#no daylight between you and I

[heycarrots]

There’s been a lot of discourse about the nature of James and Miranda’s relationship. There’s even been a lot of discussion on my podcast about it. One thing I want to make clear is that my podcast is a platform for discussion on all points of view. I’m not going to agree, 100%, with everything that’s said, but it makes the views of my guests no less valid. There’s no right or wrong, here, because this is art and therefore, it is subject to interpretation.

My intent, however, is to attempt to get as close to the original intent of the actors as possible because we look at a show or a film or a play as going through several layers of distillation. Each level purifies the intended narrative leaving its truest essence.

When we make a reduction sauce using an alcohol of some kind, let’s say a red wine, the heat applied to it burns off things we don’t need for flavor. You’re never going to get drunk off of red wine reduction because there’s almost no alcohol left in it. That all gets burned off, leaving only the flavor components, which is what we wanted all along, anyway. We want that extra element that enriches the flavor of the steak, by adding nuance.

So let’s take apart that meal.

We start with the birth of the idea. The story kicks around in an author’s head, trying to get out, growing bigger and more persistent until it outgrows the confines of the mental box inspiration is stored in and has to be let out. That idea, that’s the cow.

The author raises that idea, feeds it, watches it grow, and then, ultimately slaughters it. That sounds awful, but once you have that idea pulsing, growing, evolving and then finally commit the final draft on paper, it is a kind of death. The life of the story comes to an end and it becomes memorialized in a mausoleum. Readers will come to visit, spend time with it, lay down flowers, cherish it, and mourn its passing.

The next level is adaptation. That’s the steak. There are many ways you can slice the story, large roasts encompassing the whole story or a smaller, hyper-focused character study fillet mignon.

A writers room gets hold of the cow and carves it up. They choose what gets cooked and what gets tossed. A GREAT group of writers saves the bones. They take in the entire supporting structure of the piece and while the whole story may not make it onto the screen, they will have slow roasted the bones for a stock. When you watch a show like Black Sails, where themes are introduced that won’t fully be explained or explored until several seasons later, that’s what that is. It is the stock being used to flavor the whole dish. You’ve distilled the entire cow to its purest essence and so every scene, every line of dialogue, every acting choice, encompasses the entirety of the story. A line from episode one is defined by knowledge of the finale and in regard to dialogue, defined by an actors’ knowledge of a character’s backstory. There are many writers rooms who are creating the bones of the story as they go, which means they aren’t starting with a rich stock. You can’t trace back character motivations or choices to begin with because those motivations changed throughout production.

Black Sails, again, isn’t one of those shows. Steinberg and Levine came into the writers room with their stock pot full and sloshing, spilling story everywhere. The richness of the details they were laying can make season one a bit hard to consume unless you are ready for a story on that level. Viewers need to come to the table with some bread to sop up all those character details because we WILL need them later.

Over the course of finalizing scripts and blocking out episodes, the steak is cooked. Like any great steak, this story is medium rare. More juice comes out with every bite. It’s what makes the show infinitely rewatchable. It continues to cook on the plate, but because it wasn’t overdone, it never dries out.

When the actors get ahold of it, that’s the reduction sauce we were talking about. That sauce provides nuance and flavor. That’s the emotion. A line of dialogue on a page is just ink. It’s nothing until it’s spoken aloud. And like any bit of language in this world, it’s subject to interpretation. In this case, it’s the actor who does the interpreting.

I spoke on the podcast about the art of subtext and how huge a role it plays in Black Sails. One example we used is Jane Eyre. It’s one of the most frequently adapted novels in the English language and with each adaptation, we get a new version of our characters. The most volatile and subject to change is Rochester. There are MANY versions of Rochester that I find appalling (including the original beast in the book), but each actor has formed him into something else, based on their performance. Toby Stephens takes Rochester and turns him into a silly tragic romantic, broken many times over by a society he never really fits into, despite the status of his birth. He connects with Ruth Wilson’s Jane because she fully and happily inhabits that space on the fringes that Rochester thinks he needs to climb out of. Jane takes his hand on the outside of the wall, turns him away from the guarded palace and shows him the wild world that was at his back this whole time.

This is what Toby Stephens, Luke Arnold, Louise Barnes, Zethu Dlomo, and really all the actors for whom their subtextual choices make them reflect like prisms, have done with their performances.

In the final distillation, character motivations and emotions are finalized by the actor. Writers can pontificate, the source material lies dead in its lovely tomb, but stories live and breathe by their storytellers.

What we’re left with is Toby’s face telling the world how deeply Flint loves Silver. Every single choice tells this story.

We’re left with Luke showing us how much Silver is repressing in his feelings for Flint. Luke’s face shows us an incredible depth of feeling and a door slamming shut.

We’re left with the incredible intimacy between James and Miranda, which speaks of a decade of shared physical intimacy. There’s an openness, a freeness to it until the moment in episode 3 when Miranda learns that James has found the Urca and is leaving soon to pursue it. She gives some of it away when she says “I thought I’d have you all to myself”. She is mourning the loss of intimacy that she only gets in short windows of time. They aren’t strained because James isn’t attracted to her, but because he’s rarely there. She has him for a few days at a time before he’s off on another hunt. The coldness starts from the moment he tells her he’s leaving in a few days because I believe she thinks he won’t be coming back, that this is the hunt he won’t survive and she’ll finally have lost both James and Thomas. From the moment Richard Guthrie darkens her door, she’s looking for a way to weaponize him and get them out. For her, it’s a race against the clock and she’s willing to sacrifice a bit of her relationship with James in the present to secure happiness for them in the future.

This is also why James still has sex with her before leaving, even though he’s furious for her reading Meditations to Richard. This is how they connect. They connected through physical intimacy in the flashbacks, as well. Him stroking her thumb in the carriage before the kiss. Tactile contact to seal their understanding of each other. Miranda bracing her hands on his chest during important moments in the Hamilton’s home, something she also does to Thomas, to show physical connection, physical intimacy. Miranda thrives on physical touch.

To think that, for 10 years, James is lying there like an object for Miranda to use, is, to me, short sighted. To think that James doesn’t love Miranda outside of a group, is also ignoring the fact that, 10 years on, James will not leave on a hunt (angry as they both are) without physically connecting with her, trying so hard to reach beyond his anger and the wound freshly opened from sight of that book he’s chosen not to look at for probably the better part of those 10 years. The way his hands hover over her back after she comes and he desperately wants to be with her in that moment, like the best of their moments, but he just can’t, speaks to the depth of his love for her.

So many fans of the show point to this sad sex scene as one of the most important character moments for James and Miranda, but I consistently come to the opposite conclusions about WHY it’s important and what we learn from it, because I’m taking my cues from the actor’s choices, not the director or the writers. On the page, in plain ink, he hates having sex with her. Toby and Louise show us, however, that they are trying to recapture a thing that is fleeting, reaching out to each other to patch up an old wound from which the scab has been picked off, leaving it seeping and raw.

From Toby’s performance, regardless of the words he uses years later to describe it, we see not a character who “loves men” or a character who “loves women”, but a character who LOVES. I don’t see Flint defining that love in terms of boxes and parameters. He’s a character who must be coaxed out, but then loves without reason, without a safety net, as he proves with his love of Silver. As was also referenced by a guest on the podcast, he places a sword in Silver’s hand and says “do it”.

Anyway, this post got away from me and took several turns, but the love between James and Miranda being dismissed by so many in the fandom has been bugging me for a while and I just needed to emotionally vomit on tumblr.

[uhbasicallyjustmilex]

it does something incomprehensible to my little writer’s soul whenever alex articulates a phenomenon of the writing process i’ve always picked up on and then goes on to describe it in exactly the same way

[heywhattheshell]

“Everything I knew is gone. My wife. My daughter. My clan. Even my humanity. You four are all I have left.”

so I’m making my way through the 2012 series because rise gave me TMNT brainrot and I wanted to talk about this scene from ‘I, monster.’

up until this point, splinter hasn’t really talked much about his life pre-mutation (apart from shredder-centric conversations), and as a result, it’s really easy for me to forget that the turtles know so much about it. and that’s such an interesting perspective for them to have as characters. like, your dad/sensei had a whole human life. where you might be used to sticking to the shadows and living in a sewer under nyc because it’s all you’ve ever known, it isn’t all he’s ever known. it reframes so much of splinter’s character, but it also just has to be kind of weird for leo & the others to think about.

this is probably incoherent but I’ve been thinking about it all day

[simikae]

had the most 6/10 nap in the car today but i also seemed to have dreamt about a very powerful universe adjacent to ours

[innytoes]

"IT'S DECORATIVE GOURD SEASON, MOTHERFUCKERS." for the GPP?

"What are you doing?" Reggie cried, racing down the stairs. Carrie and Flynn stopped, looking around. Did they knock over one of his lego projects?

"We're cleaning up the Halloween decor," Flynn said, wriggling some lights shaped like ghosts at him. She'd been trying to roll them so they wouldn't come out of the box tangled next year, but she was quickly giving up.

"But-but- not the pumpkins!" Reggie said, grabbing the tiny gourd from Carrie's hand and cradling it to his cheek.

"Reggie, we talked about this," Julie said. "Halloween is over, so the Halloween items are out. Just like Flynn isn't allowed to keep the Christmas tree up until April."

"But pumpkins aren't just for Halloween!" Reggie argued.

"Yeah!" Willie agreed, from where he was on stilts, getting down all the fake spiderwebs from the ceiling, and where did he even get those? "There's pumpkins in the cornucopia!"

"They're really more of an autumnal thing," Alex agreed, after Reggie hit him with the puppy-dog eyes. "Besides, we don't have any Thanksgiving decor, really."

"Unless you want to make kindergarten hand turkeys," Luke joked.

"Well, now I kind of do," Reggie said. "But these pumpkins are still good. You can't just throw them out because spoopy season is over. Pleaaaase?"

Julie caved almost immediately, because she was a sucker for Reggie's puppy dog eyes. Carrie shrugged, probably just thinking it was something they didn't have to clean up. They looked at Flynn, who was immune to they guys' puppy dog eyes and who had also fought like hell that 'They Can Just Be Daylight Savings Lights' last year.

"Fine, the pumpkins can stay, but only the non-spooky ones," she finally allowed.

"Yesss!" Reggie said, throwing his hands up in victory. "IT'S STILL DECORATIVE GOURD SEASON, MOTHERFUCKERS!"

[clyrnin10yearslater]

okay help me out here. Is there any official like... timeline anywhere?? I haven't actually read the whole series in eons, just the bits Myrnin's in so I can't remember everything lol

[hotniatheron]

I simply choose to believe that with the theme of twins in Black sails present in literally everything, Silver was born a twin but somewhere along the line he became singular and well. Here comes Flint who's lost Thomas, whose name quite literally means Twin, going do you want to join me in the darkness and share a mind.

[squiblings]

drawing this man wide-eyed for any and all reasons is my specialty

[echomimus]

Ohoho I love these two just a normal amount- Does Leon pose for Danny sometimes for a little photo shoot? Has Leon ever tried photography?

i’m gonna be honest with you : i’ve been thinking about it since yesterday and none of the answers i could give you are sfw LMAO

[batbytez]

I'm the ruler of the earth.

Inspired by the 1960 rerelease poster for Frankenstein. Large textless version under the cut.

[slverblood]

see y’all don’t understand that I’m actually getting really attached to Lumbar and theorizing backstories. I knew him a handful of minutes yet he shall haunt me all my life.

[kindan-no-kanojo]

Forbidden Voracity ☯ Dark 09

[ Dark 08 ← Previous ] [ Masterlist ]

[ Place: Cabin's room ]

—Kino is by himself, tapping on his phone—

Kino: ( … Changes, huh. )

…Yeah. We should bring signal to this place already. That’s the change I wanna see.

Offline games are too boring.

—He tosses the phone aside; then he lays flat on the bed—

Kino: … … 

… … … …

… … Ngh… 

… … … …Too silent.

—He gets up again—

Kino: ( What is taking so long? Is she still in shock? )

( I had time to take a shower and everything. )

—Knock Knock—

Kino: Ah, come in.

Yuuri: Excuse me.

Kino: Yuuri?

Yuuri: Kino… I believe you should know this.

—Later—

[ Place: Cabin’s Living room ] 

—The door slams open—

Kino: What do you mean she left!?

Yuuri: I saw her flying away not too long ago.

I figured I should inform you before making any moves.

Kino: Where did she go? Did she persuade you again!?

She did, didn’t she? 

I can’t believe this.

I’m gonna find her and—!

Yuuri: Kino. Please calm down.

Scarlett-san… she said nothing. The window was open from inside.

She went South. That is all I can be certain of.

Kino: South…?

To the Demon World? The Portal? 

…To the human world again.

Heh. 

...What a coward she turned out to be.

Yuuri: … …

Kino: Is there something else I need to know? 

Yuuri: … … I admit I was able to listen to your argument earlier, from outside. For the most part, that is.

My apologies. I know it is nothing of my concern. But…

Kino: Don’t worry about that. I expected as much, she’s quite noisy.

But it was nothing you didn’t know already.

Yuuri: I am aware.

Kino: I couldn’t allow her to keep shamelessly lying to my face like that.

It was fun while it lasted, I guess.

…but I wasted my time. Whatever. 

Not like it was meant to succeed anyway.

—Kino paces around—

Kino: Ahh, how should I end this now? I don’t know.

Yuuri: End… this?

Kino: Yeah. I guess I should end this once and for all, now.

I mean, if she’s gone, they won’t listen——

… … ...

Ah…

No. It’s worse.

Yuuri: … …?

Kino: Tch. It’s worse...

( Because that old man… )

( He knows. )

—Flashback—

Old Ghoul Man: I never thought talking back to Kino-sama and getting away with it was possible. Although if she suddenly disappears…

—Flashback ends—

Kino: ( Not like he’s living for too much longer, though. But how many more…? )

No way... 

( I can’t possibly tell them that she’s gone now. )

( … just like him, everyone will think——! ) 

Ha…

…hahahaha…

...How interesting.

Yuuri: … what is…?

Kino: I’m… trapped.

She trapped me.

Yuuri: Excuse me?

Kino: As soon as I turned around, she left...

She’s gone, but that’s not new, right? 

This always happens after all.

Oh, but guess what!

—Kino continues to pace around restlessly—

Kino: Haha! No one trusts me, so I can’t tell them anything.

Or else, they will think she disappeared because of me.

Because I killed her.

...I might as well next time I see her.

Yuuri: ... ... Kino...

Kino: … I should have seen this coming.

I knew her loose tongue was going to be problematic...

Ohhh, I’m pissed.

Even when she’s not here she continues to piss me off!

—He kicks a chair—

Yuuri: … ...

Kino. May I ask a question?

Kino: What!?

Yuuri: … …

Kino: WHAT!?

Yuuri: …Pardon me. May I know...

What does the plan you informed her entail?

Kino: Hah? Where does that come from?

Yuuri: I believe there is a step I may be missing, I cannot understand completely.

Hence, I am not of much help.

I am unaware of the technique you used to convince her to participate… or why she accepted to do so thus far.

Kino: Ah, it was easy. I simply offered influence, another kind of power.

Ghouls are always going on and on about how they want to change their lives and all that.

It worked in my favor before, but I can’t use that anymore.

Well, not on the ones remaining.

I waited long enough until I found someone unaware enough to listen... But it’s never going to be that easy, huh.

It went to her head way too fast.

Yuuri: … … Power.

I see.

Kino: Ha, you know something great? That Vampire knew a thing or two about the Ghoul captivity that works in the shadows.

Should I even believe that? I choose to, but what does that change?

Yeah, if it was true, saving them would be ideal, I guess.

But they will want to see her now. It won’t work if I do the thing myself.

They will want to know where she is... and eventually turn their backs on me again when they don’t see her, because she disappeared.

And the cycle repeats...

Yuuri: … Excuse me, what Vampire are you referring to?

Kino: Eh? You know, the one! The—...wait.

Yuuri...

Yuuri: Yes? 

Kino: Why... do you question me so much?

Not just now, but...

Yuuri: I do not.

However…

Kino: … … don’t tell me... you—

Yuuri: No.

I am not judging you.

Additionally, I have been avoiding Scarlett-san in order to keep you at peace.

But… Kino. Allow me to be honest…

You have not informed me the entirety of your procedures. 

Kino: What? Of course I did! I always do!

Yuuri: I am afraid… you always did.

That is why… I am surprised.

I cannot be an efficient assistant without all the details.

Kino: …!

This… See, this wasn’t all that big of a deal! 

Yeah, I had to get some help from you with the whole Sakamaki stuff, that was a lot to do by myself.

And it failed, anyway.

But this looked easier, I didn’t have to deal with the other sons of Karl Heinz anymore.

Ah, I should pay them a visit some time. Do you think they still hate me?

Yuuri: … … Kino.

Kino: They probably do, right?

Ahh, yeah, maybe I’ll need your advice on that one again.

Don’t worry I haven’t forgotten about you! 

I just thought I could manage this myself…

Hahaha! Yeah, seems like I can’t work without you, huh?

Who was the new King again? Maybe we could—

Yuuri: Kino…

Stop.

Kino: Huh? 

Stop…?

Yuuri, don’t worry about it!

I have everything—...

Yuuri: … under control?

Kino: Yeah...!

This is nothing. It was, maybe, like a test?

You know, to make sure... What if I could fix it? What if it wasn’t that terrible? 

What if… what if…

Yuuri: … … 

Kino: …ahhh, whatever!

It was a delusion. It’s all gone!

She’s gone! The plan is gone! I will be gone too, it’s whatever.

I’ll just leave another message, exterminate them all and that’s it.

Yuuri: Kino, please.

You should stop—

Kino: Why do you keep saying that!?

Yuuri: It’s not… going to work.

Not now.

Kino: It did before, right!?

It did, so…

Yuuri: … … …

Kino: … don’t look at me like that...

Don’t look at me with such pity!

Yuuri, not you…!

Yuuri: That is not…

… Never mind. I apologize for intruding in this way.

Kino: … Yuuri… 

Do you think this is...

Yuuri: Hm?

Kino: … Nothing. 

Nothing! 

I guess I should have known there’s no way I could make amends with Ghouls anymore.

… it is what it is.

Luckily, I still have you, Yuuri.

Yuuri: … Yes.

Kino: … right?

Yuuri: Yes.

Kino: Good.

Good...

—Kino; Monologue—

...Disappointment after disappointment after disappointment.

No matter how much I try, I always end up disappointed.

I made sure to stay unattached to avoid it this time, but...

No matter who it is, or what they do...

It always ends the same.

The Sakamaki bastards, that Komori girl, the Ghouls, Karl Heinz himself—

Yuuri... he would never tell me, but I know it well by now.

——The problem starts with me.

...It was always my fault. But I won’t try anymore.

I keep letting control slip through my fingers and disappear... I don’t have the composure I once had.

I’m tired of feeling humiliated like this.

—Monologue END—

—Tick tock—

Kino: ...anyway, I decided.

I will sleep it off and eliminate everything tomorrow.

Yuuri: …Pardon me?

Kino: You heard me. Eliminate. I will kill them all and get this over with.

Yuuri: ….Please, think about this.

Kino: What do you want me to do!?

I’ve been cornered by a Ghoul, do you think this is funny!?

I can’t do anything without it backfiring now. I hate this!

But if she thinks I’m going to let her win she’s wrong!

This ends here. I hope she rots in Hell.

Yuuri: … … Kino, please don’t make any rushed decisions.

The previous times—

Kino: The past is in the past. 

I’m done.

I even was so kind as to keep her nasty little secret.

We both did. And for what—!?

—Tap tap—

Kino: …!?

—More taps on the window—

Yuuri: ...A crow is outside.

Kino: ...It’s too late. She could have gone to speak to them.

Ha... now everyone knows where I’m located.

See why I can’t let them stay alive—!?

Yuuri: One moment.

—Yuuri opens the window and the crow gets inside; it carries something in its beak—

Kino: What are you doing!? I didn’t send any familiars.

Did you?

—Caw!

Kino: ——!?

Are you... serious…!?

—Dark 09 END—

[ Masterlist ] [ Next → Dark 10 ]

[ask-dbd-adawong]

🍪 ? @drowningbydaylight

[I would like to apologize in advance </3]

“…I think these may have been the weirdest cookies I’ve had to give out all day.“

[ James received the ‘Mary’s Letter’ and “Maria” Cookie’]

( @drowningbydaylight )

[cherryjuicegf]

watching hannibal 3x06 after having watched black sails is on another level of insanity the silverflint of it all......

[whoslaurapalmer]

local woman buys horror game, bypassing that it says horror and she typically doesn't really vibe with horror just because the graphics looked cool, plays said horror game at night and becomes increasingly concerned about the serial killer noises the dishwasher is making in the other room

[pedro-pascal]

.