Ariel

### Likes

Humans, human objects, adventure, exploration, freedom, music, singing, dancing, chasing her dreams, Eric, her friends, the color emerald, strawberries, her daughter Melody

### Dislikes

Misanthropy, restriction, rules, chores, pirates, shark attacks, prejudice, Sebastian's nagging, the name "Mildred", Melody's disobedience, her friends and family in danger, her grotto getting destroyed, her father's stubbornness

## Family information

### Parents

King Triton (father)
Queen Athena † (mother)

### Siblings

Attina, Alana, Adella, Aquata, Arista, and Andrina (older sisters)

### Other relatives

Poseidon (paternal grandfather)
Neptune † (paternal great-grandfather)
Crustacea (paternal grandaunt)

### Pets

Spot (killer whale)
Seabiscuit (seahorse)
Beau (horse)
Max (dog)

 ―Ariel

***Princess Ariel*** is the titular protagonist of Disney's 1989 animated feature film, *The Little Mermaid*. Ariel is the seventh and youngest daughter of King Triton and Queen Athena, who are the rulers of the undersea kingdom of Atlantica. She lived through much of her young life with a passionate, yet strictly forbidden, admiration for the human world and longed to one day experience it.

Ariel is commonly based on the nameless mermaid protagonist of the Danish fairy tale, *The Little Mermaid* by Hans Christian Andersen, but unlike the original tale, in which the mermaid loses her prince and dies turning into bubbles and gains an immortal soul, the Disney version gives Ariel a happily ever after.

Ariel is the fourth Disney princess and is the first to be made after Walt Disney passing away. Incidentally, Walt himself made efforts to adapt The Little Mermaid in the late 1930s and early 40s, before the company's profits declined due to the Second World War. She is the first Disney Princess to be developed during the Disney Renaissance.

Ariel is also the only Disney princess (as of now) to have a child.

## Background

### Personality

Ariel is a bright, headstrong, and spirited mermaid with a strong passion for adventure and exploration. Her tendency to explore the more mysterious depths of the ocean (or more importantly, the world beyond the ocean) can lead to an array of problems to both herself and her friends, and in the confines of her personal life - as seen when she gets into an argument with her overprotective father, King Triton. Despite this, Ariel's selflessness, compassion, and intuitive way of thinking often resolve such problems, as she always takes full responsibility for her actions.

At the start of the original film, Ariel is shown to have a burning obsession with the human world and a desire to learn more about their culture. Unlike her father at first, she views humans as aspiring creatures, astonished by their ability to constantly create, and heavily goes against the idea of them being "barbaric" and selfish as a result of this. This passion is revealed to have been prominent throughout Ariel's life years before the events of the film, as seen in the television series. By the point of the film, as seen through her lament, "Part of Your World", Ariel's obsession with the human world has reached unimaginable heights, as she spends most of her time focusing on finding, observing and collecting various human objects that have sunk into the sea. Her obsession has also taken a toll on her emotionally, as the song begins with a sense of wonder and enchantment, but ultimately climaxes with a soft end, filled with hopelessness and despair, representing Ariel's dying hopes of ever experiencing life upon the surface. These feelings of desperation and despair are the prime motive behind Ariel's eventual deal with the sea witch, Ursula, to become human and experience the world above the surface. Despite not having the best relationship with her father, especially in regard to their respective views on humanity, she nonetheless was very loyal to him as well as her sisters, as after Ursula explained the deal to her, Ariel expressed some hesitance as she realized that if she succeeded in the deal (never mind if she failed her end of the bargain), she wouldn't be able to see Triton or her sisters again, and later when Ursula cursed Triton, Ariel's first action was to attack Ursula to avenge him, even calling the sea witch a monster for what she did.

Ariel is extremely compassionate and loving towards almost all living things; more so platonically than romantically. This is most notably seen through her friendship with her closest companion, Flounder, and even her father's court composer, Sebastian, who, despite being against Ariel's recklessness and overly adventurous nature, is given a considerably large amount of love and respect from the princess, which is often reciprocated. With Flounder, she is comforting and patient, as well as protective, with the tendency to risk her own life for the guppy on various occasions.

Her ability to befriend all various creatures, including an abandoned killer whale, an irrationally feared sea creature. and even the son of one of her nemeses is displayed throughout the franchise. She is also one of the very few to be patient with Scuttle as she was barely did not get annoyed with the seagull's absent-mindedness and quarks. Before she met Eric, she was rarely interested in romantic relationships, not even with any of the merman princes that Triton tried to get her to marry. The only known exception was Prince Waverly of the Pacifica Kingdom, with whom she was infatuated.

However, after meeting Eric, Ariel is revealed to be a romantic, willing to make daring sacrifices for the sake of true love. Her love for him is validated by Eric's returned selflessness and sacrificial actions for the sake of love; notably seen during the climax of the film.

Like Ariel's father, Triton, she has a bad temper if she is ever provoked, although her temper is not as short as his. Although spirited, even she has had some degree of self-doubts about herself, as she actually at one point considered her father might have been correct and that she may have been a freak for having any fascination for humanity. She also had a degree of seeing the good in things, as she also doubted that humans could have been pure evil from their tools and artworks.

Also, despite her usual naivety and impulsiveness, Ariel has shown to be serious, careful, and very intuitive on many occasions. One example of her occasionally showing intuitiveness was just before exploring the sunken ship, where she suggested that Flounder stay outside and be on the lookout for sharks in the area when the latter tried to fake illness.

In *The Little Mermaid II: Return to the Sea*, as an adult, Ariel has matured into a sophisticated and distinguished woman, fully embracing her responsibilities as a mother and the queen consort of Eric's kingdom and fully adapting to her human body that she has had for some time now thanks to her father's magic. However, when Morgana threatens Melody at her christening, Ariel becomes overprotective of her daughter similarly to how she was treated by Triton in the first film. As a result, she severs all ties with Atlantica and the ocean in hopes of preventing Morgana from using Melody's heritage to her advantage. Despite being happy with her new life as a human mother and wife, she misses her father and sisters, but keeps this hidden from Melody for the latter's own safety. Later, she comes to realize that this decision does more harm than good.

However, at one point, Ariel subtly alludes to her true heritage, as she mentioned to Melody when sympathizing with her about not fitting in that she was "a fish out of water", with Melody not quite believing her.

Regardless of Ariel's few flaws, she is very much selfless, sweet-natured, and inspirational. However, her most notable trait was her deep love and fascination for humans, having desired to become human during the first film's events, even before meeting her future husband, Eric. However, she did not always have this trait; until she was 15 years old, she expressed a deep fear of humans similar to Triton's prejudice towards humans, although her witnessing a human saving a beached dolphin changed her views on the matter. Ironically, the human responsible for saving the dolphin was Eric, although she never knew it.

### Physical Appearance

As a mermaid, Ariel is beautiful with an hourglass body figure, red lips, red hair, aqua blue eyes, and fair skin. In contrast to the first three princess created before her (Snow White, Cinderella, and Aurora), who were drawn with smaller eyes and heads to make them look like adult women, Ariel is drawn with larger eyes and a head more similar to a child's than an adult's in proportion to her body, giving her an appearance of youth rather than maturity. This suggests the combination of youthful innocence and physical maturity which Ariel represents and it eventually became the design basis of most Disney Princesses created after her in recent years, such as Jasmine, Rapunzel, Anna, Elsa, and Moana.

From childhood to her teenage years, she wore a lavender seashell bikini top. As a child, her lips were the same color as her skin, and as a teenager, they are bright red. Ariel's most defining feature is her long, flowing, thick, bright red hair. From the waist down, she has a green horizontal fish-like tail with sea-green scales and sea-foam green fins and a matching V-shaped waist-line resembling fish-lips that reveals her midriff and her belly button. She most likely has the reproductive organs of a cetacean. In Little Mermaid's Island, her seashell top looks more like a strapless top that covers all of her torso. She is also fairly tall in human form, being only a few inches shorter than Eric, himself a fairly tall human.

When Ursula transformed her into a human however, Ariel's only clothing became her seashell bikini top, leftover from her mermaid form. She eventually wears an old sail from a shipwreck with some rope to keep it closed, fashioned by her friend Scuttle. Being prepared for dinner, she wears a pink-and-white gown, silver barrettes in her hair, and pearl white earrings. Getting ready for bedtime, she wears a pink nightgown. After being taken in by Prince Eric, she wears a multi-shade-of-blue dress consisting of a powder-blue blouse with long sleeves, a midnight-blue bodice, and a cobalt-blue foot-length skirt, along with black heels. She wears a big royal blue bow in her hair. While wearing the outfit when she swims through the boat to stop the wedding between Eric and Vanessa (Ursula in disguise) before her feet reverts into her mermaid tail, her hair is worn loose and she does not wear the heels. After she's turned into a human once again, she wears a periwinkle, glittering dress. After she kisses Eric and during their wedding, she wears a white wedding dress with pale green trimming, big puffy sleeves, and a sparkling golden tiara on her veil.

During and after her daughter Melody's christening, she wears a gold-and-white dress, and has her hair in a low ponytail decorated with a white bow. She also wears a periwinkle gown with an up-do decorated, a golden tiara with green and white gems, a golden necklace and earrings with a green gem, and periwinkle heels with a yellow ornament during Melody's 12th birthday party with her hair being a bit shorter due to it being adjusted and pulled in a bun. She still wears the same up-do with a green peasant dress when she's on Eric's ship and a blue-and-white dress with light blue earrings in the song "Here on the Land and Sea" in the second movie. In one of the video games, she wears an aqua-colored gown with a matching flower on the side of her hair.

In the live-action film, Ariel is different than her original animation counterpart; she has tan skin (unlike in the original films), glossy auburn hair, peach lips and brown eyes. Her lavender seashell bikini top has scale designs and being mixed up with the colors of teal. Her green mermaid tail becomes teal which was combined with red and pink scales below the tail.

When she became human and being taken in by Prince Eric, her dress is different than from her animation counterpart. It was a cerulean blue dress with white designs and her hair was worn loose while wearing a pale pink headband instead of a big bow. She also wears pink lace-up boots.

### Powers & Abilities

#### Powers

* Mermaid Physiology: As a mermaid, Ariel possesses superhuman attributes, such as superhuman durability, speed and senses. Ariel still retains most of her superhuman attributes even in her human form.
	+ Aquapathy: Ariel is capable of understanding and communicating with other aquatic creatures, albeit only with the creatures that are sentient.
	+ Superhuman Durability: Ariel is far more durable than normal humans and certain aquatic creatures, being able to withstand the immense underwater pressures. Ariel can also withstand great impacts, such as surviving falls from tremendous heights that would have severely injured or kill a normal human.
	+ Superhuman Lung Capacity: Ariel is capable of holding her breath far longer than normal humans. After becoming human via Ursula's magic potion, she was able to hold her breath long enough for Flounder and Sebastian to help her get to the surface before she could drown.

#### Former powers

* Magic: In the episode "T'ank You For Dat, Ariel", Ariel briefly became a sea witch and learned how to use magic. She used her new-found talents to grant Sebastian's wish of being bigger. Unfortunately, it continuously worked, making him continue to grow to the point that he surfaced while standing and it was fueled by the light of the full moon. She lost her magic and status as a sea witch when she wished the whole entire mess never happened and her magic did just that, erasing the entire event and influencing her so it wouldn't happen in the reset timeline.
* Superhuman Senses: Ariel's senses are far more developed than normal humans and certain aquatic creatures, allowing her to see clearly in the dark.
* Superhuman Speed: Ariel is much faster than normal humans and certain aquatic creatures. She can move at blur-like speeds while underwater and was able to outpace Glut (a great white shark) with relative ease. Ariel was also able to get from Eric's kingdom all the way back to Atlantica as well as getting from Atlantica to Norway in less than a day. According to Sebastian, Ariel is the fastest mermaid in all of Atlantica.
* Aquatic Breathing: Ariel is capable of breathing both on land and in the water indefinitely.
* Thermoendurance: Ariel is immune to extremely cold or hot temperatures and environments.

#### Abilities

* Adaptability: Ariel is capable of gaining knowledge very quickly. After becoming human via Ursula's magic potion, she was able to learn how to stand up in a few minutes, then walk in the same time. Ariel also quickly figured out how to run when Max appears and unintentionally frightens her. She quickly learned about human customs. Ariel was also able to master other skills on land at a much faster pace that would have taken normal humans months or years to learn, such as dancing, horse riding, etc.
* Expert Singer: Ariel is a highly skilled singer. According to Sebastian, she has the most beautiful voice in all of Atlantica. Ariel's voice is so beautiful that Eric fell in love with her just hearing her sing to him once while she was drawing him to consciousness after rescuing him from drowning at sea.
* Expert Dancer: Ariel is a highly skilled dancer. In her mermaid form, she is a very talented dancer and after becoming human she was able to dance with Eric as if she was human for years.
* Expert Swimmer: Ariel is a highly skilled swimmer. In her mermaid form, she is able to swim in a dolphin-like manner. But after becoming human via Ursula's magic potion, Ariel was initially not very good at swimming (due to her inability to breathe underwater and swim without her mermaid tail that she was accustomed to) so Flounder and Sebastian had to help Ariel get to the surface, otherwise she would have drowned. However, by the time of the events of *The Little Mermaid II: Return to the Sea*, Ariel has regained her swimming skills.
* Expert Rider: Ariel is a highly skilled rider, being capable of riding giant seahorses and also horses. She can easily ride Stormy and Seabiscuit, as well as command the reigns of a carriage controlled by Triton's dolphins. In Ariel's human form, she is able to ride horses in a similar way, which is seen when Eric attempted to teach her how to ride a carriage controlled by his horse. Initially, Ariel lost control of the horse, but she soon was able to gain control of the animal. In the storybook of *The Little Mermaid: Ariel's Baby Beau*, sometime after Ariel's marriage to Eric, he gifted her a foal, who she named Beau. Once Beau became an adult, she began to ride the horse very often with skill and enthusiasm similar to that of riding giant seahorses.
* Expert Musician: Ariel is a highly skilled musician, being capable of playing the bongo drums, guitar, harp, and piano with admirable skill. The only musical instrument that she is not proficient at is the sea calliope, the equivalent of the organ. Even when Sebastian tries his best to teach Ariel how to play the calliope, her skills with it don't improve at all. Her lack of skill with this musical instrument is in fact so bad that it not only wakes up the Seaclops, but it also annoys the sea monster to the point that it tries to annihilate Ariel.
* Sign Language: Ariel knows sign language, as she is able to understand everything that Gabriella says.

#### Weaknesses

* Oxygen: When Ariel is in her human form, she cannot breathe underwater. If she remains underwater for too long, she will lose consciousness and eventually drown. Despite this, Ariel can at least hold her breath far longer than normal humans.

#### Former Weaknesses

* Limited Knowledge: Initially, Ariel had limited knowledge of the human world due to not traveling to the surface very often and not directly interacting with humans. She didn't know much about their culture and objects that are used by land-dwellers. This also lead her to make up names for the human objects that she would find, such as calling a magnifying glass a "biggermajiger". She once also used a fork to comb her hair due to Scuttle telling her that is how to use that object. She later realized the mistake when she saw the confused looks of Eric and Grimsby's faces, much to her embarrassment. After marrying and starting to live in Eric's kingdom, her knowledge of humans and the land above water has greatly improved.

## Appearances

At first, at the beginning of the film, Ariel, and her fish friend, Flounder swim through a shipwreck where they salvage human items. During their adventure, they are chased out of the sunken ship by a shark, but Ariel manages to outwit him. After escaping him, Ariel and Flounder swim up to the surface, where they speak to Scuttle to identify human objects. He misidentifies a fork as a "dinglehopper" used to straighten their hair and a pipe as a "snarfblatt" used to make music. The identification of the latter reminds her of the concert she was supposed to be a part of which she had forgotten about. Ariel hurries home to Triton and Sebastian, who both rebuke her for missing the concert. Hearing from Flounder about her encounter with a seagull, Triton reprimands Ariel for swimming up to the surface and demands that she never does so again, driving Ariel to tearfully swim off to her secret grotto.

There, Ariel's collection of human objects is kept, hidden away from the other merpeople. She feels that collecting them isn't enough and gets more curious about the human world, even expressing her desire to actually live in it. As Sebastian tries to talk Ariel out of her obsession, the mermaid spots a ship passing above. Curious, she quickly swims up to the surface and towards it. Among the humans aboard, Ariel's attention is drawn to a male human named Eric. Just then, a storm moves in and destroys the ship. Ariel looks around for Eric and finds him floating unconscious in the sea. She saves him from drowning and takes his body to shore, where Eric starts to breathe again. Ariel sings to Eric as he steadily regains his consciousness. Eric's manservant, Grimsby, suddenly arrives in search for the prince, though he fails to notice Ariel. As Eric is taken into care, Ariel watches on, even more determined to accomplish her dreams of living alongside humanity.

Back at Atlantica, Ariel's sisters hear her humming dreamily, causing them to realize she has fallen in love. Ariel comes up with a plan to somehow see Eric again, but Sebastian tries to talk her out of it, telling her how life under the sea is better than the world up above through the song "Under the Sea". Flounder arrives and takes Ariel away to show her a surprise at her grotto, the statue of Prince Eric that he somehow salvaged from the wrecked ship. Unfortunately, King Triton soon appears, having learned from Sebastian (when his anxiety gets the best of him) that Ariel had rescued a human from drowning and he berates her for breaking his rules of association with humans, though Ariel replies that Eric would have died if she hadn't saved him and he shouldn't be so quick to judge him. After Triton once again lectures Ariel on how bad humans are, she declares that she loves Eric and doesn't care if they are different species. Shocked and enraged at this display of blasphemy from his youngest daughter, Triton loses his temper and, in a blind rage, proceeds to destroy all the human objects in the grotto with his trident, including the statue of Eric. Devastated, Ariel breaks down in tears, and an ashamed Triton leaves while regretting what he has done. Sebastian, who has accompanied him, tries to console Ariel, only for her to tell him to leave her alone, blaming him for her grotto's destruction by squealing on her to Triton.

After Sebastian and Flounder exit, Flotsam and Jetsam appear to convince Ariel to see their mistress, Ursula, who may have the power to make her dream come true. She, after initially attempting to refuse, reluctantly follows them to Ursula's Lair, while Sebastian and Flounder follow her, with Ariel making it clear to Sebastian that she is still upset with him for tattling on her regarding Eric. At the fortress, Ursula - who knows that Ariel is in love with a human through spying on her via Flotsam and Jetsam - makes a proposition: in exchange for her voice, Ariel will become a human for three days, during which she must get a kiss of true love from Eric before the sun sets on the third day. Should she succeed, she will remain human permanently; should she fail, she will turn back into a mermaid and will belong to Ursula forever, possibly becoming the latest polyp victim in her garden of other merpeople who made deals with Ursula and failed to fulfill their ends of the agreements. Ariel ponders over this, knowing that being a human would mean she would never be with her father or older sisters again, but eventually out of desperation and her love for Eric, she accepts the deal and signs a contract conjured by Ursula. Her voice is then sealed into a seashell on Ursula's necklace. Ariel is then turned into a human and is helped to the surface by Flounder and Sebastian due to her now having the inability to swim and breathe underwater.

At the shore, Sebastian goes into a nervous panic over the predicament and begins to trot home to seek help from the king. Ariel pleads for Sebastian to stay, giving him the most pleading look she can muster without her voice to talk him out of it, and out of sympathy and guilt for being responsible for her grotto's demise, he agrees in a reluctant way. Scuttle provides some "clothing" for Ariel in the meantime in the form of an old sail and rigging rope, just as they are discovered by Eric's dog, Max, who leads his master to them. Eric faintly recognizes Ariel, but doesn't believe her to be the girl who rescued him from the shipwreck, due to her inability to speak. Nevertheless, he takes her to his castle, where Ariel is given a bath and proper clothing. At dinner, Ariel notices a fork and uses it to comb her hair, leaving Eric and his servants dumbfounded. Ariel then notices Grimsby's pipe and tries to use it as a musical instrument, covering Grimsby with soot. Despite Ariel's initial embarrassment, Eric finds her antics funny. Carlotta even notes that this is the first time Eric has smiled in quite some time, much to Ariel's delight. Eric then invites Ariel on a tour of the kingdom, which she accepts.

During their outing, Sebastian, Flounder, and Scuttle anxiously watch on, awaiting the kiss. Ariel is more preoccupied with taking in the atmosphere of the human world; she even learns how to dance and ride a carriage. That evening, she and Eric go out for a boat ride in a lagoon. In hopes of initiating a kiss, Scuttle tries to provide some "vocal romantic stimulation". However, his terrible squawking (mistaken for singing) which embarrasses both Ariel and Eric prompts Sebastian to lead some animals of the lagoon to create a more fitting mood with his song "Kiss the Girl". Sebastian's plan seems to have a positive effect on Ariel and Eric, as they steadily draw closer to each other. Before they can kiss, however, Flotsam and Jetsam purposely tip the boat over by order of Ursula (who's been watching Ariel and Eric's development from her fortress). This ruins the moment, thus ending Ariel and Eric's date.

The next day (which is the third and last of Ariel's human days), Scuttle delivers the news that Eric is getting hitched. Believing herself to be the girl in question, Ariel excitedly runs downstairs, only to see Eric with a dark-haired girl named Vanessa, whom he intends to marry. Devastated, Ariel breaks down in tears and runs off. As the wedding ship departs with Eric aboard, Ariel is left at the port to mourn her losses as Sebastian and Flounder do the same. Meanwhile, Scuttle discovers that Vanessa is actually Ursula in disguise and flies back to warn Ariel. Determined to save both herself and Eric, Ariel swims to the wedding ship with help from Flounder, while Sebastian returns to Atlantica to receive help from King Triton. Scuttle, meanwhile, rallies the lagoon animals to stall the wedding by assaulting Vanessa. Eventually, Ursula's necklace is destroyed, releasing Ariel's voice and freeing Eric from his trance. The two embrace each other as Eric finally realizes that Ariel is the girl who rescued him all along. Before they can kiss, however, the sun sets, and Ariel turns back into a mermaid.

Vanessa transforms back into Ursula, takes Ariel as her prisoner, and dives back into the sea with her. As Ursula thinks of her next move, Triton, having been alerted by Sebastian, confronts and orders her to release Ariel, to which she refuses. Ariel apologizes to Triton as he attempts to destroy Ursula's contract, to no avail. Ursula proceeds to wither the princess and turn her into a polyp like all her other victims, proclaiming the contract to be legal, binding, and completely unbreakable, but offers her freedom should Triton be willing to take her place. Triton accepts, knowing this is all his fault in the first place because of his temper and prejudice, and overwrites Ariel's signature on the contract with his own, and though Ariel is released, she is forced to watch as her father is withered and transformed into a polyp faster than when Ursula tried to do it to her, having sadistically slowed the transformation on Ariel to torture Triton into surrendering himself to save his daughter. Ursula then takes his crown and trident, becoming queen of the seas. Finally, Ariel realizes that she had manipulated her into obtaining her father's power, and furiously tries to fight her off, but is no match for the empowered sea witch. Eric intervenes to help her, striking Ursula with a harpoon. She prepares to destroy him with the trident, but Ariel pulls on her hair just as it shoots, causing the shot to miss Eric and hit Flotsam and Jetsam instead, killing them.

After Ursula briefly mourns her pets' loss, she delivers a furious, enraged glare towards Ariel and Eric, deciding that this ends now, before she enlarges herself as an even eviler, nastier, monstrous version of herself. Ariel and Eric try to escape, but then face a towering, gigantic Ursula. She declares herself as ruler of the ocean who has the power to control the waves and creates a rainstorm and whirlpool. Ariel is separated from Eric, and Ursula causes her to become trapped at the bottom of the whirlpool. She aims the trident at Ariel and fires bolts of pure destruction, who barely manages to avoid her painful destruction each time. Finally, just as Ursula prepares to use the trident to vaporize her with an unavoidable blast and taunting that she will never get to be with Eric, as Ariel looks on in absolute, terrified fear, he plunges the splintered bow of one of the shipwrecks (that have surfaced as a result of the whirlpool) through her abdomen, killing her and saving Ariel just in the nick of time.

With Ursula defeated, her spells upon the unfortunate merpeople who made deals with her and failed to uphold them are broken, including the spell cast upon Triton, who transforms back into a merman. Eric manages to swim to shore at the surface, breaking down out of exhaustion as a saddened Ariel watches on from a nearby rock. Triton and Sebastian look on from a distance, the former finally softening up toward humans upon realizing Eric risked his own life to save Ariel. Knowing the love between them *is* pure and true, *and* despite their differences as species, Triton uses the power of the trident to permanently transform Ariel into a human, granting his daughter her wish and allowing her to be with the one she loves, at long last. After the transformation, she walks up to the shore, where she is happily reunited with Eric as he embraces her, and they share their first kiss. Soon, they have their wedding on the wedding ship attended by his loyal subjects on-board and her family and friends in the sea around the ship. She silently bids farewell to Scuttle and Flounder and reconciles with her father by giving him a heartwarming hug and telling him that she loves him before happily sailing away with Eric. Triton then casts a beautiful rainbow over the sky to wish the couple well as they start their new future together. Due to Ariel's courage and earlier sacrifices, Triton understands that not all humans are bad and accepts Eric, her new husband, as his new son-in-law.

### The Little Mermaid: The Series

The prequel series, which had debuted in 1992, takes place during an indeterminate time chronologically before the 1989 film and revolves around Ariel's adventures as a 15 to 16-year-old mermaid living under the sea.

Most of her adventures involve her meeting various creatures, getting into trouble and usually getting out of it successfully. Her friends, Flounder and Sebastian, are also featured prominently. She is also shown to have mermaid friends named Urchin, an orphaned merboy, and Gabriella, a deaf-mute Latina mermaid.

It also has her meeting Hans Christian Andersen, which also hints at both her possible birth year (i.e. during his lifetime, yet at least 16 years before the writing of *The Little Mermaid*, which, in a manner of speaking, makes him her creator) and the possible chronological events of the series, due to her being a direct influence on the creation of the story. She also gets along well with Sebastian's young Crab Scouts, as she is shown cradling one of them when they're tired in "Tail of Two Crabs".

Ariel continues to be fascinated with human objects in the series and is shown collecting them for her grotto; she gives them strange names such as calling an ordinary telescope a "thingamabob", and giving many human objects as "majigers" in quite a number of episodes e.g. calling a magnifying glass a "biggermajiger" in "Charmed".

Many episodes show her working to foil enemies who would do harm to Atlantica. Eric is sometimes shown, but she always just misses seeing him, preserving the continuity that she sees him first in the 1989 film.

### The Little Mermaid II: Return to the Sea

In the 2000 direct-to-video sequel, Ariel serves as the deuteragonist, as her daughter now is the protagonist. In the sequel, she has married Eric and is now the queen consort in his kingdom.

It is also shown that Ariel has given birth to a baby girl, whom they named Melody prior to the start of the film. At the beginning, Ariel was playing with the new-born Melody, with most of her toys being of Flounder, Sebastian, and other sea creatures in the room, showing that Ariel misses her old friends and family after marrying Eric. At the christening, when Melody's safety was threatened by the crazy sister of Ursula, Morgana, seeking revenge for the death of her sister, Ariel and Eric decide they must sever ties with Atlantica and the ocean. With this, the couple built a huge wall surrounding the palace.

The walls stays until for twelve years of Melody's life, until her 12th birthday. Ariel also leaves the locket Triton gave Melody on her christening day with him to have released into the ocean to sink to where it would never be found, while also knowing that this may be the last time she would see her father while he sent out his royal guards to hunt down Morgana and bring her to justice.

As a consequence, this also meant Ariel couldn't visit her ancestral home, making her miss Triton and her sisters deeply, but only when alone so Melody doesn't learn the truth of her mermaid heritage. Melody's love of the sea proves too strong, however, especially after finding her locket while out swimming beyond the sea wall and confronting her mother over it after Sebastian ends up ruining her birthday party, humiliating her, and when she falls into Morgana's clutches, Ariel is forced to temporarily resume her mermaid form in order to rescue and save Melody from Morgana's scheme, with Triton using his trident to revert the spell that turned Ariel human originally, returning her to her old mermaid body so she could return home to Atlantica after so long.

In this time, Ariel briefly returns to her grotto as seen in the first film, and studies the objects, (which we are left to presume survived Triton's anger in the first film) and keeps looking for Melody. This features Ariel becoming an overprotective parent for Melody, effectively taking over the role of Triton in the first film. She apologizes to Melody by the end of the film for her overprotectiveness as she realizes it was for the best that Melody now knew about her true heritage.

Ariel is the first and only Disney Princess to date to become a mother.

### House of Mouse

Ariel appears as a regular guest in the animated television series *House of Mouse* and its specials, usually sitting with Sebastian and Scuttle and sometimes with Eric or Triton. Her appearance alternates irregularly between her human form and mermaid form (even at the same time in a few episodes), depending on what the situation requires. In her human form, she is mostly seen in her blue peasant gown, except in *Mickey's Magical Christmas: Snowed in at the House of Mouse* where she is instead seen in her pink-and-white ball gown.

Daisy Duck seems to be a big fan of her and her films, as shown in "Daisy's Debut" and "House of Genius". In the show's opening song, she is seen combing her hair with a fork, like in the original film.

In a clip recycled for many episodes, she is seen sitting at a table with Scuttle and Sebastian and her and Scuttle clap starting with "The Three Caballeros". In "Gone Goofy", she appears next to Prince Eric near the end.

In "Timon and Pumbaa", Scuttle perches on Ariel's head telling that Timon is gonna lose something.

In the episode "Jiminy Cricket", while Jiminy Cricket is sharing his wisdom, he states, "Never sell your voice to a giant sea witch just because you have a crush on some guy, it's just not worth it". Ariel sits there looking embarrassed and ashamed, and upon hearing this, she snatches the necklace containing her voice away from Ursula, much to her anger.

In "The Mouse Who Came to Dinner", Ariel is sitting next to Sebastian before Goofy takes him to cook for Mortimer, who was pretending to be a critic. She is later seen laughing with the rest of the audience after the crew calls him out and insults him.

Also in "Everybody Loves Mickey", Ariel wishes that Mickey could visit her under the sea.

In "Suddenly Hades", Pete attempted to flood the club to run out the customers, as he could shut down the club if there were no guests. Though he succeeded in flooding the club, he was stopped from closing the club as Ariel was still present, having returned after Hades bugged out in annoyance from the flooding.

In "Mickey and Minnie's Big Vacation", she is seen in the crowd when the Pink Elephants invade the house.

In "Music Day", when Ariel saw Huey, Dewey, and Louie reuniting, she waved her hands as she cheered.

In "House of Scrooge", Ariel was one of many Disney characters shoved at one table as Scrooge was trying to save money.

In "Ask Von Drake", Ariel is seen in Professor Von Drake's song, sitting next to a giant seashell where Ursula is hiding.

In "Salute to Sports", Ariel is sitting next to Triton when he creates a literal wave after Mickey told the crowd to do the "wave".

In "Pluto vs. Figaro", Ariel tried to sing on stage, although the set ended up falling on top of her due to Pluto and Figaro's antics.

Ariel was also briefly seen in "Pete's House of Villains" where she held up a sign that read "Somebody stole my voice again" since she lost her voice.

Ariel also appears in *Mickey's Magical Christmas: Snowed in at the House of Mouse*. In the film, Ariel, along with Eric and other characters, are snowed in and trapped inside the club. Ariel is the first to openly have faith in Mickey Mouse, who she believes will have a plan.

### The Little Mermaid: Ariel's Beginning

Years before the events of the original film, Ariel and her sisters enjoy a music-filled life in Atlantica, with their father King Triton and their mother, Queen Athena. One day the merpeople are shown relaxing in a lagoon above water, playing music for Triton and Athena's anniversary and Triton gives Athena a music box. Suddenly, a big pirate ship approaches, attacks the merpeople, and snatches their musical instruments. Ariel, Arista, Aquata, and Adella are carried to safety by Triton while everyone else escapes except Athena, who is fatally crushed by the ship when she tries to save the music box after saving Attina due to the pirates losing control of the ship and run it aground, breaking the keel and sinking it. Devastated by her death, Triton throws it into the ocean and bans music from the kingdom.

Ten years later, Ariel and her sisters live under a strict routine maintained by their governess Marina Del Rey and her assistant, Benjamin. Marina hates being the girls' governess and longs to be Triton's attaché, a job currently filled by Sebastian. Ariel is frustrated by their current lifestyle, which brings her into conflict with her father. One day, Ariel encounters Flounder, whom she later follows to an underground music club. She is overjoyed by the presence of music and is shocked when she sees Sebastian performing there. When her presence is revealed, the entire band stops playing and hides, believing Ariel will tell her father about them. Ariel sings a song explaining her love of music and the remembrance of her mother, and she joins the club with an oath.

Ariel returns to the palace, and the sisters confront her over her disappearance. She explains where she was, and the following night all seven girls go to the club to have fun. Marina secretly finds them, and she later reports their activities to Triton. Sebastian, Flounder, and the band are sent to jail while Marina gets the job she wants.

Triton confines his daughters to the palace, which results in Ariel asking him why music isn't allowed. Triton refuses to answer and shouts that he won't have music in his kingdom. Distraught, Ariel confronts Triton and says that Athena wouldn't have wanted music to be forbidden and angrily swims to the girls' bedroom, her saddened sisters soon following, while Marina, who is not the girls' governess anymore, is now Triton's new attaché. That night, she decides to leave Atlantica and frees the jailbirds. Sebastian leads them to a deserted place far from the palace where Ariel finds Athena's music box, as Sebastian hoped. Ariel and Sebastian decide to return to Atlantica to bring the music box to Triton, hoping that it will change his mind, as he has forgotten how to be happy after Athena's death.

On the way back, Marina and her electric eels confront Ariel, Flounder, and Sebastian. Before music is restored back into the kingdom, the final battle begins when Marina bans Ariel from going back to Atlantica. Marina wants to stop them, so she will retain her position of "power", and a struggle ensues. It ends when Marina barrels towards Sebastian, but Ariel pushes him away, getting hit in the process. Triton arrives in time to witness this, and he is remorseful for his actions. He sings the lyrics of "Athena's Song", and Ariel wakes up. The film ends with Triton restoring music to Atlantica and appointing Sebastian as the new court composer, much to everyone's glee with Ariel and Flounder. Everyone, including Ariel, Sebastian, Flounder, and six older sisters, rejoices except Marina, who has been sent to prison.

In the original concept for *Ariel's Beginning*, then known as *The Little Mermaid III*, Ariel, alongside Sebastian, were supposed to accompany Eric and Melody in locating a white whale.

## Live Action

### Little Mermaid (2023)

Ariel appears in the 2023 live-action remake of the 1989 film. She is portrayed by Halle Bailey.

Ariel is introduced at the beginning of the film where she swims with her fish companion Flounder at a sunken ship curiously interacting with a fork she found. As Flounder fears that there might be sharks coming, a great white shark, Glut, swims in front of Ariel and Flounder, chasing them and attempting to eat them. Throughout the chase, Ariel drops a barrel onto the shark, causing him to chase after her across the ship which she then leads Glut to crash into a mirror by using her reflection to her advantage, leaving him unable to move and allowing the two to escape. Ariel and Flounder then encounter Scuttle who dives underwater for a meal which Ariel shows her a fork she found at the sunken ship which Scuttle incorrectly calls it a "dinglehopper" and as Ariel attempts to show her another object she collected (a corkscrew), Sebastian who was out looking for her alerts Ariel to return to her father.

Ariel approaches King Triton, her father, who is very upset that with his daughter that she missed the Coral Moon as Ariel was supposed to attend this event with her sisters, which Triton scolds her for not attending the event. Ariel visits her grotto showing a collection of objects as she sings the musical number "Part of Your World" to help her father understand. Later that night, Ariel hears explosions from above the surface, which she thinks it is danger, much to Flounder's worry only to find out that she is seeing fireworks exploding into the sky because Prince Eric is celebrating his birthday on his ship. All of a sudden, Eric's ship crashes onto a rock formation, causing Eric, the surviving crew, and his dog Max to retreat, which Ariel then notices Eric sinking underwater, leading her to save him from drowning.

The next day, Ariel approaches an injured Eric where she sings a reprise of "Part of Your World", only for Ariel to retreat from a group of castle guards searching for Eric just as the guards bring him back home to safety. Back underwater, Ariel approaches Sebastian who tells her to stay under the sea, convincing her that the above world is very dangerous for mermaids, telling her that life under the sea is much better than anything they got up there. Throughout the musical number "Under the Sea", Sebastian convinces Ariel to stay out of the human world feels comfortable of living under the sea just as the sea creatures continue dancing, only for Ariel to disappear. Sebastian and the other sea creatures notice about this, making Sebastian worried that Ariel left just as the other sea creatures leave.

Later, Ariel approaches King Triton who becomes furious of her for saving a human from drowning. When Ariel genuinely refuses to promise her father to never see Eric again, Triton furiously destroys all the treasures in Ariel's grotto, much to Ariel's sadness. Ariel then plans to meet Ursula in her lair by following Flotsam and Jetsam to change her fate.

As Ariel enters Ursula's lair, she encounters various merpeople who were turned into polyps which she encounters Ursula who gives her an opportunity to change her fate regarding about her love interest Eric. During the number "Poor Unfortunate Souls", Ursula gives Ariel a deal to find true love's kiss in falling in love with Eric within three days or she will turn into a mermaid forever. Accepting the deal, Ariel trades her mermaid tail, her voice, and her ability to breathe underwater, causing Ariel to turn into a human. Ariel swims up to the surface where she is rescued by a fisherman who takes her to Eric's castle. Now in human form, Ariel sings in her thoughts during the musical number "For the First Time" as she adapts her life living on land. Ariel, now wearing a dress, spends her first day in the castle attempting to fall in love with Eric whom he was searching for which her attempt was a failure due to Ariel's inability to talk. On the second day, Eric gives Ariel a tour around the kingdom while Sebastian realizes that Ursula, the sea witch, was the one who put a spell on her, causing Ariel to forget that she has to kiss Eric before the last day. That night, Ariel and Eric sit on a boat sailing across the lagoon during the musical number "Kiss the Girl" where Sebastian, Flounder, and Scuttle sing to the couple for them to kiss, but Ariel's attempt to kiss Eric was unsuccessful, due to Ursula's eels, Flotsam and Jetsam, knocking them off the boat.

On the third day, Scuttle reports to Ariel that what she heard about Ursula who is disguised as "Vanessa" planning to hypnotize and marry Eric. Ariel then arrives at the area where the wedding between Eric and "Vanessa" is taking place at Eric's castle. Ariel confronts "Vanessa" and smashes the shell necklace, causing "Vanessa" to be revealed to be Ursula as well as Eric freed from Ursula's spell. However, before Ariel and Eric can kiss, the sun goes down and Ariel suddenly regains her mermaid tail, transforming her from her human form back to her mermaid form just before Ursula reveals her true form and takes her hostage, diving back into the ocean.

During an underwater battle, Ursula attempts to attack Ariel, but her father King Triton confronts her for what she did to his daughter only for Ursula to destroy Triton. Throughout the battle, Flotsam and Jetsam strangle Ariel and attempt to kill her by generating electricity which Eric throws a harpoon to attack Ursula and as Ursula sees Eric escaping, Ariel defends Eric from getting struck by Ursula using Triton's trident, causing her blast to destroy Flotsam and Jetsam instead. As Ursula uses the trident, she transforms into the size of a gigantic sea monster and creates a storm to kill Ariel and Eric. Ariel pulls herself on a surfaced ship where she steers the ship towards Ursula, causing the broken bowsprit on the ship to impale her, killing the sea witch.

After Ursula is defeated, Ariel reconciles with her father who is brought back to life just as the two recognize each other's sacrifice. Ariel felt unhappy that she cannot live without Prince Eric just as Triton allows her to marry him by turning Ariel into a human so that she can reunite with him. Afterwards, Ariel marries Eric as the two fall in love just as Ariel bids a farewell to her father just as Ariel continues to live Eric in a happy life, starting with a travel around the world.

## Video Games

### Disney Heroes Battle Mode

***Disney Prince Wiki*** has an individual article based on ***Ariel***.
## Gallery

***Disney Prince Wiki*** has a collection of images and media related to ***Ariel***.

1. ↑ Campione, Katie (June 13, 2023). Disney Greenlights *Disney Junior’s Ariel* Animated Series Inspired By *The Little Mermaid*.
2. ↑ Palmer, Roger (August 18, 2023). Disney Junior’s “Ariel” Cast Announced.
3. ↑ Snetiker, Marc (July 3, 2019). Disney's live-action *The Little Mermaid* casts Halle Bailey as Ariel.