disney princesas Article: Why I think Merida is mais harshly criticized than Ariel

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Why I think Merida is mais harshly criticized than Ariel

posted by Tygers_Eye

Merida and Ariel have very similar characteristics with similar goals, stories, and mistakes. They are both fiery, spirited, stubborn, headstrong, rebellious, foolish, careless, inconsiderate, look-before-they-leap types. They both rebel against an overprotective, overbearing parent. They both go after what they want without considering (or caring) about the consequences. Merida wants her freedom to ride and shoot arrows as much as her coração desires. Ariel wants to explore the surface and live among humans.

However, many of the same people that praise Ariel for overcoming oppression and going after what she wants will condemn Merida for being whiny and selfish. People who take Ariel's side against her father will condemn Merida for having the audacity to argue with her mother.

To save time and energy, I'm just going to post some comments various users have made about Merida and just refute them here.

Reflection11: Merida. “… Also she whiny and complains. Your mom cares about you so much and she has done a lot for you so, BE THANKFUL!” Ariel. “I amor that she fights for what she believes in. And how she is adventurous, rebellious,...”

Stop right there.

So, when Merida rejects the wishes of an overbearing parent, she’s an ungrateful whiner that doesn’t appreciate what her mom does for her? But when Ariel does the same to her dad, she’s an admirable go-getter that’s just sticking up for what she believes in?

Silverrose1991: "Elinor, while strict, was only looking after she thought were her daugther's best interests."

So was Triton. Honestly, if you're going to give Elinor a pass for having Merida's best interest at heart, and condemn Merida for not appreciating her, then you should also give Triton a pass for also having Ariel's best interest at coração and condemn her for not appreciating him either. As Triton himself says: "Do you think I want to see my youngest daughter snared on some fish-eater's hook?" Ariel: "I'm sixteen years old! I'm not a child." I'd scold her for that tone too.

I'll also argue that Triton gives Ariel even mais freedom than Elinor gives Merida, so I actually think she has mais reason to rebel than Ariel.

KataraLover: "But I feel like there could be mais to the story with Merida than there is Ariel and Jasmine. Ariel is rebelling because she's fighting against the injustice of the human race, a very noble cause because they don't truly know that all humans are evil. She also rebels because of how her father is protective of her because of her mother....

...Merida on the other hand gets to go out, shoot arrows, climb mountains, and ride cavalos a lot, WAY mais than jasmim has ever done. Merida doesn't have much depth to her because she was rebellious even before the whole forced into marriage thing."

Tygers_Eye: "...No offense, but did you watch the movie? Yes, she's rebellious, because her mom constantly polices her every word and action and tries to force her to be the exact opposite of how she is.

"The film establishes Merida as a very athletic, combative, hot-blooded girl that loves archery, sword fighting, horseback riding, wilderness survival, rock-climbing, and other physically exerting activities. Her mother expects her to discard it all completely and be calm, graceful, dainty, delicate, polite, studious, domestic, diplomatic, etc. To that end, her mom constantly monitors and nitpicks at her. The mais her mother tries to force these standards on her, the mais Merida rejects them.

"Honestly, Ariel had plenty of freedom to go and do whatever she wanted as long as she stayed away from the surface, and jasmim seemed to have a decent amount of freedom as a princess living in luxury as long as she stayed inside the palace walls. Sure, they couldn't physically GO where they wanted, but Merida's very personality and every waking moment was constantly monitored and policed. (Except Sundays, apparently.) Honestly, I think Merida would *kill* for the freedom that Ariel and Jasmine, or at least Ariel had."

Also, I really want to address that “Ariel is rebelling because she's fighting against the injustice of the human race, a very noble cause because they don't truly know that all humans are evil” part. I really, strongly disagree. Nobility implies highly admirable goals and virtues, but Ariel secretly breaks her father’s law regarding the surface because it’s something SHE'S interested in. It's rebellion born of self-interest and self-fulfillment, not better the world for other people. If she publically fought her father’s law so other merpeople could enjoy the surface without worry, I might call it “noble.” But she doesn’t. If her father’s prejudice actively hurt humans, I might call it “noble.” However, whether he likes them or not does not make a difference to humans’ everyday lives since most don’t know merpeople exist. If he was actively malicious because of his prejudice, like sinking ships or drowning them, her rebellion would be “a very noble cause.” But it’s not. She likes the surface and humans, her dad says no, so she just does it anyway. Honestly, it’s not much different from a girl liking punk rock, but her father refuses to let her listen to the music, go to the concerts, or associate with punk-rockers because he thinks the evils of rock música with corrupt his little girl and lead to drugs, sex and death, and she just keeps listening, going to the concerts, and trying to encontro, data one anyway. Only Triton legitimately fears for his daughter's life because he really thinks humans will kill her.

Now I'm going to address the urso in the room: Merida trying to change her mother instead of trying to change herself.

Swanpride: "Merida wanted to deliberately mess with the mind of her mother...which in my eyes is MUCH WORSE than just turning her into a bear."

Silverrose1991: "I think purposefully changing your mother (even if not in the way you wanted) is wose than unknowingly affect others with changing yourself."

These are legitimate points. Trying to change her mom without her consent is a legitimately awful and selfish thing to do.

However,I've often seen Ariel changing herself being called brave, selfless, whatever. Ah, no. Not brave. Ariel changing herself was reckless and stupid to the extreme since Ursula was obviously, notoriously evil, gave her an impossible task of winning some schmuck's coração and lips in three days, and Ariel quite literally gambled and signed her life away on such impossible odds. Not to mention that doing it was still selfish since leaving would worry and sadden her family, since just disappearing one dia without letting them know where she was going would be leave them forever wondering what happened to her. Either Ariel didn't consider how her absence would affect her family, which is selfish, or she did consider and just decided that her desire was mais important, which is also selfish. But hey. As long as Ariel gets what Ariel wants, everyone else can twist in the wind for all she cares.

I'll also try to play Devil's Advocate in regards to Merida, because while trying to change her mom was legitimately wrong, I don't think it's this all-horrible black hole of morality evil act that sucks in everything else about her as a character, nor do I think Ariel's change all that innocent and selfless por comparison.

Tygers_Eye: "To be fair, [Merida's] mother was trying to change her every segundo of every dia too. Constantly correcting her every word, thought and action, constantly trying to mold her into the type of daughter and princess she wanted, and tried to force her to marry a complete stranger against her will when she wasn't ready. Every time Merida tried to talk or resist, her mother would urso down harder on her and tighten her restrictions harder and harder until Merida couldn't breathe; both literally and figuratively. It's pretty clear that when Merida says 'change' what she means is 'less strict.'"

Silverrose1991: "In regards to the Merida-Elinor relationship, my point is that I don't like Merida using magic to change her mother."

Tygers_Eye: "So... it's all right to change someone as long as you don't use magic? The end result is the same, the person has changed. Whether one forces it through constant behavior correcting or magic, the person still winds up different from before.

"Elinor was the instigator por constantly trying to force Merida to change, would not let up no matter how much she tried to resist or reason, and would not compromise no matter how much Merida begged, so I can kind of see where she kind of felt she was at the end of her rope. Should she let her mom force her into a marriage she wasn't ready for and give up the life she loved, or try to get her mom to change her mind about the marriage por being less strict and unrelenting?"

Also, while many feel it's too little too late, Merida still learns to genuinely regret and apologize for her actions. When it seems like her mom will be a urso forever, Merida breaks down sobbing: "I'm so sorry. This is all my fault. I did this to you." Not just for making her mom a bear, which many grudgingly grant her, but genuinely apologize for trying to change her mom at all. During their worst fight, when Merida really thought her mom didn't care about her, she cried: "You're never there for me! All you care about is what YOU want!" At the end, when it seems her mum will be a urso forever, Merida hugs her mom and sobs: "You were always there for me! You've never given up on me... I want you back!" In other words, she realizes she never should have tried to change her mom, since her mom was always fine the way she was, and wishes for her mom back exactly the way she was, strict and all.

I can't say the same for Ariel, who never seems sorry that she got involved with the Sea Witch, only sorry that she lost / got caught. When Ursula reveals their deal to Triton, she says: "Daddy, I'm sorry! I didn't mean to! I didn't know!" Didn't mean to? Do what? Accept the eels' offer to see Ursula, listen to her spiel, sign the contract. Oh yes you did mean to. Didn't know? Didn't know what? That Ursula is a notoriously evil, untrustworthy sea witch? That she turns her customers into polyps and as you saw her garden is full to bursting? That she intended to enslave you as she told you the terms of the contract? That she was eager to have you since she said "You'll belong TO ME!" enthusiastically and practically screamed "Flotsam, Jetsam, now I've got her boys! THE BOSS IS ON A ROLL!" just before you signed it, and Ursula was ecstatic to get the contract after you signed it? You didn't know? Yeah right! You knew, but you didn't care, signed the contract anyway, and got yourself in trouble. Now you're sorry that it's come back to bite you.

After Triton trades his life for hers, I honestly expect her to say "What have I done?" since, when all is said and done, Ariel made the decision to go to Ursula, listen to the risks, and sign the contract anyway. Yeah, you can argue that Ursula "manipulated" her, but she did not force her to sign anything. Ariel did that of her own volition. And then her father paid the price. Yet, every time I watch that scene, I don't know why, but I feel surprised when she instead glares at Ursula and cries "YOU MONSTER!" Okay, don't admit responsibility for your actions. Completely blame her. That's the mature, selfless thing to do.

Then, of course, Ariel never apologizes or takes responsibility for what happened. After it's all over, she just goes back to mooning over Eric like she was before it happened. No lessons or regrets here.

IN CONCLUSION: Both Merida and Ariel do selfish things in their quest to get what they want, rebel against and underappreciate the efforts of an overbearing parent, and hurt others in their por accepting a potion por a witch to "change" someone. However, where Ariel often gets excused, praised or glorified for her behavior and actions, Merida if often completely condemned. For reasons I discussed in this article, I think this is a wee bit of a double-standard that deserves some thinking about.

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Swanpride Ariel mostly fought with he father, because she had a dream he didn't condone. While I have a problem with Ariel's dream, because she is essentially endangering her whole species and breaking laws which are there for everyone, her actions are frames as the ones of a teenager, who finally wants to make her own decisions, no matter how STUPID they are. That is very important, I might not agree with what Ariel does, but I agree with her desire to make her own mistakes and the pursue her own dream. With a little bit guidance from Triton, she could have done it in a responsible way. Merida is portrayed as someone who feels oppressed by the role society forces onto her because she is a woman and a princess. Fair enough. But she never really explains what she wants to do instead. It is all "it is boring to get educated, I want to hunt with my bow". Her mother does try to give her guidance, and honestly, I can't blame her for not being swayed by Merida's desire to have fun the whole day instead of accepting some kind of responsibility for anything. All this issues are there BEFORE the impending marriage is even mentioned. Which is not just about marrying Merida off, but about preventing a war. Now if the movie had portrayed as Merida having a specific dream, or being responsible but simply not ready to marry, I would be all for her. But the way it is framed, I have trouble to sympathise with Merida. In the end, it boils down to TLM being a very well written movie, while Brave is a mess which often works against its own heroine.

hatelarxene I agree with Swanpride

MaidofOrleans Thank you so much for this article! You put into words exactly what I feel when I think about Merida and Ariel. I hate the double standards and I wish there was less glorifying of Ariel's actions.

Persephone713 Ariel doesn't get glorified. I dont agree with your opinon . Merida is nothing like Ariel, the stories, the goals, the personalities, the friends, the endings, motivations. There is no similarities at all. That is why I hate Merida and LOVE LOVE LOVE ARIEL. So NO Ariel is NOTHING like Merida- that I can see. I could state many reasons why I think so, but alot of points have been said already * sorry, my original post was mean..

Persephone713 I agree for the most part with Swanpride as well.

Silverrose1991 Persephone - Calm down! It's HER opinion! Don't be immature and respect it. I disagree with her, but I'm not making a fool of myself and being mad with anyone.

Persephone713 I also agree with Silverrose- especially that Ariel is not selfish,

KataraLover You completely ignore the fact that Ariel's main reason for rebelling is to stand up for the injustice against humans. It's like someone standing up against injustice against African American's, Jews, and so on. Actually what Ariel is doing is just as noble, if not more, as Pocahontas standing up for both the injustice of her people and of the white men. I think that's a better reason for rebelling than just a lack of freedom. Ariel has that just like Merida but unlike Merida she's also being rebellious to help a greater cause, not just herself. The reason you think Merida has less freedom is the fact you haven't seen much of Ariel being forced into what she's doing. Most likely her and Jasmine both have to do lessons just like Merida because they're princesses and have duties and responsibilities just like her. The only difference is we don't see it as much as Merida's. It could just mean that Ariel actually sneaks out of her lessons, like she did the concert, to go and live her life. What makes Merida ungrateful is because she tells her mother she's never been there for her, calls her a beast, and that she'd rather die than be like her. That's pretty bratty. Ariel never talked that way to her father, she didn't even say she hated him, not even after he destroyed her stuff. Plus Merida wanted to change who her mother is and Ariel didn't want to change her father, she just wanted to make him understand. Merida never tried to get her mom to understand, all she said was "this is so unfair" instead of explaining why it's actually unfair. Ariel tries to get her father to understand but he won't listen. That's the difference between Ariel and Merida and how Ariel is a better character than Merida.

Tygers_Eye Thank you to everyone supporting this article. I know I've ruffled some feathers, but I'm also happy to give a voice to the frustrated. Regarding the amount of freedom each princess faces, I will repeat: Ariel has freedom to go wherever she wants and do whatever she wants as long as she shows up to the occasional concert and stay away from the surface. Merida has every second of every day planned and scheduled for her, where she is constantly drowning in lessons, corrections, etc. Being forbidden from going to one place is not the same as being forbidden from going anywhere except your designated spot all day, every day, except "once in a while." Heck, even after Triton lays down the law regarding the surface, he still allows Ariel to rush off to cry, sulk, whatever. He doesn't even think to have her supervised until after Sebastian suggests it and after Ariel has broken his trust regarding the surface. Even then, she doesn't have to like it. By contrast, after Elinor lays down the law regarding Merida's suitors, she FOLLOWS Merida into her room and basically polices her reaction. Merida is not allowed to feel angry, frustrated, or dejected by it, she has to feel happy and grateful like her mom wants. In fact, while we're on the subject, Ariel is free to marry whatever merman she wants whenever she wants, while Merida is limited to who her mother chooses, when she chooses. When Triton hears Ariel is in love, he is GIDDY to learn "Who could the lucky merman be?" Elinor pre-emptively decides it's going to be the first-born son of a clan leader, they will compete for Merida's hand at a certain point, and Merida will graciously accept whatever the outcome is. Again, being free to all but one whenever she's ready is not the same as being limited to one at the exclusion of all others, at the designated time.

KataraLover And once again you're ignoring my points and just saying the same thing you said before that's not really related to what I just pointed out.

Jayden-G KataraLover, her main reason for rebelling was NOT because of the injustice of humans to her father or for human equality. She was interested in the human world, and he was not having her do any of what she was interested in. She wants to be on land and with Eric, and is standing up for her dream, not because her father is a human racist or whatever. She wants her father to let her do what she wants to do. Pocahontas is trying to avoid a conflict between two parties and did whatever she could to accomplish that. What Ariel did is me saying I want to be an actor, my family refuses, we get into it about it, I run off to Hollywood, making a dangerous and risky decision to be an actor. I did it so I can get what I want, not because I want people to see actors as humans. While Swanpride and most of you bring up some great points, Ariel and Merida DO have similarities. Both are rebellious, feel trapped, did a dangerous and risky thing to get what they want, are redheads, free-spirits, but the difference is that Merida develops, while Ariel does not. Please tell me what she learned through the movie? Either way, both made some dumb decisions.

KataraLover Yeah, she really didn't stand up against injustice at all, especially by saying "Daddy, they're not barbarians!"

Tygers_Eye KataraLover: With all due respect, I addressed the "prejudice" part in the article. It's not the same as real prejudice because humans have to co-exist, whereas humans and merpeople live in completely different worlds. In fact, humans don't know merpeople exist, so how they feel about them does not affect their daily lives one iota. (It's not the same as being denied jobs, opportunities, places to live, people to marry, the right to live, etc.) What's more, Ariel doesn't fight for other people, she fights for her right to pursue what she wants. She's interested in humans, her dad says no, so she secretly does it anyway. She doesn't publically challenge his law so other merpeople can enjoy the surface, so she's not helping merpeople. She doesn't have to stop her dad from actively hurting humans because he's not hurting them, so she's not helping humans. She's helping herself. Also, to be fair to Merida, she does try to tell her mom why "it's not fair," but she gets flustered and tongue-tied, and Elinor takes advantage of it by verbally bulldozing her, which just leaves Merida even more frustrated. Merida is not as good at verbally arguing and Elinor knows it, and she takes advantage of it by constantly cutting Merida off at every turn instead of letting Merida have her turn. Merida even pleads "Just LISTEN!" but Elinor keeps cutting her down, prompting Merida to say and do what she does out of anger and frustration. (I went through this my entire childhood with my sister. That's why I'm so good at debating now.) Not to mention I think Merida has a right to feel "ungrateful" that moment because after a lifetime of monitoring Merida's every moment (except "once in a while"), molding her every word and action, sending out invitations for a marriage competition without asking Merida first, ignoring Merida's protestations, and basically saying "tough luck" to everything Merida tries to say and do, I'm not sure Elinor is entitled to gratitude for that. Unless you're arguing that Merida should just smile and do what her mom tells her, which I still think has a bit of a double-standard unless you also argue that Ariel should just smile and do what Triton tells her.

GreatLance_30 You really are great! I love how you express your feeling towards Merida! I also think Merida is far better than Ariel! Ariel, at least have the ocean to swim freel! She has the freedom to do whatever she wants except to go to the surface and it's good! Hello? Here in the surface, you'll not experience that type of life! There's corruption, war, natural calamities, person with attitude problems! And just for a yummy prince! Urgh! You can just search for someone (a merman) who's as yummy as Eric does, or if Eric also loves Ariel he can be the merman since no one says about him doing it! Merida on the other hand, might be free physically sometimes but then her duty and her mother controls her to the point that she has to remove her interests. In the end, her mother realized that she really is wrong, that we should have the freedom to do whatever our heart says! Merida also changed in the end for the better! I agree that Merida is harshly criticized and I feel bad for that, but now isthe perfect time to love since it is her month! Hope Merida will gain more love now!

Swanpride Who says that Ariel didn't learn? Just because she didn't make a big announcement, it doesn't mean that she didn't learn. She mostly learned to walk on her own legs, so to speak. Yes, there are similarities, but it's the differences which make the difference.

Jayden-G Character development-wise, I don't see what she could have learned since she got everything she wanted without her making some drastic decision after everything is done, she never hated her father, so I don't see how she developed over the course of the film. In the logic that there was no big announcement could be said with Snow White, Cinderella, Aurora, Belle, and Jasmine that they learned something and developed, which most people agreed to not be the case. There are similarities and I dislike BOTH, but the differences set them apart for me too.

maryksand Except that intent and context come off as a crucial point. Elinor's outlooks were not directed at reinforcing and perpetuating bigotry against the entire race whereas Triton's mentality actively encouraged hatred and ignorance. Which essentially IS harmful seeing as the very notion of extremism is damaging at it's core. "One human less to worry about" - he endorses and condones the idea of letting a fellow living being die a horrid, unjustified, untimely death JUST because said being is a representative of a different culture. Which is the kind of ideology Elinor would NEVER resort to. Then Triton proceeds to A) violate his daughter's privacy after already hiring his confidant Sebastian to disgracefully spy on her and invade her personal space C) gruesomely and viciously destroys her personal possessions that took years and tremendous efforts to collect while Ariel cries and begs him to stop in horror. Triton takes advantage of his physical AND authoritative power which is completely intolerable and oppressive. Striking contrast to Elinor's fairly minimal requirements and reasonable limitations imposed on Merida such as - oh the horror - not placing the bow on the table. Sounds considerably LESS oppressive than having your safe haven atrociously demolished before your eyes because you dared to save someone's life and not uphold your parent's discriminatory mindset. It took Elinor to face verbal abuse on part of MERIDA to lose her temper for a brief second and throw her daughter's bow in the fire - which certainly was not admirable of an act, but something she regretted instantly and frantically extracted the item from the flames recognizing how much of a significance it bore to Merida. Despite the fact that the bow was replaceable whereas Ariel's collection wasn't and Merida damaged Elinor's property first by ruining the painting. Merida was more than inclined to benefit from her privileges while unwilling to embrace and acknowledge responsibilities that came with them. On the other hand, Ariel REFRAINED from her privileges once choosing to move away from the toxic environment created by Triton. The latter was a loving but admittedly and implausibly incompetent parent AND a ruler who would rather demonize the entire culture due to not possessing a sufficient knowledge regarding it - contrary to Ariel who according to established canonical evidence strove to OBTAIN said knowledge hence "ask them my questions and get some answers" which took place long before she laid her eyes on Eric - while blatantly neglecting a prominent criminal running illegal business on his territory enslaving his citizen who ended up being transformed into mutated entities when not maimed or eaten by sharks - LEGITIMATE threats he should have protected his daughters from. Poignantly, Eric the "barbaric fish eater" and coincidentally a representative of the species Triton incessantly discriminated against was the one to liberate Triton's people due to equal teamwork with Ariel. Which might not have been either Ariel or Eric's initial intention but nonetheless a positive outcome. Whereas in Merida's case the only "positive" outcome was her innocent mother not dying because of her immature, deliberately harmful actions aimed at depriving Elinor of agency and brainwashing her into conforming to Merida's outlooks. On the other hand, the only person Ariel strove to change was herself seeing as obtaining a human form and being integrated into human society had been her long term and unwavering goal. And she only opted for radical measures which were limited to subjecting HERSELF to Ursula's deal (as opposed to Merida's intention to change Elinor inorganically through magic which is the highest extent of intolerable) and turning to another marginalized woman in Triton's strictly patriarchal and oppressive society (it's worth mentioning that Ursula was neither provided with the opportunity to rehabilitate and fulfill herself by means of objectively exceptional magical skills and nor rightly prosecuted for inflicting harm on merfolk because THAT was Triton's ideology in a nutshell: as long as a woman knows her place she is allowed to live in a preferable way but the second she defies his authority he finally pays attention to whether her methods are or aren't illegal. Predictably, this tactic immensely backfires on Triton later on) AFTER Triton solidified his unwillingness to deviate from bigoted mentality and used his authoritative resources against Ariel. Who only agreed to the conditions of Ursula's deal when the latter asserted that she "mended her ways, seen the light" and reevaluated her methods on behalf of helping "miserable, lonely and depressed" which was literally the only accessible opportunity for Ariel to get away from her father's oppression irrespective of the risk she would impose on HERSELF. The second Ariel's actions endangered her father and Eric she relentlessly fought for their safety instantly acknowledging her mistake ("Daddy, I'm sorry!") although prior to either her father or lover was affected by the deal she was willing to take responsibility and face the consequences thus not protesting when Ursula dragged her under the water. Triton did not care one bit when Flounder inadvertently mentioned his and Ariel's encounter with the shark but the second humans - a culture he discriminated - were added to the equation he spouted another portion of ignorantly bigoted statements and subsequently ordered Sebastian to keep a track on Ariel. It had little to do with Ariel's safety and everything to do with her discovering that maybe, hypothetically and potentially Triton's perceptions of humans were fundamentally distorted and misconstrued. His overbearing tendencies were DIRECTLY linked to bigotry whereas Elinor's strictness was related to obeying the very same rules - undoubtedly problematic ones where arranged marriage was concerned - she was also subjected to. Rather than DEFYING the problematic concept of arranged marriage Merida chose to unproductively mistreating her own mother due to her inability to approach the issue constructively aside from merely pointing out established fact that the low wasn't "fair" which equates with inventing a bicycle. Whereas Ariel had spent a vast amount of time devotedly and avidly trying to reason with her father by providing legitimate facts and proof that humans could be just as mindful, creative and unique as merfolk rather than a cunningly devious entities whose sole existence revolves around being "barbaric fish eaters" who supposedly deserve nothing but a gruesome death under the sea waves (which was a pathologically absurd mindset seeing as humans participated in the very same food chain as bigger fish that essentially survived at the expense of consuming the smaller one in proportions far more considerable than a human being is capable of eating in a life time). I love Merida BECAUSE she is framed and presented as flawed, bratty, malicious and profoundly selfish. Such fictional heroines are immensely captivating and necessary for examining and analyzing your own issues. On the other hand, Ariel's character prominence comes from a place of making undoubtedly problematic mistakes in a process of yearning to do the right thing and pursue ultimate emancipation women in her society were inherently deprived of.

Persephone713 Wonderfully said Katara. You and Swanpride both made good points. I agree with you both

Tygers_Eye SwanPride: Who says that Ariel didn't learn? Just because she didn't make a big announcement, it doesn't mean that she didn't learn." The problem is King Triton does make a big announcement of learning his lesson (to the audience since there's a whole scene dedicated to him admitting he was wrong and learning to let go), whereas Ariel doesn't. The way the story is framed implies Ariel doesn't need to learn or apologize since she was never wrong, since her dad does but she doesn't. Ariel had three opportunities to take responsibility or show remorse for her actions. When Ursula tells Triton of the contract, when Ursula turns Triton into a polyp, and after Ursula gets defeated. Instead, Ariel makes excuses ("I didn't mean to" "I didn't know" which still implies she's a victim and not a responsible party), shifts the blame ("YOU MONSTER!") and just avoids apologizing after it's over, just goes back to mooning over Eric like nothing ever happened. "She mostly learned to walk on her own legs, so to speak." Yeah, after she'd walked over everyone else, got them in jeopardy, then never showed any acknowledgement or gratitude for their sacrifices for her, or concern for their well-being.

Persephone713 ^^^ She shows remorse by looking at her father as one of Ursula's sea worms and says " Daddy?" and looks like she is about to cry, then she says " YOU MONSTER!". You guys are blaming her where there is no blame, and not seeing the bigger picture. Also as her dad is turning into the sea worm, she says " NO NO!" Both Ariel and Triton feel just as bad for what they did.

Tygers_Eye "You guys are blaming her where there is no blame." Yes there is. She knew that Ursula was evil, dangerous, and treacherous. Sebastian WARNED HER that Ursula was a "demon" and a "monster." Ariel chose to ignore him, go to her and enter the deal anyway. She is partially responsible for what happens to her father because if she had never signed the contract, she would not have been enslaved by Ursula, and her dad never would have needed to trade his life to rescue hers. And I say again, the narration makes a huge deal about TRITON realizing he was wrong and making amends, but Ariel never does. Ergo, the narration implies that Ariel was never wrong and has no reason to apologize (like most of her fans). Ergo, I disagree. Ariel and Merida do many similar things for similar motivations, but while The Little Mermaid paints Ariel as being completely in the right over everything, Merida's movie paints her as being in the wrong and needing to learn and grow. I wouldn't mind except many fans run with it and completely excuse Ariel for the same faults and mistakes they condemn for Merida, and do not accept the blatant, heart-felt apologies given by Merida the way they accept the rushed, half-assed excuses given by Ariel before she's rescued and never has to deal with the consequences of her actions again.

prinelsa *Looks at title* *Skips down to comment section*

Sparklefairy375 *save this article to favorites* *favorite saved* <333

AudreyFreak I can actually see where both sides are coming from. -Merida did something intending to affect someone else, Ariel did it intending to affect only her. Neither took consequences into consideration (at least beyond "I'll never see my father or sisters again") -Triton was more damaging as a parent as a whole. Even if Ariel went behind his back to collect the stuff, he taught her nothing by destroying it except that he can't be expected to not react violently. In addition to the whole human bigotry. Elinor does destroy the bow, but only after Merida rips her tapestry she can't replace, and she gets it back out of the fire and the it's easily replaced as well. -Merida had a lot less freedom. Ariel had the whole ocean, while Merida could only go anywhere once in awhile. -Hate them as she might, Merida did actually do what she was asked (for the most part) and Ariel didn't think it important enough to show it to the concert. -Merida's goals are pretty vague while Ariel's are clear (I think Fergus did a good impression on what Merida wants), and so to some, Elinor and Ariel may be more sympathetic -Elinor was trying to prevent a war with the marriage, while Triton, again, just hates humans without knowing them. -I agree Elinor has to pay more for Merida's consequences than Merida personally does, but Ariel as noted doesn't at all really. -Ariel solves the issue of Triton's unreasonable rules and abuse by running away to have her own life after talking doesn't work. Merida and Elinor's whole issue is they're not good at communicating with each other and instead of directly trying to explain why an arranged marriage won't work for her or why the tradition is unnecessary, Merida goes to the witch to "change my mum". -Related to that, slyly feeding your mom a witch's cake not knowing what it will do and not showing a sign of caring when she's clearly ill is a lot more concerning than trusting a witch to turn you (and only you) human -Ariel knew Ursula was not to be trusted however. Merida seems to be aware of the danger, but doesn't seem scared overall (and the witch herself is not the villain as Ursula is) -Both made choices that caused chaos and nearly put their kingdoms in terrible danger. And so on. With so many factors to take into consideration I don't like to say who is objectively worse, but as someone who is fairly neutral toward Ariel and both likes Merida AND agrees with some of the criticism she gets, I will still agree Ariel tends to get more excuses because she didn't "intend" to harm others (but did) while Merida is condemned much more often and harshly for intending to change someone else and harming them in the process, but actually acknowledging and working to fix this later while Triton is the one who trades his life for Ariel's and Eric helps stop Ursula permanently.

wavesurf Agree with Silverrose, Kataralover, Swanpride, Persephone ( on the part where Merida and Ariel's approaches to solve their issues are [i]quite[/i] dissimilar), Kikiforever, and AudreyFreak. However, I agree the most with Swanpride and AudreyFreak. When Ariel finds out that her kingdom is endangered because of her actions, she is quick to blurt out "I'm sorry. [i]I didn't have all the details on this decision I made!"[/i] Merida, by contrast, says, "It's the witch. The witch gave me the "wrong cake" and it's her fault, not my fault." It takes.the whole entire movie for Merida to FESS UP. I get angrier at Merida because she blames someone else for her mistake, first, instead of acknowledging the mistake right away, like Ariel did. In the final estimate, yes, Merida deserves her heaps of criticism, just as Ariel gets her criticism. The people who put Merida in their top 5, and Ariel in their bottom 3, will just have to live with the fact that their personal philosophy of why Merida is so much better than Ariel... is not going to be accepted without objection.