veronica_rich: (Default)
veronica_rich ([personal profile] veronica_rich) wrote2007-03-26 06:41 pm

What a fan wants

This is going to smack slightly of reduxing [livejournal.com profile] elibad's recent post in one of my communities titled What A Will Wants, but I hadn't looked at it in two weeks (or whenever it was posted) and actually had to go looking for it, for the URL, when I thought of this, just to make sure I wasn't completely copying her post.

This is not a spoiler, for I really know nothing about the outcome of AWE, and I think it's speculation that everyone by now has heard about Will - becoming captain of the Flying Dutchman. (So I'm not putting it behind a cut.) And I tend to believe a fellow fan who is neutral on the whole 'ship issue that this movie will go the way of traditional Disney fare, with the Hero and Heroine ending up together - in this case, Will and Elizabeth.

I want to get those out of the way. Let's just think about Will, alone, for this post. I was reading another community and for the 1,233,234th time it was brought up whether he would end the movie with Elizabeth. And that got me to thinking: How much do I really care if he makes up with her or not? I'm not belitting any fan who really wants this. I'm not even belitting any fan who really wants to see him on the Flying Dutchman ... though frankly, I think that's become more of a "default" position for those of us who like Will, who would rather see that instead of a dead Will Turner (obviously this doesn't include the fans who just don't like Will and want him out of the way - but, I presume nobody would reply to this who doesn't like him at least a little, anyway *G*).

What would you like to see for Will after AWE? It can be more than one thing - a blacksmith and a pirate? A merchant sailor and a father? Please try to think of something other than who he'll end up with. Aside from a relationship with a romantic partner - or instead of it - what can you see WILL doing (preferably happily, or at least with some satisfaction)? I'd like to see him in the American Colonies or somewhere similarly "new" in terms of law and order, a place where he can reinvent himself and make his own little fortune based on his abilities, not his former social strata - perhaps running a metal/farrier/swordsmith shop and employing an escaped black family as paid employees to help him out. (Don't ask me why that last part popped into my head - I've learned with creative writing to just go with whatever shows up. Plus, I like that Will would totally do something like that.) I suppose he could also play some part in local politics/lawmaking, since he's a smart guy and has learned some savvy from Jack that I'd hate to see wasted only on work.

[identity profile] veronica-rich.livejournal.com 2007-03-28 03:06 am (UTC)(link)
I really think we're being asked to compare oranges and grapefruits, to compare Elizabeth's reactions to Will and to Jack, and vice versa.

Elizabeth is almost always helpful to or admiring of Will, or worried about him - if not actual *worry* then at least concern for his well-being. The only time we've seen her irritated was when he wouldn't call her Elizabeth, at the beginning of the first movie.

On the other hand, she starts off trying to be fair with Jack because he saves her and he's a romantic notion of "pirate." But then he yanks her back in a choke-hold, and she gets pissed off and carps at him, and their relationship consists from then on mainly of one trying to find a new insult toward the other. The idea that this is somehow more "real" than the respectful relationship she and Will have hammered out is all in the eye of the beholder, methinks.

If you want to see E/W, that's what you'll see - if you want to see E/J, that's what you'll see. But to say Will ought to respond like Jack, when he's clearly not being treated like Jack, is problematic. Likewise, nobody can argue that Jack stirs something different in Elizabeth than does Will - but to say it's love is all in how you define love and lust and a combination of the two, perhaps.