Canon Vs. Fanon Aros: Princess Merida
I PRESENT: A NEW ANALYSIS POST ON OUR ARCHERY QUEEN, PRINCESS MERIDA OF DUNBROCH!!! 😄😤🏹✨
Haha okay, but in all seriousness, I’m glad I managed to wrap up the loose ends with this post and get this out to y’all 😅 (sorry about the lateness, I’m fine but lately the combination of work and getting ready for fourth year has been pretty exhausting).
Obviously, as we all know by now, I love a good media analysis, and especially when you look at things from an Aro Lens – and it always fascinates me when I find a character that’s widely regarded by the community as an icon, if not perceived as arospec in some way! 🐸💚💚 Merida is no exception, and I loved having the chance to delve into her character and what (I believe) she represents for our community. Personally, I didn’t watched Brave as a kid, but watching it as an adult and being able to see all those points of tension at the beginning of the movie surrounding marriage – and especially how Merida’s dad described her as wanting to remain single forever and ride off into the sunset shooting arrows – was really relatable, especially as a young woman who’s kind of at that age where people “expect” you to start dating/thinking about things like long-term romantic relationships 😭😭
Anyways, I feel like I’ve covered most of what I want to say in the actual textpost for once 😂, so I’ll just sign off with a note that I will be sharing some extra art and stickers tomorrow.
ARTIST’S NOTE: Since this is tumblr (and I can throw in more than 10 slides at once XD) I’ve just shared the rest of the post here! Link to the stickers.
As always, feel free to let me know what you think! Do you see Merida as Arospec or an Icon for the Aro community?
[Image Description:
Slide 1: Title slide. Text says: “Canon Vs Fanon Aros, feature: Princess Merida.” The title shows a drawing of Celia sitting and reading a book, relaxing. Bottom text says “a textpost buffer series” and by “aro comics (the Instagram username)”
Slide 2: Note: For the following slides, information is quite text heavy. As a result, the original script written will be pasted here with additions of any visual notes if needed.
Slide Title: Intro
About: Princess Merida of DunBroch
Canon vs. Fanon – Circle Fanon
Basic facts:
Personality: Bold, courageous, energetic, freespirited, and a bit stubborn and rebellious
Loves archery, sword fighting, riding her horse Angus, and exploring!
A princess that rebels against traditional training and etiquette, the plot of the movie follows our protagonist on repairing her relationship with her mother after a falling out and an accidental curse.
Slides 3-4:
Slide Title: An Aro Icon
Why is do people think Merida is aromantic, or at the very least an Aro Icon?
Great question! To be fair, the movie doesn’t go into the topic of romance so there’s no canonical evidence to Merida’s romantic orientation.
Even so, however, the narrative presented resonates deeply with many aromantic viewers. Merida is ADAMANT about not getting married off (though this is based more in the fact she’s SIXTEEN and doesn’t know any of these boys, which is very understandable) and makes a point of it by rebelling against the archery contest her mother set up to pick her suitor.
Screenshot: A defiant Merida speaks in front of the gathered clans at the Highland Games. She announces: “I am Merida, first born descendant of clan Dunbroch. And I’ll be shooting for my own hand!”
NOTE: This is significant because the games are meant for the first born descendants of other clans to compete for her hand. However, since she has chosen archery as the competitive sport, and she is technically the first born of her own clan, this is a clever moment where she is able to use this rule to rebel and attempt to maintain her freedom!
Slide 5:
Slide title: Meaning
Her behaviour and portrayal really strikes a chord with the aro community, because we are often asked to engage in romance or marriage despite our discomfort. It’s empowering to see a character stand up against these norms!
Given the way amatonormativity also tends to insert as many romantic subplots as possible, it’s uncommon to have no love interest in a movie. Because of this, aros we rarely get to see a story and growth occur without romance, which makes Brave all the more meaningful. Merida’s growth and her agency as a character in this story feels a lot more relatable to us.
Slides 6-7:
(Continued from previous)
It’s because of these elements that many people will consider Merida an aro icon, if not aromantic herself (although this is more of a headcanon)! Also … she’s literally good at archery, which in and of itself is kind of perfect for an aro icon.
Also, Merida’s a Pretty Cool Character for other reasons too!
The focus on familial love in this movie is very heartwarming, and it’s not something you see too often in princess movies. There’s also the intersection between amatonormative ideals and feminism - Merida’s a strong role model for young girls. Though it may seem common now that there are strong/free spirited princesses/female characters in movies for children that take control of their own destinies, it wasn’t so much in mainstream media when Brave first came out.
And especially it’s uncommon to see princesses not have a love interest – historically, patriarchal society uses women’s relationships to men as a indicator of their value, so it’s important to have media that reflects how women can have compelling and complex narratives that feature their importance as a person independently too.
Slides 8-9:
Slide Title: Conclusion
Why is Merida’s existence important to aromantic people and beyond?
In short, it breaks romance norms and also gives aro people a fictional character to relate to! But before we wrap up, I wanted to address the discussion/discourse around “projection” of identity onto Merida – as some people have pointed out before, why is it that if a woman doesn’t show interest in a man in the context of a story should they be interpreted as gay or aspec? This does tie into issues of sexism for women, as mentioned before. But this being said, as an aspec woman I would say that it’s perfectly valid and good for LGBTQ+ to interpret characters to be like them/to have more diversity in interpretation, because we’re so far lacking in representation. It’s a good point to make/ask why we may view a female character this way, but ultimately its understandable, and not harmful/engaging in sexism, to imagine a character that we relate to be like us.
Overall, Merida’s storyline and character was quite groundbreaking regardless of whether or not she’s aromantic, and she’s VERY cool! And personally, I’m glad to have her as an icon for our community!
Slide 10:
Sources:
1: Screenshot from Original Brave Movie, sourced from an online clip:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sWbxhKTbTkA
Although I don’t quote any other direct sources for this textpost, I used the following sources for additional research and would encourage you to read them if you’d like to learn more!
https://www.theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2012/06/does-it-matter-if-the-heroine-of-brave-is-gay/258979/
https://disney.fandom.com/wiki/Brave
https://disney.fandom.com/wiki/Merida#Personality
Slide 11: A page full of sketches of Merida. The text: “Some Merida Sketches (Yes I’m still messing around with my art style)”. The sketches include a headshot of Merida smiling and winking, another half-body shot with her nocking an arrow, and a third chibi of her with her bow. All three sketches are coloured and shaded, albeit in different styles.
Slide 12: A redraw of a key scene from the Brave movie. Merida is holding her bow as she defiantly exclaims: “And I’ll be shooting for my own hand!”
Slide 13: A graphic showing cutout versions of the two stickers made from the previous sketches (the Chibi and the Headshot). The title: “Free Stickers! (Check the Carrd)”, and below a note reads “Free for personal use only”]