a comment on AWE
I'm kinda hesitant to say this for fear of jinxing myself, but I do think I'm gonna be around a bit more now. Just give me a little time to ease back in, m'dears.
This is why I'm Not Bothered about Norrington's death.
Don't get me wrong: I agree somewhat with all the people I've seen saying that he was wasted, that the writers clearly lost track of him in the midst of everything else going on, that they didn't know what to do with him so gave him a token "noble death" to placate his fans without causing non-fans to double-blink and reconsider him at all...
But, here's my thing: I've got a major soft spot for the concept of a person reaching and falling short, but still reaching even while he falls. Norrington's bearing in all his brief appearances in AWE suggested to me that there was an awful lot of his story we didn't see, but could infer. His statement to Elizabeth that he had sins a'plenty even without being part of her father's death told me that a great deal had happened between his one purely selfish act that we saw -- handing over Davy Jones's heart in order to get his pardon and be reinstated with the Royal Navy (likely with his promotion already in place) -- and his stab at redemption/Davy Jones/death scene. The character that Norrington was established to be (by canon and especially by fanon) wasn't one who could get away with selfishness. It was always the tragic, unfair thing about him: that he, having such firm conceptions about Right and Duty and Service, almost couldn't be allowed to act solely for his own interests. He did it once, and everything that was built upon that act -- reinstatement, promotion, his "old life" resumed with the illusion of once-real honor -- had to fall, because its foundation was made of something abhorrent to him. That his last act in the world was to stab for the home of Davy Jones's heart was just...achingly beautiful to me. It was a refutation of the decision that ruined him, a dying reach for the honor he'd meant his dishonorable act to restore, an acknowledgement that we fail and we try again, as long as we're able. (It brings to mind a favorite bit from Batman Begins: "Why do we fall, Bruce? So we can learn to pick ourselves up.")
That's why I don't think a showdown with Beckett would have had the same emotional resonance for me. Sure, serving Beckett compounded the "sins" he saw himself committing, but those sins were kind of an accepted, shared burden. He had to break himself first, by acting against his own foundation, before he could be weak enough for Beckett to saddle him. Going out fighting Beckett would have been akin to a doctor battling the symptoms; going out as he did, he was attacking the source of his illness. "This above all: to thine own self be true." In the end he saw clearly, and he was.
Also, I'm tickled pink that Jack's likely heading for Florida, 'cause I just learned to play "Seminole Wind" on my guitar right before the movie came out, and I like to think the universe was sending me subliminal messages: Think Florida, KJ...Florida...
ETA: And let's not forget that his whole story arc began with his failure to save Elizabeth when she fell from the parapet. Dying in the act of saving her (and, indirectly, everyone else, seeing as she was central to the pirates' victory in the end) is also pretty apropos.
Now off to my sister's graduation!
This is why I'm Not Bothered about Norrington's death.
Don't get me wrong: I agree somewhat with all the people I've seen saying that he was wasted, that the writers clearly lost track of him in the midst of everything else going on, that they didn't know what to do with him so gave him a token "noble death" to placate his fans without causing non-fans to double-blink and reconsider him at all...
But, here's my thing: I've got a major soft spot for the concept of a person reaching and falling short, but still reaching even while he falls. Norrington's bearing in all his brief appearances in AWE suggested to me that there was an awful lot of his story we didn't see, but could infer. His statement to Elizabeth that he had sins a'plenty even without being part of her father's death told me that a great deal had happened between his one purely selfish act that we saw -- handing over Davy Jones's heart in order to get his pardon and be reinstated with the Royal Navy (likely with his promotion already in place) -- and his stab at redemption/Davy Jones/death scene. The character that Norrington was established to be (by canon and especially by fanon) wasn't one who could get away with selfishness. It was always the tragic, unfair thing about him: that he, having such firm conceptions about Right and Duty and Service, almost couldn't be allowed to act solely for his own interests. He did it once, and everything that was built upon that act -- reinstatement, promotion, his "old life" resumed with the illusion of once-real honor -- had to fall, because its foundation was made of something abhorrent to him. That his last act in the world was to stab for the home of Davy Jones's heart was just...achingly beautiful to me. It was a refutation of the decision that ruined him, a dying reach for the honor he'd meant his dishonorable act to restore, an acknowledgement that we fail and we try again, as long as we're able. (It brings to mind a favorite bit from Batman Begins: "Why do we fall, Bruce? So we can learn to pick ourselves up.")
That's why I don't think a showdown with Beckett would have had the same emotional resonance for me. Sure, serving Beckett compounded the "sins" he saw himself committing, but those sins were kind of an accepted, shared burden. He had to break himself first, by acting against his own foundation, before he could be weak enough for Beckett to saddle him. Going out fighting Beckett would have been akin to a doctor battling the symptoms; going out as he did, he was attacking the source of his illness. "This above all: to thine own self be true." In the end he saw clearly, and he was.
Also, I'm tickled pink that Jack's likely heading for Florida, 'cause I just learned to play "Seminole Wind" on my guitar right before the movie came out, and I like to think the universe was sending me subliminal messages: Think Florida, KJ...Florida...
ETA: And let's not forget that his whole story arc began with his failure to save Elizabeth when she fell from the parapet. Dying in the act of saving her (and, indirectly, everyone else, seeing as she was central to the pirates' victory in the end) is also pretty apropos.
Now off to my sister's graduation!