Hey there! Sorry for the unexpected intrusion, but I've read your post about the Flying Dutchman contract and the reasons that would stop Elizabeth from sailing alongside Will, and I wanted to say that I really like the way you put it! There's a little thing that baffles me, though: when you and Elvy say that the Dutchman is a "ship of the dead," do you mean that it is somehow bound to the world of the afterlife or that its crew is actually dead? Because my take on the matter was that they are cursed, but still alive: I mean, isn't it the point of Davy Jones asking prisoners to join him so that they may delay their death?
And on this same note: do you think that, hypothetically, Elizabeth could sail on the Dutchman if she agreed to become part of the crew?
Sorry if this doesn't make sense, I've only recently watched the movies for the first time, maybe I'm missing something π π π
Have a good day/night! <333
What a fun question! Thanks for asking!
So one of the things that's important to remember: the version of the Flying Dutchman that we're watching on-screen is a version that has gone rogue. "The Dutchman sails as its captain commands," and that means that while the captain is basically contractually obligated to do certain duties with specific restrictions, they are not FORCED to. Same as you or I can choose to not show up to work, the Dutchman's captain is Technically free to do that. In terms of ability, Will absolutely could have just not gone back to the underworld and instead stayed with Elizabeth as her husband permanently at sea.
The captain just doesn't get to choose the consequences of that choice--which would be to become a fish monster and make his crew lose themselves and theory become ineligible for being freed from the ship (X). So he chooses to honor the contract in that hope of returning to her.
The reason during the events of DMC and AWE the Dutchman is wandering the seas of the living and picking up living men for her crew is because Davy no longer cared about being cursed and chose to abandon his duties.
When the Dutchman's captain is honoring the contract made with Calypso, they are in the underworld, ferrying dead souls to wherever they're supposed to go like Charon. And that environment is just not hospitable for living people.
I think there is one POSSIBLE loophole, which does touch on your last question: Bootstrap is alive when he swears his oath to Will's Dutchman at the end of the movie, and so there's an implication that he's potentially made immortal enough that he wouldn't start to die from starvation or whatever while crewing the ship in the underworld. But the reason that isn't a good loophole for Elizabeth to exploit in canon, is that Will needs her to be in the living world waiting for him to free him from the curse. Also I just don't think he'd be comfortable with the idea of her effectively cursing herself for him. You could equally argue he wouldn't stop her if that's what she wanted to do--I just think that because of how she loves him, instead of joining him in death she'd rather pull him back into living life with her.
I think exploring a fic where they take any of these alternate paths could be a fun read though!
ETA: Also one more thing. Both the living and dead are delaying their death in both contexts. The difference is that the living get to delay their death as we understand it--starting the journey into the afterlife. The dead that would pledge to the Dutchman in the afterlife are delaying arrive at the final destination of death, and potentially working in some service that could help tip the scales of judgement in their favor if they believe they're bound for hell. (I vaguely remember implications from the writers that the afterlife is what they the person believes it will be, so if they believe there is a hell, and they lived a life deserving of that hell, it's possible for them to be ferried there.)
