You know, Jack actually betrays Will a total of twice in all three movies, both times in DM: when he sends him to the Dutchman then during the three-way duel Jack points out it's Will that Norrington should blame more Jack.
Jack MANIPULATES Will many more times for his own agendas but none of those instances work directly against Will's own interests or well-being.
In the game going on between Jack and Elizabeth, if she'd offered herself, he'd certainly have taken her up on it but the choice WAS hers and she didn't make it. Meanwhile, she was easily doing as much teasing as he was seducing, hardly the betrayal Will sees it, but he's quite humanly jealous when he witnesses the kiss--and it's initiated by Elizabeth for her OWN agenda.
But in Will's POV, he'd reasonably not take kindly to being maneuvered. That touches a man's pride in a very fundamental way. Will blames Jack even for his OWN decision to save Jack from the gallows, which is a stretch.
I also like that you confront Will's very feasible resentment of Jack's pausing to gloat, which gave Jones the time to stab Will. That too is damning him for lacking hindsight, but Will is stuck on the Dutchman and not inclined to make fine distinctions among his grievances.
What makes this story SO good, is not only that Will moves past that, he's not simply being "nobly forgiving".
There is such layering of emotion and understanding. No one-dimensional noble-Will here! After his years on the Dutchman, he's seen the complexity of the soul, the mixed shades of gray in every motive.
Beyond his grudges he can recognize the good in Jack alongside his self-serving schemes, his inherent trickster nature.
People tend to forget or shrug off the event that sets the whole adventure in motion; Jack saves a drowning woman he not only doesn't know but the rescue will draw unwanted attention and he is in fact captured and condemned out of hand!
>And against his better judgment Will had tried to forget the glimpse he’d gotten of Jack’s face< So Will's better judgment would be precisely to remember that he'd seen Jack at his most honest, all masks dropped.
There is in Jack a core of humanity that at the very last will do "the right thing" because it IS the right thing. There is in Will the greatness of soul to step past his grievances to respond to that generously.
That indefinable something in Jack that calls to him is a shared fundamental decency. They may not be "peas in a pod" but there is commonality at bottom. Will salutes it when he treats Jack as fellow captain and Jack sees and accepts Will's gesture for the fine thing it is.
*grin* Also like everyone else, I love the line: > “Aye,” he assented, still gripping Will’s hand in a prolonged clasp. “That’ll work, blacksmith.”<
I, too flashed to Babe, then I also thought of Gibbs in the pig pen, dazedly figuring his way through Jack's convoluted words to a free drink, "Aye, that'll about do it."
But I have to mention one other line that gave me shivers it was so good: >Something in the blood that now flowed and pooled under the guidance of tides and moon and sun rather than of a heart.<
I think you are the only one I've read so far that pauses to recognize that Will's whole being now moves to other rhythms, attuned to nature with a directness beyond human. What a strange, eerie beauty in the notion that, lacking a heart, it's the lunar tides that pull his blood in his veins. For an instant it makes him a magical creature, as strange and glittering in his own way.
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Date: 2009-04-03 07:20 am (UTC)So very fine!
You know, Jack actually betrays Will a total of twice in all three movies, both times in DM: when he sends him to the Dutchman then during the three-way duel Jack points out it's Will that Norrington should blame more Jack.
Jack MANIPULATES Will many more times for his own agendas but none of those instances work directly against Will's own interests or well-being.
In the game going on between Jack and Elizabeth, if she'd offered herself, he'd certainly have taken her up on it but the choice WAS hers and she didn't make it. Meanwhile, she was easily doing as much teasing as he was seducing, hardly the betrayal Will sees it, but he's quite humanly jealous when he witnesses the kiss--and it's initiated by Elizabeth for her OWN agenda.
But in Will's POV, he'd reasonably not take kindly to being maneuvered. That touches a man's pride in a very fundamental way. Will blames Jack even for his OWN decision to save Jack from the gallows, which is a stretch.
I also like that you confront Will's very feasible resentment of Jack's pausing to gloat, which gave Jones the time to stab Will. That too is damning him for lacking hindsight, but Will is stuck on the Dutchman and not inclined to make fine distinctions among his grievances.
What makes this story SO good, is not only that Will moves past that, he's not simply being "nobly forgiving".
There is such layering of emotion and understanding. No one-dimensional noble-Will here! After his years on the Dutchman, he's seen the complexity of the soul, the mixed shades of gray in every motive.
Beyond his grudges he can recognize the good in Jack alongside his self-serving schemes, his inherent trickster nature.
People tend to forget or shrug off the event that sets the whole adventure in motion; Jack saves a drowning woman he not only doesn't know but the rescue will draw unwanted attention and he is in fact captured and condemned out of hand!
>And against his better judgment Will had tried to forget the glimpse he’d gotten of Jack’s face< So Will's better judgment would be precisely to remember that he'd seen Jack at his most honest, all masks dropped.
There is in Jack a core of humanity that at the very last will do "the right thing" because it IS the right thing. There is in Will the greatness of soul to step past his grievances to respond to that generously.
That indefinable something in Jack that calls to him is a shared fundamental decency. They may not be "peas in a pod" but there is commonality at bottom. Will salutes it when he treats Jack as fellow captain and Jack sees and accepts Will's gesture for the fine thing it is.
*grin* Also like everyone else, I love the line:
> “Aye,” he assented, still gripping Will’s hand in a prolonged clasp. “That’ll work, blacksmith.”<
I, too flashed to Babe, then I also thought of Gibbs in the pig pen, dazedly figuring his way through Jack's convoluted words to a free drink, "Aye, that'll about do it."
But I have to mention one other line that gave me shivers it was so good:
>Something in the blood that now flowed and pooled under the guidance of tides and moon and sun rather than of a heart.<
I think you are the only one I've read so far that pauses to recognize that Will's whole being now moves to other rhythms, attuned to nature with a directness beyond human. What a strange, eerie beauty in the notion that, lacking a heart, it's the lunar tides that pull his blood in his veins. For an instant it makes him a magical creature, as strange and glittering in his own way.