Talk:The Little Mermaid II: Return to the Sea/@comment-29902683-20170328045948/@comment-1672596-20190621143514

Mistress Fi, if you like Return to the Sea better than The Little Mermaid, fine, suit yourself. But don't claim falsehoods about the film when citing why you liked Return to the Sea better.

First of all, it's heavily implied in Poor Unfortunate Souls that Ursula had faked reform, and THAT was the reason why Ariel considered ultimately going for her despite knowing her evil nature. It's not like that hasn't happened at all in other works. Mega Man Battle Network 3 had Lan Hikari being tricked by Mr. Match into committing cyber arson in a similar manner to how Ursula tricked Ariel. Not to mention the only reason why Ariel even considered going to Ursula in the first place was because, 1., she was left in an emotional wreck thanks to Triton's little tantrum that blew up her grotto, and 2., F&J after she initially refused them did a little sleight of hand by flicking Eric's statue remains at her while taking their leave. You want to complain about a character aiding the enemy despite knowing full well by that point how evil said enemy was? Try going against Belle in the climax of Beauty and the Beast, where she essentially sold out Beast and his servants to the mob just to save her dad and avoid marrying Gaston (and unlike Ariel with Ursula, not only would Belle have known a lot better than to expose Beast to a crowd of irrational villagers, especially in front of the guy who has proven himself to be very willing to go to extremes just to ensure your hand accepted his marriage, but Gaston didn't even try to make any secret about what he was truly like when she deduced it.).

Second of all, Ariel DID contribute to the final fight with Ursula. Let's not forget, literally a few seconds after Triton got cursed by Ursula, Ariel outright attacked Ursula, and when Ursula was about to atomize Eric with the trident, Ariel interfered with her aim and got F&J atomized instead. Last I checked, that's outright contribution, pretty vital contribution at that, especially with the latter. Sure, she may not have landed the final blow to Ursula, but she still contributed all the same.

Third of all, Ariel DID in fact learn her lesson. The entire ending wouldn't have worked if she didn't, where she explicitly fought against Ursula alongside Eric, and clearly had remorse for King Triton's being cursed.

And I'm not going to condemn Melody at all. As you mentioned, she also endured similar stuff, but she was ultimately more like her mother in that regard than against her, and I mean that in a good way. And besides, I get sick and tired of Ariel being outright demonized like that. Seriously, she has it worse in terms of demonization than Princess Peach does right now.