Why didn't Elisabeth join the Flying Dutchman (2024)

Will Turner becomes the captain of the Flying Dutchman in the end of World's End. The Captain is able to save people by offering them years of service on the Flying Dutchman and letting them join the crew. If the movie was written better, Elisabeth would have volunteered to join the crew of the dutchman and live forever with Will ferrying souls of the departed. Why didn't Elisabeth put herself in danger at sea so Will would save her and take her into the crew to become one of the Immortal members of the crew. This would have been much better writing and a much better send-off for the two characters. —Unsigned comment by AquaGhidorah (talk•contribs).

If the franchise went with the original writers' direction, Will's curse would have been broken after the 10 years later post credit scene. Unless the writers' original idea of potential sequels, "There might be some story to be told where Elizabeth manages to make a trip to the land of the dead, with the help of someone, etc., etc., to find Will, etc." Of course, we ended up with no such trips taken AND a retcon in which Will is still cursed 10+ years later. As far as the latter case, you can't blame the writers of At World's End, but Dead Men Tell No Tales.

As far as the idea that Elizabeth should join the Flying Dutchman crew, well...sure, but she would have to die first, and neither Elizabeth or Will certainly wouldn't want that. Especially with a child on the way.

Last important thing to note: Blogs are different, but since this is essentially a talk page, please remember to sign your posts on forums with four tildes (~) just for future reference. Thank you. -- CJSFan^{On Stranger Tides, Arkham City} 12:22, 9 August 2022 (UTC)

Where was it ever stated that one had to die in order to become a member of crew of the Flying Dutchman? Will didn't. Jones targeted ships in order to recruit new members, but there was never any indication that "living" people couldn't have also joined up.

(EgyptianBatman (talk) 08:43, 23 January 2023 (UTC))

Several statements and quotations come to mind...

1. On the journey to the Land of the Dead, where the duties of the Flying Dutchman are to be done, Barbossa said: "You may not survive to pass this way again, and these be the last friendly words you'll hear."
2. Bootstrap Bill to Captain Turner: "This ship has a purpose again. And where we are bound...she cannot come."
3. According to an answer to a question from this leaflet from the At World's End DVD: Will's father is not alive—he and all the other crewmen on the Dutchman are in a state between the living and the dead. Elizabeth will not survive the journeys where the ship must travel—so she is not able to join the crew.

On the matter of Will not dying (I presume you meant the events of Dead Man's Chest) that's a whole different matter entirely. At that time, Davy Jones wasn't ferrying souls who died at sea, so he could do whatever he wanted, whether it was striking terror in the seas and whatnot. In Will's case, Jones was waiting to see if Jack Sparrow could indeed provide the remaining 99 souls owed to him. Then there's the line from Jones: "Life is cruel. Why should the afterlife be any different?" One could say it was because he had the Chaplain killed, but it can also be argued that the crew of the Dutchman are a crew of the afterlife.

Perhaps that clears things up a bit? -- CJSFan^{On Stranger Tides} 19:25, 23 January 2023 (UTC)