Guybrush Ulysses Threepwood is a fictional character who serves as the main protagonist of the Monkey Island series of computer adventure games by LucasArts. He is a pirate who adventures throughout the Caribbean in search of fame and treasure alongside his love interest and later wife, Elaine Marley, often thwarting the plans of the undead pirate LeChuck in the process. Though a "mighty pirate" by his own account, he is a rather clumsy and disorganized protagonist throughout the series. It is a running joke throughout the games for characters to garble Guybrush Threepwood's unusual name, either deliberately or accidentally. In all voiced appearances, Guybrush has been portrayed by actor Dominic Armato.[1]
Name
The origin of the name "Guybrush" comes in part 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, Steve Purcell, the artist responsible for the sprite, added "brush" to the filename, indicating that it was the Deluxe Paint "brush file" for the "Guy" sprite. The file name was then "guybrush.bbm", so the developers eventually just started referring to this unnamed 'Guy' as "Guybrush".[2][3] Guybrush's surname "Threepwood" was decided upon in a company contest and is derived from P. G. Wodehouse's family of characters including Galahad Threepwood and Freddie Threepwood (with whom he shares similar characteristics). "Threepwood" is also rumoured to have been the name of Dave Grossman's RPG character.[3][4]
Incarnations
Guybrush's age is not defined in the game, though he may be seventeen years old in The Secret of Monkey Island; in the second game, Monkey Island 2: LeChuck's Revenge, while obtaining fake identification (a library card) in the Phatt City library, a slip of the tongue ("nine....errr, twenty one") suggests that he may be nineteen.
He is twenty years old in The Curse of Monkey Island as he proves to Dinghy Dog when he tries to guess Guybrush's age and Guybrush proves it with his SCUMM Actors Guild Membership Card, although, in Tales of Monkey Island, Elaine states it was three years between Monkey Island 2 and 3 (she was in a poxed rage during this statement, and that Stan mentioned it was three months). Escape from Monkey Island takes place three months after Curse, following Guybrush and Elaine's honeymoon, while it is stated in-game that Tales of Monkey Island takes place roughly ten years since Guybrush became a pirate, making him 27–28 years old.[5] However, Guybrush often lies about his age, for example telling the librarian that he was 21 in the aforementioned Phatt library in LeChuck's Revenge.
Appearances
Monkey Island series
Guybrush is introduced in The Secret of Monkey Island, where he travels to Mêlée Island in hopes of becoming a pirate. Over the course of his journey, he falls in love with the island's governor, Elaine Marley, and works with her to destroy the ghost pirate LeChuck. In Monkey Island 2: LeChuck's Revenge, Guybrush goes on a quest for the legendary treasure of Big Whoop, which is needed to destroy the reanimated zombie LeChuck. In The Curse of Monkey Island, Guybrush works to defeat LeChuck once more and lift a curse from Elaine, with the two marrying at the game's conclusion. In Escape from Monkey Island, Guybrush must help Elaine be reelected as governor and prevent the corporate takeover of the Caribbean. In Tales of Monkey Island, Guybrush accidentally releases a voodoo pox, and must team up with an allegedly reformed LeChuck to cure Elaine and the rest of the Caribbean. In Return to Monkey Island, an older Guybrush tells his and Elaine's young son, Boybrush, about an adventure in which he and LeChuck race to find the supposed "Secret of Monkey Island".
Other appearances
Guybrush is paid homage in the Naughty Dog video game, Uncharted 4: A Thief's End, where a pirate with major similarities is featured as one of the twelve pirate captains that founded Libertalia. Although he remains unnamed throughout the game, the resemblance is uncanny and his sigil is represented by a monkey. His portrait can be seen in the Libertalia treasury with the other founders and though his name is partly scratched out, the letters still visible spell out the truncated name "Guy Wood".[6]
Guybrush is mentioned in Sea of Thieves in journals aboard a wrecked ship.[9] Guybrush himself appears in the game as part of the expansion "The Legend of Monkey Island". Set between Curse and Escape, Guybrush and Elaine honeymoon in the Sea of Thieves, but they are intercepted by LeChuck, who traps them in a dream based on Mêlée Island to prevent them from stopping his latest scheme.[10]
Homage is also paid to the pirate in Tiny Tina's Wonderlands, where the skeleton pirate Bones Three-Wood requests help against his pirate foe, LeChance.
Promotion and reception
Symbiote Studios and LucasArts have made a statue which features Guybrush Threepwood facing off against LeChuck in a fight.[11]
IGN thought Guybrush was one of the few characters that would be strong enough to carry their own movie franchise, calling him "delightfully amusing" and noting that humour was one of his defining traits.[12] Guybrush was included in GameSpot's vote for the all-time greatest video game hero. Guybrush was eliminated in the first round when facing off against Wander from Shadow of the Colossus, garnering 46.5% of the votes.[13]Empire listed Guybrush as the seventh top greatest video game character, saying that he was "[a]rguably the most-loved character in point and click adventure gaming history".[14]UGO Networks listed Guybrush as one of their best heroes of all time.[15] When detailing pirates, UGO also called Guybrush "[t]he perfect protagonist for a light-hearted pirate adventure".[16] Tom Chatfield, writing for The Observer, listed Guybrush as one of the 10 best video game characters, characterizing Guybrush as "an unforgettable presence in countless nascent gaming lives, from his knobbly knees to his less-than-silky sword skills".[17] Guybrush also was listed in the Guinness World Records as the 38th top video game character.[18][19] In 2012, GamesRadar ranked him as the 10th best hero in video games, adding "he may not be the most intimidating of protagonists[...], he gets by with his sharp wit and resourcefulness", and that "he's not only an unlikely pirate, but also an unlikely hero".[20] In 2021, Rachel Weber of GamesRadar ranked Guybrush as 30th of their "50 iconic video game characters".[21]HobbyConsolas included Guybrush on their "The 30 best heroes of the last 30 years".[22] During the 26th Annual D.I.C.E. Awards, the writing and vocal performance of Guybrush Threepwood in Return to Monkey Island received a nomination for "Outstanding Achievement in Character".[23]
