The Little Mermaid. Ursula is a scheming, scary force of nature, but one with bags of character. However, despite this, fans never got much idea of her backstory.

Fans of the movie got a few throwaway lines, that she is an evil sea witch who was banished from Atlantis by King Trident, but nothing else was really revealed about her past. This seemed like a missed opportunity, and Disney finally explored her history in Poor Unfortunate Soul: A Tale of the Sea Witch ​​​​​​by Serena Valentino.

Released in 2016, the book describes itself as "one of what might have shaped the sea witch into a detestable and poor unfortunate soul." It's part of a series where Valentino reveals the potential backstories of various Disney villains, including Snow White's Wicked Queen, Entangled's Mother Gothel and Sleeping Beauty's Maleficent.

Ursula is King Triton's exiled sister, and arguably has a fair claim to her vengeance against him.

Little Mermaid's Ursula Has a Pretty Heart-Breaking Backstory

Made Even Worse By Her Hateful Brother

The backstory of Ursula as presented by Poor Unfortunate Soul: A Tale of the Sea Witch is pretty sad. It turns out that she was originally the adopted daughter of a fisherman, and she was unaware of her powers. She did her best to fit in with the other village people and simply live, but when her powers were exposed, the villagers tried to burn her as a witch. This resulted in her father being killed as he tried to protect her. Ursula then attempts to obliterate the village, only to be stopped by King Triton, who brings her back to Atlantis and reveals that the two are brother and sister.

After being brought to Atlantis, Triton refused to allow Ursula to be around the citizens of Atlantis in her octopus form, purely because he thought it was hideous and made her look like a monster. This resulted in Ursula only interacting with Queen Athena, the one person to ever be kind to her. After Athena died, Triton banished Ursula from the kingdom, which is where Ursula's burning desire for revenge comes from. It's a strange twist and paints Triton as even more of a villain than he was shown to be in the movie.

Ursula Was Abandoned By Everyone She Knew

She Attacked Atlantis As an Act of Revenge

Ursula is not shown in a sympathetic light in the movie. She's stated to be an evil witch who uses black magic to trick people and ruin their lives, trapping them as polyps in her twisted 'garden.' This is also shown to be mostly true when she uses Ariel to steal King Triton's trident and tries to take over Atlantis. But what the movie doesn't show is how she lost her entire family and the world she knew and was then whisked away to a kingdom that turned her into an exiled monster. Atlantis crossed Ursula in a truly dark way, and King Triton wielded his power against her for no justifiable reason. Ursula's actions were wrong, but she arguably kept her schemes to the people - or at least nation - that directly wronged her.

The villains in Disney movies have always been great and served their purpose, but the movies are usually more concerned with setting up the heroes and what they're motivated by instead of the villain. Gaston just wants to win Belle's heart, Jafar wants to rule Agrabah, and Ursula wants to rule Atlantis. These are fine motivations for a children's movie, but there's always room for just a bit more. While Ursula was pretty mysterious in the movie, hardcore Little Mermaid fans now know that Ursula is one of Disney's most tragic and broken villains.