"This is the day you will always remember as the day you almost caught Captain Jack Sparrow!"
Character Information
General
Canon Source: the Pirates of the Caribbean film franchise
Canon Format: Movies! With perhaps some filled in details gleaned from various novelizations, but only if necessary for background information. (I probably won't borrow muchly but it feels worth it to mention the possibility.)
Character's Name: Captain Jack Sparrow.
Character's Age: ???? (40-something, as he's said to have been born some time in the 1700s, and the events of the films take place some time after 1740).
What form will your character's NV take?
Jack's NV will resemble his compass, with a few necessary modifications. The screen will be in place of the compass dial, and it will have a voice-to-text function should such a situation become necessary.
Abilities
Character's Canon Abilities:
Nothing more than his wits, charm, cleverness, strong stomach, swordsmanship, magical compass, and his trusty madness!
Conditional: If your character has no superhuman canon abilities, what dormant ability will you give them?
Jack will have the ability to fade into the background. One minute, he will be there, and the next--well, to all intents and visual purpose, he won't be, though of course he still will be. It's just that he'll suddenly blend in with a nearby wall or cabinet or some other bit of background.
And he'll continue to blend in with the woodwork... as long as he can keep his mouth shut. The minute he begins to talk, he will suddenly become visible again, and everyone at the posh party will wonder who the dirty little man is eating all the canapes and making snide remarks.
As a man who uses subterfuge and a sort of personal obfuscation at nearly all times, this is an ability that will really serve Jack well, even if the "no talking" condition is sure to prove difficult.
Weapons:
His effects: one (1) hanger in a battered leather scabbard and one (1) flintlock pistol. And incidentally, it has more than one shot now, thanks very much.
History/Personality/Plans/etc.
Character History:
While Captain Jack's legacy is the stuff of legends, even in his own canon.... please see the following for quick references and reminders as to just what stuff is in those legends.
- The Curse of the Black Pearl
- Dead Man's Chest
- At World's End
- On Stranger Tides
Point in Canon: After the events of On Stranger Tides. Not that it always matters, with the (occasionally purposefully) vague meanderings of Jack's mind.
Character Personality:
"Me, I'm dishonest, and a dishonest man you can always trust to be dishonest. Honestly.
It's the honest ones you want to watch out for..."
-- Cpn. Jack Sparrow, The Curse of the Black Pearl
If there was ever a single word with which to sum up Captain Jack Sparrow, it would be dishonest. Pirate might be a close second, but as the two are nearly synonymous, and as he exhibits more instances of dishonesty than he does classic and stereotypical piratic behavior... it's probably best to stick to dishonest and leave it at that.
The legends about Jack range from a daring sack without a single shot fired, to stealing nuns from convents, to his mysterious escape from his marooning (sea turtles, lashed together by a rope woven from his back hair). It's difficult to say what, if any, of Jack's tales are true--he does his best to embellish and encourage wild stories of his feats and exploits, furthering his own reputation as the best (or worst) pirate that anyone has ever heard of. He desires fame, in his own ragtag way; he desires the immortality of name, at least, and even flirts with the idea of real and true physical immortality as well, though he eventually abandons the idea.
Jack is a pirate through and through. It's not just an occupation or a hobby: it's what he is. The sea is what he loves, as he poetically elaborates to Elizabeth Swann in Curse of the Black Pearl: "That's what a ship is, you know. It's not just a keel and a hull and a deck and sails, that's what a ship needs but what a ship is... what the Black Pearl really is... is freedom." Jack can't stand imprisonment or control, both for his own sake of mind and as a matter of pride. He has a weird sort of vanity, and his constant reaffirmation of his status as captain is testament to this. It's not just power that he loves, it's the thought of being in control of his own destiny, of no man governing him but himself. He doesn't do well with being commanded, and tends to hang back making clever remarks whenever situations necessitate his compliance in this way.
In keeping with his trickster status, Jack is truly a gifted liar and master of deception. In fact, he's so good, mostly everyone dismisses him, which puts him at a supreme advantage. Characters and audiences alike recognize his signature drunken stagger and wild gesticulations, and there are theories both in canon and out as to why he behaves in this way: heatstroke, madness, a consistent drunken state--but given Jack's ability to snap to attention, it's entirely possible that most (if not all) of this behavior is put upon. Jack has a manic calm to him when he needs to, a madness in of itself: but a different sort of madness. "Daft like Jack," Gibbs once describes a mad plan, and it's true. A signature Jack Sparrow plan is one that seems to have no hope of success--and succeeds anyway.
Almost everything that Jack says is a lie. Except of course for when it isn't a lie. He has a way of speaking and phrasing things that can confuse even the sharpest of men, and he uses his double-talk as a primary means of both defense and offense.
That's not to say that Jack won't fight. He will, and he does it quite well. But Jack's first instinct is to talk, quickly and at great length. Sometimes this talk is to obfuscate a point or situation, and sometimes it's to extract himself from a situation, but in either case, Jack can (by and large) wheedle and chat his way out of nearly any situation. Even when confronted by enemies--his former crew, gone all skeletal--even when confronted by Hector Barbossa, the very man that wrested command of the Black Pearl from him through means mutinous and unsavory--even then, Jack manages to use his words to turn the situation entirely in his favor. "You don't want to be doing that," he cautions Barbossa, who is on the verge of cutting Will Turner's throat. "No, I really think I do," Barbossa answers, and turns back with great purpose--to which Jack simply replies, "Your funeral," and begins picking at his nails.
This chance, off-hand comment does its work quite well, and Barbossa is forced to delay his murder in order to hear Jack out. And after he's heard Jack out, nothing is the same: Will is largely released, the majority of the pirates go out to sea to combat the English, and Jack and Barbossa are left to lock swords after Jack springs his trap.
At one point in Black Pearl, Jack lectures Will about what he calls "the opportune moment". This moment is crucial to all of Jack's plans. He is incredibly talented at waiting for just the right time to betray someone, or at least to pretend to betray someone before later unbetraying them by betraying the person he betrayed them to in the first place. His plans are often elaborate, and seem to largely hinge on chance occurrences.
Or perhaps nothing is left to chance. Perhaps Jack really does have a plan for everything. "Do you think he plans it all out, or just makes it up as he goes along?" one captain once marvels, half in awe of Jack's surprisingly successful plan. It's impossible to say which of these options is true, and there is some doubt that even Jack knows whether or not it's true.
But he is cunning, that much can be confirmed. There are times where it seems that everything is going wrong--and then, with no more than a few words, Jack turns the situation around entirely, and suddenly everything is going in his favor. His cleverness has saved the day more times than should really be possible, and has often served to move the plot along. It's Jack that deciphers the unintelligible map in World's End, while the others are mired in despair. And it's Jack that solves the question of the pirates at war in the self-same film. While each of the Pirate Lords declares for themselves, Jack declares for Elizabeth Swann, giving her the majority and naming her as King of the Brethren Court--but to his advantage. Elizabeth intends war, which is precisely what Jack wanted to happen. It's just that the others would never have listened to him. They have no choice but to listen to their king, and things again go just as Jack wants them to go.
Jack is by turns selfish and altruistic. It's the former that he displays proudly and openly, but it's the latter that seems to weigh out over the during truly dire situations. It is Jack's opinion that a pirate can be a "good man". He cites Bootstrap Bill Turner as an example of what a "good pirate" is, though he doesn't spend much time in elaborating on what it is that a good pirate is. Rather, the audience is left to infer these qualities from Jack's behavior. While a pirate can plunder and steal and ravage and take advantage of his situation, there is still a Code that he answers to, and there is still a loose and shifting morality that he adheres to.
In fact, Jack displays a sort of graying and tattered pacifism. World's End even reveals that he has a bit of the Desiderata tattooed on his back. As noted, he prefers to talk his way out of situations, reasoning, "Why fight when you can negotiate? All one needs is the proper leverage." He'd rather turn his enemies against one another than fight them directly. He doesn't shy away from combat, but nor is he afraid to run away, and nor is he afraid to invoke the right of parley and use temptation to turn his enemies away from whatever road he does not want them to follow. It's hinted that his pacifism is part of what may have incited the original mutiny on the Black Pearl ("Jack, that's exactly the attitude that lost you the Pearl. People are easier to search when they're dead.").
It's not that Jack isn't willing to kill. He will kill enemies, in a fight. It's that he's apparently reluctant to kill someone that doesn't actually wish him (specifically) harm. He'd rather have friends on all sides, possibly because more friends means more opportunities to come out on top, and more favors that are owed to him. Jack's precise reasoning for why he does what he does is often unclear, partially thanks to his own work at muddying those moral waters. If confronted with his "honest streak", he will viciously deny it and do his very best to prove, verbally, that he is the dishonest man he claims so wholly to be.
And yet he isn't always dishonest! He displays true and selfless heroism on more than one occasion--most notably in World's End, when he forsakes his own dreams of immortality and helps the dying Will Turner to stab the heart of Davy Jones, saving Will's life and ending the otherwise endless battle with Jones. In Stranger Tides, Jack muses that his want to discover the Fountain of Youth lessened when he learned that the Fountain would only provide extra life to someone if someone else were to die at the same time. He returns to save his crew and friends after his intial cowardice in Dead Man's Chest--and, when Elizabeth chains him to the Pearl as sacrifice for the Kraken, Jack does not cry out and beg for help from his loyal crew (though he does sort of undermine his selflessness with his frantic escape attempt).
When dealing with others, Jack's motto might as well be "keep them guessing". Mr. Gibbs seems to be his truest friend and ally. Jack trusts the man as he trusts few others--and with good reason. It's likely Gibbs that organizes his rescue at the end of Curse, and it's Gibbs that remains by his side throughout every film. It's not a particularly healthy relationship, certainly--Jack casually and jokingly abuses Gibbs ("You may throw my hat," he gallantly allows in World's End, and immediately adds, "Now go and fetch it", entirely without smiling)--but they are sort-of friends for all that.
And that's just about the only good and positive relationship that Jack has. His other friends are subject to his usual cheerful and free betrayals and subsequent unbetrayals. There's something of him that inspires some brand of loyalty in some--both Elizabeth Swann and Will Turner are quick to correct his name as Captain Jack Sparrow in Dead Man's Chest--but even they can become easily frustrated with Jack's constantly shifting shifty ways.
To his enemies, Jack is a constant source of--well, frustration, to say the very least. He continually avoids all death, imprisonment, and capture, despite their best efforts. More than one villain has been left muttering, "Sparrow" as the music swells--sometimes in sheer disgust at Jack's audacity. Sao Feng hardly permits his name to be mentioned in his presence, and Davy Jones is quite intent on collecting Jack's soul personally, given the debt that he owes. Even Beckett seems to consider himself beholding to Jack--it was Jack that lost him his station, after all, and he would love nothing more than to be the one to capture or possibly even kill Jack in order to repay that favor. Jack is largely untroubled by all this loose and rampant hatred--he shirks responsibility, as always, and does his very best to talk his way out of any situation that he finds himself, no matter who he's up against.
His relations with those of the female persuasion are, if possible, even rockier. He considers himself to have a "way" with the ladies--and indeed, other characters attest to this skill. In Singapore, Sao Feng's bath attendants giggle at the mere mention of Jack's name, but this favorable reaction is rare. Most other women react a bit more harshly. It's a running joke that, upon hearing that someone is looking for Jack Sparrow, women of all lands, colors, creeds, and breeds (mermaids included) promptly slap the messenger, with the instructions, "Give him this for me". It's not ever specified just what it is that Jack does to earn these greetings, but it's certainly suggested: he's a heartbreaker. He picks women up and uses them, for love or comfort or opportunity or money or ships or whatever, and then drops them once more. It's suggested that Jack develops some sort of feelings for Elizabeth Swann, but he doesn't ever act on them aside from some thinly-veiled propositions and allusions to what could have been. In fact, it really and truly would never have worked out for them--or for any one of Jack's previous loves and conquests. He views marriage and committed relationships in general "like a wager to see who will fall out of love first".
The one possible exception to this rule is Stranger Tides' Angelica, for whom Jack admits to having had "stirrings". They are fairly well matched--Angelica learned con artistry from Jack himself, after he spoiled her for the convent--but that doesn't stop Jack from taking the only boat and leaving her marooned on an island alone. In the end, Jack does what he always does, and that's whatever is of benefit to Jack.
With all of his back and forth betraying and unbetraying, it's really difficult to tell where Jack's motives lie, and it's suggested time and time again that even Jack may not know. Whether he is honorable or dishonorable is really a matter of perspective. And you can always be sure that he is looking out for himself, at least: all plans end in Captain Jack Sparrow's favor. Sometimes they include the good favor of others as well, but he would dismiss that as mere coincidence.
Character Plans:
To commandeer a ship, pick up a crew in Siren's Port, raid, pillage, plunder and otherwise pilfer his weaselly black guts out.
But for real. Also I want to see what sort of trouble Jack can get himself into, what sort of work he can do either for or against the various villains and corporations while remaining a free and independent agent. And with all the ladies of negotiable morality and all the rum lying about....
Appearance/PB: Captain Jack is portrayed most famously and signaturely by Johnny Depp. He's the one to the parrot's right.
Writing Samples
First Person Sample
[When the voice feed starts, it sounds as if the muttering could be someone musing to themselves. An accidental recording, perhaps? But as it rambles on and on and on, it becomes clear that there is some sort of purpose to it, anyway.]
When a man finds himself midway to being marooned, it is both customary per the will and reason and otherwise wisdom of the Code to leave with him at least a single shot in his pistol, so he might relieve himself of the pain of his marooning if he find cause, or at least shoot himself a single seagull meal in some small compensation for his marooning. A last meal of questionable merit, says I, given the toughness and greasiness of various and sundry and all flying seabirds--whoever thought that this end was acceptable was no man at all.
When a man finds himself marooned, he subsequently finds himself thinking of ways of escape. Some might find themselves thinking of changing their ways and revising the reasons of why they were marooned in the first place but I've never known myself to think that way, and I have known myself for some years now. At least ten. Ish.
[A beat.... Ah, yes. Moving on.]
I myself have always known myself to dwell on matters more immediate and pressing, forgoing the more cowardly single shot and forgoing the final meal and turning my thoughts instead to that which would be my deliverance.
And possibly rum, if things are going quite well. Perhaps some company, though this is indeed a rare and precious thing on a marooning--expedition. Abandonment. Yes.
And yet here am I, with all my effects present and every shot present in me pistol and I have seen your ladies of negotiable company and affection and yet I still find that I myself have been marooned. Now where the bloody hell is my ship, forthwith, and if I don't find it presented to me or vice-a-verse-a, tête-à-tête, you will find that I can use that every shot in that pistol left to me, and I am a very good shot--savvy?
So make with the ship, toot sweet. [A beat.] And rum. There must be rum--more rum. This is an island, innit?
Third Person Sample
There was no water.
No. Correction. Jack turned his heels, keeping his boots flush against the pavement. A pause, and then he carefully turned his heels back in the other direction, like very slow and grating clockwork. Leathery clockwork.
Another pause, and he turned his heels back in the other other direction. Ah. There. Water: there was water, actually, somewhere off thereabouts. East, if he concentrated very hard. Eastish. Definitely of the eastern persuasion. He could smell the spices from here.
No--he lifted one arm and sniffed casually at his shirtsleeve. Ah. No, that smell was him. Typical, really.
So: water, somewhere easternly, and he still had his effects, even his hat. Very important, that. He adjusted it into a more rightwise position and swiveled around to consider his current situation in a more large manner. It was no port that he'd ever been--at least, he couldn't remember being here, and he'd likely remember this one. It was something about the buildings. Jack frowned, tilting his head to consider them. They were--pointy. Very pointy, and very flat, and there were little smaller ones grouped around their skirts like chicks around a dam.
So: water, easternly. Effects in place. Foreign and strange city of which he had no memory, and--
Jack took a step forward. Jack immediately rocked back a step. Ooogh. Eoooough. One hand flailed its way up to press against his forehead. Something was wrong. Something was making his stomach pitch and writhe, like a little hook wrapped around his tangled innards--
Ah. A moment later and he had extracted a bottle of rum from some musty inner folds of his coat. He took the cork in his mouth, pulled--spat it to the side, and took an immediate and grateful swig of rum.
Instantly better. Now the throbbing was fading, doused in its usual stew. He considered his predicament once more, fully lubricated and less lousy. Water, easternly. Effects in place. Foreign and strange city of which he had no memory. Rum, and he rallied the bottle vaguely heavenwards in some pantomime of a toast. Rum, and if there was water, then his ship would be there, and where the ship was--
Well, it wasn't the Pearl. But that was only a matter of time. It was the shipness of the ship that was important at the present moment, and Jack took a congratulatory swig of rum before starting off toward the direction of the sea. He would find it. His legs wanted to be there. He always found it... eventually.