PotC: At World's End (Elizabeth, Will, and Jack -- longish)

[butterfly]

I'm a bit of an odd bird -- my favorite character in the PotC trilogy is Will Turner, who I find to be clever, subtle, brave, loyal, and all-around fantastic (and he has the best facial expressions in reaction to the craziness going on around him -- I have such admiration for a strong straight man to everyone else's jokers).

I adore Elizabeth and Jack, but though I feel that Elizabeth is the PoV of the movies and Jack is the model of benign and romantic piracy that Elizabeth aspires to in the beginning (and Will comes to admire in the end), in many ways, Will is the heart of it all.

Will's character starts out with two primary motivating emotions -- love for Elizabeth Swann and hatred for pirates. At the end of the first movie, both of these things are resolved -- he tells Elizabeth that he loves her and he claims Jack as both a pirate and a good man. In the second movie, his story becomes more layered with the introduction of his father. The third movie throws his two primary desires into direct conflict -- he wants to love and be with Elizabeth, but he also wants (and promised to) save his father from Davy Jones.

In the first movie, Will is the hero -- he sets out to save 'the girl' and does so, winning her heart and the respect of those around him. In the second movie, Will is much more of a pawn, moved around by Jack and the East India Trading Company and not allowed to complete any gambits of his own. In the third movie, he comes into his own -- he double-crosses everyone (for the highest of motives and, ultimately with the understanding of the people whose opinion matters most to him) and gives away all the information that people want to keep hidden ("Jack Sparrow." "He didn't tell you? Jack's alive." "Who betrayed you? Davy Jones."), but then, in the end, he is the one stabbed in the heart, in distress.

The choices that Will makes are consistently ones of sacrifice for the people that he loves, so, in the end, it is so appropriate that we see their depth of emotion for him.

Because when Will gets stabbed, the world stops. Bootstrap pulls himself out of his haze of 'part of the ship, part of the crew', Elizabeth's focus narrows to only Will's face, and Jack... Jack realizes that he can't live with forever if he's bearing the burden of Will's death.

So, while I'm talking about Elizabeth and Jack, I'm going to talk about Elizabeth and Jack.

Elizabeth is definitely the main PoV character of the trilogy -- we open and close with her, and this is really the story of how Elizabeth Swann went from being a cosseted and corseted girl to being a powerful, strong, fulfilled woman.

I adore Elizabeth, incidentally. I completely adore her. If there weren't a Will, she'd be my favorite character, hands-down. And she's fantastic in this movie. If it weren't too spoilery, I'd have an Elizabeth icon with 'Pirate King' on it already. I fully believe that she's spent the ten years since the movie being all Pirate King-y, by the way -- since it looks like she's living on Shipwreck Island and all. She's totally hanging out with Jack's dad and teaching young Will the Code and being all intensely hot and everyone's boss. I love how she went from unsuccessfully ordered people around in CotBP to leading an army of pirates! So much Elizabeth love.

And I love how much of this story is an exploration of a woman deciding just who she wants to be -- in each of the three movies, she plays along with being mistaken for something that she's not, and each time, she finishes up the movie with a bit more power than she had before. I love the symmetry of her playing 'Elizabeth Turner' in CotBP to being Elizabeth Turner in AWE (and Barbossa being the one that caused her to be a Turner both times). Her play-acting the part of a male sailor in DMC and her embrace of the ruthlessness inside herself at the end of that movie. And then her greatest part yet -- mistaken as Calypso, a goddess of the sea -- and ending the trilogy as the king of all the pirates.

I love Jack, as well. Jack is kinda mad and kinda brilliant (and he licks things! He's sorta like the Doctor! Incidentally, Will would make such a great companion -- he asks Excellent Questions, makes points of logic, notices and uses the environment around him, and accepts odd things into his worldview fairly easily) and both of those aspects of him were captured brilliantly in this movie. I love that he understands what Will is doing and helps him along -- I love that he thinks of Will when he's trapped in a cell, because breaking out of prison is Will's thing. I love him not wanting to kiss Elizabeth because the last time he did that, he ended up in Davy Jones' locker.

I loved him giving up his shot at forever on the sea in order to save Will's life. I loved that a lot.

I loved so many things, really.

I love how incredibly epic Will and Elizabeth's love story became. Before this movie, they were sweet and their relationship was a key part of why I adored the movies so much, but they weren't epic. Now, though, they're Captain William Turner of the Flying Dutchman, Ferryman of the Dead, and Captain Elizabeth Turner, King of all the Pirates (does that make Will the Pirate Queen?). He's immortal, she's not, but they love each other so much that one day of being together is worth a wait of ten years in between.

God, how much they love each other. It was always so clear in the other movies -- this really is a case of love at first sight. She saw a boy that was a pirate and claimed him for her own, he saw a girl who said she'd watch over him and wanted nothing more than to be near her for the rest of his life. And they grew up and came to understand each other, and the sea claimed him and he can only have one day with her every ten years, and their love isn't shaken by it.

Their story is contrasted very strongly against the Tia Dalma/Davy Jones love story, and AWE shows us all the reasons why Tia Dalma and Davy Jones failed and betrayed each other, while showing us just why and how Elizabeth and Will will be different. All parties wonder if they can trust the person that they love -- Tia Dalma asks Davy Jones if he really would still love her if she was anything other than what she is, Davy Jones carries the bitterness of being betrayer and betrayed, and Elizabeth and Will admit to each other that there are burdens that they will try to carry alone.

"How can I trust you?"
"You can't."

There are no guarantees. Will and Elizabeth come face to face with the fact that just because they love someone, that doesn't mean that they have control over that person's choices. And they accept it and they make the choice to bind themselves together regardless.

Speaking of, that was the most kick-ass wedding ever. The sword-fighting that was like dancing... how perfectly in-tune the two of them were... the kiss... I could have watched that scene a dozen times over and still have wanted to watch it more.

And then the beach scene...

So fucking hot (seriously? Disney? That was risqué, highly suggestive. I'm impressed!). The boot. The knee-kissing. The forehead touching! Will unknowingly echoing Jones by telling Elizabeth that his heart always belonged to her, but he's such an honorable man, in the end, our Will. He'd never betray Elizabeth, never try to control her and constrict her to be less than she is (he proved that in the beginning of AWE, when he was going all-out to save Jack despite believing that Elizabeth was in love with Jack). And Elizabeth letting him know that she'll keep his heart safe! And she'll keep that promise, because everything she's done in the trilogy has been to safeguard and protect Will. From the very beginning, he was her heart's desire, too. Unlike Tia Dalma, Elizabeth is constant and true -- a flesh and blood woman, not a force of nature. He'll never bind her and she'll never abandon him.

And Jack! Jack, who is the man who helps them get together (both in CotBP and in AWE). Jack is the one who teaches Will to reach for what he wants and gives Will the courage to tell Elizabeth that he loves her. And Jack loves Will so much! He gave up his best shot at immortality because he couldn't live with Will dying on his watch. And Jack saved Elizabeth from needlessly dying when Will was being turned into the captain of the Dutchman, and I adored their last exchange, the mirroring of their first parting in CotBP -- "It never would have worked out between us." "Keep telling yourself that, darling," but he says it with so much clear fondness, one dangerous kindred spirit to another. If there's an OT3 going on (which I'd vote for!), Will is definitely the lynch-pin of it, not Jack or Elizabeth (especially now that Jack is scared to kiss Elizabeth -- ha! I'm so amused by that.). And Jack respects the Will/Elizabeth relationship, which is so sweet (he's always respected the power of Will's feelings for Elizabeth, but I'm not sure he fully understood the strength of her feelings for Will until the end of DMC).

They know each other, these three people, and they love each other.

And, as always, I'm in awe over the fact that this trilogy is based on a Disneyland ride. A ride. A Disneyland ride. That never stops being funny.

Comments

[butterfly.livejournal.com]

Will is totally the Pirate Queen. It's lovely. Wonderful movie.