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Zombie Milah, I’m telling you–touch a mermaid, lose your soul…
They very well could go very dark on mermaids. We have already seen “the Siren” and she seemed to enjoy killing everyone. They also did call her a guardian. In fairy tales sometimes you have a character that presents challenges to sort out the unworthy, but the siren seemed more evil than that. Ariel could be a guardian to something (squid ink?) who was not corrupted but might present a challenge to our heroes because it is her duty.
I found this article about mermaids in folklore that is interesting–particularly the last bit as it bears on the resolution of both Andersen and the Disney version of the tail.
“Do you have any advice for aspiring mermaids?
Please tell young aspiring mermaids that Disney had it all wrong. It’s never a good idea to give up a part of yourself (your fish tail or your voice) for the sake of love. Love is only true if you are valued for who you really are, fish tail and all.”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.
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.
Though I recall that phrase someone used and Ariel’s role may be “to keep Henry from intruding on the main plot.” Ouch. Better under the sea indeed!
[adrotate group="5"]“If I had a world of my own, everything would be nonsense. Nothing would be what it is, because everything would be what it isn't. And contrary wise, what is, it wouldn't be. And what it wouldn't be, it would. You see?” -- Lewis Carroll, Alice's Adventures in Wonderland & Through the Looking-Glass
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.
One of the twists they may put on Ariel is that she has the ability to change back and forth. That’s what the teaser suggested, though I don’t know how much to read into that as factual. Since I’ve grown up a lot since The Little Mermaid came out (I was 3) I do recognize that there is a fine line between saying “she wanted to be human so she changed to be happy” and “she changed for a man and gave up her whole family and way of life.” I don’t know how they plan to handle that.
"He was a lot of things to me" "The only conclusion was love"Listening to the Jane Ep. interview, I think where they would go is back to the idea that we all have multiple “versions” of ourselves that are all true, but that different circumstances (like a magical curse!) bring out those sides. When you find true love, what that person does is not change you, but simply help bring to the forefront that part of your personality that may have been overshadowed by other things.
So I suppose it would be more metaphorical that even if Ariel literally goes from mermaid to human, the best part of her was a capacity to love and make friends with those different than her, and that never changes. The saddest bit of DIsney/Andersen is this idea of Ariel sacrificing her family’s love for romantic love. Ideally, it wouldn’t be such a choice, but stories thrive on conflict.
There’s a literary tradition of making it be a choice, the romeo/juliet thing, and there’s a touch of it in many of the love stories in OUAT. Cora doesn’t want Regina and Daniel together. Belle’s father doesn’t understand about Rumpel. King George’s attitude toward Snow (or even Jack, though that wasn’t even love for James). There’s other examples though, as Ruth accepted Snow. Thomas’ family welcomed Cinderella in FTL (though they were against her in cursed SB).
“If I had a world of my own, everything would be nonsense. Nothing would be what it is, because everything would be what it isn't. And contrary wise, what is, it wouldn't be. And what it wouldn't be, it would. You see?” -- Lewis Carroll, Alice's Adventures in Wonderland & Through the Looking-Glass
There’s a literary tradition of making it be a choice, the romeo/juliet thing, and there’s a touch of it in many of the love stories in OUAT. Cora doesn’t want Regina and Daniel together. Belle’s father doesn’t understand about Rumpel. King George’s attitude toward Snow (or even Jack, though that wasn’t even love for James). There’s other examples though, as Ruth accepted Snow. Thomas’ family welcomed Cinderella in FTL (though they were against her in cursed SB).
Oooh, I like that observation. If they introduce Ariel and there’s a rivalry between mermaids and humans and Eric and Ariel are caught in the middle of it.
In the Disney tale, there was fear from the humans and the mermaids about each other. It isn’t played up a lot, just a little bit in the Disney version, as Ursula is the main villain, not Triton. I mean, humans eat fish. There’s the whole sequence in the movie about poor Sebastion running from the chef.Imagine it going the other way, with mermaids hunting humans –and hey, Halloween episode!
“If I had a world of my own, everything would be nonsense. Nothing would be what it is, because everything would be what it isn't. And contrary wise, what is, it wouldn't be. And what it wouldn't be, it would. You see?” -- Lewis Carroll, Alice's Adventures in Wonderland & Through the Looking-Glass
One of the twists they may put on Ariel is that she has the ability to change back and forth.
I’ve wondered about that too, but am leaning towards no, just because on this show, magic always comes with a price, so I can’t see them letting her have the best of both worlds. If she wants to use magic to do something so drastic, she has to accept the full consequences of it.
So I suppose it would be more metaphorical that even if Ariel literally goes from mermaid to human, the best part of her was a capacity to love and make friends with those different than her, and that never changes. The saddest bit of DIsney/Andersen is this idea of Ariel sacrificing her family’s love for romantic love. Ideally, it wouldn’t be such a choice, but stories thrive on conflict.
Yeah, I could see them playing up her traits that make her human-compatible, which would in turn make her seem less mermaid-compatible. If the merfolk really are nasty pieces of work who hate humans, Ariel could be portrayed as quite the outcast, maybe even to the point where it’s actually not safe for her to remain as a mermaid.
In the Disney tale, there was fear from the humans and the mermaids about each other. It isn’t played up a lot, just a little bit in the Disney version, as Ursula is the main villain, not Triton. I mean, humans eat fish. There’s the whole sequence in the movie about poor Sebastion running from the chef.Imagine it going the other way, with mermaids hunting humans –and hey, Halloween episode!
What do merfolk eat? I could buy that the Disney merfolk are vegetarians, considering Ariel’s BFFs are talking sea creatures. But the type of merfolk who drag humans to their deaths, I’m guessing they’d eat any other underwater critter they could get their hands on. I could still see those types of merfolk not liking humans though. Fishermen are gonna catch merfolk in their nets now and then, and that’s gonna create animosity.
As for the Halloween ep, that’ll be ep 5. Last year we got Frankenstein, maybe this year we’ll meet some vicious mermaids?
Re-watched Skin Deep last night, and ya know how back on page one I copied and pasted that bit from tumblr about Regina’s differently coloured streak of hair in this ep and how people used it to place the ep on the T-word? It occurred to me that someone else has a differently coloured streak of hair on the side of her head too.
Regina with her hair streak (and big black dress) in the scene where she mentioned a mermaid:
http://screencapped.net/tv/onceuponatime/displayimage.php?album=27&pid=997765#top_display_mediafrom the latest TVGuide lightening round
from CC, we know Hook is the obvious answer but that’s TOO obvious.
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