"Now I can finally get rid of you, savage!"
| “ | This is MY land! I make the laws here! And I say anyone who so much as looks at an Indian without killing him on sight will be tried for treason... and hanged! | „ |
| ~ Okay Ratcliffe |
Merry Christmas to you all! Got permission from Pro-Wrestler for this reproposal and collab, thank you! Doing this collab between me and Powermonger2003, consider this a little Christmas gift from us!
What's The Work?[]
Pocahontas is a 1995 Disney film loosely based on the real life person of the same name. As English Settlers move to America in Virginia with false beliefs that there is gold, we follow our titular protagonist who would meet with one of the settlers named John Smith. The two would become love interests, but are met with tension from both sides of their people who want to wage war on each other out of hatred and racism. It soon got a sequel called "Pocahontas II: Journey To A New World" where Pocahontas goes to London to prevent a war apart to start, all these events happening thanks to a certain individual...
Who is the Character and What Does He Do?[]
John Ratcliffe is the totally-historically-accurate Big Bad of the movies, a heavyset fellow clad in ominous purple and sporting some HORRIBLE facial hair. He's the leader of the voyage but he's not in it for the glory, only the gold! Ratcliffe's got this idea in his head that Virginia's sitting atop vast reserves of gold which he can bring back to England to get in good with his buddy King Jimmy and secure a knighthood... no, LORDSHIP!
Once ashore, Ratcliffe sends the popular colonialist heartthrob John Smith to scout for "savages" and then orders his crew to start digging for gold, a backbreaking process he sadly cannot participate in owing to a crick in his spine. During this complete waste of time, the voyagers are set upon by some natives, and though Ratcliffe orders his men to shoot them, the fight doesn't result in any casualties. Still, Ratcliffe's so fed up with these "Injuns" that once Smith returns with the news that the native population is actually cool and can help them, Ratcliffe hotly responds that he'll have anyone who looks at a native without shooting them hanged.
Smith steals back to Pocahontas to see if he can work things out with her, whereupon Ratcliffe orders Thomas, a "slipshod sailor and a poor excuse for a soldier" whom he relentlessly bullies for his substandard zeal, to spy on our hero and kill any native he might encounter on the way. This unfortunately leads to Thomas shooting Kocoum, a Powhatan warrior and Pocahontas's suitor who was flipping his lid out of jealousy toward Smith, dead. None too tickled about this killing, the Chief captures Smith and decrees that he'll be executed at dawn.
Back at camp, Ratcliffe's twink manservant Wiggins pranks him by pretending to have had his skull skewered by an arrow which is, in truth, merely bent around it. Rather than simply laugh at this creative and harmless gag, Ratcliffe seizes on the idea that the Powhatan tribe is in possession of the (non-existent) gold and hiding it from him. Rallying his men, Ratcliffe uses Smith's capture as an excuse to lead a genocidal attack on the tribe, seeking to wipe them all out so he can get his mitts on their (still non-existent) gold.
Though initially hyping his men up with a banger Villain Song (false equivalency notwithstanding), the wind is taken out of his sails when he and his army witness Pocahontas stopping Smith's execution and convincing her father the Chief (and everyone else) that both sides truly want peace. Yeah right. Scrambling for any excuse, Ratcliffe proclaims that this is but a "trick" and grabs a rifle himself, discharging it at the Chief. Smith nobly leaps out and catches the bullet himself, proving Pocahontas's point and that Ratcliffe is, in truth, a bastard as low as a rat having fallen off a cliff. Ratty is summarily bound, gagged, and sent back on a boat to England to answer for his crimes.
The straight-to-video sequel reveals that Ratcliffe has not answered for his crimes. Instead, he has fooled King Jimmy into thinking that Ratcliffe was betrayed by Smith (whom he believes to have died), and that the Powhatan tribe are a serious threat in need of stamping out. Displaying a diplomatic disposition characteristic of a ruler of the British Empire, Jimmy asks for a Powhatan representative to come on over to England so things can be hashed out without bloodshed. As her father is unwilling to go, Protagonist-hontas goes instead. Ratcliffe, of course, has every intention of making Pocahontas appear as "savage" as possible so Jim will feel justified in sending an armada to Jamestown to eradicate the natives.
To this end, Ratcliffe invites Pocahontas to the Hunt Ball during which he rapid-fires dog whistles whilst pretending to admire Pocahontas for integrating with Bri'ish high society. To really rile her up, he exposes her to the horror of bear-baiting: getting a troupe of jesters to torture a bear right in front of poor Pocahontas's eyes. Pocahontas understandably loses her cool and turns the tables on King Jimbo, calling HIM the savage, leading to her arrest and the savage King giving Ratcliffe the go-ahead to war with the Powhatan tribe.
Ratcliffe boards his ship bound for the New World, but the heroes catch up to him. He attempts to kill Pocahontas and remedy the miracle no doubt of Smith being back from the dead, but he's knocked overboard and afterward arrested by King James, who's finally wised up to all his treachery. "NO MORE LIES!" the King declares, and it seems that, all things being equal, Ratcliffe will actually have to answer for his crimes this time. Better late than never!
Mitigating Factors[]
Not a shirt you wanna wear on Thanksgiving.
So, one of the reasons why he got rejected was because he was deemed to be far too comedic to count. Honestly? I disagree, even taken the sequel to account where he is portrayed far more serious and darker there, he's... Not really that funny in the first film. Like sure, he can be hammy, maybe a bit goofy but he is by no means played for laughs. In fact even the darkest moments in the film such as the "Savages" song and the events leading to Kocoum's death are traced back to him, he gets a lot more serious as the original film progresses on. By the time the sequel comes out? Whatever supposed comedic moments he got are almost completely gone, besides like 2 really small one like how he is dangling from a ship by his cape until he falls onto the water (even that is not very comedic and moreso just very karmatic). He's a lot more darker, his attempt at a genocidal war is by no means played for laughs one bit, even has moments of torturing a poor bear to show how horrendous and petty he is.
Other than that, his excuse of wanting to prove himself after being mocked by the court for being a social climber is far from excusable nor does it paint him very sympathetically or insecure. Just shows he's just want to glorify his bruised ego and greed, and shows how ambitious he is. His relationship with his dog is no better than the likes of Ernst Blofield with his cat, even that doesn't last long when he just abandons the dog and completely forgets him. At the end of the day, he's a xenophobic scumbag and a greedy sociopath with little redeeming qualities (and a bit of a bastardization of his real life counterpart).
Heinous Standards[]
The second reason was the time period he's from, where genocidal colonialism is very common at the time. That doesn't hold up in my honest opinion, this is a Disney film where it doesn't even follow the original real life story of what really went down with Pocahontas and Co. Like the story is barely even accurate to what real life entails. While yes, racism is common in the film, but no one resorts t outright genocide, when they do it's Ratcliffe who's the instigator pulling the strings. Even if you argue that, blatantly instigating war and ordering those executed for not shooting a Native American is far from the norm at the time, he easily sets the standards with no one in both films being as bad as him. Dude is solely responsible for nearly orchestrating a whole genocide simply so the ladies at court will see how he glitters.
Final Verdict[]
Leave it up to you to decide.