| “ | Do you fear death? Do you fear that dark abyss? All your deeds laid bare. All your sins punished. I can offer you... an escape. | „ |
| ~ Jones' first and most famous quote. |
| “ | Life is cruel. Why should the afterlife be any different? I offer you a choice. Join my crew... and postpone the judgement. One hundred years before the mast. Will ye serve? | „ |
| ~ Davy Jones to dying sailors. |
| “ | I am the sea. | „ |
| ~ Davy Jones to Maccus. |
David "Davy" Jones is one of the two main antagonists (alongside Lord Cutler Beckett) of Disney's Pirates of the Caribbean franchise.
He is the dark lord of the Seven Seas who is loosely based on the old seaman's legend of Davy Jones's Locker. He is the cursed captain of the Flying Dutchman and the former lover of the sea goddess Calypso, who betrayed him and led him to cut out his heart in the first place, assigning him the role to ferry the souls of those who died at the sea into the afterlife, though Jones opted to recruit them into his immortal crew.
He is also one of the arch-enemies of Captain Jack Sparrow, as Jones seeks to take his soul as part of their bargain (since Jones was responsible for giving Jack the Black Pearl), as well as the arch-nemesis of Will Turner, the son of Bootstrap Turner, whom is part of Davy Jones' immortal crew.
He's portrayed by Bill Nighy.
His Evil Ranking[]
What Makes Him Heinous?[]
In General/Background[]
- Although Armando Salazar is much more dangerous, Davy Jones stands out to be the most personal of Jack Sparrow's foes. Although his resources are similar to those of Salazar, Jones' resources are more powerful and this latter also commands the Kraken.
- Unlike other Pirates of the Carribean characters, he has also out of common physical strength because, even disarmed, he has dominated the protagonists without difficulty.
- He is also the most recurring major antagonist because Jack was confronted to him by the past and also in two movies.
- He takes it out on Jack's friends who nothing to do with his debt and tries to destroy everything which precious to Jack (especially his freedom and the Black Pearl).
- Apart from only a few select members (notably Maccus, Morey, and some others), he is overall a terrible boss to his crew, much more so than Hector Barbossa and even equaling if not surpassing Blackbeard. He imprisons his crewmen in the Flying Dutchman's walls where they progressively lose their memories once their contracts finished, which is by all means a fate worse than death, one that Jones omits .
- Although he tolerates no violation of contract, he himself is shown to be dishonest and unfair in his own deals with others, making him a hypocrite.
- Case in point: he increases Bootstrap Bill's sentence aboard the Flying Dutchman to eternity instead of the usual 100 years in a fit of rage after losing a game of liar's dice to Will, despite Bootstrap not even wagering anything during said game. And he did the same thing to those who are imprisonned in the walls.
- Another example of Jones' hypocrisy is him calling Jack Sparrow "a cruel man"... right before stabbing Will in front of his family, even laughing about it.
- In the past, he betrayed and had Calypso imprisoned via taking away her godhood, reducing her to a mere human witch on Earth.
- For context: he thought she tricked and forsaken him since she didn't show up after his 10 years were up. However, it was noted by Calypso that she made him promise that if she met him, then he would be free from his duties. Calypso loved him so much that she wanted him to spend eternity with her.
- He gives those who die at sea a hellish afterlife in his Locker, which is shown to be a barren wasteland of nothing but crabs, sand, and water.
- While he has some minor funny moments, such as when he caught jack red handed trying to steal the chest, readjusting his eyes multiple times when he sees Jack’s jar of dirt, and responding “Uh, no you don’t” when Jack said he had the key already, these are too minor and far between to be detracting, and doesn’t detract to how seriously he’s taken. In fact, he is arguably one of the much more broody villains in the franchise.
- 10 years before the first film, he enslaved Bill Turner for what he planned to be an entire century. It is because of that Davy Jones is also Will Turner's most personal foe.
- Overall, despite his tragedy, there are moments where he is cruel just for the sake of it, and to make others share in his own misery.
Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest[]
- He sends the Kraken to devour sailors onboard countless ships and destroy them.
- He then bargains to have any survivors join his crew for a century in exchange for sparing their lives, executing those who refuse his offer instead of leaving them alone.
- He regularly abuses his crew via whipping.
- He forced Jack to give him 100 innocent souls, possibly as a mockery of him saving 100 slaves from Beckett 13 years before Dead Man's Chest.
- He also kept Will as a hostage. Even worse, he gives only three days to Jack to settle his debt and forces him to accept, condemning him to an inevitable fate.
- He sadistically forces Bootstrap Bill to whip his son Will or else he would have the Bo'sun do so even more brutally.
- When Will stole the key to the Dead Man's Chest and escaped the Dutchman to the Edinburgh Trader, Davy Jones unleashed the Kraken to kill Will, resulting in it destroying the ship and the entire crew, whilst he forced Bootstrap to watch.
- He orders the mass execution of the Edinburgh Trader's surviving crew members without the usual "you can join my ship if you fear death" deal when Maccus asked him what to do with their prisoners.
- He attacks the Black Pearl, intending to "send it back to the depths". He then sent the Kraken to destroy the Black Pearl and kill the entire crew, resulting in most of the crew's death.
- He temporarily succeeds in killing Jack Sparrow and destroying the Black Pearl, imprisoning Jack in the Locker where he lived out his worst fears.
Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End[]
- Under the orders of Lord Cutler Beckett who seizes his heart in the War Against Piracy, Jones hunts down pirate but leaves no survivors much to Beckett's chagrin, demonstrating that he is willing to sacrifice people who have done nothing to him just to spite Beckett.
- He slowly breaks the sanity of Bootstrap, completely enslaving him to the Dutchman, resulting in him killing Admiral Norrington after he had a change of heart. Jones then took his sword (the same sword Will Turner made for him and the same one Jones later uses to stab Will).
- While he agrees to kill Calypso before the current Brethren Court frees her, he decides to spare her so she can take her revenge on the current Brethren Court by destroying them, despite the fact that it was the First Pirate Court who plotted with him to betray her.
- After Jack was given over to Jones, he sends Jack to the Dutchman's brig, where he again lived out his worst fear as there were many Jack Sparrows.
- He sailed into the maelstrom with the full intention of entrapping and claiming the Black Pearl crew, even personally killing Mr. Mercer by mutilating his brain with his tentacles to get back his key.
- After discovering Jack has the chest, Davy Jones tries to kill him and rejects the chance to be free, officially declaring himself to be far beyond redemption.
- Takes advantage of Jack’s reluctance about stabbing his heart, knowing that if he does, Jack to take his place as the next Captain.
- He fatally stabs Will right in front of his wife, Elizabeth, and father, Bootstrap Bill (and his friend Jack Sparrow), even taking the time to make it as painful as possible by twisting the blade.
- He tauntingly laughs in utter sadism at the anguished reactions of Jack and Elizabeth towards his needless act of cruelty. This immediately forces Jack to choose to stab the heart for himself, or save Will by letting Will stab the heart; this eventually resulted in Will to become cursed as the Flying Dutchman's new captain for 20 years.
- After Bootstrap regains his sanity and realizes Jones had fatally stabbed his son, Jones almost kills him only for Will (with Jack's help) to stab Jones' disembodied heart.
- He does shows some form of sympathy towards Will and Elizabeth's love, especially nearly crying when Jack expressed that Will and Elizabeth needed each other and that separating them was a bad idea. However, when he did see the bond between the two, Jones did not care much for Will and Elizabeth's romantic feelings and stabbed Will with Elizabeth present, even laughing after doing so, indicating he subverted this sympathy.
- Although sympathetic, his death doesn't make him a scapegoat due to the extensive acts of cruelty that he inflicted on Jack Sparrow, Will Turner and numerous other characters.
What Makes Him Inconsistent?[]
- He has a huge tragedy of being betrayed by his girlfriend Calypso, leading him to tear the rule of the seas away from her, which he regretted so much he carved his heart out of his chest and put in the Dead Man's Chest. And unlike Beckett or Salazar, this tragedy is brought up constantly and is played for sympathy in most instances, meaning it is too much of a defining trait and is given too much focus for him to be NPE or even PE.
- He has loved ones, as he specifically hates Beckett for forcing him to kill his beloved pet Kraken. He also of course cares for Calypso in spite of their dysfunctional past, even stating he’ll always have a soft spot for her.
- His death scene is played for sympathy, as sad music plays in the background while he exclaims "Calypso" before falling backwards into the maelstrom.
Trivia[]
- While Davy Jones is currently Inconsistently Heinous, there's a possibility that this may change in the upcoming sixth Pirates of the Caribbean film.
External Links[]
- Davy Jones on the Villains Wiki
- Davy Jones on the Disney Wiki
- Davy Jones on the Pirates of the Caribbean Wiki
- Davy Jones on the Kingdom Hearts Wiki
- Davy Jones on the Wikipedia
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 Inconsistently Heinous
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Animated Features Live-Action Features Animated Television See Also | ||
 Inconsistently Heinous
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Organization XIII Disney Villains Other | ||