Kuzco, Is he really the center of the Universe?

Emperor's New Groove came out in 2000

  Hello Internet and all of you night owls (I say this this because I am posting at 10:39 PM). Welcome to History of Disney, where we get our groove on and ride our llamas to the sunset. I have a confession to make. I love the Emperors New Groove, and why wouldn't I? It's got a great lesson to learn, its got humor that is targeted for all ages, and it has lovable characters. This week we won't be analyzing for a specific time frame of the Emperor's New Groove, but we will be analyzing the historical accuracy between two specific parts, the restaurant scene and what the peasants eat, and the idea of Kuzco really being seen as the center of the universe.

Yes that thing in the center of the picture is a pill bug.

  So for all of you history buffs out there, here is a quick little aside on where the movie is based from. The movie's setting is the Incan Empire. This makes sense, because there are no iron tools in sight, there are llamas doing the hard work and there is distinct mountainous feel that places it in the Andes Mountain Range. Not to mention the bugs... oh the bugs. This is actually a perfect seg-way into our next topic of the peasants meals. Now clearly there were no restaurants in the Incan Empire like it is shown in the movie. You will also be glad to know that from my diligent research, that those pill bugs that Pacha and Kuzco eat, are not even close to what real peasants at the time ate. At the time of the Incan Empire, most of the peasants ate vegetables and small animals like Guinea Pigs and possibly even llamas at times (now it all makes sense why they chose bugs over this menu). They also consumed maize (corn) and even potatoes at times with their meals. Peasants would also have their meals twice a day and spend more time working in the fields than doing half of what Pacha and Kuzco are doing.

  Speaking of Kuzco, let's analyze his claim of being center of the universe. In most societies we are taught that many times the emperor is seen as a god. Here's a brief list to prove my point : Egypt, Rome, Japan, China,  the Aztecs, just to name a few. As for the Inca, they are no different. According to their mythology there is a sun god named Inti and Incan Emperors were believed to have descended at one point from Inti himself.  In most ancient pantheons we also learn that sun gods are usually considered above more highly than the other gods, and in a society like the Inca it would make sense that the sun god be important to them. So Kuzco does have some meat to his argument when he says the universe revolves around him. However this does not excuse his appalling behavior and it almost makes the villain look justified in their attempts to get rid of Kuzco.

  Well I have figured that this blog was too short this week and I have decided that next week that we will look at  the Emperor's New Groove again, and we may also use its less glamorous sequel to assert the fact if Yzma is justified in her actions for why she does what she does, or if she is just a crazy old lady bent on taking the throne, the answer might surprise you. But until next week thank you for staying up late with me as I prove to you that the Inca did not eat gargantuan pill bugs for lunch and that while Kuzco still is a huge jerk, his argument of a perfect world beginning and ending with him, makes a little sense.

  Thank you for your time, and as always I will see you in the next post.