Actually, let's talk about Bruno
"I don't care what you think of me" on the surface level is a very pleasing line to hear from Bruno, especially since John Leguizamo did a great job delivering it with that grating, pent-up frustration and sadness we can all imagine he held toward his mother for so many years.
But delving into that deeper, I'm relieved they included that line since Bruno was still around to watch his name become taboo in the Madrigal household and see how his relatives put up their shields of pseudo-resentment and disdain in order to hide their true hurt and worry and regret at him leaving. I think Bruno was aware of their method of coping even as they became so vehemently opposed to speaking his name, but after long enough, he probably ended up wondering if they ever loved him in the first place, or if that love was purely replaced by resentment. (That's probably why he was so surprised when Alma and his siblings immediately hugged him and why he looked so hesitant revealing himself to them at the end of the movie.)
Not knowing if they loved him would've made coming home pretty hard. I honestly don't believe Bruno meant to leave for so long—10 years!—but it just became too hard to come back knowing that Alma would ask about his vision, and when—over time—it became impossible to tell if they wanted him back since they barely spoke of him.
I bet Alma was downright petrified by him leaving since she lost Pedro before, and slowly, over time, her fear turned to hurt. And when people are hurt, they end up saying things they don't mean, and their perception of a person long gone from their life can shift into something completely ridiculous ("seven-foot frame, rats along his back" kinda ridiculous). Alma's line, "Bruno didn't care about this family!" showcases this perfectly.
What makes Bruno such a satisfying character is that he has a very realistic span of emotion throughout the movie. He's not just played off as comic relief, but he does make the audience laugh with his personality and mannerisms. He gets his time to be silly, and it's clear he's self-aware of this because of his sarcasm in the line "My semi-real gift was acting." I really liked his sarcasm, since most animated characters characterized by a sarcastic sense of humor tend to be exaggerated (to a point that becomes unrealistic). But his smile and half–rolling his eyes and doing the air quotes made me instantly love him.
Bruno is the pinnacle of a misunderstood, estranged relative. After "We Don't Talk About Bruno", with all those misconceptions from the town, and the exaggerations from his relatives, the icing on the cake is that it's revealed that he's just...a genuinely good person. Like, Disney has their pretty predictable twist villain trope but then the writers for Encanto whipped out the Uno reverse card, and I respect that.
Bruno chose isolation and estrangement to protect his niece. Can you imagine that being the breaking point? I feel like if I had his power and had to live with people treating me like I was responsible for a bad vision, or living in fear of me, I would've left sooner than Bruno did. But he didn't even end up leaving for himself, he did it for Mirabel.
However, even though he's kindhearted, that doesn't mean the writers didn't allow him to show some bitterness at how the town and his family perceived him and his gift. Deep down, there was a part of Bruno that did leave for himself, and I get that. I understand how it feels to be the black sheep of the family, so there was just something so damn satisfying about the lines where Bruno actually mentions it.
"Oh, he's creepy and his vision killed my goldfish." "But I knew what everyone would think because I'm Bruno and everyone always assumes the worst." And then with Alma, "I don't care what you think of me!"
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