liv

i think i hate will less for forcing bella to reveal herself as a mermaid because he wasn't completely aware of what the circumstances were (how dangerous the secret is/ exactly what the secret is). (obviously still very very bad not denying that).

genuinely how can a group of grown ass adults sit down and say "yeah the character we want to appeal to young viewers as a likable romantic interest will withhold information about his love interest's friend's KIDNAPPING unless she divulges information about not even just her own very personal secret but her friends' personal secrets (the exposure of which would be incredibly dangerous)." s3 is so good at pissing me off in the way that they do not properly convey the weight and danger of the words of the mermaids' boyfriends. like, the target audience of this show is YOUNG. i find it so irresponsible to depict these characters as being so careless about the safety of the main characters without really emphasizing to the audience how bad that carelessness is, yknow what i mean? not even in an "i'm an adult recognizing how dangerous this situation would be in the real world, but the show wasn't really trying to depict that kind of danger" way. we see rikki get KIDNAPPED and have duct tape placed over her mouth and her hands TIED, like the show wants the audience to see how much danger rikki is in. will takes advantage of rikki's un-safety to get information to satiate his curiosity. later on, zane tries to BLACKMAIL rikki into staying in a relationship with him. this one pisses me off so much because this is the kind of situation young viewers may very well find themselves in when they grow up (not being blackmailed with a mermaid secret, but with other vulnerable/intimate information a partner may try to use against them). and zane just sorta is like "yeahh sorry about that but you know i wouldn't actually do that." we deserved to see rikki get pissed and threaten him right back with her lightning powers idc (we saw multiple times that exposure of the mermaid secret is a very real, physical threat to these characters' safety). i just think it's so irresponsible for ADULTS to depict this carelessness regarding safety as youthful mistakes to a young audience. lewis being oblivious to how his experiments made his friends feel, that is a good illustration of a youthful mistake and oversight. byron not realizing that training with emma would be intense and that she might have greater expectations for him. zane stealing the surfboard from the juicenet. even when these mistakes result in a threat to safety, like lewis accidentally allowing denman to access a mermaid sample, or zane pointing denman to mako, the impact of those mistakes is made very clear to both the audience and the characters, who make efforts to apologize and right their wrongs. like, this show is capable of depicting teen boys as making careless, or even intentionally harmful mistakes that don't come at the expense of telling the audience that young men just don't care about young women's safety or feelings. the way s3 does is super harmful, not only to young women but to young men. young men can and often are thoughtful and aware of the importance of safety and privacy. young men can and do recognize their mistakes and learn and grow from them. it does no good for anyone for to flatten these characters and not really acknowledge the harm of their actions. i don't want it to seem like i'm holding the teenage boys of this show to unfair standard when emma canonically killed a girl and rikki almost killed a fish smuggler. when those events occur though, the audience is told pretty clearly how bad they are, not in a character turning to the camera and going "that's not good!" but in the way the characters react to the actions of others and themselves. in season 3, though, neither will nor zane ever seem to sit with what they've done, feel guilt, experience repercussions (i mean zane gets broken up with i guess?), as we see the girls do regularly. it fails the audience who is told that these are traits/behaviors you can expect or even seek out in a future partner. it fails the characters in not allowing them to acknowledge and grow from their mistakes.

#also will manipulating bella into revealing the mermaid secret to him just the once could have been forgivable #but he does the same to rikki and cleo AND forces the mermaid transformation on her again at a public pool for his own gain when he #knows she's uncomfortable with it #no remorse after the fact no attempts to repair. he even acts like HE'S the one who's been slighted after bella is forced to tell him she's #a mermaid and says he isn't sure he can keep her secret. grrrrrr

random but i could always imagine hartford as a van life couple lol. Them both traveling the world, Charlotte making beautiful art of all the places she visits and bella just loving traveling and experiencing the world, singing in different places for some money and visiting all the oceans and beaches of the world and swimming in them.

i think i hate will less for forcing bella to reveal herself as a mermaid because he wasn't completely aware of what the circumstances were (how dangerous the secret is/ exactly what the secret is). (obviously still very very bad not denying that).

genuinely how can a group of grown ass adults sit down and say "yeah the character we want to appeal to young viewers as a likable romantic interest will withhold information about his love interest's friend's KIDNAPPING unless she divulges information about not even just her own very personal secret but her friends' personal secrets (the exposure of which would be incredibly dangerous)." s3 is so good at pissing me off in the way that they do not properly convey the weight and danger of the words of the mermaids' boyfriends. like, the target audience of this show is YOUNG. i find it so irresponsible to depict these characters as being so careless about the safety of the main characters without really emphasizing to the audience how bad that carelessness is, yknow what i mean? not even in an "i'm an adult recognizing how dangerous this situation would be in the real world, but the show wasn't really trying to depict that kind of danger" way. we see rikki get KIDNAPPED and have duct tape placed over her mouth and her hands TIED, like the show wants the audience to see how much danger rikki is in. will takes advantage of rikki's un-safety to get information to satiate his curiosity. later on, zane tries to BLACKMAIL rikki into staying in a relationship with him. this one pisses me off so much because this is the kind of situation young viewers may very well find themselves in when they grow up (not being blackmailed with a mermaid secret, but with other vulnerable/intimate information a partner may try to use against them). and zane just sorta is like "yeahh sorry about that but you know i wouldn't actually do that." we deserved to see rikki get pissed and threaten him right back with her lightning powers idc (we saw multiple times that exposure of the mermaid secret is a very real, physical threat to these characters' safety). i just think it's so irresponsible for ADULTS to depict this carelessness regarding safety as youthful mistakes to a young audience. lewis being oblivious to how his experiments made his friends feel, that is a good illustration of a youthful mistake and oversight. byron not realizing that training with emma would be intense and that she might have greater expectations for him. zane stealing the surfboard from the juicenet. even when these mistakes result in a threat to safety, like lewis accidentally allowing denman to access a mermaid sample, or zane pointing denman to mako, the impact of those mistakes is made very clear to both the audience and the characters, who make efforts to apologize and right their wrongs. like, this show is capable of depicting teen boys as making careless, or even intentionally harmful mistakes that don't come at the expense of telling the audience that young men just don't care about young women's safety or feelings. the way s3 does is super harmful, not only to young women but to young men. young men can and often are thoughtful and aware of the importance of safety and privacy. young men can and do recognize their mistakes and learn and grow from them. it does no good for anyone for to flatten these characters and not really acknowledge the harm of their actions. i don't want it to seem like i'm holding the teenage boys of this show to unfair standard when emma canonically killed a girl and rikki almost killed a fish smuggler. when those events occur though, the audience is told pretty clearly how bad they are, not in a character turning to the camera and going "that's not good!" but in the way the characters react to the actions of others and themselves. in season 3, though, neither will nor zane ever seem to sit with what they've done, feel guilt, experience repercussions (i mean zane gets broken up with i guess?), as we see the girls do regularly. it fails the audience who is told that these are traits/behaviors you can expect or even seek out in a future partner. it fails the characters in not allowing them to acknowledge and grow from their mistakes.