Long story short: Was listening to music, heard something vaguely sea-shanty-esque, and am now in a piratical* mood.
So, yeah, what's everyone's favorite (visual) pirate media?
Actually, although right now I'm in the mood for visual media, feel free to throw out any written/audio recommendations as well!
Cheers, and hope everyone is still having a good one!
* Good fucking word, by the way. Piratical is a Hall of Fame contender.
Captain Blood 1935
But watch that one last on your list, because nothing has surpassed it yet.
Thanks, I'll check it out.
That's a real treat, I almost never watch things quite that old. Looking forward to it.
I only watched season one of Black Sails and thought it was pretty gritty depiction of pirates. I can't fully recommend it since I watched it in 2014 and I honestly don't know how woke it is, I do recall watching the entire first season so it can't be that bad. I would recommend you watch the first episode and see if it's your pace.
And not pirate themed but Master and Commander is just a great movie.
Black Sails is extremely woke.
SPOILER ALERT
First off, there is man-on-man kissing and romance that becomes central to the plot. Secondly, one of the Caribbean street whores turns out to be a Shakespeare-meets-Machiavelli-in-denial female genius. No formal education whatsoever to speak of, but she speaks like landed gentry. Third, one of the factions is led by a female 'who is every bit their equal, don't you even think about it'. And she will be there for the entire duration of the show, having some sort of rivalry of sorts with the Caribbean street whore. Fourth, one of the 'bad-arse' pirates in the show is a red-head female who can fight like the best of them. You're supposed to be intimidated by her, but in reality you just laugh.
There is also a slave revolt of some sort and a pact with a slave island that is needlessly deferential to a people that essentially hacked their way to freedom.
oof, I don't remember most of that. I wasn't going to go back and watch it but man, pre-gamergate me just didn't pay attention to that kind of stuff.
I do remember the man guy killing his left-hand man and the ship crashed and they're marooned at the end of the season and I didn't really care about what happened next and never bothered with the second season.
All true, but it was before wokewood spit in my eye, and I really liked watching John Silver turn from pissant conman to the diabolical absolute unit at the end. The little boy in me who read Treasure Island and went 'daymn' at the end of that was satisfied.
Much pointless drama was skipped though. If the scene didn't have Silver or Flint, I skipped it. Rackham's scenes were a coin toss.
rofl@Rackham. He looked so absolutely cringe. Cosplayer.
Clown, that was fun to watch when being a clown. When activist, skip.
I've also seen the first season. It was pretty good, although did have some not so great elements. Still thinking of rewatching it, as well as Crossbones.
Man, it is wild when you think about it, how so many cool settings are so underutilized. Why isn't there more pirate media? Why isn't there more western media? Or noir?
For all the modern hacks' love of rebooting, they always just plug it into what's currently already popular, but don't bother bringing back past genres, by and large.
Considering the state of modern entertainment, I suppose we should count that as a blessing...but it's still weird all the potential they've left by the wayside.
I think westerns would be a big hit, for example.
All three of those are examples of masculine male leads. So verboten today unless they can subvert it somehow.
If you really want to go down this rabbit hole, learn about the Rural Purge. https://infogalactic.com/info/Rural_purge
Short version: the American people liked westerns and spy shows, but the ruling pedowood class wanted suburban depravity, so they cancelled "everything with a tree" with zero care for what people actually wanted to watch. Ever wonder how Bewitched, I Dream of Scantily clad Genies, and Three's Company followed just a few short years after show like Happy days, Lassie, and Bonanza?
While pirates are not usually mentioned, it's no stretch to think they fell into the same grouping.
And yes, despite popular belief, Westerns never fell out of style. There was never an over-saturation point that people got tired of seeing them. The degenerates in pedowood just got tired of making them. Because there was an expectation of a masculine male lead, good vs evil, exemplification of freedom and self governance, etc.
The people always loved a good western because it exemplified American values. Pedowood hated them for the same reasons.
I think there's a decent amount of western films and shows being made. I'm not in the industry but I imagine as far as budget goes it's pretty cheap to make a western, remote settings, limited cast, little to no special effects, budget friendly armorer, very cost friendly to churn out by comparison to other genres.
Pirate and nautical has way more production cost and logistics. Again, I'm channeling my inner Cliff Clavin, but I think Pirates of the Caribbeans, like Marvel hero flicks, CoD, and Walking Dead, is so big and mainstream those trying to get in on the fad end up losing their asses because people in general don't care about genre, they just want something good with mainstream appeal.
What the fuck do I know, my media consumption consist mostly of 80s to early 2000s sitcoms. Oh, recently binged Love Boat, DO NOT binge the Love Boat! it has the same string background music and you end up getting the tetris effect. Other than that, what an easy turn off your brain, have it on in the background while you play work type of show.
If you're down for the space variety, look up Captain Harlock. There's a series I think, but I do know there's also a few OVAs that aren't bad.
For those of you who still have the attention span for books, I recommend The Republic of Pirates by Colin Woodard. It's a historical look at the realities of piracy on the high seas during the golden age of piracy as well as tracking its eventual and inevitable decline. The thing that stuck with me was how there was an actual ethical code to how things were conducted and just how goddamn appealing piracy was when compared to the standard thing of getting press ganged into the royal navy. It's a good read and worth picking up.
My coworker got me the book and it sat on my shelf for a couple years before I finally got around to reading it but I enjoyed it so much that I had to hunt him down all those years later to thank him for the gift. Good stuff.
Privateers of the world unite!
Would you accept other sailing media? Consider Hornblower and Master and Commander both books but both also good TV/film.
While not a show, the band Alestorm is heavily pirate themed and has several bangers.
TORTUGA!
I'll see your Alestorm and raise you a Rumahoy.
Ah you're already familiar with them. I won't need to recommend P.A.R.T.Y. then.
Speaking of Alestorm and parties. Treasure Chest Party Quest. I'm sure you've heard it.
Also, not specifically piratical, but has some of the same energy. Nanowar of Steel's Norwegian Reggaeton.
And now I'm just posting random vaguely related music, but The Sidh, Iridium.
Lastly, I think this has a super 'sea shanty'-y bent, Mori Calliope's Make 'Em Afraid.
I hadn't seen a couple of those, checked them out. Very good stuff.
For something a little different I recommend Carmen Miranda's Ghost, specifically the song Dawson's Christian. Very much has the vibe you're looking for.
"Pirate" themed in that there's a pirate ship on the cover, I dunno: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4OoAcZ0WbDw&list=PLQrXTc0LfE4UYp748Q_99RFkzAs4eG_NO&index=1
LOL how about this deep cut anime I discovered called One Piece? Though I just started the Foxy Pirate arc and I'm starting to have second thoughts...
Switch to the manga imho. The anime really goes down hill later on, and some things like the Foxy arc are bloated with filler in the anime. All I can say though is to keep going. You'll learn later on that many of the things you've already seen are far more important to the grand narrative than you thought at the time.
Is Sanji as retarded during the Foxy arc in the manga as he is in the anime? I get that he's a crypto-simp but enough is enough
Sanji isn't retarded at all in the manga imho. The entire Foxy arc had a lot of bad filler from what I've heard others say. Those of us who read the manga tend to like Foxy, while those who watch anime seem to hate him.
Definitely have to be a fanboi for Frieren if you haven't watched it yet, I feel like that's set the bar for me generally when it comes to anime. It's slow paced, so you won't necessarily enjoy it if you prefer action anime but it does have some awesome moments and fight scenes. Also enjoyed Reborn as a vending machine, not an anime to be taken seriously thought it had some good moments though.
Thanks, but I think you misread. ;)
I asked for specifically pirate-themed recommendations.
Frieren and Vending Machine are good, but not piratical.
OH LOL! Yes you're right, I literally thought you meant sailing the high seas, unfortunately there isn't that much modern pirate stuff that's decent that I know of which is annoying.
BUT!
What about Bodacious Space Pirates? You seen this before? There's one Yuri arc in it but it's not woke shit.
https://www.anime-planet.com/anime/bodacious-space-pirates
Looks promising, thanks!
It's fine but they're not quite real piracy.
Ignoring the 1,100 episode behemoth in the room:
Captain Harlock - Your quintessential, classic, trope-defining space pirate.
Outlaw Star - Space outlaws, not pirates but the antagonists are all pirates. Close enough.
Mars Daybreak - Actual water pirates. But it's submarines. On Mars. With mechs.
Honorable mention: Gargantia on the Verdurous Planet. Not really pirates, but anime waterworld so there's a pirate-adjacent style.
Technicality: Black Lagoon. In the modern "criminals with a boat and guns who will rob and/or kill you" sense of the term.
Edit: Not anime, and I don't even remember how it ended or if it was actually good, but I'd be remiss for not bringing up Pirates of Dark Water.
Gold and Gunpowder on YouTube. Great sense of humor and actually researches all the topics well.
Will check it out, thanks.
I may get downvotes but I still like the first POTC movie. Also nautical themed and kinda Piratey Waterworld. Master and Commander is a nice sailing movie but not a pirate movie.
Stremio and Soulseek.
The One Piece manga is easily one of the best comics that's ever been made. The manga is very long, with over 1000 chapters now, but well worth it. The anime adaptation is okay, but gets really bad later on. As for the plethora of movies, they're all over the place, and though it won't have nearly the same impact if you don't know the series, "Strong World" is easily the best movie.
Our Flag Means Death is occasionally funny - but it's also very gay.
There's this one series I saw once I enjoyed , I think it had Jonny Depp as a Captain Jack Sparrow or something.
Got another song for ya.
Somebody already mentioned One Piece - I actually prefer Fairy Tail (less filler, plot moves more quickly)
That said, the recent OP live-action is an absolute breath of fresh air in the adaptation department and tears right through the plot while still hitting all the right notes.
Pretty sure the manga author held the whole deal hostage on getting an executive producer role, and that shines through: no "updates for a new, modern audience that we'll pander into existence," just a competent execution for the loyal, core, existing fanbase that's already there, willing and waiting (gee what a concept).
Outside suggestion that's become more obscure over the decades: Outlaw Star for pirates in space. Sort of the neglected younger sibling of Cowboy Bebop (same studio, same year and everything)