#* ☆ MERMISTA OF SALINEAS‚ aesthetic.

[that-ari-blogger]

Would love to hear more about your thoughts on Mermista being your favorite character from She Ra 👀 if you ever felt like sharing

I’m totally not biased at all but I too think she’s the best character

I think this is really interesting, because a character can be someone’s favourite for a ton of reasons. Sometimes it is aesthetics, or mood, or empathy, but I like Mermista because of how she operates as a vessel for storytelling.

And before I start on this tangent, please be aware that this is, by nature, subjective. If you don’t like Mermista, state your case in the replies. Please don’t take my word as gospel.

SPOILERS AHEAD (She-Ra and the Princesses of Power)

So, I am a fan of wordless storytelling. It’s why I love the traditional mystery films and old western flicks. I like the pacing that comes from characters wandering around and not saying anything, but working things out in a way that the audience can see.

This is partially because writing dialogue is easy, but writing good dialogue is infinitely more difficult than anything, and I am still getting the hang of it, so a lot of what I write is slow and methodical. But I also think that visual storytelling is a lot more interesting and easier for me personally to keep track of.

It's Show Don’t Tell taken to its logical extreme, and while its situational, it really works for me.

Which brings me to Mermista, who I think has less than half the number of the lines as Frosta, despite being on screen for a ton more. That is because no dialogue with Mermista is ever wasted, and instead she takes in situations and thinks.

The only times Mermista ever really speaks are when she needs to communicate information quickly, and when she is annoying one of the other princesses for the fun of it. Even with Shadow Weaver, she finds the quickest possible solution, she interrupts her by calling her a name. She throws her off balance, then gets back to being quiet.

Case and point, at the end of No Princess Left Behind, Mermista doesn’t give a speech, or tell anyone that she is feeling sad. She just turns away from the camera and acts out her emotions subtly.

But the show doesn’t write this as just a strength for Mermista, it’s core to what I keep saying about how the series writes tragedy. Each character’s greatest strength is their greatest weakness. Mermista is detached and methodical, but that’s a façade, and it means she is totally unequipped to handle big emotions. She doesn’t know how to respond to Entrapta’s death, and she is totally unprepared emotionally to cope with the fall of Salineas later on.

In that way she acts as a counter to Perfuma, who is all about those big emotions and big connections. But there are other things that show them as opposites.

For example, Mermista is dynamic as hell. Part of her water theming is that she is able adapt to almost any situation and work through a problem. She can fit any shape, and fill any role in the team. She’s a bruiser, or a scout, or a tank, or a saboteur. But she’s also dynamic ethically.

You may notice that Mermista has the single most flexible moral compas in the team. Not in the sense that she is morally grey, (or morally pink like Glimmer), but in the sense that she applies a different framework to each problem she is faced with. She doesn’t have a thing against deceiving, trickery, or even killing if the situation calls for it, but she never strays into that dubious territory because she knows when to implement it and when that fails, she tries something else. Mermista perseveres and adapts.

Perfuma, however, is the She-Ra equivalent of Batman. I’m not joking about this, and I will talk about it in a later post. In short, however, Perfuma’s greatest strength is her uncompromising moral code. That’s how she gets through to Scorpia at the end. But it also means she is utterly inflexible, hence why she can’t work with cacti or Entrapta.

The reason I bring both of them up together is because their balancing out of each other leads to character development over the course of the story. Perfuma learns to widen her understanding of the world, and that she doesn’t realy have to subvert her morals to do so, and Mermista gains a healthy framework with which she can interact with people and form meaningful relationships.

For example, she can’t really react to Sea Hawk at the start of the series because she doesn’t know how to. She thinks in problems to be solved, but people aren’t that. At the end of the series, they become a couple because of the development seen above.

Essentially, I like Mermista because I like the story that is being told about her, and the way in which it is told. She's also just a big ol' nerd, which is just a joy to watch.

Just stop giving her one liners. I’m talking to the show and a few fanfics I have read. They’re jarring. Please, let my girl brood.

[clov33r]

"Hope you can swim, darling, cause I'm about to drown this place down."

chipped mermista > everything else

[multaes]

      TAG  DROP  PART  3

[a-tamed-dragon]

domestic catradora hcs and/or magicatra au hcs?

@kirch15 and I talk about a lot of catradora hcs and I think for domestic catra we have discussed

1- she learns to play chess and she and adora play

2- she picks up reading and goes to hang out with Bow’s dads.

3- in developing her personal style she goes between that punk top energy to a total prep/dark academia aesthetic.

4- She reads and Adora will sit with her and she reads to adora

5- she paints and does that to decompress in a room for herself with art supplies

6- she is VERY into Adora and loves being near her, sitting with her, wants attention. Only when she needs space Adora gives it to her and waits until Catra approaches her.

7- sometimes when she wants Adora’s attention but can’t be outright about it she send Melog to nudge her.

8- what else..... she won’t sing out loud so Adora sneaks closer when she does hear Catra singing.

9- she and Frosta conspire to do shenanigans.

10- last one. Catra and Mermista learn to vibe and actually get along really well. Salineas throws the most BOMB ASS ragers and they end up hanging out while Seahawk and Adora arm wrestle.. that isn’t super “domestic” but makes us happy

I don’t really have any magicatra hcs, I don’t remember if Kirch and I have talked about it. But I hope you like what is here!!

[amoremista]

What do you think about Mermista having bioluminescence? Just a little hc I came up with!

this is definitely a very cute and creative idea. i support it 100% 

in fact, thinking about it, i feel like her hair would have more of a “full glow” thing going on with it like completely luminescent

(image credit)

like this !!  a completely glowing head of hair, basically !!

and her skin would probably be more sparsely dotted with luminescence so she’s not completely lit up?? hold on lemme get a picture to explain myself here.

(image source)

as such. maybe even in intricate shapes and spirals that would fit in with the kingdom of salineas? they seem to have a heavy like… dotted aesthetic going on in their architecture and art. (i don’t remember 100%, but i think there was something like that in that throne room scene) so i could definitely see that playing into any kind of bioluminescence.