#i can't also be the only one who has noticed that after tlm all of the princes and princesses have had friction between each other

[bigfrozensix]

When it comes to The Little Mermaid II, it isn't one of my favorite sequels, but something I remember kinda disliking about certain parts of the fandom was pitting Melody against Ariel and people saying that Melody was "better" than Ariel because she didn't had a love interest, saved the day and "didn't left her family for a man", there was a sector who believed that Melody's motivations were stronger than Ariel's because apparently "Ariel had no problems" while Melody was bullied by her peers. I mean, both their motivations were valid? Ariel didn't feel like she was part of the sea: she had to hide her interests from her own family, her only friend in the sea was Flounder (even if we take in account the TV series, notice that all the characters Ariel tended to befriend were outcasts, if anything the popular girl tried to take advantage of her) and as we have say plenty of times, Ariel wished to be human way before she saw Eric and her catalyst to see Ursula was Triton destroying her grotto. This trend of pitting female characters against each other to prove which one is better is something I always have hated. Besides, you can't compare a 12 year old child with a 16 year old teenager: obviously Melody couldn't leave home as Ariel did, because Melody is still a child who is growing up, while Ariel's story was one of coming of age, of leaving her home to start a new life - and in fairytale logic, 16 was the equivalent of 18 back then.

(And let's not start that unlike Ariel, Melody wasn't stuck in the deep of a whirpool with a giant Morgana trying to kill her with a trident. The circumstances are very important to consider of why Ariel couldn't kill Ursula herself. Just saying)

Sorry for the late reply, I needed a moment to mentally recharge after my vacation in London.

Ah yes, the age old tale of pitting female characters against each other with the always misogynistic "a female character without a love interes is automatically stronger" argument.

How people can say that with their full chest without realizing they're literally saying "a woman's worth is tied to her relationship status" is absolutely beyond me. Gotta love those faux feminists that think the only way to praise women is by kicking down the "wrong" ones.

I honestly didn't really grow up with the TLM series (Disney shows aired all over the place here until we finally got Disney Channel in 2009), but I finally watched it in full on Disney+ and it's definitely really good at expanding on the world building and Ariel's life before becoming human.

It shows how though Ariel has a good relationship with her father, it's always the human world that wedges a rift between them. A rift that only seems to be getting bigger the more Ariel's interest in the human world grows.

We even see Ariel started her grotto in the first place, because she already knows bringing her human treasures back home results in Triton destroying them. She even admits to being scared to come home when she got stuck to a human item... and if that's not a red flag, I don't know what is.

As someone who grew up with a dad who's a lot like Triton (caring, well-meaning, but having anger issuess) I feel Ariel's reactions to Triton's anger SO MUCH. Loving your father but also being scared of him is a very complicated emotion.

I'm not sure where I was going with this... I just have a lot to say when it comes defending Ariel from faux feminists who don't understand her character.