Tuesday 25 April 2017

AtoZ2017 - U is for Ursula, Usurian & Uberwald #AtoZChallenge


Welcome to Day 21 of the AtoZChallenge and the letter U. Every day in April (except Sundays) I will be making a post about shapeshifters of all kinds. Check back to see my choices and, from time to time some flash fiction too.

U is for 

Ursula

Ursula is a sea witch in Disney's The Little Mermaid and she is downright nasty. She wants to defeat Areile's father, King Triton, and take over Atlantica.

When Ariel comes to her for help to earn the love of Prince Eric, she takes the opportunity to try and sabotage Ariel's chances and hence, bring down the king. She grants Ariel's wish to live as a human for three days, but then changes herself into a beautiful young woman called Vanessa and hypnotises Eric.

Ariel must now not only contend with having no voice and being human, but with Ursula's magic as well.

Usurian

We meet an Usurian in the Doctor Who episode The Sun Makers. Their natural form looks something like seaweed, although they are infact a fungus. With the use of partical radiation they can morph into the shape of a dwarvish humanoid.

They are thoroughly unpleasant in either form.

The Collector works for the Company which has subjugated the earth colony on pluto via economic subversion. As a species Usurians are obsessed with business and profit, caring for it above all else.

Werewolf of the Day

Delphine Angua von Uberwald (Disc World)

Angua is from the wonderful world of Terry Prachett's Discworld and is the first werewolf to be hired into the Ankh-Morpork City Watch. Angua uses her very sensitive nose to track any miscreant that causes problems in her city. For Angua her sense of smell is like coloured lights would be to a normal human.

She can also descern gender and strong emotions, which is very useful when she goes undercover in plainclothes at a crime scene.

When in wolf form she is often mistaken for a dog because most people don't know about werewolves.

Angua is from a nobel house, her father being a baron and her mother a lady. She had three siblings, two brothers and a sister, but her sister is dead, one of her brothers probably did it and the other is stuck in his wolf shape and ran away from home. Angua also ran away from home and eventually came to settle in Ankh-Morpork, taking up her job in the Night Watch.

  • Who is your favourite Disney villain?
  • Are you a Discworld fan? What is your favourite book?

Click here and here to find other AtoZ posts.

10 comments:

  1. I don't even know what Discworld is. Favorite Disney villain....hum, I think even now it'd be the evil stepmother in Snow White.
    Perspectives at Life & Faith in Caneyhead

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  2. Hi Tasha - I'm not up with any of these ... in other words I dwell over the hill! Cruella de Vil is my villain ... cheers Hilary

    http://positiveletters.blogspot.co.uk/2017/04/u-is-for-unicorn.html

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  3. Love ursula - one of my fave disney baddies :)

    Dropping by from the A to Z Challenge
    http://www.notesinabook.com

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  4. Splendid choices! I am not particularly up on Doctor Who (though I've seen some episodes, and they are all fabulous), but Ursula made a big impression on me as a kid. In fact, I ran screaming out of the movie theater when Poor Unfortunate Souls happened (totally true). And as for Discworld... AHHHH I love it. I could not, I think, select a favorite (or even 6), but I think I like the Ankh-Morpork setting best, especially ones with lots of Night Watch and Unseen University characters (so, most of the books set in Ankh-Morpork, really). Though I also like the ones in Lancre... and the books where my various favorite characters go traveling... soo... yeah, most of the books are really very good.
    Melanie Atherton Allen
    www.athertonsmagicvapour.com

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  5. I am a discworld fan, and managed to with it under U aswell for the A to Z. Unseen Academicals

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  6. I'm not familiar with this incarnation of Ursula, that's not how it is in the Disney film. Is this aseries?

    I've reand only a couple of Pratchet's Discworld series and I'm not familiar with Angua. Will have to catch up ;-)

    @JazzFeathers
    The Old Shelter - 1940s Film Noir

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  7. You know, I've seen the Little Mermaid countless times (including a terrible community theatre stage version) and I keep forgetting that Ursula transforms into a woman to steal the prince away.

    I adore Discworld. Couldn't even begin to pick a favourite. Maybe one with Death in it? I know that's all of them. But the ones that are primarily about Death and his family, like Mort and Hogfather, are pretty awesome. But so it anything about the City Watch. Or the Witches. Or the Wizards! Oh man, I'm going to have to get back to you...

    U - Underground SNOWLAB

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  8. Ursula has the best villain songs. Little Mermaid is one of my favorite Disney movies.
    Discarded Darlings - Jean Davis, Speculative Fiction Writer, A to Z: Editing Fiction

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  9. Seems as thought the Usurians have taken control of the world these days. Where is Dr. Who when you need him?

    Finding Eliza

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  10. My real middle name is Ursula, and after The Little Mermaid came out, I got some grief because of that. I never understood how a recent movie character could cancel out hundreds of years of positive history of a name. Even better, my best friend's name was Arielle, so that made the bullies even more amused.

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