Mermen?

[yakalskovich]

Yes, we know that dangerous mermaids the way they're played in PotC embody men's fears of dangerous unpredictable women, especially if those men are sailors who hardly ever een see any women...

So of course, they are female, and mermen don't figure much. But in-universe, I need an explanation about what the mermaids do for reproduction and fun.

So far, I've thought of a few theories:

• mermaids are very long-lived and breed very slowly; they sleep with some of the abducted sailors before killing them, spider-like
• mermaids and mermen are like sea horses; the men stay in deeper waters and raise the kids while the women hunt the surface
• mermaids mimic the looks of pretty young human women for hunting purposes; that doesn't mean that they all actually are female: - what sex a mermaid actually is, only another mermaid can tell.

I don't know which of them I'll pick when I actually start playing Tamara.-

Comments

[ashen_key]

Ooooooh. I can't decide which I like more, number two or number three.

[yakalskovich]

Yes, I'm probably tending towards one of them, too, because the first option would be too predictable within the trope.

I'll see what I'll pick when I start playing her and that question pops up...

[ashen_key]

yeah, that's also what I was thinking - but both of the others have such LOVELY world-building possibilities.

[yakalskovich]

Yes, absolutely. I'll have to do something about mermaid society. They're not just fish, they're people. That means they teach their kids, they don't just leave them to the waves and their instincts. Hence, the idea of mermen caring for the young mermaids like sea horse males. On the other hand, nothing says that anything that seems like a female human for mimicry purposes (the sailors are MALE, after all) actually needs to BE female.

[silveraspen]

One interesting detail I noted in the story as told in the film was that accounts differed among the sailors as to whether the mermaids killed the sailors they stole or not...

... and the difference I observed seemed to be that in order to survive, a sailor had to ask and be the recipient of an actual kiss (Philip & Syrena/Sirena), not merely following the lure of one.

FWIW.

[corchen.livejournal.com]

Also, a mermaid's kiss seems to confer not just the ability to survive underwater, but long life as well - the sailor they find at the very beginning of the film had obviously been living with mermaids since his ship ended up on that cliff... I have been unable to decide if he died because he'd been fished up, either - does the mermaid's kiss mean you choose life under water and give up life above water? Just my two penn'orth!

[yakalskovich]

I'll have to look into that when I see the movie again -- at some stage next week, in 3D in the big technically advanced cinema near where the Nazgul lives. If that is the case, then everything points towards option number one, which would be a pity. As Ashie pointed out, the other two are much more interesting.

[corchen.livejournal.com]

Very much more interesting. Maybe the men are used as a vector, somehow, or have some other part to play in mermaid society, other than as studs?

[yakalskovich]

Vector in what way, though?

[corchen.livejournal.com]

Yes, I was wondering about that. Maybe mermaids reproduce asexually, but need an incubator for their young? So the males are similar to seahorses in that way?

[yakalskovich]

Or the roles of the men that were kissed by mermaids and live with them in the sea might be teachers of human affairs: - they get to tell the little mermaids stories about life above the surface and human customs and so on so they know what they're dealing with when they're grown up enough to interact with humans.

That would leave the possibilities of both the second and/or the third option still open.

[corchen.livejournal.com]

That's a rather fun idea - especially given how much fun the less trope-tastic ideas are.

[yakalskovich]

I can imagine the face a 'chosen' sailor makes when he realises that 'his' mermaid is a male...

Or the story cross-dressing, runaway-to-sea girl falling in with the mermaids...

So many possibilities. So many plotbunnies. So many avenues for Tamara to explore when I get her...

[corchen.livejournal.com]

::grin:: I can tell that you're going to have fun with this one...

[yakalskovich]

So much fun. You should have a Millicharrie she can meet...

[corchen.livejournal.com]

I've been thinking about it. As you no doubt guessed...

[yakalskovich]

Yes I did -- your resurfacing can sometimes mean you have ideas...

[corchen.livejournal.com]

Or just a terrible urge to rp!

[yakalskovich]

Milliways apps are open one more day. Of course, there is always Mixed Muses if you just want to RP for RP's sake.

[corchen.livejournal.com]

quick! to the app! ;)

[yakalskovich]

Yes! Quick!

[yakalskovich]

Doing things with feeling and meaning seems to make a great difference in the magic of that world, as in when they freed Calypso in part 3.