I'm not even sure how I feel about her anymore because there are things about her I REALLY love and thing about her I REALLY hate!

Favorite princess. <3 I think she's amazing.

I've grown to kind of like her as character. But I still DESPISE the reason she was made!

Par of me wants to click neutral but I'm back to disliking her now. I'll save details for when we do Fanpop's Favorite Princess.

She's 9th on my list, but I love her tons<33

I don't like bratty teenagers.

@Kataralover Let me guess, you love her because she's just like your favorite princess Ariel *cough rip-off cough* and you hate her because she is LITERALLY an embodiment of the opinions of the ignorant pseudo-feminists who constantly criticize Disney? Just a wild guess :)

Can't stand her.

Oh come on! She's na that bad! *speaking in a Scottish accent*

I love her!

Painfully neutral.

@JNTA1234: What? Just because Merida wants her freedom, she must automatically be an Ariel rip-off. Merida and Ariel are actually quite different in my opinion, other than the fact that they are both rebels. They both have their own different goals. And I don't see how she's the embodiment of ignorant pseudo-feminists. Oh my gosh, she doesn't want to get married JUST YET. "I'm...I'm just not ready." I look up to Merida, being a single girl myself who isn't ready for romance either. I wish people would stop saying she's the 'anti Disney Princess' because she rebels (something Ariel did, but people don't call her an anti Disney Princess for it), and because she doesn't get married. Oh what, a princess isn't allowed to be single? Elsa's single too, but I don't see people pointing fingers at her for that. She is NOT an Ariel rip-off to me. At all. Sorry, had to vent.

@fhghu: Merida is EXACTLY like Ariel, and Jasmine for that matter, in fact she's just a rip-off of all the five 90's Renaissance princesses, even people who LIKE Merida agree on that. The only thing that separates Merida from Jasmine and Ariel is that she's overly tomboyish, and even then, Jasmine and Ariel have a bit of a tomboy streak. Merida even makes the exact same mistakes as Ariel. She is a rip-off in my opinion and it's VERY obvious to me that she is.

And to quote the creator of Brave and ignorant pseudo-feminist Brenda Chapman.

"Merida was created to break that mold, to give young girls a better, stronger role model, a more attainable role model, something of substance, not just a pretty face that just waits around for romance"

So basically, how I interpret this is that Merida IS the "anti-princess" and the purpose behind her creation is basically to serve as a middle finger to the older princesses. Whether or not she truly fulfills that purpose is up to you.

And the difference is that Elsa doesn't force how "strong and independent" she is down our throats. That scene where she's "shooting for her own hand". She might as well have been saying "I'm a strong and independent woman and I don't need no man!" She's not the anti-princess because she doesn't want to get married nor because she rebels. She's the anti-princess because she perpetuates cliche and borderline negative "Girl Power" stereotypes. I've met FANS of Merida who agree on this! And the fact of the matter is, she WAS intentionally and purposefully created to cater to the ignorant hardcore feminists who have been pestering Disney for years. Again, whether or not she truly fulfills that agenda is up to interpretation.

Whether or not she was created for that purpose, I love her for her character development, and I still extremely disagree with you saying she's exactly like all the 90's Renaissance princesses. To me, the movie was more centered around Merida and Elinor and them working their problems out. I'm sorry, I just really love Merida and I get sick of the hate she gets.

I'm sorry but I honestly think anybody who doesn't realize that Merida is basically just an overlap of Jasmine and Ariel's personalities is lying to themselves and in extreme denial. But that's just what I think.

I do recognize that in some ways they are similar, but I also think they are quite different in other ways. I don't think she's EXACTLY like them. I'm not in denial about anything.

@JNTA1234 I do agree that Merida is similar to Ariel and Jasmine, there's no denying that but I wouldn't call her a rip-off. She has a lot of similarities with Ariel but also her own differences. She's definitely more tomboyish than Ariel, she's a character she no real goals yet because she isn't sure of herself yet, and definitely has more character development than Ariel. The things I love about Merida is that she is a lot like Ariel but not to the point where she's a cheap and unimpressive copy like Anna is to Rapunzel, she's strong and independent, she's badass in the first half and fights for what she believes in, and in the second half develops and admits her mistakes. In the second half she even fixes her mistakes with peace and logic instead of violence, like her character is used to. However my problems with her are that in the first half she does act pretty bratty by leaving things for the servants to clean up (like throwing apples on the floor or knocking over candles), saying that she would prefer war over marriage ("We'll expect your declarations of war in the morning"), said things to her mother that went WAY TOO far like that her mother was a beast and that she'd rather die than be like her, ruined her mother's tapestry (which was completely unnecessary), wanted to change her mother and didn't bother to question or be skeptic of the Witch (like Ariel was), and is a false action girl in the second half that needs to be saved all the time. She has her share of problems that do annoy me but I can't hate or dislike her because her character development was just so well-done. But in both halves of the movie, she has great things about her and some not so great things. But I wouldn't describe her as a rip-off. Frozen is more insulting to Disney because it constantly beats you over the head with the message that you can't marry someone you just met. In Brave, while it might have seemed to be anti-romance at the beginning, they do establish that it's not that Merida never wants to get married, she's just not ready and just wants both her and the leaders sons to be able to find love in their own time and in their own way.

@Kataralover I agree and disagree with a lot of you've said but you know what I'll save my breath for when we do Fanpop's Favorite Princess Countdown.