#and partner so her 'witticisms' just make her seem intolerable. i said what i said!

[opalsiren]

i truly abhor what s**s*n thr** did with zane, cleo, and basically all the new characters that are introduced, but the writers managed to absolutely mangle rikki's character, too. miss girl has always been the least responsible member of the group but she is beyond insufferable to bella about keeping the mermaid secret from will. it's like the writers gave emma's 'annoying about school and studying' character trait to cleo so they had to give rikki emma's penchant for responsibility and control. i know it is pointed out in canon but it's especially hypocritical given rikki kept zane a secret from the others, not once but twice

speaking of keeping secrets, rikki having influence over the water tentacle and deciding not to tell the others is absolutely mind-boggling. perhaps her character regression in this moment is due to her missing emma or struggling with the café and her rapidly disintegrating relationship with zane, but that is never spelled out for the audience so it just seems like lazy writing and two steps backward for her overall development

the character in season three who looks, sounds, and sometimes acts like zane is absolutely more guilty of wrongdoing in their relationship, but rikki is a pretty shitty partner to him in the third season, too. she misses shifts at the café to go hang out at mako after her brush with the water tentacle, reneging on her commitments entirely. on my most recent rewatch i noticed rikki doesn't really work at the café much, mostly spending time there with her friends, so it doesn't surprise me that the place went under in a matter of months even without her flitting around at the moon pool

anyway the rikki chadwick we know and love would have been concerned about keeping the secret from will, but not to the point that she practically becomes an emma stand-in. she would have told the girls about her water tentacle encounter immediately, or at the very least taken a beat, then come clean shortly after the full moon in question. she would either call it quits with zane the minute she knew their relationship, and the café, weren't working out, or would actually show up and take responsibility for her commitments as she purports to do throughout the season. her shortcomings aren't nearly as egregious as that of some of the other characters, but rikki deserved better writing in season three. jonathan shiff take notes!