siren-theories - Tumblr blog

siren-theories · 5 years ago

Text

The question of children

Note: ICYMI here is an updated post with all my analysis/thoughts so far. DIsclaimer: The following includes spoilers of up to and Including Episode 309 “A voice in the dark”. This post was prompted by the following question:

Thank you very much for sending that one in. I have to admit that this is a question I have asked myself many times, mainly driven by the parallels of Ben, Ryn and the story of the Pownall massacre. And Episode 308 has given those thoughts new form as they exchanged vows at the end of Episode 308. After all, children quite often follow such vows in human relationships. But children are quite a hassle for a TV show. Child actors are problematic to work with and once they exist, they often only waste screentime while bringing very little to the plot. And as they grow up, there is the question of time - having child actors more or less forces the show to use time in a linear manner as the child actors grow up. Though Siren already left itself a loophole with Hope and her growth spurts, this is still problematic for a show that has covered a period as short as a few months in three seasons. (I really need to update the timeline post soonish).

A). Can they actually have a child together?

We know that Sirens and humans can have children together as evidenced by the whole existence of Helen and the hybrid cult.

However, we do know that Ryn has struggled with fertility issues before, which was a major plot point of the later half of Season 2. I do believe however that the fertility problems were mostly related to the males of her species. As the tests showed in Episode 213 “The Outpost” there was nothing wrong with Ryn herself

(Leave it to the always body-positive Ryn to be proud of such a fact).

And as soon as they could isolate viable sperm from the male, fertilization of her eggs was no issue at all in Episode 215. Biologically, there should be nothing preventing her and Ben having a Baby.

B). Will they have a child together?

With Ryn was not being in her mating drive during the recent episodes, we probably can rule out any pregnancy as a result of those scenes OP mentioned (unless her change into a human has progressed much further in those episodes, which is possible but IMO very unlikely). However, what happens when her next mating drive occurs? I think this can be safely answered within the context of the previous scenes in the show. There were multiple scenes in Episode 213 where both Ben and Ryn clearly exhibited signs of wanting to have children with each other and one scene in particular where they both had to force themselves not to do so within that episode.

And in 308 Ryn clearly states her wish for having a family with him, during the kitchen table discussion.

Ryn: “I will live on Land. With you.” Ben: “On land. You mean, stay human?” Ryn: “Yes. Here. Together. Human.” Ben: “What about Hope?” Ryn: “She can be with us. As a family.” Ben: “I can’t ask you to do that.” Ryn: “It is my choice. When it is time, I will be human with you.”

After figuring IVF works there is also no reason for Ryn to have more pureblood children just for the sake of her species considering there are plenty of willing alternative candidates (this would also be much better for the future genepool of her tribe).

So therefore, I do believe there is a high chance of them having more children, possibly as soon as Ryns mating drive kicks in again. By now you probably already figured out what the persistent qualifier “more” is referring to. I believe that for all intents and purposes they already have a child together - Hope.

C) Hope as their first child

While Ben is not the biological father, this is no hindrance to Hope being their first child. After all, under the law of many first-world nations Ryn would also not be considered the biological mother since she did not conceive Hope, nor did she carry or give birth to Hope.

Siren is no stranger to these constellations - after all, the best father figure in the whole series, Dale Bishop, is Maddie’s stepfather.

(Sidenote: Contrast how awesome Dale is as a father with Ben’s parents and Maddie’s mother. The show makes the point very early and very often that biological relations are not what determines who your “real” parents are,)

And for all intents and story-telling purposes, Ryn intends for Ben to be Hope’s father. This was signalled multiple times this season, even as early as Episode 305 and seems to be a role Ben wants to take up as well.

In Episode 305, Ryn returns with Hope to land after her first transformation. And the very first thing she does onscreen is to hand Hope over to Ben in a manner very reminiscient of a mother handing over her child to its father.

(They look very much like a family in that scene, don’t they?) Then, we had Ben saying that he already views her like his own daughter in the same Episode. (Sidenote: rushing into things is a steeple of their whole relationship so this was in character for them).

Ben: “It’s weird man. Feels like she’s mine. I*m going to help raise her.” Ryn of course also expressed the wish for Hope, Ben and herself to be a family in Episode 308:

Ben: “What about Hope?” Ryn: “She can be with us. As a family.”

And with Hope’s reintroduction in Episode 9, this dynamic was reinforced multiple times - especially and crucially from Hope’s side. And even more important was that Hope’s actions were completely unprompted by Ryn.

1. Despite Ryn saying in Episode 305 that Hope will not remember her time as a baby, it is shown in Episode 309 that she does remember Ben, signifying the close bond the two already have

Episode 305:

Ryn: “When we meet again, you will be grown. You will not remember this time with me. So I will remember for us both.”

309:

Hope keeps glancing at Ryn and Ben Ryn: “She remembers you. From when she was a baby.”

2. And of course, later in the same episode Hope seeks physical contact with Ben - the image projected here is one of Family again.

And Ryn is again very happy about her daughter doing this. For whatever reason there seems to exist a strong, reciprocal bond between Hope and Ben already.

So as it stands right now, Hope already is their (first) child in my opinion. The writers IMO could not have made that any more clear, especially not with those scenes in 309.

Assuming she survives the finale (which I very much wish for), I would argue that any other children during the run of the show will be unlikely from a storytelling and logistics perspective. Even should Hope not survive (or have another prolonged period of absence for whatever reason) I do not think there will be another child shown onscreen. In addition to the usual problem with children in tv there is another one in play here: As strapped for screentime as Siren is, I would assume the writers do not intend to introduce further children unless they serve a dramatic purpose.

D) Children and the Pownall family arc

One such arc where a Baby might prove beneficial for dramatic reasons however is the Pownall family arc.

As I have written at length before, there are parallels between Ryn/Ben and Charles Pownall/his unnamed siren. And the Pownall massacre happened in part because Ben’s ancestor and his siren failed to raise their child together.

("Seperated from her child, his mermaid lost her mind and went back to the water, never to return. Infected by the song and her abscence, Charles lost his senses. He gathered his crew, trapped the mermaids in a cove and slaughtered them.”)

As such, from a storytelling perspective, It would be very dramatic and enjoyable for Ben to have a child with a Siren and hopefully not mess up raising her. Therefore, should Hope not survive the season the odds of them having (another) child onscreen would increase dramatically in my opinion.

If Hope should indeed die, maybe it will not only be Ben repudiating the mistakes of his ancestor, but maybe also Ryn showing that she is stronger than the unnamed Siren. Maybe she would survive and heal after the loss of a child precisely because she has humans standing by to help her?

(And yes, I would think that would include Maddie). However, I do think Hope will survive. Anything else would be just too cruel to Ryn and also a bit odd considering how much screentime was invested in Hope’s “creation” in Season 2.

Either way, while a child would add drama, it is also not necessarily a conditio sine qua non for the story of the Pownall family. And IMO Ben’s attachment to Ryn is already strong enough (cf their "wedding vows” in 308). Therefore, a child would not be needed to prompt him to chose Ryn over his family (a choice he also already made in Episode 215 and which you can read more in detail about in the previously linked post).

Conclusion:

Do I expect them to have more children onscreen, over the course of the series? Probably not, given the above arguments.

Do I expect them to have more children in the future (including a hypothetical time period after the series finale)?

After the series ends (and assuming some kind of happy end for them) they would probably increase their family as early (or as often) as Ryn’s mating drive and other factors permit. At this point in the story, they clearly want to have a family together and there would be nothing to stop them from enlargening their already existing family should they so choose.

So I would tentatively argue that yes, they eventually will have more children.

#Freeform Siren #Siren #Ben #Ryn #Ben/Ryn #siren freeform

30 notes · View notes

siren-theories · 5 years ago

Note

Do you believe the show is heading to ben and ryn having a child in the future? With the huge focus that's been given to them this season, which includes two s&x scenes (one of them very explicit), I see either that happening, especially now that ben has a bit of a merman side, or one of them dying by the finale.

This is a great question and one I have asked myself repeatedly over the course of the show. I cannot claim to answer it conclusively (only the writers can), but I can give you my best guess on that particular issue. I would argue that it is very likely that they will eventually have more children after the series. This is of course assuming some kind of happy end, which might or might not happen.

For a longer, more detailed answer with an actual argument for why I think this way (as well as an explanation for the “more children”) I have to ask for your patience, as I shall need some time to write out my argument for why I think this way.

But it will be the subject of my next longform post. EDIT: Which has been posted now and can be read at this link

3 notes · View notes

siren-theories · 5 years ago

Text

Maddie Bishop's treatment by the writers in Season 3

(tl, dr: Maddie deserved better this season) SPOILER WARNING: This post includes spoilers up to and including Episode 308 “Till Death do us part”. I apologise to the readers for - after a long hiatus - not writing another analysis post first. But I felt the way Maddie was written in Season 3 deserves its own post. So let us take a look at the the way Maddie was written in Season 3, the inconsistencies with her earlier established character traits and the possible justifications for this treatment of her by the writers.

I. Introduction

I generally do not like to post about a show which has not finished its current season. That is because a lot of developments only make sense in retrospect and only then the viewer can know why the writers decided to emphasize certain developments. As such, I am usually trying not to write episode reviews and engage in wild speculation about what will happen next episode. I much prefer writing after the end of a season.

Looking back on all the shows I have seen in my life, there are only a few that come to mind that had a great third season. The West Wing and the Wire are the prominent examples that come to mind.

(Shameless West Wing Plug. I so miss this show and its intelligent characters, especially in the current political climate).

Other shows meanwhile go completely off the rails (like Andromeda, which never recovered from its Season 3). So in general I tend to be very forgiving to shows entering their third season, not expecting much. Thus I would usually not write something like this.

But: I worry about the treatment of a character I feel very protective of, the chracter who is my favourite character in the show: Maddie Bishop.

(Vivat regina.)

Her being my favourite character might be surprising to the reader considering most of the posts on this tumblr are about Ryn (and to a lesser degree Ben), while I have written only sparingly about Maddie. But that is simply because Ryn and Ben are more interesting characters to analyze. Emotionally, they tick the "lets root for them" box for me, despite - and because of - their character flaws. Those flaws always add to the story in a fascinating and dramatic way.

But Maddie Bishop I RESPECTED right from the start. This is in no small part because I always felt drawn to her analytical, logical, scientific side. In cheesy terms, I felt a bond with her because I could easily think of me acting the same way she did in many situations. For me, she was easy to emphatize with, easy to like and very easy to root for.

But this season has been hard to swallow in some respects.

In the words of the Godfather:

(Tremble in awe of my awesome MS Paint skills)

Note that this does not apply to all of Maddie's actions. In fact, the vast majority of her actions this season are no big deal to me and fit her character. Many of the actions Maddie seems to catch a lot of flak for on other parts of the internet seem perfectly justifiable to me as they do not go against the core traits of her character.

I have no issues with many major decisions Maddie made this season, including but not limited to:

She is totally right to re-evaluate her relationship with Ben. Everybody should probably do so when their boyfriend confesses that he let somebody intentionally drown. (It also is not the first time they have broken up. One breakup per season seems to be the norm with those two, not the exception.)

Her hiding the fact of Ryn being her girlfriend to Robb was the right and logical choice. Most people do not talk about their sexuality in face-to-face situations with strangers. Let’s remember that they all agreed to hide their relationship even when having dinner with Ben's family...so why would people expect Maddie to refer to Ryn as her girlfriend to strangers?

I am also okay with her deciding to pursue a relationship with Robb. Even though I view him as a giant waste of screentime he seems like a good guy in total. (I really hope his introduction pays off in future seasons because right now it feels as if he has taken double or triple the screentime he should.)

I could go on but I feel the point has been made. What I am however definitely not okay with are the instances where Maddie acts like a complete idiot. Those show a massive failure to respect established character traits by the writers.

Because one thing Maddie Bishop is not is an idiot.

She probably is the smartest character on the whole show. And she is definitely not a hypocrite - in fact, her strong moral core is what made her that great of a character in Season 1 and 2.

Let me just highlight a few situation this season where I disliked heavily how Maddie was written.

II. Revealing the secrets of the Sirens and their existence to a total stranger ?

“Remember this big secret people are literally getting killed over? I wonder if I should talk about it to this guy I met for a few coffees...not like letting other people knowing about it has ever hurt somebody....Ian? What is an Ian?”

Over the span of a few days, Maddie does the following in Season 3:

Reveal information about the Sirens to a total stranger, even going so far as to show him secret Siren history in the cave

Bring a complete stranger into the maritime laboratory (what exactly could have been her thought process here, what did she hope to gain by this?)

Doing the above despite being repeatedly warned not to do so

I can live with Ben being an idiot and refusing to heed warnings until it almost kills him because that is who his character is - somebody who lets his emotion, empathy and character flaws get the better of him at times despite his good intentions. Him taking stem cells is thus consistent with his character and at the very least a justifiable writers decision. To a lesser degree this also applies to Ryn and her total lack of impulse control. Ben and Ryn making bad decisions it is very consistent with their characters - and yes, this even applies to making stupid decisions. (For Ryn, agreeing to work with the military in Episode 207 “Entrapment” is but one example).

But this is NOT Maddie and never was.

The Maddie from previous seasons was so very invested in keeping the secret that she hid it from her own father in Season 1. This led to the awesome scene between her, her father Dale and Ryn In episode 107: “Dead in the water”.

She hid this secret from her own mother in Season 2 (heck, she even hid her relationship with Ryn from her). She hid Ryn from her best friends, her former boyfriend and her coworker. And yet, suddenly some stranger from outside town waltzes in and within the span of a few coffee dates she goes and spills the beans to him? After being explicitly warned not to do so? Without even being in a relationship with Robb at that point and knowing next to nothing about him? If you had held a gun to my head and forced me to pick somebody who would be dumb enough to just reveal the secret of the Sirens to outsiders, Maddie Bishop never would have been my answer.

I could see Ben “Bad Judgement” Pownall and Ryn “No brakes on this train” Fisher doing so. I expect Xander and Calvin to be trash at keeping secrets because that is consistent with their past behaviour. But Maddie? No. Not Maddie. Not the girl who hid her mother’s addiction from the world as best she could. Not the woman who was okay keeping Ryn a secret from her own father. And not to a total stranger.

This is Ben-level stupidity. Actually, it is worse than that. Blabbing about the mermaids to a total stranger without being under any kind of duress is by far the most stupid thing any character has ever done in this show. It risks not only Maddie herself, but also the Sirens as a species. It is even worse than Xander telling Nicole about Helen's family burials at the end of season 2. It is irresponsible and completely outside Maddie's established character traits and her past actions. It is unbelievable.

III. Killing is different when my (animal) girlfriend does it

Besides turning her into an idiot, the writers also turned Maddie into a hypocrite in stating Ryn letting Ian drown is different than Ben doing the same. Nevermind the fact that Ryn has actively killed people (and probably will continue doing so).

(Why is it different when two people react exactly the same?Because.....reasons. The best reasons. People tell me they are the best reasons. My uncle went to MIT and invented these reasons. Big brain time.)

So the writers had Maddie claim it is different when Ryn does exactly the same thing as Ben. It also is okay for Ryn to kill somebody who was no real threat to Ryn (or Maddie with Ryn being there). Remember when Ryn killed the drug dealer in Episode 205? Ryn was toying with the guy throughout the whole fight and clearly enjoyed killing him in a brutal manner. She even grins during the fight once she realizes the guy has no chance against her.

And yet, Maddie was okay with this. But it is not okay for Ben to let somebody drown who was a) a homocidal maniac who used his car as a deadly weapon, having attempted to run Ben over twice previously b) somebody who could not be trusted c) who had just kidnapped a drugged-up Ryn.

I cannot remember when I ever groaned in frustration at anything Maddie had done or said throughout the course of the show. This must have been the first time and it is especially jarring in response to the following scene in 206:

(Ryn does not. The writers might.) As I said above, I am more than okay with Maddie evaluating her relationship with Ben, what I am not okay with is her immediate declaration that Ryn killing people is different...because she is Ryn? And I hate how it has one particularly ugly implication - that to Maddie, Ryn killing people is just what she does. The conclusion to be drawn from that is that Ryn is indeed a predator/animal first to Maddie than a human being.

And this is obviously inconsistent with Maddie's earlier actions.

First, she did not mind somebody eliminating threats before. She was okay with potentially having to hurt people in order to defeat the sonic cannon in Season 2. She was “willing to fight” to protect Ryn and her species. And several times Maddie carried loaded guns and was ready to use them herself in the series.

She also always believed in Ryn's humanity. I am sure the many scenes between Ryn and Maddie in Season 1 and 2 are fresh in everyone's mind. Suffice to say that Maddie has always believed in the humanity of Ryn, starting with the car scene between the two in Episode 102 or the trust scene in Episode 103, which I have linked below.

youtube

(and where did this dynamic go btw?) Which ties in neatly with my next point:

IV. The Marginalization of Maddie regarding Ryn and Ben

Let me start by saying that breaking up the trio to focus on Ben/Ryn (and probably continuing to focus on those two) is not something I want to critize from a storytelling perspective. Final judgement on the storytelling will be reserved until the end of the series. As this issue is inextricably linked with “shipping” preferences, I think at this point I have to explain where I stand on the issue. I would prefer Polymarine as I think it really fits the characters best...but I can live with Ben/Ryn. This is in no small part due to Eline Powell and Alex Roe doing some of their greatest work on this show playing off each other. See for example how in Episode 306 they improvised with her hair sticking to his body after a hug and turned that into a tender gesture...great impromptu acting without breaking character. If the writers want to explore this (or any other) relationship further I can respect that decision from a storytelling perspective because I think the payoff will be satisfying to me as a viewer. Even though I feel it would have been better to explore Ben/Ryn in the context of Polymarine I begrudgingly accept the right of the writers to tell the story the way they want to.

And If nothing else it leads to stunning visuals - image credit to @crayonboxhearts, more gifs from this scene at the link.

But I dislike the way in which the writers set it up and executed it this season because (as outlined above) it sacrificed some of Maddie’s core character tenets and had her acting out of character.

Having the trio become a duo on its own in an organic way without the above would have been preferable IMO. There were enough angles the writers could have chosen to facilitate that in a believable manner. They could have focused on the connection Ryn has with Ben, they could have had family reasons...et cetera pp. And they also could have used some of the issues Maddie has in her own past to justify a breakup. All of this would have been (IMO) preferable to what we got.

What we got was something that felt as if it was written to check some boxes to set up the future plotlines and in doing so marginalized Maddie with regards to her importance to Ryn, Ben and the overall story.

Granted, the show tried to show Maddie and Ryn's feelings for each other and they spent some time showing Ben moping after her - but in light of the significant strides made in the Ben/Ryn dynamic these scenes feel more than a bit hollow.

And anybody who has watched episodes 308 could just see the role of Maddie as it relates to interacting with Ryn and Ben getting smaller by the minute. Ryn and Ben now have their own little circle, one which only seems to include Maddie on the periphery. Nowhevere was this stronger on display than in Episode 308, with Ben and Ryn making lifelong promises to each other.

Notice how Maddie was not even mentioned once during that conversation? And yes maybe it would have been a bit weird to include her in the dialogue . However this is not an isolated incident. Later on Maddie is not even in the same frame when Ryn and Ben actually exchange a wedding ring and make a “til death do us part” promise. Let me repreat this: They are exchanging wedding vows and Maddie is not even in the frame.

(Yes, technically not wedding vows, but only due to the circumstances surrounding them - the sentiment and meaning was there. FFS, she is even wearing white).

And sometimes it is something as simple as Ryn in 308 kissing Maddie on the cheeks and Ben straight on the lips.

There could not have been a more clearer message than the contrast here. And this was clearly intentional on part of the director considering these frames followed each other immediately.

And then of course we get the followup scene on the docks where Ben is literally standing in the middle between Maddie and Ryn, before turning and following Ryn, both leaving Maddie behind. Observe the contrast between that scene and the pier scene in Episode 203.

203:

308:

(Ngl,seeing her standing alone there in the dark hurt) And some of that can be viewed as a logical development of Maddie no longer being in a relationship with Ben (and whatever kind of relationship Maddie has with Ryn, it is clear that Ryn is not staying at Maddie’s place at all). Siren has always been about the relationship of the main characters within the tight-knit circle and it is clear that at this point in the story Maddie is not part of the inner circle anymore.

V: Maddie’s role in the story

And if Maddie would be doing something else, something central to the story of Bristol Cove, something that would valiate her character and make her essential to the plot in other ways, it might be enough for me or at least end up softening the blow. But is that the case?

The side characters that have the closest connection with her (Dale and her mother Susan) have not even appeared once this season. And we had Xander replace her in her role as the gun-carrying backup which Ben calls first when stuff goes down in episode 306. So far there has not been a critical “Maddie moment” this season that was absolutely essential to the plot. She figured out the reason why the pool was not working in Episode 307 but it was Ben who came up with an actual solution to the problem.

(A caveat: Ben usually is the one who figures out solutions in the show (cf 208) so I might just be overreacting here.) But what exactly is left of the crucial role that Maddie had at the start of this season? Is she still as important as the other two main characters with regards to story development? I really hope the Finale will make me look like a fool for even asking that question. But I hate having arrived at a point where it even is a question once can ask legitimately.

VI: Previous acts of plot

This is not the first time the writers have decided to ignore established character traits in order to tell a certain story. I have written before how it made no sense for certain storylines of Season 2 to play out the way they did in Episode 214 and 215 - except in the context of them serving the overarching plot.

Specifically, Ryn not knowing Ben's last name despite living together for weeks and months and suddenly going haywire after hearing it made little sense. And yet it was clear why it had to happen - because the writers wanted to tell a specific story. (A longer argument for what happpened and why can be found in the middle of this post if you do not want to take my word for it.) They wanted to do so because it led to great payoffs for the viewer:

1) We had an awesome discussion between Maddie and Ryn in Episode 214

(Remember how emotionally intelligent Maddie was in that situation? Where did scenes like that go?)

2.) It led to several great scenes between Ben and Ryn and also provided further justification for Ben’s choices in 216.

In retrospect, the plot contrivances of 214 were done by writer's fiat to setup a scenario that would test the relationship of the trio. This created more drama and paved the way for a satisfying payoff at the end of Episode 215/216. In doing so, the writers allowed character inconsistencies and plot contrivances to steer the story towards a predetermined outcome, to the detriment of character logic and past character developments.

And we can see a similar trend developing here. The end goal of the writers seems to have been the rock scene between Ben and Ryn at the end of Episode 308.

And if you assume this to be the end goal in the current plot development...if the goal was to focus on Ben and Ryn...then there needs to be a breakup. Because huge parts of the storyline (stemcells, them going swimming, them making promises to each other etc.) do not work with Maddie in the picture.

But was it necessary to sacrifice parts of her character and have her acting in a manner inconsistent with her established traits in order to do so? (Maybe they had to rush it because of lack of episode time, but then why waste so much time on Robb and Helen’s ghost stories?).

And there is another problem: The success of this plot development will heavily depend on whether it will fit the personal preferences of the viewership. As I said above, while I would have preferred Polymarine I can live with and enjoy Ben/Ryn or Maddie/Robb.

But for die-hard polymarine and Maddie/Ryn shippers, I feel the results might be somewhat different. And this is only made worse by Maddie being unfairly treated by the writers in order to facilitate the overall plot development. I suspect many Maddie fans (regardless of their shipping preference) will have been disheartened about how the writers made Maddie behave this season.

I know I was.

VII: The parallels between Episodes 108 and 308 - and why they worry me

And there is another meta-reason why I am deeply worried about Maddie and her role going forward. And this has to do with the way in which Siren’s previous ten-episode season has been set up. In Season 1, it was Episode 108 that cemented the character development happening in that season. Episodes 109 and 110 served to defeat the big bad of the season and to introduce temporary setbacks that had to be solved at the start of the following season before the characters returned to the dynamics establied in 108.

In short, while Episodes 9 and 10 were exciting, Episode 8 of Season 1 is the pivotal episode of the season. Ryn’s desire to learn and to stay on land, her first steps into human society...all those happened in that episode. There are also strong parallels in the way 108 and 308 treated Ryn’s relationship with Ben, even ending their screentime in the episode with a impactful scene between the two (”Will you sing to me” / “Til death do us part”). Other parallels include both episodes featuring an important event in a human’s life (a wake/a marriage), both episodes involving the whole Bristol Cove community etc.

And like 108, 308 was (IMO) a near-perfect episode in terms of performances, pivotal scenes and dialogue. Just by the sheer number of extras, costumes etc. involved the writers clearly wanted it to be important. And it was important. It greatly drove forward the plot and I personally rate it as one of my favourite episodes of the show on its own for that reason.

But there is one major difference that seperates 108 and 308: Maddie was very much still in the picture (literally) and a plot-driving force in her own right.

And this worries me.

I expect the final two episodes will be about defeating the big bad of the season, as it was with Season 1. Maybe the season will even end the same way as Season 1 - with Ryn being on her own for a bit. Maybe she even goes back to the water for a longer time (or is forced to do so due to circumstances). But I also expect character development in season 4 to largely use 308 as its base.

And now you can see why I am getting concerned here about Maddie’s diminished role. I really hope the writers have not forgotten what a wonderful character they created in her and find better ways to use her in season 4.

There are plenty of options within Siren to give her meaningful screentime again (her spending more time with Xander and Calvin for example would also give more screentime to those two, which I would love to see). But whatever the writers chose to do in the future, I really hope that it does not involve Maddie acting out of character again.

Conclusion:

The way the writers wrote Maddie in Season 3 is not something that I agree with, nor does her diminished role in the central dynamics of the story sit well with me. Did it completely ruin the show for me? No. The mysteries of the sirens, the Pownell family saga, the question of whether Ryn has to permanently return to the sea, her child and the whole Ryn/Ben dynamic kept me entertained - and will do so in the future.

But Maddie being this off-base and not being in the main picture definitely does diminish the show for me - and I think I am not alone in this. When I look at the failed opportunities for her character it saddens me in a major way. Even though Season 3 is still an enjoyable and entertaining season for me, it could have been much more.

#siren #siren freeform #maddie bishop #maddie #ryn #polymarine #character analysis

78 notes · View notes

siren-theories · 6 years ago

Text

youtube

I humbly submit that the car scene is where Siren crosses the line from “decent” to “great”, especially because it is followed by the great scenes at the rescue center.

the best part of Siren episode 1 is when Morning Angel is playing cheerily on the radio as Ryn violently kills a man

#siren freeform

64 notes · View notes

siren-theories · 6 years ago

Text

Content creator spotlight: Meluviel

Because I currently have a bit of writers block when it comes to my next analysis post I have decided to highlight a few amazing individuals who bring content to our Siren fandom. The first one is my favourite video editor, Meluviel.

Best known for.....

...creating awesome character edits.

youtube

There are more best-of vids at Meluviel’s youtube channel featuring Ryn (season 1), Ben, Donna and Jerry. Especially the last one deserves to get more attention.

Where can I find her?

Probably the best place to find her is her youtube channel, but she can also be found on tumblr @meluviel, twitter and instagram.

Why should I watch her stuff?

Because the edits are amazing. Her videos are smooth and she has a particular talent for fitting scenes and cuts to the music. It is obvious that she puts a lot of time and skill into those videos. See for example this Blood and Water edit:

youtube

She can do shipping videos:

youtube

mood videos:

youtube

and videos that might make you cry:

youtube

More videos can be found at her channel.

Does she create vids for other fandoms?

Yes, she has multifandom as well as Harry Potter, Lucifer, Wonder Woman, Tidelands and shadowhunters edits. She is also the creator of my favourite Altered Carbon fanvid (NSFW)

Go check her out, you will not regret it. And if you already knew about her, rewatching her vids is time well spent.

#siren freeform #freeform siren #fanvids #contentcreators

13 notes · View notes

siren-theories · 6 years ago

Note

I would not fully agree with it being telepathy because that would have been something the show would have used multiple times when it made sense for Sirens to do so (aka learning human words/concepts). Donna would have no need to explain to Ryn what happened to her in the lab in Episode 106 if they could just communicate telepathically. I would instead argue that touching foreheads is one of the ways they show intimacy - their equivalency of a hug, maybe more. Cami’s reaction and breaking down in tears is somewhat analogous to a human in that situation getting hugged.

As to the “touch and get attention”, I think the siren touch is just something that naturally gets the human attention. Maybe there are even some pheremones involved, maybe it is the combination of touch and the mermaid looking them in the eyes (the siren song also probably has a visual element like that involved in one of its variants).

I'm watching Siren again and I noticed that when the sirens touch a human, there is this background music that plays. I noticed it recently when Ryn touched Susan's face. Also, her face kinda softens into the touch and responds warmly and truthfully, not sure I'm reading into or not, but I wonder if they have an effect on everyone touch wise.

Nope anon you not reading too much because I see it too. I was just thinking about that too because i wanna rewatch again and plan to make gifs of just that part with Susan. It’s definitely something between their touch and looking into their eyes if you ask me. Song or no song.

#siren freeform #need to think about this more

27 notes · View notes

siren-theories · 6 years ago

Text

The Siren Song

(ICYMI: Here is an index with the previously published analyses. My previous piece was “Repeating the past - Ben and Ryn as modern parallels to Charles Pownall and his mermaid?”)

The Siren Song is probably the most important part of the Sirens’ abilities besides their ability to transform from water into land forms. So let*s take a look at what the song is and what effects it has on humans.

TL, DR.: There is most likely not one Siren Song, but three different versions. These are differentiated by which frequencies in the song are accentuated. They all have different effects on the target of the song and also have an effect on the siren singing it.

A big thank you to @imaginejolls for allowing me to bounce ideas off them.

Common facts about the song

The song can only be sung by female Sirens as confirmed by Levi in Episode 212.

In Episode 211 “Mixed Signals” we get a direct look at what the song consists of, namely hundreds of frequencies and layers which the Sirens can produce with their vocal cords.

SCIENTIST: “One song composed of hundreds of frequencies and layers.” BEN: "This many layered frequencies from one voice. How is that possible?" SCIENTIST: “All different levels, polyphonics, amplitudes. I've never seen anything like it, not even from whales or dolphins.”

In a later scene in the same episode the range of those frequencies is revealed.

SCIENTISTt: Incredible. NICOLE: What? SCIENTIST: Most humans can hear frequencies between 20 hertz and 20.000. Sea creatures, like some dolphins, can hear frequencies of up to 100.000 hertz, while some whales can hear infrasonic sounds as low as seven hertz. The range of these frequencies, they're unlike anything I have ever seen.

The song works by stimulating the brain with the sonic frequencies, but causes Brain damage in humans.

(Damage from Ryn’s song to Maddie and Ben’s brain as seen in Episode 211 “Mixed signals”).

This damage is reversible by exposing the damaged brain to the sound of the echo chamber as shown in Episode 212 “Serenity”.

We see the effect of the frequencies on the human brain when Ben plays test subject for the military in Episode 211 “Mixed Signals”:

(Bens Brain under the effect of the full song. Notice how the whole brain is stimulated.)

By testing several of the layers on Ben and witnessing his reaction to this the military (and we, the audience) learn more about the song. While the song as a whole caused him to relax, some of the layers when played in isolation caused Ben immense stress, causing him to relieve his drowning in Episode 110 and Ryn attacking him in Episode 101.

(The Brain when only aggressive frequencies are played)

Had Ryn not stepped in it is quite possible he might even have suffered a brain hemorrhage right there in the lab.

RYN:: ”Ben is in pain! Stop this!”

I would therefore argue that the effect of the song on the person is likely dependant on what layers of the song are emphasized by the singer, thus explaining the different versions of the song and the different effects on humans that we see in the show.

However, there might also be a visual component to the song.

It is noticeable that every time Ryn sings - no matter what variant - the camera zooms in on her face and focuses especially on her eyes, suggesting there is an almost hypnotic pull associated with the song. Ryn also looks the target directly in the eyes at all times.

Episode 101: “The Mermaid Discovery”:

Episode 108: “Being Human” (note how far she looks up to maintain eye contact with Ben, suggesting this is a required element of the song):

Episode 203: “Natural Order”:

Episode 211: "Mixed Signals”:

Maddie for example clearly reacts to this visual element in Episode 203 “Natural Order” even though she cannot hear the song. Maybe the missing visual element is what makes the recorded version of the song somewhat less stronger than the live version.

Throughout the show three motivations of singing the song are depicted (with different singing techniques and effects). I have classed the different versions of the song according to the motivations of the mermaid singing. - the defensive, the curiosity and the love variant.

The defensive variant of the Siren song

The Defensive variant is the strongest version of the song and the one most detrimental to the human target(s). It is the first song we see in the show.

I would posit that the defensive variant consists of the siren emphatizing the most "harmful" layers of the song.

It is the only version of the Siren Song that has an area affect and can target more than one human. It does not require visual contact between the target and the siren (unlike all other variants).

Donna first demonstrated this when she sang to the North Star crew from inside the hold of said ship in Episode 101 “The Mermaid Discovery”. Even with multiple layers of steel seperating her from Xander&Co the song was strong enough to lure them from the inside of the ship to the deck. She even nearly caused Xander to lift the hold cover and freeing her, an action that was only stopped by the timely arrival of the US military.

(notice their similar body posture, signifying them being under the thrall of the Siren)

Donna later used the defensive song on Chris in Episode 107 “Dead in the water”, using it to lure Chris towards her.

The effects are profound - despite Calvin's pleading, Chris drops his speargun and starts walking towards certain death.

In Episode 211, no longer in control of herself due to stress hormones taking over, Ryn reverts to her basic predator instincts and views Maddie no longer as her mate but as a tasty snack.

(when your lover looks at you and thinks “literally yummy”)

When Maddie points a gun towards her, Ryn starts using the defensive variant against Maddie, rendering her into a cataconic state.

(It is worth noting that Ryns hormone imbalance even caused her pupils to widen. At first I thought this was due to the song but as @imaginejolls pointed out they were like that even in the previous episode.)

The defensive version of the song has the most detrimental effect on humans out of all three versions. As we see by the examples of Chris and Maddie it is strong enough to render a human completely enthralled and defenseless. Both Maddie and Chris drop their weapons and walk towards certain death.

If left untreated, single exposure to the song can be strong enough to destroy a Human's brain to the point that the memories are affected.

Chris for example was exposed to the full defensive song only once. When first we see him in Episode 207 after an abscence of about a month he is a human wreck, barely coherent and all he can think about is the song. After another month or so (don't @ me on this, the timeline in the later half of Siren Season 2 is confusing and weird as @imaginejolls covered in their post) the situation has gotten so bad that he does not even remember his friends in Episode 214 “The Last Mermaid”.

Chris’ situation has by that time deteriorated to the point that his brain is almost completely covered with lesions.

KYLE: "His EEG showed disturbing changes from that song. It was devouring his frontal cortex."

Maddie does not suffer quite the same effects in Episode 211. However, she - unlike Chris - immediately manifests symptoms. Considering that Chris acted normally at least for one or two days after exposure and Maddie immediately saw visions and lost impulse control. This leaves us with three possible explanations for this difference:

1) Maddie experienced an immediate effect because she had already heard a recording of the "love" version of the song 2) Ryn is a stronger singer than Donna. Which might be the case considering that Ryn is stronger than the other sirens in other physical aspects on the show as well,, most notably being the fastest (Episode 103) and strongest of the Sirens (Episode 109 and 203). 3) The strength of the song might vary according to how much stress the Siren is under. As Ryn was probably "maxed out" on stress hormones and adrenalin her song might have become stronger as well

Without more information it is impossible to figure out which one of the above explanations is true, it might even be a combination of those. Based on the arguments below however I would lean towards explanation C.

Maddie’s symptoms - visions and immediate lack of impulse control - were stronger than Ben’s in Episode 109 “Street fight” and Episode 110 “Aftermath”. Ben touched Ryn a lot but it did not develop into something sexual whereas Maddie would have kissed Xander had he not stopped her and kisses both Ryn and Ben later on. It took two full days for Ben to see visions when awake (unlike Maddie who experienced visions the day after). Maddie also experienced two different visions immediately after each other with only a few minutes between them, the second resulting in quite probably the most memorable dinner scene in a TV show from recent memory.

youtube

This again speaks to the defensive variant being the strongest and most harmful one.

The defensive version also impacts the Siren singing it, however besides reducing the effect of stress hormones (as with Ryn in episode 211) we do not know of any other effects.

So, to recap:

- the defensive version has an area effect and can be sung without visual contact with the target - its effect can reach the target even through multiple layers of steel - single exposure can destroy a brain within 2 months if left untreated - the effects on the victim seems double that of the love version in intensity

The curiosity variant of the song

On the other end of the spectrum is the curiosity version, which is the lleast impactful on the human.

RYN: "The first time I sang, I am curious about you. It brings us close" BEN: "It did"

(dialogue from Episode 110: Aftermath)

Curiosity is maybe the weakest category with only one observed instance. Yet I would argue that the possibility exists that the Siren can change the intensity of the song according to the motivation. And this definitely seems a version that has almost zero impact on the human target.

Ben first meets Ryn when she steps in front of his car. His behaviour here is important to note for it establishes a baseline for later comparisons. In this instance he behaves how any decent person would behave when a vulnerable, naked and scared person collapses in front of them.

youtube

(The scene starts at 00:50, here is a timestap link for you. )

When Ben first meets Ryn he immediately covers her up without even giving her naked body a once-over. He then calls a doctor, clothes her and when she wakes up he gives her plenty of personal space. She then sings to him.

youtube

His behaviour after Ryn sings to him and they meet again mirrors his earlier decent behaviour. Ryn, who had earlier been the victim of an attempted rape, is at this point naturally distrustful of human males who tower over her. She hisses at him in multiple short, panicked breaths. Ben immediately adopts a non-threatening pose, lowering himself so that Ryn has the height advantage. He does not touch Ryn without her permission.

“It’s okay...I’m not gonna hurt you. My name is Ben.”

Likewise his behaviour in the following episodes is unaffected, especially when Ryn moves to kiss him in 103 and he declines said kiss despite there being a clear attraction.

All of this speaks to somebody who is in full control of his actions and whose judgement is unaffected. The only thing out of the ordinary would be his night-time trips on the water between Episode 104 and 105 and not being able to sleep for a few nights.

The song does create some sort of addiction - albeit one that a human can control rather easily. Ben was fine for over a month and a half until the unique stress situation of Sean’s death, Decker messing with his mother and him having insulted Ryn arises, which causes him to request Ryn to sing to him again.

Therefore I would argue that given the overall direct lack of effect on Ben I would classify this as the least harmful and least impactful version of the song.

To recap:

- the curiosity version does not change the behaviour of the target - it causes a slight addiction but overall is the least impactful variant of the Siren Song.

The Love variant of the Song

The love version is different from the defensive version in that it does not render the target cataconic but causes strong feelings in the target which mainly manifest in an intense need to protect the Siren. It is by far the variant which we know the most about.

1. The Love variant needs direct visual contact and close proximity

One requirement for its usage is that unlike the defensive variant it needs direct visual contact and close proximity as confirmed by Ryn in Episode 203 “Natural Order” when our trio runs into a slight problem recording Ryn’s song.

RYN: “Ben will be safe when I sing?" BEN: "Uh, we're not gonna be in here. We're gonna set it to record, and then we're gonna leave the room. RYN: If you leave, who do I sing to? MADDIE: The Machine. It captures sound. RYN: Song only comes when I sing to a human.

This also confirms there are different versions of the song - because otherwise Ryn could start singing despite them being in another room (as Donna did with the North Star Crew in Episode 101 “The Mermaid Discovery”)

[Speculation: This version might also need some sort of existing feeling to function (with Decker it was his scientific curiosity and sympathy for the suffering Donna, with Ben it was his developing feelings for Ryn).]

This version is used multiple times in the show:

Ryn used this variant on Ben in Episode 108 after he requested that she sing to him. It is this instance which cause the most lasting damage and which will be the focus of the analysis from here on.

Also, recordings of the song are used by Decker throughout Season 1, Ben in Episode 204 “Oil and Water”, Ben in the time period between 208 “Leverage” and 209 “No North Star”, Maddie and Ben in 209, by the military on Ben in 211 “Mixed Signals” and again by Ben in 214 “The last mermaid”.

Donna used this variant on Decker to get him to stop experiments on her and thus allow her to recover enough of her strength to survive.

[Sidenote: The version Donna used on Decker could not have been the defensive version as Decker did not become entranced and did not adopt the typical body posture that Maddie, Xander, Chris etc. did. Decker also was the only one affected.]

What are its effects on humans and how does it differ from the other two versions already covered in this article?

2. The love variant causes addiction in Humans

This can be as strong as driving somebody to suicide in case the human loses permanent access to the song. Decker was the poster child for this. Likewise, Ben struggles with addiction to this version of the song and unlike his previous exposure (with the milder curiosity version) he cannot control it even without extenuating circumstances in Episode 203/204.

3. The love variant affects how humans feel about the Siren

The song affects the humans feelings, but it cannot cause genuine love between Human and Siren as Ryn explains multiple times.

A snake and our favourite mermaid discussing the effect of the song on the relationship in Episode 211: “Mixed Signals” :

Nicole: Ben and Maddie are very close to you. Very protective of you. Does your song have anything to do with that? Ryn: Not just song. With Ben and Maddie, it is more. Nicole: More? Ryn: Yes. Ryn loves Ben and Maddie. Ryn makes love with Ben and Maddie.

This of course echoes earlier conversations Ryn had with Ben, for example in Episode 202 “The Wolf At The Door” and 204 “Oil and Water”.

BEN: It’s not just the song. It’s more. RYN: “Yes. More.”

Which to be fair makes sense - after all in real life drugs exist that can cause other people to behave a certain way but those are not genuine, lasting feelings as Maddie and Ben develop for Ryn (and vice versa).

However, while the song apparently cannot create lasting feelings of love it can have several other effects on the human target. Let us review those effects on the human by looking at its effects on a specific person, namely Ben.

4. The love variant of the song causes lowered impulse control and lowers the inhibitions of the target

In Episode 108 Ryn asks Ben to sing to him.

BEN: “Will you sing to me? Again?”

The effects are immediate. In Episode 109 Ben has nightmares about Ryn having sex with him, then attacking him and drowning him.

(Whelp, that dream escalated quickly.)

[A caveat: It is not exactly clear whether this is a normal nightmare due to his past experiences and conflicting feelings about Ryn. I would imagine falling in love with someone who tried to literally eat you would cause some weird nightmares in any case. But I would classify it as another effect of the song based on how he acts the rest of the episode.]

We see an immediate effect the next morning when Ben is completely fixated on Ryn. And what we can see over the course of Episode 109 are definitely changes in behaviour.

The first one are lowered inhibitions and lowered impulse control as Ben constantly touches Ryn. Ben previously did not mind Ryn touching him and he definitely reacted to that kiss in Episode 106 but in all those cases Ryn was the one initiating contact. Here, over the whole episode Ben constantly seeks to be close to Ryn, touching her as often as he can.

The touching is light - nothing sexual, just touching her back or holding hands. However this is definitely not normal behaviour for Ben.Donna immediately notices this and tries to step in to protect her little sister, only to be told by Ryn that she does not mind (and might even want the touch).

RYN: "It's okay. Ben is love." DONNA: "Love?" RYN: "Yes.

Honestly I am not sure how to classify the physical touch here. I would argue that it is more troubling for Sirens than it is for Humans to have people in their personal space (cf, Ryn hissing at and later attacking Helen in Episode 102 just for coming near her). But while it might only be slight touching it definitely is a departure from how Ben normally acted around Ryn before this episode. I don’t think he would have enough self-control to resist a kiss from her in this state as he previously did in Episode 103.

Even more troubling than the touching however is way the song changes Ben Judgement.

5. The love variant of the song alters the judgement of the human target, creating an intense need to protect the siren

It is hard to describe but it seems as if the song gradually rearranges his priorities, resulting in an intense need to protect Ryn. See for example the following discussion in Episode 109 “Street Fight”:

BEN: "They're after Ryn, Maddie. And Donna, too. They want to kill them. MADDIE: "Maybe you should take them somewhere?" BEN: "Where?" MADDIE: "I don't know. Somewhere out of here." BEN: "And if we get them away, what then? Those two are still here. We let them murder people, destroy the town? These two are dangerous. They're the ones who killed Sean. We need to keep Ryn safe. Whatever it takes. MADDIE: I'm here with my dad, I am gonna talk to him. Get the police involved. That's what makes sense here. You guys just wait. Nobody's hurting anyone".

To be fair to Ben, none of what he says is illogical or even a bad idea. He clearly wants to protect the town and other humans too. However it is the "Whatever it takes" part that signals his impaired judgement. Yet Ben still tries to follow Maddie's advice and tries to calm Ryn down when she gets tired of waiting, only to be interrupted by Xander. The following conversation reveales how much his judgement has shifted by that point:

XANDER : “Aw come on man. All I'm asking is to go after the thing that killed my dad. You could at least pretend to give a damn. “ BEN : “Of course I give--"

It is at this point when Ryn interrupts.

RYN: Maybe this is what we need to do. What Xander says. Maybe this is the only way. DONNA: Yes BEN: Ryn, you sure about this? RYN: *to Xander* We will help you find him. XANDER You down with this? BEN: Yeah.

Ben previously would have trusted Maddie's judgement more than Ryn. He would not agree to a plan that involves violence as the only tool, especially not with Xander who cannot think straight at this point. Remember this is the same person that rejects a life in luxury to save unintelligent sea life - and suddenly he is ok with killing two Sirens?

Again, to be fair as the events showed Ryn’s plan was sound as she was able to defeat Katrina. But the Ben before 109 would not have just gone along with Ryn and certainly would not have agreed to let Xander tag along. At the very least he would have informed Maddie about it.

Ben's changed priorities due to the song are even more evident wen talking to Maddie later on. Here Ben flat out accuses Maddie to not caring about Ryn because Maddie wants to call in more cops to help with the Mermaids. It is quite clear that the only thing on Bens mind at that point is to protect Ryn, something Maddie accurately calls out as his judgement being totally screwed up.

(I have to confess that I kinda wanted Maddie to slap him at that point.)

BEN: "If we call the cops now there's no way we will ever contain that thing" MADDIE: "It's already out of control. We have no choice." BEN: "Okay, and what happens if the cops find Ryn? What happens then? Look we can solve this on our own. We can protect her." MADDIE: "No, we can't. It's too late. What is going on with you? Your judgement is totally screwed up." BEN: "Don't you care about her?" MADDIE: "Of course I do. Of course I do. You're the one putting her in danger, going out with Xander like some crazed vigilante. You're acting insane." BEN: "*grabs shotgun* "Yeah." MADDIE: "Hey. Where the hell are you going?" BEN: "To help Ryn."

So what we see here is a gradual shift in priorities until it arrives at the point when he completely prioritizes Ryn over his girlfriend Maddie and where nothing else matters except protecting Ryn.

6. The love variant of the song can cause dangerous (and sometimes helpful) visions

Ben’s condition deteriorates in Episode 110 “Aftermath” to the point where he has a vision of Ryn being in danger. He dives into the water and would have drowned himself if Ryn had not arrived in time to save him.

(probably the closest to the original siren song mythology we got to in the show - thankfully Ryn did no longer see him as a foud source in her water form though)

BEN: “What were you doing down there?” RYN: “I came to help you” BEN: “No, before that. I-I heard your voice. That's why I went down there. You were there, right?” RYN: “No.“ BEN: “No, I - I heard you. I know I heard you. You were there.” RYN: “Ben, I wasn't there.” BEN: “What does this mean?” RYN: “I didn't know my song could do this.”

In episode 201, which takes place three days after 110, Ben loses his footing after hearing Ryn's voice in his head when rock climbing.

In episode 203 the Song appears in his head again when Ryn is in mortal danger as she fights Katrina for leadership of the merpack.

This causes Ben to launch another futile attempt to protect Ryn.

In Episode 214 “The Last Mermaid” Ben listens to a recording of the song again as the sudden relevation of him being a Pownall causes Ryn to almost break up with him. While Ben is very protective of Ryn throughout the episode it is unclear if it is being caused by his normal feelings for her or by the song (I am leaning towards the former).

However, the intense vision he experienced during the night was definitely not caused by his normal feelings for Ryn.

The horror vision he experiences shows a dark version of him injuring Ryn with a harpoon, causing Ben to try to attack the dark version of him and then being extremely distraught at the sight of an injured vision-Ryn.

However the vision in itself has more positive than negative effects on Ben - and especially on his relationship with Ryn. He realizes he loves even her nonhuman traits and even in nonhuman water form. As soon as he and Ryn reconcile, he suffers from no more visions and experiences no changes in his behaviour.

However there are multiple, long stretches of time where Ben suffers no visions at all and no impact from the song manifests in his behaviour. In episode 202 he is not affected by the song at all, nor is he affected in any other episodes of Season 2 besides episodes 203 and episodes 214.

Curiously this even includes episodes where he and Maddie are exposed to the song multiple times. In Episode 204 Ben hears a recording of the song with no effects.

In episode 209 Ben and Maddie both listen to Ryn's song yet it does not modify their behaviour. If anything it restores them to their normal behaviour as listening to the song lessens the effect of them missing Ryn.

In Episode 211 Ben listens to the whole song and then is bombarded sveral times with the aggressive layers of the song. The attack on his brain is so bad that he would have likely taken permanent damage had Ryn not stepped in.

(Note that this is the only time a human is shown in pain when listening to any variant of the song. This signifies just how intense the bombardement of his brain is.)

The question immediately arises - why does the song cause such different effects at different times? Wy does Ben experience effects from a recording of the song in Episode 214 but suffers no effect in episodes 204, 209 and 211 - and suffers no effect after being bombarded with the aggressive layers? Why does the song cause Ben to try to protect Ryn in 203 but he has no issue with Ryn risking her life in 208?

Ben can get blasted by the song multiple times in a row - even the harmful layers of the song - in Episode 211 and nothing happens to him. No vision, no change in behaviour, nothing. If the scenes did not show his exposure to the song you would believe nothing had happened at all by his behaviour in this episode.

Was Ben maybe building up a tolerance to the song and getting the cure in 212 removed that tolerance buildup? That is one possible explanation for the experience in 214 but not a very convincing one for the different reactions before - especially not why Maddie did not suffer visions in 209 even though she had no such tolerance at all.

7. The love variant of the song might have a feedback loop

The other possible explanation is that the effects of the song vary according to the stress levels the human is under at that point. Yet subscribing to that theory would effectively mean that Ben would be under less stress when Maddie is in danger of permanent brain damage (as in 211) than when Ryn is in danger. This argument leads down a very dark path for what it implies in terms of the relationship between Ben, Ryn and Maddie, one that I am not prepared to follow as I see no basis for assuming that Ben cares much less about Maddie than about Ryn.

The theory I would favour instead would be a feedback loop, aka the need to protect or to help the siren causing the human brain to go haywire whenever the human notices the Siren is disstressed or in danger.

Which might explain why Ben suffers a vision in 110 (with Ryn being deeply affected by Donna's death) and in 203 when Ryn herself is in mortal danger as she fights with Katrina (note how the vision happens only after Katrina seems to gain the upper hand).

In contrast Ben might suffer no vision in 209 and 211 (not even from the aggressive layers) because he can see that Ryn is safe and well.

Note how in 211 he spends the entire episode by her side and keeps constant visual contact with her. However in 214 Ryn is clearly in disstress over the mating situation and the Pownall situation, maybe the most stress we ever see her under in the entire show. Ben fears losing her while Ryn tells him that she fears him going bad like his ancestor - the exact situation the vision depicts.

This would also explain why in Episode 109 Ben initially still follows Maddie's advice and only gets more and more irrational as Ryn starts getting more and more stressed out by waiting, something Ryn voices her displeasure at and something that Ben clearly notices as he tries to calm her.

And a feedback loop of that sort would also neatly explain why - despite still exposing himself to the recording of the song - Ben’s visions disappear after Ryn is safe and/or in a relationship with him and Maddie (Episodes 208-214 and then again 215-216). It also explains wihy he has no visions in Episode 202 when Ryn is around him all the time and why the visions only reappear in 203 (when Ryn is in actual danger) or in 201 (when Ryn and he have split up).

[Speculation: If we assume that the love variant evolved due to Siren-human relationships then - if we assume a feedback loop - we would also have an evolutionary reason for the song to exist in the first place. ]

I fully admit that this is a theory that is only supported by observation and not direct evidence. However it is the only satisfying theory I can think of right now that explains the different reactions to exposure of the song.

8. Singing the love variant is not something a Siren does lightly

Unlike the defensive variant which is regularly used in fights against humans, it is quite clear that the love version is not sung lightly by the Siren. Part of that might be some residual cultural barrier, maybe a holdover from the times the sirens and humans lived on land.

We hear the motivation for a Siren singing the love variant expressed clearly by Ryn in Episode 110, when Aldon Decker tries to convince Donna to sing to him again.

DECKER: "You sang a song to me before. Could you do it again? Your voice is so beautiful." RYN: *looks shocked* DONNA: *twists away from decker* HELEN: "You need to leave!" DECKER: "I just need to hear it once." RYN: “She sang to you to escape from you, not because she loves you." DECKER: "But -" RYN: "She will not do it again."

I really wish I had managed to find a video capture of this scene so I could show you just how shocked Ryn is at hearing this.

Donna meanwhile twists her whole body as far away from Decker as possible despite being in considerate pain.

Donna's reaction to Decker annnouncing the fact and Ryns immediate protectiveness suggests that what Donna did was out of the ordinary. I for one could not help but notice the reaction was similar to movie portrayals of victims of rape or forced prostitution. Take note that Donna initially kept that she sang to Decker from Ryn (she never mentions it in 106 when discussing what Decker did to her) and Ryn is absolutely crestfallen when she hears Decker mentioning this.

It might very well be that singing this love version of the song is one of the most intimate things a Siren can do with a human, one that is ordinarily reserved for people they love. Which again would make sense for the time Siren and human tribes lived together on land as limiting the usage there would serve to protect both humans and sirens.

9. The love variant creates an addiction in the Siren singing it

One simple reason for this song having this special status is the effect it has on the Siren singing it. Much as in the human hearing the song, singing the song also creates an addiction on part of the Siren singing it.

Ryn describes this in episode 203 “Natural Oder”:

MADDIE: "What does it feel like when you sing?" RYN: "Makes me feel good. After I sing to Ben..." MADDIE: "What is it?" RYN: “I need it. I want to sing.”

This is a direct parallel to Ben's explanation how he felt when Ryn sang to him. From Episode 106: "Showdown":

MADDIE: "What did it feel like?" BEN: "Honestly, like a drug. I can't explain it. It's like something I need".

Ryn echoes this in Episode 204 “Oil and Water” when she tells Ben about this while they dance with each other and discuss their relationship.

BEN: You said that, uh, that you have dreams about me. I've had dreams about you too. RYN: Maybe something Ben must know. BEN: What? RYN: You say when I sing my song, you like how it feels. BEN: Yeah. RYN: When I sing to you, I like it, too.

[Sidenote: Geez Ryn cannot keep a secret when it comes to Ben and Maddie. Here she goes telling Ben despite promising just two or three days before that she would keep it a secret. I present to you Ryn Fisher, Queen of the Sirens, Slayer of Big Oil, Keeper of Secrets. I get why she told him as they needed to address it before moving onto the next stage of their relationship but still, nice going there Ryn.]

Therefore, not only does the Human become addicted to the Song, the Siren also becomes addicted singing to that Human. .

[Wild speculation: It might also be that the song originally worked as a link to guarantee the stability of a relationship between humans and sirens in order to protect the Siren. Given the difficulties a relationship between humans and sirens brings with it there needs to be absolute commitment to the relationship for both parties. Which might be the evolutionary reason for the song. Biologically evolution has attached pleasure to things that are necessary for a relationship (like for example sex) and this might be the case here too.]

In closing, I would summarize the capabilities and features of the Love Variant thusly:

- Unlike the defense variant the love variant needs direct visual contact and close proximity to the target. - The love variant creates pleasant sensations for the human target and causes an addiction - It affects how humans feel about the Sirens but cannot create genuine feelings - The song causes lowered impulse control and lowes the inhibitions of the target - It alters the judgement of the human target, creating an intense need to protect the siren - The love variant of the song can cause dangerous (and sometimes helpful) visions - It might have a feedback loop, causing the human to get more visions and act more erratic according to the level of stress and danger the Siren herself experiences. However as long as the human sees the Siren is safe and in no danger the effects are minimal to non-existent. - Singing the love variant of the song is not something a siren does lightly. It is usually done only for people the siren cares deeply about. - The song creates an addiction to sing for the Siren - The Siren experiences pleasant sensations when singing the song - It might originally have been used to guarantee the success of the relationship between Siren and human.

Thank you for reading. As always, feel free to disagree or offer additional info in the comments.

#siren freeform #freeform siren #ryn #polymarine #siren song #analysis #long post

71 notes · View notes

siren-theories · 6 years ago

Text

#excellent arguments #not my own work #timeline #siren #siren freeform #analysis #maybe I will revisit this in the future but I think this is probably the best timeline there can be at this moment

Siren timeline

Season 1: spans over 2 months

Episode 1 - Maddie says “it’s been 8 months since we heard from Susan”

Eps 101 through 104 happen over the span of 2 weeks tops, I would say

Episode 5 - ONE MONTH TIME JUMP

Episode 7 - Sean McClure dies and is buried at sea

Episode 8 - Sean’s wake, one week after his death

Episode 10 - Susan calls Maddie

Season 2: starts 2 days after ep 110 (this makes some of the dialogue in ep 201 fall flat)

Episode 1 - there’s the whole “24 hours earlier” rewind so it does start 2 days after ep 110 but most of the episode happens 3 days after 110

- Maddie picks Susan up and when she speaks to Xander, she says “[Susan] called 3 days ago and I just picked her up this morning”

- Maddie says Susan’s been gone for 10 months (confirms the length of s1); Maddie has been working at the center for ~9 months

Episode 7 - the North Star crew gets interrogated by the Feds and is bailed out by the military -> military gets hold of Chris

i would estimate that 2 weeks pass between eps 201 and 208. ( @siren-theories kept much more detailed notes and counted days, the absolute madman. his notes count 16 days from 201 to 208)

Episode 9 - TWO WEEKS TIME JUMP

Episode 10 - Elaine gets treated with Ryn’s stemcells

Episode 12 - trio goes underwater and procures the recording from the echo chamber

- Ted Pownall finds letters from his grandmother to Helen’s mother

Episode 13 - raises too many fucking questions about the passage of time. my notes say “starts the morning after ep 212″, but then there’s the dialogue from 215 that makes no sense and implies that there has been at least 2-week time jump between 212 and 213.

Episode 14 - Ted mentions he found the letters (from 212) “a few days ago” before handing them over to Helen

Episode 15 - Commander Kyle McDouchebag says that “they’ve been exposing Chris to the recording from the echo chamber over these past few weeks” which is inconsistent with the actual passage of time between the episodes. i guess that when you’re writing a tv show, your plate is quite full and you can’t really avoid these little inconsistencies

- Elaine, upon regaining feeling in her thighs, says “it’s been weeks since the treatment” (in 210). however, siren-theories and i both think that it’s been 2 weeks at most since 210 and we’ve been getting worked up all week over these “few weeks” the dialogue keeps mentioning and that never happened :D

Roughly, Season 2 also covers 2 months of time

TLDR: the first two seasons of Siren happen over the course of 4 months, give or take a week.

52 notes · View notes

siren-theories · 6 years ago

Text

Repeating the past - Ben and Ryn as modern parallels to Charles Pownall and his mermaid?

When I wrote my previous post about the Pownall Massacre I noticed just how many parallels between the massacre and our trio exist, especially for the characters of Ben and Ryn. In fact, I saw so many parallels that I started writing the following as the last part of my analysis. But I soon realized that this was too large and merited an article of its own.

If you are unfamiliar with the story of the Pownall Massacre feel free to read my previous article on it (or alternatively you can just accept my conclusions at face value).

Gifs in this post are either taken from the official freeform site, Crayonboxhearts, koortega or sirensource.

Due to the characters involved in the Charles Pownall story this analysis has to mainly focus on Ben and Ryn. I apologize beforehand if it seems as if I am ignoring Maddie. You will understand why once you get to the last part of this article.

Hypothesis: The story of Charles H. Pownall and his mermaid might be repeating itself in the form of Ben and Ryn (and to a certain extent Maddie).

(Polymarine fans upon reading the previous sentence)

The looming threat of Ben turning into his ancestor and Ryn into the original mermaid is always present in the show and adds drama and spice to their relationship. A huge part of what makes their relationship worth watching is experiencing how they overcome the past - or not - and how they make different choices than their respective families / societies. This piece will examine how the show creates parallels and in which way they differ from the original characters.

Part I: The Parallels

There are multiple obvious parallels between the story of Charles and his mermaid and our trio, so many in fact that this is very unlikely to be coincidental.

1. Charles Pownall was the first of the Bristol Cove community to meet a mermaid and became entranced with her and her song

(ELAINE: “I*m curious, how did you and Ben become friends? RYN: Ben almost hit me with car.”)

Likewise, Ben is the first person in close to 150 years to meet a mermaid and he too becomes entranced with her song in Episode 101: “The Mermaid Discovery”.

2. Both Charles and Ben were already in a committed relationship when they met the mermaid.

Charles was married to an unnamed woman (presumably Bens great-great-great-grandmother), Ben was dating Maddie for several months until Ryn arrived on the scene.

(Player 3 has entered the game)

As with Charles, the new presence complicates the existing relationship, to the point that Ben and Maddie break up for a short while in Episode 110 when he (under the influence of the song) consistently put his need to protect Ryn over communicating with Maddie.

3. Charles and the mermaid lived together on land.

(”Ryn choose[...] I stay on land with Ben and Maddie”)

Ryn too lives with Ben and Maddie on land, As of 209, she wants to stay on land permanently even though it might put her in danger.

4. Charles Pownall suffered from alleged mental illness due to the song.

Likewise, Ben and Maddie experience visions and exhibit poor impulse control after being exposed to it. This ranges from visions of Ryn being in danger to a unique way of telling your prospective inlaws about the nature of your relationship with their son and the “friend from Finland”.

5. Charles tried alcohol to cope with the effects of the song.

(Episode 209 “No North Star” and Episode 211 “Mixed Signals”)

Maddie and Ben start drinking alcohol whenever missing Ryn or daydrinking when under the effect of the song.

6. Charles started to act abnormally when his mermaid was gone.

Ben and Maddie also act abnormally whenever Ryn might have left them for good. Ben takes risky trips to sea at night in Episode 105 "Curse of the Starving Class" , both Maddie and Ben self-medicate with the song in Episode 209 "No North Star".

7. As with Charles the song causes brain damage in Ben and Maddie.

(“My song do this? Make Heads go dark?” - from Episode 211: “Mixed Signals” )

8. It is likely that Charles’ mermaid was the one initiating the sexual part of the relationship.

"I have a dream. About Ben.[...]Maddie says it is because I want you."

While Ben and Ryn discussed having feelings for each other before, it is Ryn who pursues him in 204 “Oil and Water”.

Ryn is the first to kiss both Maddie and Ben (mimicking human behaviour in episodes 105 and 106 with first true kisses happening in episode 204). It is Ryn who first states the wish to have sexual relations with the other two.

All subsequent sexual encounters we see depicted on the show happen with Ryn being the one initiating them.

(Episode 208)

(Episode 209)

(Episode 210)

(Episode 213)

9. According to other humans the mermaid was a woman of ill repute, even slandered as a tavern prostitute after her disappearance.

Likewise, Ryn is seen as a drug addict, murder suspect and person-who-holds-wild-orgies-at-the-cabin-with-Ben by elements of the police force. The look on Deputy Marissa Staub's face when Ryn appears besides Ben at the Cabin in Episode 203 “Natural Order” speaks volumes.

(Tfw you discover the local prince is way too intimate with the local druggie, offending conservative sensibilities everywhere. Oh the humanity.)

Marissa also likely views Ryn as a home-wrecker (considering she knows Maddie is dating Ben and is close to Dale), much the same way other humans would have viewed Charles mermaid.

10. Charles and the Mermaid had a baby

One thing missing at this point in the show is the presence of a hybrid baby but that might (and I think eventually will) change in the following seasons. There were multiple scenes in Episode 213 where both Ben and Ryn clearly exhibited signs of wanting to have children with each other and one scene in particular where they both had to force themselves not to do so within that episode.

[Sidenote: The acting in Episodes 213-216 was on point.]

Wwhether there will be a baby in the relationship due to Ryn getting her full-blood baby back (although I think it more likely that one - if it survives - will end up with the other sirens in the sea) or a hypothetical future hybrid baby she might have with Ben (something I personally thnk will be the direction the show will eventually take in the penultimate, maybe ultimate season) the massive anvil sized hints the writers dropped in 213 are too huge to ignore.

[Sidenote: Would Ben and Ryn need IVF to conceive? Probably not. As the tests showed in Episode 213 "The Outpost" there was nothing wrong with Ryn. I believe the problem with getting pregnant was firmly on the male side as infertility in apex predators (and humans) is most often a male problem and the procedure they used is typically used to fix low sperm count in male humans. More on that maybe in a later article.]

11. There is persistent symbolism associated with Charles Pownall, Ben and Ryn in Season 1

In Episode 109 “Street Fight” the most tragic event of Season 1 (Donna getting fatally wounded) happens right near the statue of Ben's Ancestor, with the camera panning over to the statue multiple times to make sure the audience gets the hint.

It also featured a storyline of Ben acting increasingly irrationally (albeit in a very mild manner compared to Charles) while trying to protect Ryn from Katrina.

Conclusion:

So there you have it. The Siren trio is just a retelling of the Charles Pownall story adapted for modern times, destined for the same tragic ending. After all, the parallels are there. Charles = Ben, his mermaid = Ryn.

(Polymarine representatives gather near the author’s house to register their difference of opinion, 2019, decolorized)

Maybe not.

Or rather, this is not the same story and the show tells us that they are not reliving the past.

B) Differences

Whereas the story of Charles Pownall was that of a tragedy and eventual separation, the story of our trio is not. In fact, what the writers are going for seems to be the kind of story that shows that people in similar situations might act in a different manner than their ancestors and thus that similar situations might have different, better outcomes.

Let us take a look at the ways the show differentiates the trio from the Pownall story and also the ways the show outright tells us that this is not the same story.

1. Ryn and Ben’s motivations are different than those of their ancestors

Unlike the mermaid which helped Charles find material wealth, Ryn's initial motive is to find her sister, then stop the overfishing, then safeguard her pack, then save her species from extinction. This of course is accompanied by the motive of Ryn to stay with Ben and Maddie, a motive which might even have taken priority if Ryn leaving her pack to stay on land permanently in Episode 209 is any indication.

The initial motive on the actions of Charles were profit (and maybe fame), which is definitely not the case with Ben who seems to not care much about material wealth as evidenced by Episode 108 where he declines a new car.

ELAINE: "Your car is disgusting." BEN: "I like my car" ELAINE: "We could buy you a new one, you know. One of those electrics....good for the environment."

Ben could easily become famous and have a huge career boost by "discovering" Ryn and publishing his findings but he does not. Instead his main motive seems to protect both humans and Sirens from harming each other - something that Ryn comes to eventually share as well.

2. The characters act as a bridge between the cultures, not as dividers

The show sometimes attaches imaginery to fit that purpose, as in Episode 203 “Oil and Water”.

(Let's just look each other in the eyes for 30 seconds while the merpack safely sleeps between us and hope that the viewers are not too distracted by the sexual tension to not notice the symbolism)

The writers further bring up the idea of characters (specifically Ryn) acting as a bridge between the cultures in Epsiode 206.

RYN: “Shapeshifter like me” DALE: Yes. And in those stories, the ones like you often represent the idea of two worlds coming together. [...] But maybe that is your calling, to lead my kind and your kind to a peaceful existence in this new world.”

In 208 Ben reveals his hope that eventually the two species can live together (again) in harmony (something that Ryn, Maddie and Ben already practice on a smaller scale).

3. When facing a choice between their respective societies/families and their relationship the trio consistently chooses the relationship

After becoming Alpha in Episode 109 "Street fight" Ryn still choses to leave her pack behind to stay on land.

In 207 Ryn decides to volunteer as a military test subject in order to get Ben out of jail.

This was a very risky choice - she had no reason to trust the military, no reason to believe they would ever let her go and she also risked her entire pack's welfare by placing herself in the hands of the military. Yet she still did it for Ben.

In episode 208 Ryn leaves her pack to spend the night with Ben and Maddie and in episode 209 she reveals she permanently wants to stay with them no matter the costs or risks attached, even though it might expose her to capture by the military and thus risk her colony. The vehemence with which she defends her choice is telling.

RYN:"Ryn hurt inside. Need Ben and Maddie" BEN: "We need you too. There is a woman looking for you". MADDIE: "She's with the military. RYN: "Yes. I help her." BEN: "Why?" RYN: "She get Ben out of cage." MADDIE: "You agreed to work with her to get Ben out of jail?" RYN: "Yes." BEN: You shouldn't have done that" RYN: "Ben is love" BEN: "Look you shouldn't have put yourself in danger for me." MADDIE: "We think it's better for you to go back to the water. Just for a while."

At this suggestion, Ryn gets visibly angry.

RYN: "Ryn choose...Military was bad to sister, but good to Ryn." MADDIE: "For now. But we don't know what they want to do to you." RYN: "I stay with Ben and Maddie."

Ben likewise rejects his family business and refuses to follow in the footsteps of his ancestors. When presented with a "dark" vision of himself in Episode 214 he rejects it with horror. He consistently lies to his family to keep Ryn safe and to help her. Most importantly at the end of Episode 215 “Sacrifice” he puts Ryn’s safety above the health of his own mother, who might very well die because of this choice.

Kyle, slimeball extraordinaire and commander of the military facility had previously told Ben that his mother would need another injection of Ryn's stem cells soon in order to continue healing, leading to the following conversation:

MADDIE: “As soon as he finds out what we did, that'll be the end of our relationship with him.” BEN: “Yeah. This is what matters right now. For Ryn and her species. All the rest we'll just have to figure out.”

Maddie likewise choses to protect Ryn and breaks a solemn vow to her father to do so in Episode 107 “Dead in the water” . While maybe not on the same level of the above-mentioned sacrifices made by Ryn and Ben there is not a single reason to doubt that she too would choose her two mates over anybody else.

4. The human families of the trio are not openly hostile to them being together with Ryn

Charles Pownall's family was hostile to the mermaid with the Hawkins being permanently ostracized by the Pownells.

The human families reaction to the relationship between Ben, Ryn and Maddie are different from that. Maddie's mother, Susan, is concerned - but not about the nature of the relationship, instead she is concerned about Maddie getting hurt. We do not know what Dale thinks about the relationship or if he even knows about it though I find it hard to believe Maddie would keep it from him. Thus I would argue he at least tolerates it).

Ben's father seems completely unfazed by his son being in a polyamorous relationship. If anything he seems more amused by the display Maddie made when she announced that she, Ryn and Ben were in such a relationship instead of the fact itself.

HELEN: "That was quite the show" TED *laughs* : "That's one way to put it. I just hope those three figure it out, whatever it is."

Elaine was shocked but that might have been more due to the nature of the announcement - she certainly did not have any problems with Ryn kissing Ben in Episode 209 despite knowing that Ben was with Maddie.

There are a few caveats to the above. Nobody except Dale knows Ryn’s true nature. Ted's reaction might very well be different and even hostile in the future considering he is on the verge of finding out about Ryn. Of course the Sirens having something to do with the boat accident that crippled Elaine or that Elaine might suffer more in the future due to Ryn having to withhold stem cells from her might also cause Ted and Elaine to react negatively in the future.

5. (Human) society has evolved a bit since the 19th century

Humans in the 19th century would not have reacted kindly to an unmarried woman (the siren) spending time with a married man (Charles) , even if they did not know her true origin,

[Sidenote: If you want to have a “fun” time read up what people did in the 19th and early 20th centuries to sabotage relationships that were considered abnormal. In the infamous example of Virginia Woolf this even involved a plane chase across two countries.]

When the trio's human friend Xander learns about the relationship, his reaction is one of surprise and shock. (You can watch the scene here). However a discussion between him and Maddie in Episode 212 confirms that this is not due to a rejection of the nature of the relationship but more about Xander's worry that the Siren song is controlling Maddie. After being told this is not the case, he drops that objection and while he certainly does not like the relationship he is not taking active steps to sabotage it unlike 19th century people might have

In fact it seems as if nobody in Bristol Cove much cares about the relationship the three have. There must by now be a considerable amount of people seeing the trio interact in public like this:

(Yes officer, this scene right here)

And multiple people in the anchor saw Ryn and Ben dancing together in 204 in a manner that was way too intimate to just be friends.

(Taking bets on the number of gaskets Deputy Marissa will blow when she hears about this happening.)

Especially in a small town like Bristol Cove where everybody knows each other the gossip mill must already run wild about the trio. However nobody seems to mind.

This of course is a major difference of today's society to the 19th century society of Charles and his mermaid. Today's society cares much less about things like adhering to strict heterosexual norms and two-person relationships. Unlike in the 19th century where even marrying below your station would be considered a betrayal and seriously threaten your standing in society, the acceptance of sexuality and relationships as fluid concepts is at an all-time high.

There is only one person who openly is hostile against Ryn spending time with Ben and Maddie in the show and that is Deputy Marissa. However Marissa also believes that Ryn is a drug addict, possible dealer, possible murder suspect and person-who-holds-wild-drug-orgies-at-the-cabin-with-Ben. No wonder she is hostile to Ryn given that it is her duty to protect Bristol Cove from bad influences - which her inaccurate version of Ryn definitely is.

If anything it seems that the Siren society is less accepting of the relationship than humans are (at least Cami and Katrina are appalled by it). But as long as Ryn is Alpha then what are they going to do about it without risking an immediate beatdown by an enraged Ryn?

[Sidenote: At this time I feel it is my solemn duty to link you this great video of humans reacting to the trio, edited by Koortega.]

6. The reactions to the Siren Song might be different from those of Charles

This is more speculative than the other parts of this post because we do not know the specific reactions of Charles Pownall to the song. Yet so far - and speaking strictly about the effect of the song on the relationship - whenever the song is used it does not have negative effects with regards to threatening the relationship.

Ben's visions are not about domineering or being possessive about Ryn, but ultimately about protecting her (Episode 110 “Aftermath” and to a lesser extent Episode 203 “Natural Selection”), realizing he might hurt her through his behaviour and reaffirming how much he loves her (Episode 214 “The last mermaid”).

Likewise Maddie, despite being exposed to the more harmful defensive variant of the song only wants to tell the world about how much she loves Ryn and Ben.

[Sidenote: There is also the unlikely possibility that the relationship between Charles and his mermaid was solely based on the song, which in any case is not true for our trio.]

A cure for the brain damage due to the song also exists and the experience of obtaining that cure together brings the throuple closer together.

(From Episode 212: “Serenity”)

So there you have it. There are enough differences between the trio and Charles Pownall and his mermaid to not have them go down the same dark path. But in this case the show goes even further.

C) The events of the last episodes of Season 2

The writers themselves tell us in no uncertain terms in the last four episodes of Season 2 that this is not the same story because Ben and Ryn are not their respective ancestors.

In Episode 213 and 214 as the Pownall massacre as well as Ryn’s mating drive and her unilateral actions based on that drive put the relationship to its hardest test.

It is important to note that the writers used multiple contrivances to arrive at this point. For the biggest example, Ryn seems to have suddenly developed complete memory loss with regards to her knowledge about Ben being a Pownall. Which is more than a bit contrived considering Ben and Maddie discuss his father owning Pownall’s two meters away from her while she is clearly listening in Episode 106 “Showdown”.

This was not something Ryn overheard considering later in the same episode:

DONNA: I see his face. In that place take our food. RYN: That was not him. That was his father. Writers of Episode 213: FAKE NEWS.

Oh and if there was any doubt left there is also that time Bens father was called Mr. Pownall in front of Ryn in Episode 108.

(WRITERS: “You saw nothing.”)

In Episode 110 Helen explicitly names the father of the hybrid baby as “Charles Pownall” and also confirms that Ben and her are related through Charles. This is done while Ryn is listening and participating in that conversation (I have transcribed the whole conversation in my previous post about the massacre)

Ryn also seems to have paid no attention at all to her surroundings while living with Ben and Maddie for months (c’mon, does that sound anything like the hyperobservant, inquisitive and highly intelligent mermaid we know?). Anybody who walks around a modern human name would shortly know the name of the homeowner. Given all these factors, her not knowing before Episode 213 makes no sense at all.

So why the contrivance?

Of course one possibility is that the writers were too incompetent to remember what they wrote a year ago. But I do not believe this to be the case, especially with how few contradictions there are in the show otherwise and the great attention to detail the writers usually have. Maybe they wanted to score cheap drama? But there already was enough drama with Ryn trying to save her species from extinction (plus the effect this had on Ben and Maddie) and it seems odd to go to such great lengths just for that. Therefore I would argue that the Pownell revelation was (at least partly) included here to make a specific point.

What point would that be? Let us recap what happens in those episodes, especially 214.

After “suddenly discovering” (excuse me while I go grind my teeth in the corner) in Episode 213 that Ben’s last name is Pownell Ryn gets very upset and concerned, culminating in the following exchange in Episode 214:

BEN: "Charles." RYN: "He loved one like me and his love turned bad. It makes him angry. He killed my people. And it starts with love. Like *crying* Like Ben love Ryn."

Ryn is clearly concerned about a repeat of the original Pownall story. And in this episode Ryn (and the audience) is explicitly told by Maddie that Ben is not his ancestor - just as Ryn is not hers either.

MADDIE: "You know my mother, Susan?" RYN: "Yes" MADDIE: "Remember I told you how she was? The pain she caused me?" RYN: "Yes. She was weak and sad." Maddie: "Am I like her?" RYN: "No. You are strong." MADDIE: "Just because your family thinks or acts a certain way doesn't mean you have to repeat that. Ben's ashamed of what his family did. And many in your colony don't trust humans. They want to fight them. But you came on land, you trusted us, fell in love with us." RYN: "Love can be good or bad." MADDIE: "Yeah. But I trust Ben. I trust you. I trust that our love is good."

(Take ALL the Applause Maddie, you earned it.)

Ryn accepts Maddie's argument. The speed at which she does so as well as her obvious concern for Ben when he disappears during the episode seems to indicate that she was more conflicted about her own feelings than anything else - like Ben himself in that episode one might say. When Ben finally reappears, Ryn is visibly relieved at the sight of him and the following exchange happens:

RYN: "You are okay?" BEN: "No. Not okay." RYN: "Angry with me?" BEN: "Confused. About myself." RYN: "Ben. I know you would not hurt me. I know you are different from your family. Those who kill. BEN: "I want to believe that." RYN: "I believe. Our love is good." BEN: "You trust me?" RYN: "I don't want you to feel any more pain."

The relationship between her and Ben survives the stress test and trust seems to be fully restored through Ben’s following actions in Episode 215 (some of which have already been mentioned before).

The relationship seems to have been fully repaired by the end of 215 but if there was any lingering distrust I think Episode 216 would have dispelled that as Ryn is clearly willing to move forward with the relationsip at the end of Episode 216. Letting Ian drown might have been taken by Ryn as a display of trust, especially as she knows that it took a toll on Ben.

This of course is a parallel to another Season 1 episode. In Episode 106 “Showdown” Ben steps in to prevent Ryn from killing another antagonist that was a threat to her (Aldon Decker). Her reaction to Ben refusing to let a human die to keep her safe is one of anger and feeling betrayed.

RYN: "Why you help the bad man?” [Ben refuses to let Ryn kill Decker by placing himself between them] RYN: You choose him. You should choose me."

In Episode 216, Ben does so. He clearly chooses Ryn and her safety over the life of a fellow human.

Even without that choice it was in my opinion already clear from the looks they share at the end of Episode 215 that they will move forward with each other.

(Protip to a happy life: find yourself a relationship where the persons involved in said relationship can still look at each other like that even after they just finished putting each other through hell for several days).

Due to all the factors involved in Episodes 213-216 (Ryn unilaterally deciding for much of the storyline and expecting the others to go along without giving them a say, the whole fertility crisis amongst the Sirens and of course the Pownall “revelation”) this probably was the worst stress the relationship could ever be under at that point.

I therefore posit that if the relationship between Ben and Ryn would be “Charles Pownell 2.0″, this would have been a fracture point instead of a successful stress test.

And the relationship between Ben and Ryn surviving is of course in no small part due to the largest stabilizing element in the relationship, the one element that was missing from the story of Charles and his Siren.

D) The third element

Imagine how different the story of Charles and his mermaid might have happened had they lived with the Haida - people who knew how to deal with human-siren relationships, how to help hybrids and who were most likely used to that kind of relationship happening.

The present-day relationship the show is depicting has such a large stabilizing element to it. I am talking of course about the one person I have so far criminally neglected in favour of focusing on Ben and Ryn (because they are the parallels to charles and their mermaid and also because this allowed me to give this post a better structure).

Maddie might not be Haida biologically, but she is a Haida in the cultural sense of the word. She was raised by a Haida man and one of the first stories she tells Ryn to calm her down in Episode 102 “The Lure” is a Haida story. Now of course Maddie is not the solution to all the problems the trio faces. She does not have any Haida knowledge on how to deal with hybrids or Sirens.

However, she is by far the largest stabilizing element in the relationship as evidenced by episode 214 and the episodes before. Whenever Ryn and Ben are acting out of character or have communication issues (either between them, others or with Maddie), Maddie appears as the mediator that manages to get through to the other two and makes them see reason. Even when she initially fails (as with Ben in 110 and with her first discussion with Ryn in 214) she still manages to have enough of an impact on them to get them to reconsider their actions, change their behaviour and attempt to fix the situation.

Her second long dialogue between her and Ryn Episode 214 (which is quoted in the segment C of this post) is the best example of Maddie’s exceptional communication skills. It probably is one of my top 5 Maddie scenes of the show and highlights just how integral Maddie is for the story of the trio. The way Maddie (without recriminations) manages to make Ryn understand that she got the wrong impression of Ben, the way she focuses the communication on the love that is the basis of the trio relationship is unbelievably on point.

Or to put it more bluntly: The story of Siren is not the story of Ben and Ryn alone. It is the story of Ben, Ryn and Maddie. It is a story about the unique love and trust that develops between the three.

And this is why I firmly believe that we are not seeing a repeat o the CharlesPownell story here. Instead, what we are seeing is how the more enlghtened and more evolved characters of Ryn and Ben and Maddie make different choices than their ancestors. In short, just because History might look similar, it does not - and will not - repeat itself in this case.

Does that mean there will be no challenges to the relationship in the future? Of course not for otherwise there would be a lot less in the show. We already see the groundwork for multiple future stress tests of the relationship being laid (Ted having footage of Ryn underwater, the Sirens attacking Ted in the water when Elaine had the boating accident, the reaction by some sirens like Cami to the relationship, Ben letting Ian drown, him and Ryn keeping this from Maddie etc.)

But there is one certainty the show tells us over and over again, even chosing it as the end screen for season 2.

They are love.

And on that note, we shall end the analysis of the parallels between our throuple and the Pownall Massacre. Thank you for reading and for sticking with this rather long post until the end. I shall endeavour to make the next post a little shorter, I promise. Alternative interpretations, additional info or critique are always welcome.

[Final sidenote: Anybody wishing for the trio to become a duo (whether it be Ben/Ryn, Maddie/Ryn or Ben/Maddie) is asking for the show to be a lot poorer in terms of character interaction, to be less inclusive and to have fewer opportunities for future storylines.

Could the story work with just Ryn and Maddie or just Ryn and Ben? Yes, the love between each of them might be strong enough to survive without the third. But such a story would not be Siren, it would be another star-crossed-lovers story that has been done countless times before.

And this is why it was immediately clear that Episode 216 was a giant fake-out as soon as Maddie was fatally wounded in it.]

#siren freeform #Pownall Massacre #polymarine #analysis #long post #i swear the next one will be shorter #Ben #Ryn #Maddie #siren #freeform siren

27 notes · View notes

siren-theories · 6 years ago

Text

Vote for your favourite moment of Season 2

Freeform is holding a vote on the favourite moment of Season 2.

You can vote here.

#hard choice #siren freeform #siren #freeform siren #icymi

2 notes · View notes

siren-theories · 6 years ago

Text

It kinda feels as if they are using him to move the plot into whatever they want it to be. Need a certain antagonist get info about a certain secret site? Never fear, Xander is here to tell to the antagonist about it despite a) it not being his secret to tell and b) despite it not making a lot of sense for him to share that info in the first place considering what went down the last time said antagonist got info out of him.

But at least he has started a bit of a rapport with Levi and Eliza, so that is progress I guess.

dear siren fam

does xander get better? because FUCK he's an ASSHOLE right now

#siren freeform #siren #xander

9 notes · View notes

siren-theories · 6 years ago

Text

The Pownall Massacre

TL, DR: Too complext to summarise. Sorry, you have to read through this. If you want to, you can skip to Part IV to read what I think really happened.

There is but one certainty with historical events - that they can and most likely will be interpreted differently depending on the eye of the beholder. Our own upbringing, socialization, education, sexuality, gender etc. can all cause us to be biased when interpreting historical events. There are always different "truths" depending on who you ask.

As a simple example most readers would be familiar with lets take a look at a "great" US President, George Washington. If you would have asked a Native American of the time about George Washington he would have called him a destroyer of native villages who led massacres. If you would have asked a loyalist, he would have considered Washington a traitor to the crown. If you would have asked a member of Washington’s army in the Revolutionary War, he would have hailed Washington as a great hero. And if you would have asked his slaves....

This is no less true for the period of "Manifest Destiny" and westward expansion of the United States during the 19th century. What looks like massive land robbery, ethnic cleansing and even genocide to the outside (modern) observer might also be romanticized as the era of brave settlers and brave cowboys, the era of daring people prevailing against adversity to secure a better life for themselves. Modern Media has (regrettably) largely chosen the later path.

Please keep the above in mind when considering everything that follows in this posts. Also, please note that this is a theory built on evidence from the show - but this theory has not been explicitly confirmed by any of the show writers.

Part I: The historical context of the Pownall Massacre.

Understanding the historical context is the most important thing when it comes to interpreting past events.

All sources agree that the massacre happened 150 years before the time the show starts, so somewhere in the vicinity of 1868. By this time Washington State had already been settled by native Americans for close to 14.000 years (thus giving us the earliest possible form of divergence between humans and sirens).

Native Americans hunting ducks, taken from Wikimedia Commons

Native American villages of the time seem to have been mostly concentrated on the coasts and near rivers, being focused on salmon fishing, hunting and gathering berries/roots etc. You can see how Washington is a perfect setting for the Siren story - even before the arrival of the white settlers. The most prominent of those tribes seemed to have formed what is called the Salish language community.

The salish language family (from here).

The earliest contact between the natives and Europeans happened during the spanish mapping expeditions of the Northern American coast. One such ship, the Santiago, was captained by Bruno de Hecata. You can read a bit about his expedition here.

Unfortunately this ship also carried a deadly cargo - smallpox. This disease resulted in a harrowing smallpox epidemic which killed at least 30%, if not 50% of the native population (approximately 11.000 - 20.000 people). Even though the introduction of the disease was unintentional (indeed a third of the Europeans themselves died from it) these events proved fatal to the strength of the local populations. This blow allowed northern tribes like the Haida to muscle in on the territory of the local tribes. .

[Sidenote: For those of you who would want to read more about this I suggest Robert Boyd: The coming of the spirit of pestilence. Introduced infectious diseases and population decline among Northwest Coast Indians, 1774–1874 (Seattle 1999). Be warned, it makes for grim reading.]

Eventually, British fur traders and settlers arrived on the scene. In 1790 Spain and Britain reached an agreement that gave the British free reign over the Northwest coast. In 1805 the Lewis and Clark expedition reached Washington and the USA entered the struggle for dominance over the region. Britain however gained dominance due to the war of 1812 and the Hudson Bay Company eventually became the most important fur trader of the region. These early years were characterized by a high rate of intermarriage between fur traders and local women, as well as the introduction of European technology and European goods, most importantly firearms.

However, in the 1840s large numbers of American settlers trekked westwards and started settling Washington State. Soon outnumbering the British fur traders and local natives (who seemed to have fallen into some form of uneasy coexistence), this formed the basis for what was later called the Oregon dispute between Britain and the United States.

In 1846 the Oregon Treaty ceded Washington State to the USA and settlement began, with all the negative effects this had on the local population - disease, land robbery, ethnic cleansing and genocide. In 1862 another devastating smallpox epidemic broke out, again killing roughly one-third to half of the remaining indigenous population.

If the massacre happened in 1868 then it would have happened during a time which was filled with strife. The boundary dispute between England and the USA had not been fully resolved yet (it would only be resolved through the mediation of the German Empire in 1872). The community of Bristol Cove would have been at best a few decades old (and probably was significantly younger, maybe only having been formed in the 1850s). There might have been bad blood between ex-British and American members of the community. The native population would have suffered from the devastating smallpox epidemic only a few years earlier and I highly doubt the natives had surrendered the prime fishing grounds willingly.

The settlers and fishers of Bristol Cove themselves would have been hard men who had suffered through the deprivations of the long trek westwards. The fact that most of them would have been adventurous young white men without many suitable marriage prospects is also problematic as historically a surplus of young males has nearly always led to conflict. Judging from the town's football team being called the whalers and the harpoons being found in Helen's shop it seems that Bristol Cove primarily was a fishing and whaling town - two profession that require men that are comfortable with killing what they perceive as animals.

In short it does not require much imagination to view the Bristol Cove of 1862-1870 as a powder keg waiting to explode. All it needed was the right man to lit the fuze.

(Enter Charles H. Pownall, aka literally Hitler)

Part II: The sources covering the massacre

Let's look at the sources covering the massacre and try to decipher what they are telling us about the massacre and the reasons for it.

a) The official human version

The official version of what happened during the massacre is that essentially no massacre happened at all and the entire story is presented as a fairytale for small children. It is used as the centerpiece of the annual mermaid festival, being used to draw in tourists and bored college students looking for an adventure.

(Tfw your family history gets appropriated by college girls looking for an excuse to paaartaaaay.)

The Timestamp for the official human version is 4:35 - 5:10 of Episode 101 "The mermaid discovery".

(how lovely, a play about genocide. With Children in it. What could go wrong?)

NARRATOR: "It was more than a 150 years ago when a local fishing captain, Charles H. Pownall, fell in love with a mermaid in these very waters, enchanted by her beautiful siren song." POWNALL: "I love you fishermen" SIREN: "I love you mermaid" NARRATOR: "But one day, he went to the bay, and his mermaid was gone, back to her home in the sea, never to return." NARRATOR: "And that is how thanks to Charles H. Pownall, Bristol Cove became the Mermaid Capital of the World"

(Is it my mermaid that I see there on the horizon? No, just a giant whitewash,)

The depiction of an episode of violence against other populations as a fairytale is not a new idea. For example, take the story of Pocahontas. Popular knowledge focuses on the fairytale aspect of this historical story (native Powhatan "princess" Pocahontas rescues brave white explorer John Smith) but nearly all popular retellings omit the continuation of that story - how the brave explorer John Smith continued to raid the food stores of the Powhatans, how the white colonists massacred the Powhatans, took their lands, assassinated their leaders and drove them into pitiful reservations. (Put THAT in a movie, Disney).

As such, this story fits the archetype to a T. And yet there are a few facts in the official version that merit a mention:

The official human version claims that Pownall was enchanted by the beautiful siren song (which would mean that the siren would have taken the initiative to make contact with Pownall)

The mermaid in question disappeared without a trace, leaving Charles to look for her with no success

b) Helen's books

Another take is being presented in one of Helen's books aptly titled "An Illustrated History of the Mermaid", which features the mermaids of Bristol Cove in a chapter. Sadly the chapter is truncated and we only see the first page of it in detail - while other pages also show text, freeze-framing and enlarging them sadly showed them to be taken from a book on schooners and a book about the Napoleonic wars - a common trick by TV shows to save valuable time writing those props.

The page dealing with the massacre is shown in Episode 102: “The Lure” as follows:

(Pls Maddie move your hand a bit lower? Pretty pls?)

I have transcribed the visible text:

The Mermaids of Bristol Cove Being a true account of the bitter and broken heart of a Fisherman and the retribution that was exacted by Men of the Land upon the Maidens of the Sea

The proud men of Bristol Cove were renowned up and down the western coastline of the Americas for their craft and Bravery upon the waters of the Pacific Ocean. The men abord Captain Pownall's ship were especially known for their prowess upon the waves and their seemingly supernatural ability to find and capture more fish than any other craft. This ability was attributed to more than mere craft. It was whispered, in certain coastal taverns, that Captain Pownall himself was responsible for his own share of the bountiful harvest. It was rumored that the captain was [illegible text] a mermaid and that it was [illegible]and the deep that had resulted [illegible] his curious [illegible] five years[illegible]

This text is really short on details for its length. What we get out of it is a timeframe (five years) and a lot of fluff about the skilled and brave men of Bristol Cove - and that the relationship was also based on mutual fishing cooperation. However, the headline already tells us what interpretation the story will use here - that Pownall and the mermaid fell in love, she then broke his heart and the "brave and skilled" fishermen exacted retribution by massacring them. I was expecting some brazen apologia but not one this brazen. Yeah, some eeeevil woman(tm) hurt you by leaving you, go murder her relatives in revenge. That makes you "brave and skilled".

Excuse me for a second while I find the nearest container to throw up in.

[Sidenote: Painting genocide as a tragedy while also arguing the victims deserved getting massacred is par the course for colonial apologia of the 19th century. Even in the 20th century Turkey for example justified its genocide of the Armenians by arguing that it was "just" a relocation that got out of hand due to Armenian banditry. This text fits well into all the other 19th century texts that allegedly deplored violence against indigenous people while similarly arguing that this could all have been avoided if the darn natives had not been so unaccommodating. Feel free to imagine a lot of fake pearl clutching as a side dish to all that juicy victim blaming.

I commend the writers of Siren for actually writing such a text for it shows their attention to detail but this was infuriating to read.]

c) The Pownall family history

Lets hear it from the direct descendants of Charles "stil literally Hitler" Pownall. Ben confronts his father after meeting a mermaid himself and nearly becoming the evening snack of said mermaid (no, snack is not used euphemistically here.) The conversation takes place in Episode 102: "The Lure" from 19:00 - 20:40.

(...So...uh...about great-great-great-great-grandpa...)

I have transcribed the relevant parts:

BEN: "I wanted to ask you something. I remembered that you and Grandpa used to talk about Charles Pownall, about what really happened back then." TED: "You really came here to ask me that?" BEN: "Yeah.” TED: "Why the sudden interest in the family history?" BEN: "I ran into Helen Hawkins.” TED: "Oh, c'mon." BEN: "Dad? Maybe I'd show up to more family events like the statue unveiling if you told me the real story about our family." TED: "All right. Look, Charles might not have been exactly who we make him out to be. I can't say for sure, but there might have been some mental illness, maybe even schizophrenia. Long months at sea, a constant stream of booze and, uh, well, he was seeing things. [chuckles] Mermaids? You know this. You did the play in school. That's how the town got its folklore. Now, as for Helen and her stories, well, we all know she's got a vivid imagination." BEN: "That's it?" TED: That's it."

Additional info about the Pownall Mermaid is delivered to us in the form of a conversation between Ben and his father in Episode 110: “Aftermath”. It starts from 21:30 and ends at 23:00.

(Don't mind me getting defensive here about not giving you all the information you asked for earlier)

TED: "Look, Charles had an affair with a woman in town, okay - she worked at a local bar...a brothel." BEN: "Wait, so she was a prostitute?" TED: "You can imagine...an extramarital affair, a child born out of wedlock with a woman in that profession - these aren't things people talked about back then. Every family has its secrets, Ben." BEN: "This isn't some kind of ancient history, dad. I have a relative living in town that I've known my whole life." TED: "You know our family Ben. This kind of history, nothing they'd want out there. Why dwell on the ugliness? Okay, Charles was a troubled guy. We talked about that. From what I understand, he had a lot of demons."

From these two conversations we get not only a lasting impression that Ted is knowing more than he lets on but also a lot of relevant information:

Charles Pownall suffered from alleged mental illness, maybe even schizophrenia - or something that made it appear as if he did.

Charles liked his booze, maybe too much

The mermaid was according to Charles family a woman of ill repute

Charles was already married when he met the mermaid and when the baby was born

The Pownall family has been paying Helen's family off to keep quiet.

d) The Siren sources

In Episode 209 “Street fight”, Ryn tells Ben the Siren side of the story.

(”Story? No, not story. Real”)

The conversation starts at 11:50 and ends at about 13 minutes.

RYN: "There was one of us who spent time with a human long time ago. She lived with him on land. Together they had little one." Ben: "A child?" RYN: "Yes. But the child was not normal, not look normal. He took it away from her into the woods. He killed their child. So she went back home in the water. But this made him angry. His head-bad. He brought many men, and they killed us. So many of us that...the water was red with our blood. Ben: "Helen told me that story. Not about a child though." RYN: "Story? No, not story. Real."

It is interesting that as much as the human sources place the blame on the Sirens, the Siren side of the story places the blame just as squarely on the humans. What we can take away from this version is:

The mermaid lived with Charles on land and they had a child together.

The baby was deformed and thus Charles took it into the woods and killed it.

The mermaid left Charles whose head then went “bad”.

Charles took his men and slaughtered them in the water.

e) The Hybrid sources

Perhaps the most important tidbits of information come from Bristol Cove's resident mermaid expert, Helen Hawkins, in Episode 110 "Aftermath". The conversation starts at 16:12 and ends at around 18:50.

(Lemme just drop some knowledge on you children...)

HELEN: "She was the first. She was the daughter of Charles Pownall and his mermaid." BEN: "The baby is buried here? Ryn told me that Charles killed his child." HELEN: "Oh no. [to Ryn] That may be what your colony believes, but that's not what happened. The baby was born in transition and appeared deformed, a soul caught between two worlds. Charles knew that the doctors of Bristol Cove would see her as an abomination and refuse to treat her. The Baby was gonna suffer and die. So he took her into the woods." MADDIE: "To put her out of her misery?" HELEN: "No. He brought her to bigger minds than the doctors of Bristol Cove. To people who weren't afraid of shape-shifters." MADDIE: "The Haida" HELEN: "Yes. BEN: "She lived?" HELEN: "The Haida helped her to complete her transition and she lived for a very long time. I am her last living descendant." BEN: "You*re one of them?" HELEN: "That's right. One-eigth to be exact." MADDIE: "Ryn, did you know this?" RYN: "Yes. I sense she is one of us. But I did not know the child lived."

Helen claims that:

Charles took his daughter to the Haida to find help for her

The Haida were able to help the hybrid daughter

The daughter lived for a long time in Bristol Cove among humans, eventually dieing there

Part III: Literally Hitler? The trouble with Charles H. Pownall

(Look at him. He is just standing there. Menacingly.)

Much of how we view the massacre is dependant upon how we assess the character of Charles H. Pownall himself. It is easy to think of him as a typical machismo of his day, a ruthless conqueror who was blinded by his own sense of superiority, who could not handle rejection and committed genocide in revenge. There might be some truth to that interpretation - after all, the people who settled Washington were not exactly enlightened liberals.

And yet we know some facts which are unquestionably true (because otherwise Helen would not exist) that paint a different picture of Charles H. Pownall. When faced with the problem of his daughter's life being in danger, Charles acts rationally and decisively. He seeks out help from the only people who know how to deal with hybrids, the Haida. Doing so was not a small task considering the troubled times the Haida were facing due to the arrival of the white men and such an endeauvor might have easily ended with Charles being killed. But he persevered, the Haida managed to save his daughter's life and when returning to Bristol Cove Charles he took great care to safeguard his daughter's future.

He organized regular funds to be paid to her and her eventual descendants and concocts a story to tell his family as to where this mysterious daughter suddenly appeared from and why they needed to pay her to keep her quiet (her being the alleged daughter of a prositute he had relations with). Admitting to a child born out of wedlock in those days had the potential to ruin a man's career and honour and thus his place in society so this was not a trivial thing to do.

Those two brave actions mentioned above are hardly those we would expect from a bloodthirsty genocider only concerned with himself.

Yet how do we reconcile this image of a at least somewhat caring father with the image of a madman slaughtering Sirens on the water? There might have been a logical reson for Charles turning into a monster.

Both the Siren version of events and the Pownall family history mention that Charles suffered from mental problems which Ted characterizes as schizophrenic behaviour, seeing things and acting besides himself. What do we know of in the show that causes visions and causes people to act as if they are suffering from mental illnesses? In fact these are the exact symptoms people suffering from the Siren Song (Ben) or people suffering from withdrawal symptons (Chris) exhibit. Without having access to the song anymore and the only recourse being self-medication with alcohol (psychology was not exactly a practiced medicine back then, nor did MRIs exist), is it any wonder that his mental state deteriorated? It might be that the Charles H. Pownall that perpetrated the massacre bore little resemblence to the Charles H. Pownall that his mermaid fell in love with.

This might be a way too charitable interpretation of events. After all, not everybody suffering from an addiction and brain damage starts to commit genocide. However, at the very least Charles should be considered more than the black hat as which he appears in the Siren version of events (the sirens perception of him is also colored by him allegedly murdering his daughter which which never happened). Him being more of a grey character would also be in line with all the antagonists we see depicted in the show so far. Take for example Nicole, the main antagonist of Season 2 - while she lies and manipulates everything around her in order to get Ryn to cooperate with the military she is not entirely devoid of compassion. I think that therefore the interpretation of Charles H. Pownall as a more grey character fits better with this show.

This of course does not excuse his genocidal actions in any way. But it might serve as an explanation for them.

(Maybe not quite Hitler after all)

[Sidenote: I still hate the submissive pose the Pownall family chose for the statue of the mermaid, even if it fits the story the humans are trying to tell.]

Part IV: An attempt at reconstructing the events leading up to and including the massacre

As mentioned in the intro to this post, every group involved in an important and traumatic event has their own versions of the truth. This does not mean that each group necessarily lied or had a hidden agenda/hidden truth. Each version of the story (except for the two human apologia pieces already mentioned) might have been honest conclusions based on incomplete information.

So what are the facts of the story which we can reconstruct while trying to reconcile all the different pieces of information and using all information that we know not to be demonstrably false?

In the years between 1863 to 1868 Charles H. Pownall met a Siren. It might be that this Siren was actively looking for somebody to live with or to cooperate on fishing with (possibly due to the indigenous populations she used to fish with being decimated by the devastating smallpox epidemic of 1862).This cooperation led to Charles H. Pownall becoming the most renowned and wealthiest fishermen of Bristol Cove and might have continued for five years in total.

[Sidenote: The reasons for those cooperation might have been similar to those that causes other ocean predators to cooperate with humans in reality. See for example the Australian “Law of the tongue” or the Brazilian dolphin-human cooperation.]

Some time during this cooperation the mermaid and Pownall fell in love. Maybe she sang to him from the start, maybe she only sang to him after she realised she loved him. (Note that no version at all mentions that Pownall caught her so the approach was most likely consensual. Especially considering how forward Sirens can be I find the idea of the Siren initiating contact - and maybe even intiating the sexual part of the relationship - believable).

[Sidenote: In previous human-siren interactions - as the ones I postulated for the Haida in my earlier piece - this relationship would not have been a problem. The Haida and Sirens knew how to interact with each other as well as the dangers that could happen from exposure to the Song - as did the Sirens. The mermaid most likely thought the settlers would have knowledge of the problems as well. It might have been an innocent mistake to assume that. But the culture of the settlers would have been anathema to such a relationship. Having a female co-captaining a ship in the 19th century would have caused great offence, especially if she was sleeping with the married(!) captain to boot. As such, society would have almost certainly put trememndous pressure on the relationship even if the wider settler population might not have known that she was a mermaid.]

The Siren and Charles conceived a child together. The pregnancy resulted in a difficult birth with the baby caught halfway in transition. To the settlers the "deformed" baby was considered an abomination, maybe even a punishment from god for breaking the vows of marriage.

In desperation, Charles takes the baby to the Haida. He successfully pleads for their help only to discover his mermaid missing when he returns.

[Sidenote: Had the Haida been the dominant population at Bristol Cove at that time the birth of a hybrid would not have been a problem. Guess ethnic cleansing does come back to bite you in the behind after all.]

The Siren, assuming that Charles went into the woods and killed their child, had left for the water during his abscence, never to return.

[Sidenote: This part is the one which I find hard to reconcile. I find it hard to believe that Charles would have known to take the baby to the Haida without his Siren telling him. In any case, I find it hard to believe that he just left Bristol Cove with the Baby without telling her what he was intending to do.

Or maybe there is another explanation. Maybe she assumed that the baby was dead because people told her so? There were certainly plenty of people with motivation to get rid of her. Charles' human family, moralists opposed to children born out of wedlock, competing fishermen trying to rid Charles of his competitive advantage, religious zealots or plan old racists and bigots - and those are just the human factions. There might also have been Siren factions opposed to mingling with humans - imagine a 19th century version of Katrina - do you think sirens like that would have shied away from sabotaging such a relationship or even shied away from making one of their own disappear?]

Alone and with no access to the song - nor to any cure - Charles’ mental state deteriorated to the point of no return, his condition worsening due to self-medication with alcohol. It is quite likely that he did not understand what was happening to him.

[Speculation: Eventually - maybe with some "assistance" from some of the anti-Siren factions mentioned in the previous sidenote - he started blaming the Sirens for his mental problems, maybe even for taking away the siren he had fallen in love with.]

In 1868, after an unknown period of suffering excarbated by alcohol abuse, Charles H. Pownall, with the help of his shipmates surprised the sirens near the surface and massacred them.

The Sirens subsequently severed all human contact and went into hiding, forbidding any Siren to go on land and teaching their children to avoid the land.

(”Land bad. I learn this.)

The Hybrid daughter of Charles and his mermaid lived and prospered, despite being shunned by the rest of the Pownall family for allegedly being the daughter of a local prostitiute.

(”She was the first....”)

Acta est fabula. Clamate.

Addendum: The observations about the parallels between Ben and Charles and Ryn and Charle’s mermaid can be found here.

#Siren #siren freeform #freeform siren #charles pownall #long post #analysis #Pownall Massacre #ryn #Ben Pownall #helen hawkins #when you write about a massacre and realize the story was probably more heartbraking than you thought in the first place #I think I need a drink #jeez this was grim #pls excuse spelling mistakes I am le tired

28 notes · View notes

siren-theories · 6 years ago

Text

Siren-human cohabitation before the Pownall massacre

NOTE: The following is a theory. It is an argument based on evidence by the show but has not been confirmed by the writers or any episodes of the show.

Obligatory TL, DR: I believe the show depicts Sirens having regular contact with humans (at least with the Haida) up until the time of the massacre.

One of the biggest questions that arise out of Freeform's Siren is when exactly human and mermaid paths diverged. Biologically speaking the Sirens and Humans are closer to each other than Horses are to Zebras. Whether they share a common ancestor or whether Sirens evolved directly out of the human species is an imposisble question to answer due to a lack of evidence, though I favour the latter theory given the close similarities between humans and sirens.

Just for how long did the two species coexist peacefully together after the biological divergence though? This is the main question of this post and although we never get an explicit answer I do believe there are several scenes in the show that allow us, the viewers, to form an opinion about this subject.

Evidence 1: The Siren Song

The mere existence of the Siren Song is by itself a strong piece of evidence for continued Siren-human interaction as the Song itself only works when in proximity of humans.

As Donna demonstrated in Episode 101 “The Mermaid Discovery” the more powerful and more harmful "defensive" variant can be sung even when there is no visual contact with humans (she sang it from inside the hold of the north star in the premiere). The less harmful "love" variant can only be sung when in visual contact (and close proximity) with a human, as confirmed by Ryn in Episode 203 "Natural Order".

Ryn sings to Ben in Episode 101 “The Mermaid Discovery”.

Evolutionary changes in human or near-human species take a lot of time, especially when such a change manifests in different body physiques. This is especially true regarding such complex changes (in this case changing the vocal cords and surrounding area to be able to use so many frequencies). This alone tells us that they had enough prolonged contact with humans to develop these abilities. Furthermore this also suggests a very close, maybe even an originally symbiotic relationship between humans and Sirens because otherwise there is no reason such an ability would ever be favoured by evolution.

Evidence 2: Cave paintings

Further evidence of a harmonious, maybe even symbiotic earlier relationship arrives in episode 207 "Entrapment". In this episode Katrina leads the group to a cave where they discover cave paintings made by native americans and the Sirens. Eliza (who seems to be the groups intellectual), Levi and Frank help Helen translate them.

The cave paintings in Episode 207

According to their translation, the original message was: "We live here in harmony, tribes of land and tribes of sea"

And after all, it would make sense that those that evolved into Sirens would stay close with their human cousins and that this continued even after different societal structures had formed in the two tribes. Did this cohabitation continue into a timeframe close to the time of the arrival of US settlers in Bristol Cove? I would argue that it did, based on the following.

Evidence 3: The Haida knew how to help hybrids

In Episode 110 "Aftermath" Helen reveals her ancestry to the Trio, namely that she is the last descendant of the daughter of Charles Pownall and "his" mermaid. She explicitly mentions how the British settlers did not know how to deal with the Baby being born in mid-transformation. Charles then brought his baby to the Haida people, who helped the Baby complete her transformation.

Helen dropping some knowledge in episode 110

The question though is how the Haida knew how to deal with this? It might have been simple trial and error based on what Charles would have told them. Yet I find this unlikely considering that it was a life-threatening situation that would not allow for a slew of experiments and that time was most likely in short supply.

A more logical explanation would be that the Haida of Bristol Cove knew about hybrids precisely because they had interacted with the sirens before. Charles' daughter probably was not the first hybrid either given that Sirens and humans were literally living together (see above). I would therefore argue that the Sirens probably lived with (or at least had regular contact with) the haida right up until the time the British arrived. Otherwise, it would have make no sense for the Haida to help a hybrid born from a British man and people they had no contact with. Nor would they have had any reason to pass on such knowledge of how to help hybrids complete their first transformation in the first place.

Evidence 4: Eliza can diagnose human medical problems

In Episode 212 "Serenity" Ryn decides to get help for Ben and Maddie. She eventually returns with Eliza, the mermaid healer. After placing some resonating chrystals in their hands she hums a few tones at them and then immediately (and accurately) diagnoses both the problem and prescribes the cure.

(Eliza the sonic brain scanner hard at work in Episode 212 “Serenity”)

When I first saw this scene, I was so impressed with Eliza and how routine this seemed for her. If you would ask any human doctor today to diagnose a brain problem in a near-human species he would probably tell you that he is not qualified to do this and that you should go to a specialized vet. Yet for some reason Siren physicians are able to do so. Not only do Siren healers have knowledge of human anatomy but they also have knowledge of the effects of the song on humans. This knowledge must have passed on to successive healer generations even after the massacre as Eliza was not alive back then (the oldest merm we have seen so far was Frank and he was not hostile at all against Ben or humans and thus most likely not involved in the massacre). Again, it makes no sense to pass this knowledge on unless it occupied a significant and useful part within their reportoire of their medical knowledge.

[A caveat: It might be that Eliza only knew the problems with the brains because human and Siren brains have a similar structure. Yet this does not explain why she knows the problem with the song's effects as the song is a feature reserved only for the human-siren interaction.]

Evidence 5: The massacre itself

A human-made depiction of the massacre from episode 102 "The Lure"

The mere fact that fishermen armed with with harpoons, primitive nets and ships that were unable to go faster than ~14 knots (20 km/h) were able to slaughter many Sirens is unbelievable on its own unless one assumes special circumstances.

Sirens can run as fast as a deer on land, break steel bars with one hand, swim faster than sharks in the ocean and have a unique defence mechanism that can turn humans into thralls that are entirely at the mercy of the Siren that is singing the song. Plus the massacre by all accounts happened on the water where Sirens enjoy even greater advantages than on land over humans.

The only way the whole story of the massacre makes sense is if the Sirens and humans were in close proximity and if the Sirens did not consider humans a threat, thus allowing surprise attacks to work. Which would in turn require the Sirens being used to a human presence in their lives. Maybe there was a long history of cooperation with (some) fishermen. After all, how else could Captain Pownall not only gather more fish than anybody else but also have regular contact with "his" mermaid?

This of course would also mean that the Pownall Massacre not only dealt a severe blow to the Siren population (maybe even one they never recovered from) but also ended hundreds, maybe thousands of years of cooperation and cohabitation.

Based on the above evidence I would therefore argue that Sirens had regular contact with humans (at least with the Haida) up until the time of the massacre.

Speculation: It would not surprise me if there are more hybrids besides the hybrid cult we see on the show. There might even be pureblood siren families who have lived for decades and centuries among humans and have gone undetected for all this time.

As always, feel free to drop a comment, rebuttal or additional information / different interpretations. Thank you for reading.

#siren #siren freeform #freeform siren #analysis #long post #siren-human interaction #Pownell Massacre

13 notes · View notes

siren-theories · 6 years ago

Text

Do Sirens have body hair?

TL, DR.: Females seem to consistently not have body hair, for males it is more complicated and seems to be a genetic choice between having body hair or facial hair.

All images are taken from the PG-13 show Siren on Freeform.

When I first saw the question by the very talented @imaginejolls (go read their Siren fanfic on Ao3 it is awesome) my initial answer would have been an (overconfident) "of course they do have body hair". This was based on a simple assumption:

Sirens are biologically very close to humans, so close in fact that they can mate with humans and produce fertile offspring. This is a big deal as it means that Sirens are more closely related to humans than donkeys are to horses or zebras are to horses (different species that can produce infertile offspring with each other). So therefore it stands to reason that in everything (except for those things the show explicitly tells us are different) Sirens are generally replicating the human baseline. We see this for example with their diets - while they prefer fish, they are biologically speaking omnivores (Cami and Ryn for example ate fruit and digested it with no problem at all). So based on that I would have confidently claimed that they would have body hair.

I soon however realized that a more measured approach needs to be taken. For example, while things work the same or may even look the same on the outside there are several cases in the show where they are not the same. Take for example the reproductive system of the mermaids, which definitely is not human in structure even though it has human elements, works like a human reproductive system and is compatible with a human reproductive system. Another example of "similar looking, same function but different" would be the bones and muscles of our mermaids which are way denser and stronger than their human equivalents. So while I still think the general argument that they are very close to humans is a correct one there needs to be a case-by-case study being done to see if we can find evidence in the show itself for questions such as the one that is being posed here.

Let's dive deep into the visual evidence of the show for body hair. I apologize in advance if pictures of armpits and male chests are not your thing.

Part A: Females

We certainly never see as much as a hint of body hair on Ryn or any other female mermaid. The most exposed we see Ryn is in a backshot (Episode 102), her undressing on the boat (in 201) and the transformation scene in 210. She does not have any visible body hair in those scenes.

Ryn in 102 - notice the abscence of any body hair, especially in the armpit area.

Ryn in 201. At this time she has spent enough time out of the water that we would expect her to exhibit some signs of body hair.

What about the lower body areas? Ryn's legs are smooth and hairless.

Ryn’s (and Maddie’s) legs from 209 (there also are plenty of leg shots in 205 when she was on land a lot longer but these suffer from bad lighting or lack of focus. Suffice to say they too do not depict any body hair).

Now it might be the case that Ryn decided to adopt human customs and started shaving her armpits and legs. I highly doubt this to be the case though as Ryn is quite possibly the person most comfortable with her body on the show. Everytime her body comes up in conversation she is very proud of it (except when one compares it to sharks). There is no indication at all that she would conform to human beauty standards or even feels the need to change anything about her body. After all, if she does not care a lot about what clothes she wears what are the odds that she suddenly cares about how much (hypothetical) body hair she is showing? And I cannot imagine any situation in Season 1 where Ben or Maddie or Helen would have decided to teach Ryn how to shave her body hair, nor can I imagine any situation where something this intimate and something this unimportant to the issues facing our protagonists in those episodes would even have been discussed. Considering Ryn reacted almost violently to slight pressure on her arm during an attempt by Ben to measure blood pressure in episode 103 it seems highly unlikely anybody would have even tried bringing a razor blade near her body.

Therefore, it seems most likely that Ryn at no point shaved her body hair and therefore it seems most likely she never had any body hair on her legs or armpits in the first place.

Due to this not being some HBO fleshfest no visual evidence exists for the genital areas (and thank god for that because that would not fit the tone of this show or the respect with which the show treats its characters). However I find it very unlikely that Ryn or other female sirens would have body hair in the genital area if their entire body is missing body hair elsewhere. Body hair in that particular area would also cause problems with transformation as said area is covered by layers of additional flesh and muscle in the water form. Having hair covered by flesh and muscle is not a good thing biologically speaking (if you want a horror show google "ingrown hair"). Given how Ryn's skin is also more insulating than human skin as shown in 208 there would not be a need to have body hair in the first place.

Furthermore, we have no indication that for the females forming body hair is even an option to form during their transformation.

Ryn's immediate post-transformation body in 210 shows no sign of any body hair (neatly sidestepping the whole ingrown hair issues).

The same seems to be true for the other female sirens who never exhibit any sign of body hair, not even when in states of light dress or undress (various scenes in Helen's shop or in the forest from the first half of Season 2 come to mind.)

Convincing any of those apex predators to start shaving seems out of character for any of the humans that interacted with them (they had a lot more important things to do) and in any case I cannot imagine that any attempt to convince an apex predator to let a sharp blade come anywhere near vulnerable body areas would have gone over well. In fact, it would have been downright stupid and suicidal to even attempt such a thing.

Therefore I have no other option but to conclude that female Sirens do not have body hair in human form.

Part B: Males

But what about the Males? After all, body hair does differ in humans as well according to their respective sex.

Frank's body exhibits facial hair but otherwise is devoid of body hair, as seen in 205 before he jumps into the water.

This is also several days after his first transition, so if he has the capacity to grow body hair in those areas we would expect it to be shown there. As there definitely is nobody who has ever taught Frank to shave his body I would therefore argue male Sirens also have no body hair.

So case closed. No body hair whatsoever.

And then it got complicated, because there is one male Siren who constantly exhibits body hair.

Levi in Episode 108 (the first time he comes on land) has chest chair in human form. We get a closeup of his chest in Episode 201 when Ben drains the fluid from his lungs, this also shows clear chest hair despite him only having transformed a short time ago.

Levi in 108 and 201.

However Levi is also an aberration in that he has no facial hair at all (and does not grow any during his time on land) but has body hair at the time of his transformation. Truth be told I do not know how to classify Levi. Is he the one exception that prove the rule? Is he the rare case where the recessive genes (body hair) triumph over the dominant genes (no body hair) in the males? Or did the writers and directors forget to be consistent here?

Assuming that Levi is not special in the genetic category the conclusion must be that for male Sirens you either have facial hair but no body hair (Frank) or you have body hair but no facial hair (Levi).

I tried to get a tiebreaker in the form of the walking sperm bank of Episode 214 but the lightning in his scenes prevented me from getitng any good evidence either way. I also wish I had more than two examples to base this analysis on - I am in general much less certain when it comes to the males than when it comes to the females as we have many more examples of the former than the latter.

So after examining all visual evidence and the case for and against body hair, I have to conclude that my earlier assumption of them having body hair was wrong for the females and at least partly wrong for the males. It seems females have no body hair at all and males seem to either have facial hair or body hair - but not both.

Thank you for reading this long post about a (seemingly) trivial issue. I look forward to any criticism or additional information you might have, feel free to drop them via reply or message anytime.

TL, DR.: Females seem to consistently not have body hair, for males it is more complicated and seems to be a genetic choice between having body hair or facial hair.

(Oh and here is an imgur link for bigger versions of the pictures in case you have trouble viewing them in the low resolution I used for the article)

#ryn #siren #siren freeform #analysis #god this took longer than I thought #why does Levi have to complicate things #need more male sirens to be sure #hmmm what should I analyze next

12 notes · View notes