Isabela Madrigal discovered new aspects to her gift in Encanto, but a theory could mean she is way more powerful than she ever realized.
One new Encanto theory suggests Isabela Madrigal is much more powerful than she realizes. Isabela (Diane Guerrero) is Mirabel’s (Stephanie Beatriz) eldest sister, and her gift gives her the ability to generate and manipulate flora. For the majority of Encanto, Isabela creates roses that are viewed as perfect flowers and it is not until later in the movie that she realizes her power extends beyond her rigid expectations of it.
Isabela is viewed as the golden child and Mirabel holds a lot of resentment towards her because of it, especially as Mirabel doesn’t think she has a gift at all. There is a lot of pressure on Isabela to live up to this perfect image and Abuela ( María Cecilia Botero) is the hardest on Isabela, which Mirabel doesn’t realize at first. When Mirabel does reach out to Isabela and realizes the pressure on her, Isabela lets go of the expectations and her gift exceeds her expectations of it, creating different plants and even producing color out of thin air.
However, one theory (via Reddit) suggests Isabela’s gift is much more powerful than even she realizes, and that her gift is not just the creation and manipulation of flora, but creation itself. The theory comments on how Isabela sees her gift goes much further than she expected, creating other flowers and colors in her song ‘What Else Can I Do?’ which shows Isabela Madrigal’s room. Since Isabela’s gift is about creating flowers and plants which are living creatures, the theory states that Isabela has the potential to possibly create other living creatures. With plants being the most relatively simple living creature to create, further practice would then theoretically allow Isabela to create more intricate creatures.
The theory is plausible, as Isabela was shocked when she found out she could create other plants and flowers, showing she doesn’t really know the extent of her gift, especially since hers and all the Madrigal’s gifts could be linked to their flaws. However, in Encanto, all of Isabela’s new creations are in some way linked to flowers and plants. Even her new designs in the house were forms of flowers. Although creating bursts of color does step away from flowers in some sense, pigments and color can be drawn from plants and flowers. It is likely that the color she is creating are those which can be taken from certain flowers and it is simply an extension of her gift of flora as, before she creates bursts of color from her hands, they firstly appear from the plants she has made.
However, in Encanto, Isabela is only just starting to explore the extent of her powers and she has already expanded her range massively. There is potential that Encanto 2 could have a massive twist for the Madrigal’s gifts and it is not unfeasible that Isabela could eventually make other living creatures if she is able to currently create living plants. The Madrigal’s powers cover a vast range and their house, Casita, is also a living entity so it is possible that Isabela’s gift is creation as a whole, and she has only created plants so far as they are what she was capable of making first.
In the wider Disney Universe magic is often used to create living creatures. Elsa (Idina Menzel), for example, is able to create Olaf in Frozen when she lets her powers flourish, and he is made out of ice, her power. Plus, Isabela’s arc repeats Elsa’s Frozen story, so it would make sense that Isabela’s powers could develop as Elsa’s do. So, as Isabela fully lets her gift strengthen in a potential Encanto sequel, she could become much more powerful than she realizes and have a more developed gift of creation.
