dying-suffering-french-stalkers:dying-suffering-french-stalkers:charlesdances:Hector Barbossa &
dying-suffering-french-stalkers:dying-suffering-french-stalkers:charlesdances:Hector Barbossa & Elizabeth Swann | Parallels & Developments#These two had such an impact on each other–in a weird way it’s Platonic!Hades and Persephone #where she learns to become a better king of the dark sea and dead men than he ever could and he comes to almost admire her for it. #Just… y'all have been sleeping on this relationship. #Elizabeth didn’t retain shit from Jack Sparrow–Will did. She learned from Barbossa. (via @theimpossiblescheme)THIS. Not only is Barbossa far more of a Proper (Cinematic) Pirate than Jack (with the outgrown Errol Flynn hair to prove it!), but he absolutely plays the role of Hades in Curse of the Black Pearl.While Elizabeth first boards the Black Pearl (here functioning as both Hades’ chariot and Charon’s ferry) more or less voluntarily, Barbossa/Hades does indeed kidnap her and take her to the “land of the dead”—the Isla de Muerta. The Black Pearl also serves as a kind of limbo, holding men halfway between death and life. Much like Pluto of old, CotBP!Barbossa is strongly associated with both wealth and death, even more so than the other pirates. When they get to the “Underworld”, we see that the cursed crew members require a blood sacrifice to regain (permanent) corporeality, paralleling the shades Odysseus encounters who require blood to regain the ability to speak (Odyssey 11.24-50).By the time At World’s End rolls around, Elizabeth has begun to catch up to Barbossa in terms of piracy and command. She visits another, more literal Underworld at Barbossa’s side; he knows the way, and she has more than learned from her previous experiences. It was Elizabeth thinking more piratically—thinking like Barbossa—that made the trip to the Locker necessary, after all.In the end, she eclipses Barbossa in power and is crowned King, with her own beloved ferrying souls between worlds as she sails the seven seas. Like Persephone, Elizabeth straddles worlds and holds power in both, and it was Barbossa/Hades who first helped her get there.(Anyway, this series owns my entire ass, follow for more irregularly scheduled Pirates content and hmu if you want a longer essay on how the Locker journey in AWE is a classical katabasis narrative with a sweet twist on Orpheus’ in particular. Also Barbossa quotes the Aeneid.)Some lovely tags submitted to me by OP/@charlesdances:#and I believe in a way Elizabeth makes Hector realize that it is possible for pirates to be masters of their own fate again #and had no problem in the end after her speech that the ‘maid’ from long ago #is now his king #and now he’s this amalgamation of weird mentor/uncle/man she asked to marry her and the love of her life #and i love how she KNOWS that he’s the only one brave/insane enough to guide them through that maelstrom #and when he responds with gusto she gives this GREAT BIG SMILE #as if to say ‘THERE’S the one and only pirate I know. There’s Captain Hector Barbossa.’Here’s the link to that katabasis/Underworld narrative essay I mentioned! Warning for very long classics-related PotC geekery. -- source link
#hector barbossa#long post