veronica_rich | More fandom wank

Actually, there's no real wanking; I just like the sound of the word.

I have more fandom-related thoughts on the whole DMC thing. (I have nothing at the moment on actual news in the world. There really IS too much wank on that front to make sense of it at this point - suffice to say the day the U.S. can successfully tell China what to do is the day more stuff in our homes will have "Made in USA" stamped on the bottom.)

I'm sure someone else somewhere has brought up these two points. But I haven't read them, so I'm going to make them as my own, since I came up with them on my own.

First, I can honestly say I've now squared with the J/E thing in DMC. It was one of those odd, random thoughts you have in the shower somewhere between putting the shampoo in your hand and putting your hands in your hair.

I just had to remember that Jack is not so obvious about what he wants.

Let me repeat that: Jack is not so obvious about what he wants.

Granted, we see nothing going on belowdecks involving Jack and Elizabeth. But we know the place exists, and there's no reason NOT to have a scene belowdecks if that's where it belongs, so we have to assume what happens up on deck out in the open happens there for a reason. Pay attention to how Jack's responses to and seductions of Elizabeth are all up on deck, in the middle of the day, with the crew present.

Part of what I always liked about the J/W dynamic is how Jack wasn't terribly obvious about it. He never is terribly obvious about what he really wants - when searching for the Pearl, he kept his own counsel about *why* he wanted her. As Gibbs told Will, "Jack plays things close to the vest now, and a hard-learned lesson it was." When explaining first to Will, then to Elizabeth, that he wants Davy Jones's key, he says nothing about WHY he needs it, nor does he say just how desperately it's needed - until forced by Will's hand on the beach (and even then, he's still not forthcoming as to the full WHY of it). Why would a man who does such things be so OBVIOUS in public about a woman he truly loves and wants, when he wouldn't even do it for his ship?

A man *would*, however, have no problem publicly swaggering around an attractive female he hopes to bed, which would enhance his reputation. That's something you can see in any bar you walk into, frankly.

Second, while Jack may be a world-class pirate, he's really not a very good captain at all. He knows how to operate a ship; he can probably even teach a new swabbie his skills, one-on-one, learning to get around one. But leading quantities of people on a daily basis doesn't seem his forte. In modern parlance, he's neither an employee nor a manager, but rather, an independent contractor who occasionally has to make use of casual labor to finish his jobs.

I don't think it's that Jack is incapable of being a good manager. I think he doesn't *want* to do it, and that forced to do it for any length of time is boring and taxing and too much like responsible employment ("Somehow, I doubt Jack will find employment the same thing as freedom" - couldn't have put it better myself, young Will). Yes, he wants his ship, but I think he realizes having a crew to run it is more necessary than desirable - if Jack could find a way to be alone on his ship with his rum, Gibbs, a woman now and again, *coughWillcough*, and invisible hands to pull at the oars, he'd be a blissful little pirate.