But I already am a pirate?

Pirate! CGP Grey has a great video on how pirate ships worked. They were a lot more democratic and fair than the merchant marine which worked their crew to the bone and paid them peanuts.

How to be a Pirate Quartermaster

Cowboy, no contest.

Samurai's lives belong to their masters. I couldn't live that way.

Pirates live by killing and stealing. I couldn't live that way.

That leaves cowboys. Certainly not the glorious and romantic life Hollywood makes it out to be, but generally honest work toward specific goals and freedom otherwise, which'd be fine.

I think I would be a samurai. Samurai, while fierce warriors, were also poets and great appreciators of the arts.

Samurai. Literal nobility, regular baths, nice clothes, fitted armor, regular training, and at least during the Edo period, low risk of actually having to go into battle (doesn't apply during the prior periods of course). Good food, good rice wine, poetry and music, good literature, intellectually stimulating conversations.

Contrast a cowboy - saddle sores, dust, caked sweat from weeks without baths, cholera, gangrene, bandits, native raids, long hours, and the blazing desert sun.

And the pirate: nothing to eat but hardtack and freeze-dried cod until you make port or board a merchantman, hunted by the Royal Navy, surrounded by fellow pirates who haven't bathed since the last port call, constantly alternating between seasickness and landsickness, cramped quarters belowdecks, constant risk of drowning, and when you finally go on a raid, you're getting shot at by grapeshot and 16-pounder roundshot at effectively point-blank range.

Samurai, any day. raises cup of green tea

Cowboy.

I want to sit at a campfire, eat my bowl of chili, then curl up in my blanket under the stars and in the morning boil myself a nice pot of coffee.

You can keep the cow stuff though.

I need an option that includes air conditioning.

Can I be Hasekura Tsunenaga, the samurai who went to Mexico? That way I could be a cowboy samurai. Plus I could be a pirate during the journey from Japan to Mexico. ✓ ✓ ✓

Cowboy would seem the safest of the options. Pirates typically had scurvy because of a lack of fruit, and samurai’s would have to fight, sometimes be impaled and is generally very bloody. A cowboy can just fuckoff to a saloon

If all options were safe and had no risk to them and you’d live your life without risk; samurai. Cause they’re cool as fuck and I love the armor

Cowboy literally just means rancher. It was not a particularly good job in the wild west and it's only marginally better now.

Samurai were well respected, well paid, and had social status. The downside is that they needed to kill people or die trying when their boss said to, which doesn't sound like fun to me.

Pirates also have the problem of having to do violence on a regular basis, but without the glamour and respect of being Samurai.

All in all, I'd probably choose samurai.

Ninja. They are so good at hiding that you probably don't even see it as one of the options.

Cowboy - Pros: lowest chance of death, honest work for honest pay. Cons: hard work for low pay

Pirate - Does internet piracy count? I get seasick to easily to be the boat kind. Also the death.

Samurai - Maybe an Edo period samurai, when they were mostly bureaucrats.

I am already a pirate.

I'm a man and don't have strong opinions about this, so count this as one vote against it.

Yes I am a pirate, 200 years too late. The cannon don't thunder, there's nothing to plunder. I'm an over 40 victim of fate arriving too late.

Arriving too late.

Just throwing this out there, you can literally be a cowboy or a pirate today right now. The only barriers to entry are willingness and the minor physical ability they require. Samurai is unfortunately impossible.

Pirate by a mile, I don't know why just the freedom or the fact I really enjoyed the Black Flag game.

Surely a pirate in the Caribbean or the Philippines wouldnt be too awful as you wouldn't be out at sea that much and close to land. For me it's the exploration and discovery that appeals to a life of piracy, but in reality I imagine it would be an absolute dog shit existence, especially compared to that of a samurai (minimal bloodshed unless there's a war) or cowboy (you look after horses on a ranch). However, many pirates just did a stint and then returned back home, so what's 2-3 years of making booty and having PTSD from cannon fire/pillaging.

yes. yes i would.

Are there no Pirate Cowboy Samurais?

Samurai. They were freaking rich, ate good food and married well. They did good deeds and shit and had plenty of time for self reflection and improvment.

I would be a pirate. Because the other word for pirate treasure is Booty. (Beastie boys influence, I guess)

People dress up as cowboys now. Go to your local Walmart.

Speaking of, why the fuck aren't they shamed into the shadow realm like I would be if I dressed as a samurai while getting the bread and milk?

Anyway that's my answer, Samurai.

Pirate and cowboy would both be really hard, dirty and deadly. So I'd go with samurai. They're basically just the ruling aristocracy, for most of their time they've never had to fight. So lots of money comfort and safety beat the more freedom you have for the other two.

Cowboy. I don't know enough about samurai, and I know too much about pirates

Cowboy. It would be hard work but all that time outside, sleeping under the stars, working with my hands.

I'd be bored within a week but the idea is fun!

¿Porque no los tres?

I want to be a pirate literally cuz I'm in the middle of watching one piece