Disney Princess Series: Merida

Hello all!

I am an aunt now! My beautiful niece Brook was born about a month ago and she is the love of my life. I was lucky to spend Thanksgiving with her, my parents, and all of my siblings.

I also got to help my high school choir program with this wonderful show they do called Cabaret Night. They have a dinner before the show and then the students put on a beautiful theatre revue show. I got to help with the choreography and blocking, and they all did a fantastic job.

In other news, I got to see Vocal Point live in concert which was super awesome (As well as Basic Academy's Take Note! Great job kids!) and I've even been on a couple dates, which probably wouldn't normally be a super huge deal but I hadn't been on a date in a year and a half HAHAHA so that was pretty exciting.

Today is a big day, being our final post in the Disney Princess Series! I don't have any spicy introductory facts for you this time. I'll just come out and say I'll be featuring Merida today.

Truth be told, it took me a long time to be a fan of Merida. I don't really like Brave. (I also don't really like Disney's gross one-word film titles that have nothing to do with the film--Brave? Tangled? Frozen? I mean, I'll give Frozen some credit because I guess it is about frozen hearts and frozen land and whatnot. But other than that, I'm literally disgusted. The titles are lame and irrelevant. That was a really dumb and borderline random side rant, but I feel pretty strongly about it.) I'm not sure I've seen the whole thing because I think there are a few scenes of the film that I know of but can't quite recall seeing, and have a little bit of a hard time remembering the details and chronology of the story. It does have a fun plot line, I'll give it that. But that's not just because the film is generally unavailable to me, but also because I don't like it enough to want to watch it whenever. The tone of the film just isn't my style. That's kind of the point of Merida, if you read up on the creative process behind her, that she doesn't have the same tone as the other Princesses, but I really enjoy the tone of the other Princess films, so I suppose that was kind of problematic for me. However, I was really determined to find something to like about this lady, not just because I want to have something I like about each of the Princesses, but also because I'm a women support women type of gal, and I think we gotta stick together no matter what, whether we vibe or not. So while I don't really have any super specific plot points that make me admire who Merida is, I do have some things about her character and personal development that I really love.

First of all, seeing people in their element and doing what they love is the most beautiful thing in the world, so when we get to see Merida out and about and climbing mountains and whatnot, and being so joyful, and seeing what a free spirit she is, that's just awesome to me.

Also how Merida takes control of her situation and fights for what she wants. Being the prize in a contest is definitely not ideal. Merida really wasn't really wanting to get married at all, much less like that. I think it's totally cool that she competes for herself, taking control of her situation in the best way she could, winning herself her freedom, which at the end of the day is all she really wants. Kind of similar to my own favorite Princess. Plus, she totally showed off her talents in the process, and that's awesome.

A really bothersome thing about the film for me was how when Merida's mother turned into a bear, because Merida gave her a spell, Merida kept saying over and over that it wasn't her fault. Like, girl! Stop trying to take the blame away from you! You literally did that to your mom! But that was really unfair of me. That's something very unfair that a lot of people do frequently. Expecting a character to have no flaws is pretty much the worst. Like, where's the human quality there? (Although, sometimes as people we don't even allow real humans to have flaws, so that's not good.) But in the reality of the thing, that attitude of Merida's was really good for the beginning of the film because it brought about a favorite plot point of mine. Pretty much all of the problems in the film come from Merida and her mother, Elinor, just not understanding each other. I love how Merida took the time to be with her mom, to let her mom take care of her and to take care of her mom in return, and how it allowed them to see a little more eye-to-eye, to do what's best for them both, to help their relationship grow and help them genuinely show love for each other, and be able to feel love from each other.

And can we talk about this woman going through everything she did to save her clan, and to fight Mor'du, it was so beautiful to me. Such determination. Absolute fearlessness. Wonderfully fierce. So beautifully brave.
I really have developed a love for Merida. She's wildly original, unashamed of who she is, a very bright and beautiful lady, very loving.

I hope you enjoyed this post, and I hope you enjoyed this series as much as I did! I'm a huge Disney fan (even after all this time of writing and posting about it all the time I'm still not sure whether or not that's closeted information), and the Princesses have always been a favorite of mine. The displays of grace, kindness, courage, joy, and fierceness are great examples to me and women everywhere. I simply love them.

And I simply love you.

For your reference, if you're interested in reading the rest of the series again or for the first time if you're new or if you missed it, here are the links to the posts introducing the series and featuring Snow White, Cinderella, Aurora, Ariel, Belle, Jasmine, Pocahontas, Mulan, Tiana, and Rapunzel.

Thanks and much love!

--Lizzo