Fate and Destiny: A Brave Essay

Introduction

As I had discussed in my previous essay, the focal point of Brave was the conflicted mother-daughter relationship between Merida and Elinor. But even while you see that in the film, you can't overlook the fact that fate and destiny also play an important part in the film, and this is even shown with the inclusion of the will-o'-the-wisps and film's villain, Mor'du.

In Merida's voiceover at the beginning, after the prologue, she says that there are people who say that one's destiny is tied to the land, while others say that fate is woven together like a cloth, so that one destiny's intertwines with many others'. In a way, we see both of these played out in the film. Merida's fate is linked to the land because she is the heir of DunBroch, so she will be the ruler of it one day. This means that her fate will directly affect it, and it will also weave with and affect those around her. Even more importantly, her fate is interwoven with Mor'du's, because her breaking the curse on her mother also breaks the one on him.

Through the witch, magic provides a neutral view of fate and destiny. While the witch gives Merida and the prince a spell as one way to change their fate, she also offers them a chance to reverse it, which puts them in control of their own actions and in charge of their own fate. Although her appearance in the film was brief, there are hints that the witch knows far more than she's letting on and understood the bigger picture when she gave the prince and then Merida their spells. It seemed as though she could see that history was repeating itself when Merida came to her and asked her for a spell to change her (Merida) fate. She doesn't tell Merida everything about the spell at first, but her cauldron message about how to undo it shows that she knows that Merida, like the prince, had a broken relationship with a family member that needed to be mended. This all helps to show how magic is used as an easy way out, or as a last resort, when Merida and the prince feel they are at dead ends on how to make things go the way they want them to go.

It's also very possible that Merida's ultimate destiny is to fully unite the clans. While Fergus began it, the alliance was obviously unsteady because the lords and their families were still not very friendly with each other. It wasn't until Merida actually spoke to all of them and reminded them of why they started the alliance in the first place that she really got through to the lords and they were getting along much better than before. Even when the suitors spoke of how they felt the same way as Merida did in regards to the betrothal, that showed how they all had an agreement on something. In order for Merida to become a ruler capable of running the kingdom well, she really needed to grow and mature as a person. That included accepting her royal responsibilities, along with those from her actions at the Games, and realizing that what she did was wrong and putting things right. Part of that was learning the truth about the legend of the kingdom and breaking the curse over Mor'du. Bringing the clans back together was an excellent start, and she also fully reconciles with Elinor, which is why Elinor changes back into a human. In the end, we can see that she has become a better person, that what she learned has changed her for the better, and we can be confident that she will one day become a great queen of DunBroch – and I'm sure both Fergus and Elinor have no doubts about that, either.

I have so much to say about fate and destiny in the film and decided to write this next essay when I realized that I had no place to discuss it in my first essay. If you haven't yet read the essay where I discuss Merida and Elinor's relationship, you may want to read that before you read this one. Fate seems to be illustrated in the film particularly through the wisps and Mor'du, especially since he and Merida seem to have an important connection to each other in that way. And even though it is just a short film, I will also talk a little bit about The Legend of Mor'du since it provides a little more about the villain's backstory.

I also want to take a moment to dedicate this essay as a belated birthday gift for my close friend Rosie (PrincessMeridaFan), who also very much adores this film. She enjoyed my essay about Merida and Elinor, so I thought she would like it if I made this next one for her. Hope you enjoy this, Rosie!


Mor'du – The Demon Bear

The main antagonist of Brave is a large, black, hideous, ferocious demon bear named Mor'du, and he is the first Pixar villain to not have any spoken dialogue. Mor'du is first seen in the film's prologue, after young Merida screams upon seeing him, which gets the attention of her parents. At the moment, she is being held in Elinor's arms as Mor'du looms over them, and when Fergus sees him, he urges Elinor to take Merida and run away. As Elinor and Merida run away, Mor'du snaps after them, but Fergus and his soldiers start to gather around him for a fight. Mor'du destroys Fergus's spear with one swipe, so Fergus then draws his sword, while all the men surround Mor'du. While Merida and Elinor flee on horseback, Fergus goads the bear to attack, and Mor'du roars and snaps, then the film cuts to a black screen with the title. Soon afterwards, Merida's voiceover in the present time says that Fergus's battle with Mor'du had become legend, and in the dinner scene, her and Fergus's story of the battle mentions that Mor'du shattered the sword when he struck, then he bit off and ate Fergus's left leg. Since then, Fergus had developed a great hatred of Mor'du, but enjoys telling the story of their battle, with his favorite descriptive part being how he lost his leg.

Mor'du appears for the second time much later in the film, but by that time, Merida and Elinor (now turned into a bear) have discovered his true identity. Before this scene, Elinor had told Merida a cautionary tale about an ancient kingdom that was ruined because the oldest prince had split from his brothers after refusing to rule alongside them. Then when Merida meets the witch and asks for a spell, the witch says that she had done the spell before for a prince who asked for the strength of ten men and paid for it with his clan's ring (which contains an engraved symbol of two crossed axes). Merida asks if he got what he wanted, and the witch says yes. Mor'du is seen when Merida and her mother come across the ruins of an ancient kingdom, with the gateway having the familiar symbol of the crossed axes. They not only discover that it is Mor'du's lair, but that it is the same kingdom from Elinor's story, that the prince who caused it to fall was the same prince who came to the witch, and he received the same spell as Merida and was forever changed into Mor'du! Mor'du appears from the shadows just as Merida discovers who he really is, and she shoots an arrow at him, but that does not stop him. As he gives chase, Merida manages to leap up and grab her mother's paw, just as Mor'du snarls and snaps after her. After she pulls Merida out, Elinor pushes some rocks towards Mor'du to delay him, then she and Merida run away before he can catch them. They come back to the Ring of Stones, where they crash into one of the stones and form a crack in it.

Mor'du appears for the third and final time near the end of the movie. As Merida and her brothers ride Angus to find their mother before she is killed by Fergus and the clansmen, they come across a trail of wisps, and just as they start to follow them, the camera pulls back and reveals Mor'du in the shadows. He follows them to the Ring of Stones, and gets everyone's attention when he appears. Once they all see him, Merida exclaims his name, and Fergus orders his men to kill the bear. However, none of them are a match for the beast, and when Merida shoots some arrows at him, he swipes the bow from her hand. Then he corners her on the ground by placing his entire body over hers, and she screams as he roars and keeps his open mouth close to her throat. But Elinor, who is tied up by the clansmen, sees Merida in danger, so she breaks the ropes that are holding her down and attacks Mor'du. The two bears clash fiercely, and when Mor'du makes a few more attempts to attack Merida, Elinor always leaps into his way to protect Merida. However, Mor'du is much older and more dangerous, so he easily beats Elinor down with his strength. When Elinor notices the stone that was damaged earlier, she lures Mor'du to it, then smashes him against the stone and damages it more, but he strikes her down. Then Mor'du stalks towards Merida and Elinor, and just as he begins to run, the stone finally falls, crushing him to death. One of Mor'du's claws is seen sticking out from under the stone, but moments later, the prince's spirit appears. As the death of his bear form released him from his curse, the prince nods thankfully to Merida and Elinor, then he takes the form of a wisp and disappears.


The Will-O'-the-Wisps

In Brave, the will-o'-the wisps are spiritual, ethereal beings that have the appearance of small, floating, blue lights. Their role in the story is that they are said to lead someone to their fate, whether it be good or bad. Merida encounters the wisps four times in the film; she first discovers their existence at a young age, while retrieving an arrow in the forest. After she sees one, a trail of them appears, and she follows them back to her family. Years later, she encounters them again, and following their trail, they lead her to the witch's cottage where she receives a spell for her mother, since Elinor is in Merida's way of how Merida wants to choose her own fate. The wisps appear to her two times afterwards: the first is when they guide her to the castle ruins where Mor'du lives, and later to lead her to her mother in danger. Then when Mor'du is killed, the spirit of the prince is freed, and he becomes a wisp before he disappears.


The Legend of Mor'du – Film and Opinions

Although the film does not show the step by step details of the prince's journey from when he split from his brothers to when he became Mor'du, the short film, The Legend of Mor'du provides a little more of these details. As a human, the prince had been the oldest of four sons of a king in an ancient kingdom, all gifted in their own way (wisdom, compassion, and justness), with the oldest being strong. When the king passed away, rather than giving the oldest all of the inheritance, he divided the kingdom among all of his sons, believing their gifts combined would make it even greater. However, the oldest prince refused to accept this, and being the oldest, he believed that he should rule alone, so he started a war with his brothers. The brothers fought until the battle came to a stalemate, so the prince found the witch and asked for a spell that would give him the strength of ten men, and he offered her his signet ring as payment. She gave him the spell in a goblet, but warned him that the spell came with two choices: either he must make amends by reconciling with his brothers or he will suffer a dark fate trying to fulfill his goal. When the prince brought his brothers before him by staging up a false truce, he drank the spell from the goblet in front of them. It gave him the strength he desired, but to his surprise, in the form of a large, black bear. Rather than reconciling with his brothers, the prince instead accepted his new form and brought down his brothers and their armies. He then tried to command his army to help him rule the kingdom, but they only saw him as a wild creature and turned against him. The bear then attacked his former men, and many were killed while others fled the kingdom. This all led to the collapse of the kingdom, and the prince became a permanent bear that ended up roaming around the area for centuries afterwards.

After seeing the short film, I thought of my own opinions about Mor'du's past. It makes sense that the old king would have split his kingdom among his four sons because they each had their own good quality that was needed in the kingdom, so just one ruler wouldn't have been enough. However, the oldest prince would resent having to share the kingdom with his brothers, and feel that, because he is the oldest, he deserves to rule all by himself. Even before seeing the short, we saw in Elinor's narration of the story that he was a big man, so his quality was definitely strength. And his strength as a person in terms of his physicality, and for being a tough warrior, is why he feels he bests them all. But his brothers would likely tell him that strength alone is not enough to run a kingdom well, and by itself, it could lead to harm. His pride gets in the way with his brothers, and he would feel that he is no longer their brother. That's what would lead him to cutting his image off from the stone carving that depicts all four of them, and they are shocked that he would go that far. Since they wouldn't give up their positions, he wants to take it from them by force, but his physical strength alone is not going to do that. Ultimately, the prince wages a war on his brothers to get what he wants, but it comes to a stalemate. He wanders into the woods and comes across the Ring of Stones, where a trail of wisps appears that lead him to the witch's cottage. He asks for a spell to change his fate, with his specific request being the strength of ten men (in order to be able to take the kingdom from his brothers by force), and persuades her with his clan's ring. She gives him the spell in the form of a drink in a goblet, and tells him that he has a choice: to fulfill his wish with the spell or to mend the family bonds he had broken. When the prince returns to the battlefield, he lures them with a false truce, then drinks the spell right in front of them. In a few moments, the prince is surprised when the spell turns him into a big, black bear. While he remembers the witch's words about undoing the spell, the prince instead accepts his new monstrous form, and he murders his brothers and their armies in order to get them out of his way once and for all. Afterwards, he tries to command his own army again, but they now fear him because of his new appearance, so he ends up killing many people while others flee. In the end, the murders of the other three princes and their armies, the fall of the oldest prince's army, and the prince's transformation into the bear caused the kingdom to fall to ruin entirely, especially because there was no one left to rule it. After that, the prince runs out of time to break the spell, so he ends up becoming a permanent wild bear and loses all of his humanity.

It's very possible that the spell even gave the prince some immortality in the bear form, because the ruins of the kingdom seen later in the film suggest that it is hundreds of years old, so Mor'du's strength and size have made him virtually unstoppable. Mor'du ended up becoming a legendary monstrous figure that has been seen by many generations of people over the years since his kingdom had fallen. Since he has been seen so many times, it's most likely that they gave him the name Mor'du, and this means that this is his name as a demon bear, since no one knew where he had come from, how long he had been around, and especially, no one (until Merida and Elinor discover the truth later) knew that he was the prince of the ancient kingdom. Because his original identity was unknown, "Mor'du" is the name they came up for him, because his name is Gaelic, with "Mór" meaning "big" and "Dubh" for "black." His full name translates to "big black," which fits his physical description perfectly. So if his name refers to his physical description, it's probably why people gave him that name. His appearance is also not like any typical black bear, and it can also suggest how old he is: he has a hunched back in which numerous spears and arrows are contained, and this is because so many warriors before had tried to kill him, but all had failed. This is also shown by his heavily scarred face with the dead eye, and also parts of fur on his body have been burned off. He is even somewhat like Moby-Dick, because they are both large animals in their respective stories (Mor'du is a bear, Moby-Dick is a whale), their bodies are colored one color (Mor'du is black, while Moby-Dick is white), they have spears lodged into their hunched backs, and their names start with M and include D (with "D" starting another syllable in their names). They are also notorious for eating someone's leg (Mor'du ate Fergus's leg, and Moby-Dick ate Captain Ahab's leg), and each person is obsessively bent on avenging his lost leg and killing their respective monster enemy.

Mor'du also somewhat reminds me of the Beast in Beauty and the Beast, because it is their selfish behaviors that cause them to receive spells that literally turn them into beasts, and their respective spells come with an escape clause. Although the spell on Mor'du became permanent and not the one on the Beast, they still acted very similarly in how the spell affected them not just physically, but also psychologically. According to the film's producer, the longer the Beast is under the spell, the more feral he becomes. He starts off by walking on all fours, wearing an incomplete wardrobe, and frequently screaming and roaring when he is angry. If the spell had never been broken, the Beast's transformation would have become permanent. For psychological permanence, he would have eventually stopped speaking, stopped wearing clothing altogether, and would have gone to live in the woods. His primary source of food comes from hunting, which also explains the appearance of the West Wing and why he seems to have lost his ability to read and use eating utensils.


Merida and Mor'du – Two Royals Connected by Fate

While Merida and Mor'du are very important characters in the film, being the protagonist and the antagonist, respectively, there are definitely parallels drawn between them that seem to connect them by means of fate. For one thing, the spellings of their names are almost identical, with the same three consonants in the same spelling order, and the only difference between them is the vowels in each name: Merida uses the first three vowels of the alphabet, while Mor'du uses the last two. They are also the oldest of four in their respective families, with three younger brothers, and they are both very proud, skilled warriors. But probably the most important part in how they are connected is how they disagreed with the fate chosen for them, they refused (Merida initially) to follow the traditions of their respective kingdoms, and when they went to the witch for help, they both received the exact same spell, though for different purposes. Then they begin to differ even more after receiving the spell because the results of their respective actions are entirely different.

During the second half of the film, the pieces of Mor'du's past come together, and you realize that history has almost repeated itself entirely, from the ancient kingdom to Merida's kingdom of DunBroch. As a prince, Mor'du faced conflict with his brothers because he was the oldest and wanted to rule their kingdom all on his own, not with all four of them doing it together. But his brothers probably felt that the kingdom could fall apart if he or any of them ruled alone, because they were all chosen to rule together since each of them had a gift of their own that was needed for the kingdom. Just like the prince before her, Merida also faces so much conflict with a family member – her mother, because Elinor forces her to choose and marry a suitor from one of the allied clans, and this is all because the tradition is important to Elinor and the clans' lords in order to maintain peace in the kingdom. If Merida does not go through with it, harm may come to DunBroch and the alliance could fall apart (especially because it is not a steady alliance). Back to the prince, his pride to get what he wanted got in the way so much of his relationships with his brothers that had a big fight with them, which ended with him cutting the image of himself off of the stone carving that depicted all four of them. This was his way of showing them that he now held hatred rather than love for them. A similar action happens with Merida: she enters the Highland Games and defeats her suitors, then she and Elinor have a big fight over her actions. Elinor is furious with Merida and concerned that the clans are going to fight because of what Merida did. But Merida is also angry because she feels her mother is doing nothing but controlling and ruining her life and only thinking about the well-being of the kingdom rather than her. As a way of telling her mother that she hates her, Merida cuts Elinor's image off from the family tapestry, especially since it depicts the two of them holding hands, as a way of illustrating their bond.

At a dead end with his brothers, the prince flees into the woods and comes across the Ring of Stones, where he follows a trail of the wisps to the cottage of the witch. He asks for a spell that would give him the strength of ten men, and pays for it with his ring. However, before he consumes the spell to get what he wants, the witch warns him that, even if he takes the spell, there is a way to undo it: he must mend the bond that was torn by his pride. Then the prince returns to his brothers and sets them up by offering a false truce, and drinks the spell in front of them. He soon finds out that he gets the strength he has desired, but unexpectedly as a big, black bear! Almost the exact same steps happen with Merida, with a major change being the reason for the spell. The prince asked for one for himself, while Merida asked it for her mother. Not knowing what to do after she fights with her mother, she flees the castle and into the woods, where she finds the Stones and a trail of wisps. They lead her to the witch's cottage, and by this time, the witch is trying to cover up her nature by posing as a woodcarver. Using a necklace that Elinor had given her, Merida offers to buy all of her carvings, along with a spell, which is one to change her mother. The witch agrees, and tells Merida the story of when she had previously done the spell for a prince. She says the prince got what he wanted, but she does not reveal the whole truth about what happened to him. The witch creates the spell in the form of a cake, and Merida offers it to Elinor as a false peace offering. Elinor takes one bite of the cake, but starts to feel sick soon afterwards. Merida takes her to her room, and is shocked when she discovers that the spell changes Elinor into a bear! Like the prince, Merida realizes that the spell inadvertently gave her what she wanted, but unlike the prince, she is determined to remove the spell from her mother. When she and Elinor journey back to the witch's cottage, they find that the witch is not there, but she has left a message with a riddle of "mend the bond torn by pride" in order to undo the spell.


Fates Joined by Wisps

Merida and Mor'du also seem to be shown to be connected to each other by fate through the usage of the wisps. The wisps first appear in the prologue, when Merida is in the forest retrieving an arrow. The setup of showing the woods' undergrowth suggests that Mor'du is behind them, watching her. Also, if you listen closely during that scene, heavy breathing and growling is heard, which confirms that he is there. I could see that she didn't follow the wisps' whole trail because she went back to camp, but I think they appeared to warn her about Mor'du, and that was by leading her away from him, because it's not her fate to die by him. And if anything, I believe they appeared to him in a way as well, and so he followed them to follow her at the same time. This would explain why and how he showed up before the scene ended, because he was watching Merida the whole time and then followed her out of the woods. While Mor'du ending up harming Fergus instead of Merida, it was his fate to follow Merida because she would one day change it for him.

When the wisps appear again, they lead Merida and Elinor to the ruins of the ancient kingdom. This was done because Merida needed to see that it was real, and that the prince from the legend was the same prince who came to the witch and received the same spell, which lead to his transformation to Mor'du. Merida needed to see all of this for herself in order to understand that the same thing could happen to DunBroch because of her selfish actions. It almost does, because her actions began to cause the four clans to break down when they briefly fight with each other with the use of weapons. This is also just like how the prince's selfish actions of refusing to rule with his brothers and splitting from them caused all of them to fight so much that it led to a battle. (On a side note, the fact that there were four brothers, and then Merida's kingdom consists of four clans, makes me wonder if the clans are somehow descended from the princes, or more likely, if they were formed from the four warring armies commanded by each of the princes.) But the key difference between Merida and the prince is what they do after realizing what the spell has done to them. When Merida learns the truth about Mor'du and the kingdom, and sees the clans fighting (just as Elinor had predicted), she becomes determined to not only break the spell on her mother, but to do the right thing by making peace with the clans and deciding to go through with the betrothal. Elinor also finally learns to understand Merida, and how she is not ready to get married, so she decides that Merida doesn't have to get married right now.

I have wondered if Mor'du, despite having lost his humanity a long time ago, had recognized Merida when he saw her again in the ruins. So after Elinor and Merida escaped the ruins, he managed to get out and went looking for them, and he knew he found Merida when he saw her following the wisps for the final time. The wisps not only lead her away from Mor'du again, but towards her mother because she was about to be killed by the clansmen, and Merida knew she had to save her in order to fix everything. Just like in the prologue, in this scene, Mor'du again indirectly followed the wisps to follow Merida, and when he appeared at the Ring of Stones, I think he was definitely after her out of everyone. But before he could finally kill her, Elinor broke the ropes that tied her down and she sprang into action to save Merida and fought off Mor'du. Elinor succeeded in killing him, and when the prince's spirit was set free, he nodded to both of them, as if in acknowledgment and gratitude for releasing him from his curse at last. Again, the wisps indirectly lead Mor'du to his fate because Merida was meant to help him by having him get killed and ending his curse. Elinor is the one who actually killed him, but Merida was the catalyst in making that happen. And in the end, she not only lifted the prince's curse, but she prevented it from happening to her mother, while also making sure she didn't make the same mistake to her kingdom as Mor'du had.


Conclusion

Although Merida had to understand the importance of the betrothal tradition and take the long and hard way to do so, what mattered in the end is that she finally set things right. She finally brought Mor'du to his death, bringing one curse to an end at last and freeing the spirit of the ancient prince. She reconciled with her mother, ending another curse for good and strengthening the relationship with someone she loves dearly. She also helped strengthen the peace between the clans, which means the fate of her kingdom is now in good hands. Although she is not ready to marry now, she will one day since she now realizes how important it is for her to do that as the future ruler of DunBroch. In the end, Merida gives another voiceover of how some say that our own fates and destinies are something beyond our command, which means that they are something that we can't seek out, find, or take control. But from her journey, we can see that our fates are something that we can find if we look deep inside ourselves, especially when we disagree with the people that we love. We all want to have control over our own lives, but whatever the situation is that makes us feel this way, we have to decide what is more important to us.

This wraps up this entire essay that discusses how fate and destiny play an important part in Brave. It was fun writing another essay about this great Pixar film, and I hope the fans who feel the same way about it as I do enjoy reading my words about it, along with my previous essay. Thank you all for reading and have a good day, and especially you, Rosie! I really hope you enjoyed this!