Everyone always juxtaposes Will and Davy Jones, because there is  obvious parallelism to be had: They are two sides of the same coin, showing two different responses to love despite enormous odds—one fails and suffers for it, the other triumphs due to a pure, unbreakable bond.
The more enthralling parallel to me occurs when examining James Norrington and Davy Jones, because they are virtually the same side of the coin.
First, both had their livelihoods wrenched from them, and both felt trapped by the conditions they faced.
Where they differ is in how they respond to their circumstances.
James continues to fight for better days, despite things only getting worse for him with every move he makes. He accepts his fate, but pushes onward: “I can get Sparrow. I can best this hurricane.I can get my career back. I can do a good deed.”
Davy Jones, meanwhile, is content to wallow in his fate, giving up entirely. He stops doing the job charged to him, he suffers for it, and as a result vows to bring on nothing but misery for anyone who crosses his path.
Second, both fell in love with an untamable force of a woman. Both did everything in their power to win said woman. Both failed to either win/keep the love of said woman.
But once again, we see a different response in how each man responds to his heartbreak.
James continually grants Elizabeth the freedom she so desperately craves. His proposal to her is offered only once, and is not addressed again until she offers. Even then he offers her a caveat out (in a deleted scene). He lets her break their engagement in favor of Will. And finally, in his final action, he physically frees her from prison and ensures her safe passage.
Jones imprisons Calypso as punishment for the hurt he feels. He suppresses her power and physically binds her to a single form.
In sum, Jones is a fascinating example of what James could have turned into had he stopped fighting for a better tomorrow, had he retaliated in anger out of his heartbreak, and if he had embraced hate. He didn’t. He embraced love.
The one (non-deleted) scene where these two characters stand off is with James’s dying moments, and it couldn’t be more significant. Jones asks if he fears death, which at surface level sounds just like his typical invitation to join his crew. But it means so much more. He’s asking if James will forsake his living world, the world he’s only shown love and compassion, for Jones’s, a world of hatred and dominance. Even then, with a promise of immortality, James denies him this. And he does it nonverbally. Talk about a power move.
It’s moments like this, and many more I have seen analyzed on this weird little website, that prove to me that Norrington is the best character of the Pirates franchise precisely because of the ways in which he’s not a villain (callout post to CinemaSins who dares suggest otherwise). I want to end this TED talk by reminding you that Norrington was originally written as a character named “Dafoe,” and was going to be a surprise villain who had been working with Barbossa the entire time, revealed at the finale of Curse of the Black Pearl. I don’t know who on the writing team changed this, but I will forever be grateful that they did, because James turned out to be a nuanced tragic hero with a brilliant character arc. He’s not a villain. He never was.
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