I love this <3
I actually very much love this gifset because Ursula ended up being right about that one (when talking about the body language). It was pretty clear that Ursula set up that deal with Ariel expecting it to be so easy to get what she wanted and not even in fact believing that Ariel and Eric might come THAT close to falling in love and finally kissing because she obviously viewed their love as an immature, silly, childish crush based on nothing - and in all honesty in the beginning she was right about it. Eric and Ariel at their start really were a childish immature crush based on nothing. A parody on exaggerated teenage dream of falling in love at first sight after facing a life changing situation, in their case Ariel saving Eric’s life. They saw each other once, they dreamed of seeing each other again and each of them carried that unrealistic idealized image of the other in their heads when technically they didn’t know anything about each other yet (Ariel’s “he loves me, he loves me not!” only highlights the naivety of the whole situation at that point). And Ursula saw it and laughed at it and decided to use it for her own selfish purposes - because what could young love do against her evil, well thought out plans? She didn’t expect one bit that Eric would even look in Ariel’s side without her having the core identity of “the one” he hopelessly fell in love with and was desperatelly looking for - her gorgeous voice. She didn’t believe these two can make it because their love seemed so childish, so idealized, so helpless, so naive. But then all her plans fall apart because - and that she could definitely never predict - Ariel and Eric end up being actually good for each other. They get to know each other “from zero”, Eric gives himself a chance to let a charming mute girl into his life despite still being attracted to the unrealistic image of “the one” who saved him, and eventually he chooses the real girl over an idealized unrealistic dream whereas Ariel actually spends time with her dream guy and forms a much stronger bond with him than she did when she sang him songs while he was unconscious. They relate to each other and enjoy their time together. They work so well not because they are young and hopelessly in love with an unrealistic ideal anymore, but because they really are GOOD for each other. Even with Ariel being mute, even with Eric not recognizing his “dream girl” in her at first, even with things being more than complecated and awkward and weird. And this is why I effin’ love The Little Mermaid as much as I do. Ursula is a typical example of a cynical individual with goals who has a supposedly “realistic” look on a hopeless immature love. But she ends up failing because sometimes, yes, sometimes this hopeless immature love actually grows and blooms and gets stronger and beware if you dare to stand in it’s way.