#5 arrows

Animation/Adventure. Princess Merida wants to control her own fate whereas her mother wants her to get married. Archery. Magic. Bears.

This got way longer than I thought it would be. Some spoilers below.

The characters

Princess Merida is the main character. She is 16 years old. Her hobbies include riding her horse in the forest, climbing mountains, and other unladylike activities. She’s also very skilled at archery, and she has the most badass line of the movie: “I am Merida. Firstborn descendant of Clan Dun Broch. And I’ll be shooting for my own hand!” She does not want to get married. I really liked her stance on freedom to choose how to lead your life and her fierceness in defending her views.

Unfortunately, she’s also portrayed as immature and whiny, which really put me off, so I couldn’t wholly appreciate her as a character. Maybe I’m just too old for this movie.

Queen Elinor is the secondary main character. She’s Merida’s mother and she’s very set on traditions. She’s been trying to groom her daughter into the perfect princess. She may seem controlling, but she’s shown to care, and she really loves Merida.

The relationships

There is no romance. Instead, the movie revolves around Merida and Elinor’s relationship. At first, they have the typical rebellious teen daughter/nagging mother dynamic but through their adventures, they develop an appreciation for one another. They realize they love each other, and that their differences are minor in comparison. The betrothal thing is off, and everything is well. I found it cliché and a little unrealistic but then again, it’s a movie aimed at children. It was nice though to see Elinor embrace Merida’s adventurous side and let herself be more carefree and “unladylike” at the end.

Before we get to the interesting part, I just have to say that the movie didn’t make a lot of sense to me. Even if Merida doesn’t have to marry ever and can pick whomever to become her heir in the future, at the end of the movie, she is still on the path of becoming Queen. And this feels wrong to me because we’ve been shown that she doesn’t find anything appealing about ceremonial duty and ruling a kingdom. In my opinion, she’d be way happier abdicating and living in the woods with her horse, bow and arrow. She could become a bow crafter. Or put those leadership skills to use and become the archery trainer of the kingdom’s army and head the archers’ division in battle.

The movie makes it seem like Merida’s fate was reduced to her getting married whereas I see her fate as grander than that, as becoming a ruler since she is a princess, and marriage being only a part of that. So, while she demonstrated bravery in standing up for herself regarding marriage, I don’t think she wholly stayed true to herself as I don’t think she actually wants to become a ruler.

My rating on the arrow scale (from 0 to 5) 5 arrows – extremely aromantic-friendly

Merida doesn’t cave to the kingdom’s expectations, she doesn’t get married in the end, and it’s very satisfying. She doesn’t fall in love either, which I believe is a first for a Disney princess. There is no romance and the main relationship is a familial one between mother and daughter. Moreover, the movie addresses Merida’s refusal of getting married and doesn’t stray from showing that she’s the one who’s in the right in their conflict. Elinor is the one who comes around and changes her mind. Plus, the message of the movie is that if you stay true to yourself, you can change your fate, which I think resonates a lot with the experience of being aromantic and rejecting the Life Script.

Furthermore, you can also read Merida as aromantic as she is not romantically interested in anyone in the movie. About marriage, she also says “[…] the Princess is not ready for this. In fact, she might not ever be ready for this”. Since there is no dating in Merida’s world, I think it’s fair to compare her getting married to us getting in a romantic relationship. And that line brought me back to how I was feeling when I didn’t know aromanticism was a thing and thought that I’d eventually have to be in a relationship or look for one. I also strongly related to her despair at the idea of losing her freedom if she got married, as I know I’d be miserable if I had to be in a relationship.

Regarding her speech at the end, when she’s rejecting her suitors, she says something along the lines of “let us follow our hearts and find love in our own time” and I don’t think it negates a reading of her being aromantic. I could argue that she’s only interpreting what her mother wants her to say, so it’s really her mother’s message. Or, that the speech is supposed to appease the other clans, so it was best to leave out some hard truths (“some people don’t want to find love”) and keep the message light. Or again, that she’s talking about all of them, and most people do seek romantic love, so she’s appealing to their own desires to get her point across. I myself have told many people that I’m not looking for love “right now” instead of “ever” simply because others easily accept that answer, so I’m not bothered by her choice of words. However, I choose to interpret Merida as an aromantic who doesn’t really know about aromanticism yet. And she’s happy to have come up with the concept of choosing when to love because it delays the marriage issue, which is a relief for her. She will eventually realize though that it’s not that she’s not ready for marriage/love, it’s that she doesn’t want it.

(By the way, when I say "love" I imply romantic love since that’s how the word is used in the movie.)

All in all, I think the movie does a great job of capturing the aromantic experience, or at least it did for me, and also that it should be shown to all children so they know they can go against societal expectations and choose to date no one.

I would recommend this movie to people who - Want to watch something without romance - Like female protagonists - Like animated movies