The Antarctic, let’s look at Jack’s perspective.
So we see Pitch constantly noted for his experiences in the Antarctic. How it showed more humanity -remember, he’s not human, we don’t know the ideals of his world, and probably never will- within him. We know from the script that he was meant to be honest and his reactions were toward his anger and betrayal and want for company.
HOWEVER. Jack’s feelings are to often ignored. Heavily, and rather, he seems more like a trinket in a sense to peoples want for Pitch’s happiness.
Let’s look at what had happened right before the Antarctic. Jack is called from his duties with the Guardians to Pitch’s lair. We see him smiling, we seem him the most genuinely happy he has been in the film, while helping others rather then cause a bit of chaos. Fun, but chaos nonetheless where people did get hurt in the process. Here, Pitch doesn’t JUST taunt Jack, he literally throws him around.
He puts Jack through a living representation of a nightmare.
He delves him into shadows. He allows him to scramble in the dark. He backs him into walls and small spaces. He forces him to put his defenses up so he can smash them to pieces.
Pitch takes every aspect of Jack’s emotional fear and tears him down with it. And he’s ELATED to do it. The more he goes on, the happier he sounds. He smiles in Jack’s face while telling him what a screw up he is, how much he can’t have this new found family.
So after emotionally tormenting him and chasing him around his lair, Pitch purposely sends him right back to the Guardians in their moment of turmoil.
I also know people enjoy bashing the Guardians about this scene, so I will expand. The Guardians are on their last limb. Their friend just DIED in front of them, and they’re doing their best to hold it together. Easter is destroyed. Their losing their powers. And the children are miserable. They’re literally DYING at the time. Their strength is depleting and Jack only comes back with what he was promised in the first place.
Bunny, even from the books, is not the most trusting character. It’s a pretty big deal for him to put trust into Jack, so quickly even, especially with the past they have. Easter is the most important thing in the world to him. Sandy was important to him. The Guardians couldn’t afford having someone around who would only run off on them in their time of need. Remember that these are PEOPLE.
Heroes have feelings and thoughts, they’re not just drones of good and understanding. Just like Pitch, and all other villains given excuses, peoplereact to their emotions. Seriously.
So Jack flies off after being denied by the people he thought he was going to form SOMETHING with. He was excited, he was into it, and now he has been denied. Pitch finds him and says one of his iconic lines.
"They never really believed in you. I was just trying to show you that. But I understand."
You see, Linddzz pointed out something about this line. This is a way of Pitch saying that he’s better then them. Part of his whole point of running Jack around and then throwing him back to the Guardians was to TRY to MAKE Jack see him as the better option. The more sympathetic figure.
THIS IS EMOTIONAL MANIPULATION GUYS.
It is seriously not an okay thing, and Pitch was using it at its finest. He broke Jack down, sent his adversaries to break him more, then came back in attempts to build him back up in the image HE wanted.
You see, he was determined to make Jack vulnerable. He wanted him unstable and weak in order to draw him over to his side. He was literally attempting to break this kid who had already been through so much.
Let’s not forget Jack didn’t even MATTER to Pitch until Jack showed his potential in POWER. Once he wiped out all of the Nightmares, THEN Pitch was interested.
So again, Jack’s perspective. This guy shows up, murders someone important to him right in front of him, attempts to attack him as well in the process, then, attracts him to his lair, only to berate him, confuse him, toss him about, make him feel lost and broken, purposely sends him back to the Guardians, is the reason the Guardians reject him, then has the audacity to act like he understands what’s going on.
We all know how it feels when we feel utterly broken inside and someone tries to say they understand. When the cause of the pain tries to be an understanding figure.
Pitch doesn’t get what Jack’s going through at that moment, because he set up the playing field for Jack’s emotional destruction and there are parts Jack are feeling for that Pitch COULDN’T understand because he is not in his head.
Jack attempts to listen to what Pitch has to say. But guess what, he was going to try to hurt the kids. The world. And no matter how much it has rejected him, he still cares about it. Jack’s center is fun, it always has been.
That’s a big deal right there. He wants to see people laughing and smiling. Pitch wants just the exact opposite.
So of course he rejected him. And I will stand here and say, it was the right choice. Pitch is a character who is in fact manipulative and emotionally abusive. Everything noted, what he did to Jack, how he turns around and tries to show his vulnerabilities to him to draw him onto his side, I am sorry, but these are all signs of an abusive person.
Walking away was the right choice. Jack is a strong character. Pitch wanted him to be breakable, and guess what, his actions were not just a response to betrayal, it was also a “If I can’t have what I want…" sort of action.
After Jack attempts to just WALK away from the situation, Pitch decides to just keep going and only attempts to BREAK him more. And he does. But Jack rises up again, because he has that strength. He’s stronger then Pitch wanted him to be.
There’s more I wanted to say in this, but I can’t think of what else there was, so I shall leave it here. Try to consider Jack’s side a little more when it comes to the Antarctic scene, because seriously, Pitch wasn’t the only one hurting in that moment.
