#but it could be just Casita giving her one regardless of her power

[sukipershipper]

FUCK IT-

I gave Mirabel a door because she deserves one. Yes it sucks, i can't draw glows to save my life.

[aurumacadicus]

Okay, first and foremost: Spoilers up the whazoo in this bitch. If you haven’t seen Encanto and want to, maybe give this post a skip and come back to it later. Also this isn’t a debate! These are my feelings having watched the movie. If you feel something different, that’s cool.

Encanto is a movie about generational trauma. On the surface, it’s very easy to classify Alma as The Bad Guy. Everything is done because of her say-so, including the treatment Maribel receives from her family after she doesn’t receive a gift from the candle/room from Casita. However, Alma is a deeply damaged individual: She fell in love and had triplets with her husband, and they had so many hopes and dreams, but all of those are dashed when confronted with armed conflict. They had to leave their home and belongings and hopes and dreams behind in an effort just to survive, and Alma saw, as she held her three infant children, that they weren’t going to make it—and then her husband Pedro sacrificed himself so that they could live. She watched her husband be cut down by invaders, and from that loss, the Madrigal family gained their powers. Their powers were gained because Alma lost. It makes sense that Alma feels responsible for the ongoing safety of her family plus the villagers.

This doesn’t excuse her actions, but it does explain them. She was so focused on keeping everyone safe that when Bruno’s predictions were proving to upset the careful balance she’d kept, she’d try to keep a lid on it. When Maribel wasn’t given a gift or a door, going to Bruno was a last resort for trying to find out what had happened, why the status quo had changed. She hadn’t trusted his powers to begin with, but when he shows her that Maribel is the one who will either make or break the family, it’s no surprise that she chooses to drive Bruno away. She visits her trauma upon her children, and they either submit like good children, or they run away. (Side Note: Where was Bruno even supposed to go? There were mountains on all sides to protect their town from outsiders. The way out would have been treacherous. Besides that, his family whom he loves and adores was all he’d ever known. It makes sense that he hides in the shadows of the house, trying to fix the damage to Casita and watching over them as best he can. This man DREW A PLATE. So he could EAT MEALS WITH THE FAMILY. Bless him. Even when he was being distrusted, he still loves his family and wants to be near them.)

Then her children have children, and they have gifts. Isabela is the oldest and she’s so perfect, but that’s because she has to be, isn’t it? She is the first of the next generation, and her gift is growing things, and they’re all so perfect. They’ve fucking pigeonholed her. She doesn’t have the chance try new things, to fail, only do the same thing she’s always done, because that’s what makes Alma happy. She was going to marry someone she didn’t love, and didn’t want to marry, because she felt she had to be the perfect daughter who did that sort of thing. She literally tells Maribel she was going to marry Mariano for the family, not because she actually liked him. Luisa is typical forgotten middle-child—she’s only useful when they need something moved. She has an entire song about how she fears she’s worthless if she’s not of service. Her whole life revolves around being at the beck and call of everyone, regardless of her wants and needs. She is the first one to truly lose her powers and she can’t bring herself to do anything afterward because she literally doesn’t know how to. Mirabel doesn’t even need to do anything to disappoint anyone, because Alma has already written her off for not having a gift. She exists, and she’s told she’s in everyone’s way, and just let everyone else handle everything Mirabel, you don’t have what it takes to be a Madrigal, stay out of the way or you’ll ruin things. Dolores gets the same sort of  treatment as Luisa, ignored until needed (where are they? how far away? what are they doing?) and then ignored again and Camilo helps uphold the status quo, helping where he’s told and goofing off when he sees people need some comic relief. I think it’s very telling that he, Isabela, and Mirabel are the only ones who attempt to save the candle and actually make it close when Casita starts crumbling around them. And everyone only realizes what they’ve done to Mirabel after Casita has collapsed and Mirabel is the one holding the remains of the candle once the dust settles, because they were all so focused on pleasing Alma that they couldn’t see how hurt and lost Mirabel had been left by Alma’s rejection.

Here’s the thing. Lots of people have said that they can’t stand that everyone just forgave Alma. After everything she’s done, how could they accept her with open arms when all she had to offer was a simple apology? Because that’s the thing about the curse of generational trauma—sometimes people choose to act differently than people expect. This entire movie has been building up to a family that supports each other instead of keeping their feelings bottled up and suffering alone. How kind of them to decide that they’ll forgive this deeply traumatized woman who is willing to change. She is their mother. She is their grandmother. Mirabel looks at her and decides she doesn’t want to hold onto her hurt and anger anymore. The damage has been done. What else is there to gain? The thing about Maribel (and Bruno) is that they love their family deeply. That’s what all this was for—to save their family, and Casita, and the town that depended on them. So she chooses to forgive, and Alma is clearly going to do her best to fix the damage she did.

The people from town come to help them not because they are the magical Madrigals, but because they love them and want to help them in return for the help that was given to the town before. They build a new Casita. Mirabel gets her door. Bruno is home and welcomed with open arms, and everyone agrees to try and communicate better. Isabela doesn’t have to be perfect, and Luisa can finally rest. Dolores gets a chance for love and Camilo and Antonio get to be the children they are. Alma starts to heal from her trauma, and she gets another chance at being happy with her children, like her husband always wanted. They clearly still have work to do to work toward healing as a family, but this is a happy ending.