During Mirabel's gift ceremony, her door disappears and she doesn't get a special power. Overwhelmed by it all, she runs away and is separated from her family when a sudden storm washes her away down a river. Taken in by a kindly older man named Pedro Madrigal, Mirabel grows up blissfully unaware of the events taking place over the mountains.
Returning Home is an Encanto fanfic written by RarepairKai22 and can be read on Archive of Our Own here
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This fanfic provides examples of:
- Adaptational Angst Downgrade: Having suffered from Laser-Guided Amnesia since she was five, Mirabel lacks her canon feelings of inadequacy from being compared to the rest of her family. Additionally, since she was effectively raised in a much more supportive and affirmative environment, courtesy of her Abuelo Pedro, Mirabel is much more confident and happier than in her canon home.
- Adaptational Angst Upgrade: On the other hand, when Mirabel runs away, her mother Julieta suffers from a perpetual malaise. Add onto the fact that Abuela enforces an Unperson policy due to how distressing the topic was, Julieta is forced to sit there and watch as everyone has to pretend that her youngest daughter never existed while her two remaining daughters slowly wear out from their constant work and the unfair expectations they're under. When Abuela gets it in her head that Mirabel is still to blame for their miracle dying, Julieta’s years of self-suppression and grief explodes, and she tears her mother a new one, which triggers the collapse of Casita.
- Arguably, the same could be said for Pedro. It is one thing to learn that the family whom he believed to be lost were actually alive, but another thing entirely to learn that the woman he loved turned into an unfeeling monster who abused their children and grandchildren. It proves too much for Pedro, whom upon reuniting with his wife for the first time in 50 years, proceeds to also tear her a new one.
- Chairman of the Brawl: While they were clearing up the remains of Casita, Mirabel had to chase off entitled townspeople who, despite the loss of the gifts, still demanded that Luisa work for whatever need or whim they had. Each and every time, Mirabel chased off the hecklers with a wooden chair she procured from somewhere.
- Contrived Coincidence: When Mirabel gets separated from her family, the person who finds her and adopts her is her long-lost Abuelo Pedro. They even settle into a grandfather/granddaughter family dynamic, oblivious to how uncannily accurate it is.
- Cover Innocent Eyes and Ears: When chasing off hecklers who tried to make Luisa work for them despite her mandated breaks, Mirabel's colourful tongue and liberal choice of obscenities forced Dolores to cover Antonio's ears to protect his young mind from such vulgar language.
- Entitled Bastards: Some of the townspeople, even though the Madrigals lost their house and powers, still demand favours and tasks. Mirabel and Pedro waste no time in putting a stop to that.
- Heroic BSoD: Mirabel notes that after the bombshell revelations that her Abuelo Pedro's supposedly lost family actually survived the attack and have now grown up, all without either side knowing of the other's survival, the poor man looks extremely lost, and rightfully so. Even Mirabel herself acknowledges that had it probably been not for her Laser-Guided Amnesia, she would be in a similar state too.
- In Spite of a Nail: Despite Mirabel's disappearance, things in the Encanto play out virtually the same as they did in canon, though this time it is Julieta who snaps and dresses Abuela down, resulting in Casita's collapse and the miracle disappearing.
- Laser-Guided Amnesia: Mirabel ends up losing her memory of everything other than her name when she almost drowns at the river. Coincidentally, she still goes by the name "Madrigal" because she winds-up being raised by her long-lost grandfather.
- Meaningful Echo: In the canon movie, Mirabel declares to Abuela that she is the reason that the Miracle is dying. Here, Julieta says the exact same words to her mother when she and Abuela argue in the aftermath of Isabela's engagement dinner going awry.
- Older Than They Look: Possibly due to the Miracle's influence, Pedro looks much younger than his actual biological age of 76 years. According to the author, Pedro barely looks a day above 60, and apart from some white hairs, wrinkles and laugh lines, Pedro's strength from his youth is still with him, when most old men his age would be hobbling around on walking sticks. Additionally, Pedro easily punches a villager, presumably Señor Osvaldo, in the face when the latter tried to demonise Bruno for supposedly cursing him with a gut, when in reality, he had become fat from a lack of exercise and excessive eating.
- Point of Divergence:
- Unlike in canon, Mirabel ran away from home when her door disappeared, and subsequently finds herself separated from the rest of her family.
- Unlike in the canon movie, Pedro did not die when trying to plead for mercy against the raiders who destroyed his village. He survives with a head wound, however, he loses his family and subsequently comes to live alone in a village not unlike his original home, until he fishes Mirabel from the river and adopts her as his own.
- The Resenter: After losing Mirabel, Julieta started resenting her gift and her job as the town healer, especially the people who wanted her food to heal inconsequential problems like bruises and papercuts.
- Single-Target Sexuality: Much like how Alma had never stopped mourning Pedro, Pedro never remarried after losing his family.
- Spared by the Adaptation: In canon, it was Pedro Madrigal's sacrifice that led to the creation of the candle, the miracle, his family's magical gifts and everything else in the Encanto. Here, they only think he died. Instead, he winds up separated from his family and finds himself living in a village outside of the mountains.
- Unwitting Instigator of Doom: Antonio accidentally becomes this when he meets Mirabel for the first time in the church, and remarks that she was one of the duo whom Abuela forced an Unperson policy on, resulting in a Cliffhanger when Pedro overhears this.
