that there isn't more dark mateo content since i feel like even more than w/ elena; the potential is right there #honestly he probably would've been more interesting to me if he'd had a brief villain era (a la varian in tangled the series)