"“You are dear to me,” said the prince; “for you have the best heart, and you are the most devoted to me; you are like a young maiden whom I once saw, but whom I shall never meet again. […]" And the mermaid knew she had loved him best when his lips did not move to speak, and when his eyes did not open to sea, and when he did not move to take possession. She loved him best when he was drowned." - Andrew C (✔)

"/Never suffer for a man who has not asked you to suffer/, the witch had told her. /He will take every offering you bring him without thanks for the giving of it, and expect more. If he did not ask for it, he will not think of it as a gift but his birthright. He will ask for more and more pain and expect you to bear it more and more gracefully, until you are nothing but a mask of calm and a throb of hurt./ But no woman ever got anywhere by listening to another woman, and the little mermaid had done it anyway. Not all women can be witches." - Andrew C (✔)

^^ Written by a man. ;-) - Spidra Webster

Oh no, Mallory's a woman. - Andrew C (✔)

In comments, "The Sea Witch Sets The Record Straight" http://ursulav.livejournal.com/1561473... . (which is just one more reason why the comments at the Toast are great.) - Andrew C (✔)

Ah. So she's re-writing H.C. Andersen? I thought they were merely republishing the original (which they could get away with as it's public domain, I think). - Spidra Webster

Well, the Toast series is all re-written stories, but this one in particular hews very closely to the original fairy tale for most of it. - Andrew C (✔)

I didn't remember if the second quote was from the HCA original. Is it? - Andrew C (✔)