Yall complaining about the lack of truly positive love representation in movies hear me out: James Norrington was actually one of the best exaples of what true love is. I know it was technically never romance and I’m not saying it ever was, and that’s the point: even without ever being reciprocated he kept on loving and never tried to convince Elizabeth to change her mind, never tried to guilt trip her for ‘friendzoning’ him and never tried to get revenge against his rival. Bonus for never whining about it all.
I’m not good with words but let’s examine some of the best examples.
When in ep1 Elizabeth falls off the balcony while he’s proposing he is already taking off his clothes to jump after her from like 30 meters and he so would do it if they didn’t stopped him.
Don’t ever get me started about after Elizabeth has been kidnapped when Will goes to him all angry about him not doing enough to save his beloved and he just simply goes like ‘don’t ever make the mistake of thinking that you’re the only one to care about her’. And he could have said that loud enough for everyone and Elizabeth’s father to hear if he wanted to show off and make a scene but here he’s just talking to Will and that’s how delicate he is.
Then later when Elizabeth is found and she proposes to marry him in exchange for going back to save Will, that’s the point when he sees she’ll never love him because Will is the lucky one. But when he accept to go back it’s because the woman he loves aked him, not for her promise. And from now on everything he does is a ‘I know you don’t love me and I’m not expecting you to but I still love you and that’s why I’m trying to help you’.
And at the end again he prefers leaving his duty rather then arrest Will to leave him and Elizabeth be, that’s how much respect for her decisions he has.
Let’s get to ep2 when shit gets painful and he turns into Scruffington. And he knows how low he has fallen fut still keeps looking at Elizabeth like she was the shiniest star in the sky.
Ep2 is also the only time he actually fights Will but it’s not about Elizabeth, otherwise he never tries to get revenge or hurt his rival.
And in ep3 he just looks so genuinely happy and relieved when he meets Elizabeth on the Dutchman I mean have you seen his face.
And he died for her? Once he realised how bad he had fucked up the best way to make up for it was letting her go and I mean literally and figuratively. And his goodbye is basically ‘I’m sorry for everything, I hope you’ll be better off without me. I’m sorry you never got to love me like I do but I’m happy I met you in my life’. And then he steals one single timid kiss and off he goes.
He has never expected anything from Elizabeth once he knew her choice was Will and he still kept loving her so much. That’s what true love is.
Thanks for coming to my Ted talk.
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