History AlternativeCharacterInterpretation / Encanto

* As [[WebVideo/{{Cinemawins}} Lee]] points out, it speaks volumes that Abuela just watches on as Mirabel's parents ''actually put in the effort'' to save their daughter or at least discourage her from getting the candle. Is she being exceptionally negligent of Mirabel's well-being? Or could it be she's coming to an epiphany that ''this'' is what unconditional, familial love looks like? On that note, could she also be having her HeelRealization that she's [[MyGodWhatHaveIDone put Mirabel's parents through what she went through]] by leading Mirabel to risk her life [[HistoryRepeats the way Mariano did]]?

*** It is possible that Dolores doesn’t know why Bruno is hiding, just allows him to do so anyway, and hearing that the magic is in danger at that moment is too much?

*** Or maybe she is trying to ruin the proposal and didn't consider the consequences for Mirabel.

* To what extent is Isabela's planned engagement to Mariano an ArrangedMarriage on Alma's part? She's shown to be controlling, and her entire character arc centers on recognizing that she's been smothering her family with her expectations while trying to help them. Is she so blinded by her desire to secure the family's future that she doesn't see or outright ignores Isabela's unhappiness with the situation? Or does she genuinely believe the match is what Isabela wants, and is only getting involved because she wants things to go smoothly for Isabela? Mariano is clearly interested, and Isabela is too polite/afraid of upsetting her family to reject his affections, so Alma could misinterpret it as her returning his feelings, and Alma has come to micromanage her family in general. And to what degree is Alma projecting her own relationship with her late husband onto them? Isabela and Mariano resemble a young Alma and Pedro, so it's possible she's too busy focusing on her past to recognize how it's affecting her family's present and future. On the other hand, both Pepa and Julieta are shown to be HappilyMarried to their respective husbands, and [[https://twitter.com/thejaredbush/status/1475710339551428610 it's even been stated]] that Alma didn't approve of Agustin marrying Julieta but let them do it anyway. Which leads to another interpretation that she used to allow her family members to marry whoever they want and whenever they want to (which can be supported by how Bruno never got married nor had any children), but after Mirabel didn't get her gift, Alma could have been more forceful in her desires, and tried to make sure that Isabela gets wed and has babies as soon as possible to ensure that her legacy doesn't die out.

* As Casita is collapsing and Mirabel is trying to get the Candle before it does, Casita forces everyone else out but helps Mirabel without hesitation. Did it also believe that saving the Candle would also save the Miracle even if it collapsed, or did it just know Mirabel well enough to know that Mirable was ''not'' leaving without the Candle and so reasoned it'd be quicker to just help her?

* The Miracle seems to give the family gifts based on their passions, leading them down distinctive paths. If Mirabel just wanted to help her family; then it's possible the miracle wasn't fading at the time it rescinded her door; it was just giving her what it thought she wanted: a way to focus on her family instead of an exploitable gift.

*** Is it in part due to the stress of watching the love of her life proposing to her own cousin, and this is just the straw that broke the camel's back? It is possible that Dolores doesn’t know why Bruno is hiding, just allows him to do so anyway, and hearing that the magic is in danger at that moment is too much. Or maybe Dolores’ seeming inability to keep a secret besides Bruno’s is because of the stress from having to hide something so big, and she can’t handle keeping two major secrets. Or maybe she is trying to ruin the proposal and didn't consider the consequences for Mirabel.

*** It could also be that Dolores thought that she was going insane when she kept hearing Bruno in the walls for ten years, but told no-one out of fear of being seen as a freak, since everyone told her that Bruno had walked out on the family. Her "I knew it!" line was likely Dolores expressing her relief that she wasn't going mad after all.

** In Dolores' first section of ''We Don't Talk About Bruno'' the man himself can be seen walking across the far walls of the lower and then upper sections of courtyard. Throughout this part, Dolores acts very physically expressive, much more than she does in any other part of the movie. She's constantly flourishing her hands and skirt, and manhandling Mirabel so that her prima is either looking in the opposite direction of where Bruno is or directly at her. As a result, there's been some debate over whether or not she's really trying to emphasize to Mirabel that their tio isn't a bad person, or if she is instead helping him go by unnoticed. The debate only gets more fuel when one considers the possibility that it may be a shapeshifted Camilo waiting for his sequence (which comes immediately after) rather than Bruno himself.
* Pepa's feelings about Bruno.

** Is she actually still mad at him over her and Felix's wedding day, or is she focusing on a past event to avoid thinking about the fact that her younger brother disappeared one night without a word? Her happy reaction to his return would seem to indicate the latter. Prior to finding out about his final vision, is she dealing with guilt out of a belief that she's one of the things that drove Bruno away?

* Does Camilo actually remember Bruno at all, but the memories are distorted because he was so young when his tio left, or is his knowledge on the man based solely on the gossip around town? Does he think Bruno is 7 feet tall because Bruno ''seemed'' so tall when Camilo was a short little 5-year-old? Or, given Mirabel doesn't even seem to know the gossip until the ''We Don't Talk About Bruno,'' is Camilo, who is quite theatrical, just grabbing at the chance to play a cartoonishly villainous caricature of their tío?
** A fan comic hypothesized that Camilo's verse sounds like Bruno was just standing around with his rat friends on his back, said hi to Camilo, and managed to look so intimidating that the kid fainted ("When he calls your name, it all fades to black").

* Did Mariano actually have any romantic interest in Isabela or is he a [[InLoveWithLove hopeless romantic]]?
** Due to how quickly he was to move on from Isabela to Dolores, some fans have interpreted this is not Mariano being InLoveWithLove, but rather him actually liking Dolores back from the start, but being too afraid to break the marriage that had already been set for him.

* Did Abuela disown Bruno after he left and forbid everyone in town to talk about him at all because she felt "he was dead to her"? Or did his leaving cause so much grief for her that the Madrigals, and by extension the townsfolk, stopped talking about him altogether, lest they saddened her further?
* To what extent is Isabela's planned engagement to Mariano an ArrangedMarriage on Alma's part? She's shown to be controlling, and her entire character arc centers on recognizing that she's been smothering her family with her expectations while trying to help them. Is she so blinded by her desire to secure the family's future that she doesn't see or outright ignores Isabela's unhappiness with the situation? Or does she genuinely believe the match is what Isabela wants, and is only getting involved because she wants things to go smoothly for Isabela? Mariano is clearly interested, and Isabela is too polite/afraid of upsetting her family to reject his affections, so Alma could misinterpret it as her returning his feelings, and Alma has come to micromanage her family in general. And to what degree is Alma projecting her own relationship with her late husband onto them? Isabela and Mariano resemble a young Alma and Pedro, so it's possible she's too busy focusing on her past to recognize how it's affecting her family's present and future. On the other hand, both Pepa and Julieta are shown to be HappilyMarried to their respective husbands, and [[https://twitter.com/thejaredbush/status/1475710339551428610 it's even been stated]] that Alma didn't approve of Agustin marrying Julieta but let them do it anyway. Which leads to another interpretation that she used to allow her family members to marry whoever they want and whenever they want to (which can be supported by how Bruno never got married nor had any children), but after Mirabel didn't get her gift, Alma could have been more more forceful in her desires, and tried to make sure that Isabela gets wed and have babies as soon as possible to ensure that her legacy doesn't die out.

* To what extent is Isabela's planned engagement to Mariano an ArrangedMarriage on Alma's part? She's shown to be controlling, and her entire character arc centers on recognizing that she's been smothering her family with her expectations while trying to help them. Is she so blinded by her desire to secure the family's future that she doesn't see or outright ignores Isabela's unhappiness with the situation? Or does she genuinely believe the match is what Isabela wants, and is only getting involved because she wants things to go smoothly for Isabela? Mariano is clearly interested, and Isabela is too polite/afraid of upsetting her family to reject his affections, so Alma could misinterpret it as her returning his feelings, and Alma has come to micromanage her family in general. And to what degree is Alma projecting her own relationship with her late husband onto them? Isabela and Mariano resemble a young Alma and Pedro, so it's possible she's too busy focusing on her past to recognize how it's affecting her family's present and future. On the other hand, both Pepa and Julieta are shown to be HappilyMarried to their respective husbands, and [[WordOfGod it's even been stated]] that Alma didn't approve of Agustin marrying Julieta but let them do it anyway. Which leads to another interpretation that she used to allow her family members to marry whoever they want and whenever they want to (which can be supported by how Bruno never got married nor had any children), but after Mirabel didn't get her gift, Alma could have been more more forceful in her desires, and tried to make sure that Isabela gets wed and have babies as soon as possible to ensure that her legacy doesn't die out.

*** Is it in part due to the stress of watching the love of her life proposing to her own cousin, and this is just the straw that broke the camel's back? It is possible that Dolores doesn’t know why Bruno is hiding, just allows him to do so anyway, and hearing that the magic is in danger at that moment is too much. Or maybe Dolores’ seeming inability to keep a secret besides Bruno’s is because of the stress from having to hide something so big, and she can’t handle keeping two major secrets. Or that she is trying to ruin the proposal and didn't consider the consequences for Mirabel.

** Two common interpretations of Pepa and Bruno’s relationship pre-movie is that either Pepa was actively antagonistic towards him, resentful from his bad prophecies, or that they had a good relationship that was tainted by hurt over him leaving, causing her to latch onto past transgressions.

** How come Bruno didn’t clear things up about the rain comment being a joke until the very end of the movie, despite only disappearing well over a decade after the wedding. Is it because Pepa refused to talk to him about it? Or did Bruno not realize that there were still hurt feelings over the incident? The latter would indicate that Pepa did move past it, but fixated over it when Bruno left.

* To what extent is Isabela's planned engagement to Mariano an ArrangedMarriage on Alma's part? She's shown to be controlling, and her entire character arc centers on recognizing that she's been smothering her family with her expectations while trying to help them. Is she so blinded by her desire to secure the family's future that she doesn't see or outright ignores Isabela's unhappiness with the situation? Or does she genuinely believe the match is what Isabela wants, and is only getting involved because she wants things to go smoothly for Isabela? Mariano is clearly interested, and Isabela is too polite/afraid of upsetting her family to reject his affections, so Alma could misinterpret it as her returning his feelings, and Alma has come to micromanage her family in general. And to what degree is Alma projecting her own relationship with her late husband onto them? Isabela and Mariano resemble a young Alma and Pedro, so it's possible she's too busy focusing on her past to recognize how it's affecting her family's present and future. On the other hand, both Pepa and Julieta are shown to be HappilyMarried to their respective husbands, and [[WordOfGod it's even been stated]] that Alma didn't approve of Agustin marrying Julieta. Which leads to another interpretation that she used to allow her family members to marry whoever they want and whenever they want to (which can be supported by how Bruno never got married nor had any children), but after Mirabel didn't get her gift, Alma could have been more more forceful in her desires, and tried to make sure that Isabela gets wed and have babies as soon as possible to ensure that her legacy doesn't die out.