This article is about the character from The Little Mermaid. For other characters, see Archimedes.
Archimedes is a character who appeared The Little Mermaid episode "Metal Fish". He is a merman and a good friend of Ariel.
Background[]
Personality[]
Archimedes is adventurous, kind, caring, curious, intelligent, selfless, honorable and good-hearted. Unlike most merpeople at the time, Archimedes strongly believes that not all humans are bad and is fascinated by anything related to the human world. Because of his fascination with humans, he is ostracized by most of his fellow merpeople and lives alone in what appears to be a sunken pirate ship.
Princess Ariel (the youngest of King Triton's seven daughters) is just as fascinated by the human world as Archimedes is and, just like him, believes that not all humans are bad. Because of this, Ariel is one of the few real friends that Archimedes has among his fellow merfolk.
Powers and abilities[]
Powers[]
- Merman Physiology: As a merman, Archimedes possesses superhuman attributes, such as superhuman durability and speed.
- Superhuman Durability: Archimedes is far more durable than normal humans and certain aquatic creatures, being able to withstand the immense underwater pressures.
- Superhuman Speed: Archimedes is much faster than normal humans and certain aquatic creatures. He can move at blur-like speeds while underwater.
- Aquapathy: Archimedes is capable of understanding and communicating with other aquatic creatures, albeit only with creatures that are sentient.
- Aquatic Breathing: Archimedes is capable of breathing both on land and in the water indefinitely.
- Thermoendurance: Archimedes is immune to extremely cold or hot temperatures and environments.
Abilities[]
- High-Level Intellect: Archimedes is highly intelligent and wise. Since he travels to the surface very often and directly interacts with humans, he has vast knowledge of the human world, including their customs and culture, and the objects that are used by them. Archimedes also knows the names of almost every human object that he finds. He once corrected Ariel by stating that the "biggermajiger" that she brought him was actually called a "telescope".
- Expert Swimmer: Archimedes is a highly skilled swimmer, being able to swim in a dolphin-like manner.
Appearances[]
The Little Mermaid: The Series[]
Archimedes appears in the episode "Metal Fish". He is a merman scholar, explorer and adventurer who is fascinated with humans, especially human objects, and wants to know as much about their world as possible. Because of his fascination with the human world, he is ostracized by most of his fellow merfolk - Princess Ariel (King Triton's youngest daughter), who is just as fascinated by the human world as Archimedes is, is his only real friend among merpeople.
Archimedes travels to the surface very often and, unlike Ariel (as the series takes place before she becomes a human herself and marries Prince Eric), has directly interacted with humans. As a result of this, his knowledge of the human world is a lot more accurate compared to Ariel's, which includes knowing the actual names of various objects instead of calling them stuff like "thingamabobs" or "whatchamajiggers" like Ariel does.
Because of how he is ostracized by his fellow merpeople, he is shown to live by himself in the wilderness outside of Atlantica - he lives in what appears to be a sunken pirate ship, which is also where he keeps all the human objects that he collects. During Princess Ariel's latest visit to him (during which Ariel brings her best friend, Flounder, with her), Archimedes explains to her how he has actually met humans and interacted with them - he claims that he once helped some shipwrecked sailors, who seemed very shocked by the fact that Archimedes was a merperson, revealing to Ariel and Flounder how most humans think that creatures like mermaids and only exist in their imaginations.
Trivia[]
- Archimedes is named after Archimedes of Syracuse, an Ancient Greek mathematician, physicist, engineer, astronomer, and inventor.
