The series ran for two six-episode seasons on Prime Video. Oddly, it was produced at the same time as another Amazon historical series about the same exact topic, a miniseries named Cortés starring Javier Bardem and Tenoch Huerta as the opposing characters, which was ultimately cancelled.
This work contains examples of:
- Action Girl:
- Juana arms herself and forms part of an expedition. The character is fictional, but the premise is inspired by several real life conquistadoras.
- Luisa also grabs a macuahuitl and gets some hits during the Sad Night.
- Artistic License – Geography: Cortés and his men leave Veracruz in an inland expedition through the jungle, eventually walking into a Totonac embassy that guides them to Cempoal, and later seemingly walk all the same road back to their village. In real life, Cempoal was a coastal city like Veracruz and was located relatively nearby, meaning both the Spaniards and the Totonacs of the series took a huge, bizarre detour each. Unless this fictional Cempoal is landlocked and deep into the jungle, it's not explained why couldn't Cortés and company take the shorter way home coastside.
- Artistic License – History: Enough for its own page.
- Ascended Extra: Xicohtencatl the Younger is turned into the leader of the Tlaxcaltec forces in Cortés' entourage, much to his evident chagrin. His sister Luisa/Tecuelhuetzin also becomes a court vamp.
- Artistic License – Medicine: Cortés takes a sip from an entheogen given by Moctezuma and starts hallucinating at the very second he tastes it. In real life, even the trippiest potion usually takes at least several minutes to be absorbed and take action. Then again, it is all implied to have been a dream.
- Ax-Crazy: Pedro de Alvarado seems to never have enough blood. Xicohtencatl the Younger doesn't look much more stable either.
- Battle Couple: Cristóbal and Juana get some moments fighting together during their assault.
- Bittersweet Ending: For everybody. The Aztecs kill lots of Spaniards and Tlaxcaltecs during the Sad Night, but Cortés and his inner circle survive and will eventually conquer the empire. The end.
- Brother–Sister Incest: Xicohtencatl the Younger has the hots for his sister Tecuelhuetzin and forces himself upon her once, and is heartbroken at seeing her defiantly taking Alvarado as her protector.
- Death of a Child: Alvarado stops a child sacrifice, only to see the children murdered anyways and thrown to his feet for extra drama. It isn't the death of the child itself what subsequently angers Alvarado, though, but the act of disobedience; previously to that, Alvarado gleefully murderered the local boy whom Díaz del Castillo had befriended (and only after having tried to get Díaz to do the deed himself For the Evulz).
- Forgot About His Powers: A single Mexica slinger is able to torment the Cortesians from a rooftop Stalingrad-style, to the point they cannot move a falconet because he kills everybody in sight, despite they have shields and mantlets in plenty and other scenes show them successfully fending off sling stones.
- Gray-and-Gray Morality: Ultimately, the series runs on this, as Mexicas, Spaniards, Tlaxcaltecs and Totonacs all follow their own interests and commit various unsavory acts. It still strongly paints the Mexicas as the most sympathetic side, though, on virtue of being technically the defenders in the conflict and rarely indulging in unprovoked evil onscreen compared to their opponents.
- Historical Hero Upgrade: The story takes great pains to portray the Mexica Empire as a clean, dignified state with the higher moral ground, to the point their Totonac tributaries essentially complain of Offstage Villainy when they denounce them to Cortés. This version of Moctezuma takes no responsability for the ambush of the Massacre of Cholula nor secretly strike deals with Pánfilo de Narváez behind Cortés' back, and in the entire series we barely see traces onscreen of human sacrifice (only seen with a couple of war captives, not much compared to the 10.000 subjects or so Mexicas used to sacrifice every year in real life), cannibalism (though only in vessels that might be offerings) and imperialism (with Moctezuma even getting a few lines against it,
this coming from the emperor of a brutal, predatory slaveholding society). - Historical Villain Upgrade: Compared to all chronicles and accounts we have of them, be it from Spanish, mestizo or indigenous sources, this portrayal of Cortés and the Spaniards is deeply unflattering, depicting most of them as petty, incompetent, racist, mentally unstable, accomplice of all the previous, or some combination of them (including scenes, such as Alvarado abandoning Luisa, that seem tailor made to nullify what would be natural Pet the Dog moments), and re-contextualizing real life events to further make the Spaniards unsympathetic even in those cases where the viewer might get tempted to side with them. Even their Tlaxcaltec allies get their own part, being portrayed as bloodthirsty, decrepit and substantially less civilized than the Mexicas, not to mention being led by a war chief with incestuous impulses.
- Human Sacrifice: Said to be practiced by the Mexicas and all the rest of indigenous peoples, although seldom seen onscreen. A sacrificial victim even turns out to be a self-sacrificing religious zealout.
- Hypocrite:
- Pedro de Alvarado tries to prevent a child sacrifice in Tenochtitlan, and goes ballistic when the Mexicas throw to his face the corpses of the children he tried to save. All fine and dandy, except that Alvarado himself is shown gratuitously killing children in Cholula and trying to get Díaz del Castillo to do it himself. It's implied that Alvarado is merely angry because Cortés decreed orders against human sacrifice, not that he is personally offended at the ritual murder itself, but given that Pedro in general seems to be a veritable nutcase, maybe it doesn't need an explanation.
- It's not commented upon, but Moctezuma's lines against imperial domination of other people sound really weird coming from an emperor, especially having in mind that his own Totonac vassals brought Cortés in so he could free them from Mexica rule in the first place.
- Catapult Nightmare: Cortés and Moctezuma gets one each, coincidentally after having a shamanistic dream related to the Aztec underworld.
- Dual Wielding: Xicohtencatl the Younger once wields two macuahuitl at the same time.
- In Medias Res: All the episodes, continuously jumping forward and back. The first starts with the assault on Pánfilo de Narváez's camp.
- Lady Macbeth: Tecuelhuetzin tries to convince Alvarado to murder Moctezuma, and later claims that the toxcatl festival is a plan to revolt and sacrifice them all (which seems to be false).
- My God, What Have I Done?: Cortés has this moment during his underground trip, realizing all the death his conquest will bring - although by the end if the series, he's back to his old ways.
- Sanity Slippage: Cortés' increasingly emotional state during the siege of the Axayacatl palace implies the events are taking their toll on him. It's the stolid Alvarado who has to snap him out of it.
- Self-Immolation: The main sacrificial victim of the Toxcatl turns out to be a voluntary cultist, who even kills himself to taunt Alvarado when the latter crashes the festival.
- Shout-Out:
- Hernán and Gonzalo quote the line "no queda sino batirse" ("there's no choice left but to fight") made famous by Alatriste.
- The battle cry "que corra la sangre protegiendo el reino" ("may the blood run to protect the kingdom") seems to be a reference to the fictional anthem of the Tercios featured in Águila Roja.
- Token Good Teammate: Bernal Díaz del Castillo is the only conquistador that seems genuinely good-natured and free from excessive ambition or mental stuff, but he still supports the conquest, only objecting when personally pushed into petty thresholds. His scene in the epilogue, however, implies the trauma of the conquest has given him a darker twist.
- Unholy Matrimony: The racist Alvarado changes his mind upon being married to the sexy Luisa/Tecuelhuetzin, who turns out to be just as psycho as him.
