Captain Jack Sparrow - A Legend in His Own Mind

[the_stowaway]

Title: Captain Jack Sparrow - A Legend in His Own Mind
Author: the_stowaway
Character: Captain Jack Sparrow
Fandom: Pirates of the Caribbean
Spoilers: All three movies
Beta: the lovely and talented jenna_thorn

Comments

[the_stowaway]

This is what I love about Jack. Everything you say makes perfect sense and holds together beautifully and yet I still think my version can be just as valid. He's such a slippery character, with so much glorious room for interpretation! There's space for a bunch of different versions of Jack, all in one scene, IMO. No wonder he's so much fun to write.

For example, you say Case in point: see how resigned (and rather pissed-off!) Jack looks just before he jumps in to save Elizabeth; it’s clearly something he doesn’t want to do, it’s not the smart thing to do in Jack’s tenuous situation, but seems to be something he is compelled to do nonetheless.

Now, while agreeing that what you say makes perfect sense, I see the disgusted look as his opinion of M&M. He expected *them* to jump in and save her, leaving him in possession of the ship, but neither can swim. Bugger. Go to Plan B - get *himself* off the ship and improvise from there.

And yes, the rescue would be expected to draw attention, but there are any number of ways that Jack could turn that to his advantage, IMO. First, he's assumed a new role - to almost everyone there, he's not a potential ship thief, he's the rescuer of Elizabeth. He might be counting on the easily-distracted M&M forgetting about keeping an eye on him until it's too late - until he's had a chance to use all the confusion and the crowd to slide away. Second, he might be hoping that he'll be handed some kind of reward for the rescue - money, preferably, or, failing that, perhaps the girl's father would hale him off for a drink, once again getting him away from M&M. I think he could have pulled it off, too (I mean getting away from that dock one way or another, in order to be free to try again to steal the ship) if only Norrington hadn't identified him as a pirate. Jack's a brilliant improviser, but what tripped him up this time was Norrington (the 'scourge of piracy in the eastern Caribbean') being so sharp.

So I guess my point can be summed up in a quote from Tia Dalma: "Same story, different versions and all are true."

I'm glad you liked my essay aside from this one point. Thank you so much for your thoughtful comment - it's such fun to hear what other people think about our favorite pirate.