wildehacked:

another thing i am intrigued by in black sails is the shifting landscape of protagonist and antagonist. 

Like, in seasons one and two, I’d stake out firmly the stance that Flint and Eleanor are dual protagonists and Vane is the primary antagonist. The plot is chained to Flint and Eleanor–it changes and swirls around them as they walk through the world. Vane doesn’t move the world in the same way, but he catches the other end of the plot and yanks it back in the other direction, so Eleanor and Flint both stumble a little before coming at him. 

And then in season three, the dynamic shifts, because Vane and Flint are now allies. The plot still follows Flint as a protagonist, but Eleanor is the person with her hands on the other side of the plot cloth–the tension between the two of them and their two storylines is where the drama comes from, and everyone else lives in the middle, balanced precariously between Eleanor’s story and Flint’s story (most notably, Max and Jack and Anne.) 

And then season four comes, and it shifts again. Flint is still the protagonist, but Eleanor isn’t the antagonist anymore–and neither is Woodes Rogers, really. He’s an extension of the plotline/position that Eleanor used to hold, but he doesn’t move the plot in his own right–he’s just Eleanor’s echo. Silver is the primary antagonist of season four, the person actively trying to wrench the narrative into a different direction. 

And obviously Silver wins, and Flint is deposed as a plot-operator, but by doing so cements Silver his role as villain/antagonist, and ruins his relationships with Flint (hero/protagonist) and Madi (hero/part of the protagonist-centered narrative)–and since his entire antagonist role was based around preserving his emotional relationships, he’s left with literally nothing. 

And so Silver’s dual victories/losses allows Max and Anne and Jack fucking Rackham to steal the plot, and sail off into the literal sunset with the narrative wrapped around their shoulders, triumphant new protagonists carrying the story forward. 

I LOVE IT.