Talk:Ariel/@comment-4487748-20140827143321/@comment-1672596-20140911013630

Ariel may have had her flaws, such as naivety and impulsiveness (though I should point out that her deal definitely wasn't impulsive, as that generally implies zero hesitation, while she clearly did hesitate and was reluctant, even initially telling Flotsam and Jetsam "no" to going to Ursula.). But selfishness is NOT one of those flaws. Had she been a genuinely selfish person, she would have behaved EXACTLY like Francis Wilkerson from Malcolm in the Middle, or Kefka Palazzo from Final Fantasy VI (heck, when responding to you in an earlier topic, I even gave a link to Kefka Palazzo actually mocking Kuja for effectively getting defeated by Lightning, a defeat that Kefka was strongly implied to have engineered by the way and pointed out that Ariel would have behaved EXACTLY like that to Flounder and left him to his fate), or Emperor Palpatine from Star Wars, heck, for a more Disney-type example, Emperor Kuzco from The Emperor's New Groove especially at the beginning, and that guy was the hero of the film. Keep in mind that the guys I listed were also huge sociopaths, at least initially in the case of Kuzco.

And BTW, the fact that she saved Flounder from Glut the Shark, actually nearly getting herself killed in the process, instead of abandoning him to his fate, saving Eric even when she literally had no real reason to save him and could have just as easily left him to drown, actually sparing Sebastian from becoming Grimsby's meal even when it was very likely she was still angry at him for basically squealing, actually telling Eric to leave without her in the climax, and all of that proves she's actually selfless, not selfish, as she actually placed a lot of people above her own needs. Just be glad Ariel didn't attempt to murder Eric in an attempt to gain immortality, or fall in love with Eric solely because he looked like a statue she had in her garden (which is exactly what the original little mermaid did. Heck, Ariel actually observed Eric's behavior while being unseen as well, so she actually knew far more about him than the original little mermaid did or even Anna did about Hans. And BTW, I actually hated the original tale's ending, not because the protagonist died, but because she actually did get what she wanted despite the countless selfish things she did in the story all for an immortal soul. Were I in Hans Christian Andersen's position, I'd probably have God give her a soul, then damn her to Hell for all eternity because even with her self sacrifice, the only truly selfless act she did in the story, she still committed far too many selfish acts to allow her into heaven). And BTW, her attempting to avenge her dad and even telling Eric to get out of the area and save himself, proves she did in fact learn from her mistakes and actually did grow as a character.

Besides, how is Belle, the one Disney Princess lots of people actually compare Ariel to by saying she's [Belle's] better, truly any better? She basically complained about the village life in a manner that indicated arrogance, actually took joy in throwing her suitor in the mud and humiliating him in front of everyone (which even for his jerkish behavior, Belle went way too far in that manner of refusing him), directly disobeyed a command by the Beast, her host so to speak, of staying out of the West Wing out of spite (and basically was ungrateful to the Beast for most of the first day. At least Beast gave her an actual bedroom, and heck, gave her relatively free reign over the castle, which is much better than what most "prisoners" get, as most actual prisoners can't even open a door to their cells or anywhere in the place they're imprisoned at and have to wait for someone to open it for them), basically endangered herself and the Beast by breaking her end of the agreement by fleeing the castle, and when she did actually gain her freedom, she basically and extremely stupidly backstabbed Beast and his servants by exposing the former to a bloodthirsty mob that obviously wasn't willing to listen to reason all for the extremely short-sighted goal of saving her father from the happy farm and avoiding marriage with Gaston, and this was DESPITE her actually previously being demonstrated as having good deductive reasoning skills. At least Ariel actually saved Eric more than a few times and Eric returned the favor in kind. Belle actually needed saving for the most part, and yet for some reason was strong enough to actually lift up the Beast a few points (and keep in mind he's twice as heavy as Gaston). And heck, Belle was even more explicit in whining for what she wanted, which is to basically leave the village and her inferiors and got exactly what she wanted in the end anyways, and doesn't exactly seem to actually learn anything in the end. At least Ariel didn't sell out her friends and lover, and at least she didn't hate her own kind at all even with her desire to become human. Belle did exactly that in the climax, and what's worse is that she really should have seen it coming (at least Ursula did strongly imply she had changed for the better, so it's understandable why Ariel would fall for her, and besides which, it's clear she didn't entirely trust her). Don't get me wrong, I do like Belle, maybe not as much as I used to, but still barely like her (I like Beast and Ariel better, though), but I do get irritated when people criticize Ariel and make clearly false statements about her (like claiming she's selfish, even when her actual actions in the film prove otherwise) yet conveniently ignore some of the stuff Belle did in her film that actually can be proven as such. Heck, the villagers' treatment of Belle wasn't even that bad, either, yet we're supposed to sympathize with Belle basically arrogantly insulting her peers in the opening song as they were "provincial"? Maybe if the villagers treated her like how Springfield treated Bart for missing a catch during a little league game in Boys of Bummer I'd understand why she'd hate the village, but this...?

And BTW, Ariel may not have actually met Eric in terms of interactions, but she did witness his behavior, and honestly, his behavior was definitely good enough, and considering he wasn't even aware of her existence, much less actually met her, when being nice to his dog, polite about his dislike of a statue, polite to his manservant, his bravery in the storm, and all of that, that's definitely good enough of a guess beyond physical appearances. And BTW, Eric fell in love with Ariel because she saved his life, not simply because she had a beautiful voice. The voice was the only thing identifying her, so yes, he does fixate on her voice although for a very good reason.

And if it wasn't for The Little Mermaid, there wouldn't even BE a Disney anymore, as it's the movie that saved the company from bankruptcy.