I was reading the lyrics for the uncut version of “Poor, Unfortunate Souls” and suddenly had this image of Ursula as a crime boss. This led into AU spinning.

King Triton is the crime boss. He is subtle in his workings and his control over the city is strong, quiet, and sure. Many people think he’s just a myth. Those who know the truth fear him. Ursula was once a trusted member of his inner circle, but then she tried to usurp him. Now she is shunned and outcast. Still, many seek out Ursula for she can procure any item or learn any secret—for a price. Her connections stretch out through the city like tentacles. 

Sebastian took a job as a personal assistant at Atlantica Industries to support himself as he pursued a music career. A little too good at his job, Sebastian eventually discovered that his boss Tristan Merriman was actually the feared Triton. Instead of running or being threatened away, Sebastian found himself being pulled in tighter and tighter to the family. Now he still plays jazz on occasion and teaches Triton’s daughters to play various instruments, but he is first and foremost, Triton’s aide, mouthpiece, advisor, and confidant. Sometimes he regrets the paths he has taken in life—especially when he feels reduced to a nanny for Triton’s daughters—but most of the time, he wouldn’t trade his role for anything. Sebastian is now a very different man from when he first took that PA job. He is harder and more practical. He sees the good the family can accomplish, but he cannot ignore the terrible actions it takes as well. Ariel, though, reminds him of the young man, boy really, he’d once been.

Flounder met Ariel in elementary school. They became fast friends and Flounder has followed Ariel ever since (he even attends the same private high school, thanks to a special Merriman scholarship). He learned the truth of Ariel’s family back in middle school and is, honestly, terrified of her dad. He loves Ariel, though. They spend time at his house and go on urban adventures together. Ariel, having been very sheltered her entire life, has a huge bucket list of places she want to go and activities she wants to try. She keeps souvenirs of all her adventures—ticket stubs, coasters, photo strips, etc.

Scuttle is the janitor at Ariel’s middle school. He knows the truth about Ariel’s family and isn’t the least bit intimidated. He talks with Ariel freely, answering any and all questions she has about the world. Ariel asks him advice for dating, reasons for the holidays, the magic behind movie special effects, and explanations of politics. Scuttle always has (an utterly wrong) answer ready for her.

Eric is the mayor’s only son. He is a college student, but he once attended the same high school as Ariel. So, when visiting home for a holiday, he goes to a party being thrown by a friend a year younger than he. Ariel saves his life when he gets drunk at a party and falls into the pool. (Ariel was not supposed to be at the party; she snuck out to attend).

It is assumed that Ariel will, like her sisters, one day contribute to the family. Ariel, however, continues falling for Eric. She collects news clippings about him from his college newspaper and mentions of him in news about the mayor. She starts to dream about a life where she was just a normal girl and not a member of the most feared family in the state. When her father learns she has applied for an out-of-state college (…Eric’s college, though it also has a fantastic music program that Ariel really wants…) rather than just attend the same university as he and all her sisters had or were currently, he is furious. Then he finds her scrapbooks—all her souvenirs and, worse, all her notes about Eric.

He burns the scrapbooks.

Ariel runs and finds herself on Ursula’s doorstep. She wants to be normal, to be free of her family, to be a girl Eric could actually have a relationship with without having to worry about her past and family ties destroying him. 

And Ursula? Forbidden, dangerous Ursula with her myriad connections and utter ruthlessnes?

She can work magic.

I love fusion AUs. When they’re done well, they are amazing. Even when they’re only done so-so, they’re still good. The problem crops up with the people who think they can just change the names around and add a bit of dialogue or description from one source to the other—even when the two canons are very, very different in tone. 

The thing it seems a lot of writers forget or neglect is that they’re handling two (or more) canons and that they need to pay equal heed to all of them.

Say you’re injecting the characters of one canon (canon A) into the plot and setting of another (canon B) (a common way of doing a fusion)—the characters of A will not and cannot act the same way for the same reasons as the characters of B do. This may derail the plot a bit. The trick then is finding the right levers for the characters from A to make the plot from B still occur.

For example (and those familiar with the destiel fandom will now know what prompted this rant…), say you put the Winchesters into Stardust. I cannot imagine Dean going over the Wall to fetch a star for a girl. I could imagine, though, is Sam being engaged to Jess when Jess falls ill to a burning fever. The boys hear that a star can restore health and life so (perhaps their father left long ago chasing after one or trying to find their mother again) and so, when they see one fall, Dean promises to go get it for Sam to save Jess. (When Dean returns, either Jess recovered on her own or she has died, but Sam has already mourned and moved on). The plot goal—get Dean on the other side of the Wall and tracking down the star—is still accomplished, but the reason is a lot more Dean than Tristran. It also still fits into the Stardust canon, though, and will later put Dean on level with the witches who seek Cas-the-Star for their own youth and gain. It also sets up a great David&Saul-like scene for later on when Cas sleeps and Dean, instead of killing him and taking his heart, cuts off some of his hair to take to Sam.

Another problem with injections is if a canon A character is impossible within canon B. Can’t just drop the Hulk into Harry Potter. These things have to be translated in a way so that the character dynamics, status, and relationships of A AND the reality of B are all retained.

(Honestly, it was discontent with a fusion between Harry Potter and Avengers that inspired me to write my own.)

Then there are the fusions in which two canons are blended so that both plots and settings must be honored. Most characters blend, but some from one canon may replace some from another. These often hinge on characters having the same name/description/role or being played by the same actor/actress (For example, I read a good AU in which Good Omens!Crowley was Supernatural!Crowley). The main challenge for this kind of fusion is dealing with contradictions between the two canons. For example, if you blend Twilight with any other canon with vampires, you’ll have to deal with the fact that Twi-vamps sparkle in the sunlight.

The other challenge with the blending type of fusion—and the point where most of these types of AUs falter in my experience—is remembering that  the plots and people will change afer being introduced to one another. The plots must change. The characters must react to one another, change, and grow. The canons must affect one another. This may obliterate plot points. For example, let’s blend Disney’s The Little Mermaid and The Dresden Files. Instead of the ocean, Ariel’s family resides in the Great Lakes (and the other spaces there on the side of Faerie). Ariel still falls for some boy she saves from drowning, but when she is sent ashore with legs and no voice, Dresden finds her instead. Dresden could help Ariel find her prince and also offer an alternative for reclaiming her voice and keeping her legs. Meanwhile, Ariel’s absence from the Lake and her family could have an effect on, say, balance between Summer and Winter. It’d depend on which book you set the story in. Their stories would happen differently.

Anyway, I could go on, but the point is this—

When you are writing a fusion AU, you must respect both canons. You cannot let one dominate the other by affecting and never being affected. Nor can you treat the character’s motivations and personality with so little respect as to make them do things just to serve the plot of another story.

vega-ofthe-lyre:

The Mermaid Sets the Story Straight by Debra Cash

(via dollsome-does-tumblr)

Bruno Mars covers “Part of Your World” and “Under the Sea.”

If I wrote a Little Mermaid story, I think I’d give her aphasia, rather than mutism.

camelliasin:

OMG who IS this guy? I want to go with Prince Eric from Little Mermaid, but he said nobody guessed right and somebody HAD to have guessed that already. He’s kinda sorta a ginger…associated with the ocean somehow…immature yet highly intelligent…UGH! 

That end description made me think of Ariel. Now I have that stuck in my head. Doctor Whale=Ariel, they rhyme-ish? I know Whale’s a bit of a lech, but Ariel did have a thing for legs…

Note: I have not watched any of the promos.

Sorry, the Ursula-Triton relationship is just fascinating, because we don’t really get that anywhere else in Disney. Well, Lion King. That’s the closest. Aladdin after that. But Aladdin was more about Jafar finding a backdoor to power and wanting to secure it. And Lion King was a lot more about revenge and didn’t really consider all the ways that betrayal would have affected the relationship between Mufasa and Scar had Mufasa lived.

In the Little Mermaid, we have a pair who at some in the past trusted one another. Then something changed. But they didn’t move far apart. Ursula did not try to set up her own kingdom elsewhere. Triton did not banish her further away. I have a soft spot for enemies who cannot quite leave one another’s orbit.

Then, Ursula targets Ariel because the girl is easy to reach (she wants so much), but also because of Triton. Triton yells at the girl and Ursula comforts her. That was not accidental.

Yes, the story of The Little Mermaid is very, very much about Ariel pursuing her dreams, but it is also about the long and tangled history of Triton and Ursula. Their feud is what fuels Ariel’s chance to see the human world as a participant, rather than from the oceanic sidelines.

The Triton-Ursula dynamic is utterly fascinating—especially when you consider the various roles that have been ascribed to her (housemate, fortuneteller, sister). I would love to see the prequel that detailed the deterioration of their relationship. When did the betrayal happen? When did the trust twist and die? What was the catalyst that launched their feud, spilling over onto the next generation? So many questions. So many possible answers.

So, I rambled about Ursula from The Little Mermaid before after I’d heard her song “Wasting Away” from the musical. The ramble was, I admit, less rambling and more plotbunny.

That did, however, get me interested in how Ursula fits into the kingdom under the sea in her various incarnations. A bit of googling before work and I found that even Disney doesn’t seem sure where to stick her. She and Triton were, at one point, close, but the exact nature of their relationship varies. The animated film is the most ambiguous with Ursula only having once lived, not only in Atlantica, but in the palace itself. In the musical, Ursula is Triton’s sister. In the Kingdom Hearts incarnation, she was his fortuneteller.

Each of these roles—friend, sister, fortuneteller—implies trust. At some point in time, Triton trusted Ursula. Then Ursula betrayed him. He then defeated and banished her. He did not kill her. He did not even banish her very far. When Ursula had her moment of victory, she did not kill Triton. Instead, she took his power and turned him into a (thank you, wiki!) polyp. Yes, the narrative requires they both live, but they don’t even *try* to kill one another. Part of that may be the desire to gloat, but I am willing to wager that part was also due to their former relationship—whatever it may have been. (I’d argue that Triton still trusted Ursula on some level; he knew that if he took her deal, she would keep her word and let Ariel go).

(Interestingly, Ursula targets Ariel because Ariel is Triton’s youngest and very close to his heart. Ursula’s goal was never Ariel, but Triton. Ariel really just caught between a long battle between two powerful individuals who knew each other too well).

While the relationship between Triton and Ursula is unknown, the origin of their conflict does not change between versions. Ursula makes a power grab and loses. However, her actions are more than that, *she betrays Triton* by making that power grab. Greed, betrayal, and holding a grudge—those are what mark her as a villain. (And, honestly, so too is Triton marked. He is reactionary and holds a grudge against the human world (and, for that one prequel, music); Triton is only redeemed because, in the end, he lets go. He lets go of his resentment; Ursula does not).

Ursula only turns into the mega-villain, though, when her eels are killed. Her worst moment was precipitated by grief. Grief, rage, resentment, greed, and betrayal—no wonder she grew to such a massive size.

But, this is a ramble, so let’s jump back a point—just what exactly were Ursula and Triton to one another?

In the original animated film, she was once a resident of his palace. The palace, while large and ornate, was not exactly a busy place. The palace is not full of residents outside of Triton’s own family. Ursula, however, had once had a place there. He trusted her enough to let her near his wife and, possibly, daughters. While Ursula could have been plotting against him from the start ala Jafar, I doubt she did. Triton was not as dim as the Sultan. And, that first battle whenever it occurred, ended without any lasting harm to either. Ursula is banished, but allowed to remain close. Triton grows his family. It is my headcanon now that Ursula’s transformation of Triton later in the film was as much as to remove the threat he posed as it was to pay him back for shutting her out for so many years.

In other incarnations, the relationship is so much more interesting. The King’s fortuneteller would have been a confidante. The fortuneteller would have helped direct policy, advised future consequences, and interpreted dreams or omens. Ursula-as-fortuneteller would have had considerable power in Atlantica with little reason to disrupt that. (Note: Even Jafar did not make a move until Jasmine’s future marriage threatened his influence and power in Agrabah(sp)).

As Triton’s sister, Ursula was the recipient of the shell necklace she wore. Triton received the trident. They grew up together and each were given an object of power. They were equals. Then something changed.

Something changed. Ursula went from close, trusted, equal confidante, sister, and friend to banished sea witch. A nightmare. A bogeyman.

In each scenario above, Ursula had power and access to power, but then it was suddenly not enough. Something threatened her position.

Triton married.

Perhaps Ursula did have another reason for targeting Ariel over any of her sisters. Ariel most resembled her mother, after all. Ariel’s mother who would have usurped Ursula’s role in Triton’s life. 

Resentment and greed would have built and escalated until Triton did something that caused Ursula to lash out. (Ursula can play a long game, but she is also passionate and her greatest actions occur out of emotion).

And then it would have all been over, leaving only the king and the witch.

Anyway, I hope that makes some sense.

In her song “Wasting Away,” Ursula sings about how she was once a ruler and how she threw great parties and such. She gets ousted for using dark magic. While much of song is exaggeration, I like the idea that she was overthrown for abusing her power. It puts a rather different spin on the musical concerts. In this interpretation, Triton is a newer ruler overtaking for someone who had been wasteful, held parties (which suggests restricted guest lists), and secretive (the magic?). So, instead, Triton is open. Even his daughters are made accessible to the public. His lavish displays are for the kingdom, not a select set. Plus he is dealing with a kingdom that was accustomed to having magic ready at hand and subjects who may, especially when he was new to the throne, have still allied with Ursula. Her magic has allowed Ursula to retain a foothold as the sea witch. It is a tense political situation, worsened by Ariel’s dabbling with humans. If the humans bear down on the merpeople, more may remember Ursula’s power. She may not have the trident, but she can grant magic to others—perhaps also magical weapons. Her lavish parties might even be remembered fondly if Triton had to command the merpeople remain especially close to home while things with the humans play out. Anyway, back to work.

ETA: While I said that Triton is new, he has probably been in power for about 20-30 years—which isn’t really that new at all. This is enough time for Ursula to have lost much of her power base, but not enough time to count her out completely. Also, I am betting that part of the reason Triton blesses and makes possible Ariel’s marriage with Eric is that it creates a bond between the two kingdoms. Ursula nearly got that power for herself when she went to interfere with Ariel’s time on the land.

“I Am Not A Princess”: An exceptionally well-done spec vid done to a mix of songs off the Family Jewels by Marina & the Diamonds that encourages viewers to reject the narratives they’re given and seize the lives they want. The narratives included are Alice in Wonderland (framing), Cinderella, Snow White, Little Mermaid, Beauty & the Beast, and Sleeping Beauty. Also, this vid has good Yuletide potential.