My primary enemies on C&K are Thranduil, Milhist, Negro, and Morth. The rest, including you, are just followers of the gang of four. I know people like you in real life. You run away with your tail between your legs like a whipped puppy at my approach. Run back to the bigger group.

The plain nobody who tries to blend into the bigger group, thinking you will escape my notice. Well you are damned wrong, if you were among my group against me, you are one of the enemy. I always catch up to each and every last one of my enemies in the end.

1 on 1, a wolf ain't shit against a tom cougar.

And again, a thoughtful look at motivations, actions, and consequences.

Such a troubled man...

Well done

nice

And, but, or, nor, for, yet, so...

An odd way to begin a review, I agree, but it highlights one of the two glaring grammatical problems I came across: conjunction. In your short story, I have circled... ten conjunction errors. When you have two independent clauses, joined by a conjunction, you must have a comma separating them before the conjunction; likewise, you cannot begin an independent clause with a conjunction, unless that independent clause is connected to another (and that clause cannot begin with a conjunction). The exception to this rule is when you are starting a paragraph, but even then it is highly frowned upon in prose.

This sentence, for example, has both cases:

"[Yet] innate honesty forced him to admit his own choices[,] and actions had inevitably led to this horrible point."

"yet" should become lowercased and joined to the previous sentence with a comma... while a comma should come before "and" because "actions had inevitably..." is an independent clause as well. Stronger sentence would be to use a subjective conjuntion and a semicolon: "He wanted to blame it all on Sparrow; however, innate honesty..." Thus you would be more structurally sound.

My second issue with the grammar was comma usage and semicolon use. I noticed that you had several missing commas... and when you used a semicolon here:

"spend his life hiding behind a facade; a facade of propriety..."

The semicolon is used to connect to independent clauses that share a continuing idea. "a facade of propriety and honor" is a fragment (more accurately it is an adjective phrase, but still point being made). To utilize this phrase best... a colon should be used.

Comma work is needed throughout, but I would recommend looking at participle phrases and their rules. It would give you some insight into comma work for complex sentences.

All of the grammatical issues aside? Excellent story. Your characterization of Norrington was top notch, the emotional tones were exquisite, your imagery and word play were perfect for the time period. It had a nice turn, and consummated the resulting conflict nicely. For the most part there is nothing I could offer to make this any better than it already is (aside from grammatical and structural work).

Excellent job overall.

That was very good, and wonderfully thought provoking.

Very nice use of the prescribed ending line, it melded well with the rest of the piece. I liked this very much, you captured the internal struggle of a man obvious burdened with overwhelming guilt, but also extremely schooled in self control. There is a nobility of character in realizing your failure/culpability of action, then accepting your part and facing whatever consequence, you gave that to Norrington in this piece and you did it well.

That was a rather dark look into guilt. And I'm Catholic too! Well thought out and fluid, as all of your stories are. I am not a huge fan of things that aren't of a romantic nature, but I do enjoy your character studies in these kind of writings that you do.

On a side note: please update "When an Irresistable force...". Please? Pretty please? With sugar and cherries on top? (Hopefully you like those!) I am not beyond begging, dear writer!

I knew I was going to love this from the first sentence. Once again, you capture Norrington perfectly. I can hear his voice as I read his thoughts. I can see the pained expression on his face as he looks as Beckett.

Not only did you do your usual great job with Norrington, but your Beckett was spot on too. Creepy and smarmy. I particularly liked the description of him drinking the port. That was a lovely detail that really captured the mood.

This is so full of regret and self-loathing that it actually hurt to read it. Well done. There aren't many writers who can make me feel like that.

This is great PotC too. It fits very well with canon, and you know how I feel about canon. ;) I thought you drew the threads of the story together very well.

Great job. It is always a privilege to read your work. I do indeed love it!

Pie!

I adore your writing style. That Pirates fic was amazing. I never liked Norrington much but you seem to have brought out a different side in him!

Nice use of last line as well!

~Nadia

Hi, Pie.

I loved how you wrote his thoughts. They sound like something Norrington would think. I'm not a big Norrington fan, actually, I avoid this category altogether even though I've seen the second and third movies and part of the first. This was really well written, and I like the title. Once I knew what it meant, I found it very fitting. Good job.

Good luck.

StrikeofLightning

Very nice, if I may say so myself, Pie. It's different from what I normally read, though.

Good luck!

-Blackie

*sobs* angst... T.T Pie, I like it!

Woah, angst! You know I love that stuff. ;]

I still can't get over the wonderful way you write dear Norrington. You give him an underlying sweetness that the movies never really completely got into, yet he's still completely in character - as was Beckett. (Asshole.)

Good business, good business! - God, I am *so* sick of that phrase now, and I'm so glad that you didn't like how Beckett referred to all these killings and "sacrifices" or whatever as just "good business," either.

Wonderful, dramatic, lovely. Like always. :3

- RQ

Hi Pie,

I don't usually read POTC fics, but I feel inclined to give the fandom a go after reading this neat little piece. I love these psychological studies - I write them myself - and particularly enjoy the deconstruction of the psyches of the charaters involved as the author explains their motivations. I actually feel sympathy for Norrington, which I usually don't.

Added to my C2, My Favourite Tales.

I just happened to watch POTC shortly before reading this, so the fandom is still fresh in my mind. This characterization of Norrington is exactly how I would have expected it to play out before he freed Elizabeth. Nicely Done.

(Although I get the reference, I wouldn't lump Norrington together with the likes Butus and Judas - He's too likeable :p)

Good Luck with the Challenge.

-WE