Zac Blakely

**Zac Blakely** is the main character in Mako: Island of Secrets & lead male protagonist, as well as the secondary antagonist of the second half of season one. He was born a Northern merman to a powerful mermaid named Nerissa, and had an older mermaid sister Mimmi.

After living most of his life on land, Zac discovered his powers and true form after unintentionally falling into the Moon Pool on a Full Moon, breaking his mother's Tailless Spell put on him when he was just a hatchling and forming a strong connection to Mako Island.

## Biography

### Pre-Series

Zac was born to Nerissa, a powerful Northern mermaid in late 1990s, in the Northern Pod. As his mother's second child, Zac had an older sister named Mimmi, who was also a hatchling. When a rebel mermaid named Aurora threatened the Northern Pod, Nerissa was forced to flee with her children to the Southern Hemisphere in the ocean surrounding Mako Island, where she let Mimmi with the Mako Pod, and after realizing Zac would never be able to live in the sea, and that a pod of mermaids would never accept him, Nerissa cast a powerful spell on him that concealed his true merman form and deprived him of all his powers, disguising him as human. Seeing a young couple at the beach, Nerissa was in hope of them raising Zac as their own, so she let her son at the shore, where he was found by Rob and Lauren Blakely, who raised him as their own son and later, never tell him that he was adopted.

## Personality

Good looking and charming, Zac starts out as an all-round nice guy. He's popular and sporty, always off on one adventure or another with best mate Cam. He and Cam have a healthy and long-running rivalry based firmly in good-hearted mate ship.

The rivalry fuels both boys in everything they do and they banter constantly. But truth be told, they both win as often as they lose. They are essentially equals. That is until the Moon Pool endows Zac with amazing powers and the ability to transform into a merman.

When he first gets a tail, Zac experiences a range of different emotions. At first he is plain stunned, then intrigued, then bummed after all, his new status as half-fish undeniably makes him a bit of a freak. In addition, he knows he can't get wet in front of people without transforming- and that would be a disaster. But he soon finds out that the perks of his powers outweigh the negatives, and starts to embrace his new destiny. This causes a rift in his friendship with Cam - who is used to being Zac's equal, and is jealous of his new abilities.

Zac's world would turn upside down even more when he discovers that he was never really a human to begin with and has been a merman his whole life as well as being the son of the legendary mermaid Nerissa and Mimmi's long lost brother. Feeling that his whole life has been a lie, Zac falls into a deep depression and pushes everyone close to him away, especially Mimmi, who he refuses to accept as his sister. Eventually Mimmi is able to convince him that no matter what he is, he has people that care about him, particularly his parents. He is further established this after talking with his parents and they insist that they always considered him their real son. Deciding Mimmi is right, Zac learns to fully embrace his destiny and accept Mimmi, who he would quickly learn to care deeply about and vice versa. These events also drove him to become more respectful and grateful for his family and friends.

As the series progresses, Zac proves to not only be a very kind outgoing and friendly person, but also very brave and willing to risk his own life for the well being the people he cares such as when he saves the mermaids from being destroyed by the merman chamber and attempts to destroy a water dragon all on his own. This bravery and selflessness are what ultimately lead to him being accepted by the rest of the pod.

Zac has also displayed great resourcefulness and intelligence, even being described as "too clever" by Rita. He has come up with multiple plans outside the box to accomplish whatever goal he has tried to achieve and almost always succeeds in his pursuits such as when he was able to obtain the trident after tricking the mermaids into a wild goose chase with Cam. He is also very skilled with his powers as he was able to master them entirely on his own without any help and was able to master Volume Reduction after witnessing the mermaids do it only once. He was also able to master the eastern spell Turn the Tide after only one day of lessons when it took years of training for the mermaids in the eastern pod.

## Merman Powers

Zac possesses the ability to transform into a merman ten seconds after physical contact with water. He turns back into a human several minutes after climbing out of the the water and once his body is completely dry, he turns back into a human along with the clothes he was wearing before he transformed. As a merman, Zac has the ability to swim at a super speed, hand dive at depths no human being is capable of, completely protected from its cold and water pressure. He is also capable of holding his breath for at least fifteen minutes.

Zac also has mastered "Turn the Tide", an Eastern defensive move to deflect magic.

Zac has all the regular and he displayed the powers of Telekinesis, Hydrokinesis, Hydro-Thermokinesis and Volume Reduction. He is able to share visions with his older sister Mimmi. Zac also has the natural ability that all merpeople have to become himself invisible. After experiencing eight Full Moons back in 2014 since his true form and powers were restored, Zac mastered the Moon Spell Control. Also, during his seventh full moon cycle since his true form and powers were restored, Zac's powers were enhanced greatly, which deepened his connection with Mako Island even more.

### Weaknesses

Under the Tailless Spell, Zac was susceptible to all weaknesses of a human being. When the Mako Island's Moon Pool broke the spell, Zac has again all the typical weaknesses of a Northern merman. However, he is still susceptible to Mako's Moon Pool's well-being, meaning if it is destroyed or deprived of its powerful, magical Moon Water, he would perish and die with it.

## Trivia

* Zac's mother is Nerissa, a powerful Northern mermaid, which makes him a Northern merman regardless of his upbringing in Australia.
* In season 1, Zac was introduced as a human who transformed into a merman by accident. But season 2 reveals he was born and had always been one—but his mother Nerissa had cast a spell on him to make him human. The spell was eventually broken by the Moon Pool, as the Full Moon above Mako Island seemed to possess him one night he camped there and lead him to fall into the Moon Pool where his powers restored.
* The fact Zac started craving seafood after the Tailless Spell broke was an early sign he wasn't cursed with the Metamorphosis like Cleo, Rikki and Emma; they retained their normal tastes, with Emma only craving seafood while trapped as a mermaid due to her first Moon Spell.
* According to a conversation Cam had with Erik in Season 2, Zac's favorite food was hamburgers; though after the Tailless Spell broke, Zac developed the merman craving for seafood. In the first few episodes, Zac scarfs down large amounts of prawn for breakfast; showing a merman's appetite and table manners.
* Zac found the immediate downside to getting his merman form was that he could no longer go surfing; for which he win trophies for. Similar to how in the previous series, where Emma had to give up her competitive swimming.
* Due to being a Northern merman, he would probably be immune to snow rash, but due to being raised in a Southern part of the equator, it remains to be seen.
* Because of Nerissa being his mother, his powers might match up to Mimmi's and because of his bond with his sister, he might tap more into his natural magical energy.
* There is a possibility that 'Zac' is not Zac's birth name, depending on whether Nerissa named him something different from what the Blakelys called him after they adopted him. However, when Nerissa finally returned, she refers to Zac as such suggesting she either gave him that name or did not name him when he was a baby and simply went along with the name the Blakely's gave him.
* It is possible that Nerissa left Zac right after he was born.
	+ However, he may have been left when he was, at an estimated age of 1-2 years.
* He is a direct descendant of the merman that built the Merman Chamber.
* Zac's temporary death is the first time a main character from either H2O or Mako Mermaids to die onscreen.
* Zac has had a crush on Evie ever since he was 12 years old.
* It has been confirmed in a Twitter message, that Zac is the younger one between him and Mimmi, and they are not twins.Template:Citation needed
* Judging from Nerissa's conversation with her children in the series finale, her spell on Zac was not permanent as she'd intended for her children to one day meet; furthermore she is not surprised when she first sees that her son as a merman. This means that the deadline to the spell on Zac may have been close when he fell into the Moon Pool.
* Zac is the only merman other than Erik on the show.
	+ Also, he is the only merman present throughout the entire show.
* Due to being a Northern merman, he may have resistance to low temperatures since he swam in the cold, icy waters around Canada and possibly the Arctic Circle, but due to being raised in a Southern part of the equator, it remains to be seen.
* He was portrayed by actor Chai Hansen, by actor Dylan Stipancic back in his pre-teens and by Jackson Campbell as an infant.
* Early concept art for Mako: Island of Secrets featured Zac as a bipedal merman before the JMB FX artists dropped this idea in favor of a singular tail similar to those of mermaids.