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The Real Pirates of One Piece


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Merxamers



Joined: 09 Dec 2013
Posts: 720
PostPosted: Fri Feb 05, 2016 12:02 pm Reply with quote
Very interesting and educational article! I enjoyed how in One Piece Black Beard initially seems so innocuous; I think his otherwise unremarkable appearance adds to his menace.

On a note about Captain Kidd, there was a fascinating book written a while ago that makes a compelling argument that Kidd was actually not a pirate at all, but a privateer secretly hired by the British government. I'm not sure if the research has been debunked in recent times, but it should still be an interesting read;

http://www.amazon.com/Pirate-Hunter-True-Story-Captain/dp/0786884517/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1454691723&sr=8-1&keywords=captain+kidd
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Princess_Irene
ANN Reviewer


Joined: 16 Dec 2008
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PostPosted: Fri Feb 05, 2016 1:13 pm Reply with quote
Glad you enjoyed it!

As far as I know, no one has refuted Zacks' argument about Kidd, and even before he published his book, there was a lot of evidence floating around suggesting how badly Kidd has been misrepresented by history.
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zrnzle500



Joined: 04 Oct 2014
Posts: 3767
PostPosted: Fri Feb 05, 2016 1:56 pm Reply with quote
I'm thinking Sadie is named for Sadism (or rather the Marquis de Sade from which the term comes from) but maybe they had Sadie the goat in mind. Either way very educational.
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jojothepunisher



Joined: 04 Sep 2007
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PostPosted: Fri Feb 05, 2016 2:18 pm Reply with quote
Looking at those pictures of the pirates reminded me how ugly One Piece's character design is.
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zrnzle500



Joined: 04 Oct 2014
Posts: 3767
PostPosted: Fri Feb 05, 2016 2:20 pm Reply with quote
jojothepunisher wrote:
Looking at those pictures of the pirates reminded me how ugly One Piece's character design is.


They are nearly twenty years old. Now some old characters designs to hold up over time, but a lot of them don't age well.
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MasterKingJC



Joined: 21 Dec 2010
Posts: 380
PostPosted: Fri Feb 05, 2016 2:30 pm Reply with quote
In the previous arc, there was a vice-admiral in OP named Maynard, who is....well... not much of an imposing threat to One Piece's Blackbeard as the real-life Maynard was. Laughing

jojothepunisher wrote:
Looking at those pictures of the pirates reminded me how ugly One Piece's character design is.


Sorry that they can't look as memorable and inspired as the character in your avatar.
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WashuTakahashi



Joined: 18 Mar 2015
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PostPosted: Fri Feb 05, 2016 2:37 pm Reply with quote
That was a really cool read! I never really got that into One Piece, but it's cool to know a lot (most?) of his characters are based are real people.
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zrnzle500



Joined: 04 Oct 2014
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PostPosted: Fri Feb 05, 2016 2:42 pm Reply with quote
WashuTakahashi wrote:
That was a really cool read! I never really got that into One Piece, but it's cool to know a lot (most?) of his characters are based are real people.


Laughing These are far from even most of his characters, though some are very important, the bearded ones at least.

Not mentioned is Don Quixote Doflamingo, certainly named for the fictional character Don Quixote.
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Lord Geo



Joined: 18 Sep 2005
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PostPosted: Fri Feb 05, 2016 3:01 pm Reply with quote
zrnzle500 wrote:
WashuTakahashi wrote:
That was a really cool read! I never really got that into One Piece, but it's cool to know a lot (most?) of his characters are based are real people.


Laughing These are far from even most of his characters, though some are very important, the bearded ones at least.

Not mentioned is Don Quixote Doflamingo, certainly named for the fictional character Don Quixote.


I already brought it up to Zac via Twitter that there could be a Part 2 to this that explains the non-pirate historical figures that inspired One Piece characters, like X Drake being obviously based on Sir Francis Drake.

I wouldn't go into trying to explain every single references & influence, though, because then we'll be getting into the too-many-to-count physical references, like Eminem for Eneru, Mick Foley's Mankind persona for Spandam, etc., etc.
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MarshalBanana



Joined: 31 Aug 2014
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PostPosted: Fri Feb 05, 2016 4:50 pm Reply with quote
zrnzle500 wrote:
jojothepunisher wrote:
Looking at those pictures of the pirates reminded me how ugly One Piece's character design is.


They are nearly twenty years old. Now some old characters designs to hold up over time, but a lot of them don't age well.
I remember reading somewhere that around the time the Manga was about to start Shojo was really popular outside of it's established area, and other shows like Kenshin were using it. but Oda decided to keep to use an older style.
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valiel



Joined: 11 Apr 2008
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PostPosted: Fri Feb 05, 2016 5:04 pm Reply with quote
I always thought that the One Piece Blackbeard and Whitebeard were both based on the real life Blackbeard, with Teach being based more on the legend on Blackbeard, and Newgate being based more on how Blackbeard was actually supposed to be. Every account of him that I have read, made his real character out to be much more honorable, still a pirate, but not cruel.
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Akuma_Blade



Joined: 22 Feb 2005
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PostPosted: Fri Feb 05, 2016 6:52 pm Reply with quote
Why article not explain Barbarossa?
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Gina Szanboti



Joined: 03 Aug 2008
Posts: 11288
PostPosted: Fri Feb 05, 2016 6:56 pm Reply with quote
Being someone who is not very familiar with One Piece characters or real pirates, I found it somewhat confusing that the l-r pictures were reversed from the l-r names. But aside from that, this was an impressive article and a lot of fun to read. Nice work!

With all these really obscure pirates Oda has drawn from, how has Mary Read been overlooked for a namesake? She's one of the more famous female pirates and even I've heard of her before.
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leafy sea dragon



Joined: 27 Oct 2009
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PostPosted: Fri Feb 05, 2016 7:15 pm Reply with quote
Are we going to have more of these in the future? The One Piece Podcast website has these as an entire series. There is mention of Edward Lowe in the article, so I was expecting to see Trafalgar Law come up (which is actually a triple-reference, quadruple if you count his epithet of "The Surgeon of Death," though only the Lowe one is pirate-related).

I was also hoping to see a mention of Roronoa Zoro, one of the most important characters in the series, named after François l'Olonnais, one of the most badass French people to have ever lived. Supposedly, the guy got captured, then tied up, but convinced his captors to surrender through his sheer force of will and intimidation. Zoro's tendency to get lost may have also been based on François's skill at flanking Spanish-owned fortresses by sailing his ship to unexpected places.

Both of these characters being named after those people were confirmed in an SBS question corner, by the way.

jojothepunisher wrote:
Looking at those pictures of the pirates reminded me how ugly One Piece's character design is.


Blame Toei.

Well, I actually started reading the One Piece manga because his style looked nothing like regular anime and manga at the time. Eiichiro Oda is way more into western media than Japanese media, and it shows in his art style.

Akuma_Blade wrote:
Why article not explain Barbarossa?


Do you mean the Turkish pirate Uruj Barbossa, whose counterpart One Piece character is Urouge the Mad Monk?

Gina Szanboti wrote:
With all these really obscure pirates Oda has drawn from, how has Mary Read been overlooked for a namesake? She's one of the more famous female pirates and even I've heard of her before.


There are plenty more characters yet to be introduced in the series, and Oda is still pulling from history. The Dressrosa arc introduced Cavendish, named after English pirate Henry Cavendish, for instance; and Jean Ango, whose name was lifted letter for letter from that of a French pirate.

I expect Oda to keep doing this for each coming story arc in the series. In the case of Mary Read, we've hardly seen anything of Jewelry Bonney, and Luffy has not interacted directly with her in any way. If Oda intends to connect the two real-world pirates, someone named after Read will most likely come up when Jewelry Bonney becomes more important in the series.
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BadNewsBlues



Joined: 21 Sep 2014
Posts: 5873
PostPosted: Sat Feb 06, 2016 3:24 am Reply with quote
leafy sea dragon wrote:


Blame Toei.

Well, I actually started reading the One Piece manga because his style looked nothing like regular anime and manga at the time. Eiichiro Oda is way more into western media than Japanese media, and it shows in his art style.


You can only blame Toei when they're cutting corners. Most of the earlier episodes of One Piece looked pretty fine in comparison to the earlier chapters of the manga.
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