Ariel (Disney)

NOTE: This article is about the mainstream version of Ariel. If you are looking for Halle Bailey's 2023 live-action portrayal of Ariel, go here.

Pure Good

Mermaid
Human (Teenager)
Blue Dress
Pink Dress
Green Dress
Seafoam Dress
Human (Adult)
10 years old

Full Name

Ariel

Alias

Princess Ariel

Origin

The Little Mermaid

Powers/Skills

Singing
Aqua breathing
Superhuman speed
Superhuman strength
Superhuman durability
Thermoendurance
Aquapathy
Aquakinesis
Rapid adaptability
Advanced literature and sign language
Swordsmanship
Poise
Agility

Family

Eric (husband)

Melody (daughter)
King Triton (father)
Queen Athena † (mother)
Attina, Alana, Adella, Aquata, Arista and Andrina (sisters)
Poseidon (paternal grandfather)
Neptune (paternal great-grandfather)
Crustacea (paternal great-aunt)

Allies

Flounder (best friend)

Sebastian
Scuttle

Enemies

Ursula † (archenemy)

Flotsam and Jetsam
Glut the shark
The Evil Manta
The brain sponge
Morgana

Goals

Protect Atlantica from threats.

Become a human.
Save her daughter from Morgana. (all succeeded)

Goodness Zone

Saving Atlantica from villains several times.

Saving Eric twice.

Type of Hero

Rebellious Monarch

“	There it is. Isn't it fantastic?	„
	~ Ariel

Ariel, also known as Princess Ariel, is the titular main protagonist of Disney's The Little Mermaid franchise.

She is a mermaid who lives in the underwater kingdom of Atlantica and helps protect it from threats with the help of her friends but is fascinated by humans and dreams of becoming one herself.

She is voiced by Jodi Benson in all her appearances, who also played Barbie in Toy Story 3.

What Makes Her Pure Good?[]

She is very compassionate toward others and does her best to spread harmony and friendship to those who need it and tries to overcome prejudice whenever she finds it.
She has a very close friendship with Flounder and will do anything to protect him when he's in danger.
She bonds with Gabriella, a deaf mermaid, and helps her overcome her depression by telling her that her sign language is as beautiful as speech would be.
She admires Prince Eric when she sees him rescue a dolphin, and this causes her to realize that not all humans are bad, and always believes the best of humans despite her father's prejudice towards them.
She often protects Atlantica from being taken over by the villains and saves it from the Evil Manta numerous times.
She befriends Urchin and helps reform him, showing him that the Lobster Mobster was tricking him by pretending to be his friend.
She babysits two mischievous twins and rescues them from the Lobster Mobster when he kidnaps them.
When she first meets the Evil Manta, she frees him from a trap under the mistaken belief that he's an innocent creature who was wrongly imprisoned, and is remorseful when she realizes he tricked her, and does her best to protect Atlantica from his plan to spread prejudice.
When Flounder appears to be brainwashed by the Evil Manta, Ariel tries to help him out of it by hugging him and reminding him of how they're friends and is relieved to learn Flounder was faking it. When the Manta has brainwashed everyone else to turn on each other, Ariel talks to Flounder about how they became friends, and this helps her regain her will to stop the Manta. She overcomes his brainwashing by singing a song to all the Atlanticans about harmony and being friends with those who are different, which gets through to them and foils the Manta's plans, stopping him from taking over Atlantica and forcing him to retreat.
She stops the Evil Manta from taking over the kingdom in one episode by pointing two "thingamajiggers" at him, which the Manta thinks are powerful weapons, which scares him off.
She becomes friends with the Evil Manta's son and doesn't judge him because of his father, and even shows compassion for the Evil Manta himself as she saves him from being drained by his brain sponge, which appears to motivate the Manta to redeem himself.
She rescues a whale who was being bullied by some sharks and adopts him, showing him kindness and encouraging him to stand up for himself, which enables him to save Ariel and Flounder from those sharks later.
She is the only one to befriend the "bad luck creature" and tries to overcome the other characters' fear and dislike toward him.
In the episode "Giggles" she foils the plans of a sorcerer blowfish who has placed a curse to cause seaquakes whenever Ariel laughs. When she finds the blowfish and he refused to help, Ariel outwits him by laughing near him, which forces him to undo the curse. She then tries to understand his motives, and when he explains his jealousy of the other blowfish, she helps him with his problem by advising him to find something he enjoys doing, reforming him in the process.
She protects the kingdom from evil alligators along with her sister Arista, bonding with her in the process.
She comforts Flounder in the movie when he's scared while exploring a shipwreck, asking him if he's okay.
She risks her own life to save Flounder from being eaten by a great white shark, outwitting and trapping the predator.
While visibly annoyed with Flounder when he accidentally reveals to Triton that she went up to the surface (which leads to Ariel being scolded by her father), she forgives him for it and tenderly sings "Part of Your World" to him when he asks her if she's okay.
She saves Prince Eric from drowning after a shipwreck and shows concern for him when he appears to be dead.
She's overjoyed when Flounder gives her Eric's statue as a gift, embracing him and telling him he's the best.
She defends Eric from Triton's accusations when he calls Eric a barbarian, telling her father that he doesn't know Eric and that she had to save him, or he would have died.
She is heartbroken when Triton takes her place in Ursula's contract, showing that she still loves him, even though he destroyed her grotto earlier.
She saves Eric's life by re-directing Ursula's trident, destroying Flotsam and Jetsam in the process, though she didn't mean to kill them.
Before departing with Eric, she reconciles with her father and forgives him as they sharing a heartwarming hug and she quietly proclaims: "I love you, daddy."
She is remorseful in the sequel for how she handled things with Melody and overcomes this as a corrupting trait, admitting that she should have been honest about why she didn't want her to go into the sea and was trying to protect her from Morgana.
She saves Eric from Morgana's stingrays.
She's willing to take on Morgana herself and even brings down a ship's rigging onto her in order to subdue her and save Melody, and then searches the entire ocean for her daughter when she runs away and apologizes to her for what happened.

Trivia[]

Ariel was once considered to be a Heroic Benchmark due to the belief that she doesn't stand out as much as the other Disney Princesses and was once a tab icon on the Heroic Benchmark Wiki. However, it was later decided that she is Near Pure Good as she was indeed admirable, and it was thought that she hasn't completely subverted her corrupting traits, while Snow White succeeded her as the new tab icon for HBW. Eventually, Ariel was proposed and is now approved as Pure Good as it was determined she did pass all the standards and lost all of her corrupting qualities.
- It makes her a rare example of a hero who was almost every type of hero on the Moral Scale at some point, excluding Inconsistently Admirable.
  - This, ironically, is the exact opposite of King from Deltarune, who was originally approved as Pure Evil, then was demoted to Near Pure Evil after Chapter 2 revealed that he genuinely cares about his son Lancer and admitted he was bluffing when he threatened to drop Lancer to his supposed death, and then demoted to Villainous Benchmark after it was agreed that he fails the heinous standard. He also never was an Inconsistently Heinous.
She is the only female Pure Good to come from a 1980s Disney movie.
She is one of the three The Little Mermaid heroes to be Pure Good, alongside her husband Eric and her daughter Melody.