u/No_Gear2665

I loved Mako Mermaids as a tween so I began rewatching it as an adult. When I was a tween, I liked Nixie the most, I still like her but in this watch through Rita has been my all time favorite.

So it pissed me off when Zac and Evie start effectively terrorizing Rita for seemingly no reason other than Rita's "audacity" to exist. From the first season Rita seems like a good head teacher, mysterious and stern, but not bad.

For Zac his motive for hazing Rita is simply to pull leverage and power. His grades slip so he blackmails her on exposing her as a mermaid in order to coerce her into changing his grades.

Additionally he literally breaks into her house to grather information on the trident so he can use it to do whatever. I genuinely don't see his reason for wanting the trident, other than being power hungry which apparently he is.

Meanwhile Evie decides to nose in of Rita's personal life as if it's her business. Her reasoning being that it's for the school newspaper, and honestly, I've never known any teen to care about their high-school newspaper. I know my school had one, couldn't tell you a damn thing about it.

Evie's interrogation isn't done out of concern, she voices her suspicion on the girls not being related to Rita but it's not a suspicion born out of concern for the girls or Rita. If anything it seems like Evie dislikes the girls, which is understandable to an extent given Evie's age and perspective. But Evie actively steamrolls over Rita in order to find a way to expose or drag the girls down.

I'm still on rewatch of season one, but I remember from the first time that Evie ends up a mermaid and on good terms with Rita. Which irritates me because I can't recall accountability ever being held for Zac or Evie.

Rita is such an interesting character because she not only bridges the gap of world building to thr audience, but also because her mysterious backstory has really intriguing implications. Unfortunately I do remember her character is never fleshed out, given she was primarily meant as a supporting character. But the snippets of information we get are so interesting and I wish we had more.

TLDR: screw Evie and Zac, Rita deserves her own show.

Southern gothic is a pretty common genre of storytelling but I've always remembered the western gothic more. My grandfather used to watch a lot of them on old cable television. But I can never remember any names. I remember the themes.

• Vast empty desert with a sense of loneliness or feeling small.
• Extreme temperature, cold nights, hot days
• Themes of death, often vultures and dried animal skeletons
• Concepts of penance or debt sometimes in relation to mining
• Ghost towns often metaphorical traps
• Supernatural aspects often related to native american history.
• Themes of insanity or revenge
• On run or being chased across the west often by something very haunting in nature.

These are the main themes I remember but I can't find many films that quite fit what I remember. There are some films adjacent but never quite right.

If Lo'ak did go through with suicide, would Neytiri blame Jake? and if she did would she ever forgive Jake?