WMG / Pirates of the Caribbean

• Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales

Pirates of the Caribbean

Jack is a distant relative of John Constantine

He's constantly bluffing, conning and charming his enemies. Most of them are extremely powerful or on the case of Davy Jones, supernatural. It only makes sense that he's part of the Laughing Magician bloodline.

Mistress Cheng is actually Ching Shih

Think about it. Ching Shih was the most feared female pirate to ever hit the waters. She clawed her way up from prostitute to commander of a fleet 300 ships strong. Why wouldn't she be mentioned in this universe?

Jack WILL gain immortality

In ten years Will Turner will be able to leave Flying Dutchman and return to his wife and son. However, somebody has to be a captain. So the first person who will come to Will's mind is Jack. Thus everybody will get what they want: Will - normal life and family of his own and Jack - immortality and a cool ship. Calypso here gains a person who surely won't try to slack of his duty, even more - he will love it! This a win-win situation for everyone.

Jack Sparrow is the ancestor of Sally Sparrow

Jack has a one-night stand with a random "strumpet" at a random port; perhaps one of the woman who slapped him in the movies. The child of this encounter is told that their father is "Captain Jack Sparrow" and they decide to take on the name. Eventually the family moves to England and has his own, and the family lives in London all the way down to the girl who saved the Doctor.

Jack's ridiculous luck streak is a result of his deal with Davy Jones

There's no way any ordinary human being could've survived that fall on the Pelegostos' Island in DMC. When Jack made his deal with Davy Jones a side benefit was probably that it was all but impossible for Jack to die until his time was up to avoid him dying somewhere along the way and escaping servitude on the Dutchman.

Elizabeth was in love with Jack all along.

It's only mildly explored in the movies, but her relationship with Will deteriorates quite rapidly after she dons trousers and learns how to use a sword. Her manipulative, win-at-all-costs approach to life wouldn't mesh with Will's desire to protect her. The only reason they eventually get together is because Will grows into a character willing to betray everything and everyone to further his goals, not to mention the captain of the Flying Dutchman. Sound familiar?

Jack's hallucinations... aren't

In a few scenes, such as the "dropped me brain" scene, the hallucinations persist even after Jack has left. With nobody there to hallucinate them they shouldn't exist, yet they do. They must come from someone's mind, and since there's nobody else but them, the only logical conclusion is that these illusory Jacks are hallucinations of each other.

The Flying Dutchman may not have a captain

What would have happened if Jack (the monkey) stabbed the heart, or someone stabs the heart and then kills themselves before being rendered immortal. Or if Davy Jones stabs his own heart. What would happen if a rock fell out of the sky and stabbed the heart? Would the rock be the new Captain of the Flying Dutchman?

• Let's see- if Jones stabs his own heart, he dies and is reborn as captain of the Dutchman. Since he's already captain, this changes nothing. Also, its doubtful that killing yourself after stabbing the heart would work, since by stabbing the heart you've already made yourself immortal,
• If the monkey stabbed the heart, he'd become captain (which would be... strange, to say the least).
• In a worst-case scenario, Calypso would probably just have to appoint someone to do the job, or risk the sea filling up with ghosts.
• A rock captain would be stranger than a monkey being captain, or whatever tossed the rock takes the title. It's possible that the magic prevents the heart from being destroyed except by human agency. Considering nobody seems to be worried about the heart getting damaged/destroyed by natural causes...
• When Davy Jones gets ganked by Will, he doesn't automatically go back to full health, the crew has to cut out his heart to revive him. This implies it's not Calypso's choice on who gets to be the next captain, it's the crew's decision ("Part of the crew, part of the ship/Part of the ship, part of the crew"). However, they (evidently) vastly prefer the person who destroyed the heart in the first place, and it's possible Calypso could come around to punish them if the heart's destroyer was a reasonable captain (read: human, or maybe fishman). I would assume that with an unreasonable destroyer of the heart (using examples already here, Jack the monkey or a rock that crushed it without human interference) would be passed over for the role of captain, and it would instead be given to whoever's next in command, as (I presume) it would go on a real pirate ship after a sudden captain death.
• Or maybe, y'know, whomever is currently the Flying Dutchman's first officer would assume command by default. However supernatural, it's still a ship after all.

Calypso is Ursula.

As inspired by this picture.

• Next Kingdom Hearts. This better happen. Get on it, Square Enix.

Jack Sparrow is some kind of champion of Calypso

Obviously, she has control over many of the characters in one way or another despite being bound in human form. Now consider Jack being captured and held as a god trapped in human form by the Pelagostos. Kinda symbolic / foreshadowy, innit.

Jack Sparrow is Calypso

• The second they identify Calypso as a goddess, it draws our attention off any male cast members as possible candidates.
• Jack has always been a little ambiguous in the gender column.
• Calypso is a whim-driven sea spirit. Who better to be her human incarnation than Captain Jack Sparrow?
• They were planting clues as far back as the second movie (not the first, since they hadn't planned on a sequel). For instance, witness how quickly the natives realize that Jack is their god.
  • Go on the other wiki and look up the (canonical) novels of Jack's past, remember what he was saying to the redcoats near the start of the first film. He'd been to the island before.
• Jack is bound to the sea and can't abide land (normal for pirates, but still).
• Jack is constantly seeking freedom. One of his catch phrases is about how you "almost caught" him. The wind doesn't like to be held.
• Jack's magic compass goes back and forth, like he's not sure of his direction - how windlike.
  • He could be an avatar of Calypso.
  • Does the fact that Tia Dalma was revealed to be Calypso mean this is Jossed?
• Many cultures have believed that the insane are actually possessed by gods...
• Alternatively, since we already have Davy Jones as Cthulhu/Dagon and Calypso as Mother Hydra, Jack Sparrow is Nyarlathotep.

Anamaria is a descendant of Calypso

Although she would probably be unaware of it. This comes from the Rule of Cool.

Anamaria was absent from the sequels because she became pregnant with Jack's daughter and is off (grumpily) raising the kid.

And their daughter will eventually hook up with Will Turner III. Again, this is because of the Rule of Cool, especially if she's a descendant of Calypso.

• And thus the myth is complete, the sea is turned over to the humans, and the curse on Green Lake is finally lifted.
• Way to make Jack look like even more of a Jerkass than he is! Of course, abandoning a woman he impregnated would be perfectly in character for him. Then again, maybe Anamaria didn't want Jack to have a negative influence on her kid and threatened him with severe bodily harm, death, sterilization, or getting landlocked if he so much as approached either of them before the kid reached adulthood.

Bootstrap Bill will take over the Flying Dutchman when Will goes back to his family.

And Norrington ended up joining the crew at some point.

• Some of us like to think so, but that's highly improbable
  • Not that improbable. James died at sea, so the Dutchman would be obliged to retrieve his soul. And Will Turner is probably continuing the practice of inviting deceased sailors to join his crew (albeit in a less-extortive manner than Jones'.) Being a man with a strong sense of duty, Norrington would find that offer appealing. "By your leave, Captain Turner."
    • But given the timescale (using Governor Swann as an example), Norrington was probably well on his way to the afterlife by the time Will became captain. And having made a Heroic Sacrifice, he could well feel his duty's been done.
    • Jones was supposed to be guiding those souls to the afterlife. Since he stopped doing his job, there's probably a huge backlog of people stuck between the living world and the afterlife. It's possible that Norrington is still floating around on one of those little ghost-boats.
• Jossed. Will was still Captain until his curse was broken.

Instead of "Davy Jones' Locker", we should all be calling it "Will Turner's Locker".

Alternatively, "Davy Jones" is a kind of title.

• Could be. Etymologically, it comes from "Dewi," the name of a Welsh sea god.
  • Well. That's one of like a million possible etymologies, yes.
• Or it would remain to be called as that as an Artifact Title since it has become a widely used idiom now (in their universe too presumably). Well, that is unless Captain Will (or witnesses) starts spreading around rumors about his legend as the new "Davy Jones".

  • And he'll kill you in the morning ;)

The Pirate Lords pass down their names to their successors as titles

As mentioned in the WMG directly above, the tendency for pirates to do this is well documented. All in the Manual confirms that Gentleman Jocard took his name from the slaver who kidnapped him. Now consider the names of the other lords: Barbossa seems a clear nod to the Barbarossa brothers, Greek-Berber pirates from the 16th century, well before the movies start; Mistress Cheng shares her name from a pirate who wasn't born until 1775, some decades after the series is supposed to end. Anachronism Stew? Perhaps, but it seems more likely that the Lords, just as any other royals, select regnal names for themselves that often (maybe not always, and maybe sometimes mangled by changing linguistic trends) are taken from their predecessors.

Everything was a plan by Calypso to regain her god-powers

What other reason would this selfish sea-godess have to help ANYONE?

• Calypso/Tia Dalma is implied to be more powerful than she typically shows (getting the Black Pearl out of Davy Jones' locker, stripping Barbossa's arm to the bone). The compass is definitely a symbol of direction. For all we know, she could have been remotely directing the compass herself, telling Jack it was leading him where he wanted - when it was leading him where she wanted.
• So Calypso gave Jack Sparrow a magic compass one day, assuming that its use would get him into conflict with Davy Jones and would also make him meet Barbossa, who would then propose to unseal her powers, then Barbossa would lead a mutiny, which would get Jack to meet Will Turner, who would kill Jones and become a proper captain of the Flying Dutchman? That's a thousand miles deep in the Gambit Roulette jungle. She could easily be manipulating the main characters beginning during the second movie, but everything?
  • She lost her powers, but she might still have her godlike knowledge. Gambit Roulette is safer when you know how the wheel is rigged.
    • Only if you assume a god is, by nature, omniscient.
    • Pagan gods, other than a handful like Odin, aren't typically Omniscient. And Odin obtains his through having his thought and memory flying through the world in fairly vulnerable forms, and giving up an eye and being hung a tree. I think it's safe to say Calypso is not omniscient, though possibly aqua/marnscient, all knowing of things relating to water/the sea.
    • She certainly had knowledge beyond the other characters (she sensed Will's "touch of destiny", for one) but wasn't omniscient, or she would have known Davy Jones was the one who betrayed her to the Brethren Court. Still, the powers she did still have would probably have been enough to at least simplify a Gambit Roulette like that.

Captain Barbossa was the Marquis de Sade from Quills.

This fellow Geoffrey Rush character found a time machine and then ended up stranded in the Caribbean. After Jack made him his first mate (Jack was too drunk to tell this fella wasn't a pirate), he filled the rest of the crew with his personal fetishes — a black bondage guy, an ambiguously gay duo, etc. This explains why he cared about the curse the most. The other pirates were annoyed; but the very idea of not being able to enjoy sex drove him crazy with anger.

• Eventually, he found a way to magically duplicate himself and sent the duplicates even further back in time. One of his selves became spymaster to Queen Elizabeth I; the other hung around a certain hack playwright.
  • While another more-ethical duplicate went forward to the 20th Century, where he landed a gig teaching a royal guy to control his speech impediment.
  • Moreover, a charming, multitalented (probably taking from Jack) but secretly unpleasant copy, managed to incartnate itself in the womb of an English woman. And thus, Peter Sellers was born.

Mr. Gibbs has a son.

And his son has a son, and his son, and so on, all the way down to Jethro Gibbs.

• And a possible distant relative, Gibby

Barbossa's Piece Of Eight was one of Jack's Pieces of Eight.

One of Jack's plots for immortality was to gather all of the pieces of eight. He got one by fitting the requirements and taking Teague's place when Teague took the place of the bookmaster; then he killed or de-captained another of the Pirate Lords. Barbossa leaves Jack on the island, sans crew or ship, and takes what he assumes to be Jack's only Piece of Eight. Then he finds out afterwards, possibly (after the first movie) from Calypso, that Jack was still one of the Pirate Lords, having kept either his own Piece of Eight or the stolen one, leaving us with him knowing that they would need to bring Jack back from Davy Jones' Locker for the Pirate Council.

• Jossed by Word of God; Barbossa has been Pirate Lord of the Caspian Sea since before becoming Jack's first mate; his predecessor passed him his Piece of Eight despite Barbossa not having his own ship for some unknown reason. Since Barbossa didn't know other people regularly visited the island they marooned Jack on, he likely figured that he could've simply gone back to pick up Jack's Piece of Eight long after Jack himself would've perished.
  • Actually, it makes a lot of sense when you realize which sea Barbossa is lord of: The Caspian Sea. Which is completely landlocked. It's highly likely that no pirate lords of that sea ever even visited it, and with that in mind, it's not to difficult to assume that they may not always have had ships.
    • Or Barbossa does have a ship of his own, but left it behind on the Caspian Sea when he came to the Caribbean in search of immortality. Like you say, that sea's landlocked, so his original ship is trapped there.

The third Pirates of the Caribbean movie was partially inspired by Robert Anton Wilson's and Robert Shea's Illuminatus!!-Trilogy.

Both feature a conflict between a chaotic Goddess inspired by Greek mythology and a Human-Squid-Monster-Thing. In Illuminatus! we have Eris versus Cthulhu; in Pirates of the Caribbean, we have Calypso versus Davy Jones.

• Also, Davy Jones's giant pet octopus from the second movie could be inspired by Wilson's and Shea's Leviathan.
  • Unlikely. The Kraken is an actual mythological monster, generally portrayed as a giant octopus or squid.
  • Incidentally, Illuminatus featured Eris versus Yog-Sothoth. Leviathan was a different creature altogether, and resolved its differences with the protagonists peacefully, after falling in love with Hagbard's supercomputer.
    • Okay, a monstrous sea-creature fell in love with a super-computer, and their love resolved a major conflict. That actually Makes Sense In Context?

The Pirates of the Caribbean movies are set in an Alternate History version of the Golden Age of Piracy, one where Pirates remain a powerful force well into the modern day.

The historical Golden Age of Piracy was a short period; there was not enough time in Real Life for the mystic traditions of the Pirates-verse to develop among the pirate factions. The legends of the Brethren Court and their supernatural escapades need time to spread and sink in. Couple this with the (historical) presence of a distinct pirate culture in the New World and the presence in the Pirates-verse of real, clearly observable magic, monsters, and other eldritch beings, and the historical ballgame undergoes quite a shift. The Pirate culture survived the attack upon Shipwreck Cove and is led by the canny Elizabeth Swann; it's possible that Piracy as a way of life and culture might survive the attempts by the great powers to suppress it.

• Or maybe the original Brethren Court that imprisoned her had met somewhere other than the Caribbean. Certainly, the film's Pirate Lords came from all over the world, and piracy's been going on in one form or another since humans invented the boat. The pirates' collective culture and legends could easily pre-date Columbus, and may well date back to days when Calypso was still worshipped as a goddess.
• The spin-off will be about modern pirates spend their days sailing the internet, pillaging defenseless servers and trawling for booty...wait...
• Or maybe the traditional pirates are forced to face off against some soulless upstarts from Ethiopia.
• Alternatively or additionally, the movies are set in an Alternate History where (a) certain mythical sea monsters and creatures are real and (b) a partial Dies The Fire effect has been in place since time immemorial, allowing gunpowder but disallowing electronics or combustion, allowing the Age of Sail to continue indefinitely and plenty of time for those traditions to set in.

Jack is syphilitic.

He has bad hygiene even by the standards of whatever time the films are set in, and he's shown to frequent a certain type of businesswoman...let's face it, he's probably crawling with every disease known to humanity, plus a few unknown ones. It's a possible explanation for his mental state. Sure, he's not showing the physical signs, but neither did Oswald in Ibsen's Ghosts.

• This would explain his desire to gain immortality by searching for the Fountain of Youth. The question remains: was he cured of his illnesses when he became undead in the first film, or when he died and was brought back between the second and third? And would it have mattered?
  • This is probably darker than Disney is willing to go, but if it's revealed that Jack is interested in finding the Fountain of Youth because he wants to be cured of one of the many unsavory diseases he's likely to have, it'll flesh out his character some, add an extra layer of tragedy, and generally make things more interesting. But I don't see Jack really abstaining from dangerous behavior after he gets cured, and he would get cured.
• Unofficially confirmed by Johnny Depp. At least, it's what he likes to think that bloody little scar on his chin that's prevalent in all three movies is...

Will Turner is not coming back for Elizabeth Swann

Because his heart is in a box, and there's no reasonable way to put it back. Besides, ten years living without a heart will leave him, well, heartless; he'll cease to care.

• Jossed. After the credits for At World's End shows Elizabeth and her child by Will on a cliff watching the Flying Dutchman come to shore, 10 years later. Furthermore Even after Davy Jones cut out his heart, he confesses that he will always love Calypso.

Johnny Depp is Captain Jack Sparrow

Somehow or another, Jack manages to achieve immortality. Hundreds of years later, in a bit of fantastic irony, he plays himself in the Pirates Of The Caribbean series of movies that turn out to be based off of true events. He made himself enough to appear as a teenager in A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984) because of sea turtles; they gave him de-aging magic.

Jack Sparrow is a Fae creature.

This explains his odd mannerisms, his strange walk, his madness, and offers up an interesting question: Why does a faerie need to search for immortality?

• Because he LOST it somewhere along the line.
  • Probably in a poker game?
• Because faeries aren't immortal, just long-lived. Furthermore, Jack may be only part faerie (as several classic Pot C fanfics have postulated.) If that's the case, Jack might have a closer-to-human life-expectancy, coupled with a nagging sense that it ought to be far longer. Which could be a motivating force behind his singular determination to achieve it.
• Jack's not just ANY fae- he's the biggest trickster of them all- He's actually a form of Puck from Gargoyles- because Puck needed something to do while waiting to avoid the Gathering... http://www.fanfiction.net/s/7064108/1/Marked

Cutler Beckett reincarnates as Hitler

C'mon, someone HAD to say it!Both of them got into the top of large country by manipulating and using their wits, wanted to cause genocide to people they thought was in the way of the better people and useless while both controlling a massive amount of followers. Both pissed off a lot of people, but were actually well-mannered, cultured men who were into politics and they both thought that they would win until the last minute when the Oh, Crap! moment finally set in. The only thing he seemed to learn from his last failure that is better to finish yourself off than have a miserable and/or humiliating death at the hands of your opponent.

• Unlikely. Beckett follows the maxim of "all for business", while Hitler was never really interested in economics.
  • Although, as Jack says, death does have a curious way of reshuffling one's priorities...
• Also, according to accounts from his staff, advisers, etc., Hitler was neither cultured not well-mannered, and was in fact prone to throwing childish tantrums.

The Flying Dutchman absorbs its crew members specifically to replace bits of it that get smashed up or torn off.

It can endure a few holes in the hull, since it doesn't sink when it doesn't want to, but it would eventually splinter to nothing if not repaired. In the time between Dead Man's Chest and At World's End, the ship has been in many more direct battles than usual, and requires an increase in how much and how quickly it absorbs the crew. This is why Bootstrap was so lost in the wall so shortly after being up and about. It's less a matter of the crew losing the humanity than it is the ship actively taking their coralized bodies for raw material.

Ragetti and Calypso were lovers before the curse bound him to the Black Pearl.

Or at least Tia Dalma, since spoilers play havoc with the WMG bars. He probably fell in love with her, but not vice versa, since he's pretty much an incurable romantic (shown in general throughout the films, just not specifically where it comes to romance) and she was still bothered over Davy Jones. Evidence is mainly since he was able to say it "as speaking to a lover" on his first try, without any noticeable acting preparation beyond a) getting over stage fright or b) getting over talking like that to a specific person. While there's a lot of leeway as to what might be considered "as speaking to a lover", it didn't sound particularly lover-ly (just soft, which may be close enough to tender for the curse to count it), so it may have been that it was said as (as in while) speaking a lover. The Pirate Lords could have put that stipulation thinking Davy Jones would never get over her standing him up, and assuming she had and would have no other. The other piece of evidence is purely Rule of Funny, when he got the crab in the front of his pants (which may have also been an S.T.Double Entendre)- "Hey, cutie! I've gotten me powers back!"

Barbossa is Ragetti's father.

Why else would he trust him with his Piece Of Eight?

• Or maybe Ragetti was just Barbossa's wastrel nephew, however many times removed, who was left with Barbossa when his real parents either died or fled the town, in hopes that Barbossa could grill him into becoming somebody. Barbossa's Piece of Eight was embedded into a wooden eye after Ragetti's accident, cos let's be honest, it existed well before he did and wouldn't be easy to carry around by pirates with good eyes.
  • Turn it around: maybe they're not related, but Barbossa specifically recruited Ragetti into the Pearl's crew because he was missing an eye, so could carry the piece of eight around without anyone wondering why. Which explains why Barbossa's put up with Bumbling Henchmen Duo's trouble-making behavior for so long.

Calypso is really Calypso.

What's the Twisted Metal Calypso's specialty? Granting your wish exactly as you asked for, but not at all as you intended. Davy Jones calls out Calypso for exactly this in the third movie. Davy Jones didn't just love Calypso, he was the first winner in an early, naval form of the Twisted Metal tournament, and asked for eternal life so he could keep sailing and be with his love. And we all know how that turned out.

Davy Jones is actually The Dread Pirate Roberts.

See the above theory about "Davy Jones" being a title instead of a person.

Cutler Beckett hates Jack Sparrow because Jack made him a eunuch.

It's said that they both "left their mark on each other" — we know that Beckett branded Jack with the "P" for pirate; the other mark is Jack having cut or shot Beckett's balls off. After all, Jack has always had a bit of an obsession with eunuchs...

• You can tell whether a man is a eunuch by looking at him and hearing him speak. A eunuch's arms tend to grow abnormally long, and his voice becomes high-pitched enough to be mistaken for a woman's. These are several unsavory side-effects of being deprived of the part of the male body that produces testosterone. Beckett does not display any of this, so this theory is quite unlikely.
  • I'm reasonably sure that those effects only happen if castration occurs before puberty, when the body is still growing. An adult male has already stopped growing and his voice has already broken, so loss of testicles at that point won't cause his voice to change or arms to grow.
    • This is true. Why do you think only prepubescent boys could become castrati singers?
    • There's a trope about this misconception of male physiology.
• When Jack negotiates with Beckett for the Black Pearl, he tells Beckett a list if people on board he can keep but conspicuously leaves out Elizabeth. When Beckett asks about her, Jack says "What would you do with her?" to which Cutler gives a kind of "Well, you got me there" look, which would indicate Beckett can't do what many of the men in the films want to do with her. It seems to play credence to the idea that Beckett's been castrated.
  • Of course, it could also mean that Beckett is homosexual, asexual, or just plain not interested.
    • Given he also exhibits traits consistent with sociopathy (at least, an absence of projective empathy—he certainly seems able to recognize OTHERS have emotions and exploits that so he possesses cognitive empathy, but he definitely does not seem to care or empathize with them) active disinterest seems most likely. That, or he just noticed that kissing Elizabeth is a great way to get dead fast.
    • The man is probably richer than the entire rest of the cast put together. Whatever his taste in romantic companions, he's too disciplined to be looking to score in the middle of what, to him, is a serious business enterprise; he can attract all the company he wants once he's back at port, just by waving a bit of his spare change around.
  • That's not actually what Jack said to Beckett, though. I believe the words were something to the effect of "What is she to you?"
    • Jack's exact words were "What interest is she to you?" It's possible Beckett was just yanking Jack's chain- reminding him Beckett had the power to hurt people Jack cared about. "So you'd better cooperate... or else!" ('Of course, this was before Beckett learned just how well Elizabeth could take care of herself.)

Calypso is a daughter of Poseidon / King Neptune.

I know the real Calypso, from Greek mythology as made famous by Homer's The Odyssey, really has nothing to do with the Calypso from the Pirates universe, but since when has this series really cared all that much about keeping their legends straight? This is mostly just because I'd like to see the big guy make an appearance in the fourth movie. Maybe throw in some merfolk.

• Actually, mermaids are actually canon in the universe... Though they want to kill you.
• I think she either IS the same one, or is a version of her inspired by The Odyssey. Check the M.O., they're more than a little similar and it's not unlike Ted and Terry to draw on mythology.
• Davy Jones is Odysseus.
• Jossed. A short story confirms her father is Atlas.

The Jack who died at the end of Dead Man's Chest wasn't the same Jack of the other two movies.

He has surely stumbled with supernatural beings and phenomena even before CotBP. Somewhere in the past he got a curse which, in totally random moments, makes him literally split into the many sides of his personality, only to come back together after a while, merging all the experiences and memories of the single parts. If you notice, the scenes of the "multiple Jacks" always happen when he's with no one around him (in the case of the two little Jacks, probably no one noticed them). At some point between CotBP and DMC, however, the most cowardly and buffoonish part of him was separated from the rest, and couldn't merge back. The "true" Jack was captured and eaten by the Kraken (since Jack, in a way, was still around afterwards, and so the Kraken still searched for him, Davy Jones didn't realize), while the other, Flanderized part of him took part in the events of DMC and was finally eaten by the Kraken too, returning us a "complete" Jack in AWE.

• This Troper is applauding.

It's all Calypso's fault.

Every supernatural thing ever seen in the movie has origins that can be traced back to Calypso. It's actually pretty plausible when you think about it. The Aztec Gold was cursed by 'heathen gods', and Calyspo is described as such by Jones in AWE. Under the guise of Tia Dalma, she gave the magic compass to Jack. She gave Jones the job that ultimately cursed him, gave him the ship with which to carry the job out, and gave him and his crew superpowers to make them more awesome. She also gave him an enormous sea monster to control as the ultimate bodyguard/weapon of choice/intimidation factor. She could have just made the Fountain of youth because she was bored and had goddess powers.

• "bored and had goddess powers." Calypso is Haruhi.
• The writers actually acknowledged this. They started small with the mention of "stories" about cursed treasure and heathen gods and made the world bigger and bigger until you actually meet the source of all this power.

Will Turner III? Nah, that's Jack.

Think about it: how likely is it that a woman would get pregnant just on her wedding night? And Jack went searching for the fountain of youth, after all. Perhaps he found it and got a bit too youthful by mistake. And it's surely not too surprising that he'd want to hang around to say hello to his old friend. Also, lookie here. Don't they look a lot alike? Of course, honestly, all the three main characters look similarly pretty in the face and have similar colouring, but he seems to have eyeliner. And then there's the wee pirate hat. It's pretty obvious that Jack has found the fountain of youth, after all — how else could Elizabeth have failed to age more than very slightly in ten years? Her face looks a little thinner, but she doesn't have a single wrinkle. If Jack has not found the fountain of youth, she must be a thirtyish single mum. She can't still be that dewy and unlined and teenagerish under normal circumstances. She's probably been drinking from the fountain of youth to prevent aging faster than Will. Obviously, she, unlike Jack, got the dosage right.

• More than that, there's no possible way they could have conceived. A man kinda needs his heart to move his blood around for all the prerequisite activities. Probably Will and Elizabeth simply came to an accord on the island, and he recognized that she would probably meet other men and have children. Of course, she already had an appropriate DNA-donor in the form of Jack.
  • A man also kinda needs his heart to live. And considering that this movie takes place in a world in which gigantic squid monsters and undead monkeys roam the earth, I think that means we can safely ignore the normal laws of human biology.
  • Saying that the movie breaks the rule that the heart is needed to push blood around to live does not necessarily mean the same rule is broken for other activities (particularly if your argument against my assertion is squids, a non-sequitur, and undead that bleed only when convenient and can enjoy no pleasure from women). It appears all curses and transformations work and have rules on a case-by-case basis. The captain of the Dutchman becomes immortal on condition of no damage to their heart. The movies do not say they remain human, with human functionality, and we have some fairly strong evidence to the contrary if someone under the effects of the curse can become a squid person. Being that we have not it confirmed that the boy is in fact Will's son, there is some reasonable doubt.
  • In short, it's possible either that the wooden chest represents all conditions in the person chest and the heart pumping can continue to move blood around by proxy, or that the magic of the pact is such that all parts of the new captain are kept alive, the body without movement of blood and the heart doing what hearts do without brain, blood, or body. The first would allow the person to stay alive when their heart is elsewhere, the other would allow the person to stay alive indefinitely until the magic is disrupted. If we accept that magic is required for both cases to work, then the second explanation is the simplest and best able to explain all the minutia. And in the later case it is not given that blood is moved around, especially for the required purposes here.

Will Turner III is actually a girl.

Well, there's no way of knowing, really. His/her mum often wears tomboyish clothes, including in that last scene — why wouldn't she dress a daughter the same way as herself?

• For the most part, Will Turner III is fatherless, making it hard for Elizabeth to support the two of them on her own. She may be disguising her daughter as a boy, so that the girl can find small jobs around town to help put food on the table. (Well, POTC has taken inspiration from the lives of several real-life pirates, so why not Mary Read too?)
  • Historically, child labor was equal-opportunity exploitation, and the belief that females shouldn't be allowed to work outside the home was really an upper-class conceit. Possibly passing for a boy might have allowed the kid to get better-paying jobs, but it's more plausible that Elizabeth and her child had to live in a series of disguises, to ensure Beckett's E.I.C. successors couldn't coerce Will by holding his family hostage.

• Jossed.

The Dog is actually the incarnation of some supernatural being

This explains why he's so badass, and can escape anything- because he isn't a "normal" dog. Maybe he's a spirit tricked into that form or something, but he's definitely not normal.

• Sea turtles, mate.
• The 'dog' might possibly be an agent of Tia Dalma/Calypso, posted in Port Royal to help further her schemes.

Will Turner III is adopted.

He seems a tad too young to be 10. Its possible that Elizabeth found a poor orphan and took him in as her own. Will would take him as his son. Also... No women could have not aged so little after having a child.

• He's nine and three months. She just doesn't have enough aging make-up, etc. on.
• I have been personally acquainted with 30-year-old women, including mothers, who didn't look any older than Liz did in that tag. Genes play a big role in how fast a person ages; Liz may've been lucky in that department.
• This theory would also work with the fact that it would be physically impossible for Will to conceive children without a heart.
• Eh, well.... whatever magic is behind the Dutchman, it sure managed to take over all his other bodily functions requiring a cardiovascular system, so that should really be a non-issue.
• I don't think we know that. I don't even recall having seen Davy Jones bleed. You kill the heart to kill the person once and for all, but that seems to almost be some sort of magic symbolism as opposed to functions continuing as usual so long as the heart is intact.
  • I think I remember seeing blood spray when Jack cut off the tentacle holding the key during the battle in the maelstrom.
• Will has a heart. It's just operating by remote control.

Marc Davis took the time to see For a Few Dollars More while designing the animatronics for the Pirates of the Caribbean ride.

It may be a coincidence, but the original ride has the same grittiness and dark sense of humor you'd find in a Sergio Leone Western, plus For A Few Dollars More came out around the same time the ride was being designed.

• Does the fact that this sounding like this help? (Wrong movie, I know, but same director.)

Cotton's Parrot will return in Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales.

The parrot was known to use nautical catchphrases such as "Don't eat me", "Shiver me timbers", and "Dead men tell no tales.

• Jossed, sadly. Jack The Monkey does show up however!

Captain Salazar in "Dead Men Tell No Tales" will be the film's equivalent of Jolly Roger from the MMO.

At first glance, they do share some similarities. They're both undead pirate captains that have apparently had run ins with Jack before, and appear to have scores to settle with Captain Sparrow. Given that the MMO never really gave Roger much in the way of characterization, this would be a way of fixing that, in a manner of speaking.

Captain Salazar in "Dead Men Tell No Tales" is the film's equivalent to Captain Torrents from the teenage Jack Sparrow prequel novels

Salazar's backstory is that he was an old enemy of Jack in his teenage years and like everyone else in the film, is seeking out Poseidon's Trident. This is roughly the same story as Captain Torrents, a pirate that served Davy Jones that was cursed with an eternal storm following him, that was a recurring villain to teen Jack and his crew and at the end of the series, claimed the Trident of Poseidon in order to control the seas, only to finally be destroyed by the merpeople he had tried to enslave with it. Circumstances like these would most certainly create a restless spirit like Salazar's ghost.

• Possibly confirmed. We aren't given much specifics on the curse Salazar has, so it is up to interpretaion. Moreover, Davy Jones does return in The Stinger.

Captain Salazar is actually Skyfall Raoul Silva

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Jack Sparrow is an Assassin

• He's big on freedom which can be seen in several character speeches about it to Will and others, and also the reason he was branded a pirate in the first place is freeing slaves. Yet he isn't (in the end) selfish about it, thus showing the wisdom that comes from the Creed.
• Constantly fighting with other, more controlling, arrogant and/or upper class antagonists (i.e. Templars) over magical relics.
• His version of "hide in plain sight" involves more Refuge in Audacity than Stealth Expert. However, he still has the skills and knowledge to run, climb, and jump whenever he is exposed.
• "Pirate Lord" may or may not be the same as "Mentor". He was, after all, stealth mentoring Will. In the boy's own words, "I thought to myself, 'think like Jack'."

Cotton is from Lyra's world

The parrot can talk for him because it's his dæmon.

Elizabeth has atleast some supernatural blood in her veins

Any man she kisses while she's on a boat meets with a cruel fate. She can get struck by an undead sea monster without getting so much as a bruise. She has never wielded a weapon in her entire life and yet she just picks up a pole and starts wrecking shit. Perhaps it's just because these are movies and the makers are relying on suspension of disbelief, but it's truly because she has at least one supernatural ancestor. Perhaps her mother was a supernatural creature, perhaps even a god. A short story implied that Calypso was a demigoddess so it's not impossible Elizabeth is one as well.

Blackbeard from the fourth movie is an imposter

The real Blackbeard is Jack's father, Edward Teague. When some random pirate with a similar appearance steals his identity, Teague feels flattered and thus doesn't care. He's already known as the Keeper of the code, so giving the Blackbeard moniker away is nothing.

• This is strengthened even more by the fact that the real life Blackbeard's real name was Edward Teach. Quite the similarity, eh?

Jack is responsible for Sao Feng's scarring.

Notice when Bringing back Jack is brought up, Sao Feng strokes the scarred side of his head, and the Twins giggle, so perhaps Jack had seduced them and Sao Feng got angry and they fought, causing the scars.

Barbossa has Sephardic Portuguese origins

The original family name was Barbosa. They were among the Portuguese Jews who were deported to Cape Verde in the 1490s and became traders called lançados. Over two centuries they could easily escape to the Caribbean or England itself and become pirates.