The World of Oceana by Mo Mitchell

            Oceana is the underwater kingdom in Barbie: In a Mermaid’s Tale, not much of it is ever explored when it comes to the actual worldbuilding of the kingdom itself, we get a lot of worldbuilding around Barbie as a character, but we never get a lot about the world. Not only is this a good challenge that I’m actually willing to take up, but I think it’ll make the movie that much better to make fun of.

When it comes down to it, the climate of Oceana isn’t explored. We are in Oceana with Barbie for maybe two days tops, and through those days we don’t get anything but calm water and shining sun. The only thing “climate” related I can think of that is explored- which also ties in with geography- is the coral. Through the movie, one of the big indicators to Barbie and Zuma (the dolphin) that the magic in Oceana isn’t as strong as it used to be. When Queen Calissa was ruling over the kingdom the “Merilia” (the magic which we’ll talk about in a minute) was strong and all the coral was healthy and vibrant. However when her sister Eris takes over the throne and imprisons her sister the Merilia isn’t as strong resulting in the coral and sealife dying.

Religion is something else that isn’t explored through the movie, considering it’s targeted for very young kids I can’t really blame them for not wanting an overly religious overtone. When it comes to worship, if I’m going to bring up anything it’s going to be Merilia again. Merilia isn’t explained too well, but it seems to be worshipped by the “people” of Oceana. This is proven in one scene where Eris is making everyone pledge their loyalty to her so they can receive their weekly Merilia. Everyone is clapping and bending to this evil woman’s will just because they want a ball of stringy, glittery magic. Granted, without Merilia it’s implied that the whole ocean will die, so in a way it’s a very worshipped and important factor of this world.

As for the government, the main plot of the story focuses around royalty and how (spoiler) Merliah is actually the lost princess of Oceana. So I think it’s safe to say that the government here is Monarchy. As far as the government seems to go, the movie doesn’t explore it an awful lot. It doesn’t show what the government controls in terms of the kingdom itself rather than the whole ocean. There are small businesses through the kingdom, and the only thing the government seems to make money from is the Destiny’s (a group of triplets who for some reason can see into the future.) The The Destiny’s live in the palace with the royal family and their talents are used mostly to supervise the future of the kingdom. That seems to be the only thing the government controls in terms of their citizens when Calissa is queen. However when Eris is queen she’s keen on controlling everything.

In terms of the ocean the government controls the health and over all well being of the ocean and it’s life. Since the royal family (aka the government) is in control of the Merilia and the only being capable of making the Merilia, this is all up to them and them only. And with Calissa being the best at making the Merilia, when Eris takes control she both loses the health of the ocean as well as the respect of the people. There’s a lesson in there somewhere but it’s a Barbie movie so I refuse to read too much into it.

The geography of Oceania is very city seeming. The kingdom itself features tall buildings and wide streets with shops and such cluttered together on the sides. It looks and seems like you would expect a typical Medieval city to look, and I only say medieval because they don’t have technology. They don’t have cars so I refuse to say it looks like your typica street. It does, but the cars lining the streets missing take away something special.

            The ocean around Oceana is mostly flat sand besides the scare family of coral. The coral of course, is dying as we’ve discussed, so even then the land is slowly decaying and flaking away to make flat land. It’s also implied to be off the coast of California. Considering that Merliah and Zuma make it to the kingdom straight from Merliah’s house it can’t be terribly far. This makes me wonder how they haven’t been found since it seems to be only a few minutes swim from a few minutes from the sandbar of a popular beach.

            Through the story they try very hard to show us some of the ocean around the kingdom. At one point, while Merliah is collecting tools to take Eris down like a baddie, her and her two mermaid friends Xylie and kayla, make their way to a huge cave made of rock. This is implied to also be quite close to popular land for humans. This rock structure happens to be bigger on the inside though, and has a huge air pocket.

            In conclusion Oceana is in a very popular spot for humans. I think if they tried to sell the kingdom they could bump up the price because of the location.

The characters are scarce. We get an awful lot of background characters through the movie. Merliah, obviously being the main character, with her two best (human) friends Fallon and Hadley who help her solve the mystery, her two best (mermaid) friends Xylie and Kayla, the Detiny’s, her grandfather Break, her mother Calissa, her aunt Eris, and the dolphin Zuma, the seahorse Remo, and the sea lion Snouts.

            The background characters are only used for suspense or exposition. Meaning that the first time we see the background characters it’s during Merliah’s surfing competition where they’re all judging her. The second is when Zuma is trying to get Merliah to a store to her a fake tail so she can blend in since if the mermaids see a human they’ll know who it is. Third is when they’re all cheering for Eris and the Merilia and last is when Merliah finally takes Eris down and they cheer for their new princess.

            As for the others, we have our typical antagonist Eris, protagonist Merliah, and our supporting characters being everyone else. The relationships come through more towards the climax- Fallon and Hadley are used to gather information to solve mysteries, Zuma, Snouts, Kayla and Xylie are used for guides and moral support. Calissa is used as the end goal- meaning the end goal is to free her from Eris’s grasp.

Magic! God I love magic. The magic in this movie varies. What I mean by that is that there seems to be a lot of it, though it’s only accessible by certain characters and not by others. As I’ve very briefly explained, magic can only be used by the royal family. At one point, Merliah smashes her necklace on the ground, this results in a magical projection of her mother imprisoned in the dungeon. Then it’s said by Eris that the Merilia can only be made by the royal family and even then some are better at making it than others. Again, Eris mentions that Calissa’s Merilia is better and stronger than hers even when Calissa is locked up and her negative mood effects her work.

The Merilia isn’t really explored in everything that it can do, but we see that it brings life to the ocean and can be condensed into a necklace to form projections when most needed. Other than that the only time we see it used is when Merliah fully turns into a mermaid. She uses the Dreamfish she obtained from one of her missions to turn herself into a mermaid in a spiral of what looks like Merilia. Then of course there’s the Dreamfish itself that’s never explained, but it will grant you one wish if you can tame it (which obviously our characters do).

I forgot a little bit about this, so I’m throwing it in here even though I’m not entirely sure it should go here. But! When a mermaid (half human or not) reaches the right age- that age being 16- they grow into their mermaid selves. They gain their iconic colors (in the hair and in the tail) and gain access to producing Meriliah if they’re royalty! That’s pretty cool, then again I don’t think any 16 year old should have access to magic that simply spells disaster.

There’s no technology. We’re under the water, there is no tech.

            The fashion in Oceana also varies. Much like our world they can change their appearance at will, or at least as long as they have whatever form of currency is used down there.

            One of Meriliah and Zuma’s first stops when they get to Oceana is a tail shop, seemingly in this shop you can buy different outfits and covers for your tail. Sort of like how we wear pants, it’s like pants for their tail. They come in different colors (but there don’t seem to be different sizes) and different patterns as seen in Merliah’s little fashion show she puts on while trying to find the right tail for her.

            If YouTube will work, here (I know the clip is 5 minutes, what I’m focusing on is only 1:30)

I’m going to tie ethnicities and different species into the same little blurb because I’m lazy.

            Ethnicity is something else that seems to be the same or at least very similar to our world. When it comes down to it, every race seems to be at least sort of included in the story. I haven’t heard a mermaid with a different accent other than American, but they’re at least putting in effort when it comes to skin color. As well as accents, the only other accent we ever get is when the major surfing competition comes in during the second movie. I don’t remember anything about that one hence why I haven’t brought it up, but Merliah’s main rival has an Austrailian accent.

            As for different species, this is where it gets more confusing. Zuma, who is a dolphin, can talk and speak and use vocal chords like the humans and mermaids in the movie; she can communicate with both the mermaids and humans using the same language and same voice. Then remo, the seahorse is the same way, as well as one random literal fish we see during Eris’s little speech about Merilia. The fish can talk, and wear makeup  but she’s never explained any further.            

Then there’s Snouts. Snouts is a sea lion, another creature in the sea so based on the other characters we have seen in the movie it’s not weird to think that snouts would also be able to talk. But no. Snouts can only communicate through little grunts and whimpers. This is like the Goofy and Pluto debate. If we’re going to say that every creature under the water from the Dreamfish to Zuma can talk, then why can’t Snouts or the Jellyfish?? It’s never explained. But it’s safe to say a lot of different under water species make there home Oceana.

            The history is something else that isn’t explained a whole lot. The main things that even remotely talk about the history are that Calissa fell in love with a human man and had Merliah rather than a merman which is apparently unheard of down there. Other than that there’s Eris imprisoning Calissa and taking over the kingdom. These are more events that will be historical in the future rather than historical now. Obviously. I also find it hard to believe that Calissa and Eris are sister because they do not share similar facial features at all. That’s for a different time though.

            We never hear about Calissa and Eris’s parents or anything about how the kingdom was founded. There are no monuments or historical lessons in the movie so most of it can be up to interpretation. I personally think that Calissa and Eris founded the kingdom themselves and therefore are the first queens on the list. This would explain the love the kingdom holds for Calissa and the dislike for Eris. Considering Eris basically threw away their first queen even though Calissa “went missing”. (Like it isn’t obvious that Eris has something to do with that.)

            In conclusion, Oceana is weird as hell. I don’t understand a lot about it and it was generally a bad choice for this presentation since so many questions about the kingdom go unanswered. At the same time I think that made it really fun to write about and research. Barbie movies never really go into the details of their homes and settings, but I think it’s a really cool concept to feature. Who wouldn’t want to learn about a whole kingdom under the water and how it operates? I know I would.

Discuss:

Why do we think only royals can produce Meriliah?

What is a Dreamfish and why is a dreamfish?

How do we feel about the anatomy of mermaids?

How can you make a world that’s better than this?

The World of Hollow Knight by Erin Ward

Hollow Knight’s worldbuilding is subtle. A lack of narration leads the player to get completely immersed in the gigantic map of Hallownest with hidden rewards and secrets scattered in every nook and cranny.

The game very much leaves the worldbuilding up to the player. There’s a lot the player does to complete the game, but the why is often unspoken. Item descriptions and NPC interactions help give context, and when one begins analyzing the map and characters met along the way the pieces of the puzzle slowly slot into place. For a little bit of backstory the game takes place in Hallownest, a shell of a former kingdom left to ruin. You play as The Knight, nicknamed Ghost, who enters the kingdom from the outside and traverses it. As you travel you unlock upgrades that give you abilities to reach other parts of the map, you can find charms and spells that give you fighting abilities, and the core components are parkour exploration and fighting enemies. The goal of the game is to defeat the Hollow Knight who’s hosting a malicious entity called the Radiance that’s infecting the denizens of Hallownest with a disease that turns them mad. Also all of the citizens are insects or insect-basesd creatures.

For the sake of time I’ll recite an abridged version of the history of the game before the player begins playing. Wyrms are large, long, burrowing creatures that are implied to be extinct by the time the player is playing. However at the very beginning of our history a Wyrm travels to Hallownest across large mountains and promptly dies. However an egg inside its body hatches and births a creature later known as the Pale King.

The Pale King is a creature of higher being and it’s in his nature to rule and lead so he set out to build a kingdom. There were already established societies of bugs with their own unique cultures such as the proud mantises, the reclusive weavers, and the mushroom people who share a mind.

Most notable are the mothkins, a mostly pacifist group who take importance to remember those who die. They also learn how to shape dreams. The mothkins were born from a higher being called the Radiance. They worship the Radiance as their creator, but when the Pale King arrives the mothkin turn their backs on the Radiance to worship the new higher being.

The Pale King establishes his rule over Hallownest by offering bugs higher thought. By carving a path from the Howling Cliffs through Greenpath and the Fungal Wastes bugs from the wasteland outside Hallownest can find refuge in the capital city and be granted higher intelligence from the influence of the Pale King. The Pale King also ruled with another creature of high being, the White Lady. Both of them are pale beings, beings of incredibly high power.

The Pale King brought along a great many changes with his reign. In his vast kingdom he built stagways (stag beetle transportation tunnels), trams, store rooms, and a defense system of the five great knights and military bugs. There’s the resting grounds for bugs to mourn the dead and the royal waterways where trash and sewage ended up. The world of Hollow Knight is implied to be cruel, harsh, and unforgiving, but the Pale King succeeded in his goal to create an intelligent society, a beacon of hope and technological advancement that gave bugs lives of comfort. Now let’s take a look at how this society completely collapsed.

Remember the Radiance? The high being that created the mothkin and was then abandoned by her worshipers so they could follow the king? Yeah, she wasn’t too happy about that. The Radiance began manifesting in the dreams of the bugs of Hallownest and her light turned into a deadly infection. When one sees the Radiance in their dreams they fall deep into sleep and wake up with broken minds.

This infection turned them mad and made them attack other non-infected bugs. Some infected bugs grew large orange pulsating cysts on their bodies. The creatures of Hallownest had different approaches to this problem. Most mantises could stave off the infection but other took it in willingly since it made them stronger. Scholars from the Soul Sanctum took the soul  (the life force that animates bodies) from countless bugs in an attempt to purify themselves, but they failed and grew mad from the power of all the souls. The gates of the capital city were shut and so were the stagways, leaving many of the stags to die. In order to stop the infection the Pale King and the White Lady hatched a plan. The Pale King’s palace was built under the city in a place called the Ancient Basin, and under the Ancient Basin is the Abyss with a lake of void, a dark substance that some ancient races worshiped. The Pale King learned void could be given form and decided to create what he deemed a pure vessel, a vessel strong enough to contain the Radiance. The Radiance needs a host with a mind and will to control them, but a creature made of void would have neither of those things, making them resistant and immune. The Pale King and the White Lady created several eggs together and dropped them into the abyss where void seeped into them, corrupting the offspring.

This created the vessels for the potential ‘Pure Vessel.’ You can see the dead husks of the failed vessels making up the walls and floor of  the abyss.

Inside each vessel lies a shade, a being made of pure void that acts like soul to the vessels. Thousands of vessels were created but only one was chosen as the pure vessel by the Pale King because he was able to reach the top of the giant abyss. This pure vessel was named the Hollow Knight, and the abyss was sealed, trapping all the remaining vessels within. After he was chosen the Pale King trained the Hollow Knight to be, you guessed it, a knight adept with a nail and battle.

As it turns out the character you control, Ghost, is actually a vessel who escaped the abyss. When you, the player, die, your shade lies in the spot you were killed. The player must go back to their death spot and kill their shade to re-absorb it. Ghost’s mask also looks identical to the ones littering the abyss floor, and in a flashback we see Ghost trying to ascend out of the abyss only to watch as the one dubbed the Hollow Knight gets chosen right before he can, the door to the abyss sealing him in. When the game starts, Ghost is arriving into Hallownest from the Howling Cliffs, a wasteland outside the kingdom. It’s implied he found a tunnel out of the abyss and made his way back to Hallownest once he emerged from the escape route.

The plan was to trap the Radiance inside the Hollow Knight, but the Pale King wanted extra precautions. In order to protect the Hollow Knight’s physical body as he contained the Radiance he put the Hollow Knight inside a place called the Black Egg and sealed it using the power of the three Dreamers, Lurien the watcher, Herrah the beast, and Monomon the teacher.

One of the dreamers, Herrah, was the queen of deepnest. Deepnest and Hallownest don’t have great relations so Herrah had to be convinced. She desired a child with the Pale King and the Pale King agreed. The two gave birth to Hornet, Ghost’s half-sister and a bug with deepnest weaver capabilities, using silk to fight with her nail.

The three dreamers entered a dream-like state and sealed the black egg with the hollow knight inside, prohibiting entry. Once the Hollow Knight was trained and ready the Radiance was channeled into him and he was locked inside the black egg behind the dreamer seal. This worked at containing the infection, for a time. Eventually the infection leaked out and infected even the deepest parts of Hallownest, leaving an utterly ruined civilization. Turns out the pure vessel wasn’t pure enough and had at least some semblance of a mind or will for the Radiance to control. Once the Pale King saw his kingdom was doomed he hid his entire palace inside the dream realm where he wasted away and died.

Enter the world the player steps into. Hallownest is deeply ravaged by the infection. Few scattered civilizations remain like the mantises and various NPCs who eventually move into Dirtmouth, a little city on the surface. Oh yeah, the majority of the map is underground. Anyways remnants of the Pale King’s reign are scattered all over from the abandoned city to the old stagways. Most bugs are hostile, attacking blindly after the infection ravages their minds. The goal of the player is to seek out the three dreamers’ bodies, remove their seals, then battle the Hollow Knight into submission so you can enter his mind and battle the Radiance who is trapped inside his dream. Sounds simple, but it’s a 40-60 hour game depending on your preference for completion. The map is huge and the game is open world, and subtle worldbuilding clues are hidden everywhere.

There’s so much more I could delve into. The colosseum of fools, the charms that grant powers, the grimm troupe, godhome and the pantheons, soul, geo, all the different species of bugs, the expansive map and different areas, the menderbugs- there’s not enough time to cover it all, so I’ll just leave you with the backstory and context for the game.

Discussion questions:

1. How effective is subtle worldbuilding? How many details of a world need to be spelled out and how much needs to be implied?
2. Hollow Knight leaves a lot of the lore up to the player. One often won’t get many nuances of the story without reading the wiki or watching a youtube essay. How is this an effective technique? What kind of stories would benefit from this model?
3. Hollow Knight has a lot of exposition to build the world the player sees. How does this contribute to the immersive feeling of the game? How much exposition do you think is needed when a world is completely foreign and unique from mankind’s own?