— letters to my children, who will learn how to save themselves first // (h.q.)

#i know i have reblogged this a few times already but GOD #i cant stop thinking with this gifset how awful and soul killing most have being fot thomas this ten years #*for #how his beautiful mind probably went silent and numb after years of pain and loneliness #how bethlam surely must have beaten his fighting spirits #and then the pantation came #a place designed to make him dissapear #like he never even existed #to pass his days until death farming under the rule of a man who belives himself to be a revolutionary #a man part of the empire that took so much of him and his loved onces #it must surely feel like a death in itself doesn’t it #he just wanted to make the world better #and the world paid him treating him like a madman #like dirt #like something to be disposable when no needed anymore #sure he survived #he is alive and he can start again with james by his side #just with that he can say he has won #they will leave the plantation and help each other heal #but you dont survive places like bethlam and that shame plantation without scars #in body mind and soul #you just dont and the scars can fade with time and care but they will always be there #AND NOW IM UPSET AND SAD AND ANGRY #BUT MOST OF ALL IM SO GODDAMN ANGRY #THOMAS HAMILTON IS A GOOD MAN AND HE DESERVED SO MUCH BETTER #thomas hamilton #I LOVE HIM SO MUCH #otp: my truest love know no shame #black sails via @captainsorryimabadass

What’s your fav part of the reunion? You can separate it into fav James part and fav Thomas part if you would like.

jamesflintmcgrawhamilton:

i????? can’t answer this question?????? i mean HOW CAN I PICK JUST ONE THING FOR EACH OF THEM????? when there is so much to choose from????

the way james’ face changes from ‘this is bullshit’ to ‘oh – oh my god is that – iT IS!! THAT’S THOMAS!! MY THOMAS!! THE LOVE OF MY LIFE!! EXISTENCE HAS MEANING AGAIN!!‘

the way james just stops paying attention to oglethorpe removing his manacles – you get the impression that he would literally have dragged oglethorpe along behind him if he hadn’t been unchained right that moment

the way james fucking gravitates towards thomas, like he’s helpless not to go to him

the shot of james walking towards thomas from above

the way thomas has dropped the shovel

thomas’ look of incredulity – like ‘this cannot be happening’

the way thomas’ face breaks into a smile as soon as he recognises james

thomas just throwing himself at james, with no doubt at all that james still loves him

thomas’ fucking laughter – he’s so fucking happy

the contrast of this happiness to his expression just before he spots james – cos let me tell you, he looked fucking pissed in that moment

the way thomas squeezes his eyes shut when james cups the back of his head and then buries his face in james’ neck

james’ hand!! in thomas’ hair!!

the way james fucking clings to thomas

james trying to keep his eyes open but he just can’t through the tears

the expression on james’ face – the sheer fucking joy of it all

the way thomas is comforting james as he cries

the look on thomas’ face just before he pulls away for THE FOREHEAD TOUCH

THE FOREHEAD TOUCH

THE WAY THOMAS HOLDS JAMES’ HEAD AND STROKES JAMES’ EARS WITH HIS THUMBS

the way thomas takes his time, doesn’t dive in for the kiss right away

the smile on james’ face just before thomas kisses him; the way he finally looks at peace again

thomas having to bend down so he can kiss his smol pirate husband

james deepening the kiss

the way they’re still hugging as the camera pans away

thomas still comforting james

i just

everything about this scene is fucking miraculous

how can you expect me to pick just one thing

i mean it’s just not realistic anon

comtessedebussy:

gaygingerpirates:

Since this is relevant again

However I feel about silver sending flint to the plantation, I can only logically accept that he 100% planned on locking him up by force for the rest of his life. No happy, relaxed farming, and no chance of escape.

Whether or not his decision was justified, it’s clear that silver’s priority was stopping flint and therefore the war (for selfish reasons, for flint’s own good, because it was unwinnable, whichever) not giving him peace with thomas. If he was aiming purely for the latter, as many people have pointed out, he could’ve freed thomas himself. But even with thomas, he knew flint still would have been a threat, so he locked them both up.

I’ve seen some people argue that silver knew flint would eventually break out (as most of the fandom also expects), or that it’s a progressive place and therefore would have little security, but if silver’s priority was to stop him and the war, why on earth would he risk his escape (and him returning even more pissed off than before)? Therefore he HAD to make sure he would stay in that plantation for good. And he knows what a fight james can put up. So he would have to make sure that the plantation was able to keep him locked up forever – through physical force.

Right or wrong, heartbreaking or heartless, THAT is the choice that silver made.

I feel like this post needs bullet points to make it more clear, so if you don’t mind me adding on, the options are:

Silver believed Thomas alone was enough for Flint to give up the war, because all he wants is Thomas, but he enslaved them anyway (believing they were capable of breaking out, but still forcing them to have to do it, risking their lives and potentially risking Thomas’ injury or death and thus pissing James off 10000000 times more)

Silver believed Thomas alone was enough for Flint to give up the war, because all he wants is Thomas, but he enslaved them anyway (not believing they were capable of breaking out and condemning them to a life of slavery and imprisonment)

Silver believed Thomas alone isn’t enough, so he locked James up in a plantation no one ever leaves so that James doesn’t return to fight the war

I’m sorry, but none of those options do Silver any favors. Two of them are “he enslaved his best friend for the rest of his life” and the third is “he enslaved his best friend and forced him to break out, risking the life of the man he loves most in the world and started this war for in the first place.”

And, to summarize: it really, really doesn’t matter whether James broke out the next day, because we’re talking about Silver’s behavior here.

#yeah i don’t think you can assume that silver had any intention of flint escaping #there are too many unknown factors for silver’s desired outcome if that’s the plan #is flint okay with what he did or pissed off #is that actually t.ham on the plantation or did oglethorpe lie
#what are thomas’ inclinations about the shame farm #the shame farm as a solution to silver’s problems only works if he assumes that’s where flint is going to stay #because otherwise yeah #just free him give them a bunch of money and send them on their way
   #(not that madi would have agreed to that)
#that whole plan falls apart if flint gets out #because then the assumption has to be that flint will peacefully retire from the account the way they’ve told the story #because you’ll note
   #NO ONE TELLS THE TRUTH #jack rackham could easily have said to mme guthrie that flint was in prison
#but he told the retirement story because THAT is the story that defuses the war #that is the story they want getting out
   #and it doesn’t work if there’s any chance that flint could come back to refute it #i mean yes removing flint as a weapon on the field is one part of it
#but to take the heart out of the war they need for flint to have given up #and for all that he tells madi the truth because he knows she won’t believe that flint gave up #(she wouldn’t give up why the fuck would flint?) #but he has to assume that she would try to get him out #so either he thinks he can block that attempt forever #or he does in fact think that once you go in those gates you might as well not exist anymore
#because you cannot materially affect the world from there

sidewaystime:

miranda and james, s1 sex scene of loneliness, grief, anger, and punishment:

(’cause @allez-argeiphontes and @ainedubh asked)

i will preface this by saying I am not wading into The Great Flint Sexuality Debate. I’m not out to convince anyone, no one is going to convince me, I cannot stress how much I do not want to get into it. This whole post is going to operating under the assumption that Flint is gray ace and/or bi and is, in fact, capable of experiencing romantic and/or sexual attraction to both men and women under whatever circumstances work for him.

that all said:

Here are my general assumptions about James and Miranda: 1) they tend to tell the truth most of the time, perhaps not when/how people expect but the actual incidences of outright falsehoods are relatively low, 2) they love each other deeply and are devoted to each other in ways that are terrifyingly thorough, but not necessarily healthy, and 3) they would never outright hurt each other, which leaves these two furious, frustrated, aggressive people an outlet of each other subject to the degree of their control (and sometimes passive aggression.) And I think that normally this all keeps them on a pretty even keel, but when they get going, no one is going to be able to hurt them like they can hurt each other.

I think one of the most interesting things about this scene is that it is part of three connected scenes: 1) miranda reading to richard guthrie from that copy of Meditations, 2) the sex scene, and 3) the argument they have afterwards and I think that you have to read all three scenes together because they inform and expand on one another. Very specifically, I don’t think you can (or should) read the sex scene outside the context of Miranda reading from Meditations, because that’s the crux of why james is angry at her. That sex scene is his petty ass having an argument with her, not an expression of disinterest. It’s a punishment where he is denying her the human connection with him that she wants by not engaging with her. She even calls him out on it afterwards, when she says that if he is angry at her, she wants him to just tell her.

And then they do talk about it: he’s angry because she read to him from Meditations and if you think Miranda Barlow can’t also be pretty aggressive about the ways she punishes James, that she didn’t choose that book at that time to share with the unwanted and unexpected guest he dropped into her home after telling her he was leaving again after months of being away, that she didn’t set out to remind him that no, Thomas was not just his, that Thomas and Miranda shared a life and interests and books, that he isn’t the only one hurting and alone and bereft, then IDK what to tell you. Meditations was her opening salvo, sex was his return fire, and then they actually have the argument with words once they realize they fucked up and hurt each other and regretted it.

And like, this is an actual fight they’re having. She knows it when he opens the door ominously and she just closes the book and doesn’t say a word and goes to the room; he knows it when he comes back from the vote about how to go about beaching the Walrus; they are engaging with each other even while they’re angry. And the aftermath of it all is the realization on both their parts that all they’re doing is hurting each other in the places where they are the most vulnerable and not solving anything which is when they shift to actually talking. Like, look at the way his hands come up and hover over her skin or the way she calls him out with “if you’re angry with me just tell me” or the way she takes Meditations with her when she wasn’t originally planning to. That the resolution between them is her saying, I know you feel the same way I do and you don’t want to lose the thing we (all) had and him saying things will get better (hint: they don’t).

I mean, hell, just look at the context of the sex scene itself. James rode out to the shore for the vote, rides back from the shore to the interior to do whatever it is he thinks he needs to and one of the things that he does is Miranda. He didn’t have to. That is a choice he made. He could literally have accomplished the same thing by not coming back, but he does it anyway. They are having sex in broad daylight while Richard Guthrie awkwardly lies in the other room listening to that headboard bang in the most hilariously mutual claiming of ownership possible. The levels of passive aggression in that few minutes alone is off the charts. There is nothing about that scene that is anything but James Flint making a point at Richard Guthrie and also having an argument with Miranda with his body, which is is preferred method of having fights.

Also lovely? The conflation of reading (very specifically of reading Meditations) with intimacy of a sort that James (and/or Miranda) feels the need to show off while repudiating. The way that James and the Hamiltons use literature and reading to be intimate with people, it’s a method of connection and sensuality that they can express to one another in public. They do it with the bible verses, they do it with Meditations, they do it by sharing books, they do it with quotes.

Basically they’re a big fucking mess and doing their best to hurt each other and regretting that hurt because they’re all they have. And I love them and I love that scene for all its terrible sad/angry awkwardness and I love that they both realize they’re not doing anything but hurting each other because they’re hurting. Everything about it is 10 years of marriage and codependence and deep, abiding painful love.

buildarocketboys:

i also have so many feelings about how thomas responds to james asking who’s coming with first giving his father’s title, his responsibilities, his name, before saying ‘my father’. like, that’s what he is, before he’s thomas’s father. how many times do you think alfred told thomas that it’s his title and his position that are important before his son, or hinted that the only reason he’s keeping thomas around/not disinheriting completely is because of the title that thomas will inherit some day?

comtessedebussy:

lukearnold said:

STEPHENS: The thing about Flint is that he’s playing out his own psycho-drama on a massive canvas. It’s motivated not by altruistic reasons of wanting to emancipate all these people. It’s really that he wants revenge on England for doing what it did to him.

Okay, so here’s the thing: I actually think the reasons why Flint is fighting the war he’s fighting are complex and interesting and worth discussing. And yes, I value Toby Stephens’ insights into Flint a lot, but I’m also not willing to take them as The Gospel.

So here’s the other thing: revenge and fighting oppression are not necessarily mutually exclusive, and for Flint, it’s even more complex, because for him, a battle against oppression by definition cannot be a fight for altruistic reasons. He’s one of the people who’s oppressed, so if he’s fighting England, he is, in part, fighting for himself. The same is true for the maroons. They may not be fighting out of spite or revenge like Flint, but they are also not fighting for altruistic reasons: they are fighting for the very, very selfish reasons of not wanting to be fucking enslaved.

Yes, he wants revenge on England for what it did to him. But the form he wants that revenge to take is by making the world that Thomas Hamilton wanted. Thomas Hamilton wanted to “rethink systemic things” and make the new world, well, a new opportunity. England took that from them and “killed” Thomas, so Flint’s act of revenge is to do the things that England killed Thomas for. As a friend of mine said (who I am not mentioning here, because she does not want to get involved in this and have people showing up calling her posts ridiculous):

So from a purely narrative standpoint, it is vitally important that James proceeds to do everything in his power to achieve the greatest upset to the status quo that he possibly can.

And, honestly, I think it’s telling that Flint wasn’t always going to fight an outright war. He sailed to Charlestown. He was willing to go on trial, to go to England, to tell his story, and to be branded a monster to make Thomas Hamilton’s dream a vision. He wanted to upset the status quo, even at the cost of his own life. But then Miranda died, and his rage was rekindled, and he went to war.

And yes, he is indeed motivated by rage in that war. But, funnily enough, rage can be a great motivator for changing things. Oppressed people who fight oppression are, shockingly, full of rage. (I wonder why…) Fighting oppression is complicated and it’s not done by pure morally upright people with no investment in the outcome for altruistic reasons because it’s the “right thing to do.” It’s done by angry people who suffer from the system and want to change it. That’s how it fucking works.

And yes, we can have a conversation about his methods and how effective they were. We can have a conversation about the fact that he didn’t think he would even be around to see this new world that he was making. But Flint wasn’t just trying to burn everything down to the ground for kicks. Flint was trying to burn the system of civilization to the ground so that something better could be built from it, and he did it very largely out of rage an anger and I for one don’t think that makes it somehow any less. And, again, I would note that he was allied with Madi and the Maroons, who had a very valid stake in this fight that wasn’t just rage or revenge, and who were more than happy to fight this war alongside him. Who saw this war as a valid fight that needed to be fought (and I think it would be doing Madi a disservice, as a character, to suggest that she was naive in trusting Flint and allying herself with him).

And one last thought: the idea that if you’re angry and full of rage and the desire for revenge, your fight against oppression becomes somehow invalid is really, really harmful. If you’ve been systemically oppressed and hurt and vilified and hunted down, you’re going to be pissed. That is normal and valid, and being nice and “not fighting hate with hate” is not a thing that works.

comtessedebussy:

This is absolutely a “me being salty” post but

I saw a post today about how “omg think about how Flint and Silver used to be ENEMIES and then Flint TRUSTED him enough to tell him his BIGGEST SECRET about being gay and this is the 18th CENTURY where that’s like HUGE and also so private and personal and just the TRUST”

and I’m like

Yeah, and then

a. Silver used that information against Flint to get what he wanted and betrayed him

b. in the same scene, Silver pretty much told Flint it was his fault what happened to Thomas and Miranda

c. historically, pirates gave a lot less of a shit about being gay than the rest of the British Empire but that’s not really mentioned much in canon

WOW since we never talk about black sails, thomas for the character ask meme

keensers:

WELL, FELLOW WORKPLACE ASSOCIATE, SINCE YOU REALLY ASKED FOR MY SLEW OF EMOTIONS ABOUT THOMAS HAMILTON…… well. ye shall receive

1. thomas is an incredibly stubborn idealist. he has what’s basically a pipe dream about remaking nassau and not repeating the mistakes of the old world, and he works tirelessly to make that pipe dream happen. he literally does not stop until his asshole father throws him into bethlem. as miranda says, he’s a Great Man not because he’s concerned with politics, or prudence, or propriety, but because he just doesn’t fucking know when to quit chasing that. he’s not crazy! he’s an idealist who is physically incapable of not working towards his goal, even when it lands him and the people he loves in dire straits. he knows he can’t actually ignore the “pirate problem,” but he sees it as a relatively minor obstacle in his way.
he’s compassionate and hellbent on doing the Right Thing, but he seems pretty unconcerned about what actually happens and what gets lost on the path there (i think this also ties into flint’s probably-true rationalization that ‘if thomas knew how far we’d come, i don’t know if he’d want me to stop’).

“let them whisper,” he says about the london gossips, not because he is unaware of the consequences of that whispering, but because he is PERFECTLY aware and just doesn’t give a fuck. that’s why miranda tells james that men like thomas need men like him – at that point, james is still much more of a pragmatist (though, arguably, he remains one) who can be counted on to balance thomas’ fucking unbelievable determination.

2. thomas is probably, like, eight snakes in a trenchcoat level manipulative. he’s no john silver, who i would personally rank as uhh twelve snakes in a trenchcoat, but he’s definitely not an innocent uwu flower.
the flashbacks we get with him and james are rosy, but they’re also
revealing – thomas “i asked my former classmates who are your bosses at
work about you and realized you’re smarter than any of them” hamilton is thomas “would play devil’s advocate with the devil himself” hamilton is thomas “i need to trust you to do what i want to do for the Good Of Nassau and if i can’t do that then you can leave” hamilton. he basically says to james, “i know this plan sounds insane and i want you to talk me out of it, and i’ll counter each of your arguments point for point” and then, we can only assume, ACTUALLY DOES IT. this says that he’s smart and well-spoken, yes, but it also says that he knows exactly what to say to convince someone. during the Fateful Family Dinner, he says (way too calmly, by the way, which also speaks of a Lot of experience with not losing his cool) to his dad, “i can convince these 5 people of my plan without even starting to argue.” and he probably could!

3. as has been written about already by wiser and more coherent people than i, thomas is someone who is capable of loving and being loved by james mcgraw and miranda barlow, which means he’s probably at least slightly an asshole. yeah, he’s forgiving, yeah, there’s a tendency even in his enemies to view him as somewhat of a saint (peter ashe), but like, he spends a pretty high proportion of time in the flashbacks chuckling at james’ asshole tendencies. HE THINKS IT’S HILARIOUS WHEN JAMES MCGRAW IS BEING A DICK. the “illiteracy is the real scourge” exchange, anyone??? and ALSO, an enormous theme in the show is the notion of letting go of shame – of being one’s truest self – and that comes to us from thomas to james. i think we can pretty safely assume that thomas knows about james’ moments that hennessey thinks of as “dark and wild” and loves him anyway, and doesn’t treat that part of james as something to FORGIVE. “know no shame” encompasses that, too; not only the shame of having loved a man, but james’ shame at not being good enough for thomas, from which we can infer that that TRUEST LOVE isn’t one which needs to forgive “shameful” qualities but one which acknowledges those qualities and doesn’t give a fuck.

4. lastly, for now, because i need to shut the fuck up, i think that thomas is one of the most interpersonally kind characters on the show. i don’t mean kind as “nice,” since as i said, he’s kind of a dick – i mean that he cares a great deal about the people around him. while i mentioned above that he isn’t super worried about what/who is lost on the way to achieving his goal, he’s also totally unable to NOT try and help someone if that’s within his capacity.

ANYWAY….. gonna stop yelling here, or i will yell forever, but. i am still down for more asks!!!

holisticdorkgently:

okay but there’s one thing that keeps bugging me about the Black Sails finale and i’ve seen people mention it but i don’t think anyone’s analyzed it yet, and i think i just figured it out:
the cook.

obviously that was a very clear callback to john at the beginning of the series, i think everyone figured that out. but like? when john called him a coward? that’s the key.

when we saw john in the beginning of the series, he was a drifter, beholden and loyal to no one. he was a coward who cared only for his own survival, and so, like a coward, he killed the real cook and assumed his identity to stow away on the Walrus. eventually there was blatant character development subsequent to this: silver became attached to the crew, he became loyal to them, to flint. he no longer only cared about himself. hell, he gave up his leg for them all…

and then the finale happened. despite everything he’d been through, all the bonds he’d developed–his bond with flint–he still turned around and threw it all away just to take the easy way out. he sent flint to that plantation like a coward because he was afraid. afraid of the rage, afraid of the impending change, afraid to lose madi.

in the end, despite everything, long john fucking silver was still that scared coward we met on that ship and everything that happened wound up being for naught. and by doing so, he screwed himself over worst of all. by doing what he did, he was the catalyst for the things he was attempting to prevent in the first place: he grew to resent flint with each passing day and in losing flint he lost madi. maybe not physically, but the bond they once had is irreperably damaged and their relationship will never be the same.

in the end, silver still lost everything that he was afraid to lose.

I’m baffled that BS suddenly gets branded as yet another tv shows that treats its women/queer characters appallingly. BS does not deserve that.

char7:

Ugh, don’t get me started on folks dissing Black Sails over “queerbaiting” or “bury your gays”, etc. This is the LEAST queerbaiting and “bury your gays troupe” show you will ever see. And Eleanor’s death had absolutely nothing whatsoever to do with her being bi-sexual. Obviously, no character should be killed because they’re queer. But a character should also not be exempt from death because they’re queer. Not if the death makes sense and works storyline wise, which I feel like was the case here. Eleanor’s death was entirely about her and Rogers’ actions. He may have led the Spanish there but she set so much of this into action herself, going back to last season when she killed Vane.

Speaking of, I saw a lot of people calling for her head back then. I think if Jack had shot her and said “Revenge for Chaz”, you’d be getting a different reaction from some fans. Eleanor has always been a polarizing character. That she died this way, in such a violent manner by a stranger with no actual grudge against her, gave a much bigger impact to viewers than if she’d been killed by someone the fans knew for reasons viewers understood (even if they didn’t approve of).

Eleanor has done alot over the course of the show. Lied, killed, stole, double-crossed, betrayed, etc. She did the same things that every other character – male and female – have done. And she died, as many of those characters have before her (Vane, Teach, Gates, Miranda, Scott, Hornigold, Dufrense, etc.). Like those deaths, it had nothing to do with gender or sexuality, just the price of the world they chose to be a part of.

I trust these writers to not kill for shock value. Steinberg said that every character death must create more storyline than it ends and I feel like we will see that. We already are. Max is now aiming to take down Rogers and united with Jack in this cause. Eleanor’s family in Boston will become involved. And Rogers/Spain storyline will expand because of this. And I have a theory/speculation of how this will entangle Billy going forward. The fallout from her death will be huge, as it should be.