INhonolulu Magazine Issue #14 - February 2014 | Page 20

From page 19
until they have already been married
for several years.
Why not include a scene in which
the princess arrives at court only to
realize that the commoner ‘U, whom
she likes a great deal, is in fact King
‘Umi? This would have provided an
opportunity for the princess to become a real character herself. Would
she have been angry at being tricked?
Relieved that ‘Umi is, in fact, her
friend ‘U and not a tyrant? Amused
and interested by ‘Umi’s unusual
trickster personality? Presumably a
combination of all three that really
would have made her human.
There are also things that simply made no sense to me. The same
princess, now ‘Umi’s third queen,
risks war with Hawai‘i to run back to
her parents on Maui. The real reason
is that she hates ‘Umi’s two old, fat,
spiteful queens. But, in her explanation, she says that ‘Umi is mean to
her—going against everything else
we know about him and about their
relationship. The queens are tossed
in at the end of the explanation and
given equal weight to her other reasons (him making fun of her necklace, for example).
Her running away is supposed to
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actually be a sign of her deep love for
‘Umi—she can’t bare to be around his
jealous and conniving older wives—
and it’s her passion for ‘Umi that leads
her to become emotional and lay the
blame at ‘Umi’s feet. Instead, Charlot’s
lackluster writing makes it seem that
she truly does hate ‘Umi.
So, when ‘Umi comes to Maui to
reclaim her and she almost immediately agrees to go back with him, we’re
left wondering why. Again, the reason
is because he promises her he’ll give
up his other wives, but the writing
obscures that central reason. Indeed
the only way I glea