Games - LeChuck

	Games - LeChuck

The pirate LeChuck is the main villain appearing in the Monkey Island series of computer adventure games produced by LucasArts.

Undead throughout the series, LeChuck has a different form in each of the first three games (ghost-pirate, zombie-pirate, and demon-pirate), and in the fourth and latest game he could transform at will between the three forms (including an illusory normal human form). Like many villains, he is in love with the heroine, Elaine Marley, and has gone to great lengths to force her to marry him.

LeChuck's origins

Like that of many characters in the series, LeChuck's history in the time period before the games take place is quite vague in some areas and even contradicts itself between games at times.

"Original" history from The Secret of Monkey Island

His origin as explained in the first game is relatively clear. When still alive, LeChuck was a fearsome, bloodthirsty pirate. He fell in love with Governor Elaine Marley after being invited to the governor's mansion (at the time, it was fairly common practice, although it is since unheard of). She rebuffed his advances, telling him to "drop dead"; he took the advice quite literally and did so, by searching for the legendary Secret of dangerous Monkey Island. The grave could not contain his black spirit and love for Elaine, however, and his ghost continued to haunt the seas and bedevil the governor. Her continual spurning of his love drives him to pillage and destroy.

"Revised" history

Even this relatively straightforward story becomes very complicated in the later games. An elaborate series of explanations in the final two games attempts to retcon several plot inconsistencies via an incredibly convoluted revision of LeChuck's original back-story.

In the "new" version, a still-living LeChuck decided to win Elaine's affections by locating the mythical treasure known as Big Whoop. At the time, Elaine's own grandfather, Horatio Torquemada Marley, was part of a group of four also looking for this treasure.

LeChuck was briefly stranded on Blood Island, but escaped by marrying local dowager Minnie "Stronnie" Goodsoup. LeChuck stole her family heirloom wedding ring containing an enormous diamond, which he used to purchase a new ship. He managed to reach Dinky Island (or possibly Monkey Island; the games are particularly vague on this point) ahead of Horatio Marley and uncovered Big Whoop. The evil pirate found, however, that Big Whoop was in fact a gateway to Hell, which transformed him and his crew into ghosts as they passed through it.

Rather than a setback, LeChuck saw this as an advantage: he could use Big Whoop to create a vast army of undead soldiers to do his bidding. To ensure that nobody else would find Big Whoop, he killed the other three members of Marley's crew. LeChuck enlisted Ozzie Mandrill to kill Horatio as well, but Marley was drawn into a mysterious whirlpool that ironically stranded him for years on Monkey Island, stricken with amnesia.

Over the next twenty years or so, LeChuck periodically raided Mêlée Island, keeping the Tri-Island Area gripped in a state of fear. Strangely enough, this failed to win Elaine's heart. (Note that ironically enough, this convoluted story introduces its own major continuity error: through the four games, Elaine appears to be in her mid-twenties or perhaps early thirties at most. Either LeChuck fell in love with her when she was a small child and too young to be governor, or she is much older than she appears to be.)

Appearances in the series

The Secret of Monkey Island

When the series' protagonist, Guybrush Threepwood, proved a slightly less repulsive suitor, LeChuck kidnapped Elaine and attempted to force her to marry him. The resourceful Elaine escaped and set a trap for the ghost pirate, which was ruined when Guybrush burst into the wedding chapel to "rescue" her. Guybrush managed to destroy LeChuck by spraying him with voodoo root beer, which is inexplicably fatal to ghosts.

Monkey Island 2: LeChuck's Revenge

LeChuck's former right-hand man, Largo LaGrande, resurrected the pirate as a zombie. Slightly less interested in Elaine, LeChuck instead focused his attention on exacting revenge on Guybrush Threepwood. He cast a hypnotic spell over Threepwood, claiming that they were brothers (in a parody of The Empire Strikes Back) and imprisoning him in "The Carnival of the Damned", a sinister amusement park. The ending of MI2 has been the subject of extensive debate among fans of the series; its ambiguity and surrealism have caused many arguments over what should be considered canon and what should not.

[ Visit the complete Wikipedia entry for LeChuck ]

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