Ursula

**Ursula** is the main antagonist in Disney's The Little Mermaid.

## Background

### Appearance

Ursula is a morbidly obese octopid. She has light lavender-skinned, white-haired cecaelia and from the waist down has six black octopus-like tentacles with violet suckers. Although she has a light complexion, the area around Ursula's eyes is a darker shade than the rest of her skin, in addition to having gray eyes and a mole on the right side of her mouth. She is always seen wearing makeup, in particular, she has aqua blue eye shadow, deep red lipstick, and red nails. She wears purple coral shell earrings and a gold nautilus shell necklace.

Ursula's alter-ego, Vanessa, looks like what could be considered to be a "mean girl" version of a Disney Princess. She is a slim woman with an hourglass figure, and in many respects resembles Ariel (it is believed that this was deliberate, to fit in with Eric's hazy recollections of the woman on the beach). Vanessa and Ariel wear their hair in the same style, have nearly identical facial structures, and comparable body types. Although they wear their hair styled in the same way, Vanessa's long hair is wavy, dark brown, and parted in the center, in contrast to Ariel's straight, fire-red, side-parted hair. Vanessa's hair also appears black when wet or when not in direct sunlight. Vanessa has a paler complexion and sharper cheekbones than Ariel does. Their eyes are also different colors; Vanessa's are violet instead of blue. Her eyebrows are highly plucked and have much higher arches than Ariel's, giving her a more mischievous expression, and she wears a deeper shade of red lipstick. Vanessa wears three outfits during her appearance on screen: the first of which is a sleeveless blue dress under a deeper blue corset. She wears this and black shoes on the beach when hypnotizing Eric, along with a long black cape, but is later seen without the cape. Her second outfit is simply the vanilla-colored slip she will later wear under her wedding dress and black flats. Her final outfit is the aforementioned wedding dress, a long white affair with ruffles covering the front and a split skirt, revealing the slip underneath. This dress has large puffs at the sleeves, very like Ariel's. She also wears a long, opaque white veil on her head, and a pair of white high heels. With all three outfits she wears a necklace with a golden Nautilus pendant hanging from it, which holds Ariel's voice hostage, until Scuttle destroys it at the end of the movie.

### Personality

By nature, Ursula was very dark in tone, with a wicked sense of humor. After her banishment from Atlantica, the sea witch established herself as a physical beacon of hope towards unfortunate merpeople, allowing them to strike deals and business propositions that would supposedly result in their happiness, should they successfully fulfill their end of the bargain. During such deals, she speaks in a grandmotherly tone, as if her only concern is the satisfaction of her customers. This makes her schemes easier to fall for, though should she feel a deal is going nowhere, she resorts to pressuring her victims into accepting her offer, additionally portraying herself as their last attempt at making their dreams come true. However, if Ariel's deal is to be believed, Ursula sadistically ensures her customers fail at upholding their end of the deal, resulting in their souls being forever in her possessions and their bodies becoming permanent members of her living garden, as polyps. The motivation of such practices are never revealed for any individual other than Ariel, whom Ursula uses to obtain power over the seas, implying the sea witch simply enjoys causing havoc to the innocent, having no sense of true morality or remorse for those she torments. Apart from this, Ursula may also be cannibalistic, as she was seen eating some sort of tiny sea creature alive.

Ursula was vengeful, holding a vendetta against King Triton for a prolonged period of time, spending her days spying on his relatives to eventually take advantage of them and concoct a scheme capable of ending in her favor - as ruler of the seas. This also ties into Ursula's power-hungry nature, which drives her motivation throughout the film, and is greatly expressed once she finally crowns herself queen during the climax.

Despite Ursula's irredeemable traits, she had a softer side, as seen in her relationship between herself and her minions, Flotsam and Jetsam, Ursula lovingly refers to the duo as her "babies" and has been seen to treat them with affection, despite barking orders at the two from time to time when enraged. She was also extremely protective of them, even expressing her (genuine) remorse over killing them with the trident by accident before turning their rage towards Ariel for causing it in the first place. In the TV series, however, she does abuse her minions for failure at times.

Ursula was classy, despite being flamboyant, and presents herself with confidence and an eye for high standards, as evidenced by her belief that lurking in doorways was rude, in addition, she regularly flaunts her curvaceous appearance in a sultry manner, and spends time in her vanity, admiring her own physical appearance. She had the power to alter her appearance, but simply chooses not to, demonstrated contentment with who she was as a person, but distaste with her social status and lack of complete power over the ocean.

Despite Ursula's intelligent and calculating traits, she was extremely arrogant to the point of underestimating her opponents. For example, when she used the trident to transform herself into a giant (which made her an easy target), she did not consider Eric a threat due to her having the trident in her possession and being in her giant form. This proved to be a fatal mistake; by the time she realized she had underestimated him, it was too late, as Eric had (mortally) impaled her seconds before she could react.

These negative traits of her were what eventually led to Ursula's painful yet deserved/justified death at the hands of Eric.

## Role in the Ed-Chronicles

### The Eds and the Little Mermaid: Age of Extinction

Ursula will appear as one of the three main antagonists (along with Lockdown and Harold Attinger) in The Eds and the Little Mermaid: Age of Extinction.