Merlylie

Merlylie is the femslash ship between Merliah Summers and Kylie Morgan from the Barbie fandom.

Canon
Merliah and Kylie start off as rivals in surfing. Both of them are introduced in the second movie of "Barbie in a Mermaid Tale"  during a surfing competition where the two of them are riding waves and showing off their skills, trying to outgrow one another.In the end, Kylie wins 2nd, and Merliah gets the 1st place. Kylie gets frustrated, and when one of Merliah's friends asks her to come celebrate in a group hug, she tells Merliah that she only got lucky, storming off. Merliah wants to go to Australia for the competition to prove she is better than Kylie, but the competition is on the same day as the Changing of the Tides ceremony, which is very important in the Mermaids' word. Merliah ends up deciding to go to Australia instead of the ceremony.

Merliah and Kylie compete against each other to advance to the finals of the competition. Kylie beats Merliah by knocking her into the water. Even though Kylie won, Merliah had performed a great surfing trick so she got attention from reporters, and even a modelling job, which makes Kylie even more frustrated. At night, while Merliah was having her first photo shoot at a luau taking place that night, Kylie was sitting alone nearby. In that moment, Alistair, a talking fish, tricks Kylie into stealing Merliah's magic necklace, putting her on and becoming a mermaid, following him.

Alistair tricks her so she can lead her to where Eris told her to follow him, so Snouts followed them to see what was happening. Merliah, Fallon and Hadley searched everywhere for the necklace but it was too dark for them to see properly. Alistair had led Kylie to a whirlpool and he pushed her in. When Kylie fell in, Eris was freed. Eris planned to go to Aquellia and get the powers to make Merilliah so she could rule the ocean. Snouts went to Merliah for help. Merliah could sense that something bad was happening, so she followed Snouts to the whirlpool. There, she finds Kylie, and saves her from the whirlpool. Kylie apologises to Merliah and she insists on accompanying her to confront Eris, since she mentions Merliah saved her life twice. So Merliah hangs onto Kylie's hand and the two of them embark on a mission to confront Eris and save Merliah's mom.

During the final competition, although Merliah wanted to let Kylie win due to the fact she lost her human legs and was now a full-on mermaid, she ends up becoming a human again and both her and Kylie surf together, alongside one another, during the final competition. Merliah notices she has a new power to control the waves, and since she gets distracted with her newly found power, Kylie wins the competition. When the first place is announced, Kylie motivates Merliah to join her to receive the trophy. Merliah is hesitant at first since she tells Kylie that she is the winner. However, Kylie tells her that she was able to be part of something bigger thanks to Merliah and thanks her wholeheartedly. Merliah thanks her as well and the both of them hug tenderly. Then, the two girls go to receive the award, and they dance together while holding the trophy.

Fanon
Merlylie is a popular ship within the Barbie fandom. And since many fans realized Merliah doesn't have a romantic interest in the movie, the closest she gets to this is Kylie. Fans of the ship love their "rivals/enemies to lovers" dynamic, that fans think was perfectly executed in the movie. They also love how Merliah and Kylie's flirty rivalry in the beginning it's not one sided, since they're both mutually competitive, which is pretty unique for a Barbie movie. And, of course, many fans love the way their relationship develops: how Merliah saves Kylie; how Kylie thinks Merliah is the "queen of the waves"; how the two of them hold hands while swimming together; how they later get to compete with love instead of animosity; and finally, how the two of them thank each other for everything they got to learn together and agree to share the 1st place trophy.

Fandom
FAN FICTION

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