Jack Sparrow displays the daring and finesse we want from the traditional pirate, with a bit of an edgier side as well. Despite his loose moral compass, though, he still ultimately fights for the side of good.

In the first film, The Curse of the Black Pearl, Captain Barbossa is a pirate who’s labeled as more definitively evil. To make this even more visually apparent, he often takes on a frightening, skeletal form as well. When he returns for the third, fourth, and fifth films, this more fearsome side of him is gone, and he becomes a “good” pirate as well.

After Barbossa’s death and eventual turn for good, Captain Davy Jones takes over as the “villainous” pirate. Again, like Barbossa, he has been made to look inhuman to cement our view of him as evil.