Guybrush Threepwood

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Guybrush Threepwood is the main character of the Monkey Island series of computer adventure games by LucasArts. The voice of Guybrush is provided by actor Dominic Armato in the third and fourth games. Though a mighty pirate by his own account, it is a running joke throughout the games for characters to hopelessly garble Guybrush Threepwood's unusual name, either deliberately or accidentally, with variations including "Gibberish Driftwood", "Nosehair Seepgood", and "Gorbush Threekwood".

The origin of the name "Guybrush" comes from Deluxe Paint, the tool used by the artists to create the character sprite. Since the character had no name at this point, the file was simply called 'Guy'. When the file was saved, Deluxe Paint automatically appended the extension '.brush'; before the designers could think of a proper name they got used to referring to 'Guy.brush' when talking about the sprite and decided to use it as the protagonist's actual name. "Threepwood" was the name of Dave Grossman's RPG character and was picked through voting. The name comes from P. G. Wodehouse's family of characters including Galahad Threepwood and Clarence Threepwood, 9th Earl of Emsworth.

Incarnations

A dialogue choice in the second game, (MI2), has Guybrush nearly admitting that he is nineteen years old before quickly lying that he is 21. Although the amount of time that passes between each game is vague, he can be estimated as around eighteen during the first game, The Secret of Monkey Island. During the course of the third game, The Curse of Monkey Island (CMI), Threepwood's SCUMM Actors Guild membership card states he is twenty years old; however, this leads to a contradiction. At the beginning of CMI, Guybrush definitively states that he was imprisoned by his arch enemy LeChuck for five years, and likewise Threepwood's trusty aide, the Voodoo Lady, says that she has lived on three islands in six years. Assuming that he was actually 19 in the second game, he would be at least 24 by the time CMI begins. It can be assumed that the five year gap is an out-of-character reference to the length of real-world time between the release of the games, and not the length of time Guybrush spent in captivity. Alternatively, given that the membership card states an age rather than a date of birth, it may be the case that his card has not been renewed for four years (presumably, the guild wasn't notified of his change of address when held in captivity by LeChuck). His age is not directly addressed in the fourth game, Escape from Monkey Island, though at the onset, Guybrush and his then spouse Elaine Marley return from a three-month honeymoon that began at the end of CMI.

Guybrush grows a beard and moustache in the second game, but is shaven in the third and fourth games. However, the character's appearance changes quite dramatically between each of these games due to the use of different art and animation styles, so this is at best a minor continuity error. In the second game, by his own admission Guybrush resembles Zonker Harris. When Guybrush tries to drink a can of grog in Escape from Monkey Island, Elaine exclaims "Guybrush Ulysses Threepwood!" It is unclear whether "Ulysses" is actually his middle name.

Appearances

The Secret of Monkey Island

When Guybrush first appeared in The Secret of Monkey Island, he was an awkward teenager whose sole ambition in life was to be a pirate. (The Monkey Island games take place in the Caribbean during a deliberately vague time period; 17th century-style pirates exist alongside anachronistic objects such as soft drink dispensing machines.) Guybrush, although portrayed as an attractive lad in closeups, is a scrawny blonde youth with minimal amounts of courage, intelligence and charisma. His primary talent is the ability to hold his breath for ten minutes, and he certainly appears to be an unlikely candidate to be a buccaneer. He does exhibit plenty of persistence, however, and doggedly attempts to complete the three trials of piratehood.

In the course of exploring Mêlée Island, he meets and immediately falls in love with the Tri-Island Area's beautiful governor, Elaine Marley. Guybrush is not the only one interested in Governor Marley, however: the ghost pirate LeChuck has long been besmitten with her. When the villain kidnaps Elaine, Guybrush is compelled to try to rescue her from LeChuck's lair on Monkey Island. She proves quite capable of protecting herself (as she is the former captain of Lechuck's ghost crew), easily escaping LeChuck's clutches (unbeknownst to the bumbling Threepwood). Guybrush, improbably enough, manages to destroy the ghost pirate LeChuck and becomes a fearsome pirate himself.

Monkey Island 2: LeChuck's Revenge

In Monkey Island 2, almost the entire game takes the form of a flashback as Guybrush tells Elaine what happened to him. Thus, it is possible to die by falling into a pit of acid, upon which the game fades back to the storytelling screen, with Elaine asking him to tell what really happened since obviously he couldn't have died if he's right there telling her the story.

As Monkey Island 2: LeChuck's Revenge begins, Guybrush has embarked on an epic new adventure: growing facial hair. He soon runs into Largo LaGrande, LeChuck's former henchman, on Scabb Island. Largo discovers that Guybrush has LeChuck's ghostly beard, which he has kept as a trophy; he steals the beard and uses it to reanimate the corpse of his former boss. Thanks to Guybrush, LeChuck is now a seriously angry zombie with voodoo powers instead of a disgruntled ghost.

The Voodoo Lady tells Guybrush that LeChuck can only be stopped by the power of the legendary treasure of Big Whoop. To find it, he must travel to nearby Phatt Island and Booty Island in search of the four pieces of a treasure map. As he completes the map, he is captured by LeChuck; while attempting to escape, Guybrush causes an enormous explosion that hurls him to Dinky Island. Coincidentally enough, this happens to be where Big Whoop is hidden. Guybrush uses dynamite to "dig" for the treasure and finds himself in a maze of underground, concrete-lined tunnels.

The remaining portion of MI2 is somewhat surrealistic: One chases the other in a vague abandoned underground place that includes elevators, machines, an office etc. LeChuck claims that he is Guybrush's brother, in a parody of Darth Vader's "I am your father" scene with Luke Skywalker in The Empire Strikes Back. After Guybrush finally defeats LeChuck with a voodoo doll, he kneels and removes the pirate's "mask". LeChuck is revealed as Guybrush's bullying older brother "Chuckie". Suddenly, both Guybrush and Chuckie are children at an amusement park with their parents; both games seem to have been daydreams by a young boy obsessed with pirates. Only a brief scene during the closing credits hints that this may be untrue: Elaine Marley idly wonders if Guybrush has fallen prey to some evil spell of LeChuck's, and we see "Chucky" has red eyes with an evil glow - hinting that he might just be LeChuck. On this strange note, the game ends.

The Curse of Monkey Island

Similar to the gap between the first two games, the game starts with Guybrush floating in the Caribbean in a bumper car, writing in a journal.

We learn that the surreal subterranean place the two enemies were found, as well as the childhood theme park at the end of the previous chapter, were actually LeChuck's deceptive spell. LeChuck had built a sinister theme park known as the Carnival of the Damned. The "revelation" that they were brothers was simply part of the evil scheme. After of 5 years of entrapment, he managed to escape in a long, unfortunately unrecorded adventure.

As he is writing his memories, Guybrush swiftly finds himself in the middle of a battle between the forces of Plunder Island (led by Elaine) and LeChuck's undead crew. Guybrush stumbles into LeChuck's cargo hold and finds an enormous diamond ring, which he decides to use it to propose to Elaine. Unfortunately, the ring is cursed, and immediately transforms Elaine into a statue made of solid gold.

The Voodoo Lady once again provides magical help, informing Guybrush that the curse can only be broken by replacing the ring with another containing a larger diamond. The ineffectual hero must assemble a pirate crew and sail to Blood Island and Skull Island. Eventually he manages to break the curse and restore Elaine to flesh and blood. LeChuck, who was killed in the earlier battle, resurfaces as a demon pirate and captures Guybrush.

LeChuck returns Guybrush to the Carnival of the Damned and once again transforms him into a child. Improbably, Guybrush manages to change himself back to normal and destroy the Carnival, burying LeChuck under a mountain of ice and snow. Elaine and Guybrush finally marry and sail off into the sunset together.

Escape from Monkey Island

After a three-month-long honeymoon, Elaine Marley and Guybrush Marley-Threepwood return to Mêlée Island. While the couple was gone, Elaine was declared dead; this legally means that her lifetime appointment as governor is over. The governor's mansion is scheduled for demolition and a slimy politician named Charles L. Charles is poised to take over the position. With no other choice, Elaine begins a desperate campaign for re-election against Charles (who, unsurprisingly, reveals himself to be none other than LeChuck in disguise). As Guybrush wanders around Mêlée, he finds that all the local businesses are being taken over by Ozzie Mandrill, an Australian developer who is winning the deeds in matches of Insult swordfighting.

Guybrush discovers that Ozzie wants to take over the entire Caribbean. Ozzie is seeking a powerful voodoo talisman called the Ultimate Insult, which he will use to turn all pirates into clean, productive members of society. LeChuck is helping Ozzie in exchange for Elaine's hand after her will has been broken by the Insult.

Once again, Guybrush must assemble a reluctant crew, sailing this time to Lucre Island and Jambalaya Island before ending up on Monkey Island. There he finds an enormous, robotic monkey and uses it to return to Mêlée. Ozzie has acquired the Ultimate Insult; he uses its power to enslave LeChuck and animate a huge statue of "Charles L. Charles". Guybrush defeats the statue with his giant monkey, and Mandrill loses control of the Ultimate Insult. The lapse frees LeChuck, who uses the statue to crush Ozzie; the power of the Insult causes an immense explosion that seemingly destroys LeChuck as well.

Inspiration and references

• Comparisons can be drawn between Guybrush and Roger Wilco, the protagonist of Sierra Entertainment's competing Space Quest games. Both are well-intentioned but relatively dim-witted characters who reluctantly (and often unwittingly) accomplish heroic feats.
• Several adventure games feature somewhere the name Guybrush Threepwood. For example 'Constable Guybrush' is the name of April Ryan's toy monkey in the video game The Longest Journey.
• In Indiana Jones and the Infernal Machine, a game by LucasArts, an "easter egg" was placed in the game by use of a cheat code. When "makemeapirate" is entered in the cheat menu, Indiana Jones is turned into a 3D version of Guybrush. To add to the humor, when the bazooka is used, instead of a rocket, a rubber chicken is slowly launched and tropical steel drum music plays in the background until the chicken explodes.

Trivia

• Guybrush is able to hold his breath for ten minutes, which he mentions on several occasions. This unusual ability is a clever way of implementing LucasArts' frequent policy of not allowing players to lose the game, either by character death or placing the game in an unwinnable state. There is exactly one way, however, in all the Monkey Island games in which Guybrush can die. In The Secret of Monkey Island, he is trapped underwater; if the player takes longer than ten minutes to figure out how to escape (or simply takes no action), Guybrush drowns. At this point, the action menu (which normally consists of commands such as "Pick up", "Give" and "Talk to") is replaced with intransitive verbs he is already doing, such as "Duck" and "Float", as well a non-working command to "Order Hint Book".
• Guybrush's ability to hold his breath is referenced in Quest for Glory V, where, should the player drown, he is presented with the message: "This is the lesson you've been taught -- Guybrush Threepwood you are not. When by water you are surrounded -- Get to shore before you're drowned". A similar message is given when drowning in Indiana Jones And The Fate Of Atlantis.
• In the third and fourth games, Guybrush mentions an inexplicable fear of porcelain. This phobia may be a humorous reference to Indiana Jones' fear of snakes or the French humorist Pierre Desproges, who mentions in his '86 stand-up that he is "afraid of porcelain". Some believe this unusual fear may originate in SMI, when a vase is smashed during an off-screen fight between Guybrush and Sheriff Fester Shinetop (LeChuck in disguise). This explanation encounters problems, however, as Guybrush has no fear of investigating the porcelain in Elaine's mansion during Monkey Island 2.

 

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