Bravely is a young adult novel released on May 3, 2022. It is written by Maggie Stiefvater of The Raven Cycle fame and published by Disney Press. The novel acts as a sequel to Pixar's 2012 film, Brave.
Taking place several years after the events of Brave, Merida has grown frustrated with the sluggishness of her kingdom of Dunbroch and desires adventure, purpose, challenge, and even love. Fortunately (or unfortunately), however, her quiet life would be interrupted when, on one Christmas Eve, she comes across the god of ruin, Feradach, who seeks to destroy Dunbroch due to its stagnation. Fortunately, before he does so, the goddess of creation, Cailleach, intervenes and gives Merida a task.
Convince her family to change within one year — or suffer the eternal consequences.
Accepting the task at hand, it is now up to Merida to journey to faraway kingdoms, inspire her family to change, and save her kingdom and the people she loves from disaster, all under the watchful eye of the two gods. Especially Feradach, who takes an interest in the princess.
Not to be confused with the Bravely Default series.
Bravely contains the following tropes:
- Ambiguously Gay: Merida shows little to no interest in any of the men and admits to being intimidated by them, is heavily implied to be in love with Leezie, becomes noticeably disappointed when she finds out that Leezie is getting married, and gets noticeably excited when she enters a room full of women at one point. This gets thrown off, however, when she falls in love with the masculine-presenting Feradach. That said, he is a shapeshifting entity and she states that she doesn't love the male form he presents himself in front of her, but the genderless being of air he truly is, once again making her exact sexuality ambiguous.
- Appearance Is in the Eye of the Beholder: Feradach is described as being able to change forms, with his appearance being different depending on who views him. While Merida sees him as a man, how everyone else sees him is unknown.
- Distant Sequel: The book takes place several years after the events of Brave, with Merida now a young adult as opposed to a teenager.
- Divine Date: A romance ends up forming between Merida and the god of ruin, Feradach, culminating in them having a Big Damn Kiss at one point.
- Jerkass Gods: Feradach is the god of ruin and seeks to destroy both Dunbroch and everyone in it simply due to how stagnant the realm has gotten. To be fair to him, that is his job as a god.
- Punch-Clock Villain: Feradach only wants to destroy Dunbroch due to how stagnated the realm has become, and his job as a god is to root out rot and stagnation.
- Race Against the Clock: Cailleach only gives Merida one year to change her family's ways of stagnation before Feradach destroys her kingdom and everyone in it.
