They also said she’ll have a connection to Storybrook that’s a surprise.
Do you happen to remember which of the frillions of interviews that was mentioned in? I’m drawing a blank on hearing them say that.
So my theory — I think mermaids have the ability to travel to other worlds without the need of a portal…by diving in the deepest depths of the oceans, they can reach another world. There is no way a non-mermaid could survive such a trip and, thus, everyone else needs a portal.
Like Josephine mentioned, we’ve tossed that idea around a bit before, with worlds being connected by the water. I think there’s gotta be some point where worlds actually touch each other. According to Jefferson…
Jefferson: A real world. How arrogant are you to think yours is the only one? There are infinite more. You have to open your mind. They touch one another, pressing up in a long line of lands.
So I think it’s entirely plausible that there’s some physical nexus point, so to speak, which is the point where the crossover is possible. Bae went down a hole in the ground and fell out of mid air in another world. The Shadow flew towards a certain point in the sky and crossed over. Hook’s ship went under the water and came out in another world. Maybe the squid with the magic ink, (I keep going back and forth on whether I think their Ursula will be a half squid half humanoid creature like in the movie, or if the squid will be a separate being), is essentially a guardian of the gateway between the worlds at the deepest point of the ocean? But if you can’t get to that point of your own accord, that’s when you need a portal. That’s why Hook could only get to NL through a portal, instead of just flying towards a star like the Shadow could.
Perhaps Ariel was preoccupied with humans enough to explore other worlds whereas most mermaids just stay in their home in Neverland?
This is something else I’ve wondered about, which world does Ariel actually come from? Because if she’s gonna be fascinated with the human world, she’d be far more exposed to it if she lived in FTL, as opposed to NL, which is probably more primitive and sparsely populated. But we’ve had Wendy say that there are mermaids in NL. So are there potentially separate populations living in both worlds? Or, as you suggest, is it just Ariel who is the little explorer who dares to go to another world to see humans, (I’d sorta like that because it’d show her adventurous spirit).