Talk:Fillip Dahl/@comment-112206-20181230223739

I love Return of the Obra Dinn with all my heart, but I think one weakness in an otherwise tightly put together plot is Fillip's actions not really making sense. What was attacking John meant to accomplish? He wanted to warn the others about the mermaids but how does attacking a random member of the crew accomplish that? And how was he so certain that the mermaids carried a curse anyway? What even gave him that idea?

And then later while locked away in the lazarette a man who thinks the mermaids carry a curse is foolhardy enough to screw with the chest? Seems inconsistent that a man who is warry of bringing the mermaids on board would then not be at all warry of the mysterious contents of the chest, though both attacking John and touching the contents of the chest were at least impulsive actions giving him some character consistency. Even then though, Captain Robert saying "20 years my steward and I never doubted your sanity" seem inconsistent with such erratic behavior.

The only explination I can think of to make sense of his behavior is that the curse brought on by mermaids was able to influence the mental stability of the crew. For some reason only some members of the crew were effected, and Fillip is effected more quickly and more severly than anyone else. Others seem to manage to keep their wits about them entirly, so the effects are, for whatever reason, not consistent. Some other crew member's actions might be explained by these effects; such as Marcus Gibbs impulsively attacking a crabrider, Nathan Peters killing Lars Linde,  Olus Wiater's mutiny attempt and decision to attack Thomas, Brennan clubbing John Davies without waiting for an explination, Leonid Volkov attacking the escapees and not listening to the captain tell him to stop, and William and co turning on the captain. Note that this sanity effect theory means that the mermaids didn't, or perhaps couldn't, lift this aspect of the curse after being set free as many of these actions take place after The Bargain.