Or a mermaid could pass for human on land in a wheelchair. Some of these items are obvious a Selkie needs her shed seal-skin to return to her home in the sea. The Mermaid has a magical item which allows her to change from one form to another. The Magical Item Method: Common in some mythologies but, curiously, not often utilized in modern fiction, aside from anime and magical girl genre.Unlike the Splash method, getting doused with water is not a problem. The Fredericka Bimm Method: Mermaids can switch forms more or less at will.In the original Hans Christian Andersen fairy tale, it's the title's character's tongue the sea-witch responsible expects payment, and specifies, "the best thing you possess will I have for the price of my draught.". The Little Mermaid Method: The mermaid invokes a magic spell which allows them to turn human.Sometimes this is something all merpeople can do, and sometimes there are limits on how long they can do it. The Splash Method: The mermaid can become human when they are dry and turn back when wet.The way this is done and differences in the "rules" surrounding this are numerous: Sometimes merpeople can turn into humans, or vice versa, under certain circumstances. Of course, a sizable fraction of mermaid imagery doesn't actually replicate any extant fish, but just starts out with a feminine hip-bulge and tapers the tail down to a big wide fin. It should also be noted that most mermaids have the "fish half" in a cetacean (horizontal fluke) configuration, rather than a fish's vertical configuration, since this is closer to how an actual human swims, though exceptions exist.įinally, given that there are more than 15,000 species of fishes in Earth's oceans, the actual kind of fish-tail which even a traditional mermaid might sport provides yet another basis for diversity of appearance among them. who look like normal humans for the most part but can survive and breathe underwater and may have some odd physical adaptations that are well-hidden until they return to the sea. And then there's underwater folk like Aquaman, Namor, The Man From Atlantis etc. Mermaids who are more human-looking (and modest) tend to wear Seashell Bras. Some joke that merfolk must have the fish half on top instead of on the bottom in order to resolve "the Mermaid Problem". Sometimes they have features reminiscent of other, more exotic sea-creatures, and sometimes they are sea-animals that become human-like under certain circumstances. Others are more blatantly sea-creatures with few human characteristics and are quite ugly, for example the Harry Potter merman ( mermaid?) pictured. Sometimes they have a few fishy characteristics on the human half as well- such as Ear Fins, arm fins or scattered scales- an aquatic Cute Monster Girl. Merfolk are generally portrayed as beautiful women (mermaids) or handsome men (mermen) with fish- or dolphin-like tails in place of legs. Even their general appearance isn't fixed: see the picture. Their dispositions, morality, and alliances vary depending on the author, and whether or not they can become human is a question everyone answers differently. However, like most mythical creatures and monsters, they are a little different every time and have different rules applied to them. Mermaids, or more generally merfolk, crop up quite a lot in fiction.
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