Ok so this is evidently the hill I’m willing to die on. Here we go.
The director of Encanto answered a question on Twitter about the birth order of the Madrigal triplets. This is what he said:
[image ID: a tweet by Jared Bush. “Many asked about the birth order of the original triplets: Julieta’s oldest, healing helps everyone and she’s most responsible, Pepa’s “the middle child” - more emotional because Julieta was the “adult”, Bruno is the baby… making his departure all the more tragic.” Followed by emojis of the rod of Asclepius, a sun peeking out from behind a cloud, and an hourglass, the hashtag #encanto, and a Mirabel emoji.]
Okay. So. Yes, this is what the director says. But I am here, as a triplet myself, to say that I think this is incorrect and doesn’t reflect how triplets/multiples actually work. Again, I understand that this is a pretty dumb thing to be upset about, but humor me, won’t you?
I think, based on several bits of evidence that the movie itself gives us, that the birth order should actually be Pepa, Bruno, and Julieta.
Throughout the movie we see several instances of the triplets in art or in photographs. In each of them, the order is Pepa, Bruno, and Julieta.
The mural in town, seen during “La Familia Madrigal”:
And the wall of photos with Alma, when the kids received their doors:
Here’s the thing. You may be wondering, “why does this matter?” And maybe it doesn’t, in the grand scheme of things— the triplets are all, still, the same age, plus or minus a few minutes between their births. But. I am a triplet, as I said before. Specifically, I am the third triplet. That is an *important point* of multiple siblings. Growing up our birth order was a big deal! It’s how our baby photos and senior photos are hung on my parents’ wall. They have a grandfather clock with engraved weights— the order is correct there too. At the hospital, we were Baby A, Baby B, and Baby C— you guessed it, I was baby C. It’s how we’re listed on documents and in family posts of Facebook, for gods’ sake. It’s how we’re casually talked about— to say our names out of order would sound wrong.
I cannot for the life of me imagine Alma hanging up photos of her children, cannot imagine Casita creating a family tree in tile, and getting it wrong. That’s not what you *do*. It just feels wrong, like a parent is spelling your name incorrectly. It’s part of your identity to say “I’m the third one.” It *matters* to you. I know their genders may have something to do with it— Bruno’s the only boy, so it sort of makes sense that he’d be in the middle. I’ll admit, my sisters and I are all the same gender so I don’t have experience with that. BUT, I feel like birth order would still be important there. Julieta is the first born, according to the director, so logically she would be on the left and Pepa would be on the right, but no, they never are.
And another point that bugged me about this tweet— it misunderstands what it’s like to grow up with two siblings the same age. I know I just talked all about how birth order is important. But it’s not like regular siblings where you can assign things like “oh, he’s the eldest, so he had to be way more responsible, whereas the baby could get away with anything!” no!! You are all the eldest. You are all the baby. Your parents are learning as they go with three, not just one. Why would Julieta have to be the adult if all three kids are experiencing the exact same developmental milestones at the exact same time? She’s not gonna be able to help her mother care for younger siblings, for instance, if she’s the *exact same age* as those siblings.
Also, if Bruno being the baby makes his disappearance more dramatic, I don’t know why his being the middle triplet wouldn’t— if my middle sister suddenly vanished and left that hole between my other sister and me, I would be *devastated.* To lose one third of that bond would feel like a nightmare, no matter who it was, tbh.
I know this probably seems pedantic to the extreme, and ultimately, it’s really not the point of the movie. I get that and I understand it. But it just completely misses the point of what it’s like to be a multiple, and a triplet specifically. At that point, just make them different ages! There’s a different type of sibling hood that comes about when you experience life with two others going through it with you, together. It’s a lovely thing and it *does* shape your experience of the world.
Btw, if you’ve ever wanted to ask “What’s it like being a triplet?!”….. there you go!
