History Fridge / Tarzan

* The reason Tarzan wears a loincloth despite the jungle having no nudity taboo (other than the fact it needs to be family-friendly)? Being found in a diaper might have something to do with it.

[[AC:FridgeLogic]]
* Why doesn't Tarzan have any facial hair?
** As the Disney film doesn't touch on the subject, we could reasonably fall back to the book's explanation. In the original novel, Tarzan notices from illustrations in books in his parents' cabin that many "civilized" men are clean-shaven. Wishing to distinguish himself from the hairy apes, he learns to shave using a knife he stole from a member of a local human tribe.
*** Except because in the movie he never finds his father's books or even the tree cabin until he's an adult.
*** It could be for the very opposite reason. While gorillas have tons of fur, including on their chin, it looks different compared to a human's mustache or beard. Fur on the underjaw vs hair surrounding the mouth. If anything, a gorilla's facial hair makes the chin look smaller, while a human's makes the chin look bigger.
** Tarzan's mentioned to only be 18 years old, some teenagers can't grow facial or body; and it wouldn't be a stretch that he may have inherited his mother's genes when it came to hair. The ability to grow facial isn't determined by the father genes, it can be determined by the mother's side of the family.
* InUniverse reason for Tarzan to wear a loincloth. Tarzan was found in a diaper, so Kala continued that (possibly because none of the male gorillas have anything visible down there and she didn't want him to stand out even ''more'') and it turned into habit.
** Fun fact: gorillas have the smallest penises of all the great apes, while humans have the largest. No one likes a show off.
* How is Sabor still alive? Tarzan is in his late teens or early twenties, at minimum, and leopards live only 12-17 years in the wild. Even if Sabor was only barely full-grown when she attacked Tarzan's family, she would still be very old and probably easy to pick off by the time Tarzan grew up.
** You answered it yourself. Why did she continue to fight with Tarzan after he cut her? Why didn't she run off? [[FridgeBrilliance Perhaps she was having trouble catching swifter prey, or maybe she knew she couldn't run away.]]
*** [[FridgeHorror That would also mean that Tarzan likely only survived their confrontation because Sabor had slowed and weakened in her old age.]] Sabor in her prime would have been the death of him.
** In the book, Sabor is the term for any lioness, and it was a different lioness both times. It's perfectly possible that's what happened here. It's just nice for us to think that Sabor who killed Tarzan's family got what was coming to her.
* Jane and her father came to Africa to study gorillas, specifically the (then revolutionary) theory that they're gentle, social creatures. But since they decided to stay with Tarzan and his family, they never got to take their important research back to London. Hell, people probably assumed the gorillas ate them.
** Except, if you consider the cartoon series as canon, there are several people who visit their neck of the woods and return home after having spent time with them and experiencing at least one of the gorillas (Terk) behaving very unlike the supposed norm for that time. That includes Jane's 3 girlfriends and Prof. Porter's female colleague. You could argue that they kept their stories to themselves for fear of not being believed, but enough word got out that a certain up-and-coming pulp author decided to see for himself if they were true.
** Also, in the animated series, the first gorilla some people encounter is the violent and vicious Tublat. While the show treats Tublat as an exceptionally violent individual, these people may see the KillerGorilla stereotype absolutely justified.
* 18 years pass with Tarzan in the jungle. Therefore Terk is 18 - female Gorillas start mating at about 10, but Terk has no mate nor children. The best explanation is that Terk is either lesbian (like Rosie), asexual, and doesn't really like the idea of mating. This actually means that she would be far more open to befriending Tarzan without having a sexual interest in him.
** Adolescent female gorillas normally disperse to new groups if their natal group has only one ruling silverback, as the resident breeding male is too likely to be their father and hence, an unsuitable mate. Terk would probably have left the troop much sooner, but her friendship with Tarzan may have convinced her to stay, knowing he'd feel even more isolated from the other apes without her there.
** There is one episode in the animated series where Terk gets attracted to a young male gorilla from a different troop. While they seem to hit it off at the end of the episode, the young male never appears again, presumably leading his own troop.

* The AdaptationalNationality the Porters receive in the Disney version can actually be explained away. In the opening paragraphs to ''Tarazan of the Apes'', Burroughs notes that he changed some details to protect Tarzan and the other characters on the off chance that they actually existed. The Porters' nationality could easily be one of these details that were changed.

* At one point during the baboon chase, Jane gets caught on a vine and separates from Tarzan. She's left defenseless hanging on the vine as the baboon tribe swarms her, causing the vine to break. She screams as she falls, but Tarzan comes in just in time, [[HandyFeet using his feet]] to grab Jane by her one bare foot. Awesome moment and all, but it makes you realize that if Jane didn't [[LosingAShoeInTheStruggle lose her shoe]], she may have potentially fallen and died at this moment.

*** [[FridgeHorror That would also mean that Tarzan likely only survived their confrontation because Sabor was feeble in her old age.]] Sabor in her prime would have been the death of him.