#Little mermaid rant

[singswan-springswan]

It's been discussed by people more eloquent than I, but what they did to Eric in the finale of TLM remake was a sin, a crime, a disservice, and if I ever get over the discomfort, it won't be for a long time.

I simply don't understand their reason to take Ursula's death away from him. On top of that, why would they give it to Ariel? Ariel already saved him once before. The fight against Ursula was supposed to give Eric a turn at being the hero. It was Eric's moment to prove to Triton that he really does love Ariel and is willing to fight for her and protect her and---most importantly---that humans aren't inherently evil in the way Triton believes. Ariel doesn't need to prove herself in this way. She's already shown that she's courageous and brave and unafraid to do difficult things to keep Eric safe. Also in the remake... she knows that Ursula is family, and yet this nuance doesn't seem to mean anything to her? She doesn't hesitate to act in a way that she knows will at least hurt her aunt if not kill her outright, and I understand that the drive to protect Eric is strong but it felt really out of character for Ariel to be the one actively impaling her aunt.

I'm not saying Eric should have done it because ships are his thing (they're not. They're Ariel's thing too, even if Eric is more familiar with the way they actually work n stuff). I just think that when you take into account the status of every character at that point in continuity, it makes sense for Eric to rise to the occasion. It's his chance to save Ariel the way she saved him. It's his chance to prove himself to Ariel's father and gain his trust. He would also be the angriest with Ursula and have the least reason to hesitate when it comes to taking her creepy tentacle shebs down. She tricked him, stole his freewill, used a siren song against him, took the love of his life away and tried to kill her. Given the opportunity to stop her terrorism, he should have been given the same role he had in the original film. Instead he just sits on a rock uselessly after throwing one harpoon, and Ariel leaves his side to do all the heavy lifting.

It makes no sense to me. Is this about presenting Ariel as a strong independent woman who doesn't need a prince to rescue her? Because that's such a flat reason. Like I said, we've already seen Ariel prove herself in the rest of the movie, and the new film did a great job developing her character. She doesn't need this moment of triumph at all. Besides that, there is absolutely nothing wrong with not being a fighter. There's nothing wrong with needing help. Ariel's character would not be cheapened in the slightest by needing Eric to be her hero in that moment, especially because we've already established that she was his hero first. She doesn't need to do it all! I'm tired of this narritive that puts all the pressure of only one half of the ship to deliver in this way, either male or female. A good partnership is one that shares the hard things and gives both people room to use their unique abilities for the benefit of each other. This is something the original movie nailed with Ariel and Eric. They were complementary. Neither one was braver or more heroic than the other, but they presented these qualities differently in a way that didn't detract or rob one or the other of purpose. By taking Ursula's death away from Eric and giving it to Ariel in the remake, Eric's purpose in the story in reduced to Ariel's object of interest (I don't mean in the sense that she has no intense feelings for him or that he isn't her partner). The story is no longer about how they overcome conflict between land and sea together, but rather changes to be how Ariel goes on her own journey and along the way acquires someone to love that affirms and indulges her greatest desires. It was unsettling to see this done to Eric's character. It cheapens the sacrifice he made by going after Ariel when Ursula took her, and it makes him seem foolish for trying to stand against this mighty sea power. He's not arm candy. He's not just a lovable dork she keeps around for the intrigue of his mind and adventurous spirit. Eric is supposed to be a triumphant character that prevails over evil---not because he's powerful---but because he's willing to sacrifice for what he loves. Watching him do a number as a wet rat on a rock while Ariel saves the day does nothing to inspire this sentiment of his character for me. In fact, I was taken aback. It just doesn't make sense that they changed this part of the story when there was nothing wrong with it to begin with and it actually fit in line with both the original and new storyline so neatly. I don't understand it and I really don't like it. It wasn't worth what little it added to Ariel's character to take so much away from Eric. Prince Eric fr doomed by the narritive

[theocddiaries]

Why Ariel gave up her voice

Ariel never gave up a voice for a man she has just met and hadn't talked to.

Ariel gave up her voice because she didn't value it. And she didn't value it because people around her didn't value it. They praised it when she used it for show, for singing for an audience that wanted to hear the sound but never listened to her words.

She felt unheard her entire life, misunderstood, alone, isolated. Sure, she has friends, like Flounder, Sebastian and more in the animated series, like Gabriella, her sisters, Urkin, etc. They all loved her but didn't understand her. Looked at her funny when she opened up about her love for the human world. Was even berated by some, like Sebastian and her father. She never felt heard. So, yeah, for everyone else, even the audience, is like: this girl is so stupid, she gave up her beautiful voice for legs.

Because with legs, she can stand, as she always wanted. And she never needed her voice to make Eric fall for her, or the castle's staff, with her personality, always overshadowed by her voice, she won everyone's hearts. With her blubby, spontaneous, happy, curious personality, she made the prince fall for her, made him forget that 'beautiful voice' he fell for (until Ursula put a spell on him, that is). Ariel felt heard for the first time, without a voice.

She didn't give up her voice for a man, but because she was so tired of not being heard, that she never saw the value of her voice, because nobody showed it to her beyond shallow reasons. She learnt, along with everyone else, how important her voice AND words are.

That's why I always felt related to her. I was always heard when it was convenient, if I expressed an opinion the adults around didn't like, I was shut down, belittled and patronized.

Your voice MATTER, will always MATTER. It doesn't matter how way you communicate. Look at Gabriella, in the animated series, she was mute but she still communicated and was heard by her octopus friend.

Please, NEVER let anyone make you believe your WORDS hold no value. Not even yourself.

[lunityviruss]

Something I've noticed is that no matter what fandom or community we are in—black people will always always have to make a safe space for ourselves. Every single fandom I was in there were always black people being treated badly by white people and nonblacks and everytime we spoke on it we are told that we are either making it up or causing problems/discourse.

Even in the LGBTQ+ community where niggas preach about being sooo accepting we have to make *our own flags and spaces because we get talked over and forgotten so damn much. You look up queer related stuff and white people show up first (try the trans selfie tag or look up androgynous stuff on pinterest.) You look up queer shows and it's only white people with a black side character or a white person x a black person like we can't exist on our own. White queers calling black people cops for being uncomfortable with certain labels.

Even with fictional black characters they get the same treatment. Marina from Splatoon 2 and Hobie Brown from Spiderman both are victims of nonblack people hypersexualizing them and masculinizing them. Xinyan from Genshin Impact is a complete and utter stereotype of black people—being seen as aggressive and mean and a literal theft. Don't get me started on how yall whitewash the fuck outta them. It's either sexualize them, whitewash them or forget about them completely.

For some reason white people are seen as more aesthetically pleasing compared to Black people and when we look up aesthetics we literally have to type in "black person x aesthetic" or afro punk or afro goth despite us being the creators of some of these aesthetics. Same with cosplaying, white peoples cosplays are seen as more "canon" compared to black people or even people who's race is literally the character being cosplayed.

Fanfiction writers constantly cater to white people despite trying to market their stuff as "inclusive" while black people get shitted on for making character x black reader fics and don't you know weird ass white people still read them??

Yall tell us to make our own things instead of "complaining" about it and we do, then we get hit with death threats and hate. We make our black edits and get told that it's "blackwashing" and the artists get called the n word, we make black movies and our actors get death threats. We make our own original black art with our black OC'S and get told that we're being selfish and "racist" for not drawing other people. We literally cannot exist without you people hating on us and unnecessarily critiquing us.

[Note: If you nonblack or white niggas come up here and being like "well acschually op🤓☝🏾" I will actually hurt you. If you ask "why is this in the x tag" I will hurt you as well. You try n derail and make it about a different race I'm hurting you.]

[femslashspuffy]

Its REALLY funny that starship is more disney inspired as a starkid musical than cinderella's castle

[tending-the-hearth]

nerds (affectionate)

[swiggity-swexual-i-am-asexual]

Reminder for the dpxdc writers!

Yeah I know lots of us get canon and fanon confused and some never watched Danny Phantom which is why I’m going to *friendly remind everyone* that if you don’t want to use the Ghost King Danny thing, it’s—it’s fanon. Like. You do not need to go out of your way to make it Not A Thing, if you find it’s hindering your plot line or whatever. You don’t have to write around it. At this point, you might need to clarify it’s not something you’re doing, since it’s so common, but like—if I have to read one more plot where they’re twisted up in knots to avoid it, like. Pls. You can do what you want and that includes this, we already disregard canon all the time, you can buck common fanon as well I’m—

That’s not to say I’m against Ghost King Danny, but I’m starting to think it’s one of those things people are afraid to stray from because they think it’s it’s one of the more… pillar parts? Of Danny’s character and canon? When it’s, like, not. If you want to write in reasons why he’s not king and etc etc you CAN, it’s your story and maybe it even serves your plot or tone or you just want to, but you can also just not even have it be a consideration. You’re free to just not do it.

[starzknight]

Disney princess with a bit more accurate outfits...

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[anxious-alien-overlord]

Ya’ll we need to stop spreading the narrative that Ariel gave up everything for a man, because she didn’t. The whole first sequence of the movie after the beginning credits is dedicated to her forgetting about an event she was supposed to go to because she wanted to swim around in a sunken ship and find human things. Part of your world was a song about her dream to be human, and to learn more about their culture.

She’s a headstrong teenager who dreams of going to the human world because she’s fascinated by it! She initially swims to Eric’s ship because she sees fireworks and she’s never seen fireworks before. When she gets there she spots Eric who just so happens to be human and she saves him, longing now to be part of the human world so she could be with him. Longing being the key word here because I think seeing Eric and interacting with him made up her mind about she wanted to do.

She didn’t even know that becoming human was an option until the eels told her about Ursula, then she made the impulsive decision to go see her. In her mind her dad had wrecked the only things she had to represent the human world and kissing Eric was how she got to fulfill her dream. Sure, she falls in love with him along the way but her whole thing was wanting to be human, which she got in the end.

[pickypickypeak]

Nothing new but I’m genuinely so sick of people marking anything as “woke” just to say they don’t like some piece of media. I see more and more people commenting “it’s woke” without actually elaborating and when asked what it means they just answer “look up woke agenda on google it’s all there”. Which tells me you literally have no idea what it means. You’re literally just parroting. You were literally fed into doing that by an alt right youtuber who makes *actual* propaganda videos to brainwash people like you into thinking that white people are the oppressed ones or some shit. And what’s worse, you don’t care about whatever you’re hating on, you’re just doing it for the sake of hating because you think it makes you look cool and edgy? Using all of these big big words Mr. Cinema Man taught you?

Like I’ve seen a post with the Moana live action cast reveal and people were like “ohhh why isn’t she white?? White people can’t feel represented??” which genuinely makes me so sad, because how do these people actually think they did something with these “jokes”? How brainwashed do they have to be to think they said something smart? They don’t even care, they don’t know which movie it is. They just. Repeat. What those cringe ragebait videos told them. And that’s actually scary to me, idk.

And it’s the same with Marvel, Star Wars, DC and literally any movie coming out. It features a non straight character? It’s woke. It features non white characters? It’s woke. It has women? It’s woke. They hide behind “they’re pushing political messages instead of trying to tell a good story” but guess what, this sentence does nothing but show your racism and sexism and just plain blatant stupidity. They told you you can cover them up as “criticism” by saying “it’s woke” or “it’s politically correct”, but they were wrong. It still shows. Trust me.

[memoryaqua]

What's with Adella's hairdo and color scheme?

Adella herself is lovely. But I really don't care for the color scheme and hairstyle that the animators decided to stick her with.

Besides pearl scrunchies getting repetitive, that long front-bun is just...odd. To boot, the shades of gold and green they picked remind me of baby food.

There were probably reasons for all of this in the first movie, possibly related to the complexities of the film's animation. But when the TV series came and they tweaked many of the sisters' designs, the only changes made to Adella's was simplifying her hair and making her the token "fat" sister.

In fairness, Adella's odd hairstyle in the movies does highlight how different hairstyling can be in a society that lives in zero-gravity.

But look at that mermaid behind her! That kind of hairdo would suit Adella, while making her stand apart from the other sisters. "Ariel's Beginning" was another opportunity to give Adella a better design. Instead, they used all of their best new ideas on the background extras.

That pale pastel yellow would be much easier on the eyes than Adella's 1970s-living-room color scheme. The clamshell hair clip, or any of those flower getups, would have been lovely on her.

This funny seashell hairpiece seen a couple times in the TV show would also have worked well.

[ponds-of-ink]

MXES's eyes snapped open, and the hare, taking in his surroundings, found himself back to the place that he had left only a week ago.

There was a pain that he was met with--and as the seconds met with, it only seemed to be growing. It was all around him--feeling as if something was desperately clawing and tearing at the hare's very code...

And perhaps, that truly was the unfortunate truth of the situation. The coding...

MXES's eyes went wide as a pained groan splattered out. He tried to move forward, but it felt as if he were almost tied up by invisible, thick ropes.

A delighted chuckle alerted the hare of the fact that someone else was in the room. "You had gotten rather far back then, hadn't you? Hm..."

Glitchtrap stepped--or, really hopped--into the hare's view. His hands were clasped together, and his glowing pair of eyes were wide in what could have been excitement.

"You..." MXES slowly began, barely managing to shake his head around in a sluggish manner. "What... what do you think you are doing?"

Glitchtrap's ears twitched, catching a single hint of a distressed tone, and at first, his only response was a chuckle. It was followed by him snapping his fingers.

MXES grunted as he collapsed to the ground. He tried to move--he tried to get up--but the hare remained. Whatever was keeping MXES in place was still in place.

Glitchtrap turned to face the other way as MXES shuddered from the pain. His arms were folded. "Well, you did fail, I would have to say. It's certainly not something you would enjoy, my little poor soul..."

"But me?" Glitchtrap snorted, his grin growing. "I'm certainly going to enjoy having you by my side..."

MXES tried to speak, but only a pained cry escaped as his code continued to be ripped apart.

"Your very programming is being rewritten as we speak," Glitchtrap spun around, easily making his way over to MXES, and placing a hand underneath his chin. "It won't last too much longer..."

"With you by my side?" Little, brief giggles kept escaping from the rabbit. "I could do anything..."

Glitchtrap dropped his hand, stood back up, and began to walk away once more. "I would warn that it may hurt a 'little', but I believe you already-"

The door burst open, filling the both of them with surprise. Glitchtrap's head turned, and MXES's head remained staring on ahead.

"Why, this is certainly a shock..." Glitchtrap sarcastically hummed.

"Vanessa...?" The weakened hare murmured.

The woman was advancing quickly. In the moment, she ignored the familiar, digital rabbit--in favor of reaching the hare's side, and crouching down beside his weakened form.

"MXES..." He had never seen such a large frown on anyone before--and it only seemed to be growing. Slowly, one of her hands raised, being placed atop his head.

Then, Vanessa's head spun around, eyes meeting Glitchtrap's. "You can't do this!"

"Oh, I can't?" Glitchtrap tilted his head to the side. "Well, I believe I already am..."

Vanessa walked away from the hare, her eyes remaining on the smug rabbit. "Now. You need to stop this, now! I'll..."

"Do anything?" This time, Glitchtrap was the one to move closer, head tilting further. He chuckled.

The silence from Vanessa was enough.

"V-Vanessa-" MXES tried to start, panic quickly seeping through.

Glitchtrap's eyes darkened. "How about... one unfortunate soul for the other, Vanny?"

-

Kind of something that could technically lead into the reprise that you mentioned.

<Incorrect-FNaF-Quotes

I’m not normal about Glitchtrap’s body language lining up with how I first pictured him in the animatic. I don’t think I’m going to be normal about that detail. @incorrect-fnaf-quotes, I’m gonna need a minute to recover, then get back to rest of it—

[lcafman]

please note : the following is a rant regarding live action movies and contains mention of the recent live action httyd trailer in a negative context . i am in NO way shaming those who are excited to see it , nor do i have any intention on taking away the amazing achievements of the people who poured their heart and soul into creating this movie / the amazing young actors . this is purely frustration towards corporate .

so i just saw the live action httyd trailer . httyd was one of my favorite movies growing up ( it made me feel very close to my scandinavian / celtic heritage ) , and i’ve always felt like i related a lot to hiccup . the cgi looks phenomenal and mason is a PHENOMENAL actor , i can tell he’s gonna crush this role .

it looks . exactly the same as the movie . exactly the same .

which is good ! but also like — what’s the point .

i’m so sick of live action movies in general , y’all . in regards to corporations , it’s so lazy . “ oh let’s just pump out a regurgitation of the SAME story we’ve ALREADY told because our idiot audience will buy into it . “ no , i want to see NEW stories . i want to see creative risks and be taken on new adventures . if i wanted to watch httyd , i’d watch httyd .

and it’s frustrating too that they seem to care less about casting people who are right for the role and more so about grabbing the biggest names they can for these roles . not that these aren’t talented actors / this isn’t done for the animated movies , but it’s so much more apparent when it’s a story that’s already been told .

it’s so lazy . it literally reeks of corporate being like “ these dumbasses will buy anything we shove in their mouths “ . give us new stories ! give us new cultures to explore ! give new actors / actresses a CHANCE ! i want to see more things that were done with moana / tangled , where the leads were teenage girls / new actresses ! if i have to see influencer #2872828 play a disney princess i’m going to rip my hair out .

i would genuinely rather have a dry spell from a company of crappy movies than them to continue to pump out this heartless , soulless medium of “ let’s take the animation medium and make it ✨real✨ . “ i’m not an animator so any animators can feel free to correct me but it feels a little insulting to the countless hours of work and talent the animators have put into these movies . why was that not good enough ? why do you have to retell the SAME MOVIE but with ✨ conventionally attractive people ✨ and probably ✨c.hris p.ratt✨ for some reason .

i dunno . it ticks me off , and i won’t spend any of my own hard earned money to see it . and yes , this would ESPECIALLY apply to a live action epic . thank god disney has entirely forgotten the film exists because i swear to god if they tried to pull that shit i would break into the studios and eat all of their storyboards

[strawbeii]

i wish the people in charge of disney (and more companies probably) would just get an office job or do other business stuff and let the artists who want to freely express themselves & their art shine through. if the executives are only worried about sales & money they should just go work in another business idk, if you're only creating things out of a desire for money then nothing is gonna come out as good as something with real passion. and the artists who do have that passion are often pushed to the side or have their ideas dimmed down as to not take too many "risks"

[unseemingowl]

Watched the little mermaid remake with the kids I babysit for. Don't have many opinions on the film as a whole but damn you were right those leads have CHEMISTRY

They doooooooooo! The chemistry is so real. It is 100 pct. the reason it is my favourite of the disney live action remakes (not that the competition is steep given how generally underwhelming the live action remakes are, but y'know).

If you redo a landmark animated film, you gotta give me some of that heat, some of that tension that is one of the few things that animated film struggle to convey quite as well as flesh and blood actors do.

And boy do they deliver. They're that kind of illustrious kind of cinema couple that actually look like they're having fun with each other. The section of the film where they bond and go on their little date is my jam.

The pregnant pauses. The staring. The way they completely short circuit when they touch in any proper way. The way Jonah Hauer King just absolutely towers over teeny tiny Halle Bailey. I'm obsessed. They look so good together.

Thiiiis! This shit here. Stick a fork in me, I'm done.

Only thing that makes me sad is that they're in a PG film, because they're acting peak horny teen pining. That electric, I barely know how to manage how to be in your presence, but I cannot bear to be away from you either.

I want to see what it would look like if they'd been allowed to turn up the dial.

[alixfoxx]

You know, people talk about The Little Mermaid being about teenage rebellion, but I think it's more about female autonomy. The main character, a young woman, is not allowed to have an interest in something she's passionate about, but she doesn't care. Her father thinks he knows what is best for her, but she wants freedom. When she speaks out about it, he destroys her work. The only way she thinks she will be freed is to reach out to his enemy, who has also been hurt by her father. However, this puts her in even more danger, but this danger never would've happened if her father just acknowledged her passion. The whole story is about a woman not being taken seriously. Even the other women just view her as her voice and looks.

[ekkotimesthree]

i really resent the growing idea that media with clear cut queer representation is inherently better than its counterparts with just queer themes and allegory. stop patting corporations on the back for the slop they throw on your tray in the hopes you’ll spare them a single dollar. the guy who wrote all the songs in the little mermaid (1989) was a man named howard ashman, and if you didn’t know, he died of aids shortly after the movie made it to theaters, two years to be exact. many of the people who worked on the film talked about how condition worsened as the production chugged along, and how through all of this, he poured his heart and soul into those goddamn lyrics. working tirelessly to tell the story HE wanted to tell. obviously no one would have allowed a children’s movie with a gay main character during the fucking reagan administration amidst the aids epidemic. so instead of a story about a teenager coming out as gay, she comes out as “loving humans”. the rest of the queer allegory is kinda obvious if i’m being honest. the only part that matters for this discussion is the ending. king triton accepts ariel for who she is, and lets her love who she loves. and now to this day, the little mermaid has stuck with queer people (and more specifically trans women, but i digress) to the point you can regularly see mermaid imagery throughout queer organizations and online groups.

howard ashman’s life was cut short by aids, and a huge part of that is undeniably due to the rampant homophobic discrimination. he’s dead, but now his story lives on as one of the most important films of film history. a story that will be remembered long after his death, and probably ours as well. that’s fucking beautiful! and it’s all possible because of queer allegory and storytelling. to act is if this film would have been better if ariel was actually trans or gay is foolish. we’re never going to live in a utopia where anti-queer bigotry is eradicated, and howard stern certainly never got to either. so to write off stories like these for “not actually having gay characters” is foolish as well. to do so ignores the queer history we should be preserving, and continuing to tell. would faceshopping be better if sophie said “i am a transgender woman”? how about the matrix? the only correct response is a resounding no.

if the revolution comes, i want mickey mouse’s head served on a platter.