I know that when people discuss The Little Mermaid (1989), they often bring up the fact that Eric put his life on the line for his dog Max, which was, of course, a very admirable and selfless act on his part that automatically signified him a Green-Flag in terms of being in a romantic relationship with if he were to exist in real life. I wholeheartedly agree with that sentiment. However, I think it's just as admirable that he fostered Ariel, knowing absolutely nothing about her other than the fact that she was stranded alone on a beach, barely clothed and had, from his perspective, recently gone through a quite traumatic event, on top of her being mute, which at the time would have rendered her disfranchised on a social and legal level.
Not a single soul obligated that man to take in a homeless girl (again, from his perspective) and allow her to stay at his castle and be treated like a princess. You bet he told his staff to do right by her and made sure of it. He did that out of his volition, and why? Because he is kind, selfless and compassionate, traits that drove him to take a big risk by walking through rampant fire just so Max was safe.
Eric didn't do it because he wanted to initiate a romantic or sexual relationship with Ariel, even though so many would think that because of her physical beauty. He was already interested in another girl that he had spent days searching for, not knowing the "mystery girl" was exactly the one he brought in because he is a Big Doofus™, but that's besides the point. He genuinely wanted to help her. Had he not fallen in love with her, he would have found a home for her eventually. His home was a "shelter" for her, basically.
The lack of reaction from the people in the kingdom to him bringing a previously never-seen girl with him leads me to speculate that he has done this before with others, including animals. They are so used to him just bringing random people (and animals because ya' boy is an animal lover and it has been proven) to his castle because he just wanted to help them.
I truly believe this is what made Ariel fall in love with him even more. She already knew how he was from the moment she saw him save his dog, but it was further confirmed by how he treated her and loved her despite everything.
