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dikanamai:

There’re
many things in Encanto that means A LOT to me, in a very personal level, but
something very, very important (perhaps the most important aspect of the whole
story) is something I’ve seen a lot of fans refuse to understand or even
acknowledge: an essential part of the nuance that surrounds the Madrigal family
is no one wants to leave.

Leaving is
something that never crossed
Mirabel’s mind. Bruno left without leaving because he didn’t want to leave. This family holds itself together because
all of them love the family and want to stick together, even if things aren’t
perfect, even if they have problems and struggles. And they love each other not
because all of them are brainwashed; it’s because life is a complex thing,
relationships are a complex thing, people are a complex thing, LOVE is a
complex thing, and the movie made an awesome work portraying it.

I’m not
here to defend toxic environments that harm people, but what many people here need
to understand is having problems is not the same as being a super abusive
family that destroys its members just by the mere act of being together.
Sometimes things can be fixed, and people have the right to decide if they want
to stay and fight to fix them. Going away and sending everyone to hell is not
always the answer. If you hate the concept of “family” for whatever
personal experience you have, it’s ok, your experience is valid, but please, please, at least acknowledge it is YOUR
experience, and for many of us staying is important when we know things can be
fixed. Mirabel’s and Bruno’s decisions to stay are important, because they
represent a kind of family love we rarely see in fiction: the love we share
even when we’re hurt and imperfect, and our desire not to leave everyone
behind, but to work together to make things better, with all the nuance real
life presents.

Encanto
doesn’t have the “you must forgive your family for everything just because
it’s your family” kind of toxic message we use to see in “family
movies”. Encanto’s message is “even if we’re broken, we can heal
together if we love each other”, and the movie works precisely because of
this: they really love each other and
care about each other, despite all their mistakes.

I’m sick of
people projecting their issues in this movie to talk shit about the characters,
or try to “fix” them inserting in them that kind of individualistic
mindset they DON’T HAVE canonically or making them extremely miserable to the
point the movie loses its sense, just because they can’t wrap their heads
around this revolutionary concept of “family members that really love each
other”. Erasing this very essential aspect of the characters is also part
of that tendency to erase the movie’s Colombian spirit, since family is a very
important thing for Hispanic people, is a SUPER IMPORTANT thing for Colombian people, and they have been
saying it for months. The Madrigal family was built in a very specific way to
make things “fixable”. Take that away, and you shit on the very point
of the whole movie.

Being part
of this fandom since November is a quite disturbing thing, like being trapped
in a time loop, because every day you wake up to the same bad takes, the same
bashing, the same hate, and you wonder “holy shit, aren’t we over this
yet?”. No, it seems we’re not. There’s always room for another post like
GUYS GUYS ALMA IS A FUCKING ABUSER BITCH HELL I HATE HER WHY DIDN’T THEY DROWN
HER IN THE RIVER AND LEAVE FOREVER?? I WOULD’VE LEFT IN A BLINK THEY’RE TOXIC!!

No one
cares about what would’ve you done,
José Antonio. What frigging movie did you watch?

Some days ago, I watched Nicque Marina’s vid
ranting about the hate Alma receives and, though I’m talking in a more general
way, she made an important point: Encanto is not your space to play out your
therapy fantasies. You don’t agree with the positive message of the movie about
healing and reconciliation? You don’t agree with the obvious fact that neither
Alma was SO HORRIBLE nor Bruno/Mirabel/the whole family was SO MISERABLE?
Perfect, but at least ask yourself if there’s something good you can learn from
it, instead of twisting it to fit your idea of what should have been.