Well, I understand she was determined to get the guy, but she could've done something else other than making a deal with someone who was as shady as Ursula, and selling her voice (which was what really attracted him to her in the first place). Just speaking from my perspective. I'm pretty sure I'm wrong about something that I said.

Both, actually. Maybe even more so Reckless, but both.

Both

Definitely both. I agree with snsdlover4ever.

Both and neither. I think her making the deal with Ursula was more "being manipulated when she was at a low emotional point".

^What Silverrose1991 said. Ariel's father just finished emotionally back-hoeing all of Ariel's beliefs and dreams into the ground. Ariel was at a very low point. So yes, Ursula took advantage, but Ariel was determined to get away from her father ( because he was SO ABUSIVE).

Both

Both but definitely not stupid

Both.

and Triton abusive? Really? So he's like a male Tremaine or Gothel? He gave her freedom and love and way more attention than any of the other girls (though you could say that's because they didn't get into trouble as much as she did). He had a fit of anger, but that doesn't make him so abusive.

I agree that she was determined to become a human, but she should've thought of a better way of doing it. I think Ariel should've thought of the consequences before she agreed to sell her voice to Ursula.

@AudreyFreak: Abusive behavior comes in many forms, both verbal, physical, and emotional. How many fits of anger did it take before King Triton blew his lid and finally destroyed Ariel's stuff? When Ariel missed the concert at the very beginning of the movie, and we hear her exchange with her father, we get the sense that THIS ISN'T the first nasty fight they've had. This is not the first time Ariel has tried to reason with her father over her interest in humans. She says to her father, "If your would just listen---" and he cuts her off mid-sentence, which is what abusers typically kind of do--- when they do not want any other viewpoint to be heard. Because King Triton has the opposite perspective than his daughter and wants her to think the same way he does, he tries to curtail her behavior. He's worried that this means that he's overstepping his daughter's autonomy, which he does ask Sebastian about, with the line, "Do you think I'm being too hard on her?" Sebastian is cut from the same cloth, saying more supervision of Ariel is needed. Why worry over Ariel's sisters? They already believe the same thing about humans that their father does. Triton does not feel threatened by them. He already has control over their lives. Triton feels threatened by Ariel's beliefs. He has no control over her thought-patterns. So that's why he would try to prevent her from so much as popping her head above the waters. He WANTS Ariel to accept his control and authority to think for her.

When King Triton finally loses it, BOY DOES HE LOSE IT. If that's not a terrible sign of parenting...to destroy a child's form of self-expression, then maybe I'm blind. Protecting his child might have been Triton's intentions when he first started, but by the time he finished with Ariel, he had completely driven her away. Where before, Ariel was just merely curious about the human world, now she wanted to leave the ocean entirely.

P.S. I have a parent who can take any little sentence I say that she disagrees with, and make it bigger; she makes mountains out of molehills, leading to some particularly bad fights. As many rages as I've seen this parent fly into, and me being the recipient, I can tell you that Ariel is suffering from bad trauma. I've had to try to live my life around this parent's beliefs, while they try to FORCE their beliefs onto me, so that I have few to no choices at all. If I wanted to think like her, then why was I born with another brain between my ears? I'm routinely punished ( just like Ariel) if I don't comply with my parent's wishes, and her control. Sometimes my obedience to this parent has led to my personal bodily harm. Abuse is sneaky.

Perhaps, this is why Ariel is second on my list of DP. Not merely because she's just pretty, or reckless, or headstrong, or doe-eyed and naive. I would argue that Ariel knows a lot more about emotional intelligence, which is something that her father is plainly missing.

I was going to say "stupidity," but this works too.

How can her decision count as 'determination' while all she did just have a deal with evil witch? 😅

^Hmm Let's see. Ariel is insistent on growing up, being able to make decisions for herself, and is not willing to live under a control-freak anymore. Ariel's haters call it "recklessness." But a lot of what Ariel did sounds like she was exercising agency and autonomy. It sounds like determination to me.

^Well yes, that's okay if you seen that as determination. But not for me. That's it.