On Stranger Tides: The Long Review, Part 1

[corrielle]

I've been working on this off and on since On Stranger Tides came out.  Real life got in the way for a while, but here it is...  The One Where I Talk About Everything But the Navy. Spoilers abound.


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One of the things that I most wanted out of this movie was for Jack to be himself.  As much as I love the navy, I do love Jack Sparrow (Captain!), and so I was utterly delighted that he was much closer to CotBP Jack in this movie.  This is the Jack who would steal the bigger ship to make the smaller one chase him so he could steal that one. This is the Jack who's crafty enough to save his one bullet for the moment that it will do the most damage, just as the curse is lifted. This is the Jack who can work out that Will Turner is the key to lifting the curse and giving him leverage over Barbossa, and then make every effort not to actually give Barbossa said information. He's clever, yes, witty, a bit mad, utterly instinctive, but never a fool.

 

From the moment I saw Jack in that red judge's robe and white wig with the spectacles, I was grinning.  The movie may have telegraphed that the judge was him a wee bit, but it was still a surprise to see him under all that white wig powder.  How like Jack to attend his own trial… as a judge.  And why is he there? He's there to save Gibbs. This was very important for me.  Jack comes to London not to investigate the rumors of an impostor, not to go after the Fountain, but because his friend is in trouble. This is another thing about Jack I missed in the second two movies.  At the end of the first movie, Will calls Jack a good man, and Jack seems to be quite pleased at the compliment, so I never did understand all of the business in DMC and AWE about Elizabeth having to convince Jack that he was a "good man." He already knows he is.  He just… may have different definitions of what being a good man entails than most people do.

 

This is a far cry from the Jack who, when Will comes to him with the news that Elizabeth is in jail, seems not to care about it a bit except for the fact that he can use Elizabeth's captivity to get Will to go over to the Dutchman.  But then again, that Jack was scared and desperate. OST Jack may be on the hunt for the Pearl, but his life (and soul) are in no immediate danger.

 

I've read a bit about how the portrayal of King George (I believe he's supposed to be the Second…) is inaccurate, but I still love the scene in the palace. Jack's complete and utter lack of respect for authority was in full bloom, and I think he was having fun pretending not to know who the king was. (Because you can bet he knew exactly whose presence he was in.) One of the other things I really love about this scene is Jack's reaction to Barbossa when he learns that the Pearl has been lost.  The immediate change in body language, the way he loses his cool and lunges across that table with such single-mindedness… that was intense, and very telling. No matter what's going on, no matter how delicate the situation, getting at the man who lost his Pearl is more important.

 

I also really like that Jack doesn't want to drink from the Fountain at the cost of an innocent life (the cost of a guilty one, though… that's less morally problematic). Again… good man.

 

But a good man who doesn't like to be impersonated.  It makes sense that Jack is so protective of his reputation, and the whole, "Which Jack Sparrow are you?  The one who's here to get a crew, right?" gag was done just enough to amuse me, but not enough to get old. And the fight scene against Angelica!Jack was pretty darn hot. (More on them later.)

 

The last time we see Jack in the movie, (I think… haven't seen it for a few days, now…) he and  Gibbs are walking down the beach carrying the sack of ships in bottles.  It's a fun last scene… filled with possibility and the promise of Jack being reunited with the Pearl. Jack's speech about not knowing what's coming next is so perfectly in character, I thought. He thrives on uncertainty and chaos, and I don't think the stability of immortality would sit well with him.  If he'd wanted stability… well… he wouldn't be Jack.

 

Other things I loved about Jack in no particular order:

 

Talking to his non-existent audience about Ponce de Leon's ship. I love that he assumes the presence of an audience. And that he corrects himself out loud.

 

Pretending to know the way to the Fountain and dinging the chalices together in a serious and mystical way.

 

Planning the mutiny.  The look on his face at "We are decepted!" is priceless.

 

Helping Phillip down from the mast.  Another kind thing Jack didn't really need to do.  But he did it anyway.

 

 Making sure that Gibbs goes free with the compass.

 

Trying to get Blackbeard and Barbossa to duke it out single combat style.  (And it almost worked, more's the pity…) Again, Jack wants people to live.  Navy? Pirates? Doesn't matter. I don't think Jack likes pointless deaths, and it really shows in this scene.

 

The moment that Jack falls out of the hammock when he wakes up on the Queen Anne.  Someone is shouting orders at him, and he responds readily, like a common sailor, as if it's instinctive.  Then, he gets this confused, "Why did I do that?  I'm Captain…" look on his face. It goes by fast, but I think it's a moment when we get to see a glimpse of a much younger Jack.  Old habits die hard. He wasn't always the one in charge… and there's a vulnerability there before he wakes up completely that's really interesting.

 

The way he plays Barbossa against Blackbeard.  He has little love for either of them, but he recognizes that Barbossa is a valuable ally… even if he did lose the Pearl.

\ 

Angelica (And Jack/Angelica)

 

I was ready to hate Angelica.  I worried that the writers were going to push her as Jack's love interest, and that she would be the root of everything out of character Jack does in the movie.  I was also terrified that she was going to be obnoxious and underdeveloped.

 

I'm happy to say that I was wrong.  I'm not ready to declare Angelica my New Favorite Character and build fannish shrines to her, but she was definitely a fun addition to the cast.  The girl has guts, I'll give her that… impersonating Jack, throwing her lot in with daddy Blackbeard… I like that about her.

 

The discontented feminist in me is slightly annoyed that Angelica is completely defined in terms of her relationships with Jack and Blackbeard, but I don't really think I could have expected any different from this movie. It's just not the kind of story that left a lot of room for her to develop independently of the two important men in her life.

 

There were, though, some places that left me wishing they'd told us just a little bit more about her.  I understand that they were trying to write a leaner, less subplotty movie, but in each of these cases, I think just one or two lines of explanatory dialogue would have fixed my gripe.

 

How did she find out Blackbeard was her father?  How did she find him once she found out?

 

So… she's been pirating this whole time?  Or has she been pulling cons?  Or has she been doing something else disreputable? We get the idea that she and Jack have seen each other multiple times… which was nice, but they told me just this side of "not enough" about their history.  

 

How does she of all people, know about needing the mermaid's tear? Did she find out this information from Blackbeard? Or him from her?  The flow of information is important here, and it annoys me that the audience doesn't get to be in on it.
 

Those questions aside, I really did enjoy many of the scenes she was in.  When she refused to speak while dressed as Jack, I started to get an inkling of who the impostor might be… and I loved the idea of it, even if I wasn't terribly fond of Jack's "Only one person in the world knows that move…" line that reveals her identity.  It veers to close to "established character tries to tell us how awesome New Character is before New Character has earned the respect of the audience" syndrome, but it was a very mild case. All sorts of other things make up for it.  Her fight with Jack is fun and wonderfully referential, and she and Jack work well together once the soldiers show up.  (And I like that Jack gets his "This is why I'm the one and only" line here…  he may feel sorry he abandoned her, just a little, but he's STILL going to rub it in her face that HE is Jack Sparrow and she's not.  Good. I'd be worried if he didn't.)

 

Angelica's relationship with Blackbeard had the potential to be very interesting, though I think it was another of those sadly underdeveloped relationships. In some ways, though, it delivered.  The moment where she admits that Blackbeard really is her father and that she hasn't ever had a father and would like hers to stay alive?  That was nice.  Very vulnerable, and I believed it.  I even liked that she attempted to act as conscience and savior for him, seeing potential for goodness in him where no one else did.  (Though I wish we'd gotten a bit more about why she thinks she has any hope of success.  If she's going on blind faith here, that makes her a bit more of an idealist than I think she should be.)

 

Still, I like that she brings Phillip on board and tries to stop her father from killing the man in the boat.  There's a desperation in her quest to redeem her father that is very human.

 

As for her interactions with Jack… they were fun.  The writing was snappy and witty, and they were both obviously using each other.  (Angelica needed Jack's information and help getting the chalices, Jack needed to know about the ritual, and he needed Angelica's good will if he ever hoped to get off of the Queen Anne once he woke up on it…) Every time that I thought that Jack/Angelica was about to become mushy and completely ruin both of them for me, the movie upset my expectations in the most delightful ways.  For instance, the second Jack started to talk to Gibbs about their past in that walk through the jungle, I groaned a little inside.  But, Gibbs trying to get Jack to say that he might have, at one point, have had feelings for her turned out to be, quite appropriately, like pulling teeth, and in most of the movie, Angelica seemed more angry at him for leaving her than desirous of getting back into any sort of relationship.

 

And despite that last fact, despite the fact that Jack knows she'd probably like to put a knife in him, Jack doesn't want her to die.  He doesn't want Blackbeard to kill her or use her at the Fountain.  She may not be the love of his life, but he'd rather not be the cause of her death if he can avoid it. 

 

And then there's the last scene between them on the beach when he's marooning her there. Oh, how I love that scene.  It goes through at least three really horrid tropes, each one something that I can see a worse movie plausibly using in all seriousness… and then shoots them down.  My reactions went something like this: Gems that control the weather? Nope. Pregnant? Even Jack doesn't get so drunk he wouldn't remember. Jack still loves her?  Maybe…. Maybe… Movie, you're about to fail epically right here at the last, rising music and all… Oh. Never mind, Movie.  You have, in fact, won epically. Jack admitting he loved himself, leaning in for the kiss, and then leaving is now one of my favorite things ever.

 

Other random thoughts about Angelica:

 

Jack: "He bought that?"

Angelica: "I sold that."

 

I love this exchange.  Angelica knows she's smart, and she's not about to let Jack think that Blackbeard's gullibility is what made her successful.  It's not that he's that dumb. It's that she's that good. 

 

Angelica: "What were you doing in a Spanish convent, anyway?"

Jack: "I mistook it for a brothel… honest mistake."

 

Ok… loved this too, though in my more cynical moments, I think its' a little over the top to have her be a former novice at a convent.  (She hadn't yet taken her vows…) I wish I knew how we were supposed to read this… because on the one hand, there's the "Jack corrupted this pretty young thing who knew nothing of the world and then left he" explanation, and on the other, there's the "Jack liberated her from a life she probably didn't choose for herself in the first place and let her get back to the sea and piracy, which are in her blood."  I'm not sure I like either of them.

 

I like that it was Angelica's idea to pretend to kill Phillip in order to make Syrena cry.  It's a nice touch, and it makes her both ruthless and compassionate at the same time.  However, it's kind of massive Bechdel test fail in that the only interaction that the two significant female characters have is one of them doing horrible emotional damage to the other in service of the plot.  

 

All in all, I wouldn't mind if Angelica came back for PotC 5, but I wouldn't be broken up if she didn't, either.

 

Blackbeard

 

As a PotC villain, Blackbeard was pitch-perfect for me. He's dark, menacing, cold, and completely unrepentant about it. The writers let Ian McShane be as terrifyingly, urbanely evil as I've ever seen him be, and it worked beautifully.  He was really fun to watch.

 

Blackbeard is definitely a man who knows his own power. He does plenty of yelling during fight scenes and giving orders, but the first time we see him, right after the mutiny, those heavy doors open, and he steps out on deck, and calm as you please, he says, "I am in a bewilderment..." in a tone of voice that makes it obvious you don't want him to be confused, and things had best be made clear right quick. (And also, that was such an Al line that the Deadwood fan in me flailed a lot.)

 

He also obviously likes breaking people, both physically and psychologically.  I think that's half the reason that he kept Phillip around, Angelica's intervention aside. He seems more amused by Phillip's stated objective of "saving" him than anything else.  He's willing to let Phillip try, only because Blackbeard knows that when he fails, it will be an admission of doubt and loss of faith.  Hence the "Behold, a man formerly of faith…" line.  Not only does he point out Phillip's "failure" to him, he points it out to everyone.  Because he's a loathsome, terrible, awesome character who obviously sees the world as a cruel, vengeful place.  How do I know that? Well, the line about feeling closest to the creator when he sees pain and suffering tells us a lot about what he thinks about deity and the purpose of the universe.  (See, movie?  This is how you give us lots of information without taking up a lot of screen time.)

 

I've already talked a bit about Angelica and her relationship with Blackbeard. On his side… I think it's complicated.  He does seem to believe that she's his child, he doesn't take kindly to Jack insulting her, (though it could be argued that Blackbeard's reactions in this scene are meant to keep Jack off balance rather than to be an indicator of actual emotion) and he lets Angelica get away with a lot more questioning of authority than he might have otherwise.  And he lets her be his first mate.  That's big too.

 

But on the other hand, he's ready to take her years of life as his own.  And… I go back and forth about whether he knew which guns were loaded. He won't answer Angelica when she asks him (again, this is possibly a "keep her off balance" technique on his part), but later he assures Jack that she was never in danger. I happen to think he didn't know.  He thinks Jack knows the way to the Fountain, and getting to the Fountain is the ultimate goal. I don't think he wanted to kill her, certainly, but if motivating Jack puts her life at risk… so be it.

 

Finally, I find it fascinating that this fearsome pirate, this man who isn't afraid of anything, is running from his own death.  Some might find this too much of a contradiction, but it works for me.  Powerful, cruel people, I think, fear losing that power and control just as much as those beneath them fear being subject to it.  So, going after the Fountain to cheat death for a while makes a lot of sense.  (Of course, it ends up being one of those handy "Don't try to cheat fate… you'll just bring yourself into the situation you were trying to avoid in the first place" scenarios.  One legged Barbossa For The Win.)

 

Though I think it was totally appropriate that he died at the end and that the Fountain took its price from him (in a really creepy way… the way the water stripped him down to his bones was terrifying), I was sorry to see him go.  I don't think that there are many other villains who will ever match him.


 

Philip and Syrena and MERMAIDS.

 

Like many people, I found myself wanting to know more about Phillip and Syrena.  They fulfilled their archetypal roles, and they are both very pretty, but beyond that… I didn't connect with them as much as I would have liked.  Phillip seems like a good man (with good arms to have…) with a good heart and a lot of courage.  I respect his faith, and I respect him telling Blackbeard to his face that he's a lost cause, salvation-wise.  But we know nothing about where he came from, or where he's going. He's a character without a past, and other than "He's nice to the mermaid!  And religious!" I didn't get much else from him.  (Not to say that one should be nice to pretty mermaids.  Especially mermaids as pretty as Syrena.) In a movie that has complicated characters like Jack and Barbossa and Angelica and Blackbeard, he paled in comparison.

 

And as for Syrena, I have the same complaints I have about Phillip.  Why was she different from the other mermaids?  Why would she try to save this one, solitary human?  Did she see that he was different just by looking at him? Did she always have a soft spot for humans? What?  This said, I think the actress did a lot with the little she was given. The part where she thought he was dead was understated and amazing, and her defiance in the face of Blackbeard's cruelty was this quiet, steely display of strength that really made me respect her.

 

Though they seemed to fall in love quite quickly, I suppose things like that are bound to happen when one is tramping through the jungle toward the Fountain of Youth with a mystical creature and a minister. More development would have been nice, but I don't know if it would have fixed the problem.  It still would have happened really fast.  This being Disney and all, when one party is a mermaid, all bets are off. After all, didn't Eric decide Ariel was the one for him when she sang for them a little bit and she saw a blurry vision of her?  And that turned out well, right? ;-) Seriously, though… I think the ease with which she falls in love is an interesting contrast to the difficulty with which she cries. 

 

The mermaids in general were everything I had hoped they would be.  Beautiful and deadly.  The scene with the men in the rowboat singing, waiting for the mermaids to appear was quite intense and atmospheric.  Then the first one appears, just one, and such a pretty one, at that, with a lovely voice… and then there were more of them, dark shapes with translucent tails in the water, and when they actually attacked… I jumped.  That whole scene had me on the edge of my chair, and I wasn't sure who I was rooting for.   

 

There is a back story to the mermaids, I think, that never got properly told.  It seems to me that Whitecap Bay was set up to catch mermaids, what with the huge tower to direct light down at the bay (built by the English, apparently… so they've been there before…).  And, obviously, there are lots of people who have succeeded in catching mermaids before.  This explains the visciousness of the mermaid attack.  I wouldn't be terribly disposed to like humans either, if that was the history my species had with them.  In fact, I'd probably eat them on sight, too. I like to think that the relationship between humans and mermaids wasn't always like that, and that Phillip and Syrena are reestablishing a connection that has been long broken… but that's a story for fanfic writers to tell, because the movie only gives us hints.

 

Barbossa

 

I won't lie.  Hector Barbossa was, hands down, one of my favorite things about this movie. From the time I first saw those shots of Geoffrey Rush on the beach with a blue covering on his leg, looking like he's Someone Important in the British Navy, I've been dying of curiosity.  WHY on earth is Barbossa in the navy?  WHAT happened to his leg?  OMG IS HE IN SCENES WHERE HE INTERACTS WITH GILLETTE AND GROVES???  *flails a lot*

 

I was not disappointed.

 

Barbossa has always been, and always will be, a wily old pirate who's not above grabbing opportunities when he sees them. And if that means putting on airs and accepting a privateer's license from the King of England… so be it.  And he got a fine hat and wig out of the deal, as well. ;-) Honestly, I think Barbossa likes rubbing elbows with "a finer class of person," knowing full well that at a different point in his life, he'd be robbing them blind.

 

At first, I thought that Barbossa was going to be yet another party interested in the Fountain.  It would have made sense, and it would have been in line with his character… but I'm glad I was wrong.  Having one of the main players have no interest in the Fountain whatsoever made things interesting… and that he would go through so much trouble to get to the Fountain solely for revenge against the pirate all pirates fear makes Barbossa super-badass.  Further evidence of his badassery to follow.

 

Other people have commented on the fact that Barbossa isn't the nicest navy captain ever. And he's not.  After all, even though he may eat his apples sliced and arrayed on fine china these days, he's a pirate underneath that navy coat and fancy wig.  I may have seethed with hatred for him in a couple of moments where he was cruel or horridly insensitive to people I love, *coughTheoandAndrewcough* but it was completely plausible for him to act the way he does.

 

One of my favorite scenes in the movie that I haven't really talked about so far is the scene in the treasure room of the Santiago.  The first time the camera panned around that room and I saw the skeleton in the bed with the map and the magnifying glass… my mental squeezing was off the charts.  There weren't a lot super specific ride references in DMC and AWE, though there were certainly echoes.  This was different.  And it was awesome.  I loved the sword fighting while trying not to unbalance the ship, and I loved the image of Jack and Barbossa sitting on either side of Ponce de Leon looking at the map.  I think the moment the skeleton's head moved the first time… I jumped about two feet in the air.  Then… "Don't. Touch. The map." LOL.  Geoffrey Rush's delivery of that line will be funny forever.

 

I wasn't quite sure how I felt about Jack being all buddy-buddy with Barbossa; this is the man who mutinied against him and stole the Pearl in the first place, but all of their scenes together were great fun.  I loved them sneaking into the Spanish camp, I loved that even among pirates Jack is unique in that he doesn't plan anything, I loved the poor, confused Spanish soldier wondering where the chalices went, I love the two of them trying to saunter out of the camp like they own the place… and wow do I ever love the scene of them tied to trees. It's funny, but it's also extremely revealing in terms of character, and that it manages to be both is nice.

 

I think that making the audience wait for Barbossa's story about losing the Pearl rather than having him spill it in the first scene in the palace was a good choice. Barbossa has always been one of the great "storytellers" in these movies, and he doesn't disappoint here.  That he cut off his own leg when the rigging on the Pearl went crazy? I was not expecting that.  But I can see it being something that Barbossa would do. His line about being the master of his own fate was a nice precursor to what Jack will eventually say in the end, and ties in nicely to all of the other fate/destiny thematic lines.  Also, he has rum in his leg.  This is awesome.

 

And finally....  On a crutch and a peg leg, Barbossa fights Blackbeard.  And he wins.  Come to think of it, Barbossa came out of all of this very well.  He's got the Sword of Neptune, the Queen Anne and her crew, and a fantastic new hat.  Maybe now that he's got his own magical ship he'll let Jack and the Pearl alone now… but somehow I doubt it.

 

The Spanish

 

When the promotional material for this movie was coming out, there were all of these awesome shots of the Spanish.  Spanish soldiers, Spanish ships, Spanish architecture… a character whose only name in the stuff we were getting was "The Spaniard…" And I was excited.  New characters in lovely military uniforms or gorgeous black and gold coats to obsess over! So, I was understandably disappointed when the Spanish were relegated to the beginning of the film, the one scene with Jack and Barbossa stealing the chalices, and the end.  They had SUCH potential, and it was SO horridly wasted.  This was another place where I'll bet some awesome stuff ended up on the cutting room floor in the interests of keeping the plot linear and uncomplicated.

 

Though the Spanish showing up at the very end with the intention of destroying the Fountain came out of nowhere, the concept in and of itself was an interesting one.  I've read a lot of fantasy, and the faith vs. magic trope can be really good when done right. I just wish they'd played it up more.  I think the movie wanted its audience to think that we were watching a race between two big colonial powers for control of the Fountain, only to have the "Just kidding! The Spanish want to destroy it!" moment be a big surprise, but I just ended up feeling insulted.  I wanted to see this tension between faith and the supernatural more.  I wanted someone… the King, the Spaniard, to struggle with the decision, or at least bring up the fact that there is a tension here.

 

Just as we got a slight hint, albeit a distorted one, of some of the historical realities of the time when the EITC showed up in Dead Man's Chest, (And what historical time would that be? We don't really know… but vanilla_elf has a fun formula for figuring it out, it was fun to have that hint of political one-upmanship between the Spanish and the English, but again, there wasn't enough done with it, and there were more questions than there were answers.  (The Spanish have obviously been to the Fountain before, but the English knew about Whitecap Bay, and unless mermaid tears have other mystical properties, why would they have been trying to catch them?) I think, though, that this is another of those complaints that isn't exactly something they did wrong so much as a symptom of me wanting OST to be a very different movie than it was ever meant to be.

 

Don't even get me started on how annoyed I am that all of our lovely new Spanish characters barely get to talk, and that the biggest thing that The Spaniard gets to do is kill one of my favorite characters in the history of the universe and then order the Fountain destroyed.  More on that later.  Don't want this to turn into a rant. In all the scenes were we did get to see the Spaniard, though… he looked like he had a great deal of potential to be very cool.  Suave, deadly, honorable, well-dressed… I'm completely ready for some talented PotC fic writer to make me like him.

 

And speaking of good looking Spanish men… How hot was King Ferdinand? *fans self* And… as he only got to be in one scene, that's all I've got to say on the subject.

 

Magic

 

One of the things I've always liked about the supernatural elements of the whole franchise is that magic has a price. It's not easy. The cursed gold takes the ability to feel from those who steal it, the compass only works if the user knows what he or she wants, the Captain of the Flying Dutchman has a magic ship and can pass between the world of the living and the dead… but only at the cost of his heart and his connection to land. The Fountain of Youth continued this tradition, and it worked for me.

 

First of all, it was so pretty.  The water rushing upwards, the caves, the jungle… I like that there were ruins around it, giving us the idea that people have been here before. Civilizations throughout history have revered this place so much that they built a temple around it.  (I read in the art book that if one looks closely, there are elements of several different cultures' architectural styles, which I thought was a fun touch.  The Europeans aren't the only ones who have been here…)

 

Second, that the Fountain takes from one and gives to another was a really neat, cruel twist.  The years aren't free.  Nothing magical ever is.

 

Aside from the Fountain, a lot of the supernatural goings-on in this film centered around Blackbeard.  He's got zombies, ships in bottles, and a magic sword.  And… I don't really care how he does it.  This is one of those places where I felt like, for the most part, I didn't really need to know how he gets ships in bottles or how he came to possess that talent.  I don't need to know where the sword comes from. I can see what it does, and the way that they did the sword controlling the ship was really good.  It wasn't terribly overdone most of the time, but it  definitely showed off the fact that it can make a ship act contrary to what the laws of nature would have it do, like stopping the Queen Anne dead in its tracks. I felt like more explanation of the sword or the tiny ships would have slowed things down without any big payoff.

 

The zombies, though… those I wanted a little more explanation about, if only because the one who can see the future is important to the plot. 

 

So, I guess my big questions about Blackbeard and magic are… Where did he learn to make zombies, anyway? Is someone helping him? Is he crazy good at voodoo himself? Was his zombie who sees the future prescient before he was zombiefied? (Word's in the movie.  I get to use it.)  And, from a practical standpoint, wouldn't it make more sense to turn the lower ranking sailors into zombies and leave the officers with some free will?  Seems to me that having officers unable to react and make decisions because they're zombies leads to… well… Jack being able to lead a mutiny with no one the wiser until it's already happening. Just saying.

 

Finally, I like that the film KNOWS its magic sometimes verges on the ridiculous… Jack's bit of instructions about how to get the Pearl out of the bottle with the goat and the trumpet and the wiggling fingers was perfect and hilarious.  It's the kind of tongue in check, self-deprecating line that lets me know that in many important ways, the Pirates of the Caribbean I've loved for so long is back. 

 

It's about time.

(Yes, I know my positivity ignores the fact that T&T killed off Groves and Gillette, who I love more than everyone else in this movie combined. The angry Navy fangirl post is coming. I promise.  I had to let the overall Pirate Fan Squee out first.  And I have to find a time when I can be alone and rant and cry and possibly drink a bit.)