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WMG / Pocahontas

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This WMG is only for the fictional depictions of Pocahontas. Please refrain any "Jossed in Real Life" instances.

A REALLY dark theory - you've been warned..
  • Pocahontas was desperately searching for something to make her life worth something. To mean something, essentially. And while she definitely did not appear unhappy, she also wasn't merely as cheerful or witty as any of the other Disney heroines. Now take into account that she has a very strong disregard for life-threatening risks; in the movie she jumps of an amazingly tall cliff, goes over a waterfall in a canoe, isn't afraid of an unknown (and of a, to her, unknown race) man with a weapon, takes a bear cub into her hands right in front of it's mother, attacks Kocoum who was an infinitely stronger warrior than her, and finally, puts her life on the line by placing her head on John Smith's body while her father was moments away from bashing it in. Does this remind you of anything?
    • Also take into account her passive attitude when John Smith was captured. She didn't try to tell her fellow tribe members about how John Smith wasn't Kocoum's murderer once - what reason would they have had not to believe her? She is the chief's daughter for Mufasa's sake. Any other modern Disney heroine would have stood up to her dad - like Jasmine, or Ariel, who outright told her father the others weren't monsters. So her passive, sorta depressed antics actually make her more of a Tragic Hero whose Fatal Flaw is selflessness.
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    • Leads to a little bit of fridge horror about what she would do after John Smith's departure. Will she marry another native eventually, thus ultimately still choosing the smoothest course? Remain single forever? Spend the rest of her life waiting for John Smith to return? Try to head to England in her canoe? (The sequel does not exist in my book, so don't remind me of it.)
    • No wonder her dad tried to marry her off.

How Radcliffe ended up being Captain Hook !
When you look at Governor Radcliffe and Captain Hook, you can't help but finding them very similar. Random resemblance ? Maybe. Maybe not. The theory:

Radcliffe was put in jail after the events of the 2nd movie, fed with literally only dry bread and water. That's when he got rid of all that fat that distinguishes him from Hook. Then he learns, maybe in a Count of Monte-Cristo way (a.k.a. from an old prisoner) the existence of Neverland, the land where you never age, that can only be reached by flying in a boat. Of course at first Radcliffe doesn't believe it, but the Old Prisoner has got a pack of pixie dust that convinces him even more (given his passion for anything golden).


He finds himself master of ship. Alternately, he is released and uses his ancient experience of sailing to convince someone of letting him hire a boat; or he escapes and steals one; or he is released but taken at a very low grade on a boat, and rebels. After a few years as a pirate, in which he gains a quite deserved fame, using the pixie dust from the Old Prisoner and a map that the Prisoner conveniently gave him, he flies to Neverland. There, he finds Tinker Bell, a pixie wandering on the seashore. He captures her and threatens to torture her to know "where the rest of this golden powder is". A young cabin boy, Peter, rebels against this ruthless ways and eventually finds himself fighting Radcliffe. He cuts off his hand, accidentally but without regretting it much. He then throws it to the Tick-Tock-Crocodile.


The real reason "If I Never Knew You" was cut..

Ignoring the sequel, Pocahontas as a whole takes place in a universe where the English settlers never did settle in Virginia.
  • Think about it. The sole motivation for Ratcliffe's journey to the New World was the possible discovery of gold. As there was absolutely none there, the settlers decided to return (I mean really, were they going to stay behind under the fine leadership of Thomas, a 19-year old?) and report to the King of England that there was no reason for them to take the land of the indians.
    • Since this is a Disney film, it would make sense - the settlers would become so inspired by the Colours of the Wind and Pocahontas' romance with John, that they'd lose their interest in kicking the indians off their land and taking it for their own.
    • John Smith suggests somewhere during the course of the film that the English could learn from the Indians, by which he is referring to their crops of corn. So perhaps the English could take that back to their own country and be done with the New World?
    • Although Ratcliffe mentions the French and Spanish' successes in the other parts of the New World. He even mentions Cortez by name. But since this film is rooted in fantasy anyway, one could assume Ratcliffe was just making shit up.
      • Ratcliffe explicitly mentions "the gold of Cortés" - but the real Cortés found silver, not gold; so as far as this troper is concerned, the name drop points further toward the alt history theory.
    • At the end of the movie, some English settlers are shown standing on the shore amongst the natives as the ship leaves.
  • It explains why the "Virginia" in this universe has mountains along its coast when the real-life Virginia coast is flat and swampy.

John Smith returned to Virginia after the first film and eventually became Pocahontas' husband.

Thomas and Nakoma are meant for each other.
  • They'd make an awesome Beta Couple. And with Kocoum, Nakoma's only love interest, deceased. Also, they're both the best friend of the protagonists (in Thomas' case, the closest thing to a best friend to loner John Smith).
  • Even though Thomas is responsible for Kocoum, Nakoma's only love interest, being deceased?
    • Yes; she doesn't know that he killed Kocoum, and we can only guess about the extent of her feelings for the latter..
  • If John Smith returns to the colony and marries Pocahontas, Nakoma and Thomas can bond over endlessly rolling their eyes as their BFFs jump off of cliffs and sing songs about the beauty of nature together. Eventually, they fall in love.

If Ratcliffe had succeeded in killing Powhatan..
  • John Smith would've become the new chief. Well, Powhatan's obvious successor, Kocoum, was killed. And he was enough of a charismatic leader. If Pocahontas had influenced the rest of the tribe using her colours of the wind, they might have gone with it.
    • I'm no expert, but I'm fairly sure that Indian chiefs used a system of hereditary leadership, similar to a monarchy. Seeing that Pocahontas is the daughter of the chief, she'd be next in line to be chief.
Pocahontas is a shaman.
  • It explains how she learned the English language just by being touched by the wind (or her mother's spirit, if you prefer), how she communicates with animals so effectively and how she talks to a tree.
    • John Smith talked to that tree, too. Within this theory, Pocahontas would've magically allowed him to do that. Or something.
    • That makes Colours of the Wind less of a Disney Acid Sequence and more of a magic enchantment.

On Percy & Meeko
On this site, nearly everyone is annoyed with Meeko's mistreatment of Percy despite they being an in-movie reflection of the Indian-settler conflict. But Meeko doesn't represent the Indians, & Percy doesn't represent the settlers.

Meeko invades Percy's space and takes his stuff, just like the real settlers did to the actual Indians. Percy is a victim, not a perpetrator. Everyone just thinks Percy is the settler counterpart because he's Radcliffe's pet, and Meeko is Pocanhontas' friend...

Yes, Meeko represents the English, and Percy the natives. It would sure play nicely with the Grey and Gray Morality theme of the movie.

Ratcliffe or a sucessor eventually destroyed all the mountain cliffs and waterfalls.
They were mining for gold, and the resolution of the main conflict does not permanently fix what the colony is doing.

In the end, they will have dug the area into a place that will heal into something like the Real Life Virginia tidelands.

  • In only 400 years? It would take hundreds just to whittle the mountains down to, at most, a few small hills; it would take thousands (if not millions) for it to heal into anything resembling Virginia's Tidewater region.

Nakoma had recently lost a family member.
Most Native Americans (women, especially) only cut their hair that short if they were in mourning. Since she doesn't seem terribly sad, maybe it was an elderly grandparent who was sickly, accepting of the inevitable and even looking forward to reuniting with lost loved ones. The death felt more like a release at that point. Nakoma cut her hair out of respect for the departed family member, but resolved not to waste time being sad for someone who was out of their pain.

Wiggins, Ben, Lon, and Thomas were all killed by Ratcliff's henchmen.
The first movie ended with Ratcliff threatening to see them all killed for betraying him. The second movie opens in London, with Ratcliff's henchmen trying to kill John Smith. The other Englishmen we grew to know and love are neither seen nor mentioned. This is because John Smith was the last on Ratcliff's hit list; the rest had already been taken care of.
  • Or, a lighter theory; Thomas and the funny English guys were attacked by Ratcliff's henchmen, but escaped, and are now in hiding. Given the sillier tone of the sequel, they're probably disguised as washer women, or something equally comical.
  • Or, for something equally WMG-ish, they all decided to stay behind in Virgina, since they're all cool with the Native Americans now.
    • Y'know, there were some Pocahontas comics released after the first movie that show them living in Virginia (at least, Ben and Lon).

John Rolfe and Pocahontas would name their child in honor of Thomas from the first movie.
  • Note that Thomas is also the name of real life Pocahontas and Rolfe's only child. Given the Thomas in the movie was a good friend of Smith's, and therefore likely became one to Pocahontas herself, this may not be a coincidence.

Wiggins is an elf.
  • He has unusually pointy ears, a trait that none of the other characters in the film have. In a film with Grandma Willow's magic and Pocahontas possibly being a shaman, Wiggins being an elf wouldn't be too odd.

Pocahontas is part Tamaranian.
  • Tamaranians learn language through touch. The fastest way for a Tamaranian to learn a language is by kissing a native speaker.

Disney didn't like the Misaimed Fandom some of their previous villains got (especially Gaston), so they sought to make a villain nobody could like even in an Evil Is Cool way, and they succeeded.

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