I've been enjoying your blog immensely (and it also pulled me further back to RotG), especially the parts regarding the lore and differences between books and the movie.
I've re-watched the movie recently, and realized something, that perhaps you'll be able to explain or have a theory about.
How did Pitch know to use Jack's memories as a lure? Timeline wise, Jack's amnesia was revealed after Pitch run away from Tooth's palace, and even Tooth didn't know about it, and memories are her whole deal. Is it possible he was still present at the scene, and others just missed him? Or perhaps he had some knowledge about Jack, but then why wouldn't he try to recruit him earlier?
(Also, since Nightmares don't really have hands to help, now I'm imagining Pitch digging through the mountains of teeth canisters looking for Jacks)
aww thank you so much! I'm glad you liked my stuff!
Absolutely love questions like these & I think there is a canon answer to this!
When Jack and Sandy are chasing the nightmares right before Sandy's last battle/death we have this exchange from Jack & Pitch:
At this point Pitch is generally uninterested in Jack, and sees him more as a curiosity than anything. So he's also not interested in Jack's reasons for being there.
(I mean, if he knew that Jack was mid recruitment into the Guardians I think Pitch would be a lot more interested in removing him as a threat. But if he had realised that before Jack's power (usefulness) reveal then Pitch would most likely have killed or disabled him, perhaps even used him to get at the other Guardians seeing as Jack is the least experienced fighter of the group.)
But this is the second time Jack has turned up with the Guardians, and he is now actively helping them. So Jack's relevance to Pitch & his plans is slowly climbing the ladder of potential threats, which skyrockets into Jack being the no. 1 threat when he explodes and destroys the nightmare hoard.
So suddenly Jack is his most wanted (either as captive or ally) and he needs an edge against him seeing as brute force is unlikely to work (Pitch generally strategises around ambushes/surprise, manipulation, isolation). And he already has this tidbit in the back of his mind: Jack wants the teeth.
Jack helping Tooth collect teeth wasn't suspicious because it looked like he was helping for the sake of helping. But Jack helping specifcally because of the teeth stands out as odd to him.
(I think Jack is in a very unqiue circumstance tbh. a slipped through the cracks kind of issue where everyone else around him assumes someone else is looking out for him, so he ends up going through 300 years oblivious to a LOT of stuff.)
Pitch knows the function of the teeth & why Tooth is collecting them, that's the whole reason he targetted them:
So once he's turned his attention to Jack, it's not terribly hard to connect the dots.
Jack wants the teeth + the teeth hold memories = Jack wants to see his own memories.
On top of this, Pitch is able to sense (wish the how of this was developed more) a person's fears. So of course that's one of the first things he does with Jack once he takes an interest (or perhaps he just knows on sight? maybe he knew Jack's weak spots from the very beginning but didn't see him as a threat?).
So even though Jack being amnesiac is far from obvious to an outside POV (one of many reasons why I will never fault the Guardians or even MiM for not intervening) Pitch has enough clues that he can put together if not the answer then a best guess.
Chances are that he had those clues (Jack wants the teeth + the teeth hold memories + Jack is afraid he'll never really know who he is) and still wasn't confident on the amnesia angle. The memory lure could have been an instinctual reaction that would work on anyone (anyone not used to Pitch's manipulations, that is) rather than Jack knowing he was following his own memories.
I hope that answers the bulk of your questions?
As for why Pitch didn't target Jack earlier, that's up for interpretation. I personally think that Pitch is a narcissist who only tries to recruit Jack once he can benefit Pitch and not a moment before. Pitch did not care about Jack until he showed his power. Which is why Pitch was blase about Jack in the beginning, but suddenly takes an interest after Sandy's death:
bored/surprised/smug ↑ vs. excited/keen/hopeful ↓
idk I just feel like if Pitch was interested in having an ally/friend/son? for the sake of companionship or "family" as he puts it, then why did he only start to take an interest in Jack when he revealed his powers? Jack began as a neutral party, why wait until he's allied with the Guardians properly to make a move?
If Pitch was telling Jack the truth in antarctica then at what point did he start to relate to Jack? He dismissed him entirely in the tooth palace, showed only passing interest in him on the rooftops in Burgess, barely acknowledged him during the battle that killed Sandy & attempted to kill/hurt him with little to no thought?
Pitch didn't care about being alone, or having a family until he started targeting Jack. Which also conveniently happens to be an exact match to Jack's fears.
I believe that Pitch is scared of losing believers - he wants/needs power to be strong enough to control his army of nightmares. But while yes, they do drag him away screaming when he loses, lets not forget that in rotg lore he literally invented that entire species of animal out of the dregs of Sandy's dreamsand. He was so obsessed with power that he accidentally created his own downfall in the pursuit of it. Pitch hasn't been living under the thumb of a nightmare army since the Dark Ages, they are a recent and dangerous invention that he failed to control and suffered the consequences.
I would also love to see more lore on the nightmares because just how sentient are they? What do they want? Do they feed off of fear too? Can they die, do they fear death? Do they remember being dreams? Do they miss it? They have such an interesting set up but we have little to no idea how they function, why they took Pitch or what they intend to do with him? Is it revenge for being corrupted into nightmares? Is it anger at Pitch's failure & their lack of reward?
They are undoubtedly sentient, as Pitch's main nightmare (named Onyx in the script & artbook I believe) seems to show concern at Pitch's anger:
My current thought is that Pitch's pride and mistreatment of them (being in a "war" after so long being coddled to grow stronger must be pretty shocking too) drove them away. If Pitch had allowed his weakness to be percieved and worked with the nightmares instead of simply using them as tools to boost his ego then maybe they wouldn't have turned on him at the end.
I mean, Onyx sees him in a moment of weakness, goes to comfort him, and what does she get? Growled at, disintergrated, transmuted and crushed.
It kind of feels symbolic of how Pitch would treat his allies if he had any. Which is probably why he doesn't have any.
As for how Pitch found Jack's teeth in amongst all those trillions of boxes... I think there's several options to choose from. To some extent Pitch might have been able to sense them, maybe by matching their signature to Jack's? Or he could have bribed/threatened a mini fairy or two to get them to help. Or the nightmares could help him, but probably in less substantial forms than their actual nightmare appearance. Kind of like telekinesis?
But the idea of them trying to help but only having hooves is hilarious!
Thank you so much for the ask! Hope I answered your question?
