It’s the biggest battle this side of the Seven Seas:
Krakens VS Mermaids! But while there are some obvious powerhouses in Oceanside,
we still want to know who’s THE strongest as well as who’s the weakest.
I’m Kyle with WickedBinge, and this is Ruby Gillman Teenage Kraken: Weak to Powerful.
Obviously, major spoilers for the entire film ahead. As always, we’re starting with
our weakest characters before working our way up to the most strong and powerful.
It really shouldn’t be surprising that when it comes to power, the film’s humans - these
being Connor, Margot and the other members of the Friend Squad - are at a pretty big
disadvantage. Without any sort of superpower or even impressive ability, these guys don’t stand
a chance in a typical sea-creature fight, with their prom boat nearly getting capsized with
them on it and the four of them being helpless to stop it. Bliss, the goth girl of the friend group,
at least TRIES to be somewhat brave, blowing her whistle in the face of danger, but that’s
hardly noteworthy. If we had to pick THE weakest human character in this batch, however, we’d have
to go with Connor, given that he seems to be a pretty weak swimmer, nearly causing him to drown.
Next up, we have the Gillman family pet, Nessie. Although lovable and helpful, Nessie’s small size
doesn’t grant him too many advantages in a fight. He can launch onto people’s faces,
as we see him do to Captain Gordon when he pretends to be a baby kraken, but while it’s
certainly harrowing for the old sea captain, it’s hardly an actual attack. At the very least,
Nessie seems to be emotionally intelligent, enough that he’s able to help out his family quite a bit,
all while providing them comfort and kisses whenever they’re needed to cheer someone up.
Following him is the second-smallest member of the Gillman family, Sam. Given that he’s only
a second grader, this kid is pretty small. He’s also incredibly light-weight, given how his uncle
Brill is able to toss him a hundred feet up in the air. But perhaps both these traits actually
give Sam a big advantage, allowing him to be a ‘dodgeball legend’. Between his springiness,
incredible agility, and his impressive dodging and throwing abilities, Sam is undefeatable on
the playground. He’s even shown knocking out an entire team’s worth of kids - and their
coach - out with one throw! Unfortunately for Sam, dodgeballs can’t do much against a giant
trident-powered mermaid, and since he doesn’t have his own giant form, he can be put any higher.
Sticking with the men of the Gillman family, we’re going to rank Arthur, Ruby’s father. Admittedly,
we don’t see much of Arthur’s strength in the film, but he does still come off as decently
strong given his body type and build. He’s got that sailor’s bod, as well as a sailor’s mind,
as shown by his sailing proficiency. We could also guess that he’s pretty intelligent,
based on both the ship-in-a-bottle crafts that he makes as well as the distraction
plans he was able to come up with to get Captain Gordon off his daughter’s trail.
Similarly, we could say much of this about Uncle Brill. Sharing about the same body type as Arthur,
Brill is bulky and extremely durable. He was able to take both getting hit by Agatha’s car dead-on
and getting stabbed in the head by a harpoon without being slowed down much at all. He was,
however, easily overwhelmed by seagulls, though we won’t take too many points off for this given
how vicious those things can be. As such, his durability is still pretty impressive. As for
actual strength, we’d say that Brill also lands somewhere around average,
as he’s able to do things like lift rocks that are about his size, but it’s still very much a
struggle for him. He can also be a pretty slow swimmer compared to the rest of his
family - and speaking of, since the kraken royals are so focused on the women of the
family, Brill’s technical status as a prince unfortunately doesn’t add much to his ranking.
As we enter the latter half of our ranking, let’s finish up the human characters by ranking Captain
Gordon Lighthouse. Having both a huge tour bus and a huge boat at his disposal, Gordon is able to be
an active presence on both the land and the sea, with his vehicles giving him an extra speed boost
that comes in handy when he’s out kraken hunting. Speaking of which, the guy’s got quite a few traps
at his disposal to help him even the odds a bit - from nets, ropes and harpoons to actual
full-on bombs! It’s hard to say how strategic he actually is, given how easy he is to trick, but
Gordon was still able to catch Ruby and would have potentially hurt or even killed her if it weren’t
for Chelsea stepping in when she did. For these reasons, we feel that even if he’s mostly used
for comedy relief, the old captain is still able to rank above most of the other side characters.
Just outside our Top 3, we’re ranking Chelsea Van Der Zee AKA Queen Narissa. Once the ruler of the
mermaids, Chelsea seems to have become more of a solo act after being forced to go into
hiding following the Great War. But while she may not be much of a queen, Chelsea is still a force
to be reckoned with. In addition to looking more human than krakens do when they’re in disguise,
Chelsea is also able to stay young forever since, as she says, mermaids don’t age. This allows her
to always be in her prime strength-wise, and it makes manipulating Ruby all the more easy.
Speaking of which, Chelsea’s strategic wit and overall manipulation skills truly can’t
be overlooked, as they’re probably her most dangerous trait next to her powered-up form.
But while this form is incredibly strong and durable, the fact that it’s triggered by the
trident - something that can be hidden away or destroyed - means that it’s got a pretty obvious
weak spot. That’s not to say that Chelsea is completely weak in her normal mermaid form though,
as we do see her catch a flying harpoon without flinching before quickly cutting
all of Gordon’s ropes, freeing Ruby. We’re sure her swimming prowess is fairly impressive too,
and she’s certainly not as weak as a human. But without that trident,
Chelsea really has no hopes of winning any sort of fight with a powered up kraken royal.
So, let’s get to ranking those royals, shall we? Starting with the current ruler of the Seven Seas,
Queen Grandmamah. It may seem a bit odd to put the actual queen as the so-called
‘weakest’ of the three kraken ladies, but while her rank may hold a lot of weight,
it’s implied that Grandmamah isn’t exactly in her prime anymore - hence why she’s so
eager to have Ruby finally be her successor. She’s still no pushover, mind you, having all
the typical powers of a kraken from body armor and mighty strength to electrified lazer eyes.
Still, because of her age, she’s only really able to assist in the final fight and isn’t
able to stop the powered-up Chelsea alone. We also have to factor in Grandmamah’s past fights
into her ranking - because even when she was 15 years younger, there was still another kraken
who saved the ocean and stopped the first Great War between them and the mermaids…
Earning the Silver Medal of Power, we have Agatha, Ruby’s mother. Like her own mother, Agatha has all
the powers of the kraken royal, and she certainly knew how to efficiently use them back in the day.
While many other kraken were tragically killed by the trident’s power, it was Agatha who was finally
able to get the trident away from the then-Queen Narissa, hiding it away somewhere no mermaid could
ever get to it. Speaking of that hiding spot, with all she would have had to go through to make it
to its center, it’s implied that Agatha had some pretty impressive endurance and durability. Like
sister like brother, we suppose. Unfortunately, like with Grandmamah, age seems to have played a
bit of a factor in Agatha losing some of her edge over Narissa/Chelsea, nearly being stabbed by
her in the film’s climax. This perhaps isn’t too surprising given all the time she spent on land,
her fighting skills likely becoming rusty after all that time, but it’s still something that keeps
her from the very top of our ranking despite the amazing victories Agatha had in her past.
Finally, our Gold Medal of Power is going to Ruby Gillman herself. While maybe not
completely invulnerable or unbeatable in a fight, since she still needed her mother and
grandmother’s help to win in the end by using their combined power to destroy the trident,
Ruby is still easily the most powerful kraken at this point of time. Beyond just the fact
that she’s young and is only just now exploring her full potential as a kraken warrior, what is
probably Ruby’s most impressive attribute is that she’s a very quick study. In only a few days,
she was able to master her body armor and laser eyes, improve her strength, and make it through
all the obstacles that kept her from the trident practically out of sheer determination. As long as
she has confidence in herself, Ruby is shown being able to dig deep down and power up for
whatever she needs to, and while as we said this isn’t a guarantee for victory, it’s still enough
to easily earn her the title of Most Powerful Kraken in the sea. With the film ending on Ruby
being the ocean’s new protector, fighting off other underwater monsters and protecting both
kraken and humans alike, we can only imagine how much stronger she’ll get from this point onward.