- Joined
- May 14, 2019
There is a very obnoxious narrative in history (academic, pop culture, all of that) right now that pirates and scrappy revolutionaries. And I'm not completely opposed to that, I like the Nassau Republic, I find that stuff interesting, but it's been exaggerated beyond all reason. One dipshit that's popularized it is Colin Woodard, who wrote some other books that are pretty good but still flawed due to his liberal brain AIDS.
For example, they play up how pirates would free slaves, even though oftentimes they would instead sell the slaves themselves, or just kill them. Basically it was just the whims of that crew, but they'll take some instances of it and make that out like it was a thing All Pirates Did and Believed. Or the gay thing, matelotage might have had some faggtry about it, but a lot of those contracts were between men who had WIVES. It wasn't equivalent to a marriage.
And of course most of these men were basically just mercs - private military contractors, literally - that flipped on their nation after they were mass laid off in the wake of the Spanish Succession.
I think talking about the dawn of capitalism and focusing on portraying the Indian Oceans like a "spicepunk" (you know, cyberpunk) world is a cool idea and the best way to use the setting. But don't get me wrong, I don't expect that Ubisoft executed it well at all.
For example, they play up how pirates would free slaves, even though oftentimes they would instead sell the slaves themselves, or just kill them. Basically it was just the whims of that crew, but they'll take some instances of it and make that out like it was a thing All Pirates Did and Believed. Or the gay thing, matelotage might have had some faggtry about it, but a lot of those contracts were between men who had WIVES. It wasn't equivalent to a marriage.
And of course most of these men were basically just mercs - private military contractors, literally - that flipped on their nation after they were mass laid off in the wake of the Spanish Succession.
I think talking about the dawn of capitalism and focusing on portraying the Indian Oceans like a "spicepunk" (you know, cyberpunk) world is a cool idea and the best way to use the setting. But don't get me wrong, I don't expect that Ubisoft executed it well at all.