I couldn’t help yelling
at the TV as the credits for Pirates Of The Caribbean: On Stranger Tides rolled.
Yes, I was happy Jack lived to plunder, and stagger about another day, but I
really didn’t give a hoot about him right then. His survival was a given
(million dollar franchise that has another film in the pipes, anyone?). All I
wanted to know was what happened to the ‘different’ mermaid and her human love.
Did she actually heal
him and imbue him with the ability to breathe under water with a single kiss?
If so, why weren’t sailors regularly capturing mermaids to force them into giving them
what would be incredibly beneficial powers? If not, how long did she have to
drag Philip to a place where he could actually survive? Who would help her heal
him? Would mermaids even allow a creature their species essentially viewed as a
less-than-happy meal to be healed? What would Syrena have to do to convince her
kind that Philip was worthy of being her companion? Would she have to leave her people to have a life with
him? Where would they live? If he remained human, but with the ability to
live under water, how would his physiology eventually be affected? What would
his and Syrena’s children look like?
So many unanswered
questions! Argh!
Such is the fate of
the ‘More Interesting Secondary Characters’ - forever doomed to live on in the ‘what
ifs’ of viewers, until the franchise creators drop a breadcrumb or two in subsequent
movies or book tie-ins.
Or they live on in fan
fiction. Lots and lots of fan fiction.
I can’t be alone in my
M.I.S.C. lamentations - which secondary characters (in movies, books or TV
series) do you wish had a LOT more screen time?
