During the "Kiss the girl" song, they almost kissed. Meaning that Ariel would've became human fair and square.
But Ursula cheated by sending her eel sidekicks to tip the boat over. Then she cheated again by turning herself into a human and using Ariel's voice.
Doesn't it depend on the fine print of the contract? Does the contract give Ariel rules but not Ursula? I agree, it's nefarious, evil, sneaky, and not good cricket, but is it contractual?
That said, I do think it'd be funny if, instead of signing his name, Triton just showed up with a mer-lawyer and was like, "I'll see you in court."
I noticed that too. The truth was, she didn't want Ariel to succeed. She never anticipated that Ariel could charm Eric and make him fall in love with her without her voice. She wanted Ariel as a prisoner to use as a bargaining chip to get Triton to hand over his life, his crown, and his trident to her. She almost succeeded too.
shareThat's probably best explanation for why she did it. Did whatever was necessary to obtain her goal.
shareIndeed.
shareWell, did you expect anything better from the villain of the movie?
shareDuh!
That's been the case in every story and fairy tale back to time humans first began to be able to communicate with language instead of grunts. If you make a deal with Dark Forces, they will fuck you over instead of delivering.
Gee how long does it take people to figure out making a deal w evil person is a bad idea!! The contract is not legit!!
shareOf course its legit. That was the point. The contract only says Ariel must convince Eric to give her a kiss of true love. It obviously (though I grant you we never see the exact wording) that Ursula can't interfere. One of the standards of both diabolical and fairy contracts is that the wording is precise. The devil, or the fairy, MUST comply with the terms of the contract. Therefore these contractors are very careful to eliminate all possible loopholes. Which leaves the poor signer the task of figuring out a way around it.
Don't forget, a contract does not have to be fair. If you sign a contract with someone that is unfair to you, you don't have any recourse; unless the contractor lies to you in some way.
Ursula was not going to give Ariel 3 days uninterupted for Eric to fall in love and give her the kiss of true love. She was going to do everything to ensure the kiss of true love could not happen. Therefore the contract would not and could not be completed.
shareUnless the contract says she could not interrupt, it doesn't matter. Ariel's task was to get Eric to kiss her. If she couldn't manage that, then she pays the price. I don't say it was fair. It wasn't fair. But, as I said, there is nothing that says a contract has to be fair.
sharewhy would the baddie of the movie make a fair deal?
shareOne of the consistent tropes in magical contracts throughout mythology and most fiction, is that the parties in a magical contract must satisfy the conditions. They cannot "cheat." What they often can do is interpret the contract in creative ways. For instance, make a contract for eternal life. But the one who wants to live together forgets to ask for eternal youth as well, so they continue to age, but never die.
The villain in these contacts, Satan, Ursula, whomever, is invested in writing the terms so they will always win while strictly fulfilling the terms.
And you are correct; the terms don't have to be fair and the evil villain is going to make sure they are not; for the other party.
Ariel should’ve gotten a lawyer to review that contract. It was a bad deal all around. There should’ve been a clause there where Ursula was forbidden from interfering. Ariel wasn’t being very smart.
shareShe was a teenager. How smart were we as teenagers.
Oh and btw---isn't (like on land) an adult entering into a binding contract with a minor illegal? I don't know mermaid kingdom law, so I'm just asking.
Well they don’t seem to have a problem with marrying off 16 year olds in the mermaid kingdom. Maybe she’s legally an adult. But man, Ariel is absent minded even for a teen.
shareShe's the villain. She's not supposed to play fair.
share