The problem I have with my own theory though, is that I love The Little Mermaid so much, it’s my favorite Disney story and I don’t want to end up hating my favorite Disney character if she turns out be a soulless mermaid.
When they set up mermaids as being dangerous by having Hook allude to it (twice), my initial thought was that that had to be a setup to show Ariel as being different. Even if mermaids as a whole are dark and dangerous, I reckon they’ll still make Ariel unique. They’ve gotta know how many people out there adore her and would be disappointed if their version of her is totally nasty.
If they do make mermaids dark, I think it could make Ariel herself more compelling, if she’s got the potential to be this dangerous creature that’s lurking inside, but she chooses to not be a ruthless human-hater like all the rest. At her heart, she’d be one of the goodies, but she’d always have the potential to turn on someone if the occasion called for it, just because mermaids are genetically programmed to be lethal. It could make her totally badass and someone who commanded respect, not the kinda girl you’d wanna mess with.
I think that is an interesting theme, and one of the parts of Disney’s version that seems a bit off as it does seem like Ariel completely transforms for Eric.
Something I think would be good to see is if her guy, whoever he ends up being, holds that same anti-mermaid opinion we’ve already seen from Hook. I’d like for him to know that she was a mermaid, and have to deal with getting over his prejudice against them in order to fully accept and love her. Sure, she still would have given up her true form and changed for him, but there’d have to be some give from his side of the relationship too.
The other interesting bit from the article is where the legends of Animal Brides comes in, the desire to be free and wild. That reminds me of Ruby, who of course, will have to be featured less as her actress has another gig. I could see the writers having a role for Ariel to slip into some themes of where they may have originally plotted Ruby to carry some story.
I’m seriously gonna miss Red, (have been re-watching some of season 1 tonight and lamenting how she’s not gonna be there full time for the whole life of the show *sigh*), but that’s a great point that some of what they were gonna explore with her could work for Ariel too.