#for the record I tried to avoid including any villains from the same franchise

[rakruined]

VILLAIN POLL

I was told that whoever wants to do this can join in by @tobiasdrake, so here I am!

Rules: make a poll with your top 5 favorite antagonists and ask your followers to vote for their favorite.

Tagging: @balloonboyismyson @mal-co-holic @risottoeater @616phyla @solradguy (no pressure!)

[otnesse]

Reply to Narnia4life

"Humans KILL fish, and would, most of them, experiment with mermaids. In King Triton’s eyes it was like Ariel was in love with a terrorist. Which she sorta was, a terrorist of sea animals. Ariel was the immature one. She was the one who KNOWINGLY went to the sea witch, in order to gain legs. Something that could’ve ruined her whole kingdom, AND NEARLY DID. The only bratty one I see here is Ariel. She sacrifices future relationships with her family, her safety, and their safety to get her wants. She is selfish and dangerously naive, which is why she will always be my least favorite Disney princess. "

First of all, while it is true that humans would kill fish (and let's be fair, there's plenty in the undersea world that eat fish as well. Do I have to remind you of the shark attack in the opening, or how Ursula's debut scene had her eating live shrimp? Last I checked, Triton had little issue with the sharks, who are far more of a direct threat to his kingdom BTW, and the worst he did to Ursula was banish her, which is little more than a slap on the wrist for what she did [if anything, she deserved the death penalty for her little garden].), it's unlikely the humans would have tried to get merpeople or experiment on them. For goodness sakes, they didn't even have access to submarines at the time of the film, still used sailing ships. If anything, even if humans posed any threat, the merpeople would actually see humans coming long before they would even be aware, and even deliberately position themselves well outside any visual limits for humans, either standard or enhancements via telescopes. Not to mention, in the opening of the film, Eric clearly wasn't even AWARE of who King Triton was until a sailor mentioned him, and Grimsby implied he doesn't even exist, and said sailor actually RELEASED a fish just to do a good thing for Triton, implying he had some reverence to him.

Second of all, judging all of humanity to be terrorists is actually the worst way to go. Zamasu had the exact same idea in Dragon Ball Super, and he proved to be one of the franchises most evil villains as a result (arguably surpassing FRIEZA in vileness, and that guy was considered one of the series' most evil villains due to essentially being a genocidal dictator), and do I really have to remind you of how Judge Claude Frollo adhered to that exact line of thinking and how THAT turned out for him? Trying to protect Ariel from actual threats is one thing, and I can commend Triton for that, but implying humanity needed to be exterminated or at least not care if one drowned even when admitting you don't know him is below the pale.

Third of all, she went to Ursula while she was an emotional wreck, after Triton pretty much blew up her grotto in a fit of anger (which, based on Triton's reaction afterwards, even HE knew he crossed a very big line with that action there), and considering that Ursula sang a song about how she had reformed to sway her into the deal, Ariel most likely didn't even KNOW Ursula was still after Triton's throne and most likely did think she reformed (and for the record, she actually was hesitant throughout the whole deal, and in fact, when F&J tried to directly suggest she go see Ursula, she outright refused them DESPITE being in emotional distress, so it clearly wasn't an easy decision for her to do, and she implies that part of her hesitance towards going through with the deal DID in fact deal with possibly being separated permanently from her family.). For a good comparison, play Mega Man Battle Network 3 and get to the chapter where Mr. Match tricks Lan Hikari into committing cyber arson. I might as well point out something else as well, she if anything tried to AVOID risking her family and friends, considering she initially insisted on going alone with F&J. Your complaints are probably far better fit for her counterpart from the original tale by Hans Christian Anderson than Ariel. Heck, Belle would have been a far better fit for those complaints (especially the endangerment thing) than Ariel (since unlike Ariel who at least can be excused with thinking Ursula had turned a new leaf, Belle actually DID know exactly what Gaston was truly like when she exposed Beast to that lynch mob, especially after she very clearly deduced that Gaston had orchestrated the arrest of her father as blackmail to force her hand in marriage, and that nearly got Beast and his servants outright MURDERED, and only barely managed to end things for the better via sheer dumb luck on her part. Ariel at least worked hard to clean up the mess she caused, and defeating Ursula was an easy fix compared to the situation with Gaston and the lynch mob, where no amount of magic could fix the deaths that were inflicted even if Gaston was killed, especially if she arrived AFTER the last pedal fell.). If you were truly consistent with your arguments, you'd probably rank Belle as low as Ariel, if not even LOWER than her, for precisely those reasons. And heck, at least Ariel didn't blame her father for her mistakes, unlike Belle who blamed Beast for the events leading up to the Wolf Incident despite the whole situation actually being largely HER fault.

Also, Ariel isn't selfish or a brat by any stretch. In the opening of the movie, she literally risked becoming shark food to save Flounder from becoming that, she actually risked being hit by flaming projectiles caused by Eric's ship exploding to save Eric when he was launched into the water and nearly drowned, she saved Sebastian from becoming Grimsby's meal, and that was DESPITE her most likely holding residual anger towards him for squealing to her dad), she let Vanessa marry Eric under the belief that he chose Vanessa, without even raising a hand against the marriage, despite not only being heartbroken by the decision, but her likely suffering eternal damnation at Ursula's hands as a result due to the nature of the deal, and in fact, when she did try to stop the wedding, it was ONLY after learning that Vanessa was Ursula in disguise and that she brainwashed Eric, in what was explicitly against her deal.), and last, but not least, when Ursula cursed her father, Ariel's first action is to try and outright ATTACK Ursula to avenge him, not gloat at Triton. And that's not even counting how she destroyed F&J when Ursula tried to destroy Eric with the Trident, saving his life again, or telling Eric to leave her behind (for that matter, that's not even counting the extension media featuring her). She if anything is one of the LEAST selfish DPs (if you ask me, her original counterpart was considerably more selfish, even WITH her deciding to spare the prince twice. I actually was not fond of the original tale for that reason, especially when she was essentially rewarded for the mass amounts of bad behavior she displayed in the book. If anything, the Disney version was an improvement.). Now, that all being said, I WILL agree with you that Ariel was naïve in the original film, and that such WAS a flaw of hers.

And don't think that in my defense of Ariel that I think Triton's a bad character by any stretch. Far from it, I if anything actually rank King Triton as being among the best Disney fathers, alongside Fa Zhou, Dr. James Possible, the remake version of Maurice, Mufasa, Simba in the sequels, and the 1959 film version of King Stefan, due to his coming across as genuinely impressive rather than an essentially an overgrown kid, a jerkwad, or incompetent (the latter three unfortunately being a common depiction of Disney fathers right now), not to mention actually protecting Ariel when it occurs and patching up relations with her. That doesn't mean I can't call him out on bad behavior or think he's blameless (and BTW, I also realize Ariel isn't blameless, so don't think I'm playing favorites, it's just that unlike you, I DON'T demonize Ariel despite being aware of her flaws, including naivety.).