Raya vs. Encanto - How One Message Failed and Another Succeeded

appreciate how you pointed out that Alma was the antagonist but not the villain.

What Encanto did properly is how Mirabel didn't say "I forgive you" after Alma's apology. She says that "nothing could ever be broken that we cannot fix" which is beautiful because it means she doesn't instantly forgive Alma, however she will work towards full forgiveness while also fixing the broken relationship the family has.

my literal younger cousin got so confused about the message of trust in Raya and the Last dragon. Like she legit asked "But were supposed to not trust some people? What if they are bad?"

Raya in a nutshell: "Don't be so hasty to judge children, maybe the creepy stranger really does have candy in his windowless van."

I loved how there was no twist villain in "Encanto", with Abeula being the closest thing to an antagonist, yet she's revealed to have understandable motives behind her actions.

A detail I really really liked in Encanto is how Mirabel did get the candle when the house crumbled, but when the others rush back in when it’s safe, when her mother runs to her asking worriedly if she’s okay, checking her for injuries, she doesn’t even think to look for or ask about the candle

Namari is basically like “I wanna bring everyone back, but I want the credit.”

It's like Raya was written by a narcissist who thinks, "Why don't people just unconditionally trust me?"

Mirabel's Dad response of "I was thinking of my daughter" is such a G move

mirabel’s gift being bringing her family to reality was such a great peaceful resolution, but i really wish we saw what kind of room casita built for her! after all that work repairing generational trauma she deserves all the sewing machines and skeins of yarn she wants.

Will never forget my godawful experience watching Raya. I was in a social skills group, and the teacher decided to put on a movie. 7 of us voted for Tinkerbell, 1 person voted for a Nic Cage movie. Teacher didn't want that one person to be unhappy, so she put on Raya as a compromise. Literally all of us hated it. We were shittalking the movie the entire time, multiple people just straight up left partway through, and we asked the teacher not to show the movie to her kids bc it had such terrible values. The kicker? I looked over partway through the movie to the Nic Cage guy and he was watching a different movie on his phone. We got put through all of that for nothing. I wanted to strangle him.

Raya's message actually reminds me of a class I had once, in which the teacher said that no matter the abuse or differences, we should NEVER disconect with someone or chose to keep the relationship purely professional. On his words: "It's cruel and immature to not have a relationship with someone. You always should put in the work to build something, even in a broken/one sided relation". He eve went out of his way to say that even a r4pist dad should receive a chance/attempt at relationship fixing from the r4ped daughter. Till this day his class is infuriating to me. And Raya is exactly the same kind of message

Can we just talk about how Disney nailed that painful ugly cry perfectly from Alma after she lost her husband. Idk why it's so captivating, but its just, "mwah", chefs kiss!

The message for Raya is "trust everyone even if they stabbed you in the back over n over"

So Sisu was that one person who believed everything they read on the internet

Mirabel’s dad saying, “I was thinking about my daughter!“ Is such a G move.

Mirabel's "I will never be good enough for you" after the brief moment of silence during their argument caught me totally off guard and hit like a truck. Whenever I rewatch the movie, it just gets me everytime.

I'm so glad to see someone giving Raya the dragging it deserves tbh. "Sisu died because you didn't trust her" No she died because you fucking shot her. And even the intended message if you ignore how reductive it is fails because, like, Sisu has been demonstrably naive to the point of self endangerment several times already?

Raya’s story is sadly how many people live, others denying abuse. My grandmother still denies to this day that my father ever abused me, and i felt so alone for a long time, but Encanto is incredible man.. beautifully animated, and Alma has an amazing redemption arc

I think that there is an even better scene with Zuko redemption. In the western air temple where all four members of team avatar all had different acceptance levels of Zuko. Toph was fine with it because the only other experiences she had of Zuko were Iroh talking about him and when they teamed up against Azula, so she didn't mind Zuko. Aang who was reluctant still was accepting because he needed a fire bending teacher and he has had a few positive interactions with Zuko before. Which the next episode showed that they became a good team. Then Sokka who didn't trust Zuko that much was ok with it because Aang was. During the boiling rock, they worked together and ended up making a good team causing Sokka to be fine with Zuko. Then Katara who was hurt the most hated the idea of Zuko working with them and was mad at Zuko until the Southern raiders. Then Katara finally decided to forgive Zuko after the episode. This shows great multiple levels of trust that Raya didn't even try to do.