(Diff anon) YOU’RE SO ARTICULATE AT EXPLAINING WHY YOU LOVE/DON’T LOVE A CERTAIN CHARACTER THAT READING YOU IS ABSOLUTELY DELIGHTFUL!!!! And now can you please rave in a similar way about Flint ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)

candlewinds:

anon…I can’t believe you just sent me a message that boils down to “talk about james flint ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)”

I FEEL SO MOCKED AND ATTACKED. I FEEL INVADED. HOW DID YOU GET THE KEY TO MY HEART AND WHY ARE YOU BETRAYING YOUR POWER IN THIS WAY. I’M MAD AT YOU BUT I TOTALLY RESPECT YOU FOR IT. WELL PLAYED 😡

but I fear you have asked too much of me in this moment. WHERE DOES ONE EVEN BEGIN?!? I could spend a week doing nothing but writing about james flint and still feel like I was only skimming the surface.

SO I AM GOING TO DO SOMETHING I HAVE NEVER SUCCEEDED IN DOING BEFORE. I am going to attempt…[sighs dramatically]…to be brief.

so here are JUST A FEW of my favorite things about james flint:

• he is a gay/bi man whose narrative focuses much on refusing to apologize to the homophobic powers that destroyed his happiness. (a non-straight character who is allowed to be ANGRY, who is literally fighting a WAR in the name of love, fighting a war because he refuses to ever let those people think they were right, fighting a war because they stole so much from him already but they will not get their bloody hands on his identity. PRAISE BE.)
• he does not embrace villainy. he does not enjoy being feared. he does not revel in the power of his name or his own mythological status. he hates it. he sees it as necessary. he fuels it. it tears him apart.
• he is a MASTERMIND. do I even need to elaborate?!? for someone who is so prone to bursts of passion and impulsive behavior, he is a beyond brilliant tactician. and unlike silver, he doesn’t give himself a pat on the back every time he’s done something exceptional fjsdklfjsldfsf. he just does his genious planning and proceeds to get shit done: boom. when peter ashe disbelievingly asks, “you became the captain of a pirate crew…in four months?” and flint very nonchalantly responds, “I became captain of a pirate crew faster than that” like oh my god @ ASHE CAN I GET YOU A RAG TO MOP UP THAT SWEAT
• he totally fucks with the perception of him that’s like, the Fiercely Individualistic and Strong-On-My-Own Captain Who Don’t Need Nobody. james flint is SO not that kind of leader, even though he may sometimes seem like it. HE DESPERATELY NEEDS PEOPLE. HE NEEDS PARTNERS. do you know what a james flint who feels alone in the world looks like?! he looks like the man who was telling miranda he was ready to join her in the afterlife. he literally never pretends to be like, “I am fine and strong on my own and don’t care what anyone thinks of me >:(” he isolates himself when he’s in a bad place but it kills him to do so. HE NEEDS HIS PEOPLE. HE NEEDS TO BE LOVED AND FEEL LOVED.
• he pretended to like silver’s disgusting pig just so that muldoon wouldn’t rip silver’s pretty curly hair out. he wrote an apology in a book and left it on miranda’s doorstep. he was so excited to tell silver he was voted quartermaster that he couldn’t wait for the rest of the crew; he had to tell him himself right then immediately. he has faced death more times than I can count with all fingers but I’m not sure we’ve ever seen him as nervous as he was the night he introduced himself as “james mcgraw” to teenager abigail ashe
• he has always had Captain Flint™ in him somewhere. he has always feared the power Captain Flint would have over him. he has always been petrified of what he might be forced to become. he knows that his are the hands that have pulled triggers and wielded swords, no matter how much he thinks he can separate himself from his flint self…
• and yet, after over a decade, he still believes in a future where he can once again simply be, forevermore, james mcgraw