Merida

Princess Merida is the main protagonist of Disney/Pixar's 2012 film Brave. She is a Scottish Princess with a love of archery and ends up unleashing trouble on her kingdom, leading her to set out and make things right. She is voiced by Kelly Macdonald.

Background
Princess Merida is the 16-year old daughter of a ruling queen who rules with supremacy and her expectations of her daughter made her to be distant and frictious. Merida is the most skilled archer ever seen and relishes in her ability wishing to retreat to a quiet life to pursue her dreams. She later learns how much her family cares and how much she can care for them. Merida is impetuous and tangle haired in both royalty and wilderness.Passionate and fiery, Merida is a headstrong teenager of royal upbringing who is struggling to take control of her own destiny. She feels most at home in the outdoors honing her impressive athletic skills as an archer and swordfighter, and racing across the magnificent Highland countryside with her faithful horse, Angus. With a spirit as vibrant as her untamed hair, Merida also has a softness of heart, especially when it comes to her wee triplet brothers.

Role in Film
Merida is first seen as a child playing hide-and-seek with her mother Queen Elinor on her birthday, then she sees her father's bow on the table and asks him to shoot an arrow with it until Fergus presents her with her own bow as a birthday present. She accidentally shoots her first arrow into the forest and goes to get it back until she spots a trail of Will O' the Wisps that lead her back to her parents. Elinor tells her that the wisps lead you to your fate but Fergus doesn't believe it. Suddenly, Mor'du attacks, and Elinor and Merida flee while Fergus stayed behind to fight the demon bear.

Years later, Meida is a teenager that Elinor is trying to make her into a proper princess despite Merida's objection. One day, there were no lessons so she went riding on her horse Angus and shoot arrows at targets she set up in the forest and just explore. She even climbs the Crone's Tooth and drinks from the Fire Falls in joy. Merida returns home to join her family for dinner. Merida listens to Fergus as she enters telling her triplet brothers the story of his battle with Mor'du until she interupts and tells them that he lost his left leg in the battle and Mor'du is waiting for his chance of revenge. Moments later, Elinor tells Merida that the three Lords are coming to present their suitors to compete for her hand in marraige. Not wanting any of this, Merida angrily storms out of the Great Hall to her bedroom. As she was striking her bedposts with her sword, Elinor enters telling her the story of a king who divided his kingdom for each of his four sons to rule but the eldest wanted to rule the entire land so he brought chaos and war that led to the downfall of his kingdom for following his own path. Merida refuses to listen and Elinor tells her to go through with it but Merida still doesn't want it.Moments later, Merida is seen in Angus's stall talking to Angus of what she would say to her mother about her wishes if she would listen. Merida was determined she will not get married to whoever wins the games.

Days later, the Lords arrive in DunBroch and Elinor prepares Merida in a tight formal dress and they all gather in the Great Hall for the presentation of the suitors. Each of the Lords present their sons and Merida is not pleased with either of them. When a brawl breaks out, Merida is not as pleased as Elinor was neither. Elinor then proclaims that only the firstborn of the great leaders may compete in the games which gives Merida an idea of how to get out of the marraige. Merida declares that she chooses archery for the Highland Games.

When the competion begins, Merida sneaked her bow and arrows behind her throne. As each of the suitors shot arrows, she chats with Fergus about each of them until Wee Dingwall wins by accident. She sneaks off and appears on the field declaring she will shoot for her own hand. Merida shoots arrows in the bulleye of the first two ingoring Elinor's protests. When she shoots an arrow through Wee Dingwall's throught the target, she smiled for a bit until she turned to her furious mother.

Elinor drags and throws Merida into the tapestry room as they argue with each other with Elinor calling her a child and Merida calling her a beast for trying to ruin her life. Merida then slices the family tapestry with Elinor separated from her hand and Elinor furiously throws her bow into the fire. Merida tearfully runs away from the castle as Elinor quickly fishes the bow from the fire feeling horribly guilty.

Merida rides Angus as she is crying until they come across the Ring of Stones and a trail of will o' the wisps leading them to A woodcarver's cottage. Merida discovers that this old woodcarver is actually a witch noticing a sweeping broom and a talking crow and demands for a spell. The witch tells her to get out with floating knives until Merida offers to buy all her carvings with her necklace in exchange for a spell that will change her fate. The witch begrudgingly gives in and conjures up a cursed tart after she tells her that she did this for a prince who wanted the strength of ten men and got what he wanted. Merida takes the tart and heads back to DunBroch.

She sneaks back into the kitchen making the tart presentable as Elinor enters the room relieved that she was home. Merida gives her the tart and Elinor eats a piece then suddenly starts feeling sick. Merida escorts Elinor to her chambers and puts her in bed until Elinor started transforming into a bear. Merida is horrified that the spell backfired and then helps Elinor escape the castle with her brother's help. They both journey back to the Witch's cottage but they find her gone. Then they find the witch's cauldron with a ghostly image of the Witch telling Merida that she has until the second sunrise to break the spell or her mother will remain a bear forever. The Witch tells Merida the way to do it was to remember the riddle "Fate be changed, look inside, mend the bond torn by pride." Confused, Merida accidentally sabatoges the cottage, so Merida and Elinor take shelter in the remains of the cottage for the night. Merida has a dream about a memory of her as a child with Elinor as they are both are singing "Noble Maiden Fair (A Mhaighdean Bhan Uasal)" together.

The next morning, Elinor brings some berries and water for breakfast until Merida explained that the berries are poisonous Nightshade berries and the water had worms in it. So Merida and Elinor head to a creek to catch a fish and Merida then teaches her how to catch a fish as they both started bonding. Then Elinor heads into the forest and Merida goes after her until she notices that Elinor was not herself and started attacking her until she regained conscious. Merida is confused until they see a trail of will o' the wisps and follow them to the ruins of a castle. Merida falls through the floor into a throne room and realizes it was the kingdom from the story Elinor was telling her about. Merida sees a stone with three figures and a split stone with the fourth figure and realizes that the curse has happened before when the prince seeked to change his fate that resulted his kingdom's downfall and then became Mor'du. Then she sees Mor'du and he attacks her until she barely escapes with Elinor's help and they flee back to the Ring of Stones. Merida realizes that Elinor will become like Mor'du unless she sews the tapestry back together to "mend the bond torn by pride" in hopes it will break the spell.

That night, they sneak into the castle through the under the castle, through a well. Then they sneak through the kitchen and peeked into the Great Hall to see Fergus and the lords behind barricades and weapons flying through the air. They were on the brink of war so Merida tries to tell Elinor that she must stop them but Elinor can't and it was up to Merida to stop this madness. Merida walks into the middle of the room and tells them she was in confrence with Elinor. The Lords demanded for the queen until Merida silences them all. Merida tells them of the story of the selfish prince who brought chaos to the land and reminds them that legends are lessons and they ring with truths. When the clans were once enemies until they were threated by the Northern Invaders so they all joined forces to defend their lands. When they won the war, the clans made Fergus their king for bringing them together and made an alliance. Merida then tells them that they should be free to follow their hearts and find their own love. The Lord's sons agree with this and confess to their fathers that they didn't want to fight over a girl who doesn't want any of it. So they all agree and Merida notices a guard staring at Elinor's frozen pose and distracts everyone by telling them to got to the cellar to celebrate. When everyone is gone, Elinor was proud of her and they both head to the tapestry room.

As Merida was looking for thread and needles, Elinor turned wild again and attacks Merida until Fergus enters the room and she attacks him. When Elinor snaps out of it, Merida tells her to run and tries to tell Fergus that it was Elinor, but refuese to listen and locks her in the tapestry room for protection as he and the Lords go after Elinor. Merida starts crying again and tries to call for Maudie who Fergus gave the key to until her brothers who were turned into bears too for eating the cursed tart show up. She tells them to get the key and they release and they all ride on Angus while Merida was sewing the tapestry. They follow a trail of will o' the wisps to where Elinor was captured after Merida finished sewing it. Merida fights Fergus from killing Elinor until he was convinced when the triplets help stop him and realizes it was his sons.

Suddenly, Mor'du appears and attacks the soldiers and Fergus. Then he attacks Merida and Elinor breaks free from the ropes and saves Merida just in time and starts fighting Mor'du. After slamming Elinor into one of the stones, he turns to kill Merida as she was holding a spear against him until Elinor lured him into smashing agains a cracked stone which then crushes him to his death. They notice a whisp coming from his body reavealing the image of the prince and then disapears. Merida realizes it is the second sunrise and grabs the tapesty and throws it around Elinor but realizes nothing's happening. When Merida thinks she failed, she tearfully hugs her mother and apologizes for everything and that she loves her. Then the tapestry magically seals and Merida feels a human hand touching her hair and realizes Elinor is human again. Fergus comes and hugs his wife and daughter and kisses Elinor. Merida reminds her she is naked under the tapesty and Fergus tells the lords not to look as the triplets turned back into humans come running naked and hugging their parents and sister.

Later, Merida and Elinor are sewing a new tapestry together of Merida and Elinor as a bear until they are called to the docks to say goodbye to the Lords and then they both ride on their horses and journey around Scotland making their bond stronger than before.

Trivia

 * Princess Merida Disney World.jpg.]]She is expected to join the Disney Princess franchise, making her the first ever Disney Princess to come from Pixar and the 11th Disney Princess in the franchise.
 * If Mérida joins the Disney Princess franchise, she will be be the second Disney Princess with red hair (the first being Ariel from The Little Mermaid) and the third Disney Princess with blue eyes (the other two being Cinderella and Ariel).
 * If she joins the Disney Princess franchise, she will be the second Disney Princess with freckles, the first being Rapunzel.
 * If she joins the Disney Princess franchise, she will be the 2nd computer animated princess the first being Rapunzel.
 * If she joins the Disney Princess franchise, she will be the first never to sing, with the exception of one song she sings with her mother as a child.
 * If she joins the Disney Princess franchise, she will be the second princess to have biological siblings. (Ariel being the first)
 * If she joins the Disney Princess franchise, Mérida would be the first Disney/Pixar Princess to have siblings of the opposite gender (three triplet brothers to be exact), since the other Disney Princesses have sisters, stepsisters, or are an only child.
 * If she joins the Disney Princess franchise, she will be the fifth princess to have some form of a "rebelious princess syndrome". Ariel being the first, Jasmine being the second, Pocahontas being the third, and Rapunzel the fourth.
 * If she joins the Disney Princess franchise, she will be the third princess to use a weapon(bow and arrow) in her feature film. Fa Mulan being the first in using a sword and fan and Rapunzel being the second in using a frying pan.
 * If she joins the Disney Princess Franchise, she will be the second princess to be trained with a bow and arrow, Fa Mulan being the first.
 * If she joins the Disney Princess Franchise, she will be the second princess to be raised by both of her biological parents for her entire current life, Fa Mulan being the first.
 * If she joins the Disney Princess franchise, she will be the only princess who isn't a Spell Card character in Sorcerers of the Magic Kingdom.
 * If she joins the Disney Princess franchise, she will be the third princess to be wearing a cape. Snow White being the first and Aurora being the second.
 * If she joins the Disney Princess franchise, she will be the fourth princess to have a horse companion. The others being Cinderella, Belle, and Fa Mulan.
 * If she joins the Disney Princess franchise, she will be the the first one to not have a corresponding love interest, as it is her desire to not get married and live a free life.
 * If she joins the Disney Princess franchise, Merida will be the fourth to be shown physically as a child in her feature film. Cinderella being the first, Tiana the second, and Rapunzel the third.
 * If she joins the Disney Princess franchise, she will be the second princess to have a parent physically transformed, Ariel being the first.
 * If she joins the Disney Princess franchise, Merida will be the second princess to be visibly wounded. The first being Mulan.
 * Mérida is the first main protagonist to be a female in Pixar history.
 * Mérida is the third heroine/main protagonist to have a talent in a sport. Pocahontas being the first, since she is able to canoe down rapids, and Mulan being the second with martial arts.
 * The setting location for Mérida's story is the fifth specified after Belle (France), Pocahontas (Virginia, USA), Fa Mulan (China), and Tiana (Lousiana, USA). Jasmine is the exception, since though the setting is of Middle Eastern influence and architecture, there is no country name ever mentioned for the location of the Agrabah Kingdom.
 * Mérida is the third Pixar Princess after Atta and Dot in 1998 from A Bug's Life.
 * She is the first human Pixar Princess.
 * Reese Witherspoon was originally casted to voice Mérida, but due to scheduling conflicts she was replaced by Scottish actress Kelly Macdonald.
 * Merida is the second main character to have a talent for archery and compete in archery tournaments, the first being Robin Hood, but the third character to do so.
 * Merida has more than 1500 individually sculpted, curly red strands that generate about 111,700 total hairs.
 * If Merida’s curls were straightened, her hair would be four feet long and reach the middle of her calf.
 * With five dresses, plus a cloak, quiver, hand wrap and necklace, as well as torn dresses, Merida has a total of 22 different costumes. She also has five different hairstyles.
 * Brenda Chapman came up with the concept of the Merida character as a combination of a daughter and a friend.
 * Princess Merida is the first female protagonist in a Pixar feature film to date.
 * Merida is the second Disney character to say to someone turned into a bear "I don't speak bear". The 1st being Tanana who says that to Kenai when he is a bear.

Gallery
Merida