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lackadaisicalnereid- I hated s02e05 so much? Like, it's unreal how much I disliked it. I've been fumbling around trying to pinpoint it for hours. I'm not sure I'm any closer. Let's circle around the whole thing and approach it from the periphery. Ofc, there's no real need to discuss XIII separately from XIV, so let's tie it all together, shall we?
JACK/ANNE/MAX
- I am sorry, but this whole plot really came out of nowhere for me. I loved Anne's XII speech to Jack about her being confident she'll be fine in life (and in her relationship with Max the Manipulator Madam) as long as he has her back. I can sort of see how Max/Jack showing sexual interest in each other that has nothing to do with her could set her off, perhaps, be too threatening for her in her already openly (or so she sees it) position. I don't necessarily find it particularly interesting or threatening, because imho, Jack does not give a flying fuck about Max, not a one, but outside perspectives and whatever, Anne, I'm sure, sees it differently. And I can see how that perhaps sets a bad ground for the scene later. But come ooooooon. If this is her reaction, how does he not see it coming? Could he not have like, told Featherstone to give him time to think and discussed this, if not with Max, than with Anne, at least? Given Anne his share of the gold? Delivered this to her in a better fashion, for some value of better?
And I can take a breather long enough to understand that usually when I'm having these kinds of thoughts, the thoughts of the 'how did character A not have the presence of mind to make a better decision' variety, it's either because I'm deeply invested in a specific outcome - which I really do not think I am as far as Anne/Jack are concerned, or the other option is I am merely not finding the whatever's playing out in front of my eyes good enough, for some value of good enough. What I'm struggling here with is the exact value of good enough that I'm having trouble with. It's not like Anne and Jack have not shown independent decision making before, even of the kind the other did not agree with, lest we all forget the crew killing incident, or Anne shacking up with Max. So it's not like it's completely out of nowhere. I guess I underestimated how much Jack wanted to be a captain, because I wouldn't have seen him choosing captaincy over Anne in quite this way? It might be that having a better understanding of Jack's specific motivation to be a captain, as opposed to having influence and power, would help me out. Also, briefly, I did not find myself highly engaged in Jack's first day as a captain, and I think the scenes could have used a rewrite. I do like the name The Colonial Dawn.
Also, and now I'm really rambling, but the show JUST KEPT INSISTING SO MUCH on being the Crew Killer being SUCH a problem for Jack, and not at all a problem for Anne, how the fuck would I have seen this coming, show? And it's been going on for episodes now. On what earth would it make sense to deliver this completely out of nowhere? But fine, what even, I can allow it in the sense of Anne has barely interacted with anyone but Max and Jack since the beginning of the season, mayhaps there was no chance for us to see anything play out. Or perhaps it's not that at all, it's perhaps what came through in Idelle's retelling of the incident to Max, perhaps the way people are scared of Anne (and they should be) means that they do not want her around without Jack to control her, so Anne has to face the consequences of that in her mind? Or she's already aware of that reaction, so she's pre-emptively troubled by it? Whatever it is, I've sort of calmed down enough to sort of go with it and see where the show takes me. But let me tell you, I was angry at first.
That being said, I do honestly appreciate Anne's reaction to all of this being a sort of rampaging self-destruction that seems at the same time impulsive and thoroughly thought-out? Imho, killing a member of Flint's crew in the brothel in the process of trying to extract a secret from him seems like a sure-fire way to make sure Flint's/the crew's retribution doesn't stop at her but includes Anne and Jack, which I am guessing is her goal. And Max pretty much makes the same point, so I guess we're all on the same page there. And I did enjoy Max telling Anne she will stand between her and harm, I am almost ready to believe there's real care for Anne hiding in their somewhere, so there's that. I also thoroughly enjoyed Max and Silver's scene, though I do not have much to say on the subject. They're both excellent. I like how quickly Silver calls Max out on her lying and fibbing and merely dismisses her because he has no time for it, and equally I love how Max notices that the way Silver talks about the crew lets it slip that he sees the crew as separate from himself. If this is a function of him being tied in his mind too firmly with Flint, or a function of seeing himself as separate from both Flint and the crew, remains a mystery, but I'm more than happy to go on this journey with the show & will be here with fingers crossed shouting into the void that it's oth, of course it's both.
NO BEEF PLOTS:
MIRANDA
Miranda's decision to involve herself more in the FREE NASSAU movement. I loved the reminder that it was not just Thomas and Flint that care(d) about these matters.
VANE
Vane. Vane, I am so sorry. For a while in season 1 I was sure that Vane's problem, in the context of the show, was that he is not the protagonist, or to be more precise / come at it from another angle: he is the protagonist, but he's not in the narrative that he thinks he is in. If we were all indeed in the narrative Vane thinks we were, Vane would rock everyone's socks off and we'd all rally behind him and fuck until sunup. But he's constantly tripping against Flint, or Eleanor (representing Flint, as well as herself) and he just does not manage to comprehend that the reason he keeps tripping up against them is because he's in the wrong sort of pirate story. This is not that kind of anti hero story, where you can be violent and grab what you want and - here I'm reminded of Faith in s3 explaining her approach to slaying in Buffy: 'want. take. have'. Buffy spends the whole of s3 (and arguably seasons 2 and 1, and arguably the whole show) demonstrating how this approach does not work, morally, for her, or for the show.
The Flint flashbacks, as well as season 1, demonstrate how this does not work in Black Sails - not as an issue of morals, like it is in Buffy, but because it is untenable in the narrative layout set out by Black Sails. The universe is too cruel and human nature too unforgiving for it. All of this is to say, I found Vane's speech to Eleanor about fighting for survival, and fighting for today, thoroughly more convincing than it had any grounds being, in a show where it's undermined as a life philosophy every step of the way. I can't wait to see how Vane deals with Eleanor's most recent betrayal.
Also, and no less important, as Black Sails gave us Ned Low (a shadow version, a harsher repetition, of Vane's character and problems with Eleanor with season 1) and Vane dealt with him by murdering him both for himself and for Eleanor, I might be inclined to understand that as the beginning of Vane's real and metaphorical journey to joining us in the show where we all are, where we have to believe in something, and we have to work towards it, and everything else is just, well, sand.
BEEF:
Things I have beef with and will have to ignore them to some degree:
Eleanor's daddy issues. Guthrie Sr wanted a son and he abandoned Eleanor because she wasn't one? And she's perfectly aware of it and yet her daddy issues run so deep she still melts to putty in his hands when he asks her to? This is one of those instances where I keep thinking, Eleanor, dear, please just shoot this guy and solve all your problems. (Also, kudos to Eleanor for getting a shotgun and resolving Vane and Flint's dramatic death brawl. You go pirate queen.) All of this is to say I do not give a singly flying fuck about daddy issues motivating anyone, and also, did someone think this scene was necessary? Like, did someone think I did not understand that part of Eleanor was driven by a desire to be recognized and respected by her father? I just hate being delivered overly simplistic explanations of characters' behaviors through backstory information. If I wanted that, I'd be reading Freud, and I never read Freud. If this is all a journey Eleanor's on in which she separates herself from her father/the desire for her father's recognition: I can be here for it. I do not want it delivered to me in this way.
Also, kudos Eleanor for your balls of steel on screwing Vane over like this by fucking him and then stealing away Abigail. Can't wait to see how it works out for you. Also, I'm ready to amend my previous statement re: Eleanor needing to have a gun. I am now, after some contemplation, willing to admit that attempting to wield the kind of power Eleanor wants to wield over men on her island (influence and diplomacy and economic threats) does probably NOT jibe well with also having physical power over men, so she might actually be doing the smart thing here by not going around with a gun, or ten bodyguards, or shooting everyone she dislikes in the face the instant she dislikes them. I do respect that Vane and Flint, however, she gets to be physically violent towards, or at least adjacent to, but I think that works for her because both Flint and Vane have respect for her on so many levels, at least some of which are completely unrelated to the power she wields over them.
FLINT:
Motherfucker. First of all, zero issues with Flint here, I think. I think it's my particular understanding of the show that's making me find an issue here, where it's perhaps unfair to find one? I was having a hard time piecing together what it is that bothered me with the whole FLINT / FREE NASSAU plotline in these two episodes, but I think I have it, now. Chronologically, how I figured things out:
1) I think that thinking that Flint was trying to FREE NASSAU for the sake of England just completely broke me. I was not sure that the show was trying to tell me this, actually, but I felt something stirring me into that direction, and let me tell you, I hate it. I think that ties into
2) me feeling betrayed by the idea that Flint was *pretending* to be a pirate. I'm not all the way clear on what I mean by this, but I think for me it's necessary that Flint finds at least some form of fulfillment/enjoyment being a pirate. Flint not deriving anything for himself from it makes me feel betrayed, as if I was watching Buffy and all of a sudden after making me invested in fighting monsters Buffy came out in s7 and said 'you know what guys I never really cared about fighting monsters, I just want to work my abs'. Like, I thought we were on the same page, and then the rug was flipped from under me? Which leads me to
3) the horrible but sort-of expected consequence of me reading the show as piracy = freedom = queerness means that the 'we need to get England's blessing and stop being pirates' is something I initially *emotionally* read as 'we queer people need to get the oppressive straights' blessing to exist and we need to mold ourselves into a type of existence acceptable to them'. Which, let's just say, I did not vibe with. I think that's the biggest betrayal I felt, actually. HOWEVER. Having a few days to mull over it, I can make the following addendum: a pirate's life sucks in many ways, and many characters are not actually participating in it because they want to be, but because they feel an oppressive lack of options. So I can actually go along with a slightly different reading: this is queer people working towards earning a place in society that makes them equal to non-queer people. Which I can vibe with. But I will be keeping my eyes open for further developments in this regard.
BILLY.
I don't quite care about Billy on any specific Billy level. I do however care about: him personifying the confrontation with England and making the previously abstract confrontation into a concrete possibility of actual confrontation, with actual stakes. I adore that his plan is: go with Flint, Flint is our best chance, if Flint screws us over, we screw Flint over.
BE STILL MY HEART:
Flint/Silver. Look, I was not quite sure where I stood with the Silver/Flint scene. Stuff I loved: Flint is doing a good job being unconcerned with the Hornigold vote which I am willing to agree is the best thing he can be doing. Since his association with Silver is at best unclear to everyone, Silver going around counting votes in silent panic mode does not necessarily have to trigger any significant alarms re: Flint being panicked. I still enjoy Flint feeling comfortable (if that word could ever have been used to describe James Flint) trusting Silver to do stuff. I don't quite feel like there's actual trust there, not in any significant way, but the truth of the matter is Silver does go around doing stuff for Flint that Flint seems unconcerned with these things, not in the sense of, he doesn't care about the stuff, but in a Silver will take care of it kind of sense. Loved Silver's whole what-about-me-and-my-faith-in-you schtick. I am utterly unclear on Silver's 'your word was all I needed' though, because on the one hand, I don't trust that he has that sort of trust in Flint, but on the other hand, he is doing all he's doing in an attempt to help Flint as he believes Flint is his best chance at the gold, and for all they've been cooperating reluctantly, their cooperation is both desperation and faith-based: it's not like Silver can extract a formal promise from Flint that Flint will not harm him (like he has ALL his former confidantes). And Silver has seen how going down this road has gone for Billy and Gates. And for all of Silver's insistence that he is not like them, because he does not believe in Flint, well, it's not really completely true, is it? So, as much as I enjoy Silver's lack of faith in paralel with Billy and Gates's faith in Flint in season 1, now when Billy's come back with his faith in Flint forever changed by the murder attempt (I truly believe Billy does think Flint is their best chance against England, but I don't feel like Billy's in any personal way attached to Flint anymore) I do also feel like there's room for a paralel of Billy being able to extract himself out of Flint's kingly claws, while Silver, who thinks himself immune, falls for it, despite himself. I came across the following quote today on Tumblr: *When you have decided what you want, remember that what one will not acknowledge is what one cannot properly control.* I do believe Silver's growing trust in Flint could be his blindspot, because he's so intent on selling everyone including himself on the idea that he does not fucking believe in Flint. I don't think necessarily all these thoughts are quite all the way coherent, or necessarily not contradictory, but I do love an unholy mess of contradictions, and I will roll in it happily.
SIDETHOUGHTS:
+ I liked Hornigold's confrontation with Flint. Flint implying that Hornigold's a bad captain (A hard choice, sir, but one that any responsible captain must make given the changing circumstances.) was excellent, Flint is such a shit. Hornigold mocking Flint's 'unassailable rhetoric' was also, I believe, something that needed saying.
+ while I can see the appeal of Flint, re-encouraged by his re-kindled memory of Thomas, doing his utmost to find a Good and Honorable way through all this and rising to become an Honorable Leader of FREE NASSAU, I am also sadly/luckily reminded of my affection for tragedy / intent on seeing Black Sails as a tragedy, which makes me say: no fucking way this guy ends anything but a tragedy. He's too far gone, too much of a monster, and perhaps more importantly ('your unassailable rhetoric', listening to but discarding Scott's advice over finding a non-violent way out of the confrontation with Vane, and lest we forget the juxtaposition of the navy officer Dufresne was looting asking 'Are you Captain Flint?' while Silver and Flint have this exchange:
Flint: Men in these waters are hard men. They don't fear ships. They don't fear guns. They don't fear swords.
Silver: Then what do they fear?
With the camera standing still on Flint looking as determined as he's ever been. I cannot read this scene as anything other than telling me Flint is what men in these waters fear, perhaps the only thing men in these waters fear.
And we all remember Flint, like the madman that he is, shouting I am your king all the way down in the freaking series opener, right?
Which is just a horribly long way of me saying: I think Flint does not care for personal power, not in the way that Vane does. I believe, however, that by this point, and by perhaps an earlier point as well, Flint has become too invested in his own myth to see that it is, indeed, merely a myth, and to be able to step outside of it and see himself as anything but.
But hey, if he tries, I'm ready to go on that journey of discovery with him.
+ final random thoughts: I do believe homophobia's why XIII is the lowest ranking episode of the season, because of the Thomas/Flint reveal. I highly respect Black Sails for getting the straights to go along with lesbian sex in the series opener as bait only to say: haha your favorite boi has been queer all along, what will you do now? I think that this narrative works beautifully, though I personally care zero about the Thomas/Flint romance. I still think it does wonders for Flint's character and narrative and I don't mind not caring about it beyond that.
JACK/ANNE/MAX
- I am sorry, but this whole plot really came out of nowhere for me. I loved Anne's XII speech to Jack about her being confident she'll be fine in life (and in her relationship with Max the Manipulator Madam) as long as he has her back. I can sort of see how Max/Jack showing sexual interest in each other that has nothing to do with her could set her off, perhaps, be too threatening for her in her already openly (or so she sees it) position. I don't necessarily find it particularly interesting or threatening, because imho, Jack does not give a flying fuck about Max, not a one, but outside perspectives and whatever, Anne, I'm sure, sees it differently. And I can see how that perhaps sets a bad ground for the scene later. But come ooooooon. If this is her reaction, how does he not see it coming? Could he not have like, told Featherstone to give him time to think and discussed this, if not with Max, than with Anne, at least? Given Anne his share of the gold? Delivered this to her in a better fashion, for some value of better?
And I can take a breather long enough to understand that usually when I'm having these kinds of thoughts, the thoughts of the 'how did character A not have the presence of mind to make a better decision' variety, it's either because I'm deeply invested in a specific outcome - which I really do not think I am as far as Anne/Jack are concerned, or the other option is I am merely not finding the whatever's playing out in front of my eyes good enough, for some value of good enough. What I'm struggling here with is the exact value of good enough that I'm having trouble with. It's not like Anne and Jack have not shown independent decision making before, even of the kind the other did not agree with, lest we all forget the crew killing incident, or Anne shacking up with Max. So it's not like it's completely out of nowhere. I guess I underestimated how much Jack wanted to be a captain, because I wouldn't have seen him choosing captaincy over Anne in quite this way? It might be that having a better understanding of Jack's specific motivation to be a captain, as opposed to having influence and power, would help me out. Also, briefly, I did not find myself highly engaged in Jack's first day as a captain, and I think the scenes could have used a rewrite. I do like the name The Colonial Dawn.
Also, and now I'm really rambling, but the show JUST KEPT INSISTING SO MUCH on being the Crew Killer being SUCH a problem for Jack, and not at all a problem for Anne, how the fuck would I have seen this coming, show? And it's been going on for episodes now. On what earth would it make sense to deliver this completely out of nowhere? But fine, what even, I can allow it in the sense of Anne has barely interacted with anyone but Max and Jack since the beginning of the season, mayhaps there was no chance for us to see anything play out. Or perhaps it's not that at all, it's perhaps what came through in Idelle's retelling of the incident to Max, perhaps the way people are scared of Anne (and they should be) means that they do not want her around without Jack to control her, so Anne has to face the consequences of that in her mind? Or she's already aware of that reaction, so she's pre-emptively troubled by it? Whatever it is, I've sort of calmed down enough to sort of go with it and see where the show takes me. But let me tell you, I was angry at first.
That being said, I do honestly appreciate Anne's reaction to all of this being a sort of rampaging self-destruction that seems at the same time impulsive and thoroughly thought-out? Imho, killing a member of Flint's crew in the brothel in the process of trying to extract a secret from him seems like a sure-fire way to make sure Flint's/the crew's retribution doesn't stop at her but includes Anne and Jack, which I am guessing is her goal. And Max pretty much makes the same point, so I guess we're all on the same page there. And I did enjoy Max telling Anne she will stand between her and harm, I am almost ready to believe there's real care for Anne hiding in their somewhere, so there's that. I also thoroughly enjoyed Max and Silver's scene, though I do not have much to say on the subject. They're both excellent. I like how quickly Silver calls Max out on her lying and fibbing and merely dismisses her because he has no time for it, and equally I love how Max notices that the way Silver talks about the crew lets it slip that he sees the crew as separate from himself. If this is a function of him being tied in his mind too firmly with Flint, or a function of seeing himself as separate from both Flint and the crew, remains a mystery, but I'm more than happy to go on this journey with the show & will be here with fingers crossed shouting into the void that it's oth, of course it's both.
NO BEEF PLOTS:
MIRANDA
Miranda's decision to involve herself more in the FREE NASSAU movement. I loved the reminder that it was not just Thomas and Flint that care(d) about these matters.
VANE
Vane. Vane, I am so sorry. For a while in season 1 I was sure that Vane's problem, in the context of the show, was that he is not the protagonist, or to be more precise / come at it from another angle: he is the protagonist, but he's not in the narrative that he thinks he is in. If we were all indeed in the narrative Vane thinks we were, Vane would rock everyone's socks off and we'd all rally behind him and fuck until sunup. But he's constantly tripping against Flint, or Eleanor (representing Flint, as well as herself) and he just does not manage to comprehend that the reason he keeps tripping up against them is because he's in the wrong sort of pirate story. This is not that kind of anti hero story, where you can be violent and grab what you want and - here I'm reminded of Faith in s3 explaining her approach to slaying in Buffy: 'want. take. have'. Buffy spends the whole of s3 (and arguably seasons 2 and 1, and arguably the whole show) demonstrating how this approach does not work, morally, for her, or for the show.
The Flint flashbacks, as well as season 1, demonstrate how this does not work in Black Sails - not as an issue of morals, like it is in Buffy, but because it is untenable in the narrative layout set out by Black Sails. The universe is too cruel and human nature too unforgiving for it. All of this is to say, I found Vane's speech to Eleanor about fighting for survival, and fighting for today, thoroughly more convincing than it had any grounds being, in a show where it's undermined as a life philosophy every step of the way. I can't wait to see how Vane deals with Eleanor's most recent betrayal.
Also, and no less important, as Black Sails gave us Ned Low (a shadow version, a harsher repetition, of Vane's character and problems with Eleanor with season 1) and Vane dealt with him by murdering him both for himself and for Eleanor, I might be inclined to understand that as the beginning of Vane's real and metaphorical journey to joining us in the show where we all are, where we have to believe in something, and we have to work towards it, and everything else is just, well, sand.
BEEF:
Things I have beef with and will have to ignore them to some degree:
Eleanor's daddy issues. Guthrie Sr wanted a son and he abandoned Eleanor because she wasn't one? And she's perfectly aware of it and yet her daddy issues run so deep she still melts to putty in his hands when he asks her to? This is one of those instances where I keep thinking, Eleanor, dear, please just shoot this guy and solve all your problems. (Also, kudos to Eleanor for getting a shotgun and resolving Vane and Flint's dramatic death brawl. You go pirate queen.) All of this is to say I do not give a singly flying fuck about daddy issues motivating anyone, and also, did someone think this scene was necessary? Like, did someone think I did not understand that part of Eleanor was driven by a desire to be recognized and respected by her father? I just hate being delivered overly simplistic explanations of characters' behaviors through backstory information. If I wanted that, I'd be reading Freud, and I never read Freud. If this is all a journey Eleanor's on in which she separates herself from her father/the desire for her father's recognition: I can be here for it. I do not want it delivered to me in this way.
Also, kudos Eleanor for your balls of steel on screwing Vane over like this by fucking him and then stealing away Abigail. Can't wait to see how it works out for you. Also, I'm ready to amend my previous statement re: Eleanor needing to have a gun. I am now, after some contemplation, willing to admit that attempting to wield the kind of power Eleanor wants to wield over men on her island (influence and diplomacy and economic threats) does probably NOT jibe well with also having physical power over men, so she might actually be doing the smart thing here by not going around with a gun, or ten bodyguards, or shooting everyone she dislikes in the face the instant she dislikes them. I do respect that Vane and Flint, however, she gets to be physically violent towards, or at least adjacent to, but I think that works for her because both Flint and Vane have respect for her on so many levels, at least some of which are completely unrelated to the power she wields over them.
FLINT:
Motherfucker. First of all, zero issues with Flint here, I think. I think it's my particular understanding of the show that's making me find an issue here, where it's perhaps unfair to find one? I was having a hard time piecing together what it is that bothered me with the whole FLINT / FREE NASSAU plotline in these two episodes, but I think I have it, now. Chronologically, how I figured things out:
1) I think that thinking that Flint was trying to FREE NASSAU for the sake of England just completely broke me. I was not sure that the show was trying to tell me this, actually, but I felt something stirring me into that direction, and let me tell you, I hate it. I think that ties into
2) me feeling betrayed by the idea that Flint was *pretending* to be a pirate. I'm not all the way clear on what I mean by this, but I think for me it's necessary that Flint finds at least some form of fulfillment/enjoyment being a pirate. Flint not deriving anything for himself from it makes me feel betrayed, as if I was watching Buffy and all of a sudden after making me invested in fighting monsters Buffy came out in s7 and said 'you know what guys I never really cared about fighting monsters, I just want to work my abs'. Like, I thought we were on the same page, and then the rug was flipped from under me? Which leads me to
3) the horrible but sort-of expected consequence of me reading the show as piracy = freedom = queerness means that the 'we need to get England's blessing and stop being pirates' is something I initially *emotionally* read as 'we queer people need to get the oppressive straights' blessing to exist and we need to mold ourselves into a type of existence acceptable to them'. Which, let's just say, I did not vibe with. I think that's the biggest betrayal I felt, actually. HOWEVER. Having a few days to mull over it, I can make the following addendum: a pirate's life sucks in many ways, and many characters are not actually participating in it because they want to be, but because they feel an oppressive lack of options. So I can actually go along with a slightly different reading: this is queer people working towards earning a place in society that makes them equal to non-queer people. Which I can vibe with. But I will be keeping my eyes open for further developments in this regard.
BILLY.
I don't quite care about Billy on any specific Billy level. I do however care about: him personifying the confrontation with England and making the previously abstract confrontation into a concrete possibility of actual confrontation, with actual stakes. I adore that his plan is: go with Flint, Flint is our best chance, if Flint screws us over, we screw Flint over.
BE STILL MY HEART:
Flint/Silver. Look, I was not quite sure where I stood with the Silver/Flint scene. Stuff I loved: Flint is doing a good job being unconcerned with the Hornigold vote which I am willing to agree is the best thing he can be doing. Since his association with Silver is at best unclear to everyone, Silver going around counting votes in silent panic mode does not necessarily have to trigger any significant alarms re: Flint being panicked. I still enjoy Flint feeling comfortable (if that word could ever have been used to describe James Flint) trusting Silver to do stuff. I don't quite feel like there's actual trust there, not in any significant way, but the truth of the matter is Silver does go around doing stuff for Flint that Flint seems unconcerned with these things, not in the sense of, he doesn't care about the stuff, but in a Silver will take care of it kind of sense. Loved Silver's whole what-about-me-and-my-faith-in-you schtick. I am utterly unclear on Silver's 'your word was all I needed' though, because on the one hand, I don't trust that he has that sort of trust in Flint, but on the other hand, he is doing all he's doing in an attempt to help Flint as he believes Flint is his best chance at the gold, and for all they've been cooperating reluctantly, their cooperation is both desperation and faith-based: it's not like Silver can extract a formal promise from Flint that Flint will not harm him (like he has ALL his former confidantes). And Silver has seen how going down this road has gone for Billy and Gates. And for all of Silver's insistence that he is not like them, because he does not believe in Flint, well, it's not really completely true, is it? So, as much as I enjoy Silver's lack of faith in paralel with Billy and Gates's faith in Flint in season 1, now when Billy's come back with his faith in Flint forever changed by the murder attempt (I truly believe Billy does think Flint is their best chance against England, but I don't feel like Billy's in any personal way attached to Flint anymore) I do also feel like there's room for a paralel of Billy being able to extract himself out of Flint's kingly claws, while Silver, who thinks himself immune, falls for it, despite himself. I came across the following quote today on Tumblr: *When you have decided what you want, remember that what one will not acknowledge is what one cannot properly control.* I do believe Silver's growing trust in Flint could be his blindspot, because he's so intent on selling everyone including himself on the idea that he does not fucking believe in Flint. I don't think necessarily all these thoughts are quite all the way coherent, or necessarily not contradictory, but I do love an unholy mess of contradictions, and I will roll in it happily.
SIDETHOUGHTS:
+ I liked Hornigold's confrontation with Flint. Flint implying that Hornigold's a bad captain (A hard choice, sir, but one that any responsible captain must make given the changing circumstances.) was excellent, Flint is such a shit. Hornigold mocking Flint's 'unassailable rhetoric' was also, I believe, something that needed saying.
+ while I can see the appeal of Flint, re-encouraged by his re-kindled memory of Thomas, doing his utmost to find a Good and Honorable way through all this and rising to become an Honorable Leader of FREE NASSAU, I am also sadly/luckily reminded of my affection for tragedy / intent on seeing Black Sails as a tragedy, which makes me say: no fucking way this guy ends anything but a tragedy. He's too far gone, too much of a monster, and perhaps more importantly ('your unassailable rhetoric', listening to but discarding Scott's advice over finding a non-violent way out of the confrontation with Vane, and lest we forget the juxtaposition of the navy officer Dufresne was looting asking 'Are you Captain Flint?' while Silver and Flint have this exchange:
Flint: Men in these waters are hard men. They don't fear ships. They don't fear guns. They don't fear swords.
Silver: Then what do they fear?
With the camera standing still on Flint looking as determined as he's ever been. I cannot read this scene as anything other than telling me Flint is what men in these waters fear, perhaps the only thing men in these waters fear.
And we all remember Flint, like the madman that he is, shouting I am your king all the way down in the freaking series opener, right?
Which is just a horribly long way of me saying: I think Flint does not care for personal power, not in the way that Vane does. I believe, however, that by this point, and by perhaps an earlier point as well, Flint has become too invested in his own myth to see that it is, indeed, merely a myth, and to be able to step outside of it and see himself as anything but.
But hey, if he tries, I'm ready to go on that journey of discovery with him.
+ final random thoughts: I do believe homophobia's why XIII is the lowest ranking episode of the season, because of the Thomas/Flint reveal. I highly respect Black Sails for getting the straights to go along with lesbian sex in the series opener as bait only to say: haha your favorite boi has been queer all along, what will you do now? I think that this narrative works beautifully, though I personally care zero about the Thomas/Flint romance. I still think it does wonders for Flint's character and narrative and I don't mind not caring about it beyond that.
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Date: 2023-07-24 04:58 pm (UTC)Having a few days to mull over it, I can make the following addendum: a pirate's life sucks in many ways, and many characters are not actually participating in it because they want to be, but because they feel an oppressive lack of options.
I think this is closer to the show's message than the alternative. I think some pirates, like Jack and most of the time Anne, enjoy being a pirate, but it's always within a context of England's oppression.
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Date: 2023-07-24 06:18 pm (UTC)And you originally told me that the show improves in s2 and GIRL, do I agree, let me tell you. I agree a lot.
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Date: 2023-07-24 06:46 pm (UTC)I think S1 especially suffers from GoT-ism issues, as aired at the height of sexy grimdark times in tv. The scene with Silver meeting the pirate king only to be handed Max and other women on a plate grossed me out so much I quite the show off of that, and then I tried to come back only to run right into the "Max gives herself over to be repeatedly raped by Vane's crew" plot that again made me quit. It took my friends a lot of convincing for me to get to S2, but I still skip parts of S1 because it's so uneven.