I think people tend to take extreme positions on their opinion of Merida. Some people view her as a feminist-friendly, anti-princess, anti-romantic character while others view her as spoiled rotten and that changing her mother is unforgivable. It seems that some of these opinions are on the wane but it still pops up from time to time. The point is is that each side is only partially right but don't paint an accurate picture of her.
Merida started out as selfish and a little spoiled but she was never taught about the marriage contract before hand and thus it was a complete shock for her. Her actions were short-sighted but she accepted responsibility for them and drew the kingdom back together and even abolished the archaic marriage tradition. She is feminist-friendly but I don't see her as anti-princess or anti-romantic, she is simply not interested in girly things or romance. I think she's a more nuanced character than people giver her credit for.

I love her! I think she's a great role model, considering we're all going to make mistakes and do selfish things sometimes, so I think she's better to look up to than somebody who never does anything wrong.

I can't just get over the fact that she tried to poison her mother in order to manipulate her mind. Scratch that. I would be even to excuse that with "she didn't think it through". But that she is positively gleeful about her mother being in pain and then needs a whole damn movie to admit that she has done something wrong, never mind that just admitting it makes everything okay again, that's the last straw. I think the movie would work way better if she admitted it immediately and then spend the rest of the movie trying to correct her mistake.

@magnoliainmay--- i just dont see how Merida is a rolemodel because she makes mistakes and does selfish things sometimes, but with ARiel it's not okay.

I love Merida! She's relatable and flawed, makes her to be realistic. Yes, she's really selfish, rebellious, irresponsible, and many othet but later she learns and apologize her mistakes. Unfortunately she's got less appreciation from peoples compared to other princesses, but in my view she's better than some of the princesses especially Ariel.