History WesternAnimation / Brave

** Also, just as King Fergus has restored order during the brawl between Clans MacGuffin, MacKintosh and Dingwall, the boys drop a mace on Lord Dingwall's foot and his scream of pain starts the whole bloody thing up again.

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-->'''Merida''': And we all know how Lord Dingwall broke the enemy line--
-->'''Macintosh''': With a mighty throw of his spear!
-->'''Dingwall''': I was aiming at ''you'', you big tumshie!

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-->'''Merida''': [[spoiler:The spell… it's happened before. "Strength of ten men"… "Fate be changed"… Changed his fate. Oh, no! The prince became... (''turns around, seeing a very monstrous but familiar face'') ''[[SpeakOfTheDevil Mor'du]]''!]]

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%% * RecitationHandclasp: Merida assumes this position when receiving elocution lessons from Elinor. [[Administrivia/ZeroContextExample''': It's not enough to say "someone does this when..." you have to describe what they do.

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[[folder:S-T]]

* SpitTake: Fergus pulls one of these at the dinner table. Justified when [[spoiler:Bear!Elinor]] spits out worm-infested water upon [[IAteWhat being informed about the worms]].

-->'''Elinor''' [''repairing the tapestry'']: Merida, all this work, all the time spent preparing you, schooling you, giving you everything we never had. I ask you, what do you expect us to do?\\
'''Merida''' [''in the stables'']: Call off the gathering! Would that kill them? You're the queen. You can just tell the lords the princess is not ready for this. In fact, she might not ever be ready for this, so that's that. Good day to you. We'll expect your declarations of war in the morning.\\
'''Elinor''': I understand this must all seem unfair. Even I had reservations when I faced betrothal. But we can't just run away from who we are.\\
'''Merida''': I don't want my life to be over. I want my freedom!\\
'''Elinor''': But are you willing to pay the price your freedom will cost?\\
'''Merida''': I'm not doing any of this to hurt you.\\
'''Elinor''': If you could just try to see what I do, I do out of love.\\
'''Merida''': But it's ''my life'', it's... I'm just not ready.\\
'''Elinor''': I think you'd see if you could just...\\
'''Merida''': I think I could make you understand if you would just...\\
'''Elinor''': Listen.\\
'''Merida''': Listen.
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[[folder:U-W]]

* YouGoGirl: An interesting Deconstructed example. At the archery contest, Merida proves her superior archery in front of the men [[spoiler: but all this accomplishes is humiliating the clans and leading to her falling out with her mother.]]

** During a huge fight between Elinor and Merida, Elinor tosses Merida's bow in the fire. Merida leaves the castle in tears. When she hears the bowstring snap from the burning, Elinor suddenly realizes what she's done and desperately tries to dig it out of the fire before it's destroyed. Elinor holds the singed bow, her daughter's most prized possession nearly destroyed by her own hand, and collapses to the floor in tears. Before that, if you listen closely, you can hear her whisper, "What have I done?"

*** Some of the trailers emphasized WesternAnimation/{{Shrek}}-like slapstick, subversive humor (in the form of setting up for something epic and grandiose and making a lowbrow joke out of it for laughs), and comedy rather than the personal story of mother and daughter that it is. Some Christmas DVD advertising used almost every single appearance by the triplets getting up to mischief, plus a few token shots of Merida, to make it look like a "[[BadlyBatteredBabysitter girl struggles to babysit her tearaway siblings]]" movie.

* ComapnyCrossReferences: Merida's archery style, including her winning tournament shot, is patterned off that of Disney's own WesternAnimation/{{Robin Hood|1973}}.

* ImplausibleCorneredEscape: In the prologue, little Merida plays hide & seek with her mother. In one scene we see her hiding underneath a table but when the mother checks there a second later, Merida is gone. The next shot reveals Merida hiding in another spot that required OffscreenTeleportation to reach.

* AuthorityEqualsAsskicking: King Fergus and the three lords; all four in charge, all can hold their own in a fight.

* GagBoobs: Maudie, the castle maid, who has a cleavage in which you could quite literally lose a bear cub.

* SlapstickKnowsNoGender: Maudie, and later [[spoiler:Bear!Elinor]] face just as much slapstick humor as the men.

*** The third sculpture of bears recreating the creation of Adam from the Art/SistineChapel represents Mor'du and Elinor both [[TakeMyHand reaching their paws]] toward Merida as she tries to escape the ruins.

* SurprisinglyRealisticOutcome: 
** Elinor actually invokes this as the reason that Merida has to do the betrothal. She says that the tradition is to prevent war from breaking out among the four tribes; a long time ago, when a selfish prince wanted the entire kingdom for himself and wouldn't share with his brothers. His wanting all of the land and resources led to the entire kingdom crumbling. Merida takes this to heart when she sees the tribes fighting, and Fergus going PapaWolf saying none of the suitors are good enough for his daughter. She realizes what her mother was trying to say, that one powerful person making a selfish decision can cause disaster, and apologizes to everyone while citing the legend, saying that the four chiefs can't undo years of camaraderie because of her.
** Merida has trained herself in archery for her whole life with ImprobableAimingSkills. She's established to be brave, climbing mountains without fear, and seeking adventure. Then she finds out that her arrows can't defend her from a wild animal, who soon has her pinned down in the climax. In a subversion of DamselOutOfDistress, all Merida can do is scream at the top of her lungs while struggling. 

*** The third sculpture of bears recreating the creation of Adam from the Sistine Chapel represents Mor'du and Elinor both [[TakeMyHand reaching their paws]] toward Merida as she tries to escape the ruins.

* BewareTheNiceOnes: Elinor -- polite, genteel, formal, a diplomat who abhors weapons and violence, always seeking to unite the clans and bring peace and´ prosperity to Scotland. [[MamaBear But when you threaten her daughter]]...

** [[spoiler:After Elinor's turned into a bear and struggles to cover herself with something, Merida rolls her eyes and tries to assure her mom that she's fine. Merida points out that, since Elinor's now a bear, she's covered with fur and (technically) isn't naked. But at the end of the movie, when the curse is lifted and Elinor's turned back into a human, she and Merida realize that [Elinor's] not wearing under the tapestry--Elinor then has to gently break the news to Fergus that she's naked under her blanket.]]

--> "I am Merida, firstborn descendant of clan [=DunBroch=], and I'll be shooting for ''my own'' hand!"

* ItTastesLikeFeet: Believing that Merida baked the enchanted cake, Elinor tries to be polite about how it tastes, describing it as "tart" ...and then "gamey". There's something wrong with any cake described as "gamey"...

* TheLittleShopThatWasntThereYesterday: Played with; the witch's cottage is still there later when Merida and [[spoiler:her mother]] return, but the place is abandoned, with no stock, and the witch has gone off "[[MythologyGag to the Wicker Man festival]]."[[note]]{{Justified}} on account of Merida promising to buy the witch's entire stock of woodcarvings in exchange for a spell.[[/note]] Merida even says "ItWasHereISwear"! [[spoiler:Then it blows up. So it won't be there tomorrow, either.]]

* LoopholeAbuse: The first-born of every clan competes for Merida's hand in a contest of her choosing. Merida's the first-born of her clan and is really good at archery. She uses these facts to her advantage. (It ends up being pretty pointless, since, despite the fact that Merida ''won'' the competition, her mother invokes RuleZero essentially telling her "tough luck", though she later invokes RuleZero in favor of breaking tradition.)

** The rent tapestry / shattered carving of the four princes shows the bonds rent by pride.
** Merida tearing her dress to win the archery tournament (just as she wants to tear free of her role / tear through the expectations) -- a dress she earlier said [[OfCorsetHurts made it so she]] "couldn't breathe".

** To ''WesternAnimation/FindingNemo'': Aside from the "rebellious child and strong-willed parent learn to appreciate each other after a crisis" plot, there's [[spoiler:Bear!Elinor's pupils widening into [[BlackEyesOfCrazy Black Eyes Of Animal-ity]] when she becomes a "real" bear, just like Bruce the great white shark's eyes go black when he goes into feeding frenzy-mode.]]

* TwoScenesOneDialogue: Between Merida and Elinor in the beginning, including quite a few cases of FinishingEachOthersSentences. It shows how well they know each-other and how alike they still are.

On May 3, 2022, the film would receive a [[SequelInAnotherMedium sequel novel]] titled ''Literature/{{Bravely}}'', written by Creator/MaggieStiefvater of Literature/TheRavenCycle fame.

* KickTheDog: Eleanor burning Merida's bow is a step too far, and Eleanor has a MyGodWhatHaveIDone moment afterwards. Merida also has one where she slashed the tapestry.

* TheGenieKnowsJackNicholson: If you [[FreezeFrameBonus freeze-frame]] during the witch's [[BlatantLies "just a woodcarver"]] montage, you'll see that one of her carvings is a pickup truck (specifically, the [[WesternAnimation/ToyStory Pizza Planet truck]]).

* BalefulPolymorph: [[spoiler:Queen Elinor and the triplets are turned into bears, just as previously happened to the prince that became Mor'du.]]

It tells the tale of a RebelliousPrincess named Merida (Creator/KellyMacdonald) in the mythical Scottish kingdom of [=DunBroch=], who wants only to live as freely as she desires. Her father, the rough and boisterous King Fergus (Creator/BillyConnolly), has an eternal grudge against all bears since he lost his left leg to a demon bruin named Mor'du. Her mother, the restrained and graceful Queen Elinor (Creator/EmmaThompson), [[ArrangedMarriage wants her to marry]] the eldest son of the head of one of the three neighboring clans, all brought together under her rule. When mother and daughter have a falling out, Merida encounters a mysterious witch in the forest and buys a spell to change her mother, hoping to reverse her decision on the marriage. Said spell has unforeseen consequences for Merida and her family, leading to a race to undo it before the damage becomes permanent.