Fanfic / Breaking the generational cycle

Breaking the Generational Cycle is a slight AU/continuation fanfic of Ruby Gillman, Teenage Kraken by Silvery_Soul on AO3.

Taking place after the movie, it is revealed that Chelsea lied about being Nerissa and really is the mermaid queen's daughter. Furthermore, Ruby had since gotten over her crush on Connor and had fallen in love with Chelsea. Ruby checks up on Chelsea while still trying to find other mermaids to make peace with them. Chelsea is still plotting how to continue her mission while trying to sort out her feelings towards Ruby.

Silvery_Soul also wrote: How do you take care of a sick mermaid showing a time set during the film where Chelsea gets sick from being out of water too long and Ruby takes her home to take care of her with chapter 10 of this story confirming that the two take place in the same universe.

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Breaking the Generational Cycle and its follow-ups contains the following tropes

• 20 Minutes into the Future: The Epilogue takes place several months later on Ruby’s sixteenth Birthday.
• Abdicate the Throne: Downplayed. At the end Ruby makes the Kraken kingdom a constitutional monarchy. She is still queen but now the krakens have an elected president.
• Abusive Parents:
  • In addition to being neglectful, Nerissa sent Chelsea on what would have been a suicide mission if she failed or was caught and told her that even if she survived, she wouldn't be welcome back without the trident. Chelsea is also sure that if she went against her mother for any reason her mother would "cut her in half". After Chelsea fails, Nerissa deems her a failure (and dead) and moves on with plan B. Additionally, it's later revealed that Nerissa was always disappointed in Chelsea for her weak voice and saw no use for her other than getting the Trident. When Chelsea returns alive she expresses no relief and basically disowns her for her failure. Upon realizing she fell in love with Ruby, she exiles her as a siren and outright gives her people orders to kill her if she's seen again.
  • A flashback of Agatha’s childhood shows that Emerald would always yell at her if she did something unprincess like and if she talked back then things would get "messier". Their relationship becomes more strained after chapter five when Agatha stops Emerald from killing Chelsea.
• Actually Pretty Funny: Ruby has to stop herself from chuckling when Chelsea tricks Emerald into calling herself a dummy.
• Adaptation Expansion: How mermaids and krakens became rivals is revealed in the second chapter. Before they had a symbiotic relationship when they hunted humans together. Krakens would sink their ships and mermaids would feed on the humans inside. Though when humans started developing better weapons to fight off the krakens the krakens decided to stop hunting them and tried ordering mermaids to do the same, but they didn't since humans were their primary source of food at the time. The mermaids continued hunting, which indirectly led to Queen Abigail of the krakens being killed and it drove her vengeful daughter to wage war on the mermaids in response. As a result, the mermaids were banished to the deepest depths of the ocean where many were unable to adapt and died. Some mermaids tried escaping and living on land or hiding in the ocean but any that were found by krakens were killed. Such led to the mermaids trying to overthrow the krakens which led to the latter to deeming them “vain, power-hungry, narcissists”.
• Adaptational Nice Guy:
  • Chelsea is overall portrayed as being much more sympathetic than in the movie, being stuck with Nerissa being an abusive mother to her and only really wanting to make life better for her people and her care for Ruby is completely real, to the point where she was actually planning to try and convince her mother to spare her had she won.
  • As opposed to the Black-and-White Morality separating krakens from mermaids in the movie, here the conflict is portrayed as a morally ambiguous dilemma (as are wars in real life) where neither side is portrayed as being entirely innocent or guilty and there being a lot of racism and distrust on both sides resulting in stereotyping and the conflict continuing.
• Adaptation Relationship Overhaul: By the start of this story, Ruby is over her crush on Connor and is trying to sort out the feelings she developed for Chelsea.
• Adaptational Sexuality: Ruby is bisexual, having once had a crush on Connor and admitting to her mother in a moment of weakness that she had fallen in love with Chelsea when the former was pretending to be her friend.
• Adaptational Villainy: Emerald/Grandmamah’s attitude towards mermaids is portrayed as unjust in this fic since mermaids aren’t inherently evil and Chelsea IS actually a teenager, yet she still wants to kill her.
• The Ageless: Just like in the movie, it’s stated that Mermaids don't age, with Emerald verifying that mermaids stop aging after they reach adulthood. The fact that Chelsea is a teenager is what tips the older Gillmans off that she isn't actually Nerissa.
• Age Lift: Nerissa had Chelsea AFTER the battle for the trident, so she is actually younger than Ruby, with Chelsea insisting that she will be fifteen in two months. Ruby lampshades this upon learning about it.
  “At first, this girl was her age. Then she was like, way older than her. And now she was a year younger?”
• All-Loving Hero: Even after everything that she went through in the movie, Ruby still cares about Chelsea and promises to create peace between mermaids and krakens someday and was disgusted and horrified that in ancient times krakens used to hunt humans since she's lived among them her whole life.
• Anguished Declaration of Love: In chapter nine, Chelsea blurts out that she's in love with Ruby while trying to deal with the fact she's been banished from her home and branded a siren.
• Anti-Villain: Chelsea was willing to lie and manipulate Ruby to get the Trident of Oceanus so she could kill her mother and grandmamah so that mermaids could rule the ocean. However, she actually did grow to care about Ruby and everything she ever did was because her people are suffering at the bottom of the ocean and are being actively hunted by krakens and she desperately wants her mother's love.
• Asskicking Leads to Leadership:
  • Because all the true royal mermaids were killed in the war long ago, if a mermaid wants to be in charge, they have to challenge the previous ruler and beat/kill them in combat, with Nerissa became the current queen by beating the previous ruler.
  • Chelsea becomes queen after beating Nerissa. Though she doesn’t kill her mother, Nerissa has ruined her own reputation enough that the other mermaids turn on her anyways.
• Because You Were Nice to Me: Chelsea already made the decision not to kill Ruby for being a Nice Girl with no racism against Mermaids but also later decides against killing Agatha after she saved her from Emerald.
• Blood Knight: Emerald freely admits that she would have killed Chelsea for being a mermaid had she met her earlier, even though she's only slightly younger than her granddaughter. She also encourages all krakens to kill any mermaids that they find outside the area where they were banished on sight and fully intends to commit complete genocide as soon as she finds where they are hiding.
• Big Sister Instinct: When Emerald grabs ahold of Clarissa, Chelsea bites her arm and blocks the path to keep Agatha from chasing after her.
• Black-and-White Insanity: As far as Emerald is concerned, all mermaids are inherently evil, cannot be trusted, and should all be wiped out for the good of all krakens, while viewing krakens as the great protectors of the ocean.
• Both Sides Have a Point: Ruby and Chelsea’s argument at the beginning of the story, after their fight in the movie. Ruby calls out Chelsea for betraying her and trying to wipe out the last giant krakens (her family) when they had planned to use the trident to create peace between mermaids and Krakens. Chelsea points out that mermaids and krakens have been at each others throats for millennium to the point that krakens normally kill mermaids on sight so just getting the trident wouldn’t have been enough (not helping Ruby's case is that her Grandmamah proudly admits that she would have killed Chelsea as soon as she saw her if they had met before).
• Breather Episode: Chapter 7, which is a sweet slice of life chapter about Ruby dragging Chelsea into hanging out with her friends, comes between chapter 6, where it's discovered that Nerissa is planning to use the Leviathan against the Krakens and chapter 8, where Nerissa kicks her daughter out upon realizing she fell in love with Ruby, which in turn causes Chelsea to lash out at Ruby.
• Broken Pedestal: Just about no one likes Nerissa anymore in the final chapters. The krakens always hated her for her ruthless war crimes against them. But then even her fellow mermaids turn on her after realizing she was prepared to sacrifice then to destroy the Krakens (and her only loyal follower Marina dies as a result). And even her own daughters turn against her too for being a horrible mother, not to mention trying to kill one of them.
• Children Are Innocent: Claricia is a sweet little mermaid girl who adores her big sister Chelsea. She also innocently asked Chelsea if they could EAT Ruby (thinking that she was human) since their mother said that they are “delicious”.
  • At the end, she and Sam become friends due to neither really having animosity with the others species due to this trope. This gives Ruby hope for true peace and co-existence between the two species again.
• Cliffhanger: Chapter 10 ends with Emerald having discovered where the mermaids are and going to attack them.
• Condescending Compassion: Emerald justifies not allowing mermaids to go back to the surface because they might go back to eating ”land-dwellers”, though she doesn’t remember they're actually called humans. This seems to be more of an excuse if anything though.
• Crafted from Animals: The Trident of Oceanus was created using the Leviathan's teeth, by an old Mermaid king named Oceanus.
• Dark and Troubled Past: Like all mermaids, Chelsea grew up in the darkest depths of the ocean with no permanent home or food source knowing that if she tried going to the surface then she would likely be killed by krakens. Chelsea lost her father to krakens and her mother was always too busy being queen of the mermaids and plotting revenge to be a good mother to her. She also apparently was only ever close to her little sister Claricia. Then her mother sent her on a mission to help their people that she could potentially die from and was not expected to be allowed home if she failed. Chapter seven additionally reveals that Chelsea’s magical voice is weak for a mermaid and Ruby suspects this caused trouble for her back at home.
• Dating Catwoman: Ruby is still very much attracted to Chelsea (and it’s not exactly one-sided). Though they aren't dating Ruby does check on Chelsea every so often while she’s imprisoned by Gordon and the two have a shaky friendship.
• Deadpan Snarker: Combined with Nerves of Steel for Chelsea. She maintains her composure and mocks the krakens even when Emerald is threatening to kill her after Emerald demands she take her to the mermaid kingdom. Chelsea sarcastically agrees (then asks if it can wait til morning for her beauty sleep) then leads her to the abandoned kingdom before mocking her. Later when Emerald is in the process of killing her, the mermaid just hisses at the queen.
• Decomposite Character: Chelesa actually is Nerissa's daughter here. The reason she claimed to be her mother was because, according to mermaid law, the new queen has to overthrow the current one. So Chelsea simply lied about being her mother after she got the trident so that the real Nerissa could take her place as queen after Chelsea beat the Krakens for her.
• Dirty Coward: By Agatha’s own account, when she wrestled the trident away from Nerissa the mermaid queen begged for her life. She deduces that she sent Chelsea and had her daughter pretend to be her rather than coming to get the trident herself because Agatha threatened to kill her if she showed her face again. Word of God is that Nerissa did have Chelsea specifically for this (hence why her name is more human). Additionally, it turns out that Nerissa was watching the final battle from the movie and deliberately chose not to help Chelsea using the justification that “unlike (Chelsea)” she’s useful and the mermaids would mourn her if she died.
• Disappeared Dad: Chelsea’s father died when she was young, but she’s not too upset about it since he was just as neglectful as her mother.
• The Dragon: Nerissa has one named Marina. Nerissa trusts her enough to reveal her whole plan to her and after Nerissa orders the other mermaids to kill Chelsea, Marina doesn’t hesitate to attack her former princess (which then prompts a few of the ones who hesitated to try as well).
• The Dreaded: The Leviathan, a monster defeated by the krakens long ago and Nerissa’s plan B. Chelsea becomes worried once she learns from her sister about this.
• Entertainingly Wrong: While nearly dying of dehydration due to being left out of water for so long, Chelsea honestly thought that the krakens gave her captor orders to kill her. After Ruby throws her into the ocean she reveals that, no, they never gave him orders, Lighthouse is just an idiot.
• Everyone Has Standards:
  • Chelsea may be apathetic towards humans but she tells Claricia that she doesn’t want mermaids going back to eating them. She is also horrified when she discovers her mother plans to use the leviathan as a backup for Chelsea’s failure.
  • Agatha doesn’t like mermaids either but she doesn’t approve of genocide like her mother wants. She is also horrified when she learns the conditions that they have had to live in for the last 15 years.
  • Though the krakens are supposed to kill mermaids on sight, a couple let Claricia to live since she’s a kid.
  • When Nerissa banishes Chelsea and orders the other mermaids to kill her, some (but not all) hesitate and don’t join the others in attacking her out of confusion and a feeling of betrayal.
  • In Chapter 11, it turns out that alot of Krakens are actually uncomfortable with the idea of genocide against the mermaids and are only fighting because of Emeralds orders. After discovering this, Emerald is convinced to at least give peace a try.
• Even Evil Has Loved Ones: Downplayed, as Chelsea is not evil so to say, but rather very morally ambiguous. However, she did come to care about Ruby and found herself unable/willing to kill her despite knowing she was supposed to. When she finds out that Ruby was around during a mermaid attack, Chelsea is genuinely concerned and asks if she is ok. She also greatly loves her little sister Claricia, who is the only person back home she really misses.
• Even Evil Can Be Loved: Chelsea still respects her mother and sees her as a good queen of the mermaids, even though she has many issues with her. She looses this in chapter 11.
• Exact Words: In chapter 5, Emerald orders Chelsea to lead her and Agatha to the mermaid kingdom. Chelsea obliges, but upon arrival, it turns out to be abandoned.
• Fanart: The bottom of chapter five includes a drawing of Claricia. Chapter 11 has a picture of the leviathan.
• Fantastic Racism: Both mermaids and krakens hate each other. Mermaids seeing krakens as bloodthirsty tyrants and krakens seeing mermaids as power-hungry.
  • Under Emerald and previous kraken queen’s rule after Abigail, all krakens have a great hatred of mermaids and, after banishing the entire race to the darkest depths of the ocean (where many were unable to adapt and died) it became a rule that if a mermaid is seen they will be killed on sight.
  • Chelsea considers humans a nuisance and considers them inferior to whales.
• Fire-Forged Friends: Subverted. Krakens and Mermaids end up working together to defeat the Leviathan. That plus Emerald dying and Nerissa being banished, allowing Ruby and Chelsea to rise as queens respectively, allows for peace between the two species after millennium. However, aside from Ruby providing aid to the mermaids to help them build a new kingdom close to the surface both sides still have a distrust and don’t interact with each other. Though Ruby hopes this will change after a few decades with new generations.
• Florence Nightingale Effect: Ruby and Chelsea bond when Chelsea becomes dehydrated after spending too much time outside of water and Ruby takes Chelsea to her home to recover.
• Foil: Emerald and Nerissa are a kraken and Mermaid respectively but that’s all that seems different from them so far. Both want to cause complete genocide against the other, have a deep hatred for the other side due to loosing family members, and we’re too obsessed with revenge to be good mothers to Agatha and Chelsea respectively.
  • Turns out they are Not So Similar when we finally see Nerissa. For all of Emeralds faults she really does care about her family and her subjects, she's just not the best at showing it. While Nerissa only sees her daughters as tools for power and potential heirs and it’s implied she doesn’t mind getting other mermaids killed (despite their small numbers) to take down her enemies. This is shown clearly in chapter 11 where Emerald is swayed against going through with her genocide after learning that some of her people are uncomfortable with it, while Nerissa threatens to banish any mermaid that doesn't fight the krakens and makes it clear she is more concerned with revenge and "Mermaid Pride" than her people's well-being.
• The Ghost: Nerissa the mermaid queen, Chelsea’s mother, has been mentioned in “How do you take care of a sick mermaid” and in the first three chapters, but has yet to make an actual appearance. She loses this status come chapter 8.
• God Save Us from the Queen!: Though Nerissa is beloved among the mermaids for being able to stand up to the krakens, it is implied by several characters (both kraken and her own daughters) that she is actually a ruthless character. Claricia reveals that she is planning something involving the Leviathan (a monster feared by both krakens and mermaids) as part of her backup for Chelsea's failure. The fact that she hasn't told any other mermaids about it (besides one mermaid named Marina, Claricia just overheard) implies that it is bad. It also turns out she’s been ordering the other mermaids to attack the krakens to draw away attention despite many mermaids not wanting to.
  • Played straight in the final battle where its shown that Nerissa is essentially forcing her people to fight against the krakens by threatening them with banishment.
• Good Cannot Comprehend Evil: In chapter 9, after seeing the wound Nerissa gave Chelsea when banishing her, it takes Ruby a second to process it because she doesn't understand how a mother could hurt their child like that.
• Hate Sink: Nerissa is an absolutely loathsome person. She’s an emotionally abusive mother who later disowns Chelsea before ordering the other mermaids to kill her. Also, it’s implied that her deal with the leviathan will hurt mermaids too but she’s still willing to go through with it to get revenge on the krakens.
• Heel–Face Turn: Chelsea approached Ruby hating krakens and planning to kill her/her family and overthrow krakens for mermaids. Then she befriends Ruby and decides to spare her and do the rest of her plan while thinking peace between the groups is impossible. But Ruby's genuine kindness and Agatha saving her from Emerald convinces Chelsea that striving for peace is the better option.
  • When Emerald discovers that a lot of her soldiers actually don't want to commit genocide against the mermaids she is convinced by her daughter and granddaughter (if begrudgingly) to make peace.
  • Eons ago mermaids used to hunt and eat humans even after krakens stopped. Then after centuries of being unable to hunt humans on the surface mermaids adapted to eating fish and squid’s (raw). In the epilogue humans and mermaids form a symbiotic relationship of their own where mermaids help them catch more fish and humans cook (which Chelsea finds makes it taste better) half for them.
• Hidden Depths: Chelsea discovers that she enjoys scaring humans in the Sirens Den.
• How the Mighty Have Fallen: In the Epilogue Nerissa has gone from the feared queen of the mermaids to an outcast who breaks things when no one is looking that runs away before she’s caught.
• Humans Are Bastards: Chelsea is unbothered by her people and krakens' ancient history of hunting humans since she considers them a nuisance for polluting the ocean and killing sea life.
• Hypocrite: Combined with Never My Fault. Upon reuniting with Chelsea, Nerissa coldly and harshly chastises her for failing to retrieve the trident and says she had no right to return to the mermaids for it. Having said that, she reveals that she was watching her fight with the three krakens from afar and chose not to help. She justifies it that her absence would be missed by the mermaids but it’s implied it’s really because she’s a Dirty Coward who would rather leave her daughter to fight for her and the other mermaids than risk Agatha’s wrath.
• Idiot Ball: Chelsea nearly dies in chapter 2 because Gordon didn’t recognize that Chelsea, a sea creature, needs to be submerged in water sometimes to stay alive.
• I'm a Humanitarian: In ancient times, both mermaids and krakens used to eat humans. Krakens stopped after humans developed better weapons for combating them and no mermaids have eaten humans since they were banished to the depths of the ocean.
• I Have No Daughter!: Nerissa was never proud of Chelsea for being born with a weak hypnotic voice and never appreciated Chelsea’s other achievements or her attempts to make her proud only keeping her around and considering making Chelsea her heir provided she succeed in getting the trident, disowning Chelsea over her failure and outright telling her Claricia will be her heir instead. She then becomes disgusted with Chelsea enough to banish her and put out a death mark on her head after discovering she fell in love with Ruby (a kraken).
• Interspecies Romance:
  • Ruby (a giant kraken) once had a crush on Connor (a human) and currently has partly reciprocated feelings for Chelsea (a mermaid). Chapter 8 shows that Chelsea has come to return it but stops denying it by Chapter 9.
  • Long before the war between krakens are mermaids, the two species used to be close enough that one merman author freely states that his partner is a kraken.
• It's All About Me: Emerald thinks that all mermaids have this attitude.
• It's Personal: A lot of Emerald's animosity towards mermaids comes from losing her parents and sisters to them.
• Jerkass Has a Point:
  • Ruby calls Chelsea out on betraying her after getting the trident thinking that the plan to use it to stop the war would have worked. Chelsea calls her out on her naivety and justifies herself that at this point there's too much hatred between mermaids and krakens for the trident to have done much and that had Ruby introduced her to her grandmother earlier, she would have killed her on sight, with Emerald confirming that as truth.
  • Downplayed with Emerald. She justifies her “kill on sight” attitude towards mermaids by pointing out that Chelsea betrayed Ruby and nearly killed her and her daughter to overthrow the krakens.
    • Though Emeralds refusal to allow Mermaids to return to the surface under the belief they would go back to eating humans is an excuse at best, chapter six implies that Nerissa would indeed have mermaids resume hunting humans again (Clarica tells Chelsea and Ruby that Nerissa says that humans are delicious, even through she's presumably never eaten one before).
    • Though it is wrong if her to assume all mermaids are the same, her views of Nerissa are spot on. Basically everything Emerald thinks about mermaids Nerissa embodies.
• Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Chelsea. Ruby says she has a good heart, deep down.
• Last of His Kind: Ruby, her mother, and her Grandmamah are the last GIANT krakens after Nerissa used the trident of Oceanus to wipe the rest out. Brill and Sam have giant kraken heritage but they are normal sized.
• Laser-Guided Karma: After the defeat of the Leviathan, Nerissa is banished by her daughter as the new queen, just as she previously banished Chelsea. The other mermaids side with her after learning that Nerissa set them up to be found by the Krakens so she could have an excuse to release the Leviathan (which would have wiped out the mermaids too and doomed the whole ocean).
• Loving a Shadow: A familiar example. Chelsea has no delusions about Nerissa being a terrible mother, but she retains her respect for her mother thinking that she cares about their people and is willing to do anything to protect them. However after finding out about the Leviathan she starts to see her mother for what she really is…
• Lipstick Lesbian: Chelsea is very feminine and in love Ruby.
• Misplaced Retribution: After Queen Abigail was killed by humans, her daughter declared war on the mermaids, even though humans were the ones who killed her.
• Moment Killer: In chapter nine, after Chelsea and Ruby have confessed and are about to kiss, Agatha calls them to tell them that she found out more about what's going on.
• Mythology Gag:
  • Chelsea has a younger sister back in the mermaid kingdom named Claricia, who is the only person she was really close with. Claricia was an early name for Chelsea when the movie was still in its early stages.
  • Chelsea is Nerissa’s daughter rather than Nerissa herself, just like in the previous draft of the movie (except Nerissa is also still alive).
  • When Chelsea overhears Agatha talking to Ruby about mermaids she instinctively goes into her “battle form” which has sharp fins, teeth and nails, just as mermaids fighting krakens were depicted in the promo posters and how they appear as statues in the movie.
  • The Leviathan was mentioned by Emerald in the movie as one of the dangers of the ocean. Nerissa is planning something involving the leviathan as her plan B after Chelsea fails to get the trident.
• Named In The Adaptation: Ruby’s Grandmamah is given the name “Emerald”.
• Noble Bigot: Agatha hates mermaids for the same reasons as her mother, but doesn’t approve of her mother's idea of genocide against them and she actually has a degree of sympathy for their current situation after finding out about it from Chelsea. Also, despite hating the younger mermaid for what she did to Ruby, she prevents her mother from killing her and is horrified when Emerald makes her try and capture Clarissa.
• No Good Deed Goes Unpunished: Chelsea laments that she failed in her mission specifically because she let Ruby live. As a result her mother banished her from the mermaid kingdom and she was almost killed by the other mermaids (though this is specifically for falling for Ruby).
• Nothing Is Scarier: What makes the leviathan so scary is that no one knows hardly anything about it except that it needed the power of the krakens and the mermaids (with the trident of Oceanus) to trap it.
• Offing the Offspring: Nerissa banishes Chelsea for falling in love with Ruby and tells her people they are free to kill her if they see her again, then tells them to kill her that moment Chelsea doesn’t leave after five seconds.
  • When Chelsea challenged her to the throne (which is a fight to the death) Nerissa happily accepts despite likely being under no obligation too since Chelsea’s already been banished.
• Our Mermaids Are Different: Mermaids are mammals despite having fish parts (gills and a tail) that take human form when on land, yet are still completely separate from humans despite looking like them. By Chelsea’s own account, this was an evolutionary trait since they are carnivores and mainly fed on humans in ancient times. They can also only stand to be out of water for short periods of time, Chelsea nearly dies twice after being outside of water for a day. They also possess “magical voice(s)” which can mesmerize humans, although some are weaker than others. Turns out Mermaids also develop random shiny scales of different colors (if their scales are naturally blue they turn red, green become yellow, etc) when they are first in love.
• Our Sirens Are Different: When a mermaid is banished, they are dubbed sirens. Afterwards, they are considered a completely different species by mermaids and Chelsea says that it is considered offensive when Ruby points out that they are still technically the same species.
• Parental Neglect: Chelsea laments that while (she believes) Nerissa is a great queen, she isn't a good mother as she is always too busy plotting revenge on the krakens to have had time for her. Her father wasn’t any better.
• Parental Substitute: Gordon has become a father of sorts to Chelsea.
• Passing the Torch: Emerald names Ruby the new queen of the Krakens after receiving a fatal injury by the leviathan.
• Pet the Dog: Rather than kill Claricia when a couple of krakens found her, they just told the little mermaid to go home.
• Pretending to Be One's Own Relative: What Chelsea was doing when she claimed to be her mother during the final battle during the movie as the only way for a mermaid to become the ruler was to defeat the previous one in combat. Thus, Chelsea figured that, if someone claiming to be Nerissa defeated the Krakens and became ruler, then the real one could simply pretend she was there the whole time and take the throne without having to fight Chelsea for it.
• Psychological Projection: Emerald honestly believed that the rest of the krakens (or atleast her army) want to exterminate the mermaids as much as she does. Though to be fair they never told her otherwise out of fear. She is quite shocked when they reveal this isn’t the case.
• Puppy-Dog Eyes: Ruby uses these to get Chelsea to go on more amusement park rides with her. Chelsea gives in because she finds them cute.
• Racist Grandma: Emerald.
• Revenge Before Reason: Agatha reveals that she extended a peace treaty to Nerissa years ago, but she rejected it in favor of revenge even as her people were dying.
• Royals Who Actually Do Something: Emerald, Agatha and Ruby for the Krakens for sure. Nerissa is beloved by the mermaids for being the only ruler to have actually been able to do SOMETHING to stand up to the krakens.
• Shipper on Deck: Connor for Chelsea x Ruby.
• Spare to the Throne: Nerissa replaces Chelsea with Claricia as her heir over the former's failure to get the Trident.
• Spotting the Thread: Agatha and Emerald realize that Chelsea was lying about being Nerissa after she gets some details about the battle fifteen years ago.
• Taken for Granite: The Leviathan was turned to stone by the krakens and the mermaids (with the Trident of Oceanus). It is freed millenia later when it comes into contact with the blood of mermaids and krakens.
• Teens Are Short: In the Epilogue, Chelsea gently teases Ruby about being shorter than her when they are on land despite Ruby being a few months older.
• That Thing Is Not My Child!: Nerissa was never proud of Chelsea for being born with a weak hypnotic voice and never appreciated Chelsea’s other achievements or her attempts to make her proud only keeping her around and considering making Chelsea her heir provided she succeed in getting the trident, disowning Chelsea over her failure and outright telling her Claricia will be her heir instead. She then becomes disgusted with Chelsea enough to banish her and put out a death mark on her head after discovering she fell in love with Ruby (a kraken).
• Theme Naming: The three generations of women in the Gillman family are all named after different kinds of gems.
• Tyke Bomb: It's all but outright said that Nerissa had Chelsea for the sole purpose of retrieving the Trident.
• Vicious Cycle: The krakens banished mermaids to the depths of the ocean (where they barely survive) after the death of Queen Abigail. Any mermaids that tried to escape were killed on sight by kraken soldiers. So mermaids started trying to overthrow the krakens to escape their situation. Reaffirming the stereotype of mermaids being “power hungry” and providing justification to later generations of krakens to continue oppressing them. Leading to later generations of mermaids continuing to see krakens as “bloodthirsty tyrants” that they need to overthrow if they want to have better lives, thus they keep trying to do so. Thus both sides continue to fight and distrust each other.
• Wandering Culture: In chapter five Emerald and Agatha force Chelsea into taking them to the mermaid's kingdom only to find it abandoned. Chelsea reveals that for the last fifteen years mermaids have been constantly wandering the ocean to stay safe from krakens.
• "Well Done, Daughter!" Gal: All Chelsea ever wanted was to make her mother proud. But no matter what she did or any other achievements her mother was always disappointed due to her weak hypnotic voice. Then after her failure to get the trident and falling for Ruby, Nerissa not only disowns her but orders her death.
• Well-Intentioned Extremist:
  • Emerald thinks that exterminating all the mermaids is the only way to keep her family and people safe from them. Though there’s still a lot of bias and personal grudges mixed in with this.
  • Averted with Nerissa. Whatever her plan to take down the krakens with the leviathan is, it’s implied it will hurt mermaids too. But it’s worth it to her. She admits she didn’t WANT to do it but she’s willing too since Plan A didn’t work.
• What Is This Feeling?: Chelsea does feel an attraction to Ruby but has difficulty placing it until chapter 9.
• Womanchild: Chelsea has a few traits. She asked Gordon to get her a kiddie pool to stay hydrated in since she liked the colorful balls it came with (though she’s embarrassed when Ruby tells her it’s for kids). Then, despite Ruby telling her not too, she tries researching about the leviathan in the manga section of the library since it has pictures.
• Would Hurt a Child:
  • Due to her being a mermaid, Emerald has no issue torturing or killing Chelsea (who is only about fourteen) and had no qualms of taking Claricia as a hostage (a little girl).
  • Nerissa also plans to kill Ruby despite Chelsea’s protests that she isn’t like her grandmother and later orders the other mermaids to kill Chelsea (whose also her own daughter) for her “betrayal.” She even boasted to Agatha when they fought that she would kill Ruby right in front of her, who was a baby at the time. And this was after Agatha offered a peace treaty while the mermaids were being slaughtered.
  • Averted with two kraken guards who found Clarissa. They just told her to go home.
• Written by the Winners: Ruby was taught by her grandmamah that Mermaids and krakens became rivals after krakens forbade mermaids from hunting humans and they refused. Chelsea reveals that krakens hunted humans too (despite Ruby’s grandmamah telling her that krakens sinking ships was just a myth) and they only stopped after humans developed weapons to fight them. The real reason the war broke out was because during another mermaid raid the kraken queen was killed and her daughter sought vengeance. Since then, Mermaids have been branded “vain, power-hungry, narcissists” by the krakens that beat them long ago. Mermaids, on the other hand, see krakens as bloodthirsty tyrants.
• You Will Be Spared: Chelsea tries defending herself to Ruby after her identity is revealed by pointing out that she only stabbed Ruby in the arm and buried her under rubble after getting the trident to spare her rather than stabbing her in the chest because she DID care about her. Later, when contemplating her situation Chelsea hopes that she can convince the other mermaids to spare Ruby after she kills her mother and grandmother. Chelsea also later decides not to kill Agatha (abandoning her original plan all together) after the kraken saves her life from Emerald.

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