#why barbossa died

[wr1t3w1tm3]

I think I know why Jack shooting Barbossa worked.

TLDR: moonlight resets the flesh facade. When it isn't reset prior to becoming mortal, Barbossa dies.

So even though they're affected by the curse during non-moonlight hours, they're only skeletal under the moonlight. And as observed, their flesh, whether more of a facade or truely, physically there, is susceptible to pain (ie with Pintel and Raghetti getting hot coals dropped on them during the Sack of Port Royal). The only sensations they don't feel are the pleasurable ones.

So we know Barbossa at the very least felt the shot. And if we take what Will and Elizabeth did too the three pirates they fought, we know that the flesh disappears in the moonlight and reappears once they are out of it. Hence why they were able to stick the skeletons together, stick a bomb in the ones ribcage, and have it blow them to smithereens.

The moon is the key here. Barbossa is shot, doesn't move, and Will puts the last two coins in the chest. Barbossa remains fleshy, he doesn't expose himself to moonlight. Hence, he became mortal with a gaping chest wound. The flesh finally became affected, as evidenced by him feeling the cool night air ("I'm... cold"). Meaning, blood flow is returning (as it appears that it wasnt present while cursed) and since Barbossa can't just step into the moonlight to reset his chest wound, he dies.

We see the same affect with Pintel. Pintel is shot by Barbossa to see if the curse is lifted with Elizabeths blood. He has a hole visible through his clothes, a theoretically he should die or at least be injured once the curs is broken. But there is no such evidence. Why? Because unlike Barbossa, Pintel was exposed to moonlight and became skeletal. And when he got his flashback, the wound was gone. From this wr can conclude the moonlight is what caused the wound to disappear, and had Barbossa stepped into it, he would've survived. But he didn't, so he died.

[hawkelf]

In the weird hot takes in stale fandoms category, I still think Jack should have died at the end of AWE.

[nickyroethemarinebiologist]

Losing it over Barbossa and his apple obsession. You leave a trail of apples and by god he will follow it. He spends like half of the first movie trying to eat an apple and then dies. He comes back and immediately starts taking apples around with him. He tries to get Elizabeth to eat an apple on his behalf. Why apples. I mean they're tasty but why apples. What is wrong with him

[queer-crusader]

In praise of Dead Man's Chest,

a rather forgettable follow-up of Curse of the Black Pearl, i wanted to quickly list the moments where the vibes are truly off the charts:

when Bill Turner comes to tell Jack his time is up and gives him the black spot

visiting Tia Dalma. Her telling of the origin story of Davy Jones' heart, the fact that she has the same music box on her table in a brief shot, Barbossa's boots (still dead? resting?) on a bed in a different room as monkey Jack investigates. (Hell, when her cabin comes into view we hear the same tune we heard when Barbossa died!!) "Him heart." "A touch... of destiny" ma'am i fucking love you

Will being sent to search the Flying Dutchman but he's only sent to a wreckage that has fallen victim to the kraken. One crew member still desperately trying to hoist a sail, Will barely able to snap him out of it. Bodies everywhere. Lashing rain. A body dropped from great height, its face torn off by the kraken's suckers, just a membrane of skin that is still pulsing as the man desperately tries to breathe beneath it. I feel like this is Will's "you'd best start believing in ghost stories, Turner. You're in one!" moment

And then the Dutchman rises from the depths and its crew literally comes out of the woodwork!! Will dousing his sword in oil and smashing a lamp to fight with a flaming blade and see what he's up against!!

"Do you fear death? Do you fear that dark abyss?" (still thrilled i put this line on a pair of booty shorts in my black sails crack fic but thats an unrelated sidenote, this line just FUCKS) "All your deeds laid bare. All your sins punished. I can offer you an escape." BILL NIGHY DOES NOT PLAY ENOUGH VILLAINS

"Life is cruel. Why should the afterlife be any different?"

Jack looking at the scene unfolding through his looking glass. Jones looking right back at him. Jack putting the glass down and Jones being RIGHT THERE. VIBES OFF THE CHARTS

"You can't talk your way out of this one, Jack" yet HERE HE IS BARGAINING THE WORTH OF HIS SOUL. And he tells Will, who is taken as down payment, is in love, betrothed even. And the impact that has on Jones. Not to mention how the key theme of Davy Jones, a man whose story is centered around love and heartbreak, starts playing for the first time. Fuck

Recruiting new men (sorry, cannon fodder to give to Jones) and Gibbs asking a potential crew member (Norringtonnn) what his story is. "My story... It's exactly your story, just one chapter behind." FUCK THATS SUCH A GOOD SUMMARY OF NORRINGTON'S CURRENT STATE

THE ORGAN VERSION OF DAVY JONES' THEME. The way the giant coral tubes coming out of it remind me of the arteries and veins of a heart. The way Jones still cries while playing it - cutting out his heart clearly didn't have the full intended effect, despite his cruelty that followed. (Here's the coolest fucking IRL version of that theme btw. You'll realise exactly where the phrase "pulling out all the stops" comes from)

Wyvern, a man so long for his debt on the Dutchman he's becoming one with the wood. That fucks

LIAR'S DICE. There's an extended version of the scene and here is an analysis of why the long version fucks actually and how it's a masterclass on writing plot and character development subtly

"Let no joyful voice be heard! Let no man look up at the sky with hope! And let this day be cursed by we who ready to wake... the Kraken."

And then when you see the true scale of it. The way it snaps a ship in half and pulls it beneath the wave. That kinda fucks

"The boy's not here. He must have been claimed by the sea. "I am the sea." Mr Jones i think that's a point of contention the root of which caused your relationship problems and everything that followed

Leaning into the chest and hearing an actual heartbeat

Jack abandoning the Pearl during the Kraken attack, then checking his compass and for the first time it works, telling him what he wants most. We don't see what it points to, but based off what he tells Elizabeth in the first film, my guess is the Pearl, which in his mind represents freedom

The absolutely HAUNTING memorial of Jack at Tia Dalma's cabin, underscored with the sound of Will's knife hitting the table over and over. The deep despair. Tia Dalma saying she knows how Will hoped to use the Pearl to chase down Davy Jones and save his father. The way she jumps on the slightest glint of them being willing to try and repair what has happened. She wants Will to go after Jones. Because after all, she's taken steps to help the crew for the inevitable moment Jack would lose and needed saving:

BARBOSSA'S BACK BABEYYYY AND LOOKING MORE ALIVE AND THRIVING THAN EVER

Special shoutout to the three-way fight in the chapel and on the waterwheel, it's silly and a little slapstick-y but it DOES have some cool choreography and really cool moments! Clearly an attempt to recreate the fight in the workshop from the first film, and while it doesn't succeed in the same way (not quite to the rhythm of the music like in the first film, little to no character development revealed like we saw in film 1), but the scenery is vibrant, the choreography is good, the ever-changing alliances fun and the scene IS memorable!!

[itistimeforusalltodecidewhoweare]

Buffy Summers, Natasha Romanoff aaaand Elizabeth Swann for the character ask game 👀

you should've seen the way i just started grinning in class <3

Buffy Summers

How I feel about this character i love buffy so much. i've been stuck mid season 5 on my rewatch for ages because i don't want things to happen. it's rough out here

All the people I ship romantically with this character zero controversy here i think because it's angel, spike and faith

My non-romantic OTP for this character buffy and willow mean everything to me. but also giles!!! 😭

My unpopular opinion about this character idk if this is unpopular but i thought buffy forgetting everything after "i will remember you" was increddibly satisfying from a narrative perspective (even if it hurt like a bitch). also sarah michelle gellar is such an underrated actress.

One thing I wish would happen / had happened with this character in canon. i wish we'd gotten more time/interactions of buffy with other slayers!!! introducing the concept of "there always needs to be a slayer" for a main character that dies in season one only to underutilize it should be criminal

Natasha Romanoff

How I feel about this character sometimes i forget how much i love nat and then i watch an instagram reel or something and i'm like HER

All the people I ship romantically with this character … see, no one actively. i see steve and nat in a sort of schrödinger's ship way where i both like them and don't like them at the same time. i'm very neutral about buckynat, but then i've never read many of the comics.

My non-romantic OTP for this character steve, yelena, clint. probably in that order.

My unpopular opinion about this character i liked the black widow movie!! a lot!! even if it came 5+ years too late!!

One thing I wish would happen / had happened with this character in canon. WE SHOULD HAVE BEEN ABLE TO GET NAT BACK OR AT LEAST AN ALTERNATE VERSION OF HER. WHAT DO YOU MEAN WE GET ALTERNATE GAMORA BUT NOT ALTERNATE NAT. i will never forgive endgame's sins

Elizabeth Swann

How I feel about this character honestly one of the reasons i'm bi probably. love of my life. made me consider pirate as a job prospect at eleven years old.

All the people I ship romantically with this character it's gotta be will turner. gotta be. as much as i love both norrington and jack as characters, nah. canon did right with that one

My non-romantic OTP for this character the dynamic she has with barbossa in at world's end is a delight to watch—as is the slightly awkward "we used to be engaged and because of me your life went to shit" situation with norrington in dead man's chest

My unpopular opinion about this character okay like this is me being nitpicky about realistic things in a fantasy action film but like. sword fighting is hard. as is firing a musket. why (apart from her short fumble with the decorative sword in the first movie) is she naturally good at all these things? we couldn't have gotten a side remark of her training between movies or something if we don't get to see it happen?? anyway this might be my love for training sequences speaking

One thing I wish would happen / had happened with this character in canon. never. do you hear me. never not in a million years would elizabeth swann, elected pirate king, stay on a goddamn island for ten years. are you goddamn insane?? no!!

give me a character;

[tortoisesshells]

the straight path to the end of my days (T, ~1400 words, PotC:CotBP, no particular warnings, canon-compliant Elizabeth Swann character study)

Elizabeth Swann decides the expedite their rescue from Rumrunner's Isle. The details are a little annoying.

or,

Was Will even alive, still?

Elizabeth dug her fingers into the sand, through the thin layer still warm from the sun to the startlingly cool dampness beneath. He couldn’t be dead. There was a silly thought, buzzing louder from the scant mouthful of rum she’d swallowed and the exhaustion of the day – a silly thought, that in old songs and stories, lovers knew the moment of the other’s death. An inventory of her thoughts revealed no such pangs or pains that had no natural accounting. And so – she told herself sternly – she would not believe that Will had died.

This was desperation, but it was spite, too – Captain Barbossa, with his heavily-embroidered coat and extravagant hat eaten to nothing, spat at her that she was in a story, now. Why should not such story-conventions here apply?

Read the Rest on AO3!

[blood-darkened-moon]

"The trick about immortality is not about living forever, Jackie. Is about living with yourself forever."-Captain Teague, Pirates of the Caribbean.

"The Dutchman must have a Captain."-Bootstrap Bill, Pirates of the Caribbean.

"Look, the Moonlight reveals us for what we truly are. We aren't among the dead and neither amongst the living. For too long I've been parched of thirst and unable to quench it. For too long I've been starving to death and haven't died. I feel nothing. Not the wind on my face, nor the spray of the sea. Nor the warmth of a woman's flesh. You better start believing in ghost stories Miss Turner. You are in one."-Hector Barbossa, Pirates of the Caribbean.

"We men are now the monsters. The time of heroes is dead, Wiglaf. The Christ God has killed it. Leaving only weeping martyrs and shame."-Beowulf, Beowulf (2007).

"The Gods won't allow me to die by a feeble blade. The Gods won't allow me to be taken by the sea. Plunge your axe there, Finn of Frisia. Do what? Kill me? Do it! Kill me! Kill me! Kill me! You know why you can't kill me friend? Because I died many, many years ago when I was young."- Beowulf, Beowulf (2007)

Which Soulsborne games you played would you associate this quotes to?

Quote 1 & 5

Bloodborne. More specifically, Gehrman, who is forced by the Moon Presence to exist forever in the Hunter's Dream until the Hunter releases him from it.

Quote 2

Dark Souls in general. It reminds me of the endless cycle of reigniting the flame once the fire faded.

Quote 3

Dark Souls again. It reminds me of the Curse of the Undead and how humanity reverses the hollowing and gives you back your human appearance.

Quote 4

Demon’s Souls, maybe. In Demon’s Souls, God gave humans a soul, the power of clarity. With a soul, people can think, and with thoughts, they can influence their surroundings. Humans used the souls for sorcery, which wasn’t intended because it resulted in them turning against each other to acquire power from others. Instead of using God’s gift for good, humans abused it to do harm. That is why God placed the Old One, the original souls devouring demon, on Earth as a form of punishment.

[savvythepirate]

New prompts!

Characters:

Jack Sparrow

Davy Jones

Will Turner

Hector Barbossa

***

1) “Look, I know I screwed up. But you have to let me explain everything.”

2) “There are things you need to know before you read this.” (Hands you a letter)

3) “I know what you’ve come for, and you’re not going to have it in your possessions anytime soon. This is you wasting your time.”

4) “Here, I have something for you.”

5) “That’s why I’ve come back. I’ve come back for you and to take you back with me.”

6) “A lot can happen in a lifetime, anything can happen for that matter. But now is not the time as you may think.”

7) Reader: “It’s nothing but a small scratch, really. What it all was, I was just at the wrong place at the wrong time.”

8) “You weren’t meant to see that.”

9) “My fault. Not yours.”

10) “What are you doing here?”

11) “You don’t have to prove yourself to anyone, what you are now and all that you can do is more then enough. Don’t listen to what they tell you.”

12) “I know you’re capable of taking care of yourself out there, but I still have the right to be worried about as your captain.”

13) “I want you to take it easy today. You lost a lot of blood from yesterday’s battle and you just need to rest up and recover.”

14) “I better not see you be pushing yourself harder then you should. It could lead the road to a dangerous amount of exhaustion.”

15) “I can’t let you get sick. You can’t get sick again because of me, lass.”

16) “Close call.”

17) “That’s…. what I thought you said.”

18) “You’re kidding!”

19) “Yeah, no shit, Sherlock.”

20 “You don’t say.”

21) “What are you saying? Are you trying to tell me it’s okay that you die?”

22) To third person: “So, from what she told me.. she was just telling me if she had died.”

23: “She decided that she was going to die.” (Sniffles) (Holds back tears)

24) “Touch (Y/n), it’ll be the last thing you ever to. I can guarantee you that!”

25) “Here, let me help you.”

26) “I don’t need your help.”

27) “No more sugarcoating it, just be honest with me here. That’s all I ask.”

28) “You could have been killed! Don’t you realize that?!”

29) “Play along if you want to live.”

30 “How badly do you want to live?” (Reader is taken hostage from her crew)

31) “When I let go, run for your life.”

32) “Don’t die on me!” (Reader survives)

33) “I want to shoot something. If he shows his face around here again, he won’t make it out alive. I can promise you that.”

34) “F*cker should be shot.”

35) “Where is he? If you want him to live, you better hold me back.”

36) “Now no one will hurt you ever again, love.”

37) “You’re not fine! You’re lying through your teeth!”

38) “You can’t fool me.”

39) “I’m the best liar there ever was.”

40) “Survival hurts.”

41) “Patience and endurance is how I do it.”

42) “I saw that.”

43) “I heard that.”

44) “How are you feeling? Can you tell me what happened? What all can you recall on remembering anything?”

45) “Anything you give helps to catch the person who had done this to you.”

46) “I can’t believe I fell for that.”

47) “Neither can I, but that was funny as hell.”

48) “Well, that’s you’re one way ticket to hell.”

49) “I thought we agreed no more of your practical jokes.”

50) “Why are you crying?” (First time he sees you cry)

***

Requests: OPEN

From: @savvythepirate

Tags: @princessofthornsandroses @justafairytailofinnocence @savvythepirate

[spideyanakin]

Ok but- hear me out. This is such a long shot and weird post but I was thinking about Hector Barbossa and Margaret Smyth from Pirates of the Caribbean.

Just because Margaret’s story is v unknown, and I don't why I had this very long shower thought about their relationship and I have now created an entire back story for them using what's canon and in my mind changed a few little canon things and realized that doing so could make an entire mini-series that would slap and be the most tragic love story at the same time. and imagine someone rly cool being casted as Hector like maybe joseph quinn (totally not inspired by this tik tok and the amount of people on this darn app who have said jo would make a fine young Barbossa)

What if Margaret was this super rich noble girl a bit like Elizabeth. She meets Hector somehow like maybe she sneaks out to a tavern to escape high society and meets him there.

They quickly fall in love and she ends up joining his pirate ship and they get married. That's how Jack knows about her (I think Jack was on Barbossa's crew when he was younger if I'm not mistaken?). If this actually makes it to Disney, imagine seeing young Jack Sparrow in a series that would be iconic. ANYWAYS. So she stays on his ship, icon and they're married and they live a happy life together as pirates.

But obviously, Margaret's father is pissed, and he wants her back because he can't have his daughter out to be a pirate. And as if on cue, the British government captures her (idk how yet pls i just came up w this), and she's in jail and about to be sent to the gallows. Her dad hears this, and he's a bit cruel so he's like "well you've asked for it by becoming a pirate"

plot twist, she had just discovered she was pregnant (and hadn't told Hector maybe? see that's where I would change the plot bc if Barbossa never knew he had a daughter it would have made things even more interesting.) So she's like dad plz I don't want to be sent to the gallows im expecting :(( and the dude is like well... I can't have you get killed now and so he takes her back to england in secret.

AND POOR HECTOR THINKS SHE'S DEAD. Bc his crew saw her name on the gallows list or something and told him and then he went to the dad and the dad was like "yeah shes dead sry bro"

and the filmmaker in me is really coming out rn because I was thinking of this rly dramatic scene where he's like "well I can't live without her, kill me now" and maybe throws a gun at him. but the dad is like don't be stupid.

and this is when our icon Hector Barbossa starts to become a rly mean ruthless pirate and doesn't give two shits about anything.

And then poor Margaret is like :( and wants to get back to her husband but obvy the dad is mean and tells her he's dead and maybe she dies after she gives birth or just really quickly after I don't remember what's canon. so instead of being raised in an orphanage Karina's being raised by her mean grandpa, they come back to the Caribbean and potc 5 happens. and then when she meets Barbossa he's like "you remind me of someone" and he asks who was her mother when he hears her last name like in the movie and she explains and he's like WTF 0.0

I was thinking of an alternate version where Margaret is actually still alive, just placed in a nuthouse by her dad bc she cannot live this life and is depressed her husband is 'dead'

[toodamnloyal]

Thinking about the threads with Ghost!Murtogg and Ghost!James that Theo has going on. And then prompts of 'what would your character do if mine died'

And a thing i've thought about a lot is just how Theo doesn't get death. When he dies, he gets better he learned this the hard way during the rev war and he's not really experienced his friends aging and dying to leave him behind, nor has he actually seen one of them die in battle before.

he just….doesn't really get it. he's killed pirates or smugglers and other badguys himself, he's seen people that he kinda sorta knows in passing die in battle, but it's not the same as a close friend.

he's terrified of death in general, his and his friend's because he doesn't get it.

and then in his potc verses where magic is a very real and regular thing he isn't there when james dies and he finds out way after the fact. same thing for richard in verses where he dies also - theo finds out way way later. and then jack and barbossa, both of them don't stay dead for very long either.

so he's upset and hurt because why do two pirates get to come back from the dead and not the two most important people in his own life.

it's not fair, he doesn't get it. he doesn't know how to cope without the people he leans on and relies on and is a bit too codependant on and he might be plotting to find some way to convince the two of them to repeat whatever tricks jack and barbossa used to please dont be dead anymore

[emcads]

what if instead of how we think Esme passed her piece of eight to Jack in a dramatic mentor/student way (or a lovers), she actually made it very hard for him to get the lordship and that’s why he gets pissed whenever someone earns the title so easily (like Liz and Barbossa)?

short answer: it's my personal headcanon that Esmeralda died, and that's why Jack received the piece of eight after her. so in some respects very hard for him, but in others, easy. ( sure, no one likes losing a sometimes-girlfriend, but there's no job promotion so easy as someone else murdering your predecessor and your hands staying clean in it. figuratively. ) it's always been my belief that he's a little bitter and overall just sad when the court convenes because his own title has a very heavy sense of loss to it, which is not something elizabeth and barbossa endured when sao feng/borya died. he sacrificed a lover, friend, and mentor to become pirate lord of the caribbean, much as esmeralda lost her grandfather, captain, and father-figure.

longer answer: if Esmeralda were to give it to Jack, I think you're absolutely right that she would make it hard for him to achieve. she values the esteem of the court and the responsibility of the position very highly –– shipwreck cove is as equal, if not more so, to the prestige and respect due to any european-style court that she might have found herself in. the key difference being that pirate court is more or less a meritocracy, where you at least have to prove yourself worthy of some respect of a pirate lord to be given the title, or at least good enough to take out a very powerful captain and steal the title for yourself (and not get murdered by those loyal to them). so she wouldn't be handing it out to jack arbitrarily. and it's not that she doesn't think he's a good captain, she knows that he is, and she says as much, but this is jack well before any of the accomplishments elizabeth knows him for (sacking nassau, etc), things that are worthy of the legend of a pirate lord. but not some twenty-something who just spent half a decade playing capitalist and winning the favor of the caribbean's jeff bezos.

what i don't think she would do is hand him down a set of tasks as if he were hercules to prove himself "worthy," which i highly doubt jack would be remotely interested in, anyway. instead it would have to be after some really difficult event –– a skirmish at sea, a raid on a port, even treasure hunting –– where she conceded that he had the makings of a legend of the court and a "worthy" successor of the de Sevilla pirate lineage. he's a better pirate than Esmeralda is, in some ways, when it comes to keeping his cool as well as out-maneuvering his opponent as opposed to just being "better" in terms of skill with the sword or the superior vessel / crew, so I don't doubt that she'd be able to see that, or that he might wind up saving her life instead of losing it. ( good ending )

on the opposite angst-end of things, i could absolutely see jack being driven to revenge if someone had killed esmeralda, and taken the lordship with it –– if he killed her killer in retribution, he'd wind up pirate lord without really meaning to, but at tremendous effort and personal loss. he's shown to be more than ruthless when it comes to enacting revenge on barbossa for the pearl, and his final killing blow on christophe is done in Esmeralda’s name, so I don’t think it’s too much of a stretch to think that he’d want to see her avenged and her illegitimate successor stripped from their ill-gotten gains.

tldr: yes, jack suffered quite a lot and had to work hard to become pirate lord, so his frustration at elizabeth & barbossa is fairly well-reasoned.

[asktheheirofslytherin]

"Not seen Will since I left Port Royal," she admits, "And aye, seen me fair share. Da used teh be the immortal captain of the Black Pearl. People used teh say the ship be crewed by the damned and that Da be so evil, hell itself be spittin' 'im out. Not be true, but it be amusing."

She then pauses, seeing the confusion on everyone's, save Jack's, faces.

"They used teh be cursed. Turned in teh skeletons in the moonlight. Not be able teh die and unable teh feel physical shit. Torturous," she adds before in not quite a whisper, "He be dead now."

Jackie misses him dearly. He raised her for seven years, gave her the confidence to stay stubborn in Port Royal. He was the reason she didn't just give up and give in. Watching him die had hurt.

Hearing his final words, "I feel...cold" before being shot by Will had been downright torture. He even realized she had seen and had a look of both guilt and horror. Barbossa had known that this would tear her apart, saw the tears she would shed.

And she did shed them, right into his dead corpse after she had been left alone for a few minutes. Jack and Will both had offered comfort, knowing that she would grieve. What kept her going was Jack's offer, a place on his crew.

They had shared a cell before his hanging, this time due to Governor Weatherby Swann. As a father, Swann couldn't imagine both what the girl was going through and the thoughts racing through the older Sparrow.

She quickly shakes off the morose thoughts and chuckles, glad Delphi had no qualms about meeting her.

She replies, "Aye. Da taught be the basics, Will expanded, now Jack be teachin' me a few things. And aye, I've stabbed someone. Killed 'em, too. Ye any good?"

(Yes, the reveal finally happened. Ya'll were right! I'm honestly glad you could guess. I wanted to sprinkle in some clues so it wasn't just a random reveal that came out of my ass)

"Used to be immortal?" Voldemort raised an eyebrow, already weighing the trade-offs of turning into a skeleton and not having a sense of proper touch. The skeleton bit could be amusing. The sensation bit, perhaps not so much. "How?"

The conversation shifted - the girls were speaking now.

"Oh, very cool," Delphi said, grinning. "I'm not the best at using a blade, to be honest. Mum says I swing too wildly. Fighting with a blade is not as natural to me as using magic - that I am quite good at - but it is fun, and I want to keep learning. You never know when you need the skill. My Father - well, before I was born, he lost his powers for thirteen years. He regained them, but-" she glanced over at Voldemort - "he has always impressed in me that I should not be over reliant on the magic I have learned."

"Yes," Voldemort said, frowning a bit. "Thirteen years - it was torture, after having held magic since childhood. To have it ripped away, and realizing then, all that I lacked." He grimaced.

[everythingispirates]

no but actually that bit in the locker where jack's compass doesn't work and barbossa asks him which way he's going makes me craaaazy because it's like. that's the essence that's how their relationship works at least professionally jack knows what he wants but the compass only points in a straight line, it doesn't account for the way there and barbossa's job as first mate was essentially to balance that out and chart an actual course which is why he's the chartman and we IMMEDIATELY GET AN EXAMPLE OF THIS in the up is down sequence which I've talked about before but in which we see jack find a solution which barbossa can't figure out and him then making that solution work in practice by commanding everyone to run in time with the waves and setting everything belowdecks loose so it makes the rocking more violent. explodes and dies

[teatitty]

Are we ready to talk about the fact that Jack and Barbossa are some of the best sailors we see in the trilogy? 

In DMC one of the crewmen says that you would need around six people to man The Pearl but in Black Pearl we see Jack effortlessly sail The Interceptor - which is around the same size, maybe even bigger - with just himself and Will, who has never sailed a ship before in his life (hence why you see Jack telling him what to do) and then going back to DMC, when The Dutchman is firing at The Pearl, Jack wordlessly takes the helm and with only one hand manages to steer her clear of said cannons without getting struck by them even once

As for Barbossa, not only do we see his quick thinking in Black Pearl when he sees the stunt with the anchor and manages to, in but a split second, come up with a successful counter move, but in AWE Elizabeth herself tells him “We need you at the helm!” when faced with terrifying waters and he is also the only one capable of navigating to World’s End, partly because he’s died before but mostly because he’s the only one skilled enough to do so

[steps-to-parnassus]

dead men tell no tales reimagined as horror-action

thinking again about how dead men tell no tales had so much wasted potential to be a fantastic horror-action film. instead of focusing on j*hnny d*pp and his stale, washed-out-drunk “comedy” or trying to shoehorn in yet another love story to replace will and elizabeth, the writers/producers/directors should have taken a look at the absolutely phenomenal make-up, costuming, digital effects, and actors’ performances that they had on their hands for the crew of the Silent Mary, and at how the original script written by Ted and Terry heavily played up the horror element.

a horror-focused film would have been a breath of fresh air for the series and could have even made several other elements of the film (lieutenant scarfield, shansa, etc) work better. it would have made the idea of a “final adventure” ring much more true, and most of all, it would have harkened back to the horror elements prevalent in curse of the black pearl and ESPECIALLY dead man’s chest, which worked very strongly in those films’ favour.

just think about the possibilities (quite long, so i’ll put it under a cut):

ghostly hands coming out of the walls of the Monarch like in the trailer, but the viewer never sees what happens next. all we get are flashes of the massacre and Henry’s perspective, trapped in the brig with no light as he struggles to see and hears screams of terror and demonic shrieks of glee.

we don’t see the ghosts coming into the brig due to the darkness; all we see are golden pinpricks in the dark, noises of shuffling and agonized breaths and the sense that something is terribly wrong. they only appear to the audience as one of them brings a torch down into the brig for Henry’s benefit, and suddenly the Mary’s crew is revealed in all their terrifying glory to both Henry and us.

they stare and leer at him, and crewmembers in the background have red blood around their mouths. the audience gets the sense that they very much don’t want to let Henry go.

when we next see Henry in Saint Martin, he’s raving. he still meets Carina, still speaks with her, still agrees to help her, but he is terrified by what he has seen. he tells her about the corpses and the pools of blood he had to walk through to get to the Monarch’s longboat. he tells her how the demons watched him go with hungry eyes. he tells her that he can still hear the screams.

Scarfield does not seek to kill Henry just because he is a traitor - Scarfield sees him with Carina, whom he lusts after. Henry might help her off the island, might protect her. Scarfield wants him out of the way so that he might possess. he has heard plenty of the ghostly crew and cares not that they are attacking british ships - every officer not himself that dies is a greater chance Scarfield will be promoted in the seniority-obsessed ranking system.

Jack is doing well when we first see him, the cunning fast-talker we’ve always known him to be. it is only after the rumours of a ghostly crew with a captain calling himself Salazar spread like wildfire around Saint Martin that he starts trying to drown himself in liquor to assuage the bone-deep terror. 

when Salazar and his crew are freed, they don’t have a mild little cheer. no, they tear their hair and howl like madmen. they have been storing all their pain and hate against pirates and empires for decades - they are going to bathe the oceans in blood.

when we first see Shansa, she is hooded and cloaked, somehow able to track the movements of the dead. she takes her robe off and we see why: she is covered in scars from blades and fingernails and teeth, wounds left her when she was the “one man left alive” from a voyage into the Triangle many years ago, back when the Mary’s crew could not control their bloodlust as well as they can now. and that is terrifying to us - what they did on the Monarch was their version of being restrained.

we see the news of the dead crew spreading as they attack pirates and british ships alike. churches are overflowing with terrified citizens; people bar their doors and hold fast their rosaries and guns at night.

Jack’s crew were loyal to him up until they heard of the dead - now they must be paid off by Henry to rescue Jack, because every pirate in the Caribbean knows who Salazar is; and now that he is the undead, they daren’t let him find them. the rumours are coming back from men left alive that the crew of the Mary sing and laugh as they butcher without remorse, that the evil curse they lay under forces them to feast on human flesh just to keep going, just to feel anything. Jack’s crew do not mutiny later because he suggests it - they mutiny out of sheer terror.

the scene with Salazar and Barbossa’s first encounter is one of the few in the film where the horror element is quite prominent (the other being Salazar’s intro, and it isn’t a coincidence that these are two of the film’s strongest and most compelling scenes). very little about this would need to be changed to work, save for one thing: Salazar does not tap his sword five times at the end. instead he simply says, “you can take what’s left of them,” and nods to his lieutenant and his men, who all begin to smile as they turn to the crew. when we see them next, Barbossa’s crew are down to less than half. we never find out what happens to them.

when Salazar tells his story and we see the past, we are stunned. here is the crew of the Mary, working together, smiling, laughing at their victory. we see and hear them talking about how finally civilians will be safe; about how they can retire, go back to their wives and children and parents and siblings. we see them as normal men with a noble goal. 

we see them awake and scream in pain and terror, and it is on their agonized screaming at the start of their decades-long imprisonment that we cut back to the present. now we can understand, at least a little, how once-good men became monsters.

Carina, Henry, and Jack would have far more dramatic reactions to the Mary’s crew on the beach. for Henry, these are the demons that slaughtered an entire crew as he sat in the brig, trapped and helpless and terrified that his horrific end was imminent. for Jack, these are men whom he’s seen before as humans, and whose hatred and bloodlust is directed at him. for Carina, who has never seen ghosts before, she is struck dumb. these men have horrific injuries, and they are looking at her with detached curiosity and bloodlust that seems a thousand times more horrifying than the looks Scarfield gave her. she can almost see what they would have done to her had they caught her.

there is no ridiculous wedding scene on at hangman’s bay. instead, the locals saw the giant ghost ship sailing into their waters. they know who it is the demons want, but are not aware that the Mary’s crew cannot set foot on land. they intend to give Jack up to the ghosts in exchange for their own lives.

Salazar still executes Barbossa’s men in the name of the king. he is completely mad, but some part of him still thinks himself a righteous naval officer.

Scarfield wants the trident, but more than that, he wants to use it and Shansa’s knowledge to control these dead men. he remembers the reign of terror Beckett wrought with the Dutchman. he would see it repeated for his own personal gain.

in the ship-to-ship battle, Henry initially tries to defend Carina until he realizes that the ghosts aren’t attacking her. they want her to lead them to the trident so that they can seize it for themselves. our heroes do not yet know that they want to end their curse. in fact, the crew of the Mary don’t really know that themselves - they’d much rather have the pirates surrounding them dead to rights, and then free themselves.

every time one of the Mary’s crew is dissipated due to contact with land, the others react. they scream and howl and gnash their teeth and their eyes flare gold. the viewer can feel how much they would like to crush the heroes’ bones into pulp.

when Henry is captured, the officers of the Mary cannot take their eyes off of him. he is terrified for his life, shaking the whole time. when Lesaro mentions that they have tried possession before, the other officers mourn their comrades who became trapped in human bodies and slowly died of thirst, still unable to leave the Triangle, all because they wanted to see the sun again. the viewer is conflicted - are we supposed to pity these monsters? there are flashes beneath the madness that suggests that deep down, they just want to be human again.

when the crew’s curse is broken, we see more of it. we see limbs regrow, bodies knit together again. we see the bloodthirsty monsters we have come to fear laughing and weeping with joy, embracing each other. we hear their terrified screams for help as Salazar finally demonstrates that his own bloodlust was decidedly not the byproduct of a curse as was the case for his crew and pursues Jack.

Barbossa climbs down the chain to kill Salazar, but the former spanish officer deals a mortal blow. just as he is about to kill Barbossa, Jack himself decides to muster up his courage and sacrifice to save those dear to him, which throughout the films, he has always done. he falls from the anchor, and together with his rival-turned-best-friend, he plummets to his death with one last jaunty sweep of his tricorne hat.

there are many dead from the battle. Barbossa’s pirate empire is in ruins, and british power in the caribbean has taken a massive hit. people everywhere are terrified. Henry, however, finds that his terror has stopped and resolves to be a braver man after witnessing what Barbossa and Jack have done. Carina pledges to honour her father and never again to disbelieve in ghost stories. she decides to become a pirate.

in this bittersweet ending, a glimmer of hope: the Dutchman surfaces, with two new crewmembers. Will hangs up his hat to Jack, with Barbossa as his first mate, and Jack is finally reunited with Bill, who has made amends with Barbossa. the old captain-versus-captain dynamic is back - and destined to play out forever. with uncharacteristic solemnity, Jack vows to ferry Salazar’s crew to the other side so that they can finally rest.

Will climbs aboard the Black Pearl, where the crew has elected Carina Barbossa captain. he asks if she might sail him to Singapore - his wife is the pirate king and lord of the south china sea, and that is where she holds court. Henry and Carina, true pirates, share a kiss as the sun rises and our heroes head off to find new adventure. the nightmare is finally over.

[maniacpixiedreamgirl]

but like do you remember the original potc trilogy? do you remember it? like remember it? do you remember will and elizabeth? calypso and daavy jones? their theme tracks? parallel themes? remember that? remember how love is real and tragic and painful? but yet the most beautiful things humans can experience? remember will calling elizabeth miss swan? remember her saying how many times will i have to ask you to call me elizabeth? will replies at least once more? remember her risking her life in a pirate ship to save him? remember him joining a pirate, something he despises, to save her? remember them standing between jack and her father, the place where they belong together? remember their wedding covered with rain and them getting arrested? remember will leaving elizabeth on the cell and asking to keep her eyes on the horizon as he went left to find their freedom? remember her once again going after him? remember how daavy jones fell in love with a something so free and untamable you can’t know if it was a goddess or the ocean? remember the first time you heard the daavy jones x calypso soundtrack? when they ripped your heart out with a fucking track hm? and remember how so did he? how this mortal man physically rips out his heart to hand it to his love? how he gave up 364 days of every year of his imortal life to spend one with her at shore? remember how the parallels between love stories fucking wrecked you? remember how elizabeth screaming barbossa will you marry us? remember the kiss to the marry me suite? remember cinema’s most iconic kiss???????? remember will dying for elizabeth? remember daavy jones last word being calypso? remember will now keeping the same promise? to only be able to spend one fucking day with her but one, every year till she dies is better than to have never seen her again? remember the fucking boot and the fucKING KEEP YOUR EYES ON THE HORIZON WHY THE FUCK DON’T THEY DO MOVIES LIKE THEY USED FUCKING JESUS LOVE IS REAL AND THE ONLY STORY WORTH TELLING