Captain Jack Sparrow once again....

[fajrdrako]

I just got back from seeing "Pirates of the Caribbean" with lmondegreen and josanpq.

What a pleasure! Fannishness at its best, I'll swear. After a lovely brunch that included crepes with strawberries and sushi and rosti and even coffee (I am so baaaad), we went to the movie and did a lot of laughing and commenting and elbowing each other in the ribs - the last being josanpq's thing, she warned me ahead of time and I loved it.

Several points.

(1) Ears. A while ago walkingowl asked me whether Jack Sparrow wore earrings. Dunno, says I, and looked at my collection (getting larger every day) of pictures of Jack Sparrow. Hmm, said I, not an ear in sight. Perhaps he has no ears. Maybe the East India Company cut 'em off.

I made it my mission to look for his ears. At one point josanpq saw a flash of earlobe and pointed it out. I poked her when Jack woke up on the island, and there's a bit of ear showing. It's a rare thing, but yes, he has ears.

I thought at one point I saw a glimpse of silver, as in a hoop earring. Was I dreaming? I can't be sure till I have the DVD. Mostly when I looked for ears, all I saw was beads or hair.

I did think I caught sigh of a tattoo on his chest this time, though. But Johny Depp doesn't seem to have any chest tattoos. Hmm. Did I imagine it?

(2) I'd been racking my brains to remember a line I thought was very, very Dunnettesque, but I could never remember it afterwards. Caught it this time.

In "The Game of Kings", there's a section near the beginning, where the English are advancing on Scotland and Lymond wants to alert his brother Richard - as Scot who is at that point hostile to Lymond - that it is happening, so he tells Richard that the Scots are coming in exactly the opposite direction. Richard then takes his army, and goes to fight the Scots, on the theory that Lymond must be lying to get him to go the wrong way. But Lymond knew he would disbelieve anything he said, so he told him the wrong way to get him to go the right way.... Got it?

There's another line, this time from Gideon Somerville to Lymond: "I won't do it for no other reason, I tell you frankly, than that you want me to do it." I am paraphrasing rather than quoting there.

I was reminded of this line when Norrington is in the boats with the marines waiting to ambush Barbossa's men, when Mulroy and Murtogg are talking, and one of them (I can never remember which is which!) says, "Why aren't we doing what Mr. Sparrow said?" and the other (Murtogg, I think) says, "It's because Mr. Sparrow said it."

How can it be that I love this movie more every time I see it?

Comments

[cytherean.livejournal.com]

I saw a glimpse of a chest tattoo, too. Mysterious.

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

Amazing and mysterious!

[glinda-north.livejournal.com]

You didn't imagine it, I spotted it, too. And according to that recent GQ article, he does have a tattoo of his daughter's name on his chest. I can't recall if there was any more info on the design.

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

I'm looking forward to reading that article! Not to mention checking it out on freeze-frame when I get the DVD. In the interests of serious research, you understand.

[lmondegreen.livejournal.com]

I definitely saw a hoop earring...

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

Thanks for the confirmation! I thought so, I really did. Silver, right?

[lmondegreen.livejournal.com]

Could be - hard to tell for sure.

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

We can try to get a glimpse of it again next time.

[lmondegreen.livejournal.com]

sigh... I supposed I could be forced to sit through it again, if I really had to. ..

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

Shall I put my pirate sword to your throat and kidnap you to the theatre?

[lmondegreen.livejournal.com]

ooh, that could be fun!

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

Aye, avast.

[moonchildetoo.livejournal.com]

It just seems like he has to have an earring, dunnit? (That's dunnit, as opposed to Dunnett....hic!) Somebody has actually come up with selling something they call "Jack Sparrow's beads" on Ebay. My t-shirt will be on its way to me by mid-week. I wonder if they'd make me a Norrington shirt if I could find them a decent pic. Hm.... I've been looking through my Names book and trying to come up with a first name for him. Will have to see which of the ones I've written down were not used in the 18th C and disqualify those.

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

I certainy thing he should have an earring - or two earrings, or more. From what we see, he's a guy who likes to decorate himself.

People can't buy and make their own Jack Sparrow beads?

I want a T-shirt....

Good luck with finding a good name for Norrington!

[jkluge.livejournal.com]

I've seen somewhere -- on pirategasm, I believe -- that in some Disney background thingy somewhere for PotC, Norrington's first name is "James". (Sorry to be so vague. Just glimpsed it a week or so ago, thought, oh, that's nice, and moved on. :-))

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

James - it's a good name! I like it. James Norrington. Commodore James Norrington. Cool.

Thanks for the tip!

The lovely & talented Norrington

[moonchildetoo.livejournal.com]

Interesting - thanks! I'll have to see if I can find it (guess I don't cruise by pirategasm enough!). Yahoo lists weren't having any lucky coming up with an official reference. Heh - when I anticipated choosing a name for him, I discounted James because it was a name I'd already given to a character in Hornblower fandom without a first name, so didn't think I should use it again. Funny!

Re: The lovely & talented Norrington

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

I did almost the same thing - I thought Edward and then James (as being good solid British-type commanding names) and then thought, no, I used Edward in Hornblower fandom and you used James - I figured my subconscious was just stuck in a rut!

I do like "James", though.

I'll have to try to find the actual citation.

Re: The lovely & talented Norrington

[moonchildetoo.livejournal.com]

...and I'd thought about some variation on Edward too. I liked Edward/Ned, but didn't want to go with Ned Norrington ;-) Same goes for Nathaniel/Nat - those double Ns...

[blackbyrde.livejournal.com]

I hope these multiple viewings make the story you're writing for our challenge even more realistic. :) :) Heeeeee!!

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

Well, personally - I don't think 'realism' has much place in any story about Jack Sparrow, whose nature should be 'outrageous'. But I strive for verisimilitude and I do know the canon pretty well now!