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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 canoo, approaches a white man with a gun (plus, she doesn't as much as tremble when he points it at her), 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.
  • 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 canoo? (The sequel does not exist in my book, so don't remind me of it.)
  • No wonder her dad tried to marry her off.

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

• ..was that it alluded to severe depression! "And if I never knew you / I'd have lived my whole live through / Empty as the sky / Never knowing why / Lost forever if I never knew you."

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.

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

• It's what the fans want. And it just seems likely that John Smith would return to the "land he had always dreamed of" to be with the woman he told he'd rather die than live a hundred years without knowing her. Thing is, would he be able to locate the exact spot of the Powhatan Nation and would he, in any capacity, survive his month-long trip to England for medical treatment in the first place?

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 Adorkable and the best friend of the protagonists (in Thomas' case, the closest thing to a best friend to loner John Smith).

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.

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 then it hit me- 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 the one to be sided with as the victim, not the perpetrator. Everyone just thinks Percy is the settler counterpart because he's Radcliffe's pet and Meeko is Pocanhontas' friend.
    • So you're suggesting that Meeko represents the English and Percy the natives? Well, it would sure play nicely with the Grey and Gray Morality theme of the movie, which especially comes up in the Savages song, but it doesn't make sense in the long run.