My Exact Thoughts On Merida

MaidofOrleans Gonna have to disagree with this. I would hardly describe the tribes as "peaceful," even before Merida's actions. They have a freaking brawl as soon as they arrive, and Elinor is the only one with enough sense to stop them. Also... nobody died? The reason Merida made the decisions she did was because she had been trying to get her mother to listen to her for literally her entire life, and at this point she was out of options. If she hadn't been able to get her mother's attention for the past 16 years, what else was talking with her going to accomplish? Elinor had stifled Merida's free will by forcing her to get married, so Merida decided to give her a taste of her own medicine. In the end, Merida didn't just say "sorry," both she and Elinor learned the importance of compromise and listening to one another. Just wanted to provide my perspective. :)

KataraLover No offense but many of the things you said have flaws in them. First of all, even if they're not completely peaceful, they fought more like stupid college friends that liked to pick at each other and fight. Besides, even if that's not the case, if they fought over little things, imagine how they'd react to Merida's selfish act that basically insulted them and their sons and refusing to marry their sons. Instead of trying to be diplomatic and being calm about presenting her case, she just kept shouting that it wasn't fair like a little brat. She never once explained why it was so unfair to her mother. She just kept saying "IT'S NOT FAIR!" instead of explaining to her mother why it's not fair. Besides, I'd hardly call Elinor for years teaching her important things like public speaking, knowledge about the kingdom she'll one day have to rule over, teaching her not to eat like a pig, to have proper manners, being compassionate, patient, cautious, and basically everything that the future queen of a kingdom needs to know. Besides, keeping the peace between the two clans involved more people than just Elinor deciding that Merida would get married. It involved keeping people FROM dying! No one died in the movie, but the point was that they were trying to keep war FROM happening so that the people wouldn't have to die and suffer just for Merida to be happy. Besides, Merida seems to take war very lightly "We'll expect your declarations of war in the morning." Yeah, there's a character I want to care about, NOT! All Merida would do was throw a tantrum and never explain to her mother her side, well besides saying it's not fair, destroying her mother's property, slamming doors, and calling her mother names. Besides, you call basically poisoning her mother (Yes, POISON, because poisoning someone is basically giving them a substance that's harmful without their consent) as giving her a taste of her own medicine? She had no idea what "changing her mother" would cause. It might have changed her from living to dead! Besides, she had no right to change who her mother was. I don't care if she was being forced to be married! Trying to change who someone is, is FAR worse than that! Plus how she just kept asking is she changed her mind about the marriage and not asking if she was okay when she was CLEARLY in pain was just HORRIBLE! I also have to say that Merida only had to make one public speech, which has her ending up getting her way in the end and not having to truly give up anything. Elinor is the one who is having to convert to Merida's ways. I don't mean to be rude or anything, I just wanted to share my opinion on this and CLEARLY it's very negative lol. Hope there's no hard feelings.

MaidofOrleans No hard feelings at all. :) Personally I think many of your arguments have flaws as well. Yes, the clans may fight like stupid college kids, but that still doesn't make them peaceful. They are at each other's throats for the whole movie. She doesn't try to reason with them because she knows it won't work (and that her mother would never let her do such a thing). To be fair, Elinor doesn't do any better a job of explaining things to her daughter than Merida does. While Merida's screaming "IT'S NOT FAIR!" Elinor's screaming "YOU HAVE TO DO WHAT I SAY BECAUSE I'M THE QUEEN!" Also, Elinor destroys Merida's property as well, when she throws Merida's bow in the fire. Yes, Merida takes war very lightly. This is a big flaw in her character, but it's one that I enjoy. She highly romanticizes violence and would probably think that a war was more exciting than anything else. She is incredibly selfish (that's definitely not something I'm trying to argue against), and puts herself above everyone else. I think these flaws add depth to her character, which is one of the reasons why I like her. Actually, yes I do think her attempting to change her mother's very being is giving Elinor a taste of her own medicine because for her whole life Elinor was trying to mold Merida into a mirror image of herself. It's the same basic idea, Merida just uses magic to accomplish her goal. Of course she had no right to change her mother, but her mother had no right to change her daughter either. I also don't think Merida intended to poison her mother. She honestly believed the witch would give her a "harmless" potion that would do little more than change her mother's mind about the marriage. Her continuous questions when her mother was in pain are something people tend not to like, but they don't bother me. She wants to know if the spell is working, so of course she would keep asking! Also, it's not like she takes pleasure in her mother's pain. She is clearly concerned about it and helps her mother up the stairs and into her room. Concerning Merida's speech, I'd just like to point out that she was literally on the verge of picking one of the suitors before Elinor interrupts her. She's willing to do the very thing she's been fighting against the entire movie in order to make peace with her mother! In sum, I'm not trying to defend Merida's actions or say that she isn't a flawed character. I just think that her flaws are what make her interesting, and that some of her decisions are more justifiable than they seem to be on the surface. Also, I don't think that Elinor is this perfect angel that many people make her out to be. She too makes bad decisions and doesn't explain herself well. The disconnect between their characters come from their values: Elinor values the stability of her kingdom while Merida values her own individuality. I think these are both equally valid things to place importance on, but they don't do a good job of communicating that to one another. Again, just my opinion. :)

Vizsla4 Haha I love this, it perfectly sums up why I dislike Merida.