DMC thoughts and AWE speculation
Just got back from seeing DMC for the fifth time... and each time I appreciate it more. It has its flaws, but the more I watch the more I see layers and subtlety and THESE CHARACTERS ARE JUST SO FANTASTIC!
But I also reached a startling conclusion about how this trilogy is going to end. And it does NOT make me happy. So I can only hope I'm wrong!
Will has such a martyr/hero complex it's insane. It's always been obvious, but I realized watching this time that any number of times Will's offered to sacrifice himself for someone else. (like father, like son - Bootstrap did the same for his son, twice - or is it three times? - and one can presume he did the same for Jack during/after the mutiny.) Tia Dalma noted how Will had "a touch of destiny" about him... and at the end of the film, it's Will of whom she first asks, so urgently, "What would you do to save [Jack]?"
I'd lay money - a good bit of it, right now - on Will sacrificing himself for Jack in AWE.
And ohhhhh does that make me mad!
Now, it's an honorable way to go and all that stuff, perfectly suited to Will. The problem arises in regard to the relationship dynamics between Will, Elizabeth, and Jack. I'm going to be completely pissed off if Elizabeth isn't the one to make the choice between Jack and Will - if Will makes it for her by sacrificing himself. It cheapens it, makes it feel like a cop-out, for Elizabeth needs to have the internal struggle and, hard though it will be, make the choice on her own. She needs to choose Jack on the merits of Jack, not because Will conveniently ceases to become an obstacle. Oh, it's the cleanest kind of ending, to be sure, Will gets to go out a hero, and Elizabeth and Jack get what they really want without having to hurt any feelings. These characters are deeper than that, deserve better than that. So hopefully I'm just thinking inside the box and, come May of next year, will look back and laugh at myself and feel bad about how I grossly underestimated the writers. But right now I have to rant and get it out of my system.
And I think I'm done now. Good; now maybe I can write. :-)
But I also reached a startling conclusion about how this trilogy is going to end. And it does NOT make me happy. So I can only hope I'm wrong!
Will has such a martyr/hero complex it's insane. It's always been obvious, but I realized watching this time that any number of times Will's offered to sacrifice himself for someone else. (like father, like son - Bootstrap did the same for his son, twice - or is it three times? - and one can presume he did the same for Jack during/after the mutiny.) Tia Dalma noted how Will had "a touch of destiny" about him... and at the end of the film, it's Will of whom she first asks, so urgently, "What would you do to save [Jack]?"
I'd lay money - a good bit of it, right now - on Will sacrificing himself for Jack in AWE.
And ohhhhh does that make me mad!
Now, it's an honorable way to go and all that stuff, perfectly suited to Will. The problem arises in regard to the relationship dynamics between Will, Elizabeth, and Jack. I'm going to be completely pissed off if Elizabeth isn't the one to make the choice between Jack and Will - if Will makes it for her by sacrificing himself. It cheapens it, makes it feel like a cop-out, for Elizabeth needs to have the internal struggle and, hard though it will be, make the choice on her own. She needs to choose Jack on the merits of Jack, not because Will conveniently ceases to become an obstacle. Oh, it's the cleanest kind of ending, to be sure, Will gets to go out a hero, and Elizabeth and Jack get what they really want without having to hurt any feelings. These characters are deeper than that, deserve better than that. So hopefully I'm just thinking inside the box and, come May of next year, will look back and laugh at myself and feel bad about how I grossly underestimated the writers. But right now I have to rant and get it out of my system.
And I think I'm done now. Good; now maybe I can write. :-)