"And I would sing..."

original meme

people act like she banned music just to be a bitch and it's like, no! she was heavily traumatised.

it's not like she really hated music - she hated what music represents, that her husband abandoned her and their daughter.

like people brush over this so much because héctor was actually murdered but imelda didn't know that! it's called dramatic irony!

imelda rivera was abandoned by her husband (again, no knowledge of his death because ernesto wasn't interested in self-sabotage) and became a single mother in 1920s mexico (objectively true). like shit wasn't easy for her and I'm tired of people portraying her as a petty bitch or 'as worse as ernesto'.

careful. your misogyny/racism is showing.

what else could imelda have done? going after ernesto would have 1) not been viable (single parent of a young kid) and 2) very fucking dangerous (murderer and whatnot).

I'm sure she felt guilt after learning the truth, but the whole tragedy for héctor and imelda for me is that they were simultaneously both and neither at fault. héctor had a really shitty best friend and a really shitty after life and imelda felt deeply betrayed.

anyway. stop placing unrealistic expectations on imelda rivera thanks

I get when you see her through the lens of miguel it can be 'easy' to see her as a music hating bitch but she's a deeply traumatised woman with unhealthy coping mechanism who like. learned her lesson and apologised to miguel in a span of the night after almost a century of trauma. she banned music as a surviving mechanism not to spite her (unbeknownst) murdered husband or her music-loving great-great-grandson. she's not omniscient.

Alma abused her children and grandchildren to a degree that Bruno "left" the family and made him superstitious, Isabella always has to put on a show, and she is forced to be married.

Imelda never abused Coco's family or her brothers over the music ban. Yes, it's alluded to that Imelda and Coco have argued over the ban. But she never abused Coco. She raised Coco to the best of her ability and provided for her until she was able to provide for herself.

Another thing that differs from Imelda and Alma is that Imelda showed genuine affection and care for Miguel even though he was breaking family rules. She helped Miguel do what he had to do to get back to the Land of the Living. She even explained why the music ban existed and why it still exists.

Alma never did that. She never tried and helped Mirabel with being the odd one out. She never explained why she was hard on Isabella, Luisa, Pepa, Camilo, and everyone else with a gift. The only reason we got was that Pedro died, the Encanto was born, and she has to keep the candle burning.

Also, Imelda is this dynamic character that we see change throughout the movie. Although in her introductory scene, we see that she is someone who doesn't take crap from anyone and she hates music for no reason, which isn't true. But by the end of the movie, we see she has changed her POV on music, lifted the ban, and has gotten back together with Hèctor.

Héctor and Imelda rushing to each other’s side when they fall