| “ | Sometimes when we talk I get the feeling that there's something you're holding back but when you sing it's different, it's like it's the real you, someone honest. | ” |
— Will Benjamin describing Bella[src]
| ||
Isabella "Bella" Hartley was the daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Hartley, and was originally born as a regular human being. Due to her father's work, and constant travels around the world, it was unknown in which country she was born, and she never made many friends. At the age of nine, Bella travelled to the strangely familiar set of sea caves at the Irish coast, where she entered its Moon Pool under the full moon, and underwent her metamorphosis, and received her special, almost unique powers over water. Years later, she made a close friendship with fellow human-turned-mermaids, Cleo Sertori, and Rikki Chadwick, and became a part of their group, after Emma Gilbert's departure to travel the world with her own family. She also started a romantic relationship with Will Benjamin, and, together with Cleo, and Rikki, helped to repel the Comet Eva's eventual impact from destoying the world.
Biography
Becoming a Mermaid
Bella became a mermaid when she was nine years old. She lived with her parents in Ireland at the time, but they were busy at work, so she explored the area a lot. She found a sea cave with a moon pool, and when she jumped into it on a Full Moon, she went through metamorphosis. Bella found a dark blue crystal at the bottom of said Moon Pool, tied it on a brown string and has been wearing it ever since.
Her Arrival
Bella is the new girl in city and appears after Emma has left to travel the world with her parents. When a mysterious Water Tentacle attacks the girls and captures Rikki, Bella and Cleo jump into the water to save her, revealing to them that she was also a mermaid. The next morning, the girls and Lewis McCartney discuss Bella's tail and she shows them her powers on Lewis' drink by turning it into a gelatin-like substance. The girls ask Bella to join them, and she agrees. She brings something to the group that they've never had before.
Bella applied for a waitress job at Rikki's. But while Bella was making a drink for a customer, Sophie Benjamin changed it by adding a chili pepper while Bella wasn't paying attention, so it'd look like Sophie was suitable for the job, instead of Bella. Bella didn't get the job, but she continued to work at the café as the lead singer in Nate's band.
After the Events of Season Three
In the spin off series, Mako: Island of Secrets, Bella is not mentioned by Rikki, who appears in the show. Rikki reveals that her two friends (Emma Gilbert and Cleo Sertori) eventually moved from the Gold Coast after graduating from high school. However, Rikki reveals that she has friends (Cleo, Emma and Bella) interested in returning to visit Mako Island. It is unknown what happened to Bella.
Appearances
| H2O: Just Add Water: Season 1 | ||||||||||||
| "Metamorphosis" | "Pool Party" | "Catch of the Day" | "Party Girls" | "Something Fishy" | "Young Love" | "Moon Spell" | "The Denman Affair" | "Dangerous Waters" | "The Camera Never Lies" | "Sink or Swim" | "The Siren Effect" | "Shipwrecked" |
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| "Surprise!" | "The Big Chill" | "Lovesick" | "Under the Weather" | "Bad Moon Rising" | "Hurricane Angela" | "Hook, Line and Sinker" | "Red Herring" | "Fish Out of Water" | "In Too Deep" | "Love Potion 9" | "Dr. Danger" | "A Twist in the Tail" |
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| H2O: Just Add Water: Season 2 | ||||||||||||
| "Stormy Weather" | "Control" | "The One That Got Away" | "Fire and Ice" | "Hocus Pocus" | "Pressure Cooker" | "In Hot Water" | "Wrong Side of the Tracks" | "Riding for a Fall" | "Missed the Boat" | "In Over Our Heads" | "Fish Fever" | "Moonwalker" |
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| "Get Off My Tail" | "Irresistible" | "Double Trouble" | "Moonstruck" | "The Heat Is On" | "The Gracie Code, Part One" | "The Gracie Code, Part Two" | "And Then There Were Four" | "Bubble, Bubble, Toil and Trouble" | "Reckless" | "Three's Company" | "Sea Change" | "Unfathomable" |
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| H2O: Just Add Water: Season 3 | ||||||||||||
| "The Awakening" | "Jungle Hunt" | "Keep Your Enemies Close" | "Valentine's Day" | "Big Ideas" | "Secrets & Lies" | "Happy Families" | "Kidnapped" | "The Sorcerer's Apprentice" | "Revealed" | "Just a Girl at Heart" | "Crime & Punishment" | "To Have and To Hold Back" |
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| "Mermaid Magic" | "Power Play" | "The Dark Side" | "A Magnetic Attraction" | "Into the Light" | "Breakaway" | "Queen for a Day" | "The Jewel Thief" | "Mako Masters" | "Beach Party" | "Too Close for Comfort" | "A Date With Destiny" | "Graduation" |
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Personality
Bella is a bubbly ball of energy who's easy to talk with. When she was little, she enjoyed walking around in the Ireland fields while her parents were at work. She's funny and sarcastic at times but supports her friends. She can be a bit naïve, trust people too quickly, and ignore what others tell her but when she recognizes her mistakes, she does whatever she can to fix it. She is a bit withdrawn and sensitive because she's a mermaid, meaning she's afraid to reveal herself. But deep inside, she cares deeply for her friends.
Physical appearance
Isabella Hartley was a teenage mermaid when she first arrived at the Gold Coast by the events of Season 3.
She is described as very attractive and beautiful; she has honey-blonde hair that fall straight down past below her chest it also seems to have a naturally wavy texture, which you can see when she wears her hair loose, though sometimes it gets straighter, due to its weight or humidity. She sometimes wears a side braid or a ponytail, but mostly wears her hair down, sometimes having tiny braids throughout. Bella's eyes are ocean blue, and her skin has a honey-bronze color, she also has a button nose and plump pink lips. She is not quite as tan as Cleo Sertori but not as pale as Rikki Chadwick and Emma Gilbert. Bella has a slim but curvaceous figure. Bella is the one who wears the most dresses in the mermaid trio and colors that reflect earthlier, or ocean-inspired tones, such as blue, purple, white, yellow, aqua, green, black, and flower designs. If Bella wears swim clothes, they mostly have a flower design. Bella is never seen without her blue necklace with the exception of her mermaid form. Later in season 3, her friends also get the same necklace made by Will. As a mermaid, her hair is let down and she has an orange-scaled tail with an orange-scaled top.
Mermaid Powers
Due to entering the Irish Moon Pool alone, Bella was gifted with the powers to turn water into a jelly-like substance and to harden water into another substance similar to glass. As a hatchling back in the late 1990's and a recently turned mermaid, Bella mastered the Moon Spell Control by herself much before her arrival at Mako Island in 2008.
- Gelidkinesis: The power to turn water and liquids in general, into a jelly-like substance. She can also burst this jelly-like substance. It was also shown that if Bella wants, the water will return to its normal state after a few seconds, but if she will not, the water will forever be gelatinous.
- Substanciakinesis: The power to turn water and liquids in general into a substance similar to crystal or glass, rendering it nearly indestructible, unlike ice that would eventually melt away or break. It was also shown that if Bella wants, the water will return to its normal state after a few seconds, but if she will not, the water will forever be rigid.
- Tower of Light: The ability to create a pillar of light to stop a comet from hitting the Earth. The Tower of Light is seemingly a tower of energized Moon Water made from the Moon Pool. When the Moon Pool was destroyed, Bella, Cleo, Rikki and devised a plan to recreate the Tower of Light using their mermaid powers.
Weaknesses
Prior to her transformation, Bella had all the typical weaknesses of a human being. When she transformed, she now is susceptible to all the weaknesses of a human-turned-mermaid, like the temporary twelve-hours Lunar Eclipse, or the dangerous, metamorphosis-reverting Moon of Fifty Years.
Loss of Power Control
Bella is allergic to Will's aftershave, and it causes her mermaid magic to go out of control. Every time she sneezes, her gelidkinesis involuntarily comes into play and turns any liquid nearby into the jelly-like substance.
Relationships
Will Benjamin
Bella and Will kissing underwater
See the main article: Bella-Will Relationship
Bella develops feelings for Will as soon as she arrives in town. Because Will often asks Bella about what he "thinks" he saw, Rikki tells Bella to stay away from him to keep their secret safe. As they become closer, Will starts to have feelings for Bella. One day, Will accidentally drops water on Bella's chin when he wants to kiss her, and she is forced to run into the ocean before she transforms into a mermaid. Will becomes curious and intentionally throws a glass of water on Bella's hand, forcing her to jump into the water. Will follows her, and sees what she really is. Although he's shocked, he agrees to keep her secret. But Bella lies about Cleo and Rikki when Will asks her if they are also mermaids.
Bella often hears Will talking about mermaids and the magic and begins to think that he is only interested in her because of her mermaid magic, and she stops their friendship. Eventually, they become friends again after Will finds out that Cleo and Rikki are mermaids as well. In one episode, she mistakenly hears Will asking Rikki to a party and decides to go with Nate to make him jealous. At the party, they solve the misunderstanding and officially become a couple.
Behind the scenes
She was portrayed by actress Indiana Evans and by Jamie Ellen Ewing back in her childhood.
Name
- Isabella is a name of Hebrew origins and means "God is bountiful". It is an alternative form of Isabel or Elizabeth.
Trivia
- Bella's full name is Isabella Hartley. This is revealed in the last episode, "Graduation".[1]
- Having transformed at nine years old, she is both the youngest-depicted mermaid in the original series (before Ava in Mako: Island of Secrets) and had spent the longest time as a mermaid.
- Bella's name is misspelled in the Season 3 Media Kit as "Isabel Hartley."
- Bella, Ash, and Lewis are the only main characters whose houses were never revealed in the series.
- Bella explained she always moved from country to country because of her parent's jobs, so it's not clear which she was born in but it's most likely that she's Australian because of her accent.
- Bella's father works in hotel management.
- Because she moved so often, she did not have many friends growing up.
- Bella was transformed in the Sea Caves of Ireland instead of Mako Island.[2]
- She wears clothes based on gemstone colors similar to her power.
- Unlike Cleo, Emma, Rikki, and Charlotte, Bella was never shown being affected by the full moon, having grown immune to its effects over time like the others. Having grown up as a mermaid for much longer, she may have grown resistant to it much sooner than them.
- Bella did not appeared in animated counterpart.
- Bella remains currently as the only known human-turned-mermaid to have been alone at the time of her metamorphosis, thus receiving all the merpeople powers from a specific Moon Pool, being the second known after Charlotte but the first ever known to go through such a process. She is also the only human-turned-mermaid known to have never fall under the effects of any special Full Moon, including a temporary twelve-hours Lunar Eclipse, the elemental-empowering Elemental Moon, or the dangerous, power-stripping Moon of Fifty Years.
- Bella was the only known merperson to have displayed on-screen the powers of Gelidkinesis and Substanciakinesis.
- Bella could be considered the first known hatchling ever in H₂O/Mako Mermaids Universe because she went through metamorphosis at the age of 9.[2] By other hand, Ava is placed as the second one as she was about 8 or 9 years old during her debut.[3] The latter, however, was born in the coral reef surrounding Mako Island and therefore a sea-born mermaid, whereas Bella was born as regular girl in an unspecified country and by other hand, a transformed mermaid.
- Upon hearing Will ask Rikki out to the beach party, Bella mistook this as Will cheating on her when Will had been practicing saying what he'll say to Bella when asking her out.
Gallery
- Main article: Isabella Hartley/Gallery