#Flint & Madi own my heart and soul

[amarantheia]

Today's a personal Black Sails Anniversary for me, so posting this drawing of my faves from my fave show as a tiny celebration

[constant-and-immovable]

What are your thoughts about the PoTC cast in Back Sails?

AHAHAHAHHA! I kept meaning to do this!

this ended up INCREDIBLY long...

Elizabeth is either killed early on, or makes it to the end, there's no in between. I imagine she would be good friends with eleanor but eventually they'd see they're in this game on different sides and there's a dramatic moment where Elizabeth betrays her. Its framed as a "see she's not purely good either" moment, meant to reflect that everyone here is technically a criminal, but the fandom hated Eleanor enough by then that Lizzie becomes part of a bunch of annoying Girl Boss memes .

I'm gay, so I want a scene where Anne teaches Elizabeth how to use a knife. Also a scene of her and Will sparring, since we're told he taught her how to sword fight, but NEVER SAW IT...

Will does okay! He survives most of the way through, and really would have gone longer, but gets killed off for Elizabeth's character development. Most of his involvement was with finding the treasure and assisting in the defense of Nassau. OR he ends up opening a blacksmith shop on the island. There's an emotional moment where Flint applauds his fine work, but tells him it's all fucking worthless. They need strength and quantity, not high art. Will doesn't get to show off his artistry again for a while. Billy and Will remain the Token Straight Men of the series, and even though they never speak and only share one frame, there are hundreds of fics about them.

Jack...depends on which one. The guy who played comic relief and court jester throughout the other films? He's shot in a brawl he didn't even start his first time in Nassau. The guy who carried around a pistol with one shot on a mission of cold revenge? The guy who didn't even flinch at the idea of trading souls for his own? The guy that laughed at his own hanging? Yeah, he would make it at least as far as Charles Vane did. He gets killed, naturally, because he ends up a fan favorite. He gets on Silver's nerves immensely, despite the fact that they have a weird chemistry. Flint only exchanges a few words with him, one of them being essentially "Get the fuck off my ship and if I see you on it again I will shoot you."

Either that, or they end up with a Picard/Q dynaimic.

Tia Dalma kicks ass and takes names. She's given a weapon. If she has supernatural powers in this, that becomes a major plot point to convince her onto their side. She outright (violently, graphically) gets people killed by some kind of magic trap trying to get to her island, or else we just see their bodies mangled on display leading up to her cabin. Madi becomes the person to suggest going in from behind the main entrance to the island where the traps are, and gets in alone, and convinces her to assist--but only if they can deliver to her the heart of Davy Jones, which becomes the main collateral of the series instead of the Urca gold. Idk, Jones buried instructions for her release in it or something.

Barbossa does extremely well, and while he's at the forefront of most of the battles, he somehow survives to the end, he, like Anne & Rackham, sails under the black still despite the supposed end of piracy on Nassau OR his epilogue piece is him sitting in an office above the tavern on Tortuga, establishing a second pirate base there. He doesn't get the Pearl in this version, but manages to sail off with The Fucking Warship. He, Flint, and Blackbeard hate each other, deeply, but also have the most experience and end up collaborating throughout the show for a few of the major battles.

Anna-Maria almost gets involved with Anne, but doesn't. She doesn't like how much they have in common, a rough past, a shaky relationship with a Jack (I assume we unfortunately have to see pretty much everyone fucking someone at some point, since it's Starz, and there's no way the writers wouldn't have gone the easy route of her and Jack), but she does save Anne's life at one point. Max thanks for her it, upset that she wasn't there, and post break up with Anne, Max finds her again, offers her a position on the new Nassau which she says she'll consider. In typical fashion of the show, we're never given a definite as to whether or not the two women ever get together. She survives but only because I said so, otherwise she's a minor character and therefore easy cannon-fodder (possibly literally) for an early series death.

Norrington ends up playing a major role in the early season, betrays the English at one point for Elizabeth's protection (he tells them that he's doing it to doublecross her, he tells her he's double crossing them, he doesn't know what he's doing). Will and Elizabeth were fighting Because Drama and This is Starz, so at some point she marries him, but it cements him onto their side (opposite of Eleanor and Woodes in the later seasons). He's good with strategy until it's personal (remember in his own canon he's the one who chased Jack around the world, got his crew killed), but a personal stake in things is what makes Elizabeth hone in on her best ideas, and they level each other out.

Season two finale he's killed by a random English spy on the island who was sent to be sure Norrington was doing what he said he would. With Eleanor's approval, Elizabeth tortures the spy for information, but after he gives up with little useless nonsense he knows, she still kills him, dumps the body, lies and says their information source escaped. When he washes in with the tide, Will claims it was his actions. He and Norrington were not close, but they were from the same town, and (he lies) he respected him. He knows Elizabeth did it, but also knows that he'll get much less flack for it, if any; and Elizabeth nods a thank you. It's the start of them communicating again.

Gibbs, as a storyteller, is given protection by the narrative, as it knows that it needs him alive to exist, and therefore he lives.

[laufire]

001 for the 100 and black sails!

The 100

Favorite character: honestly, it’s going to come down to how it all ends (mainly because it’s always been a pretty close call, with Raven slightly ahead), especially since my heart is trying to protect itself from a Raven-related disappointment xD. Echo, Murphy, Octavia and Emori are the most likely candidates, in that order :P

Least Favorite character: I no longer hold any animosity towards her but I will keep saying Clarke until I know my faves are safe from her, just because xD

5 Favorite ships (canon or non-canon): Emori/Murphy, Diyoza/Octavia, Echo/Raven, Clarke/Josephine, Indra/Sheidheda. Yes, I love enemy ships, why do you ask xD

Character I find most attractive: EMORI. Her face is the utmost expression of My Type LOL.

Character I would marry: Echo. In this meme I like to marry the best provider xD

Character I would be best friends with: Murphy and I would get along like a house on fire.

a random thought: I haven’t watched the past few episodes... I’m worried about my faves AND I’m bored as hell just thinking about the prequel and all the ways it could’ve conditioned the ending. Meh.

An unpopular opinion: the idea of a Memori baby scares the hell out of me for multiple reasons and honestly, right now I really don’t want it to happen.

my canon OTP: Emori/Murphy.

Non-canon OTP: Diyoza/Octavia (though it’s a bit implied okay xD).

most badass character: Diyoza-Echo-Octavia is one hell of a triumvirate in that sense... I don’t know who to pick.

pairing I am not a fan of: at this point I don’t like Clarke/anyone but Josie or Bellamy/anyone lol.

character I feel the writers screwed up (in one way or another): Raven in these past few episodes :))). I truly hope it can be fixed but...

favourite friendship: Raven & Memori.

character I want to adopt or be adopted by: definitely wouldn’t want any of these people as a parental figure lmao. Nor the responsibility of raising them xD (though yeah, in some cases it’s hard to imagine doing it worse than their parents *coughs*).

Black Sails

Favorite character: Max, who owns my heart and my soul forever and ever.

Least Favorite character: it’s still between Rogers, Alfred Hamilton, and Peter Ashe. Rogers is... terrible (that Blackbeard scene...) albeit an interesting antagonist. Alfred is despicable. Ashe offends me on a very deep level ¬¬

5 Favorite ships (canon or non-canon): in alphabetical order because for the life of me I can’t pick one, I just have TOO MANY FEELINGS -- Anne/Jack + Anne/Max, Flint/Madi/Silver, Flint/Madi/Miranda/Silver, Flint/Miranda.

Character I find most attractive: ALL THE WOMEN ARE SO ATTRACTIVE (the men have great personalities. Okay, Joshua is adorkable. Flint has worryingly attractive moments while he comits violence. Silver has great hair and a nice smile and I love him a lot. But yeah. Personalities xDD). My heart points to Max (especially because the show styles her so, so lovingly...). But really, depends on the mood, because all the women appeal to different parts of my id lmao.

Character I would marry: Jack is some damn good husband material, let me tell you.

Character I would be best friends with: Flint and I would ~vibe.

a random thought: we should have seen at least one (1) officiated matelotage. By Flint specifically, though I think one done by Jack would be amazing.

An unpopular opinion: I ship Flint/Madi independently of Silver and for what I’ve seen most people view them more platonically?

my canon OTP: I’m in an Anne/Max mood today.

Non-canon OTP: Flint/Madi/Miranda/Silver.

most badass character: so many of them are badasses in their own ways... but I’m always most impressed by Max and Silver tbh.

pairing I am not a fan of: Eleanor/Rogers is so depressing.

character I feel the writers screwed up (in one way or another): ... not in a way that I feel hurt the story, iykwim? (though damn, did Billy get... Like That xD).

favourite friendship: Max & Silver team-ups (with bonus Jack) are my fave part of this show.

character I want to adopt or be adopted by: n/a, really.

[silverflintdaily]

ARTIST CLAIMS ARE NOW OPEN!

Please read all the summaries below the cut and fill out the form with your top 5 picks.  If you have questions about some of these fics before signing up and want us to follow up with the authors, please send us an ask or shoot Mel an email.  SUBMIT CLAIMS BY APRIL 25  - artist claim form here

1. running is a victory Skeleton Island holds the greatest and most ancient treasure the world’s ever known—not that anyone’s ever actually seen it before. Captain Flint and his crew sail through treacherous seas full of English ships, freak storms, and at least one large monster lurking in the deep, desperate to find the island and obtain the Urca gold. That all seems simple compared to dealing with the charming yet duplicitous John Silver and the alleged Urca curse. [Black Sails meets Pirates of the Caribbean!] 2. A Ship is a Republic Flint and Silver train relentlessly on the cliffs of Maroon Island. Silver begins to realise how much he enjoys obeying Flint's instructions. Swordplay gives way to foreplay. 3. Elijah's Violin "A mage, a sorcerer, and a warlock walk into my bar,” says a woman behind the counter. “Have you heard this one before?”

The city of Venice is in turmoil: someone has been turning people to stone. Years after the events that landed them both in hot water and separated them, Flint and Silver are thrown together to solve a dangerous magical mystery. They are joined on their mission by Thomas (who may or may not have a pet Hellhound). The three magicians must work together (and try not to kill each other) before the Carnival of Venice devours them as well. 4. title tbd Or, James Flint, state park employee and firebrand, discovers that someone who broke his heart is back in his life, and that someone is miserable. That this someone is miserable makes James Flint very happy! Except for how it really does not make him happy, whoops. Modern au, angst, slow burn, mutual pining, happy ending. 5.  Don't Say I Didn't Warn Ya John's a drag king, making friends with Thomas and his drag queen troupe. They all perform at the bar that Flint and Gates own and run together - The Frigate.

Trans!Silver, Poly!Flint. ships: silverflint, established flintgates & flinthamilton, possible eventual silverflinthamilton (if I have it in me to write that far) 6.  call to war When the Maroon Queen gets a letter from Woodes Rogers indicating that Madi is alive, she makes the executive decision to have Flint rescue her without telling Silver. When Flint does find Madi, she tells him not to tell Silver she is alive--so that he will want to continue to fight the war he so desperately hates, all so Madi's "death" wasn't for nothing. Against his own judgment, Flint agrees, leading to a series of events that spiral out of control, bringing Flint and Silver closer together, even as Flint is wracked with guilt over his deceit. A s4 canon divergence, heavily focused on Madi, Flint and Silver, as well as the Maroons.

7.  the life that we chose All of Silver's schemes and machinations screech to a halt when he locks eyes with Captain Flint across the deck of the Walrus and the world explodes into color. Flint's cold and indifferent behavior towards him in the weeks that follow makes no sense until he learns that the captain first saw colors ten years ago, in London.

(Flint's been able to see color since he first met Thomas, it's true, but - has Billy always had blue eyes? Was the spine on that book always such a deep green?)

note for artist claims: silverflint au where when you meet your soulmate you can see color. thomas and silver are both flint's soulmate: he saw most colors when he met thomas, but once he meets silver he can finally see the full spectrum. of course he doesn't realize this because ANGST 8. To Be Rid of Temptation “What would you suggest we do instead, then?”

Maybe it was the way he said it, the way Flint was sitting with his knees sprawled out, or the secrets he guarded so closely; Silver didn’t know what it was, but somebody’s Devil took ahold of his tongue then and he said, “I think we should fuck.”

Set around the start of season 3, *spoilers* they do fuck. 9. Chasing Sea Foam Once upon a time, there was a pirate Captain whose moods controlled the seas and whose grief over his missing Lord drove him to wreak havoc in the West Indies.

Once upon a time, there was a merperson who saved the pirate Captain from drowning and who longed to be a part of his world. One day he was faced with a terrible decision: to see his Captain bring death and destruction onto the world and himself, or to stop him and reunite him with his missing Lord. The merperson made his choice and disappeared into the sea.

Years after his Happily Ever After, Flint sets out to find answers about Silver guided only by tall tales and a longing in his heart.

supernatural AU (not a Supernatural the show AU, it just has supernatural elements), features Flint/Thomas and Silver/Flint/Thomas as secondary ships, and past Silver/Madi)

10.  the long waves crawl Nassau sang with magic in a way that Silver hadn’t felt since his childhood, not unlike the hazy memories of a tiny house crowded with herbs and all sorts of books that smelled of cedar smoke and sage.

Only here he was not hidden, nor was he safe. He darted through the streets, avoiding the hungry looks that other magic users gave him. Felt their eyes on his skin and knew they could smell the magic in his blood.

In which Silver is a witch, and in an already complicated world magic is a dangerous thing. 11. Fire Light Silver is a new University professor who starts his job by stealing research out from under Flint’s nose. To get access to the research, Flint steals Silver.

12. Birds Of A Feather A Black Sails/Pride and Prejudice crossover, featuring John Silver as a victim of Mrs Bennet's match making escapades and James McGraw as a lieutenant on sick leave who just wants some peace and quiet.

13. the whole estate of mortal man Silver has a limited memory, an unlimited lifespan, and a need for human souls. He spends four seasons trying to buy Flint's.

14. "On the Banks of the Lethe" Waking after a head injury with no memory of the past two years, Flint finds himself a stranger in a strange land. Faced with the politics of a war he doesn’t remember, and a Walrus crew he hardly recognizes, Flint must reconcile what he knows with what has transpired: Gates’ betrayal; the discovery of the Urca gold; the aftermath of Charles Town. All preceded by the rise of a quartermaster he doesn’t trust—a quartermaster he only knows to be a liar and a thief. Uncertain of his newfound loyalties, Flint suddenly finds himself standing in the shadow of a monster of his own inadvertent making: Long John Silver, Nassau’s newly christened Pirate King.

Amnesia!fic. Set right before Season 4. Angst. Confusion. Gross abuse of tropes. Stupid men in love (even if one doesn’t quite remember). AKA: What if Season 1 James Flint met Season 4 John Silver.

15. a beautiful, sinuous thing; a terrible, treacherous thing Driven by grief, James Flint leaves the city behind to become the caretaker of a lighthouse in a small coastal town. But despite his desire for solitude, he finds himself drawn to a man who seems to have simply strolled out of the sea one day. Silver expects the new lighthouse keeper on his shores to be easy prey - quiet, isolated, sad. But he may have more on his hands than he expected. Modern fantasy au influenced by works like Daisy Johnson's Fen and Victor LaValle's The Changeling 16. The Return of John Silver Seven months after leaving Savannah and the war behind, Flint and Thomas are doing their best to leave the past where it belongs. But the past is never quite past. When the arrival of a wounded pirate on their doorstep threatens to shake what little foundation they've managed to build together, Flint finds himself at a familiar crossroads. Does he allow himself to admit that John Silver belongs in his life, (and in Thomas's) or will he continue to deny the truth even to himself? 17. gonna need a bigger boat The not-quite-Jaws AU where Flint is a perpetually irritated sea captain, hired by a perpetually irritating quasi-con man Silver, both to hunt a shark that has supposedly killed seven people in the last few months. Only they stumble upon a crime in action, end up trapped on a small boat in the middle of an ocean, and they figure out that they're going to have to work together to stay alive and collect that shark bounty somehow. (Featuring the use of thinly veiled shark metaphors, shark fun facts, and two people who cannot believe that their relationship is hurtling towards - something). 18. Loose Lips Sink Ships Rewrite of Black Sails S4. Billy Bones tries to kill Silver, fails, and Silver starts his revenge quest. Woodes Rogers is dead, Nassau is in chaos, and Silver finds his whole world changed. Mostly silverflint and it does become silverflintham. Happy ending! Very, very violent beginning.

[intolerablexsacrifice]

ANSWER THE FOLLOWING FOR SO PEOPLE KNOW HOW SHIPPING WORKS ON YOUR BLOG.

REPOST. don’t reblog. TAGGED BY:  @oceanfoamed, whom i adore TAGGING: everyone i know has been tagged >:0

WHAT’S YOUR OTP FOR YOUR MUSE?:

listen it’s a known fact that @oceanfoamed’s thomas and @harriedwritings‘ miranda have the keys to my flint’s soul given that they were the basis for like, building up so much of my characterization and canon and verses and shit. 

WHAT ARE YOU WILLING TO RP WHEN IT COMES TO SHIPPING?:

Pretty much anything tbh?? The only thing I ask is that any unhealthy aspects of a ship are acknowledged and recognised by both writers- which is why I have to be somewhat selective with shipping Flint, because the man has some serious fucking identity and codependency issues due to his inability to separate himself from Thomas and Miranda, etc etc, on top of being both highly manipulative and easy to manipulate himself (especially where Thomas is concerned, Jesus Christ- like not even with the man himself necessarily, but just that basically if anyone has knowledge of Thomas, they have the ability to manipulate Flint as a result).

HOW LARGE DOES THE AGE GAP HAVE TO BE TO MAKE IT UNCOMFORTABLE?:

EH to be honest as long as both characters are over 21, are written as if they’re over 21, and there’s no sense of like... one character being viewed as a child or written that way etc, then it’s probably fine. 

ARE YOU SELECTIVE WHEN SHIPPING?:

Yes and no? I’m always open to shipping because I enjoy it and it’s fun, but generally speaking Flint is a difficult character to ship with without development and OOC chemistry. As a character he also isn’t generally looking for romance- if anything, he’s actively avoiding it, and there’s likely always going to be the issue of Thomas and Miranda to contend with too. I ALWAYS... WANT MORE SHIPS but Flint is, well, Flint.

HOW FAR DO STEAMY MOMENTS HAVE TO GO BEFORE THEY’RE CONSIDERED N.SFW?:

listen basically if I wouldn’t want my professors seeing it while i’m in class, it’s probably unsafe for work dljdnjgfg

WHO ARE OTHER MUSES YOU SHIP YOUR MUSE WITH?: 

@least-among-hamiltons‘ Thomas, whom we adore and fuck dude I love writing with Matt because it’s so damn low pressure sdfjdnfkgjn and <3333 ;; 

@tidefated‘s Joji, who somehow just?? was consistently fucking considerate and firm and loyal to flint and as a result completely stole Flint’s heart dkfjndlfknjg I THINK ABOUT THOSE TWO EVERY DAY OF MY LIFE.

tbh I think that’s actually all of my current Official Ships kdfnsdklfng????? LITERALLY I HAVE LIKE... FOUR... i might be forgetting one or two though rip. 

ANY NOTPS?: 

The Cursed Ship, aka Flint/Silver, is the biggest one, especially just--the way it’s written in fandom. I would make an exception solely for @harriedwritings and @oceanfoamed because I know and trust them OOC and we are all of equal contempt for Cursed Content. My Flint is a fucking idiot during S4 despite my personal feelings on the matter (by which I mean generally, by default, there are some Indefinable Buried Not-Quite-Platonic Feelings from flint during s4 and postcanon, but it’s complicated and obviously like... no amount of ‘feelings’ could ever fucking make up for The Shit Silver Did without some SERIOUS FUCKING DEVELOPMENT ETC and it would probably also need to be as part of a trio or more, SO). TL;DR; basically I won’t even write with Silvers that aren’t Holmes’, Harri’s, or my own. 8I

Flint x literally any woman that isn’t Miranda or Madi (and both of them require another male party as part of a trio in order to work; Miranda is only an exception because they were a trio before).

DOES ONE HAVE TO ASK TO SHIP WITH YOU?:

NAH?? that shit tends to happen organically, the only exception is like... if we aren’t friends OOC in which case shipping is unlikely to happen anyway??? i’m always pretty upfront about whether or not i ship something--or rather, i’m upfront if i don’t ship it, i’m an idiot with the other thing kdjndfg G-D. 

HOW OFTEN DO YOU LIKE TO SHIP?:

listen i love shipping so All The Time tbh who cares

ARE YOU MULTISHIP?:  

yes! and also 100% down for ot3s/ot4s/etc bc flint functions better in a trio!

ARE YOU SHIP OBSESSED OR SHIP MORE-OR-LESS?: 

im TIRED

WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE SHIP IN YOUR CURRENT FANDOM?:

it’s flinthamiltons obviously but listen i’ll ship Likely Unrequited Flintgates until i die. also harri and i spoke once about an au where basically everyone is just in a polyam relationship with one another which is excellent too.

FINALLY, HOW DOES ONE SHIP WITH YOU?:

just fucking yeet yourself at me tbh?? i’m also always fine with unrequited ships so either way it’s a win/win

[jadedbirch]

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1. Good ships scuttled on the deep

His fingers follow flecks of blood down to the point of his captain’s cheekbone. A thin pink scar, no wider than John’s fingernail, marks Flint’s pale skin. Flint’s eyes close completely. “I thought it was a welcome,” John says. Silver and Flint become lovers following the battle on Maroon Island. S4 AU with established silverflint relationship and some canon divergences.

2. Pray For The Wicked On The Weekend    John Silver spends his days in a faded green pickup truck filled with salt-loaded shotguns and silver and holy water on the back roads of the United Stated hunting monsters and demons and things that go bump in the night, and he’s fine with it, because it’s the easiest way to forget what he’s lost. But there’s something coming, something that he can’t face alone. So where else would he turn but the best Hunter the US has ever seen. Even if no one has heard from James Flint since Thomas and Miranda Hamilton went missing.

3. patron saint of lost causes

It takes two weeks to get Flint off Skeleton Island. Or rather--it takes two weeks for the island to let them go. In which Skeleton Island is a living character and brings a host of nightmares through the mist which force Silver and Flint to confront the dangers of their minds. Featuring surreal dreamscape horror as Silver literally battles figures from his murky, unnamed past and Flint moving through a river of blood and ghosts until he and Silver finally meet in the middle. Influences include Guillermo Del Toro's Pan's Labyrinth and The Devil's Backbone and Maria Luisa Bombal's work.

4. Let It All Unbreak You Post season four. Alone in taverns, at different points in time, Flint and Silver ponder what went wrong with their different relationships. They drink, remember and regret. They reflect upon the little they had together, and regret not making it work after the war with Madi or Thomas, while knowing very well that the very reason it all went wrong is that they had changed too much, had given each other too much, yet were not brave enough to admit it to each other when it was still time.

(Ships: Silverflint, flint x miranda x thomas, flint x thomas, silver x madi) (Angst, definitely not fix-it, no happy ending)

5. Pirate Sex is In Vogue

My fic is a modern AU primarily through email correspondence between Silver and Flint, although other mediums (such as texting and phoning) will be introduced as the story evolves. Silver is a crack erotica writer and Flint is the librarian who just wouldn't showcase his books at the Nassau Public Library, despite the insistence of the latter. They become unexpected virtual pen pals after Flint sends a heated rejection letter and grow closer through their correspondence, helping each other confront the inner demons of their personal lives. There will be polyamory, since Flint is involved with Thomas and Miranda by the time he and Silver fall in love.

6. Tell me we're dead and I'll love you even more

In the year 1725, or thereabouts, John Silver finds himself driven by a winter storm into an inconsequential little port town, barely a speck on any civilised map. Returned to the life of a drifter, tired and rough around the edges, he is resigned to waiting for the weather to pass before he can sail on again to the next town, and the next, and the next. That is until he overhears a conversation in the inn about a local fisherman, one Captain Barlow, and his tall tales of tempests and becalmings, devils and sharks, and Silver finds a new future opening up to him, haunted by the spectres of his past. Whether landed in this place by fortune, or fate, or even divine intervention, he finds he cannot leave again without following this trail that leads from an old and half-forgotten tether knotted deep between his ribs to somewhere that feels familiar and safe, like home. The way won’t be easy; it’s paved with notable absences and painful unspoken truths, and there’s as good a chance as any that he’ll find a knife to his throat before he can so much as say ‘Long time no see, Captain’. Still, all roads do seem to lead to them baring their souls to one another in the dark, and Silver would be lying if he said he hadn’t missed it.

7.  An Epilogue

After the events of Treasure Island, John finds James and Thomas. There’s a gradual awkward descent to domesticity when pirates retire. Madi brings Jim Hawkins with her from London. This is the ultimate fix it where there are no unanswered questions and everyone lives happily ever after. SilverFlint, SilverHamilton, SilverFlintHamilton, SilverMadi

8. Stealing Hearts

A 1920s AU with Flint as a mob boss, fighting a corrupt police force/police system, and Silver as a thief who gets caught up in all of it.  

9. Space Raiders of Nassau

The space station Nassau is in open rebellion against the interplanetary Imperial Alliance.  Captain James Flint is in deep shit for rearranging the face of a fellow raider captain.  As punishment, Nassau's leaders assign an inside man to his crew, with a very convincing cover story (that they're married). Complicating things further is the fact that Flint's shifty new husband, John Silver, knows a lot more than he's telling about their secret mission. Their own survival as well as Nassau’s future depend on how successfully they can navigate the dangerous skies… and each other.  

10. The Pirate Captain's Wedding Once he has his hands on the thief Flint is willing to do whatever it takes to get the page from him. And then Billy & Gates say marriage is the only solution left on the table. Or rather matelotage – the time honored pirate form of matrimony. Billy says it’s the only way to regain the crew’s trust, by marrying one of them, and Gates agrees. For once Flint’s desperate enough to agree to it. He never expects to actually fall in love with the little shit. Canon-Era Season1/Season2 AU– with angsty developing feelings, public consummation, & There Is Only One Bed night after hot sticky sweaty night. 11. The devil's gotta' earn

Supernatural AU. James Flint has been a hunter for over a decade now and he knows people join this profession for plenty of reasons and few of those are happy ones. Some people just seek the thrill, some want to protect the so called innocent, some - like him - are out for revenge and John Bloody Silver apparently is just trying to get rich. [Borrows mostly from first seasons of Supernatural, little to no prior knowledge of this show required. Miranda lives, Thomas tragically does not. Lots of angst, few monsters of the week and a demon or two.]

12. touch me James is a widow, bartender and owner of the gay-bar “The Rainbow“. After Thomas' death it had been John who had lift him up. One day one of his usual dancers - because what is a gay bar without your occasional striptease - can't perform. John offers to fill the space and James has to face that John is more than just a friend. Slow burn and StripperJohn!AU

13. Adamantine Flame Flint is a forest god called The Flame and Silver is part of the cult that worships him that resides on the fringes of the underworld. 14. [Title TBD] Silver never met another werewolf before. Well, realistically, he knew he must have because he wasn't born a werewolf so someone had to have done this to him. But that didn't count since his memory of the whole incident was lackluster at best. He knew others had to be out there somewhere though and he wanted to find at least one, just to know he wasn't all alone. Flint was surrounded by werewolves all his life. Always part of a family, always knowing someone cared for him. Knowing he had someone to care for. The memories were as vivid as ever, of a time when he cared for someone. But they were gone and he knew he was meant to be all alone. 15. set my soul on fire

Nothing quite like getting out of prison to make a man feel like pulling off the biggest heist you’ve ever heard of. But he can’t do it alone - he’s going to need some money, a plan, a crew, and of course, his partner. His incorrigible, oral fixation-having, blue-eyed devil of a partner. Who is this smooth, seasoned con man with his eyes on the prize? James fucking Flint, naturally. And his partner? John Silver.Viva Las Vegas, baby.

16. cat dad

Modern au. Flint's life is fine. It's quiet and it's fine and he's fine. Well, except that his upstairs neighbor is a dick and his relationship with Miranda is strained and maybe quiet isn't all it's cracked up to be. But then a one-eyed cat enters his life and with it one John Silver. Flint's not sure how he feels about that, but he's working on it. Plot includes cat shenanigans, cooking, fluff, and feelings. 

17. [Title TBD]

A post-canon rendition of the Silver and Flint reunion wherein rather than seeking each other out the two are brought back together by outside forces. There’s a wedge of sour history and new lives built between them but love and desire become hard to deny when every path you set out on to leave someone behind sends you hurdling straight back to them. Treasure Island divergent/ignorant, though I pull some things from TI including the bird. (Includes SilverMadi and FlintHamilton as side-pairings, warning for canon Black Sails side-character death.) 18. The Spark

it's a Girl Genius AU

That's it, that's the whole shtick. It's basically the plot of the show, but clockwork-punk with mad geniuses (of course Flint is one), Urca being chock full of Aztec tech a'la Mysterious Cities of Gold, and dr. Howell and colleagues taking medicine to some quite Frankenstein levels - convenient with so many characters who should know better than to fucking die.

Also John Silver might be a construct.  The prosthetics are not nearly as complicated as in treasure planet, but at least one person has a gun arm? dirigibles are "Supposed Not To Be Invented Yet", but not for the lack of trying. Silverflint revolves around having "The Spark" and personhood and is shaping up heavier than i intended... luckily they will have plenty of people to set them to rights - i'm aiming for a happy polyfamily forming in the background.

19. he’s funny that way

1920s Atlantic City. Everybody knows the only way to leave crime boss Eleanor Guthrie's business is through a funeral - either delivering the sermon or laid out in the casket. Still, Flint leaves anyway, because he likes to make his life as difficult as possible. Case in point: his new partner, the scruffy, irate, one-legged racketeer with a pretty mouth, a quick tongue, and a rye recipe even Pussyfoot Johnson wouldn't spit out. His new partner's making sure he's not joining the church and taking a celibacy vow anytime soon - but will anyone be able to save Flint from his early - or long overdue - grave?

20. Ship to Wreck 

"I don't know if you've noticed, Doctor," Silver snaps, incredulous, "But every moment the Captain is unconscious in that bed is another step away from five million fucking dollars. As if that weren't enough, we're locked in a ridiculous show of force with a madman who seems keen on blowing us sky high unless we concede to his demands; we've got a crowd of men up top losing their Goddamned minds because they've been promised a fight that we cannot presently even hope to deliver; and--" Silver pauses, exhaling hard. "Actually, you know what? There is no and.  I’d say that’s about enough shit to make us all a little tense, wouldn’t you agree?" "Hm," Howell says, mildly. A post 204 fic in which: Flint gets a fever, Silver has a panic attack, and Howell gets a migraine. Includes, among other things--Silver trying and failing at playing nurse; Silver trying and failing at controlling his feelings; Flint being dazed and delirious and soft; some singing, some yelling, and heavy doses of mutual pining. Love, obviously, turns out to be the best medicine. 21. More Than One Odysseus

Reunion fic, about two years after 4.10. Quite a lot of talking and a little of the following: fishing, sex, hunting, bathtubs, Jewish surnames, books, stories and Terra Australis. Canon-compliant, not TI-compliant. A few animals killed (for food, not sport).

22. Seedlings

"If there's anything I can help you with-- Or if you'd like to order flowers for an upcoming occasion--"

"All right, honestly?" Handsomely disgruntled customer looked Silver dead in the eye and said, "I'm looking for a gift that says, 'You are making a dreadful mistake, and you will regret these actions for the rest of your days. Call me when you've figured out what a fucking hash of things you've made.'" He spoke the way some people chewed tinfoil.

Silver felt two things: lust like a plague of locusts, and the words 'uh-oh' waft through his brain.

On the second anniversary of the worst day of his adult life, John Silver─temporary florist, burgeoning gardner, and former thief─meets James Flint. It is only love at first sight for one of them. (Or is it?)

23. The Curse of Aeaea

Inspired by the connection between Flint and Odysseus: Silver and Flint find themselves dealing with a very Circe-like situation. Once the curse affects Silver, they have to figure out a way to end it or be trapped on an island that’s not on any map.

(Animal Transformation, Body Horror, Poor Coping Mechanisms, Circe’s Curse, Odysseus, Post-Season 2, Pre-Season 3)

24. With Strange Aeons Months after the disappearance and presumed death of Captain Flint and Long John Silver, Max smuggles Jack and Anne to Oglethorpe’s plantation. Thomas learns that not only do the three of them have a friend in common, but he is not the only one whose dreams are haunted by a strange city and a terrifying name. Meanwhile, Flint and Silver try to escape an island trapped in time, impossibly built and impossibly old. Along the way they’re forced question reality, each other, and themselves.

And in his house in R’lyeh, dead Cthulhu waits dreaming. (Prior knowledge of Lovecraft is fun, but not required.)

[elirandom]

I wish you would write a fic where you translate Captain Flint into the Expanse universe.

So I did one of those reblog games I wish... & this reply. Anon, I could only wish to make that kind of story justice. I suddenly crave reading that.

Because Captain Flint, James McGraw, who fought an empire to avenge his love. Because the only way his war could end was when he'd granted them forgiveness for taking Thomas away, not the other way around. And they would never get it.

And in The Expanse you have so many people who'd fight beside him. Because the system never got any better, it only got worse & getting to see the Belter plot line with someone like Flint than Marco? I'd want that with bloodied hands. But I would want Flint to find his Thomas & hade their freedom together. Silver can die in a fire, unless Madi would forgive him and work beside her on her ship. Because she would get to have her freedom with her people of choice. Can you imagine Madi & Camina Drummer heading a warship together? Or even better, running their own fleet.

I want him & Thomas to balance warships & peace treaties & fights with Avaserala. God, to have them trade barbs because none of them have clean hands on their way to reach their goal. They would be magnificent.

I want moments where Thomas & James Holden discuss how to make the world a better place, while Flint watches with heart eyes at Thomas, where Naomi tells them hard truths & Camina Drummer tells them to never give up. I want Amos to be there, to see James Flint through James Holden's eyes & weigh his worth. Because I think Amos would be unsure because Flint would be too easy to follow for him. Amos is good at seeing the end goal, he just has to have help in sorting through the best way to get there. And Flint sacrifices a lot for his goals, including bits of his soul (Gates was one piece he regretted but nevertheless sacrificed when necessary). I want to see Flint through Bobbi's eyes & deem his goal worth her loyalty as a soldier.

I want Admiral Duarte to burn & have the crews of the Walrus & Rocinante rejoice. I want peacetime so I can gorge my greedy heart on all the comforts after hurting the characters.

I wish I could write this, because I'd love to mash these 'verses together like Browncoats in space. Because I love these characters to bits & they fight so hard against so many things that hurt them. That takes & takes & takes. But perhaps in the darkness of galaxies there's enough space to create freedom with a little light for yourself.

[redwhale]

re: Fic Rec Days, I was hoping to have this done by the 12th! Nope. This is an updated rec list for James/Thomas and James/Miranda/Thomas for Black Sails. 

I am still wanting to rec a lot of the newer stories on this list separately (plus some other wonderful stories), but I don’t think that will happen before mid-March, so that’s really frustrating. Curses! I haven’t even caught up on writing reviews for some of the newer stories, which I’m even more frustrated about. I sadly don’t have a lot of time to read fic, so this is by no means an extensive list. There is so much goddamn fantastic work out there! The following is just a very small taste. Positively, there are some underrated gems linked here that deserve some more love. 

(I always feel awful about rec lists, because I know I’ve inevitably lost track of some amazing stories, and there are also equally as many excellent stories from stupidly talented authors that I might have missed or haven’t gotten to read yet, so I want to emphasize again, this is by no means extensive.)  The following stories are just AO3 links, as I’ve lost track of so many Tumblr fics, and when a user changes their username, the links break. Double curses!

James/Thomas:

Idealism Sits In A Prison -  Sunnyrea

Thomas Hamilton's ten years without James.

Stimulus -  AstronautSquid

After ten years of separation and hardship, their hearts love each other the same.

It's their bodies that need longer to settle.

Thomas Hamilton: A Life -  AstronautSquid

Thomas Hamilton is born with two front teeth.

He dies with the morning sun in his eyes.

This is everything in between.

Les mille et une nuits -  andloawhatsit 

Abigail Ashe grows up, buys a printing press, and finds a man she thought she'd never see again.

On Kindly Beaches -  Theonenamedafterahat

Woodes Rogers tries to get Thomas Hamilton to help him persuade Captain Flint to accept the pardons. This does not go well for him.

A Break In The Clouds -  moonflowers

The end of his nose brushed the back of the man's hood; he smelt of oil and salt and wet canvas. For the first time that evening, Thomas was thankful he was cold and miserable - it provided a distraction from the firmness of the body pressed against his front, and how inconvenient it would be for Thomas to crave it.

In which Thomas is lost in the rain, and rather enamoured with his rescuer.

For whither thou goest, I will go -  OrangeLady

When Thomas is set free from Bedlam, he knows he has to see New Providence, the place that stole so much from him: his lovers, his family and his life.

wooden tides to run -  AstronautSquid

James was almost certain he had walked more miles on wooden planks than on solid ground in his life.

Fascination -  AstronautSquid

“Pirates,” was all James rasped above him.

“A general history thereof,” Thomas agreed. “Detailing the most fearsome scoundrels to ever plague the high seas. Though I have to say, this likeness doesn’t quite do you justice. Your moustache is not as ridiculously curly as that.”

Imitation -   AstronautSquid

In battle he was clear-headed and footsure.

Faced with Thomas' request for a taste of Flint, James felt anything but.

Reorienting -  Palebluedot

Thomas grabs ahold of his holy apparition with both hands and keeps him there, draws him nearer. Let them hold each other until they both bruise, he thinks fiercely, for tenderness needn't always step light. Love owes them kind wounds.

Eye of the Beholder -  Palebluedot 

“Open your eyes for me, love,” Thomas reminds him, voice husky, and when he does, the first thing he sees is Thomas's reflected grin, hungry as the gaze that caresses every inch of skin from James's parted, panting lips down to his flushed and leaking cock. “Just look at you,” he sighs in James's ear before he trails imprecise, open-mouthed kisses back down to James's throat. Author’s Note: ((alternatively, that time bean was like "so what if they fucked in front of a mirror" and I was like "shit what if they DID"))

Unaccommodated Man -  kvikindi 

It is at this point that, for the first time, Thomas Hamilton begins to consider that he has gone mad.

The Peaceable Kingdom -  kvikindi

William Manderly visits the plantation, some six years after the events of Unaccommodated Man.

Congress -  kvikindi

James and Thomas put the "fuck" in "fucked-up."

The Cup of Their Deserving (the wages of their virtue) -  DreamingPagan

Madi decides not to be sent away after her rescue. When she returns to Skeleton Island, she finds a betrayal in progress and takes steps to save her friend and put her people's choice regarding the war back in their hands. 

name one hero who was happy -  mapped

Lying in bed together, James and Thomas talk about the Iliad. (Thomas is practically ready to write Achilles/Patroclus fanfiction.)

Crescent Moon -  sebastianL (felix_atticus)

One shot of the months following the finale, with a focus on a certain tattoo.

Bent -  azarias

In a warm room in London, James tells Thomas about the events on the Exeter.

Thomas applies what he learns. (Established relationship, consensual kink.)

With Fire and With His Sword -  azarias

After the reunion, after the plantation, Captain Flint returns to the sea.

He takes James and Thomas with him.

katabasis -  csoru

Flint discovers Thomas is a passenger aboard the Maria Aleyne alongside his father, and events proceed from there. 

Lord Captain -  Apetslife

“Once a year, I send a letter to My Lord father, accounting for every penny of commerce I have cost the colony of the Bahamas, and every lover I have taken in that time. So far, he has failed to send a reply. An oversight, I’m sure.” (Pirate Captain Thomas Hamilton).

Sea Salt and Lavender -  moonflowers

James hadn't heard the song, nor spared it a thought, for years. He'd had no need of it. But her singing grounded him, reminded him that he'd had a home once, before everything, where his grandmother had sung those same words as she rolled out pastry, where he'd played as a boy, and dreamt of sailing away through those harbour walls and making something of himself. It came as a surprise to uncover something of James McGraw from so long ago, and to find it still intact.

With Sweet, Reluctant, Amorous Delay -  Magnetism_bind

For the Flinthamilton prompt: "There's no way you're getting me in /that/"

Thomas takes James to a costume party.

The Loaning of Books Between Friends -  Magnetism_bind

Thomas loans books to James in an attempt to get to know his new liaison better.

The Fields of Elysium -  Fyre

A man who has been through bitter experiences and travelled far enjoys even his sufferings after a time. - The Odyssey.

The Pirate -  x_art

(Modern AU)  What if Pickram got there first?

The Sundering Sea -  x_art

Stepping into the foamy surf, gasping at the force of it, the surprise of it—it had been breathtaking. Thomas had been that for him, his boundless sea, and he wasn’t ashamed.

Folly -  x_art

It wasn’t too late to nip this in the bud. He could do it because he’d done it before, because his heart was always subservient to his head. Always.

Thomas the Mariner -  shirogiku

Thomas' voyage home takes slightly less than ten years, but not for the lack of misadventures.

a word like tiger -  bellis

A few months after Charlestown, Flint finds out that Thomas is alive. This is, by all accounts, terrible timing. 

James/Miranda/Thomas:

Feed Among The Lilies -  willowbilly

James has been warned that they are duplicitous people, and by all rights he should remain on guard.

He does not care to.

Thomas actually chuckles when Astraea meets his eyes as fiercely and haughtily and lingeringly nonplussed as only a raptor can be, and it is such a disarmingly lovely sound that she immediately discards all the proud composure she'd just managed to gather and swivels away to preen busily beneath her wing, her hot yellow glare in its bandit stripe of brown ducked and hidden with telling alacrity within the downiest and snowiest of her feathers. (Daemon AU)

Firebird -  Wind_Ryder

There are two truths in the world.

One: Before Thomas and Miranda leave London to begin Governing Nassau, they receive a note that reads: "Lt. James McGraw died a resident of Bethlem Hospital on December 25, 1705." And they have nothing left to live for.

and Two: on December 25, 1705, Admiral Hennessey takes James from Bethlem and brings him to his new life far away from London society. He is told he will never see the Hamiltons again.

These two truths were never meant to be spoken at the same time.

Elisha made the oil pour forth -  azarias

Miranda is a widow. Miranda has a husband, but not the one she wants. Miranda may have gone mad a month ago, but no one's had the guts to tell her.

Start Anew - Neery

James and Miranda rescue Thomas from Bethlem. This was supposed to solve all their problems.

As it turns out, things are more complicated than that.

Late night walk date -  fandomfan

Having just returned from the West Indies, James tries—rather unsuccessfully—to take his leave from the Hamiltons' London house. 

Where The Winds Sigh -  Chainofprospit

The last levee of tradition belaying him gave way, and with it any sense of reticence. James could feel his furrowed brow falling, his chin lifting, without needing to will it so. I am going to be kissed by Thomas Hamilton, he thought, and in the next second he was.

--

We've seen the moment that James and Thomas finally kissed; this is what I imagine comes after.

To The Upper Air - DreamingPagan

James Flint goes to sleep expecting a battle the next day. What he's not expecting is to wake, eleven years in his own past, with a very different fight on his hands - to save the people he loves and his own soul.

Full of Grace -  DreamingPagan

Alfred orders both Thomas and James to be taken to Bedlam. Miranda is left to rescue them with the aid of Admiral Hennessey.

You Can’t Handle The Truth -  Wind_Ryder 

Now, all of England and beyond were discussing how an MP of Thomas' reputation was actually gay, that a Naval Officer with James' CV was a home wrecker, and how Miranda was either the victim of her husband's deviations, or a slut begging for more. Modern AU: In which Thomas, Miranda, and James are outed to the press.

Thereto I plight thee my troth -  azarias

Thomas consults Miranda on the subject of his military liaison. Sexily.

a more rational burning -  sea_changed (foxlives) 

She had understood this as her role from the beginning, the head to Thomas's heart and James's hands.

and into what it will be changed - sea_changed (foxlives) 

His own heart, so often obscure to him, has become clear. (Tag notes: Political philosophy, art, naval policy, mostly threesomes.)

to ithaca -  sea_changed (foxlives)

Miranda finds him first.

A Savor of the Heart -  drivingsideways

In some cultures, speaking the name of the dead is taboo.

Apprehension -  orienter (orientinme)

For a year, Miranda watches them with fear. Until the day she understands why they feel none.

The Art of Asymmetry -  AstronautSquid

Her sketches of people tended to veer into caricature with their lively emphasis of all things out of the ordinary - a large nose, a double chin, a foppish gesture -, and had thus quickly been ruled unfit for display among polite company.

Thomas encouraged her to keep a rotating selection framed on a dresser in the chamber connecting their rooms.

It was a week into their affair that Miranda first sketched James.

No Part Behind -  atrata

James thinks of Thomas.

A Knock Upon the Moonlit Door -  FeoplePeel

A werewolf, a fairy, a witch, and a vampire walk onto a magical island and--no wait. Once upon a time, there was a Knocker who betrayed his friend and spent over a century in a Sidhe prison until he met a handsome werewolf and--hang on a minute.

There are stories that reach even the Sidhe's side of the Veil, of Nassau and its healing shores. But what use could the ghosts of giants, and vampires, and all of those who will never meet death find for a fountain of life? The obvious answer is: keep it away from everyone else.

Or: The story of how John Silver joined Flint's very non-traditional pack.

Miranda/Thomas:

May it happen to me (all) - drivingsideways

In the summer of 1695, Miranda Barlow meets Lord Thomas Hamilton.

James/Miranda:

book of days - sea_changed (foxlives)

He looks at her, lost, like he is trying to understand the distance between them and cannot. A line of longitude, incalculable, mysterious and imprecise.

whalebone, rigged to stem the floods - AstronautSquid

James had learnt how to unlace a woman's stays, and how to help put them back on.

The fine material of the cords had snagged on his callouses, but they were after all just delicate ropes, and ropes he knew. The knots came together between his fingers under Miranda's direction and adjusting the tension of the laces running through the eyelets felt surprisingly familiar, the same way he could almost feel in his own body the tension of a ship's rigging.

It was the first time during their affair that James had felt truly in control of the situation at hand.

[fand0mfan]

Walk in the park date (Flint & Madi)

Here’s the next in my ‘James Dates’ series.

This one’s James & Madi, early season 4. Hinting on the breeze about future Silvermadiflint.

Read on AO3 here.

“Come with me,” Madi says from the doorway, and Flint hears it for the order it is. An order she is accustomed to issuing in this place. Her place. An order he is grateful to follow after so long giving the orders himself.

He nods and rises, ankles cracking, hip joints aching. Fuck, he feels like he’s aged ten years since they arrived on Maroon Island. He’s been hollowed out by all that’s transpired here—from the storm through to Silver’s loss and reappearance—he’s begun to feel as though he is merely a shell of a man in the shape of a military strategist. He has less energy for it each day, being Captain Flint. If someone else has the vigour to take control, he is increasingly happy to cede it.

There was a time when he’d drawn strength from Silver at his side. When their bond had seemed paramount and unbreakable, when he’d felt the warmth of Silver’s regard, and thought perhaps they might… But no.

Of course not.

Silver is young and beautiful and Flint is many things but not those. When a person catches the eye of someone like Madi, in whom a person’s own beauty and charisma find their match, there is little reason to make another choice. Flint will do his best to ready the pair of them for the mantle of leadership, and if he survives… he is not entirely sure what then. What is Odysseus with no home to return to but a lost soul, forever adrift? He is determined that he will not be Silver’s problem. Nor Madi’s.

So he rises with every one of his years and aches on his shoulders and follows Madi out the door. He marshalls tactics and plans in his mind as she leads him beyond the settlement, readying for whatever strategy she may want to discuss in privacy. When he sees where she is taking them, however, he balks.

He struggles for a moment to make blank his face. “I taught Silver to fight here, you know,” he tells her, sweeping his arm to encompass the cliffs overlooking the sea.

“He told me,” she replies, inscrutable as ever.

“Would you also like tutelage in swordsmanship?”

Madi laughs, a rich, low sound. “I would not, Captain.”

“Then what would you have from me?”

“Merely some of your time this afternoon,” she says enigmatically.

Flint sighs. He is too weary to play diplomacy when they are not at the negotiating table. “I can give you my time at the camp,” he says, jaw tight. “I do not know what Silver told you of our sessions on these cliffs, but this is not a place I would soon return to.”

Madi breaks her stoic facade with a frown as she peers up into Flint’s face. “He hurt you up here, did he not?”

Flint says nothing, but whatever she sees in his face makes her click her tongue against her teeth. “I could slap that man sometimes,” she says, shaking her head. “I am afraid he is not always able to be good to the people who are good to him.” She places one hand compassionately on Flint’s shoulder. “I hope he apologises to you for that someday.”

The words are an unlooked-for balm to something sore in Flint’s chest. He is glad for this woman who will never stop surprising him, who will always push Silver to be the best of himself.

He nods at her and asks, “Will that be all, then?”

Madi’s hand remains on his shoulder as she answers, “I hope not, for I had not intended to discomfit you today, nor to spend all our time talking about John.”

It is Flint’s turn to frown in confusion. “Then what did you hope to accomplish?”

She smiles at him, a small, new-fledged thing. “I hoped to come to know you better,” she says, surprising him yet again. “I saw you when John was gone and when he returned. He speaks of you with such intensity, and I am only beginning to see what inspires that. I had hoped we might talk freely about topics other than war or John Silver.”

Flint is nonplussed. When did someone last want to talk to him of something other than war or John Silver? He laughs ruefully as he realises he feels quite like he did in the early days with Thomas and Miranda, when he could not understand why two such brilliant, well-bred people should care to hear the opinion of the jumped-up son of a carpenter’s mate.

“Are you laughing at me?” Madi asks, a hint of humour gliding around the corners of her earnest enquiry.

“No,” Flint assures her, pressing his hand atop hers when she begins to remove it from his shoulder. “At myself. At how much you remind me of some people I knew when I was younger.”

She smiles a little, then, and takes his arm like any gentlewoman to be escorted, and they begin to walk along the cliff path. They have only gone a few dozen paces when she asks, “Do you mean Thomas Hamilton?” causing Flint a stuttered step in their stroll.

“What did Silver tell you about him?” he asks cautiously

“That you and he worked closely together on plans for New Providence Island,” Madi says. “That he was a nobleman who had sympathy for society’s outcasts. That he was a important influence on your life and a good friend.” She looks at Flint, assessing. “And he said that if I wanted to know more, I would need to ask it from you directly, for he would not share what you told him in confidence.”

For a moment, Flint is warmed to know Silver kept his trust, that Silver did not take an easy opportunity to use the power Flint had put into his hands to hurt. And then he is struck by the powerful realisation that the truth holds no more power to hurt him, now that his is no longer the most carefully created name in West Indies piracy. He halts and looks Madi full in the face and tells her, “Thomas was my lover. My great love. He and his wife Miranda, both of them.”

She looks back at him, just as directly. “And they are both gone?”

“Yes.”

She is silent for a moment, her eyes moving over his face. Finally, she lifts her hand from his arm and places it very softly on his cheek. “I am sorry you suffered such a loss, but glad you found such a love.”

There is immense tenderness in her voice. Tenderness with no trace of the shock or reproach Flint still, in some part of him, expects. He finds his throat closing and his eyes wet.

“Thank you,” he manages.

“Thank you for sharing your story with me,” she says, then stands silent with him as he masters his emotions, her warm hand on his cheek and her kind eyes on his all the while.

At length, Flint tucks her hand back into the crook of his arm and walks them along the path once more.

“You would have liked them. Thomas especially, I think,” he says, wistfully. The thought of them meeting brings him more fondness than pain. “I know he would have liked you. The two of you would have debated circles around anyone else. You’d still be in the library long after everyone else had gone, arguing over morality and philosophy and politics.”

Madi chuckles. “I should like to sit in the library of an English lord who would look past my skin and my sex and find me a worthy debate partner.”

“He would have done that, to be sure,” Flint says. “Thomas could never pass up the chance at a discussion with a well-read, independent-thinking radical.”

“Why, Captain,” Madi smiles. “From you, I do believe that was quite the compliment.” She sketches a small curtsey.

Flint returns her smile and bends at the waist to kiss the back of her hand. “Indeed,” he says. “As it was intended, Princess.”

She grins in a way that wrinkles her nose quite endearingly, and for a fleeting moment, Flint allows himself to feel as though he is merely James: a man escorting a woman on a promenade. He feels light in a way he hasn’t in months.

“Tell me what you and Thomas Hamilton read and debated, then,” she says as they walk on. The exhausted listlessness that has swamped him ebbs before this clever woman’s attentive interest.

“When he met someone new, he often preferred to start with Milton,” Flint says.

“'Give me the liberty to know, to utter, and to argue freely according to conscience, above all liberties’,” Madi recites.

“Yes.” Flint thinks of how delighted Thomas would be and can feel one corner of his mouth turn up the way the Hamiltons always said they loved. “Yes, precisely.”

“I suspect he particularly enjoyed debates about Milton that caused that look on your face,” she says, catching him off guard yet again.

“You are more right than you know,” he says. “Though I could not say what about this look on my face is so intriguing.”

“It is the look of a man amused and in love,” she replies, smiling. “If I made a handsome man look like that, I should have a difficult time looking away.”

Flint laughs. “You mock me, Princess, albeit gracefully.”

Madi’s smile takes on a spritely edge that, were he fifteen years younger, he might call flirtatious. "You do yourself less credit than you deserve. It is hardly mockery to tell a man he is handsome when it is so.”

Perversely, something goes easy in Flint’s shoulders to realise that he is blushing at her words, though he turns his face toward the waves that Madi might not see. It has been quite some time since a well-favoured young person has so openly played the coquette with him. “You may save the ‘handsome’ talk for Silver,” he says.

Madi smiles knowingly at him, missing nothing. “He is quite nice to look at, is he not?” She mercifully leaves him no room to fumble further in this suddenly strange situation. “I am not shy to tell him so, nor from telling him I think the same of you.” Flint feels his flush deepen, and, odd but true, it further lightens his spirit.

They continue along the cliffs a few more paces before Madi adds, “He agrees with me, you know. That you are handsome.”

Flint’s heart performs a complicated manoeuvre at this, and it is high time to put this foolishness to rest before he finds himself distracted thinking things might be possible that are not possible. “Princess,” he cuts in before she can pull out any further confounding statements, “Might I suggest we leave off discussing who finds whom handsome and perhaps return to literature or philosophy.”

She looks at him appraisingly, then nods, decisive. “Very well. The matter is closed. For now. Should there come a time to… reassess the situation between yourself, myself, and John, I would like to know you better, as I said.”

She is every inch regal and shows no shame whatsoever in discussing… can she be discussing…? She sounds no different than she does at a treaty negotiation: clear-eyed and direct. Flint bows his head to her, unsure but following her lead in this as in an increasing number of other concerns. “Thomas and Miranda would have adored you,” is what he offers, in the end.

Madi smiles, broad and warm as a noontide sky. “Thank you, Captain. I have only some small idea of what those words mean to you, but I think they are deeply complimentary, indeed.”

“They are, Princess,” Flint assures her, smiling in return.  “Now, Milton?”

She laughs, tucks her arm tighter into his, and answers, “Yes, Milton,” and they walk through the waving grasses on the seaside cliffs and talk and come to know each other better.

The full thing (in series with the other dates) is on AO3 here.

[stilljumpingback]

(via Black Sails Episode 304 - XXII)

WELL-FORMED THOUGHTS

Let’s talk about Flint and his relationship to vulnerability.

In this episode, Silver makes two gestures of vulnerability to Flint.  First, he allows Flint to sit beside him while he cleans his stump with his prosthetic off, even though he has isolated himself from the crew to do so.  Second, after falling in the woods, he uses Flint’s shoulder as a crutch during the hike.  This is not necessarily surprising, since in the last episode Silver established a precedent of vulnerability with Flint in a bid for his partnership (by both admitting his role in stealing the Urca gold and in admitting his dependency upon the Walrus crew for purpose).

What is especially interesting to me is how Flint reacts to this.  Instead of using Silver’s vulnerability against him, Flint responds with vulnerability of his own.  In the dark of their cage, Flint tells Silver his past: about Miranda and “her husband,” Peter Ashe, and their goal of obtaining a universal pardon to introduce to Nassau in order to establish colonial rule.  This is something he’s told no one else (I don’t think Gates even knew this).  I do think this is partly because he thinks they will all die on that island, but even so, he wouldn’t have shared that with anyone but a Silver who had previously opened up to him.

What I’m saying is, Flint is desperate to love and be loved, to know and be known.  His role as a pirate captain has necessitated that he close himself off from all emotions save greed and anger.  Miranda was his one outlet, but even his relationship with her was guarded and abrupt until very recently.  Now there is a person in his pirate captain life who interacts with him as an equal to be trusted and relied upon, and it is no surprise that our secretly tender-hearted Flint blossoms under such attention.  He wants a safe place to be vulnerable, and for now, he has found it in Silver.

FRAGMENTED THOUGHTS

When Silver lets Flint in on his revelation about the bigger picture about the pardons, he says it is “the opening move in [the] attack.”  As things get murky and even Flint finds himself wondering why they’re fighting against what seems to be his original goal, it’s important to notice Silver’s choice of words.  The pardons they are being offered are an “attack” while the pardons Thomas envisioned were forgiveness.  TBD as the series continues.

“For whatever reason, when you and I speak with one voice, we seem to be able to compel them to any end.”

Why is Flint/Silver as the unstoppable dream team SO SEXY?  Full confession:  I did not ship Flint and Silver the first time I watched through the series.  I didn’t even think of it as an option until I finished and saw that fandom was all about them.  I remain a diehard James/Thomas fangirl, but I SEE IT, OKAY.  I see it.

Woodes Rogers has a very accurate summation of Eleanor:  “Because you’re smart without needing anyone to explain to you how to be.  And because you’re not afraid of being thought to be wrong when you know that you’re right.”  Later, when she admits the worst of herself to him via the opinions of those in Nassau (“That I’m untrustworthy, that I would turn on anyone at any time, no matter how close they were to me.  No matter who it hurt or how severely.”), he takes it in and then continues to use her as his senior counselor.  I’m not emotionally attached to this relationship, but I can totally see why Eleanor would feel seen and valued.

Jack the badass!  The way he opened the fort’s door, shot a guy in the head, and shut the door again??  UM.

Anne is very smart in this episode.  I think everyone in the show overlooks her, but she’s the one questioning why Vane is singled out as unforgiveable, and later she’s the one telling Jack that they’ve won.  They have an enormous treasure, and they can go learn French and live in Brussels.  Anne, honey, you deserve to be listened to.

I LOVE our introduction to Maroon Island.  The men and women who have escaped slavery are initially presented to fit into our historical narrative as “savages” covered in paint.  But they are immediately shown to be smart and prepared (littering their forest with traps) and civilized (in the good sense).  They have built a stunning city considering they started from nothing about fifteen years ago, and they have a system of government fun by the ineffably elegant QUEEN.  “She is everything here: priestess, governess, warlord.”

I love that the Black Sails writers thought, you know what we need?  Another strong female leader!  No wait, TWO.

MADI AND HER MOTHER.

I love them.

When the Queen asks who their captain is, Flint immediately assumes responsibility.  When she asks for the quartermaster, Silver pauses before doing the same.  Since this season is all about Silver learning how to be a leader, this is very indicative of his progress.

Treasure Island alert!  Ben Gunn joins the Walrus crew.

The only thing this show could do to make me like Hornigold for even a second is to have him warmly greet Mr. Scott and show him special attention.  Augh, fine!  You get ten seconds of my goodwill!

Mr. Scott, however, is being very problematic by offering to find the escaped slaves and return them.  Of course, we later learn that he actually found them and is helping them escape to Maroon Island!

Speaking of escaped slaves, we learn that Jack left their prison unlocked when the fort exploded, which…okay, that’s nice.  I’m glad he didn’t leave them there.  But this is framed as something practical more than moral, since by letting them escape, he prevents the English from using slave labor to rebuild the fort quickly.  This whole plot line (now ended?) has been very frustrating for me, but I suppose I appreciate that the show refused to make our heroes anachronistically heroic.

Hallucination alert!!  It’s a short one but a good one!

Miranda:  You’re curious again.  Ready to follow me through a door that is somehow less frightening knowing I await you on the other side. Flint:  I miss you. Miranda:  I miss you, too. Flint:  When we arrive out there, I am to leave you behind? Miranda:  Yes. Flint:  What if I were to stay?

Flint’s death wish is now fueled by sadness rather than rage.  He’s moving through the stages of grief quite nicely.

Silver goes on a field trip to meet Madi!  This is when the show steps up a notch.  So far it has been a story of oppression of white people by white people.  But instead of letting that be an analogy for people of color to see themselves in, Black Sails says, no.  We’re bring African men and women who were enslaved to the table and letting them speak about their oppression for themselves.  IT IS SO GREAT.

“There are one thousand men and women here.  Among them there is no shortage of anger or hate or fear.  Perhaps you have noticed.  They have suffered cruelties you cannot possibly imagine.  Sisters separated from brothers.  Husbands from their wives.  Mothers from their sons.  No one has greater cause to swear England an enemy and desire vengeance against her as we do.”

Mrs. Hudson is being nosy, and we don’t know why.

FIRE SHIP!  This is definitely one of the coolest naval strategies they’ve done so far.  The pirate fleet escapes, and England is down one ship.

Silver is confused as to why Flint is not plotting.  His knowledge of Flint’s psyche is revealed by this telling question: “Where are you?”  Flint is in 1705, which he tells Silver about in a stunning display of vulnerability (discussed in more depth in the Best Flint Moment above).

“Peter Ashe, Miranda, her husband, and I, we worked to obtain a universal pardon and introduce it to Nassau to eliminate piracy and restore colonial rule there.  I moved away from those things.  Inch by inch, I forgot it all.  And now, in this cage, in the belly of this thing that has swallowed us whole, I wonder if the civilization of Nassau isn’t exactly what I tried to achieve all those years ago.  If resisting it doesn’t set me in opposition to everything I once understood to be good and right.  To forgive.  To make order of chaos.  I wonder if the pardons are the victory, and that the most enlightened thing that I can do is sit still.  Accept what appears to be inevitable, and let this be the end of Captain Flint.”

I assume anyone watching the show knows that Captain Flint will not just sit still, but technically saying so spoils the next episode.  Whatever.  This is Flint’s dark night of the soul; he’s tired of fighting, he’s confused, he misses Miranda, and he wants it all to be over.  But I’m reminded of what Miranda herself once said about Thomas:  “Great men…are made by one thing and one thing only: the relentless pursuit of a better world.  The great men don’t give up that pursuit.  They don’t know how to.  And that is what makes them invincible.”

In the midst of his grief, Flint makes some Very Astute character assessments.  Billy’s lie is that he will fight his way out, and Silver’s lie is that he will talk his way past.  Flint is usually a combination of both fighting and talking, but now…he says he has no more lies within him.

Which is very FITTING, because when Madi confronts her mother, the Queen says she doesn’t trust “lying pirates.”

Madi is too trusting because she did not experience life as a slave.  The Queen is not trusting enough because she did.

Oh, and REVEAL.  Mr. Scott is Madi’s father and the Queen’s husband, which makes him a KING.  Our man is finally given the role he deserves.

[theyhaveacavetroll]

The Cup of Their Deserving: 3, 4, 5, 11, 12

3. What’s your favorite line of narration?

Honestly - this is a massive cheat, but I’m overwhelmingly proud of the entire first two chapters. They just - wrote themselves, or rather Madi wrote herself, and I was left sitting back wondering why I had never written her before when she’s just so incredibly self-aware and intelligent and calm even when she’s facing horrible things. 

4. What’s your favorite line of dialogue?

It’s not so much a favorite line of dialogue as it is a favorite section of dialogue: 

“What were you planning to do if we married?”The question stops him - causes his eyes to widen.

“If we married?” he asks, and she looks down at him, anger forming a hard, heavy knot in her chest.

“If we had married, what do you think you would have done?” she asks again. “I am my mother’s heir. What life did you see for us, if it did not include bearing the weight of a throne? Of a people?”

“I - suppose I hadn’t really considered it,” he answers, and she feels something in her twist at the words. “If we were to marry -” He looks at her with astonished eyes. “I don’t know,” he confesses, and she nods.

“I know,” she answers. “I did not understand Captain Flint at first. I did not trust him for the same reason that I do not trust any of you. He was a man. He was white, and he made promises I did not think he could keep. Promises I did not think he truly meant. Do you know what convinced me?”

Silver shakes his head - and Madi leans in, bending at the waist, her head closer now to his.

“The day we thought you died in the harbor. You went under. Do you recall?”

“What the hell is that supposed to mean? Of course I do. It was -”

“That day,” she tells him, her voice still low and somehow disconnected from her. “That day, Captain Flint proved himself to me. Do you know how?”

Silver shakes his head again, and she searches his eyes. He truly does not know, she thinks - does not understand.

“He left you there,” she answers, and watches something that she would swear is old grief, old anger flash through his eyes. “You went under the surface of the water. We watched it happen - and I saw the moment that Flint knew. I saw him start to come after you - and I also saw the moment he knew that he could not. In that moment when he might have proven to me once and for all that pirates are not to be trusted - in a moment where he wanted more than anything to act in his own interest -” She shook her head. “I watched that moment dawn and I saw the instant when he put aside his own desires to see to those around him. It is why I trust him - why I listen to him. And why I will never call you husband.”

These lines are the heart and soul of the fic, really - they tell you in one section why it is that Madi is so angry at what Silver has done, it tells you a great deal about her relationship with Flint, and it touches on the larger reason that what Silver did was not ok. Also, it shows what Madi is like when she’s angry, which is not something we get to see very much of - she’s furious, here, and heart-broken, and coping the best way she knows how, and this isn’t kind. It’s the furthest thing from it, she’s trying to hurt him because he hurt her, which is not something that she normally would allow herself in any context other than this one. I’m also unreasonably fond of this: 

“These men will be accompanying you,” Flint said, and Jack suddenly recalled where he had last seen all three before. “They came with us out of Nassau when the Spanish took it, and since they’re all mutineers, they have a vested interest in not being delivered to Philadelphia’s harbor. If you so much as attempt to give the order to turn North from your destination, one of them will slit your throat and then all three will see to it that your task is completed so as to stay in my good graces and earn a place among us. Do you understand?”

These lines are absolutely Flint, completely and totally, and I had nothing to do with them, he just popped into my head, told me the plan, and I grinned and wrote it because damn that man is good!

5. What part was hardest to write?

It’s a toss up between the second chapter and the tenth, because chapter 2 is Madi continuing to function even though her heart is breaking and chapter 10 is Thomas trying to do the same, and hurting them hurts me. Both chapters are absolutely necessary for character development, but oh gods I wanted to find both of them a blanket and tell them it would be alright and someone else would handle things.

11. What do you like best about this fic?

Can I say everything? Am I allowed to say everything? I basically love this fic so much - it’s some of my best work, in all honesty. It’s fiery, it’s passionate, it’s everything I needed to say post-finale, and it feels like the ending that the characters deserved, at least in part.  

12. What do you like least about this fic?

I can wish that this fic were less controversial. It’s 2017 and the statement “slavery is slavery, it is wrong and should be fought at every opportunity” should not be controversial. 

[captain-flint]

1/2 I allow you to kill me because I'm gonna do the unthinkable thing: disagree with Toby Stephens. First of all, I bow to him. No one could've played Flint as perfectly as he did. He is unreal! But there is one thing I disagree with him. :) I do not think that rage is Flint's sole motivation. It's the majority of his motivation, no doubt. But I do believe that there is more to it.

2/2 “I cannot believe we are so poorly made as that” and “Freedom in the dark” speeches are too powerful to be a delusion. They are too raw and heartbreaking. He can’t be deluding himself in those moments. He must genuinely believe in it. No way, no way he can deliver those words and not believe in them. Yes, he’s angry and I love him for it. I love that he wants revenge. But I do believe that a little bit of idealism still lives in him and it comes out in those two beautiful speeches.

!!!! i very much agree, actually, with you and with toby. essentially, flint is a character with a dual personality. he’s james mcgraw and james flint, a good man and a ‘villain’, a born cynic and inspired idealist. toby focused on one side of flint while describing him, that is he kind of oversimplified him, which i understand bc what he described is the overpowering, dominant side of flint and the side that was relevant within the context of the story he was currently talking about. flint’s hopeful, kind and forgiving side of him is more subtle, something that’s constantly overshadowed by his still very much present cynicism and distrust of both the system and most people around him. i didn’t think much of toby’s words besides that i agreed with them, but now that you brought it up i have to talk about it. strap in this might get long and boring because it’s me talking about flint ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

speaking of his idealism, what i find so fascinating about this character is his uwavering strength in protecting that fragile sense of hope considering the world he was forced to live in. once that idealism had been instilled, no matter how hellish the struggle the world had put him through was, no matter how fragile that hope had become, it never died. his idealism perservered. and it all started with thomas. this awe-inspiring man whose talks of goodness and kindness in people and need to rethink systemic things made him realize that the world and its people he saw as ‘’brutal and unforgiving’’ weren’t above change for the better. being born a good man, thomas’ overwhelming idealism that could’ve blinded every good soul on the planet took root in james and only grew from that moment on. 

however, flint’s faith never reached the same depth as thomas’. where thomas believed in people in general and saw good in just about everyone, flint’s faith was in individuals. in the few good people in his life he deemed capable enough of changing the world. in people like thomas and miranda (‘’Who better qualified to oversee the building of the New World than Thomas?’‘), and later silver and madi (‘‘And you think I’m the one best suited to lead our people through this? I think that you are the best of us.The two of you together are the world in balance’‘). his trust in those people was steadfast and true. he believed their goodness could’ve changed the world for the better, but more importantly they were a promise, a reminder that somewhere out there must be more people like them, people who can fight the oppression and make a difference. (‘’I cannot believe that that is all there is. I cannot believe we are so poorly made as that.’‘) they were his true idealism, the bridge to a greater world. what breaks my heart the most, though, is that he never really considered himself to be one of them, one of the good guys, so he allowed himself the freedom to take what he believed was his and theirs with fist and sword. i actually talked about this once before. i think flint believed himself to be the tool used to push the boundaries and achieve a breakthrough within the society. someone who would incite a revolution and bring the world to its knees so the good people could recreate a new, better one. he actually admits it on a few ocassions: ‘’I don’t think that there’s a part for Captain Flint in Nassau’s future.Not with the blood on his hands.’‘, and later on when he purposely excludes himself from silver and madi’s future as the leaders of nassau. 

however, putting his faith in people aside as it has been unchanging and deep ever since he first stood up for thomas and miranda, i think his idealism when it comes to the world change itself over time steered in a weird direction. i kind of see his pursuits as two different versions of an ideal world, both fought for with the people he loved and both, despite their difference, unattainable. the one he was trying to achieve with thomas, had they succeeded, would’ve been a very different world than the one he was trying to achieve with silver. to put it simply, the first one would’ve been attained with mercy and forgiveness. the change would’ve been swift and radical, but the world would’ve most likely been unsullied by blood and tragedy. this type of idealism was noble, good, the kind that thomas was preaching about and the kind that inspired james’ own idealism. but as deep-rooted as that idealism was, i think that with time it went a little askew and that ideal world he had envisioned for himself and everybody else after thomas was gone became yet another unachievable goal, only this time with a path to it paved with nothing but blood and tragedy of both the guilty and the innocent. in between his outbursts of rage and violence, flint did try to sue for peace, more than once and in the least destructive ways, and every time the world spat in his face and made him even more aware of its cruelty and resentment of the people like him. with every failed attempt to reason with the civilization he was more driven to simply destroy it all and rebuild from the ashes. with every failed attempt he was moving farther away from where he started, from thomas’ initial attempt for a peaceful and reasonable outcome and steering towards destruction. the idealism still thrived in flint, he believed in everything he said, every powerful, tear-jerking monologue was true to his soul and invoke sympathy, he still believed in those individuals to set them all free, but it all sort of merged with his anger and this obsessive need for vengeance where the ends always seemed to justify the means in his eyes, so what was once pure became something mutilated and questionable rather than inspiring. 

both silver and julius were right in a sense. flint’s desire to change the world so quickly and brutally wouldn’t have resulted in a victory, not yet. the world was too strong for that, and his war was going to be a neverending nightmare for everyone involved. so, really, toby wasn’t wrong. flint is, fundementally, driven by rage and revenge against england for what it did to him and his loved ones. as you said, it’s the majority of his motivation and nearly everything he does or says kind of stems from that, even a part of his idealism. when toby said flint is playing out his own psychodrama on a massive scale, that he’s not waging war for altruistic reasons, that’s very much true and it becomes even more prominent as the seasons go and the world takes more from him. flint is not a freedom fighter. he’s not a hero. we are proven time and time again that he was ready to sacrifice almost whatever and whoever to further his war and reach the outcome he wants. had his goal not had been freedom from the oppression, he wouldn’t have been seen as the ally in the eyes of so many. he knew that what he was doing could’ve benefited everyone, that’s in part how he won the people to his side, and even though i personally believe a certain part of him truly, selflessly wanted to serve that freedom to them bc he was aware of their suffering as much as he was of his own, it still first and foremost had to have benefited him. 

i also have to bring up Lauren Sarner’s review about the last episode here because she talks exactly about this and honestly i trust her judgment when it comes to black sails more than anything: Flint’s monologue, aside from being beautiful, also reveals his truest nature. Silver sees Flint as being filled with rage, and he is. But deep down, he’s also never relinquished Thomas’s idealism. Flint wanted to wage war against the world, but his belief in his ability to change it — and in Silver and Madi’s ability to see it through — was genuine. To say Flint only fought for rage is only half of the picture.

[davantagedenuit]

Black Thoughts

So, sometimes, I think thoughts and I will put them here in case they are entertaining, or may rouse thoughts in others, or happen to be cool, or kittens.

So, also, I watched Black Sails. (And Hannibal is still the flaming spear in my heart, please don’t you all worry.) I read meta about the historical setting and the characters’ deep thoughts and deep feels, and the GAYtude. And, in response to all this greatness, I decided I would have some arid narratology-centric thoughts. (They turn out to be cool, though.)

So. Question: Who is the narrator in Black Sails?

Ah. Not as easy as it seems, right?

I have two answers.

Answer 1: A part of me thinks this whole thing is in fact the story of Eleanor Guthrie trying to narrate the hypothetical story in which she is the only protagonist. (For simplicity and future reference: the narrator is someone who (1) produces the tale, while not necessarily being a character in it, (2) controls or influences, in some way, the events in them, (3) knows more than the characters of the story.) Eleanor wants this. She would like to have a say and the mechanics and the OCCASION to tell the tale. She would like to control SOME EVENTS about her life, SOME OF THE TIME. She also desperately, soul-eatingly would like to know more than the main protagonists of the Pirate Show AND she would like to know more than herself, possibly to tell herself, on at least SOME occasions, ‘This dude will screw you. All these dudes have always screwed you.’ But, she says it herself, there are “Too many fucking men on this island.”

Answer 2: If we want to focus on the Pirate Show rather than on the peripherical storylines, we need to go season by season. (And season 4 is special, because season 4 is war, and some characters think they are narrators, are self-aware narrators, and blood and slicing ensues.)

Season 1: Hal Gates. Yes. Take a moment to think about it. He is Flint’s Friend (the only one for a while that Flint calls by his first name, Silver does not get that, but Silver is special (aka he’s the friend who’s aware of the Friends of Flint Curse - but still WANTS the friendship)), he knows about some (all?) of Flint’s past, he does (preemptive - Billy’s FACE when Gates asks him to restrain Flint) damage control with the Richard Guthrie meeting at the very beginning, he removes his trust in Flint (because he knows more than Flint about what’s coming), he dies. - In short, Silver may have memorized one page of the book, Gates has read it, knows it by heart, made it a best-seller. (Did anyone, at any point, ship Flint/Gates? No, because Gates is, eh, not as aesthetically pleasant as someone else? But I go astray.)

Season 2: Miranda Barlow-Hamilton. This is subtle, and beautiful, and perfect, and by 2x02 I knew where it was going, but the Kiss Reveal was still fantastic in 2x05. Season 2 starts off with us thinking that Mrs. Barlow IS Flint’s origin story. It turns out that she is not (Thomas Hamilton is), but she is the narrator of it. This was, admittedly, foreshadowed by 1x04′s AWKWARDEST casually not-that-sexual sex scene (and for a moment, I swear, when I watched it, I thought I was watching some independent 80′s European film, and not Shiny New TV), later mirrored with Anne and Jack. She knows more than Flint about, well, so much everything, it’s a wonder he seems to know anything. She knows about what happened with Thomas, she knows about his feelings BETTER THAN HE DOES (because he’s all busy feeeeeeeling them), she knows about Abigail Ashe, she comes up with the Magic Peaceful Solution/Final Plotpoint that will turn to be her Tragic Violent Death. The Magic Peaceful Solution becomes the Tragic Violent Death when she realizes someone knew things that she didn’t know. (At which point ABIGAIL ASHE becomes ‘Acting Miranda’ because she writes all the good things in her journal.) -- During the first half of the season, she even seems to direct the flashbacks, casting them onto the viewer from her little house inland (aka heart of heart of Flint) like the witch she is supposed to be.

Then we get the Great Split of seasons 1-2 v. seasons 3-4. Flint loses his loves. Silver loses his leg. Given that Black Sails asks the ever-lasting Reform or Revolution question, seasons 1 and 2 are clear candidates for the reform-minded solution. (Recall Flint, in season one, walking in Eleanor’s office saying he would settle for “a friendly British governor and some universal pardons shenanigans”.) (Also flashforward to Mr Oglethorpe being described as the reform-minded man.) Seasons 3 and 4 are the revolution. Tempest, torture at maroon island, all for the cause and nothing but the cause, ”Madi, would I be enough for you?”, Long John Silver’s propaganda, culminating with the Berringer Terreur. (Another one of my crazy ideas is to try and fit Black Sails in the historiographic/quasi-mythical frame of the French Revolution. One more argument for this: the French revolution abolished the monarchy in favor of a (short-lived) constitutional democracy, which was followed by the Terror, then returned to an Emperor. Similarly, the seasons 3 and 4 are about Kings and Queens coexisting with some (short-lived) democratic pirate alliances.)

Which gives us:

Season 3: John Silver. YES. So. He is on his way to becoming Flint’s Friend, but not there yet. He still focuses on Speaking For the Men, with the downside being that speaking is now the only thing he can do. He is, and somewhat remains in season 4, the Official Oracle of what’s going on in Flint’s head. Season 3 is the story of him trying to get BETTER at his narrative. Early season 3 has him revealing to Flint how much more than him he knows (about the Urca gold) in order to assert his power as narrator. But he still knows, he realizes, relatively little about Flint himself and, unlike the other narrators, he does not already possess that knowledge but he WANTS IT. To acquire that knowledge and become full-blown narrator, he will have to, well, become so close to his character that they will become indistinguishable IN THE WOODS AT NIGHT AROUND A BOTTLE OF RUM AND A CACHE OF GEMS. He organizes the events, he produces the tale. But the tale has changed - it is not a story about a series of events any longer (Chronicles of a Revolution), but a story about a character (Tragic Idealist Biopic). At the point where it becomes obvious that this is not the story of the Pirate revolution of Nassau, but the story of Captain Flint (in the woods, with the rum and the cache), Silver stops being the narrator. He (PSEUDO) dies at the end of the season and his fate is left unknown. And, in the land of narratologic explosion that is season 4, he becomes the CHARACTER OF THE NARRATOR IN-STORY (aka Long). Come on. This is magnificient.

Season 4: Yep. Yep. My first thoughts about season 4 were that it was all over the place, that the writers were stuck trying to tie together the twelve millions storylines they had going, that everyone was changing side because The Plot demanded it. My later thoughts were that it became an artful study in fragmentation. The storylines that seemed peripherical at first became central (the Max/Anne/Jack trio fills in for the Miranda/Flint/Thomas trio, commerce (and reform) fills in for idealism). The cause exploded. The Island of Pirates has no leader and is locally managed by some, picking the pieces. So there are many narrator candidates. It can’t be Silver: he’s become the character of the narrator in-story (written in exactly this way by Billy Bones who KNOWS what Flint may not explicitly know - that the narrator is more powerful than the main protagonist, indeed that he is the only one with ANY POWER over the story). It can’t be Billy: he does have some knowledge, but it’s local and brief, and with Silver as a character of narrator, he’s got competition. (Billy is probably the postmodern salty writer who thinks he’s smart as all hell writing the writer in his own story. And turns out he’s not that smart.)

I wanted it to be Eleanor, but she’s at her most powerless, and cruelly self-aware. I wanted it to be Madi, and I think she IS the narrator of the Series of Events that hopefully leads to a revolution (but have at that point already begun to fail). But, concerning Flint’s story, the only one with the modicum of distance required to have both power over the events, more knowledge than the characters (through Weirdly Prophetic Insight) and who is not involved in the tale enough so that he’s able to tell it - is Israel Hands, CHRONICLER OF ALL-HAS-GONE-TO-HELL. He correctly identifies Silver as Long John Silver after his quasi-death. (Silver’s quasi-death, in the transformative narrative, being the threshold after which he is Long John Silver.) He sits right between him and Flint, and, big happy bear of a meta-narrative device that he is, keeps reminding Silver that the narrator is not the character, that John isn’t Long and vice versa. (He also reminds reminds Silver that Silver isn’t Flint, and Silver has a problem with that more than he has a problem not being Long.) As a bonus, he can tell the story properly because he doesn’t like the story much. (The story being Flint.) (He’s probably the grumpy editor being snarky at repetitive plotting. ‘He’s turned you around again’.)

Conclusion things: (1) Flint is not a narrator in this story. He’s a character, who has a dim awareness that his tale will be told by others, and who, at some point, chooses purposefully to surround himself with people who will tell it. (I think Flint didn’t choose Silver as a friend, he chose him as a narrator for his Glorious Fight (ALL THE ANCIENT GREEK HISTORIES WHERE GREAT KINGS HAVE SECRETARIES WITH THEM ON THE BATTLEFIELD SO THEIR TRIUMPHS CAN BE TOLD FOREVER). Silver, because he wanted accurate documentation, became very close to the main protagonist of the tale. And Flint was, once more, possibly the first time since Thomas, SURPRISED BY FRIENDSHIP/LOVE he hadn’t seen coming. Conversely, Silver paints such a feared character that he realizes, he’ll be the only one liking him. Recall the woods/rum/cache nightly conversation, and Silver being like ‘To be feared is ok, but to be feared and liked is cooler (so everyone will fear you, Captain, via my tale, while I will like you’) and Flint being like ‘*the trademark wolfish grin of death* Sounds awesome’.) -- This strengthens my idea of the Flint/Eleanor parallel. Eleanor is trying to tell her story. Flint is trying, subtle difference, but also subtle similitude, to have his story told.

(2) If Flint is a character whose origin story is Thomas, Silver is NARRATING to Madi that he IN-STORY returned the character to his origin story (the “anterior state of being” - there is a WHOLE another post for the creeping use of abstract vocabulary in this show - I think these occurrences are meta-narrative remarks, but well).

(3) The narrator is always more powerful than the character. Flint knows that (eventually). Which is why seeking out Silver as a narrator is really his first, but not last move as Deathwish Flint.

(4) I started watching Black Sails like ‘oh, a ‘historically accurate’ show with 18th century pirates who have bleached-white teeth and well-toned abs and incorrect period swearing, and, oh look, an explicit lesbian sex scene waving wildly at an intended male audience’ and I finished like ‘GAY HAPPY ENDING IN THE LAND OF NARRATOLOGIC WONDERS’ and ‘YES, JAMES, WE SHOULD ILLUMINATE OUR DARKNESSES’, and ‘ALL THE THINGS WE WRITE IN BOOKS AND THE CAPTAIN LIKES HIS BOOKS’.

(5) Re: feelings about the ending and the thwarting of revolutions. This ending is a happy ending, by all means, for Flint and Thomas and for Silver and Madi, but it’s not a good ending (unless you are, like Mr Oglethorpe, reform-minded).

[queerbaitesque]

“So this is it. This is our goodbye.”

John gave the man standing beside him a resigned look, then nodded.

“It is,” he said, “we will never meet again.”

Flint swallowed the bitter taste he felt in his mouth. He just couldn’t hold John’s stare on him. It was terribly difficult, to look in the eyes of the person with whom you share everything - even your own mind - knowing this is the last time you will. Aristotle defined Alexander and Hephaestion as “one soul dwelling in two bodies”. The same definition could have been applied to Flint and Silver. James knew it, and so did John. In a ‘world full of never ending horrors’, to be loved so fiercely by a tormented soul such as Flint’s was scary. For months he had waken up with a start, in the middle of the night, in the Walrus’ cabin, worried that Flint might get lost in his darkness and -why not?- decide to kill him. Despite all of that, Silver had stayed, committed to bring that man to the light again.

“I think I owe you my apologies,” murmured Flint, without looking up. John looked at him without saying a word, waiting. “I spent so much time lost in my nightmare that I couldn’t manage to wake up. Miranda..” he stopped and cleared his voice before going on, “Miranda tried to tell me, to stop me, but I was unable to do it. I didn’t know what else to do, beside fighting.” This time it was John who looked away. “Before I met you, I.. I had never.. never had anybody,” he began, pointing his eyes at the sea before them, “you’ve been the first one. I had never really known, or understood, for that matter, anyone, until..” he stopped and smiled bitterly, “until I stole that damn page from you.” Finally, Flint looked up to meet Silver’s eyes, but he didn’t find them. “Now,” John continued, “I can say I know each and every one of your aspects, even the most recondite ones. To the point where I find it difficult to see the border line between you and I. It has practically become invisible. I can no longer tell you from me.”

Flint knew - God, if he did - what he meant. Flint had loved, and loved, and he had lost it all. Thomas, his truest love, had been taken away from him. Miranda, who had been his mother, his wife and his friend, had been killed right before his eyes. John Silver. The missing link. All his life, James had been pursuing stability, safety. A constant that would help him carry on. For ten long years he believed that that constant was rage. But now he could finally understand. John Silver was the person he needed the most. He was the only one who, for one reason or another, had stayed by James’ side. And he was the only one who was able to ‘end’ Flint, to bring James McGraw to the surface again.

“I’ve hated you, for a long time,” Silver began again, after a long minute of silence, “when I first met you, you were ruthless. I couldn’t believe that one single man was capable of hurting so many people so much, even the ones who were closest to him. Even himself. But the more time went by, the more I realized that what I felt wasn’t hatred.” He took his time, before going on. He tried to ignore the voice in his head telling him to confess that what he felt, what made his pupils dilate every time he saw James, was love. John knew Flint wouldn’t have said anything; he could feel the lump in his throat as if it were in his own. “Now I know you too well to hate you. I’m a liar, it’s true, but even I couldn’t deny that, given the same circumstances, I would do the same.”

As the ship was getting them closer and closer the Savannah, it was also departing them from their reminders, from their story. James finally found the courage to speak. “If I’m to say goodbye for good to Captain Flint, I owe it to you,” he sighed, “The memory of you will always live inside my mind, no matter what awaits me, once I lay my feet on the ground.“ John didn’t reply. “I’m sure you know that all that will be of you and I is just another story to scare children.” John nodded at the echo of Flint’s speech in the forset on Skeleton Island. “I only have one thing to ask,” said James, “before anyone else does, you tell it. Shape our story so that it will be remembered as you want it to.” In saying that, James realized how much he was asking, but still he had to. By that time, the possibility of seeing Thomas again had largely made itself space in his head. If he were to actually see him again, he intended not to lose him ever again. To make it happen, he had to make sure that the whole world believed he was dead.

Madi loved Flint. In just a few weeks they had gotten extraordinarily close. And both of them loved John. Despite that, Madi didn’t know Flint’s mind and heart as well as John did. She would have always missed him, but John would have never been able to breathe as he used to.

Since he saw James disappear in the plantation, his heart had gotten heavier. Every day, since he came back to Maroon Island, he climbed the hill on which Flint had taught him to sword fight, he sat on a rock and stared at the horizon, waiting. He would often spend the whole day without doing anything else, even forgetting to eat.

Maybe one day he would have been able to breathe again, but his heart wouldn’t have ever gotten less heavy.

[arzani-fuchsia]

Black Sails 4x10

I think I still have to come to peace with the fact that Black Sails is a tragedy and no happy ending show. Even though we have Flint and Thomas back together, even though we have Nassau prosper again and even though Silver lives with Madi, it still feels like a big sad tragedy to me.

And the one who gets the worst of it is Silver.

He lost so much and it is completely his own doing. I can even understand why he wanted to end this war, why he did it. He always, ALWAYS had been a selfish person and he ended the war on selfish terms. But what he gets out of it in the end, in the big picture is loss.

The loss of Madi’s trust in him, because I believe she will never completely forgive him what he did. They met on that hill, where Silver has trained with Flint. Where he had experienced Flint’s true friendship and trust, and he looked out to the sea, just like Flint had in 4.09. I could almost hear the “Can you see it?” But there is nothing to see anymore. The war is lost, this is over. And Silver has to realize that he can’t undo things here. Madi is with him, but she probably needed to cut a big part of her heart and soul to be with John.

And Flint... I wished we had a goodbye between Silver and Flint. A scene where they show on which footing they parted. Did Flint forgive Silver? I wished I knew. I wished I knew what Silver was feeling doing all this, in this moment, for Flint. I can’t wrap my head around it. I want to say he loves Flint and wanted the best for him by sending him to Thomas and Savannah. But ... the way he teared up telling Madi. Can I believe it hurt to tell. Can I believe he knows he has given a part of his heart as well, sending Flint away.

Also I still and probably will never understand why Silver goes back to Skeleton Island in TI. I mean, omg I don’t even have a clue how a map would be created and how it would get in Billy’s hand. How does he get off Skeleton Island. And how does Benn Gunn get on it? Or did the writers intend to switch their roles and the Benn Gunn from TI is actually BS Billy, and the other way round? THAT would make sense to me and I’m thinking a lot about it, especially with the fact in mind that they saved each other’s lifes.

I am also not sure if Flint and Thomas really meant to stay on that plantage forever. Is this freedom for them? Freedom to live a happy life together? Because there no one knows what an oar is and think it’s a shovel? I’m not quite sure. But I know they are happy to be back together and that is satisfying.

I’m happy for Flint in some kind of way. I feel super sorry for Silver. He is the most tragic figure in the whole series. Believe me, I feel super sorry for him...

Now... I’m still not quite sure what to say. But some things I truly enjoy:

Featherstone being governor of Nassau

Rackham being part of the writing of the book

Mark/Mary Reed!

That pirate flag for Rackham and Bonney

Woods ending. He deserved nothing less

Madi being angry with Silver and saying “He was your friend!” and being even more upset when she heard how long Silver planned to send Flint to Savannah

the way Madi smiled at Flint when she walked out on open deck (sorry I ship this. Madi and Flint and Silver as an OT3 are my dreams come true somehow. I want an alternative outcome for the three to be together and I will write it!)

Idelle!

the fight between Billy and Flint

[yenneferw]

You thirsty bitch jfc: In the Flesh, Supernatural, Hannibal, Black Sails

In the Flesh: 

my all-time ultimate fave character: Simon Monroe have you ever seen him in a sweater he is beautiful 

a character I didn’t used to like but now do: Jem was really shitty in the beginning but she got a lot better really quickly

a character I used to like but now don’t: the show’s not long enough for me to hate anyone lmaooooo

a character I’m indifferent about: idk some of those side characters they focused on for a hot second. I could see what they were going for but I just wanted my boys and Amy

a character who deserved better: Amy :-(

a ship I’ve never been able to get into: I think I liked all of the ships they gave us fortunately 

a ship I’ve never been able to get over: Obvs Simon and Kieren and Kieren and Rick. Iconic. When will your faves EVER

a cute, low-key ship: Philip and Amy were cute low-key

my favourite storyline/moment: I really liked Kieren’s acceptance of his zombiehood and all and also I relaly like that Simon exists

a storyline that never should have been written: Mmm Amy died and that’s the worst thing that’s ever happened to me

my first thoughts on the show: Ooh cool zombies

my thoughts now: I’m so in love with Simon and Kieren and Amy and I would die for them and this is the best show in the world and it’s the worst thing ever that it was canceled and I’m almost certainly dead bc of this show

Supernatural: 

my all-time ultimate fave character: Dean or Cas for sure it kinda fluctuates 

a character I didn’t used to like but now do: I didn’t used to like Meg bc she was a bitch in the beginning but then she was fucking awesome 

a character I used to like but now don’t: I liked Ruby and then she turned into a bitch so I didn’t liek her in the end

a character I’m indifferent about: Idk I can’t think of anyone off the top of my head

a character who deserved better: Charlie. Charlie Charlie Charlie Charlie. If you don’t think her death was bullshit then I don’t know if you were watching the sae show that I was

a ship I’ve never been able to get into: That Charlie/Dorothy thing? Was that a big thing? I can’t remember. But I do support Charlie being alive with a girlfriend 

a ship I’ve never been able to get over: Destiel lmaoooooooo 

a cute, low-key ship: Mm I think I remember thinking Dean/Benny was cute

an unpopular ship but I still enjoyed it: what ships are unpopular? I feel so disconnected from the fandom anymore. Probably megstiel 

a ship that was totally wrong and never should have happened: Sam and that Amelia girl. Who was she. Why was her only purpose manpain. I’m so tired

my favourite storyline/moment: Demon Dean was tragically short-lived and I wish spn would just keep turning him into a demon like we do lmao but also when Cas comes onscreen? Iconic

a storyline that never should have been written: All the damn dropped plotlines I used to know a bunch but I can’t remember them now. Also does homophobia, misogyny, and racism count. Bc lmao,,,,,,,

my first thoughts on the show: Unfortunately I was a superwholock bitch so idk what my first thoughts were but they were probably embarrassing 

my thoughts now: the horse is dead. does its corpse really need beaten anymore. But also I’m still gonna watch it bc they own my ass. Could’ve been so much cooler if you remove a) homophobia b) racism c) misogyny d) manpain and added instead More Castiel

Hannibal:

my all-time ultimate fave character: Will Graham I’m so

a character I didn’t used to like but now do: Idk did I dislike anyone? I mean I never liked Freddie but who did. I probably didn’t like Abel Gideon or whatever at first but he was a really cool serial killer and probably my favorite one of them on the show so

a character I used to like but now don’t: I started like Jack less toward the end. Everyone was going bad. It was a wild time. Like if you like falling from grace plots then Hannibal Is For You bc that’s literally every single goddamned character except pure gay Brian and Zeller in the background

a character I’m indifferent about: Idk I was pretty attached to everyone. Maybe Bedelia actually. I didn’t really have any thoughts on her

a character who deserved better: Beverly I kinda wish they hadn’t killed her off actually 

a ship I’ve never been able to get into: I think ppl ship Hannibal and Bedelia which nah

a ship I’ve never been able to get over: Hannigram how iconic 

a cute, low-key ship: Alana/Margot also super fucking iconic I wish they had more

a ship that was totally wrong and never should have happened: Hannibal and Alana but I think that’s obvious considering he was high key manipulating her 

my favourite storyline/moment: The first part of s3 as a whole was really good but I also like the innocence of s1 but also the subtle fall from grace in s2. I just really love this show okay it was a very good show

a storyline that never should have been written: I don’t know if there was one it was a really well-written and good show imo. 

my first thoughts on the show: I found this show when Sherlock was kind of dying off bc of the fucking shitshow that was s4 and someone said it was basically better Sherlock and I was like alright I’ll go for it

my thoughts now: Lord. Heck. I love this show so much I should really rewatch it because I feel like I’m losing some of my love for it 

Black Sails:

my all-time ultimate fave character: James Flint. A gay icon. When will your fave ever. I’m sobbing right now okay I love James Flint more than I love most things he is literally the best thing to ever happen to anything ever and I would die for him. Honorable mention: Max. I cry when she breathes she’s so perfect

a character I didn’t used to like but now do: Charles Vane. This show is really good at humanizing characters. I still have a lot of problems with Vane but I like where he was going in the end and I appreciate that he martyred himself. Also Teach for similar reasons, and also because his interactions with Jack did a good job of humanizing him I think. Plus his execution? Best martyrdom ever

a character I used to like but now don’t: Eleanor. I sort of liked her again for a hot second but I just didn’t like her after a while. She was going down a path I couldn’t get behind

a character I’m indifferent about: Go big or go home I’m indifferent about no one

a character who deserved better: Everyone they’re all so perfect I’m crying. Idk maybe Miranda tho like I completely agree with why she had to die for the story but I definitely had a Moment when she died and then I cried a lot about it

a ship I’ve never been able to get into: Go big or go home motherfuckers. I guess maybe Eleanor/Rogers tho I don’t know that I ever felt anything for them. Until s4 I wasn’t convinced on silverflint bc I knew the ending tho but then ep1 of s4 and I was sold, on board, and ready to die for them

a ship I’ve never been able to get over: flinthamilton when will your faves EVER also maxanne CHRIST I love them with my entire heart and soul and I cry constantly. Also silverflint at this point I’m in love with all of them I’m sobbing right now

a cute, low-key ship: John and Madi are cute. And I’ve always liked the background relationship between Featherstone and Idelle idk

an unpopular ship but I still enjoyed it: I feel like ppl don’t really ship Gates and James but I def did

a ship that was totally wrong and never should have happened: I don’t think that it shouldn’t ahve happened because it was integral to their storylines and their characters, but Eleanor/Charles Vane. I didn’t like them but just because they weren’t right for each other at all. But their relationship did largely influence how they interacted with the storyline and each other and stuff so it was important.

my favourite storyline/moment: When James or Max or Anne walk on screen? Iconic. But no I liked when James was slipping after Miranda and did all the shit like blowing up the town. It was just very exciting and I was really attached to Miranda so I was backing him completely. But I also really just like s2 in general.  

a storyline that never should have been written: I don’t think anything shouldn’t have been written. It’s such a good show that I can’t think of anything that I really didnt like as a whole. I’m sad James and John are splitting apart I guess but I completely understand why it has to happen and I know Thomas is at the end so it’s okay

my first thoughts on the show: I saw two men kissing with the tag black sails and was desperate for representation so I made us watch it

my thoughts now: Oh my god there is literally no tv show better than this show. NOthing will ever be good enough for me because of this show. I want to explode every time I think of it I have so much love in my heart for it