![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
serafina20Upon rewatching Pirates of the Caribbean today, I've had a revelation about Will Turner: he's not stupid, he's just surrounded by brilliance. It was an "important" revelation because, while probably *nothing* will ever make this character interesting to me, it means I've probably been too dismissive of him in the past.
Years ago, I was watching something about Sherlock Holmes. One of the people contributing made a comment about how Dr. Watson wasn't a dumb man. He just wasn't as smart/observant as Sherlock was. That made em think, because he was right. The man's a doctor. He's fairly observant in his own right. He's traveled the world. There's nothing about him that's inherently stupid, but, next to Sherlock, he looks like the world's dimmest bulb. Never mind that he's the 'everyman', designed so we of inferior intellect can be continually awed and amazed by Sherlock's deductive/inductive skills; Watson's dumb if you don't bother to take into account that we'd all look dumb next to Holmes were we to meet him.
Same goes for Will. He's a bright kid. He not only figured out that Jack agreed to go with him because Jack knew his father (I admit; the first time I saw, I wasn't expecting Will to get that. It seems like the kind of thing that's normally revealed through another person, either the Jack-character himself, or a third party, like Barbossa or Elizabeth.) But not only did he understand that's what Jack was doing, but he knew enough not to push it until the time was right.
Then, he does it again. He figures out that Jack is going to use him not because Jack elucidates to Gibbs ("That is the child of one Bootstrap Bill Turner. His only child. Savvy?" [not an exact quote]), but from the moment Jack uses the word "leverage." Somehow, Will intuits that *he's* probably the leverage, and it makes sense; what else could it be? Will just found out his father had been a pirate, he probably assumes that Jack was on the Pearl at some point, and, if Jack knew his father well enough to call him William, then Will is the leverage.
So. Will's a smart boy. Also has a sense of humor, although it's dry and understated. He's a terrific straight man, even more so than Norrington since Norrington let's every thought about how ridiculous a situation is flash across his face. The way Will deals with the humor is a lot more subtle, so much so, that you can almost miss it if you try.
Smart. Funny. So why does he seem so dumb?
Easy. Because Jack, Elizabeth, and Norrington. All three of them are brilliant in their own right. Jack is insane (not in clinical terms), and therefore can think so far outside the box, he's left it behind completely. Elizabeth is brilliant in the way Jack is, only less so. I think the reason she can think outside the box so well is because she's an upper-class woman. Constrained and confined by society, she's learned to look at things from a different angle and come to new conclusions. Norrington is genius, but is confined by the box and it's very hard for him to think outside it. I think that, if he were smart, if he ever caught Jack again, he'd study him for awhile and try to learn the way Jack thinks. Norrington has come far and will go far; but he'd go down in history as the greatest commodore/admiral/etc ever if he'd adopt some of that insantiy into his way of thinking. Kind of like Horatio Hornblower, actually. Hornblower is a fricking genius because he's able to make those lightning fast calculations and then turn them upside-down, shake, and see what else he can do. Norrington still needs to turn them upside-down and shake.
So, yeah. In conclusion: Will's not dumb or humorless. He's smart and ironic.
But he's still as boring as paint.
The End
quote from: Adventure of the Dying Detective
alternate ideas of subject quote were:
"It may be that you are not yourself luminous, but you are a conductor of light. Some people without possessing genius have a remarkable power of stimulating it." (hound of baskervilles)
"Good, Watson! You always keep us flat-footed on the ground." (Adventures of the Creeping Man)
Years ago, I was watching something about Sherlock Holmes. One of the people contributing made a comment about how Dr. Watson wasn't a dumb man. He just wasn't as smart/observant as Sherlock was. That made em think, because he was right. The man's a doctor. He's fairly observant in his own right. He's traveled the world. There's nothing about him that's inherently stupid, but, next to Sherlock, he looks like the world's dimmest bulb. Never mind that he's the 'everyman', designed so we of inferior intellect can be continually awed and amazed by Sherlock's deductive/inductive skills; Watson's dumb if you don't bother to take into account that we'd all look dumb next to Holmes were we to meet him.
Same goes for Will. He's a bright kid. He not only figured out that Jack agreed to go with him because Jack knew his father (I admit; the first time I saw, I wasn't expecting Will to get that. It seems like the kind of thing that's normally revealed through another person, either the Jack-character himself, or a third party, like Barbossa or Elizabeth.) But not only did he understand that's what Jack was doing, but he knew enough not to push it until the time was right.
Then, he does it again. He figures out that Jack is going to use him not because Jack elucidates to Gibbs ("That is the child of one Bootstrap Bill Turner. His only child. Savvy?" [not an exact quote]), but from the moment Jack uses the word "leverage." Somehow, Will intuits that *he's* probably the leverage, and it makes sense; what else could it be? Will just found out his father had been a pirate, he probably assumes that Jack was on the Pearl at some point, and, if Jack knew his father well enough to call him William, then Will is the leverage.
So. Will's a smart boy. Also has a sense of humor, although it's dry and understated. He's a terrific straight man, even more so than Norrington since Norrington let's every thought about how ridiculous a situation is flash across his face. The way Will deals with the humor is a lot more subtle, so much so, that you can almost miss it if you try.
Smart. Funny. So why does he seem so dumb?
Easy. Because Jack, Elizabeth, and Norrington. All three of them are brilliant in their own right. Jack is insane (not in clinical terms), and therefore can think so far outside the box, he's left it behind completely. Elizabeth is brilliant in the way Jack is, only less so. I think the reason she can think outside the box so well is because she's an upper-class woman. Constrained and confined by society, she's learned to look at things from a different angle and come to new conclusions. Norrington is genius, but is confined by the box and it's very hard for him to think outside it. I think that, if he were smart, if he ever caught Jack again, he'd study him for awhile and try to learn the way Jack thinks. Norrington has come far and will go far; but he'd go down in history as the greatest commodore/admiral/etc ever if he'd adopt some of that insantiy into his way of thinking. Kind of like Horatio Hornblower, actually. Hornblower is a fricking genius because he's able to make those lightning fast calculations and then turn them upside-down, shake, and see what else he can do. Norrington still needs to turn them upside-down and shake.
So, yeah. In conclusion: Will's not dumb or humorless. He's smart and ironic.
But he's still as boring as paint.
The End
quote from: Adventure of the Dying Detective
alternate ideas of subject quote were:
"It may be that you are not yourself luminous, but you are a conductor of light. Some people without possessing genius have a remarkable power of stimulating it." (hound of baskervilles)
"Good, Watson! You always keep us flat-footed on the ground." (Adventures of the Creeping Man)
