Ninjas or pirates?

[Metalhead]

This is the most brilliant poll ever.

And I actually was sober when I wrote it.

 

[Mr. Stevens]

Ninjas.

 

[Forest Cat]

Norse pirates of course

 

[Gerald Wilgus]

As a follower of the Flying Spaghetti Monster, I especially like talk like a pirate day. rAmen

 

[Judge]

No contest. - Ninjas. Highly disciplined, skilled and dedicated assassins.

Professional killers- not freelance plunderers.

Pirates are just thieves motivated only on plunder with no other objectives. And they communicate with only one letter of the alphabet. Not very efficient, laddie-buck. RRRRRR...

We're done here.

 

[AspieChris]

I can’t believe I took 2 minutes out of my day to respond but…….. NINJAS!!!

Pirates are drunkards. Ninjas are highly trained assassins who use stealth to eliminate their foes, one at a time, under cover of darkness at night.

Night is when the pirates are sleeping off a day of drinking!

 

[Metalhead]

No contest. - Ninjas. Highly disciplined, skilled and dedicated assassins.

Professional killers- not freelance plunderers.

Pirates are just thieves motivated only on plunder with no other objectives. And they communicate with only one letter of the alphabet. Not very efficient, laddie-buck. RRRRRR...

We're done here.

R may be the letter that pirates use most, but the C is the one thing a pirate truly loves.

 

[Gerald Wilgus]

Norse pirates of course

View attachment 130330

But then they were also traders. I seem to remember that the town of York, in England, was a Viking trading center. The vikings tried to have a settlement at L'Anse aux Meadows in Newfoundland and did not get along with the natives they termed Skraelings. I'd like to visit that site someday, but I don't know if, as a come from away, I'd want to be screeched in and kiss the cod.

 

[Forest Cat]

But then they were also traders. I seem to remember that the town of York, in England, was a Viking trading center. The vikings tried to have a settlement at L'Anse aux Meadows in Newfoundland and did not get along with the natives they termed Skraelings. I'd like to visit that site someday, but I don't know if, as a come from away, I'd want to be screeched in and kiss the cod.

Oh yes, a lot of trading and business. All over Europe and beyond. So many places in England has names that stems from the vikings. That word skraelings, or skrællings, it might have different meanings but here it means weaklings. We have a word here now, skral, that word comes from the old word skrælling. It means weak, of poor health or decrepit.

 

[kenaij]

I just have to vote ninja's because else my son will be very angry with me.
He loves ninjago. And with the new series we started watching together.
For mother's day my wife got a box with questions in it. And every day we need to answer a question. Today's question was what you fondest memory of another person was. And my son chose me watching Ninjago with him. This felt so great, because I did start watching it with him to have a common interest in something we could both talk about. Very glad it worked out.
It does help that I also like ninjago myself XD.
So
NINJAS!!!!!

 

[Rodafina]

Ninjas, without a doubt.

They come from the shadows, take care of business and retreat back to the darkness before a pirate has even raised the sails.

 

[SusanLR]

Ninjas all the way.
Stealth, intelligence and training.

 

[Jonn]

According to Metatron, a youtube expert in the field of this and a number of related areas, the "ninja" you see in the media is a myth.
Therefore, I have abstained from voting at this time.

 

[Outdated]

According to Metatron, a youtube expert in the field of this and a number of related areas, the "ninja" you see in the media is a myth.

It's the same with stories about Samurai.

The true story:

Back in the late 1500s one of Genghis Khan's younger brothers started using captured Chinese warships to raid the north west coast of Japan. At that time the Japanese people had no ocean going shipping, the only boats they had were tiny little fishing coracles.

The Mongols could raid with impunity, and they did. They'd land men and horses in the morning who would go and raid a village, then in the afternoon they'd load all the men and horses back on ships and sail a little out from the coast. They were having a great time, they met very little opposition. At night they'd moor all the ships together to make like a floating village and they'd party for most of the night.

After a few weeks of this a little fisherman's boy noticed the ships mooring to each other late one evening and he ran in to his local village to tell the elders what he'd seen. The elders had all heard stories from up the coast and they knew what was going to come the next day if they didn't do something about it.

The men from the village waited until very late at night, then they tied bottles of oil together and swam with their bottles of oil out to the Mongol flotilla. They very quietly climbed up on board the ships, splashed oil everywhere, and set fire to them. That ended the threat.

The name of that village is Samura, now a major city, and anyone coming from there is a Samurai.

 

[Judge]

Some good points brought up in this thread. Pardon me for moving into a bit of a tangent here, but I can't resist commenting. Rereading the original post, I have to take this thread in the context of "tongue-in-cheek" pop culture first and foremost. Not as some kind of serious, historical comparison. But the thought of this suddenly made me think of the difference between the tv mini-series "Shogun" of 1980 versus the most recent remake broadcast last month on FX.

Allowing me to realize just how "Hollywood" the original series was as opposed to what IMO amounted to a very thoughtful and more historically accurate remake. Which also involved a higher quality of "storytelling".

Admittedly it's very rare to see a remake outshine an original production in film or television, but in this instance as far as I was concerned it happened. Of course both productions are still bound by a fictional story and characters created by an Englishman, James Clavell.

Some feedback from the Japanese media about it? Interesting....

https://www.japantimes.co.jp/culture/2024/03/09/tv-streaming/shogun-hiroyuki-sanada-last-samurai/
Anyone want to comment on "Black Sails" ? -RRRRRRR! More history or more pop culture?

 

[FoxLovinPat]

I just have to vote ninja's because else my son will be very angry with me.
He loves ninjago. And with the new series we started watching together.
For mother's day my wife got a box with questions in it. And every day we need to answer a question. Today's question was what you fondest memory of another person was. And my son chose me watching Ninjago with him. This felt so great, because I did start watching it with him to have a common interest in something we could both talk about. Very glad it worked out.
It does help that I also like ninjago myself XD.
So
NINJAS!!!!!

Oh yay another adult that loves Ninjago, I'm not alone!
For me though my little brother was how I got into the series as I used to watch it with him as a part of brotherly bonding time. I felt like I was into it more than him but I wouldn't tell him or my family that since my father would probably scold me for being into something so childish.
But c'mon, you know because you've watched it yourself but for an animated children's show based off of a theme from a popular plastic but kring toy brand it's got some good writing in it and an amazing cast if characters that are well fleshed out with their own interesting backstories.

Anyways I was actually going to post a reply relating Ninjago on this thread myself because as soon as I saw the title my brain was reminded of Ninjago.
Why? Well I dunno how far back you've watched but there was a episode titled Pirates vs Ninjas (it was it the other way around?) where Lord Garmedon used the Mega Weapon (I think that's what the merged super version of the 4 Golden weapons was called) to bring back the original owners of The Bounty, which was the Ninja's second home after they lost Sensei Wu's dojo, which was a group of pirates who took back The Bounty for themselves and left The Ninas homeless again. I think not too long after that is when they moved into The Brown Ninja's dojo, that guy is such a character btw.
If you are aware of what I speak of please correct me if I got anything wrong, as it's unfortunately been a while since I've watched the series since my little brother lost interest in it and I moved out on my own.. I think the last season I watched of it was that one with the tournament that guy that ran a popular tea establishment had, which was a trap to lure in all those who can harness the elements so that he could steal their powers, and there was also a secret Anacondrai cult as the antagonists of that season and the tea guy was their leader. Either that or it was the Ghost season, where the ninjas were fighting ghosts, but Iirc that was before the Tournament of Elements season as Nya didn't realize she could control water until then and iirc she was in the tournament too.

Heh sorry I went off on a tangent about Ninjago, rather off topic I know. Was just excited to see that I'm not alone in liking the series as an adult.

 

[GrownupGirl]

I would never be good at either of those things. And I might offend some people if I dressed like a Ninja because I'm not Japanese, which is cultural appropriation. Which is very confusing since it's very stereotypical to assume all Asian people are martial artists.

 

[Jonn]

Allowing me to realize just how "Hollywood" the original series was as opposed to what IMO amounted to a very thoughtful and more historically accurate remake. Which also involved a higher quality of "storytelling".

Metatron had nothing but praise for the authenticity of the second series.

 

[Jonn]

Heh sorry I went off on a tangent about Ninjago, rather off topic I know.

We are on the spectrum.
Going off on a tangent is what we do.

 

[FoxLovinPat]

We are on the spectrum.
Going off on a tangent is what we do.

Yeah that's true.
Kinda embarrassed though that I made so many typos in that post though, I guess I was just that excited that I wasn't as careful with my typing as I typically am.