Flying Dutchman, is a character in SpongeBob SquarePants, voiced by Brian Doyle-Murray. He is a pirate ghost who haunts Bikini Bottom and other locations around it and is either a friend or minor enemy to SpongeBob and Patrick. The reason the Flying Dutchman haunts the seven seas is that when he died, the people made him a manakin in a window display. He haunts because they never put him to rest.
He can tie all kinds of knots, but he does not know how to tie shoes. However, the Dutchman also wears a sock for good luck.
Description[]
The Flying Dutchman is a ghost who has a green glow around him, yellow eyes with black irises, a scraggly beard, a pirate hat with a chunk taken out; a handbag marked "Souls," a droopy nose, a coat, little pigtails, and a ghostly tail, and also speaks with a West Country pirate accent. He has a sister named Sally Dutchman.
Personality[]
During all of his appearances, the Flying Dutchman proves to be anything but a "friendly ghost." Though his role in the series is to be the devil of the sea, he constantly varies from a sea demon to a restless soul or even as a psychopompic judge to the dead, the Flying Dutchman has been consistently shown to be gruff, malicious and even downright sadistic, scaring people and stealing their souls out simply for fun, and in his first full appearance, he attempted to steal the souls of everyone in the Krusty Krab simply because SpongeBob's ridiculous costume as the "Flying Dutchman" was the ultimate insult to his image. The latter trait shows that he's extremely prideful.
Despite his antisocial behavior and malevolence, the Flying Dutchman isn't pure evil or without companionship.
He has a number of ghost friends and has the capability to bond with other people in case they have the same interests or objectives (mostly SpongeBob). He is also a notorious womanizer, with not even mortal women being free from his teasers (though the former episode implies that he's divorced). While the Flying Dutchman takes strong delight in scaring people, he doesn't live exclusively to haunt mortals, having sometimes tormented them only out of boredom (scaring SpongeBob for months to wait for his ship to be fully repaired), or otherwise because someone provoked him. Although, he is no saint, the Flying Dutchman has a strong sense of justice and has been known to award people for good deeds done towards him or to punish wicked souls (taking his role as a Psychopomp very seriously), and has been known to keep promises as seen in "Shanghaied," when he grants three wishes to SpongeBob and the gang in exchange for his sock. He also likes to scare people and steal people's souls.
Powers and Abilities[]
The Flying Dutchman is shown to be one of the most powerful supernatural beings in the ocean, rivaling King Neptune. Though The Flying Dutchman's skills vary from episode to episode, he has been consistently capable to levitate, and teleport in a cloud of smoke preceded by a storm. In his first appearance, he is shown to be capable of stealing souls and fire-breathing through his nose. He has also shown to be capable of opening dimensional portals to banish his enemies. He has shown to be capable of manipulating matter (even turning SpongeBob and Patrick into ghosts and making objects appear out of thin air) and granting wishes.
However, of all his incarnations, his most "frightening" appearance was in "Ghost Host", where he was able to shape shift into numerous horrific forms and warped reality effortlessly. The only limitation to his powers regards his ghost tail. Despite being a champion in looping for centuries, he has long forgotten how to tie his shoes and it's later shown that he can't eat without his "dining sock."
His most powerful and dangerous ability, though, was seen in "Ghoul Fools", in which he pulled out one of his eyes and transformed into an atomic bomb, after which he launched himself into the ground. The blast from this attack was so powerful that everyone caught within the blast radius was sent to the Void.
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