I'm glasses.
It's not just you. In fact, there's a trope for it.
Always, somewhere, someone is fighting for you. As long as you remember them, you are not alone.
Raven Wilder
We never see them engaged in run-of-the-mill piracy, but we do get a fair bit of piracy in the name of stealing the film's McGuffin (like the coin, Will, Davy Jones's heart).
"It takes an idiot to do cool things, that's why it's cool" - Haruhara Haruko
Barbossa is about the only one who engages in piracy. Sao Feng probably does as well, but in the movie he's in he's more concerned with targetting other pirates.
Sparrow, on the other hand, rarely seems to have his heart in traditional piracy.
"The difference between reality and fiction is that fiction has to make sense." - Tom Clancy, paraphrasing Mark Twain.
Probably an intentional writing decision. After all, the audience would have a harder time sympathizing with Sparrow if they actually *showed him* raiding a ship, likely injuring and killing various crew, and putting the rest on lifeboats, all just to steal their stuff.
( operating on the assumption that Sparrow and his crew would be relatively nice pirates, which is not a big stretch )
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'80s TV Action Hero
Yeah, actual armed robbers aren't really great protagonists for kids' movies.
'All he needs is for somebody to throw handgrenades at him for the rest of his life...'
Zaklog the Great
I'm aware that violent criminals aren't great central characters for a kids' (or partially kids') movie, but it would be nice to see them, at least once, engaged in simple common piracy. . . . I suppose I'm just overthinking this. Then again, without people overanalyzing stories, this site wouldn't exist.
Mostly A Lurker
Funnily enough, I distinctly remember in the beginning of the second film, Sparrow's crew were actually complaining to him that they've gone a long time without stealing anything.
https://www.fanfiction.net/u/548347/
Oh you silly people, being a pirate has nothing to do with actually stealing anything. At most, you just sail on a ship, talk funny, and hunt treasure. :P
This happy chipper little song will explain everything!
So I was thinking about the Pirates of the Caribbean movies this morning, and I had a strange realization. I think their piracy is an Informed Attribute. Do we ever really see them attacking other ships to take their money or goods? They raid a town at the beginning of the first movie, but that's really because they're looking for a single, specific treasure. As far as we see in the movies, it might be more accurate to call them treasure hunters?
Am I imagining this, or do you see it too?