History Main / OurMermaidsAreDifferent

* PeterSBeagle (author of ''TheLastUnicorn'') wrote a short story called ''Salt Wine'' where a merman rewards a sailor who rescued him by giving him the recipe for salt wine. It makes him rich, but then it turns out that [[spoiler:a small number of those who drink it [[InvoluntaryShapeshifting turn into mer-creatures]] themselves]]. Here, mermaids are portrayed as wild and inhuman, and they range from supernaturally hideous to supernaturally beautiful.

* Merfolk appear briefly in the ''{{Narnia}}'' series. The ones on the coast of Narnia can leave the water for short periods and attend the coronation at the end of ''The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe''; later, out in the deep oceans in ''Voyage of the Dawn Treader'', Lucy encounters a wilder breed who stay submerged all the time. Notably in the latter case CSLewis points out that from the point of view of underwater people, mountains and valleys' characteristics are reversed - mountains are the warm civilised areas near the surface, valleys are the mysterious dark areas populated by monsters. Another difference between the sea people that live near the coast of Narnia and the ones in the deep oceans is that coastal merfolk are portrayed as traditional mermaids and mermen with human heads, arms, and torsos, and long green fishtails beelow the waist, with the merfolk of the Eastern Sea are bipedal with regular human legs. (At least according to the illustrations.).

* ''FinalFantasy'' uses typical girls-with-fishy-bottoms mermaids as NPCs in [[FinalFantasyI the first game]], but somewhere along the way someone decided that they may have been a bit too much of a cliche fantasy element and they haven't appeared in a game since (unless you count the totally-not-[[StarWars Gungans]] Hypello in ''FinalFantasyX.'')

** Many artists commonly draw merfolk with tails that have knee and ankle joints instead of a spinal column. Possibly to make them more "human", though it just makes one wonder how the poor merfolk can swim with tails like that.
*** You can get single large flippers to use both legs at once and if you watch swimming competitions you do notice that when they are underwater (after kicking off the end) they do keep their legs together and use an undulating motion. So juding from that merfolk with knee and ankle joints can swim quite well...assuming horizontal flukes. If they have vertical flukes then they are pretty screwed.

* Kit Whitfield's Deepmen in ''In Great Waters'' are air breathing (although they can stay under for up to 30 minutes) mammals with tails, notably less intelligent than humans, although they have a language it's limited to purely practical matters, abstract concepts like religion being alien to them and can breed with humans. In fact all the royal houses of Europe (and possibly the world) [[HalfHumanHybrid have some Deepman blood.

* The [[http://www.missmab.com/Demo/mer.php Mer]] from {{DMFA}}

* Kit Whitfield's Deepmen in ''In Great Waters'' are mammalian but with tails, notably less intelligent than humans, although they have a language it's limited to purely practical matters, abstract concepts like religion being alien to them and can breed with humans. In fact all the royal houses of Europe (and possibly the world) [[HalfHumanHybrid have some Deepman blood.

* Merfolk appear briefly in the ''{{Narnia}}'' series. The ones on the coast of Narnia can leave the water for short periods and attend the coronation at the end of ''The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe''; later, out in the deep oceans in ''Voyage of the Dawn Treader'', Lucy encounters a wilder breed who stay submerged all the time. Notably in the latter case CSLewis points out that from the point of view of underwater people, mountains and valleys' characteristics are reversed - mountains are the warm civilised areas near the surface, valleys are the mysterious dark areas populated by monsters.

[[caption-width-right:330:[[TheLittleMermaid Often very]] [[HarryPotter different.]]]]

* ''MegaMan 9's'' first female Robot Master's (or should that be the first Robot Mistress') look is based on the regular mermaid--female human on top/fish tail on the bottom. She sings to call in a few waves of fish robots and uses a laser trident.

[[caption-width-right:330:[[TheLittleMermaid Often very]] [[HarryPotter different]].]]

[[caption-width-right:330:[[TheLittleMermaid Often very]] [[HarryPotter different]].]]

[[caption-width-right:330:[[TheLittleMermaid Often]] [[HarryPotter very different]].]]

* The old ''WorldOfDarkness'' game ''Changeling: The Dreaming'' has the Seelie Merfolk and the Unseelie Murdhuacha (pronounced ''mer-RU-ka''). The Merfolk are what one generally thinks about when one thinks mermaid: their lower halfs are of various bony fish, except for House Melsinee, who instead take the form of air-breathing marine mammals and reptiles. The Murdhuacha are [[WhatMeasureIsANonCute merged with crustaceans, mollusks, and other seagoing invertebrates]] (think Ursula). When either Kith takes to land, their lower halves automatically turn into legs and they resemble Sidhe with their otherworldly beauty. (The book isn't clear on what human race they resemble. Probably, like the Rokea Weresharks (their closest allies), they look like whatever group of people is on the nearest shore.)
** There's also a bit of NightmareFuel, as the Merfolk and Murdhuacha are trying to fight off the game's constantly-oppressive force of Banality. Any changeling who succumbs to Banality loses all access to their fae abilities and forgets all about their second life. Imagine being one of them, and coming to in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean... about five hundred feet down.

* In ''{{Ponyo}}'', mermaids are magical goldfish with powerful magic who can turn [[HumanityEnsues shapeshift]] [[BloodMagic if they taste human blood]]. Oh, and they appear to be the [[HalfHumanHybrid result of breeding]] between [[AWizardDidIt a human wizard]] and [[PhysicalGod the goddess of the ocean]].