#the fact that him and mirabel were the same age when he left makes me cackle

[andtheyweresiblings]

I saw a tag in an AO3 Mirabruno fic that said Mirabel and Bruno are coded as a couple, and this was definitely a thought I also had during my first watch of the movie. Especially considering that in an animated film, any potential chemistry between actors is not going to play a huge role in what’s happening on screen. Rather, any chemistry between characters is going to be due to the choices animators and writers made, which is fun to think about. So I thought I’d try my hand at analyzing what I think so many of us were picking up on.

Now I’m not saying all of these points support romantic coding alone, but I think when put together, we get something significant between Mirabel and Bruno. I would love to hear any possible additions or elaborations to this that I might be missing.

**use the numbered points as the TLDR**

1. Bruno estranged himself from his family to protect Mirabel.

There is a lot to be said about this move. On one hand, Bruno was motivated to do this because he had already developed a bad reputation amongst his family and the townsfolk that his prophecies were bad news and that he was somehow playing a role in them. It can probably be argued for this reason alone, he left to protect himself. But he was also protecting Mirabel because he knew that with this prophecy, she would be dragged down with him. When Mirabel meets/confronts him in Casita’s walls, Bruno says, “no one was supposed to see that prophecy.” Considering how superstitious/paranoid Bruno appears (to the point of probably meeting OCD criteria), I think it is a fair assumption that at some point, Bruno started internalizing that maybe just maybe he was part of the problem and was to blame for the outcomes of some of his prophecies. So, in addition to protecting Mirabel from his mother’s wrath, I think Bruno may also have been trying to protect her from some doomed fate he might have thought he brought upon her. I think his logic was, if no one else sees the prophecy, maybe it cannot come true. I got on a little tangent there, but ultimately, while I think Bruno had a couple motivators for leaving the family after making the prophecy about Mirabel, it seems the main motivator was to protect Mirabel. While not inherently romantic, it is definitely a decision with a lot of love behind it. 

2. They defend each other to the family matriarch.

In the final act of the film, both Mirabel and Bruno defend each other to Alma. While Mirabel is defending herself and her sisters against her abuela’s impossible standards, she also leaps to Bruno’s defense, stating that Alma always saw “the worst” in Bruno and that Bruno does in fact love the family.

Likewise, Bruno literally rides on a horse to Mirabel’s rescue to defend her against any wrath Alma may have against her. This is especially important when considering that Bruno previously expressed to Mirabel that he was afraid of facing Alma. In this scene, he shows he is willing to overcome this fear to once again protect Mirabel. He literally tells his mother, “I don’t care what you do to me.” I think the fact that he is riding on a horse just adds to the coding of a knight in shining armor rescuing his damsel in distress, even if Mirabel is perfectly capable of managing conflict.

3. Bruno comes across as younger than his age.

Bruno holds himself in a smaller posture. He appears shorter than his sisters. And frankly, he seems timid and unsure of himself. He often uses more informal language and catches himself and tries to use more formal language, and I think it’s to appear more mature than he feels he is. It doesn’t help that all of the Madrigal adults look much younger for their age, and he’s no exception. Now, I am going to refrain from going into why he may seem younger than his sisters (despite the graying hair). The point here is that Bruno acting and looking younger created a weird dissonance in my mind. On one hand, I knew he was Mirabel’s uncle and was the same age as her mother. On the other hand, his portrayed youth makes it a little easier to interpret their interactions as a little more romantic than familial. Because honestly, if the plot was just a little different and Bruno was just some seer that Mirabel was seeking out, then a lot of their interactions would read as very shippable to me. I’m sorry I cannot elaborate this more eloquently.

4. “After you save the miracle, come visit.” “After I save the miracle, I’m bringing you home.”

No elaboration for this. Just the way they look at each other during this exchange:

5. Bruno is canonically interested in incest romances.

Ok. I know this has been a central point of discourse between us and antis, but I want to look at this within the context of the narrative. Which is to say, Bruno talking about an aunt/nephew romance plot comes across as a foreshadow when considering the fact that 1) it can be assumed Bruno came up with this plot by himself and enjoys it, 2) Bruno started talking about this plot basically unprompted to his niece who he hasn’t seen in a decade, and 3) this was right after he had saved said niece from what he had assumed was death. I think having one of the characters in a shipcest pairing being canonically interested in incest already gives us a lot of shipcest fuel, but more than that, Bruno’s interest in incest and how it is introduced within the narrative very easily reads as a foreshadow in the first viewing of the movie.

6. Bruno is starved for affection and love, while Mirabel is starved for respect.

I think this is what ultimately colors everything between these two as potentially romantic. Bruno has been isolated for ten years, so any positive regard and affection to him is going to be so meaningful. We can see it on his face when Mirabel is reassuring him that she doesn’t think he makes bad things happen and that he just got a bad rap. We can see it in countless other scenes of Bruno receiving affection from other characters in the movie. He is shocked and very clearly doesn’t know what to do with it:

Likewise, Mirabel rarely receives respect from the adults and even children of the family. Tía Pepe and Isabela tend to be annoyed with Mirabel at baseline. Abuela Alma at her kindest is still shutting down Mirabel and telling Mirabel she has very little value to offer the family. Meanwhile, her parents sometimes accidentally support Alma’s opinion of Mirabel in their reassurances that she has “nothing” to prove. From their first interaction, Bruno listens to Mirabel and talks to her like an equal, like an autonomous adult who matters. As the two work together, Bruno continues to demonstrate that he respects Mirabel. He doesn’t talk down to her, and he apologizes for raising his voice at her when she was spiraling about hugging Isabella to save the miracle and reemphasizes her autonomy (“it’s up to you”):

Ultimately, these two unconditionally offer each other what they are both craving—what they each never properly received from the rest of the family—and this is a trope often used in a romantic narrative. Not to mention, they can also relate to each other; they are both misfits and both feel incredibly displaced from the rest of the family. Add to the fact that the two treat each other more like equals and less like uncle/niece, and suddenly, the couple coding seems more evident.

7. The blocking and imagery choices.

Honestly, most of the ship vibes I saw came from a lot of the blocking/imagery choices the animators made, so I’m just going to have to include some screenshots of the most damning ones because I don’t know how to make gifs. They are as follows.

The concern/desperation in Bruno’s eyes when he saves Mirabel from falling:

All the hand holding during the prophecy scene:

This scene in which we see a lot of mirroring between the two, supporting the idea that they see each other as equals:

This scene in which her parents are singing, “and to watch our little girl grow.” Of all the things to pan to in order to demonstrate that Mirabel is growing up, they chose to show her interacting with Bruno. It’s an interesting choice to me:

And then, of course, the last minute or so of the movie where we get a lot of mirabruno eye contact and shared smiles:

And Casita literally brings them together into a pseudo-dance:

Then there is the family picture. The way Bruno is holding/touching Mirabel does not come across as a typical uncle/niece interaction. Look at them. Regardless of the nature of their relationship, there is a high level of physical intimacy shown here:

And of course, the end credits silhouette:

So there you have it. These are the biggest reasons why I think these two are coded as a couple, but I’m sure there are many more that I’m not thinking of. I love these two so much, and I would love to hear other thoughts in support of their coding as a couple.

#mirabruno #brunobel #madrigalcest #proshippers please interact #brunibel #shipcest #mirabruno analysis #bruno x mirabel #brumira #brunomira #sorry for being obnoxious and putting all the ship names i know of this #family weirdos #family weirdos analysis #atws #c

[coolworldlitstuff]

The Brief Wonderous Life of Oscar Wao Chapter 1-3

I think Oscar’s childhood dates affected how he sees himself. At first he has two little girlfriends, one that is beautiful and one that isn’t in society’s eyes so he felt like he could have anything then the pretty girlfriend makes him break up with the other, in turn the pretty girlfriend leaves him for someone else. As he gets older, puberty doesn’t treat him well neither does it treat Olga, the girl he broke up with. I think both of them were negatively affected by the breaks they endured as kids because from a young age they learned about rejection.  He tried working out and did eventually get a hair cut but they were all temporary fixes with temporary results. I think maybe if he had actually focused on building his own identity and finding self love, it might have changed how he saw himself. 

In my opinion, he needed to drop his friends sooner, they weren’t really his friends if they were ashamed of him for looking the way he does. And the fact they went on dates and didn’t include him was wrong. It was good that he got away for a while and was able to focus on his writing. I don’t think that negatively affected him, yes he probably could have ended up getting a couple of dates or something but I think writing helped him become more self aware.

Ana was bad news from the beginning. The moment they became friends, I knew she was going to break his heart. Especially with the way she talked about her ex so much. I knew she wasn’t over him even if he treated her like less than dirt and was abusive. I felt bad for Oscar when he thought it was a date after she said he could call it that. I actually ended up in a very similar situation except I dated the person for almost a year and then they told me they just saw me as a friend and didn’t actually like me after they said it was dating so it was a mess and I completely related to Oscar in this situation. It made my heart hurt for him because it really sucks to think the person likes you back but in reality they just see you as a friend. But hopefully as the story progresses he comes to the realization that it’s okay and that happens in life and we shouldn’t let it get to us because there is so much more to life than someone liking us back. 

One thing I am confused by is did he actually kill Manny or did he just want to? The author doesn’t provide much detail afterwards so I’m still unsure.

I didn’t expect Oscar to make friends at school, especially at Rutgers even though this is a different setting from today, I know that school can have cliques. I feel bad for him and wish he had gone to a school that he would have fit into. He could have attended a school that focused on arts or something else in his field of interest.

Lola is my favorite character so far. I can relate to her and how she feels growing up and how her childhood trauma affects her. I feel one of the reasons she resented her mother is because the way the mother responded to her after Lola spoke out about it. I think this plays a huge role in why she changes the way she looks and makes herself into a person her mother would hate because being punk is considered rebellious. Punk culture is for the outcasts who are never going to be normal or accepted by society because they live outside of social norms without caring. I think she felt this might be a great way for her to rebel. 

Running away was not the best idea, either way she was trapped whether it was with the mother or the boyfriend and his looney father. I mean he clearly was crazy if he  doesn’t even want her to go into the refrigerator and as it progressed even her boyfriend starts to treat her poorly. She was sort of stuck at that point because she lost the job and now she was stuck in a toxic environment with no where to go.

When she decided to call home, I had a feeling she was going to get caught. I knew Oscar was going to say something. Oscar telling everyone really upsets me. I don’t think that Lola should be alone because that’s very dangerous but he shouldn’t have broken her trust. Especially that the mother fake cries and everything, like I think that shows how manipulative she can be. Although it probably worked out for Lola in the long run because she was able to visit her grandma. Lola visting her grandma was good for her in my opinion. The mother doesn’t really provide a healthy living environment for Lola so I think it’s good that she is with someone that is more respectful of her and loving towards her. Lola is definitely damaged from the mother’s verbal abuse so having somewhere to go that takes her away from it is a good thing. Plus she is attends a new school and is back to being involved in track. 

Beli’s past really shows why she has become the person that she is today. I think she felt displaced as a child and might have had an identity crisis. It is normal for teens to want to move away but I think the fact her parents died really affected her plus the way La Inca found her with scars in a chicken coop explains more. It seemed like she might have felt like she never had control over her life and felt insecure about it, and also didn’t like to be reminded of her past and where she came from. For instance when La Inca spoke of Beli’s parents, she would get upset about it and tell her she was her parent. Also the situation with her crush Jack, she wanted him to notice her but she blended in with everyone else and was of no importance to him until puberty hit and this changed everything for her. Men all over started noticing her, wanting to see her. Even the dentist tried to meet up with her which was creepy. But her new body made her feel in control. She realized she could have anything, not realizing physical attraction is not everything and most relationships based off attraction don’t last long. She was young and thought she and Jack would marry. But he of course was a player and was engaged to someone else. She gave him her virginity because she believed he was going to marry her. She was hung up on him even after he was sent to a military school. She still thought he would come back to her. I think that was a big problem for her, she was still very young and had the idea that fairytales existed and in the end that’s why she had her heart broken so many times. She could have taken La Inca’s advise and focused on school and built herself but I don’t think she knew how to. She didn’t have a stable self image and I think she thought you had to be with a man to be worth something. 

When she met Gangster, everything changed for her. She had just gotten over Jack and for her, I think she truly believed this was going to be her final love. I think beating him up made her feel more comfortable around him but I also think she liked that he had grabbed his arm. Clearly by the way he was described, he couldn’t have been too attractive so I don’t know what attracted her to him all I can think is that it was because he challenged her and she won.

She was so young and naïve that he thrived off it. He was able to make empty promises and she believed he loved her. I think that’s sad and he was so disgusting. I feel bad because she truly believed he would buy her a house and they would have a family and live happily ever after. But when she got pregnant he didn’t even want her to have it. Of course she told Dorca about being pregnant and she shouldn’t have but I think being pregnant made her feel grown up and it made her think she was closer to them getting married and living happily ever after but instead he was married to Trujillo’s sister and she wants her dead. It’s proof he didn’t care about her, even after she had been beaten half to death and lost the baby, he was so detached to that. I don’t understand why she still loved him and why she wasn’t sick of him. He told her they could have another baby, like how did that not make her angry? 

Also, why would she tell her ex boyfriends about her new love affair? I guess it’s because she was a child but that’s like a huge no-no. She was lucky she was able to beat up her ex and then also lucky the police let her go. That was crazy and I cannot imagine going through that.

Jose and Juan really cared about Beli from what I can tell. They ran to her aid when the Elvises came after her. Even after everything, they seemed to have still cared about her even though her boyfriend threated them to give her her job back.  

Mirabel Sisters died in canefields and I feel that if Beli stayed in DR then she would have died as they did even though El Jefe was killed. I think his sister would have definitely tracked her down to kill her. I don’t know why they left her alive in the first place but I think maybe they wanted to see if she would live or die out there. Maybe they did that with the sisters. Left them to see how long they would live until death.

Beli and Lola are actually quite similar. They both are very stubborn and they are ready to fight. They don’t want people messing with them and if you do, they’ll make you regret it. They both want to leave home and be their own autonomous person without being told what to do by a parent. I think Beli subconsciously sees herself in Lola and hates it. I also think she might be a strict parent because she doesn’t want Lola to make the same mistakes as her but I also in a way think she takes out her anger on her children because she is frustrated how her life turned out. She’s had her heart broken three times by three different men. Sometimes heart break can truly harden someone’s heart and they are afraid to let anyone in, even in a platonic manner.

[andtheyweresiblings]

Is it just my shipping goggles or did they intentionally make Bruno seem younger and Mirabel seem older than their given ages? Her mom looks older than Bruno even though they are both 50 and Mirabel and even Camillo don't come across as 15 especially is the song when he almost seems to seduce her and holds her bridal-style? It really messes with the mind lol

You know, it's funny. In my original analysis I wanted to go deeper into the fact that Bruno seems younger than his canon age and Mirabel seems more mature for her age, but I did not have a lot of concrete reasoning as to why this is, so I left it shorter, and ended up removing another point relating to this—specifically that they treat each other like equals and not like how other aunts/uncles are seen interacting with nephews/nieces in the film. But since you are bringing it up, I might as well share my jumbled thoughts on the topic.

Her mom looks older than Bruno even though they are both 50

I'm glad you mention this because when we look at Julieta vs Bruno, aside from who has more graying hair, Julieta actually looks to be in much better shape that Bruno. That's not to say it's an indication of youthfulness, but she does seem less worn out, at least psychically (her face and eyes specifically), than Bruno. But I agree that she comes across as more motherly (parent-like?) and mature than Bruno does. That could be explained by a couple of things, though, including stereotypes relating to birth order (Bruno was "the baby") and the fact that Bruno never had children.

I don't remember if I talked about why I think Bruno seems younger, but ultimately I think a lot of it has to do with how he holds himself and how he talks compared to his siblings. He slouches, holds his arms close to him, and ducks his head a lot. All of these posture choices are to make himself smaller, possibly less intimidating, and given the town's view on him, it's likely that this is intentional on his part. Then, of course, he talks pretty informally or, maybe more accurately, uses different phrasing and vocabulary compared to his siblings. Neither trait point to him actually being younger, but it does highlight the differences between him and his siblings, and the roles they play in the film. Julieta and Pepa are essentially family elders (for a lack of a better term), or at least on their way to that position. Whereas, because Bruno was essentially estranged long before he decided to live in Casita's walls, I think he got stuck in that role of younger adult with lower status in the family hierarchy.

Side note: I don't know if other Latines can relate, but I know in my family, you are not really considered or treated as a "full" adult until you are married with kids, regardless of your work/living/etc. status. Honestly, I could see that also influencing how Bruno is viewed by the family, which would also impact his own maturity and views of himself, though I doubt that would be anything the writers were trying to depict.

I also think Mirabel interacts with and talks to him differently than she is seen with the other adults in her family. From a writing perspective, this is probably due to the fact that they wanted Mirabel and Bruno to be working together as equals. From an in-universe perspective, it's also explainable when you consider that Mirabel didn't grow up with him, and because of this, she might not necessarily see him on the same level as the other adults in her family.

Mirabel and even Camillo don't come across as 15

This point raises another issue. I find in a lot of children's media, especially those by Disney, characters are often behaving in ways that I would consider more mature than expected for their age. And when considering the ages of other Disney characters, I honestly really don't care too much about canon ages because they don't always make a ton of sense to me.

Slight tangent: A lot of times, the canon age of a character is not a crucial part of the story. As in, the age doesn't make or break the plot, so to speak. I think the canon Encanto ages are a great example of that. I'd argue that most of the characters' ages (especially Mirabel's) could be changed in either direction, and that difference would do very little to how we view what happens in the film.

Of course, we could always use the "trauma affects how people develop and behave" explanation, but while it's very relevant for this film, I don't think it's necessary to apply, considering that this age/maturity incongruity is something that happens a lot in other media. I think this mismatch is more a logistics thing. The writers want to tell a story, and they want a character to be a certain way, but it's still directed towards children, so they feel the character needs to be within a certain age-range, so they make the character younger than what one might expect. I have no evidence of this, by the way, this is just me making guesses as to why this seems to happen so much.

That being said, I think it's within reason that Mirabel and Camilo are 15. It's one of the instances in which their behaviors can fit into a range of ages. 15 is just probably towards the bottom of that range.

To answer your question, I think there was some intention in how they depicted the age/maturity of Bruno and Mirabel, but I do think it comes from a place of Mirabel being the main protagonist and Bruno being one of her supports more than anything else. As I've said before, I do think that their couple coding was a result of a series of "unfortunate" coincidences, and this just happens to be one of those.

#madrigalcest #analysis #mirabruno #bruno x mirabel #brumira #brunomira #family weirdos #family weirdos analysis #asks #anon #we're going in the madrigalcest tag because it's the closest thing i have to the main fandom tag #family weirdos couple coding #atws #c #commentary