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Y'all can go ahead and celebrate the Ides of March and the assassination of Julius Caesar or whatever-- I will be celebrating the day that Merry & Eowyn Stabbed and Killed the Witch-King of Angmar like a normal person, thank you.
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so. i understand where the sentiment "listening to an audiobook is the same thing as reading the book" is coming from - i mean, yes, the bottom line is you are taking in the same words in what is possibly a more accessible (or maybe just more enjoyable) format for you! and i'm 100% in agreement that "book snobs" who say "no you didn't really read it" if you listened to the audiobook are full of shit. ofc you should engage with stories in whatever way works for you, there is no moral or intellectual superiority to reading words off a page vs. listening to them
but it also is different? an audiobook is a performance. choices a narrator makes about line readings can drastically influence the meaning of the lines. even just different voices, accents, etc. - there are creative choices being made by the person delivering the words to you, and that affects your experience of the story in a different way than if you were making those choices in your own head. it might even change the way you visualize what's going on!
this isn't a bad thing it's just An Actual Thing & i think it's worth talking about. it rubs me the wrong way when people act like accommodations (and for many people audiobooks are an accommodation) always result in a completely identical experience, or even that they should, & if you suggest that people accessing media in different ways are having different experiences it's somehow ableist
anyway on rare occasions i really enjoy audiobooks but mostly they are much less accessible to me than words on a page (i need to be able to reread, flip back and forth, go at my own pace) & i also just really strongly prefer to encounter a text on my own before hearing someone else's performance of it, if possible! again i don't think it's "better" to read a physical book i just think it is a Distinct form of experiencing a story & acting like the two things are entirely the same is sort of doing a disservice to both
So another thing about that brief exchange between Norrington and Elizabeth on the Black Pearl, where he says, "You never wondered how your latest fiance ended up on the Flying Dutchman in the first place?" is that, first of all, Norrington, more than anyone, has Jack Sparrow figured out. He can read people so well, especially Elizabeth and Jack, it seems, and I just find that so interesting. He picks up on Elizabeth having a little crush on Jack (which, I mean, is a little obvious and I think he's partially just trying to be petty, but still.)
But that has implications for how he viewed their brief engagement in CotBP. I think deep down, he knew she was really in love with Will, and wasn't fully convinced even by their conversation in that deleted scene, but chose to ignore his own instincts in favor of believing in what he wanted to be true. He knows Elizabeth and he can read people well enough to see what's really going on.
Like, this guy doesn't miss a thing about someone. He knows Will made the sword all along, even though Will doesn't ever take or receive public credit for being the one who does the actual work. And I think that means Norrington also knew it was Will who really apprehended Jack Sparrow in the blacksmith shop. (Which makes it really funny and petty that he gave Mr. Brown all the credit.)
ALSO. When Jack told Elizabeth about Davy Jones and that Will was on the Flying Dutchman... Norrington was only overhearing that conversation because he was off to the side puking from being super drunk. Even in that state he's listening in and putting all the pieces together. (Or, at least holding onto them enough to figure it all out later when he's sober.) And now Elizabeth's the one determined to set her misgivings aside and trust Jack because she really needs to.
Anyway. This got long. Just could not get over the thought of Norrington being super drunk, probably mildly concussed from Elizabeth hitting him over the head, and, while vomiting, still having the presence of mind to listen to the conversation going on behind him and think, "Based on what I know of human behavior in general, and Jack Sparrow in particular, I bet it's his fault Will is on the Flying Dutchman."
Ive been thinking about something really strange with the Lord of the Rings
Like, before leaving, they were fairly conventional looking little dudes. Then Frodo said he was moving out near Crickhollow and all of his friends are helping him move all his stuff.
Then nobody sees a bunch of them for a while, and you're kinda like "oh yeah, well that makes sense, maybe theyre just living it up in Crickhollow? I mean i saw Fatty Bolger come back last week so maybe I'll see Merry coming through hobbiton soon, yknow visiting someone or something?"
Then everything gets turned on its head and the world you've known your whole life is being decimated by these freakishly tall people
Then, after months, Frodo, Sam, Merry and Pippin all come back into town. They all are dressed very peculiarly. Is that just how people dress up in Crickhollow? Pippin's got a very fancy surcoat, so does Merry! Wait, Why does Frodo look so miserable? Is he okay? Sams looking better than Frodo, but still not the same as he was last Summer?
Is Crickhollow going through all this now too? Is that why Frodo and Sam look like they have been dragged through a bush for half a year straight?
Then some months after you start seeing very tall and unusual people coming to the Shire, and you start thinking "Oh this is just like when Bilbo Baggins had all those dwarves coming down to Bag End. Do they have dwarves and men in Crickhollow?"
And then later down the line theyre kinda just like "Crickhollow? What do you mean?? OH YEAH!! Yeah no we walked to like the opposite end of Middle Earth, there was a massive war, Merry and Pippin are now friends with the rulers of two cities of men, Frodo has almost died on several occasions dealing with unspeakable horrors, and Sam killed Shelob, daughter of Ungoliant, and carried Frodo up Mt Doom"
Like imagine a guy you know who lives up the road from you tells you like "oh, I'm getting some friends together because im moving away, I'm going up to Lancashire," and you dont think much of it, but then your city is invaded by people youve never seen before, theyre all huge, and everywhere is left in ruins.
Then, the blokes you saw leave last September show up, telling you they were actually in the Antarctic, on the frontlines of the Antarctica war (which like you knew there was mad destruction happening but what?? Antarctica?) And then the sexiest one is like "also i killed Deimos, like the Greek God Deimos and had to take my boy Maura Labingi up Mt Everest" and youre like "its 19th century Oxfordshire do you expect me to know what a Deimos and an Everest is?"
Also they are dressed like this now
okay so it is clearly pathetic that james norrington has resigned his commission/role in the royal navy (an act that would require him to write at least one, possibly two, letters and post them by ship) AND he's still wearing the wig and uniform but i do think as silly as it looks, it's serving a purpose and it's telling us something about james + his relationship with the navy, which is really that James never stops being a Navy man at heart, and doesn't see any of the situation as a way that the navy has failed him even though it absolutely did. (caveat this is a take on his headspace, because i personally think the british royal navy in those years was Fucked Up, and i often ignore realism for playing with my blorbo.) norrington resigns not because of fear the admiralty will execute him or fear they won't. he resigns bc he's already lost his honor by failing, but he was set up to fail! he can't SEE it that way, but he was. chasing jack into a hurricane wasn't inherently pride or foolish ambition, it was literally choosing his probable death with honor over his certain death without it. that's the fucked up thing about the navy! it's, per a friend's words, "a society that would never show him mercy!" when the dauntless goes down, it's because he was in a position where abandoning the chase of jack (esp after already letting him go once) is a crime punishable by death, and then losing the ship and failing to capture jack are also crimes punishable by death. because that's how the navy got men to do insane suicidal things in hopes they'd occasionally be successful-- by indoctrinating them with rules enforced by death. because men are disposable to them!! in his mind, either way, he's already dead. james has heard those regulations read *on a regular basis* over and over for years! he's internalized them! i think this is where killing jack becomes more than just chasing a pirate bc it's his job, like it was at the end of COTBP. after he lets him go, though, it's not a matter of personal vengeance-- it's just that if he doesn't pursue Jack with everything he has, he's definitely in trouble for letting him go, regardless of personal feeling. but what he's ACTUALLY trying to kill jack for AFTER the sinking of the Dauntless is vengeance on behalf of the ship and lost crew. the moment he loses the dauntless and any lives on it, killing Jack in a form representing the navy (wig and uniform!) is the last honorable thing he can do: finish the job, and make those deaths MEAN something. and bc the story isn't about him it minimizes this a good bit for who it IS about, which is fine, but it does mean that when he stops trying to kill jack and goes with elizabeth, he is essentially choosing elizabeth over duty another time even when he's not actually navy anymore!
the whole reason he's willing to leave her (what fandom sometimes sees as him failing her) is him again trying to recoup from a moment where he picked her over what his honor demanded, per the naval code.
he thinks he can get something from beckett but it's by giving beckett a tool to capture far more pirates than jack alone. and maybe if he tips the scales that much, it'll make up for how he failed
he just doesn't think he deserves to be involved anymore. that's why he's so stunned and then eager for beckett's offer, even with reservations. it's not that he's reconsidering the navy, it's that he never stopped considering it. chasing jack was a job and then killing jack becomes the mechanism by which he can redeem his identity in a system that he still regards as the Good Thing. he thinks he's not worthy of it anymore, not the other way around. the navy has made suicide missions (damned if you don't give chase, damned if you do) the only way to avoid execution or dishonorable discharge with pay and prize money reclaimed, but they did so in a way that made men like James feel like THEY were the ones failing short of an ideal, unable to truly face how wildly unrealistic the ideal is, because they can hold up the few survivors of such efforts as Wonderful Patriotic Heroes. this is not a situation where James has been broken and decided that the Navy and it's culture are harmful, dangerous things, where he's disillusioned. this is a situation where James still regards the Navy and its expectations as THE ideal, and part of his despair is that he's fallen short of it.
i think in cotbp, Gov Swann's words at the end are potentially a catalyst for james to question blind justice and loyalty to the navy, but that's like, the barest hint of an exception given as an excuse, and not something that's shaking his foundations yet. i think this is why "james is cool with being a pirate" takes rarely work for me, actually. if a story puts in the work to deconstruct his entire prior life and beliefs so he is ruined and broken down by that and has to start over, i can buy it. but i think people see his low point in tortuga as a situation in which he feels the navy has betrayed him and he's reconsidering pirates, and it's not. his low point is there because he still thinks the navy is Right and Good. he resigned his office to hunt jack before they could execute him for failure-- a thing that would be justice, to him-- in hopes that killing jack would absolve him of embarrassing the Navy that he was a symbol of, and restore the Navy's honor that he muddied. he says jack cost him his commission and his life because he holds jack responsible for existing as a pirate, not because jack was responsible for the hurricane or the ship. and then! he stops trying to kill jack! for elizabeth! and that lasts long enough for him to find a way to HELP THE NAVY AGAIN. he's willing to settle for being a privateer but he's so far from being a pirate at that point in his life. he still loves and fears and breathes the navy and the navy right to govern the way they do-- even at his lowest in tortuga, he's there BECAUSE he's clinging to the Navy's justice as a good thing, not because he's thrown the navy over. is there pride involved? of course. but it's far, far more complicated than personal pride alone, or even primarily, and very much wrapped up in what happens when someone's identity is rooted in a system intended to manipulate them into sacrifice.
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I don’t think “endgame” exists for comic ships because the “game” is never ending. Realistically there’s always a chance they break up or get with someone else. Not even marriage is final.
Like yes characters can get married but who’s to say in 20 years time they won’t get divorced. I think the closest thing to the concept of endgame for comic ships is being most often put in adaptations/becoming the most popular ship or the longest relationship for a character.
Reedsue and Clois r the ones that come to mind for me as most endgame bc they’re the most married couples ever but it’s not like they’ve never ever broken up.
And I don’t make this post to like dissuade people from liking their ship, honestly it could be more of a hopeful idea if you don’t like a character’s main relationship, there’s always a chance.
Sometimes you can get married and you have to sell your marriage to the devil. There’s always a chance for you niche ship babes. Cheer up.
Also I think if there’s like a love triangle of sorts idk if that’s the way I mean to put it. But a character having multiple long term love interests it means dependant whoever’s writing it gives ur fave a chance to come back and smooches the character again.
There are some relationships that characters are never getting away from but does that make them endgame? I wouldn’t say so.
Idk what I’m talking abt
There are several conversations before this where Lavellan and Solas grow closer, but I still think the conversation after she returns from the time-travel incident feels especially meaningful.
Lavellan does not simply say, “You’re special.” Instead, she tells him he is “not most people.” And somehow, I think that is exactly the kind of compliment that would reach Solas in this moment.
She even says she appreciates him not being most people.
Because after waking from uthenera, Solas must have known the loneliness of not being most people. He woke into a world that no longer remembered the truth he knew. When he tried to tell modern elves about the past, about the Veil, about being Fen’Harel, they did not believe him. He was even attacked for it.
So when Lavellan says she appreciates him not being most people, it feels like a quiet reversal of that loneliness.
The very thing that has isolated him — his difference, his distance from the world around him — is, for a moment, treated as something precious.
She is saying she is glad he is not like everyone else.
Glad that he is, in some quiet way, himself.
Maybe that’s a bit much, lol. But still.
And Solas, of course, answers by lightly deflecting with a joke about Orlesian fashion and magical surprises. But I think the softness still lands.
On the surface, it is such a quiet flirtation, carried through an intellectual exchange. But underneath, I feel like it touches something much older and lonelier in him.
