Little Mermaid is a character and heroine from The Fairytaler episode, "The Little Mermaid", based on the Hans Christian Andersen tales of the same title.
About Little Mermaid[]
The little Mermaid and her four sisters are tossing around a planispiral shell as if it were a frisbee towards one another when she brings up how much she longs to go up from the ocean to the surface. She's envious that her sisters already got to see it before she does since she's still attending school. Little Mermaid is also infatuated with a young prince and wishes to be with him. As the mermaid sisters' father and grandmother observe them from afar, the grandmother remarks on how much Little Mermaid is in such a hurry to grow up and do what her sisters did. Little Mermaid then decides the stop playing the game and swims off to talk to a statue of the prince. She talks to the statue like he were the real prince, saying how much she yearns to be his, wishing that she were human complete with two legs and feet so that she'd have a better shot. Following a talk with her grandmother, who links starfish and uses them to decorate her granddaughter's head with the starfish link, the grandmother decides that Little Mermaid is ready to see just what's above the surface. Excited, that's exactly what Little Mermaid does, as her folks watch her swim upward and away. As she begins to emerge, she sees a ship's bottom and when she sticks her head out of the water, it is sundown. A thin sailor asks a portly sailor about the prince's whereabouts and the portly sailor tells him he's in the ship's cabin, getting the preparations for the fireworks lighting ceremony underway. Soon, he exits the cabin and Little Mermaid comments that's him. After dark, the prince lights the fireworks with a cannon, setting them off into the sky. Little Mermaid looks on in awe, marveling at the spectacle. But the fireworks are interrupted when a storm approaches, as the captain informs the prince. He tells the prince to get to safety, but the prince wants to help the crew. After lightning strikes a mast, breaking it in half and part of it lands on a crew member, pinning his legs, the prince attempts to lift it off of him. A squall causes the ship to get turned over and everyone on board ends up falling into the sea. Most of the crew members hang onto floating debris, but the prince has gone missing. When Little Mermaid sees him in trouble, she goes off to come to his aid. She dives underwater, finds him sinking with some rope wrapped around his ankle, removes the rope, grabs him, and returns him to the surface. At dawn, she and the unconscious prince are on a beach, and she wishes he would open his eyes to have a look at her. She takes off when a blonde princess with a bun on each side of her head and a priest come to where they are and gets behind a boulder. The princess and the priest find the prince, who wakes up and thinking she was the one who saved him, he mentions that. Disappointed, Little Mermaid quietly says she was the real one who rescued him. As the princess has to take leave, she tells the priest to look after him and the priest agrees to it. Little Mermaid says to herself that at least she got her wish for the prince to open his eyes before diving back underwater.
Later, Little Mermaid returns to her sisters and shows them the prince's shoe she took. They happen to know where the prince lives and take her there to see him again. They come to a temple on the beach and Little Mermaid happily shows them her gratitude prior to going near it. That night, as a swan and her cygnets swim by, the cygnets make noise and Little Mermaid shushes them to be silent as not to draw attention. She finds the prince seated on a balcony. He wishes to see the princess again. The next day, the captain, and the two sailors sail along by boat. When Little Mermaid swims by them, the portly sailor thinks he spots her at first, but she disappears as quickly as she appears. Dejected, the prince sighs. The next night, he's on the balcony again, picking off a flower's petals as he says of the princess with each petal he picks, "She loves me, she loves me not". When the petals fall into the water, Little Mermaid takes one and puts it in her hair. As she takes another, the swans swim by her again. As she looks at the moon, Little Mermaid still wants desperately to be human in order to meet with the prince, saying she'd give up her lifespan of three centuries if it meant she could be with him and dives again. After asking her grandmother if mermaids and humans can be together, she tells her no, as humans find merfolk's tails ugly and they prefer those who are like them, as in having a pair of legs and feet, as she decorates her granddaughter's hair with pearls. She says she shouldn't be so concerned with that. Little Mermaid then sings a song for her family, who give her a round of applause. Now even more desperate, Little Mermaid then decides to visit the sea witch for help. When Little Mermaid arrives at the sea witch's place, the sea witch tells her she knows what brings her there: Little Mermaid's wish to become human before meeting the prince again. The sea witch tells her that when she becomes human, the soles of her feet will feel like she's walking on broken glass, she won't be able to regress to her mermaid form, and should she suffer from a broken heart, she'd turn into sea foam at sunup, and die. Little Mermaid asks her what she wants in exchange. The sea witch demands her voice. Little Mermaid is reluctant to sacrifice it, asking just how else she will be able to tell the prince her feelings for him. The sea switch makes the suggestion of fluttering her eyes or something and tells her to take or leave the deal. Little Mermaid accepts and loses her speech once the sea witch takes out her tongue, and devours it. For a moment, the sea witch speaks with Little Mermaid's voice and returns her end of the bargain. She gives Little Mermaid a special potion to drink to replace her fish tail with human legs and feet at sunrise. The sea witch tells her to go, as she feels a song coming on and Little Mermaid departs. Little Mermaid returns to her family and while they sleep, she silently gives each of them her goodbye. At daylight, Little Mermaid visits outside of the temple again and drinks the potion. A pair of guards find her unconscious, lying on the stairs, her fish tail now replaced with legs and feet, as well as being half-nude.
Then, having been put in a night dress, Little Mermaid rests in bed. The prince checks on her, she's startled, but he tells her not to be alarmed. She's very content to see him again. He realizes she can't seem to speak back when he talks to her. However, she's a good listener. She tries to get out of bed, but loses her equilibrium and begins to fall, he catches her and puts her back in bed. He then goes off to get her something. Over time, Little Mermaid struggles to walk and learn how to adjust to her legs and feet, as she thinks about exactly what the sea witch said about her feeling pain with each step. Gradually, she gets the hang of it. She and the prince go outside to have a look at the ocean. She winces in pain and when he notices, she puts on a front, literally grinning and bearing it. One night, she and the prince attend a party. They step outside and go to the beach so they can be alone for him to tell her something. He tells her that his parents planned an arranged marriage for him, but says he has somebody else in mind to marry. Little Mermaid mistakenly looks as if she believes he's talking about her, but it's really the blonde princess who found him earlier. This news saddens Little Mermaid. He tells her that he and the princess have to go on a trip and asks if she'll join them. Nodding yes, she relents and this satisfies him. When the day arrives, the guards and a few others send them on their way as they set sail. At night, two of Little Mermaid's sisters show up waving to her and she waves back. The prince asks her who she's waving at, but they swim off before he could get a good look at them long enough. He thinks what he thought he saw was just an illusion caused by a reflection from the moonlight on the ocean's surface and dismisses the notion that mermaids are real after all. Little Mermaid is heartbroken that's she's helpless to say anything. The next day, they reach their destination and a crowd is out to greet, and cheer them. The ship travelers wave back and the prince kisses Little Mermaid on the cheek, she is please at this, looking as if she may still have a chance after all. After entering a room in the palace, the blonde princess also enters it. The prince takes a look at her for a moment and tells her he recognizes her. She recognizes him as well, as each had found each other on the beach. With this realization being too much for Little Mermaid, she faints in reaction to this, and the prince, and captain, come to her aid. The prince and princess's wedding ceremony takes place and they marry, he takes a gold ring off of a pillow, places it on her finger, and they kiss. Little Mermaid is behind the princess, holding her train, and can't bear to watch this. Back on the ship, later that night, Little Mermaid is seated in a fetal position, face down on her knees, depressed at the thought that she'll never be with the prince. She looks up briefly, watching silhouettes off the couple dancing shone through two curtains, and she puts her head back down on her knees again. She thinks about the sea witch mentioning that she'll turn into sea foam the next summer. Then, her sisters come back once again to see Little mermaid. They explain the sea witch told them all about what happened, they cut their hair and gave pieces of it to the sea witch in exchange for a dagger, which one sister tosses up to Little Mermaid to use to stab and kill the prince. Little Mermaid is told she'll turn back into a mermaid if she does this and that she must hurry and do it at dawn. Little Mermaid finds the prince and princess asleep together. She begins to go for the kill, but her conscience just won't let her have the heart. Rather, she chooses to sacrifice herself by diving into the sea. As she and the dagger sink, her sisters try to help her, but by daybreak, she dissolves into sea foam. The prince, princess, captain, and the two sailors discover that she has seemingly disappeared. The prince is the most saddened by this and can't comprehend just what could have happened to her. Little Mermaid emerges from the water as a spirit and she regains her speech. Two other, female spirits come to tell her that she is now a daughter of the air. She cries happy tears at this. When asked if she will join them, she says she will, but tells them there's one thing she must do first. She heads back to the ship. A rainbow descends from the heavens behind the prince and princess. She gives a kiss to each of them on the cheek. Although they feel it, they have no idea where it came from nor who could be where they are, yet they don't notice who it is. The prince says that somehow, he has a feeling that wherever Little Mermaid is, she is just fine. Little Mermaid's sisters have convened on a large rock in the ocean and are melancholic at her loss. Little Mermaid flies towards them, telling them that now she must join the other spirits, but also says she'll visit them. And with that, the sisters watch the spirits ascending into the sky.
In the episode, "The Old Street Lamp", she has a cameo of being among the characters from this series's adaptations of Hans Christian Andersen's stories and they appear above the cartoon Andersen's head as he comes up with ideas for them.
Physical Appearance[]
Little Mermaid is a svelte half-human, half-fish hybrid with fair skin for the upper body, has blue eyes, and blonde hair that's usually in a braided tail that reaches her rear. She wears a red starfish on each side of her head and a harlequin green, asymmetric top that shows off her midriff with a piece of it missing on the neckline. Her lower body is a Tiffany blue fish tail.
As a human, her hair is unbraided and straight. She wears a shin-length, baby blue night dress with lace on the collar, short sleeves, and hemline. She also wears a white blouse with long, puffy sleeves; a turquoise vest with a split at the waist and a scoop neckline; a mostly Prussian blue, shin-length skirt with a teal stripe beneath it; white socks; and black flat shoes.
Personality[]
Little Mermaid is a hopeful, optimistic romantic. She is also selfless, loyal, righteous, and altruistic.