inksandpensblog:

galemalio:

cheeseanonioncrisps:

demonoflight:

Something that really stuck out to me in Coco is how Ceci and Chicharrón are implied to have helped Héctor multiple times with his harebrained schemes. They’ve been giving him important objects (Cheech lent him a FEMUR for crying out loud) even though they know they’re likely to never see them again, and though they’re clearly annoyed that their stuff is missing, they just… keep doing it???

Knowing Héctor‘s personality, and how well he treated a boy he knew for less than 12 hours before he even found out he was family, I can’t help but think that on the 365 days when it isn’t Día de Muertos, Héctor is an absolutely fantastic friend. That he’s loving and caring and goes out of his way to help Ceci and

Chicharrón and his Shantytown family with anything they need, not just because he needs something in return. So by the time Día de Muertos comes and

Héctor is desperate to cross the bridge again, his friends don’t help him out of pity, but rather because they genuinely like the hopeless goofball.

I dunno. Got me thinking. Héctor is a good and people like him. And now his family likes him too. That’s always a good thought.

Honestly, my headcanon is that Héctor is nowhere near as good of a conman as he thinks he is. Like, the only people who are even slightly taken in by him are Ernesto’s security at the party, who don’t seem like they were hired for their intelligence, and Miguel, a child (and even Miguel doesn’t really trust him).

Like, his first reaction is to try and charm people, as shown by his interaction with the border guard and his first interaction with Miguel— he makes promises he doesn’t know that he can keep, he flatters people (“such a smart boy!”), he emphasises his own hardships (“I’ve just been having a real hard Día de Muertos and I could use an amigo”). Even with Imelda, the first thing he does upon seeing her is compliment her— even though it should be obvious to anyone with a brain that he’s not going to charm his way out of this situation.

And I love the idea that none of this is actually necessary, and that he has no idea how much he gets away with just because he’s a nice guy and a good friend. And there is actually some evidence for this— Cheech is angry with him about losing his femur (but seriously, what did he expect?) when he’s still trying to bribe him with tequila, but the moment Héctor sees what condition Cheech is in and starts being actually sincere, he agrees to let him have the guitar. Same with Imelda, who only says that she’ll help him after he acknowledges that it’s really his fault that he needs help in the first place. And I love the idea that Héctor is totally oblivious to this.

Whats sad is Hector already thinks he’s horrible person for hurting imelda and unintentionally abandoning his family. So he thinks he’s got nothing to lose already by being a con if it would help him get back to Coco.

I almost feel like he learned how to con by watching other people do it and trying to copy them, instead of through doing it on his own enough times. He’s just so bad at it. Anytime he does it he has a distinct air of ‘I’m playing a role here’ about him, and that’s not something any conman wants when they’re trying to get something out of someone.

If anything it just proves that that’s not who he really is.