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Here is what the stories get right.
Will dies. He is gutted with his own sword and dies gasping in Elizabeth’s arms. Jack stabs the heart with Will’s hand and gives up his chance at immortality. Will becomes the captain of the Flying Dutchman. Against all odds, they survive.
Jack leaves to chase another chance at eternal life.
Elizabeth is allowed one day with her husband on a barren island.
The East India Trading Company retreats from pirate waters for some time. Losing Beckett and the Endeavor struck a blow, but everyone understands that the peace will be short lived.
The pirate lords unite under Elizabeth’s rule and, with lots of complaining, they begin to rebuild the damage inflicted by Beckett.
They survive.
Here is what the stories forget.
- -
A long, long time ago, there was nothing but the earth, the sea, and the sky.
The sea had no name then. Why would it need one, when there was no one there to call out to it? But as the world began to fill up, the sea took the shape of a woman. She walked among humans, curious and suspicious, and watched as they grew into explorers and conquerors. They feared the sea, of course they did, because how could you not fear something that would not hesitate to swallow you whole?
The humans called her Oceanus, Repun Kamui, Mazu, Salacia, Njord, and many other names, but her favorite had always been Calypso.
A fisherman called her Calypso too, in the beginning. He whispered her name into bottles and threw them into the sea, meaningless little gifts that caught her attention. He cared for injured creatures, cutting them free from traps and nets and returning them to her embrace. He was clever and cunning and the cold dead thing in her chest seemed to warm just a bit when he smiled. She took up her human form to speak to him, to learn more about this curious human that was not afraid of her power.
Davy Jones forgot that the sea was not something that could be kind. Calypso forgot, for a moment, that the sea was not something that could love.
He asked to stay with her, beyond the limits of time and death, and Calypso selfishly agreed. With a kiss, he became her ferryman, tasked to protect those who she claimed as her own. They could be together every ten years for the rest of time. But Calypso’s magic was corrupted by his anger and it turned him into a monster. It drove him mad.
Calypso was bound in human form by the first pirates so they could rule the seas. They lured her into a trap and bound in ropes so tight she bled while Davy Jones watched from the shadows. Her screams made him flinch, but he did not raise a hand to stop them. They raped her of her identity, cut away the parts of the ocean inside of her that she would rather slit her own throat than give up.
What Davy Jones did not know was that making her human would not stop her forever. Her body would contain her for a long time, but she was the sea. She was infinite. She knew how to bide her time, how to whisper in the ears of men that would do her bidding. She named herself Tia Dalma and men forgot that she was ever called Calypso. She doesn’t use that name again until the time is right.
When she is finally freed, the whole ocean boils with her wrath.
- -
Elizabeth loves Will. She can feel it in her bones, a song so old it has no name, only Will Will my lovely Will. He had always been by her side, eager to please and love. He had fought for her, betrayed her, married her, died for her. There is no universe where they are not together.
But then Elizabeth becomes the pirate king and Will takes up the mantle of Davy Jones.
Her title and its rewards are not without a cost. Elizabeth commands all those who claim to be a pirate and every ship that sails with a black flag owes her its allegiance. She has more gold than she could dream of and a life that even the richest in Port Royal would long for. But Elizabeth has lost her mother and her father and her friends and her husband. She has been held for ransom by countless men and stripped of her dignity in front of their greedy, wandering eyes. She has stared death in the face and spat at its shoes. She is selfish, hungry for the sea and the treasure it holds.
Will is a pirate because he had to become one to survive. He lies and cheats because he has no other option and he kills because he would rather take a life than see someone innocent slaughtered. Will dies so that he can protect everyone else from Davy Jones and the British. He ferries those who die at sea away from the land of the living. He becomes what Davy Jones was not. Elizabeth is a pirate because she has spent her entire life chasing her freedom and her Will and she is not afraid to do whatever it takes to win them.
Will can only be with her every ten years. Elizabeth has never been very patient.
So she makes a deal.
- -
Elizabeth waits in the sand on a small island off the coast of Singapore. It’s little more than a sand dune with trees, but there are more stockpiles of weapons, food, and gold here than on an entire ship. Elizabeth may be many things, but unprepared is not one of them. Jack Sparrow made sure of that.
Jack Sparrow also made sure that Elizabeth knew how to win.
He tells her as much as he knows about Calypso and Tia Dalma and Davy Jones before setting off in search of immortality. None of what he tells her is the same as the stories that she hears on her ships, which is the only reason she trusts him.
“Lizzie, I don’t think you know who exactly you’re dealing with,” he insists. “Going after Calypso is a death wish, especially with what you want to do.”
But Jack also understands that for Elizabeth, death is not something she will ever be afraid of. So she searches for anything on Calypso, on Davy Jones, on something she can use to help her win against a goddess.
The woman who appears on the beach looks like Tia Dalma. Her skin and her tattoos and her face remain unchanged, but the unearthly feel of danger that used to only make Elizabeth’s skin crawl now covers her in a way that is almost crippling.
“Pirate King,” Calypso greets her. “It has been a long time.”
“Goddess Calypso,” Elizabeth replies, wary and on guard. “I trust you got my message.”
Calypso smiles. The gesture lightens her face but her eyes remain cold and hard. “Why else would I be here? You were very persuasive.”
Elizabeth wants to laugh. It had taken her three years to track down the myths of Davy Jones, to sort out the truth of how he met Calypso. He sent bottles into the ocean with her name whispered into them and Elizabeth had done the same.
“I want to make a deal,” Elizabeth says and Calypso’s face sharpens.
“What kind of deal, child?” Her voice is dangerously soft. “The last time I made a deal with a pirate, it wasn’t exactly fair.”
“I’m not just any pirate.” Elizabeth knows this is dangerous, knows that Calypso could kill her without a thought. “You made a deal with Davy Jones, not me.”
She steps closer, ignoring every part of her body screaming that she should run. “I’m not a man, Calypso, and I keep my promises. I don’t seek to harm you or bind your powers or use you for my own gain.”
Calypso stares.
“I understand how it feels,” she says quietly, “when you’re trapped under your own skin and there’s no escape. There are men all over the world who would rather see me chained and flayed alive than follow my orders. They see me as weak and easily manipulated just because I’m a woman.”
For the first time, Elizabeth lets her guard down. “I want to be with Will. I don’t care what I have to do, but I will not be separated from him again. I’ll cut out my heart if it means we can be together.”
Calypso smiles again, but this time Elizabeth can see a flicker of warmth. “Keep your heart, child,” she tells her. “It does not deserve to be cut out.”
“I will give you what you want, Elizabeth Swann, because you are the only pirate I would trust with my powers. But,” Calypso warns her as she draws closer, “if you do this, there is no coming back. For what you want most, there is a cost that must be paid in the end.”
“I’ll pay it. Just let me be with him.”
Calypso kisses her and Elizabeth’s world goes black.
- -
Here is what Elizabeth knows.
The sea is not something that any man will understand. They sail it and they claim its waters, but they can never tame what lies beneath. Over time, Elizabeth learns how to move between worlds, living to dead and back again. Her crew becomes used to their captain bleeding out of the ship’s woodwork as she returns from the Dutchman.
Calypso’s powers give her the same protections as Will. She can sail with him through the land of the dead and she will not die unless someone stabs her heart. Elizabeth can roam the seas for eternity and she never has to lose Will again.
The Pirate King sails with the Ferryman and they collect the souls of every man and woman who dies at sea. And none of them are afraid of death.
Elizabeth makes sure the stories get that right.