Three Sisters' Memories of The Pirates of Dark Water
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*An overly dramatic depiction of the only way to survive a Dark Water attack…keep a lost Treasure of Rule in hand. One brave mermaid doll volunteered for this mission.
Growing up, was there one fantastical, fictional world that spilled over into your own?
For me, that world was the alien planet of Mer! When my sisters and I were little, we were enthralled by The Pirates of Dark Water. This 1991 animated series by Hanna-Barbera followed the adventures of Prince Ren and his crew of marvelous misfits to save his oceanic home world from Dark Water (malevolent tar-like goop with a penchant for consuming, well, everything!).
Tragically, it only lasted for two seasons, but the boldness of the main characters stayed with me all through my childhood: the stalwart lighthouse keeper Ren, who had only his father's broken sword to remind him of his royal heritage; Tula, the feisty barmaid turned stowaway turned ecomancer voiced by none other than Jodi Benson; Ioz, an avaricious mercenary pirate who oh-so-reluctantly learns the worth of friendship; and Niddler, a ravenous monkey bird who learns to balance his cowardice with courage in between scarfing down minga melons.
A magic compass throws them all together on a quest to find the lost “Thirteen Treasures of Rule,” because only by uniting the pieces can they save Mer from the Dark Water. But they are constantly on the run from the gargantuan Bloth, a heinous pirate sea lord that makes Captain Barbosa look like a tame wee thing. For Bloth doesn't just want to banish the Dark Water, he wants to use the Thirteen Treasures of Rule to master it and control the world! It also doesn't help that Bloth has a fanatical desire to wipe out Ren as the last descendant of King Primus of the ruined kingdom, Octopon.
On Monday, I interviewed my two younger sisters about their favorite memories of this short-lived series:
M said one of her favorite elements of The Pirates of Dark Water was how the world was vividly colored, like a Lisa Frank folder, but instead of cute sea turtles, it was filled with amazingly fierce and monstrous creatures. However, she made sure to remind me that her favorite episode was in fact “The Little Leviathan,” which featured an adorable baby sea monster that became separated from its mother and needed a little help from Ren and friends.
She also loved the dynamics of the crew, because while they all had drastically different personalities and backgrounds, they still worked well together.
B stated that she was entranced by how incredibly complex the worldbuilding was in a cartoon format (*This 18-minute review of the worldbuilding is particularly fascinating). Her favorite character was Tula, because she wasn’t portrayed as merely a token female crew member. Tula was an essential, respected part of the crew with her own skills and talents that she worked hard to sharpen.
B also loved the eldritch horror of Dark Water as an unknowable, destructive force, reminding me of the haunting episode, “A Drop of Darkness.” When an aging alchemist ingests a tiny drop of Dark Water in pursuit of lost youth and beauty, at first Cray seems to get her coveted wish . . . until she becomes grotesquely transmogrified. My skin still prickles at the lethal scene!
My sisters and I all agree that our favorite memory of The Pirates of Dark Water was introducing the cartoon series to visiting relatives from Utah. They came to Connecticut during a very hot summer month, and unused to the humidity, practically perished each time they went outside. Air conditioning was their only method of survival.
So we binge-watched the entire series together while eating a large red velvet cake. By the end, my young cousins also loved the series, and I never wanted to see another slice of red velvet cake again!
Unfortunately, the story cuts off just after our adventurers learn that while the first seven recovered Treasures of Rule were all sparkly objects, the last six are living beings. I can only imagine how awesome that journey would’ve been to follow all the way to the full end of the tale . . . .
Yet long after the abrupt conclusion of the series, my sisters and I would pretend that asphalt roads and parking lots were rivers and oceans of Dark Water, and that cracks in the sidewalk were traps that would suck us in if we accidentally stepped on them. After all, lava was baby stuff next to the voracious mystery ooze that could be manipulated by that most evil of entities, The Dark Dweller!
Sometimes, I would pretend to be Tula, fearless and powerful. Sometimes I still call myself a “Jitatin fool!” I am grateful my imagination grew up somewhere between Earth and Mer . . . where did yours grow up?
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