#mertropia

[staticstartup]

Immerse yourself with the magic of Mertropia~ ❤️

Hello there!~ ❤️ Here's some Mermaid Magic renders, all of them are ripped straight from the official website. Thank you to Winx Club Newsflash for ripping them. Got the divider myself from the website as well. All of these can be found on the website and saved there yourself as well for the original source.

[pega-chan]

threw together some quick reference layouts of the main three's surface/casual outfits (for fanart purposes). i included closeups of their accessories and a version with the fanny pack for Sasha for when she needs to carry around Beau Jr. i tried to get some shots of their communicator bracelets but they don't have them on most of the time since they're broken. i'll consider them part of their Mertropia outfits if i get around to screenshotting references for those

[astridhoff03]

I also watched the Mermaid Magic, the new series from the guy who produced winx club, because I was curious…

And man this show rocks. It’s funny, emotional and has a beautiful message about not polluting the ocean and the environment in general. It shows that Rainbow and Iginio Straffi still got it if Nickelodeon doesn’t ruin their plans.

First to the characters: Merlinda is such a lovely protagonist, how she deals with the loss of her mother, trying to save her father and her kingdom, working together with her friends is just wonderful. She’s a dutiful, driven by loss and love Crownprincess, who be a great Queen one day. She has some great character moments, better than Bloom. My favorite scene is definitely when the whale mother is drowning and Merlinda reminds of the loss of her own mother. This moment and scene montage is for so many reasons one of the best moments in the entire series.

First I thought I wouldn’t like Nerissa and Sasha, especially Sasha because I thought she would annoy me. But she and Nerissa were actually kinda fun to watch. Sasha is so funny and also very nice and smart, how she uses her social media skills to fight the Kraken. Nerissa is the complete opposite, she’s serious and feisty but also selfless. I think she has a softer side to her or she’s just a baddie. So were Tyler and Celia. And we also have a Diaspro in this show lol. Also can we agree that Alex is the hottest guy in the show, Tyler is cute but Alex is Romantasy Material. Seriously he looks like a combination between Xaden and Rhysand. He reminds me a lot of these two. Orca is also a really cool mentor. I really enjoy his teacher-student relationship with Merlinda. He is a really lovable character. His ultimate test for Merlinda was phenomenal, testing her empathy, powers and strength at the same time. Also that he is her uncle really took me by surprise, I wouldn’t have seen this coming.

Second the villains: they were creepy as fuck and I love them. They have really good designs and motivations. Even if it’s revenge, revenge can be some sinister motivation.

Third the world: I love the whole design of Mertropia it’s like a Venice for Mermaids. I just wish we would explore more seas, there’s so much to learn about the oceans of our planet. But maybe in next seasons. I would love to see the girls interact with different species of the ocean, there is so much potential. And I would love to see more of the complex ecosystem of the ocean, the task every single ocean creature has in their ecosystem and they should introduce sharks as harmless and these are also just animals who want to life their life.

Also this show would be perfect for the Sirenix song from Winx Club. It would perfectly fit the ocean theme and how the merfolk is bound to it.

[shadowspeaking]

Mermaid Magic Thoughts

. Visually the show is very pretty. I like a lot of the character designs. Mertropia looks beautiful.

. The transformations are some of the best I've see in a while. I'd give them an 8/10. There are some things I wish where differend, but overall I like them a lot. Their movements are snappy and fluid. (Making a bunch of unnessesary weird looking movements is such a pet peeve of mine when it comes to magical girl tansformations.) The outfits look good. I like that they change into a more practical hairstyle. The song is almost really good. This is just my personal opinion, but I am just not a fan of the more spoken parts (idk how to describe it, is rap the right word for it?). But mostly it's a good gearing-up-to-kick-ass-song. Which is always good during a magical girl tranformation.

. I always like me a good warrior princess. I like that the girls wield these big tridents as weapons. And especially Merlinda gets to actually engage in combat and they're not just shooting sprakling beams out of their hands. It contrasts the whole girlyness of the show nicely. Same with the skeleton pirate villan Barabrossa.

. The characters are....okay. I didn't find any of them particular compelling or interesting. They're not unlikeable, they just don't seem very fleshed out beyond some basic traits and tropes. The girls seem to have a strong friendship and support eachother and I like that Merlinda actually strugelded and doubted herself a lot and needed to be reminded that she's not alone in this.

. Weirdly the characters I found most interesting are Chris and Fred's dad XD. Chris seems really sweet, but seems to be strugling with social pressure. Which already creates an interesting and relatable internal conflict. And if they're going to develop his and Celia's relationship more that could lead to an interesting conflict between the two of them. Since she doesn't seem to be super popular. And Fred's dad just impressed me, 'cause he chose to tell Fred he was working for Barabrossa. Nobody made him do it. It's not like he got caught or anything. He made that decision himself. idk that was just unexpected and immediately made me like him more. I thought he was going to be a one dimensional greedy antagonist.

. Tracy is annoying and boring. If you give me a mean girl antagonist at least make her competend and seem like an actual threat. Tracy is just a brat. It's not even fun to hate her and she doesn't even pose a real challenge to the main characters.

. Why do they have put social media into every kids show now?!?! At least make it seem natural. Just a normal part of daily life instead of a character trait.

. The dialog seems very unnatural at times. I wish they would talk more like normal people.

. That Merlinda/Alex/Tyler love triangle was a waste of screentime. I don't mind a love triangle, but that was just boring.

. This is not a critique of the show's writing, just a personal opinion, but Dave Silver is a terible caretaker. Sir, you need to step up as a father. Your TEENAGE daughter is your accountant and you missed several e-mails from your bank and almost lost your house. You have childred that you need to provide for! Your child should not be worrying about your bills! I know he's a single father and he lost his wife, but come on man! Get your shit toghether!

. I love the magic of friendship trope as much as the next guy, but I was a bit disapointed that that was the source of Merlinda's new power. Everyone seemed surprised by it, I thought there would be a mystery to solve for why she suddenly has this power she didn't know about. Maybe they're going to explore that in season two, but it just seemed anti-climatic here. What did you think of the show?

[moonlightreal]

The Mermaid Magic post

I guess Rainbow needed a show to prove they could still make shows with season 9 taking so long, so they made a little Netflix-length thing called Mermaid Magic. And it’s good fun!

And, I think, it’s the practice run for season 9.

Mermaid Magic stars young mermaids Merlinda, Sasha and Nerissa. Merlinda is the princess of Mertropia, and is basically Bloom with different hair. Her color scheme is even aqua and pink. She’s brave and determined and when she discovers that her father and the kingdom are in danger she heads to the mystic portal to Earth to find the magic pearls they need.

Sasha has the name they almost gave Stella, and she’s kind of an airhead and very social media obsessed. Sasha also gets the most derp faces. The animation is quite good in general but when it does go wrong it seems to always go wrong by stretching Sasha’s face in weird ways. Sasha has a pet merpuppy named Beau Junior who runs around being cute.

Nerissa is leader of the royal guard and the princess’ bodyguard. She’s athletic and very protective of Merlinda. And yeah, she’s kinda Aisha.

I really like the look of the show. Yeah, Sasha gets weird-face but in general the characters are able to make facial expressions and have some body language. The male characters are noticeably less good than the female ones, so I’m not sure how the Specialists are gonna look. There are a lot of background citizens in Mertropia and they all look different from each other so that’s good. And it’s pretty! The transformations when the girls turn into their warrior form are really good! Their magical girl-ed up tridents look great!

When I first was the warrior mermaid forms my thought was, “Ooh, I hope the Winx get a transformation like that!” and… wish granted, in the video we talked about last time! Now my wish is, “I hope the Winx get transformations that AREN’T like that, eventually!” The look is very structured and warriorish, so this CG can definitely handle something like Bloomix. But softer looks like Enchantix? We’ll have to wait and see if the animation program can handle something that looks like softer fabric.

As for the story of Mermaid Magic, it is in a word, predictable. Not one single thing happened that I didn’t see coming a mile away. Gee, I wonder if they’ll get rescued by a cute human boy? Gee I wonder if they’ll find themselves having to go to human school and be humorously fish-out-of-water? Gee I wonder if there will be signs of Merlinda’s lost Mom? Gee, I wonder if they’ll do a bit of idol singer-ing sooner or later?” “Gee, I wonder if that mysterious merman is Merlinda’s uncle?” So yeah, the story didn't surprise me or wow me or even make me laugh, but it was a nice chill time watching the tropes unroll. I do hope Winx doesn’t go quite THIS predictable though. The joy of Winx is how it does dumb stuff with style and panache and that’s why it’s the show I love!

Mermaid Magic is ten episodes. It does tell a complete story but there are some threads left dangling for a second season, and I hope it gets one. In the last episode we have one villain still undefeated, Merlinda’s mother still missing, and the school’s mean girl just discovered our heroines are mermaids.

And I think this mean girl will have a big part in future seasons, because she has interesting hair.

So since I had good luck predicting season one, I’ll have a go at predicting season 2! The remaining villainess will recruit the mean girl and give her a magic doodad that turns her into a mermaid. They’ll start making trouble and the cute boy and his sister will call their mermaid friends to come help. Then... hmm... Merlinda's going to want to get her mother's magic ring back from the villain and well, of course in the end they find Merlinda's mother. Yeah. Now we can wait and see if I'm right or not!

My friend Lisa over at The Princess Blog is more of an actual professional blogger than I am, here’s what she thought of Mermaid Magic.

[crisp-sweet-pink-lady]

Thoughts on Mermaid Magic Season One

Overall, I thought it was pretty good! Working with only ten episodes, I think the series did a good job of balancing the action/drama with the more humorous and slice of life, character building moments. The episodes were fun, and the story felt complete, but with the door open for a second season.

I was hoping we'd get to see a little more Mertropia status quo before getting down to the danger, but again, the constraints of a short season. That said, the series did a good job of selling the urgency of Merlinda's mission. Barbarossa was a little one-note as a villain, but he was suitably menacing for the story being told. I'm curious to see what backstory (if any) we learn about Tempesta next season.

The minute Redd showed up and was like "I'm an eco-friendly business man" I knew there was no way he was on the up-and-up, and honestly, his character journey was the most interesting part of the season. Glad to see he wasn't completely corrupt, and that he found a way to help out without getting himself killed. 👍

One thing I could have done without was all the relationship stuff, though I might have made an exception for Nerissa getting together with that jock (Hunter?). The show was trying *so* hard to show that she had a softer side, and that might have actually done it. But I did like that the Tyler/Alex jealousy issue was resolved pretty quickly. One of the good sides of only have ten episodes!

The Tracy angle was especially wasted. Like, why not have her offer to get her dad to pay off the mortgage in the fundraiser ep, but only if Tyler becomes her boyfriend, so that's hanging over his head the whole episode? If you're going to have an unwanted love interest who has power, why not have her flaunt it more? But I suspect we'll see Tracy be a bigger character in the second season, so we'll see what comes of that.

Was also not a fan of the grumpy trainer trope, especially since Orca knew she wasn't formally trained, and I'm so so tired for influencer characters. People can use social media without being an influencer! But besides those and a couple other quibbles, I enjoyed this season, and hope we get another.

[inkbutterflyuniverse]

I finished Mermaid Magic. My wishes for a second season:

Youhou everyone is safe, Barbarossa won't come back and Chris is back. Mertropia was saved, and the king too.

And of course it's not the end because many things are yet to fix.

So, my wishes for season 2 are:

More things about Fred's dad. I want to know how they found this formula and make it work. I doubt it was just normal soap.

Orca comes back to the surface. If he stayed to find the queen, I see no reason why he would stay in Mertropia. Like, yes he was reunited with his brother and niece, but his goal was to find the queen for so many years, it would be strange if he decided to stay home.

We need a backstory for the Sea Witch. Barbarossa was a pirate, so his actions make sense, but for the witch why? Why didn't she came sooner to Barbarossa? What is her grudge against Mertropia?

The end of love triangle. No more Alex/Merlinda/Tyler and Chris/Celia/Fred (it seems like Fred has a crush on Celia, while she likes Chris, who fear social pressure). We need it to be resolved and move on to more important things.

It's obvious that Fred's sister will play a role but I kinda don't want to? Like, okay she's jealous etc, but she discovered that the girls are sirens. It would be more interesting if she tried to befriend the girls because she knows their true nature. And then maybe turn into a villain because the girls aren't using their powers when she's with them and it doesn't help her popularity? Or something as petty.

Maybe her taking ring of Merlinda's mom? I don't know if humans can use that, but with the help if the sea witch, maybe?

More of Sasha's trident power. So far, her bubble power was no help, it's just her camouflage power that was useful.

Of course the girls will return to Pirate's Cove, but I want them to spend at least one full episode at Mertropia, with Merlinda dealing with new responsibilities, as well as Nerissa who got promoted and Sasha being the biggest influencer in town.

I also want them to share their human knowledge. They were so guarded when they first arrived, thinking everyone was a pirate (well, not Sasha because she's so friendly, but the others). So they need to tell everyone that humans aren't bad, etc.

And I obviously forgot things, but that's all I can think at the moment...

[magicalgirlagency]

Did you see Mermaid Magic on Netflix yet? It just premiered!

Not yet, but I've subscribed to their YT channel a while ago to keep up with the news.

I'm enjoying everything so far that I've seen from the previews, specially the realm of Mertropia, because it vaguely reminds me of Winx's Andros, with how it's structured with both a land/surface and a submarine section, instead of being restricted to the seas.

And I also like how the transformation sequences also have a bipedal variant:

I haven't seen it yet, but I already think it's leagues better than Mermaid Melody (yes, I'll never let go of my pet peeve).

[pega-chan]

About Dave, i think having a slacker for a father is a double-edged sword. i hate incompetent parents, but on the other hand him being lenient made it possible for Celia and Tyler to do stuff like go out at night and go long distances with their gear and have more freedom than the typical teenager, which is convenient for Merlinda's mission. though it would certainly made the show more interesting if they had hindrance due to parental decisions forbidding them from doing certain dangerous things or them getting grounded

i agree that the social media aspect in the show is not very well integrated but i liked how they weaponized it at times, like livestreaming Tempesta trying to poison the king or gathering support for the fundraiser

i'm not a big fan of Alex being a love interest bc him being the captain of the royal guard means he's at least Nerissa's age (18), maybe older, and the age difference between him and Merlinda (who is 16) creeps me out lol

i feel like the short run-time made it so that they didn't have enough time to squeeze in decent character development, just enough time for the plot. the characters do have flaws but they're not expanded upon enough. i hope they get some sort of arc next season (if there is one)

i feel like the whole arc with Merlinda training with Orca was super rushed. a week is not enough time to go from informal training level to battle-ready. they would have benefitted from having Orca train her from maybe the middle of the season instead

i like that the girls are engaged in combat alongside fighting with magic but i wish there was a more structured magic system in this show. like how their powers work and develop, who gets to have powers, how do they obtain trident rings, etc. Merlinda's new power seemed like a deus ex machina and the source of it being love being anticlimactic might be bc we don't really understand how their magic works

i'd like more Mertropia lore. they call the world on the other side of the portal "the surface" but merfolk are sort of like amphibians in this show. they got land down in Mertropia and switch between human and merperson form. why choose to do that instead of having them live exclusively as merfolk? and the land isn't even a real surface world bc Merlinda mentions they don't have a sky in Mertropia. they have a protective dome but what is it protecting them from? i have so many questions

Mermaid Magic Thoughts

. Visually the show is very pretty. I like a lot of the character designs. Mertropia looks beautiful.

. The transformations are some of the best I've see in a while. I'd give them an 8/10. There are some things I wish where differend, but overall I like them a lot. Their movements are snappy and fluid. (Making a bunch of unnessesary weird looking movements is such a pet peeve of mine when it comes to magical girl tansformations.) The outfits look good. I like that they change into a more practical hairstyle. The song is almost really good. This is just my personal opinion, but I am just not a fan of the more spoken parts (idk how to describe it, is rap the right word for it?). But mostly it's a good gearing-up-to-kick-ass-song. Which is always good during a magical girl tranformation.

. I always like me a good warrior princess. I like that the girls wield these big tridents as weapons. And especially Merlinda gets to actually engage in combat and they're not just shooting sprakling beams out of their hands. It contrasts the whole girlyness of the show nicely. Same with the skeleton pirate villan Barabrossa.

. The characters are....okay. I didn't find any of them particular compelling or interesting. They're not unlikeable, they just don't seem very fleshed out beyond some basic traits and tropes. The girls seem to have a strong friendship and support eachother and I like that Merlinda actually strugelded and doubted herself a lot and needed to be reminded that she's not alone in this.

. Weirdly the characters I found most interesting are Chris and Fred's dad XD. Chris seems really sweet, but seems to be strugling with social pressure. Which already creates an interesting and relatable internal conflict. And if they're going to develop his and Celia's relationship more that could lead to an interesting conflict between the two of them. Since she doesn't seem to be super popular. And Fred's dad just impressed me, 'cause he chose to tell Fred he was working for Barabrossa. Nobody made him do it. It's not like he got caught or anything. He made that decision himself. idk that was just unexpected and immediately made me like him more. I thought he was going to be a one dimensional greedy antagonist.

. Tracy is annoying and boring. If you give me a mean girl antagonist at least make her competend and seem like an actual threat. Tracy is just a brat. It's not even fun to hate her and she doesn't even pose a real challenge to the main characters.

. Why do they have put social media into every kids show now?!?! At least make it seem natural. Just a normal part of daily life instead of a character trait.

. The dialog seems very unnatural at times. I wish they would talk more like normal people.

. That Merlinda/Alex/Tyler love triangle was a waste of screentime. I don't mind a love triangle, but that was just boring.

. This is not a critique of the show's writing, just a personal opinion, but Dave Silver is a terible caretaker. Sir, you need to step up as a father. Your TEENAGE daughter is your accountant and you missed several e-mails from your bank and almost lost your house. You have childred that you need to provide for! Your child should not be worrying about your bills! I know he's a single father and he lost his wife, but come on man! Get your shit toghether!

. I love the magic of friendship trope as much as the next guy, but I was a bit disapointed that that was the source of Merlinda's new power. Everyone seemed surprised by it, I thought there would be a mystery to solve for why she suddenly has this power she didn't know about. Maybe they're going to explore that in season two, but it just seemed anti-climatic here. What did you think of the show?