Anyone who has something to bring to the stage can partake.
My methods of working with songs regularly come back to the same place. Reading this PotC Wiki article can provide most of the knowledge you need to get many of my parodies (though I apologize in advance for the imagery you will see there). But I have things of my own that I should say about him.
I never liked this dreadful Davy. In fact, I used to make a game within the Lego Pirates of the Caribbean video game of killing him - and then based my creativity on it, with what were supposed to be my pawns against him, the Comic Five. Therefore, to talk about my old rivalry with him is to talk about the Five.
But now, I reflect on the Five with grave disappointment, at how they instead made me a pawn in their game. They made sure Davy always stayed maligned, coming up with stories indicating he deserved no sympathy, but none had any proof or supporting evidence. It all just served to distract from the fact that they were even more evil tempered and vile than him.
The fact that Davy was the only Flying Dutchman crew member they allowed to be anything resembling a character did not help things either. The fact that Davy had barnacled Bootstrap Bill was mentioned by the Lego Will Turner often, but his father was never seen - it was just another reason for antipathy towards said antagonist, whom they almost made seem like he had killed Bill.
Upon checking out the song I’m O.K. and in doing so discovering the shocking existence of a pipe organ in the works of Styx, the Five blamed Davy for it. (They would, it should be noted, blame him, in all seriousness, for all the pipe organ music in the world, no matter what its real origins were.)
I’m O.K. would not be the only time Davy would be accused of invading a song, as getting the album Styx II put a song on my plate by the title of Father O.S.A. where the same mishmash of instruments appears again, and that organ promptly brought the Five to focus all their attention on it.
Ironically, however, it was just as I waded into the thick of this that sounded like a rock band and a church playing over each other that I found myself mollified out of hating Davy every day. It all gave way to one of the most spectacular instances of a song happening to resemble Pirates of the Caribbean I have ever come across. It presents lyrics that sound stunningly like what Will Turner would tell his father, over a beautiful section of suitably old-fashioned guitar.
It appeared I had to save everyone - paradoxically, even Davy - upon realizing that absolutely nothing about the Five was a match for the beautiful Father O.S.A. They had no feelings for anyone, not even from the supposed Will Turner to his father, they were living anachronistic things with no regard for what really suited when. So, here the organ and I went again, but before the Five could do anything, I realized I would not want to see them just change everything about the song, and so attacked them!
I regret having to do that, but the lot of them were never ones who would take no for an answer, and now that I thought about it, no songs at all really suit them. Consequently, the discovery I had made caused me and them to turn on each other, and I basically ordered what works remained in my employ to reverse all the effects the Five had caused in order to sustain themselves.
Antagonizing Davy was one of their main ways of hogging the spotlight, so from here on out, there was much less of that in the parodies, which shifted to instead being about avoiding him, questioning him, observing him from a distance, or engaging in activities where little if any mention of him had to be made. However, getting my readers to recognize these changes ended up being quite a chore, to my disappointment.
As I continued my responsible work, I got rid of the Lego entirely, and then considered the thought of parodying from the evil side of the story. This was an odd idea, especially because it had long been forbidden, but why was that? Because Davy enraged the Five with his mere existence, and because they were equally hostile to the idea of anyone but themselves taking center stage.
Well, what would be the harm in trying? If a song suited his point of view, might as well use it. I had identified a few songs off of the Green Day albums Insomniac and Nimrod as potentially suiting him, and so, a sort of special feature was made.
As long as you face official canon, you have to face the sadistic nature of the villain in question. As Disney intended, this case of humanity stripped away in body and mind has few redeeming qualities, which I never appreciated until I had had lessons I was not sure I wanted. I used to regard him as irredeemable, but it turns out you do not know no redeeming qualities
until you have tried to get inside the heads of the wrong video game characters (who were probably the protagonists!
).
Still, I am glad I gave him a chance, although I have no present plans to use his point of view again. Unlike the Five, he can be reasoned with (and knows when to stop), but unlike the Crew, he rarely keeps it light, making it more difficult for him to be worthy of words like comic
and parodies.
He can make a song funnier than the Five could, but lots of things are funnier than Comic Five parodies.
Still, I would sooner trust an entire album to him than allow the Five to butcher one more song.
The relationship between him and me will always be somewhat adversarial, but the one thing that can unite him with me is how much he hated those Lego pirates - with good reasons, I have to say, being that they made him act with unnatural stupidity and say things nobody would really say (e.g. complain about things because I like them). He hopes I never, ever hire them back - which he does not need to be too concerned about. I could be pretty reassuring of this to inside the fourth wall (though the audience was a different matter), ever since a certain point in the Music wars
chapter when I decided I had an excellent excuse to make Bootstrap Bill actually be served like a character, giving him prominence for a little while. Had I not, Bill would have stayed in what might as well have been a fridge and the tune of the song that had landed on my plate would have been used to call Davy a bother.
Give Me Death
takes a look at what becoming a monster would be like. Sadness Song
makes the use that had to happen about self destruction, although it may also hint at why I do not turn to this character for funnies more often. Brine Stew
gives him a minor amount of self-awareness that the Lego pirates never would have allowed.
Why I Haven’t Passed
is about as good a glimpse into his murky mind as any. Afterlife
explores his life, if you could call it that. Worried Thoughts
reminds us that there are two sides to every story, as a rebuttal to the early parodies
I would live to regret writing. Upright
has him look at himself and what he has become but not take it too seriously - just as I would like.