#and obvioulsy we're supposed to RECOGNIZE this is what shes doing and see the injustice | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

dashiellqvverty · 1 year

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id forgotten a lot of details about black sails bc thats how i am with tv shows (and also i watched seasons 3 and 4 a couple episodes at a time over a long period of time) but something really fucking shitty im only being reminded of as im rewatching the first episode of season 3 is how the audience is meant to empathize with enslaved people specifically through the eyes of a white man

#like. obviously there is an expectation that when an audience sees a depiction of slavery we know it is Wrong #we know we are meant to have empathy or at least sympathy for the enslaved people we are shown. we know they are treated horrifically #we know that the people enslaving them are doing something unforgivable. we know it is wrong when the pirates participate in the slave trade #but the character to explain this to the other characters. to be given the humanity to recount what the experience is like. is vane.#i know later we meet madi and the maroons but this conversation is the first of its kind and is given significant weight #like i knew the show was racist particularly in season 1 but id forgotten that that didnt go away #and id forgotten a lot of the ways in which that manifested #s1 alone tho is so racist and misogynistic that if that were the whole show i would simply throw the whole thing away #it does good character stuff and has an engaging enough story but that on its own doesnt make up for the rest #thus far - and i forget how much better it gets - enslaved people are generally objectified within the story #like the role these people play in the story is as set pieces; as fuel for other characters stories or plotlines #scott reminds eleanor that he is legally her property and she says shes never seen him like that but CLEARLY still treats him like that #and obvioulsy we're supposed to RECOGNIZE this is what shes doing and see the injustice #but to what end???#how does it serve scott as a character? it doesn't. its only to tell us more about eleanor #tags got away from me most of my actual thoughts are in here #but god i am just. i have been thinking about this stuff since i started my rewatch #but i had to pause the episode when it got to this conversation bc it just feels so Bad to me #r.txt

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