Tag: Anonymous

oh yes, headcanons on Hennessey, please!

always happy to share! The majority of my headcanons on Hennessey’s reasons for what he does are here: http://flintsredhair.tumblr.com/post/151811259762/so-can-we-talk-about-admiral-hennessey-for-a

The gist of them, though, is that I genuinely do not think that Hennessey actually wanted to do what he did. I can’t reconcile his behavior in the tavern scene or his behavior five seconds before he walks into his office with his behavior immediately after, and the difference appears to be Alfred Hamilton’s presence. I think he knew long before Alfred told him that James was not straight, and I don’t think he actually gave much of a shit about that, although I don’t think he approved of James’ relationship with Thomas for quite another reason – namely that he knew he couldn’t protect him if it all went sideways the way it did. 

I realize no one has to agree with my weird theory about this, but I think Hennessey did what he did in large part because he couldn’t just be James’ father figure/mentor in that moment – he had to be a commander in charge of a lot of men, and if Alfred found him to be breaking the law and defending gay men, there wouldn’t be anybody in the entire Navy safe from the accusation. Alfred stood poised to either be rid of his troublesome son and his lover, or to do that and to take control of every Admiral, every Captain, every officer of any rank that didn’t want to be accused and hanged, gay or not. I really think that Hennessey did what he did because he had to get James out of London if possible while still protecting his men and he did that, at a terrible cost. 

Not saying that I don’t understand other people’s reasons for disliking him, though. I’m extrapolating a lot, but I think it’s a reasonable speculation that the man that James looked up to so much might have been made of different stuff than Alfred Hamilton. 

I agree with you about flint.I believe that having back thomas and knowing what thomas had to endure and knowing the existence of places as the shame farm would have been one more reason for flint to continue the war and not to stop it. I do not think that living alone with thomas hidden by the world It would have been enough for flint nor thomas.

Thanks, Anon. I really can’t imagine either one of them being happy with that, tbh. I’d like to think that Flint gets them both out of there within, say, a few days of arriving and that they go on to go raise hell somewhere in the world because Thomas has been locked away for ten years. That’s ten years with no writing, no books to read probably – no life of his own and I’d imagine it was torture in and of itself to be denied the right to do something with his life that way. And I will never, ever believe that losing Thomas was Flint’s only motivation for continuing his war – he says as much himself when he tells Silver that he considers that a good man must, having seen what England does to men like Thomas and himself, stand up and fight. 

So now Flint is not a real revolutionary because after getting Thomas back he does not wage another war? What?

I’m fairly certain I just got done reading the post you’re referring to, and….

Ok. If I’m being fair, and I genuinely try to be, the author has some points. James Flint is not perfect. He is selfish as hell in a lot of ways and yeah, he does in fact show again and again that he considers the lives of his crew and the lives of the people in Nassau expendable. He does horrifying things in the name of his war, and to a certain degree, I think Miranda is right about him – he is fighting for the sake of fighting, especially after her death, and it’s not about shame for what he is – it’s about guilt, and about finding some kind of motivation to keep going instead of just dying on the spot. For Flint, that motivation is rage. Let’s be really honest – he’s angry, he’s heartbroken, he’s very much stuck in the mindset of the British officer he was, and he does some things that are frankly indefensible, such as killing Gates, such as destroying Charlestown wholesale, such as shooting women and children in the pursuit of his vengeance. I’m not going to defend him on those counts, because I’m not blind to those facts. Here’s the thing, though –

*takes a deep breath* I really, really don’t give a shit what his motivations for waging his war are. I don’t give a damn, because the fight that he was fighting is one that absolutely and without any kind of question needed to be fought. I recognize that his motivations for doing what he does are all very, very personal, and I recognize that he sacrifices a lot of things that aren’t his to sacrifice in the process, and I weep for the people he hurts, but I think the phrase I’m looking for is “you can’t make an omelette without cracking some eggs.” And yes, that sounds flippant, I’m sorry for that, but freedom is not something that is ever, ever won without making some truly horrible sacrifices – ask any revolutionary. Ask anyone who has ever fought a war for their freedom, and they will tell you that it was not clean, and it was not nice, and they will also tell you that they’re not sorry, because they were fighting to save generations of people to come from the horrors that they experienced at the hands of people who didn’t consider the people they were hurting to be human. Flint was fighting against a society that history and the show both tell us over and over again were corrupt, and twisted, and above all else deeply, deeply wrong. He was fighting against a society that would take a man who only ever wanted to help people and torture and kill him. He was fighting to fortify Nassau, so that the people that did that to Thomas couldn’t come there, so that people running from England’s tyranny would have one place they could go to that would not do that to them on the basis of who they were and who they loved. And if Flint was fighting out of personal heartbreak and loss and anger at that loss, then that’s not something that makes his overall goal any less valid. I’ve said it before, I’ll say it again, oppressed people do not fight because they are being altruistic, they fight because they have experienced oppression and they don’t want that for their children, or for themselves any longer. Their rage does not invalidate their point, or make their oppressors right. 

And as to Flint not choosing to turn around and go back to war after he’d gotten Thomas back – can I point out that, if we’re going with show canon as we seem to be there – he didn’t CHOOSE not to make war after that, he was fucking enslaved. He didn’t choose that for himself, or for Thomas – Silver did that, and in doing so, ensured that millions of people would face the same horror, thereby proving my point about principles requiring the sacrifice of lives that are not yours to sacrifice no matter which way you slice it. Given the choice between Flint’s sacrifice and Silver’s, I know which one I’d choose in terms of sheer numbers of the dead and maimed and broken, especially because one of these things goes on for a few years, while the other one has gone on for centuries, is still happening, and is now rooted so deeply in society that I don’t know that it can ever be stamped out. That doesn’t even get into what the British Empire did in its other colonies, and gee, how many billions might not have died if England had not been permitted to get her claws into places like India? What might have been if the British Empire had been broken then and there, tossed out of the New World, cut off from its cash flow? How large the cost of Silver’s temporary peace? 

tl;dr version: Flint’s motives are selfish as hell, but that doesn’t actually make much difference given his goals, and I will always, always take his side versus Silver’s because the cost of Silver’s peace is what I would firmly call far too fucking high.

Well, since everyone’s in the mood to quote people behind the characters, how about this one from Luke Arnold himself: “Flint is who we want to be, but Silver is who we are.” There was another interview where he talks about eternal question of idealism (Flint) vs. pragmatism (Silver), but I’m too lazy to look it up.

So – I will admit, there is an element of truth in this, in that Flint is definitely who we want to be. He’s brave, selfless in a lot of ways, and he’s willing to do what needs to be done to bring about his vision – Thomas’ vision – of a better world – one that I think is definitely worth fighting for. He’s got his flaws – plenty of them, and some of his actions are pretty well indefensible, but on the whole, he’s a good man fighting for a cause I can believe in . And I know myself well enough to know that I am not even close to as talented or as driven as he is – you notice I’m not currently burning the system to the ground in pursuit of a better one, and I almost wish I had the courage and lack of give-a-fuck to be more like him sometimes. As to the second part of that statement though, I have one thing to say. 

The day that I start to be Silver is the day that I want someone to punch me so hard my ancestors feel it. If you follow me, you know how I feel about him as a person. I’m not going to go on a rant, but… no. I am not Silver. ‘nough said. 

Your top 3 episodes from each season of Black Sails.

ooh, tough question, Anon! I might actually have to rewatch the whole series to answer – how terrible! =D 

From Season 1 – I really, really love the first episode. It just – sets the scene so nicely and it had my attention from moment one. And then of course we have 1×06 and 1×08, both of which were favorites of mine because there was just so much going on and I look back on them now and think wow – what a masterful job they did of setting up themes that were going to appear again in the show (not to mention that Flint spent a lot of those episodes being fascinatingly complex and awfully pretty). 

And then we get into Season 2 and – well, where do I start with S2? It’s one of the best seasons for me personally, and I love all of it to tiny pieces, but my favorite episodes from it have got to be 2×01 through 2×05. I can’t choose between them, they’re all too good, I’m sorry, I’m claiming five favorites from this season instead of three, because there’s nothing about the London flashbacks that I don’t adore. It’s wonderfully politicky, and complicated, and heartfelt, and I adore that whole story arc. And then, of course, you have the fact that those episodes contain James Flint at his most amazingly intelligent and dangerous and really makes you understand why people fear and respect him. 

Season 3 actually personally was not my favorite season, especially not at first. I like it better now, just it needed time to grow on me. I really, really love Flint’s speech to the Maroon Queen in 3×05 about “lives, loves, labor, spirits, homes,” because it’s everything that he believes in – literally everything, all in one speech. It’s the crux of what he’s fighting for, right there, and it’s a vision of a world that I find damn near impossible to look away from because it’s worth fighting for. Similarly, I love Vane’s speech in 3×09, because it’s a reminder that power derives from the consent of the governed, and that how we respond to fear is a choice, which I think is a powerful reminder we all need right now. Finally, last but certainly not least I love the tavern scene in 3×07, because that version of Long John Silver is the one that I recognize from Treasure Island. That is the man that had Billy Bones quaking in his boots twenty years on, and it really sets him up as Flint’s equal in rage and as the darker figure that he’d been growing into all that season. The John Silver that walked out of that tavern, book in hand, scares the shit out of me and that’s what he’s meant to do. 

For Season 4, my favorite episodes have got to be, in order, 4×04, 4×02, and 4×10. I remember watching 4×04, getting to that part and sitting up, making an inhuman noise, and then going “WHAT??!!!!” They got me. They got me good, because I was about in the same place as James, thinking Thomas was dead and I’d never see him again in the series, and then they did that. It was a great moment. 4×02 I loved because – well, because that’s probably the last time I could like Woodes Rogers and Eleanor together even a little. For a little while there, they had something that was starting to be good, and I really, really felt for her when he left because there was just a sort of foreboding that she was never going to see him again. It was really well acted, it was heart-rending, and I also liked the talk that Jack and Teach had in that episode re: Vane and the conversation that Rackham had with Anne about Max. It was an episode with some really good character development. And then of course 4×10, you know why I like it already, but I’ll say this as well – I’ve never known an episode of a television show to affect me that deeply. That episode grabbed hold of me, shook me by the shoulders, and snapped, “wake up, damn it, it’s time to remember how to fucking FEEL things again!” And even if I don’t like 100% of the things that happened in the episode – even if they ripped my heart out of my chest and had it for dinner, pretty much – I can appreciate the power of the story they told and the way that it affected me and a lot of other people. I mean – it’s what, four months later, and we’re still arguing and crying and not ok as a fandom? That’s one hell of a story, regardless of how you feel about any aspect of it. 

Why some people ignore the character development of Flint?He is not the same of the early season 3, that man would kill the undervilles , that man wouldn’t made the deal with Eleanor and most important he would to kill silver . If the only thing he wanted was revenge and destruction would have been easier

Honestly, one of the best parts of s4 for me was seeing that character development. You’re right – if s3 Flint had walked onto the Underhill plantation, Underhill and his wife would both have been dead the moment one of them pointed a gun in Flint’s direction. S3 Flint likely would not have made a deal with Eleanor, nor would he have told her the truth about the distance needed to send a shot across the bow of Rogers’ ship, nor would he have made a lot of the decisions s4 Flint made in an attempt to save lives. S4 Flint is much closer to s1 Flint in terms of who he is as a character at that point and actually a bit closer to James McGraw in terms of the decisions he makes if you ask me. 

Never forget how to be angry. Never.

See, the thing is, I had. I really, truly had. I wasn’t originally planning on doing a response to this, even though I appreciate the support greatly, but I decided to because this needs to be said.

The thing is, it’s frighteningly easy to forget that you have a right to be angry. It starts with a simple phrase, and that phrase is, “I can’t afford to feel this right now.” It starts with the understanding that expressing your anger is just going to get you hurt, and it continues when you start telling yourself that your reaction was overblown – that you had no right to react the way you did, essentially. That even though someone did something shitty to you, they had their reasons, as if that somehow makes their behavior ok, because it has to be ok, because fuck, who else have you got that even pretends to give a shit about you? It continues when “I can’t afford to feel this right now” becomes “I shouldn’t be feeling this at all.” It continues when the people around you validate that feeling instead of telling you you have a right to not be ok with what someone’s done to you – instead of acknowledging the shitty behavior and ensuring the person responsible experiences some kind of consequence from someone other than the person they’ve hurt. It continues when you start hearing, “but they’re family!” as if being related to someone negates the fact that they’re a shitty human being. It continues with being hushed, and silenced, and told to calm down, and generally refused any kind of expression of your pain with the people you’re supposed to be able to trust. 

What I’m saying, Anon, is that holding onto anger can be a difficult proposition under the right circumstances and it’s super important to be there for people when they tell you that someone’s done something terrible to them or help them find someone who can be there for them if you can’t do it yourself. It’s important to let them have their rage, because otherwise they wind up, like me, forgetting that there are options other than knuckling under and taking people’s shit because they’ve been required to do so far, far too often.