#I didn't make any of these up btw they're all headcanons I've seen online

[nyaagolor]

Larry is one of the funniest characters to me in SV because he's such a blank slate that you can assign him any number of wild headcanons and it can almost make sense. He's an regular office worker, he's a hitman, he trained his pokemon on commutes, he's secretly a member of the international police or a robot or a baseball star fallen from grace or a champion from another region. He's gay, he's straight, he's ace, he never married but also divorced, he has a son, he's missingno, he hates his boss, he's married to his boss, he's in a throuple with two geriatric gay artists. He's an open book, he's hiding a dangerous secret. He's the most boring man ever conceived and he's the most interesting character Gamefreak ever made

[eolewyn1010]

Talking about Encanto - Dolores

Dolores is a character whose reception online is weirdly ambivalent? As in, I've seen a lot of people just idealizing and adoring her to no end and defending her every deed, and obviously that's the bigger crowd because hey, she's a sweetheart (although the headcanons about her seem to be a lot vaster than what is actually canonically known - for example, we don't see her interacting with her siblings and parents much which is a shame and should be remedied), but also there's a little group of people who go out of their way to make Dolores appear as malicious or outright villainous. And basically everyone will woobify her in the process because the poor gal is blessed with the absolute suck of enhanced hearing, so obviously her life must be HELL, right?

Well. The movie doesn't really support that, either. Yeah, we see her flinching when fireworks go off and she's prone to speaking softly, but she also sings on top of her lungs a few times and dances basically every time a song comes on, so… stressed out by all the noise? Eh. She appears to love music, and seems to have it well enough together - and it's funny actually that Julieta is the one of the first generation siblings who's emotionally the most stable but her kids have massive issues, whereas Pepa is a nervous bundle but all her children are pretty well-adjusted, all things considered. Okay, they are out of focus for most of the movie, but for all I can tell, Dolores is anything but a wreck. Sure, she does have a serious case of Pining, but she's also sort of a quiet sufferer about that, pretty far from the drama queen her mom is. That's no point of criticism btw; I love Pepa for being openly and loudly emotional. Dolores rarely is, tho.

Which is why I found it super baffling to read some people's take that her flipping out during the proposal dinner was calculated because the man she's in love with was about to get engaged to her cousin before her eyes, so she tried to stop that from happening. That doesn't feel in-character. Dolores never intervened in that would-be relationship between Mariano and Isabela before because she's convinced she doesn't have a chance anyway because that's how she interpreted Bruno's vision of her. If she hadn't resigned to that long ago, she would have approached Mariano herself at some point. Also, she yells out, "she's gonna destroy the magic", picking up on Alma's trend of blaming Mirabel for shit she cannot logically influence (come on, she could just have said what Mirabel said, namely that Mirabel was in that vision and that's literally it. She kinda proves Bruno's point about leaving right there...), which would be still not ideal but also human in those circumstances. But assuming she did this judgy shit to get her will about Mariano, throwing Mirabel under the bus? That would be seriously bitchy. And not something she seems up to in the situation. She doesn't focus on Mariano at all in this scene, she's blanking out in panic.

That's not to mean she's a horrible person - panicking is a human thing, I get around to it every other week. But is there a need to deify her, either? The ruined proposal dinner was her fault, not Mirabel's, and no, she definitely didn't do it on purpose. She just fucked up.

Also, I personally really dislike the idea of Dolores as that big gossip. Ehm, she was Bruno's secret keeper for ten years (which he probably knew, all things considered; his niece had already had her gift for several years when he left). And when she's not in her soundproof room, she can listen throughout all of the town. That lady carries secrets. Not even Isabela seems to know that her engagement to Mariano would make her cousin very unhappy (seeing as she thinks "the family was happy" about that). And for all the fandom makes of Camilo and Mirabel being close because they're about the same age and spent a lot of time together, I hardly see any takes of the same assumption about Isabela and Dolores, though it is not far-fetched. They're doing the emotional support hand-holding during Antonio's ceremony, and Dolores even rags Isabela a bit about Mariano wanting five babies (I've seen even that interpreted as a mean, jealousy-fuelled barb, what the hell? That's harmless sibling-like teasing if ever I've seen some). And if we run with that assumption, that Isabela is one of her closest relatives emotionally, then Dolores must have buried her wishes regarding Mariano very deeply inside of her.

Someone (I can't seem to find the post rn, sorry about that) pointed out that Dolores might have always pretty much withheld from dating. What if she had started to like someone? The sheer possibility that someone would have been "the man of [her] dreams" would have meant she couldn't have him. That is just... so fucking bitter. And yet, she isn't bitter toward Bruno about that. Props, I guess. Although she does says she "grew to live in fear of Bruno stuttering or stumbling", which, have you looked at that poor mess of a man? He seems like the type to stutter or stumble throughout half his life. I guess it stressed her out that everyone around Bruno was prone to being stressed out whenever he began stuttering his prophecies.

Last but not perhaps not least, Dolores is the only one of the family getting a romance arc, on account of Isabela's arc turning out to be not romantic. Mariano, the poor sap - why didn't Julieta give him one of her arepas for his nose? Don't tell me she couldn't have. But it's not like Dolores is superficial, so whatever with the crunched nose, amirite? And you know what? For all that the movie makes him the butt of a joke, for as little as we learn about him, I think he might be a really good catch for Dolores, simply because she seems to think he's a really good catch. It's only hinted at in her part of All Of You, but it's very evident: She knows all she needs to know about this guy to have at least a huge crush on him and want to work out a relationship.

And the movie actually subtly supports this - within the limited time frame it can spend on the not-triangle, of course; we have a plot here. But Mariano wants to sing for his proposal, even if it's to the wrong girl at first, he's that huge romantic doofus who's completely amazed that Dolores would pay him so much attention to know all that stuff about him (I like to think it's because Isabela didn't really pay him much mind), he's quite a kind and attentive guy in moments like when he asked Mirabel during dinner if she was alright. Also, he fits in there so well by virtue of being a goofball. Every guy who married a woman of that family is a total goofball, including Abuelo Pedro. And yeah, jumping from proposing to Isabela to proposing to Dolores went fast which might seem suspicious. But I kind of think he was pushed toward the expectation of him and Isabela together as much as Isabela was, and as much as Dolores counted on that as the only possible outcome, and because he's a naive romantic doofus, he may have thought if Isabela is the woman who'll be with him, then she must obviously be the woman of his dreams. I don't feel he got the chance to think much about compatibility or true soulmateship or whatever.

On that note, I think Dolores will be the right person for him because she's a bit more level-headed. The matches of Julieta and Agustín or of Pepa and Félix? Yeah, I can see that for them.