So is anyone familiar enough with the show to make a character page?
The big problem with Book of Life is it spends the buildup hyping us for a Big Bad and then quickly drops him in favor of a much less inspired final villain. That was quite the letdown, I think.
You mean Xibalba whom is like a creepier version of Discord or that Barbarian King guy?
If you mean the latter then yeah I would agree. The fact I don't even remember that guy's name says a lot
Xibalba is the guy I wanted to be the Big Bad. The random bandit guy was what we got instead.
Rock on, Gold Dust Woman
On the one hand, I'm glad it subverted the whole "Underworld guy is Satan". It's a bit of a peeve of mine to equate a character associated with death as being evil.
On the other hand...Ron friggin' Pearlman.
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But they already had La Muerte as their 'nice Death' figure, so that balances it out. Xibalba was the 'cheating Death', the one we have to resist, while La Muerte was the 'fair Death' that basically comes when your actual time is due.
Rock on, Gold Dust Woman
Fair enough.
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I'm glad they didn't go the Disney Hades route with Xibalba too, and ultimately went with a more nuanced approach with him. I'm pretty tired of that trope as well.
El Mal Verde Chakal was not a great antagonist, though. I actually think the best way to deal with it would've been to have Xibalba me manipulative but more hands off - instead of their being a huge section up to defeating Xibalba's manipulations, have that section be smaller and/or involve La Muerte more than Manolo. In Manolo's story, build up Chakal more.
That way it'd work better with the whole "gods meddling in the affairs of mortals" vibe. Like Clash of the Titans.
edited 7th Dec '15 9:25:20 AM by KnownUnknown
"The difference between reality and fiction is that fiction has to make sense." - Tom Clancy, paraphrasing Mark Twain.
Rock on, Gold Dust Woman
As a sucker for Greek mythology, I can tell you that Disney's version of Hades was so unlike the mythological Hades that it's almost insulting to the original stories.
For one, Hades was not a bad guy. Out of the three sons of Cronus, Hades was the only one to remain faithful to his wife, and he didn't go cheating on her like Zeus and Poseidon did. Also, he would never be stupid enough to unleash the Titans again (WHO WERE NOT GODDAMN ELEMENTAL MONSTERS). Hades and his brothers and sisters, bar Zeus, were all eaten by their father Cronus, why would he want to release them again? Also, he was God of the Dead, yes, but he was also the God of Wealth. The Greeks hated worshiping him as Hades but loved worshiping him as Pluton. Additionally, just because he was God of the Dead doesn't make him a bad guy. All his job required was to maintain the Underworld. The God of Death, and the true equivalent to the Grim Reaper in Greek mythology, was Thanatos.
To put it in perspective: in the first book of the Percy Jackson and the Olympians series, they all assume Hades stole Zeus's lightning bolt so that he could kill more people and make an army of the dead. When the heroes go to the Underworld to confront him, he gives them an obvious answer as to how stupid that is: he can barely manage the amount of dead people in the Underworld as is, why would he get more? What would he gain out of it? Hades is shown as a good guy, and much nicer than Zeus.
Then the movie fucked it up and made him straight up evil. FUCK THAT MOVIE.
OK, sorry about the rant, I just REALLY hate that trope.
Have you any dreams you'd like to sell?
Still just awesome like that
but James Woods's voice
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Rock on, Gold Dust Woman
![[up]](https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/smiles/arrow_up.png "[up]"){kind=icon}
Oh don't get me wrong, James Woods did a good job playing the character, but the character has as much to do with the mythological Hades as Clash of the Titans has to do with Greek mythology (meaning in-name only).
Have you any dreams you'd like to sell?
Still just awesome like that
You could just, maybe, think of it as something inspired by the mythology, going off on its own thing instead of being bound and restricted by its predecessor?
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I just liked Xibalba because he very much reminded me of Discord. Albeit his schtick and humor is a tad darker but it still worked.
edited 7th Dec '15 9:16:45 PM by Bleddyn
How did a thread about El Tigre morph into a thread about The Book of Life?
Still just awesome like that
Same person behind both, plus they have explicit ties to one another in that they share a couple characters.
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This is why I avoid movie trailers.
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