When Dolores said "Mirabel didn't get one." Not only is it common knowledge, but she could hear Mira avoiding the question. If it had been me saying that, it would be because I was trying to help. As you said, the kids were going to find out. Mira didn't want to say it and the kids were NOT going to let up. I would think "I'll say it so you don't have to."
Not to negate the idea that she was trying to help - because that too - but am I really the only one who would get frustrated/impatient if I had to listen to someone avoid a question I KNOW they can’t avoid forever over and over again? Dolores could hear the entire song. The kids had been insisting repeatedly and the sooner someone told them the sooner everyone could move on…
@@bookcat123 I get this too but the song probably had to fit the plot and pace also maybe the the amount of times Mirabel panicked over the question was like supposed to tell us about her character. They probably were trying to finish the song and tell us more about the main character.
@@lavenderpixel9092 I’m not saying it’s not believable - it’s completely believable. And a fun song simultaneously. I’m just saying that by the time they reach the house, Dolores would (justifiably) be very ready to tell the kids Mirabel doesn’t have a gift so everyone can move on from that conversation.
My head cannon for why Dolores didn't tell anyone directly about Bruno: when he first disappeared, she TRIED to say something, but Abuela immediately dismissed her, saying something like, "Don't be crazy, mija. That's just the rats in the wall." So Dolores knew that everyone would just think she's crazy or imagining things if she told them the truth.
Also, they don't get into when talking about this, how much Abuela intimidated the whole family into silence on the topic? Like they had a whole song about it? They didn't talk about Bruno. That was essentially a royal decree from grandma.
I don't think so. If she had told them her gift helps track him down, I bet they would've believed her. But it was for the best for the family to be torn apart at this point of their history because of Abuela's toxic predisposition.
It is also implied she was constantly talking abt hearing bruno still and everyone chalked it up to grief Like allot of problems they had Allot. They dont listen to anyone telling someone abt a problem. Mirabel ends up listening out of obligation at first with both sisters. When she actually listens to what has been being said the whole ass time she actually relates and works to fix these problems. No one listens to one another.
As a latino guy I can absolutely say that Dolores knowing a secret in voices (a secret that everyone knows) and not doing anything cause is taboo and must be a secret is the most latinoamerican way to do things.
Agreed. But personally I cannot stand that shit. Our fellow Latinos better start learning to figure that shit out before it blows up in their face. My family learned that the hard way. Granted they'll still try to keep secrets from people they shouldn't, or even from the specific people that should know that secret, but don't care because it's taboo. And yet everybody else knows. I don't care if it's normal monks are full of latinos, it needs to fucking stop. In the case of my family, it has literally ruined relationships and connections because people don't want to talk about it and deal with it and get it out of the way. I personally have once been the result of one of those taboo little secrets. The last one to know when I should have been the first one. It's my body, my health condition I have to deal with, and I was the last person to know. They should be grateful I don't hang it over their heads every second I get. Shit like that needs to stop.
I got to see her voice actress at a con recently! She was really sweet! Apparently her daughter was the voice for "SHE WAS ABOUT TO TELL HER ABOUT HER SUPER AWESOME GIFT!!" girl
When bring your kid to work day also gives them bragging rights “I got to see a firetruck” “I saw how factories make beer”(aka my bring your kid to work experience with my father lol) “I got to be in a Disney movie”
As an autistic afrolatino, I relate SO much to Dolores. Specifically with her sound sensitivity and overhearing stuff she shouldn't. Even tho I love Luisa too 'cause, y'know, ✨buffed women ✨
You do realize that all latinos have African blood in them right- you don’t need to state that, you can just say latino? (Not tryna pick a fight, just saying)
@@youraveragemexorican how about if we don't try to police how other people identify or which words they use to describe themselves? After all, it's called an Identity, not a YOUdentity.
I personally think the scene while Casita was cracking was likely particularly difficult for her, everyone's gifts are noticeably misfunctioning and part of her gift was the ability to filter sounds as well, must have been intensely overstimulating.
I figured that she _didn't_ hear it. Dolores's gift was her hearing. Like Luisa feeling her strength falter, Dolores would've had her hearing flicker while the cracks appeared. But because she was in a extremely noisy party, she might not have noticed her hearing falter. She never heard the cracks.
That actually makes a lot more sense now that I think about it, because if her power was, not technically and or purely super hearing but filtering sound, all that noise would be totes overstimulating and hence her covering her ears.
@@lavengale Except that Casita gave Dolores a room with soundproofing: 4:22 - 4:42 (official, tweeted by Jared Bush). She also can control her hearing: 14:05 - 14:40 (this is especially clear in the scene at breakfast where Abuela asks her about the Guzmáns). IMO this means that Dolores was born with very sensitive hearing and very likely also difficulties with screening out sounds, which lead to her often becoming overwhelmed by auditory input. Casita could not make her hearing less sensitive, because that was the way Dolores was born = the trait was permanent. So Casita gave her some help: control of her hearing and a room that offers her a reliable refuge. Therefore, when Luisa felt weak, Dolores felt overwhelmed by sounds, and Bruno felt extra anxious because he suddenly had no inkling what the future might hold. However, all the others who were in Antonio's room might have missed it, because they were happily dancing. Pepa's strong happy emotions "imploded" instead of showing outwards, Julieta's ability to heal faltered, Camillo's ability to shapeshift, Antonio's ability to understand animals and Isabela's ability to grow plants likewise. That's at least my headcanon.
@@ronjaj.addams-ramstedt1023 Dolores wasn't in *her* bedroom. She was in Antonio's. As she and Lucia were the only ones who could physically feel their powers 24/7, she could have thought she was having a senory flare during the party, which, *it's a loud, noisy party,* makes complete sense. Also, Burno was the only other person who saw the cracks. When he 'left', his powers went dormant. He *couldn't* access them. That's why the door lost it's glow, (but regained it when Burno reawakened his powers for Mirabel), Casita couldn't enter Burno's room, and the room had fallen into ruins. The others, if they felt the flicker, were too busy partying to notice, like you said.
Okay, so if Dolores' room is sound proofed, she must stay up pretty late in the common areas of the house because she mentioned she could hear Luisa's eye twitching all night. And as an insomniac autistic, I can relate.
I am autistic and when i watched encanto for the first time Dolores stuck out so hard. My parents always yelled at me for somehow managing to hear everything im not supposed to and just sharing said information with everyone. My parents called it "Selective Hearing" I couldnt hear what they wanted me to hear, but you bet i magically heard them whispering in the other room.
@@ZoraVisions it was great because i have adhd, autism, and extreme anxiety that causes hallucinations... so like i would gain information and then forget immediately then randonly my brain would remember and panic that other people might want to know.
i think i have smth similar?? its easy for me to just straight up hear and not understand what is said close to me but i can pretty successfully hear and understand smth far away
What you said about her having a reputation as a gossiper but in fact she is really good as keeping secrets is so true. For every secret she has told someone I bet she was keeping hundreds more to herself
It's sexism too. If she were male, nobody would call her a "gossip" it's a slur used entirely to mean "woman who talks more than I want her to which is zero"
The way Dolores says "Mirabel didn't get one" super casually, to me, read as her completely accepting Mirabel just as she is and not even viewing the lack of gift as a big deal. The idea people could spin that into something bad is wild to me. In my opinion, people reading the neurodivergent character as evil for their ND traits tells me way more about them than it does about the character.
Absolutely! From the first time I watched, the way she just said it so matter-of-factly and moved on seemed like she didn't think it was worth making a big scene about, that it's not some big reveal that defines Mirabel's value as a person, because it isn't (or at least shouldn't be). Also the script literally says she thought she was being helpful there so there's that
I understand and i fully agree with you but for some people it could still be viewed as kinda rude since we see mirabel trying to ignore the question and was uncomfortable in this situation then dolores waltz in and says she doesn't have a gift and right after that we have scenes of isabella and abuela being mean to mira which didn't help
@@Hollowmello1285 Neurodivergent people often say things that are considered rude on accident. Learn to have some grace and kindness for people rather than getting mad at innocent accidents.
Honestly, most of the Madrigals didn’t seem to treat her awfully because of her lack of gift. Her parents were always loving and supportive, Luisa was a caring older sister, Pepa, while she did get visibly annoyed with her multiple times, is just a person who is aggregated easily, Felix is nice to her, Camilo tries to scare her in WDTAB, but that just feels like normal cousin teasing, and Dolores is also kind. It’s just Abuela and Isabela who seem to treat her differently and the former’s just had a major impact
On the comment about Dolores using the cultural squeak as a stim: yes 100%! I’ve sung in choir for years, I threw myself into singing the second my school offered it. In choir, before you actually start singing, you want to warm up your voice; one of the warm ups my choir does are lip trills (this brrr sort of thing). Guess what? I tend to trill my lips a lot, even outside of choir. People can absolutely take things they know and use them as stims. It’s absolutely cool to be aware of the cultural origins of the squeaks, but that origin doesn’t mean it *can’t* be a stim as well
Those are probably my least favorite warmups in my choir class because I can't lip trill very well, sometimes it works flawlessly sometimes it cuts for no reason, sometimes it just comes out as a hmmm, mostly the middle one
I was born in Hawaii (though I've lived in Canada most of my life) and I remember someone teaching me a certain hand-shaking movement that apparently represents the concept of "life" in hula dance. I do it to stim all the time!
This!!! I'm from the Midwest, and the infamous "ope" Became a vocal stim of mine since everyone around me says it as a derivative of "ow" or "oh!" And I picked up on it, and I've never heard anyone mention cultural related Stims before.
what I love about hearing people's headcanons of autistic Encanto characters is that it's a small sample size example of "if you've met one autistic person, you've met one autistic person"...I've heard many autistic people online say they saw Dolores and immediately related to her intensely, when I hadn't even considered autistic Dolores until I saw people talking about it - I just didn't relate to her like others did but when I saw Encanto for the first time, when I saw Bruno for the first time, literally all my brain could say was 'oh my god, that's ME'...the way he did everything, said everything, it was relatable to me on a level I don't think I'd EVER seen before when people say that they saw themselves, and continue to see themselves, in Dolores it makes me so happy for them...because Bruno did that for me, and it continues to be one of the greatest feelings in my life (shoutout to Pepa, who is also a common autistic headcanon - though unfortunately she did not fit in the flow of this comment)
y e s Bruno was really relatable when I first saw him, as both an autistic and someone with OCD the constant tapping: Both something to keep his family safe and stimming anxiety about how his actions affected the visions: Just like how feeling like something small one does could end the world. His lack of communication ability: Very obviously something other autistics feel I love the Pepa theory too! her not being able to control her feelings and expressing them at 100 constantly seems like the direct opposite of Dolores, and they both work!
I think this is why we need more diverse representation in the media. There usually is just one autistic-coded character in a typical movie, so the emphasized traits tend to always be the same easily recognizable ones, and those aren’t necessarily the ones we particularly relate to. I think it’s great that in cases like this, different autistic individuals can identify with one character or another for a variety of reasons. I felt similarly in another fandom of mine recently. For those who know Moominvalley, a lot of autistic fans were delighted when season 3 introduced Snork as an autistic character, and I think that’s awesome, but I’ve personally seen a lot more of myself in Snufkin all along. I’ve only seen Encanto once, but I also remember Bruno making a stronger impression on me than Dolores did (though I’ll definitely pay more attention to her next time I watch the movie). Feeling seen and understood through at least some characters’ experiences is so important and validating !
@@StarlitSwamp FYI Snorken has been autistic coded at least since "Kometen kommer" (Comet in Moominland), the first book where he appeared. And he may well have also been in the original comics (I have not read even half of them but I have read and reread all nine books, in Swedish). For example, when Snorkfröken (Snork Maiden) asks Snorken to fetch firewood, he is gone for a very long time. When he returns and someone (she?) asks what took so long, he retorts that it is hard to find sticks of exactly the same length. Mumin / Sniff / Snusmumriken (Snufkin) -- I forget which -- then asks Snorkfröken if Snorken is always that pedantic and she affirms, shrugging. It's just how her brother is. (edited to add the English names, I can never remember them off the top of my head)
@@ronjaj.addams-ramstedt1023 That’s true, thanks for the relevant example. I must admit that I’m not as familiar with the books, but even in the 90’s anime, Snork seemed like this very intellectual, straightforward, reclusive type that’s likely to be read as possibly autistic. I think it’s neat that the new series addresses that more directly, by sometimes having him explain why other characters’ statements confuse him, or by showing how some things can be triggering from his perspective, like the unpredictability of balloons popping at a party. In more subtle (and probably unintentional) ways, I think many other characters from the Moomins’ universe seem to have a certain amount of traits that could also be associated with autism, despite not being sufficient for serious conclusions to be drawn. There are a lot of little instances where I can particularly relate to Snork’s experiences, but other things like Little My’s bluntness or Moominmamma’s imperturbable demeanor also resonate with me more than fictional character behaviors usually do. As someone who only got diagnosed as an adult because my autistic traits don’t stand out in the most stereotypical ways, it was really Snufkin’s character that seized me with an unusual feeling of being understood. For me, my autism mostly manifests in the form of overwhelming anxiety, social exhaustion, and pressure to conform to others’ ideas of how caring should be shown. I can relate on such a deep level to the struggle between a vital need for solitude and genuine consideration for people whose feelings might be hurt by our conflicting needs. Snufkin tends to come across as distant and closed off, but he’s the kind of person who weeps at the destruction of nature and who has drastically adapted his lifestyle to suit a friend’s, keeping only one season (the Moomins’ hibernation) to himself. Of all the beautiful themes in those stories, I don’t think there’s anything that warms my heart and gives me hope for my own relationships quite as much as seeing Moomintroll (very slowly) learn to give Snufkin the space he needs without fear of losing him.
The thing is ... Dalores DID tell everyone ... repeatedly ... and no one paid attention. She heard rats talking in the wall... but she cannot understand animals ... she mentioned "I can hear him now" throughout the song ... and everyone ignored it
It doesn't look like Cinemasins have paid attention to critique for several years. Exhibits A-D: Jessie Gender's four, pretty long analysis videos over the span of at least three years (maybe five? I don't remember) with a zillion easy examples of how Cinemasins could do better. Like tips for how to not contradict a comment in a video in the _same_ video -- that bar should not be too high, right? However, the result: crickets.
When I found out I was autistic and started getting my noise sensitivity she helped me get through this hard time in my life So now whenever I get overwhelmed (due to a noisy environment) I watch Encanto and it does help!
Some more insight into what Dolores is doing with her hands, since can look like you are praying and latinoamerica is in its mayority Catholic, no one would call you out for that (unlike crossing your arms, jumping or doing repetitive movements). I often do it too when I'm overwhelmed.
This video perfectly sums up my issues with the outside attitude to character interpretation. I honestly suspected that Dolores might not have fully believed her own ears when she heard Bruno in the walls, she always seemed to be second-guessing herself on that front. But yeah, I totally relate to her, too.
Honestly the constantly second guessing yourself is also a trait in autism. Although I believe it to be more of a learned behaviour as we easily mess up social situations as an actual trait of autism itself.
@@laartje24 indeed, I can certainly agree that it’s a trait I’ve picked up. To me it was another reason why she didn’t directly say that Bruno was in the walls (not that that by itself would have made anything better) she may have thought she were imagining his voice within the house, or she might have even mentioned it in the past but got dismissed. But yeah, I knew there was a reason her behaviour and habits were familiar.
My Dolores head canon is that as a kid, especially right after she got her gift, she would overhear everything and tell people what she heard. People got upset about her doing so, and abuela decided that Dolores’ gift was better suited for her simply listening and not telling. That, and she maybe sort of understood why Bruno went into hiding, because even if he didn’t voice his thoughts loudly, Dolores heard him. That’s why she didn’t tell the family that Bruno never technically left. They would think she was crazy, get mad that she even brought up the sore topic in the first place, and the guilt would rest solely on Dolores’ shoulders.
This is too dark for Disney so it is not canon but my head-canon is that "casita" is really just the ghost of their grandfather, nurturing his children and grandchildren in his own way, and he truly never left his wife.
I have toyed with this thought, too. It does not feel dark in an ominous way to me, just heartbreakingly tragic and also beautifully loving. Which is still too dark for Disney, obviously.
Severe PTSD we also often develop auditory processing disorders, specifically in being able to focus on individual sounds. It can be a huge problem for us too. PTSD can very much change the brain and affect our bodies. I had perfect vision before my trauma, I could control my ability to hear, I didn't have phantom pains. I'd just thought I'd spread this bit of information that we also struggle with similar symptoms to the sensory overload department as it's not wildly known but something we relate to as well
I wonder what all circumstances can lead to auditory processing issues. I know I have issues with it, and I'm not autistic...but my dad is, and when I was growing up the household was arranged to be as accommodating to his auditory sensitivity as possible, so it was a very quiet home.
I have both autism and PTSD. Sounds are a literal nightmare for me as my autism makes me hypersensitive to sounds and makes me not able to filter them, and then my PTSD makes me have panic attacks everytime a sound comes in to loud, and I also have specific auditory triggers that I can now hear even better due to my autism. And on top of that I have exactly the same thing going on with touch. It's so frustrating. Sorry for the venting, disabilities do be frustrating some times.
M00D! I am autistic and also have PTSD. Although I didn't know that my PTSD could affect my densities like that... This may of just answered a lot of unanswered question marks that I didn't even see before... Thanks *convenient nod* Thanks a lot actually.
I didn't know that? I have both autism and PTSD from being bullied (for having autism). The two conditions often co-occur as most autistic children are bullied so inevitably the abuse we suffer causes many more of us to have PTSD than the general population (I saw one study that said as high as 70% of all autistic people also had PTSD).
I feel like between her powers and the expectations put on her, it's more than understandable that she wouldn't feel like she was supposed to interfere with things. Technically, she's part of every conversation in the entire town, but she figured out pretty early on that she couldn't treat it like that.
I have watched MatPat’s theory so I can give you the synopsis (I do not agree with it so put it near “Sans is Ness”). Basically the theory is that she did things to make certain that Bruno’s vision of “Mirabel ends the miracle” comes to true. This comes from the thought process that she sees her gift as a burden and would be thankful it being gone, along with a blessing to her mother losing their gift as both gifts are not able to be turned off. I do not agree with this theory, but it is not coming from malice, it’s from rewatching something over and over and brain racing on threads you think you see. I also love when she mentions the “he wants 5 babies” ‘cause I’m pretty certain that is an attempt to sabotage since Isabella was clearly uncomfortable by that knowledge and Dolores’ side eye
I really liked MatPat's video because of the several times she quietly and overtly sabotaged things for her family. Also, the amount of malice to hear a relative openly suffering for years and not mention it even once is pretty messed up. Her story as an Anti-Hero trying to get rid of the magic makes total sense for her. I would love to see this even more in a sequel about her being alienated even from her family because of this burden. The narrative of weighing your own personal happiness vs the happiness of your family was already explored through the older sister. However, she was content with the way things turned out. It could be more of temporary relief vs long-term happiness. Overall, 10/10 theory from MatPat that I fully get behind. It's one of the best he's done in months.
@@void405 Malice?? You might reconsider after watching this video: "The Double Empathy Problem" by Stephanie Bethany and maybe checking out some of her sources (listed in the video's description).
@@void405 "the amount of malice to hear a relative openly suffering for years and not mention it even once is pretty messed up." _Openly?_ When? (I assume you're talking about Bruno's case here but actually this does apply to the other family members' struggles too, pretty much every Madrigal does this) He's not openly suffering, he's hiding and bottling up his suffering so much that his presence alone is a secret to, as far as we know, all but him and Dolores. I mean, honestly, he could have made himself known at any time. Dolores knows that he's hiding. Yes, Bruno hiding is hurtful too in the long run, but him being outed could be catastrophic for him and the rest of the family. Outing him would hurt him, and he clearly wants to hide, so she keeps his secret. I can't see that as malice.
I think his video makes more sense if you think Dolores can't turn her powers off. If she can then there is no argument for the video. But I think the theory would be plausible if someone comes at it from a concept that she can not control it, because all that sound all the time would probably make anyone a little desperate.
As someone who has hearing a sensitivity’s due to neurodivergency, I feel these conversations are really important. Even within fandom spaces. Thanks for making this video, it made me smile. Keep up the great work!
Is she a gossip? I'm having a hard time thinking of a time where she offered information without someone else first looking for the information. Even the little kids were looking for knowledge about Mirabel's gift. The main times she does so were the dinner scene with the prophecy and her confession with Mariano at the end; both of which the video addresses.
Dolores is my favorite character. I love her outfit, I love her hair, I love her eyes and makeup, and I love how she is simultaneously both hyper aware of herself and everyone around her while also being somewhat oblivious to her own behavior. Like, the relatability is strong with this one.
to further support your idea about Dolores being able to control her hearing and that casita is helping her via this power: i have an auditory processing disorder (which can be either its own thing or a symptom of a condition, like autism) which is where my brain cannot sort through sounds. i describe is as "i can you speak, but i cant hear your words", "i cant hear you unless im looking at you", "i cant hear you from the other room but i can hear a car door slam down the street", "this is too noisy, i cant hear anybody or anything", and "you sound like an adult from a Peanuts cartoon/you sound like youre speaking a foreign language that i dont know". like, my ears work fine, i always pass the infamous Beep Test that doctors role out; but it can be really hard for my brain to sort out language, esp if there's multiple people talking. i can also get overstimulated by this; and i even have to talk to my teachers/professors that i cant participate in group discussions because everyone in the room is talking at once now, having explained the experience for anybody who wasnt aware of auditory processing disorders: i cannot imagine how hard it is for Dolores to function with everything happening all at once, always. i would be overstimulated, i wouldnt be able to hear anybody's words, or even be able to focus enough to communicate. that's if we intrepret Dolores power as uncontrollable (which i would argue strongly against). obviously, Dolores would be suffering similarly if she didnt have control (which therefore proves that she does have control). now, intrepting Dolores as someone who is autistic and has auditory processing disorder as one her symptoms is REALLY INTERESTING in the sense that i have mentioned my auditory condition to my doctor, and she actually recommended me to an audiologist my audiologist confirmed my condition, and then said to me-- while my ears/hearing are fine, and this is my BRAIN having an issue with processing that is causing overstimulation and whatnot-- that i should be wearing hearing aids to combat my auditory processing disorder. she explained to me that recent studies show that being able to alter the volume would force my brain to re-process my enviroment so my auditory processing disorder moments can be cut off and become shorter. along with the option of having a mic synced up to my hearing aids to focalize my hearing aids ro a specific person, like giving the mic to a professor so i can hear them even if someone whispers to a friend sitting behind me. literally, the ability to focalize volume subjectively to what i need would allow to stop being overstimulated and be able to teach my brain how to tune things out. and this makes perfect sense to me because, even before i had this knowledge, i CONSTANTLY have been walking around with these noise-canceling headphones on that i use to play music so i can function while my campus is super noisy by drowning them out and focusing on this One Auditory Thing with a volume level i can control. so rather than retreating from this enviroment like i had been with my headphones, hearing aids would give an another avenue to focalize my interaction with my enviroment and not get overstimulated and continue to process what's around me (my noise-cancelling headset-- a thing that doesn't play music-- also helps similarly but it's not to same and it can be hard to hear what's around me that isn't close by). (it should be stated that no treatment works perfectly for everyone, however. this treatment-- both my noise-cancelling headphones that plays music, my noise-cancelling headset that doesn't play anything, and my hearing aids + mic work GREAT for me. they might not for everyone. but it is becoming a more popular way to treat this symptom, so-- this is an avenue you can check out) this obviously wouldnt work well for things like fireworks and whatnot, where the outside enviroment itself is too loud in a way that is unrelated to language (as we see with Dolores clutching her ears as they go off at her little brother's party). BUT in cases like a calm day-to-day where everyone is at a level volume?? hearing aids would help me tremendously (and that's most of what Dolores faces in this rural town) therefore, casita giving Dolores hearing aids + an optional mic as a superpower to help her function and be able to better process her environment would not only be a good reading like you are describing, but would also be scientifically backed up by a real treatment! now, i dont know if the "recent studies" i was told about were old enough to influence Dolores' superpower creation during pre-production. but, even if it was unintentional, that is an AMAZING moment of serendipity-- like, the level of future-sight serendipity of platypuses being teal under a blacklight and also actually make That Sound that Perry The Platypus makes (both things the creator of Phineas & Ferb, Dan Povenmire, said he believed he made up) lmao like!! in addition to everything you have said about how observing would also help Dolores' journey as an autistic person and whatnot, it's so neat that her powers COULD VERY WELL work like this and be a superpowered form of an irl treatment for one of her symptoms! like!! i love that so much! ♡♡♡
Thank you for taking the time to write all this out! As an autistic person with auditory processing disorder (not diagnosed but fairly certain), this is helpful, as I hadn't considered looking into something like hearing aids before. I wear my noise canceling headphones almost all the time to dull noises and make it easier to focus.
My head cannon for Dolores is that as a child, she had a sensory processing disorder, but she didn’t tell anyone because she knew she would be judged. The casita knew that however, and gave her the ability to control it and turn it into an advantage. Her family doesn’t know that though, and thought her gift was super hearing.
I'm not autistic but I have adhd and hypersensitivity to noise so Dolores was very relatable in that regard with everything being so loud and overwhelming all the time.
My take on Dolores not telling the family that Bruno was in the walls is that, yes, as she said in her part of We Don't Talk About Bruno, she knew he was misunderstood and she knew that his gift made life in town and with the family more difficult so she respected his need to escape that pressure while still wanting to be close to the family.
Despite being autistic myself, I really didn't want to headcannon ANY of the characters as anything because I felt like so many people took it a little too far (like with making Luisa trans because muscles--I really hope I don't need to elaborate all the harm that might do), but this video pointed out a lot that I picked up on and didn't digest at first. Part of me had wanted to "kin" Dolores, if that's the right word, from the start and I didn't fully understand why until seeing all the signs better explained. Thanks for making this video. It was really nice to hear this stuff :) Ps. I wanted to add that I fully support the trans community and the rest of the LGBTQ+ community. Y'all are valid, and I'm sorry if my wording gives a weird undertone that I'm not fully picking up on.
AKSKSKDJOROD I NEVER CONSIDERED HOW HER POWERS ARE RELATED TO HER AUTISM LIKE THAT!! I kinda saw it as a metaphor for real-life sensory overload but I never considered it to be a way to regulate it asmsnksjfiaj!!! I (autistic) personally relate to Dolores a lot for many of the same reasons. Also I personally think her reason for not selling out Bruno is a combination of all the reasons you mentioned.
Dolores’ covering of ears is so relatable, if I’m in an extremely stressful, high noise environment, I have the huge urge to cover my ears until it hurts (which is hard since I wear a headset all the time) Like, baby, let me comfort you, I get it
This has seriously become one of my comfort channels to watch on RUclips. You discuss everything in your videos so well and manage to always keep it interesting! I'm a fellow autistic person (Finn too-), and hearing someone describe all the struggles and even perks of the disability is just so refreshing. I know I'm really late to this video but I was literally screaming internally when I heard you talk about the hypersensitivity to sound, because I couldn't relate more-- Anyways, this will probably go unnoticed but I just wanted to dump my feelings here. Keep it up, dude❤
You know, it's a very good thing Dolores's bedroom has soundproofing, not only to give _her_ a reprieve, but also prevent her innocence from diminishing. No parent wants a six year old asking why they were so _loud_ in their bedroom last night! 😳
@@EvilMeganium true :) Somebody hypothesised that maybe she stayed up late in the common areas of the house, maybe a touch of insomnia so she left her room or something. Anyways, I don't know for certain, but it's fun to speculate/hypothesize 🤷 :)
I appreciated this analysis! You really looked into the heart of her character. People really seem to want to blame someone in this movie when no one is at fault. It's like they don't understand trauma, mental health, or emotions. I think some people see "emotion" as a dirty word, but that means that they are controlled by their own anger and fear because they fail to recognize them. Turning everything into a logic puzzle is a misguided attempt to take back control.
if you want to know what the video that was referenced at the start is about, it's a video from MatPat's Film Theory channel, and it's main point is this: Dolores can hear things from miles away and she can't turn the power off, ergo she is constantly overstimulated with sound, ergo she is probably secretly miserable, ergo she was probably super happy when the magic was gone. so the video suggests she helped advance the plot of the movie secretly hoping it would break the magic so she wouldn't have to live in a constant hell of permanent noise make of that what you will
Thanks for the info! I guess that interpretation would make sense if one somehow managed to conclude that Dolores has very weak emotional ties to anyone else living in Casita, wherefore she would care about her own comfort immensely more than about what losing the magic would mean for her siblings, cousins, parents, aunt, uncles and grandmother. To autistic me it is obvious how much and how deeply Dolores cares about her family, but a allistic (non-autistic) person might stumble over the Double Empathy Problem with her -- especially if they don't know that the Double Empathy Problem exists.
@@ronjaj.addams-ramstedt1023 i think it's related more to the "Casita's gifts are actually a curse" theory that had been circulating around for a while. that reading of the movie was pretty popular for a while: many people concluded the family would have actually been better off without powers at all. Peppa would be able to express her emotions freely, Mirabell's two sisters would have less psychological pressure and Dolores could literally live a quiet life for once. so... yeah, it's no so much about interpreting Dolores's character as it is interpreting the magic and its' consiquences as a whole also worth noting, MatPat is one of those youtubers who makes a living by making wild theories based on obscure movie and game facts, and earns enough money doing it to sustain his family and a team of writers and editors. he also does metrics analysis for other content creators on the side. so it's not really a surprise his videos take whatever is the most talked about theory, expand on it in wild ways and slap an eye-catching title+thumbnail on it to optimize it's chances with the youtube algorhythm. i find his content fun, but i would never actually take any of it seriously
@@ronjaj.addams-ramstedt1023 I wouldnt say its a lack of emotional ties she would have probably thought about her mother, her cousins, Bruno, etc (since shed be able to hear them all the time anyway so any sort of venting or gossip about how they dont particularly enioy their powers shed hear. In that sense she would be thinking more along the lines of "If the magic is gone so are the high expectations everybody is forced to live up to"
This was truly awesome. Thank you I also ended up reading Encanto through a disability lens though I must admit I ended up more focused on Mirabel (as a person with disabilities that are normally invisible, I felt she read really effectively as an analogue). Not only only is there the social level in that Mirabel is disadvantaged due to people's expectations of her, but I also think it engaged well with how disabling events impact the wider family and their treatment of Mirabel (seen in the nervous undercurrent of Antonio's gift day and in the almost assignment of blame to Mirabel later in the movie). Not to mention how well the end of the Family Madrigal does the stress surrounding disclosure. Ultimately, I really liked how this movie managed to involve disability without being an issue story about them and it's really cool to see that there are wider, similar readings on Dolores too.
14:55 This is super relatable to me. At my old job as a cashier some customers would get annoyed at me for one reason or another and one of them whispered to the customers behind her which I could fully hear and just broke down. My eyes just well with tears as I keep trying to do my job as fast as possible and avoid talking as much as possible or I'll choke up and go into an anxiety attack at the tills. After it ends my coworkers try and tell me to ignore them but it's actually physically impossible. Same with at home with my autistic brother who is higher on the spectrum than me to th point where having a convo with him is near to impossible, he'll repeat words a bunch and sometimes it drives me insane, same with my elderly autistic neighbour. this was a massive tangent I just realised
That entire branch of the Madrigal family is likely some variation of neurodiverse. From the increased likelihood of gender exploration and self-reflection with Camilo, to relating more to animals than people with Antonio, and Pepa's emotional disregulation. They may not be explicitly stated as neurodiverse, but they can certainly be read that way with minimal issue. Especially since neurodiversity is, in many ways, highly genetic.
The word you need is: neurodivergent A person is neurodivergent. A group of people can be neurodiverse, if there are people of more than one neurotype in it.
As an aspi, the ability to hyperfocus and defocus my hearing would feel like both a blessing and only a bit of an inconvenience. I could focus in on the complexities of the people around me. I could learn what is appropriate and inappropriate to speak about at certain times. I'd gladly do that and have just a little more sensory input than waves of sound continuing to hit me at once, drowning out my functionality.
Excellent analysis! I think this (and all of Encanto, really) being yet another example of NT (and otherwise normate) people writing disabled characters without even realizing it, because they're just writing the different kinds of people they encounter in the world, and naturally, some of those people will be disabled. Also, a link to your Barbie Video showed up at the end of this one, for me. And that reminded me: I think of Mirabel as being Disability *coded* in the same way Barbie was (I.E. considered "normal" by the audience that's looking in from the outside, but *treated* as disabled by others within the story, because she doesn't have a Gift that she's "supposed" to have). Which is why I was super relieved when she remained "Giftless" at the end.
I never considered that she might be able to regulate her hearing of sounds. It makes me feel happy for her, as it really would be a curse without that.
Dolores even said “it’s like I hear him now, it’s like I hear him now, I can hear him now.” During the song we don’t talk about Bruno and either no one heard her or they ignored her
This video made me realize that the reason I don’t always “hear everything, was because I’m just near ALWAYS hyper fixating. I do still get overwhelmed for ‘no reason’. And yes, I do have extremely, extremely horrible time management and issues with ‘scheduling’ goals. It used to really hurt my self esteem, still does on occasion just not as bad.
God I love your videos, they're always so detailed and interesting to watch and hear your thoughts on these things! Also for any Dolores fans: Look up Turn It Down by OR3O, it's a Dolores fan song that actually has her voice actress, and it's so good
Great video, I definitely agree that Dolores telling everyone about Bruno or most other important secrets it would likely do more harm than good. If the family was forced to acknowledge Bruno in the walls they’d probably just kick him out because they can’t just openly let him live there while maintaining the “Bruno harmed the family” narrative they have throughout the movie. Dolores is a great character and I hope she can be explored more in the future through possible sequels, shorts, or an animated series like they did with tangled, all these characters deserve more time to shine honestly. Congrats on your hundredth video, I love your content and I look forward to seeing more in the future. Also, if you’re looking for more content with disabled characters to analyze, I recommend taking a look at Epithet erased, a web series that has its first season out for free on RUclips, it’s only 7 episodes and the main disabled characters are in the first 4. One character has a magical equivalent to a chronic pain disorder, and I’m interested to hear your opinions on how it was handled, there’s also some mentions and allusions to mysophonia (idk how to spell it) and PTSD and some characters in the later half of the season that are frequently headcanoned as autistic. I love this series and I’m curious to hear your thoughts on if it does disability well or not.
My headcannnon for why she never mentioned Bruno was still living in the house is that with so many sounds she had trouble gauging where they come from. Like she heard he was still close but couldn’t tell if it was from the house or the wilderness behind them because there is so many competing sounds. Plus all of the kids work hard to keep Pepa from stressing out and we all know how she felt about talking about Bruno. (Also I love the idea of Dolores having autism. I also tend to think Pepa has ADHD. She shows a lot of the AFAB classic symptoms like rapid mood shifts, rejection sensitivity dysphoria, easily distracted, anxiety over forgetting things, but that might just be ✨projection✨)
Honestly, I think that if Dolores were to have come forward with everyone's grievances, it would have just made things worse. It would have likely caused a schism between her and whoever's secrets she exposed. Meanwhile, Mirabel was told these secrets only after the individual members' masks broke off, and she then turned around and called out Abuela for her treatment of the family, without revealing any secrets. Plus, I think what Alma needed to hear in that confrontation was that it was her fault the family was suffering, which really only Mirabel could do, given her status as a black sheep and being the unfavorite to Alma. Mirabel could easily trace the majority of the pressures on the family back to Alma, and I really don't think anyone else could, or at least wouldn't do so so readily.
I think the most telling line in her verse is the last one. Do you understand? She is making it clear that she’s saying more than appears on the surface.
I honestly never caught up on the fact that she could control her hearing but now that you point it out it's so obvious. I just went from "Dolores was cursed with this power" to "Omg, I would kill for this ability"
same when i first watched it!! Full control sounds like autistic bliss, while no control with super-hearing sounds like psychological torture. The absolute contrast She clearly has some control over it, but still sensitive hearing in that she flinches and covers her ears sometimes. Jared Bush has said she doesn't have as much control of her power as she'd like... an interesting tightrope between a blessing and a curse it would seem!!
im so happy that many people love dolores sm, as a latino autistic person it made me so happy to see her in the movie and i related to her and mirabel a whole lot and idk it just made me so so happy, this whole movie made me so happy tbh bc it reminded me a lot of home and my familly and most of us are nd and most of the madrigals seem nd too and that sorry for the rambles jknaskjn
my symptons of aspergrs have unfortunatenly gotten worse in my early 20´s, i don´t have that many sensory overloads, except for sound, like loud sounds and certain frequencies (crowds,bug noises,etc) have always bothered me but now i do need to cover my ears sometimes, and seeing this video interpreting the character like that and how casita(who is probably pedro) gave her the abiities to control those frequencies and loud sounds, to not bother her, i found this to be kinda beautiful man and it´s a wholesome way of looking at it
I relate to the thing you said think the sounds a lot 15:01 in school I had this one class that had so many loud sounds it would be very difficult for me to do work because people were allowed to talk and they talked so loud and were only quiet when the teacher was talking I'm just glad I had a seminar class because thats where i was able to focus on work the most because of how quiet it was
I am sorry -- others reacting badly to your quiet self-soothing is so wrong. Having one's body in some position or moving one's body in some way is nobody else's business (unless one is getting into their physical space, but a self-hug is clearly not that). I hope you will find your chosen family also offline soon! Being around people who are willing to understand and don't stress about if something is "normal" is SO much better: 10/10 would definitely recommend.
Why- Why would anyone get in trouble for that? I just- I don't get- Are people physically incapable of leaving others to their business? Like- I guess I can understand getting in trouble for picking at your skin,(especially your eyelids) but a *self hug?* Wow- People amaze me with their stupidity- (By the way, I am not mad at you, in case that is how I'm coming across, I am more confused, and a bit mad at the people who put you in trouble for that)
@@sylphsmovingstories3986 because too many people (especially in the US, Canada and the UK) fully believe in Guess Culture communication, i.e. that everyone's body language and tone of voice tell at least as much about what we are thinking and feeling as our words. And that everyone's body language and tone are standardized, so if you have read enough books or watched enough RUclips videos, you can always accurately tell if someone e.g. dis/likes you or is honest/lying. For example: "Crossing your arms is rude, because it means that you distrust or dislike the person you are talking to, and if you do that in front of a parent, teacher or boss, you are being disrespectful and rebellious." Rules of thumb like that^ are usually pretty much BS, because two of the main axioms in every "system of reading people" that I have encountered thus far have been: "People never say out loud exactly what they mean" and "If someone is nervous, you cannot trust them." So every bluntly honest person with an anxiety disorder or situational anxiety, or just some extra stress from work, studies or family life at the moment MUST be at least somewhat villainous. Ditto for us autistics, and many others. In short: Guess Culture assumes that Ask Culture (saying what you mean and meaning what you say) does not exist. Which can become extremely frustrating for everyone involved. It also literally stops autistic people, who are fully qualified, from getting into various secondary and tertiary educations and into many jobs, because "something is off" about us if we are viewed through a Guess Culture lens.
@@sylphsmovingstories3986 i had a lot of experiences as a child that i now realize was people attempting to train the autism traits out of me. my father used to lock me in the laundry room unless i could look him directly in the eyes while he yelled at me
I can kind of control my hearing. I can focus at one person/group of people's words at a time. It makes eavesdropping really easy and not wanting to make comments on their conversations really hard.
Dolores speaking up might have helped fix some of the Madrigal's family issues a little sooner, but the problems in that family ran much too deep for any one character to solve alone, which was the ENTIRE PLOT OF THE FILM. I think there is definitely a failing on the film's part to address exactly why Dolores didn't speak up aside from that throwaway line of hers that raises more questions than it answers, but the film also had the same issues with other members of the family not getting enough of the spotlight.
Besides, that could be easily explained or at least inferred - yes, as the hyper aware person Dolores may know about Bruno in the walls or at least rats interacting with someone. But as Alma basically enforced the thing that everything is okay as is but merely requires strict management and devotion to the community, saying that Bruno did not leave would feel like a cruel joke and would possibly cause a lashing, meaning Dolores would also probably be an outcast like Mirabel for addressing underlying problems.
Dolores: Oh, Mirabel didn’t get one. Encanto fans: *gets angry* Me: Ok, you guys need to calm down. She was only stating a fact. What did you want her to do, sugarcoat the truth?
As a neurodivergent person, I've always wondered why Dolores seemed so relatable, like, I didn't have the words to it, but you explained it very well, like as if I finally found the words that I was looking for.
there's something i nEED to mention about her her facial expressions seem almost practiced and sometimes over the top and i know thats a thing in animation ((am animation student)) but look at her when they're eating together she has a base facial expression and when someone interacts with her she instantly switches to a drastically different one but not in a way the others do also when she's just walking around she always has her eyes wide open and her eyebrows raised i dont know if im making any sense, i just really wanted to mention these because they're things i constantly do!! i fucking love Dolores !!afterthought!!: in a way she encourages me to stop hiding what i think because lots of the times when someone does//says something my first thought is always something very blunt and to te point, but i have been othered for being like that for years so i try to hide it and whenever i have to express my opinion on something i just shut up because thats what i have learned from life ill say it onec again I LOVE HER SOMUCH ohmygod they wrote her so well
I have a feeling she didn't think about the consequences at dinner. She was given the opportunity to ruin the proposal and save her cousin from an unhappy marriage. Boom, everything's perfect. Except for one thing, what about Mirabel? Did Dolorez think about her? What if Abuela kick Mirabel out of the house to protect the miracle? Besides, the proposal would probably be repeated again, seeing how Abuel was concerned about it. The Dolorez plan could have devastating effects, and probably nothing would change. but I feel an downright personal connection with Mirabel so it could have an impact on my judgment
Having both Autism and ADHD, I didn't particularly relate to Dolores as a character, but I understand why you or others might. Funnily enough, I've only seen the thing matpat made about Dolores in terms of her supposed villainy and I didn't watch that either. What I did see a lot of were people saying that one shouldn't make LGBTQ or neurodivergent headcanons about these characters because, according to said people, it's not for the LGBTQ or neurodivergent communities, it's only about generational trauma as it relates to latino families. I do not agree with this mindset, as it completely disregards the idea of intersectionality, but I am careful talking about this movie and Turning Red for this and similar reasons.
Have you watched AreTheyGay channel's Encanto analysis "The Postmodern Horror of TikTok's Encanto Discourse"? I really enjoyed how it challenges us to think about the dynamics between ethnicity and queerness.
I'm glad to hear other autistic people have extremely quiet voices too. Apparently my "yelling" just sounds like I'm raising my voice.🙄 So I suck at yelling matches, but at least I'm good with sarcasm.🤷♀️
This is almost word for word what I said when I explained her to my friends, and also in a comment on another video here on RUclips. I have ADHD and I hear everything all the time, so I can relate to Dolores a whole lot.
I saw Dolores’ first line and the delivery and it was immediately *chanting* “one of us, one of us, one of us”. I relate so heavily to her gift because of all sensory input my hearing gets overwhelmed the most and causes me the most issues. I have trouble hearing in a lot of situations that are stressful, I hear every noise at the same volume in my head I can’t filter out a voice talking to me, so my brains way of coping with all the noise is to just not hear it as loudly and shut down that sense. I went to an audiologist my freshman year because I was having such a hard time hearing at school but doing the testing my hearing was quite literally perfect and actually very very good… and sensitive, so immediately I related to her and especially he reactions when she has to cover her ears because I do that quite often. And also as a child I was very quiet and out of the way so people didn’t think I was really listening so I overheard a lot of secrets and even to this day sitting in class people think I can’t hear them but I can very well so I’ve always been the one to keep those secrets. Also I do about the exact thing she does with her hands I will cup my right hand over my left and hold them to my chest. I love everything about her character and the way she interacts with the others
I'm an aspy but this video was extremely relatable. For that matter when you said the hands things, I looked down at my hands and was holding them together in front of me the entire video... Also had my legs crossed. Sound break down thing sucks for where I work as well. My coworkers think I'm hard of hearing but in actuality I am just hearing everything all the time. There's so much noise that happens at the registers. We have a huge vent directly above always blowing air through large metal tubes. There's the radio, register noise, carts moving, cars moving outside, door opening and closing, items shuffling around counters and carts, the customers I have to focus on, other customers talking all around, sometimes an alarm that goes off when the shipment truck is docking. Had a loud car alarm go off one day on top of all that and I just like broke down. Had to go take a breather after that. And I can hear all my coworkers talking, I just can't differentiate the words being said if they are more then a few feet away. Especially if I am focusing on the customer I am with so I can understand them. I'm like no, I am not deaf. I can hear you speaking. I just can't make out the words.
Regulating one's hearing makes me think of another side of sound processing in autism, the need to hear distinct and loud enough speech to actually understand it. I deal with this and that's why I need subtitles a lot and I can't understand what people say behind my back, so from that perspective Dolores's powers are also "reassuring".
I also cross my arms a lot and I never knew why. I was always really self conscious and thought people would think I was really angry all the time when I just do as a way putting my arms somewhere. Also in my teenage years I started cracking my knuckles as a way of fidgeting with my hands.
"My cousin Dolores can hear a pin drop" ------------ I yell at the TV: "NOT a superpower!" bc sensory sensitivity is mental hell, no other way to say it. My skin's always itchy (and it's rude to scratch in public, another thing that keeps me home). I can feel minute differences in fabrics I think NT people don't feel or aren't bothered by so I have to have very particular clothing and bedding. Going to the grocery store, an easy task for NT people, is kind of like hiking over a big hill to me. Sensory sensitivity is to me only a weakness and not any sort of "gift", from my perspective. Maybe some people have it and have found a way to see it as a gift. Spiritual awareness? Idk I feel like I have that but I don't like talking about my experiences with that bc I can't prove that any of it is real. Anyway, what I love about Encanto is how it realistically handles this "sensitivity as a curse and a blessing" thing.
Omg I love how the movie shows her covering her ears! That's such an autistic thing. I'm impressed by the animators attention to detail there. Also impressed you caught that. Definitely convinced me Dolores is autistic.
It also didn't help during the dinner that Mirabel was staring at her like that, and when she does tell someone she whispers it to her brother, who then whispers to their father (feels less like gossiping and more turning to those close) and when she does burst out it's a combination of anxiety brought on by terrible news, a situation she understandably doesn't like, and overstimulation of noise by being in a confined space with so many people while there is a storm cloud directly above their head.
I completely agree with your points here. Dolores is also my favorite character and I relate to her a lot. As an Autistic person I'd also like a soundproof room.
I like to think that when she said 'And the rats talking in the walls' It wasn't just a hint. That part obviously didn't make sense to Mirabel, but to Dolores it made perfect sense. I often say or write things that don't make sense to other people but make sense to me. Recently in my class notes I just wrote 'Victorian dresses.' What I wrote had a full meaning to me in my head, I knew exactly what i wanted to write. But to others it just means 'Victorian dresses.'
at this point i’m self diagnosed (it’s been a few years of research and no formal diagnosis) and i wear earbuds *all the time* to keep myself from hearing breathing three doors down (obviously i’m exaggerating, (but it’s not exaggerating when i’m at school lol)) so delores’ hearing power was particularly what caught me onto “wait is she autistic?” while watching the movie, then the blunt speech and hands i was like “hey i do that” so yk, i’ve been on the dolores autistic train for a while lol
I also noted that she rarely makes direct eye contact with people while speaking to them: Mirabel and Abuela during breakfast and Camilo at the end being the most obvious moments
Well game theory was saying that she could have try to end the magic because of her gift and he said that she couldn't control it like you said so he said that she would try becasue of her mother's and uncle's gifts But you make a better point then he does
THANK YOU, send this video to film theorists my god that video made my blood boil :/// I have really bad audio over stimulation because of autism, Dolores is literally me I'm so glad I was not alone picking up on this :)))
When you mentioned the “t-rex pose” thing i immediately looked down to see i was wearing a blanket like a cape/robe doing that exact pose looking like emperor palpatine and laughed my a$$ off i had never even considered that as a thing that exists
Hi! I really like videos i generally watch it to help myself write my characters but i also like it because it's relatable it's makes me feel welcomed and accepted my mom doesn't really believe i have issues and trauma but watching you reallly helps! Learning more about myself and general smal tips to help myself truly helps a lot! :)
Honestly, Dolores and Luisa are my favorite characters. And Camilo, but I know I'm projecting all over him so I know I'm not being objective about him lol. But yeah, I definitely love Dolores and accept and will internalize this analysis. Makes sense to me with all the information :). Thank you for the analysis!
BRO I KNOW IM LATE, BUT YOU ABSOLUTELY DO *NOT* KNOW HOW MUCH I APRECIATTE THIS, i am an autistic latina, but not only that, i am also A COLOMBIAN AUTISTIC LATINA!! And for real dolores is like my spiritual fictional character as absurd as that sounds! I feel very sad everytime i hear someone say she was manipulating everything the entire time because my dad has left me very scarred with his constant insisting that i am manipulating everything for my own self gain by faking various autistic traits, he has fortunately understood why that is not only almost impossible but nonsensical, i think thats called imposter syndrome? Idk, but i also have the same problem as dolores with hyper sensitive hearing, thank you for this whole entire video i appreciate it soooooooo much :")
When Dolores said "Mirabel didn't get one." Not only is it common knowledge, but she could hear Mira avoiding the question. If it had been me saying that, it would be because I was trying to help. As you said, the kids were going to find out. Mira didn't want to say it and the kids were NOT going to let up. I would think "I'll say it so you don't have to."
Oh yeah in one of the novelizations it gives us the extra insight that by saying that she thought she was being genuinely helpful
Not to negate the idea that she was trying to help - because that too - but am I really the only one who would get frustrated/impatient if I had to listen to someone avoid a question I KNOW they can’t avoid forever over and over again? Dolores could hear the entire song. The kids had been insisting repeatedly and the sooner someone told them the sooner everyone could move on…
Oh that's such a beautiful way to sub that up, thank you. It really helps put things into perspective.
@@bookcat123 I get this too but the song probably had to fit the plot and pace also maybe the the amount of times Mirabel panicked over the question was like supposed to tell us about her character. They probably were trying to finish the song and tell us more about the main character.
@@lavenderpixel9092 I’m not saying it’s not believable - it’s completely believable. And a fun song simultaneously. I’m just saying that by the time they reach the house, Dolores would (justifiably) be very ready to tell the kids Mirabel doesn’t have a gift so everyone can move on from that conversation.
My head cannon for why Dolores didn't tell anyone directly about Bruno: when he first disappeared, she TRIED to say something, but Abuela immediately dismissed her, saying something like, "Don't be crazy, mija. That's just the rats in the wall." So Dolores knew that everyone would just think she's crazy or imagining things if she told them the truth.
And she probably knew it would cause harm for mirabel before she was ready
Also, they don't get into when talking about this, how much Abuela intimidated the whole family into silence on the topic? Like they had a whole song about it? They didn't talk about Bruno. That was essentially a royal decree from grandma.
I don't think so. If she had told them her gift helps track him down, I bet they would've believed her. But it was for the best for the family to be torn apart at this point of their history because of Abuela's toxic predisposition.
It is also implied she was constantly talking abt hearing bruno still and everyone chalked it up to grief
Like allot of problems they had
Allot. They dont listen to anyone telling someone abt a problem. Mirabel ends up listening out of obligation at first with both sisters. When she actually listens to what has been being said the whole ass time she actually relates and works to fix these problems. No one listens to one another.
But she heard the conversation between Mirabel and her dad and suddenly she can’t keep her mouth shut
As a latino guy I can absolutely say that Dolores knowing a secret in voices (a secret that everyone knows) and not doing anything cause is taboo and must be a secret is the most latinoamerican way to do things.
As a Hispanic person myself, agreed I do it all the time.
Agreed. But personally I cannot stand that shit. Our fellow Latinos better start learning to figure that shit out before it blows up in their face. My family learned that the hard way. Granted they'll still try to keep secrets from people they shouldn't, or even from the specific people that should know that secret, but don't care because it's taboo. And yet everybody else knows.
I don't care if it's normal monks are full of latinos, it needs to fucking stop. In the case of my family, it has literally ruined relationships and connections because people don't want to talk about it and deal with it and get it out of the way.
I personally have once been the result of one of those taboo little secrets. The last one to know when I should have been the first one. It's my body, my health condition I have to deal with, and I was the last person to know. They should be grateful I don't hang it over their heads every second I get. Shit like that needs to stop.
A yes. Everyone knows but no-one says it. That define a big part of being Latin. Heavens knows how many times I did
so true
I got to see her voice actress at a con recently! She was really sweet! Apparently her daughter was the voice for "SHE WAS ABOUT TO TELL HER ABOUT HER SUPER AWESOME GIFT!!" girl
Really? That's so adorable! **
Aww
This is so cute T-T
When bring your kid to work day also gives them bragging rights
“I got to see a firetruck”
“I saw how factories make beer”(aka my bring your kid to work experience with my father lol)
“I got to be in a Disney movie”
cool
As an autistic afrolatino, I relate SO much to Dolores. Specifically with her sound sensitivity and overhearing stuff she shouldn't. Even tho I love Luisa too 'cause, y'know, ✨buffed women ✨
You do realize that all latinos have African blood in them right- you don’t need to state that, you can just say latino? (Not tryna pick a fight, just saying)
@@youraveragemexorican how about if we don't try to police how other people identify or which words they use to describe themselves? After all, it's called an Identity, not a YOUdentity.
This comment is me on a personalidade level 😂😂
So relieving to hear a convo about autistic latinas. Don’t know if I’m technically autistic but I have a lot of the symptoms.
✨buffed women✨
I personally think the scene while Casita was cracking was likely particularly difficult for her, everyone's gifts are noticeably misfunctioning and part of her gift was the ability to filter sounds as well, must have been intensely overstimulating.
I figured that she _didn't_ hear it. Dolores's gift was her hearing. Like Luisa feeling her strength falter, Dolores would've had her hearing flicker while the cracks appeared. But because she was in a extremely noisy party, she might not have noticed her hearing falter.
She never heard the cracks.
I think it would be the other way around, like if you went blind or deaf all of a sudden.
That actually makes a lot more sense now that I think about it, because if her power was, not technically and or purely super hearing but filtering sound, all that noise would be totes overstimulating and hence her covering her ears.
@@lavengale Except that Casita gave Dolores a room with soundproofing: 4:22 - 4:42 (official, tweeted by Jared Bush). She also can control her hearing: 14:05 - 14:40 (this is especially clear in the scene at breakfast where Abuela asks her about the Guzmáns).
IMO this means that Dolores was born with very sensitive hearing and very likely also difficulties with screening out sounds, which lead to her often becoming overwhelmed by auditory input.
Casita could not make her hearing less sensitive, because that was the way Dolores was born = the trait was permanent. So Casita gave her some help: control of her hearing and a room that offers her a reliable refuge.
Therefore, when Luisa felt weak, Dolores felt overwhelmed by sounds, and Bruno felt extra anxious because he suddenly had no inkling what the future might hold. However, all the others who were in Antonio's room might have missed it, because they were happily dancing. Pepa's strong happy emotions "imploded" instead of showing outwards, Julieta's ability to heal faltered, Camillo's ability to shapeshift, Antonio's ability to understand animals and Isabela's ability to grow plants likewise.
That's at least my headcanon.
@@ronjaj.addams-ramstedt1023 Dolores wasn't in *her* bedroom. She was in Antonio's. As she and Lucia were the only ones who could physically feel their powers 24/7, she could have thought she was having a senory flare during the party, which, *it's a loud, noisy party,* makes complete sense.
Also, Burno was the only other person who saw the cracks. When he 'left', his powers went dormant. He *couldn't* access them. That's why the door lost it's glow, (but regained it when Burno reawakened his powers for Mirabel), Casita couldn't enter Burno's room, and the room had fallen into ruins.
The others, if they felt the flicker, were too busy partying to notice, like you said.
Okay, so if Dolores' room is sound proofed, she must stay up pretty late in the common areas of the house because she mentioned she could hear Luisa's eye twitching all night.
And as an insomniac autistic, I can relate.
And not getting a standard 8-ish hours sleep at the usual night hours is kind of common in autism.
I don't think she is autistic, I think that's just a plot hole. She can also hear other people making love if that's the case.
S A M E
I also like to think that Dolores trained herself to filter out noise so she isn't always driven insane by every noise she comes across
Maybe only part of her room (the part where her bed is and stuff) is soundproofed?
I am autistic and when i watched encanto for the first time Dolores stuck out so hard. My parents always yelled at me for somehow managing to hear everything im not supposed to and just sharing said information with everyone. My parents called it "Selective Hearing" I couldnt hear what they wanted me to hear, but you bet i magically heard them whispering in the other room.
OH MY GOSH I RELATE TO THAT
@@ZoraVisions it was great because i have adhd, autism, and extreme anxiety that causes hallucinations... so like i would gain information and then forget immediately then randonly my brain would remember and panic that other people might want to know.
i think i have smth similar?? its easy for me to just straight up hear and not understand what is said close to me but i can pretty successfully hear and understand smth far away
OMIGOSH MEEEEEE!!!!!!!!!!!!
oh my goodness same!!!!
What you said about her having a reputation as a gossiper but in fact she is really good as keeping secrets is so true. For every secret she has told someone I bet she was keeping hundreds more to herself
It's sexism too. If she were male, nobody would call her a "gossip" it's a slur used entirely to mean "woman who talks more than I want her to which is zero"
@Naomi Starlight Exactly. Also racism.
The way Dolores says "Mirabel didn't get one" super casually, to me, read as her completely accepting Mirabel just as she is and not even viewing the lack of gift as a big deal. The idea people could spin that into something bad is wild to me. In my opinion, people reading the neurodivergent character as evil for their ND traits tells me way more about them than it does about the character.
Absolutely! From the first time I watched, the way she just said it so matter-of-factly and moved on seemed like she didn't think it was worth making a big scene about, that it's not some big reveal that defines Mirabel's value as a person, because it isn't (or at least shouldn't be). Also the script literally says she thought she was being helpful there so there's that
I understand and i fully agree with you but for some people it could still be viewed as kinda rude since we see mirabel trying to ignore the question and was uncomfortable in this situation then dolores waltz in and says she doesn't have a gift and right after that we have scenes of isabella and abuela being mean to mira which didn't help
@@Hollowmello1285 Neurodivergent people often say things that are considered rude on accident. Learn to have some grace and kindness for people rather than getting mad at innocent accidents.
@@morganqorishchi8181 im not mad i said i agreed to what you said
Honestly, most of the Madrigals didn’t seem to treat her awfully because of her lack of gift. Her parents were always loving and supportive, Luisa was a caring older sister, Pepa, while she did get visibly annoyed with her multiple times, is just a person who is aggregated easily, Felix is nice to her, Camilo tries to scare her in WDTAB, but that just feels like normal cousin teasing, and Dolores is also kind. It’s just Abuela and Isabela who seem to treat her differently and the former’s just had a major impact
As an autistic person Dolores is incredibly relatable to me and she's just adorable
Agreed 💖
Same, Dolores is my favourite character because of it
@@BestFriendsWhoLiveTogether also respect her for having the mental will power of not going insane from all the secrets she keeps
Same
Absolutely
On the comment about Dolores using the cultural squeak as a stim: yes 100%!
I’ve sung in choir for years, I threw myself into singing the second my school offered it. In choir, before you actually start singing, you want to warm up your voice; one of the warm ups my choir does are lip trills (this brrr sort of thing).
Guess what? I tend to trill my lips a lot, even outside of choir.
People can absolutely take things they know and use them as stims. It’s absolutely cool to be aware of the cultural origins of the squeaks, but that origin doesn’t mean it *can’t* be a stim as well
Those are probably my least favorite warmups in my choir class because I can't lip trill very well, sometimes it works flawlessly sometimes it cuts for no reason, sometimes it just comes out as a hmmm, mostly the middle one
Just like how Bruno canonically has OCD, but it manifests in a way that lines up with his culture, religion & values.
I was born in Hawaii (though I've lived in Canada most of my life) and I remember someone teaching me a certain hand-shaking movement that apparently represents the concept of "life" in hula dance. I do it to stim all the time!
THAT'S ME WITH TAP DANCING (I'm constantly doing paradiddle rhythms as stims)
This!!! I'm from the Midwest, and the infamous "ope" Became a vocal stim of mine since everyone around me says it as a derivative of "ow" or "oh!" And I picked up on it, and I've never heard anyone mention cultural related Stims before.
what I love about hearing people's headcanons of autistic Encanto characters is that it's a small sample size example of "if you've met one autistic person, you've met one autistic person"...I've heard many autistic people online say they saw Dolores and immediately related to her intensely, when I hadn't even considered autistic Dolores until I saw people talking about it - I just didn't relate to her like others did
but when I saw Encanto for the first time, when I saw Bruno for the first time, literally all my brain could say was 'oh my god, that's ME'...the way he did everything, said everything, it was relatable to me on a level I don't think I'd EVER seen before
when people say that they saw themselves, and continue to see themselves, in Dolores it makes me so happy for them...because Bruno did that for me, and it continues to be one of the greatest feelings in my life
(shoutout to Pepa, who is also a common autistic headcanon - though unfortunately she did not fit in the flow of this comment)
y e s
Bruno was really relatable when I first saw him, as both an autistic and someone with OCD
the constant tapping: Both something to keep his family safe and stimming
anxiety about how his actions affected the visions: Just like how feeling like something small one does could end the world.
His lack of communication ability: Very obviously something other autistics feel
I love the Pepa theory too! her not being able to control her feelings and expressing them at 100 constantly seems like the direct opposite of Dolores, and they both work!
I think this is why we need more diverse representation in the media. There usually is just one autistic-coded character in a typical movie, so the emphasized traits tend to always be the same easily recognizable ones, and those aren’t necessarily the ones we particularly relate to. I think it’s great that in cases like this, different autistic individuals can identify with one character or another for a variety of reasons.
I felt similarly in another fandom of mine recently. For those who know Moominvalley, a lot of autistic fans were delighted when season 3 introduced Snork as an autistic character, and I think that’s awesome, but I’ve personally seen a lot more of myself in Snufkin all along. I’ve only seen Encanto once, but I also remember Bruno making a stronger impression on me than Dolores did (though I’ll definitely pay more attention to her next time I watch the movie). Feeling seen and understood through at least some characters’ experiences is so important and validating !
@@StarlitSwamp FYI Snorken has been autistic coded at least since "Kometen kommer" (Comet in Moominland), the first book where he appeared. And he may well have also been in the original comics (I have not read even half of them but I have read and reread all nine books, in Swedish).
For example, when Snorkfröken (Snork Maiden) asks Snorken to fetch firewood, he is gone for a very long time. When he returns and someone (she?) asks what took so long, he retorts that it is hard to find sticks of exactly the same length. Mumin / Sniff / Snusmumriken (Snufkin) -- I forget which -- then asks Snorkfröken if Snorken is always that pedantic and she affirms, shrugging. It's just how her brother is.
(edited to add the English names, I can never remember them off the top of my head)
@@ronjaj.addams-ramstedt1023 That’s true, thanks for the relevant example. I must admit that I’m not as familiar with the books, but even in the 90’s anime, Snork seemed like this very intellectual, straightforward, reclusive type that’s likely to be read as possibly autistic. I think it’s neat that the new series addresses that more directly, by sometimes having him explain why other characters’ statements confuse him, or by showing how some things can be triggering from his perspective, like the unpredictability of balloons popping at a party.
In more subtle (and probably unintentional) ways, I think many other characters from the Moomins’ universe seem to have a certain amount of traits that could also be associated with autism, despite not being sufficient for serious conclusions to be drawn. There are a lot of little instances where I can particularly relate to Snork’s experiences, but other things like Little My’s bluntness or Moominmamma’s imperturbable demeanor also resonate with me more than fictional character behaviors usually do.
As someone who only got diagnosed as an adult because my autistic traits don’t stand out in the most stereotypical ways, it was really Snufkin’s character that seized me with an unusual feeling of being understood. For me, my autism mostly manifests in the form of overwhelming anxiety, social exhaustion, and pressure to conform to others’ ideas of how caring should be shown. I can relate on such a deep level to the struggle between a vital need for solitude and genuine consideration for people whose feelings might be hurt by our conflicting needs. Snufkin tends to come across as distant and closed off, but he’s the kind of person who weeps at the destruction of nature and who has drastically adapted his lifestyle to suit a friend’s, keeping only one season (the Moomins’ hibernation) to himself. Of all the beautiful themes in those stories, I don’t think there’s anything that warms my heart and gives me hope for my own relationships quite as much as seeing Moomintroll (very slowly) learn to give Snufkin the space he needs without fear of losing him.
@@StarlitSwamp speaking of Moomin, have you watched Oakwyrm's review of the new 3D animated series? If not, it's in the Other Fandom Stuff playlist.
The thing is ... Dalores DID tell everyone ... repeatedly ... and no one paid attention. She heard rats talking in the wall... but she cannot understand animals ... she mentioned "I can hear him now" throughout the song ... and everyone ignored it
I actually thought that when she sang "i can hear him now" she meant that she can hear Mariano😅
"This is a story about feelings, not an uncharted treasure hunt."
You hear that, Cinemasins?
It doesn't look like Cinemasins have paid attention to critique for several years. Exhibits A-D: Jessie Gender's four, pretty long analysis videos over the span of at least three years (maybe five? I don't remember) with a zillion easy examples of how Cinemasins could do better. Like tips for how to not contradict a comment in a video in the _same_ video -- that bar should not be too high, right? However, the result: crickets.
When I found out I was autistic and started getting my noise sensitivity she helped me get through this hard time in my life
So now whenever I get overwhelmed (due to a noisy environment) I watch Encanto and it does help!
You say as if this was a decade ago, and not less than 2 years ago.
Some more insight into what Dolores is doing with her hands, since can look like you are praying and latinoamerica is in its mayority Catholic, no one would call you out for that (unlike crossing your arms, jumping or doing repetitive movements). I often do it too when I'm overwhelmed.
This video perfectly sums up my issues with the outside attitude to character interpretation.
I honestly suspected that Dolores might not have fully believed her own ears when she heard Bruno in the walls, she always seemed to be second-guessing herself on that front.
But yeah, I totally relate to her, too.
Honestly the constantly second guessing yourself is also a trait in autism. Although I believe it to be more of a learned behaviour as we easily mess up social situations as an actual trait of autism itself.
@@laartje24 I agree. [AutDHD]
@@laartje24 indeed, I can certainly agree that it’s a trait I’ve picked up.
To me it was another reason why she didn’t directly say that Bruno was in the walls (not that that by itself would have made anything better) she may have thought she were imagining his voice within the house, or she might have even mentioned it in the past but got dismissed.
But yeah, I knew there was a reason her behaviour and habits were familiar.
My Dolores head canon is that as a kid, especially right after she got her gift, she would overhear everything and tell people what she heard. People got upset about her doing so, and abuela decided that Dolores’ gift was better suited for her simply listening and not telling. That, and she maybe sort of understood why Bruno went into hiding, because even if he didn’t voice his thoughts loudly, Dolores heard him. That’s why she didn’t tell the family that Bruno never technically left. They would think she was crazy, get mad that she even brought up the sore topic in the first place, and the guilt would rest solely on Dolores’ shoulders.
This is too dark for Disney so it is not canon but my head-canon is that "casita" is really just the ghost of their grandfather, nurturing his children and grandchildren in his own way, and he truly never left his wife.
I have toyed with this thought, too. It does not feel dark in an ominous way to me, just heartbreakingly tragic and also beautifully loving. Which is still too dark for Disney, obviously.
I've also thought of this. Almost like monster house, but with a completely different tone. Like, the opposite tone
Severe PTSD we also often develop auditory processing disorders, specifically in being able to focus on individual sounds. It can be a huge problem for us too. PTSD can very much change the brain and affect our bodies. I had perfect vision before my trauma, I could control my ability to hear, I didn't have phantom pains. I'd just thought I'd spread this bit of information that we also struggle with similar symptoms to the sensory overload department as it's not wildly known but something we relate to as well
I wonder what all circumstances can lead to auditory processing issues. I know I have issues with it, and I'm not autistic...but my dad is, and when I was growing up the household was arranged to be as accommodating to his auditory sensitivity as possible, so it was a very quiet home.
I have both autism and PTSD. Sounds are a literal nightmare for me as my autism makes me hypersensitive to sounds and makes me not able to filter them, and then my PTSD makes me have panic attacks everytime a sound comes in to loud, and I also have specific auditory triggers that I can now hear even better due to my autism. And on top of that I have exactly the same thing going on with touch. It's so frustrating.
Sorry for the venting, disabilities do be frustrating some times.
M00D! I am autistic and also have PTSD. Although I didn't know that my PTSD could affect my densities like that... This may of just answered a lot of unanswered question marks that I didn't even see before... Thanks *convenient nod* Thanks a lot actually.
sorry *Sensory*
I didn't know that? I have both autism and PTSD from being bullied (for having autism). The two conditions often co-occur as most autistic children are bullied so inevitably the abuse we suffer causes many more of us to have PTSD than the general population (I saw one study that said as high as 70% of all autistic people also had PTSD).
I feel like between her powers and the expectations put on her, it's more than understandable that she wouldn't feel like she was supposed to interfere with things. Technically, she's part of every conversation in the entire town, but she figured out pretty early on that she couldn't treat it like that.
I have watched MatPat’s theory so I can give you the synopsis (I do not agree with it so put it near “Sans is Ness”). Basically the theory is that she did things to make certain that Bruno’s vision of “Mirabel ends the miracle” comes to true. This comes from the thought process that she sees her gift as a burden and would be thankful it being gone, along with a blessing to her mother losing their gift as both gifts are not able to be turned off. I do not agree with this theory, but it is not coming from malice, it’s from rewatching something over and over and brain racing on threads you think you see.
I also love when she mentions the “he wants 5 babies” ‘cause I’m pretty certain that is an attempt to sabotage since Isabella was clearly uncomfortable by that knowledge and Dolores’ side eye
I really liked MatPat's video because of the several times she quietly and overtly sabotaged things for her family. Also, the amount of malice to hear a relative openly suffering for years and not mention it even once is pretty messed up. Her story as an Anti-Hero trying to get rid of the magic makes total sense for her. I would love to see this even more in a sequel about her being alienated even from her family because of this burden. The narrative of weighing your own personal happiness vs the happiness of your family was already explored through the older sister. However, she was content with the way things turned out. It could be more of temporary relief vs long-term happiness.
Overall, 10/10 theory from MatPat that I fully get behind. It's one of the best he's done in months.
@@void405 Malice?? You might reconsider after watching this video: "The Double Empathy Problem" by Stephanie Bethany and maybe checking out some of her sources (listed in the video's description).
@@void405 "the amount of malice to hear a relative openly suffering for years and not mention it even once is pretty messed up." _Openly?_ When?
(I assume you're talking about Bruno's case here but actually this does apply to the other family members' struggles too, pretty much every Madrigal does this) He's not openly suffering, he's hiding and bottling up his suffering so much that his presence alone is a secret to, as far as we know, all but him and Dolores.
I mean, honestly, he could have made himself known at any time. Dolores knows that he's hiding. Yes, Bruno hiding is hurtful too in the long run, but him being outed could be catastrophic for him and the rest of the family. Outing him would hurt him, and he clearly wants to hide, so she keeps his secret. I can't see that as malice.
I think his video makes more sense if you think Dolores can't turn her powers off. If she can then there is no argument for the video. But I think the theory would be plausible if someone comes at it from a concept that she can not control it, because all that sound all the time would probably make anyone a little desperate.
He also brought up that she wanted to get rid of her gift because the constant overstimulaion would drive her insane
As someone who has hearing a sensitivity’s due to neurodivergency, I feel these conversations are really important. Even within fandom spaces. Thanks for making this video, it made me smile. Keep up the great work!
Is she a gossip? I'm having a hard time thinking of a time where she offered information without someone else first looking for the information. Even the little kids were looking for knowledge about Mirabel's gift. The main times she does so were the dinner scene with the prophecy and her confession with Mariano at the end; both of which the video addresses.
Dolores is my favorite character. I love her outfit, I love her hair, I love her eyes and makeup, and I love how she is simultaneously both hyper aware of herself and everyone around her while also being somewhat oblivious to her own behavior.
Like, the relatability is strong with this one.
to further support your idea about Dolores being able to control her hearing and that casita is helping her via this power:
i have an auditory processing disorder (which can be either its own thing or a symptom of a condition, like autism) which is where my brain cannot sort through sounds. i describe is as "i can you speak, but i cant hear your words", "i cant hear you unless im looking at you", "i cant hear you from the other room but i can hear a car door slam down the street", "this is too noisy, i cant hear anybody or anything", and "you sound like an adult from a Peanuts cartoon/you sound like youre speaking a foreign language that i dont know". like, my ears work fine, i always pass the infamous Beep Test that doctors role out; but it can be really hard for my brain to sort out language, esp if there's multiple people talking. i can also get overstimulated by this; and i even have to talk to my teachers/professors that i cant participate in group discussions because everyone in the room is talking at once
now, having explained the experience for anybody who wasnt aware of auditory processing disorders: i cannot imagine how hard it is for Dolores to function with everything happening all at once, always. i would be overstimulated, i wouldnt be able to hear anybody's words, or even be able to focus enough to communicate. that's if we intrepret Dolores power as uncontrollable (which i would argue strongly against). obviously, Dolores would be suffering similarly if she didnt have control (which therefore proves that she does have control). now, intrepting Dolores as someone who is autistic and has auditory processing disorder as one her symptoms is REALLY INTERESTING in the sense that i have mentioned my auditory condition to my doctor, and she actually recommended me to an audiologist
my audiologist confirmed my condition, and then said to me-- while my ears/hearing are fine, and this is my BRAIN having an issue with processing that is causing overstimulation and whatnot-- that i should be wearing hearing aids to combat my auditory processing disorder. she explained to me that recent studies show that being able to alter the volume would force my brain to re-process my enviroment so my auditory processing disorder moments can be cut off and become shorter. along with the option of having a mic synced up to my hearing aids to focalize my hearing aids ro a specific person, like giving the mic to a professor so i can hear them even if someone whispers to a friend sitting behind me. literally, the ability to focalize volume subjectively to what i need would allow to stop being overstimulated and be able to teach my brain how to tune things out. and this makes perfect sense to me because, even before i had this knowledge, i CONSTANTLY have been walking around with these noise-canceling headphones on that i use to play music so i can function while my campus is super noisy by drowning them out and focusing on this One Auditory Thing with a volume level i can control. so rather than retreating from this enviroment like i had been with my headphones, hearing aids would give an another avenue to focalize my interaction with my enviroment and not get overstimulated and continue to process what's around me (my noise-cancelling headset-- a thing that doesn't play music-- also helps similarly but it's not to same and it can be hard to hear what's around me that isn't close by).
(it should be stated that no treatment works perfectly for everyone, however. this treatment-- both my noise-cancelling headphones that plays music, my noise-cancelling headset that doesn't play anything, and my hearing aids + mic work GREAT for me. they might not for everyone. but it is becoming a more popular way to treat this symptom, so-- this is an avenue you can check out)
this obviously wouldnt work well for things like fireworks and whatnot, where the outside enviroment itself is too loud in a way that is unrelated to language (as we see with Dolores clutching her ears as they go off at her little brother's party). BUT in cases like a calm day-to-day where everyone is at a level volume?? hearing aids would help me tremendously (and that's most of what Dolores faces in this rural town)
therefore, casita giving Dolores hearing aids + an optional mic as a superpower to help her function and be able to better process her environment would not only be a good reading like you are describing, but would also be scientifically backed up by a real treatment!
now, i dont know if the "recent studies" i was told about were old enough to influence Dolores' superpower creation during pre-production. but, even if it was unintentional, that is an AMAZING moment of serendipity-- like, the level of future-sight serendipity of platypuses being teal under a blacklight and also actually make That Sound that Perry The Platypus makes (both things the creator of Phineas & Ferb, Dan Povenmire, said he believed he made up) lmao like!! in addition to everything you have said about how observing would also help Dolores' journey as an autistic person and whatnot, it's so neat that her powers COULD VERY WELL work like this and be a superpowered form of an irl treatment for one of her symptoms! like!! i love that so much! ♡♡♡
I want to like this comment MORE! Thank you for the education!
I think the creators said she could control her super hearing to some degree, but she can't turn it off.
Thank you for taking the time to write all this out! As an autistic person with auditory processing disorder (not diagnosed but fairly certain), this is helpful, as I hadn't considered looking into something like hearing aids before. I wear my noise canceling headphones almost all the time to dull noises and make it easier to focus.
My head cannon for Dolores is that as a child, she had a sensory processing disorder, but she didn’t tell anyone because she knew she would be judged. The casita knew that however, and gave her the ability to control it and turn it into an advantage. Her family doesn’t know that though, and thought her gift was super hearing.
I'm not autistic but I have adhd and hypersensitivity to noise so Dolores was very relatable in that regard with everything being so loud and overwhelming all the time.
i have Adhd and autism and i agree with you
My take on Dolores not telling the family that Bruno was in the walls is that, yes, as she said in her part of We Don't Talk About Bruno, she knew he was misunderstood and she knew that his gift made life in town and with the family more difficult so she respected his need to escape that pressure while still wanting to be close to the family.
Despite being autistic myself, I really didn't want to headcannon ANY of the characters as anything because I felt like so many people took it a little too far (like with making Luisa trans because muscles--I really hope I don't need to elaborate all the harm that might do), but this video pointed out a lot that I picked up on and didn't digest at first. Part of me had wanted to "kin" Dolores, if that's the right word, from the start and I didn't fully understand why until seeing all the signs better explained. Thanks for making this video. It was really nice to hear this stuff :)
Ps. I wanted to add that I fully support the trans community and the rest of the LGBTQ+ community. Y'all are valid, and I'm sorry if my wording gives a weird undertone that I'm not fully picking up on.
AKSKSKDJOROD I NEVER CONSIDERED HOW HER POWERS ARE RELATED TO HER AUTISM LIKE THAT!! I kinda saw it as a metaphor for real-life sensory overload but I never considered it to be a way to regulate it asmsnksjfiaj!!! I (autistic) personally relate to Dolores a lot for many of the same reasons. Also I personally think her reason for not selling out Bruno is a combination of all the reasons you mentioned.
Dolores’ covering of ears is so relatable, if I’m in an extremely stressful, high noise environment, I have the huge urge to cover my ears until it hurts (which is hard since I wear a headset all the time)
Like, baby, let me comfort you, I get it
i am a man of simple beliefs: i see a new oakwyrm video, i click
Me to
Same!!
This has seriously become one of my comfort channels to watch on RUclips. You discuss everything in your videos so well and manage to always keep it interesting!
I'm a fellow autistic person (Finn too-), and hearing someone describe all the struggles and even perks of the disability is just so refreshing.
I know I'm really late to this video but I was literally screaming internally when I heard you talk about the hypersensitivity to sound, because I couldn't relate more--
Anyways, this will probably go unnoticed but I just wanted to dump my feelings here. Keep it up, dude❤
You know, it's a very good thing Dolores's bedroom has soundproofing, not only to give _her_ a reprieve, but also prevent her innocence from diminishing. No parent wants a six year old asking why they were so _loud_ in their bedroom last night! 😳
Her bedroom doesn't have soundproof
Edit: ALRIGHT I GET IT ;-;
@@EvilMeganium u sure? Rewatch 4:21 - 4:45
@@seabisqit She said that Luisa's eye was twitching all night tho
@@EvilMeganium true :)
Somebody hypothesised that maybe she stayed up late in the common areas of the house, maybe a touch of insomnia so she left her room or something.
Anyways, I don't know for certain, but it's fun to speculate/hypothesize 🤷 :)
@@seabisqit I mean, that could be true, i don't actually 100% know
I appreciated this analysis! You really looked into the heart of her character. People really seem to want to blame someone in this movie when no one is at fault. It's like they don't understand trauma, mental health, or emotions. I think some people see "emotion" as a dirty word, but that means that they are controlled by their own anger and fear because they fail to recognize them. Turning everything into a logic puzzle is a misguided attempt to take back control.
I can relate to Dolores with covering ears due to loud sounds.
if you want to know what the video that was referenced at the start is about, it's a video from MatPat's Film Theory channel, and it's main point is this:
Dolores can hear things from miles away and she can't turn the power off, ergo she is constantly overstimulated with sound, ergo she is probably secretly miserable, ergo she was probably super happy when the magic was gone. so the video suggests she helped advance the plot of the movie secretly hoping it would break the magic so she wouldn't have to live in a constant hell of permanent noise
make of that what you will
Thanks for the info! I guess that interpretation would make sense if one somehow managed to conclude that Dolores has very weak emotional ties to anyone else living in Casita, wherefore she would care about her own comfort immensely more than about what losing the magic would mean for her siblings, cousins, parents, aunt, uncles and grandmother.
To autistic me it is obvious how much and how deeply Dolores cares about her family, but a allistic (non-autistic) person might stumble over the Double Empathy Problem with her -- especially if they don't know that the Double Empathy Problem exists.
@@ronjaj.addams-ramstedt1023 i think it's related more to the "Casita's gifts are actually a curse" theory that had been circulating around for a while. that reading of the movie was pretty popular for a while: many people concluded the family would have actually been better off without powers at all. Peppa would be able to express her emotions freely, Mirabell's two sisters would have less psychological pressure and Dolores could literally live a quiet life for once.
so... yeah, it's no so much about interpreting Dolores's character as it is interpreting the magic and its' consiquences as a whole
also worth noting, MatPat is one of those youtubers who makes a living by making wild theories based on obscure movie and game facts, and earns enough money doing it to sustain his family and a team of writers and editors. he also does metrics analysis for other content creators on the side. so it's not really a surprise his videos take whatever is the most talked about theory, expand on it in wild ways and slap an eye-catching title+thumbnail on it to optimize it's chances with the youtube algorhythm.
i find his content fun, but i would never actually take any of it seriously
@@zilesis1 Fun and never taken seriously is probably the best way to describe matpat's channels.
@@ronjaj.addams-ramstedt1023 What does double empathy mean?
@@ronjaj.addams-ramstedt1023 I wouldnt say its a lack of emotional ties she would have probably thought about her mother, her cousins, Bruno, etc (since shed be able to hear them all the time anyway so any sort of venting or gossip about how they dont particularly enioy their powers shed hear. In that sense she would be thinking more along the lines of "If the magic is gone so are the high expectations everybody is forced to live up to"
This was truly awesome. Thank you
I also ended up reading Encanto through a disability lens though I must admit I ended up more focused on Mirabel (as a person with disabilities that are normally invisible, I felt she read really effectively as an analogue). Not only only is there the social level in that Mirabel is disadvantaged due to people's expectations of her, but I also think it engaged well with how disabling events impact the wider family and their treatment of Mirabel (seen in the nervous undercurrent of Antonio's gift day and in the almost assignment of blame to Mirabel later in the movie). Not to mention how well the end of the Family Madrigal does the stress surrounding disclosure.
Ultimately, I really liked how this movie managed to involve disability without being an issue story about them and it's really cool to see that there are wider, similar readings on Dolores too.
I've never before heard the saying, "neurodivergent urge to t-rex." But I love it so freaking much lmao
14:55 This is super relatable to me. At my old job as a cashier some customers would get annoyed at me for one reason or another and one of them whispered to the customers behind her which I could fully hear and just broke down. My eyes just well with tears as I keep trying to do my job as fast as possible and avoid talking as much as possible or I'll choke up and go into an anxiety attack at the tills. After it ends my coworkers try and tell me to ignore them but it's actually physically impossible. Same with at home with my autistic brother who is higher on the spectrum than me to th point where having a convo with him is near to impossible, he'll repeat words a bunch and sometimes it drives me insane, same with my elderly autistic neighbour. this was a massive tangent I just realised
That entire branch of the Madrigal family is likely some variation of neurodiverse. From the increased likelihood of gender exploration and self-reflection with Camilo, to relating more to animals than people with Antonio, and Pepa's emotional disregulation. They may not be explicitly stated as neurodiverse, but they can certainly be read that way with minimal issue. Especially since neurodiversity is, in many ways, highly genetic.
The word you need is:
neurodivergent
A person is neurodivergent. A group of people can be neurodiverse, if there are people of more than one neurotype in it.
I find your voice to be very soothing, combined with your slight accent, the slight monotone always just makes some part of my brain just spin
As an aspi, the ability to hyperfocus and defocus my hearing would feel like both a blessing and only a bit of an inconvenience. I could focus in on the complexities of the people around me. I could learn what is appropriate and inappropriate to speak about at certain times. I'd gladly do that and have just a little more sensory input than waves of sound continuing to hit me at once, drowning out my functionality.
Excellent analysis! I think this (and all of Encanto, really) being yet another example of NT (and otherwise normate) people writing disabled characters without even realizing it, because they're just writing the different kinds of people they encounter in the world, and naturally, some of those people will be disabled.
Also, a link to your Barbie Video showed up at the end of this one, for me. And that reminded me: I think of Mirabel as being Disability *coded* in the same way Barbie was (I.E. considered "normal" by the audience that's looking in from the outside, but *treated* as disabled by others within the story, because she doesn't have a Gift that she's "supposed" to have). Which is why I was super relieved when she remained "Giftless" at the end.
I never considered that she might be able to regulate her hearing of sounds. It makes me feel happy for her, as it really would be a curse without that.
Dolores even said “it’s like I hear him now, it’s like I hear him now, I can hear him now.” During the song we don’t talk about Bruno and either no one heard her or they ignored her
This video made me realize that the reason I don’t always “hear everything, was because I’m just near ALWAYS hyper fixating. I do still get overwhelmed for ‘no reason’. And yes, I do have extremely, extremely horrible time management and issues with ‘scheduling’ goals. It used to really hurt my self esteem, still does on occasion just not as bad.
God I love your videos, they're always so detailed and interesting to watch and hear your thoughts on these things!
Also for any Dolores fans: Look up Turn It Down by OR3O, it's a Dolores fan song that actually has her voice actress, and it's so good
Great video, I definitely agree that Dolores telling everyone about Bruno or most other important secrets it would likely do more harm than good. If the family was forced to acknowledge Bruno in the walls they’d probably just kick him out because they can’t just openly let him live there while maintaining the “Bruno harmed the family” narrative they have throughout the movie. Dolores is a great character and I hope she can be explored more in the future through possible sequels, shorts, or an animated series like they did with tangled, all these characters deserve more time to shine honestly.
Congrats on your hundredth video, I love your content and I look forward to seeing more in the future.
Also, if you’re looking for more content with disabled characters to analyze, I recommend taking a look at Epithet erased, a web series that has its first season out for free on RUclips, it’s only 7 episodes and the main disabled characters are in the first 4. One character has a magical equivalent to a chronic pain disorder, and I’m interested to hear your opinions on how it was handled, there’s also some mentions and allusions to mysophonia (idk how to spell it) and PTSD and some characters in the later half of the season that are frequently headcanoned as autistic. I love this series and I’m curious to hear your thoughts on if it does disability well or not.
My headcannnon for why she never mentioned Bruno was still living in the house is that with so many sounds she had trouble gauging where they come from. Like she heard he was still close but couldn’t tell if it was from the house or the wilderness behind them because there is so many competing sounds. Plus all of the kids work hard to keep Pepa from stressing out and we all know how she felt about talking about Bruno. (Also I love the idea of Dolores having autism. I also tend to think Pepa has ADHD. She shows a lot of the AFAB classic symptoms like rapid mood shifts, rejection sensitivity dysphoria, easily distracted, anxiety over forgetting things, but that might just be ✨projection✨)
Honestly, I think that if Dolores were to have come forward with everyone's grievances, it would have just made things worse. It would have likely caused a schism between her and whoever's secrets she exposed. Meanwhile, Mirabel was told these secrets only after the individual members' masks broke off, and she then turned around and called out Abuela for her treatment of the family, without revealing any secrets. Plus, I think what Alma needed to hear in that confrontation was that it was her fault the family was suffering, which really only Mirabel could do, given her status as a black sheep and being the unfavorite to Alma. Mirabel could easily trace the majority of the pressures on the family back to Alma, and I really don't think anyone else could, or at least wouldn't do so so readily.
I think the most telling line in her verse is the last one. Do you understand? She is making it clear that she’s saying more than appears on the surface.
I honestly never caught up on the fact that she could control her hearing but now that you point it out it's so obvious. I just went from "Dolores was cursed with this power" to "Omg, I would kill for this ability"
same when i first watched it!! Full control sounds like autistic bliss, while no control with super-hearing sounds like psychological torture. The absolute contrast
She clearly has some control over it, but still sensitive hearing in that she flinches and covers her ears sometimes. Jared Bush has said she doesn't have as much control of her power as she'd like... an interesting tightrope between a blessing and a curse it would seem!!
"Dolores may have heard things a child should never be exposed to"
*remembers Dolores is one of the oldest of the grandkids* ...Oh. OH NO.
Imagine just getting up at night to go to the toilet real quick and then you hear your parents, to you loud and clear, uhm, going at it
PAIN
im so happy that many people love dolores sm, as a latino autistic person it made me so happy to see her in the movie and i related to her and mirabel a whole lot and idk it just made me so so happy, this whole movie made me so happy tbh bc it reminded me a lot of home and my familly and most of us are nd and most of the madrigals seem nd too and that sorry for the rambles jknaskjn
my symptons of aspergrs have unfortunatenly gotten worse in my early 20´s, i don´t have that many sensory overloads, except for sound, like loud sounds and certain frequencies (crowds,bug noises,etc) have always bothered me but now i do need to cover my ears sometimes, and seeing this video interpreting the character like that and how casita(who is probably pedro) gave her the abiities to control those frequencies and loud sounds, to not bother her, i found this to be kinda beautiful man and it´s a wholesome way of looking at it
I relate to the thing you said think the sounds a lot 15:01 in school I had this one class that had so many loud sounds it would be very difficult for me to do work because people were allowed to talk and they talked so loud and were only quiet when the teacher was talking I'm just glad I had a seminar class because thats where i was able to focus on work the most because of how quiet it was
I also cross my arms to hug myself and i've gotten in trouble for it my entire life
I am sorry -- others reacting badly to your quiet self-soothing is so wrong. Having one's body in some position or moving one's body in some way is nobody else's business (unless one is getting into their physical space, but a self-hug is clearly not that). I hope you will find your chosen family also offline soon! Being around people who are willing to understand and don't stress about if something is "normal" is SO much better: 10/10 would definitely recommend.
Why-
Why would anyone get in trouble for that? I just- I don't get-
Are people physically incapable of leaving others to their business?
Like- I guess I can understand getting in trouble for picking at your skin,(especially your eyelids) but a *self hug?*
Wow-
People amaze me with their stupidity-
(By the way, I am not mad at you, in case that is how I'm coming across, I am more confused, and a bit mad at the people who put you in trouble for that)
@@sylphsmovingstories3986 because too many people (especially in the US, Canada and the UK) fully believe in Guess Culture communication, i.e. that everyone's body language and tone of voice tell at least as much about what we are thinking and feeling as our words. And that everyone's body language and tone are standardized, so if you have read enough books or watched enough RUclips videos, you can always accurately tell if someone e.g. dis/likes you or is honest/lying.
For example: "Crossing your arms is rude, because it means that you distrust or dislike the person you are talking to, and if you do that in front of a parent, teacher or boss, you are being disrespectful and rebellious."
Rules of thumb like that^ are usually pretty much BS, because two of the main axioms in every "system of reading people" that I have encountered thus far have been: "People never say out loud exactly what they mean" and "If someone is nervous, you cannot trust them." So every bluntly honest person with an anxiety disorder or situational anxiety, or just some extra stress from work, studies or family life at the moment MUST be at least somewhat villainous. Ditto for us autistics, and many others.
In short: Guess Culture assumes that Ask Culture (saying what you mean and meaning what you say) does not exist. Which can become extremely frustrating for everyone involved. It also literally stops autistic people, who are fully qualified, from getting into various secondary and tertiary educations and into many jobs, because "something is off" about us if we are viewed through a Guess Culture lens.
@@ronjaj.addams-ramstedt1023 Thank you-
That does make sense, however obnoxious it may be-
And, in case you hadn't guessed, I am also autistic
@@sylphsmovingstories3986 i had a lot of experiences as a child that i now realize was people attempting to train the autism traits out of me. my father used to lock me in the laundry room unless i could look him directly in the eyes while he yelled at me
I can kind of control my hearing. I can focus at one person/group of people's words at a time.
It makes eavesdropping really easy and not wanting to make comments on their conversations really hard.
15:02 the irony when I'm listening to this as cars are passing by and having to rewind to hear ToT
Dolores speaking up might have helped fix some of the Madrigal's family issues a little sooner, but the problems in that family ran much too deep for any one character to solve alone, which was the ENTIRE PLOT OF THE FILM. I think there is definitely a failing on the film's part to address exactly why Dolores didn't speak up aside from that throwaway line of hers that raises more questions than it answers, but the film also had the same issues with other members of the family not getting enough of the spotlight.
Besides, that could be easily explained or at least inferred - yes, as the hyper aware person Dolores may know about Bruno in the walls or at least rats interacting with someone. But as Alma basically enforced the thing that everything is okay as is but merely requires strict management and devotion to the community, saying that Bruno did not leave would feel like a cruel joke and would possibly cause a lashing, meaning Dolores would also probably be an outcast like Mirabel for addressing underlying problems.
Dolores: Oh, Mirabel didn’t get one.
Encanto fans: *gets angry*
Me: Ok, you guys need to calm down. She was only stating a fact. What did you want her to do, sugarcoat the truth?
As a neurodivergent person, I've always wondered why Dolores seemed so relatable, like, I didn't have the words to it, but you explained it very well, like as if I finally found the words that I was looking for.
This was definitely amazing I'm actually glad to see a video like this made explaining some things about autistic.
there's something i nEED to mention about her
her facial expressions seem almost practiced and sometimes over the top
and i know thats a thing in animation ((am animation student))
but
look at her when they're eating together
she has a base facial expression and when someone interacts with her she instantly switches to a drastically different one
but not in a way the others do
also when she's just walking around she always has her eyes wide open and her eyebrows raised
i dont know if im making any sense, i just really wanted to mention these because they're things i constantly do!! i fucking love Dolores
!!afterthought!!:
in a way she encourages me to stop hiding what i think
because lots of the times when someone does//says something my first thought is always something very blunt and to te point, but i have been othered for being like that for years so i try to hide it
and whenever i have to express my opinion on something i just shut up
because thats what i have learned from life
ill say it onec again
I LOVE HER SOMUCH ohmygod they wrote her so well
I have a feeling she didn't think about the consequences at dinner. She was given the opportunity to ruin the proposal and save her cousin from an unhappy marriage. Boom, everything's perfect. Except for one thing, what about Mirabel? Did Dolorez think about her? What if Abuela kick Mirabel out of the house to protect the miracle? Besides, the proposal would probably be repeated again, seeing how Abuel was concerned about it. The Dolorez plan could have devastating effects, and probably nothing would change. but I feel an downright personal connection with Mirabel so it could have an impact on my judgment
Every time I see Film/Game Theory, I feel the same as that one exhausted Robert Downey Jr gif of him rubbing his face.
i really like the way you talk- i have auditory processing issues (ironic considering the video) but the way you enunciate your words is so clear!
Having both Autism and ADHD, I didn't particularly relate to Dolores as a character, but I understand why you or others might. Funnily enough, I've only seen the thing matpat made about Dolores in terms of her supposed villainy and I didn't watch that either. What I did see a lot of were people saying that one shouldn't make LGBTQ or neurodivergent headcanons about these characters because, according to said people, it's not for the LGBTQ or neurodivergent communities, it's only about generational trauma as it relates to latino families.
I do not agree with this mindset, as it completely disregards the idea of intersectionality, but I am careful talking about this movie and Turning Red for this and similar reasons.
Have you watched AreTheyGay channel's Encanto analysis "The Postmodern Horror of TikTok's Encanto Discourse"? I really enjoyed how it challenges us to think about the dynamics between ethnicity and queerness.
@@ronjaj.addams-ramstedt1023 I have actually, and it's where I got the intersectionality bit from. I probably should have mentioned it though lol
I agree. People act like having a head cannon is somehow “ignoring Columbian culture”.
I'm glad to hear other autistic people have extremely quiet voices too.
Apparently my "yelling" just sounds like I'm raising my voice.🙄
So I suck at yelling matches, but at least I'm good with sarcasm.🤷♀️
It's always like "she can't keep secrets" but if you know EVERYTHING from your town that's too much to keep to yourself.
Oakwyrm I love your voice and the way you talk it's so soothing like reading a book
This is almost word for word what I said when I explained her to my friends, and also in a comment on another video here on RUclips. I have ADHD and I hear everything all the time, so I can relate to Dolores a whole lot.
same
I saw Dolores’ first line and the delivery and it was immediately *chanting* “one of us, one of us, one of us”. I relate so heavily to her gift because of all sensory input my hearing gets overwhelmed the most and causes me the most issues. I have trouble hearing in a lot of situations that are stressful, I hear every noise at the same volume in my head I can’t filter out a voice talking to me, so my brains way of coping with all the noise is to just not hear it as loudly and shut down that sense. I went to an audiologist my freshman year because I was having such a hard time hearing at school but doing the testing my hearing was quite literally perfect and actually very very good… and sensitive, so immediately I related to her and especially he reactions when she has to cover her ears because I do that quite often. And also as a child I was very quiet and out of the way so people didn’t think I was really listening so I overheard a lot of secrets and even to this day sitting in class people think I can’t hear them but I can very well so I’ve always been the one to keep those secrets. Also I do about the exact thing she does with her hands I will cup my right hand over my left and hold them to my chest. I love everything about her character and the way she interacts with the others
I'm an aspy but this video was extremely relatable. For that matter when you said the hands things, I looked down at my hands and was holding them together in front of me the entire video... Also had my legs crossed.
Sound break down thing sucks for where I work as well. My coworkers think I'm hard of hearing but in actuality I am just hearing everything all the time. There's so much noise that happens at the registers. We have a huge vent directly above always blowing air through large metal tubes. There's the radio, register noise, carts moving, cars moving outside, door opening and closing, items shuffling around counters and carts, the customers I have to focus on, other customers talking all around, sometimes an alarm that goes off when the shipment truck is docking. Had a loud car alarm go off one day on top of all that and I just like broke down. Had to go take a breather after that. And I can hear all my coworkers talking, I just can't differentiate the words being said if they are more then a few feet away. Especially if I am focusing on the customer I am with so I can understand them. I'm like no, I am not deaf. I can hear you speaking. I just can't make out the words.
There is a whole series made by someone about Dolores listening to Rat Melodramas made by Bruno
Especially how often Peppa goes in outbursts she probably would have heard a lot of thing she didn't want to hear
Regulating one's hearing makes me think of another side of sound processing in autism, the need to hear distinct and loud enough speech to actually understand it. I deal with this and that's why I need subtitles a lot and I can't understand what people say behind my back, so from that perspective Dolores's powers are also "reassuring".
I also cross my arms a lot and I never knew why. I was always really self conscious and thought people would think I was really angry all the time when I just do as a way putting my arms somewhere. Also in my teenage years I started cracking my knuckles as a way of fidgeting with my hands.
My step-dad would call me "ears" because I was always listening and heard everything, and I really couldn't help it.
"My cousin Dolores can hear a pin drop" ------------ I yell at the TV: "NOT a superpower!" bc sensory sensitivity is mental hell, no other way to say it. My skin's always itchy (and it's rude to scratch in public, another thing that keeps me home). I can feel minute differences in fabrics I think NT people don't feel or aren't bothered by so I have to have very particular clothing and bedding. Going to the grocery store, an easy task for NT people, is kind of like hiking over a big hill to me. Sensory sensitivity is to me only a weakness and not any sort of "gift", from my perspective. Maybe some people have it and have found a way to see it as a gift. Spiritual awareness? Idk I feel like I have that but I don't like talking about my experiences with that bc I can't prove that any of it is real.
Anyway, what I love about Encanto is how it realistically handles this "sensitivity as a curse and a blessing" thing.
Omg I love how the movie shows her covering her ears! That's such an autistic thing. I'm impressed by the animators attention to detail there. Also impressed you caught that. Definitely convinced me Dolores is autistic.
It also didn't help during the dinner that Mirabel was staring at her like that, and when she does tell someone she whispers it to her brother, who then whispers to their father (feels less like gossiping and more turning to those close) and when she does burst out it's a combination of anxiety brought on by terrible news, a situation she understandably doesn't like, and overstimulation of noise by being in a confined space with so many people while there is a storm cloud directly above their head.
I completely agree with your points here. Dolores is also my favorite character and I relate to her a lot. As an Autistic person I'd also like a soundproof room.
This is amazing! I hadn’t considered that before but it makes a lot of sense tbh
I like to think that when she said 'And the rats talking in the walls' It wasn't just a hint. That part obviously didn't make sense to Mirabel, but to Dolores it made perfect sense. I often say or write things that don't make sense to other people but make sense to me. Recently in my class notes I just wrote 'Victorian dresses.' What I wrote had a full meaning to me in my head, I knew exactly what i wanted to write. But to others it just means 'Victorian dresses.'
at this point i’m self diagnosed (it’s been a few years of research and no formal diagnosis) and i wear earbuds *all the time* to keep myself from hearing breathing three doors down (obviously i’m exaggerating, (but it’s not exaggerating when i’m at school lol)) so delores’ hearing power was particularly what caught me onto “wait is she autistic?” while watching the movie, then the blunt speech and hands i was like “hey i do that” so yk, i’ve been on the dolores autistic train for a while lol
I also noted that she rarely makes direct eye contact with people while speaking to them: Mirabel and Abuela during breakfast and Camilo at the end being the most obvious moments
Well game theory was saying that she could have try to end the magic because of her gift and he said that she couldn't control it like you said so he said that she would try becasue of her mother's and uncle's gifts
But you make a better point then he does
Dolores is my fav madrigal besides Mirabel, she's so sweet and relatable, I can definitely see the autistic vibes!
15:15 yes, me too, I know that!
And it's so exhausting... I envy Dolores a little for being able to control it with the magic.
THANK YOU, send this video to film theorists my god that video made my blood boil :/// I have really bad audio over stimulation because of autism, Dolores is literally me I'm so glad I was not alone picking up on this :)))
When you mentioned the “t-rex pose” thing i immediately looked down to see i was wearing a blanket like a cape/robe doing that exact pose looking like emperor palpatine and laughed my a$$ off i had never even considered that as a thing that exists
Hi! I really like videos i generally watch it to help myself write my characters but i also like it because it's relatable it's makes me feel welcomed and accepted my mom doesn't really believe i have issues and trauma but watching you reallly helps! Learning more about myself and general smal tips to help myself truly helps a lot! :)
Omg I'm autistic and I just always talk loudly and everyone thinks I'm yelling when I'm just talking
Honestly, Dolores and Luisa are my favorite characters. And Camilo, but I know I'm projecting all over him so I know I'm not being objective about him lol. But yeah, I definitely love Dolores and accept and will internalize this analysis. Makes sense to me with all the information :). Thank you for the analysis!
BRO I KNOW IM LATE, BUT YOU ABSOLUTELY DO *NOT* KNOW HOW MUCH I APRECIATTE THIS, i am an autistic latina, but not only that, i am also A COLOMBIAN AUTISTIC LATINA!! And for real dolores is like my spiritual fictional character as absurd as that sounds! I feel very sad everytime i hear someone say she was manipulating everything the entire time because my dad has left me very scarred with his constant insisting that i am manipulating everything for my own self gain by faking various autistic traits, he has fortunately understood why that is not only almost impossible but nonsensical, i think thats called imposter syndrome? Idk, but i also have the same problem as dolores with hyper sensitive hearing, thank you for this whole entire video i appreciate it soooooooo much :")
you are literally my favorite youtuber on the platform