#like Thomas and Madi

[purrvaire]

black sails + tumblr text posts I have on my phone (pt.3/?)

2

[kvetchinglyneurotic]

if flint from episode 1 was magically granted all the knowledge and memories he had in episode 38 do you think it would change anything

[posallys]

Happy pride month to everyone but specifically to the greater Nassau polycule <3 you're all so special to me

[toddhewitt]

2.02 / 4.08

[cashmere-caveman]

sometimes someone will reblog my "silver lied in the finale no idea abt what tho" post and their tags all full of #flinthamilton angst and i just really am forcefully reminded that even though we all watched the same show . we did not in fact watch the same show. like yes their affair is basically what set the whole plot in motion and i really love thomas as a plot device but i do have to confess that idc abt thomas as a person at all lmfao

[queerhummingbird]

Black sails really is just a show about trio's of people

[hauntingblue]

I don't know what to say... everyone got a happy ending except the people who actually wanted a real revolution and had a cause for it... but it's not like we had much of their opinions on this I guess... also no final lez sex scene... tragic

[hotniatheron]

many people still fail to grasp that madi and silver's "otherness" will be perceived when they walk into a room immediately, whereas flint's otherness must be told.

[willowmosby]

Roommate: are you crying?

Me* having just watched one of the best hours of television ever, the black sails finale where they unburied some gays and everything ends so in character*: oh no, just dust.

[sameteeth]

whyyy does everyone love thomas so much. in a lot of fics theres a flint moment where hes like "omg thomas would have loved madi :)" WOULD HE??? or would he think of her as a particularly well spoken, well read servant. thomas's plan was explicitly meant to establish a british colony on nassau to continue effective imperialization of the americas, and the systematic theft of land and extermination of people. flint supported this as james. flint Happens to side with the maroons - but had they not held flint's life in his hands and forced him to acknowledge them, he would have continued his barrage on the english without considering the slave communities. in his escape from charlestown flint breaks the lock on a cage full of enslaved people - they are meant as a distraction, because flint does not care to actually ensure their freedom. they are bodies between him and a gun, and at that point that's all they matter to him

[helena-thessaloniki]

I’m new to Black Sails so I’m sure this has been said, but it’s wrecking me. S4 spoilers.

I feel like the moment toward the end when Flint straight up panics about Silver possibly getting shot and then kills his own man and sabotages his own plan to save Silver was a full-stop, hold up, pause it right there, what the fuck moment that Silver would have absolutely been stunned by it if he weren’t too far gone in his own fucked up mental headspace and scheming plans.

One of the most insidious things Flint does is kill his closest friend and confidant (as close as he’ll allow someone to be to him as his Flint persona, anyway) because Gates was going to interfere with his plans. The plans came first. The plans always come first. Flint repeatedly has a one-track mind and the will of the Gods to see his plans through (ie creating the storm). Something like friendship can’t stand in the way. Nothing can.

Except—

In this moment near the finale, Flint makes the complete opposite decision. He chooses his friend over his plans. He chooses Silver over what he thinks is the way to succeed, over what’s necessary for the war. He chooses Silver over his plans. In a split second, entirely instinctual and emotional reaction, he chooses Silver.

And Silver was there when Flint killed Gates. He knows what Flint is capable of in moments like this one. He should’ve stopped everything right then and there and realized and been forced to accept how much Flint cared about him, but he didn’t. He couldn’t.

Flint could tell Silver his story and about Thomas, but Silver didn’t tell his own story. He couldn’t.

That is so fucking heartbreaking. This is the real reason he inevitably becomes the villain, not because of Billy’s propaganda or all of the posturing. It’s his mind, his outlook: Survival only. Survival first.

Silver has already shut Flint out when he first realized Flint might choose the war over Madi, even though so many times afterward and so sincerely does Flint promise that she’s a priority and that they’ll save her. Flint has pulled off the impossible before. Silver has believed him and only him capable of pulling off impossible things before. But Silver has already made up his mind and refuses to see or accept a reality where Flint actually cares for him, and by extension, Madi.

Silver is completely lost to his own insecurity? inability to connect and trust and love? once there are actually people in his life who love him that he has forced a story onto those around him that leaves himself out of an actual life with them.

It’s awful. agh it’s so good

[jaynovz]

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

But this?

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

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

and THAT is just, way chewier, innit?

[mesothulass]

dont even get me started on madi. she's all in on this war business because it'll give her people a home and free the slaves on nassau and its just so interesting how unexpected her every action is??? for me at least, i keep expecting her to go the emotions route like everyone else does and each time she's like here's what i'm actually going to do. and it's always something entirely reasonable for her to do in that situation. anyway i wrote like half an essay on this so here's a read more lmao

like with the crewmate that fought with one of her men, when silver gives her the knife, me :handshake: silver, she's absolutely killing that man. and instead she chooses to free her man and give him an excuse to keep the peace.

or with the urca gold situation, even though that's what the whole conflict has been about this entire time, she makes the decision based on the end goal of peace on the island that the best course of action is to give up the gold entirely

like it's so interesting to me that most if not all the characters on this show are pretty self serving, if that makes sense. like flint's doing all this because of thomas and miranda, but the pirates of nassau are a tool to work around rather than an actual motivation. or for billy, who becomes the driving force behind the long john silver legend, but who allows himself to get distracted constantly by the threat of flint even to the detriment of his cause. or eleanor, whose primary motivation seems to be protecting what she has at all costs and freeing herself from the constraints of being a woman in a man's world. or max, who wants the comfort and safety and respect that comes from the power that the white people around her have and is repeatedly denied that (even in places where eleanor had succeeded before her).

so it's really cool in comparison to that to see someone who (at least by s04e05) says she's doing this for her people and then follows thru on that at every opportunity

and that's not to say that she's like logical all the time or doesn't feel any emotions, i think her empathy is also a big part of her motivations. like it's one thing to be raised to protect something and another to fully believe in that purpose, y'know?? she was genuinely upset about her man getting attacked, she's genuinely upset about the slaves getting tortured, she's genuinely upset about hurting silver, so on and so forth

it's just that the thing that keeps surprising me i think is that her kindness is borne from her knowing that she needs to do what's right for her people as opposed to her doing what she can to further a cause. yes, let's remove england from nassau, let's free the slaves, let's give up this gold, but none of it is shortsighted. she's not looking to survive this moment or prove a point, like silver or eleanor or billy or whoever else. her end goal is to save as many of her people as possible and give them a safe home to live and thrive in

[thematchbox]

I cant deal with Flint's face when Silver asks him "Where's Madi?" after the Spanish raid. Flint doesn't answer. He can't. His face says it all, that he knows exactly what that moment feels like and that he hates himself for having to be the bearer of the same type of news that killed him and rebirthed him cold and hard.

And then later when Silver says "It wasn't your fault." Cause it wasn't. Flint couldn't save Madi. But he also couldn't save Thomas, and he blames himself for both. He wants to believe Silver so bad

[kvetchinglyneurotic]

sometimes i wonder if flint ever notices the parallels between him/thomas/miranda and him/madi/silver and is just like. history may be repeating itself but at least i get to be the tall one this time

[max-nolastname]

types of story that different black sails characters think they're in:

jack: typical underdog overcoming unbeatable odds story; he is the main character and the show is 100% about him and his joseph campbell hero's journey. he is like achilles seeking eternal glory. he is also like gilgamesh, seeking immortality because he's afraid of death

flint: one of those fairytale retelling stories from the villain's pov; he is the fire-breathing dragon/big bad wolf/wicked witch that his village has ostracized, chased out of his home with pitchforks and torches because they feared him and what he is and what he stands for. he knows that in another show, a more popular show, the story would be told from the pov of the villagers about the dangers that lie beyond the village walls and into the forest...but this is HIS show and in HIS show HE is the one that survived the villagers not the other way around and HE is the one that has been wronged and he WILL see them pay for it

miranda: at first she thinks she is the witty and cunning heroine of a regency period romance novel. she is critical of high society and it's archaic and sexist traditions, turns her nose up at the institution of marriage and yet against all odds finds a true partner in thomas. she thinks herself happier and smarter than her peers, for finding a way to explore her sexuality freely and still keep her high status. she is caught in a whirlwind romance with a handsome naval officer and well....then her story turns into a tragedy and a decade caught in lifeless loveless joyless limbo where she is sidelined into the background of someone else's story

max: overly aware that she is in A Story and that she is Not The Main Character; the spotlight is never on her, she will never take centre stage. in fact, she is in the wings, or perhaps watching the show from the back of the theatre as the stage manager, setting the scene and directing others to pull ropes, shine lights, open and close the curtains so that other actors can strut and fret their way around the stage

billy: revenge quest story! thinks he is the good guy, there to protect his friends and get revenge on the tyrant who killed his father. gains some genre awareness and realizes that he is not, in fact, the main character, but rather a side character caught in a romance between his captain and quartermaster and if he really wants to survive he's really gotta break them up

madi: a story of hope told around a campfire, passed on from generation to generation so people don't forget about the time that an island of maroons stood up to a seemingly eternal and unbeatable empire. some days, it's a cautionary tale, on how volatile solidarity can be with divisions like class, race and gender .... or how revolution necessitates violence that people who are comfortable in their oppression rather not pay... but no empire lasts forever and nothing is inevitable. the story sticks in the hearts and minds of future revolutionaries and someday someone somewhere will pick up the torch and continue the fight

season 1 walrus crew: workplace comedy

silver: [redacted]