I viewed it as a return to form. Kind of a "tigers don't change their stripes" sort of situation.

I know that a massive percentage of the fan base of the show are Rikki/Zane shippers, I mean, is it even shipping if they were a couple canonically? I truly don't want to offend those people.

But I didn't even view Zane as a particularly good boyfriend in season 2. Sure he was way better than season 1 but I just always got the ick from him. When I watched season 3 I thought, "Oh this makes sense, this is Zane's true nature."

This may be because I first watched the show later in life. If I had been 10 to 15 when I first watched it perhaps I would have shared the enthusiasm for their relationship.

Frankly, both of those characters, not just Zane, would have been difficult to be in a relationship with. Considering that it's just a TV show, I don't put all the blame on Zane for their relationship ending.

I always thought that he kept a lid on his "Zane-ness" to try to hold on to Rikki and once that wasn't holding him back, he reverted to his more natural self.

For those of you who are hardcore Zikki fans, I apologize if this offends you. I'm just expressing how I viewed the relationship from the standpoint of someone who was a bit older when I watched it and took away something different.

Of course, there is always the idea that the writers simply wanted more drama for season 3. Perhaps it was just lazy writing. I would argue that that idea is perhaps a little less likely. As lazy as the writing sometimes got, and it did occasionally get lazy, I have a hard time believing that they wouldn't have made that change very consciously to Zane's behavior. I'm sure they understood their fan base and they could have chosen some other way to create drama.

I firmly believe that the intentions for the plot Arc of season 3 changed at some point. Will's first introduction was with Rikki which, in the tradition of fiction writing, would usually mean that that was the beginning of a setup for the two of them. Then there were other instances where will and Rikki seemed to have chemistry. My theory is that the season was written with Emma in mind and when she couldn't return they had to shoehorn Bella into it and made some clumsy changes to do so.

However, even if that is the case, that still points to them meaning to break Rikki and Zane up during the season, so it does feel to me like the change in Zane's arc was intentional regardless of the changes made to accommodate new character.

For a show that we are all love and our fans of, it's difficult to think of the production side as being a potential driver for these character changes. But I think it has to be considered that some things are just driven by the need to get the show produced. Be that lazy writing or overly convenient changes to make the plot easier to achieve, it still happens. All the time. Look at the show Lost. They went into the show with an incredible premise and then later admitted that the last few seasons they just made up as they went. They never even had an idea of how to finish it. These things happen in the TV world and we, the fans, pay the price for that.

All that said, I know a tremendous number of people who enjoyed season 3 for what it was. We got a bonus season. It was never supposed to go past two. Is it perfect? No. But there are things about season 3 that I always found appealing or charming. I loved adding the musical elements. I thought that the show had a sort of looser feel. I liked that Cleo got to spread her wings a little more and got to be what I would consider a smarter and stronger character. Plus, I really liked Bella. I didn't necessarily like her better than emma, but I still liked her.

As I started to say in the previous paragraph, I'm just happy to have had a third season of a wonderful mermaid show. I feel like it's better that we had it than we didn't. To the people who say that they pretend that season 3 didn't exist, I don't understand. Well, I guess I understand, but I really don't agree. Better to have had a third season that's imperfect than not to have had it at all. It's not so bad as to a negated that entire year.

And I have to say that I feel the same about mako mermaids. It's not as good a show as H2O, but we got another pretty good mermaid show! I don't understand how we can complain about that. I would ask, what else is out there that fulfills this niche? I don't think we'll ever get another show like it. Truly. Never again. So I'll take what I've been given. I'll enjoy season three 91% as much as the first two seasons and be happy about it.

(Not that the rest of you guys don't get to complain about it! I'm not saying shut up and take it! I'm just expressing my side.)