Tag: black sails

flinthamilton:

I know I still haven’t been posting a lot, but I’ve got a pretty big bone to pick about a post going around, namely with this sudden need to twist Thomas’ character around (and Flint’s). So I’m gonna, because my last fucks have flown away.

1. First of all… Thomas is a colonizer? What exactly was Thomas supposed to do? It’s said “well he never advocated for giving the island back to the original people who lived there,” but how on earth do you think he should have done that when it’s not even “his island” to begin with (that would be his father as the one with the “title”)? And all the actual colonizing took place long before? He didn’t even have true political authority, it was all his father’s. Working through the system with the little authority he had to improve things is not the same thing. That was even a theme throughout the show (is it better to work in the system how you can or fight the war)

2. Let’s say he rebelled, did the Flint thing, and started a war to take the island back that way. Everyone would be tearing him down for being a murderer who wanted to fight an impossible war and try to discredit him, same as is being done to Flint lately. 

3. He wanted to gentrify the island? So somehow, stepping in to say “hey let’s not kill the pirates, let’s try to help them and get them on their feet instead because they don’t deserve to die” is somehow the same as wanting to just kill and hang them all? Supporting the locals who are already there and wanting to help them get on their feet is gentrifying?? Seriously?

4. I’ve seen it said “his plan was never to end slavery or bring down the empire.” Pretty big assumption to be making, considering it was never said one way or another whether he wanted slavery ended or not. Bringing down the empire? See points 1 and 2.

5. Yes, Thomas was privileged, but he was also marginalized as a gay/bi man (you can be privileged in some ways and marginalized in others, they do not cancel each other out). And honestly? I find this new trend towards twisting things to make Flint and Thomas on the same level of intent as their oppressors really disturbing. I’m not talking about legitimate criticisms of their actions, I’m talking about this need to twist them around make them worse in the name of making other characters seem better. It doesn’t matter if other characters have done bad things, or even worse things, that doesn’t take away or change someone else having done bad things and doesn’t make what they did any better.

6. And lastly, do not come at me with the whole “you’re woobifying Thomas!!” because I have been fighting the war for three years for people to stop seeing Thomas as a saint and will gladly give examples. I don’t even want to hear it.

I hope you can help me, maybe my memory is bad and english is not my language, but when exactly Thomas said he would forgive only the white pirates. I always thought that when Thomas was talking about changing things and correcting the old world mistakes he was referring to much more things.What do you think about?

*puts my historian hat on* I think that Thomas Hamilton was doing the absolute best he could have done given the shitty situation he’d had handed to him. It was not within his power to just hand the island back to the native peoples there, so he was attempting to help the people there the only way he could – to pardon every last one of them, and given that they were a conglomeration of all different ethnicities, religions, and creeds, I’d say that all of them definitely did not refer to just white pirates. His eventual goal may have been proving that the people of Nassau could self-govern. In trying to push through the pardons, Thomas was trying to change the way that England viewed the poor – he was trying to get the nobility to see that granted a chance, the people of Nassau would prove to want to be productive, law-abiding citizens of the Empire, not criminals, thus disproving the idea that the nobles had that the poor were born criminals by nature. it was kind of a thing at the time – strict social stratification of the sort that’s become ingrained in English society over the past several centuries had begun to exist, and England had also adopted a really rigid criminal code where the punishment for a lot of things was death. If you want a good book on the subject, I can recommend The Thieves’ Opera by Lucy Moore.  

Anyway – long story short – no, I do not think Thomas was talking about just pardoning white pirates. I think, as James noted at least twice, Thomas wanted an end of British rule in the West Indies, or at least an end of tyranny. I think he would have supported the notion of the people of Nassau ruling themselves – James specifically said in s4 that the victory he felt was impending in Nassau was one that Thomas had given his life for, meaning that they shared that goal.

bean-about-townn:

FANFIC GRAPHIC: 
↪ Sanctuary is where the Heart is by theflowercrownedking

Sitting with his back to the counter and his face buried in his hands, James thinks about how he’s going to have to call Miranda and let her know he couldn’t make it. 

As if on cue, his mobile on the counter opposite lights up, vibrating furiously across the surface as Miranda’s name pops up on the caller ID. James makes no move towards it, though, and the noise disturbs the quiet of the kitchen. It should really bother James more that he’s leaving Miranda to dial out, but he’s caught up in thoughts of Thomas, and his chest hurts too much to move. 

The vibrating stops, and there are a few moments of blessed silence. It is quite violently shattered, however, as someone starts to loudly bang on his door. 

Or; a Zombie apocalypse AU.