Just Something I Forgot to put in the AWE Post of Doom

[meddow]

I forgot to mention death no. 3 that pissed me off – the Kraken.

How could they just kill off the creature that had everyone running scared in the first movie with a line and a post death scene? They implied the Kraken was the devil in the DMC, you can’t kill the devil off screen. I know why they did it off course: they had no idea what to do with it.

Then it occurred to me this morning – Norrington is the Kraken. A character capable of turning the tide (what would have happened is Norrington had stayed aboard the Dutchman or gone with Elizabeth with an intention in mind to destroy Beckett and the heart? – since he was crafty enough to steal the thing in the first place and is now the guy in charge of the Dutchman, it’d be hard for him not to have a significant degree of success) and the writers had no idea what to do with him so they just left him rotting on a beach somewhere.

Bitter? Me?

And I quite possibly should be banned from posting before I’ve had my morning coffee.

Comments

[lastwordy-mcgee.livejournal.com]

Actually, I thought it was Jones who was implied to be the Devil. The Kraken was merely his "hellhound," for want of a better comparison.

And I absolutely agree that they had no idea what to do with Norrington, and it's a fucking shame. The fact is he wasn't supposed to be in anything but the first movie--I believe it was Verbinski himself who said it was only due to Jack Davenport's excellent acting that anyone decided to bring Norrington back for the other films. I'm all thrilled to pieces they brought him back, don't get me wrong, but they did NOTHING with him, ultimately. And his role in DMC was SUCH a tease--they made it seem like he was moving, travelling along this emotional arc that was necessary for the character so he could get beyond his past. And then fucking BANG! Dead. And not even in a good way.

It really pisses me off that a character with so much potential was basically thrown away, and time was instead wasted with other secondary characters and endless subplots. ARGH.

Yeah. I'm a bit bitter myself.

[artic-fox.livejournal.com]

I think there are lots of bitter Norrington fans out there, for exactly all the reasons you described. So much awesomeness in DMC, to sudden DEATH. Not what I had in mind. And I remember that line from Verbinski, or Ted and Terry or whoever it was. Jack Davenport was so awesome that they bought him back, and then totally underutilised him for AWE.

HMMMPH.

[meddow.livejournal.com]

I haven’t wandered out into fandom at large, but on my flist alone there does seem to be a lot of bitter fans. I wonder what we are going to do. He’s arguably the second most popular character in the fandom, so where do we go from here? Accept canon, ignore canon or resurrect him? I know I’m going for the resurrection option. I’ve never had a character I was so invested in die on me before, so I have no idea what to expect and that's the x factor about his death that has me worried.

[lastwordy-mcgee.livejournal.com]

Well, in the fic I am currently heavily invested in, I have to buck canon in a big way. And that's fine, since I was basically working AU.

In future, my opinion for those who want to stick to canon would be resurrection. Perhaps the way Jack Harkness was resurrected (totally without the knowledge of the other characters) in the last ep of Eccleston's run as Doctor Who. Kinda in a Calypso was returned to her full power kind of way, which thus sent a shockwave of psychic energy into the world and especially the immediate area, and that excess of energy sent a lifepulse into the recently and unjustly dead who, since they died on the Dutchman which Jones had "removed" from its intended purpose and Beckett sent even farther from its path, thus creating a sort of limbo where souls got stuck instead of being able to traverse Styx/Nepenthe/Rasa/Sanzu/etc.

Youll just need to figure out where they put the body.

Savvy? And feel free to steal that--just give me credit ;)

[meddow.livejournal.com]

Oh, I've got a plan already. I’m actually going with Calypso, no longer trapped in flesh and very pissed at every man and woman who calls their-self ‘pirate,’ decided she was in need of an agent to wander among the morals and basically act as her voice. James, being recently deceased, knowing most of the major players and still not all that fond of pirates (and being in possession of a damn fine voice) ended up with the task, despite the fact that he’s not sure if given the opinion he would have done it. Now, here’s the bit I’m not sure if people will like, but I do, Calypso’s learnt from the mistake she made with Barbossa, she’s decided against giving him absolute freedom to do anything he wants because if he was free, he may plot against her. So, she bound his soul to that of an Albatross and only lets him take on human form when he’s doing her business or in her good books, an arrangement which James despises and blames Barbossa for, and leaving him, as Jack would put it, “a glorified messenger pigeon.” Cue bitterness, snark and him showing up in the lives of various characters at random moments wherever the are and ruining their fun (or joining in on it).

[artic-fox.livejournal.com]

I haven't checked outside the fandom, but most of the fandom in general are not happy about it - Norrington fans or not. I don't think I've read anyone who hasn't mentioned it, or thought it was well handled. You think he is the second most popular character? (Personally I've never thought of him in the scheme of things - he's always been my favourite). I suppose in terms of general like, Norrington is a character that most people like and don't have a bad opinion of, whereas Will/Elizabeth, etc usually have some haters. How can you hate Norrington?

I am also like you - never have I had a character in any fandom that has died on me before. I haven't written a lot of fic, but I do write Norrington, and it is a situation that will need to be handled. Personally, AU is the way I would go, or even just rewriting AWE, the travesty that it was for Norrington. I'm sure a million fanfic writers can come up with something better than they did.

[meddow.livejournal.com]

You may be right. I was thinking the “no one can best the devil” was a remark about the Kraken, but it actually fits Jones rather nicely. Still, considering its role in DMC, killing it off like that was one great big disappointment.

And I completely agree with you, and it wasn’t just Verbinski, it was T&T and Bruckheimer too, they all said they wanted Jack back so they brought Norrington back and it was implied heavily throughout that he was going to be just as important to the plot in AWE as he was in DMC. I feel really mislead. And his death did turn DMC Norrington into something of a joke. That man who was so tragically broken and who felt he had finally gotten ahead only to unwittingly sell his soul to an evil he didn’t know existed, the man who was so raw and wounded that he made viewer hearts go out to him in only a few scenes – he was turned into a mere plot device. I kind of wish they hadn’t brought him back, or at least gotten Jack Davenport to sleep through his performance, because that character and that performance deserved so much better than what he got.

[lastwordy-mcgee.livejournal.com]

IMO, Norrington died the exact same man he was in CotBP, and that's bullshit. Complete and utter bullshit. Dying for Elizabeth means nothing. It's neither redemptive nor fitting, based on what they gave us in DMC. Asshats.

I'll be putting up my own long and very spoilerific post after the holiday weekend, especially since I am seeing it again on Sunday with my friends kids. But I am not a happy camper, and Norrington's not the only one I thought was tragically misused by this script. I've also got issues with Tia Dalma's end, Sao Feng's throwaway character, and even Jones' death. And unlike you I was not thrilled with Elizabeth in this movie. I felt it was too fast, too far, and no even remotely logical explanation for her sudden, new, expert mad skillz.

Three hours long and I left looking for about another 45 minutes of plot exposition. Bollocks.