History Fanfic / BreakingTheGenerationalCycle

* {{Aesop}}:
** Revenge does nothing but hurt yourself and others. Don’t let yourself be controlled by it or you will become a monster.
** Also, in a war be willing to look at things from the other sides perspective and accept a peaceful solution if it presents itself or suffering will only be prolonged.
*** WarIsHell and even if you’ve suffered alot due to the other side there’s still a good chance the other side has suffered from yours as well. Rejecting peace and continuing to wage war due to personal hatred will only make things worse.
** Genocide is wrong and it is never acceptable. Don’t be willing to commit it because the other side may be willing to retaliate.

* 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). [[spoiler: 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.]]

* YourSizeMayVary: Ruby has learned from her grandmamah how to take “normal” kraken size in water.

* FireForgedFriends: Subverted. [[spoilers: 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.]]

* BothSidesHaveAPoint: 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).

* BloodKnight: 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.

* TwentyMinutesIntoTheFuture: The Epilogue takes place several months later on Ruby’s sixteenth Birthday.

* 0%ApprovalRating: Just about no one likes [[spoiler: Nerissa]] in the final chapters. [[spoiler: The krakens hate her for her ruthless war crimes against them. 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.]]

* 20MinutesIntoTheFuture: The Epilogue takes place several months later on Ruby’s sixteenth Birthday.

20MinutesIntoTheFuture: The Epilogue takes place several months later on Ruby’s sixteenth Birthday.

** Marina ended up [[spoiler: being one of the first mermaids to die against the krakens.]]

* AsskickingLeadsToLeadership: 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.

* CraftedFromAnimals: [[spoiler: The Trident of Oceanus was created using the Leviathans teeth. By a old Mermaid king named Oceanus.]]

** Turns out they are NotSoSimilar 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 [[TheSociopath 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 doesnt fight the krakens and makes it clear she is more concerned with revenge and "Mermaid Pride" than her peoples well-being.

** 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 theres 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.

** In fairness, it happened because mermaids continued hunting humans despite krakens asking them to stop, but still.

* WanderingCulture: In chapter five Emerald and Agatha force Chelsea into taking them to the mermaids 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.

*** 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.
* WhatIsThisFeeling: Chelsea does feel an attraction to Ruby but has difficulty placing it. Until chapter 9.

** 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.

** Though Nerissa didn’t tell her of her plan to release the Leviathan and Marina ended up [[spoiler: being one of the first mermaids to die against the krakens.]]

* AsskickingLeadsToLeadership: 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 them in combat, with Nerissa became the current queen by beating the previous ruler.

* CraftedFromAnimals: [[spoiler: The Trident of Oceanus was created using the Leviathans teeth.]]

* LaserGuidedKarma: [[spoiler: 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 Krakebs so she could have an excuse to release the Leviathan (which would have wiped out the mermaids too and doomed the whole ocean).]]

* CraftedFromAnimals: [[spoiler: The Trident of Oceanus was created using the Leviathans teeth.]]

* AdaptationalVillainy: Emerald/Grandmamah’s attitude towards mermaids is portrayed unjust in this fic since mermaids aren’t inherently evil and Chelsea IS actually a teenager, yet she still wants to kill her.

* MisplacedRetribution: After Queen Abigail was killed by humans, her daughter declared war on the mermaids, even though ''humans'' were the who killed her.

* WrittenByTheWinners: Ruby was taught by her grandmamah that Mermaids and krakens became rivals after krakens forbad 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.

* OurMermaidsAreDifferent: Mermaids are mammals despite having fish parts (gills and a tail), yet are still completely separate from humans despite looking like them. By Chelsea’s own account, this was an evolutionary trait since Mermaids 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.

** 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 atleast give peace a try.