Space Pirates?

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Mafty
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Space Pirates?

So between Crossbone and Gundam Age, What are everyone thoughts? Which did it better? It does seem like the Bisidan in Gundam Age are added because there will likely never be a Crossbone Anime, and Age basically put everything people like about Gundam in a blender.

I admit that Gundam Age has its problems but I feel that they had the best use of the pirates in the story(these middle ground rebel unit) and had the best pirate mech designs(the Crossbone mechs aside from the Gundams get kinda weird).
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Kuruni
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Re: Space Pirates?

Except they aren't pirates. They call themselves one but are more of Straw Hat than Somali. Heck, Bisidians even go full treasure hunting after the war.
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MythSearcher
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Re: Space Pirates?

Kuruni wrote: Wed Apr 21, 2021 9:40 pm Except they aren't pirates. They call themselves one but are more of Straw Hat than Somali. Heck, Bisidians even go full treasure hunting after the war.
I never watched Captain Harlock, but is that what the adventurer type more than actual pirate type?
If that is so, Harlock will likely be the original "pirate in name only" show.

Also, Chinese Ming dynasty once had a law about anyone living within a certain distance from the coast are all pirates(about 50km) or a less strict version is that people cannot set sail privately(and those violating the ban are deemed pirates.) Yes, think about all the affected fisherman and sailors, and if you silverline those, you kinda get the "pirate in name only" sailors that do not plunder.(IRL there likely none of them are that innocent once the ban was in force since they would have lost the way to make a living and thus forced to be actual pirates)
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pirx
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Re: Space Pirates?

Space Pirate Sara :mrgreen:
Mafty
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Re: Space Pirates?

Well to be fair most Pirates in fiction are the romanticized in name only type (except Pirates of The Caribbean, sort of). Pirates in real life both in the past and present are/were considerably more ruthless. Really both Crossbone and Bisidan are resistance movements(wait where does Bisidan get it's funding from...) which (for some reason) have a Pirate theme. I don't know how many other Space Pirates there were outside of Captain Harlock before Crossbone(though Harlock seems like mabey the gensis for that idea) and Crossbone seems to be the genesis for the AGE pirates.
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MythSearcher
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Re: Space Pirates?

Mafty wrote: Thu Apr 22, 2021 9:58 am I don't know how many other Space Pirates there were outside of Captain Harlock before Crossbone(though Harlock seems like mabey the gensis for that idea) and Crossbone seems to be the genesis for the AGE pirates.
There's Cima fleet, which is really pirating until EF made the trade.
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Kuruni
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Re: Space Pirates?

Mafty wrote: Thu Apr 22, 2021 9:58 am (wait where does Bisidan get it's funding from...)
Well, all of their MS are provided by Madorna Workshop (including tge post-war Rogue Bat).
Mafty wrote: Thu Apr 22, 2021 9:58 am I don't know how many other Space Pirates there were outside of Captain Harlock before Crossbone(though Harlock seems like mabey the gensis for that idea) and Crossbone seems to be the genesis for the AGE pirates.
Funny, after watching SD Gundam World Heroes episode 3 the last night, I suspect that there might be some truly villainous pirates in SD works. I'm aware that Bloody Zaku fashionef himself as Captain Bloody in SD Gundam Last World, although I've no idea how much of a pirate he was.
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Mafty
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Re: Space Pirates?

I'd forgotten about Cima, her forces are pirates in the true sense of the word(they even have "Marine" Gegloog's). Though Harlock really seems to be the truer genesis of Crossbone and AGE; the pirates are romanticized, and the ships and mech units have more of a pirate/nautical theme to them(unlike the Cima fleet), also Captain Ash and Harlock look quite similar.
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Re: Space Pirates?

Mafty wrote: Thu Apr 22, 2021 9:58 am Well to be fair most Pirates in fiction are the romanticized in name only type (except Pirates of The Caribbean, sort of). Pirates in real life both in the past and present are/were considerably more ruthless. Really both Crossbone and Bisidan are resistance movements(wait where does Bisidan get it's funding from...) déménageur Le Havre which (for some reason) have a Pirate theme. I don't know how many other Space Pirates there were outside of Captain Harlock before Crossbone(though Harlock seems like mabey the gensis for that idea) and Crossbone seems to be the genesis for the AGE pirates.
But, that was before, and the situation has completely changed I think.
trewqp123
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Re: Space Pirates?

Great points... From the Somali example to Harlock...

What about the pirates found in the early episodes of Reconguista in G, like Klim Nick, pilot of the Monterro ?

I have been trying to draw parallels between that group with a group of like french pirates but alas... Anything?
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tHeWasTeDYouTh
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Re: Space Pirates?

There is a show called Legend of Galactic heroes and even though space pirates do not show up in the show there is an episode in which they talk about the early years of space exploration/colonization and they show how space piracy worked (in that universe) and it was pretty brutal with people being sold to slavery or slaughtered. Don't think Gundam shows have any space pirates that act as ruthless as the ones in our world but I always thought the Brewers in Gundam Iron Blooded Orphans had been pirates.
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Seto Kaiba
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Re: Space Pirates?

trewqp123 wrote: Mon Jun 14, 2021 5:26 am What about the pirates found in the early episodes of Reconguista in G, like Klim Nick, pilot of the Monterro ?
They're not really pirates... the "Pirate Corps" are an Amerian Army intelligence unit that pretends to be space pirates for the sake of plausible deniability.


tHeWasTeDYouTh wrote: Thu Jul 15, 2021 10:42 pm Don't think Gundam shows have any space pirates that act as ruthless as the ones in our world but I always thought the Brewers in Gundam Iron Blooded Orphans had been pirates.
They are... the Brewers are explicitly space pirates. Even the episode summaries on the official website clearly call them pirates. They're pretty brutal too, what with the whole using child slave soldiers and casually using them as a combination of disposable troops and human shields.

The only anime space pirates I can recall that even come close are the ones from Outlaw Star, who were very much willing to kill innocent bystanders, women, children, etc. to get their hands on the XGP-15A2 and to get their revenge on Gene later in the series. (They kinda lose their appeal in the spinoff though.)
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MythSearcher
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Re: Space Pirates?

Seto Kaiba wrote: Thu Jul 15, 2021 11:11 pm
trewqp123 wrote: Mon Jun 14, 2021 5:26 am What about the pirates found in the early episodes of Reconguista in G, like Klim Nick, pilot of the Monterro ?
They're not really pirates... the "Pirate Corps" are an Amerian Army intelligence unit that pretends to be space pirates for the sake of plausible deniability.
So, basically privateers?
https://mouretsupirates.fandom.com/wiki ... rt_Pirates

tHeWasTeDYouTh wrote: Thu Jul 15, 2021 10:42 pm
They are... the Brewers are explicitly space pirates. Even the episode summaries on the official website clearly call them pirates. They're pretty brutal too, what with the whole using child slave soldiers and casually using them as a combination of disposable troops and human shields.

The only anime space pirates I can recall that even come close are the ones from Outlaw Star, who were very much willing to kill innocent bystanders, women, children, etc. to get their hands on the XGP-15A2 and to get their revenge on Gene later in the series. (They kinda lose their appeal in the spinoff though.)
The relatively new web novels:
https://www.novelupdates.com/series/i-w ... mercenary/
depicts space pirates as the lowest possible life forms.

https://myanimelist.net/manga/129988/Or ... ku_Ryoushu
Similar here.

Both of these are typical enemies that capture, enslave, or even use genetic engineering to modify others into either exotic pets or show animals for their own benefits.
Mafty
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Re: Space Pirates?

It's odd that Sunrise doing so many Mech/Sci-Fi show doesn't have more examples of Space Pirates. Even Cowboy Bebop doesn't qualify as many of the villain's were singular crooks, Eco-Terrorist's, or part of a Syndicate that seemed to operate terrestrially.

You could argue that the Galactic Whale Poachers from Macross Dynamite 7 qualify; they are a criminal empire with their own mechs , and even have a Space Pirate Headquarters.
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Seto Kaiba
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Re: Space Pirates?

MythSearcher wrote: Fri Jul 16, 2021 3:41 am So, basically privateers?
https://mouretsupirates.fandom.com/wiki ... rt_Pirates
Nah, privateers are by definition civilians. The so-called "Pirate Corps" in Gundam: Reconguista in G were a "covert" Amerian Army intelligence unit thinly disguised as a non-aligned space pirate guild in order to provide the Amerian government with plausible deniability regarding their operations to seize stocks of photon batteries from the Capital Tower and attempt to hijack the tower itself. It's a military unit through and through, that's putting a bare minimum amount of effort into pretending to be pirates... a pretense that lasts about five minutes after the Capital Guard capture Aida and is shot completely to hell when Bellri boards their ship.


Mafty wrote: Fri Jul 16, 2021 11:16 am It's odd that Sunrise doing so many Mech/Sci-Fi show doesn't have more examples of Space Pirates. Even Cowboy Bebop doesn't qualify as many of the villain's were singular crooks, Eco-Terrorist's, or part of a Syndicate that seemed to operate terrestrially.
Space travel in Cowboy Bebop's setting wasn't really far enough along to offer the possibility of space piracy.

We never really see a ship in that series that was capable of independent interplanetary travel. The best most of them could achieve was navigating between the surface and a space station or between a planet and its moons in reasonable spans of time. Going anywhere else meant getting onto a secured, monitored, and heavily monetized network of hyperspace gates. Not to mention bounty hunters are everywhere.


Mafty wrote: Fri Jul 16, 2021 11:16 am You could argue that the Galactic Whale Poachers from Macross Dynamite 7 qualify; they are a criminal empire with their own mechs , and even have a Space Pirate Headquarters.
The closest the whale poachers get to acts of piracy is stealing a few civilian-market VFs from the planet Zola... they don't attack other ships or raid cargos, their only interest is unlawfully hunting space whales because that's much more profitable. (It's indicated some part of space whale anatomy - a term I use loosely as they occupy an unclear territory between plant and mineral rather than animal - is usable in fold engines, probably high-purity fold carbon.)

Space pirates do exist in Macross, though most acts of space piracy so far have been more along the lines of side hustles by anti-government groups raising funds or stealing weapons with which to wage their private war on the New UN Government. (e.g. Fasces in Macross R)

Strategic Military Services (SMS) is noted to have originally been founded by its parent company, Bilra Transport, to protect its interstellar shipping from acts of space piracy and other threats. It was only after they made a serious name for themselves in that field that they branched out into providing private security services for governments.

The only genuine band of space pirates to appear thus far has been Gunness Mordler's Bandits on the remote world of Uroboros in Macross 30. The self-professed "Bandit King" is mainly an ineffectual comic relief villain whose appearances mainly revolved around his unrequited crush on Maj. Aisha Blanchett of the local SMS branch office and his embarrassing Yakuza-esque toadying up to the infinitely more dangerous Quamzin Kravshera late in the game. (It's also implied his Bandits would be a trivial threat at best were it not for him receiving covert assistance from rogue New UN Spacy VF-X Special Forces on the planet.)
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