Headscratchers / Sinbad: Legend of the Seven Seas

• Why does Eris even bother trying to manipulate people? She asks Sinbad to steal the Book of Peace, but then she just steals it herself like a day later. Why ask Sinbad to steal it if she can steal it herself? Likewise she frames Sinbad in order to get Proteus to take his place, assuming that Sinbad will abandon him and Proteus will be executed and this will leave the kingdom without an heir and that will cause chaos. But couldn't she just murder Proteus herself? She nearly killed him with a sea monster in the beginning; she could just drop another monster on him. Or she could personally attack him, the same way she attacked that guy who was guarding the Book.
  • It's a pretty common convention for cunning villains to want to pull the strings on the heroes to achieve what they want, even if doing so requires them to forgo being pragmatic and doing it themselves. Eris does it this way because causing such entanglements is more entertaining than just snapping her fingers and having everything wrapped up just like that.
• They say the Book of Peace is important because it protects the 12 Cities. What does it protect them from? The only antagonist around is Eris, and she's quite capable of entering Syracuse even when the Book is in place.

• Eris' vow says that she has to give Sinbad his book back if he tells the truth. In the end he proves he was telling the truth so she's magically compelled to give the book back. But now that she's given it back...can't she just steal it again? No one was able to stop her last time, and there's no reason to think that the book is better-defended now than it was then.
  • I think it's pretty evident that "You have my word I'll give you the book back" came with an unspoken guarantee of "and won't steal it right back afterward," since her word wouldn't amount to much otherwise. And her whole point was to frame Sinbad to kill his friend and start a succession crisis, which wouldn't be likely to work a second time now that people know she was involved... Besides, the book being stolen once is evidence enough that they'll up the security now that it's returned. It's frankly a little stupid to say "there's no reason to think" otherwise.
• So...Fiji...yeah I'm no expert on...whatever century this is's trading routes, but something tells me they wouldn't have had access to Fiji. Coming to think of it if this is a tale from any time in the medieval periods (they at least have cannons), shouldn't everyone in the story be Muslims and facing some kind of existential rationalism at interacting with a Greek God?

• If Proteus and his father are neither Arab nor Muslim, why does Syracuse have characteristics of Islamic architecture?
  • Most likely, King Dimas and Proteus are non-Muslim Europeans who were born in the Emirate of Sicily, something like the Mozarabs (Iberian Christians who were born in Al-Andalus)
• Where was the Book of Peace at the beginning of the movie? When Eris sees the Earth we see that the ships of Sinbad and Proteus are very close to Anatolia (Turkey) and headed for Syracuse, so we can assume that the book was there. But if the book was to be in the prince's hometown, why was the Book of Peace in Anatolia?
  • The Book of Peace protects the 12 Cities, not just Syracuse, which given the Greek influences in the film (e.g. Eris, Greek goddess of discord) are likely all either Greek Cities (e.g. Athens, Sparta) or Greek Colonies (e.g. Syracuse, Halicarnassus) spread out all across the Mediterranean coast. It would make sense that the Book would spend time in each city and occasionally be transported from one to another. If one of those cities was on the coast of Anatolia then it would make sense for the Book to be travelling across the Mediterranean Sea.
  • Are you sure that the 12 cities are Greek cities/colonies? because it seems that the film takes place in the middle ages and Syracuse has characteristics of Islamic architecture. There are even characters that appear to be muslims (Arabs, Berbers or Turks) such as one of the ambassadors of the 12 cities or the executioner of Syracuse.
• So, the Book of Peace protects the 12 Cities, right? It doesn't protect against Eris at all.
  • Fridge Brilliance: The gods are no doubt far more powerful than the book.
    • That begs the question of what the other gods were doing while Eris was meddling in mortal affairs.
    • Well, the gods tend to go out of their way to AVOID Eris in the first place (Apple of Discord, anyone?) and then it's the fact that most of them don't get involved in human affairs unless it's related directly to their own interests. It could also be that they already knew what was bound to happen.
• As unabashedly pointed out by the filmmakers themselves in the DVD commentary, for something so important, it only has one soldier guarding it.
• Is Earth round or flat in this setting? At the start of the movie, Eris is looking at a very round Earth, but at the climax they are sailing off the edge of the world, and one sailor tosses a coin to the other saying "it is flat". Or is that not really the edge of the world, only the entrance to Tartarus that the sailors assume is the edge?