Updated version of this piece

@encantober-official

I added his facial hair. Sorry I forgot before. I was wondering why something was off!🤦🏻‍♀️

Huevember: Day 19 - Mirabel Madrigal

Encanto (2021)

ENCANTO IS SO GOOD

Did a redraw of these two from 2022. Top one is the redraw and bottom is the old!

Encantober 2024 Bingo: Thread

Mirabel deserves her own door.

She's the compassionate thread that holds the family together, the mender, and the heart of the new/renewed Miracle. Wanted to give her her own door to her own room to represent that.

@encantober-official

"Always waiting on a miracle, a miracle..."

Can we all talk how before Alma steps into the river she wears her mourning shawl but then she takes it off?

It such a great symbolysm! For Alma's suffering finally getting recognized. The fact that she isn't alone anymore but also ready to grow beyong what the pain of loss made her to be. Letting go of the past, being ready to change and move to acceptance stage of grief (as she was stuck in bargaining for years)

I like that she does pick it up and put it back on after they leave the river, but every time after that we see her without it. It's one of the few things she has left from her time with Pedro and leaving it entirely wouldn't be right for the story or the character.

She's never going to stop mourning Pedro, but she's learned to set aside her sadness to be more present with her family, only taking out the shawl and mourning when she needs to, and possibly learning to associate the shawl and what it reminds her of with the happy memories rather than her mourning.

doodles of my most fav blorbos while at class

✨ Never Again ✨

Two members of the family find out about the latest village gossip, and are not pleased.

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“There she goes again…”

“The magic…”

“..doors gone, that’s never happened before.”

“Just like him. Bad luck, a mistake.”

“Shh don’t talk like that, what if someone hears you?”

“Who cares? It’s the truth!”

“He’s not wrong though. Something happened, she’s the only one..”

“She hurt the magic.”

“…Disappointment to the family.”

“Didn’t you see the candle flicker?”

“Mark my words, the kid is gonna be a problem like the other one.”

Mirabel felt tears well up in her eyes. She may not understand everything, but she knew they were all talking about her. Staring at her. Like she did something wrong. Like she was wrong, or broken.

It’s been happening alot since her birthday, but people seem to be getting bolder. More uneasy.

She didn’t mean to do anything wrong, honest! She did exactly what Abuela told her to do. She didn’t know what went wrong. No one did!

She walked away from that group, far enough she couldn’t hear them, but she could still feel them all staring. Could feel the whispers. It made her skin crawl.

She was loosing her battle to hold back tears, and she felt a lump in her throat.

Why? Why were they acting like this?

She didn’t mean to mess anything up, or let everyone down.

She couldn’t take it, and she ran.

Mirabel ran as fast as her little legs could carry her, not knowing where she was going, or caring. Just away.

Eventually she found herself in the fields. She found a quiet spot among the crops. She curled up into a little ball and let it all out. She doesn’t know how long she stayed there.

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Pepa Madrigal was having a decent day. Although not a blazing sun, the light in the sky still shone down through some wispy clouds lofted on a light breeze. Things have been so stressful the past few months, that decent was about as good as any of them could do right now. Ever since Mirabel’s birthday….mama had been stressed. The town was stressed. Which meant- the family was stressed. Everyone was confused and on edge, however things seemed to be returning to normal.

Or so she thought.

She was finishing up her routine in the fields when she heard a sniffling noise deeper into the crops adjacent from the edge of town.

Now Pepa was no stranger to crying in the feilds, it was basically her job. But to hear someone else way out here besides the random farmer? That was odd.

She slowly made her way deeper into the crops, and what she found made her heart plummet.

Because there was her little sobrina, sobbing her little heart out in a heap on the ground.

She wasted no time and rushed forward to gather Mirabel in her arms.

“Shh shhhh its okay, its okay. Tias got you.”

She cradled Mirabel in her arms, and began rocking her back and forth as she sat on the ground to calm her. She could feel the small girl trembling in her arms. Who cares about a little dirt when something is clearly very, very, wrong?

After a few moments of this, the sobs began to slow and her breathing evened out. Pepa placed a kiss on Mirabel’s curls.

“Mira, what happened?” She asked gently.

Mirabel shook her head into Pepa’s chest and wouldn’t look at her.

“Please? I only want to help.”

And then it all came out in a rush.

“I’m sorry tia, I’m sorry I hurt the magic, I’m sorry I’m bad luck!” she said it over and over, and so quickly that Pepa’s brain needed a second to catch up.

“What did u say?” She whispered.

“I said I’m sorry I’m bad luck!” Mirabel was beginning to get worked up again.

“Hey now it’s okay, breathe for me. Why would you say that? Look at me, come on, there you go.”

With some gentle nudging, Mirbel glanced up at her tia.

“The villagers said im a disappointment, and a curse, and I hurt the magic and that im just like him and im bad luck and a mistake and and-“

BOOM

Mirabel broke off when she heard the thunder in shock.

“Shit, Mira I’m sorry! I was just surprised. That wasn’t at you sweetheart.” She cupped Mirabel’s cheek in her hand, and wiped away a tear.

She leaned back against Pepa and muttered a quiet, “Sorry..”

Pepa hugged Mirabel and gently rubbed her back, trying to ignore the lead feeling in her stomach and the memories those words brought back to her.

“Mira you have nothing to apologize for. You didn’t do anything wrong, I just don’t like what they said to you.”

“But maybe everyone’s right! Maybe I am bad luck and I’m just messing everything up and-“

“Mirabel listen to me. You are none of those things, and you have done nothing wrong. I don’t know what happened with the magic, but that doesn’t mean your bad luck. You are not a mistake, do you hear me? Those people shouldn’t talk like that about anyone, and certainly not you. Okay?” She looked Mirabel in the eye, to make sure the girl took in what she was saying.

“Okay.” Mirabel said softly.

“Come on, lets go find your mama.”

With that, Pepa picked Mirabel up and began the trek back to Casita. A sniffling sobrina in her arms.

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Turns out, Julieta met them halfway.

“Dolores told me something happened and to get to Casita. What happened?”

Julieta began to fuss as she noticed the puffy eyes and tear streaks on her daughter’s face. Mirabel was clutching onto her tia with a strong grip, so instead Julieta ran a soothing hand through her hair.

“What happened?” She repeated.

Pepa explained in hushed tones. Julieta’s posture grew rigid as her sister explained, but she needed to keep it together for Mira’s sale.

“Mija, your tia is exactly right. And all those people? Idiots. The lot of them.”

Mirabel gasped and peered up at her mom.

“I thought we weren’t supposed to call people idiots?” she whispered.

“Well in this case they aren’t just idiots. They are big stupid idiots. And we” she gestured to their small group, “don’t care about the opinions of big stupid idiots.”

Julieta leaned in and showered Mirabel with kisses, and the girl began to giggle.

At the sound of that laughter, a rainbow began to form over their heads, as Pepa’s heavy heart also eased. Eased, but if you looked closely, you could see the storm brewing behind her eyes. A storm Julieta saw, and knew all too well.

“Come on, how about we all go have some lunch?”

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Mirabel calmed down after some quality time with her mama and tia, in fact, by the time the rest of the family got home she was back to her normal self.

Later that night, after everyone went to sleep, Pepa and Julieta met up in the kitchen.

“We’re taking care of this aren’t we?” Pepa said staring at her sister, who was aggressively scrubbing at the pot from dinner in the sink.

“You bet your ass we are!” Julieta snapped.

“Mama…” Pepa began, if only to caution her extremely irate sister from doing something rash.

Not that she felt much better of course. Especially after being the one to find Mirabel earlier. The thing is, Julieta’s anger is much different from Pepa’s. Pepa is quick to anger, quick to fight. Many think that her wrath is what they should fear, since her anger is accompanied by brutal storms. Those people are wrong.

Her sister is slow to anger, slow to react. She is more likely to try and smooth things over, play the median or kill them with kindness rather than pick a fight. But if you manage to cross that line, heaven help you it wouldn’t be pretty.

“Mama doesn’t need to know and doesn’t need to be involved. You know how she gets when he’s mentioned.” Julieta answered her sister.

“Your right.” Pepa agreed, knowing all too well the infamous house rule.

“They dont get to drive another memeber of this family away. I won’t sit here and let them do this to her. Not like with-“ Julieta continued, but was interrupted.

“Hm! I have names.” A small voice squeaked.

A small bolt of lightning split the room, as Pepa slammed a hand against the counter in fright. Julieta wasn’t much better, her hand was clutching her chest as she tried to even out her breathing. The pot she was scrubbing clattered loudly in the sink. Casita recoiled and flipped all the counter tiles.

“Dios mija!”

“Sorry” Dolores chuckled. “I know which villagers were saying those things.”

Pepa smiled and glanced at her sister. Julieta began pulling some items out of the pantry.

“How about this Lolo? You make us a list, and while you do that I’ll whip up some hot chocolate.” She said with a smirk.

“Deal!”

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Imagine the surprise some of the townsfolk had in the following days when they were cornered by a thundering woman, or denied healing food in the town square by another. The women were as subtle as they could be, but they made their message known in hushed tones and actions. No one would be calling Mirabel bad luck, or a curse, or a mistake, or whatever ever again.

Alma never heard anything and the whispers stopped. Alma was never the wiser about what the two sisters had done. After all- we don’t talk about Bruno. So who would dare go to the great Alma Madrigal with complaints about her daughters, when the context circled back to her son and youngest granddaughter?

Things certainly weren’t perfect, but at least this could be fixed. In this aspect, with the town at least, history would not repeat itself.

Although one member of the household didn’t hear everything, he heard enough over these few days. Enough to know that his sisters stepped in, when the village started to repeat an old mistake. Sitting in his lonely room in the walls as he heard the family prepare for dinner, he couldn’t help but smile. And think of times long ago, when his sisters stood up against the village for a small boy clad in green, who saw too much, but loved his older sisters with everything he had. Mirabel would be just fine he thought, and he drifted off to sleep.

Wip Dolores

You're the real gift 🦋 Feliz cumpleaños, Mirabel!

First look at my Mirabel Madrigal cosplay from Encanto.

I spent months hand embroidering that skirt and it's still not 100% finished yet. Hoping to have it done by Spring Geddon.

Photo by : DraniumZanium Photography

So I just had an interesting revelation after an exchange of comments with a writer on ao3. Cause I think I finally figured out ✨Dolores✨

I realized that she and Mirabel are pretty similar people. And while some aspects of their lives and circumstances parallel one another, they don’t have enough in common to be close.

Like if they weren’t family it’s not clear whether they would even be friends. Mainly, their family is the glue that binds them together. So, they love each other, but they probably don’t know each other very well, or spend a lot of time together.

As they pointed out, Dolores doesn’t really respect Mirabel. Not enough to take her seriously. In fact, it’s quite likely that Dolores pities her.

Yeah her cousin is gift-less and different from everyone else, but at least she has hobbies and free time. At least she doesn’t have to deal with any of the stress and drawbacks that comes with having a magical gift. And Dolores, of all people, would know.

Between the disasters she prevents; the secrets she keeps; the damage control she has to do; her mother’s weather; her struggles with her own gift; her crush on Mariano; and caring for her younger brothers as the eldest sibling, on top of all her anxieties, Dolores has far too much on her mind to worry about Mirabel. She just isn’t a priority nor her responsibility. Similar to Alma in that regard.

It’s not a pretty side of Dolores, but it makes her human. It makes her relatable. She is not perfect. No one is and we shouldn’t expect her to be.

On the other hand, I think Mirabel sympathizes with Dolores but that won’t stop her from trying to butter her prima up and asking her for favors. She doesn’t really know Dolores and I don’t think she trusts Dolores either (which is honestly, valid). Nor does she see her as a role model the way she does every other older woman in her family.

This is made especially evident in “Waiting on a Miracle,” and “The Family Madrigal” where she expounds upon and sings everyone’s praises but Dolores’s. Mirabel doesn’t really know what she does other than ‘she can hear everything we’re saying right now’. We have to guess, to infer what Dolores’s role in the community is. Dolores isn’t someone on Mirabel’s personal radar.

Again, this is a character flaw for Mirabel; a blind spot that makes her all the more relatable to us. She’s not immune to taking people for granted or overlooking their hard work.

Also, even though they’re not exactly kind to each other they won’t go out of their way to hurt one another the way Isa and Mirabel do to each other.

Both of them care very deeply about their family and would do anything in their power to make them proud, protect them or make them happy. This is why Mirabel helps Antonio to his door. This is why Dolores goes out of her way to speak up, for the first time, unprompted, to share her honest thoughts and opinions about Bruno.

Someone she empathizes with. Someone she loves so much, she kept the fact that he was hiding in the walls a secret for ten years! If you consider all of this together, it’s no wonder she blabbed at dinner.

Despite how wrong it was she was operating from a place of anxiety and stress, not malice (like some would assume).

I think during reconstruction for Casita, and without the magic hanging over them, Dolores and Mirabel finally find that report they’ve been missing.

The whole family is relearning how to respect one another and truly understand their needs and personal boundaries. To be more proactive in showing how much they love and appreciate one another, instead of leaving things unsaid. They spend more time together actually bonding and listening to one another.

Building a relationship they didn’t know was missing for the past ten years. Just like Mirabel and her sisters. Or Alma and her children and grandchildren. How beautiful is that?