hey guys. me again. i just noticed we only see norrington receiving and following direct orders in awe; in cotbp he’s got a much more open relationship with governor swann. this is partially because we don’t meet a higher naval power than the commodore until the EITC is introduced, but i think there’s some real fun (read: painful) parallels there:
gov swann commissions norrington’s sword for his promotion ceremony, and it’s clear he wanted it to be something special. both swanns knew he was gunning for the promotion, and both were delighted to see him receive it. i certainly like to read into the three (3) lines of dialogue that reference this way too much, but it establishes very early on that there is fondness there.
after jack saves elizabeth and the royal navy finally catches up to them, governor swann is pretty insistent that jack be arrested on the spot. norrington takes his time assessing the threat and explains to both swanns his reasoning rather than slapping the irons on jack immediately. you only see glimpses of their professional relationship, but there’s clearly a huge amount of trust between the two: when elizabeth goes missing, swann trusts him to find her even if he isn’t setting sail immediately. he trusts that norrington knows what he’s doing when he lets jack lead them to isla de muerta, even when he wanted to head straight back to port royal to get out of danger.
then, of course, there’s the big moment on the precipice: elizabeth stands between norrington’s state-mandated justice and will and jack’s freedom. governor swann could order norrington to stand down, let jack go, and grant will clemency (…again). but instead he gives norrington a gentle reminder that maybe life isn’t just following the law. and norrington trusts governor swann enough to see his reasoning and come up with a compromise of his own. as poorly as it ends in the sequel, it really warms my heart that they trust each other on something so major. it gives you the smallest peak into how port royal is run, between loving, emotional governor swann and prim, rigid commodore norrington.
and then yeah norrington loses everything for that clemency but then beckett makes him an admiral and he just had to use all his wits to become the very thing he hates to get there. but hey! he’s an ADMIRAL! he should be the authority on the sea! but the first time you see him in his new rank, he is being summoned to show up to beckett’s cabin. he is not an equal. beckett gives him his sword back, the sword that should have been his the whole time, and it is not a gesture of kindness or fondness, as it was originally. it is a reminder that everything norrington has now, it was given to him by beckett. and he will serve.
and yet — AND YET – in that same scene, he and swann interact for the only time in the film. and they exchange no words, but a single glance, one that reads spells out all the fear and apprehension they are both sharing as prisoners aboard beckett’s ship. neither want to be complicit in the EITC’s actions upon the sea, but both their power belongs to beckett. both are trapped. my eternal kudos to davenport and pryce for making whole meals out of these scraps of character development.
norrington and beckett don’t exchange any words the rest of the movie, yeah yeah, but the one time you do see them interact, beckett is gesturing him around like he’s a dog to be commanded. he is taking orders quietly; he is not making decisions. he is not even given the chance to get a word in edgewise. and then beckett further breaks his trust by telling him, off-screen, that governor swann went back to england and all is well. when he was in fact murdered and everything sucks.
it is no wonder that norrington’s first instinct, upon finding out that elizabeth is alive, is to express the relief her father will feel. they’re his last friends on earth, the only people he can trust!! and he has inadvertently betrayed elizabeth’s trust by returning to her father’s side, only for it to have gotten him killed. like, of course norrington immediately defects to help elizabeth. if he doesn’t have her trust, if her father is gone, then what is there left for him as an admiral?
and this, gamers and ghouls, is one of many reasons why they shouldn’t have cut that fucking scene where governor swann is told elizabeth is dead and tries to stab jones’ heart himself. norrington restrains him instantly, and they struggle — gov swann could overpower norrington if he truly wanted, but instead he begs, pleads, to let him do this, to avenge his daughter. and then davy jones enters to torment them, and norrington is holding swann’s blade steady even as he points a gun at jones. he is literally holding gov swann’s death in one hand and protecting his life with the other.
and then beckett comes in to be cruel to him, to thank him for averting disaster — and norrington can only laugh, because it’s not like he had a choice. beckett trusts norrington here, but only in that he trusts he can be controlled — or at least predicted.
this deleted scene is the only time in awe we would have seen norrington acting without orders before his big betrayal. it would have been a fantastic and elegant reminder of all that james norrington has to protect, and all that he is capable of, and all the love and trust that motivates him.
