Trident (The Little Mermaid)

''This is about the weapon used by King Triton. You may be looking for either the Trident owned by Poseidon or the Trident-class assault ship from Star Wars: The Clone Wars.''

The Trident is a weapon that is featured in The Little Mermaid franchise. The Trident has three prongs, and appears to be made out of gold. It is shown to have vast magical abilities, and thus has been desired by both Ursula and Morgana. It serves as the personal weapon of King Triton, and only Triton or one of his descendants remove it from its resting place. (Although it should be noted that he most likely decreed this after Ursula stole it from the first film, as in the TV series, Urchin was able to lift the Trident out of its resting place at one point despite his not being related to Triton at all.) Once it has been removed, there seem to be no limits on who can use it. It can even be used against the royal family, seen when Ursula misuses its powerful lightning bolts (meant to defend Atlantica) to instead try to murder Princess Ariel just for fun. According to the stage version of The Little Mermaid, Triton inherited the Trident from his father, Poseidon.

Powers
The trident is shown to have various applications, depending on the will of the user. Most commonly seen is its ability to fire destructive energy bolts. These energy bolts, however, must be fired immediately upon the ready, or they will cause the built up energy to backfire on the user. This is ultimately how Ursula was killed, as she attempted to fire an energy ray at Ariel that was implied to be unavoidable, but was impaled seconds before she could fire by Prince Eric and one of the ships, causing the energy to backfire on her. Triton has also used it to summon rain storms, and transform his daughter, Ariel, into a human. He is also seen creating a rainbow in the first film, and disintegrating the sea wall in the second film. Ariel uses it herself in one episode of the television show, to thaw dinosaurs that have been trapped in a glacier, and it is revealed that the Trident is activated simply by the will of the user. When the trident is in Ursula's possession, she creates a giant whirlpool in the ocean that has such force that it raises sunken ships from the ocean floor.

Uses

 * Create Rainbows (Triton)
 * Create light (Triton)
 * Destroying Ariel's Grotto (Triton)
 * Attempted Destruction of Ursula's deal (Triton)
 * Destruction of eels (Ursula via Ariel)
 * Possibly size augmentation (Ursula)
 * Create storm (Ursula)
 * Create whirlpool (Ursula)
 * Attempted Murder of Princess Ariel (Ursula)
 * Turning merpeople into humans (Triton)
 * Creating an Ice Castle (Morgana)
 * Thawing out Flounder from an ice cube and then the Dinosaurs (Ariel)
 * Trapping Melody in an ice-glass prison (Morgana)
 * Trapping Morgana in a block of ice (Triton)
 * Making Merfolk and Fishfolk bow down (Morgana)
 * Dissolving the wall separating the palace from the sea (Melody)