Pirates of the Caribbean/WMG

Jack's hallucinations... aren't
In a few scenes, such as the "dropped me brain" scene, the hallucinations persist even after Jack has left. With nobody there to hallucinate them they shouldn't exist, yet they do. They must come from someone's mind, and since there's nobody else but them, the only logical conclusion is that these illusory Jacks are hallucinations of each other.

Not really; a guess but a doubt. I guess the Flying Dutchman may not have a captain
I've always wondered what would have happened if Jack (the monkey) stabbed the heart, or someone stabs the heart and then kills themselves before being rendered immortal. Or if Davy Jones stabs his own heart.
 * Let's see- if Jones stabs his own heart, he dies and is reborn as captain of the Dutchman. Since he's already captain, this changes nothing. Also, I really doubt that killing yourself after stabbing the heart would work, since by stabbing the heart you've already made yourself immortal, and if the monkey stabbed the heart, he'd become captain (which would be... strange, to say the least). In a worst-case scenario, Calypso would probably just have to appoint someone to do the job, or risk the sea filling up with ghosts.
 * But we see that the heart is, indeed - mortal. So the heart can be destroyed. Which is why Davy Jones guards it so well. And I guess Calypso could do that now, but she was sealed as Tia Dalma for a while. On that note, since Davy Jones had given up the responsibility of guiding the dead - who was doing that? Because if I remember right the souls were ferrying themselves. So I'm pretty confused about the whole deal.** The heart is mortal on the condition that whoever stabs it becomes the next captain. The way I see it, Will was dying when he stabbed the heart, but then was fine after being reborn as captain. Therefore, if Jones stabbed his own heart, both he and it would die- but the power of the Dutchman would restore both almost immediately afterward. So again, no reason for Jones to even try it. As for the dead, Tia/Calypso was obviously upset upon seeing their condition, so while they can ferry themselves, it's not a desirable situation. Presmably, the Dutchman is a much more efficient means of transporting souls to the afterlife.
 * So what would happen if a rock fell out of the sky and stabbed the heart? Would the rock be the new Captain of the Flying Dutchman?
 * Either that'd be stranger than a monkey being captain, or whatever tossed the rock takes the title.
 * It's possible that the magic prevents the heart from being destroyed except by human agency. Considering nobody seems to be worried about the heart getting damaged/destroyed by natural causes...
 * I've got a theory on this too. When Davy Jones gets ganked by Will, he doesn't automatically go back to full health, the crew has to cut out his heart to revive him. This implies it's not Calypso's choice on who gets to be the next captain, it's the crew's decision. However, they (evidently) vastly prefer the person who destroyed the heart in the first place, and it's possible Calypso could come around to punish them if the heart's destroyer was a reasonable captain (read: human, or maybe fishman). I would assume that with an unreasonable destroyer of the heart (using examples already here, Jack the monkey or a rock that crushed it without human interference) would be passed over for the role of captain, and it would instead be given to whoever's next in command, as (I presume) it would go on a real pirate ship after a sudden captain death.

Calypso is Ursula.
As inspired by this picture.
 * Next Kingdom Hearts. This better happen. Get on it, Square Enix.

Jack Sparrow is some kind of champion of Calypso
Obviously, she has control over many of the characters in one way or another despite being bound in human form. Now consider Jack being captured and held as a god trapped in human form by the Pelagostos. Kinda /, innit.

Jack Sparrow is Calypso

 * The second they identify Calypso as a goddess, it draws our attention off any male cast members as possible candidates.
 * Jack has always been a little ambiguous in the gender column.
 * Calypso is a whim-driven sea spirit. Who better to be her human incarnation than Captain Jack Sparrow?
 * They were planting clues as far back as the second movie (not the first, since they hadn't planned on a sequel). For instance, witness how quickly the natives realize that Jack is their god.
 * Go on the other wiki and look up the (canonical) novels of Jack's past, remember what he was saying to the redcoats near the start of the first film. He'd been to the island before.
 * Jack is bound to the sea and can't abide land (normal for pirates, but still).
 * Jack is constantly seeking freedom. One of his catch phrases is about how you "almost caught" him. The wind doesn't like to be held.
 * Jack's magic compass goes back and forth, like he's not sure of his direction - how windlike.
 * He could be an avatar of Calypso.
 * Does the fact that  was revealed to be Calypso mean this is Jossed?
 * Many cultures have believed that the insane are actually possessed by gods...
 * Alternatively, since we already have Davy Jones as Cthulhu/Dagon and Calypso as Mother Hydra, Jack Sparrow is Nyarlathotep.

Anamaria is a descendant of Calypso
Although she would probably be unaware of it. This comes from the Rule of Cool.

Anamaria was absent from the sequels because she became pregnant with Jack's daughter and is off (grumpily) raising the kid.
And their daughter will eventually hook up with Will Turner III. Again, this is because of the Rule of Cool, especially if she's a descendant of Calypso.
 * And thus the myth is complete, the sea is turned over to the humans, and the curse on Green Lake is finally lifted.
 * Way to make Jack look like even more of a Jerkass than he is! Of course, abandoning a woman he impregnated would be perfectly in character for him. Then again, maybe Anamaria didn't want Jack to have a negative influence on her kid and threatened him with severe bodily harm, death, sterilization, or getting landlocked if he so much as approached either of them before the kid reached adulthood.

Bootstrap Bill will take over the Flying Dutchman when Will goes back to his family.
And Norrington ended up joining the crew at some point.
 * Some of us like to think so, but that's highly improbable
 * Not that improbable. James died at sea, so the Dutchman would be obliged to retrieve his soul. And Will Turner is probably continuing the practice of inviting deceased sailors to join his crew (albeit in a less-extortive manner than Jones'.) Being a man with a strong sense of duty, Norrington would find that offer appealing. "By your leave, Captain Turner."
 * But given the timescale (using Governor Swann as an example), Norrington was probably well on his way to the afterlife by the time Will became captain. And having made a Heroic Sacrifice, he could well feel his duty's been done.

Instead of "Davy Jones' Locker", we should all be calling it "Will Turner's Locker".
Alternatively, "Davy Jones" is a kind of title.
 * Could be. Etymologically, it comes from "Dewi," the name of a Welsh sea god.
 * Well. That's one of like a million possible etymologies, yes.

Everything was a Plan by Calypso to regain her god-powers
What other reason would this selfish sea-godess have to help ANYONE?
 * Calypso/Tia Dalma is implied to be more powerful than she typically shows (getting the Black Pearl out of Davy Jones' locker, stripping Barbossa's arm to the bone). The compass is definitely a symbol of direction. For all we know, she could have been remotely directing the compass herself, telling Jack it was leading him where he wanted - when it was leading him where she wanted.
 * So Calypso gave Jack Sparrow a magic compass one day, assuming that its use would get him into conflict with Davy Jones and would also make him meet Barbossa, who would then propose to unseal her powers, then Barbossa would lead a mutiny, which would get Jack to meet Will Turner, who would kill Jones and become a proper captain of the Flying Dutchman? That's a thousand miles deep in the Gambit Roulette jungle. She could easily be manipulating the main characters beginning during the second movie, but everything?
 * She lost her powers, but she might still have her godlike knowledge. Gambit Roulette is safer when you know how the wheel is rigged.
 * Only if you assume a god is, by nature, omniscient.
 * Pagan gods, other than a handful like Odin, aren't typically Omniscient. And Odin obtains his through having his thought and memory flying through the world in fairly vulnerable forms, and giving up an eye and being hung a tree. I think it's safe to say Calypso is not omniscient, though possibly aqua/marnscient, all knowing of things relating to water/the sea.
 * She certainly had knowledge beyond the other characters (she sensed Will's "touch of destiny", for one) but wasn't omniscient, or she would have known Davy Jones was the one who betrayed her to the Brethren Court. Still, the powers she did still have would probably have been enough to at least simplify a Gambit Roulette like that.

Captain Barbossa was the Marquis de Sade from Quills.
This fellow Geoffrey Rush character found a time machine and then ended up stranded in the Caribbean. After Jack made him his first mate (Jack was too drunk to tell this fella wasn't a pirate), he filled the rest of the crew with his personal fetishes -- a black bondage guy, an ambiguously gay duo, etc. This explains why he cared about the curse the most. The other pirates were annoyed; but the very idea of not being able to enjoy sex drove him crazy with anger.
 * Eventually, he found a way to magically duplicate himself and sent the duplicates even further back in time. One of his selves became spymaster to Queen Elizabeth I; the other hung around a certain hack playwright.
 * While another more-ethical duplicate went forward to the 20th Century, where he landed a gig teaching a royal guy to control his speech impediment.

Mr. Gibbs has a son.
And his son has a son, and his son, and so on, all the way down to Jethro Gibbs.
 * And a possible distant relative, Gibby

Barbossa's Piece Of Eight was one of Jack's Pieces of Eight.
One of Jack's plots for immortality was to gather all of the pieces of eight. He got one by fitting the requirements and taking Teague's place when Teague took the place of the bookmaster; then he killed or de-captained another of the Pirate Lords. Barbossa leaves Jack on the island, sans crew or ship, and takes what he assumes to be Jack's only Piece of Eight. Then he finds out afterwards, possibly (after the first movie) from Calypso, that Jack was still one of the Pirate Lords, having kept either his own Piece of Eight or the stolen one, leaving us with him knowing that they would need to bring Jack back from Davy Jones' Locker for the Pirate Council.
 * Jossed by Word of God; Barbossa has been Pirate Lord of the Caspian Sea since before becoming Jack's first mate; his predecessor passed him his Piece of Eight despite Barbossa not having his own ship for some unknown reason. Since Barbossa didn't know other people regularly visited the island they marooned Jack on, he likely figured that he could've simply gone back to pick up Jack's Piece of Eight long after Jack himself would've perished.
 * Actually, it makes a lot of sense when you realize which sea Barbossa is lord of: The Caspian Sea. Which is completely landlocked. It's highly likely that no pirate lords of that sea ever even visited it, and with that in mind, it's not to difficult to assume that they may not always have had ships.
 * Or Barbossa does have a ship of his own, but left it behind on the Caspian Sea when he came to the Caribbean in search of immortality. Like you say, that sea's landlocked, so his original ship is trapped there.

The third Pirates of the Caribbean movie was partially inspired by Robert Anton Wilson's and Robert Shea's Illuminatus!-Trilogy.
Both feature a conflict between a chaotic Goddess inspired by Greek mythology and a Human-Squid-Monster-Thing. In Illuminatus! we have Eris versus Cthulhu; in Pirates of the Caribbean, we have Calypso versus Davy Jones.
 * Also, Davy Jones's giant pet octopus from the second movie could be inspired by Wilson's and Shea's Leviathan.
 * Unlikely. The Kraken is an actual mythological monster, generally portrayed as a giant octopus or squid.
 * Incidentally, Illuminatus featured Eris versus Yog-Sothoth. Leviathan was a different creature altogether, and resolved its differences with the protagonists peacefully, after falling in love with Hagbard's supercomputer.
 * Okay, a monstrous sea-creature fell in love with a super-computer, and their love resolved a major conflict. That actually Makes Sense in Context?

The Pirates of the Caribbean movies are set in an Alternate History version of the Golden Age of Piracy, one where Pirates remain a powerful force well into the modern day.
The historical Golden Age of Piracy was a short period; there was not enough time in Real Life for the mystic traditions of the Pirates-verse to develop among the pirate factions. The legends of the Brethren Court and their supernatural escapades need time to spread and sink in. Couple this with the (historical) presence of a distinct pirate culture in the New World and the presence in the Pirates-verse of real, clearly observable magic, monsters, and other eldritch beings, and the historical ballgame undergoes quite a shift. The Pirate culture survived the attack upon Shipwreck Cove and is led by the canny Elizabeth Swann; it's possible that Piracy as a way of life and culture might survive the attempts by the great powers to suppress it.
 * Or maybe the original Brethren Court that imprisoned her had met somewhere other than the Caribbean. Certainly, the film's Pirate Lords came from all over the world, and piracy's been going on in one form or another since humans invented the boat. The pirates' collective culture and legends could easily pre-date Columbus, and may well date back to days when Calypso was still worshipped as a goddess.
 * The spin-off will be about modern pirates spend their days sailing the internet, pillaging defenseless servers and trawling for booty...wait...
 * Or maybe the traditional pirates are forced to face off against some soulless upstarts from Ethiopia.
 * Alternatively or additionally, the movies are set in an Alternate History where (a) certain mythical sea monsters and creatures are real and (b) a partial Dies the Fire effect has been in place since time immemorial, allowing gunpowder but disallowing electronics or combustion, allowing the Age of Sail to continue indefinitely and plenty of time for those traditions to set in.

Jack is syphilitic.
He has bad hygiene even by the standards of whatever time the films are set in, and he's shown to frequent a certain type of businesswoman...let's face it, he's probably crawling with every disease known to humanity, plus a few unknown ones. It's a possible explanation for his mental state. Sure, he's not showing the physical signs, but neither did Oswald in Ibsen's Ghosts.
 * This would explain his desire to gain immortality by searching for the Fountain of Youth. The question remains: was he cured of his illnesses when he became undead in the first film, or when he died and was brought back between the second and third? And would it have mattered?
 * This is probably darker than Disney is willing to go, but if it's revealed that Jack is interested in finding the Fountain of Youth because he wants to be cured of one of the many unsavory diseases he's likely to have, it'll flesh out his character some, add an extra layer of tragedy, and generally make things more interesting. But I don't see Jack really abstaining from dangerous behavior after he gets cured, and he would get cured.
 * Unofficially confirmed by Johnny Depp. At least, it's what he likes to think that bloody little scar on his chin that's prevalent in all three movies is...

Will Turner is not coming back for Elizabeth Swann
Because his heart is in a box, and there's no reasonable way to put it back. Besides, ten years living without a heart will leave him, well, heartless; he'll cease to care.
 * Except that after the credits for At World's End shows Elizabeth and  on a cliff watching the Flying Dutchman come to shore, 10 years later

Johnny Depp is Captain Jack Sparrow
Somehow or another, Jack manages to achieve immortality. Hundreds of years later, in a bit of fantastic irony, he plays himself in the Pirates Of The Caribbean series of movies that turn out to be based off of true events.

Jack Sparrow is a Fae creature.
This explains his odd mannerisms, his strange walk, his madness, and offers up an interesting question: Why does a faerie need to search for immortality?
 * Because he LOST it somewhere along the line.
 * Probably in a poker game?
 * Because faeries aren't immortal, just long-lived. Furthermore, Jack may be only part faerie (as several classic Pot C fanfics have postulated.) If that's the case, Jack might have a closer-to-human life-expectancy, coupled with a nagging sense that it ought to be far longer. Which could be a motivating force behind his singular determination to achieve it.
 * Jack's not just ANY fae- he's the biggest trickster of them all- He's actually a form of Puck from Gargoyles- because Puck needed something to do while waiting to avoid the Gathering... http://www.fanfiction.net/s/7064108/1/Marked

Cutler Beckett reincarnates as Hitler
C'mon, someone HAD to say it! Both of them got into the top of large country by manipulating and using their wits, wanted to cause genocide to people they thought was in the way of the better people and useless while both controlling a massive amount of followers. Both pissed off a lot of people, but were actually well-mannered, cultured men who were into politics and they both thought that they would win until the last minute when the Oh Crap moment finally set in. The only thing he seemed to learn from his last failure that is better to finish yourself off than have a miserable and/or humiliating death at the hands of your opponent.
 * Unlikely. Beckett follows the maxim of "all for business", while Hitler was never really interested in economics.
 * Although, as Jack says, death does have a curious way of reshuffling one's priorities...

The Flying Dutchman absorbs its crew members specifically to replace bits of it that get smashed up or torn off.
It can endure a few holes in the hull, since it doesn't sink when it doesn't want to, but it would eventually splinter to nothing if not repaired. In the time between Dead Man's Chest and At World's End, the ship has been in many more direct battles than usual, and requires an increase in how much and how quickly it absorbs the crew. This is why Bootstrap was so lost in the wall so shortly after being up and about. It's less a matter of the crew losing the humanity than it is the ship actively taking their coralized bodies for raw material.

Ragetti and Calypso were lovers before the curse bound him to the Black Pearl.
Or at least, since spoilers play havoc with the WMG bars. He probably fell in love with her, but not vice versa, since he's pretty much an incurable romantic (shown in general throughout the films, just not specifically where it comes to romance) and she was still bothered over Davy Jones. Evidence is mainly since he was able to say it "as speaking to a lover" on his first try, without any noticeable acting preparation beyond a) getting over stage fright or b) getting over talking like that to a specific person. While there's a lot of leeway as to what might be considered "as speaking to a lover", it didn't sound particularly lover-ly (just soft, which may be close enough to tender for the curse to count it), so it may have been that it was said as (as in while) speaking a lover. The Pirate Lords could have put that stipulation thinking Davy Jones would never get over her standing him up, and assuming she had and would have no other. The other piece of evidence is purely Rule of Funny, when he got the crab in the front of his pants (which may have also been an S.T.D.ouble Entendre)- "Hey, cutie! I've gotten me powers back!"

Barbossa is Ragetti's father.
Why else would he trust him with his Piece Of Eight?
 * Or maybe Ragetti was just Barbossa's wastrel nephew, however many times removed, who was left with Barbossa when his real parents either died or fled the town, in hopes that Barbossa could grill him into becoming somebody. Barbossa's Piece of Eight was embedded into a wooden eye after Ragetti's accident, cos let's be honest, it existed well before he did and wouldn't be easy to carry around by pirates with good eyes.

Calypso is really Calypso.
What's the Twisted Metal Calypso's specialty? Granting your wish exactly as you asked for, but not at all as you intended. Davy Jones calls out Calypso for exactly this in the third movie. Davy Jones didn't just love Calypso, he was the first winner in an early, naval form of the Twisted Metal tournament, and asked for eternal life so he could keep sailing and be with his love. And we all know how that turned out.

Davy Jones is actually The Dread Pirate Roberts.
See the above theory about "Davy Jones" being a title instead of a person.

Cutler Beckett hates Jack Sparrow because Jack made him a eunuch.
It's said that they both "left their mark on each other" -- we know that Beckett branded Jack with the "P" for pirate; the other mark is Jack having cut or shot Beckett's balls off. After all, Jack has always had a bit of an obsession with eunuchs...
 * You can tell whether a man is a eunuch by looking at him and hearing him speak. A eunuch's arms tend to grow abnormally long, and his voice becomes high-pitched enough to be mistaken for a woman's. These are several unsavory side-effects of being deprived of the part of the male body that produces testosterone. Beckett does not display any of this, so this theory is quite unlikely.
 * I'm reasonably sure that those effects only happen if castration occurs before puberty, when the body is still growing. An adult male has already stopped growing and his voice has already broken, so loss of testicles at that point won't cause his voice to change or arms to grow.
 * This is true. Why do you think only prepubescent boys could become castrati singers?
 * When Jack negotiates with Beckett for the Black Pearl, he tells Beckett a list if people on board he can keep but conspicuously leaves out Elizabeth. When Beckett asks about her, Jack says "What would you do with her?" to which Cutler gives a kind of "Well, you got me there" look, which would indicate Beckett can't do what many of the men in the films want to do with her. It seems to play credence to the idea that Beckett's been castrated.
 * Of course, it could also mean that Beckett is homosexual, asexual, or just plain not interested.
 * Given he also exhibits traits consistent with sociopathy (at least, an absence of projective empathy--he certainly seems able to recognize OTHERS have emotions and exploits that so he possesses cognitive empathy, but he definitely does not seem to care or empathize with them) active disinterest seems most likely. That, or he just noticed that kissing Elizabeth is a great way to get dead fast.
 * That's not actually what Jack said to Beckett, though. I believe the words were something to the effect of "What is she to you?"
 * Jack's exact words were "What interest is she to you?" It's possible Beckett was just yanking Jack's chain- reminding him Beckett had the power to hurt people Jack cared about. "So you'd better cooperate... or else!" ('Of course, this was before Beckett learned just how well Elizabeth could take care of herself.)

Calypso is a daughter of Poseidon / King Neptune.
I know the real Calypso, from Greek mythology as made famous by Homer's The Odyssey, really has nothing to do with the Calypso from the Pirates universe, but since when has this series really cared all that much about keeping their legends straight? This is mostly just because I'd like to see the big guy make an appearance in the fourth movie. Maybe throw in some merfolk.
 * Actually, mermaids are actually canon in the universe... Though they want to kill you.
 * I think she either IS the same one, or is a version of her inspired by The Odyssey. Check the M.O., they're more than a little similar and it's not unlike Ted and Terry to draw on mythology.

The Jack who died at the end of Dead Man's Chest wasn't the same Jack of the other two movies.
He has surely stumbled with supernatural beings and phenomena even before CotBP. Somewhere in the past he got a curse which, in totally random moments, makes him literally split into the many sides of his personality, only to come back together after a while, merging all the experiences and memories of the single parts. If you notice, the scenes of the "multiple Jacks" always happen when he's with no one around him (in the case of the two little Jacks, probably no one noticed them). At some point between CotBP and DMC, however, the most cowardly and buffoonish part of him was separated from the rest, and couldn't merge back. The "true" Jack was captured and eaten by the Kraken (since Jack, in a way, was still around afterwards, and so the Kraken still searched for him, Davy Jones didn't realize), while the other, Flanderized part of him took part in the events of DMC and was finally eaten by the Kraken too, returning us a "complete" Jack in AWE.
 * This Troper is applauding.

It's all Calypso's fault.
Every supernatural thing ever seen in the movie has origins that can be traced back to Calypso. It's actually pretty plausible when you think about it. The Aztec Gold was cursed by 'heathen gods', and Calyspo is described as such by Jones in AWE. Under the guise of Tia Dalma, she gave the magic compass to Jack. She gave Jones the job that ultimately cursed him, gave him the ship with which to carry the job out, and gave him and his crew superpowers to make them more awesome. She also gave him an enormous sea monster to control as the ultimate bodyguard/weapon of choice/intimidation factor. She could have just made the Fountain of youth because she was bored and had goddess powers.
 * "bored and had goddess powers." Calypso is Haruhi.
 * The writers actually acknowledged this. They started small with the mention of "stories" about cursed treasure and heathen gods and made the world bigger and bigger until you actually meet the source of all this power.

Will Turner III? Nah, that's Jack.
Think about it: how likely is it that a woman would get pregnant just on her wedding night? And Jack went searching for the fountain of youth, after all. Perhaps he found it and got a bit too youthful by mistake. And it's surely not too surprising that he'd want to hang around to say hello to his old friend. Also, lookie here. Don't they look a lot alike? Of course, honestly, all the three main characters look similarly pretty in the face and have similar colouring, but he seems to have eyeliner. And then there's the wee pirate hat. It's pretty obvious that Jack has found the fountain of youth, after all -- how else could Elizabeth have failed to age more than very slightly in ten years? Her face looks a little thinner, but she doesn't have a single wrinkle. If Jack has not found the fountain of youth, she must be a thirtyish single mum. She can't still be that dewy and unlined and teenagerish under normal circumstances. She's probably been drinking from the fountain of youth to prevent aging faster than Will. Obviously, she, unlike Jack, got the dosage right.
 * More than that, there's no possible way they could have conceived. A man kinda needs his heart to move his blood around for all the prerequisite activities. Probably Will and Elizabeth simply came to an accord on the island, and he recognized that she would probably meet other men and have children. Of course, she already had an appropriate DNA-donor in the form of Jack.
 * A man also kinda needs his heart to live. And considering that this movie takes place in a world in which gigantic squid monsters and undead monkeys roam the earth, I think that means we can safely ignore the normal laws of human biology.
 * Saying that the movie breaks the rule that the heart is needed to push blood around to live does not necessarily mean the same rule is broken for other activities (particularly if your argument against my assertion is squids, a non-sequitur, and undead that bleed only when convenient and can enjoy no pleasure from women). It appears all curses and transformations work and have rules on a case-by-case basis. The captain of the Dutchman becomes immortal on condition of no damage to their heart. The movies do not say they remain human, with human functionality, and we have some fairly strong evidence to the contrary if someone under the effects of the curse can become a squid person. Being that we have not it confirmed that the boy is in fact Will's son, there is some reasonable doubt.
 * In short, it's possible either that the wooden chest represents all conditions in the person chest and the heart pumping can continue to move blood around by proxy, or that the magic of the pact is such that all parts of the new captain are kept alive, the body without movement of blood and the heart doing what hearts do without brain, blood, or body. The first would allow the person to stay alive when their heart is elsewhere, the other would allow the person to stay alive indefinitely until the magic is disrupted. If we accept that magic is required for both cases to work, then the second explanation is the simplest and best able to explain all the minutia. And in the later case it is not given that blood is moved around, especially for the required purposes here.

Will Turner III is actually a girl.
Well, there's no way of knowing, really. His/her mum often wears tomboyish clothes, including in that last scene -- why wouldn't she dress a daughter the same way as herself?
 * For the most part, Will Turner III is fatherless, making it hard for Elizabeth to support the two of them on her own. She may be disguising her daughter as a boy, so that the girl can find small jobs around town to help put food on the table. (Well, POTC has taken inspiration from the lives of several real-life pirates, so why not Mary Read too?)
 * Historically, child labor was equal-opportunity exploitation, and the belief that females shouldn't be allowed to work outside the home was really an upper-class conceit. Possibly passing for a boy might have allowed the kid to get better-paying jobs, but it's more plausible that Elizabeth and her child had to live in a series of disguises, to ensure Beckett's E.I.C. successors couldn't coerce Will by holding his family hostage.

The Dog is actually the incarnation of some supernatural being
This explains why he's so Badass, and can escape anything- because he isn't a "normal" dog. Maybe he's a spirit tricked into that form or something, but he's definitely not normal.
 * Sea turtle, mate.
 * The 'dog' might possibly be an agent of Tia Dalma/Calypso, posted in Port Royal to help further her schemes.

Will Turner III is adopted.
He seems a tad too young to be 10. Its possible that Elizabeth found a poor orphan and took him in as her own. Will would take him as his son. Also... No women could have not aged so little after having a child.
 * He's nine and three months. She just doesn't have enough aging make-up, etc. on.
 * I have been personally acquainted with 30-year-old women, including mothers, who didn't look any older than Liz did in that tag. Genes play a big role in how fast a person ages; Liz may've been lucky in that department.
 * This theory would also work with the fact that it would be physically impossible for Will to conceive children without a heart.
 * Eh, well.... whatever magic is behind the Dutchman, it sure managed to take over all his other bodily functions requiring a cardiovascular system, so that should really be a non-issue.
 * I don't think we know that. I don't even recall having seen Davy Jones bleed. You kill the heart to kill the person once and for all, but that seems to almost be some sort of magic symbolism as opposed to functions continuing as usual so long as the heart is intact.

Cutler Beckett and Jack used to be an item.
Jack clearly doesn't seem to have a problem with same-sex relationships in any sense. Jack up and left, and Beckett is bitter. It would explain the reason that he hates him so much, they seem to know each other very well, and would explain the 'mark' that Jack left on Beckett which isn't shown in the movie. The Pirate mark on Jack's arm would be from a lover scorned. "JACK to BECKETT: "We both know how you get when your advances are spurned.""
 * There is that scene where Jack says the thing Beckett wants most is Jack. Dead, he meant, Jack dead. Yep, that's always where that sentence was going.
 * Or Beckett may have been scorned from the start. Here's another scenario: When Cutler was Jack's superior in the EITC, he was attracted to Jack's 'Forbidden Fruit' qualities; lower class, possibly part-coloured, definitely male (and all in a very pretty package.) But Jack failed to respond to his interest, being repelled by Beckett's 'Control Freak' personality. So Beckett, who was accustomed to getting what he wanted, spitefully ordered Jack to transport a shipment of slaves. He knew Jack would probably rebel and set them free, thus giving Beckett grounds to brand Jack as a Pirate & deprive him of any legal protection. Beckett may or may not have taken advantage of Jack before the latter escaped his custody. Either way, Beckett commenced hunting for him and never stopped until their Final Confrontation in AWE (which could account for Jack's special satisfaction when he growled the order to "Fire!") This scenario is supported by a line which didn't make it into the movie, but is included in the novelization of AWE:


 * Related to this is the idea that Beckett branded Jack on the wrist rather than the forehead (as was usually done to convicted pirates) because he didn't want to mar Jack's comely face... he had other plans for it.

Penelope Cruz's real pregnancy will be written into the 4th movie
Considering she plays Jack's likely love interest, we all know where this is going.
 * That's been Jossed.
 * Although there is a line said by her character, it could be she's just trying to convince Jack.

The whole series is Gov. Weatherby Swann's fantasy
How? Well in the film Brazil  However as time went on he got bored of this fantasy and created a new one with pirates

Beckett got screwed over by his own side.
They short changed him with a poorly built ship (how else can you explain the Endeavour exploding so easily?), badly-trained troops who had been drummed out of the army for various reasons (hence the blue uniforms - they're not part of the army anymore) and a heck of a lot of Indiamen (averagely armed merchant ships that could easily be confused with Ships of the Line from a distance). They did this because he had started a 'war' without London's approval and because the guy is a arse and they wanted to get rid of him.
 * Alternately, the armada could've been under orders to retreat if the Flying Dutchman turned against it, because Beckett had been hiring Jones's ship (and the Kraken, early on) out to the Crown to perform the protective services that would normally require an entire fleet to accomplish. Given how formidable (and relatively cheap) a defense Jones was, the West Indian branch of the British Navy could've actually been in the process of being decommissioned at the time, and literally came out for its last hurrah for the attack on Shipwreck Cove. But when the Dutchman went rogue, the fleet's officers correctly deduced that Britain's Caribbean possessions would now be defenseless against serious enemies like Spain, so headed straight back to protect them, without dawdling around to finish off a mob of petty pirate trash (or to avenge the EITC idiot who'd tried to put them all out of work).

The actions taken by each new Captain of the Dutchman change the requirements for captaincy.
Think about it - nowhere is it said that it was necessary to cut out your own heart for the position - possibly the heart was the weak spot, but because Jones cut it out  has to do it. This may mean that all future Dutchman captains must be  because of the new captain's lifestyle, as well.

Pirates of the Caribbean takes place in the same world as Illuminatus.
There are definitely some parallels between the stories and their respective worlds. Maybe Jack Sparrow is even related to the Celine family somehow.

Indy is Jack's descendant
. Three things: Indy Ploy, their love for their hats and their ability to be a magnet of a lot of troubles. In fact, the Indy Ploy is in the blood, its probable we will see  doing it in the next one. But forever and ever, Jack will be the master in this art.

Bootstrap Bill was faking when he repeated his dialogue with Elizabeth.
He wasn't really losing his individuality to the Flying Dutchman at the time, he just didn't want Will to get himself killed trying to save him from servitude to Jones. By pretending his mind was already gone, Bootstrap hoped to trick Elizabeth into telling Will that it was too late to save his dad, ensuring his son could set aside his promise and have a happy life with her.
 * Note, however, that we see him later clearly under the Dutchman's control when he kills Norrington and raises the alarm, and then nearly kills Will before being snapped out of it. So even if he was faking there, he unfortunately became the mask before long...

Teague was once Chief of the Pelegostos.
Whether DMC was the first time Jack had been to Pelegosto, or if the first was the story he told in COTBP, both times the natives made Jack their chief, believing him to be their god in human form. Jack speaks their language, but would've had to have learned it before they decided he was a god if he'd BS-ed them into it, C-3PO style. If he hadn't learned their language until after they crowned him (and in DMC they had their pick of pirates to randomly worship and eat, so it wasn't because he was "just there") they would've had to have guessed Jack was their god only by looking at him. And who is it who bares a staggering resemblance to Jack and just happened to end up with the jailhouse dog who was last seen on Pelegosto? A dog the natives were worshipping, and would've been very reluctant to part with for just anyone. Also, if Jack already knew their language before being made chief, "someone" would've had to have taught it to him.

Anamaria didn't appear in the sequels because she got her own ship
Since the Interceptor got blown up, Jack still owed her a ship, and between Cot BP and DMC she nagged at him until he stole (er, commandeered) one for her. She then became an independent pirate captain, and is off having adventures of her own during the events of DMC and AWE.
 * That's the theory I've always considered the most likely. They had an Accord, and Ana does not come across as the type who'd let Jack weasel his way out of it.

The Movies are a truly well done and unexpected Myth Arc
About Jack dividing our world from the supernatural world. Just think about this, with Davy Jones death and Will having Elizabeth waiting for him, the Flying Dutchman can recover his truly purpose, instead of what Jones did all this years. We don't know this, but Calypso is the Ultimate Evil Jack will have to face in a quest for his freedom, and I mean THE freedom

James Norrington's Middle Name Is 'Lysander'
Just a Fan Fiction convention that seems to have caught on. The theory (when a writer bothers with one) is that he's named after a Norrington ancestor who distinguished himself in battle, or the ancient Spartan king who conquered Athens. In any case, it sounds great. Try saying it out loud; James, Lysander, Norrington.
 * There's also a less-prevalent theory that James was raised as a Quaker. That could explain some of his stuffy-but-honorable attitudes.
 * Though he would have to have completely abandoned his upbringing as one of the major tenants of the Quaker faith is pacifism. (Not to mention they were not especially popular in Britain at that point in history, which would make it difficult for him to reach Commodore, which we can assume was a legitimate promotion, while the "Admiral" was Cutler Becket's doing.)

Lt. Gillette was one of the victims of Norrington's ship sinking.
Hence why he does not appear in the other two movies.
 * It's certainly feasible. The odds that nobody perished when the Dauntless went down are too low to contemplate.
 * If he was on the Dauntless he survived, because he's in the fourth movie.

Davy Jones came to Calypso aboard the Pearl because he intended to kill her
Recall Davy's previous words at Beckett's tea party: "There is only one price I will accept; Calypso murdered." Obviously he's deeply embittered by her failure to show up for his 'one day ashore'. But Tia's assertion that "Him never stopped loving her" is correct- when Jones confronted his former lover in her cell, he had a 'Menelaus Moment' and stayed his claw. (Menelaus was the cuckolded husband of Helen of Troy. When that city was being sacked, Menelaus stormed the palace intending to find and slay Helen for her infidelity. But once he actually beheld her, all he wanted to do was take her back.)
 * Why Calypso/Tia missed that One Day is also speculated about. It may be that, as an immortal being, she has a different sense of time-progression & simply lost track of how many years had passed.
 * It seems unlikely that she was unaware of the unites of time in a contract she herself set. She either didn't care period or was otherwise occupied. We don't know the limits of her power, it's possible that even though she can change her shape a great deal she may still have to physically travel from one place to another.

The dark-skinned residents of Tia's swamp were the slaves Jack set free.
It does explain why they mourned Jack's death, with that candlelight tableau near the end of DMC. And it makes sense for Jack to've released them in on an unsettled island where their 'owner' (Beckett) would never find them.

The Black Pearl is named in reference to a Bible verse.
Specifically, this one: "The Kingdom of Heaven is like a merchant seeking fine pearls, who, having found one Pearl Of Great Price, went and sold all that he had, and bought it." (Matthew 13, 45-46) The parable is certainly apt, since Jack traded everything he had- his own soul- to regain his lost ship.
 * Offhand it seems odd for a buccaneer to be acquainted with the Bible, but Jack Sparrow is no average pirate. He can read, drop Latin quotes (as he did at the Brethren Court meeting), and cite works of classical literature like The Divine Comedy. This indicates he's had at least some formal education. A possible explanation is that Teague is a disowned son of the aristocracy, who wanted his son to have learning comparable to his own.
 * Given the visual similarities between the two, Teague could, like Captain Hook, have been a schoolteacher before taking up piracy, thus explaining Jack's formal education.

Captain Sparrow's mother was a 'Woman of Colour'
Jack's appearance strongly suggests his ancestry is not 100% caucasian (as is true of Johnny Depp; his grandmother was Cherokee.) Since his Da looks entirely Anglo, Jack presumably inherited the non-white strain his Mum. Various fanfics have postulated she was all or largely Native American (North or South), Spanish, Indian, Haitian/African, Gypsy (this Troper's fave), or any combination thereof. As Jack's place of origin is unknown, there's lots of possibilities.

This was not Calypso's first pact
The Dutchman wasn't even the first ship to ferry the dead, and there have been many Davy Jones and many forms of Calypso throughout the ages. Freeing Calypso from her mortal bonds not only means that when she is ethereal she can control the ocean weather and seas, but also her power may come to inhabit the forms of mortal women, making them the new Calypso for that age. Binding Calypso to mortal form prevents the powers of Calypso from manifesting or jumping to new hosts.
 * Meaning that Calypso and her form may actually be chosen by whoever becomes the new ferryman for the dead. The powers may only manifest after death and the ferryman coming to collect, however. Handy for anyone who may want to give Will and Elizabeth a happily-ever-after.

Phillip didn't die
In the boat before the mermaid fight, one of the sailors mentioned that the love a mermaid would protect the lovee from all ills. Syrena kissed Phillip before dragging him under- maybe they're chilling with Spongebob with his new found underwater breathing.
 * Hence the unknown origin of Mermaid Man has been revealed!!!!
 * I think that the exact words was that a kiss of a mermaid would protect a sailor from drowning. Another sailor immediately denied that idea. I do, however, feel that it is quite possible that Syrena did save him. She even said she would save him; all he had to do was ask.
 * But he didn't ask her to save him. He asked her to forgive him.
 * Secret test of character. Assuming she could save him, if he'd asked for it, Syrena would have simply healed him and left, being just a man she had feelings for, but was just a man in the end, no more, no less... But he didn't. He asked for forgiveness. That's love on her face, baby, when she hauls him under. My guess is the next movie features King Triton wanting his sword back from its new owner Barbossa, dealing with his daughter Syrena's new human boyfriend... And Jack Sparrow finding Atlantis for some wacky reason or another.
 * brilliant maybe we even get a cameo from will and elizabeth
 * Notably, Scrum was also dragged under, and he escaped, being pulled up in the net after being under water far longer than he should have been able to, to get to shore like that. He also said he got his kiss when the pulled him out of the net.

Mermaids don't kill men.
Elaborating on the above theory, mermaids generally do not kill men. Men get dragged underwater and are assumed dead. In fact, mermaids kiss the men, allowing them to survive underwater, and keep them as mates.

jossed as we see a sailor get ripped into shreds by a mermaid (quite a gruesome scene)

Captain Jack's charge of impersonating a member of the clergy and his first meeting with Angelica are connected.
According to Angelica, she first met our favorite pirate while she was in a Spanish convent. If he was spotted there, it is very easy to imagine Captain Jack claiming to be a member of the Church of England in order to explain his presence there and why he wasn't familiar to anyone at the Spanish convent. It would also explain his little "Oh yeah, I remember that fun memory" smile and nod when they mentioned that particular charge was listed.
 * A bit unlikely, since by this point Britain was Protestant and Spain was Catholic, which is one of the many reasons both nations hate each other.

Cutler Beckett isn't out of the franchise yet.
Want to bet that one of the ships in  is the Endeavour? No one ever said that he only collected ships that he'd sunk personally, after all, which means that.
 * His men, maybe, but I'm pretty sure we see Beckett's corpse hit the water in silhouette. Unless
 * Nope. His ship didn't actually sink. It was completely obliterated. I mean, it had both the Dutchman and the Pearl firing on it. There wasn't much ship left to sink.

Philip will become an Archbishop of Atlantis
After Syrena drags him underwater, he will finally fulfill his dreams of becoming a missionary and convert the mermaids to Christianity, turning them unto much more benign creature that will help sailors instead of killing them.
 * Thus the legend of the Bishop-fish is born by those who a) don't understand the mermaids' new lease on life or b) are still taken out by those that refuse to convert.

Blackbeard was offered a position of power in the Brethren Court
Being the pirate that all pirates fear, it seems odd that he wouldn't be counted in the Pirate Lords. Either he turned the offer down, or perhaps he was a pirate lord during the third court, and has since retired.
 * Alternately, he was never in or even interested in the Brethren Court... which is why he's considered so dangerous. He doesn't play by the rules.
 * Or the Brethren Court's meeting from AWE took place shortly after Blackbeard was reported to have been killed off Ocracoke Island. Jack mentions this real-world historical incident in the fourth film -- although in the POTC-Verse, Teach's death apparently didn't take -- so if he was thought to be dead, another pirate might've taken his place at the Court.

Catholicism destroys magic
Through the first three movies we witnessed plenty of magical events but only in a Protestant or definitely "lapse" setting. On the contrary, the Spanish monarchy and army that finally show up in the fourth movie hardly interact with the supernatural if at all (so far as to pass unharmed though mermaid waters while an entire ship of the British navy is destroyed by them) and the few times they get their hands on arguably supernatural elements they quickly destroy them as "Pagan superchery" without testing them first. It's also poignant that the only religious person we see interacting and even developing a relationship with a supernatural being, Philip, is an Anglican missionary.
 * To be fair, the Spanish could have simply just bypassed mermaid waters, since their intention was to destroy the Fountain, not use it.

Philip joins Will Turner's crew
Based off this fanfic: http://www.fanfiction.net/s/7011769/1/ Maybe Syrena realised she could not heal her beloved Philip herself and instead took him to the Flying Dutchman and begged Will Turner to accept him as part of his crew.

Jack also drank from the chalice with Syrena's tear in it.
Before his, Jack drank from the chalice with the tear, so that he and   will split   years, meaning that he'll live (approximately) as long as

Syrena ate Philip.
Even if you assume she did love him, he was dying anyway, probably wouldn't have survived being dragged underwater that far, and in many cultures cannibalism is a symbol of togetherness ...
 * That is both Heartwarming and offputting at the same time..

We've not seen the last of the Spaniard
For a minor character, he got a fair bit of focus when he did show up, makes a nice counterpoint to the pirate, British, and supernatural characters, and even got his own theme music complete with Ominous Latin Chanting (though that might be considered a theme for the Spanish in general). He also conspicuously survives the Final Battle in On Stranger Tides. When Pirates 5 rolls around (at last word, it was in the planning stages), he seems like he could be an effective Big Bad, Dragon, supporting villain, or possibly even ally, if the villain was someone he and Jack both had reason to oppose.

Triton will be the next Big Bad
It only makes sense, considering Blackbeard's sword was called the Sword of Triton. Now that Barbossa has it, Triton will return to claim his sword.
 * The Big Bad of POTC 6 will be a Spanish nobleman following the pattern.

The Pearl's crew (Marty, Cotton, Pintel, Ragetti, Mullroy, Murtogg, etc.) are preserved in the bottle with the Black Pearl and will appear in a sequel.
Jack the Monkey is definitely alive inside that bottle, & we also saw a tiny flying bird which could have been Cotton's parrot. So it's possible some or all of the Pearl's crew have also survived in there.

The fifth movie will involve Barbossa going forward in time and using the Sword of Triton to steal a US navy aircraft carrier.
He'll accomplish this by stealing the Doctor's TARDIS. He'll use the carrier to replace those annoying knockoffs and restore Pirating to its former glory.
 * Why an aircraft carrier?
 * Rule of Cool. Wouldn't Barbossa go for the biggest ship he could find?

The boy who saved Philip during the climax was the child of Will and Elizabeth
Rule of cool, mostly.
 * Problem is, that kid's a bit too old. OST is supposed to take place only one or two years after AWE; Liz and Will's child would still be in diapers.

When he is old enough, William Turner III will go out to find a job on a pirate ship...
...And he will either sail on The Queen Anne's Revenge under his Uncle Barbossa, or The Black Pearl under his Uncle Jack.

Admiral Jack Sparrow
Gibbs took all of the bottled ships in Blackbeard's possession. Jack finds enough men to crew all of them and then releases the ships. Gibbs and other recurring characters (assuming they survived on the bottled Pearl) become Captains of the individual ships. The Black Pearl becomes the Flagship of the Pirate Fleet, with Jack as the Admiral.

Elizabeth will join Will when she dies
It seems like Will is stuck on his ship except for a day every ten years. However, his father proves that people who die at sea can join Will's crew. Since Elizabeth is the Pirate King, it seems like she will be spending a lot of time in life-threatening positions on the ocean. If she, being smart enough to figure this out, ensures that when she bites it she will be at sea, she can spend the rest of eternity with him. Alternatively, Will could find a way to find her if she doesn't die at sea.

Both tales about mermaids are true
There seem to be two different ideas about mermaids. They're either the beautiful, seductive creatures that feed on men or beautiful women that take their lovers into the deep to live with them. But looking closely at the actions of the mermaids suggests there may be truth to both versions of the story. While numerous pirates were maimed and devoured during the course of the mermaid attack, there are a few that noticeably escape harm in the process. One is Philip, who is saved from harm by Syrena. The other is the young boy in the crew, later shown doing things like freeing Philip. Syrena comments that Philip is "different" and that he "protects others" and this was her reason for not only sparing him but rescuing him as well. Maybe mermaids have a supernatural ability to see the good in people, and target the sinful while sparing or saving those with good hearts. With Angelica and Philip, we're introduced to this very theme during the film -- both are trying to save the souls of others, and discussion is made about good and evil. This would explain the differing tales of mermaids, as well as the man from the beginning of the movie found UNDERWATER in a net.

Barbossa won't live through the fifth movie.
Barbossa isn't exactly the youngest pirate alive, and now he's crippled(a missing leg will do that). If you look at the forth film, Blackbeard had him beat when the Spanish showed up. He isn't as strong as he used to be and that'll catch up with him. The question is, how?
 * Dude, not even death can keep Barbossa down. If there is a Pirates 5, (and nothing says there won't be at this point), methinks Barbossa will be in it for as long as Geoffrey Rush wants to play him.

Related to the one above, Jack will mourn Barbossa, or maybe even be the one to kill him
If it's the first one the reason is that even after all they've been through, Jack and Barbossa seem to be friends of a sort. Maybe Jack would miss his rival. If it's the second, it will be a mercy killing. Barbossa will be dying, either of his age or a wound, and Jack will be forced to end his suffering.

The entire series meta-plot is a Mage-the-Ascension style paradigm battle.
Reality is moving from the mythic age into the age of the real, and magic is fading, which is why the fourth film featured a lot more "playing for keeps," a sense that death was more likely permanent and everything had a cost. There have been nods to this in scenes featuring British Empire characters in the later films. It's a series of pitched battles taking place over years: magic won in World's End, but the destruction of  is a major victory for the non-mythic paradigm.

Jack needed the mutiny, and Barbossa knew this.
Before the mutiny, Jack was an even worse captain than he is now. Barbossa knew it would take quite a bit to straighten the young captain, and so he put the mutiny into play, taking great lengths to ensure Jack would survive. He knew that island was well traveled and that Jack would get off. He just never got the chance to tell Jack abut the plan...

There's a reason Barbossa is always wearing a hat...
He's covering his forehead, because he has a pirate brand.

Phillip and Syrena will have a half-mermaid daughter
And she will adventure with and eventually marry Will Turner III.

Jack still totally wants to live forever
He just doesn't want to bother with hunting down a mermaid, making her cry, finding someone he greatly dislikes, and dragging them to the remains of the Fountain of Youth every seventy or so years. Jack is looking for something a bit more reliable.
 * This was my interpretation as well; Jack only loses interest in the Fountain because he doesn't want to have to pay the price of continually sacrificing lives for the ritual, not because he ever seems to have lost interest in immortality itself. This fits with the other three forms of immortality he had a chance at, too (keeping one of the cursed medallions, willingly crewing on the Dutchman, and becoming captain of the Dutchman)- all of them exacted something for eternal life that Jack didn't want to give. Doesn't remotely mean he's not going to keep looking for something without a catch (or, more likely, a catch that doesn't bother him).
 * But then again, Jack says something along the lines of 'it's best to not know which moment will be your last' in his conversation with Gibbs at the end. If he is looking for a replacement fountain, he presumably wants something that would keep him going forever without a set limit, not like the actual fountain which would force him to desperately count down the years.

The Spaniards in On Stranger Tides are the remnants of the Inquisition from The Fountain
After all, both are really into stopping people from gaining eternal life. At least they have stopped flogging themselves.
 * In reference to a statement way far up on the page about Indiana Jones and Jack Sparrow being related, the reason that the Spaniards in are guarding the grail and are immediately after Indy is because of the longtime grudge against him and his fellow badass kinsmen.

Mr. Gibbs knew Barbossa had come back, without knowing he knew it.
Because he saw the green flash. At the time, he saw the flash and knew it meant a soul had returned to the land of the living; he just didn't know that that soul was Barbossa.

The kid who gets hanged at the beginning of At World's End is Elizabeth's and Will's son.
Beckett came back, after 10 years, perhaps as mentioned above by one of his ships being one of Blackbeards collection of sunkern ships. Will and Elizabeth's son is hanged for trying to follow in his grandfather's (Bootstrap Bill's) footsteps (he was singing "A Pirates Life for me") and joining a pirate crew, or for indirectly being connected to Beckett's downfall. The piece of eight he has was given to him by Jack. This means that what seemed like a cold opening was actually a flash forward.
 * Adding credibility to this theory I'm fairly certain they were played by the same actor too.
 * Both sing in their scenes as well.
 * According to the credits, the hanged 'cabin boy' was played by Brendyn Bell, while Elizabeth's son was played by Dominic Scott Kay.

Mermaids don't die unless they are killed.
The way to get eternal life from the Fountain is to get a mermaid to drink from the other chalice. .

== If you take the life from an undying creature (like a mermaid, see above guess, or one of the zompirates from the first film), you don't die until they are killed, and they don't die of instant old age just because of the fountain ritual. == You get all of the years they had and would have had had fate been kinder, but an undying person's years are not numbered until they are killed. This is particularly helpful for  if the above guess is true.

Whoever holds a Piece of Eight can't truly die until it's passed on.
Jack Sparrow didn't die, he was "taken body and soul" (along with his Piece of Eight), and was in fact well on his way to escaping the Locker when the crew found him. Barbossa died because Ragetti was holding onto his Piece of Eight for the duration of the films. Ragetti and Pintel are somehow never hanged along with the other pirates. Sao Feng was wounded, but didn't die until he passed his Piece of Eight on to Elizabeth. Part of the magic that created the Pieces of Eight also protected whoever held them because you can't bind a goddess permanently, which would have happened if any Piece were lost.

Jack never actually pirated anything.
This troper's friend pointed out recently that Captain Jack never really pirated anything during the series. this got me to thinking that it would not be beyond him to (instead of actually do any pirating) sit in a brothel and tell stories of his (made up) adventures, thus earning him a fruitful reputation. what he didn't count on was that his stories would make him wanted for the very crimes he never actually commited. he really seems like the guy who wants to be a bad ass pirate, but who's conscience gets in the way (hence his release of the slaves) as much as he wants to be the anti hero, he'll always have a heart of gold. so he spins stories to get the reputation and fame as the infamous Jack Sparrow (CAPTAIN Jack Sparrow, thankyouverymuch) while never having any actual victims to feel bad about.
 * He stole the Interceptor in the first film. But really, I think this is less that he never does any pirating and more that he just doesn't do it onscreen -Watching Jack and co run around stealing booty and kidnapping women for two hours wouldn't make for a very compelling film. Thus he's always preoccupied with something else when we see him. In the first film, he's trying to get his ship back from Barbossa. In the second and third, he's trying to find a way out of his debt with Jones that doesn't involve him in the locker or on the Flying Dutchman. In the fourth, he's kidnapped by Blackbeard before he has a chance to do much of anything. Given how many of the other characters (Beckett, Tia Dalma, Angelica, etc.) seem to have been wronged by Jack prior to the beginning of the films, it seems unlikely he could have made it all up.

Ponce de Leon was, as of the time of the fourth movie, still under the effects of having used the fountain.
He (like his crewmember) used it enough times to survive a few hundred years, and then someone skinned and de-fleshed him. This is why the skeleton could move (slightly but sharply) when disturbed. Jack may have come to the same conclusion, which contributed to his decision to

In the fifth movie Jack will encounter an aspidochelone.

 * Sea turtles mate.

Anamaria was one of the cannibals' victims.

 * One of those Poison Oak Epileptic Trees, to be sure. But, well, the Pearl did lose most of its crew to those guys...
 * Seems unlikely; there was no sign of her anywhere on the Pearl in either of the scenes before they arrived on the cannibal island. Most likely she left the crew between films, possibly because she finally got her own ship.

Captain Jack Sparrow is actually...

 * A middle-class Englishman drunk off his mind. The movies are actually just him spewing made-up stories in a bar somewhere.

Ladbroc will be an Ascended Extra
Surviving an island of cannibals between the second and fifth will be deemed "impossible" and he'll retort in the most awesome way.

Angelica becomes a privateer for Spain in the fifth film
Angelica has literally nothing left at the end of On Stranger Tides but a grudge against Sparrow for marooning her. What better way to get back at him but to follow Barbossa's steps, this time serving her home country. Combining two other previously formulated WM Gs, 1) Spain is not going to like Jack goofing around in the Caribbean with a whole damn pirate fleet, so all the possible help the better and 2) it allows the filmmakers to bring back again the Spanish and The Spaniard (possible as Angelica's first mate/boss) who were too underused in the 4th film.

Mermaids are empaths.
Meaning, they cannot exactly read a person's mind (like a telepath), but they can sense another person's emotions or intentions (like Counselor Troi on "Star Trek"). This would explain how Syrena knew Phillip was "different" from the violent crooks around him, and why she was against helping Blackbeard with the Fountain of Youth, but rushed to help Jack save Angelica with her tear.