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Laughing Jack is an antagonist in the Deltora Quest 3 book series. He is a major antagonist in the second book Shadowgate and is the central antagonist in the third book Isle of the Dead.
What Makes Him Pure Evil?[]
- He lures people to gamble on his ship and to borrow his money, with those unable to pay him back being enslaved to row his boat.
- This includes preventing people from leaving if they do not gamble, magic to make his coins stick to people's hands so that they accidentally borrow more money, and deliberately hiding the fact that they need to repay back three times as much money as they borrowed until it is too late.
- Many people who are enslaved are killed by drowning whilst rowing the boat, and Jack is well aware of this.
- If the slaves survive rowing the boat, they’ll eventually be sent to the Shadowlands, an incredibly dangerous place.
- Scamming Red Han to persuade him to turn off the Bone Point Lighthouse, as ordered by the Shadow Lord.
- Attempts to blackmail Red Han by kidnapping and torturing his daughter Verity until he turns off the Lighthouse.
- Willing to let Verity die as part of his torture. She only avoids this by using her magic.
- Tying Verity onto the ships mast so that Red Han can watch her be tortured from his Lighthouse as part of Jack's blackmail attempt.
- He had mistreated his crew from the beginning, but he goes even further when he condemns his own crew to a fate worse than death by forcing them to be his slaves and row his boat forever. (He claims that he will find people to eventually replace them, but it’s safe to assume he was lying based on Coffin’s horrified reaction.)
- He murders Verity over a treasure chest and out of spite, despite no longer needing the Lighthouse to be turned off. Even his own master considers him a fool for doing so (though this is out of pragmatism instead of any moral obligations against murder).
- He transforms Red Han into a horse, presumingly out of spite and for failing to repay his debt.
- He abuses his four horses, thus engaging in animal cruelty. None of these horses originally belonged to him, and one of them was formerly human (Red Han).
- After abandoning his alias as Captain Gant, he continues to scam people out of their money. He may take all of their belongings and even murder them if they cannot pay back his ridiculous financial return rates.
- He attempts to toss a young boy, Zerry, into a whirlpool, on the Shadow Lord's orders. And though he was technically ordered, he did not hesitate to do so.
- Kidnaps and tortures his sister Ava.
- He tries to have Lief, Barda, and Jasmine murdered by impersonating Ava and loaning them a defective boat that sinks before it can reach the Isle of the Dead. Should they survive, he deliberately concealed knowledge about the Fleshbanes and the Kobb in the hopes that either of them would kill them.
- This attempted murder was on the Shadow Lord's orders, but he still willingly carried it out.
- He proclaims that he will murder his own sister when he has her hostage.
- He attempts to blackmail Lief into giving him the Belt of Deltora by threatening to kill Jasmine. Failing this, he instead requests safe passage, taking Ava and his mistreated horses with him.
- Steals the money bag that Jasmine drops in front of him.
- This is what leads to Jack's defeat. One of the coins in the bag was his; hence he broke the deal he made with his crew. Thus, the crew is presumably set free and he rows the boat instead…forever.
Trivia[]
- He and the Shadow Lord are the only two Pure Evils in the Deltora series, making Jack arguably as evil as the Shadow Lord himself despite technically being a minion of his.
- He can be considered a foil to his siblings. They were initially close, but grew apart over time. Tom and Arva have perfectly legitimate although unusual businesses and they do not initially take sides in the heroes’ conflict against the Shadow Lord (they eventually side with the heroes when their paths cross with Jack's). Jack, on the other hand, willingly sides with the Shadow Lord and runs illegitimate businesses.
- He also ignores Ava's warning that his plan will fail and that the path he is taking leads to ruin, death and decay, despite her prophetic abilities.
- He is a similar to the Coachman in that they are both motivated by greed, manipulate victims by appearing to initially help them but end up making their lives much worse, and can transform others into animals (donkeys or a horse), although Jack doesn’t generally target children.
External Link[]
- Laughing Jack on the Deltora Quest Wiki.
- Laughing Jack on the Villains Wiki.