History
History
the house band could’ve been rocking out on Zildjian cymbals that were already 250+ years old.
Yeah, the mehter takımı would have gone hard. What is this, Yahşi batı?
Pirates? The heyday of pirates in the Caribbean was around 1700, during the Spanish Succession Wars, IIRC. (Okay, I went to Wikipedia to be sure and it says 1650 to 1730s is considered the Golden Age of piracy)
To be sure, piracy still exists in various places in the world even today, e.g. near the Horn of Africa or the Straits of Malacca. But it seems odd to date it to the late 19th century…🤔
Golden age of piracy for the western world ended in the 18th century, but piracy in the China and Indian sea was booming in the 19th century.
There was a us military action in Korea in 1875. During that expedition you could reasonably have had a western gunslinger have a run in with Japanese samurai and Chinese pirates? Not sure how Dracula gets worked into the scene though.
But were these Chinese pirates anything like we think of western pirates, with peg legs and hook hands and eye patches and parrots and walking planks? I imagine that’s what we’re thinking of in the RPG party we’re assembling. Though much of that would have been fiction as well.
Now I’m thinking of the Archer episodes where he becomes pirate king.
imagine that’s what we’re thinking of in the RPG party we’re assembling.
Think that’s more of a failure of imagination than anything. Nothing is saying that rpg characters are standardized strictly by western interpretation. That would be a bit chauvinistic.
A reminder that there is an actual wild west gun slinger (sort of) in Dracula. He’s the perfect stereotype of a Texan cowboy.
Also an invitation to our Dracula bookclub in [email protected].
Japan was opened up by American gunboats in 1853 at which point Japanese-American trade was present. That puts Nintendo in reach of American sailors. Levi’s was founded in the west coast port city of San Francisco as workwear. This makes it plausible for a laborer to wear them while working as a deckhand or other skilled labor job where they may pick up a taste for Japanese card games while gambling in Japan. If they find themselves on the Atlantic route any time in the southeast and they’re likely to run into coca cola which was a refreshing and energizing beverage owing to the sugar, caffeine, and cocaine. If they keep some bottles on board for a special occasion they may very well have some left by the time they arrive in England where Brahm Stoker is writing Dracula.
Now, why is a Gothic writer gambling in a Japanese game with an American sailor and noticing his curious pant choice? I couldn’t tell you enough about Stoker to say if that’s normal, but add some emotional abuse and a bisexual baccanal and it sounds exactly like some Lord Byron bullshit and Percy Shelley may join in.
He’s not a samurai (and in fact is probably one of the few members of the cast who is not arguably some flavor of samurai) but this is basically Lee’s ending in Last Blade 2:
Colonization made strange things happen. Once, for example, Spain recruited indigenous warriors from Tlaxcala (Central Mexico, allies of theirs since their battles against the Mexicas/“Aztecs”) and went to the Philippines, and there they fought Japanese pirates and samurais, basically.
Accurate info here.
Was that a general game or something they designed? If it’s something they made “playing Nintendo” works.
I’m really overanalyzing this joke, it’s funny either way, obviously.
They’re traditional Japanese playing cards. They existed for centuries before Nintendo.
Fun fact: Nintendo still makes these! (Although they might be hard to find, because I think they’re only sold in Japan.)