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Mercy

JackExecutionP1
"And for these crimes, you have been sentenced to be, on this day, hung by the neck until dead. May God have mercy on your soul."
―Town Clerk during Jack Sparrow's hanging[src]

Mercy is benevolence, forgiveness, and kindness in a variety of ethical, religious, social, and legal contexts. In the social and legal context, mercy may refer to compassionate behavior on the part of those in power, e.g. mercy shown by a judge toward a convict. Mercy can be defined as "compassion or forbearance shown especially to an offender or to one subject to one's power"; and also "a blessing that is an act of divine favor or compassion." "To be at someone's mercy" indicates a person being "without defense against someone."

The concept of a merciful God appears in various religions, including Hinduism, Christianity, Judaism and Islam. Performing acts of mercy as a component of religious beliefs was also emphasized through actions, in regards to one's soul. In a judicial context mercy is often termed "clemency". It is a sovereign prerogative that resides in the executive and is entirely discretionary. The phrase "may God have mercy on your soul" was used within courts in various legal systems by judges pronouncing a sentence of death upon a person found guilty of a crime, with the usage of the phrase later spread throughout the colonies of the British Empire whenever a death sentence was passed, or otherwise intended as a prayer for the soul of the condemned.

History

Pirates & Josiah
"Have I told you, sir, what a lovely daughter you have?"
"A fitting last sight for a doomed soul."
"Mercy, Father. The seas, the sky, they know nothing of mercy. You can put yourself above them."
"If I don't kill a man every now and then, they forget who I am."
―Jack Sparrow, Blackbeard and Angelica[src]

When the infamous pirate Smilin' Jack and his crew invaded the port of Marito on the island of Zaragona, they managed to capture the town's mayor. While Jack and his lieutenants Zeke and Snake serenaded themselves with a jaunty sea chantey, playing a guitar and an accordion, others lowered the mayor into the water, then raised him up again. Each time the pirates yanked him up the mayor begged for mercy as he gasped for air, but Zeke said they were giving him pirate mercy, because they hadn't killed him yet.[1]

They are begging for mercy

Capitán Armando Salazar, a ruthless pirate hunter of the Spanish Navy known as El Matador del Mar, led a campaign against the pirates in the Caribbean, destroying dozens of ships in the Caribbean Sea with his mighty galleon, the Silent Mary. At the end of the final sea battle, prior to Salazar's death at the Devil's Triangle, as burning shipwrecks littered the sea and sank beneath the waves, the few surviving pirates in the water begged the crew of the Silent Mary for mercy, waving the white flag of surrender. Captain Salazar's lieutenant, Lesaro, wondered if they should oblige, but Salazar would not hear of it. Remembering how the pirates destroyed his family,[2] Salazar decided to give no mercy for the helpless pirates in the water, and upon Salazar's nod, the Silent Mary's crew opened fire on the survivors.[3]

After Davy Jones was magically summoned by the Pirate Lords of the Brethren Court aboard the Troubadour, the ship of the Keeper of the Code Captain Edward Teague, Jones teleported on board and identified Boris Palachnik, the Pirate Lord of the Caspian Sea, as the leader of the infamous rogue pirates. Jones also said mercy was something they knew not, and their ships brought only death.[4]

Following the capture of the Dutch flute by the rogue pirates of the La Vipère, the conscripted crew member Jack Sparrow found and talked with Taharka, the mortally wounded pharaoh from the legendary island of Kerma. As the dying pharaoh gave his magical wristlet to Sparrow, the pirate captain Christophe-Julien de Rapièr saw them, and used that as an opportunity to publicly declare Sparrow a thief, which was an offense punishable by death under La Vipère's Ship's Articles. As the rogues sailed away from the sinking vessel, Christophe held a mock trial in front of his crew, but he decided to show Sparrow some relative mercy, because he saved all of them from the dungeons of Shipwreck City a few days earlier. Sparrow was thus abandoned in a longboat in the middle of the Caribbean Sea, with a single cutlass, and no food nor water.[5]

When she served aboard the Black Pearl under Captain Jack Sparrow and his first mate Hector Barbossa, the former Spanish princess Carolina's favorite daydream was that one day she'd capture a ship and find the cruel old governor she was once supposed to marry on board, and he'd be horrified and beg on his knees for mercy, and she would laugh before leaving him on a beach somewhere—somewhere his soldiers could eventually find him, so they'd laugh at him, too.[6]

While leading his crew in search of gold and blood to lift the Aztec curse, having shown no mercy, notably during the battle between the Black Pearl and the Interceptor. Once Barbossa realized that it was Will Turner's blood he really needed to lift the curse, Elizabeth Swann was worthless to him, and so he gave her no mercy. Barbossa didn't hesitate to make Elizabeth and Jack Sparrow both walk the plank, to face the sharks—or a slower death on a barren island.[7][8] The town clerk of Port Royal reads out the crimes of Jack Sparrow prior to the notorious pirate's hanging at Fort Charles, and finished the speech by saying, "May God have mercy on your soul." At some point after Jack Sparrow's escape,[9] he recounted some of his tales of adventure with Will Turner and Elizabeth Swann, although not completely truthfully, including a tale where the magistrate of Nassau said the town was at the mercy of Jack, who was believed to be Black Smoke James. Jack accepted the magistrate's surrender, suggesting that he would be merciful and call of the siege if the magistrate cooperated.[10]

After Will Turner escaped from Captain Davy Jones and the crew of the Flying Dutchman with the help of Bootstrap Bill Turner, he got on the merchant ship, Edinburgh Trader. The next morning, when the old pirate was found asleep while on night watch, Jones asked Bootstrap Bill how he let a ship pass by unnoticed, with Bootstrap then begging the Captain for mercy, promising it would never happen again. However, upon discovering that Will was not on board the Dutchman, Jones and his crew forced Bootstrap Bill to watch as the Kraken was summoned to attack the Edinburgh Trader.[11]

In Singapore, Elizabeth Swann asked Hector Barbossa about Sao Feng being terrifying, to which Barbossa responded by saying Feng was like Barbossa himself but without his merciful nature and sense of fair play. Later, in exchange for Sao Feng helping Barbossa escape the East India Trading Company aboard the Black Pearl and convene with the Pirate Lords of the Fourth Brethren Court, Elizabeth would sail away with Feng on the Empress, where she found herself neatly put at Sao Feng's mercy.[12] During the Fourth Court, bringing up Barbossa's suggestion to release Calypso to the Pirate Lords, Jack Sparrow said they could pray that she would be merciful, though he doubted it.[13] The next day, when the crews of the Brethren's fleet noticed the HMS Endeavour on the horizon, they intended to show Lord Beckett the same mercy he had shown all those pirates he had left dying at the end of the hangman's rope.[14][15] Near the end of the battle around Calypso's maelstrom, Davy Jones told Elizabeth she'll see no mercy from him, which Elizabeth responded by drawing her sword.[13]

Having served as Jack Sparrow's loyal first mate, Joshamee Gibbs was somehow mistaken for Jack himself on trial with an angry mob screaming for his blood. With no way to prove differently, a show of mercy from the court was his only hope of avoiding hanging.[16] Following the failed mutiny on the Queen Anne's Revenge, Blackbeard intended to kill Jack Sparrow, but his daughter Angelica begged him to show mercy to Sparrow and the young missionary Philip Swift. Although Blackbeard spared them, someone still had to pay for the attempted mutiny, and so Blackbeard chose to punish the Cook instead. Angelica tells Blackbeard for mercy once more, reminding him that the captain was allowed to show leniency,[17] and quoting a Bible verse she learned in the Spanish convent, "Blessed are the merciful, for they will receive mercy," but Blackbeard ignored her and had the cook killed with Greek fire.[18] Later, after privateer Hector Barbossa inspired the crew members of the HMS Providence to sail for Whitecap Bay,[17] Gibbs was apprehensive as he watched a deserter swimming toward a faraway island and wondered if he had the right idea, saying "And may God have mercy on our souls."[19]

Behind the scenes

"Mercy, Father."
"Mutiny, Daughter. Our laws be clear."
"Blessed are the merciful, for they will receive mercy."
"It is a blessing for a man to have a hand in determining his own fate. A gift not afforded to all of us."
―Angelica and Blackbeard[src]

The word "mercy" first appeared in the 1996 book Climb Aboard If You Dare!: Stories From The Pirates of the Caribbean.[1] In spite of the fact that it was originally used in Ted Elliott and Terry Rossio's early screenplay draft for the 2003 film Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl,[20] and further used in details regarding Captain Hector Barbossa revealed in the 2006-2007 reference books Pirates of the Caribbean: The Visual Guide and The Complete Visual Guide,[7][8] the word "mercy" was spoken only once by the Town Clerk to Jack Sparrow in the final cut of the film.[9] Although the word "mercy" was never spoken onscreen in Dead Man's Chest, Bootstrap Bill Turner was quoted in the junior novelization, "Beggin' your mercy, Capt'n, I fell sound asleep. Beggin' your mercy, it won't happen again."[11]

In Ted Elliott and Terry Rossio's original screenplay draft of At World's End, following the capture of the Empress, James Norrington ordered Davy Jones to hang the entire pirate crew. When Jones asked why was he giving them no mercy Norrington replied that mercy was an aspect of God who was far better suited to judge them than he was.[21] The scene was omitted by the final cut of the film.[13]

In Ted Elliott and Terry Rossio's screenplay for On Stranger Tides, Angelica begs Blackbeard for mercy several times before he attempts to kill someone, notably Jack Sparrow and Philip Swift. When Blackbeard first threatened Sparrow, Angelica notably said, "Mercy, Father. The seas, the sky, they know nothing of mercy. You can put yourself above them."[22] In the film's junior novelization, based on the screenplay, Angelica also says, "Blessed are the merciful, for they will receive mercy," quoting a Bible verse she learned in the Spanish convent, prior to Blackbeard unleashing Greek fire on the Cook.[18] Neither of Angelica's lines were featured in the final cut of the film.[17]

Ian Mercer, a character originally introduced as simply "Mercer" in Dead Man's Chest, was given the full name "Ian Mercer" in the 2011 novel The Price of Freedom by A. C. Crispin. In addition, an actor also named Ian Mercer was cast as the Quartermaster in the 2011 film On Stranger Tides. In 2020, when asked about if the character's name was a "homage" to the actor, Terry Rossio stated that he believed "Mercer" was a play on the word "mercy".[23]

Appearances

Sources

Notes and references

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 Climb Aboard If You Dare!: Stories From The Pirates of the Caribbean, p. 56
  2. ↑ Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales Novelization, p. 155
  3. ↑ Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales
  4. ↑ The Price of Freedom, Chapter Eight: The Devil in the Deep Blue Sea
  5. ↑ The Price of Freedom, Chapter Eleven: Pirates and Rogues
  6. ↑ Legends of the Brethren Court: Wild Waters, p. 27
  7. ↑ 7.0 7.1 Pirates of the Caribbean: The Visual Guide, pp. 32-33: "Barbossa"
  8. ↑ 8.0 8.1 Pirates of the Caribbean: The Complete Visual Guide, pp. 32-33: "Barbossa"
  9. ↑ 9.0 9.1 Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl
  10. ↑ Pirates of the Caribbean: The Legend of Jack Sparrow
  11. ↑ 11.0 11.1 Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest (junior novelization), p. 106
  12. ↑ Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End (junior novelization), p. 114
  13. ↑ 13.0 13.1 13.2 Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End
  14. ↑ Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End (junior novelization), p. 159
  15. ↑ Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End (junior novelization) (Special Edition), p. 181
  16. ↑ Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides (junior novelization), p. 2
  17. ↑ 17.0 17.1 17.2 Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides
  18. ↑ 18.0 18.1 Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides (junior novelization), pp. 68-72
  19. ↑ Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides (junior novelization), pp. 76-79
  20. ↑ Wordplayer.com: PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN: THE CURSE OF THE BLACK PEARL by Ted Elliott & Terry Rossio
  21. ↑ PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN: AT WORLD'S END by Ted Elliott & Terry Rossio, original draft
  22. ↑ Wordplayer.com: PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN: ON STRANGER TIDES by Ted Elliott & Terry Rossio
  23. ↑ POTC Interview with Terry Rossio 2020 | Pirates of the Caribbean Wiki | Fandom