Board Thread:Spoilers!/@comment-3038174-20130429210540/@comment-1894786-20150603191936

Hmcooper4 wrote: As I recall the interview (sorry, I don't have the link to it at the moment), it was more like that they would like to include Merida, if possible. This is the same interview where they said that they would also like to include Elsa (before they actually were able to). I've not seen Brave (though it is on my list to see at some point), but my understanding of the character of Merida is that there are aspects that would actually play well with the show.

My problem is that, again based on what I understand, Brave is not really based on any fairy tale or legend. It was not even loosely inspired by a fairy tale the way Frozen was. It is a full on original work by Disney Studios/Pixar. So they would, in essence, have to take any characters as they are with little to no modification (much the same as they did with Elsa and Co). And even with Elsa and Co, they were able to twist it just enough to bring in the rest of the underlying original fairy tale that inspired Frozen.

So, while I could see Brave working, my vote would be not to incorporate it, but to stick with the stories that are based on/inspired by Literary works (Fairy Tales, legends, and classic novels). Well, I would skip this post if you don't want spoilers, but...

Brave is basically about how Merida is 16 and doesn't want to be married. Her mother, Queen Elinor, calls three allied families to bring their sons to compete for Merida's hand. She chooses an archery match (being a master archer), and exploits a loophole saying the firstborn of each family can compete for her hand. Being the firstborn of her own clan, she competes for her freedom and wins. Shocked and furious, Elinor and Merida have a shouting match which ends with Elinor hurling Merida's bow into the fire. Merida runs away on her horse and ends up meeting a witch who gives her a magical cake to change her fate. Instead it changes her mother into a bear, and the two have to sneak out of the castle before King Fergus, a notorious bear hater, kills his wife. Eventually, Elinor defends Merida from another cursed human who fully embraced his animal side and their love for each other takes away the curse on Elinor before Fergus kills her.

All in all, despite not being based on a literary fairy tale, Brave is very much a modern day fairy tale (people still make new ones to this day) and could work in perfectly with Once. The whole "motherly love" and "true love comes in many forms" themes are present in both works, Mor'du the villain seems almost tailor-made for Rumple to assume his role on the show, having been a man who became a beast for power, and Merida IS one of the Disney princesses, so there might be some pressure from the Disney people to get her on the show anyway LOL