Yes. It's why I have Mulan so high. Ariel decides to be responsible for her actions in the end, so that is why she is high. Rapunzel takes responsibility for trying to protect/save Eugene with her hair. Merida turns responsible after sewing up the tapestry to turn her mother back. Pocahontas takes her responsibility seriously and forgoes romantic love in order to keep her community stable. My top five might start off clumsy and forgetful, dreamy and independent, bubbly and naive, bratty and naive, and indecisive and anxious, but every single one ends up taking action to correct their mistakes. I like DPs who change their behavior.

It's not super important honestly. Mulan is not very responsible in the beginning, and going to war doesn't make her responsible in my opinion, it makes her brave and awesome and other things, but not responsible. But I prefer a fun personality over responsibility any day. As long as they're trustworthy and reliable. But I agree with iwasneverhere about everything else. I like when DPs change, and Mulan doesn't necessarily become more "responsible," but I love her change during the movie.

It's pretty important.

Mmmm... no. Not really.

Depends on the circumstances.

I guess not. I haven't really thought about it.

Yes, actually. Mulan is my favorite for many reasons, but one of them is because as soon as her dad needs her help she gets going, right away dressing up as a man and doing what she has to, that being going to war. When she was pushed away at her camp she still came back to China to warn everyone, and she grows as a character.

I love Elsa again for many reasons, but I DO think she's responsible, actually one of the most responsible DP's. As soon as she hits her sister with her powers she does everything to her best ability to keep herself hidden no matter what it takes. She went to the coronation unhappy of course, but she put up with it for her kingdom. She, "Put on a show" to be the best queen she could be. In the end, she comes back and fixes everything in a matter or seconds, again, character development.

Ariel is my least favorite because she never has any character development. If she was responsible, she would, like Mulan and Elsa try to put up with her sad life and try to see the best in it, but instead she whines to her dad and throws tantrums about it, and then does the STUPIDEST thing she could do, that is going to Ursula without any further idea of who she is, and she most of been an idiot to not look at all the lost souls around her. In the end, she has her dad and Eric fix her mess for her and she gets her happy ending without ever maturing or having any sings of learning her lesson.

Yeah, so according to my list it does matter. My top five is basically just a mix of the most selfless and developed princesses, and why Ariel is at the bottom, is because she's neither or those things.

Yes, but I'm not sure in what extent.

Elana (Sk8er) - Yay for standing up for Elsa! I know how much you love her and how it's been bothersome for you to see people call her coward, selfish or irresponsible (I'm not stating my opinion in any of these, however).

As a role model? Sure. but as a character? Sometimes. I think Scarlett O'Hara and Cersei Lannister are fascinating but they're both very irresponsible to the point of just being reckless. But it is something I look for in a role model.

But it really depends on the situation. I consider Snow White a very good role model while others see her as a bad one for the apple incident. It may have been irresponsible in most senses, but in the bigger picture, Snow was trying to be kind and respectful to what she thought was a harmless old lady. So I can excuse it then, especially since she is normally pretty responsible for a 14 year old kid anyway.

Thanks for your opinions everyone!

quishy11 - I understand what you mean when you say Mulan isn't responsible, especially in the beginning of the movie, with how she doesn't study for her matchmaker meeting. But don't you think that she overcomes that and learns how to be responsible especially when it comes to her deciding to take her fathers place, and committing to it? Even when it seemed as though she was a failure, she persevered and in the end succeeded. If bringing her family honor was her responsibility, I would say she was very responsible, despite the road she took to achieve that goal.

Sk8er_grl - I agree with you when it comes to the beginning of the movie with Elsa. She does act very responsible, and is actually extremely self sacrificing with how hard she tries to protect her sister and her kingdom. My problem with her is that she looses this trait once she showcases her ice powers. I don't see the Elsa who cares about her sister that much when she is creating a giant ice castle and fancy dress, going on about how "the cold never bothered her anyway". For the entire time she is embracing herself she is completely ignoring her people and sister, something that makes me think she never might have cared for them anyway, and was only isolating herself that way no one would ever target her. Which is fine, it's a very human reaction. But I'm not sure it can be described as responsible, at least the way I would describe it.

@Onceabluemoon I half agree with you. To me though, leaving was leaving a world behind she cared deeply for, and she missed her sister. Her leaving at first was just to make sure everyone is alright, I bet she honestly thought her sister would make a great queen, and I think she was just trying to make the best out of a bad situation. In the song her facial expressions really looked sad IMO, as if she wasn't really having fun. My comment wasn't targeted at you though, I'm sorry if it looked that way. She cared about all her people the whole time LIG or not, I don't think, personally, the songs contradicted anything from before. I don't think it describes her as irresponsible either :)

Of course.

I can't stand characters that flee responsibilities, since that gives a pretty clear message to the audience that's supposed to "relate" to them that they're condoning that behavior. In real life, fleeing responsibilities has poor consequences. Being self-serving at the expense of others hurts others. I don't like seeing that portrayed as a good thing in fiction. I also just flat out don't like or respect the character (ARIEL.) UNLESS the story is about them learning to do and be better (Merida.)

OnceABlueMoon, Mulan was supposed to be a bride, and if she did that, I would say she showed responsibility. But she does something even better to bring honor to her family, but it's not necessarily responsible to me. Because to me, doing the responsible thing isn't always the best thing. She succeeded in doing what she wanted to do, and I don't really know the word for it, but I wouldn't call that "responsibility." I still imagine Mulan writing notes on her arm even after she saved China lol. Does it make sense what I'm saying? Maybe I'm just thinking of the definition of responsible in a different way than normal people do. I agree with you though. :)

Nah