Monty Mom and Pop (Patreon)

hooomans

ahuizotl's big dumb weird head presented an interesting challenge to translate into a human design

when i posted the montezuma voice test on deviantart i got a small handful of people suggesting alternative voice actors....some of which, perplexingly, were Spaniard men, or white British dudes. But Montezuma is a pretty strongly racially-coded character, it's baked into his whole backstory and character motivation. Monty is half Tenochca. Ahuizotl is a temple guardian that lives in the Tenochtitlan Basin with the rest of the indigenous population, untouched by Spanish colonialism. Ahuizotl does not speak Spanish, but rather, Nahuatl. Montezuma does speak Spanish, because his adoptive dad Cabelleron does. Upon reuniting with Ahuizotl, Monty spent a good year with his father, learning his culture and native language.

The Sphinx is a harder nut to crack. In the show, she's got an Egyptian-inspired design, but Egyptian sphinxes are typically male, and do not have wings. It's Greek sphinxes that are winged, female, and fond of telling riddles. Sooo I'm gonna headcanon that human Sphinx is an ancient Nubian lady with some distant Greek background, reflecting the immense diversity of ancient Egypt. Ergo Monty is half Tenochca, half Egyptian.....he was never gonna be voiced by some British guy, haha

About these two and their relationship! Well, they got together on a whim. I imagine Ahuizotl is still kinda in love with her, while the Sphinx is like......who are u

in the words of MyLittleGami:

he has a shrine and everything and she doesn't even remember that they had a kid together

the only riddle the sphinx cant solve: how she and ahui got together

When Ahui tells the story to Monty of how he met his mother, he always embellishes and makes it sound far more romantic than it was (and not at all like she threatened to kill him)

i'll leave y'all with one last fun fact. The word Sphinx is derived from the Greek word "sphíngō", which means "squeeze", as the sphinx of legend was said to strangle any who could not solve her riddle. This is where we get the English word "asphyxiate", as in "Monty would like to asphyxiate Smokescreen"