MovieChat Forums > The Little Mermaid (1989) Discussion > So since Eric fell in love with her voic...

So since Eric fell in love with her voice


Does that make Ariel a siren? Is there a distinction between mermaids and sirens or are they the same thing?

This is not the end of me, this is the beginning (-Christina Perri <3)

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Sirens are creatures from Greek mythology. They've been depicted in various forms, as birds with womens' head, as beautiful women with wings, or just naked women. With their voices and music they would enchant sailors and lure them to shipwreck.

Mermaids are creatures that appear in cultures all over the world. They have the upper body of a female human and tail of a fish. They don't necessarily have the magical abilities of sirens, although sometimes there's a cross-over of the two myths. In the case of Eric, I don't think he was literally enchanted by Ariel's voice. Eric just thought Ariel's voice was beautiful, it didn't have a magical quality.

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Ah, you explained to me the mystery I was pondering over for years - what is the difference between a siren and a mermaid - I'm Polish and for me both are the same. In Poland The Little Mermaid is known as Mala syrenka - syrenka is a diminutive for syrena - a siren. To me both were the same, as we call sirens and mermaids the same - for a Pole it's just syrena. Whether you mean a mermaid or an actual siren.

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http://www.fanfiction.net/u/2119876/

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He fell in love with her without a voice; remember "Kiss the Girl?" After witnessing that, Ursula knew the only way to keep him from falling in love with her was to enchant him. She used Ariel's voice, yes, but it was mixed with magic, that's why his eyes glowed (otherwise his eyes would have glowed anytime Ariel talked).

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Ursla was using Ariel's voice to hypotize him. So techinally Eric did fall in love with Ariel's voice before she 'lost' it to Ursla

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I think she actually used the voice to attract his attention. Then the spell from the shell hypnotized him.

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Except the spell broke when her nautilus was shattered, meaning it definitely had to have been the voice. If it were Ursula's magic, destroying the nautilus and even Ariel regaining her voice would not have mattered because Eric still would have been under Ursula's control, only Ursula's death would free him from her control.

Just because Ariel's voice is capable of doing so doesn't mean that it does so every time. To cite a similar example, in the game Metal Gear Solid: Portable Ops, the main villain Gene, as a result of the Successor Project, had his voice embued with a similar power to what Vanessa used to brainwash Eric, yet he only actually uses that power very few times. He certainly doesn't use it 24/7, and in fact they make sure to show when he's actually using his power to do so independent of just his talking normally.

The fact that Ariel doesn't use it that way simply means that Ariel respects people's wishes enough to not brainwash them.

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Except the spell broke when her nautilus was shattered, meaning it definitely had to have been the voice.


No, dumbass, that just means that the voice is an important part of the spell, and that the spell doesn't work without the voice. It certainly doesn't mean that Ariel's voice itself has any magical qualities.

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No, if it was Ursula's magic, it wouldn't have even mattered if Ursula's nautilus was destroyed or even if Ariel's voice returned, as Ursula still would have been in control of Eric until Ursula died. At best, the voice would have just been used as bait, nothing more. Think what happened when Ursula was killed by Eric: That polyp spell that was afflicted on her victims was completely broken, apparently being the only thing barring actually meeting the deal's requirements that actually can undo the spell.

Not to mention, since Ariel's voice was literally the crux of Ursula's magic since Ariel had to supply the voice in ORDER to make the deal in the first place, that would likewise mean that not only would Ursula's spell on Eric be broken from the Nautilus being broken, but Ariel wouldn't turn back into a mermaid even without the kiss, and the deal itself would be nullified due to the payment being returned to the owner.

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HELLO! Did you even read what I said? Ariel's voice was an important part of the spell, with the nautilus breaking and Ariel's voice returning to her body, the magic of the spell was gone! Simple as that!

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Yeah, and Ariel's voice was also an important ingredient for her even becoming a human and nearly becoming a polyp in Ursula's spells there (heck, it's literally the reason the deal happened), yet last time I checked, the magic done there wasn't undone despite Ursula clearly no longer having Ariel's voice. It was only undone when Ursula was killed.

And don't forget, she also used the nautilus and Ariel's voice (the nautilus glowed just seconds beforehand) when transforming herself into Vanessa, meaning Ariel's voice was a key ingredient to her transformation as well, yet when the nautilus was broken, "Vanessa" didn't transform back into Ursula, not until the sun set on the third day and she summoned that lightning to strike her to unveil her true form. Had it truly been due to her magic, Vanessa would have transformed into Ursula the very second Ariel's voice was released. So no, it was indeed Ariel's voice that caused Eric's hypnotism, not Ursula's magic, not even a key part (otherwise, there would have been plenty more that would have been undone besides Eric's curse, namely Ariel's curse/deal and Ursula's transformation, since Ariel's voice was a key ingredient to the magic involved there as well).

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No, her voice was simply a trade when it came to Ariel becoming a human, it was not an "ingredient" of the spell. And no, there's no reason to believe her voice played a role in Ursula becoming Vanessa, it all just happened at the same time. What the breaking of the nautilus DID do, was take away "Vanessa's" voice. So there's your proof that it's unrelated.

Ofcourse, it doesn't matter what I or anybody else says, because you'll always choose to believe your own far-fetched, nonsense theories.

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Considering her nautilus clearly glowed just before Ursula became Vanessa, yes, it actually WAS due to Ariel's voice, as that's the only thing in there that could cause it to glow.

And no, the only purpose of using Ariel's voice is to draw Eric to Vanessa. Then the spell would come into effect afterwards. In other words, the only "ingredient" Ariel's spell would serve would be as bait, and the spell itself would not have depend on it that much. Had I used a hypnotic spell and used something else as bait to lure them over, then even if the thing that acted as bait was taken away, I'd still have control over that person regardless, my control only being broken either by free will or literally over my dead body. It's the same thing here.

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Duh! Because the voice of Ariel was activated to become part of Vanessa AND because she put a hypnotic spell on it. But it was NOT part of the spell that gave Ursula the appearance of Vanessa. And it certainly doesn't imply Ariel's voice has any magical qualities of its own.

And no, the only purpose of using Ariel's voice is to draw Eric to Vanessa. Then the spell would come into effect afterwards. In other words, the only "ingredient" Ariel's spell would serve would be as bait, and the spell itself would not have depend on it that much.


It's clear you didn't even TRY to understand what I was saying.

A spell was cast on Ariel's voice to hypnotize Eric, making it an "ingredient". Her voice was NOT used in the spell to make her human. So you can't even compare the two spells.

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The TV series did have her driving out Evil Manta by summoning a storm with her voice, and that was in his debut episode.

And actually, she just used the voice as bait to lure him to her location, and she just cast the spell when she was in range. And since the voice was part of Vanessa, that means it was an ingredient for her transformation. Since the shell was destroyed, that would have meant Vanessa transformed into Ursula in an instant since with the voice being a key ingredient to her form, it would have dissolved her form immediately, which wasn't the case, so no, it's not an ingredient in either case, just bait in the case of hypnotizing Eric. And yes, I read your statement, I processed it, and it's wrong.

And here's another reason why it was definitely not the case that it was merely an ingredient. In one of the books, Ursula disguised herself as a mermaid named Arsulu as a means to infiltrate Atlantica, and she basically placed everyone under her thumb and mind control, everyone except Ariel, who was the only one suspicious of her. The ability was even similar to what Evil Manta did in his opening episode where he managed to turn friends against one another, meaning she didn't need Ariel's voice at all to hypnotize Eric, besides luring him as bait I mean, certainly she didn't need the voice as a key ingredient. At best, the voice being a key ingredient is only for Vanessa to actually speak with Ariel's voice.

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At best, the voice being a key ingredient is only for Vanessa to actually speak with Ariel's voice.


Then what the f are you going on about Ariel's voice having magical qualities? In that case, all the voice did was lure Eric because he recognized it, nothing more.

But I'm not going to continue the discussion if you bring up the tv series or the books.

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Her voice drew her to him. He was initially in love with the girl who saved his life, kind of like a life-saving hero worship love, but over the 3 days, where she had NO voice, he came to love HER. FInding out that she was the one who saved his life was just a bonus.

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Problem is, that being a prince, Eric had a WIDE array of women to chose from. If one had a minor defect, he could reject them as he knew he had lots of hot women in the wings waiting.
He probably saw the voice as something no other girl had. When he met Ariel, he obviously thought she was pretty, but didn't posess that quality he wanted. He probably saw her as being mute as another defect that could be problematic, if only in a small way. In other words another defect that other women that wanted to marry him possessed.

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Not sure about that

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He didn't fall in love with her voice. It was the thing that was memorable about her so he could identify her.

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