Has the pairing changed for you?
With the release of At World’s End we get to see Barbossa and Jack interact in ways they never could in Curse of the Black Pearl, and I’ve been wondering, has this changed the way any of you view our lovely ship?
Personally I never really got into the pairing during CotBP because I thought the mutiny was too much of a hurdle to get over. Obviously Jack trusted Barbossa when he made him his first mate and Barbossa betrayed Jack. Jack is devastated, or at least he seems devastated to me. As someone mentioned in another post Jack seems to regularly shrug off betrayal as something that just happens from time to time. He doesn’t make a big deal of Elizabeth leaving him to die except in that one scene in the locker, and when Will betrays them to Sao Fang he pouts, calls Will nasty names, and throws him in the brig which he knew Will would escape from anyway. No ten years carrying a pistol with one shot with their name on it only Barbossa gets that honour. So, Jack spends the next ten years trying to get his ship back, and shoots Barbossa in cold blood at the opportune moment. Well what can you do with a pairing like this besides have lots of angry hate sex? Not that there is anything wrong with angry!sex, but I felt to actively ship these two I wanted to explore more then simply dark!Jack/Barbossa.
Low and behold along comes AWE and turns all my pre-conceived notions of this couple right on its head. AWE gives us the potential, for dare I say it, fluffy!Jack/Barbossa. Here the mutiny and its aftermath seems to be all, but forgotten (except for who is the true captain of the Pearl of course). Barbossa doesn’t bring it up outside of the locker and neither does Jack outside of the tension in the wet powder scene. I think Jack knew perfectly well that his pistol wouldn’t fire after all everything and everybody on that ship was soaking wet. I think he was just venting frustration because everyone seems to delight in pushing him around to achieve their own ends. (As a fangirl aside does anyone else thinks it’s cute when Barbossa shakes his pistol between him and Jack in a “we’ll talk about this later” way after Jack shoots at him?)
Then comes that lovely moment of them beside the Kraken and what a moment it is. Both of them are so open in this it’s just incredible. Just for that moment they let their guards down and simply talk. No yelling, no double-talk or grandstanding just talking. For Jack especially this is monumental, as Gibbs says “Jack keeps things close to the vest these days and a hard learned lesson it was.” And who did he learn that from? Barbossa! He is being venerable with the very man who taught him never to trust anyone. It just adds a whole new layer to things. Now it’s no longer just two enemies blurring the line between hate and passion, but I was reminded that they were once a team and have the potential to be so again. And considering they both had different goals in mind for most of the movie they didn’t work half bad with each other.
So, with the third film I find that the pairing, for me, turned into something that is just as layered and complex as the characters it involves.
Thoughts?
Personally I never really got into the pairing during CotBP because I thought the mutiny was too much of a hurdle to get over. Obviously Jack trusted Barbossa when he made him his first mate and Barbossa betrayed Jack. Jack is devastated, or at least he seems devastated to me. As someone mentioned in another post Jack seems to regularly shrug off betrayal as something that just happens from time to time. He doesn’t make a big deal of Elizabeth leaving him to die except in that one scene in the locker, and when Will betrays them to Sao Fang he pouts, calls Will nasty names, and throws him in the brig which he knew Will would escape from anyway. No ten years carrying a pistol with one shot with their name on it only Barbossa gets that honour. So, Jack spends the next ten years trying to get his ship back, and shoots Barbossa in cold blood at the opportune moment. Well what can you do with a pairing like this besides have lots of angry hate sex? Not that there is anything wrong with angry!sex, but I felt to actively ship these two I wanted to explore more then simply dark!Jack/Barbossa.
Low and behold along comes AWE and turns all my pre-conceived notions of this couple right on its head. AWE gives us the potential, for dare I say it, fluffy!Jack/Barbossa. Here the mutiny and its aftermath seems to be all, but forgotten (except for who is the true captain of the Pearl of course). Barbossa doesn’t bring it up outside of the locker and neither does Jack outside of the tension in the wet powder scene. I think Jack knew perfectly well that his pistol wouldn’t fire after all everything and everybody on that ship was soaking wet. I think he was just venting frustration because everyone seems to delight in pushing him around to achieve their own ends. (As a fangirl aside does anyone else thinks it’s cute when Barbossa shakes his pistol between him and Jack in a “we’ll talk about this later” way after Jack shoots at him?)
Then comes that lovely moment of them beside the Kraken and what a moment it is. Both of them are so open in this it’s just incredible. Just for that moment they let their guards down and simply talk. No yelling, no double-talk or grandstanding just talking. For Jack especially this is monumental, as Gibbs says “Jack keeps things close to the vest these days and a hard learned lesson it was.” And who did he learn that from? Barbossa! He is being venerable with the very man who taught him never to trust anyone. It just adds a whole new layer to things. Now it’s no longer just two enemies blurring the line between hate and passion, but I was reminded that they were once a team and have the potential to be so again. And considering they both had different goals in mind for most of the movie they didn’t work half bad with each other.
So, with the third film I find that the pairing, for me, turned into something that is just as layered and complex as the characters it involves.
Thoughts?