Nah, not the Arcadia. Because the idea with the Arcadia is that if someone were able to kill Harlock and the Arcadia, then your shit is officially fucked in a most profound manner, even if you won't admit it, because Harlock and the Arcadia was the thin line standing between your "civilization" and the horrors of the deep beyond.
For this, you want to go more along the lines of a "Dread Pirate Roberts" archetype. Dread Pirate Roberts is the Pirate's Pirate - he takes no prisoners, steals from anyone, and generally raises hell wherever he goes. However, from each generation to the next, it's secretly a different man under the mantle, and as such there are certain small exceptions - such as the one young stable boy who professed of his love so eloquently that he was made into the current Roberts's cabin boy instead of being killed. Which, to the rest of the crew was acceptable, as press-ganging is a time-honored tradition among pirates.
Thus, very much pirates indeed, but enough of a sense of integrity that it's not much of a stretch for most to accept that perhaps the Legendary Pirate did something good, because to do so otherwise would have been far beyond the pale.
Although this would spin the narrative such that it's more like, "Humanity: they may have their own outlaws, but dammit all, even their outlaws have standards."
For this, you want to go more along the lines of a "Dread Pirate Roberts" archetype. Dread Pirate Roberts is the Pirate's Pirate - he takes no prisoners, steals from anyone, and generally raises hell wherever he goes. However, from each generation to the next, it's secretly a different man under the mantle, and as such there are certain small exceptions - such as the one young stable boy who professed of his love so eloquently that he was made into the current Roberts's cabin boy instead of being killed. Which, to the rest of the crew was acceptable, as press-ganging is a time-honored tradition among pirates.
Thus, very much pirates indeed, but enough of a sense of integrity that it's not much of a stretch for most to accept that perhaps the Legendary Pirate did something good, because to do so otherwise would have been far beyond the pale.
Although this would spin the narrative such that it's more like, "Humanity: they may have their own outlaws, but dammit all, even their outlaws have standards."