by the fans for the fans

When the Masters showed up in orbit we did not know who they were. There was speculation that they may be space pirates. So who are space pirates? I do not recall the novels telling us, nor the show, and I cannot comment on the comics.

Do the Sapce Pirates have to be alien or could they be Humans with salvaged tech.

Facts are create and speculation is fun.

Oh HELL yeah, let's run with that one! It would kind of make sense...

After the battle during the Zentraedi holocaust, you've got a LOT of derelict chunks of wrecked Zentraedi ships. I always figured that you can't just idly let all of them burn up and smash into the earth, as that's basically an ongoing random orbital kinetic bombardment. So you're going to have scrappers and magpies working up there to salvage not just metal, but any working/semi-working equipment for reclamation. And anywhere there's valuables, there's the potential for predation.

Where they would have a base of operations is... iffy. The moon? How well does TASC have the moon locked up for operations? If they're earth-based, how on earth to they keep a regular fuel supply for operations?

Let's say they've managed to set up camp in a derelict hulk in orbit. How do you address oxygen, water, and food? Even if they manage to have some sort of self-contained hydroponics set up that addresses food and oxygen, you then have to mask energy emissions from any TASC patrols, and hope you don't stick out like a sore thumb when unlike the rest of the debris out there, your orbit doesn't decay.

Any pirate operation up there had to be more borne out of opportunity and would likely have been fleeting and rare, if not completely eliminated by the time the Masters showed up.

At least, that's my $.02/stab in the dark.

MYSTERY SOLVED!!

I always figured that the space pirates were just rogue Tirolians. We know that the DoZ are out there somewhere, at it seems likely that the amazons are at least in some way related to Tirolians, it only makes sense that there would be others. Space Pirates could even be bands of rogue Zentreidi.

If there's one thing that Robotech has not addressed that needs to be it is the Tirolian empire. You would think based on the size of the Zentreidi fleet that it was massive, that they may have had hundreds or thousands of colonies spread though galaxies across the cosmos. It only makes sense that the Masters would abandon these colonies just the same as they abandoned Tirol and later their own subjects in orbit over Earth. So what happened to them? Did some turn to piracy?

that is my take with Rogue Zents and other opportunists of no specific origin

More serious answer: I always figured it was just leftover dialogue from the original Southern Cross (where space pirates WOULD make sense) that they forgot to change.

Gubaba wrote:

More serious answer: I always figured it was just leftover dialogue from the original Southern Cross (where space pirates WOULD make sense) that they forgot to change.

More than likely that's the case.

Knowing the incredibly compressed production schedule the original Robotech went through, in terms of scripting and dubbing/recording, I'm always amazed that there aren't *more* continuity issues and weird plot threads that don't make sense.

Gubaba wrote:

More serious answer: I always figured it was just leftover dialogue from the original Southern Cross (where space pirates WOULD make sense) that they forgot to change.

Maybe, but I'm not one to waste it. Could lead to some very interesting places.

treiz wrote:

Gubaba wrote:

More serious answer: I always figured it was just leftover dialogue from the original Southern Cross (where space pirates WOULD make sense) that they forgot to change.

Maybe, but I'm not one to waste it. Could lead to some very in
teresting places.

Im with you Treiz.
Its things like this that can add a nice spicy flavour to the Robotech dish

My inclination, space pirates equals to micronized Zents, bands of rogue Zents still marauding the deepsapce after Dolza's Grand Fleet demise ... short on foodstuffs, protoculture & other basic needs for survival.

As Expeditionary Force expands human deep space colonisation post 2014 of Gloval Initiative & beyond, bound to be some confrontations with remaining Dolza's stragglers. We saw that Zent malcontents on Earth pillaged & pilfers human settlements for supplies & survival, the same could be said for surviving rogue Zents (ex-Dolza loyalists) in deep space that managed to survive & flee Dolza's destruction.

Space piracy would definitely come easy for 'em.