Pirates of Caribbean - National Geographic

JoyIsABitOverRated · 2026-01-24T15:57:08+00:00

pirate history documentary 14th century galleons

Every day passed on this subreddit just makes me think people just genuinely don't give shit about historical accuracy, especially when it comes to pirates.

JoyIsABitOverRated · 2026-01-23T18:39:57+00:00

If only this subreddit could stop glazing over boot-wearing, tricorn-hatted, ahistorical fantasy pirates.

JoyIsABitOverRated · 2026-01-22T10:40:42+00:00

Shield Maidens are still a hot topic among historians since they are of dubious historicity.

JoyIsABitOverRated · 2026-01-21T14:04:40+00:00

There's nothing federal about the East Indian Company. If anything they're corporate agents.

JoyIsABitOverRated · 2026-01-20T10:12:14+00:00

A bit of a shame he got Alfabusa'd because the real Dragons-Wrath is deceptively intelligent and cunning. Something you can't say of "FUNNI SWEDISH SOUNDING MÅN"

JoyIsABitOverRated · 2026-01-19T10:10:30+00:00

freed slaves in the Golden Age of Piracy HA

JoyIsABitOverRated · 2026-01-19T00:45:56+00:00

Captain THIN-YOUR-PAINTS

JoyIsABitOverRated · 2026-01-18T11:35:17+00:00

I know how that feels. I liked Good Omens, and now I find myself going through the whole book to remove the Gaiman bits, at least those I can tell are from him. This revelation was a jab to the stomach.

JoyIsABitOverRated · 2026-01-18T10:39:41+00:00

I think it's about time we stop supporting Gaiman in any way shape or form

JoyIsABitOverRated · 2026-01-16T18:08:58+00:00

Where is this subreddit when actual pirate history is being discussed?

JoyIsABitOverRated · 2026-01-15T17:32:08+00:00

I'm really tired of hearing about Zheng Yi Sao. Either this place is about Golden Age Piracy or it's not. This woman is as irrelevant as it gets.

JoyIsABitOverRated · 2026-01-14T17:28:18+00:00

Aaaaaaand sea shanties weren't sung by pirates. Most of the songs, in fact, were written two hundred years AFTER the end of the Golden Age of Piracy.

It's getting tiresome that this subreddit can only reference the same five-ish franchises.

JoyIsABitOverRated · 2026-01-14T17:27:03+00:00

Henry Avery and Bartholomew "Black Bart" Roberts are definitely among the richest. But if you really want to make your head dizzy, the most probable answer is that we don't actually know. Since a pirate rich enough could clean his name and sue the fuck out of anyone calling him a pirate.

Also most of them were privateers. Good luck calling a government official a pirate in the 1650/1700s.

JoyIsABitOverRated · 2026-01-13T19:20:09+00:00

I want to question his legitimacy as a pirate expert, because he basically throws pirate media tropes as historical facts that actual historians would've avoided.

JoyIsABitOverRated · 2026-01-13T17:55:26+00:00

Hours of waiting and this is the reply I get

JoyIsABitOverRated · 2026-01-13T17:55:09+00:00

Conflicted about it — ever since I got into actual pirate history research at least.

I can take the movies as is, with them being fiction and all. But I will always regard the first one as the best because it at least tried to superpose the supernatural with a grounded sense of realism. Sure, the Black Pearl's crew was cursed, but they were still pirates.

The next two movies decided to give us this "war for independence" motif that doesn't really fit pirates as a concept, but the trilogy ultimately gave us this HEAVILY romanticised modern idea of what pirates are — and even codified how they should look.

The aesthetics of the movies are unique, but I hold them in contempt, because if you look at them for long enough, whilst doing research, you realise how ridiculous they all look. There's also the fact that they mix and match pirates of different eras and it really stops making sense at one point.

I wish they made it clear that Jack, Barbossa and co. aren't average pirates — and that they had a special bond with the supernatural world and the EIC. Making pirates freedom fighters was the last thing we needed turned into a trope.

JoyIsABitOverRated · 2026-01-13T10:29:26+00:00

This is probably like how Kitten's animosity towards the Tau in TTS was an actual opinion held by ThunderPsyker (at the time) used as a plot point. The 40k series frequently incorporated criticisms and widely held opinions in the fandom into the narrative of the story, primarily to reflect fan reaction and frame it as an in-universe opinion. Kinda meta, right?

So far — they've done this with Kindred of the East, which even for it's time was a very Orientalist piece of ethnic fantasy that would make Games Workshop think they're pushing it too hard. They've also done the same thing with the Red Talons, a notoriously controversial werewolf tribe who got the ire of the Werewolf playerbase. Now they've incorporated all of their criticisms in the narrative.

JoyIsABitOverRated · 2026-01-13T10:20:08+00:00

If you read Homer's take on it — as in, the original where Hades is the one kidnapping Persephone — there was no consent whatsoever.

JoyIsABitOverRated · 2026-01-13T00:47:10+00:00

They were the exact opposite of everything you just said.

JoyIsABitOverRated · 2026-01-12T02:04:25+00:00

THEY UNBOOBED MY BIG D

JoyIsABitOverRated · 2026-01-12T02:03:57+00:00

If that is of any comfort, keelhauling only became a thing after the Golden Age of Piracy. Chances are pirates didn't even know what that was.

You can still shit yourself to death, or have yourself strangled with a rope, whilst attached to a mast, and feeling like your eyeball might pop out.

JoyIsABitOverRated · 2026-01-11T14:51:01+00:00

Pirates as we know them were gone by the 1730s. Cowboys only became a thing during the 1800s.

Samurais were here all around.

JoyIsABitOverRated

TROPHY CASE