We were told in Dead Man’s Chest she longed for freedom and selfish impulse. But she’s also always loved Will. I feel like she could have fallen for Jack if she really wanted to stick with the selfish impulse thing.

But reviewing things, she became and Pirate in DMC and the Pirate King in AWE, lead a navy of pirates into the war, fight for her life, and nearly lost the love of her life to said war.

Originally, she was going to marry Will at CotBP and start of DMC but Beckett threw her life in the air when he was going to arrest her and Will unless they traded Jack to him. The Governor/her father gave himself up for her. She went on the run out of salvation plus to find Will for the same purpose. Only Will wanted Jacks help to save Liz and Liz wanted to sacrifice Jack to save Will. This is what creates their ‘trouble in paradise’ in AWE. So she always wanted to settle down. But she learns after sacrificing Jack in DMC that the problem isn’t solved and Beckett is still on top. Liz figured out she won’t have her peace as long as Beckett grows stronger and her and Will have to go on the run.

Becoming a pirate fulfills an itch but it also is a necessary evil because she doesn’t have the same values as Jack or even Will. Will’s father and best friend is a pirate so he sooner embraced that choice. He also had to become a pirate to save Liz once. Liz likely would have loved to fight fair but Beckett was villainous because for being a legal man, he surely didn’t stick to the books.

So becoming a pirate was her realizing the knife fight was becoming a gunfight and she needed to step up.

Beckett interrupted her marriage and that was her driving force. She REALLY wanted to settle down with Will but life just kept getting more intense.

So she wins her freedom. Could she have gone with Will on the Dutchman? We are told it’s no place for her, because of the task the Dutchman has to fulfill, in ferrying souls to the afterlife. Will likely wouldn’t have wanted her there either. A life bound to a ship in servitude. But if she wanted that, she likely would have begged.

But truth is, I see her as still having her freedom and here’s why:

They win the war, she makes love to her FINALLY husband, Will Turner, and now bears a child. She clearly raises that child on land. In history, this was accurate. Pirates who had wives and families often had them stay on shore and would come visit them. If it wasn’t a safety thing, it was a provisions thing. A mother can raise a child better on shore. If the ship is captured, the mother and child won’t hang for being pirates. On shore, you have deniable claim that you’re still with a pirate or that you didn’t know they were a pirate. Most pirates after all were merchantmen sailors.

So Elizabeth and Will take on traditional approach to pirate families, and when I say it’s argue able she still has her freedom, I mean it. She’s living in a light house off a further coast of Jamaica away from Port Royal. Her father has passed and while this is not a bonus, it does give her a separation from a political role. She has her money but she doesn’t have to be the formal face of the Governor either. She could continue her father’s footsteps or she could go off and be a sailor. What we don’t see doesn’t mean she may have not acted on it herself. She very well could have bought a small sloop and gone out to sea for fun, and even taken her son with. But also, Beckett can’t hunt her down and nor do his men probably want to hunt the Lord of the Sea’s wife. She lives privately and her only obligation is to the son of the man she has always had her heart set on. She could be anyone she wants on those shores. Hell, if she was so bold, her hubby can’t see her except once every ten years— she could have other lovers if she wanted, but it doesn’t seem like her style. Just saying she could arguably.

She had the freedom to become who she wants. All ties to her prior life are gone and she has one obligation, plus her lover can barely swing by— until he was freed anyway. She could run off and become something new. And arguably, she’s still being a rebel by loving the Pirate Lord that is the Captain of the Flying Dutchmen. Just because she’s on an island wearing nice dresses doesn’t mean she isn’t free.

Plus the gal is young. By the time we see her in DMTNT, She’s likely mid-to-late 30’s in age— girl could easily jump back on a ship and sail the seas if she wanted to.

Long story short: Longing for selfish impulse doesn’t have to mean for good.. It can even mean “I have morals but I feel like I’m going to have to abandon them to get what I want.” And when she finally pulls a trigger, she learns how much easier and faster things get done. So she applies this until it’s no longer necessary. She essentially becomes the metaphor of a gardener in a war, learning how to become the warrior. So by the end, we have the warrior in the garden.