ayellowbirds:

wordswithkittywitch:

The thing that I don’t think gets brought up enough about discussions of mermaids is that they make a lot more sense if you think of them as sea mammals like seals and dolphins and otters. Or, platypuses.

“Oh, mermaids hair would be all nasty and dried out because that’s how human hair is when they swim in salt water a lot.” or it might be soft and sleek, like the fur of otters and seals.

“They would have weird red bulbous fish eyes. Or human eyes that are all red and swollen because of being in the water so much.” Or maybe big, dark round eyes that look really cute on harp seals but slightly disturbing the longer you look at the mermaid.

I mean, I don’t want to say you can’t design eldrich freaky-looking species of merpeople, I just want the variety. And for the varieties to just make a little sense, even a mythological species that lives in saltwater would not evolve with eyes that can’t handle living in saltwater.

mermaids with blubber. Mermaids with sharp little teeth for catching fish. Mermaids with thick, dark body hair. Mermaids with venomous barbs.

i’m completely serious, i want those things.