Agonising and thoughtful… I’d love to see a sequel written in her voice though.

Wow… This makes me look at The Little Mermaid in an entirely different light.

Awesome storytelling!

I like the moral you put in there, never thought of it that way. And yes, I don’t think I can see little Ariel the same way..

Beautifully written!

i like it. what always freaked me out about mermaids/mermen is: how do they have sex?

They lay eggs, naturally.

Yes, but how is the female fertilized? I guess Disney wouldn’t elaborate on it…

Anyway, I liked how the story presented this whole new view on it. A more mature Little Mermaid, which was probably what the original was supposed to be.

In the original, written by Hans Christian Anderson, when she finally does walk, the pain is so great that she cuts off her own legs. I always thought the moral was “Don’t try to be something you’re not because you’ll get your legs chopped off…”

brings some darkness do the disney tale :)

I love this…dark and sensual

Little Mermaid is my favorite disney princess movie. And reading this gave it a whole different light. It’s very dark >:D

Very awesome and I still love Little Mermaid. ;]

Mermaids are mammals, therefore they most likely give live birth. Sharks do this too and they are fish (though not mammals).
I like the writing, but it bothers me because this isn’t a story, it’s an essay. At least so far. This sounds like the introduction to a story, but I don’t know what the jumping off point is.
And I’ve got to say I disagree with your analysis. Although mermaids are sexual representations, I don’t believe The Little Mermaid—any version—had a great deal of sexual undertones or subtext.

Thanks for the comments. I didn’t write this about the Disney version — it was inspired more by my memories of the original, which i deliberately didn’t re-read before writing this. I doubt Andersen was thinking sex when he wrote it .. but I was, when I read it.