More Pirates

[ivyfic]

A summary of the writers' comments on PotC 3 -- spoilers ahoy, duh. Given the fact that the behind the scenes features on PotC 2 show a lot of snarking and yelling at the writers for not having any sort of script for PotC 3 when they were shooting PotC 2 (and not even having that script really done) despite the fact that the two movies are supposed to make up one story, I'm not that surprised that all of this didn't actually come across in the film. The film felt to me like it was full of little elements that were supposed to be storylines but were abandoned in one rewrite or another, leaving only the stub.

Now, I ask you, is it humanly possible to figure out that mythology about the curse of the Dutchman from the film? And I mean, that's a pretty freaking complicated curse. When you remove all the exposition about it, no wonder it makes no sense.

This is what confuses me. According to this film:
-Davy Jones falls in love with Calypso
-DJ accepts Calypso's commision to ferry souls with the Dutchman
-DJ ferries souls for ten years
-Calypso is not there when he returns
-DJ tells pirate lords how to behind Calypso
-Either after this or the first betrayal, DJ cuts out his heart
-DJ shirks his responsibilities and becomes a squid

Now, based on the exposition in the last film, I expected the sequence to go more like this:
-Tia Dalma betrays DJ's love
-DJ cuts out his heart
-DJ becomes captain of the Dutchman

Since this is not the case, why did DJ ever become the captain of the Dutchman? That sequence of events makes no sense. And if being the captain and having your heart cut out are seperate things, why do they cut out Will's heart when he becomes captain? And if Will is returned to mortal form after ten years, wouldn't he just immediately die, since he was mortally wounded when he became captain?

This is what I meant when I said this film was a plot seive.

Comments

[trinityvixen.livejournal.com]

Okay, here's what I can kind of cobble together.

The reason Davy Jones became captain of the Dutchman was to win Calypso's love. Like the challenges put to many favorites of the gods, this was his: he ferries the souls of the dead for ten years (presumably for her; lazy goddess), and he gets one day to come ashore and find her. If he does, hurrah, he gets to be immortal and with her for all time (I assume immortality was given him as a reward for service if they reunited).

He goes off, does what she wants him to do (temporarily immortal, or at least unkillable by the sea, drowning, etc), and comes back to no goddess waiting for him. Pissed off that he has to go back to sea for ten years without promise she'll ever be there, he tracks down some pirates to bind her, hoping to inflict pain upon her (and, just maybe? If she's bound to human form, he might have a better chance of locating her next time). The heart cutting thing happens probably as a fit of pique and betrayal 'cause he doesn't want to live without his love (melodrama much, Davy Jones?). Doesn't go well, and he becomes a squid, having cursed himself--because the Dutchman has to have a captain, the captain can't die even with his heart out of his chest--to now be on the ship forever. A new curse forms around the heart, probably a mixture of the magic he can work as Calypso's follower and some of her own besides.

I don't think ANY of that came through in the film. It also doesn't explain Will's situation at all, but it at least makes clear Davy Jones. I think.