Pirates of the Caribbean/Headscratchers: Difference between revisions

** As hospitable as Barbossa was, he did still have the unfortunate habit of kidnapping people, which made it very difficult for the love-parrots to want to help him. Plus, he kept saying he'd kill everyone when it was all over.

** And it was kinda implied (as implied as it gets in a Disney film) that they were going to rape Elizabeth after they got what they wanted.

*** Breaking the laws of physics as part of the premise is okay. That's what [[Willing Suspension of Disbelief]] is for. But within the premises of the story, we expect characters to act in ways that make sense. Same reason people can accept the fact that Superman can fly, is super strong and has heat vision, but him [[Clark Kenting|hiding his identity with a freaking pair of glasses gets on their nerves.]]

** In addition, might I point out that it's not the ends that are important when it comes to Barbossa'a goals, it's the means that sets the protagonists into motion. In order to lift the curse, he needed both the coinage and the blood offering of William Turner Sr. That means the blood of his only child and the coin said child inherited, which gets Elizabeth and Will abducted, Swann wants his daughter safe, Norrington wants that and the pirates hanged, and Jack just wants his ship back. Lifting the curse isn't really the goal of any of the protagonists.

*** At the same time, though, the protagonists have plenty of reason to want the curse to be lifted so the badguy pirates stop being invincible and impossible to kill. It may not be their ''goal'', per se, but there's really no reason for them to be against it.

*** Barbossa and the pirates want to lift the curse.

 

** Uh, no. It was following the ''Black Pearl''. The hat (and the ship it was picked up by) happened to be in the way.

*** I concur. The ship was in the way and the Kraken was hungry. Also, lets not forget the Kraken is tracking Sparrow BY MAGIC. Who knows how that works? When the hat became separated from Sparrow it may have put two blips on the Kraken's magic radar.

** I understood it to be a requisite - the heart must be removed, but Davy Jonnes chose to keep his on an island where he couldn't get at it so that he could divorce himself from his emotions. Or something...

*** But now Elizabeth's hanging on to the chest. So is he still emotionless or what?

** We could just blame the crew's ignorance... As long as they knew Jones, they knew him to be without his heart. They assumed there was a need to relinquish the unneeded flesh. Organ. (Organ? * chuckles* ) Muscle. Whatever. Savvy?

**** Listen up, people: The curse that binds the next captain after Jones is '''not''' the same as the power that made Jones captain. Jones cursed ''himself'', not to mention his ship and his crew, by cutting his heart out and making himself a supernatural monster. Didn't it occur to anyone that he might also curse anyone who managed to murder him and end his rein of cruelty? Maybe into taking his place and possibly ''continuing'' his rein? Call it the Wolfram & Heart gambit.

** This Troper decided that the Heart was a requisite for heading a ship of the dead. Jones became all Squiddy because, as Claypso stated "He corrupted his purpose and so became himself corrupted." Will on the other hand, stayed normal looking because he did his job right, sacrificed his love for ten years, and gave his heart up so that he could ferry the dead.

*** It's possible Calypso is simply twisting the story she tells a bit to make Jones seem less sympathetic. It's clear that the whole 'seperate from emotions' thing is a symbolic gesture. Jones is a raging asshole because he ''wants'' to be one, it's how he ''feels better'' after Calypso's betrayed him. When he took the job, loosing his heart probably didn't matter much because he had taken the job as a favor to the woman he loved. Afterward, there's a certain amount of masochism in it. It's "since I hate everything and am going to spend every waking moment being the most miserly wretch I can possibly be, how ''awesome'' is it that I literally have no heart?"

** My understanding is that the rules were fairly loose when Jones became Captain of the Dutchman. There weren't any rules in place for a successor to Jones' position when Calypso swore him to it, and so the rules developed around Jones. Thus, Jones cutting his own heart out was not part of the job, but something he did on his own accord. Will, however, had to have his heart cut out because Jones established the precedent. In short, it was less "Here are the established rules for Will to become Captain of the Dutchman" and more "Will has to become Davy Jones 2: Electric Boogaloo".

** And this troper assumed that, with Will unconscious and unable to ''say'' he's claiming the ''Flying Dutchman'' for himself, replacing Jones's heart with his was the only sure way to make certain the captaincy devolved to him, not Jack. It was Jack's muscle-power that drove the blade into Jones's heart, after all, even if he used Will's hand as a tool with which to grip the hilt; until Bootstrap Bill re-enacted Jones's heart-extraction ritual, either one of them had a valid claim to be the new captain.

*** Of course, {{spoiler|Elizabeth isn't all that suicidal, and by the time she could think of this tactic, she's pregnant. Which would put a damper on any plans to get herself killed at sea to be with Will- would YOU orphan your own child that way?}}

*** It's implied that Davy Jones isn't supposed to do the whole "Do you fear death?" thing. That's how he got cursed with looking like Cthulhu, he wasn't ferrying the souls of the dead, he was just using fear to build an <s>army</s> ''navy'' (we don't do that "water thing") of undead sailors.

***** The phrasing of "Do you fear death" makes me think that it may have even started with some of the souls ''wanting'' to join the crew rather than pass on immediately. It serves two purposes: the Dutchman has a crew, and those who genuinely fear death can make an easier transition. The problem, IMO, wasn't that Jones was recruiting a crew, it was that he was completely ignoring all the souls that didn't join him, while keeping his crew bound to him long after they were ready to pass on.

**** That is exactly the point. Ferrying souls means no crew, EVERYONE goes on to the locker. Calypso never said he'd have a crew, just a ship. Those fish-men were also killed at sea, duh! (NVM that half the time, Jones was the one killing them.)

***** So, he's supposed to sail the ''entire ship'' by himself? What about the fact that Will keeps his dad on the crew in the end? ''He's'' committed to doing the job right.

*** No, the problem is that he ISN'T DOING HIS JOB. Ok, the dead sailors aren't exactly helping ''that'', but it's not the main issue. Also, he's not killing sailors/kidnapping dead sailors so that they can join his crew, as some tropers seem to think, but he's killing sailors OR letting them join his crew, weren't you paying attention? After Davey accepts Will into his crew, he gets asked about the other survivors, to which he says that there were none, signalling to the crew to KILL THE SAILORS. You can't kill something that's already dead!

**** Much as the US Military hates it, the truth is at "army", used generically, can mean simply "a large group of soldiers". Contrariwise, "navy" specifically means "a large group of ships", which is clearly not the case. You can say with great accuracy that Davy Jones is building an "army of sailors" or even an "army of marines", but it would be even more accurate, not to mention more succinct, to just say he is building a "crew".

**** Back to the point, Will had to do the job or turn into a monster like Jones. Elizabeth is alive and can't go/survive where the Dutchman and it's crew can, so them docking someplace safe so she could be aboard during the ten year work-week would take Will away from his mission. He did the job right, and combined with the fact that Elizabeth waited faithfully for him to return, they broke the curse and she got him back ''for good''. Doing anything risky or crazy (like Elizabeth killing herself just to see him or expecting some kind on on-board vacation) would've screwed them out of their happy ending.

*** Also, Will was only going to be helming the Dutchman for 10 years. Sure, Elizabeth could kill herself and they have ten years at sea together, but what happens after that? She moves on to the afterlife, and he goes back to being mortal. Waiting ten years meant they had the whole rest of their lives after that to be together.

***** [[Wild Mass Guessing|Maybe Will's dad becomes the captain?]]

**** Where is this "Will is captain for ten years and then is mortal again" idea coming from? As I understand it, he's bound by the same "ten years at sea, one day on land, repeat" as Jones was, not "ten years at sea, the rest of your mortal existence wherever you want." Having his heart in the chest is the only thing keeping him alive, if the Captain of the Flying Dutchman can really be considered alive, anyway.

** She rules the seas, of course. It's explicitly stated that the first Brethren Court bound her "so men could rule the seas".

*** Also, the EITC are like the Borg and Wal-Mart combined. You '''will''' be assimilated, but at the lowest prices!

* On a slightly less sarcastic note, at the end of At World's End, the pirates fight for their freedom against those dastardly ''English'' chaps from the East India blah blah etcetera. For freedom! And democracy! And the right to murder and steal and rape and pillage and generally make a nuisance of themselves. Yes, these are the quintessential [[The Pirates Who Don't Do Anything|Pirates Who Don't Do Anything]], but still.

** Actually, historical pirates did have some of that going on. A lot of the pirate subculture wasn't just about pillage and plunder, but also escaping the social conventions and power structures of the great empires. Pirate ships- independently operated ones, anyways, as opposed to privateers and well-organized corporate pirates (yes, such things existed) often had a democratically elected captain, shared booty and followed compacts ratified by the crew, and sometimes even liberated slaves because the slaves weren't of any value to them.

** Jack's father helped him, he didn't work for anything, and he got a ship for nothing? He sold his soul to an immortal demigod for his ship, found the compass himself, and then tricked his way out of the deal! That's not hard work? Granted, Barbossa still ought to give it up, simply because he'll never eat Jack's natural luck it seems.

** Then again, Jack isn't exactly the most... dependable guy. Would ''you'' keep him as your second-in-command ? Or, [[Crystal Dragon Jesus]] forbid, as your commander ? And of course, should they even agree on a you-command-these-guys, I-get-those-guys deal, there's the whole "Who gets to sail the Pearl ?" thing.

*** That's Jack's older brother.

*** No, no it's not. Captain Teague is explicitly Sparrow's father.

**** Jack directly refers to Teague as "Dad" in the fourth film.

** We also saw what happens at the start of the second movie when Jack gets his own ship: he's aimless, obtuse, won't explain himself to his crew and doesn't seem very concerned about their well being or opinions. He's a brilliant adventurer and pirate, but he's not a very good leader. Barbossa might have had some good reasons for leading a mutiny against him, since he does seem to be much better at actually commanding his crew. At least the second time around, Barbossa respected Jack enough to simply strand him at port, rather than on a deserted island.

*** The compass wouldn't work ''because'' Jack was aimless, not the other way around. It pointed towards his heart's desire, but he couldn't make up his mind on where he wanted to go. It's no insult to Jack to say that the very qualities that make him a brilliant adventurer also make him a bad leader. Davy Jones says as much when he responds to the news of the Black Pearl's mutiny with "then you were a poor captain, but a captain nonetheless".

 

 

* Why is it that all the medallions managed to stay intact? I'm sure plenty of people would have been willing to melt them down - after all, it's not like they're legal tender.

** Also, back in the old days, gold was gold. As long as it weighed enough and was real gold, it didn't matter who's face, or skull, was stamped on it.

*** But why wouldn't they cut them in half or quarters the better to spend them? They just kept getting absurd amounts of change every time they purchased something worth less than a medallion?

 

* Oh, man, don't get me started. How about the first movie, when Will ''kills his own father''. Did you realize that? Let's work this out: ten years ago the pirates all took the gold and got cursed. I can only assume that Bootstrap Bill was also cursed, as the countermeasure requires his blood, and presumably it needs the blood of every cursed person. (As opposed to the-blood-of-everybody-that-was-cursed-and-also-everybody-else-that-happened-to-work-on-the-same-boat.) So Bootstrap was cursed along with the rest of them. Now, they tell us that Bootstrap was chained to a cannon and dumped into the ocean, but he's cursed, therefore he ''can't die''. So, for the last ten years, Bootstrap Bill has been sitting around at the bottom of the ocean, dealing with incredible boredom but nevertheless still living. Then, when Will puts the last piece in the chest, the curse is lifted, which means that Bootstrap can die now, which means he suddenly suffocates at the bottom of the ocean. And ''no one'' figures this out. No one.

** Because by then he's been recruited by Darth Squid.

*** Well sure he gets recruited, but that doesn't change the fact that he was killed in the first place. (I mean, I presume you have to be dead or near-dead in order to join the Flying Dutchman. That seems to be the deal. And Bootstap couldn't have been either of those things until the curse was lifted.) And in film #1 we didn't even know about Darth Squid, so somebody should've been like "Wait, won't Bootstrap die if we lift the curse?"

**** More to the point, Bootstrap explicitly tells Will this aboard the Dutchman. He didn't wait the full ten years to die, Jones came to him sometime in the middle there, and sailing with Jones was a better option than maybe-eternity in the crushing depths.

** But Will had no way of knowing whether or not Davey Jones had rescued his father. As far as he knew, his immortal father was trapped in the ocean depths, and Will chose a path that would result in his father's death. Out of story, I heard that when the writers were coming up with the plot for the second movie, they noticed the giant plot hole in the first and quickly filled it in before anyone noticed. Not that it worked.

**** More to the point, did Will even ''know'' his father was an undead zombie skeleton? I mean, he didn't even know he was a pirate. It stands to reason that Will would think his father was just plain ol' dead.

***** He probably did know, or at least suspected so. After all, he knew they needed his blood, meaning someone related to him had removed at least one medallion from the chest (since he himself hadn't), and he knew (from Jack) that his father was a pirate.

*** If it was the mutiny then maybe he still wasn't cursed. Didn't they find the treasure after the mutiny?

*** If he wasn't cursed, they wouldn't have needed Will in the first place. He was definitely cursed.

** This troper was immediately convinced that Bootstrap survived the first film after seeing it. Think about it: given that he is immortal, there is no way of permanently binding him to the cannon. If you take Pintel's account literally, and say that the cannon was just bound to his feet, he would have freed himself in a day; a week at most. If Pintel was just being witty and they in fact tied his entire body down, his escape would be hindered, but by no means halted (I have this hilarious image of him ''rolling'' himself to shore). Ten years gives you a lot of time to break out of your bonds, especially if you can find a sharp rock on the ocean floor. Chains would have been the greatest hindrance, but ten years is sufficient time for them to rust enough to be broken out of, especially by somebody who never gets tired. Plus there's the fact that if the moonlight ever reaches him, he loses half his body mass and slips free, and spends the next ten years walking on the ocean floor (as is demonstrated to be possible) until he finds land. I'm still convinced that he could have done this, if he had thought ahead a bit before Davy Jones approached him.

*** Moonlight would probably never get to him, if he was deep enough. There are some parts of the ocean so deep that there is no sun or moonlight(hence luminous fish and such).

*** 1) Water pressure is no issue here. Submarines only implode if they are filled with air, if they were filled with water, they wouldn't. Fish don't, for that matter, because the water in their bodies can't be compressed. A human is subject to implosion, if his lungs were filled with air (which Bootstrap doesn't rely on), still there would be absolutely no force pressing him to the cannon. 2) Pits won't stop him. He should be able to swim during the day, and find some place to sit during the night.

*** Ever tried to figure out which way is up, never mind North/South/East/West, when you're underwater? It's ''hard''. Scuba divers can determine which way up is by following bubbles, but Bootstrap would've voided all his air on the way down. Unless they dumped him in fairly shallow water, there'd be no light to guide him; even if he broke free and tried to reach the surface, he'd get disorientated as soon as his feet lost contact with the seabed. Or, if he tried to hoof it, at best he'd have untold miles of trackless, pitch-black mud flats to trudge across, wandering in circles no doubt.

***** They couldn't have "bound him by his bones" as you put it. Pintel explicitly says that it wasn't until ''after'' they tossed him overboard that they found out about the curse.

***** It wasn't until after they tossed him overboard that they found out about ''breaking'' the curse.

****** Not true. Pintel specifically says "'Course it wasn't until ''afterwards'' [i.e. after they tossed Bootstrap overboard] that we learned about the curse."

***** No, he says it wasn't til afterward that they learned they needed his blood to ''break'' the curse:

'''Ragetti''': I guess that's what you call ironic. }}

***** How bout Will clearly never met his father and had less than no relationship with him. I'm trying to save a major hottie from undead pirates my long lost never met father doesn't even cross my mind later in hindsight.

* The final battle of World's End, where the ''Pearl'' and the ''Dutchman'' blow the ''Endeavour'' to bits bugged me. Sure, both the ''Dutchman'' and the ''Pearl'' were [[Cool Boat|cool ships]], but even both of them put together had fewer guns than a Man of War like ''Endeavour''. On top of that, they attacked in precisely the worst possible way, flanking the ''Endeavour'' so that it could fire all of its guns at them, while they could only use half of their total cannon. If Beckett had given the order to fire, instead of standing there like a [[Idiot Ball|slack-jawed idiot]] the movie would have had a very different ending.

** The ''Dutchman'' was an unbeatable supernatural ship. The ''Pearl'' was at least as legendary as the ''Dutchman''. Each stood a reasonable chance against the ''Endeavour'' one-on-one, and with Beckett only able to devote half his crew to fighting each, it was a lost cause, no matter how much of a fight he would go down with.

### Supernatural Abilities. Granted, both good ships are cool supernatural ships, and the ''Dutchman'' is a submarine too. This being the case, sinking the ''Dutchman'' should prove quite impossible and even more useless, because she is essentially indestructible. The ''Black Pearl'' could even be damaged by the ''Interceptor'', a ship of less than half half firepower. Jack even claims the damage was severe, altough he is most likely lying. Still: we see damage, and the ''Black Pearl'' can be sunk. Heck, it even was sunk once. Oh and another time by the Kraken. She can be destroyed, or at least could be, if one gave the order to fire. Imagine a naval battle, a maelstrom of several dozen ships, guns blazing, some battles even going on abord ships. What is the last thing you will hear? Right, your captain yelling two decks above you. That is why, in a battle situation, a gun crew will, with absolutely NO exception, open fire on an enemy ship whenever possible without waiting for an order. Also the captain might be dead, and joined by most of his officers, too, disrupting the command structure, and it would not be the first time. Conclusion: In reality, this battle would have been won by the ''Endeavour'', and quite easily, too. But this is a movie, and there is something we call artistic license, and I respect it. Still when, like in this case, artistic license is extended to an equivalent of a Roger-Moore-era-James-Bond beating Superman unconscious with a ruber chicken, I can' help but wonder, if there could not have been a better solution for the climax of a trilogy than ''Errr... The good guys win, because... um... We say so... Yes. Fine.'' This approach to filmmaking just bugs me.

*** Incidentally, that solves the problem of the rest of the pirate armada. They were shooting at the random ships of the East India Trading Co. armada offscreen.

**** The time is more likely 1770s to 1780s, based on the ship rigs and the clothing, apart from that, I agree completely.

** You guys do know why becket didn't give the order didn't you. He says to himself: 'Its just good buisness, thats just it' well, I like to believe that he knew he could win easily (as did the good guys) but he was evaluating the two side's causes (hence the deep thought while his crew were asking him to give the order) and had come to the conclution that while the pirets were fighting for freedom, he was just in it for personal gain, and realised he was in the wrong.

*** ...Wow, ''no''. Good gods, man, did you even watch the movie? That's not even remotely on the same ''planet'' as what actually happened. Beckett was just rambling because he realized he was about to be the center of a cannonball sandwich. He didn't think the Pirates were right. He was trying to justify himself to the very end. This is just...wow, I haven't seen a conclusion that far off the mark for a good long time.

*** He was in it to make money and control the seas. ''That'' was his motivation. "Just good business" was his pithy catch phrase. Yes, he could have won, but he was ''freaking out'' because he's a ''businessman'', not a sailor or a soldier, and even if his side won, ''his'' personal ship was right out front and guaranteed to get blown to hell even if he did manage to somehow destroy the undead super ship filled with unkillable fishmen. He never "realized he was in the wrong". It was a straight-up [[Villainous BSOD]] at the end there, not him suddenly realizing the error of his ways.

*** Thanks for explaining, that makes sense now.

* WTF is with Beckett and his "just good business" [[Catch Phrase]]? Breaking your agreement with other people is ''not'' good business - it is, in fact, the opposite. Word tends to get around quite quickly if you stop keeping your end of the bargain when you negotiate with people, and in a situation like what Beckett was trying for with the East India Trading Company (a complete corporate monopoly of all trading routes), you ''need'' people to trust you - which they won't, if you've proven that you'd be inherently incapable of negotiating in good faith if your life depended on it. Otherwise, they start looking for methods that don't involve dealing with you to get what they want - and, when they're dealing with a [[Manipulative Bastard]] like Beckett, those ways <s> may</s> will involve removing said bastard from power if at all possible, ''by'' any means possible.

** Then again, is it ''really'' good for business to keep someone like Jack Sparrow around? Beckett wasn't saying, "Breaking deals is good business," he was saying, "Getting rid of all the pirates is good business."

*** That's not what "just good business" means. It's an echo, and it's meaning changes, depending on who's using it and in what context. It's used as a justification for cruelty, dishonor, greed, and cowardice, and later Beckett repeats it when his ultimate defeat becomes reality -- he never planned on losing, you see. But when he says it "to" Jack earlier, when he assumes he's won and Jack's come crawling for his forty pieces of silver, the lips say "good business", but the eyes say "[[Evil Gloating|pwned]]!"

 

** It's a monkey. It doesn't ''know'' about the effects of the chest.

** Also, it might have simply acted with survival in mind. What better way to preserve your life than by becoming immortal?

** Wasn't it only supposed to curse you if you took ''more'' than one piece from the chest though?

*** No! Where does this "only curses you if you take more than one piece" [[Fan Wank]] keep coming from?

**** Locks, specially locks of that era, rely on a key's shape to be opened, not on the key's composition. Weight and materials aren't really a problem, as long as you don't make the key light enough to break under pressure. Thickness could be a problem, though, depending on how big the lock opening is. Still, one would think the solution would be to make several similar keys of varying thicknesses.

***** Did you ''see'' how complicated the lock for the chest was? It wasn't a normal lock of that era. It was really complex. A basic replica wouldn't have been able to unlock it, even without the magic.

**** Plus, would the audience seriously enjoy watching thirty minutes of Will Turner in his blacksmithing shop hammering together that same key in variety of thickness? May as well call it ''Pirates of the Caribbean: Turner makes Keyes''

**** They could have tried the easy way of getting the chest and making a key for it, before doing it the hard way of selling your soul to a sea demon, trying to sneak past a crew of immortal fish men, and steal a key to the captain's most precious belonging off of his person, off of a ship that may submerge underwater and kill you at any moment! Or at least do a scene transition to 5 extra seconds of them failing the easy method.

***** I just realized, it's even worse than that. They didn't need the key at all! They could simply blast the chest with a cannon shot, exactly like the Brits threatened to do in the third movie! (I presume that if the chest could withstand that, Davy wouldn't cooperate with Becket).

****** Jack wanted the key so he could open the chest. He needed to open the chest so he could take the heart. He needed to have the heart itself so he could use it as a bartering tool to get out of his contract with Davy Jones. Blowing up the chest removes the bartering tool he so desperately needs. Make any sense?

****** How is bartering while threatening to stab the heart out of chest any different than bartering while threatening to shoot the heart inside the chest with a canonn? Apparently it differs so little that Beckett doesn't mind putting the heart back into the chest and pointing a cannon at it. So no, previous troper's argument does not in fact make any sense.

******* As stated above, they didn't know. Jack, Will, and Elizabeth have all gained a healthy respect for supernatural forces, curses, magic, and the power of the undead. When they needed a magic key to open a magic chest, they attempted to obtain the magic key to open the magic chest. Ignoring the magic for a more practical solution never crossed their minds. Beckett is a much more cynical individual, with absolutely no respect for magic whatsoever. As such, he represents the death of magic and wonderment in the world. Beckett has the Kraken killed unceremoniously offscreen, he makes Davy Jones into his personal bitch, and faced with the magic chest/magic key combo above, he simply responds with, "[[Cutting the Knot|Why not just blow it the fuck up?]]" This is what ''makes him the villain of the film''; we see that his cold, heartless pragmatism does, in fact, get results (much quicker and more effective results than anyone else, in fact)...but at the cost of everything that makes the world great to live in, at least for a pirate like Jack and Barbossa. The brief dialogue the two shared, overlooking the dead Kraken, was probably the most easily overlooked yet most important scene in the second and third films.

** Even given that it's a magical key to a magical chest that can't be counterfeited or busted open, wouldn't it make a lot more sense to go steal the unguarded chest ''first'', and only then go after the heavily guarded key? So that once the powerful [[Eldritch Abomination]] clues into what you're doing, he won't be able to send his unkillable minions to stop Phase 2 of your plan since you'll have already done it and moved on to [[Did You Just Flip Off Cthulhu?|Phase 3]]?

*** Instinct. how else would they react to it? i'm sure the original Troper didn't think of this IJBM during their first viewing... plus the moment gives Elizabeth a short moment of bad-ass.

**** Obviously he didn't think of it the first time he saw it, because the fact that they are invincible skeleton things didn't get brought up until a little bit later. Also, how many times he watched it before it started bugging him is completely irrelevant. An It Just Bugs Me can start bugging you the day you see the movie, or 300 viewings later. Thus, the IJBM still stands.

** The answer's simple: the water's murky and polluted, and the medallion could get washed in any direction by an undertow or buried in the sand. Even if you could dive down to find it without worrying about something like breathing, you still wouldn't be able to guarantee where it landed. Plus, it's night, and it's the 1700s. There was no way to see where the medallion fell or to find it with your eyes.

** Not to mention how much work they must have done tracking done every, single, last piece - I'm sure the last thing they wanted to see was someone throwing the last remaining coin into the water, to (as other Tropers have said) get eaten by sharks or whatever. The pirates' not wanting to go through additional pain in the behind should more than explain their reaction.

***** The "Long Drop" method of hanging you refer to wasn't in use until 1872 and these films are all set in, what, the late 1700s? At this point they did actually use a standard length for everyone, so friends and family would actually run up to pull the legs of a hangee so that they'd die quicker instead of strangling slowly.

** Beckett is a [[Complete Monster]] who a) wouldn't give a ass's rat about how much the men being hanged suffered as they hung, why make more work for the executioner when one length of rope will at least kill them, even if not ideally? And perhaps the time it would take to measure it correctly for each prisoner is longer than the time it takes them to die inefficiently? And b) it's a good demoralizing tactic. "Hey, pirates, check out what we're doing to your friends. Yah, plenty more to come, too, great innit?"

***** That story about a man being set free after surviving his own hanging is a myth. It never happened. People have survived initial execution attempts before, but there has never been a case where it was successfully argued in court that because the first attempt at execution failed, the condemned man had to be set free. And courts have ''always'' phrased it "hanged by the neck until dead".

 

*** So, if it's having his heart nearby that makes Jones susceptible to emotion, then Beckett may have wanted the chest on board the ''Dutchman'' so Jones would be vulnerable to intimidation? Sneaky man, Beckett.

** Probably to make it more of a threat for Jones. This way it would be absolutely clear that Beckett had the ability to kill Jones - not showing it to him would cause him to believe the threat was a bluff. Also, in the event that the Dutchman was overtaken by pirates (who knew from the previous film that Jones's heart was his weakness) who wanted to win the fight, Jones and a bunch of [[Mooks]] would be the only real casualties.

*** Another thought, what would happen if Jones was rebelling? If the heart was on land or on another ship, communications could have been delayed until Jones caused trouble. Jones would still be "under control" but something like refusing to go after someone fleeing would allow them to escape and that would cause more problems for the EITC. The closer the heart to Jones, the quicker the order to kill it could be relayed.

 

** Also, recall the exact line of dialogue. "''Cursed'' pirates sail these waters." Clearly it's not just the idea of being pillaged and murdered that's gotten him all superstitious.

** Maybe Gibbs pulled a [[Heel Face Turn]] and deserted the pirates when Jack (the closest thing he has to a [[Heterosexual Life Partner]]) was exiled. He could be afraid of encountering Barbossa or another pirate with a grudge against him.

** Or maybe her singing was just getting on his nerves, and he told her it could attract pirates to scare her into shutting up.

** Working with pirates and being on a navy ship that's attacked by them are ''kinda'' different things.

** If any of you really payed attention to his character, you'd notice that Gibbs is very superstitious, and there have been multiple occasssions on which he claimed something would cause bad luck, so he said that line to Elizabeth out of superstition.

 

** She was trapped as a human.

** That was after. Davy Jones trapped her as a human because she wasn't there to boink him when his ten years of blueballs was up.

 

* Why didn't Davey Jones just ''sink the Flying Dutchman'' to gain possession of the heart?? By bringing the heart on board, Beckett commits a fatal error equivalent to dangling a mouse on a string in front of a cat (or taunting an [[Evil Overlord]] with his small, easily disposable [[Artifact of Doom]]). It really weakens Davy Jones' character that he didn't think to do this, choosing to let himself be humiliated in public instead.

*** Also, as you said, ''grandstanding''. Jack spent god knows how long terrified of death, only to be sent to kinda-hell by Jones. He was savoring the moment. Cruel may be a matter of perspective, but even the devil thinks Jack's a butt-munch.

 

*** Will's also impulsive and fiery - we see this in film 1, when he barges into a tent full of soldiers and demands they rescue Elizabeth, and even earlier in the film when he goes rogue to save Elizabeth rather than trying something less likely to kill him. He's also very loyal - if someone he cares for is in danger, he'll do anything to save them and he'll act without thinking. So his desire to immediately stab the heart and not do the more sensible thing - wait until Jack bargains with it, and then stab it and give it to Norrington (because nowhere in the agreement did Beckett say the heart had to be beating) - he wants to just kill it now.

*** Also, last time Will saw Jack was when he effectively sold Will into eternal slavery on the Dutchman to save his own skin. I don't think Will would be in any mood to cooperate with him at that point.

** According to Mercer, he was adrift at sea, and one of the EITC ships picked him up. Maybe he built a raft (by roping a couple of Sea Turtles, of course!)

 

** You haven't looked at [[Only a Flesh Wound]] lately, have you? Read those pages, particularly the bits where they explain that "just a shoulder wound" is '''''not''''' some easily survivable, painless process. '''Especially''' with that period of firearms. In fact, if you were hit at all, your ''best'' bet was to have some medic saw the affected limb off with no anaesthetic and put tar on the resulting stump.<br />I'll quote the relevant passage:

** A shoulder wound, while a serious and almost certainly life threatening wound, is unlikely to be instantly fatal (as seen in this scene). That being said, the shock can cause somebody to pass out quite easily.

** This troper is pretty sure the pirate was hit in the chest/lung area, not the shoulder. Also, we don't know what angle the round struck him from. It's possible it penetrated into his body and went through his heart, which ''would'' be instantly fatal.

 

* In the first movie, in the scene where Elizabeth first encounters the pirates in their zombie form, two of them are hammering...something with hammers. What are they doing? It doesn't look as if they are forging or repairing anything, they are just hitting it.

 

* Why is Bootstrap Bill Turner's blood the blood needed to lift the curse?

*** The question is, why was he OK with gambling for the key in the first place? When Jones realised that the key was gone, he spent the rest of the movie chasing the heroes, rightly deducing that their next objective was the chest (well, what else could it be), so what was the point? Furthermore, what would've happened if Will had won? As for Jack's gambit, I'm not sure I follow you. Of course, he had a gambit, so what? Jones wanted Jack in his crew. You don't need to be a genius to work out that he will try to weasel out of the deal. Will's interest in the key reinforces that assumption. Why would Jones go along with that?

**** He's ''not'' okay with it. He accepts the challenge, perhaps out of arrogance, before the stakes are laid out, and even if there are no rules that say he can't back out, he wouldn't want to look like a pussbox in front of his crew. ''After'' he accepts, Will places his soul as his wager, Jones asks "In return for?" and Will says, "I want this," showing him the picture of the key. The look on Jones' face and his tone of voice when he says "How do you know of the key?" makes it clear that he's caught off-guard by this. I don't have the DVD for reference but I think Will even taunts him with a dare to back out, and Jones' response is to show him the actual key to prove he has the balls to go through with the game.

*** The Pirates wiki said that he knows everything that goes on in the ship,which is debatable,but it would explain his bet,in other words he's (as they say in ''[[Elf]]'') a cotton ninny muggin.

*** The game in question requires each participant to reveal their wager. Will shows his soul easily - he is there. Jones needs to prove that he is in possession of the key or he is unable to play.

 

 

* What's the deal with the suspended cages the cannibals were keeping the pirates in? First there is a threat that the supporting vines might snap and their dinner will plummet into the bottomless chasm. Next, each time the tribe wanted a pirate sandwich they had to pull a couple centners of weight out of the said chasm. How is that superior to making a durable wooden cage ''on the ground'' and keeping the prisoners there [[Bound and Gagged]]? I understand that savage cannibals are not exactly paragons of lucidity, but still.

 

* In the first film did their clothes get cursed too? I get how the curse makes them into skeletons but the clothes also looked all torn up in the moonlight.

** Curses in this Verse seem to have ambient cosmetic effects on whatever it is they afflict. Consider how torn-up and decayed the various curse-afflicted ''ships'' in the films look: you could go fishing with those sails, they're so full of holes, yet they still remain functional!

 

* What's the deal with 663 golden medallions? Does this number hold some significance in Aztec religion? Were the Aztecs trying to make [[Number of the Beast|666]] but ran out of gold?

 

* A simple thing in the first movie: Norrington wants Jack Sparrow to be hanged, as soon as he discovers the branded "P" on his wrist which says he is a pirate. So we must assume the authorities brand all pirates that they get hold of. But they also hang all pirates they get hold off. Why don't they hang them in the first place, without bothering to brand them at all? If Jack Sparrow was branded, why wasn't he hanged at the same occasion?

** What's more, the mark could indicate that Jack ''was'' caught and sentenced to be hanged at one point, but he escaped. Even just running on the movie's logic, it'd make sense to brand pirates so they can be easily recognized if they somehow escape, or get rescued by the rest of their crew. Norrington has no problem with immediately executing Jack because the brand showed he was already tried and sentenced to death.

** Though it could just be a policy of the East India Trading Co. to mark any traitorous privateers working for them as pirates as a form of punishment, as suggested by by Norrington's remark that Jack had "had a brush with the East India Trading Co." and the later reveal that Cutler Beckett, head of the company, had branded Jack for a misdeed to said company.

 

* In the third movie: When the pirates plan to free Calypso from her "human bonds", they lead her unto the deck all tied up in rope. If they are going to free her anyway, why the ropes? As long as she is in her human form, she's not dangerous (she has no intention to stop them anyway) and once she gets her divine powers back, the ropes are pointless.

** Even when she's human, she's still a voodoo sorceress. Keeping her tied up stops her from escaping prematurely via magic, thus guaranteeing that she'll owe them for ''voluntarily'' setting her free.

 

* In the first movie Jack explains to Elizabeth that he was rescued from the island by smugglers. Since he was stranded there with nothing but a gun, what exactly did he pay them with? Unless, of course...

** Smugglers are still businessmen, and they probably figured that the great Captain Jack Sparrow owing them a favor was a good thing.

*** Or maybe they were just nice smugglers who rescued a marooned man. It's not impossible.

 

* What happens if you die in the world of the dead? Like that random [[Red Shirt]] who got crushed by a falling cannon during the "Up is Down" scene?

*** In other words, if you "die" in the world of the dead you end up stuck there.

 

**** They were supposed to be either "dead or dying". Remember that Jones was surprised at Will being present during his collection in the second film. And also, the whole 'recruit army of undead' thing is ''not'' how the job is supposed to work when it's done properly.

 

** That sort of thing happens when you plot out your film ''while you're filming''.

*** See, I personally never had any trouble following the movies, but I definitely think the franchise would've had less people complaining if it was release in small, weekly bites like Lost. People never seemed to care that Lost was complex as hell and that they were just making it up as they went along -- they couldn't wait for the next episode to come out. I think it's all that waiting and speculating that makes things easier to understand, like how now people say that the first Pirates film was simple and linear when, originally, most people had no freakin' idea what was going on and complained about it in reviews. I'm calling it [[Back to The Future]] syndrome, where watching a movie with a complex plot a hundred times renders it simple and timeless.

 

* In ''Dead Man's Chest'', after the Pearl repels the Kraken in round one with a volley of cannon fire, why doesn't the crew bring her about and make for the shallows? Actually, why doesn't the ship move at all when the Kraken lets go? You can see that the sails are full and that the cephalopodian menace has circled around for another pass, so why doesn't the Pearl budge?

** They couldn't, the Kraken kinda had them over a barrel. Remember, "must've hit a reef"? It stopped them dead in their track and all the sails in the world wouldn't have helped them.

*** The Kraken did grab the ship to make its first attack, but you can see from the giant wake that the beastie's let go and moved a considerable distance away to make the second attack. Unless the Kraken somehow glued it to the bottom, the Pearl should have started moving once it let go.

** Barbossa and the other pirate died because they were wounded ''right then'', and their supernatural natures hadn't had the chance to fix the damage. Jack's wound had happened several minutes before, and was undone when he stepped out of and into the moonlight.

** Also, there was a bullet lodged in the middle of what was, now, a beating heart. Kinda makes it hard to pump blood.

 

* Elizabeth's fighting skills. She goes all the way from damsel in distress in the beginning of the first movie to holding her own with a cutlass against multiple cremembers of the Flying Dutchman in the second to being on par with any main character in the third in terms of fencing. Where did that all come from exactly? Did she stat practicing fencing for three hours a day?

 

* In the fourth movie near the end, Jack had to stand on a pirate's shoulders to reach the 'portal'. So how is it that all of the pirates made it through? (They should have had to leave one person behind...) not to mention that immediately afterwards, {{spoiler|A small British regiment led by Barbossa comes in, then an ENTIRE Spanish army, gear and all manages to go through all at the same time. [[Flat What]] }}

* In the fourth film, what the hell was up with the mermaid-naming scene? I mean, it would be one thing if she told priest-whose-name-isn't-important-enough-to-remember her name in that pause, but he just up and declares that this is her name? I mean, how arrogant is that, did you consider that she might have actually had a name before you declared it?

** It's just meant to establish his attachment to her, and in all fairness she didn't speak up.

** Phillip glances quite deliberately at the mermaid after saying she has a name; he names her Syrena only after she doesn't volunteer one. It's possible she simply didn't ''have'' a personal name, as mentioned above, and if she ''did'', the name of a supernatural being often carries power (usually power over the being itself) in folklore. If that's the case here, she ''definitely'' wasn't going to let it slip where Blackbeard, an [[Evil Sorcerer]], might hear.

** Honestly to me it just seemed like righteous indignation/fury made him jump the gun. She hadn't said a name up to that point and he just wanted her to be treated with kindness. Right after he said it there was a pause and I thought it would have been hilarious if he'd gone "Uh...what's your name?" but he didn't. He just ended up making up a name for her on the spot since she wasn't volunteering anything and she went with it.

** The Spaniards knew that Barbossa was also coming for the Fountain, and that ''he'' needed the chalices for the immortality-ritual. Even if the cups had turned out not to be necessary to reach their destination, they were still useable as bait to lure the competing English expedition into a trap.

** They didn't destroy the chalices as soon as they got their hands on them because the chalices weren't the real target--the Fountain was. Even if they destroyed the way to get in, as long as the Fountain itself was untouched, there was still a possibility of someone using a metaphorical back door somehow to access it. These guys were on a holy mission in the name of God and country to destroy the "pagan temple"--that's not a job you just leave half-assed, not with that level of devotion to the cause. (Though I still don't get why they were lovingly polishing the chalices up at the camp. They had Ponce de León's notes, so couldn't they have just gotten the inscription from them?)

 

* What happens to Jack's hat at the end of OST?

* Where and when did Ponce de Leone gain access to magic? I mean, are we supposed to assume he just ''found'' a pair of fountain-of-youth chalices and a reanimating map?

** Probably around the same time he ended up getting his ship stuck on top of a cliff. As for the main point, Blackbeard has a magic sword that controls his and other ship, not to mention his quite literal ships in bottles. I think you're supposed to assume the setting is a bit more fantastic.

** According to legend (probably not actually true, but it fits in with the setting) Ponce de Leon was searching for the Fountain of Youth when he discovered Florida. If he really did spend time searching for the Fountain then he presumably learnt all the lore about it. The chalices were probably in some lost temple or other that he visited before setting off for the island, the pirates just get told they're on Ponce's ship because that's their last known location.

 

* At the end of ''Stranger Tides'', Why does Jack bother {{spoiler|performing the ritual as well as a pretty sweet [[Batman Gambit]] to save Angelica}} only to {{spoiler|strand her on an island the same way Barbossa had stranded him}}? Both {{spoiler|she and Blackbeard}} were {{spoiler|going to die from poison sword wounds}} anyway. Sure Jack's not the [[Chaotic Neutral|nicest guy in the world]], but this felt like an excessive [[Kick the Dog|dog kicking]].

** {{spoiler|Weren't you listening? He said that it was a well travelled route, so ships were bound to go by. All she would need to do is start a fire to get their attention. He stranded her there because she would have killed him otherwise. So no, he is not dumping her there to die. }}

 

* I'm afraid to ask this since I think I know the answer, but... {{spoiler|What happened to the crew of the Black Pearl after Blackbeard captured it?}}

** Hopefully they're on the ''Pearl'' like the monkey.

 

** They might be setting us up for the next film - maybe he's the new king of the sea?

** Also, why did she spare him at all in White Cap Bay? How did she know he was "different" from the other men in the dinghies she had just been trying to eat?

 

* Right at the beginning of the movie, that one guard who was chasing Jack.. ''why did he put his sword and gun down''? You're chasing down a pirate escaping from the king. Was he afraid he was going to get his sword dirty?

 

* Is that hat that Barbossa got at the end of ''On Stranger Tides'' a new one? Or did Blackbeard take Barbossa's hat as a souvenir after defeating the ''Black Pearl''?

 

* Re-watching ''At World's End'', I might've come up with a solution to a recurring headscratcher: why Elizabeth and Will absolutely cannot meet during the ten years. At the end, the Dutchman disappears in the green flash, presumably back to the land of the dead. I took that to mean that the seas Will must travel are the ones in the Underworld, not the mortal seas of Earth. He can't come back to the land of the living at 'all'' for ten years, or he's not doing his job and he ends up walking Tentacle Porn like Jones did.

 

* In ''On Stranger Tides'', why is Mr. Cotton's parrot still alive in the "Black Pearl" in a bottle? I understand Jack the Monkey, but why the parrot?

 

* The "up is down" scene. I still don't get it. What was the plan? Why did it work?

** But what actually happened to the ship once it got turned over? It seemed to travel up through a finite volume of water and emerge on its "opposite" surface. Is Earth flat in the POTC-verse, with the underworld on its other side?

** I simply saw it as more of a symbolic representation of travelling between worlds than anything. In a supernatural sense the underworld may be on the other side, but I doubt it's ''literally'' on the other side. Savvy?

** They're enemies who respect one another and are willing to team up whenever something that threatens both of them comes down the pipe, so they can go back to their private feuding in peace.

*** That seems logical. They way I always thought of it was that they were as close to being friends as two pirates of their sort could be, but I like your theory as well.

 

* Barbossa said the rigging of the Pearl tied him up, so he cut off his bound leg. Why didn't he cut the ropes? (Not to ruin a totally awesome moment for ol' Hector of course, but I'm just wondering)

 

* How would the Fountain of Youth have helped Blackbeard against Barbossa? If my understanding is correct, then the fountain merely extends your lifespan. It doesn't make you invincible -a sword to the heart would still have killed Blackbeard. They do mention using Barbossa as the sacrifice, but that means their plan essentially boils down to "let's kill him before he kills you" and they could have tried that with a gun rather than the fountain.

** Also, they probably thought "pagan mystic fountain" would be better at trumping Fate than a gun would. Presumably, however Blackbeard ended up "facing" Barbossa, Barbossa was going to kill him because Fate said so. Angelica mentions that the Fountain would give you all the years used by the sacrifice, and all the years they would've had "if fate had been kinder," so it's implied the Fountain's water has the power to outright change someone's fate.

 

** They might have nipples under the [[Godvia Hair]].

*** No, you see several times beneath the hair. Though admittedly, that in mermaid form, and there were scales to cover up. Maybe they have nipples when in human form (no scales)?

 

* So in the first film, it's said that none of the Black Pearl's crew can taste or feel. However, many times in the film, crew members react as if in pain (Bomb Dude getting hit by Will's thrown axe, Pintel being smashed in the face with a bedwarmer). What if the curse prevents them from feeling things like a woman's flesh and the sea spray, but ''not'' things that would hurt or otherwise have some sort of negative effect on them? Hey, if you're going to put a curse on something, might as well go all the way with it, eh? Anyone else think this is plausible?

*** If it is so, then it's pretty darn inconsistent. Neither Barbossa, not Ragetty (or was it Pintel?) showed any signs of pain when they were stabbed/shot respectively.

 

* What was with that whole "First to the finish" thing between Barbossa and Jack in AWE?

 

* In the end of AWE Sparrow holds Davy Jones' heart at a blade point, so Jones... stabs Will. What was that supposed to achieve, and how was that supposed to prevent Jack from stabbing the heart? Did he just want to ''Take Will With Him''?

** Kinda answered your own question. Yeah, he was trying to take out Will with him. It was also a final 'fuck you' to Jack Sparrow. Though I have a lot of other problems with that scene. Why didn't Davy Jones even try to wrestle the heart from Jack's hand? Jack already had the heart at blade point, so it's not like Davy had anything to lose by that point. Further more, Jack has the fucking heart at blade point. Why didn't he just stab it while he had the chance, and instead gloated like an idiot?

** It was more than just trying to take Will out with him. Jones was giving Jack a choice: stab the heart, be immortal, watch your friend die because you were selfish. The only way to save Will would be to do what they did: get him to stab the heart instead. To do that, Jack would have to get past Jones, and even if he did, he'd be giving up his only chance at the immortality and freedom he really wanted. Jones just didn't count on a) Bootstrap jumping on his back, and b) Jack deciding Will's life was too valuable.

** Moreover, it's a call-back to Jones's previous conversation with Jack, about whether or not Jack could live with knowing he'd consigned Will to bondage. At the time, Jack was dismissive of the idea that he'd feel so guilty about such a thing as to make life unbearable, but forcing him to actually ''watch'' Will being killed in cold blood -- killed, because ''Jack had told Jones that Will was in love'' -- is Jones's way of calling Jack's bluff about that. It's the inverse of his usual "Do you fear death?" question, recast for would-be immortal Jack as "Do you fear an eternity of living with this guilt?"

** Jack ''had'' to blow his chance, 'cause it was William Turner's destiny to become the Captain of the ''Flying Dutchman''. What can one little pirate do against that?

 

* After all the other supernatural things we've seen, I know we're just supposed to go with it. But did they even try to explain how Blackbeard became a powerful sorceror?

 

* In DMC, why didn't Jack just let Will stab the heart? I know that he wanted to call off the Kraken, but if the person who kills Jones becomes the new captain, couldn't Will just call off the beastie post-Jones murder? Unless the protagonists discovered that part of the curse/story between DMC and AWE, although it's not really discussed how they find out.

** Perhaps it was unknown whether any FD captain could control the beastie, or just Jones, and Jack didn't want to take the risk. A bereaved Kraken at large could have wrecked all kinds of havoc.

 

* Why didn't Cutler Beckett just take the ''Endeavour'' and go after Jack and the compass? It's demonstrated that the EITC has incredible naval power, what's keeping them from using it? Since everyone he's recruited has proven less than trustworthy (i.e. Elizabeth threatening him and escaping thereby nullifying Will's reasons for retrieving the compass, Will deciding he'd rather just stab the thing), wouldn't it be a better idea to send Mercer and a crew of ultraloyal soldiers to fetch the thing?

** Beckett's probably already tried that, and found Jack to be extremely elusive. So he decided to try sending someone with 'insider access'. It didn't work, but Beckett had other plots to fall back on- he probably always had a dozen schemes going at once.

** Being a ship-of-the-line, the ''Endeavour'' wasn't meant to sail around chasing down pirates -- it had a stupid amount of firepower, but little speed and poor maneuverability. It was repeatedly stated and demonstrated throughout the trilogy that no ship could outrun the ''Black Pearl''; even the ''Flying Dutchman'' could only beat her with a headwind. Turning someone Jack trusted to the side of the EITC was much more likely to work.

 

* [[Word of God]] says that in the first movie, Will is the best swordsman, Norrington and Barbossa are tied for second place, and Jack is the worst. How is someone who practices with non-moving objects a better swordsman than a seasoned pirate and a veteran officer of the Royal Navy? Does that mean if I practiced kung-fu techniques three hours a day every day, I could kick Jet Li's ass?

*** He would've beaten Jack if Jack hadn't cheated -- as both of them understood. I don't recall him actually fighting either Barbossa or Norrington except for the three-way in the second film, so no direct comparisons are possible. About a possible sparring partner: it would stand to reason that his partner/s would be of equal skill with a blade, so wouldn't Will have wanted to bring him along? Besides, the way people interact with him makes it seem like nobody really gives two copper pieces about Will, so it's doubtful that anyone was willing to spar three hours a day with him.

** How do we know Will only practices against non-moving objects? We've never actually seen him practice.

*** Will is a ''blacksmith''. Practice or no practice, he's probably a lot ''stronger'' than (lazy) Jack or (upper-crust) Norrington, simply because he's spent so many years pounding on hot metal with hammers. Barbossa might be in Will's league in terms of muscle-power, but he's somewhat older than the others and perhaps tires faster when he's not being undead.

***** The "compliments to your master" bit was because Governor Swann knew Will was an ''apprentice'', you know, a student. He didn't think Will was advanced enough to create such a masterpiece.

 

* So, what was up with {{spoiler|Ponce de Leon anyway? Did we ever get any indication as to why he was, you know, some sort of skeleton thing?}} It just seemed sort of there.

** I think it was just there to be eerie, mystical, and unexplained. My guess would be that he messed with the Fountain in some way and whatever god/spirit/force controls is punished him for it.

** Well, she ''did'' cry legitimate tears of joy when she saw he was alive, which would indicate she felt real affection for him. Whether she'd honestly tried to save his life from the get-go or if it was just because he was the only person there who was remotely kind to her, we don't really have the information to say (not being privy to her thoughts and all).

** The guy falling in love with a mermaid I can understand, but a mermaid falling in love with a human, who any other day would basically be a regular food source to her? It's like falling in love with a sandwich.

* So, is Angelica really the Blackbeard's daughter or not? The film didn't make it clear enough to me.

** Yes, she is. She was willing to die for him, remember? If she wasn't his daughter, why would she do that?

* If Davy Jones wanted his heart-chest safe from mortals, why not just bury it deep underwater where nobody could possibly get it (with the technology of the time, that is)? Or at least under something more secure than two feet of sand and a box full of old papers.

** Ah, but was Jones really hiding the chest from his enemies, or was he putting the heart in a place where ''he'' wouldn't have to deal with it? Remember, this is the man (er, squid) who called his heart "that infernal thing", and his motive for tearing it out in the first place wasn't to make himself immortal, but to make himself unable to feel.