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meta: jack and brain damage
Mar. 20th, 2022 10:57 pmi think sometimes people object too strongly to the idea of jack genuinely having cognitive issues because it clashes with their idea of jack as their smartest and most special little boy
it’s implied in the script that jack experienced some sort of heat injury, and iirc depp played him with that in mind. it’s canon and you gotta deal with it
“but jack is so clever and tricky!” sure, he’s clever a lot of the time, but the moments in the trilogy when he’s very much not that are not necessarily bad writing. i like that about him!!! i relate to that and resent the idea that it’s always bad and somehow in conflict with when he is smart
i mean intelligence is fake anyway but like. a person with brain problems can have some pretty drastic peaks and valleys. (not to get too much into my own stuff but like, people often consider me smart/witty/etc; i am also an adult who is not allowed to use an oven unsupervised because i kept accidentally starting fires)
this aspect of jack’s whole deal is also, contrary to popular opinion, present in cotbp and not merely flanderization in the second two films, and i personally choose to believe there is more sincerity to it than some people think. is it bc i am a fool with a malfunctioning brain and occasional moments of clarity, and i’m projecting? maybe. but that’s my prerogative
one of my favorite jack moments is the one in isla de muerta when he’s struggling to remember the word ‘parlay’ but knows off the top of his head that the word comes from french and originally latin. the biggest brain problems mood
tl;dr- if you don’t love him at his puh-la-lie-lay-lool you don’t deserve him at his coin gambit
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an addendum:
sometimes people have misunderstood so I would like to clarify: I used the euphemism “brain problems,” but i am talking about brain damage. Pointing out that jack canonically has had brain damage and I relate to him as someone who also has had brain damage. This is different (much more deeply stigmatized, causing much more impairment) from neurodivergence like, say, adhd (as someone who also has that).
it’s implied in the script that jack experienced some sort of heat injury, and iirc depp played him with that in mind. it’s canon and you gotta deal with it
“but jack is so clever and tricky!” sure, he’s clever a lot of the time, but the moments in the trilogy when he’s very much not that are not necessarily bad writing. i like that about him!!! i relate to that and resent the idea that it’s always bad and somehow in conflict with when he is smart
i mean intelligence is fake anyway but like. a person with brain problems can have some pretty drastic peaks and valleys. (not to get too much into my own stuff but like, people often consider me smart/witty/etc; i am also an adult who is not allowed to use an oven unsupervised because i kept accidentally starting fires)
this aspect of jack’s whole deal is also, contrary to popular opinion, present in cotbp and not merely flanderization in the second two films, and i personally choose to believe there is more sincerity to it than some people think. is it bc i am a fool with a malfunctioning brain and occasional moments of clarity, and i’m projecting? maybe. but that’s my prerogative
one of my favorite jack moments is the one in isla de muerta when he’s struggling to remember the word ‘parlay’ but knows off the top of his head that the word comes from french and originally latin. the biggest brain problems mood
tl;dr- if you don’t love him at his puh-la-lie-lay-lool you don’t deserve him at his coin gambit
an addendum:
sometimes people have misunderstood so I would like to clarify: I used the euphemism “brain problems,” but i am talking about brain damage. Pointing out that jack canonically has had brain damage and I relate to him as someone who also has had brain damage. This is different (much more deeply stigmatized, causing much more impairment) from neurodivergence like, say, adhd (as someone who also has that).
