Isabela Madrigal/Relationships

The relationships of Isabela Madrigal.
==Family==
===Luisa Madrigal===
Luisa is Isabela's younger sister. Because they are both under a lot of pressure due to Alma's expectations, Isabela and Luisa are very close and understand each other. Although before she did not get along with Mirabel and is clearly distant from her, Isabela doesn't share the same strained relationship with Luisa and gets along with her from the start. In the novelization, it is revealed that Isabela lovingly made Luisa a flower crown for her to wear when she had her fifth birthday and had her gift ceremony, showing that Isabela has had a soft spot for her first younger sister from a very young age. In the film, the two don't interact much, but it's clear that Isabela thinks highly of Luisa and cares about her, posing also together in all the family photos. She was shown to be worried about Luisa when she cried during the proposal dinner, and was upset with Mirabel on Luisa's behalf when the latter's superhuman strength ​was fading. After she begins to express her true self and the family becomes closer as they rebuild the Casa Madrigal, Isabela becomes very close to Luisa and is affectionate with her. In "All of You", Isabela praises Luisa's strength and, along with Mirabel, gives her a comforting hug when Luisa admits that she sometimes shows weakness such as crying despite believing she should be strong, while her sisters admit that they cry too.
===Mirabel Madrigal===
Mirabel is Isabela's youngest sister. When they were younger, Isabela and Mirabel were very close but drifted apart as they got older due to their respective statuses in the family. By the start of the film, their relationship had become so strained that they have a mutual contempt for each other. Isabela's dislike of Mirabel is shown several times, such as being visibly annoyed when she "accidentally" flipped her hair in Mirabel's face, subsequently commenting that Mirabel was in the way. Isabela even sneered in anger when Mirabel could not prove that their house was in danger, rolling her eyes in annoyance. Isabela later proclaimed that she hated Mirabel for ruining her proposal dinner, even though Mirabel was trying to keep it from going badly by trying to prevent anyone from finding out about Bruno's vision. Despite this, Isabela's relationship with Mirabel dramatically improves during "What Else Can I Do?", when Mirabel helps her embrace her true self and the two sisters shared a genuine hug which causes the magic to become stronger and the candle to burn brighter, fulfilling Bruno's vision. When Casita was destroyed and Mirabel ran away in guilt, she showed concern for her sister and looked for her with the rest of the family.
===Pepa Madrigal===
Pepa is Isabela's maternal aunt. Despite their limited interaction in the film, Pepa and Isabela are shown to be incredibly close to the point of appearing to be mother and daughter. She is affectionate with her aunt, helping her calm down when she gets stressed or nervous. Pepa worries that Isabela's proposal will go well and treats her as if she were a second daughter. Because they both have dramatic personalities with powers closely tied to her emotions, Isabela is noticeably more connected to her aunt than to either of her parents. On the night of Antonio's gift ceremony, Isabela does the same dance that Pepa would do after the reconstruction of the Casita, implying that Isabela has learned some dance steps from Pepa. When Pepa was nervous that something might go wrong at Antonio's gift ceremony, Isabela appeared to calm her down and happily gave her a bouquet of roses, with Pepa and Félix thanking her. Isabela's closeness with her aunt is best seen in "We Don't Talk About Bruno", where she and Pepa dance and hold hands while smiling. This is the only moment that Isabela doesn't have a fake smile about her proposal with Mariano, so possibly for a moment, she forgot about the proposal because she was having fun dancing with her aunt.
===Dolores Madrigal===
Dolores is Isabela's younger cousin by a few weeks. Being older than her, Isabela overshadowed her cousin all her life and left her in her shadow, to the point that Dolores has been nicknamed "Isa's Shadow". Although their relationship is described as complicated mainly due to Dolores' feelings towards Mariano, in the film is seen that both are very close and it's clear that they love each other very much to the point of looking like sisters. Isabela isn't very affectionate with her family at the beginning due to her role in her family, but she proves to be very close to Dolores even before she begins to express her true self and free herself from the expectations of others, treating Dolores as if she is her third younger sister. During Antonio's gift ceremony, Isabela holds Dolores' hand while hugging her reassuringly for most of the ceremony and they wait for Antonio to receive his magical gift. Dolores for her part, never showed jealousy or hatred towards Isabela for being their family's golden child and neither treats her badly or hates her because of her commitment to Mariano, the man she had fallen in love with, possibly understanding how much Isabela does for the family. In "All of You", Isabela is noticeably excited and happy for Dolores when she proclaims her feelings for Mariano and they become a couple, supporting her cousin with her romance.
===Camilo Madrigal===
Camilo is Isabela's second younger cousin. Unlike the more loving relationship she has with her other cousins, Isabela doesn't get along with Camilo and doesn't like being around him. Due to her previous pursuit of perfection, her calm and elegant personality constantly clashed with he loud and fun nature, causing some friction between them. In the same way that she treated Mirabel at the beginning, Isabela is cold and dismissive towards Camilo and attacks him with flowers when he makes fun of her. He acts like an annoying younger sibling towards her, since of all the family members, Isabela is the person he enjoys teasing the most, much to her frustration. During the film, one of the things in which Camilo teases Isabela the most consecutively is for her commitment to Mariano, whom she has no love for, and every time he is near her he transforms into the man to annoy her. As she began to eat during breakfast, Camilo shapeshifts into Mariano and made kissy faces at her, which a visibly annoyed Isabela responds to by throwing flowers in his face. Despite her irritation with him, Isabela truly cares about Camilo and can worry for him. After they lost their gifts during their attempts to save the Miracle Candle and had to be saved by Casita, Isabela's first instinct was to quickly glance at her cousin worried that he had hurt himself by falling off a great height.
===Antonio Madrigal===
Antonio is Isabela's third younger cousin. Being her youngest cousin, she is very fond of Antonio and loves him. As with Dolores, Isabela is very good with Antonio and enjoys his company. Due to his young age, Antonio, unlike the other grandchildren, apparently never felt overshadowed by Isabela. At the beginning of the film, Isabela wanted Antonio's gift ceremony to go well and decorated the entire Casa Madrigal with flowers for her cousin's special day. When Mirabel goes to help Antonio to his door when asked by him, Isabela looks on in annoyance due to worrying that Mirabel was going to mess up the ceremony and Antonio wouldn't receive his magical gift. After her cousin's ceremony is successful, Isabela waved her hands in a jump of joy when her cousin received his gift and she is quite impressed when Antonio mounts his jaguar around in his new room for the first time. After Mirabel interrupted Antonio's party, Isabela looked at her sister with a lot of anger because she thought she was envious of Antonio's successful ceremony and wanted to ruin the day. In the family photo after the house is rebuilt and the magic returns to the Encanto, Isabela happily tries to reach for her cousin when his jaguar carries him away. In the graphic novels, the two are shown to get along very well, as they sit together during meals and enjoy exploring the potential of their gifts.
===Alma Madrigal===
Alma is Isabela's maternal grandmother. She respects her grandmother and wants to make her proud, valuing Alma's opinion of her very much. Ever since she was a little girl, Isabela has been Alma's favorite grandchild and she thinks very highly her. She is considered to be "perfect" in her grandmother's eyes and Alma is incredibly affectionate towards Isabela, lovingly kissing her cheek and hugging her several times. Being the eldest of the grandchildren, Alma placed very high expectations on Isabela from an early age and this forced her to have to be the “golden child” of the family. Isabela was willing to fit into her grandmother's vision of perfection even if it meant sacrificing her own happiness, the biggest examples of this being Isabela suppressing how she truly feels to project an image of perfection, and going along with an engagement to Mariano despite not wanting to marry him nor loving him. Despite appearing to be happy with all of this, Isabela secretly feels an overwhelming amount of responsibility to keep her family happy and fulfill Alma's wishes, unintentionally making her sisters and cousins feel inadequate living in her shadow.
Even after expressing her true self and evolving her power in "What Else Can I Do?", Isabela is still very afraid of upsetting or disappointing her grandmother. When Alma gets mad at her for the mess she accidentally caused in the town, Isabela goes from confident and happy to scared and ashamed. She also knows that she will never be able to meet Alma's expectations or be as "perfect" as she wishes, looking down in shame when Mirabel states this in her fight with her. Even after Alma initially didn't like her true self, when the house started to break down and everyone started to stumble on the cracking floor, Isabela's first instinct is to prioritize Alma's safety. As the Casa Madrigal collapsed, she tried to save the Miracle Candle because all her life Alma has said that it's the most important object in the Encanto, showing how devoted she was to her grandmother's ideals. By the end of the movie, realizing that the real miracle is their family and not the gifts, Alma no longer expects Isabela to be perfect and allows her to express her true self. 
===Bruno Madrigal===
Bruno is one of Isabela's uncles and the only one by blood. Although he was reserved when he was still in the Casa Madrigal, Bruno has a clear fondness for Isabela even before she became the golden child of the family. When she was little girl, Isabela received a vision from her uncle who showed her that she would live the life of her dreams and that her power would grow, trusting that she will be happy in the future. Though Bruno's vision for her may have sounded positive, it is possible that it actually added more pressure for her to be perfect and meet Alma's expectations. While it's unknown what Isabela thought of her long-lost uncle when he left the family, being old enough to remember him before he left, she is clearly aware that, contrary to what many people say, Bruno is a good man. During "We Don't Talk About Bruno", similar to Dolores, she doesn't say anything bad about him or remember Bruno in a negative way, although she never says that she doesn't talk about him. When Bruno returned to the family in "All of You", Isabela is surprised but nonetheless happy along with everyone to have him back.
==Acquaintances ==
===Mariano Guzmán===
Mariano was initially Isabela's soon-to-be fiancé by the will of her grandmother Alma. Although Isabela doesn't treat Mariano badly, she never loved him nor was she interested in him, agreeing to marry him to make her family happy. Throughout the film, Isabela feigns joy at her impending proposal with Mariano and she would refuse to admit that she didn't really love him. In "The Family Madrigal", Isabela doesn't notice him when Mariano looks at her dreamily and ignores him when Mirabel introduces him. During breakfast, she also got mad when Camilo shapeshifted into Mariano and refused to look at him, showing from the beginning that Isabela had a hard time accepting that she had to marry the man. In the dinner proposal, Isabela was nice to Mariano, but had a visibly forced smile on her face during his proposal due to her unhappiness with the arrangement, and the fact that she doesn't want to marry him. 
Isabela also unintentionally broke his nose twice. The first during the proposal when she got scared by the cracks that appeared around the house and lost control of her gift, later saying that his nose looks like a smashed papaya during her argument with Mirabel. The second was in "What Else Can I Do?", when she began experimenting with her powers while Alma was talking to the Guzmáns. Despite not having romantic feelings for Mariano, Isabela seems to be able to recognize him is a good person and at least someone to be friends with. At the party in Antonio's new room, she dances and chatting amiably with Mariano, and during "All of You", she was happy when Mariano fell in love with her cousin Dolores and became a couple with her. Because of these factors, their relationship is likely to be a more positive one with no hard feelings, as neither of them were actually fully invested in their failed engagement.
==References==
Category:Relationships
Category:Encanto relationships