The Mermaid and the Genie
by Z-King is a crossover between Aladdin and The Little Mermaid, where Flounder discovers Genie’s lamp at the bottom of the sea shortly after Triton has destroyed Ariel’s human collection. As Ariel examines the lamp, she releases the Genie, who agrees to grant her wish to become human, starting a subtle but engaging new turn of events for Ariel.
The Mermaid and the Genie provides examples of:
- Benevolent Genie: Genie, as always; when Ariel admits that she doesn't actually want anything else from him apart from being human, rather than let her just wish him free immediately, Genie advises her to save her second wish to see how her humanity plays out rather than let her essentially waste two wishes just to set the Genie free.
- Beware the Nice Ones: Ariel and Genie both show why it's not a good idea to mess with them, to the point that Ariel tries to fight Ursula directly and Genie turns Ursula into a polyp while undoing his past wishes even though that's going beyond the "limits" of Ariel's wish.
- Birds of a Feather: A platonic version, as Ariel and Genie sympathise with how the other feels trapped in their routine.
- "Could Have Avoided This!" Plot: The climax could have been avoided had Genie simply accepted Ariel's offer to free him with her second wish.
- ...Then again, it did give Triton an opportunity to let go of his anti-human prejudice.
- Fish out of Water: Still applies to Ariel, but she has an easier time of it now that she can speak and she has the Genie to offer a few pointers.
- For Want Of A Nail: Things change when Flounder discovers the lamp after Triton has destroyed Ariel's collection but before Flotsam and Jetsam can approach Ariel with Ursula's "offer".
- Fusion Fic: Genie at one point blatantly acknowledges that this story is just that.
- The Genie Knows Jack Nicholson: As always, Genie demonstrates this trait.
- Genius Ditz: When Genie saves Sebastian on Ariel's request and only realises after the fact that she didn't actually wish for that, it's hard to argue that this doesn't apply.
- Greater Need Than Mine: At the story's conclusion, Ariel sacrifices her third wish to free the Genie as she originally agreed even when he offers to make her human again, feeling that the Genie deserves to live his dream after he helped her achieve hers.
- Ignorant of Their Own Ignorance: Basically the reason Ursula loses, as she's caught off-guard when she realises that Genie still can't kill anyone despite her wish for permanent control of him.
- I Just Want to Be Free: Ariel and the Genie bond over this.
- Manipulative Bitch: Averted. Rather than try to con Ariel like she did in the movie, Ursula decides to simply steal the Genie's lamp and use it for her own ends.
- Medium Awareness: Genie blatantly contemplates what an unconventional mash-up of the existing films this is.
- Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: Ariel offers to free the Genie with her second wish (her first one pretty much gave her everything she wanted), but the Genie turns her down because he figures it's best to let her keep it in case of emergency. All this does is give Ursula an opportunity to steal the lamp and use it for her own ends, necessitating Ariel using her second wish to undo all the wishes granted by the Genie, turning herself back into a mermaid.
- Noodle Incident: Genie apparently previously belonged to Sinbad the sailor, but Sinbad's ship sank a few centuries ago before he could use his third wish.
- O.O.C. Is Serious Business: Genie himself draws attention to the fact that he's trapping Ursula as a polyp as an example of how much she got on his nerves.
- Reset Button: Ariel uses her second wish to do a version of this, wishing that all of Genie's past wishes be undone, which includes turning Ariel back into a mermaid.
- Rules Lawyer: Genie basically serves as one to himself when he "replays" an earlier conversation with Ariel and must concede that she didn't use her second wish to save Sebastian as she never actually said "I wish."
- Sealed Good in a Can: Rather than having spent ten thousand years trapped in a cave, it appears that this version of the Genie once "belonged" to Sinbad the Sailor before Sinbad's ship sank.
- Servile Snarker: Genie demonstrates this when working for Ursula, although he blatantly yells at her when she tries to order him to kill Ariel as he clarifies that's one of the few things he still can't do for her.
- Shout-Out: Naturally Genie gets a few of these;
- He initially claims to be allergic to shellfish and then "remembers" he's actually allergic to overacting, blaming it on "those Brendan Fraser movies".
- Genie pulls out the magic mirror from Beauty and the Beast to locate his previous master, Sinbad.
- Genie does an impression of Count Von Count while explaining the three wishes.
- Multiple in a modified version of "Friend Like Me":
- He mentions "Captain Ahab [and] his Big White Whale".
- He does impressions of Harry Potter, the Monty Python version of King Arthur, and Stan Lee in quick succession.
- He dresses up Ariel in a Supergirl outfit.
- He pulls out Yen Sid's hat, and fireworks shoot out of it.
- He impersonates Jimminy Cricket and Bugs Bunny late in the song.
- When first explaining his Thou Shalt Not Kill rule to Ariel, he uses the analogy of "Grand Assassin", a Captain Ersatz of Assassin's Creed.
- Genie has some zombies appear to the dance for Thriller when he says he can't raise the dead.
- Take That!:
- In his introduction, Genie pulls out a VHS copy of Goodtimes Aladdin and then promptly disses it for being The Mockbuster.
- When he explains he can't make anyone fall in love, he then adds the caveat "Unless you're
a fanfic writer".
- Spared By Adaptation: Instead of being impaled on a ship's bow, Ursula is turned into a powerless polyp; doubles as Karmic Transformation. Flotsam and Jetsam are also spared, quickly swimming away when the fight turns against Ursula.
- Thou Shalt Not Kill: Genie blatantly draws Ursula's attention to this fact; even after she's essentially bound him to serve her as long as she's holding the lamp, he still can't kill anyone on her orders.
- Three Wishes: Still applies to Genie, although contrary to the usual expectations Ariel uses her second wish to undo other wishes (after Ursula stole the lamp), allowing her to free Genie with her third wish.
- Undying Loyalty: While Genie is bound to serve the owner of the lamp, at the fic's conclusion he explicitly calls Ariel the best friend a genie could have rather than the best master.
- Wishing for More Wishes: Ursula finds a way around this by using her third wish to wish that Genie has to obey her so long as she's holding the lamp, essentially drawing out her third wish in perpetuity rather than actually wishing for more wishes outright.
