#which is only because of the island scene in cotbp

[trickstercaptain]

thinking about how the dynamic jack has with james in dmc is almost identical to the dynamic he has with elizabeth. they are both foils who ultimately outplay him at the end despite him unintentionally ( or not ) putting them in that situation in the first place ( piracy 🌈 )

[dying-suffering-french-stalkers]

wendy’s great big pirates of the caribbean fic rec list

Hello, friends!  I’ve been meaning to make a Pirates fic rec list for years and the day has finally come.  This list is obviously in no way exhaustive and is very much indicative of my personal biases (*cough* lots of Norrington *cough*), but I can heartily recommend every fic that made this list and I hope you all enjoy it.  Making this was a labor of love and I would be thrilled to hear your thoughts on any you choose to read (though you should leave a kind comment for the author first)!

Other notes: I collected the bulk of these years ago, so there are a lot on FFnet and I have tried my best to screen them for various content warnings.  I believe only two fics on this list are explicit and are marked as such.  There is precious little slash on this list since that’s just not what I tended to read at the height of my Pirates phase; my apologies.

Under a cut to spare your dashes from this monster of a post.

“Mutiny on the Dauntless” by Marnie - Governor Swann and Lieutenant Norrington narrowly skirt disaster at the hands of a ruthless captain and dangerous crew on the crossing from England. [19k words. No ships. Warnings: seasickness, battle violence, minor character death, semi-graphic naval discipline.]

THE HONORAT COLLECTION in (hopefully) chronological order.  This author is my uncontested favorite Pirates of the Caribbean fic writer and I’m forever grateful to them.  Here’s to you, @honorat!

“Here’s Luck To You” - A collection of drabbles about Jack and Bootstrap Bill’s friendship, written in late 2005. [6k. Mind any posted warnings.]

“Homecoming” - Author’s summary: The young Captain Norrington has a rare moment alone with his beloved ship.  [1k.  No ships but the sailing kind.  No warnings.]

“Daring Rescue, Daring Escape” - A narration of Elizabeth's rescue following her tumble off the battlement and of Jack's attempted escape afterward.  [7k.  Can be read as Sparrabeth.  No warnings.]

“Worthy of His Steel” - Picks up where DR,DE left off, then flashes back to Will’s apprenticeship with Mr. Brown.  [44k.  Light Willabeth.  Mind any warnings: I remember minor character death, alcoholism, and general angst.]

“A Bargain At Any Price” - Elizabeth reflects on James’ interrupted marriage proposal.  [968 words.  Unrequited Norribeth.  No warnings.]

“Marooned” - A movie novelization of the time Jack and Elizabeth spent on Rumrunner’s Isle.  (If you haven’t seen the deleted scenes from CotBP, they’re now required viewing: Part 1, Part 2.)  [28k.  Can be read as Sparrabeth.  Warnings: alcohol; discussion of past injuries including burns, a brand, and a gunshot; discussion of death, murder, and suicide (latter related only to marooning and not seriously entertained or acted upon); mind any others.]

“Aboard the Dauntless” - Takes place directly after Marooned.  More movie/deleted scene novelization.  [20k.  Can be read as Sparrabeth and/or (unrequited) Norribeth.  Mind any warnings.]

“No Mercy” - Set aboard the Dauntless just after the battle at Isla de Muerta.  Have you ever been unreasonably hecked up by the sailor who rang the bell when he spotted zombie pirates?  I have because I’m Like That but now you can be too!  [1k.  No ships.  Warnings: blood, minor character death, funeral, survivor’s guilt, mention of execution by hanging.]

“For Remembrance” - Elizabeth visits Jack in prison the day before his pending execution.  [2k.  Can be read as Sparrabeth.  Warnings: brief mention of unsanitary prison conditions; death tokens; discussion of death, murder, and execution by hanging.]

“Balance of Justice” - The same night, Norrington struggles with the idea of Jack’s pending execution.  [990 words.  No ships.  Warnings: mentioned minor character death, survivor’s guilt, discussion of execution by hanging.]

“Crossing the Bar” - My all-time favorite PotC fanfic.  After the events of CotBP, Norrington thinks he has Jack cornered, but the pirate has other ideas.  A story of truly literary proportions ensues. [156k.  Canon divergent: written pre-DMC.  Light Jack/Anamaria.  Warnings: battle injuries, period-accurate first aid, minor character death. Other warnings posted in fic.]

“Just Between Us Dying Gods” -  Jack’s POV, takes place on the island of the Pelegostos just prior to Will's arrival.  [1k.  No ships.  Warnings: cannibalism, canon-typical ethnocentrism.]

“Bits of Shine” - A collection of drabbles (in the classic 100-word sense) spanning Pirates 1-3.  [14k.  Assorted canon ships.  Mind any posted warnings.]

“Christmas Reunion” - Author’s description: A Christmas reunion of several beloved characters set post-AWE. Jack's POV. Entirely fluffy.  [2k.  Willabeth.  No warnings.]

SCRUFFINGTON ANGST - Me, aged 15: but sir that’s my emotional support Good-ish Man Brought Low By Hubris (who am I kidding, that hasn’t changed a bit).  As you would expect, general warnings for this section might include minor character death, survivor’s guilt, self-hatred, alcohol abuse, unsanitary conditions, etc.  If you love Tortuga-related angst, this section is for you!  If you don’t go for whump and other unpleasant things, scroll on.

“Seven Deadly Sins: James Norrington” by Edoraslass - Classic drabble format, exactly what it says on the bottle.  Follows James’ DMC arc beginning in Tortuga.  [711 words.  No ships.  See tags on AO3.]

“Three Days” by geekmama - Several scene narrations following James from the pig sty to Isla Cruces.  Smelly bastard man.  [1k.  Several unrequited ships.  Warnings: unsanitary, alcohol abuse.]

“Interregnum: Icarus” by ConcertiGrossi - Follows James all the way from the hurricane to Tortuga, with an epilogue just after delivering the Heart to Beckett.  I dislike headcanons about Norrington ever employing sex workers - it seems very out-of-character to me - but other than that I stand by this fic.  Angst alert.   [16k.  Canon-divergent only if you read Sins of the Father.  Referenced unrequited Norribeth.  Warnings: near-drowning, vomit, mass minor character death, implied (but ultimately untrue) medium character death, funerals, survivor’s guilt, self-hatred, unsanitary, coughing, nightmares, pregnancy mention, parental death, under-eating, alcohol abuse, referenced suicide, suicidal ideation.]

“Birthday Wishes” by YouCantGetThereFromHere - A one-shot AU in which James has a twin brother and they celebrate their thirtieth birthdays, one in England, the other in Tortuga.  [4k.  Referenced OCxOC ship in the first half.  Warnings: alcohol abuse, self-hatred.]

“Eye of the Storm” by Edoraslass - Tortuga barmaid Kate is intrigued by the island’s newest barfly and strikes up a sort of friendship with Norrington until he moves on.  [4k.  No ships.  See tags on AO3.]

“Oil and Wine” by Argyle - Norrington’s descent during his time on Tortuga.  Everything comes with a price and a familiar face dogs his steps.  [500 words.  Norribeth.  See tags on AO3.]

“Absence and Memory” by Meddow - Post-CotBP, Elizabeth reflects on her relationship with Norrington over the years.  [3.7k.  Norribeth.  No warnings.]

“Penance More Will Do” by Meddow - Set directly after the hurricane.  While a wounded James is adrift at sea, he is visited by Hector Barbossa, who gives him a choice on behalf of Calypso.  [5.7k.  No ships.  Warnings: blood, vomit.]

“A Song for the Wretched and the Wrecked” by jadeddiva - Post-CotBP AU in which Will runs off to sea and Elizabeth consents to marry James after all.  They have a lot of growing to do, but it ends well.  [6.5k.  Norribeth.  No warnings.]

“Jack Sparrow’s Black Pearl” by Zath_Chauvert - A filk song in which Elizabeth and Will discuss Jack to the tune of “Tango: Maureen”.  [468 words.  Willabeth, J/W/E if you’re not a coward.  No warnings.]

“Of How a Lieutenant died at Sea” by YouCantGetThereFromHere - Foregoing the ending he's given in OST, Lt. Theodore Groves instead dies in the wreckage of the Endeavour in AWE and briefly greets Will in the afterlife.  [703 words.  No ships.  Warnings: implied major character death.]

THE ERINYA COLLECTION (I forgot that I saved a ton from this author as well!  Not arranged in any particular order.)

“Curiosity” - Elizabeth reflects on her growing feelings for Jack during DMC.  [828 words.  Sparrabeth.  Warnings: alcohol.]

“Sacrifice” - More Sparrabeth UST, Elizabeth’s POV.  [527 words.  Sparrabeth.  No warnings.]

“One Shot” - A collection of PotC drabbles, all written pre-AWE.  [6k.  Various pairings.  Warnings posted in fic.]

“The Game” - Jack and Tia Dalma play cards.  [600 words.  Can be read as Jack/Tia Dalma.  No warnings.]

“Frayed” - Will and Elizabeth, post-DMC, semi-compliant with AWE, but angstier.  I’m afraid this one isn’t very kind to Will but it sets up this author’s character dynamics/reasons for Sparrabeth.  [1k.  Willabeth, implied Sparrabeth.  Warnings: very poor communication.]

“Something Rich and Strange” - A Will/Tia Dalma one-shot, of all things.  A touch of destiny, indeed.  Written pre-AWE based on fan speculation.  [2k.  Canon-divergent.  Will/Tia Dalma, background Sparrabeth.  PG-13.]

“Ocean Heart” - Post-AWE, Elizabeth is visited by Calypso on that lonely beach.  [1k.  Implied Willabeth.  No warnings.]

“The Pirate’s Progress” - Post-DMC, Jack takes a jaunt through the afterlife, featuring all sorts of fun mythology/folklore.  [10k.  I’m gonna be real with y’all, I don’t remember if there’s anything shippy or triggery but I don’t think so?  Implied major character death I guess but he got better]

“Worlds Enough, And Time” - Futuristic AU in which Jack and Elizabeth both partook of the Fountain of Youth.  Our beloved pirates...IN SPAAAAACE.  Angst with a happier ending.  [3k.  Sparrabeth, implied Willabeth.  Canon-divergent in multiple ways.  Warnings: alcohol, discussions of death, suicidal ideation, referenced minor character death.]

“Janus and the Prodigal” - A conversation between Jack and Teague, a few years post-AWE.  [1k.  Can be read as Sparrabeth.  No warnings.]

“At Peace” by Rising Waters - Author’s summary: Elizabeth has been faithful for the allotted ten years, so Will is free of the Dutchman—but he is still plagued by thoughts of a man whose death he feels responsible for: James Norrington.  [1k.  Willabeth, unrequited Norribeth.  Warnings: referenced character death.]

“Second Chances” by geekmama - AU in which James was only wounded by Bootstrap, not killed, and Will drops him off at Shipwreck Cove to be with Jack and Elizabeth for the next ten years.  Fluff all around.  [1k.  Willabeth, can be read as Sparrington if you’re not a coward.  No warnings.]

“For Honour A Heart’s Demise” by Meddow - Another AU in which James is only wounded aboard the Flying Dutchman, only this time he gets to partake in the rest of AWE and becomes captain of the Dutchman instead of Will.  A goddess is defied and everything makes sense.  [10k.  Willabeth, unrequited Norribeth.  Warnings: brief suicidal ideation, survivor’s guilt, grievous bodily harm, major character death (but he gets better).]

“Between Wind and Water” by rexluscus - Author’s description: “England and Spain are at war, and Norrington needs a quick solution to the Jack Sparrow problem. Meanwhile, Jack discovers that the Caribbean he once knew is gone. The deal they make could solve both their troubles, or it might be the worst mistake of their lives.  This story is AU after the first film (sequels never happened). It's an experiment in dropping POTC characters into an actual historical event: the Battle of Cartagena de Indias in 1741.”  [90.3k.  Sparrington.  See tags on AO3.]

“betwixt the devil and the deep sea” by notbecauseofvictories - A character study of Jack Sparrow in an AU with angels and demons.  [2k.  No ships.  See tags on AO3.]

“coda” by notbecauseofvictories - Elizabeth during her time as the Pirate King.  [1k.  Willabeth, Sparrabeth.  See tags on AO3.]

FICS I HAVE NOT YET FINISHED but would nevertheless like to recommend:

The “Rash Actions” series by @blanketed-in-stars​ - I’ve been meaning to finish this for 7000 years but I thoroughly enjoyed the early chapters!  Nicole is a wonderful writer and is doing the Lord’s work in writing quality Turrington content.  [147k.  James/Will.  See tags on AO3.]

“In Service to the King” by sleepylotus/@apirateslifeforme123​ - An AU in which Elizabeth finds James in Tortuga after she becomes the Pirate King.  I loved the first few chapters!  [31.7k.  Norribeth, Sparrabeth.  Explicit.  WIP.  See tags on AO3.]

OTHER LINKS SINCE I HAVE YOU HERE

Curse of the Black Pearl early screenplay (first draft)

Dead Man’s Chest screenplay (final production draft)

At World’s End early screenplay (leaked draft)

Deleted scenes: (CotBP above in Marooned) DMC, AWE

[tespuco]

PotC Liveblog: Curse of the Black Pearl

CotBP is one of my ‘forever films’ for sure - every time I rewatch it I not only feel the same sense of wonder and delight as the first time but invariably discover new things to love and squee over as well. 

I would love to learn more about Elizabeth as a child: this lonely, solemn girl who feels something perverse in her thrill at pirate stories and gallows humor, yet who gravely takes on the duty of looking after young William Turner because she wants to be good, too. (@dollsome-does-tumblr‘s Elizabeth-centric, post-CotBP fic Shrouded Heart explores this ambivalence in her self-concept with heart-wrenching emotional realism)

Wow, Will was doomed from the start, wasn’t he? I would be too if I were a 12-year old piece of half-drowned human driftwood waking up to a miniature guardian angel who softly murmurs, “I’m watching over you” before I drift back into unconsciousness

Framing Elizabeth’s memory of seeing the Black Pearl and meeting Will as a dream, one that impels her to put on the medallion, suggests fate or some other supernatural influence at work - a nifty way for writers to sidestep accusations of Contrived Coincidences and call it Destiny instead!

Keira Knightley is so beautiful hELP

Awww, Will is so proud of his handiwork! It’s interesting because the film puts a fair amount of emphasis on it early on, his skill and pride in not just wielding swords but forging them - only to tell us later that he’s really a pirate by blood and at heart. I like it when fics like fried_flamingo & salr323′s At World’s End: Redux lean into Will’s identity as a blacksmith and extrapolate from it an affinity for land/earth/balance/creation as opposed to the sea’s wild potential for destruction. (He lost his father to the sea and to piracy; he never learned to love either.)

My god everyone’s layered in buttoned-up and corseted finery in the fucking TROPICS no wonder Elizabeth passed out (ngl despite the ‘Caribbean’ in the title and visiting the Disney ride in New Orleans Square, I remember stupidly assuming Port Royal was part of England, not Jamaica; at 9 yrs old my geography was shit and I had yet to learn what imperialism was ok)

“A ship with black sails that’s crewed by the damned and captained by a man so evil that hell itself spat him back out.”  shiver me timbers now that’s how you tell a ghost story

“If he were telling the truth, he wouldn’t have told us” has the same antimonious energy as Winnie-the-Pooh going, “Well, it’s a good thing I noticed it. Otherwise, I wouldn’t have seen it”

This is definitely tmi but in retrospect the rescue scene played a formative part in my (bi)sexual awakening: for a long time my go-to pubescent fantasies involved near-drownings followed by hypersexualized resuscitation attempts and frantic uncomfortable sex on wet rocks in damp subterranean caves

Omg I just realized Elizabeth’s scene with Jack on the docks mirrors the one she had on deck Will in the flashback: a (wo)man overboard recovered, rescuer hovering over a supine body and fingering the pirate medallion around his/her neck, love at first sight

“One good deed is not enough to redeem a man of a lifetime of wickedness.” “Though it seems enough to condemn him.” Basically “no good deed goes unpunished” but with style

16 years later and the swordfight between Jack and Will holds up as an iconic example of swashbuckling fight choreo. I also love how the exchange establishes the Jack/Will dynamic: the former as a kind of ironic mentor (“Excellent form. But how’s your footwork?”), the latter as an unwilling pupil who nevertheless mostly plays along

“I practice with them three hours a day.” “You need to find yourself a girl, mate.” Raunchy Shakespearean-grade comedy at its finest (along with  “This sweet, proliferous bouquet that is Tortuga…What do you think?” “It’ll linger.”)

“This shot is not meant for you.” I love the hints we get of Jack’s darker side: he keeps his bitterness close and his grudges closer; for 10 years he saved that bullet for one man, refusing to expend it in any number of life-threatening situations in the interim; he drawls, “Worry about your own fortunes, gentlemen. The deepest circle of Hell is reserved for betrayers and mutineers,” like a witch uttering a curse. A dishonest man, methinks, would not feel the stab of betrayal so deeply.

The running joke of Will not getting recognized for his skills and earnest efforts is what makes Norrington’s parting words to him at the end so satisfying: “This is a beautiful sword. I would expect the man who made it to show the same care and devotion in every aspect of his life.” (NORRINGTON KNEW IT WAS HIM ALONG BUT WAS TOO JEALOUS TO EVER PRAISE HIM TO HIS FACE that petty little shit lmao)

I remember looking up the definition of ‘acquiesce’ after watching CotBP as a kid, so Barbossa had a direct hand in expanding my 9-year old vocabulary.

Competent, hyper-focused!Jack at the wheel with an unholy gleam in his eye as he gets drenched in a torrential downpour is my kind of Byronic hero

I prefer Jack Sparrow’s backstory to remain a loose collection of rumors and half-truths jumbled together even in his own memory, but I DO want to know how Jack and Gibbs met, how the former earned the latter’s (mostly) steadfast loyalty. I want to eavesdrop on all the inebriated conversational musings they’ve shared over a bottle of rum, whether topside on the decks of a ship not the Pearl or shouted above/muttered below the ruckus of a Tortuga tavern.

I’d also read/watch a prequel about the mutiny. “He plays things closer to the vest now. And a hard-learned lesson it was.” WHO HURT YOU JACK

Well obviously Barbossa did, but I still have so many questions! How did a younger, more trusting Jack earn the ire of his first mate and crew, to the point where they’d stage a mutiny? Then again, to hear Gibbs tell it, Barbossa simply appealed to Jack’s sense of fairness; perhaps in their unadulterated greed they saw Jack’s honest streak as a vulnerability to exploit? Or was it something in Jack’s manner of captaincy that fomented discontent? Idk, I can’t tell based on the way the crew jeers at “Gents, you all remember Captain Jack Sparrow?” whether their antipathy smacks more of derision or vitriol.

“Mr. Gibbs? …Jack? Jack Sparrow?” Elizabeth must be SO confused by these blasts from her distant and more recent past: who knows when Gibbs left Norrington’s employ, but the last time she saw Jack he had her in chains and at gunpoint, and now apparently he’s conspiring with Will??

I’ve always been kind of baffled by the cabin scene between Elizabeth and Will. What is she apologizing for? Taking the medallion and not telling him? Or for telling him and making him realize his father was a pirate?

Also her tearful, “Because I was afraid that you were a pirate. That would have been awful” is the biggest, bald-faced lie if I’ve ever heard one. She took an interest in him BECAUSE she thought he was a pirate (although I do think young Elizabeth had been afraid FOR him, after Gibbs’ pantomime of the hangman’s noose)

“daft like Jack” should be my Jack/Elizabeth/Will OT3 tag

Ah, back when PotC incorporated visual gags to spice up their action sequences instead of building the equivalent of a Rube-Goldberg machine around a single, unfunny gag. Compare: Gibbs’ canteen making its unlikely way from the Interceptor to the Pearl and back as an accompaniment to the battle and Jack’s breakout from his cell VS the overextended Tortuga sequence in DMC where Jack weaves in and out of a brawl to no apparent purpose except to try on different hats and then exit the tavern.

“Though it does seem a shame to lose something so fine, don’t it? …So I’ll be having that dress back before you go.” Barbossa is despicable and Geoffrey Rush delivers his lines with such RELISH

I will squee over the island scene & its deleted segments at length in a separate post so for now I’ll just say: Elizabeth is obviously a huge Jack Sparrow stan and she’s doing a piss-poor job of hiding it

Listen it’s easy to overlook Norrington’s sense of duty and decency in the face of the stick up his butt and his bouts of extreme pettiness. But the fact is that Jack’s attempt to manipulate and appeal to his ambition fails. Because the Commodore is no Barbossa - he’s a fine man who serves others, not only himself; who cares whether a woman’s acceptance of his proposal is less than sincere; who wouldn’t have risked his men ambushing the Pearl’s crew had he known about the curse (last two courtesy of the deleted scenes on the Dauntless).

Now that I’m paying closer attention I’m just blown away by the careful consideration in Jack’s plans. He’s playing both sides to further his own goal of enacting revenge at minimal risk to himself, but he looks after the unwitting parties he involves in the process, too: while the Royal Navy occupies the undead pirates from the safety of their long range cannons, Jack can intervene to save Will, use him to break the curse, and kill Barbossa. All the good guys win! (He couldn’t have foreseen the Trojan Horse or the en masse submarine attack; nor Norrington’s pettiness in defying Jack’s instructions to man cannons that would’ve blown the undead into smithereens.)

Exhibit B: “Now, to be quite honest with you, there’s still a slight risk for those aboard the Dauntless, which includes the future Mrs. Commodore.” Disregard his insouciant delivery here, and you get Jack telling the whole, unvarnished truth!!! “What do you have to lose?” he asks Norrington, who brushes him off: “Nothing I’d lament being rid of.” It’s JACK who reminds him that for all their precautions, the ambush might put Elizabeth in danger. Jack knows about the curse, and after being marooned on an island with her, he knows Elizabeth will do whatever’s necessary to save Will. So he finds a way to ensure not only that she won’t interfere, but that she’ll be kept safe from harm!! I’ll never be over it

And Murtogg’s “You think he wasn’t telling the truth?” line is such a great callback to their early sketch as Rosencrantz and Guildenstern on the docks of Port Royal. These dimwits happen to know Jack does tell the truth, expecting no one to believe him. His own exhortations on the subject notwithstanding, Jack’s real trickery lies in rarely telling the whole truth, letting people make their own assumptions, and giving them enough rope by which to hang themselves.

Governor Swann is such a darling, the ultimate doting father. It’s easy to assume he doesn’t get Elizabeth at all, but he’s no idiot. He rightly suspects she only agreed to marry Norrington to save Will, and while he’s not above nudging her in that direction (“I believe you made a very good decision today. Couldn’t be more proud of you.”), he’s also not about to let his only daughter bargain away her happiness for the sake of his OTP. (And his face of exasperated affection at Jack’s hanging, when he realizes she only pretended to faint as a diversion! Notice the lack of surprise in his expression: that’s the face of a father who is all too used to her Pulling This Kind of Shit)

Jack keeps popping up like a bad penny and both Norrington and Barbossa are so appalled every time lol

The sequence where Will breaks the curse and Jack shoots Barbossa and Elizabeth jerks like she’s the one who was shot is just - *chef’s kiss* the CHOREOGRAPHY! the CAMERAWORK! the EDITING! 

“I feel…cold.” *a single apple rolls out of Barbossa’s dead hands* Can you believe a summer blockbuster movie invented poetic justice tell your English professors

“If all I have achieved here is that the hangman will earn two pairs of boots instead of one, so be it.” Ugh Will is sooo not my type but he’s so DASHING and GOOD no wonder Elizabeth covets him. What a hero

“My place is between you and Jack.” Ohhh you know what I would love to track the main characters’ alignment arcs throughout the series. Here Will’s situating himself as the Chaotic Good between Jack’s Chaotic Neutral and Norrington’s Lawful Good. But I would argue he’s still pretty Lawful and, even under Jack’s tutelage, only resorts to Chaos in extremis; meanwhile Jack flits between Chaotic Good and Chaotic Neutral; Elizabeth’s arc is similar except it’s unidirectional; and without the Law at his back Norrington spirals into Neutral Evil. 

It’s the Sparrabeth shipper in me but the last line of the movie is Jack singing a song that Elizabeth taught him. (*Cutler Beckett voice* “We’ve had dealings in the past. And we’ve each left our mark on the other.”) For a fic about what Jack leaves her, may I redirect you to Shrouded Heart by dollsome, linked above - and this brain dump comes full circle!

[pyratetm-a]

alright, i said i’d rewrite it to be more thorough, so here we go.  the infamous why amanda and her hector are not dmtnt compliant and never will be post.  this isn’t a reflection on the rpc, but it is on disney, because that movie was trash, and i’m not changing my stance on it.  at all.  full stop.  

x.  it cheapens the point of jack sparrow and the pearl.  first and foremost, in the established canon pre-dmtnt, jack sparrow was given the wicked wench - a ship he utterly fell in love with - to captain, and made to transport slaves.  when he set those slaves free on an island cutler beckett could not find (without knowing where it is), he was branded as a pirate and the wench was set on fire and sunk.  jack made a deal with davy jones - 13 years as captain to have her raised from the depths - and he would join davy jones’s crew.  to totally rewrite that as, oh, jack got it because some random dude died in a fight with salazar is literally cheapening the established sacrifie he’d made in pre-existing canon.

x.  it ignores pre-established canon on the compass and its origins.  jack bartered with tia dalma for that compass years ago, it has never, ever been mentioned it does anything beyond finding what the owner wants most in the world, and it’s not even like this is an obscure bit of something from a book.  it was literally in dmc.  tia dalma physically asks jack about the compass he bartered from her.  again, a case of ignoring the canon that came before it without even a cursory wiki check.

x.  it fucks with the timeline.  pre-dmtnt, cotbp took place in the mid-1740s.  now the timeline’s been shifted so much because of this trash heap of a movie, isn’t it supposed to be in the 1750s?  but somehow the kid will and elizabeth had is all grown up?  but timeline wise it’d have hector having a child while he was cursed?  which makes no sense because he was cursed, could not reach orgasm, and most importantly, could not achieve an erection because he had no heart beat.  it does nothing at all to check itself against the other canon pieces to make sure it works.

x.  it cheapens elizabeth’s sacrifices and independence.  so wait.  you mean to tell me because lizzie got a little dick from her blacksmith/pirate she’s suddenly going to forget everything she’s lost (her father, her home, james, her former life), forget that she was made pirate king, and become the good little housewife that goes back to corsets and dresses when she has a ship (the empress), and a territory as a pirate lord (singapore).  the same elizabeth that learned to use a sword after being kidnapped by cursed pirates.  the same elizabeth that got one up on hector barbossa (only the one, though).  the same one who made sure jack was sacrificed to the kraken.  the same one who stood up to sao feng.  the same one who used his belief she was calypso.  sure, sharon.

x.  everyone lost about fifty iq points to make the female lead seem smart, when the truth is the writers couldn’t write a smart female anyway.  carina’s badly written.  outside of her not needing to be hector barbossa’s daughter (nah, i don’t count that either, so don’t ask), she’s badly written in a way that makes it obvious they had no idea what they were doing, so they made everyone else stupider to compensate.  jack sparrow is not fucking stupid.  jack sparrow is wickedly smart.  that’s kinda been the point of all the other movies.  she could have been an interesting character, but it also pushes forth inaccurate tropes that aren’t historically sound.  women were teaching university at this point.  so...there’s that plot point as bullshit.  the first female professor of anatomy (which was the first female professor period) was in the 1730s in what would become Germany (Germany was not a unified nation at this point, it was several nation states ruled by several princes and also a good portion of it was part of the austria-hungary empire).  don’t fuck with me disney, i got historical sources.

x.  it makes everyone an exaggeration of surface qualities when it comes to pre-established characters.  gibbs is literally the only one that’s not wildly ooc.  that’s it.  jack is not stupid.  he has a drinking problem - literally all of them do, welcome to the 18th century - but he knows his limits and he’s not really stupid enough to pass them.  hector barbossa, the man who sailed an entire ship and crew over a waterfall at the end of the world and laughed on the way down would n e v e r be content to have a fleet of ships that cannot be attacked.  his vanity is not in his clothing or his looks.  that much gold on a ship is fucking stupid, it would make it capsizable.  these are not stupid men.  and yet according to dmtnt they sure are.

x.  will’s job is not a curse.  it’s a duty.  as long as he’s doing the duty, he should not be all barnacally.  the reason davy jones was squiddy is because he didn’t do the fucking job.  shit, even the lego games got this shit right, how did the movie fuck up so badly?  the “curse” is the squiddy-ness in the attempt to encourage jones back to his job.  will in this movie was bullshit all the way around, his characterization was so fucking bad.  and we’ve got the ending scene of awe where he was decidedly not fishy after ten years, so.  shrug emoji.  also, if all the “””curses””” of the sea were broken, will would have dropped dead, y’all.  his heart.  it’s in a chest. that’s not the one he’s attached to.  think about it.

x.  the guillotine was not even a thing until 1789, where it was used in the french revolution.  do you know what the french revolution was not?  georgian era.  this is early industrial revolution era.  no, these are not mix and match.  and potc is clearly end of the golden age of piracy.  you know when that was?  early dates are 1730s.  it finally really started to sputter completely around 1750.  fuck you, disney, this is what i’ve dedicated my life to studying.

x.  and lastly, it just ignores fourteen years of pre-established canon.  i’m not tossing out 20 books and four other films for a movie that can’t even agree with itself (the magic in this movie makes no goddamn sense, when at least it did in the other four), much less everything that made it even possible.  if you do, great.  but understand i’m gonna want to do an au where it doesn’t exist, so it’s going to require plotting.

this isn’t everything, and it got saltier than i intended, but again:  not slamming anyone, but this is my stance on it.  the 20+ books and first four films are all i’ll consider canon, considering the newest film ignores all of it.  if they had called it a reboot, i’d have no issue with it (beyond terrible writing) but as it stands...i just can’t.  hector barbossa is important to me as a character, and it speaks volumes that after geoffrey rush has said he’ll keep coming back to hector as long as he stays believable and interesting, and has now said he’s done.  because he had a huge part in shaping hector from the beginning, which is fantastically lacking in dmtnt.  even in the bts pics they all look miserable, when the ones before are actually kind of fun to go through, because it’s obvious they were having a blast.  so, now you know, there are most of my issues, even though it’s been said before, but i think this time i’ve covered it in greater detail.  again, this does not mean i won’t rp with characters from it, but we’re going to have to have a sit down and plot session to make things work.

[summerseachild]

Wait I haven;t already asked about tragic precanon backstory? Tragic precanon sparrington backstories are my favourite things!

Dear lovely Anon, I really hope you see this because I didn’t get to it right when you asked. What follows is the backstory for an AU I never wrote down, so I’m trying to remember all of the detail best I can. @vdovaromanova, if you remember anything else about this, or if I get a big thing wrong, please let me know. 

Ok. So I think most of this came together in the year we waited between DMC and AWE. 

All of this started because James knew where to look for Jack’s brand, and the fact that Jack and James’ interaction on the dock in CotBP never seemed to us like a first meeting.  Jack’s “but you have heard of me” and James’ exasperation seem like the continuation of an old argument renewed after a long separation. 

Here’s what I remember: 

Jack was a sailor on one of the navy ships where James was a midshipman. They weren’t supposed to be friends since James was an officer. It happened anyway. There was a lot of secrecy and sneaking around and emotionally fraught “this is not what being just friends feels like, is it?” moments. (No, it’s not.) 

At some point, the two of them got washed overboard or something and ended up spending a while on either a desert island or a stretch of the mainland without a lot of human habitation (again, I haven’t thought about this universe for YEARS). Long story short, in the absence of all that structured repression and in the face of being marooned, all those feelings they (and by “they” I mean “James”) had been tamping down refused to be ignored, and by the time they got rescued by a passing ship, they were lovers. 

And it all would have gone fine if it wasn’t for the pesky Black Pearl. (We had no back story for how Jack ended up with Her at this point, so this was what we came up with.) Some time after getting rescued, their navy vessel was able to take the Pearl from a pirate crew (an event I’m pretty sure the Pearl allowed and was ok with... you will pry my sentient ship headcanons from my cold dead hand).  As soon as Jack saw Her, he knew that she was his ship. He was only in the navy to be near the sea and make his way in the world, he wasn’t particularly patriotic where the British Empire was concerned. 

So Jack told James what he was going to do. Asked James to come with him. This put poor, besotted in love James Norrington in quite a bind.  It became quite clear that Jack was going to take that ship, and had started to gather together some other disgruntled crew members who were going to make sure they got onto the prize crew and then take the ship for themselves.  So it was either rat Jack out as a mutineer and let him face the consequences or keep his mouth shut and let Jack make off with the crown’s property.  James chose the second, but he was furious, and they did not part of good terms.  It doesn’t look good when your friend who everyone knows is your friend even though officers and sailors aren’t supposed to fraternize makes off with the valuable new ship the navy just took. 

They didn’t see each other for a while after that, and James worked to erase any stain on his reputation being friends with a now-notorious pirate put there. That is, until James ended up on a routine assignment that involved collaboration with the East India Trading Company and well-dressed human garbage can Cutler Beckett. At this point, the Pearl had been sunk, and Jack was a wreck and in the EITC’s custody, and Beckett wanted to know how it was that Jack had pulled off one of the mad schemes he’d managed to make work, and I think he was after some answers to the mystical nature of the Pearl, which Jack was not about to give him. 

Somehow this put James in the room when Jack got that P brand on his forearm from Beckett.  He was there as the Navy’s representative so that he could be privy to any information Jack shared, maybe? Anyway, it was super upsetting because James was trying to restrain Beckett from hurting Jack too much, but couldn’t overplay his hand because then Beckett would start asking questions about why James cares about a dirty pirate so much, and Jack was actually keeping his mouth shut about the fact he had ever met James before, and (at this point...) Beckett hadn’t heard about James Norrington’s ex-friend-turned-pirate. It was a mess all around, and the “why aren’t you stopping this” look in Jack’s eyes when that brand touches his skin HAUNTS James after it happens (as it should...)

When Beckett is satisfied that the Pearl has actually been sunk and thinks Jack is of no further use, Jack is scheduled for execution, and that’s James’ breaking point. He’s not going to let Jack get killed. So, because he’s an intelligent young man, he figures out how to smuggle Jack out of his cell without being seen around it himself, and he meets Jack on some secluded place near the ocean.  James had arranged passage on a passing merchant vessel, but Jack doesn’t need it.  He’s already made the deal with Davy Jones, he just hadn’t had the chance to take advantage of it yet.  So, a very surprised James Norrington gets to see the Pearl rise up out of the waves, courtesy of a tentacle-y demigod. 

Jack asks James to come with him. Again.   And again, James refuses.  They argue. James knows that the navy and its allies do bad things sometimes, but he also sees them as a force for good and order, and pirates do terrible things with no moral code at all (as he sees it), and besides, James has family and a name to think of.  They argue some more, and somewhere in there is an epic “I love you so much, but I can’t be with you because the path you seem destined for is utterly antithetical to my core values” kiss, (it’s great, trust me. I cried coming up with it) and then Jack’s gone. 

James follows Jack’s exploits closely, always a little glad when Jack manages to slip away from the authorities.  Jack follows James’ career too, which explains why in CotBP he knows the name Norrington and uses it before they EVER have a scene together. So, the first time they see each other again is when Jack saves Liz from drowning, and James is like, “OH NO NOT AGAIN,” and Jack is like, “YEAH YOU’VE HEARD OF ME I SEE YOU KEEPING UP WITH WHAT I’M UP TO,” and it also explains a lot of why James isn’t willing to go chasing Jack immediately at the end. 

So, there’s my tragic Sparrington backstory. Don’t even talk to me about how upsetting carrying it into DMC and AWE is. I did it once. It was not pretty from the crying.

[orphanicstararchive-blog]

excessively long discussion of observations i made after watching dmtnt for a second time, mostly about carina but a little about the other characters as well. a briefer version to follow just highlighting my takeaways from the rewatch. keep in mind that as of my second rewatch, i still have not read ‘the adventures of carina smyth’, so please excuse if anything explored below contradicts the book.

historically, witch trials largely ended by the early 17th century, partly due to past tragedies that had occurred due to witch hysteria and because of advancing scientific discoveries. dmtnt takes place in the 1750s; this might seem like a historical inaccuracy, but considering that in the alternate universe of the potc series, 1. witches are real and 2. people KNOW witches are real, then it makes sense that witch trials would have continued. 

everything about carina’s scene in the observatory is fantastic. the look of sheer wonder when she walks inside for the first time, the annoyance when she realizes that all of this belongs to a man who can’t even properly position his telescope ( and yet she is denied the same equipment and education, solely because she is a woman ), and her stealing the chronometer ( which i didn’t notice she’d done until this rewatch )

i don’t think carina was afraid when she was first arrested for witchcraft. i don’t think she truly believed she might be executed until her second arrest and upon being carted away with the other women accused of witchcraft. yes she stills gets in her quips, but when she’s quiet, there’s this look on her face that we didn’t see during her initial imprisonment or pursuit. she looks truly afraid and disappointed, thinking that henry abandoned her after she risked her life to save him, and that she really would die.

henry and carina held hands while ‘the dying gull’ was pushed into the water. i have no further remarks to make other than it was cute as hell.

the choices they made for carina’s wardrobe is fascinating to me. she wears an aquamarine blue dress for the majority of the movie, which is first notable in that it’s a color we haven’t seen in the series before. characters have been dressed in blue, but not in that particular light and green-ish shade. not hard to draw a parallel between the new color and carina serving as a new character in the series. blue is also associated with the protagonist, and it’s interesting to note that (other than his initial appearance as a child) both henry and carina are introduced while wearing blue. other than carina and henry, the only other major character to be dressed predominantly in blue is barbossa, thus implying carina having a connection with henry and barbossa. now on to the wedding party dress. the outfit looks pure orange initially, but having seen the actual dress on display in disneyland, it actually isn’t; it has a subtle purple pattern as well. i don’t really have a comment on the pattern, other than both it and the shape of the dress are so different from the style of dress seen in the original trilogy, that it reflects the passage of time. it also brings to mind elizabeth’s red dress from cotbp. they have a somewhat similar design and certainly a similar way of coming into their owners’ possesions (both women were given/forced to wear it).

while the characters never interact onscreen, i did initially assume that should carina ever meet shansa, she would dislike her. however, i don’t believe that true, given a closer look at shansa’s scenes. shansa is trapped by the same system that prevents carina from attending university. both women are punished for their pursuits, a punishment which has a noticeable sexist undertone to it. so while i’m still not certain exactly how carina would react to her, i do believe she would notice the parallels between them, and would not immediately dislike her as i initially assumed.

shansa claimed that the price for crossing her door was blood, yet barbossa never paid. shansa comments that all pay in the end. in seeking her help and not paying the blood price, he doomed himself to death

as for reconciling carina’s scientific beliefs with her apparently illogical search for the trident, i think she was able to verify that the diary (and thus the trident) were real prior to setting out for it. she also hoped to fulfill what she saw as her father’s last wish, for her to find the trident. and if she were to find it, she could potentially have proven herself, not only to her missing father but perhaps to the scientific community as well. so yes, she believed in the trident and that it had personal and scientific value, but not necessarily in it’s ability to break curses and definitely not in it’s relation to ghosts.

carina can potentially believe in curses and minor supernatural elements because they don’t break scientific laws. magic may simply be a science they haven’t yet discovered. ghosts, however, explicitly contradict the most basic law of science, and thus she refuses to believe in them, instead thinking captain salazar was a living human, until confronted by him on the beach.

carina is extremely resilient to pain and she isn’t frightened by threats against her life. that’s why jack did not threaten her, but instead threatened henry. he knew any threat against her wouldn’t work. not to mention he never truly intended to hurt either of them and that the entire encounter was obviously planned ahead by the crew, given they knew exactly where to throw henry overboard. jack is good at reading people; he likely understood that carina felt some attachment to henry, and that by threatening him, he might get her to talk without truly hurting either one of them.

i’ve already discussed carina’s unrealistic vision of her unknown father so i won’t do so here, but just carina believing so strongly in this image of her father she conjured up that she slapped the fiercest pirate in the world because he insulted that idea.

while in possession of barbossa, the compass was never actually pointing to jack. it was always pointing to carina.

as shown by her refusal to sell the diary’s ruby and her fascination with the trident island purely for academic purposes rather than for the gems’ value, carina truly does not care about living an easy or wealthy life. she grew up with so little, and yet money doesn’t mean much to her. she chooses her own path and pursues knowledge over comfort.

in my own opinion, carina was only truly frightened four times in the film: on the gallows, when henry was ‘keel-hauled’, when she saw salazar’s crew for the first time, and when henry was taken by salazar.

carina is fiercely protective over the few people she cares about. i could go on about this, but i think i’ll make a separate post for it later instead.

[apirateslifeforme123]

Awww, you guys! Ok, I am going to answer these in the order of which the fic was written. I feel like there’s a progression here, lol. So, first off, for the lovely @princesspenelopenerfherder on With This Ring, Or Fate Intervenes:

1: What inspired you to write the fic this way?

I hadn’t written for the POTC genre in a while, and after binging on a bunch of fic old and new Sparrabeth I wanted to try my hand again. I had also been reading a lot of books about pirates at this point, doing some research for an original work that I’m still only 30,000 words into lol, and felt I had a better hold on the historical/nautical aspects than ten years ago when I first was writing for POTC. I read those fics now and literally want to bang my head onto the desk. The book Empire of Blue Water about Henry Morgan definitely inspired a great deal of it.

2: What scene did you first put down?

I had some other vague ideas first, but I think I actually wrote the island scenes first. Was definitely thinking about Jack and Lizzy on that island, lol, the ring exchange, and also my husband was watching a lot of naked and afraid at that point. I think it rubbed off on me haha.

 3: What’s your favorite line of narration?

I guess I don’t have a favorite. I kind of oscillate between third person omniscient and third person limited through out the fic, depending what it felt it needed.

 4: What’s your favorite line of dialogue?

Oh gosh. I love so many. But Ok, when Jack and Lizzy are in the garden during the ball, and she’s furious and sad because Jack won’t tell her what he’s up to, and she thinks Jack is leaving without her, and he’s trying to assure her that he’s just putting things to rights.

 “And which side of the law will you be on?”

“The proper side for a rogue like me, that is to say, the wrong side, though balance will have been restored in a way the law always seems to fall short of.”

 5: What part was hardest to write?

It’s always that plateau leading up to the end action that ALWAYS snags me. Always, no matter what fic. I have a complex with finishing things or something, I don’t know.

 6: What makes this fic special or different from all your other fics?

It’s kind of unique in that Jack and Elizabeth have known each other since she was a child in this verse. And also that its set in Morgan’s time, c. 1680ish, as opposed to the canon POTC verse that could be anywhere from 1730-70. Lol. It was also fun to write Jack returning to the fold of society as a privateer. Writing him at dinner with Morgan and the Governor et al was a hoot, and Lizzy kicking him under the table. haha

 7: Where did the title come from?

The first vague idea I had of this fic was Jack and Lizzy during the mar-i-age scene in DMC. I was thinking that it would be funny if he tricked her into thinking they were “pirate married” if he gave her one of his cool rings. And somehow, it evolved out into the island instead, and all the rest with it. I had rings on the brain...and the rest sounded like poetry. ;)

 8: Did any real people or events inspire any part of it?

LOL and to elaborate on the above, I suppose I was thinking about cool pirate rings because I work in antiques, and sometimes we get those awesome Georgian gold skull rings with the steely rose cut diamonds. JFC they are COOL. I can never afford to keep them tho, so I guess I thought I’d write about it instead. Vicarious collecting, as it were.

 9: Were there any alternate versions of this fic?

Plenty of alternate scenes, I’m sure. I keep a file of scraps and ideas, and it’s always like a graveyard for things that don’t quite make the cut.

 10: Why did you choose this pairing for this particular story?

I know I write a lot of Norribeth too now, but Sparrabeth is my original fav, and I still feel like Sparrabeth was the OTP that really *should* have happened in the movie. The fact that it didn’t was just the worst writing ever. ::glares at T & T::

 11: What do you like best about this fic?

I think it was pretty original, and a bit epic, in length at least, lol. I liked the time frame being different, and Jack having sailed with Morgan and getting screwed over by him and Barbossa on one of their raids, rather than the Becket drama as his backstory. I love thinking up different back stories for Jack, there are so many ways he could have turned out the way he is.

 12: What do you like least about this fic?

Oh god. The way I skewered James Norrington’s character, it’s sooo OoC. He’s a great antagonist in this one, Jack’s rival and all, but I look back on it now and totally face palm. I confess I really didn’t properly understand him at the time. I hadn’t seen COTBP in a while, and for some reason I remembered James being the one who demanded he make the rescue of Will a wedding present to Elizabeth. Which is so not right, lol, because actually ELIZABETH is the manipulator in that scene. But…so I thought he was the stick in the mud Navy officer who didn’t really see Elizabeth for who she was, though he does truly, twistedly, love her in this fic. It would be interesting to write a version of this in which James isn’t so out of character, it would be waaaay more complicated emotionally. This fic is pretty black and white.

 13: What music did you listen to, if any, to get in the mood for writing this story? Or if you didn’t listen to anything, what do you think readers should listen to to accompany us while reading?

I have all kinds of ridiculous playlists for fics, though I don’t listen to music when I write, only when I’m thinking about a fic, if that makes sense. At this period I suspect the playlist involved Jack Johnson and some Kenny Chesney beach tunes lol. Probably some Jimmy Buffet too…

14: Is there anything you wanted readers to learn from reading this fic?

I guess the thing I want people to take away from all my fics is that girls should be strong and true to themselves, and that a man who truly loves you will never try to make you into something you’re not. Hard won lessons on my part, so maybe someone else’s journey will be less painful for reading this? Or not.

 15: What did you learn from writing this fic?

I learned a lot doing research about pirates, the Caribbean at this time, boats and sailing. I’m always learning new things when I write, it’s a good way to explore a subject and really get a proper understanding of it.