(This text contains spoilers for the movie Fairytopia 2: Mermaidia)
As a queer person, I often look back to my childhood and wonder if there was any clue that I would end up this way, before I even knew what a gay person was. Was there any indication in the way I acted, the music I liked, the games I played or the movies I watched? I will never know for sure until the time machine is invented, but I believe that my favorite movie at the time being Barbie Fairytopia 2: Mermaidia is no coincidence. Upon rewatching, I realised that almost every character in that movie can easily be interpreted as queer, and that despite its childish exterior, it is ahead of its time in transmitting ideas of positive female friendship, of accepting one’s true identity, and subverting gender roles.
The story centers on a fairy named Elina, who quickly learns that her good friend Nalu, a merman prince, has been kidnapped by a group of villains nicknamed the “fungi”, who work for the main nemesis, Laverna. The villains are motivated by their desire to find the “immunity berry”, which is a berry said to be found somewhere in Mermaidia, the mermaid land, that grants whoever eats it an immunity against magic. They therefore force Nalu to lead them to the immunity berry by threatening his kingdom. Meanwhile, Elina seeks the help of another mermaid named Nori. She, however, does not want to work with Elina because she likes Nalu and believes that the latter is in love with Elina. However, they end up forming an unlikely alliance and succeed to free Nalu from the fungi and get their revenge on Laverna. In the process, Elina gets turned into a mermaid, but loses her fairy wings, which are the thing that she loves the most. It is revealed in the very end however that she can turn back into a fairy because it is her true self.
The first character who is interesting to analyse through a queer lens is the main character, Elina. Even though she clearly cares about Nalu, because she puts herself at risk by going to save him, it is established that the way she feels about him is purely platonic. She refutes the claim that Nalu is in love with her and she encourages Nori to pursue her relationship with him without ever seeming jealous. Her relationship with Nori, however, could easily be interpreted as romantic. It is not for Nalu that she decides to turn into a mermaid even if she doesn’t want to, it is to save Nori from the dangers of the “depths of despair”. At this point in the movie, Nori still is unpleasant towards her, but Elina does not even hesitate to potentially sacrifice her biggest dream just to make sure that Nori is safe. After that, Nori stops resenting Elina and it is undeniable that from that point on, they have chemistry together, whether interpreted as platonic or, in this case, romantic. They often hold hands or stare into each other’s eyes, and they get along well; they do not hesitate to talk about their feelings and reveal secrets to each other. In addition to her potential homosexuality, Elina’s character arc can also be seen as an allegory for the experience of transgender people. Elina has to present as a mermaid against her wishes, but that is not who she really is. While she does not dislike mermaids, she feels as though she is not meant to be a mermaid and she desperately wants to be a fairy again. In the end, when Nori offers her a berry that will let her true self come out, Elina is afraid that her true self will not be a fairy because she was not born a fairy, even if she knows deep down that she was meant to be a fairy. This clearly mirrors some problems faced by transgender individuals who are afraid that they’ll never be accepted by others as their preferred gender even if they are certain of their own identity. In the movie, however, when Elina eats that berry, she turns back into a fairy, so if we assume that her character can be interpreted as a transgender analogy, that would mean that the movie is trans-positive. In summary, Elina’s character is queer-coded both in her sexuality, because of her close relationship with Nori, and her gender, because of the way that her storyline can be interpreted as an allegory for trangender people.
Then, the second character we can interpret as being queer is Nori. It may be a surprise to some, because her character seems very “boy-obsessed” in the beginning, but her character development tells otherwise. When we first meet her, Nori is mean to Elina because she believes that Nalu is in love with Elina and that makes her jealous; she therefore values romantic relationships over friendship. However, once Elina saves her from the seaweed in the depths of despair, Nori realises that she shouldn’t be mean towards her, and from this point on, she gets closer to her; she starts to realize that she should not value her romantic interest towards Nalu over her friendship with Elina. For the remainder of the quest to find Nalu, the chemistry I mentioned in the previous paragraph is obviously present, but the part that is most interesting to analyse for Nori’s character is the point in which everything is back to normal and Nori and Nalu reunite. Nori then understands that Elina and Nalu are not romantically interested in each other, and she appears happy about that, but when she interacts with Nalu, there seems to be way less chemistry and excitement compared to the way she interacted with Elina earlier in the story. Thus, I believe that Nori is probably still convinced that she likes Nalu, but I also believe that she has what is commonly referred to as “compulsive heterosexuality,” which is exactly what makes her blind to her attraction to Elina. Compulsive heterosexuality is a phenomenon in which a queer person, very often a queer woman, will believe that they are straight for years because heterosexuality has been taught and enforced to them everywhere in society since childhood, and will repress any queer feelings, intentionally or not, in order to appear “normal” to other people. This can be seen in Nori’s behavior because she seems more in love with the idea of marrying a man (especially a prince) than the man himself. She spends the majority of the movie dreaming of a relationship with Nalu, but when she actually talks to him, she seems less interested romantically. She seems to find Elina more interesting than her supposed love interest, which is why I believe that she can also be interpreted as queer.
Her love interest, Nalu, also can be seen as queer. In the end, he accepts Nori’s advances, but he does not seem very interested in the relationship. Furthermore, his gender expression is quite stereotypically feminine, because his hair is longer than what is generally usually expected of cisgender—a person who is not transgender—straight men and he appears to be wearing eyeliner. While this self-expression does not automatically mean that he is not heterosexual, it is a style more commonly seen in queer people.
Fungus Maximus, the leader of the fungi, is another character whose queer interpretation might surprise some, given how obsessed he is with the main villain, Laverna. However, I believe that this obsession roots from a desire to help his female friend succeed, which is, sadly, not a thing that cisgender heterosexual men often feel because of their desire to keep their privilege in a patriarchal society. Fungus Maximus does have some selfish desires because he wants Laverna to share the immunity berry with him, but at no point does he even think of not making her succeed first. Furthermore, his mannerisms and outfits, like Nalu, are styles that are more common amongst queer men than cisgender heterosexual men.
Fungus Maximus’ helpers, the two other fungi, are more evidently queer, because, when Bibble sings opera to distract them, they immediately profess their love to each other. This type of behavior is not usually seen in heterosexual men, in my experience.
Then, the last and most important villain, Laverna, is less obviously queer, although there is something to be said about the way that she subverts gender roles by being in charge and basically controlling the fungi. While subverting gender roles and being in a position of leadership as a woman does not make her automatically queer, it shows that she does not care much about men’s (or generally anyone’s) opinion, which could be a sign of queerness.
Lastly, while Bibble, the little creature who follows Elina around cannot really be interpreted as queer because he is not human and so probably doesn’t experience human concepts like romantic orientation and gender identity, what is interesting about his character is the way he can be interpreted as neurodivergent. Bibble does not speak, but instead expresses himself with meaningless sounds, he has a lot of difficulties overcoming obstacles without the help of other characters, and he behaved in a way that is different from the other main characters, which are all signs that point to Bibble being an allegory for neurodivergence. This matters for queer representation because, for example, autistic people are much more likely to surround themselves with other queer people, or to identify as queer, compared to other neurotypical people.
In conclusion, Barbie Fairytopia 2: Mermaidia is a movie that is very close to my heart because of all the different ways in which I can see myself represented in it, from Nori’s compulsory heterosexuality all the way to Bibble’s neurodivergency. I think that it is a story that can have a very positive impact on children, whether queer or not, because it treats queerness and difference as normal things and teaches not to judge.
Laurie Martel
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