There’s a subplot in the Little Mermaid wherein Ariel has an internal character arc Towards th

There’s a subplot in the Little Mermaid wherein Ariel has an internal character arc Towards the beginning of the movie – before we meet Ariel – Sebastian exposits that she’s a flake who never shows up to rehearsal So our very first impression of the character is that she can’t conform, and it’s causing drama It would make sense if the story was about Ariel trying to find her niche You know the Kids’ Movie routine: she struggles to fit in, but gradually she realizes that sometimes it’s alright to Just Be Yourself™ Except that’s not how the story goes! Ariel never even entertains the thought of conforming! The only reason she’s willing to play along at all is because she’s required to! This subplot resolves in “Under the Sea,” wherein Sebastian adapts Triton’s propaganda into one of the most delightful showtunes of all time Yet in the middle of this spectacular song, Flounder swims over to Ariel and says, “Hey, would you rather do literally anything else in the world?” and she says, “Yeah I guess,” and then they leave before the big finale, without looking back Clearly Ariel will never conform So even though this is an internal conflict, she never feels any tension about changing her personality. She’s at peace with her identity. And I don’t think we (in the audience) are ever supposed to seriously consider the possibility that she’ll change The only characters who are invested in it are Triton (and his narrative surrogate, Sebastian) So this is subplot wherein a protagonist has an internal arc, but only from the antagonists’ perspective That’s… pretty wild I didn’t know you could do that -- source link

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