#im not good at answering questions dshgdfsg

[rinatouin]

first off I am so flattered that you came to ask me about this.... i love you. this answer got really long so I made a separate posts so I could put in pictures and everything! 

but you’re so right! I wish they had given us more information on the underwater kingdoms, given that they were some of the most interesting episodes in the show! i’ll expand a little bit under the cut!

even in pure ep 10 theres a lot that's given but not explained!

like hello? is that every green mermaid that exists? does that mean no one lives outside the palace? but then like, are those flags of different north atlantic pods/cities? Whats Going On? 

I think, though, that when I write fics and stuff or just think about the show, I look at what the mermaid princess values really highly and take it as if it were a piece of culture. people tend to care about what their cultures care about, so I take it as a sign! 

heres some of the ideas ive been chewing on for when I write fanfics:

1. The Government 

it’s a really interesting case in mermaid melody because the princess is given the right to rule by having her pearl, and no one can really take that from her, I think. so they have a monarch with divine rule, and mermaid become adults at 13, so that’s when the princesses start to see a bigger amount of responsibilities and can start becoming more involved in the bigger picture things going around in her kingdoms. trade, communications, politics, etc. 

another strange thing to me is that all of the princesses are above mermaid adult age, but they’re never called queens? I have a headcanon that ages 13-19 are preparation for actually becoming queen, where ages 0-13 are to get to know the kingdom and its people, and from 20+ you’re queen. in my head, sara destroyed the indian kingdom before her coronation!

according to episode 42 in season 1, there’s a court system, so that needs to be factored in, too! I hc that there’s a group of mermaids that serve as chief of staff to the princess, and help her grow into the role as she becomes older. this is what I think nikora is to lucia! oh and omg, you know how nikora has that hairstyle that's really specific? there’s a mermaid in the north atlantic that has the same style! 

this is her! in this scene she’s making an important announcement to all the people, and thats the kind of stuff i assume the chief of staff does while the princess is away. that's a really specific way to wear your bangs, so I hc that all the chiefs of staff wear their hair like that. I call her haruna in my fics! :))

the princess has servants that just work around the palace, like every princess does, but then I also hc that she has handmaids that more specifically do handmaid-things like doing her hair, like we see lucia getting done during her coming of age ceremony!

it was really interesting to see them being doted on after they get none of that on the surface! i’m surprised we didn’t get like, a super spoiled princess lol. ( caren maybe? )

2. Their Values

So, this goes back to what I said earlier about the princesses valuing what their culture values. I had this idea when I realized I couldn’t tie anything down about their culture, and so I just made it up myself! 

south pacific: spirit, vitality. I think that coco is a really great character, she’s really well-rounded and fun! she reminded me a lot of sailor venus from sailor moon, and so I tried to pick things that might be important in her culture without trying to base her entire kingdom off the personality of one mermaid, lol. i think yellow mermaids are very fun-loving.

north pacific: serenity, compassion. my favorite thing about lucia is how kind she becomes over the course of the series!!! and having compassion be one of the values her culture cares for really helps drive home the usagi-esque thing she’s got going on where she kind of grows into the role of princess and eventually aqua regina. 

north atlantic: growth, maturity. I think that the north atlantic focuses a lot on this- this almost mirrors lucia’s growth, in a way. rina seems mature at the beginning of the series, but she treats people coldly and one could argue she’s even immature! she’s 13 and she’s trying to take on the responsibility of the entire noel-gaito situation for herself, and so I think that at the very least in her case, her people care very much for the image of their mature, very responsible princess. she eventually grows into this, of course, with hanon and lucia’s friendship and the experience that comes with living on the surface. 

south atlantic: youth, radiance. hanon’s was interesting because the only shot we get of her palace are her running away, and the only mermaid we see from her kingdom is meru! the reason I chose these values for hanon’s culture are because in my head, each kingdom has its counterpart. the north and the south atlantic are sister kingdoms, (and this goes arctic/Antarctic, north/south pacific, indian is by herself!) and they’re supposed to balance the other side. where the north atlantic cares for maturity, the south values youth! and neither is better than the other, they just have different values. I love hanon and rina’s friendship, and how different they are but they still get along really well, and it gave me the idea!

indian ocean: passion. I picked this because in my headcanon, the mermaids were created by the first aqua regina! and she created the indian ocean alone, first. they were the first kingdom. the most valuable thing a mermaid has is her love for the ocean and the things around her, and I thought this was a really important value for one of the kingdoms to have! can’t say sara doesn’t have passion dsdfss

antarctic ocean: independence, transformation. I think caren’s determination to find her sister by herself is really interesting. lucia’s servants barely want to let her out of the palace in ep 1, but caren scours the ocean on the daily to try and find her, and I feel like they let her do that very purposely, to nurture her independence.  I also picked these values to be the opposite/counterbalance to noel’s kingdom. 

arctic ocean: harmony, stability. I love noel, she’s so sweet! in my hc, the arctic ocean is very traditional and reveres aqua regina in a special way! because of this love for her, and the love aqua regina has for unity among the seven kingdom, they took this on as their cultural motto. you can see this in noel, too- she’s young so shes fun, but she has a really nice peacekeeper vibe!

a couple things that i like to think of when i consider the kingdoms cultures are general things- the mermaids in the north atlantic, at the summer green festival, are dancing for the most part with their hands/arms!

honestly i really like the hc that a lot of mermaid dance is like armwork as opposed to footwork lol. its fun and very cool!

i also like to think that they have their own traditional music/instruments! i haven’t really fleshed this out, but i picked the harp for the north pacific, anddd

this conch flute that this girl is playing for the north atlantic!