For other uses, see Quest (disambiguation) |
- "You know I am the only one who can undertake this quest, my queen."
- ―Pharaoh Taharka to Queen Tiyy
A quest was a journey or effort towards a goal. This mission for an object, whether it's to find a location or some lost treasure, endured great exertion and the overcoming of many obstacles, including much travel to exotic locations and cultures. The object in question can be something new, that fulfilled a lack in a person's life, or something that was stolen away from him or someone with authority to dispatch him.
History[]
- "I say, Diego, could you just reach in and grab that for me? I don't want to get my hands wet."
"No, senor! You grab it! This is your quest." - ―Jack Sparrow and Diego de Leon
When he was a teenage stowaway, young Captain Jack Sparrow assembled a ragtag crew of sailors aboard the Barnacle in a series of adventures, with their first mission being a quest to find and procure the legendary Sword of Cortés, which would grant them unimaginable power. While continuing their quest for the storied Sword, Jack's formidable crew found themselves facing vicious curses;[1] entranced by an ethereal song, a sinister spell by the merfolk;[2] hot on the trail of vicious pirates like the fierce seafarer Left-Foot Louis;[3] and defeating the spirit of the Sword's first master—Hernán Cortés on a snowy Caribbean island.[4][5] With their quest for the Sword of Cortés complete, Jack and the rest of the crew of the Barnacle embarked on other adventures, first taking a break in their mate Tumen's village on the Yucatán peninsula.[6] After having been betrayed by his last remaining crewmate, Fitzwilliam P. Dalton III, Jack found himself alone on the most dangerous quest of his young life, a mission to find the Trident of Poseidon, a treasure of unimaginable proportions that left the freedom of an entire race of creatures at stake.[7]
Years later, as Jack Sparrow sailed as an honest seaman for the East India Trading Company, Cutler Beckett made a valuable contact in his quest for elevation in the EITC and a title, and with a high position would come money and more power.[8] Shortly after Jack Sparrow became captain of the Black Pearl, the soothsayer Tia Dalma sent the crew of the Black Pearl on a quest for the Shadow Gold, in which they searched for nine scattered pieces of a mystical liquid known as Shadow Gold to prevent the Pirate Lords of the Brethren Court from being killed by the Shadow Lord, an alchemist of the Seven Seas and the fiercest pirate in the Caribbean.[9][10][11] During the quest, Jack's crew traveled around the world trying to warn the Pirate Lords about the Day of the Shadow.[12]
When the Black Pearl sailed in a quest for the Treasure of Cortés, the first mate Hector Barbossa led a mutiny against Captain Sparrow. In the ten years that followed the mutiny, two notable quests occurred: Jack's quest to regain the Pearl as well as Barbossa's quest to restore the Aztec gold and free himself from the Aztec curse.[13] Barbossa led his crew in search of gold and blood to lift the curse, thereby leaving the world of the living dead and to become mortal once more. Their quest had taken them so long that—like the sails—their clothes were in tatters, and salt crusts their hair. The quest would end with the curse lifted, Barbossa's death at Isla de Muerta, and Jack Sparrow having retrieved the Black Pearl.[14][15][16][17]
To settle his debt with Davy Jones, the ghostly captain of the Flying Dutchman, Jack Sparrow searched for the Dead Man's Chest, which was also a chest of value to Lord Cutler Beckett.[18] After Sparrow and the Black Pearl was dragged to the depths by the Kraken, a resurrected Hector Barbossa led a desperate quest to find and rescue Jack from Davy Jones' Locker, as well as gathering the Nine Lords of the Fourth Brethren Court.[19]
Several years later, in 1750, the quest for the Fountain of Youth was a race to the fabled Fountain of Youth between the Spanish Armada, the British Navy, and a pirate crew to reach the Fountain. The perilous adventure ensued as the Spanish sailed out with the tide to find the Fountain, with the British under the belief they intended to gain eternal life. Jack Sparrow met his lost love, Angelica, and was forced aboard the Queen Anne's Revenge, a pirate ship crewed by vicious zombie officers and captained by Blackbeard, who was on a quest to cheat death after the zombie quartermaster foresaw Blackbeard's death at the hands of a one-legged man. Following the battle between Blackbeard's crew and beautiful-but-deadly mermaids at Whitecap Bay, the missionary Philip Swift encountered the mermaid Syrena during the quest. Captain Hector Barbossa, now a privateer in service to King George II, sailed aboard the HMS Providence on the quest to hunt for the Fountain, while his main goal was seeking revenge against Blackbeard, following a past encounter in which he lost his right leg. By the end of the quest for the Fountain of Youth, Barbossa defeated Blackbeard, who died after Angelica drank the restorative waters of the Fountain, and the Fountain itself would be destroyed by the Spanish.[20][21][22]
About one year later, in 1751, the legendary Trident of Poseidon was sought again in an important quest by three people. Henry Turner searched for the Trident in a quest to free his father, Will Turner, from the curse aboard the Flying Dutchman. Carina Smyth, a young astronomer and horologist who had the diary of Galileo Galilei, believed the Trident to be the key, not only to prove herself as a scientist, but to unravel a great mystery about her past.[23] A down-on-his-luck Captain Jack Sparrow and Hector Barbossa get challenged by the ghostly Captain Armando Salazar, and Barbossa's quest was to take him out.[24] With this unlikely team-up, they face certain death in a race against time to find the Trident, though their quest may be doomed from the start.[25][26]
Behind the scenes[]
- The term "quest" was first used in the 2003 video game Pirates of the Caribbean.[27] While quests have appeared in Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl,[14][15] the event would not properly be identified as a "quest" until as early as the 2006 reference book Pirates of the Caribbean: The Visual Guide.[16][17][13]
- In the "History and Pirate School" section of the production notes of The Curse of the Black Pearl, it was written and described that the filmmakers were no less resolute in their quest to learn as much as they could about real pirates. To that end the studio hired respected historian Peter Twist.[28]
- Rob Kidd's Pirates of the Caribbean: Jack Sparrow book series, first published in 2006, began with young Jack Sparrow's quest for the Sword of Cortés, as chronicled in the first four books: The Coming Storm,[1] The Siren Song,[2] The Pirate Chase,[3] and The Sword of Cortés.[4] A collection of the four books, titled Vols. 1-4: The Quest for the Sword of Cortés.[5]
- The 2007 film Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End featured a "desperate quest" to find and rescue Captain Jack Sparrow from Davy Jones' Locker, as well as gathering the Nine Lords of the Brethren Court.[29][19]
- Rob Kidd's Pirates of the Caribbean: Legends of the Brethren Court book series, first published in 2008, centered on the quest for the Shadow Gold, in which Captain Jack Sparrow and the crew of the Black Pearl travel around the world around the world trying to warn the Pirate Lords of the Brethren Court about the Day of the Shadow.[9][10][11][12]
- The 2011 film Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides featured the quest for the Fountain of Youth, which was identified in the film's visual guide and various promotional media.[20] Blackbeard's quest to cheat death by finding the Fountain of Youth was detailed in the film's junior novelization[21] In the final cut of the film, Jack Sparrow asked Angelica, "So, will you not give up this quest, then?"[22]
- Terry Rossio's 2012 screenplay draft for Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales featured a quest for the Trident of Neptune, specifically the story of Syrena's quest to recover the Trident and restore her people to the good will of the gods.[30]
- The 2017 film Dead Men Tell No Tales features several important quests, mainly promoted as Captain Jack Sparrow searching for the Trident of Poseidon against Captain Armando Salazar. Offering some insight into Hector Barbossa's circumstances in the film, Geoffrey Rush said that Barbossa "gets challenged by a surprise visitor and his quest in the film is to take this guy out." Brenton Thwaites also spoke of how Henry Turner, the young Royal Navy sailor who is on a vigorous quest to help save a father he has barely known from a terrible fate.[24] As detailed in The Brightest Star in the North: The Adventures of Carina Smyth, Carina Smyth, a young astronomer and horologist who had the diary of Galileo Galilei, believed the Trident is the key to unravelling the mystery of her past.[23][26][25]
- In Pirates of the Caribbean Online, quests are missions in which the player is asked to perform various tasks for either reputation, gold, clothing, weapons, or other collectibles.
Appearances[]
- Pirates of the Caribbean (2003 video game) (First appearance)
- Jack Sparrow: The Coming Storm
- Jack Sparrow: The Siren Song
- Jack Sparrow: The Pirate Chase
- Jack Sparrow: The Sword of Cortés
- Jack Sparrow: The Age of Bronze
- Jack Sparrow: Poseidon's Peak
- The Price of Freedom
- Legends of the Brethren Court: The Caribbean
- Legends of the Brethren Court: Rising in the East
- Legends of the Brethren Court: The Turning Tide
- Legends of the Brethren Court: Day of the Shadow
- Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl
- Pirates of the Caribbean Online
- Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest
- Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End
- Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides
- The Brightest Star in the North: The Adventures of Carina Smyth
- Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales
- LEGO Pirates of the Caribbean: The Video Game (Non-canonical appearance)
Sources[]
- Jack Sparrow: The Quest for the Sword of Cortés
- 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
See also[]
External links[]
Notes and references[]
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 Jack Sparrow: The Coming Storm
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 Jack Sparrow: The Siren Song
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 Jack Sparrow: The Pirate Chase
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 Jack Sparrow: The Sword of Cortés
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 Pirates of the Caribbean: Jack Sparrow: The Quest for the Sword of Cortés
- ↑ Jack Sparrow: The Age of Bronze
- ↑ Jack Sparrow: Poseidon's Peak
- ↑ The Price of Freedom
- ↑ 9.0 9.1 Legends of the Brethren Court: The Caribbean
- ↑ 10.0 10.1 Legends of the Brethren Court: Rising in the East
- ↑ 11.0 11.1 Legends of the Brethren Court: The Turning Tide
- ↑ 12.0 12.1 Legends of the Brethren Court: Day of the Shadow
- ↑ 13.0 13.1 Terry Rossio on POTC 1-4 events and CotBP Blood of the Aztec Curse
- ↑ 14.0 14.1 Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl (2003 junior novelization)
- ↑ 15.0 15.1 Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl
- ↑ 16.0 16.1 Pirates of the Caribbean: The Visual Guide
- ↑ 17.0 17.1 Pirates of the Caribbean: The Complete Visual Guide
- ↑ Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest
- ↑ 19.0 19.1 Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End
- ↑ 20.0 20.1 Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides: The Visual Guide
- ↑ 21.0 21.1 Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides (junior novelization)
- ↑ 22.0 22.1 Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides
- ↑ 23.0 23.1 The Brightest Star in the North: The Adventures of Carina Smyth
- ↑ 24.0 24.1 POTC5 Presskit
- ↑ 25.0 25.1 Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales
- ↑ 26.0 26.1 Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales Novelization
- ↑ Pirates of the Caribbean (2003 video game)
- ↑ Pirates of the Caribbean production notes, accessed Dec 9, 2006
- ↑ POTC3 Presskit
- ↑ Wordplayer.com: PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN: DEAD MEN TELL NO TALES by Terry Rossio