#black sails thoughts

[rapselsstuff]

There could never have been a happy ending to black sails. If the writers had said “and so they won the war and freed all the slaves and defeated all the English and lived happily ever after“, we would not have believed it, because we know, historically, that it isn’t true. And even a smaller, less complete victory would have been unbelievable. “They lost the war but found happiness regardless” - would they though?? “Silver made them give up the war and Madi and Flint forgave him” - are you sure?? Madi and Flint both made their entire purpose a war they were destined not to win. Both of them would have sacrificed Silver, and anyone else, to win it, and it would have been in vain. There was no way for them to be happy, not ever.

So what the writers gave us in the end was a soothing story. There are days when I believe that Flint is happy in Savannah with Thomas. There are days when I believe that Silver and Madi found a way to move forward together, and there are days when I don’t. In the end, a story is true or untrue depending on people’s belief. If you want to believe that black sails has a happy ending, then you can, and it does. And if you want to believe that the ending is horrifying, then you can, and it is. I think one of the most brilliant things the black sails writers ever did is giving us an ending that is never just one thing, just like Silver, just like Flint, just like the entire show.

#black sails #this fucking show #black sails thoughts #black sails meta

[laufire]

just here thinking about the unexplored avenue of max and eleanor having a relapse and falling into bed together any time between seasons two and four. rotating it in my mind.

#ultimately glad it didn't happen (especially for max's narrative) #but if it had... #......... #gonna keep rotating it #(if someone had told me before i started the show that THEY would eventually become my otp asñdlfjk) #talking to the void #my thoughts #black sails #black sails thoughts #maxanor #bsmax #eleanor guthrie #femslash #favourites: to fall another moment into your gravity #favourites: mirror mirror on the wall

[storkmuffin]

Making myself laugh thinking about the fact that the only two people who actually had a requited love relationship, no matter how brief, were Eleanor Guthrie and Woodes Rogers: She wanted to be wife-shaped and he wanted that wife-shape in his life. Everyone else is fucked, no matter what the nature of their love was! Billy Bones pined for Flint's approval. Flint pined for Silver's commitment. Silver pined to be Madi's priority. Vane pined for Eleanor. Max went for two bi girls who chose men as their primary. Jack Rackham sought a wife in the unwilling Anne Bonny. Gates wanted Flint to see him as a full person and that didn't happen either.

#black sails thoughts

[twinsarekeepers]

“This isn’t the Arch, seaweed brain. You’re not pushing me into the stairwell again.”

First of all, LINE DELIVERY?? Leah Sava Jeffries is an ACTRESS because ‘seaweed brain’ is actually so corny and it would simply feel like fan-service if they included it earlier or in another context but this was so natural and I was so swept up by all the other amazing things happening that I was excited about it but also keyed into the rest of the scene.

But the way this perfectly displays her fatal flaw. She will not let this boy trick her again (spoiler: he does). She was caught off guard at the Arch because she wasn’t familiar with his game but now she’s ready. She WILL die for him and that is final.

“Yes, I am.”

This was CRAZY?? Percy Jackson #1 mentally unstable man because how is he determined to win every ‘sacrifice myself’ off with her? And he says it to her face too. He does not care for the games anymore, he’s fully telling her that he needs her to live.

“I’m not going to let you this time. It doesn’t work that way!”

This made me so incredibly sad. Annabeth is still thinking in transactions. She’s thinking about how he made a sacrifice in the Arch so it’s her turn now. This is how relationships work. This is how every relationship she’s had works. She literally can’t comprehend how he doesn’t see it that way. How he could be selfless enough to sacrifice himself for her TWICE. How he could care about her enough to believe she deserves it even after she was the reason they were in the Arch in the first place (my baby my baby say it with me now you’re my baby).

“It’s why you’re here!”

��Excuse me?”

This was so soft like I just *screaming crying gif*. The last time she said ‘excuse me’ to him she was pissed off about him bringing up Athena but now she’s just confused and sad. Like, she trying to figure out what he means by this. Does he think she’s so heartless and robotic that she’d just let him die for her own gain?

I also love how they don’t have her say ‘what?’ because it just adds this extra layer of how Annabeth has trained herself to be more mature in everything she does, even her language, because she believes that if she’s not perfect, she’s not worthy of love and affection and maybe even existing (literally sobbing wtf).

“When I was choosing my team, I told Chiron I needed someone who wouldn’t hesitate to sacrifice me if the quest required it. He agreed. That was you.”

I was confused at first about this because I thought Annabeth knew Percy thought this about her until I went back and watched the choosing ceremony again. He’s definitely keeping his voice lower as he speaks to Chiron and both Chiron and him are raising their voice as they address the other campers so makes sense that she wouldn’t have heard him.

But also, this just adds so much to literally everything. Because, in the beginning, Percy didn’t think him and Annabeth would become friends. He genuinely did think that she would sacrifice him if she had to and he thought he’d be able to curb it. He thought he’d be able to fight Annabeth if it came to it because she might choose the quest over his mom and he couldn’t allow that.

But now here he is, after getting to know her, and seeing her vulnerability and bravery and strength and courage and wisdom and passion and everything that makes her so beautiful and wonderful and amazing and his friend. She’s his friend and she’d never betray him. She’d never sacrifice him. She’d rather sacrifice herself before she ever did anything to harm him.

And he’s apologizing to her. Listen to the way Walker says the last line (again, THE ACTING). It’s literally a confession because he feels so bad that he ever believed that about her. And now he’s making her do it. He’s making her do this thing that he once thought she’d have done without hesitation. He’s thinking about the Fates cutting that string and he’s thinking about his own words to Chiron and how Chiron agreed and he’s thinking about how Annabeth said that prophecies aren’t always clear and he fully believes that he’s figured it out. This is fate. Annabeth would sacrifice him and complete the prophecy. She’ll be the friend that betrays him but not because she wanted to and he will fail to save what matters most, his own life.

This entire exchange was very insane. It’s my Roman Empire. I can’t stop thinking about it because it shows their motivations and their viewpoints and their internal struggles so so so well like I can’t even … I’m having a malfunction.

#me when i cornplate #but actually no #because these are the black sails writers #like this is not a reach AT ALL and that’s what’s crazy #they probably thought about all this and more because they’re more insane then me! #percy jackson #annabeth chase #percabeth #pjotv #pjo tv show #pjo tv series #pjo disney+ #pjo #percy jackson and the olympians #pjo spoilers #pjo tv spoilers #pjo ep 5 #a god buys us cheeseburgers #walker scobell #leah sava jeffries

[psilactis]

you watch black sails, it rewires your brain, and then what. what now. every queer analysis of media sounds superficial. I want - I need, sometimes - to compare movies and TV shows to black sails so I can make a point, but I can't, because like, five people have watched it. And now what. I try explaining the monster metaphor and how minorities shouldn't conform, but no one gets it. so I just sound like I'm being insane. Which I am, but it has a point and a rationale. And then some media comes out and everyone treats it like it's revolutionary in how it portrays queerness but you've seen it before and you've seen it done better, more carefully, more genuinely, but you can't say anything lest the fans of this new media accuse you of being a prejudiced asshole. And maybe you are. Maybe you're expecting too much of media that should just be allowed to exist as it is. But if that media is putting itself forward as some kind of metaphor for how queer people are treated in society, and it comes to a certain conclusion, and you're queer, aren't you allowed to disagree with that conclusion? Aren't you allowed to think it's shallow at best and homophobic at worse? So you just watch black sails and go insane. and let the cycle repeat over and over. and it's still just you and those five people.

#Sorry I've been having thoughts about [censored] that I'm too chicken to post #Bc I can just feel the fans coming at my throat if I say anything #black sails

[sparrowsfallingfromthesky]

#Black Sails #there are more of these coming soon! I just didn't want to put them all in one post #even though I technically could have. did everyone else know the limit for image posts is 30 pictures now? I thought it was still 10 #my edits #Jack Rackham #James Flint #John Silver #Charles Vane #most popular

[i-just-want-to-destroy]

el muchacho james flint

#james flint #black sails #captain flint #toby stephens #el muchacho #my shit #shows #IM CRYINGGGGG THIS IS SO FUNNYYYYY HELPPPPPPP #hes literally me #when i was in my leon era i actually thought of making el muchacho edit of leon. but im glad #i do it with flint instead. #tjhis is so funny i keep replaying it helppp #this is literally how i feel every day of my life

[avastyetwats]

Captain Charles Vane saving Captain James Flint.

Bonus:

#black sails #james flint #charles vane #flane #toby stephens #zach mcgowan #pirates #HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO CASTOR #a birthday gift for you <3 #fornassau #izzyeffinhands #you've been wanting a flane gifset and i've been wanting to make one and i thought this would be perfect for you xD #for us both and our flane! #i still laugh at the scene of them sitting on the chairs side by side #flint looks so annoyed to be sitting next to charles lmao #i hope you like this <3 #i'll do more in the future!

[shittinggold]

Thinking about how Max and Jack are like. Opposite ends of the same spectrum when it comes to narrativisation. On the one hand you have Jack who's obsessed with his legacy, obsessed with his story, with his name. Mr. "great art has felled Empires", Mr. " put that down and read a book". The man who sees victory in the form of who gets to write whose story. He does everything so that he can shape the future of Nassau in a way that recognises him and his name, and yet, he can't see it! He can't actually see the story he's in. He doesn't know his name is remembered, as both a real person and someone whose story has been retold countless times. He never got to the end of Woodes Rogers' book. He looks at the Jolly Roger, the flag that will symbolise piracy in two hundred years' time and he says "it's fine". He doesn't even know his own name! He is driven by the impact that the downfall of the calico industry had on his father and he doesn't even know that his name is Calico Jack. He is obsessed with writing the future and so is blind to how that future will actually remember him. He doesn't know the joke is on him.

And then you have Max who is powerfully invested in being as unremembered as possible. Ms. "power is most effective when it is least perceived". Ms. "this is all built upon sand". She is neof the few main characters who is neither a Treasure Island character nor a historical figure, and the only main character who doesn't have a last name. She uses that namelessness as a defence against being cast aside by the narrative, because she sees it! She sees the walls of the narrative, and knows that any story written about her will not be kind to her. "They will call me The Whore Who Lost Everything". Because of her gender, her race, her profession, her sexuality. She hides between the cracks of the narrative because she knows on some instinctive level that if she plays by the narrative's rules then she will always end up outside of the story, looking in on it. So she is able to shape the future of Nassau more than anyone else. She doesn't try to tell her story, but we still see it. "In another time, another place, they would have called me a Queen". She is talking to us. We are in that other time and place. She is pointing out the glass walls of the story and through them pointing directly at us as we watch her win.

It's like. In this show, the better a storyteller you are the more power you have to shape reality to your image. The more obsessed you are with telling the story the higher chance that the story will catch you in its grip and dash you helplessly against the rocks. Good luck.

#this is just scattered early morning thoughts but they're sooooo #jack rackham #max black sails #black sails

[billysboner]

i’m sorry as a woman im imagining what it was like for miranda to be completely shunted to the side by flint the moment they arrived in nassau, to go from being her husband and friend’s equal partner in their pursuits to some “fancy bit of puritan tail”. and of course flint says he doesn’t see her that way and of course she knows she’s not a fighter and can’t join him on the walrus but god, to be stuck in that goddamn house away from literally all the action. playing nurse to her new psuedo-husband when he comes home to her on death’s door. and for all flint’s insistence that “these men are dangerous, these men will kill you, you’re safer here while i go out and do all the dirty work”, well… in walks eleanor.

#black sails #miranda barlow #miranda hamilton #eleanor guthrie #i just think WOMEN #our five sort of main female characters #eleanor max anne madi and miranda #all exist at different points on this really interesting axis #of femininity and power #how they use their womanhood to gain power #how they overcome their womanhood to gain power #idk im just thinking thoughts

[rapselsstuff]

Sometimes I get sad that we didn’t get to see more of Thomas and Flint’s relationship then, that all we really see of it are a handful of tender moments. Because they are all brimming with love and softness that is still dripping off of Flint’s fingertips when he touches his Meditations. And I would have loved to see more of them. But maybe that’s the point, that they never got enough time together, that they were in soft and tender love with each other in the privacy of their own homes but never got to have any more than that. And many these few flashbacks are all the memories Flint has left of their love then, maybe all the others were too tainted by pain and grief, or maybe there weren’t a lot of others to begin with! Do we actually know how long they were together before everything fell apart?

I can just imagine Flint holding on to these few tiny scraps of memory that are all he has left of the man he loved and the man he was when he loved him, so tightly. And he doesn’t talk about it with Miranda because it hurts too much, but maybe those memories can be both a knife and an anchor for him as he sets out to realize the dream he and Thomas dreamt before England took Thomas away from him.

Like, I dunno. Maybe that’s the point of those scenes.

#black sails #thomas hamilton #james flint #hamilflint #captain flint #black sails thoughts

[laufire]

For Black Sails

❤

❤: Which character do you think is the most egregiously mischaracterized by the fandom?

I've seen at least one bad take but the cumulative worst... I'm thinking either silver, who gets some really funny hate that completely misses the emotional core of the show, or thomas. probably thomas, yeah. a lot of people genuinely seem to believe that guy was soooo revolutionary or smart or impressive... when so many characters in the show are so far beyond of anything he could dream. including flint, even if I wonder whether he might've had trouble accepting that (if we take the plantation reunion as canon, he might expect or hope thomas has changed as much as he did and... I have my doubts).

(this is making me want to prod at my old idea of "what if max had been succesful in sending silver to the plantation and he meets thomas there and is like... really? this guy?" xDD)

#replies #legendsofamultishipper #talking to the void #my thoughts #black sails thoughts #black sails #antithomashamilton for ts #just in case

[the-call-of-the-ocean]

Going mad over Silver being told “The crew will look after you” in the final episode of season two as the crew’s surgeon is about to cut off his leg despite Silver’s repeated pleas that he doesn’t want him to, and part of it may be due to the unbearable pain he’s in, but I don’t think that’s all of it.

Randall died one episode ago. When Billy introduced Silver to him at the beginning of season one, he said that Randall had been injured while in service of this crew and that the crew owed it to him to take care of him despite his infirmity — because of his infirmity. As a disabled man, Randall has no future outside Flint’s crew in the harsh world they live in.

Silver knows this. As we approach the end of season two, he’s slowly becoming a true member of the crew, “I” becomes “we” and “the men” becomes “my men” or “my brothers,” but he can still walk away from them if he chooses to do so. By cutting off his leg, even with the best intentions in the world, the crew is tying him to them more securely than any contract or blood pact to these men and — for the time being — to Flint’s captaincy. His very ability to walk away from them is literally being limited, which we see in the beginning of season three as he struggles with his new wooden leg.

Silver has gained the infinite loyalty of these men at the price of his leg and maybe even of his independence — he can still leave them and try his luck elsewhere, he knows how to make himself useful, but no matter how charismatic he is, the first thing people will probably always see is his wooden leg. He has become Randall. Despite being in the throes of immense pain, I think Silver realized what he was about to lose. Even if a part of him had still been entertaining the possibility that this was just a temporary situation, from this point on, he has no choice but to serve these men to the best of his ability because now they’re in a symbiotic relationship.

It’s a very grim answer to the question his entire season two arc is asking: where does he belong? What is his place in the world? In the end, he who held most of the cards in his hands at one point is not being given a choice: he’s staying here, with this crew, echoing the question Flint asked him earlier in the season — where else in the world would you wake up and matter like this? It’s the only place left in the world where he can matter now. The infinite possibilities have collapsed down to one. The man who wanted everything, who could be anyone, is now forced into a single role and can only play it genuinely.

#there was no other outcome. either he became tied to them or he died #idk. maybe it’s a very grim way of interpreting this scene #i’d be curious to know what disabled fans thought of this scene and silver’s change of status from an able-bodied man to a disabled man #john silver #black sails

[jaynovz]

In discussions about the finale of Black Sails, one of the things I often see is folks hard-focusing on Flint's fate, in an either-or binary fashion, usually presented as "Which do you believe-- that Silver killed him? or sent him to the plantation?"

Now, for posterity's sake, gonna mention a few things-- first off, that's simply not thinking broadly enough. There are farrrr more than two options here and I've come up with my share of the reallyyyyy bad ones for sure. Whatever your mind chooses, none of those are happy endings anyway, there are bittersweet, bad, and worse endings all the way down. (They are paused, they are in a time loop, and also all endings and no endings are happening simultaneously)

But also, the more cogent point is that, it doesn't actually matter what happened *to Flint* The story is... not actually about him at that point. We have transitioned from Flint as protag to Silver as protag, setting up for (the fanfiction that Black Sails has ended up making of, ugh, king shit) Treasure Island.

And so, I just, don't find it to be of particular interest exploring what we think Flint is actually doing or if he's alive for real. What is EXTREMELY interesting to explore though is how Silver's speech at the end to Madi is sort of giving Thomas back to Flint as a pacifier/comfort object, but how... Silver is giving Flint that thing in his own mind as his own type of pacifier/comfort object.

That's the REALLY chewy bit. What actually happens to Flint is not the purpose of that scene for me, of Silver's recounting of events to Madi. It's more about... projection. It's about how Silver is dealing with whatever happened to Flint/whatever he did.

And I just feel like it's missing the point to focus so hard on if Flint is alive or not.

He is the ghost of the story regardless, that's what's important. He's going to haunt the narrative for the rest of everyone's lives. No one has been untouched or unscarred by coming into contact with Captain Flint; he has a forever legacy. I'm not the first to call him this, but he's Schrödinger's Flint and he's staying that way.

But this?

"No. I did not kill Captain Flint. I unmade him. The man you know could never let go of his war. For if he were to exclude it from himself, he would not be able to understand himself. So I had to return him to an earlier state of being. One in which he could function without the war. Without the violence. Without us. Captain Flint was born out of great tragedy. I found a way to reach into the past... and undo it. There is a place near Savannah... where men unjustly imprisoned in England are sent in secret. An internment far more humane, but no less secure. Men who enter these gates never leave them. To the rest of the world, they simply cease to be. He resisted... at first. But then I told him what else I had heard about this place. I was told prominent families amongst London society made use of it. I was told the governor in Carolina made use of it. So I sent a man to find out if they'd used it to hide away one particular prisoner. He returned with news. Thomas Hamilton was there. He disbelieved me. He continued to resist. And corralling him took great effort. But the closer we got to Savannah, his resistance began to diminish. I couldn't say why. I wasn't expecting it. Perhaps he'd finally reached the limits of his physical ability to fight. Or perhaps as the promise of seeing Thomas got closer... he grew more comfortable letting go of this man he created in response to his loss. The man whose mind I had come to know so well... whose mind I'd in some ways incorporated into my own. It was a strange experience to see something from it... so unexpected. I choose to believe it... because it wasn't the man I had come to know at all... but one who existed beforehand... waking from a long... and terrible nightmare. Reorienting to the daylight... and the world as it existed before he first closed his eyes... letting the memory of the nightmare fade away. You may think what you want of me. I will draw comfort in the knowledge that you're alive to think it. But I'm not the villain you fear I am. I'm not him."

This is the speech of a man who is self-soothing, who is spinning himself a tale, who is projecting, who is coping.

and THAT is just, way chewier, innit?

#Now that's just from a canon point of view #once we start to delve into like fan fiction #Because fic must necessarily change the story and change canon because it's creating something new #so of course then figuring out what you want to do with flint post canon is necessary #but for me fanfiction is a different realm than canon only based meta conversations about the show #black sails meta #long post #black sails #john silver #james flint #thoughts #black sails spoilers #I was coaxed into writing my group chat meta into a post by the Committee mwah

[noknowshame]

I came to make a funny post about how Captain Hook mentions Flint by name not one but twice in the Peter Pan novels but in researching this I came across a historical footnote claiming that Flint was based on a real person, citing a passage in the biography “Life of the English Thieves and Pirates” by MC Whitehead. The problem being, that neither “Life of the English Thieves and Pirates” or MC Whitehead actually exist, and the only evidence of them whatsoever is in footnotes about Flint specifically. It’s a fictional footnote claiming a fictional person is a real person and cited in real documents about the real history behind fictional works of literature. Very True-Untrue energy 10/10 great work everyone

#we don't even have time to get into 'peter pan and treasure island take place in the same universe' again #this was inspired by my Peter Pan brand peanutbutter which I snacked on last night and thought 'i can make this about black sails' #i could. #black sails

[kvetchinglyneurotic]

so something i noticed on my latest black sails rewatch is that despite most of the show taking place on various ships we never really find out what skills silver has as a sailor? like he's pretending to be a cook when flint's crew picks him up and we never see him doing regular sailor duties on the walrus, and when he's briefly left in charge while flint is ashore he says that he's basically agreeing with whatever mr. de groot says to hide that he doesn't know what he's doing. but also he wasn't the cook on the ship he was on before the walrus and he knew where to damage the ship to keep vane's crew from leaving charleston, so he is an experienced sailor? maybe? i don't have a point i just love how the more you watch the more you start having flint on the cliffs moments where you realize that despite watching him for four seasons, you don't really know anything about john silver

#black sails #john silver #like he has a coherent personality and a character arc and all but also you know so little about him it's great #also it makes me slightly insane that he become like. the mythologized pirate figure and it's under a name he probably picked at random #or stole of the cook and thought he'd keep for like a week #and then billy invents the long john silver story and he's just stuck with this identity he can't escape #i'm pretty sure i've posted about that before but it still gives me brain worms (positive) #kvetch oc