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Barbossa poison blade promo

Hector Barbossa was the ultimate survivor as a self-proclaimed a master of his fate.

"The Quartermaster sees things before they happen. He has foreseen my death, and so the fates have spoken. The threads of destiny woven."
"You have a ridiculously high regard for fate, mate."
"And you?"
"Me? I'm skeptical of predicting any future...which includes me.
"
Blackbeard and Jack Sparrow[src]

Fate or destiny was said to be a predetermined course of events. It could be conceived as a predetermined or likely future, whether in general or of an individual. Fortune was another distinguished term that could refer to chance, or luck, as in fortunate, or to an event or set of events positively or negatively affecting someone or a group, or in an idiom, to tell someone's fortune, or simply the result of chance and events. Although often used interchangeably, the words had distinct connotations. The concept was prominent, but taking in different forms, in literature, philosophy, politics and religion.

History[]

"You are a desperate man. You are the one who hopes to get married. But your fate is to be married to this ship."
"I choose my own fate."
"Then it wouldn't be fate, would it?
"
Davy Jones and Will Turner[src]

The concept of destiny, fate, and fortune was prominent, but taking in different forms, in literature, philosophy, politics and religion. In ancient Greece, many legends and tales teach the futility of trying to outmaneuver an inexorable fate that had been correctly predicted. In England, fate played a notable literary role in William Shakespeare's Macbeth.[citation needed] Many individuals during the Age of Piracy believed in fate, destiny, and fortune.[1][2][3][4] A map that was prized above all other charts by treasure seekers, with no fixed points, the Mao Kun Map was the only guide that took into account the role of chance, fate and the supernatural in mortal affairs.[5]

In the earliest adventures of young Captain Jack Sparrow and the crew of the Barnacle, Fitzwilliam P. Dalton III claimed that when he found a map, it was a sign for his escape, destiny, and adventure.[6] By the end of the quest for the legendary Sword of Cortés, Jack held the all-powerful Sword, with the specter of Hernán Cortés watching over his shoulder, and the fate of the Barnacle's crew hanging in the balance until Cortés's defeat.[7] At some point, Jack listened to the voodoo priestess and mystic Tia Dalma talk about destiny, fate, and how everything was connected. Even when he was a merchant seaman for the East India Trading Company, Sparrow believed that pirates were masters of their own fate, having "more freedom than just about anyone else." Jack Sparrow later made a fateful bargain with Davy Jones, the captain of the Flying Dutchman and the supernatural ruler of the ocean depths; Jones raised the Black Pearl, then the EITC merchant vessel Wicked Wench, from the depths and allowed Sparrow to captain the ship for thirteen years in exchange for the price of Jack's soul and the promise to serve aboard Jones' ghost ship for one hundred years.[8][9][10]

Another young adventurer and pirate named Captain James Sterling had dreams of fame and fortune until he was killed on his maiden voyage to the Caribbean, sunk and all but drowned by Spanish Admiral Maldonado. Through the intervention of certain supernatural forces, Sterling was brought back to the world of the living and given a second chance to fulfill his destiny and fate. In his quest for revenge, Captain Sterling made choices that decided the fate of his soul, ultimately ending his journey as a legendary or a dreaded pirate captain.[11]

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In a fate handed to him by Barbossa, Bootstrap Bill Turner was condemned to a life at the bottom of the ocean, under the Aztec curse and later swearing an oath to Davy Jones' ship, the Flying Dutchman.

Sometime later, during the quest to lift the Aztec curse that layed upon the Treasure of Cortés, William "Bootstrap Bill" Turner sent his son Will Turner a piece of the Aztec gold, because he never wanted Captain Hector Barbossa and the cursed crew to be able to lift the curse, having felt guilty for the part he played in the mutiny against former Captain Jack Sparrow aboard the Black Pearl. Bootstrap was strapped to a cannon and ended up on the bottom of the ocean, sinking to the crushing oblivion of Davy Jones' Locker, in a fate handed to him by Barbossa.[12] Suffering, condemned to a life at the bottom of the ocean, unable to die due to being under the curse, Bootstrap Bill thought he would trade anything for even the tiniest hope of escaping that fate. Prior to the curse being lifted, and thereby his mortality returning, Bootstrap sold his soul to Davy Jones to alleviate his eternal suffering by serving aboard the Flying Dutchman. In a strange twist of fate,[8][9] Bootstrap Bill was sent as Davy Jones' emissary to Jack Sparrow, who retrieved the Pearl from Barbossa, to remind Jack of his debt with Jones through their deal made thirteen years prior,[10] and Bootstrap later reunited with his son Will aboard the Dutchman.[2][3]

Shortly after rescuing Elizabeth Swann and Jack Sparrow from being marooned on a desert island in the Caribbean, Governor Weatherby Swann made the decision for the HMS Dauntless to return to Port Royal rather than go to Isla de Muerta to save Will Turner, now a young blacksmith and the child of Bootstrap Bill who had handed himself over as prisoner to Captain Barbossa's crew. When Elizabeth accused him of condemning Will to death, Governor Swann said Will's fate was "regrettable" but so was the blacksmith's decision to engage in piracy with Sparrow, despite their intention to save Elizabeth.[12] Sometime later, while Jack Sparrow single-handedly attacked Fort Charles and got captured by the British Royal Navy forces led by Commodore James Norrington, his acquaintances Will and Elizabeth thought it wouldn't be fair to leave Jack to the fate that Norrington had in store for him so they decided to help him escape.[13] During Jack Sparrow's search for the Eye of Despair, Tia Dalma magically warned him through a crab not to trust his guide, Captain John Stryke. When the Black Pearl reached the Grotto of Despair, Jack ordered his crew not to go ashore, but Stryke spoke to the crew, telling them that they were free men and to choose their own destiny―flight or fortune.[14]

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Fate intervenes as Will and Elizabeth's marriage is interrupted during the search for the Dead Man's Chest.

During the search for the Dead Man's Chest, when Elizabeth Swann confronted Lord Cutler Beckett, who sent Will Turner to find Jack Sparrow's compass, she mistakenly tried to warn him that the compass only led to Isla de Muerta in hope to save him from "an evil fate" with cursed Aztec gold, though not realizing the compass led to one's desire and Beckett was after the Dead Man's Chest. Beckett also considered the interrupted marriage of Will and Elizabeth, robbing them of their wedding night, was more-so fate intervenes. When Elizabeth boarded the merchant vessel Edinburgh Trader, she fooled the crew into believing her wedding dress was a spirit bringing some omen of ill-fate, though they later believed it brought good fortune after the "spirit" told them to pull in at Tortuga, where they made profit.[2] Elizabeth later left Jack Sparrow to the Kraken, which dragged the Black Pearl to Davy Jones' Locker, known to be a place of punishment or the worst fate a person could bring upon himself upon one's death, as believed by Joshamee Gibbs and Tia Dalma,[1] whereas Hector Barbossa thought Jack's fate was well-deserved. During the escape of Elizabeth Swann and the Chinese pirate crew of the Empress from the Flying Dutchman, Admiral James Norrington said to Elizabeth their destinies "have always beeen entwined, but never joined", before hiving her a kiss and letting her leave the ship. Later, at the end of a parlay between the Brethren and the Beckett's Armada, the newly-elected Pirate King Elizabeth Swann said Cutler Beckett chose his fate, due to Beckett's belief that Elizabeth's now-dead father chose his own fate which resulted in his assassination.[3]

According to Hector Barbossa, there was a time when "the seas were untamed, the world a rougher place, a sailor made his own fate" and he intended to bring that time back by freeing the sea goddess Calypso.[15] When conversing in the brig aboard the Black Pearl, Davy Jones and Calypso asked about each others' fates; Calypso planned for the Brethren Court to learn how cruel she can be, while Jones simply said, "My heart will always belong to you." Later, despite Will Turner and Elizabeth Swann dissuading Hector Barbossa's plan to release Calypso, Barbossa snorted that with the world they know ending his fate had to be in his own hands.[16][3]

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On board the ghost ship, Flying Dutchman, Davy Jones told Will Turner his fate was to be married to the ship. Will took Jones's place as captain of the Dutchman to free his twice-cursed father, Bootstrap Bill.
Will & Henry
In a cruel trick of fate, Will accepted that he was bound to the Dutchman and his curse would never be broken, only to be freed over two decades later by his son Henry.

The voodoo priestess and mystic Tia Dalma told Will Turner that had a "touch of destiny",[8][9] a fortune during the search for the fabled Dead Man's Chest,[2][17] and later in the rescue of Jack Sparrow in Davy Jones' Locker.[3] When Jack Sparrow told telling Elizabeth Swann that Will was press-ganged into Davy Jones' crew aboard the Flying Dutchman, he also convinced her to help find the chest, which contained the still-beating heart of Davy Jones, in order to save Will from his grim fate. Meanwhile, Will was revealed the effects of Bootstrap Bill's deal with Jones in swearing an oath to the cursed captain of the Dutchman, a symptom that worsened over time as he lapsed into total dementia, and despite Bootstrap Bill's preference that his son not share his fate to die at sea, Will promised to free his twice-cursed father from Jones.[2][3] In a game of Liar's Dice played between Davy Jones and Will Turner, with the former having learned of the latter being in love and due to be married, Jones said that Will was a desperate man whose fate was to be married to the ship; despite Will saying he chose his own fate, Jones denied his claim otherwise by saying it wouldn't be fate.[18] However, the cursed captain's remarks came true as both of their fates were sealed later during the battle of Calypso's maelstrom; Will Turner stabbed Davy Jones' heart, leaving Jones to meet his fate of his spurned lover, Calypso,[17] and Turner taking Jones's place as the captain of the Flying Dutchman.[3] As Will and Elizabeth say their good-byes as husband and wife during their one day together before Will took up Jones's charge of ferrying dead souls aboard the Dutchman, not allowed to walk on land but once every ten years, Will told Elizabeth, "Whatever fate awaits me...I don't expect the world to stop turning."[19] Over a decade later, after first meeting his son Henry with Elizabeth, Will Turner believed it was a cruel trick of fate, love and a good dose of stubbornness that had landed him on the deck of the Flying Dutchman.[20] By the time Henry was twelve, Will surrendered to his fate and told his son to forget him, accepting that he was bound to the Dutchman and his curse would never be broken, only for Henry to follow in his father's footsteps in his search for the Trident of Poseidon, in which Henry freed his father from the Dutchman's curse and eternal damnation.[21]

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The mighty Blackbeard had a high regard for fate, and although the dreaded pirate believed it was foolish to battle fate, he was pleased to cheat it.

Fate was at work throughout the quest for the Fountain of Youth, where Jack Sparrow noted that Blackbeard had a high regard for fate, with the dreaded pirate believing that "the fates had spoken, the threads of destiny woven" after learning of a prophecy of his own death by a "one-legged man" foreseen by his zombie quartermaster, which led to his need to reach the Fountain of Youth.[4] Jack would learn of this from Blackbeard's daughter Angelica, who said the quartermaster was known as eleri ipin, which means "witness of fate", that he could divine the future and that he was never wrong.[22] In the affairs of Jack and Angelica, a turning, twisting fate had bound them together for a second time, and they felt a mutual attraction, despite being a danger to each other.[23] Following Sparrow's mutiny aboard the Queen Anne's Revenge, despite Angelica's pleas of mercy, Blackbeard responded by giving the Cook a chance to determine his own fate, only to unleash Greek fire.[4] The fire was part of a voodoo ritual that zombiefied the Cook, and looking into his cold dead eyes, Jack knew it was a fate worse than death.[24] The "one-legged man" that Blackbeard was fated to meet was Hector Barbossa, now a privateer wearing a wooden leg and with an agenda of revenge against Blackbeard for a past encounter in which Barbossa lost the Black Pearl and his right leg.[25] Privateer Barbossa, a self-proclaimed master of his fate, believed fortune favored him as he collected poison dart frogs as a "hobby" on a Caribbean island, then entered an uneasy alliance with Jack Sparrow in a rendezvous with Blackbeard and destiny at the Fountain.[26] Feeling the cold breath of fate, Blackbeard had one last fight where he met his death through Barbossa's poisoned blade.[4]

After meeting Lady Devonshire at Hanover Hall and learning of her past as an astronomer, Carina Smyth believed her destiny was not to be a governess but to study the stars.[27] A few years later, during the escape from Saint Martin, the very much annoyed Carina thought it was rude of Jack Sparrow, a pirate who sent her to her fate at the gallows, to interrupt her final words.[28] Later, when Lieutenant John Scarfield brought the witch Shansa to Carina's prison cell to decipher the carwings on the wall, Shansa proclaimed his destiny was in the stars.[21] At the end of the Race to the Black rock island, when the Black Pearl ended up beached on the shores of Black rock island, Carina Smyth thought it was a cruel trick of fate to arrive to her destination but not find what she was looking for.[29]

Behind the scenes[]

"Maid or not, it suits you."
"Dare I ask the fate of its previous owner?"
"Now, none of that.
"
Hector Barbossa and Elizabeth Swann[src] (deleted scene)

Appearances[]

Sources[]

See also[]

External links[]

Notes and references[]

  1. 1.0 1.1 Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest (junior novelization), p. 63
  2. 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 2.5 2.6 Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest
  3. 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 3.4 3.5 3.6 3.7 Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End
  4. 4.0 4.1 4.2 4.3 Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides
  5. Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides: The Visual Guide, pp. 26-27: "Mao Kun Map"
  6. 6.0 6.1 Jack Sparrow: The Coming Storm
  7. Jack Sparrow: The Sword of Cortés
  8. 8.0 8.1 8.2 8.3 Pirates of the Caribbean: The Visual Guide
  9. 9.0 9.1 9.2 Pirates of the Caribbean: The Complete Visual Guide
  10. 10.0 10.1 The Price of Freedom
  11. 11.0 11.1 Pirates of the Caribbean: Armada of the Damned
  12. 12.0 12.1 12.2 12.3 Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl
  13. The Capture of Jack Sparrow!
  14. The Eye of Despair!
  15. 15.0 15.1 Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End (junior novelization), p. 105
  16. Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End (junior novelization), p. 168
  17. 17.0 17.1 DisneyPirates.com - Archived
  18. 18.0 18.1 Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest (junior novelization), p. 100
  19. 19.0 19.1 Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End (junior novelization), Special Edition p. 232
  20. Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales Novelization
  21. 21.0 21.1 Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales
  22. Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides (junior novelization), p. 52
  23. Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides: The Visual Guide, pp. 50-51: Jack and Angelica"
  24. Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides (junior novelization), p. 81
  25. Terry Rossio on Barbossa finding Blackbeard
  26. Pirates 4 Poster Debut: Barbossa - IGN
  27. The Brightest Star in the North: The Adventures of Carina Smyth, p. 106
  28. The Brightest Star in the North: The Adventures of Carina Smyth, p. 163
  29. Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales Novelization, p. 227
  30. Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl Deleted Scene: "Peep Show"
  31. Wordplayer.com: PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN: THE CURSE OF THE BLACK PEARL by Ted Elliott & Terry Rossio
  32. Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl: Audio Commentary With Screenwriters Ted Elliott & Terry Rossio And Stuart Beattie And Jay Wolpert
  33. WORDPLAY/Archives/"Walking the Plank" by Terry Rossio at Wordplay Archives
  34. Wordplayer.com: PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN: DEAD MAN'S CHEST by Ted Elliott & Terry Rossio
  35. Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest Deleted Scene: "Married To The Ship"
  36. Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End Deleted Scene: "Legendary"
  37. Wordplayer.com: PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN: AT WORLD'S END by Ted Elliott & Terry Rossio
  38. Wordplayer.com: PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN: DEAD MEN TELL NO TALES by Terry Rossio
  39. 39.0 39.1 Dead Men Tell No Tales script by Jeff Nathanson, second draft, 5/6/2013
  40. POTC Interview with Terry Rossio 2020 - Pirates of the Caribbean Wiki - Fandom
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