Mr. Arrow Dies Really, Really Quickly

I used to read Treasure Island to my sibling when we were children. Apparently I did this a lot, which is news to me as I can barely remember any of the plot besides the major beats.

I was informed of this fact when re-reading Robert Louie Stevenson's classic adventure novel as part of my 2026 Reading Goals. So far I had been consisting of a diet comprised of Treasure Planet and the superior (though not necessarily to Treasure Planet) Muppet Treasure Island.

(1996) Muppet Treasure Island. Really difficult to find in good quality, but I triumphed.

These two adaptations, alike in dignity if not in whimsy, had fed me my information regarding the book that I had forgotten in the hazy period between childhood and teenagehood. 

Critically, both have Mr. Arrow slotted in the role that I would come to find out is occupied by Captain Smollet instead. Notably, and hence the title, Mr. Arrow dies really fucking fast. 

He's given one paragraph, and it is a mean paragraph. Detailing a very swift descent into drink (supplied naturally by Long John Silver, a character I am only slightly obsessed with) and then a very swift descent overboard.

It is even remarked by Captain Smollet that it saves them the trouble of 'clapping the man in irons'. 

Ow.

I imagine this common strain in adaptation to place more importance and agency in the hands of Mr. Arrow is to accomplish the softening of Captain Smollet. A man with conviction and hard ideas of discipline, which I suppose are too harsh to carry out on screen. Disney has it's habit of pointing the ray of protagonism at whatever heroic, masculine figure it can find, subverted somewhat in Treasure Planet, but only in that she is a woman.

Take for instance the making of Ned Land into our main hero in Disney's Twenty Thousand Leagues under the Sea. Fond of the 'irascible Canadian' as I am, not my first choice certainly. (Note: I am pretty sure this is what happens in the film, I have not seen it yet. Not academically sound of me, but perhaps I should give it a go and report back.)

Thus having foisted Smollet's sharper qualities onto Mr. Arrow, he [Arrow] is free to be made into a tragic figure. A Cassandra type if you please. Cast adrift by a treacherous pirate rather than bogged down by drink and ineptitude.

Of course, in one of my cited adaptations he does not die, but the narrative function remains the same. And if I say so, it is not quite so jarring as getting drunk and being tossed into the cruel, deep waters of the sea.

This thread will be saved for a fanfiction, at a later date.