Ruthless Modern Pirates: Difference between revisions

Then again, this characterization is exactly how pirates were viewed during the Golden Age of Piracy and many of them lived up (or down) to this reputation. [[Nostalgia Filter|Perhaps 400 years from now, Somalian pirates will be viewed as romantic rogues.]] Also in the defense of modern piracy methods, the entire venture cannot work without at least some decent degree of stealth, i.e. independence from worldwide law enforcement. The use of vessels like Blackbeard's ''Queen Anne's Revenge'' or Bartholomew Roberts' ("Black Bart's") ''Royal Fortune'' would be easily visible by satellite imagery, and even if a modern pirate could take control of a hyper-fast and -powerful ship on the order of a US Navy destroyer, most every nation in the world would almost certainly launch immediate near-limitless-resource missions to hunt down and destroy it. That's on top of the fact that operating a modern warship requires resources far beyond what it took to run an effective pirate ship in the 18th century. In other words, piracy, like any other form of criminal enterprise, was forced to [[Technology Marches On|change with the times]], or die.

 

 

Malaysian and Indonesian pirates live up to their reputation in creative ways that would make Type 1 pirates of yore proud. Instead of walking the plank, for instance, they like to leave crewmembers stranded in shallow water coral reefs 50 miles off the coast, where they have to stand on tip-toes waiting for a passing ship. This is to ensure you don't call for help while the ship is still in the vicinity--and that is if they don't [[Leave No Survivors|execute everyone on board]]. The Somalis, on the other hand, make millions on ransom alone.

* [[Aquaman (Comic Book)|Aquaman]] battles Somali pirates (with unexpected consequences) in ''[[Brightest Day]]'' #1.

** Arguably Aquaman villain Black Manta.

* Deathstroke and [[The Warlord]] in ''[[Flashpoint (Comic Book)|Flashpoint]]: Deathstroke and the Legend of the Ravager''. While Deathstroke is given a bit of a pass because of his noble intentions (he's only turned to piracy as a means to rescue his kidnapped daughter) the rest of his crew are portrayed as remorseless bloodthirsty criminals who just happen to be on a boat.

* Fathom clashes with modern day pirates off the coast of Florida in ''[[Fathom]]'' vol. 4, #1.

 

== Fan Fiction ==

 

 

* In ''[[The Life Aquatic With Steve Zissou]]'', Zissou's boat is attacked by pirates.

* The 1976 [[Exploitation Film]] ''The Muthers'' features a band of female pirates who go undercover at a prison camp on a coffee plantation to rescue their leader's sister.

* ''Pirates of the XXth Century'', a 1979 Soviet adventure film about modern piracy.

* A group of modern day pirates run afoul of Tina in her introduction in the ''DOA: [[Dead or Alive]]'' movie--and then have the misfortune to encounter the heroines when they are stranded at sea at the movie's end.

* [[Rambo]] has Burmese river pirates in the fourth movie.

* Somalian pirates get ass-whupped at the beginning of ''[[The Expendables]]''.

* ''[[Deadliest Warrior]]'' had the Somali pirates do battle against the Medellin Drug Cartel.

* ''[[Burn Notice]]'' episode "Rough Seas" [[Not Using the Zed Word|never included the word "pirates"]], perhaps to avoid invoking this, but the bad guys ''were'' thieves operating on the water.

 

 

 

== Newspaper Comics ==

* Pirates were a common foe in the early days of the ''[[Jungle Jim]]'' strip.

 

* The second area of operation in ''[[SOCOM]] III'' is in the Indian ocean, fighting against a group of pirates called the Fist and Fire.

* In ''[[Uncharted Drakes Fortune|Uncharted: Drake's Fortune]]'' All the enemies are modern pirates. Nathan even comments on how far they are from the idealized notion of old-timey pirates. "They don't take prisoners... well, not ''male'' prisoners."

* The first mission of the computer game ''[[Comanche]] 4'' deals with the US army fighting the pirates of Indonesia.

* And ''[[Dangerous Waters]]'' often has rogue, "pirate" elements in speedboats. Fortunately, they go down to gunfire quickly. Unfortunately, they tend to be mixed in with civilian fishermen and other vessels, making it difficult to identify them.

 

== Web Comics ==

* ''[[Full Frontal Nerdity]]'': "[http://nodwick.humor.gamespy.com/ffn/index.php?date=2010-12-16 Somali Pirates of the Caribbean]

* Also in [http://www.thefreckledfinger.com/newest-cartoon/2011/3/1/030111-a-childs-disappointment.html this] strip of ''[[The Freckled Finger]]''.

== Web Original ==

* [http://www.weebls-stuff.com/songs/Somalia/ Where can you find pirates? Off the coast of Somalia!]

* The [[Parody Religion|Church]] of the [[War On Straw|Flying Spaghetti Monster]]], which holds that the decrease in pirates leads to an increase in global warming, specifically says these pirates don't count.

** Some in the church do point out that Somalia has the most of these pirates and least greenhouse gasses. That's because without a real government to keep order and create a suitable climate for business (including investment in heavy industry), there is little heavy industry in Somalia, and not a lot of greenhouse gasses as a result. In other words, an increase in pirates ''does'' lead to a decrease in greenhouse gasses, but that's [[Your Mileage May Vary|probably a case of the cure (piracy and anarchy) being worse than the disease (global warming)]]...

* The PG-rated modern pirates Captain Barnibus Crab, Kim and Simon are the main bad guys in the third series of the ''[[Flipper And Lopaka]]'' animated series.

* ''[[Archer]]'' was captured for ransom by modern Malay pirates in "Heart of Archness"; he thought that pirates didn't still exist and many pirate stereotype jokes are made. Then Archer becomes the Pirate King by [[Klingon Promotion]], but proves pretty bad at maritime hijacking (he lets his victim keep his ship out of sympathy for small-business owners).

* One of the ''[[Rupert Bear]]'' cartoons featured river pirates, who show up in a later episode as members of a pirate retirement home, which had previously been inhabited solely by more [[A Pirate 400 Years Too Late|traditional]] pirates.

 

* Recently published histories of the resurgence of modern piracy include ''[http://www.amazon.com/Jolly-Roger-Uzi-Threat-Modern/dp/1557503281 Jolly Roger With An Uzi]'', and ''[http://www.amazon.com/Dangerous-Waters-Modern-Piracy-Terror/dp/0452284139 Dangerous Waters]''.

* Historical pirate crews ''did'' operate according to rules set by the captain: John Phillips of the ''Revenge'', for example, decreed that any member of his crew who committed rape would be put to death. However, this was less because [[Even Evil Has Standards]] and more because even pirate captains needed to maintain discipline among their crews.

 

{{reflist}}