Can you give me headcanons or insight into Norrington's fighting style?
James is very much a studied swordsman. He grew up in a family with a military history, and was expected to follow suit. He was given his first sword at a young age and practiced daily in the hopes of earning a kind word from his father.
When he entered the navy at age 12, he was already a remarkable swordsman, skills that were only honed more in the following years of service.
James is very methodical in his fighting. He doesn’t rush into things headlong, he takes his time to figure out the best way to defeat an enemy before whacking away mindlessly. His body has been trained to perform certain attacks and fencing figures, so he hardly needs to think about them as practiced moves when he’s fighting, it’s all performed as a constant stream of fluid motions. You can see this really well when he’s fighting against Barbossa’s cursed crew in cotbp, he collects himself for a moment after boarding the Dauntless, then gets into his rhythm and doesn’t stop until his enemy falls to the ground. Even when Koehler stops fighting and looks up to the moon, James is in a defensive stance, ready for another attack.
Of course, this all dramatically changes when we see him in the tavern brawl in Tortuga. Some of his training and figures and footwork are still there, but performed sloppily between swigs, and he’s not taking his time to ensure they’re done correctly. He’s swinging wildly, making erratic lunges, etc. He gets a bit of his own style back on Isla Cruces after he’s sobered up a bit. He’s still not taking his usual time to thinkabout attacking before acting, but he’s not swinging blindly or drunkenly any more, and he also throws in some ungentlemanly kicks and bad form, kicking sand in Will’s face and the like.
One of my favourite parts of that fight is when James and Will are both fighting against Jack on the church’s roof. James is alternating between slashing at Jack and ducking so Will can get in a second hit, and Will’s doing much the same, defending James’s vulnerabilities while his partner is attacking. It feels very coordinated between two skilled swordmasters, and I can imagine it being a specific attack taught that they would have both studied, even if they’d never utilized it together before that point.
There’s also some great shots in silhouette on that roof where you can really see that formal sword-training form in his movement.
tl;dr: commodore james is much more a defensive fighter, tortuga bum james is much more offensive-minded, and also more careless about his life :’ )
