Artnewspress: Will Turner becoming captain of the Flying Dutchman seemed to contradict everything previously known about Davy Jones’ story– so did POTC forget?
The Pirates of the Caribbean movies established a backstory for its primary antagonist Davy Jones, but several details seemed to have been thrown out the window by Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End. These changes ultimately impact significant plot and characters, especially William Turner, who took Davy Jones’ place as captain of the cursed ship, the Flying Dutchman. The rule that whoever stabbed Davy Jones’ heart would take on his mantle allowed Will’s life to be saved, but only if he cut out his heart and stored it away in a chest— something that was never meant to be a requirement.
Davy Jones (Bill Nighy) was introduced in Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest when Jack Sparrow was revealed to owe a debt to the captain. Once a man, Jones was tasked by his lover, the goddess Calypso (or Tia Dalma), with ferrying the souls of those who died at sea to the afterlife. When he took on this task, he was forbidden from setting foot on land aside from every ten years, when he would finally be reunited with his love– but she never showed. Enraged, Davy Jones cut out his heart so as not to feel the pain ever again.
POTC’s Davy Jones Didn’t Cut His Heart Out Because He Was Captain Of The Dutchman
In Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End, Will Turner took over Davy Jones’ job and was shown with a large scar across his chest where the cursed crew cut out his heart. This seemed to be the final action in Will’s transformation into the somewhat immortal captain of the Flying Dutchman, but this makes little sense since Davy Jones’ decision to cut out his heart had nothing to do with his role on the Dutchman. In fact, he had already been leading the ship for at least several decades before he had his heart broken by Calypso and decided to remove it.
There was never any rule saying that the captain of the Flying Dutchman had to keep their heart in a box. In fact, Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest explicitly explains why Jones chose to cut out his own heart and states that this action is part of why the man began to transform into the tentacled beast seen in the movies. Therefore, when Will Turner’s heart was cut out in At World’s End, it felt as if Pirates of the Caribbean had entirely forgotten its own story.
Will Turner’s Survival In POTC 3 Makes No Sense
Will Turner having his heart cut out for no reason wasn’t the only part of his plot that made no sense in Pirates of the Caribbean. Before he was revealed (surprisingly clean and dapper looking) as the new captain of the Flying Dutchman, Will had been breathing his last breaths with Davy Jones’ sword stuck through his heart. Elizabeth was devastated, but as all hope seemed lost, Jack used Will’s hand to stab Davy Jones’ heart. This quickly ended the cursed captain’s life and caused Will Turner’s to start anew.
However, there was never any information prior to this climactic scene that supported that using a dead man’s hand to stab the heart of Davy Jones would make them come back to life. Additionally, it seems fairly weak to think that the Flying Dutchman curse could be so easily tricked and that Jack Sparrow (the one making all the decisions) wouldn’t become the new captain. In the end, it was a happy ending to see Will live— but if the plot were to make sense, he probably shouldn’t have. This was only made worse in Pirates of the Caribbean 5 when the curse was then broken on a technicality.
Breaking The Dutchman’s Curse In POTC 5 Broke All Its Old Rules
The confusion surrounding the Flying Dutchman’s curse only grew in Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales when Will is shown about 15 years after the events of At World’s End, covered in barnacles and seemingly transforming into a sea monster like Davy Jones’ octopus. This shouldn’t have happened if Will had been ferrying souls to the afterlife correctly, so it can only be assumed that something went wrong. Thankfully, Will’s son, Henry Turner, grows up and decides that he is going to free his father. Henry Turner finds the Trident of Poseidon, breaks it, and conveniently ends all curses of the sea.
This presents contradictions to the story developed in Pirates 2 and 3, where it is repeated time and time that the Dutchman must always have a captain, as this was what made defeating Davy Jones so complicated. If something that could kill Bill Nighy’s Davy Jones without consequence, like the Trident of Poseidon, had been an option, the fact it was never brought up before feels somewhere contrived. Similarly, this moment raised questions as to whether it was possible for the Dutchman to just disappear, and what happened to the lost souls it carried. Ultimately, Pirates of the Caribbean just couldn’t line it all up.
