At the moment I'm really obsessed with Merida. She's an absolutely phenomenal character whom I can't believe I haven't always loved, but it really bothers me how almost no one sees her the way I do. Not that there aren't Merida fans, there are quite a lot, but they, as a whole, seem to like her more for the trope she represents; strong, a fighter, doesn't need a man, etc. whilst that couldn't be further from the reason I love her. Much of this article will probably be random ramblings or things that I've probably said before, but I really wanted to talk about Merida.

I've already talked in large part before about how Merida's character development is easily my favorite thing about her, how her relationship with her mother is so wonderfully constructed and how as a whole Merida is just a refreshing character, but there's more to why I love her. In the past, I really hated the trope that I mentioned earlier, the tough girl trope which media seems to be pouncing on as of late, and while I still dislike that trope as a whole, I've learned to realize that I can still love a character inside a trope while disliking the trope. The reason I dislike this trope is because in many ways it seems to put down the opposite side. The trope shows us that women need to be strong, independent, and all around bad a to matter in society, which is simply not true. Girls shouldn't have the unrealistic expectation to be strong 24/7, girls shouldn't be forced to have the mindset that wanting someone in your life makes you weak. This is partly why I really enjoyed Anna's character. She represented someone desperate for love, who needed help, and while that ended up getting pushed into her face, I still really enjoyed that aspect of the character. So basically I dislike the trope that Merida represents, though I still really like her character.

In the past I also hated the fact that she would poison her mother. Yes, I'm one of the few Merida fans who will admit that she did in fact poison her mother and don't try and argue with me on that fact. Of course she didn't think it would change her into a bear, but she did know that it would change her in someway, which is the past I found inexcusable. While I still find it awful that she did that, I think it was important that we saw that from her. Seeing the low lows that Merida faces is extremely difficult, yet it makes the ending that much more rewarding. Seeing the lowest of lows can really make us appreciate the highest of highs in a character and her doing that really just amplified how she had changed at the ending.

I also used to dislike Merida because of the similarities I found between her and Ariel. Now this is in no way a bashing of Ariel, I've actually been slowly starting to appreciate all things TLM lately; Ariel, her beauty, the soundtrack, the movie as a whole..but I must admit that she is my least favorite. All I could see in Merida is selfish, self-centered, rash, impulsive and I can still see those things in Merida, but for some reason I've grown to love her in spite of those things. I'm not one for overly flawed characters, but the thing about Brave is that it doesn't try to hide Merida's flaws. It doesn't try to make them seem okay and it doesn't try and put her in the right. Also, in making the movie in many ways centered around Merida's self discovery and journey, it allowed her to face her flaws head on and become anew. With other flawed characters, there's so much going on in the movie that there flaws never really get confronted much, but Brave in it's entirety is Merida facing the problems that she made and owning up to them.

In conclusion..what I saw in Merida that made me dislike her in the past is still there, yet somehow it adds to my love to her now. Despite her representing many traits I detest, personifying a trope I'm getting extremely sick of and her doing the unthinkable to her mother, I still find her to be much an interesting and refreshing character. I love how passionate she is, she's definitely a firecracker and her yearning for freedom and adventure is relatable as well. She isn't perfect, the movie doesn't claim her to be so, but at the same time she's practically perfect in every way to me <33


Alright, that's my article! I wrote this rather quickly and I didn't reread it because it's exam week and I should be studying right now, but I hope you somewhat enjoyed this..I know it's a bit of a mess, but yeah :) Also sorry for being rather overly serious in this article, I'm trying to improve my writing and in doing so went for a..I'm not sure what I'm trying to say here. Thanks again for reading, have a great day/night! <33