The topic, as seen above, is their announcement of the refurbishment of the ride, which fans know will include an overhaul of the Bride Auction scene. It’s already been done at Disneyland Paris, is happening right now at Walt Disney World, and is happening in a couple of weeks in Disneyland.
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The fact that there are such a thing as somali pirates that you and others were referencing here.
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Isn’t this because the men would immediately start fighting over who got to be the first to rape her otherwise? Some of the crew would definitely be killed in the scrum. Even on non-criminal ships the captain had to enforce a harsh level of discipline to keep the sailors in order. Better to get rid of the distraction before it tears apart your ship and crew.
There’s a lot of flowery revisionist history about pirates, but for the most part they were just street gangs that stole a boat. They then go around and mug other ships.
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Well, sort of. They’d immediately start fighting over her, but (since pirates were humans) some of them wanted to rape her, some wanted to rescue her from being raped, and some honestly wanted to “make an honest woman of her” if you can stomach a period phrase. And sometimes a male crew member would see a woman as competition for another crewman’s attentions. But in any case a captured woman was guaranteed to either risk mutiny or set a crew at each others’ throats, or both. Different pirates came up with different ways to solve this problem at different times; Blackbeard just murdered captured women immediately.
Yes, exactly. Much like street gangs, the pirates of the Caribbean formed in response to external oppressive forces and economic hardship. In those circumstances the “strong man” type can flourish, and will usually build a cult of personality based on idiosyncratic behavior. So you get Black Bart burning the Porcupine with the slaves still chained to her oars, and Phillips punishing disrespect towards “prudent” (i.e. white) women with instant death, but in the end all the pirates are seagoing thieves.
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Yes, they exist, but nobody suggested they were cute and cuddly, like Johnny Depp.
no, quite the opposite, that they are inhuman monsters, as opposed to people who are in a situation not quite of their own making, trying to figure out a solution to the problems that exist in their country.
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I think this is pretty common practice at the various Disney parks. Hoping to get some added business from the fans of such-and-such particular ride.
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Real talk; when I first read the title of the post, I thought it might be Groundhog’s Day or something, because I could swear this was already discussed on BB at length…
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It definitely has been. They’ve been updating the parks one by one (funds, y’know) and Cory’s sort of ‘in’ with Disney so he reports on it a lot. Fanboys gotta fanboy (and I should know!)
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three words
Letter
Of
Marque.
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Once you have that you’re no longer a pirate, you’re a privateer.
Of course in practice that’s basically just handing a street thug a piece of paper that says he can mug anybody he wants to as long as you get a cut of the take and first dibs on any really nice ship they steal. How useful that paper is depends entirely on the relationship between whatever government catches him and your government.
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How was this not posted yet?
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And I’m glad you are here to set the record straight, as I agree with you.
Now, back to the bloodthirsty terrorists who have cute toys, movies and costumes based on them.
I actually looked into the Captain Phillips movie after this, and it is fascinating. The remaining Somali pirate is Abduwali Muse, and is in prison in Indiana. The actor Barkhad Abdi looks a lot like him facially and body build, except the actor has almost a foot of height over him.
It’s a very sad story on a lot of fronts. Abduwali didn’t admit his age at first, and only later admitted he was 18, and so was tried as an adult. His mother, from Somalia, tried to intervene, tried to attend his trial in 2009, but I don’t believe she was successful.
On the one hand, pity for the guy who made some serious mistakes and miscalculations. And on the other hand, come on? Hijacking a US boat on the high seas? Turning down $30,000 sitting right in front of him, instead opting to drag it out and create a hostage situation and thereby getting all his co-conspirators killed? How did he really think it would turn out? I really don’t know.
And from the American perspective, nearly all of the crew of the Maersk Alabama disputes Phillips’ account and the dramatization of what happened. They say Phillips acted more cowardly than bravely, and missed many opportunities to resolve the situation before it progressed.
What is happening in Somalia and other places (like Yemen or Palestine) downright sucks, to push people to such desperation that they think these stupid things are the way to go.
Poor pirates? Naw.
Inhuman monsters? Most of 'em, naw.
Should Disney be charicaturing pirates? Pirates were never gloriously heroic, always on the edge. So, I dunno… the last time I was in It’s a Small World, I thought, this ride is very passé. My kids didn’t think that, but it wasn’t their favorite ride, either.
Most of the credit (or blame) for the pirates-as-swashbuckling-entertainment belongs to Robert Louis Stevenson. He’s the one who popularized ideas like one-legged pirates with parrots on their shoulders and tropical islands with buried treasure and maps marked with an “X” and other now-standard conventions.
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ARRRRRRRRRRrrrr ye shittin’ me? No, I don’t think y’ARRRRRRRRRrrrrrrrh.
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