Talk:Ariel/@comment-26146485-20150225221049/@comment-1672596-20150228014930

Thanks to Toy Story basically preaching anti-Favoritism, I can't really hold any favorites. If it weren't for that, though, I definitely would say the same about Ariel.

And I agree with you quite a bit on those things (and it's pretty obvious she formed her dreams independently of Eric as she sang about those desires before she even was aware of Eric's existence, much less met him), and yeah, Ariel is definitely smart. Maybe not book smart (though that doesn't mean she's illiterate, as POTW made clear she was literate from reading a book late in the song, and besides which, she had read the contract in the movie), but definitely smart in terms of investigating things, trying to find out new information and improving on her knowledge base, which is real intelligence right there. Being booksmart is overrated anyways, especially when I know quite a few literature professors who are book smart yet were complete morons and stating things that are clearly false, which is why I doubt Belle is actually all that smart even if she is literate. It's such a shame that Belle is stealing all of Ariel's credit, even the credit of being the first proactive Disney Princess who had goals besides love and marriage and didn't sit around waiting for her prince (it doesn't help matters much that Linda Woolverton actually claimed this of Belle, and even went as far as to utterly diss Ariel and the other DPs. Ariel definitely wasn't "weak" or "insipid", nor did she wait for her prince. Even Cinderella and Snow White weren't that weak, insipid, or waited for their princes).