#ariel discourse

[tuttocenere]

I think the fun part of the devil's pact as a literary device is that the devil sticks to his terms exactly. It just so happens that he only makes a contract if he knows it's bad for you, because he is, after all, the devil.

Compare that to fairies, who make contracts too, but are capricious. They don't really understand what you want, they also don't really care what you want, they have their own rules and reasons and will screw you over for breaking them. Ignorance is no excuse, is what they might say, if they cared enough to explain themselves.

So if you make a contract with a fairy, you may or may not get what you asked for. Either way, one day they'll be like "hey mister, you said thank you. we don't do that here. 1000 years of fairy jail." Kafkaesque.

But if you make a contract with a devil, you'll get exactly what you bargained for. Just the fact that the devil agrees to it should clue you in that your wish is probably not a good idea in the first place and certainly not going to go well for you. It's a metaphor!

[artist-issues]

And another thing.

The original The Little Mermaid is about understanding. One of the main plot devices is that the witch takes what from Ariel, ladies and gentlemen?

Her voice.

Ariel did not leave the sea “for a boy.”

Ariel left the sea to be understood. Because for the whole first part of the movie, we’re shown hints of what her life is already like, and how she’s tried to be understood but nobody’s listening or communicating.

She’s introduced by describing a ship as amazing and wonderful, while her fish friend clearly does not understand and wants to get out of there.

Even her best friend doesn’t share her love for another world.

Her first interaction with her father, count how many times he’s speaking over her.

He has this prejudice against humans, and because she’s disobeyed him, he won’t listen to any of her evidence that they may not all be bad.

Even when she has a voice and a cavern full of proof that humans aren’t all barbarians, her father won’t listen to her, so he can’t understand.

And the truth is, she doesn’t have that much proof. She knows that humans are clever and make “wonderful things,” and that’s what she bases her belief in them on. But those beautiful objects, and her pretty ideals, are not enough to make her abandon her family and culture and world.

When she sings and talks about why she wants to be Part of That World, it’s because she wants to understand it. And, subconsciously, Ariel also hopes to be understood up there. Where they make cool devices, and maybe daughters can stand instead of being reprimanded. There’s this hope for freedom and being known associated with the surface.

But it’s not until she meets Eric that those ideals are really, actually, proven true.

Ariel sees Eric out on the sea exploring instead of staying in a palace on his birthday. He gets a gift from the closest person to him, and it’s clear that even the closest person to him doesn’t understand his tastes—he doesn’t want an over-dramatic statue of himself. He sticks to his ideals in an argument that somewhere out there, is the right girl for him. But he doesn’t have to leave the argument in frustrated tears. In the end, he risks his life to not only watch out for his friend, but nearly dies going back to a burning ship to save his dog.

Eric personifies everything Ariel has always idealized about the Human World—AND he might understand her.

In her one observation of him, she finds out that he, a human, is:

A Prince, but nobody can tell him what to do.

More interested in activity and exploration than palace ceremony.

Unable to relate to his closest companions.

Handsome—beautiful, not a savage.

Criticized for “silly, romantic notions” but sticks to the idea of something wonderful out there in the great beyond.

Brave, self-sacrificial, and compassionate to animals.

Eric is, all at once, everything Ariel always hoped a human could be, and yet still so like herself. They have twin souls.

She’d rather be exploring human ships, he’d rather be out exploring the sea. She believes the surface world is good and beautiful, he believes in the girl of his dreams, no matter what anyone says. She has nobody who gets excited about new adventures, and he has nobody who gets excited about new adventures.

When she sees him, she falls in love not just with his upstanding character, or even the human world he represents—she falls in love with the hope that he might understand her in away nobody under the sea does.

Then the ironic thing is, she’s got to make him understand who she is and what she should mean to him without a voice. And unfortunately, that’s really hard because he is suddenly associating his dream girl with a voice and a magical rescue.

As close as they may get when she finally does meet him face to face and gets herself human legs, Ariel and Eric can’t be together until he knows who she is, for real. After all, how can love be true without understanding?

And we’re not DONE with understanding. Because even after he learns what and who she is and still commits to her and saves her and loves her, Ariel’s back to having a tail. She’s back to being in a world where he can’t be.

Except now, Triton is the one who understands. He finally sees what they’ll do for each other—and that Eric, ”savage, spineless, harpooning fish eater with no regard” saved his daughter. He sees that they love each other and are each worthy of the other’s love.

It’s not until Triton understands what Ariel has known and felt all along that he gives her human legs the right way.

That’s the point of Disney’s The Little Mermaid. “True love is found in understanding and sacrificing for one another.”

Triton had the sacrificing idea down, but he didn’t have understanding. Eric had understanding, but he didn’t have the chance to sacrifice for it.

Ariel has both. She understands that Eric’s world is not only barbaric, but beautiful, and she’s willing to sacrifice her tail to be understood in that world.

That is what this movie is all about. And because they’re probably willing to sacrifice critical scenes, like the Prince saving the day (which is important because it provides Triton with a new understanding of humans) or the girl leaving the ocean to be with the boy (which is important because what she really wants is to be understood) the creators of the Live Action Little Mermaid are going to miss the point and ruin the movie.

[ellynneversweet]

Look the Disney live action remakes are, as a general rule, not even worth acknowledging, and there’s something wrong with adults who take the time to argue about them, but I didn’t expect Netflix to come out swinging with a steel chair.

[lunacary]

The Disney live action princess is so... childish at best

Look I get wanting to have your fav princess look like the cartoon on the live action, I feel you, but if you are willing to hate on someone who's just doing their job then maybe you need to put down your phone and touch some grass, you can't be this bother about a CHILDREN'S MOVIE

And then with the whole Rapunzel drama (when the movie is not even announced but people where so pessimistic about a FANCAST) like ok you care about German representation...sure

Then I know for a fact that you HATED the Beauty and the best live action, right? Oh wait...it wasn't a whole thing, the internet didn't make a whole drama about it!! I wonder why...

Let people who are just doing their job alone for the love of god

[solitaryearthperson]

I'm sick of hearing all this (racist) discourse over Halle playing Ariel so I just want anyone who is apparently in so much 'pain and agony and anger' over her playing this role to read this and see why your reason for feeling this way is really racist and stupid:

1. The reason: 'Scientifically a real mermaid wouldn't be black, so it doesn't make sense to have a black person play her.'

Ariel is a fictional character. If mermaids were real, they wouldn't look white either. In fact, they wouldn't even look human at all. This is such a stupid ass reason to dislike Halle playing this role.

2. The reason: 'This is cultural appropriation.'

This reason just screams ignorance. Mermaids do not only come from European cultures. Many cultures from all over the world has mermaid myths. In some cultures from Africa, there are mermaid deities. You don't have to be POC or specifically black to understand this. There are cultures besides white culture.

3. The reason: 'It's canon that Ariel is white since the story is based on a Dutch fairytale.'

This reason is incredibly stupid, since the original story is much darker than the one Disney tells.

4. The reason: 'She's not pretty enough.'

That's a flat out a lie. (Plus Ariel is a literal fucking cartoon character. Do you actually think anyone really looks exactly like a cartoon character in real life?)

5. The reason: 'She only got the role cuz she's black and Disney's trying to be woke.'

The director literally said that Halle was the best person at the audition. She earned the fucking role because she was amazing at her audition. (Please stop using the word 'woke'. Most of you racist, conservatives literally don't know what the hell the word means.)

6. The reason: 'Ariel was representation for all gingers.'

Halle still has red hair in the trailer and plenty of black kids with ginger hair is going to love seeing a black, ginger-haired princess on TV. (There are already ginger representation on TV for white kids anyway.)

7. The reason: 'Disney is making another live-action movie of a fairytale that's gonna suck.'

If this is your only reason, then why complain about it. Just don't look at it and ignore everything about it. You can't claim this is your only reason to complain about, but you didn't complain about Cruella, Beauty and The Beast, Maleficent or it's sequel.

8. The reason: 'Why not make Pocahontas, Mulan, etc. white?'

Pocahontas and Mulan are actual people in history. Even though Disney changed their stories for the movies, these two characters were actual real-life people.

9. The reason: 'If Ariel can be black, then Black Panther should be white.'

The fact that you automatically went to the character, Black Panther, and claimed that it can 'technically' be played by a white person shows you already know why that can never happen. Black Panther was the literal iconic hero for black people. He was a king of his own country that was never colonized and kept its culture. He wasn't connected in any way to a white character. He was the best REPRESENTATION for black kids, just like black Ariel will be great REPRESENTATION as well. White people always have good representation. People of color don't. Most of us are represented bad or as supporting characters to the main protagonists who are usually white.

10. The reason: 'Another black princess should have her own story.'

I understand there are black people who want another black princess that’s not based off another white princess. I truly do, but right now, we have finally a second black princess for young black kids to look up to and be excited about. As black people, as poc, we should be supporting this movie as much as we can.

[trippedandfell]

I was rly excited about the lives until they mentioned Lucy coming back to date Buck :/

i’m going to be real with you anon i’ve only watched the clips through tumblr because instagram lives are one of the things in the world that bring me an unreasonable amount of hatred but personally i think that plotline would be a blast <3

[yearning-addict]

Just know I’m The little mermaids (2023)biggest supporter

[astriddestelle]

Me: I just don’t see the point in getting that mad in other peoples take. Everyone’s different and has diff taste. I mean like who cares if someone likes one ship over another or thinks that charcuterie is trash. It’s all fictional anyones.

Me the second someone says something about Wally West or Ariel: First of all how fucking dare you -

Jokes aside even then I rarely engage. Just because Wally West is the best superhero ever doesn’t mean other people are enlightened enough to recognize that and some people don’t wanna be enlightened 😏

It’s cool if people don’t recognize that without Ariel all your faves wouldn’t even exist. I’m chill.

I’m mature enough not to care what other people think about. 👀🤣

[thegoldencontracts]

Is Azul Actually Kind?

I know how it sounds but pleaseee hear me out.

Azul isn't kind. That seems to be pretty obvious, right? His benevolence is clearly a facade, meant to hide the selfish, cunning nature lurking within.

I thought that too. But then I saw something that made me question it.

Namely, Azul's Platinum Suit Vignette, where he looks at the Sea Witch's actions regarding Ariel, and calls it 'tough love'.

He isn't talking about himself, he has no reason to fib. He even brings up his Grandma, making it pretty evident he's being sincere. He views the Sea Witch's actions - punishing deal breakers and setting people on them - tough love.

And the Sea Witch's actions are remarkably similar to his own. He makes deals, and he punishes people who can't fulfill them. But there are some very interesting things that, to be, combine with this to bring about the theory that deep down (or maybe not so deep down) he views it as an act of tough love.

1. Azul almost never harms his clients in a truly crippling manner. The one exception to this is the Prefect, but I feel that's easily explained by the fact that this was shortly before his overblot, and like other characters, Azul too was behaving in a manner worse than usual.

Other than that, though, his punishments are typically servitude, or giving up a talent. Keyword: a talent. Not the thing itself. Someone with a good voice who gives it up doesn't become voiceless, they just start sounding hoarse. This is proven during his backstory.

2. Azul comes from a place where 'survival of the fittest' reigns dominant. This is proven during book 6, where he mentions being hypervigilant and a risk of predators under the sea. This was also heavily implied by the twins.

To him, people who don't understand not to trust others likely seem misguided - especially considering his childhood.

3. Azul and Riddle have a lot of Parallels

This one is interesting. If you look closely, Azul and Riddle share many similarities: Sophomore Housewardens, Honors Students, completely broke down during their overblot rather than still concealing their emotions, tyrannical behavior over underlings, heavily implied eating disorders, incredibly hard-working despite their smug appearance, being short-tempered, the list goes on.

Riddle also truly believed that he was doing a service to the students of Heartslabyul by enforcing the rules the hard way. He likely viewed it as a form of tough love.

And so, Azul being kind in his own, odd way starts to make sense. It would give him another parallel to Riddle. And his 'survival of the fittest', bootstrap-pulling upbringing may be he doesn't actually find his actions that cruel, if anything, he genuinely may believe he's doing them a favor by teaching them early on not to trust others, to only make deals they know they can keep. And he's not exactly crippling them, so it's better him than someone who will.

So yeah, maybe Azul really does think he's being kind - at least, deep down.

Discourse, critique, and requests for proper citation are always welcome!

[lolahauri]

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Sex Crimes of ANY KIND, Super Violent/Xtreme Kinks, Inflation, Feederism, Abuse, Puke, Shit, DDLG, Age Play, Raceplay, Wound Fucking, Gore, Vore, Misgendering, Lesbian x Male, Gay Man x Female, Stepcest etc... no exceptions!

Fluff, Angst, Platonic. (Go to my other fanfic blog for that.)

Things I Will Write:

Genderbent Characters, Mild Yandere, Daddy/Mommy Kink, Cheating, Mild BDSM, CNC, Dubcon, Monsters, Hybrids, Sex Pollen, Legal Age Gap, Power Imbalance (Prof/Student, Boss/Employee), Feet, Armpits, Piss, Breeding, Mild Bloodplay & Knifeplay, Cock Warming, Dry Humping, Voyeur, Public Sex, Orgy, 3somes, Sex Toys, Overstim, Edging, etc... etc... :P

Trans Reader, Chubby/Tall/Short/Curvy/Fat/Buff Reader, Other Specific Characteristics.✔️

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HC's, One Shots, Multi-Chapter, Drabbles, F/O Imagines.

Canon-friendly, AU's, Canon Divergence, Out of Character.

Ch x Ch / Ch x Reader / Ch x OC / OC x Reader / Poly Ships of any kind.

F/F, M/M, F/M, GN/F, GN/M, Poly Ships of any kind.

Now that that's out of the way, here's the list of fandoms and characters i'm familiar with and will happily take requests on! (you can request other characters from these fandoms, but it might take me longer!)

Adventure Time/Fiona & Cake: PB, Marceline, Marshall Lee, Winter King, Candy Queen, Simon, Ice King, Fiona.

Attack On Titan: Armin, Eren, Mikasa, Sasha, Levi, Hanji, Annie, Historia, Reiner, Erwin, Ymir. 

Avatar: Jake, Neytiri.

Batman Begins Triology: Batman, Catwoman, Bane, Joker, Scarecrow.

Bee & Puppycat: Bee, Deckard, Cass, Toast.

BigBang Theory: Raj, Leonard, Penny, Amy.

Black Dynamite: Honeybee, Black Dynamite.

BNA: Michiru, Shirou.

Bob’s Burgers: Bob, Linda.

Breaking Bad: Jesse, Skylar.

Call of Duty: Konig, Ghost, Mace, Keegan, Krueger, Valeria, Farah.

Creepypasta: Jeff, Jane, Ben, Toby, EJ, LJ, Slenderman, Splendorman, Clockwork, Kate, Masky, Hoodie,

Desperate Housewives: Bree, Gabi, Edie, Lynette, Carlos, John.

Dirty Dancing: Johnny, Baby.

Earth Girls Are Easy: Mac, Zeebo, Wiploc, Valerie.

Elemental: Wade, Ember.

Encanto: Isabela, Bruno, Dolores, Julieta.

FNAF Movie: Vanessa, Mike, William/Steve.

Frozen: Elsa, Anna, Kristoff.

Futurama: Leela, Fry, Amy, Bender.

Gravity Falls: Ford, Stan, Soos, Melody, Giffany, Bill.

Jane The Virgin: Jane, Michael, Petra, Luisa, Rose, Rogelio, Xiomara.

Jurassic Park (1993): Ian Malcolm, Ellie Sattler.

Jujutsu Kaisen: Gojo, Choso, Nanami, Sukuna.

King of the Hill: Hank, Peggy, Luane, Nancy, Dale, Khan, Min, John Redcorn.

Lisa Frankenstein: Lisa, Creature, Taffy.

Little Mermaid (2022): Ariel, Eric.

MHA: Dabi, Hawks, Aizawa.

Moon Knight: Moon System, Layla, Khonshu.

National Treasure: Benjamin, Riley.

Nintendo: Link, Zelda, Peach, Daisy, Rosalina, Luigi, Bowser, Waluigi.

Norbit: Rasputia, Norbit.

Princess & The Frog: Tiana, Lottie, Naveen, Shadow Man.

Ratatouille: Colette, Linguini. 

Regular Show: Mordecai, Margret, Eileen, CJ, Benson.

Resident Evil: Karl Heisenberg, Carlos Oiliveria, Lady Dimitrescu.

Rick and Morty: Rick, Jerry, Beth, Doofus Rick.

Riverdale: FP Jones, Hiram.

Scott Pilgrim vs. The World: Kim, Ramona, Gideon, Wallace.

Serial Mom: Chip, Beverly.

Silverado: Slick, Rae, Mal, Paden.

Shallow Hal: Rosemary, Hal.

Shameless: Lip, Fiona, Kev, V.

SheRa (2018): All Adults.

Sherlock (2010): Sherlock, John Watson.

Slashers & DBD: Brahms, Ghostface, Michael Myers, Jason Vorhees, Pyramid Head, The Spirit, Huntress, Trapper, Wraith, Trickster, Pearl, Jennifer Check, Stu Matcher, Billy Loomis, Tiffany Valentine, Patrick Bateman, Thomas Hewitt, Vincent Sinclair, Eric Draven, The Artist, Amanda Young.

Spiderverse: Miguel, Jessica Drew.

Spongebob: Dennis, Man Ray.

Squid Games: Gi-Hun, Sae-Byeok, Ali, Sang Woo.

Steven Universe: Garnet, Amethyst, Peridot, Lapis, Jasper, Blue Diamond, Rose, Greg.

Stranger Things: Robin, Billy Eddie, Chrissy, Hopper.

Supernatural: Sam, Dean, Castiel.

Super Store: Amy, Jonah, Dina, Garrett, Cheyenne.

Tangled: Flynn, Rapunzel, Mother Gothell.

The Batman (2022): Batman, Riddler.

The Breakfast Club: John Bender, Allison Reynolds.

The Nanny: C.C, Fran, Maxwell.

Total Drama Island: S1 Contestants, Chris, Chef, Blainley.

Triple Frontier: Frankie, Santiago.

Turning Red: Ming Lee, Jin Lee.

Twilight: Edward, Carlisle, Alice, Charlie.

WWE: Rhea Ripley, Roman Reigns.

YOU: Beck, Joe, Peach, Love.

Young Sheldon: Mary, Connie.

Abel Morales (A Most Violent Year)

Astarion (Baulder’s Gate 3)

Babbo Natale (Violent Night)

Barbie (Barbie 2023)

Basil Stitt (Lightning Face)

Beverly Goldberg (The Goldbergs)

Bruce (Beyond Therapy)

Charles Ingalls (Little House on the Praire)

Charlie Dompler (Smiling Friends)

Chel (Road to El Dorado)

Dale Kobble (Longlegs)

Dan Conner (Rosanne)

David Levinson (Independence Day)

Din Djarin (The Mandalorian)

Doug Remer (Baseketball)

Duke Leto Atreides (Dune)

Fezzik (Princess Bride)

Francine (American Dad)

Fujimoto (Ponyo)

Georgia Miller (Ginny & Georgia)

Jack Harrison (Translyvania 6-5000)

Jackson Rippner (Red Eye)

Jon Arbuckle (Garfield 2024)

John Doe (John Doe Game)

Jonathan Levy (Scenes from a Marriage)

John Wick (John Wick 4)

King Baldwin (Kingdom of Heaven)

Kitten (Breakfast on Pluto)

Laurent LeClaire (In Secret)

Linda Gunderson (Rio)

Llewyn Davis (Inside Lleywn Davis)

Master Chief (Halo)

Mike (5lbs of Pressure)

Moe Doodle (Doodle Bops)

Nani Palekai (Lilo & Stitch)

Nathan Bateman (Ex Machina)

Outcome-3 (The Bourne Legacy)

Orestes (Agora)

Paul Blart (Paul Blart: Mall Cop)

Paul Cable (Last Stand at Saber River)

Peggy Bundy (Married With Children)

Peter Mitchell (3 Men & A Baby)

Poe Dameron (Star Wars)

Prince John (Robin Hood 2010)

Robert ‘Bob’ Floyd (Top Gun: Maverick)

Rose Tyler (Doctor Who)

Shiv (Pu-239)

Stanley Ipkiss (The Mask)

Star-Lord (Gaurdians of the Galaxy)

Tate Langdon (AHS: Murder House)

The Janitor (Willy’s Wonderland)

Thomas Magnum (Magnum, P.I 1980)

William Tell (The Card Counter)

[musemelodies]

here, have a disney princess list (INSPIRED BY ROSE):

mulan (forever fave since childhood, gnc icon who saved china and ended up with the hot bi general, what's NOT to love? a legend in every sense of the word.)

jasmine (beautiful, badass, tells it like it is, always there for her loved ones, takes zero shit and i love her for it.)

ariel (loved her as a kid, had mixed feelings about her as a teen because of bad disney princess discourse, really love and appreciate her now.)

belle ("I WANT MUCH MORE THAN THIS PROVINCIAL LIFE..." me too, babe. what can i say about belle that hasn't been said already? as a fellow bookworm and monsterlover, i salute her.)

snow white (the sweetest angel who's actually hilarious and gets waaay too much hate.)

tiana/cinderella tie (I COULDN'T CHOOSE BETWEEN THEM HONESTLY, they're both really brave, amazing, and inspiring and also i kinda ship it...)

moana (she rocks and she saved the day with the power of love and her "i want" song is one of my favorites.)

rapunzel (she's adorable and funny but i didn't really fall in love with tangled like a lot of folks did...)

aurora (stunning design, incredible voice, doesn't have a lot of screentime but leaves a big impact nevertheless and her relationship with the good fairies is really heartwarming.)

pocahontas (it's complicated, folks. on her own, she's a great character with an amazing voice and some epic musical numbers but knowing the actual history of matoaka is...yeahhh, they really should've given her a different name as well as the other characters. the story's already completely fictionalized anyway.)

merida (she's neat and she has a really cool design and i love her relationship with her mom but it's another case where i like the character but i'm not too wild about the movie.)

raya (i only saw her movie once and found it pretty mediocre but she had a lot of potential, i liked her relationship with her dad, and she had good chemistry with namaari but unfortunately, disney was too cowardly to do anything with that so...)

[artist-issues]

Cinderella is my favorite Princess if you’re asking me about Disney princesses. But I love Princess Irene from The Princess and the Goblin and I love Queen Lucy the Valiant, too.

Cinderella is awesome because the defining traits of a good person, a good woman and a good ruler are her superpower. She’s rewarded for having faith and being selfless and kind while she waits.

But I loved Sleeping Beauty, too, because she represented this precious, innocent, pure thing that was worth everyone trying to shelter and protect. Her movie shows how women ought to be treated.

And of course Belle. If Cinderella didn’t already do this, Belle would have my whole heart. I LOVE the moment in the animated film where she says, “wait!” and then, “…take me instead.” And the MUSIC does that, “isn’t this amazing” melody quietly to punctuate the moment. Because she’s doing the thing her fairy tale heroes would have done; she’s sacrificing herself and giving her noble word to save someone she loves, and it’s at the cost of all her own interests and dreams—and she came up with that idea all on her own. She gave herself up all on her own, when she hadn’t done anything wrong.

Faith! Sacrifice! Kindness! That’s what makes a good princess.

And in conclusion, this quote from the opening of the Princess and the Goblin, by George MacDonald:

THERE was once a little princess who—"But, Mr. Author, why do you always write about princesses?" Because every little girl is a princess. “You will make them vain if you tell them that." Not if they understand what I mean. "Then what do you mean?" What do you mean by a princess? "The daughter of a king." Very well, then every little girl is a princess, and there would be no need to say anything about it, except that she is always in danger of forgetting her rank, and behaving as if she had grown out of the mud. I have seen little princesses behave like the children of thieves and lying beggars, and that is why they need to be told they are princesses.

[themattress]

“Remember, kids, if you’ve got a racist grandparent who espouses negative views toward an entire group of people, then you’d better listen to them because they’re right! Some entire groups of people are just collectively evil and can never be trusted!” - Ruby Gillman, Teenage Kraken

If there’s no discourse about this now, then I suspect there will be soon once more people see or hear about this movie because good lord. For those who don’t get it, the context is that in the film the main character Ruby discovers that she’s actually kraken royalty and this of course creates generational angst between her and her mother and grandmother because everything’s gotta have generational angst in it these days. She is told by her grandmother that mermaids, the long-time enemies of the krakens, are all evil and untrustworthy sirens who manipulate people and seek domination over humans. Ruby also befriends a mermaid named Chelsea, who specifically calls attention to this feud between the two species and specifically says that she wants to put a stop to it with Ruby’s help. And so Ruby naturally says “screw your bigotry, Grandma; I’m standing by my friend even if she’s a mermaid”.

......Which leads to the inevitable third act “reveal” that Chelsea was actually manipulating Ruby the whole time in order to acquire a source of power, doesn’t actually desire peace between the species, and just wants to assert domination over humans as is her kind’s wont. 

Look, if the bullshit about krakens and mermaids was not present in the movie, then despite what a hackneyed obvious “twist villain” scenario this is I still would have accepted it because it would just be an isolated incident between two individuals. Without the species feud, you could just freely respect Ruby for having such an open heart and positive nature, and freely hate Chelsea for remorselessly taking advantage of that for her own self-serving agenda.

But because this occurs against this specific backdrop, the movie is flat-out saying that racism is justified and that the teen protagonist should’ve listened to her racist grandmother! All mermaids ARE evil, untrustworthy sirens who manipulate people and seek domination over humans, and Ruby was a total dumbass to dare to believe otherwise about Chelsea!

Imagine if in The Little Mermaid, Ariel is exposed as a mermaid, Prince Eric immediately reacts with disgust before he and his followers harpoon her to death before cooking and eating her bottom half. Guess King Triton was right, all humans are heartless barbarians!  

Or imagine if in Luca, the townspeople accept all of the sea monsters at the end, only for the sea monsters to murder them all in their sleep and lay waste to the town. Guess all those fearful superstitions about sea monsters were accurate and should have been listened to!

Or imagine if in Zootopia....oh heck, do I even need to give this example?

If you think I’m overreacting here, then just swap everything said about mermaids in the movie and replace “mermaid” with “Jew”. Chelsea’s Jewish now. Ruby has the audacity to believe that her Jewish friend isn’t some heinous caricature made of her people, only to learn that actually that caricature is spot-on, so from now on she will never trust a Jew again and will accept her position defending humanity against the evil Jews. Sounds fucking horrible when I put it that way, doesn’t it? I recently said that it’s a good thing that kids have recently been getting more stories calling out how wrong prejudice is, so to see a movie aimed at kids that is actively justifying and encouraging prejudice is mind-blowing in the worst way possible. Who the Hell signed off on this? Did nobody stop to consider the unfortunate implications? Did they think making Chelsea a caricature of a pretty, popular, two-faced Mean Girl justified applying that characterization to her entire species? Or was this Jeffrey Katzenburg being a petty bitch (again) over the fact that The Little Mermaid was being remade without him and he just wanted to stick it to Disney? Whatever the case, I’d recommend giving this movie a pass.

[blood-orange-juice]

Very old discourse.

Some people online were annoyed by black Ariel in Disney's adaptation of Little Mermaid and the discussions went over my head back then (although I can appreciate that black kids got someone magical to relate to).

What I personally want to see, though, is a Persian Mermaid/Prince.

Like Edmund Dulac drew them.

Wouldn't it be wonderful.

[keepmovinjunior]

ok, inspired by rose, ai, and nini, here's my disney princess tier list! but with a slight twist; i'm going to do two separate lists. this one will be rankings of the official disney princesses (as confirmed by disney, sold as merchandise as part of the line up) and then later i will do a "disney heroines" list of the other women who aren't included in the line up, because obviously.

i'm not ranking raya because i have yet to see raya and the last dragon (my bad my bad!) but it doesn't feel fair to give her a number without knowing what she's like, so she is not included! meg is obviously my number one of all time always, but she's not included in the line up, so she's not ranked on this one. but just know my list in my heart is always meg meg meg xo

anyway, here goes (i rambled so much i'm so sorry):

elsa/mulan : i couldn't pick between these two. elsa is near to my heart because of her connection with willemijn verkaik (dutch musical actress whom i'm obsessed with; that's my EUROPEAN WIFE, she voices her in the german and dutch dubs)/the snow queen/queer discourse, and she's a queen vs a princess which is really cool to me. but, i was ultimately a little disappointed with what frozen turned into vs what it started as (the snow queen was much older and her design fit her voices a lot more in her concept art, in my opinion). so elsa is not my all time favorite princess and i have a bit of a confusing feeling abt her. as a character she's fine, i do enjoy her a lot, but i mostly love her for her aesthetic, if that makes sense. mulan, though, in my opinion shouldn't really even be in the same list as elsa because her character is so different from the rest of them and she's more along the lines of the characters i vibe with (awkward but lovely, funny, smart, but not rly a princess), but because she's included in the line up i'm including her, and she's easily going to top my list because of it. mulan is such an obvious fave for me and so many others. she's amazing. war hero? tackling gender norms? LI SHANG? (li shang is truly so hot ngl). mulan is amazing. i get chills every time she chops her hair off to that theme, and she end scene when her father says the greatest gift in honor is having her for a daughter makes me cry every time. definitely one of my faves, also in my top five disney women easily for sure.

belle : belle was my favorite princess as a kid and i went through a belle phase for a bit. i'm a huge reader in real life too and i also never really fit in where i grew up, so she's so relatable to me for that reason. she's also just a precious character and i really love how brave she is despite everything. (also i'm not a huge fan of the beast in general, but lets all just admit he was better as a beast sorry i am of that view for sure)

ariel : i have two friends in real life who are very close to me and love ariel, and are just like her, so i adore her partly for that reason. but i also think her looks of love are just so beautiful. she's so full of love and even though she got a lot of flack from a lot of people for a while, i understand why she did what she did. it wasn't just for a man! she's a lover and a dreamer, and when she cries over eric leaving with vanessa, it breaks my heart every time. it's such a good depiction of what heartbreak really feels like. i love and appreciate ariel.

pocahontas : i know the story is problematic and i totally get it, but i'm not gonna lie, i still enjoy this movie with that aside. pocahontas as a character is underrated. colors of the wind is such an amazing song, gets me emotionally every time. and that scene where she runs to stop the war to "how loud are the drums of war?" with the hawk flying w/ her? it's so badass, it gives me chills every time. also, she chooses her duty / people over her man! that was a big deal at the time, i think. i also think she doesn't really belong in the line up (not because she doesn't deserve it but because her storyline tends more toward the heroine, not the princess archetype, but oh well).

jasmine : independent sassy queen, she's funny, smart, gorgeous. just bae. i think if meg were actual royalty she'd be a lot like jasmine. they both have the same vibe of wanting freedom, and i headcanon meg prior to the film's events as a lot like jasmine, since she is the daughter of king creon. also jasmine's face after "tell me the truth" never fails to make me laugh. she's genuinely brat.

tiana : i love tiana and even though she was absolutely adorable as a frog, i too wish we had had more time with her as an actual human. she worked so hard and is such a fighter. i'm glad she's in the line up. and her friendship with lottie is one of the best disney friendships of all time, imo.

aurora : sleeping beauty is in my top three favorite disney movies, so aurora is definitely my favorite of walt's original three. i don't think we got enough time with her as a character and she served more as a plot point (the fairies drove most of the story tbh), but she's beautiful, her songs are beautiful, and i love her.

snow white : she's actually great and gets made fun of way too much. little me did like her a lot. she's so sassy ("AWWW, did you HURT YOURSELF?" to grumpy after laughing at him akdfjdkj) and is such an interesting example of the 'feminine standard' at the time in which this movie came out. also, imo she dies at the end for real and that's so sad, i do shed a tear when she rides off on that horse!

merida : my spouse loves brave so much, and collects merida pins, so even though otherwise i probably wouldn't be super attached to merida, she reminds me of my wife, so i love her for that reason :) plus her mom is so damn cute as a bear. there aren't enough disney films about daughters and mothers with complex relationships so i do appreciate that about brave, but other than that i think merida as a character was just okay.

rapunzel : i never got extremely attached to her but she is lovely, and her story is so tragic, which gives her a definite edge (as someone with an abusive biological mother lol i can relate to a lot of that aspect of her). she's so brave too for defying gothel at the end.

anna : cute, funny, quirky. i like her and she's a great foil to elsa. she's also such a perfect little sister vibe and she sacrifices herself for elsa, honestly queen behavior. other than that though, i'm not super attached (i couldn't get attached to most of the cgi princesses, idk why)

moana : the ending to this movie gets me emotionally, and i think she's probably a better example of how disney could have more sensitively handled pocahontas had it come out later with more awareness, but other than that i have no attachment to her (but her explorer seafaring vibe is definitely cool)

cinderella : ok i know i know controversial choice to put CINDY at the end (i don't dislike any of these characters so i still love her even if she's last ranked) but i don't know, i just never got attached to her or even this movie really! i appreciate her a lot as a character, i feel for what she went through so much, and i think she's just adorable, but that's really all i feel about her.

[fancylala4]

BITCH WE DON'T HAVE AN AFRICAN DISNEY PRINCE AND DON'T SAY 'WE ALREADY HAVE AN AFRICAN PRINCE' ANIMALS DON'T COUNT.

The way stans are getting angry at the idea of a Indian Rapunzel makes me wonder how the reaction would be if Omari was part of the canon Prince line. Probably some shit like "baaah wee could've gotten a cute white Jack Frost but got a BORING nerd instead!!"

Like y'all want Disney to take more risks but can't accept a Indian princess or a black/prince of color. Ugh. Sorry for ranting the discourse just pisses me off

Nah it’s fine. It’s so annoying because at this point they are clearly being racist about an Indian rapunzel. You already know I hate that bland Ariel clone but even I can tell that it’s not a big deal because it’s a good casting choice and I think it would benefit the story if it was set in India. Plus it’s not even official. It’s just a fan cast and it’s enough for them to go into a racist rant. Even using Pocahontas (like the Disney version isn’t awful enough) and Tiana being turned white as a stupid argument as if those racists cared about them.

African prince? Disney doesn’t even have one (and we probably never going to get one as Disney is focused on sequels nowadays) and the cast from lion king clearly don’t count as they are animals. Disney stans make no sense whatsoever. Whose Omari? But people will always fall in love with a bland white character in favor of a handsome man of color. Sad but true.

I said it before but I will say again. Those people who say they want more risks in movies are the same ones that like the safest movies and hate on complex characters. Heck those people can’t even handle Elsa as a character..