Something that keeps coming back to me about Moana is that she isn't chosen arbitrarily. She isn't born into a great destiny. She was. Like. Hired? Basically?
Right at the start of the movie, the ocean presents Moana with a pretty shell. The tide even pushes the shell closer to her, to let her know she can have it.
Then, after she notices the baby turtle being attacked by birds, the ocean starts slowly pulling the shell away.
This is a test. One that the ocean's probably repeated for a lot of children. There is a pretty treasure in front of Moana but there is also a baby turtle in danger. If Moana saves the turtle, she'll lose the treasure. The ocean is asking her to make a sacrifice of something alluring, something she wants, to help someone she doesn't know.
It needs to know that she'll have the strength of character to resist the allure of Te Fiti's Heart.
That she won't just be the latest in a long line of thieves coveting the Heart for themselves, but will instead put people over treasure. Even the ultimate treasure.
This is also a test of her empathy towards a creature that she doesn't know and that doesn't look like her. A living thing she cannot possibly relate to or understand but can see is in distress.
Because that empathy is what will be required to see beyond the fire and rage of Te Ka to the wounded and victimized person underneath.
Finally, the ocean tests her courage and her willingness to embrace it. This is pretty straightforward. Her journey will require her to venture out beyond the known limits of her society and trust herself to the waves, and so the ocean tests her to see if she is willing to trust and work with it.
This, right here, is basically the "Close your eyes and fall backwards, and I'll catch you," exercise. Moana chases the shells out across the seabed and trusts the ocean not to betray her. And even when the ocean itself rises up to approach her....
She greets it with curiosity and acceptance.
And so earns the Heart of Te Fiti and her role as the chosen one. In a rarity for Chosen One narratives, the choosing process is depicted right there onscreen. Moana is selected because she demonstrates all the characteristics that the ocean needs for a person to fill this role.
It isn't about whether or not Moana is the One. It's about whether or not Moana can be.
There's just one major obstacle.
The chief obstacle of Moana's journey isn't the monsters or the perils or learning how to surf. The chief obstacle that Moana faces is the condescension and disrespect of her "betters".
Her dad tries to tell her what to do and how to think, and every time she tries to tell him about what she's discovered and what has to be done, he shouts her down. Maui stubbornly belittles and disregards her. Even Tamatoa dumps her in this bone cage so he can ignore her and focus on what really matters: Maui.
Moana's struggle is one of having her voice heard over the booming men around her. The only people she really has in her corner are the ocean, her grandmother....
...and, when it really counts, her mother.
Women helping women, seeing and hearing them even when the men around them shout over them. Measures of kindness and understanding that Moana in turn will pay forward to the "monster" Te Ka.
What's also interesting about Moana's journey is that it would be easy for her to sustain a Flat Character Arc. In the Flat Character Arc, the protagonist is static and unchanging; They change and develop other characters through coming into contact with them.
Consider Captain America: The Winter Soldier.
But despite that initial trial demonstrating Moana to have all the needed characteristics of the person who could complete this journey, there is one thing the ocean couldn't test for: the psychological effects of being constantly told that you're wrong.
Moana spends her whole life being constantly told that the things she wants are wrong. Her ideas are bad. She should just do things the way they're done. She should have these values and carry herself this way.
Consequently, Moana has some insecurities about her own voice.
The start of her journey almost doesn't happen because after a lifetime of being browbeaten for her ideas, Moana gives up and, for a time, allows herself to be moved.
It is, ironically, Chief Tui who gives her the kick in the ass she needs to break away from his way of thinking again.
With the encroaching corruption, the fishermen aren't able to catch any fish and Moana suggests fishing beyond the reef. This is a salient argument within the boundaries of the box Tui has defined for her. She is actually trying to fill the role that was defined for her and it still isn't good enough.
Because of his trauma, Tui is so scared of Moana's way of thinking that he becomes verbally and physically violent with her, and so inadvertently chases her straight back to the water. Because even when she's doing what she's supposed to do, her voice is not valued.
But even so, all of this has an effect on a person. Moana has a chip on her shoulder, an insecurity she tries not to show.
Her first instinct when she fails is to give up. To accept that her ideas are wrong, that she's wrong, rather than that the task is simply hard. Because that's what a lifetime of being told you're wrong does to a person.
This is Moana's personal flaw, the lie that she doesn't necessarily believe but fears to be true: That, deep down, she is wrong, and everyone who ever silenced her was right.
She's only able to speak authoritatively about her ideas when she has the backing of her grandmother and the ocean behind her.
She's bold, she's empathetic, she's all the things she was supposed to be. But when push comes to shove, she just doesn't have the confidence to see it through.
And when push comes to shove....
Maui blames Moana for this moment. Moana does too.
But this is Maui's fault. Moana had an idea. A good idea, one that ultimately ends up vindicated when it works the next time they try to pass through here.
But instead of listening to her, instead of hearing her out, Maui fights her. He turns his back to Te Ka so he can shout Moana down, so he can tell her she's wrong, and even tries to wrestle control of the boat away from her.
He isn't doing his job, isn't keeping his eyes on his opponent, isn't fighting Te Ka, because he's too busy fighting Moana instead.
And, in the aftermath, Maui steamrolls right over Moana with his own insecurities. Maui rips the Lie that he fears straight out of his own heart and uses it as a cudgel to bash Moana right in her own Lie.
Like Chief Tui, Maui is hurting and afraid, and he lashes out at Moana who has no recourse but to take it. That puts her right back where she was on Motunui with Chief Tui, except this time the setback has already been had.
This was never meant to be a test. It wasn't part of the selection process. But this ends up being Moana's final test. When Moana gives back the Heart of Te Fiti to the ocean, it lets her. It doesn't try to give it back to her like those times it kept putting her on the boat.
If Moana is ready to give up, then the ocean will let her give up. Again, it's not about whether she is the One. It's about whether she can be. And if she can't find the confidence to keep going, then she can't be the One.
When Moana asks it, the ocean takes back the Heart.
But it doesn't take it far.
Nor does the ocean give the Heart back when Moana self-actualizes. It makes her earn it back by braving its depths. That, right here in this moment, ends up being Moana's impromptu final test.
If she is to be the person the ocean needs, she has to believe in herself enough to reach for it.
She needs the strength to listen to herself and to believe that her ideas are right. And, with both her education of her people's history and the endless support of her grandmother by her side, Moana is able to cross that final hurdle.
Even though she passed all those tests in her childhood, it's only in this moment that she becomes the person the ocean needs her to be. The person that Te Fiti needs her to be.
The ocean always believed in Moana. But it wasn't enough. It would never be enough until Moana believed in Moana.
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