Merida

"You saw what I can do with an arrow. Do you really want to see what I can do with a sword?"

- Merida to Lord Macintosh, Lord MacGuffin and Lord Dingwall

Queen Merida is a character on ABC's Once Upon a Time. She débuts in the first episode of the fifth season. She is portrayed by guest star Amy Manson.

Merida is based on the character of the same name from the Disney/Pixar film Brave.

Trivia
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Character Notes

 * Merida is featured in the title card for "The Bear King".
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Production Notes

 * Her casting call name was "Evanna". However, to divert the attention away from Merida, Evanna was presented as Rumplestiltskin's mother.
 * The casting call describes her as "in her mid-20s to early 30s", Evanna is "stunningly beautiful", but also "plucky, strong and imbued with an unshakeable sense of self-confidence. Evanna sometimes acts before she thinks", but "she never acts out of pure self-interest".
 * When creating the Once Upon a Time version of Merida, the show creators got to meet with the writers and the directors of the movie Brave, who let them see the patterns for Merida's costume, and even sent them the tartans for the costume.
 * When Amy Manson auditioned for the part, she thought she was reading for the role as Rumplestiltskin's mother. According to Amy, the scenes that she got were very similar to some of the scenes in the movie Brave. She put her own spin on it, and labored on the pain of a mother-daughter relationship. Adam Horowitz and Edward Kitsis got back to her and asked if she could do the scenes again, but with more humor.
 * Amy Manson and the show creators considered dyeing Amy's hair for the role as Merida, but the hair department requested that she wear a wig instead, since a wig required less maintenance and control.
 * Merida appears in a special promo shot for San Diego Comic Con. According to Amy Manson, she had about an hour of practice with an experienced archer before they shot the promo. She then requested if she could have a couple of days with proper archery lessons, which really helped her performance for the show.
 * According to Amy Manson, Merida's storyline on Once Upon a Time takes place ten years after Brave 's events.