The Crew Which No One Asked For

Here there be sea monsters (two of them)

[soft-stims]

Sea Slug stimboard for @sun-brushed

x x x - x x x - x x x

[everythingispirates]

no but actually I feel like the climax of dead men tell no tales could have been so much fun if they had will and elizabeth show up with their respective crews for it

[everythingispirates]

like in my mind the way it plays out is like. we get the split sea we get jack and carina heading down and we get henry being possessed and scary and THEN will rocks up with the dutchman crew like in my brain the visual of like. salazar's crew on one side of the divide and will's on the other feels cool and also would give us a moment of triumph since the dutchman crew can actually step on land and as such cross the divide and go after the silent mary crew, which would also give them something to do besides just staring. I also feel like you could do a lot more with the trident in this case than just throwing jack around a bit. like let's say that salazar does get his hands on it and starts throwing jack around but because he's distracted by that henry managed to surprise him and snatch the trident. then we can hold off a bit on the whole breaking it thing and instead have him somehow create a way for will to get out with some magic bullshit like idk maybe just give him a little water bubble to walk around in if jones could make do with a bucket I feel like that should work. also in this version what I envision is that instead of the navy just getting wasted by the silent mary before the climax has even properly started bc like it was actually very inconvenient to have them follwing our main characters around it turns out, I think they should stay in the sory and be sort of a point of tension that grows during the climax. like maybe after jack and carina head down into the divide we get to see barbossa see both the silent mary and the navy approaching and trying to decide what to do since he can't just leave carina but also knows that even with the pearl he can't handle a fight on two fronts right now, especially since the fighting space is severly limited by the divide. and THEN elizabeth rocks up and takes on the navy, giving us another turn in the battle.

this is like slightly incoherent but I feel like post-awe will and elizabeth are essentially some of the highest powers on the seas in the supernatural and human world respectively, and having will handle the supernatural threat or at least help out with it while elizabeth deals with the regular human threat would be a cool way to play on that idk

[everythingispirates]

also I think this should technically count as will breaking the dutchman rules and he should get a cool monster design. this is non-negotiable

[animentality]

You know what gets me, lads?

Davy Jones was in love with the sea.

But he knew what she was. A goddess, a force of nature, a spirit without singular form. Something that could not be owned or controlled or forced to be what he wanted.

He knew that and loved her anyway.

But it broke his heart, knowing he couldn't have her, so he carved it out.

He placed it inside a chest stuffed with love letters. He wore her locket around his neck.

And the worst, most tragic, most romantic part is that...if he could've accepted it, they might not have suffered as they did.

And that's why pirates of the Caribbean was so brilliant.

Because listen.

He was condemned to sail the ocean forever...but he loved the ocean.

It was only after he locked the ocean goddess in human form that he realized how truly painful it was to sail waters not guided by her own hand.

She mentions in their only scene together how it has tortured her to be away from him, do you remember?

He meant to punish her, but he only punished himself further because his eternity has been spent away from her, locked away due to his actions. When she said that, it was to remind him of their love and how they were never truly apart...before he locked her away.

And she also says, upon seeing him, that he also locked away what belonged to her.

While touching his chest.

His heart.

But it's even better, because she goes on to say, you corrupted yourself. You let go of your feelings, you own heart, because you couldn't live with the guilt of hurting the one you truly loved.

And now you're cruel and corrupted and this monster that you are...its not who you are. Not truly. You've become something you're not, and why? Because it would hurt less?

But it still hurts.

Because even now, he still loves her.

He tries to deny it, but she knows he's lying.

And at the end, when she says what will you do?

And he says, my heart will always belong to you.

My heart will always belong to you.

Ugh.

Ugh.

Fucking beautiful.

Because it always has.

He's admitting it finally. He lied but he couldn't keep a straight face.

Because that's what hurts.

That's why he cut it out.

Not having her, and not being able to face what he had done to her, and all the madness involved in giving your heart to someone else...

And when he said that...he just knew.

That when she was released, he'd find himself in her embrace, sooner or later.

He knew as he fell into the sea before the flying Dutchman.

He got what he wanted.

His heart was released from its chest.

His body was returned to the waters that had once enthralled him.

And he was with Calypso as he always wanted to be.

It's fucking beautiful.

No romance will ever come close.

A sailor in love with the sea.

An undead ferryman, lost at sea. Unable to control himself, lashing out, deciding that if he cannot have the sea, then neither can she.

Plus the fucking drama of a man literally cutting his heart out of his chest and putting it in a literal chest.

Like seriously.

Your man would fucking never.

[everythingispirates]

jack was so boring for not offing the king on his way out in on stranger tides he's already wanted for like every crime why not add regicide to the list

[everythingispirates]

also can you imagine telling the rest of the court that he shot the king. they'd never make fun of him for being a shit pirate lord again

[everythingispirates]

plus he could dangle it over elizabeth's head he could be like oh liz remember the time you killed me lol wasn't that funny lol anyway I have a history of murdering kings btw

[potcconfessions]

"We need more Davy Jones. That’s the post."

[everythingispirates]

choosing to believe that blackbeard our flag means death and blackbeard pirates of the caribbean is the same guy btw

[everythingispirates]

choosing to believe that the kraken our flag means death and the kraken pirates of the caribbean is also the same guy btw

[glumsoakedpirates]

That would also result in Blackbeard (PotC Kraken) winding up killed by Davy Jones and his crew on Lord Beckett’s behest... I don’t think I like that upfront but I am willing to work with the possibilities.

[scottishoctopus]

And my terrible memes return once again!

[squirrelpumpkin]

So I’m rewatching PotC and I just realized that although we spectators already come to Curse of the Black Pearl knowing beforehand that Jack is quite eccentric, the characters don’t know and it really fucks me up that at first Elizabeth, Will and even Norrington do see Jack as Captain Jack Sparrow and do get intimidated by the stories about him. Of course later they start seeing more and more about who he really is and go all “#is this serious #i’m so fucking done™“, but at first they are intimidated by him and now that I’ve seen Jack with these eyes I just can’t stop having my mind blown by every single scene because I too can now see Jack by the way strangers would see him and it fucks me up to finally realize he is intimidating and does look like a cruel pirate

[squirrelpumpkin]

okay so i just took a moment and realized i need to go deeper into this, i’m completely obsessed now

When Elizabeth first meets Jack, she has absolutely no idea who he is. There’s this man who just pulled her off the water and saved her life. Suddenly said man is a pirate (a.k.a. a certainly murderer, ruthless criminal) with a chain around her neck and a gun aimed at her head. She gets pissed instead of scared, but that’s because Elizabeth is the most pirate-y of them all, a point to be discussed in another post. Any other person would be terrified.

When Will first meets Jack, he also has absolutely no idea who he is. He’s picking up a weird hat at the forge when suddenly a sword hits his hand and a man is threatening him with a sword. Will fights him though, but that’s because apparently the kid has more love for rightfulness and justice than for his own life.

I really want everyone to take a good look at this gif as if you didn’t know who Jack is. Will has his stance but is retreating. Jack? A nameless, potentially dangerous pirate, totally relaxed (look at his posture, he’s not rigid at all) and in his element, to the point of sliding his sword along Will’s, provoking him.

At one point in this sequence Jack has only one sword, and yet puts up a fight with Will, who has two. Let that sink in for a moment. At this point in the movie Will has been a blacksmith for maybe just a few months less than eight years. He practiced with swords three hours a day. Roughly 8640 hours of training and two swords versus Jack and one sword. Jack is scary.

[squirrelpumpkin]

But imagine that this is only the first impression for those who don’t know that the man they’re looking at is Captain Jack Sparrow. Now, imagine what people who have heard of his name think. We know Jack carries rumors and stories, Elizabeth herself had read about them before.

“Jack Sparrow? He sails the Black Pearl, a black ship with black sails. They say the ship was once burned and sank but got brought back from the bottom of the sea as perfect as it was before.”

“Jack Sparrow once was killed by the Kraken.” “Once was killed?” “Yes. The stories say he went to Davy Jones’ Locker but came back.”

“Jack Sparrow and Blackbeard met once. Sparrow survived.” “How is that even possible?” “Not only that, but Blackbeard died in the fight.” (We know Barbossa killed Edward Teach, but you can’t tell me there aren’t people who say it was Jack. Some say they fought Blackbeard together, some say Barbossa did it all alone. A consensus was never reached.)

“They say that he talks to witches.”

“Apparently his crew mutinied once. They abandoned him on an island, but Sparrow escaped and cursed the crew. The mutineers became undead, agonising men until Sparrow got his precious ship back and sent all of them to the bottom of the sea.”

“He once almost got captured by the East India Trading Company, but disappeared without a trace.”

God, I just have a lot of thoughts right now. We know Jack as a funny eccentric man who has no idea what he is doing half of the time and improvises a lot, but people who don’t know him? They cower in fear. ‘Captain Jack Sparrow’ are words whispered at bars at night in hushed tones, by men afraid that the pirate’s shadow might by behind them, listening. The sight of the Black Pearl causes havoc whenever it arrives near the continent. Jack is known by many names, most of them referring to how many times he tricked Death.

[liivingwater]

I’m in love with this post.

[glumsoakedpirates]

"The only thing any of us have -- years of service..."

In Dead Man's Chest, we are very briefly introduced to the idea that the crew of the Flying Dutchman participate in a betting game where they wager years of service aboard the ship. What we aren't told is in what direction, or really even why, and I have many thoughts on the matter.

The first thought is regarding direction. We know that the crew have been brought into the curse upon Davy Jones offering an alternative to death. The preamble is in awareness that the person being offered the choice either a) fears death, and/or what comes after or b) does not fear death, and/or what comes after. Therefore, anyone who has joined the crew had a reason to claim such fear, and a reason to want to be there. If we assume that Davy Jones' reference to a judgement postponed implies once the sentence is up, the crew member will still be going to the locker, then we could also assume that shortening the distance between present day and judgement day would not be particularly desirable.

I propose, in this case, that crew members may be wagering to gain years of service in order to continue to stave off death. Losers during these games of Liar's Dice would therefore also be losing years of service, and growing closer to judgement.

Additionally, we can imagine that a number of crew members may eventually grow to have second thoughts about it all. Perhaps, after enough time aboard the Flying Dutchman, they feel less afraid of whatever could be lying in wait for them after death than they suffer day to day working the ship. They may determine that service on the Flying Dutchman is worse than anything they could be judged for, regardless of if this turns out to be true in practice, and be voluntarily looking to lose years if they can help it.

They may have different forms of wagers depending on who's playing, or perhaps they arrange it all in a manner so those who want to leave sooner are entered into games between those who want to stay longer. Or perhaps both, depending on player mood.

Expanding on direction, since we later see that one is capable of wagering infinitives, that is eternity or freedom, why not everyone go for broke? I think on one hand, this wouldn't bode well for the entertainment and thrill factor as much, and on another I believe for the most part the crew are content to remain with one foot in a kind of limbo. Betting on eternity or freedom would be an act of commitment, where they would be expected to be prepared to never be able to change their mind again (if they could, would it really be much of a wager?) I believe plenty of the crew are happy with the illusion of power of choice they have in being able to stake their time or keep it to themselves, and since it's literally the only thing they have defining that infinitive would remove the last hint of leverage they have over their situations.

This isn't to say I don't think crew in the past haven't tried it, but they're all here because they told Davy Jones they would rather serve now and die later. We also know that, in time, the crew slowly lose themselves and become part of the structure of the ship, and this may not be as glamorous a future to some as it is to others. On an individual level, if I were trying to see how long I could stay before I became nothing at all, and how soon was too soon for me to face oblivion, I'm sure I would enjoy toying with the definition of the beginning and end of my contract in my free time too.

[dread-witness]

100 Years Before The Mast

In DMC, Bootstrap tells Will: “Once you’ve sworn an oath to the Dutchman, there’s no leaving it.” This is expressed across from Wyvern’s body melded into the bulkhead, seemingly to demonstrate Will’s future aboard the vessel from Bootstrap’s perspective before he learns Will has “sworn no oath.” He then promptly demands that Will leave, because he can, and he must. However, we have seen, and will later see, that the crew can physically depart from the Dutchman and do whatever it is they must do, whether that’s on another ship or on land. Literally speaking, they are leaving the Dutchman, so Bootstrap’s claim must not be literal. The act of physically leaving, I imagine, may even be governed by the Captain’s permission (conceptual exploration for another time,) but what of not coming back?

Keep reading