"Elena of Avalor" News and Discussion Thread

[the_joker]

"The Return of El Capitan"

Another Dia de los Muertos episode, so the show is in its third in-universe year. I remember reading somewhere that the specials mark a new year in this show, but I don't know where to actually find that information.

I already liked that this wasn't another episode about a grudge against the Sirenas for sinking a ship. Interestingly, Marzel is the one that appears in this episode instead of Marisa.

Francisco and two of his friends used to be a team of masked vigilantes in Avalor just like Zorro, complete with a mask, hat, and a sword instead of a rapier. I don't really know much about Zorro though, and the only real exposure I've have to Zorro was in that 90's movie.

Since the shield can block magical attacks, it's more than likely it will be used in a future episode when another magical villain appears.

The confrontations in the show are better when there are physical attacks, and this episode is no exception.

Some episodes of other shows might convey the theme that just because elders are, well, old, that doesn't mean they are incapable of doing anything and shouldn't be underestimated. While this episode does just that, I also did like that the episode pointing out that he might still need help at some points since he's not as fast and strong as his younger self. This is shown with Francisco and Elena working as a team to beat the Macoco, and Francisco also considers Elena to be an official member of his masked vigilante team at the end of the episode.

 

[the_joker]

"Finding Zuzo"

This episode has quite a notable number of amusing moments.

And the start of the episode gives that away immediately with Elena saying the title of the episode and Zuzo responding to her. Zuzo is a bit of a wise guy, so it made sense for this particular response to happen.

I also liked the Zanies asking Elena to sing along with them during the musical sequence. Before that, all of the Zanies had names starting with "Ch" until the last one whose name is Steve.

There's also Orizaba falling into the magical pit and taking a while to go all the way through, so all the other characters are hearing her scream during her descent for a while.

Orizaba also doesn't like bright light, but the pit had some pretty bright colors. At least she was at a distance from it at first, but what will happen to her after she falls through it?

Elena and Naomi can both be headstrong and stubborn, so it would make sense for both to get into a heated debate over a disagreement at some point.

Of course, they'll both get over this and later come to some kind of compromise. Since they both get along well for the most part, they apologize to each other as well as compromise more easily compared to Cacahuate and Bobo who only start working together after realizing that Elena got captured because of both their antics.

I wonder if Elena actually asked Zuzo for advice about the lighthouse problem at the beginning of the episode because a compromise is the most obvious answer, and I don't think she needed Zuzo to tell her that. Maybe she figured that out after witnessing Cacahuate and Bobo work together after being unable to stand each other for most of the episode.

 

[the_joker]

"Snow Place Like Home"

We're back in Avalor for the show's second Christmas episode. Interestingly, there wasn't a Christmas episode for the show's second year, after the "Realm of the Jaquins" episode. I guess nothing too interesting happened during the winter holiday of that year.

It looks like Christmas goes by various names in the EverRealm as Naomi calls the holiday that, a native Avaloran calls the holiday Navidad, and the holiday is called Wassalia in Enchancia.

The snowstorm was created and dispelled by a tamborita, but this does make me wonder if the Scepter of Light could've done anything about the storm.

The main theme of the episode is togetherness. With the snowstorm being so problematic, Naomi and Mateo are disheartened about being stuck in Avalor Palace when they want to be back with their own families for the holiday. Esteban wants the rest of his and Elena's family to return from the village they went away to so they could all celebrate the holiday together as a family. Elena feels the same way as Esteban, but they both approach their problems differently. Naomi, Mateo, and Esteban spend much of the episode wallowing in self-pity, which Elena even points out later. This is especially prominent with Esteban who is crankier than usual, and the episode explains that losing his family to a storm after he tried to warn them about it made him overly concerned about his current family especially in the episode as his attitude is noticeably worse than Naomi and Mateo's. This could also explain his bossy nature in other episodes. On the other hand, Elena notes that since they're the only ones in the palace at the moment, she wants to make the best of it since there didn't seem to be any answer to the snowstorm, thus celebrating their togetherness. This theme even gets extended after the passing of the snowstorm with Esteban offering Naomi and Mateo to invite their families to the palace to celebrate the holiday together, so he even sees them as something of a family even if he doesn't always get along with them (especially with Naomi).

Gabe was with 2 other royal guards trying to chase down the Delgados, and he and the other guards were forced to settle in a cave after the Delgados conjured a snowstorm. Like Elena, he tries to make the most of their rather unfortunate position and celebrate the fact that they still have each other and this togetherness can help make the position more bearable.

Carla's mom finally makes an appearance, but how did she know where her family's cabin was? Anyways, I also liked the theme of togetherness being shown with the Delgados as well. They may be bad guys, but they're still people and a family, and they love and care about each other. Carla's mom is also a malvago, so that explains why Victor wanted himself and Carla to be malvagos as well. However, he didn't seem nearly as happy to see his wife as Carla was to see her own mother. He was surprised, so his wife disappeared from his life whether it was simply leaving him or seemingly dying. I guess Elena's new big villain will be her, or at least the Delgados as a whole.

 

[SweetShop209]

The show won in the best children's programming category at the Imagen Awards.

 

[the_joker]

"Two Left Fins"

I already liked how this episode started, with some of the humans and Sirenas interacting with each other.

I forgot about the Royal Retreat being an annual event, and that's probably because there wasn't an episode about this during the show's second year like with Christmas.

Elena suggests that Marzel show the other royals his home, Coronado, so he doesn't have to struggle to fit in. The other royals wear the magic seaweed over their upper bodies to breathe underwater, but Elena is wearing the same outfit from "Song of the Sirenas" to go underwater. Using the same character model for Elena is obviously a cost-saving move, but I just find it amusing that from an in-universe perspective, the other royals simply put seaweed over their upper bodies while Elena goes through the trouble of completely changing her outfit. And then she's immediately back to her outfit for the episode after she's done swimming.

She also tries to climb the cliff to get the flowers for the other royals and sprains her ankle while trying, but she's walking just fine later and even playing discus at the end. I don't think she would fake her injury just so Marzel, who isn't quite as good at climbing, could do this task, so it looks like this was just a goof on the writers' part.

The episode may have the typical theme about being yourself and not pretending to be something you're not, but it still works as it also emphasizes Marzel needing to stick with his strengths and not focus on his weaknesses. This is shown with Elena suggesting that he shows his kingdom of Coronado to remind the other royals that he's not a human like them.

There was also a moment I liked with Marzel taking inspiration from the surface world but applying the idea to his underwater world. He was amazed at seeing a horse pulling a carriage, and to travel faster underwater, he uses a similar carriage that is pulled by Cuco and another seahorse. I don't remember, but was Cuco ever identified as a seahorse? In a way, it's a nice compromise between sticking with his strengths and being himself while trying to act like a human which was easily struggling with earlier in the episode.

 

[the_joker]

"Movin' On Up"

The thumbnail for this episode on Disney+ and even the beginning of the episode suggested that the Scepter of Light was going to play a major role in the episode especially from the aftermath with Shuriki, but that wasn't the case. I guess I also wanted more confrontations using the scepter. This was still a good episode, though.

There were some nice moments with Esteban in the episode. He's usually stiff, and he calls Elena's antics at the beginning of the episode with her scepter to be immature, but he can't help but have fun while witnessing said antics. He also couldn't stand a plant that Rafa brought to the palace and even failed to return it to her at the end of the episode. Maybe Rafa herself even disliked the plant since she didn't feel like she forgot something when leaving the palace. I also found it amusing that Esteban went through the trouble of climbing up one of the palace towers to dispose of the plant by dropping it when he could have just thrown it across the palace yard after he failed to return it to her. I wonder if they could've just put the plant in their garden or something like that. Esteban even teared up during Mateo and Rafa's moment toward the end of the episode.

As for the episode itself, Mateo wants to live on his own in the palace since he's spending a lot of time there as the royal wizard, but his mother Rafa won't have any of that as she still thinks he needs her help. There was another funny moment with Mateo going up to her and telling her that he can and wants to live on his own in the palace, but she simply says no. She'll inevitably see Mateo solve a problem which will help her realize her son's capabilities, but I also did like that the problem was an accident caused by and even compounded by her instead of a random problem that happened to come up right when she and Mateo moved into the Avalor palace. She may still want to help her son, but she doesn't know everything, especially not everything that her son does as she's not a wizard. And she accidentally knocked over a potion as Mateo's items are more out in the open instead of being in the basement where he formerly studied spells and magic. Mateo still loves his mother and decides to visit her on Sundays for dinner so they can also catch up, so it's nice to see that he still wants to catch up and keep in contact with his mother.

I'm still gonna say that the tamborita is more versatile than the scepter because it could conjure a shield, trap a creature in a book, and duplicate an item. That last spell can trivialize plenty of problems, so I have to wonder if that spell also has a drawback. I'm hoping more of the scepter's power and capabilities will be looked at because an "impressive" magical artifact like that deserves more attention.

 

[the_joker]

"Not Without My Magic"

We get a "Previously On..." flashback, which haven't appeared in sometime.

Elena's scepter being damaged gets followed up on, and I'm surprised that Elena didn't try asking Quita Moz about the scepter since he was also the one who told Elena about the scepter's various powers. However, she also wasn't willing to part with it so quickly as she felt that she can't deal with major threats without it. She did initially deal with Shuriki by snapping the latter's own wand, and Elena didn't use any weapon of her own during that time. I suppose one could say that she didn't want Shuriki to have some major advantage because snapping the wand would mean that both didn't have weapons unless Elena decided to use a sword or rapier. Mateo can also cast various spells with his tamborita, and there are the royal guards (though characters like those tend to be disposable against major enemies), so Elena has more security around Avalor than she thinks. On the other hand, Mateo is only one guy, and maybe Elena wants to be able to take action herself if need be.

Cruz and Vestia are also back in Vallestrella, though I don't think there was an episode that showed them going back there. Then again, all Jaquins can access the entrance to Vallestrella, so there probably wasn't too much missing by showing them simply being back there. Their "redemption" in this episode was interesting in that they aren't actually redeeming themselves, or at least not doing so because they want to be good. They don't want to be chased and chastised by the other Jaquins, so they try to change sides to make their own lives easier. It's a tad weird to make this decision as they have called themselves evil in previous episodes. Hopefully, their "redemption" will be given more insight such as the effect that being good has on them as changing sides just like that can look random. At least they haven't done anything too horrific outside of giving rides to Shuriki and her accomplices, they confessed to releasing the creature that caused trouble in this episode as well as their reason for doing so, and the others aren't too receptive to the two Jaquins.

Victor and Ash's interactions were quite funny, being lovey-dovey in front of Carla (which Carla herself even gets tired of at some point) while getting at each other while she's away. They even send Carla away at some points just so they could get at each other. I find it strange that Ash blamed Victor for being unable to see Carla grow up over the years, but Carla (as well as everyone else) would just get older since time stops for nobody. Maybe she's envious about her husband getting to grow up and live with Carla. I don't remember, but did Victor ever talk about Ash to Carla? Aside from Carla believing that her own mother was dead, what else did Carla think of her?

The episode has the rather typical moral of a person being worth more than the weapon, but I did like the spin the episode put on it. Quita Moz mentions that Elena still hasn't faced her big test yet, which now seems to be Ash and/or the Delgado family. Elena may have accepted that she might have to deal with some problems without magic, but she isn't very thrilled about the lack of extra firepower. She'll definitely have the Scepter of Light when facing Ash, though. Victor also showed Ash the jewel from the Scepter of Night, so I wonder what they are able to do with it since it would normally need the rest of the scepter for its powers to be accessible.

How would the crystal tamborita worked under Mateo's control? Elena tried some spells that she has seen Mateo use, but they didn't work out like she thought they would. Quita Moz said that the crystal tamborita is stronger than a regular tamborita, but it also casted spells that had the opposite effect of what Elena intended. Of course, she isn't trained in wizardry like Mateo, but such a reason would be too simple for why the crystal tamborita did what it did. Maybe Quita Moz was secretly testing Elena with it? I don't know how he would know whether Elena would return it or give it to Mateo.

I also wonder when season 3 will arrive on Disney+.

 

[the_joker]

"Luna's Big Leap"

Luna becomes a guard for the king in Vallestrella, so will she be staying in Avalor or Vallestrella? I'm guessing the latter, so I will miss seeing her among the Jaquin trio in Avalor.

I don't think Luna has gotten a solo episode in the show yet, and she's apparently headstrong and reckless especially because she wants to prove herself to Tornado. Even though Tornado was prideful and serious, I did like that she had a valid point about Luna not correctly approaching the method to capturing a Dragallo while Tornado herself was able to catch them successfully. Even though Luna did prove herself capable at the end, Tornado wasn't gonna turn around and call Luna a friend and partner so quickly since they're too different in terms of personality.

I also liked Elena's and Luna's conversation in the third act. Luna thinks that Elena is so competent and capable that she solved most of her problems on her own, but Elena points out that she had a royal council since day 1 and gets into her share of trouble, so she's always getting advice and doesn't solve everything on her own.

 

[the_joker]

I forgot to comment on Luna reading out the title of the previous episode and responding to it. I'm wondering if there will be more of that in future episodes.

As for "Naomi Knows Best",

I read about an episode premise saying that Naomi leaves Avalor for a few episodes, and I thought it would be in this episode, but it turns out that won't be for another number of episodes.

Elena has her scepter at the beginning of the episode, but according to this, it's actually an animation error.

Ash is blatantly preferring Carla over Victor due to seeing potential in the former. That's a rather vague explanation without more exploration, so I'm hoping season 3 will get more into that. Though it is also worth noting that she didn't like Victor much anyways. Even in their last appearance "Not Without My Magic", Ash was still more interested in stealing Elena's magic for herself, but Victor had to remind her that is was for both of them.

The tamborita still seems more effective than the scepter as the tamborita could also hypnotize others and also force others to move. Mateo even destroyed the jewel from the Scepter of Night. Elena will no doubt get her scepter back at some point, so I'd like to see how she will later deal with the Delgados (particularly Ash).

There was also a scene with the Delgados ambushing the main characters, and Elena looked like she was about to punch Victor before getting frozen by Carla. Since this is a Disney Junior show, would that punch be allowed to connect successfully? Maybe the punch making contact wouldn't be shown onscreen. Still, given the number of other physical confrontations in the show (I mean, there's even swordfighting and Elena blasting Shuriki), I don't see anything wrong with a punch being thrown and connecting.

As for Naomi herself, it's always nice to see her prove her abilities. She's the only one on the royal council without any experience with royalty or royal work. I don't think Elena had much experience before the start of the show, but she knew a thing or two about her position since she was already born into it. Naomi still does advise Elena, and those circumstances are more as a friend than as a royal council member more often than not. Their interaction at the beginning of the episode sort of reminds me of "Finding Zuzo" where the two get into a fairly big disagreement, but the disagreement isn't as prominent in this episode. Elena was glad to see that her chase after the Delgados was over, and Naomi would also be glad, but she also felt uncomfortable about the circumstance in which they were notified. So instead of a straight disagreement, she just had a feeling in her gut. Naomi also knew how much Elena wanted to catch the Delgados, and she wouldn't want to take that away if she didn't need to.

Well, that's the end of season 2, and season 3 isn't on Disney+ yet. Hopefully it won't take too long.

 

[SweetShop209]

It is kind of strange how season 3 isn't on Disney+ yet. It's been 2 months. I mean, Muppet Babies season 2 was added to Disney+ on September 25, just 1 month after it ended. Then again, The Rocketeer (the Disney Junior show) was put onto Disney+ on October 16 despite the most recent episode airing on July 25.

 

[Antiyonder]

Seen some estimate that it takes three months from a Season end. Maybe The Owl House's earlier inclusion is a Halloween thing.

 

[SweetShop209]

Season 3 of Elena Of Avalor comes to Disney+ on January 15, 2021. That's almost 5 months after the show ended.

New On Disney+ April 2024

What fresh Disney+ movies and series will be available in April 2024? Learn release dates for new to Disney+ series and films like X-Men ’97: Episodes 4-6 and Tiger, which are set to stream o…

decider.com

 

[coldglynx]

Season 3 of Elena Of Avalor comes to Disney+ on January 15, 2021. That's almost 5 months after the show ended.

New On Disney+ April 2024

What fresh Disney+ movies and series will be available in April 2024? Learn release dates for new to Disney+ series and films like X-Men ’97: Episodes 4-6 and Tiger, which are set to stream o…

decider.com

Thank you been wondering about this for a while. I have no clue why it took them this long to put the final season on Disney+. It can’t be because of the cable channels. Since they put Big Hero Six season 2 immediately after the finale. Its been me and my daughters favorite show and we enjoy it together. They been showing new episodes on Disneygo. But since I decided to cut the cord when Disneyplus launched I had zero access to it unless by ahem “certain internet sites” wink wink.

 

[the_joker]

"Sister of Invention"

While season 3 is on Disney+, the shorts from Discovering the Magic Within are still not available. They are available on YouTube in the Disney Junior channel, however.

The episode even starts with a "Previously On..." section as it continues directly after "Naomi Knows Best", so I guess they wanted to start the season by featuring someone who might be the big villain for probably the rest of the show. Interestingly, the title of the episode itself wasn't shown, but Elena still narrated the title aloud.

While Elena and her friends were talking, there was a fish in a tank that kept sparkling. Was that supposed to mean anything?

As the title would imply, Elena's sister Isabel wants to help catch Ash and Carla to prove that she is just as capable as the others are. Obviously, she will at least prove herself to be of some help because there otherwise wouldn't be much of a reason for the episode to play with the idea of Isabel making some kind of contribution.

There was one pretty bad moment during the conversation between Elena and Isabel where the former straight up said that the latter would literally just get in the way. That was a tad harsh and tactless unless Elena meant to be blunt because she might as well have said that Isabel was useless, and Elena is normally pretty nice and more reasonable when talking things out with other people. She's no doubt worried about Isabel's safety, who's young and isn't as physical as everyone on Elena's team, but Elena could've instead said that she didn't want to worry about Isabel's safety. There was another similarly annoying moment where Isabel gave a rope she created to Elena, and Elena just puts it down without a second thought. Too bad no one else decided to pick it up and convince Elena (or Naomi as she used a lasso in episode) to give that new rope a swing.

Isabel insists that she can still handle whatever comes her way as she's a kid in college, but Elena this time makes a reasonable statement about that not being the same as dealing with a malvago.

Ultimately, I did like how the episode handled Isabel's role in the episode and on the team. A lesser show would make the others into incompetent idiots that Isabel would inevitably have to rescue. In actuality, Elena and friends were handling themselves just fine during the final confrontation in the episode. While Isabel did provide some help such as figuring out Carla and Ash's location and tripped Carla over with her new rope, those weren't enough to immediately catch the bad guys. She's still smaller than Carla, so Carla was able to later pull on the rope and trip over Isabel, which led to other kinds of trouble. Isabel admits that she isn't as physical as everyone else and also accidentally puts Elena in danger, but Elena also admits that Isabel's intellect and gadgets can also be helpful, so Elena decides to let Isabel join presumably with some restrictions.

Also, Mateo's tamborita is now broken, so how will he replace his weapon?

There was another moment in the episode I really liked where Elena and her friends were at the volcano, and she was able to nonverbally communicate her plan with them. The episode did well in showing their teamwork and unity including getting each other out of danger.

Ash still doesn't care about Victor, and Carla had to keep reminding her about freeing Victor who is likewise annoyed about not being rescued. I wonder if Carla will notice her mother's disdain for Victor at some point. The two also meet up with the malvago who trained Ash, Zopilote, to get new tamboritas. It looks like there will be another major villain for the season unless Ash decides to take something from him and then dispose of him. Ash also sings a villain song in the episode which also gave a bit of her backstory. Unfortunately, her backstory was rather unimpressive. While Zopilote stealing from her village including her pet mice would be annoying, he didn't do anything heinous enough to convince Ash that being heinous was the only way to live.

Despite some complaints I have about the episode, I still liked it, and I missed watching this show. It was a longer wait that I would have liked, but it was only about two months or so since I first watched "Naomi Knows Best".

EDIT: fixed a number of errors.

 

[SweetShop209]

It's worth mentioning that a lot of recent Disney Junior shows don't use title cards (such as Fancy Nancy, TOTS, and The Rocketeer), and the ones that used to do so (Elena Of Avalor, Muppet Babies, Vampirina, etcetera) abandoned it later on, whether it's the final season (Elena Of Avalor and Doc McStuffins) or they started in season 2 (Vampirina, Muppet Babies) . Why that's the case, I don't know.

Interestingly, the title of the episode itself wasn't shown, but there Elena still narrated the title aloud.

 

[the_joker]

"To Save a Sunbird"

Elena is finally getting her scepter back. Actually, it hasn't been that many episodes since "Not Without My Magic", but it has been a while since I have first seen that episode. One of the Sunbirds, Hool, had to give up her magic and "life force" to restore the scepter. Are the words "die" and related words really taboo in some circles? Then again, there is some truth to that in real life. I know not directly saying those words is pretty much the norm for shows that are meant to appeal to younger audiences, but those words are also more direct and tend to have fewer syllables for easier delivery.

The Sunbirds even mentioned something of a law of conservation of magic at least in regards to fixing magical weapons. Would the same apply to a tamborita? It might just be easier to create a new tamborita, though.

Zuzo told Elena that taking Hool to the statue that originally freed Elena from the amulet will also restore Hool, so it looks like that statue has various kinds of restorative properties. Was it also Maruvian? Probably not since "Maru" wasn't directly in the name, but the show has stated a number of times that Maru created various kinds of useful magical items and spells. Also, the statue rose out of the water after Sofia used it to free Elena, but now the statue is back underwater. Either the writers forgot about that, or the statue actually would go back underwater after a period of time. Still, I suppose I do like that minor reference to Sofia since both shows are set in the same world.

The theme of this episode is prioritization. With Elena and Mateo, they prioritize saving Hool over Hool's desires to having fun in the present, but Hool has trouble prioritizing due to her younger self's hyperactivity and desire for immediate pleasure. Elena and Mateo struggle to reel her in, and trying to help the someone becomes more difficult if the one being helped doesn't seem interested. Hool makes an interesting point in her song about living the now to the fullest especially while young again, but the now doesn't matter all that much if it's too limited, and especially so if she was on a road to restoring her life in some other way. She could just enjoy herself a little later as she'll then get more time to do what she wants.

This theme also runs through the Carla and Ash subplot with the two having conflicting interests. Carla wants to save Victor, but Ash isn't at all interested and just wants more power from Takaina. Ash even tries to discourage Carla from saving Victor with the possibility of gaining more power making the rescue easier, though it's pretty obvious that Ash was only trying to dissuade Carla from rescuing Victor. Carla even shoots back by saying that Victor could be helpful in solving the map to Takaina, and she even tries to rescue him since she's more interested in a more possible goal than a place that's too difficult to find. She gets captured, and it looks like she has realized that Ash may not be so interested in saving the family. I wonder how this will affect their interactions with Ash. It also seems that Ash is still more interested in finding Takaina than rescuing her daughter, and one shouldn't forget about her clearly favoring Carla over Victor. Would she rescue Carla even if she got all the power she wanted? I'd say yes as preferring more powerful magic over another person doesn't mean that Ash doesn't care about Carla, but Carla will probably be disappointed about her mother's preference.

There's also priorities changing over time and with some hindsight. After finding out that Carla is at Avalor, Elena wants to capture her to prevent two wanted criminals from being loose, but she's still aware of Hool's condition. So Elena tries to make room for both goals by quickly dealing with Carla, which she does, but after Hool is just short of getting into the pool, Elena regrets dealing with Carla. Elena decides to dive deep into the pool to bring the magic of the statue to Hool, so it's another example of Elena doing a lot to help someone she cares about, especially someone who was a big help to her. On the other side of the coin, Elena's friends didn't want her risking her life because she will be the future ruler of Avalor, and they want her in their lives, so they're prioritizing Elena's life over Hool's.

I would've liked the Scepter of Light to be used to transport the magic from the statue to Hool, or it could've at least helped Elena get to the statue somehow. I still think that Scepter needs more abilities because despite what the show has said about it, it still doesn't seem that impressive especially when compared to a wizard who's competent with a tamborita. There's probably something about the wielder of a weapon being more important than the weapon itself, and maybe Elena doesn't become much of a sorceress by the end of the show, but all that doesn't stop me from thinking that the Scepter is a rather generic magical weapon.

 

[the_joker]

"Father-in-Chief"

One of the most notable points of this episode is that Elena is the only human character to appear. At least until the end where 4 more humans appear to celebrate Zephyr's retirement, but those people are on-screen for less than 10 seconds. I almost wonder if an episode like this could still have been made even without Elena just so there could be an episode without a human character, but since she has interacted with the Jaquins (namely Skylar, Luna, and Migs) the most often out of all the human characters on the show, leaving her out might be inappropriate.

The episode makes no effort in hiding the fact that Migs will undoubtedly become the the new chief. No other potential candidates are even mentioned. That just means that the episode can instead focus its efforts into showcasing why Migs is the appropriate successor. However, I'm not too sure about the reasoning about Migs being a responsible father also translating into being a responsible chief of Jaquins. Both roles do overlap in some ways such as Migs being responsible for other Jaquins, but being a father means closely watching his kids' developments during their childhood/cubhood (however long that might be) while being chief means making sure that the other Jaquins do their jobs including being something of a security force over Avalor. He'll no doubt be able to handle both jobs just fine, of course, but that still doesn't mean that the role of a father can be equated to the role of a clan leader. Still, I liked that even though the cubs were more than a handful for Migs, they can still be helpful such as when one of them was able to find Zephyr by tracking his tail prints and following his own instincts even if it was against Migs's command.

Troyo is still fun especially when he interacted with Zephyr and the butterfrog. I remember that butterfrog getting grumpy whenever his sunbathing was getting impeded in previous episodes, and the most obvious solution would be for him to move to another spot. Or maybe that spot was just perfect for whatever reason. He even threatened to retaliate against Troyo, and I honestly didn't expect him to actually follow up on that threat because he always came off as those grumpy but comedic characters in previous episodes. Now that Troyo has also become a butterfrog, I wonder what he'll do in future episodes if he does show up again.

 

[the_joker]

"The Incredible Shrinking Royals"

This episode stands out for bringing back a number of characters, especially ones from much earlier episodes that I forgot about. In fact, I forgot about King Hector until I looked him up. He hasn't shown up since "Royal Retreat", all the way back in the early part of the first season. It looks like he's trying to improve himself by the end of the episode.

It also looks like Esteban and Dona Paloma will need more time to improve themselves as well, that is if they see the need to do so.

This seems to be Queen Abigail's first appearance, at least according to what I found. She was said to be from Norberg, which is Naomi's home country. I was wondering if the show would go there in future episodes, and the next episode seems to be doing just that.

The last Feast of Friendship happened at the end of season 1, which is "Masks of Magic". And "Song of the Sirenas" is the only special to have happened between that episode and this one, so I like that the writers are keeping track of the show's timeline.

 

[the_joker]

"Norberg Peace Prize"

I didn't expect this episode to immediately continue from the last.

There also a number of amusing moments in the episode. One was the play on words with Chloe mentioning the Norberg Lights, a reference to the Northern Lights.

When Elena mentioned the people at the Feast of Friendship shrinking during the event to Isabel, I remembered "Blockheads" in which some of the characters also shrank and needed Isabel's help.

I also liked the transition from Abigail telling Elena that the the success of Family Day rested on her shoulders fading to Isabel literally sitting on Elena's shoulders.

The episode almost seemed to be pairing up Naomi and Gabe. They haven't been intimate in the show, so I don't see much of a reason for them to get together unless the show plays with the idea some more. It was more likely meant to be a display of friendship between the two as they were both hanging out at Norberg and celebrating Family Day for the first time together, but the episode put out number of signs between the two. Naomi seemed pretty jealous when Chloe was around, and Gabe was thinking fondly of Naomi when he muses about wanting to watch the Norberg Lights with her. Chloe even said that watching the lights with "someone special" was a Family Day tradition. Finally, Naomi swept her hair back shyly when Gabe sat next to her at the pier and agreeing with her father about the lights being perfect, and then she moved closer to him. I don't know if I'm reading into this too closely, but I do also want to note that I'm not begging the two to be a romantic couple. I guess I'll have to see if the show does anything more with the two.

I was surprised that Elena didn't try the classic trust-building exercise with Abigail and Hector where one catches the other from falling, especially when Elena brought out blindfolds. There was also a funny line from Isabel wondering if the two should have been given axes.

However, while Hector being a cocky idiot was intentional, there is such a thing as being too grating, which he was in the episode. He wanted to prove his ship's durability to Abigail by asking her to throw a hook at his ship, and he even sent her the hook, and then he blames Abigail for everything going wrong and kicking off the plot for the episode when everything going wrong was entirely on him. I'm not asking for the show to make him a better person, but his stupidity got tiring. I wouldn't have minded seeing something terrible happen to him as a result.

I also liked Isabel pointing out that while not everyone can become friends, it still helps to be cooperative and tolerant so the opposing parties can still be productive. I actually confused Javier from "Class Act" with that kid (whose name I forgot and had to look up, which is Quique) that first bullied Isabel in "Crystal in the Rough". Last time I checked, which was in "Science Unfair", the Isabel and Quique didn't exactly seem to be friends but were still able to work with each other. Looks like I'm remembering some details wrong.

 

[the_joker]

"The Magic Within"

This was a pretty eventful two-parter/special, moreso than previous two-parters/specials.

Elena falls into a magical well and sort of gets a new character model with a glowing and sparkly dress. In fact, she even gets a number of new models as her dress will change colors if her emotions are strong enough. I wouldn't be surprised if selling new toys was one of the reason for the new models, and that's fine with me as the show did something with that idea. Her Scepter of Light even became crystallized and can deflect magical attacks. This feels like an ability that should have been inherent to such a special magical weapon, but better late than never. Actually, Elena herself also gets a magical boost after falling into the well. I remember around the beginning of the show when Elena being trapped in the Amulet of Avalor for so long gave her some amount of magical powers such as being able to communicate with Zuzo and letting her use the Scepter of Light, and now her emotions can also affect her surroundings. Aside from trying to live her daily life with these new emotional powers, I'm also curious about how her confrontations with Ash will play out.

Speaking of new character models, Isabel also gets a new character model. Aside from a different outfit, her hair is shorter, and she is now above Elena's shoulders. I thought she would've done more in the episode because the episode was all about making changes in the current state of the show including changing her appearance, but I suppose there wasn't enough room for her.

Esteban is undoubtedly the biggest player in the special with his initial association with Shuriki, downfall of Avalor, and death of Elena's parents (the king and queen) all finally revealed to everyone. He was always in a "damned if he does, damned if he doesn't" position. The better move would usually be for him to confess his betrayal to Avalor from the beginning, but he couldn't bring himself to do that as that would break their hearts, and he would have been punished on the spot. So, he hopes to keep out of trouble by being helpful to the family in hopes that his good deeds will eventually more than compensate for his betrayal if/when they ever found out about it. Of course, since his betrayal was revealed so late, Elena would also wonder what else he might be hiding. It probably doesn't help that he could be a bit of a jerk sometimes. It's a bit tragic and amusing to see Elena being steamed at him in the previous episode but slowly getting over anger at him after he somewhat helped settle an international dispute, and then this bombshell gets thrown at her.

Elena found out about Esteban's association with Shuriki through one of her scepter's new powers to see where and what someone else was doing at a certain time (I'm glad to see that the scepter might become a truly special magical weapon as I was previously pretty underwhelmed by it), and I also wonder if she could have used it to learn about Esteban's other activities good and bad over time to make another assessment. Aside from the issue of privacy, doing that might not be so practical as there would also be too much to examine. Whatever else he might have done or felt would not have mattered anyways because, as Luisa said, whatever the reasons for what he felt and his team up with Shuriki don't change the fact that he was responsible for a lot of irreversible damage. Elena makes her agreement with this assessment clear as she does believe what Esteban said about his reasons for his prior actions, but she will still punish him by exiling him.

I did like that not everyone in Esteban's family immediately turned against him as Francisco was saddened to hear about this new information, but he felt that Esteban did enough "good deeds" to make up for his past mistakes. Esteban's only real flaws throughout the show and after the events of "Elena and the Secret of Avalor" have been his snobbish attitude, his sense of self-importance, and thinking that Elena doesn't always do her job well, but they're aren't nearly as bad as selling out Avalor and leading to a number of tragedies, and he hasn't tried to do anything that ridiculous again. Still, it would be hard for the others to trust him again since this knowledge would just complicate their views and feelings about Esteban. Elena herself was conflicted about what to think of Esteban and how to deal with him.

Another thing I liked about the episode was showing that Elena's royal duties and personal life can clash heavily. She just learned about Esteban's treachery from a long time ago, but she also had to oversee the Carnaval and not let her inner conflicting emotions ruin the spirit of the event, so she struggled to put up a happy face. She'll get more episodes to reflect on the revelations in this episode.

I also liked that the Delgados aren't left high and dry. Victor finally accepts that Ash only cares about herself. He never did get along with her in the show, but now he's done trying to reason with her. Ash even makes her position clear by turning Victor to stone and then abandoning Carla when the latter refused to come along. Carla even makes her position clear as she pretty much begged Elena to fix Victor.

There are some things I have to knock points off for. The first is Flo. She was tolerable for the most part, but the one part that wasn't excusable was her interjections during the council's meeting with Esteban. I know Flo is there to lighten the tension, but her interjections clashed too heavily with the tone during that scene and got in the way as a result. It would have been better for her to just be in the background remaining silent and making some nonverbal reactions through out the meeting.

The second is that I don't know why Esteban decided to break out of prison since he would just dig a deeper hole for himself by betraying his family's trust yet again. No reason was given for doing this as well as what he would gain from doing this besides not being exiled. It's not like he would have anywhere to go in Avalor. At least it would make some sense for him to join Ash since he doesn't know where else to go at the moment, and it's not like he's interested in actively planning against his family. At least not yet, but I'll have to see what future episodes do.