Ready to Stand: A comic retelling The Little Mermaid with a twist 🏳️⚧️
[Begin image description- Comic with 10 panels inspired by Disney’s The Little Mermaid. Comic title: “Ready to Stand” by Alienby comics.
Panel 1: Ariel, a mermaid, holds a dress up in front of her and looks into a mirror longingly. Ariel’s flat chest covered in scales and gills makes her gender ambiguous. Ariel is in her underwater cave surrounded by trinkets from the human world. Ariel’s voice over: “Maybe Father’s right. Maybe there is something wrong with me.”
Panel 2: Ariel leans on a rock on the surface of the water, looking hopefully at 2 human women walking along the beach in the distance. Ariel’s voice over: “But I want this more than anything.”
Panel 3: Ariel is seen swimming away from her home in a shadowy nook, looking back at her father and sisters, who are laughing together. She is sad to leave them. Ariel’s voice over speaking to Ursula: “So you can really turn me into a human?”
Panel 4: Ariel approaches Ursula the Sea Witch in Ursula’s lair pleadingly. Ursula speaks to Ariel over her shoulder. Ursula answers: “I can. You’re not the first, honey. Life down here is so drab, isn’t it?” Ariel replies: “Yes. I don’t belong here. Please help me.”
Panel 5: Ariel and Ursula’s conversation continues as we see a flashback of Ariel’s father Triton, who has angrily destroyed Ariel’s trinkets from the human world with his magic. Triton holds Ariel by the arm in one hand and holds her dress, which is now in shambles, in his other hand. Ursula’s voice over: “What do you have to offer me?” Ariel’s voice over: “I have… well, I had a trove of treasures until my father…” Ariel trails off. Ursula’s voice over: “How about your voice?”
Panel 6: Ariel looks over her shoulder back at Ursula. Ursula appears more devilish now and lurks in the shadows behind her. Ariel asks: “My voice?” Ursula replies: “You can’t get something for nothing, kid. Your voice for your legs. Do we have a deal?”
Panel 7: Ariel and Ursula now are at opposite sides of a bubbling purple cauldron, full of a potion that will make Ariel human. Ursula holds a vial of this potion out to Ariel. Ariel’s fists are clenched and her face is poised in resolve. Ariel simply says, “okay.” Ursula warns Ariel: “But the transformation will be painful, and you can never return home. Are you sure this is what you want?”
Panel 8: The comic cuts to after Ariel’s transformation. She breaks the surface of the ocean and takes a sharp breath of air. She no longer has gills or scales, and she now has noticeable human breasts with seashell coverings. Ariel’s inner monologue voice over: “Air in my lungs…”
Panel 9: Ariel is seen in 2 poses. The first pose shows Ariel sitting in the shallow water on the beach, admiring one of her feet on her brand new legs. She has a huge smile on her face. The second pose shows Ariel trying to stand, now wearing a skirt made from a piece of canvas from nearby ship debris. Ariel teeters and falls over with a chibi-like expression that exaggerates her panic. Ariel’s inner monologue voice over continues: “Sand between my toes, the warm sun on my soft skin…”
Panel 10: Ariel blissfully but silently laughs while laying in the warm sand on the beach. Her arms and new legs are sprawled out in relaxation. Ariel’s inner monologue concludes: “Now I’m home.” / End image description]
Oh my goooood, I just made this connection and I need to scream about it: they gave Eric a grotto!!!
Right, so of course in the animated The Little Mermaid Ariel has her secret grotto of human artifacts that she’s found in her explorations. It’s a hugely important place to her, and a monument to all that she longs for. And it is absolutely heart-breaking when her father destroys it.
Now Eric in this live action adaptation has had his love for the sea, and more specifically traveling to distance places and learning new things, kicked up quite a few notches. And he’s also been given a mother who disapproves because she thinks it’s dangerous. We love the parallels already.
So Ariel arrives on land, has a power nap when they leave her in a guest room to rest, then goes to explore the castle a bit. And in her exploration she finds a room which isn’t closed off per se, but there is a sense that it’s a little used/private area. Eric finds her there and tells her that it’s his room full of the things he’s picked up on his explorations. It’s his grotto!!!
And he is so excited to have her there! He mentions that no one ever comes in this room, and it’s very much in a “no one has ever cared about my special interest before” kind of way. She’s holding a little mermaid carving when he walks in and he immediately gives it to her. And then he’s like look over here at this other cool rock I have! And Ariel comes and looks and then smashes it to show him it’s actually a geode and he’s like oh my god so cool! And then she shows him how to blow on a conch shell — she’s very good at it and he’s very bad and they laugh about it. Transition to late that night where he’s got a map rolled out and is showing her different places and telling her about the places she points to. Then she grabs another map; she wants to hear about more! This one is a map of their island and he offers to give her a tour tomorrow (it’s his idea this time, not Grimsby’s).
I just love it. Ariel’s special place got destroyed, and then Eric shares his special place with her and feels delighted and honored to do so. 💖
Here is Ariel's casual outfit if she was a fairy from Winx Club. I really love how this one turned out, and I would like to thank Love Nikki Dress Up Queen for helping me expand my knowledge of different fashions.
Hiiii, I kind of want to rant on here. So we been seeing the new lilo and stitch live action, so we had many people upset because she (nani) isn’t brown in the live action, others saying that the actress is Hawaiian and it shouldn’t matter because they made ariel black in the live action little mermaid. Let’s just say this, if the character’s race or color is apart of the story, then the actress should be that race or color. So no, it’s not the same as halle Bailey being ariel. Ariel is a fish lady, she could be purple and the story would’ve continued as such. Nani being brown matters, Snow White being pale matters, anything else doesn’t matter. Much love 💗