Hmmm... this is tough. I think Ariel could make a good scientist because she's curious and loves learning.

She is the obvious fit.

I think she has the intelligence and passion to be a great environmental scientist.

Oh definitely. Research is like 10% inspiration/passion and 90% patience and slow methodical work. You have to love something so much that you are willing to continue learning about it and discovering things even after your past experiment which took you six months to get concrete findings for was a complete failure. I think Rapunzel shows these qualities excellently. And she shows a natural inquisitiveness and scientist-mannerisms when it comes to the floating lights. She tracks them year after year, even maps the other stars to try and figure out what they are. She has a bright mind, but more importantly, is willing to go through all the painstaking minutia to get the answers she needs.

Ariel is definitely passionate, but I don't think she's at all patient enough to be a scientist. Or is able to think that abstractly.

^I think Rapunzel would make a good astronomer, but not exactly a regular scientific researcher ( which is what you are describing). Rapunzel tracks the stars, sure, but that's her focus--- the heavens. Ariel on the other hand wants to know about combustion ( why a fire burns), how the cart works that carries her and Eric about town, and basically everything pertaining to human advances. That's a broad stretch of cultural knowledge intersecting science, not just the study of the heavens. So, yes, Rapunzel is my third favorite for her curiosity specifically tied to astronomy...but Ariel is infinitely more curious and daring than Rapunzel is.

^ Well astronomer's are scientists, and she definitely showed researching abilities in terms of mapping the stars herself, and analyzing them to the point where she could conclude that they were constant. Ariel shows a natural curiosity for an unknown world, but I think that's something anyone would do when they meet something new. Pocahontas shows the same kind of inquisitiveness when it comes to the ship's sails and John Smith's helmet. I mean let's say you take a random person and put them on an alien world where they have mastered antigravity technology. Any person would be curious as to how it works. The fact that she's able to think differently that the other merfolk is a good point, but just because she's naturally curious, doesn't mean she would automatically be a good scientist. I can see her as more of an adventurer or anthropologist. Which is technically a soft-science, but for argument's sake I'm gonna just stick with the hard-sciences.

I think Rapunzel is different in the logical and analytical way she approaches different problems. She focuses on the lanterns sure but that's just because they're so different. And not only does she observe them like Ariel, but she analyzes them and reaches her own conclusions. Plus I think she's very interested in the outside world, and we just don't get to see it that much. During the kingdom dance, theres a scene where her and Flynn are surrounded by books in a library, and they're looking at a map of the Earth. She's definitely interested in the outside world and how it works, it's just not at the forefront of the movie all the time.

^I was in the research field... and I actually worked in a scientific research lab in a hospital. I am switching out of it, now. I was a research assistant. If you want to get really technical here NEITHER Ariel or Rapunzel has the chops for what that entails. What they have is merely hinted at.

Rapunzel is interested in the floating lights and in getting the bleep out of the tower, and not much dimension is given to her interests in the scientific world outside of that. Ariel has only the dimension of actively searching out another culture and the questions she asks about what they "know."

I believe neither one would make an absolutely good HARD scientist. Ariel is not as dumb as you're making her out to be ( but she's one of your least favorites so I understand the bias). I'm just saying that from watching both movies, Ariel's thirst for knowledge comprises most of, if not her entire characterization, while Rapunzel's characterization is her sunny disbelief that the world outside the tower is not the dangerous place she has been told it is. Neither one is strictly a scientific girl. What Disney gives us is just glimpses...without further development.

That being said, you're welcome to your opinion, and I am welcome to mine.

^ I am too... it's what I'm doing right now. I'm an undergrad sure, but I've done enough to know what research entails. And I'm not saying that Ariel is dumb, or that Rapunzel is super analytical. I'm just taking what the movies told us, and working off of that. The movies say that Rapunzel charted the stars. Therefore, that is a part of her character. It's not the main point of the movie, but that doesn't mean it doesn't exist. And that coupled with her natural quick thinking and problem solving skills, are signs in my opinion that she would do well in a scientific field.

None of this is in anyway a slight against Ariel. I just don't think that her being inquisitive about other cultures and how things work automatically equals scientist.

Obviously neither would work as they are in the movies as full blown scientists. I just see more of those kind of personality elements in Rapunzel than I do Ariel. But we can agree to disagree.

^It's possible that I define science as being much broader: "the wondering of how all kinds of objects work," rather than just solely examining one narrow scientific avenue ( astronomy is a very narrow scientific specialty). For that reason, I don't find Rapunzel as inquisitive and as curious as her predecessor. Punzie investigates astronomy, finds Flynn, and they look at a map of the world. That would be planning some "sight-seeing" to me. Not exactly science. Ariel has more of a broader scientific interest (physics, puppetry, the use of objects like wagons, pipes, etc.). But Ariel uses her sight-seeing trip for her own benefit. Ariel almost ignores Eric while they are in the Tour of the Kingdom stage, as she begins educating herself. For a while, Ariel is too absorbed in trying to figure out what makes things work to be totally romantic around the guy.

Ariel and Rapunzel are the closest Disney has to its version of DP investigators. I will have to say that.

Good luck with your studies! We can agree to disagree. :)

^ Haha whenever I get into these type of disagreements it usually just boils down to a semantics argument. :) I see science, and immediately think bioassays and days upon days of repetitive work. And Rapunzel's the only one I can find whose done anything similar to that. While your using the more broad, and honestly, more accurate definition. And you're right, Ariel fits that description to a T. Again, she'd be an amazing anthropologist.

Thanks for hearing what I had to say, and supporting your own view of Ariel. I've been trying to become more accepting of her character, and I love when users like you challenge my biases.

On a side note. what do you think of Mulan? She showed pretty good logical thinking when it came to figuring out how to get up the pole with the weights. And her idea of exploding a mountain snowcap to create an avalanche was pure genius.

agree with Aang_Lite, Rapunzel does have that patience and dedication that needs meticulous work as of scientist.

^@Aang_Lite: Mulan is now in the lead in this poll... for however long that lasts. That's honestly a little funny to me, but Mulan is certainly a bright one. I think Mulan is more patient than Rapunzel and Ariel are--- which is something you have described as being needed for a scientist. Mulan also has the knack for thinking outside of the box, and this would be an asset to the research field which relies mainly on asking "new questions" (in addition to performing a great many repetitive experiments to test hypotheses). But I believe, having been at work in the field, that you really will have to keep thinking about what to explore next... hence, my emphasis on that. Part of research is annoying: you have to convince the "powers that be" to keep supplying you with money to perform experiments ( research kits aren't cheap: bioassays, ELISA, gel electrophoresis, stains, antibodies, instrumentation, etc., are all extremely pricey). So this was why I was emphasizing the need for the DP to be willing to be more of a risk-taker. Grants always want "new ideas." Punzie, Ariel, and Mulan are all risk-takers, more or less. However, I just seem to find Ariel to be asking way more questions about the world than Punzie and Mulan are. Ariel is curious about multiple avenues to which she's never been exposed, while Rapunzel asks narrowed questions of only a certain type, and Mulan solves problems by using what she already knows about the situation. This sounds crazy, but you kind of need a person who has an extreme form of curiosity.

Anyway, in my opinion, its that extreme curiosity-- the kind that makes you want to keep asking questions and find the answers to all those questions-- which identifies you as a scientist... This curiosity keeps you from suffering burnout, as the work itself grows tedious and repetitive. Mulan has the intelligence and cleverness, and could be a good fit, if she keeps asking questions.