Corrected entry: When Merida and Eleanor (bear form) wake up after spending the night at the witch's exploded cottage, she wakes up with a different dress on and has a bow and arrows in her keep. But when they leave the castle she is still in a tattered dress and isn't carrying anything. She could have grabbed a bow and arrows from an armory outside but I can't for the life of me figure out where she got the dress.
Correction: The tattered blue dress? She changes into a green dress before going out to ask the witch to change Eleanor back. And the bow and arrows came from bear Eleanor at breakfast after waking up.
Nope she gets chased out of the castle still in the blue tattered dress, she puts a cloak on when it rains outside the witch's hut, then when she emerges in the morning she's in her green dress with her old bow not burned.
Correction: No, she's wearing the tattered dress in the castle with bear Eleanor up until they run into the boys messing with the animal heads. Merida asks them to help her get out of the castle, and promises to give them her dessert for a year. Next scene, the boys are distracting the men. Then Merida, having taken some time to change into her dark green dress, enters the kitchen with a bow (not her favorite, the queen threw that one into the fire earlier), some arrows, and a cloak, w/ bear following.
Question: When Merida runs out of the castle, was she crying because of Elinor burning her prized bow, or that Elinor "was never there for her?" Also, Merida is shown with another bow later on. If it's the same bow that was burned, how was the bowstring fixed?
Answer: Merida was upset and crying over everything her mother had done. Also, that was the same bow. Bowstrings are commonly breakable and can be easily replaced. Merida may have had an extra stashed away or knew where to get one.
Also if you look carefully the bow has a circle on either side of the bow which looks like extra bowstring even then she probably has a stash somewhere.
Question: How exactly did Merida get her mother to transform back into a human? Did she do it with her tears or was it by mending the tapestry and putting it on her mother along with the sun to help break the spell? (01:33:00)
Answer: It was sewing the tapestry, for sure.
Sewing the tapestry was just a symbol of mending the bond (as the witch said "Fate be changed look inside, mend the bond torn by pride"). However, we see she sewed the tapestry and that didn't actually turn her mother back to human. It's not until Merida hugs her mother, apologizes, and says she loves her that the bond is mended. After that the tapestry magically seals and her mother turns back to human. Phixius is right.
Answer: Elinor tossed the bow into the fire in a fit of anger, then regretted what she did and rescued it.
raywest ★
To add to raywest's answer, she threw it in a fit of rage, yes. As a parent, you sometimes disagree with your children's passions, while you try to steer and guide them, they love what they love. She may have disagreed with Merida having the bow, but she also knew how important it was to her. Its hard to explain, but basically while she objected to Merida having it, she knew it was the one thing that made her happy... she loves her daughter and wants her to be happy. She destroyed it in a fit of rage, and then realised she destroyed, for lack of better words, her daughter's "happiness." Marrying her off was one thing, burning her only joy is another.