Merida's Journey of Familial Love in Brave Brave follows Merida, an archer being trained to rule a kingdom, who is told to follow tradition but wants to chart her own path in life. She has been told her whole life by her mother to act lady-like and get married to a royal man, but she wants to be an archer, and is trying to defy age-old traditions. She finds a witch in the woods who agrees to “change” her mother, and instead of changing her mom’s personality, the witch turns her into a bear, an animal which their entire kingdom hunts and kills for sport. Merida must find a way to turn her mother back into a human before it is too late. The betrayal/realization stage of Schmidt’s Heroine’s Journey is shown during the dinner scene when Merida finds out her mother invited suitors without her permission. She is reminded that her life does not belong to her. Her coping strategy has always been to act superior and take on a male role that she feels suits her better, but her mom is insist...