I can't name a heroine like Odette. Aurora just has no personality

I think so.

BY FAR! When I think of the stereotypical generic princess, Aurora is the one I think of.

as much as I love Odette (lots of nostalgia mostly) I have a very hard time pinning down her personality traits. kind, brave, sweet, what else?

whereas I can't name anyone like Aurora. how many mysterious, shy, ethereal girls who do what they're told instead of rebelling do you know? she's presented like "a mysterious being" but when we get to see more of her personality, she really is just a teenage girl, playful and wanting some companionship and smitten with the first man she meets.

whereas with Odette... feisty? Anastasia and basically every post-Ariel heroine. Sweet? Thumbelina and the classics. brave? almost every heroine ever. wants to be loved for who she is? Jasmine. lost princess? Aurora, Anastasia, Rapunzel. she doesn't really have any unique traits and I've never heard anyone explain how she does, like right here.

She has a lot of traits in common with classic Disney princesses, but they also made her quietly brave, willful, and competent. She doesn't openly defy like Ariel, raise her voice like Jasmine, sing of her discontent like Belle, or dream only of finding love like the classics. She is classy, polite, soft-spoken, and all that good stuff - but she also won't let anyone take her for granted or push her around when it really counts.

When Derek suddenly decides to marry her after a lifetime of fighting just after getting a good look at her, she asks very softly but earnestly: "What else? Is beauty all that matters to you?" She doesn't berate him as Jasmine berates Aladdin, but she also wants an answer. When he can't answer, she's clearly disappointed and heart-broken, but stands by her decision not to marry him until he can. When her father asks later, she says, "I need to know that he loves me for just being me."

When Rothbart later kidnaps her, she has hit ROCK. BOTTOM. Her father is dead, she's whisked away to a ruined castle in a far-off kingdom, cursed to be a swan during the day, and fixed so she can't leave the lake if she wants to be human again, and it seems like the only way to lift this curse is to marry the jerk that did these things to her. Her answer?

Odette (softly): Every night, you ask the same question. And every night, I give the same answer: I'll die first.
Rothbart: You know, you're really starting to bug me.
Odette: I should think you'd be used to it by now.
Rothbart: That's it! Just keep pushing. One of these days, I'm going to BOIL OVER!
Odette: Go ahead then! But I'll never give you my father's kingdom!

This is a woman who stands by her convictions and doesn't waver for a second. At the time, I think a princess who questions the idea of falling in love and getting married based on looks alone was kind of a new thing, and a girl who stood by her convictions without being loud, abrasive, and rebellious about it was also pretty new territory.

I like Aurora, but she's really a product of her time. A sweet, innocent, idealistic, naive, waif-like dreamer who has a lot of animal friends, dreams of finding true love, tells her animal companions how if you do X (wish into a well, don't reveal a dream that you wish, dream something more than once) it's sure to come true, etc. Love at first sight, a romantic duet that ends in love, a sleeping curse that's broken by true love's kiss. Apart from the dancing animals in Phillip's clothes, I don't really feel they did many new things with Aurora's romance and story. Yeah, they made her more dignified and regal compared to the innocence of Snow White and Cinderella, and gave Phillip more screen time and development (and a name) compared to the earlier princes, but that was because of animation constraints with the first two.