If youāre still open for Encanto headcanons, what about the star Himbo Mariano? Or the fact that the mountains werenāt shown closing up when the magic returned.
Well, someone else in my inbox asked me about Star Himbo Mariano so let's do the mountains!
I think the mountains not closing up again when the magic re-activated was probably meant to be symbolic of Alma and the family letting go of certain fears about loss, but of course it could also just be sequel bait, for obvious reasons. Symbolic sequel bait, let's say, lol.
I'd assume the mountains opening up would be EXTREMELY interesting to people outside them, but since we don't immediately see the town get overrun with strangers I'm also assuming that there aren't really any super-close settlements/cities/etc near them. Plus I kind of assume the mountains were previously literally impassable because Magic, so most people didn't even try coming through after the split. They're like, "ah, yes, the inexplicable mountains from fifty years ago are acting weird, I DEFINITELY want to get in on that, no I do NOT thank you very much". So their first visitors from the outside world are gonna be some daring-ass idiots and/or weirdos, probably.
Alternate possibility: nobody comes and visits, but some of the townspeople go and see what's out there. I'm not sure anyone WOULD, after basically living in utopia for fifty years and also having been chased to said utopia by horrible looters/murderers, but there's always somebody with more curiosity than sense out there so who knows, really.
I do think the mountains are still at least a little bit magic, so I would NOT want to be someone with dubious intentions trying to come through them. Like, I can't imagine that ending well for them.
And I don't know if this is actually a headcanon that I have or not, but I do wonder if the gifts/magic might not work outside the mountains. Or at least, not work without an Alma or Mirabel on hand.
