Did Ursula give Ariel thirty minutes to decide? No. Not even that. Ursula sang at Ariel for four minutes, and then demanded she sign the contract, pronto.

Ursula omitted details, in the contract, didn't she??

Ariel went to Ursula's layer knowing what she was doing and knowing that Ursula was evil. Ursula sung a whole song spelling out for Ariel that she was evil and gave her a visual representation of turning mer-people into sea creatures. Ariel went into Ursula's layer with a sea of polyps right in front of her. Ariel signed the contract, she didn't need thirty minutes for doing it because she came in fully prepared for signing it anyway. No manipulation was involved, just an idiotic teenage girl.

She gave many skeptical looks at Ursula, showing she didn't trust her. However, she just thought only her life would be at risk, no one else's. But she also considers not taking the deal because she says if she did she would never be with her father or sisters again. Even after Triton destroyed her collection, Ariel still finds it hard to leave her father. It wasn't the best decision to make, but she did it because she was willing to take a risk for her dream. I mean, it's not like with Naveen where he says he agreed to a deal with Facilier because "He was very charismatic." He doesn't even have any skeptical looks or hesitation. During the whole thing, he just smiles like an idiot and never questions that this stranger could be up to no good. Even when Lawrence points out that he knew Naveen was visiting royalty from a newspaper (which he had in his back pocket) and tries to help him, he just looks at Lawrence like he's the stupid one. But I digress. My point is, Ariel knew what she was getting herself into, even though she wasn't fully aware of Ursula's plan. She gave skeptical looks that showed that she didn't trust Ursula and even had a look after she signed the contract where she looked like she regretted what she did a little bit. Plus, unlike Naveen, at least she doesn't blame anyone else for her mistakes.

Manipulation played a part to persuade Ariel, but come on, she wasn't THAT stupid, just desperate.

^^^ WHATT??? You nake very little sense with that logic. Ariel looks dubiously at ursula the entire time, and was going to leave at the entrance of the lair. Ursula called her for "lurking in doorways. It's rude." This obviously showed Ariel was afraid to be there. She had lost her anger over her father's destruction of her things by that time. Ariel was freaking out.

Furthermore, Ursula outright NEGLECTED to tell Ariel that she wanted Triton's crown. She just said, three days of legs, get a kiss from the prince and stay a human. Don't get a kiss, and you turn back into a mermaid and you belong to me. Sign here. Ursula SAID NOTHING about wanting Triton's crown and to rule the whole ocean. Gosh, you blame Ariel for not reading Ursula's mind? That's...wow. I see. well, you blame Ariel for not being psychic. Interesting. Then Snow needed to be psychic to read the crone's mind and not eat the apple? Wow.

@8804 Ursula doesn't JUST change Ariel into a polyp. Ariel comes into her layer and right away sees a sea of polyps right before her eyes. During poor unfortunate souls, Ursula gives a VISUAL representation right before Ariel's eyes of her turning mer-people into her personal sea creatures. It's not about Ursula's personal intentions, without Ariel even knowing that Ursula was out for her father she already heard from all of her oceanic society that Ursula was evil already saw the sea of polyps, and Ariel had the intentions of going into Ursula's layer anyway.

Once again, you completely ignored all the signs of Ariel losing her nerve, becoming frightened, and trying to back out of coming to ursula. You see what you want to see, leftthetrain. That's all there is to it.

^And you completely ignored my arguments on the polyps and Ariel coming into the layer before Ursula dragged her in. I'm fine with you disagreeing with me, and I'm fine with having debates about things. You see it your way and I see it mine. I have very little respect for Ariel and how she dealt with things, or that she plain went into Ursula's layer, saw a bunch of polyps, and still acted oblivious towards the whole thing and trusted a sea witch after hearing many bad things about her. Instead of completely and outrightly disrespecting my opinion, please carry on with your argument instead of throwing a temper tantrum like a two-year old.

I didn't think Ariel was being tricked in any way.

When Ariel questions Ursula and Ursula rebuffs it, that along with some convincing was manipulation however, she knew what she was doing and what she got herself into. It was both. It most definitely WASN'T just manipulation, if Ariel's own desires weren't involved she would be there at an EVIL SEA-WITCH's lair. But then if it was all in her will, she wouldn't have questioned Ursula at all. Ariel wasn't being tricked she knew exactly what she was doing. All the same she had a few more pushes from Ursula.

Hello, 8804, can you stop, please. Your inability to respect people's opinions is getting on my nerves.

I'll admit that Ursula has that "used car salesman" charisma and pushiness about her, and definitely approached Ariel at her weakest hour, but I stand by my assertion that Ariel knew she was evil and dangerous going in, knew the terms of the contract, and chose to go to the lair and sign the contract anyway.

Ursula does not even try to hide how sadistic and evil she is, does not hide how many victims she has under her belt, and does not hide ANY of what the deal entails. She is very upfront about what's going to happen if Ariel signs, and Ariel makes the conscious decision to do it anyway.

To be honest I never made the connection that the polyops were the people Ursula had trapped until the end of the film (when I first watched it)

She did use the "talk-fast-and-lose-the-deal" approach and made it seem like it was fair game, when in truth she had a bigger goal and was willing to stop Ariel from kissing Eric at any cost. If she hadn't put so much pressure and picked her when she was at such a low emotional point, maybe Ariel would have reflected more before snacking... acting!

Ursula did that when Ariel's emotion and feeling are imbalance so her logical mind didn't really work. Besides, Ursula was kinda forcing her when she started to think the consequences.

I still think this was direct coercion, just like the Evil Queen coercing Snow to eat the apple. The Evil Queen never tells Snow White that the apple is poisoned, and Ursula never tells Ariel that she is after her father's trident and crown.

Kind of. She's going to Ursula with her own but yeah she was manipulated in subtle way.