Lovable Pirates Of The Caribbean Characters We Wound Up Hating By Series End

After Will and Elizabeth exited stage right at the conclusion of "At World's End," the "Pirates" franchise scrambled to find a replacement couple to fill the void left by the two beloved lead characters. Enter Philip, a missionary quite literally stuck aboard Blackbeard's ship — he's tied to the mast, you see? — on account of Angelica, the ship's first mate, refusing to kill him. As played by the ever-charismatic Sam Claflin, who would go on to memorably play Finnick Odair in "The Hunger Games: Catching Fire," the character emerges as a unique creation, a deeply religious young man with more ideals than any of his pirate counterparts. In one memorable scene, he begs Blackbeard to spare the life of an escaping crewmate to no avail.

From here, one might expect an interesting subplot wherein Philip questions and/or struggles with his personal beliefs and arrives at some sort of novel conclusion about God at the end of his storyline — particularly since the film revolves around immortality and features magical objects such as the Sword of Triton. If Greek gods exist, what does that say about Philip's religious ideology? 

No dice. Instead, the writers posit Philip in a tedious, half-hearted love story with Syrena, the mermaid, that ends on a rather anticlimactic and confusing note: she carries him away into the depths of the sea after he asks for forgiveness. Huh? 

Philip ranks among the dreariest characters introduced in the "Pirates" saga, which is saying something.