After a while, Alma's disapproving looks and her family dismissing her as the "giftless Madrigal" have finally worn Mirabel down. It doesn't go unnoticed.
Extended Family is Still Family is an Encanto fanfic series by ArcticVulpix that can be read on Archive of Our Own here
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For another Encanto fanfic by the same author, see She's Mine Then.
This fanfic provides examples of:
- Actually Pretty Funny: When Bruno tells Mirabel why Pepa is so salty with him, he explains that he tends to joke when nervous. This, combined with his sister's own nerves on her wedding day, pushed him to make a joke about the weather. Mirabel tries to call him out for the terrible joke, but can't help but
snigger while doing so. - Adaptational Angst Upgrade: The fic starts out with Mirabel willfully missing Isabela and Mariano's engagement dinner because Alma told her too, Mirabel finally giving up on trying to be a proactive contribution to the family and "taking the hint."
- Bad Impressionists: Mirabel, Dolores and Isabela all rail on Camilo's hammy vaudevillian impression of Bruno since the former two are up-to-date on their uncle and Isabella remembers Bruno a lot better than Camilo (she even wryly mocks the whole "7 foot frame" line by pointing that Bruno was a lot shorter), while Camilo is working off of memories from an earlier age. Even his mother Pepa, who's hearing Bruno's name is a Trauma Button for her, can't help but burst out laughing when she sees it.
- Big Sister Instinct: When they discovered that Bruno didn't want to get married, both Pepa and Julieta wasted no time in standing up to Alma for him until she backed off.
- Calling the Old Man Out: The entirety of Chapter 10 is the whole family ripping into Alma over how miserable her expectations make all of them, any attempt she makes to justify her actions immediately shot down by someone else, segueing into their own hang-ups.
- Clueless Chick-Magnet: In one of the sequels, it's revealed that Camilo has a full-blown fan club of girls with crushes on him but is blissfully unaware of this or how treating the girls the way Felix treats Pepa comes off.
- Crossdresser: Implied. Dolores threatens to tell Pepa that Camilo took her favorite dress if he tells anyone that Bruno was in the walls.
- Delayed Reaction: Julieta is so touched by Mirabel's note telling her to take a break, as well as the new apron that came with it, that it takes her a few seconds to realize that Alma was blaming Luisa losing her gift on her.
- Easily Forgiven: Averted. When Alma attempts to apologize for how she's been treating the family, some members of the family refuse to forgive her.
- My God, What Have I Done?:
- When she sees Mirabel, having finally cracked after years of exclusion, Pepa and Camilo have this experience. It's especially hard for Pepa, having seen similar behavior in Bruno before his disappearance and feeling tremendous guilt over it.
- Isabela gets this after Mirabel makes her a stress blanket, realizing that she's been an awful older sister to Mirabel for years.
- Never My Fault: When Alma tries defending her accusations towards Mirabel, one of the things she lists off is ruining Isabela and Mariano's engagement, only for Isabela to snap and point out that she was the one who told Mirabel not to attend.
- Occam's Razor: When Camilo overhears Alma insinuating that Mirabel is somehow responsible for Luisa's gift going on the fritz, he sees it for what it really is: Luisa is overworked and it's effecting her performance. The rest of the family (minus Alma) also quickly realizes the same thing.
- O.O.C. Is Serious Business: When the entire third generation come to a mutual agreement on how tired of their duties they are, their Abuela immediately notices just how aloof all of them are, each grandkid either avoiding Alma or openly defying her. Unfortunately, she immediately presumes that Mirabel is somehow the cause of all of it and gives her the riot act, leading to the rest of the family to defend her.
- Point of Divergence:
- Mirabel had discovered Bruno hiding in the walls weeks before she did in canon.
- While Mirabel went to Isabela and Mariano's engagement dinner — and wound up accidentally ruining it — here she stays in the nursery after Alma tells her she isn't invited.
- While a cactus sprouting between Mirabel and Isabela was a major turning point for Isabela, the first time it happens here she ignores it, too upset to pay it any mind. In fact, she had been growing cacti all over the house out of Power Incontinence, Casita helping hide all of them.Camilo: That's why I've been finding them all around the house... I sat on one the other day!
- While Mirabel, Antonio and Dolores discovered Bruno hiding in the walls before Casita collapsed, here that list grows to Camilo, Luisa and Isabela.
- While in canon Mirabel was the one who called Alma out for her toxic expectations, here the entire family takes the opportunity to fight her off.
- Unwillingly Girly Tomboy: On top of being sick of growing roses, Isabela brings up how sick of the color pink she is.
