Board Thread:General Discussion/@comment-16059609-20140115220056/@comment-11462509-20140118092006

I would say personally that Merida starts out the least mature and ends the most because she winds up with the pressure of a kingdom on her shoulders, a kingdom she starts out willing to endanger for the sake of her own independence but by the end learns to consider conequences and forsake her happiness for others.

Anna is already somewhat mature by the beginning of Frozen, relatively speaking I mean, I think this is because she's had to grow up constantly aware that she's being deprived of love and this had made her accustomed to a certain pain. Though I'm not going to say that means she's what many people would call 'grown up' it's apparant that she's still clutzy and emotionally naive as well as ever so slightly arrogent when it comes to her own decision making.

Merida is still young and brash and verbally crude of course, I'm not saying she's as ready as her mother to run things by the end of the movie but she's learnt the lesson of utilitarian sleflessness and had to realize the responsibility of a kingdom, Anna's equivalent is sacrificing herself for her sister which does show she is much more mature than she was at the start but it's for family and that does not equate to the sacrifice one makes when you sacrifice yourself for people you don't personally care about.

you can make the argument that the pressure of a kingdom falls on her when everything freezes over but that wasn't a responsibility that was introduced from any sort of young age and followed her into the rebellious teenage years, that was Elsa's cross to bear and the crux of her character.

Again you can argue that Anna actually chose to ride out of the city limits, which unlike Merida she was not used to, and save everyone and that earns her quite a few points but I felt like in the movie she felt like her talking to her sister would just get her to fix everything whereas Merida is terrified of becoming some quiet, doting housewife to some overgrown oaf for the rest of her life, her fear that she oversomes is more personal in that regard and more real and then later she has to deal with the thought of her homeland tearing itself apart in civil war.

Theres my two cents, I hope I didn't come across as unpleasent or rude.