Devil

Devilish figures on the stained glass window of the Queen Anne's Revenge.

"Haul those sheets! Run 'em! Run, keep running! Run as if the devil himself and itself is upon us!"

―Jack Sparrow

A devil is the personification of evil as it is conceived in various cultures and religions, with The Devil being an entity that is the enemy of God and humankind. It is seen as the objectification of a hostile and destructive force and was also a generic term for a malevolent supernatural entity, which was used to refer to creatures in a number of cultures' mythologies. While the English sometimes use demon as a synonym for devil, however, it is different as demons were evil spirits. It is unknown if they were somewhat related to the mythological Hell, though some cultures would qualify demonic creatures as hell-spawned.

History

"Jack, where are ye going?"
"I am going to have a talk with the devil himself."

―Arabella Smith and Jack Sparrow

Davy Jones, the sailors' devil.

Under the curse of the Flying Dutchman, Davy Jones wore a black hat that was shaped to resemble devil horns, in effect making him known as the sailor's devil across many myth and legends. The young adventurer Jack Sparrow said he was going to have a talk with the devil before facing the spirit of Hernán Cortés. Later, when Jack's crew of the Barnacle attended the masquerade ball in a hotel in New Orleans, Jean Magliore and Tumen wore matching devilish masks, complete with horns and pointed eyebrows.

The first pirate flag of the infamous pirate Blackbeard was the black flag with the skeleton of the devil holding a goblet in one hand and a spear pointing to a bleeding heart in the other, a design he would later use for the figurehead of the Queen Anne's Revenge. The nightmarish vision painted on the stained glass window seen on the stern of the Revenge depicted dead men writhing in flames, stoked by devilish characters.

On several occasions, "devil" was used as a word rather than a person. Captain Edward Teague was once called "the devil what spawned Jack Sparrow". Cutler Beckett called his father, Jonathan Beckett Sr., a devil for trying to use his mother to manipulate him. While recruiting a motley crew for the Interceptor, Joshamee Gibbs referred to the mute pirate Cotton as a "poor devil" for having his tongue cut out. Later, as the Interceptor battled with Hector Barbossa's cursed crew of the Black Pearl, Gibbs said they needed a "devil's dowry" as an idea. After Jack Sparrow was helped aboard the Black Pearl after his escape from the Turkish Prison, a small monkey named "Jack" swung out of the ship's rigging in front of Sparrow and screeched as if he were the devil himself, with Sparrow and his crew screaming back as the monkey snatched the roll of cloth and took it from Sparrow. Some songs like "Yo Ho (A Pirate's Life for Me)", "Dead Man's Chest" and "Hoist the Colours" make reference to the devil(s) though very brief. Shortly before his death at the Fountain of Youth, Blackbeard referred to Barbossa's poisoned sword as devilry and called Jack Sparrow a devil for tricking him during the Profane Ritual.

By 1729, Davy Jones was referred to as the devil several times. The first notable use was by Jones himself when Will Turner challenged him to a second game of Liar's Dice in front of the his crew aboard the Flying Dutchman, warning Will that he can't best the devil twice. After the Kraken attack on the Edinburgh Trader, Davy Jones told Koleniko to chart a course to Isla Cruces, and to get there first "or there'll be the devil to pay." Following Jack Sparrow's death in a battle with the Kraken, Jones' First Mate Maccus remarked that even Sparrow couldn't best the devil, referring to his captain. And lastly, when Jack's crew mourned for their captain, Voodoo priestess Tia Dalma told Will it was a shame he couldn't capture the devil and free his father's soul.

Years before to the search for the Trident of Poseidon, a young twelve-year-old Henry Turner spent his life studying the myths of the sea, having drawn several recorded encounters with the sea snakes, at least one depicting a man named Sam Brown having his leg bit off by a "Devilish Sea Seppent" that was sighted off the coast of Dominica.

Because of young Carina Smyth's rebellious nature, one of the female workers in the orphanage proclaimed she had "quite the devil's tongue", to which Carina's guardian Mrs. Altwood responded that her heart was in the right place. When a group of superstitious thieves led by the dark-haired woman stole the Galileo's diary from Carina, they could not read the Latin words, so they proclaimed the book was scribbled in devil language.

During the quest for the Fountain of Youth, Barbossa referred to mermaids as "devil fish" when talking about the dangers of Whitecap Bay to the crew of the HMS Providence. About one year later, while visited by a priest in Saint Martin prison, Carina Smyth was called an "orphan born of the devil" because of the accusations of her practicing witchcraft. When the ghostly Capitán Armando Salazar and his crew of the undead followed a down-on-his-luck Captain Jack Sparrow to the shores of Hangman's Bay the undead captain told Sparrow that the pirate would soon pay the devil his due.

Behind the scenes

"You can't best the devil twice, son."
"Then why are you walking away?"

―Davy Jones and Will Turner

• Devil was first mentioned in Thurl Ravenscroft's narration recorded in the 1966 soundtrack for Walt Disney's Pirates of the Caribbean attraction.
• Davy Jones was referred to as the "devil" several times in Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest and At World's End, even in the behind the scenes. In the film's screenplay and junior novelization, among other material, Jones was described as wearing a black hat that resembled devil horns. In the "Pirate Lore" featurette for Dead Man's Chest, Davy Jones was referred to as the "devil of the deep" by screenwriter Ted Elliott. When talking about Jones in a "Masters of Design" featurette for At World's End, creature designer Crash McCreery talked about how his hat had horns that are devilish.
• In Ted Elliott and Terry Rossio's screenplay for Dead Man's Chest, the cursed Davy Jones was described with "a black hat shaped to effect devil horns" in his first appearance. Later, Will Turner played Liar's Dice with Davy Jones two times aboard the Flying Dutchman, with Will beating Jones the first time and winning his twice-cursed father Bootstrap Bill's freedom, and Jones warned Will that he can't best the devil twice prior to a second game. After Will escaped the Flying Dutchman aboard the Edinburgh Trader and Captain Bellamy asked Will what they were running from, a sailor notified the captain about the Dutchman being spotted, with the screenplay using "speak of the devil" for Bellamy suggesting that it was pirates, and "the devil, indeed" for Will adding "Or worse." The Liar's Dice scene never made it to the final cut of the film but was retained in the film's junior novelization as well as the deleted scene "Married To The Ship" featured in Blu-ray releases beginning in 2011.
• The ending of the Dead Man's Chest junior novelization, as adapted by Irene Trimble, followed the aftermath of Jack Sparrow's battle with the Kraken, in which Bootstrap Bill Turner whispered out toward the empty sea, "If any man could beat the devil, I'd have thought it would be you." However, no such scene occurred in the final cut of the film itself, in part due to Bootstrap being locked in the Dutchman's brig.
• In Jeff Nathanson's 2013 early draft of the Dead Men Tell No Tales script Joshamee Gibbs said that the witch Melia talks to the devil himself.
• The devil (or devils) would be mentioned in Tim Powers' novel On Stranger Tides, which would be used as inspiration for the 2011 film Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides.
• According to Captain Charles Johnson's book, A General History of the Pyrates, Blackbeard's superstitious crewmen believed that Devil himself was sailing with them. A night before the battle of Ocracoke Inlet, when a pirate asked Blackbeard about the location of his buried treasure, Blackbeard answered that only him and the Devil knew where the money was hidden, and the one who outlived the other would get it all.

Appearances

• Walt Disney's Pirates of the Caribbean (First mentioned)
• Climb Aboard If You Dare!: Stories From The Pirates of the Caribbean (Mentioned only)
• Jack Sparrow: The Coming Storm (Mentioned only)
• Jack Sparrow: The Sword of Cortés (Mentioned only)
• Jack Sparrow: The Age of Bronze (Mentioned only)
• Jack Sparrow: Dance of the Hours (Mentioned only)
• Jack Sparrow: Sins of the Father (Mentioned only)
• The Price of Freedom (Mentioned only)
• Legends of the Brethren Court: Wild Waters (Mentioned only)
• Legends of the Brethren Court: Day of the Shadow (Mentioned only)
• Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl (Mentioned only)
• Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest (Mentioned only)
  • Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest (junior novelization) (Mentioned only)
  • Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest (video game) (Mentioned only)
• Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End (Mentioned only)
  • Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End (video game) (Mentioned only)
• Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides (Mentioned only) (Painting only)
  • Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides (junior novelization) (Depicted on a flag)
• The Brightest Star in the North: The Adventures of Carina Smyth (Mentioned only)
• Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales (Mentioned only) (Painting only)

Sources

• Pirates of the Caribbean: The Visual Guide
• Pirates of the Caribbean: The Complete Visual Guide
• Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides: The Visual Guide
• The Art of Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides

External links

• Devil on Wikipedia