*snort* fully agreed, Anon. No matter how you slice that, it’s a shitty thing to do, and a stupid one to boot – Rogers’ only bargaining chip at that point was Madi. He was hardly going to kill her and risk Flint blowing him out of the water. I get why Silver panicked, and I get why he was angry, but let’s not call it what it’s not. In that moment, he was worried about one person – Madi, not Flint.
Tag: js critical
Sorry to bother you! I really love your last chapter but few things are obscured… would you mind to clarify them for me? How Billy knew that people would be sent on skeleton island? You’ve said, replying to another anon, that madi and flint wouldn’t kill s*ilver, but sending him where’s Billy is not the same as killing him? And last… I have not understand well your position about the war and jack/max legacy. Thank you, if you’ll ever have time and patience to reply to this, as I hope ♡
Thank you! And sure!
For your first question – I think Billy maybe thought that someone would be sent to find the gold, because he doesn’t know it’s been retrieved – that happened before he washed ashore and woke up, so he’s at a bit of a disadvantage, if anything. He’s paranoid as hell though (and so would anyone be when everyone turned on them en masse on the word of one man the way they did on Billy). Madi and Flint have no way of knowing that Billy survived – the last Flint saw of Billy, he was plunging into the sea from a rather large distance, and for all he knows he either drowned or was shot (in fact, it’s very, very likely). So Madi and Flint have marooned Silver on what they believe is a deserted island. It’s not a death sentence – it’s them putting him in a place where he can’t come back to haunt them and where he has a chance to think over what he’s done, with some small chance of signalling a passing ship to get out of there. They could have killed him outright. They could have handed him over to some place like Oglethorpe’s plantation, but they’re trying to mete out justice without either killing him or doing something absolutely morally abhorrent, and I do believe this qualifies. It’s a lot better than what he planned to do to either of them, in my opinion.
As far as my position on the war goes – it’s like this, Anon. I think the Maroons had the right to make their own choices without a white man interfering by taking away both the money to do what they wanted and the general they needed to win a conflict of the magnitude they proposed. They might, given the chance, have signed the treaty themselves. Historically, it happened, although several decades on. They might have elected to continue fighting, though, and that too would have been their choice, made with their eyes wide open to the risks it posed. As far as this fic goes – Madi’s people saw the chance to have their freedom guaranteed, their sovereignty respected, and they took it, quite understandably, but this time they get to actually examine their options and make a choice instead of having one forced upon them, and that’s everything that they had stolen from them in canon.
Jack, Anne, and Max in this fic get pretty much exactly what they get in canon. Featherstone is to be the new governor. Max runs the whole show, and Jack and Anne get to sail the way they want and need to and come home to Nassau when they’re done. Rogers is still out of the picture, just I like to think that in this one, he’s been dumped off in an English port with a chance to run as far as he can where in canon he gets taken to debtor’s prison. I’m not anti-mercy, I’m just anti-forgiving people who aren’t sorry for what they did and show every sign they’ve learned nothing from it.
The Cup of Their Deserving (the wages of their virtue) – DreamingPagan – Black Sails [Archive of Our Own]
Chapters: 11/11
Fandom: Black Sails
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Relationships: Captain Flint/Thomas Hamilton, Madi/John Silver (past), Madi/Eme (future)
Characters: Captain Flint, Thomas Hamilton, Madi (Black Sails), “Calico” Jack Rackham, Assorted OCs, John Silver (briefly), Woodes Rogers (equally briefly)
Additional Tags: In Which John Silver has Fucked Up, And Madi is not amused, Protective Madi, finale fix-it, Canon Divergent AU, Hurt/Comfort, Fluff and Angst, If you are a Silver fan this is probably not the fic for you, I cannot emphasize enough that this is not a Silver-friendly fic, please no flak, Madi and Flint both deserved better, Madi to the rescue, Wherein Jack Rackham meets Thomas Hamilton, Anal Sex, Rimming, Slash
Summary:
“If I leave them here, will you bathe on your own?” she asks. Flint does not answer, and she feels something catch in her throat. He will not, she knows – he has not taken the effort to so much as remove his shirt or attempt to deal with his bleeding wounds, preferring instead to sit, exhausted, on the barrel, staring into the middle distance, contemplating God alone knows what. She cannot blame him – there has been much to think on this day. She herself cannot put out of her mind just how close she has come to losing this – to losing him.
Madi decides not to be sent away after her rescue. When she returns to Skeleton Island, she finds a betrayal in progress and takes steps to save her friend and put her people’s choice regarding the war back in their hands.
Silver: Sells his best friend into slavery. Robs an oppressed people of their choices. Lies to the woman he loves. Tells her it’s for her own good. Treats that woman like a child incapable of making good decisions. Keeps huge, life-changing secrets regarding his best friend’s husband from him despite having multiple opportunities to say something. Uses an enslaved gay man as a bargaining chip against that man’s SO.
Me: Does not approve of any of this and feels uncomfortable with shipping Silver with the people he hurt.
Someone: You just don’t like Silver because he’s in the way of your ship! He didn’t do anything WRONG! You should be SAD for him!
Me: Looks into the camera like I’m on The Office.
silver: tells flint it seems like everyone close to him dies because of their relationship with him
me: *raises sword*
The Cup of Their Deserving: 3, 4, 5, 11, 12
3. What’s your favorite line of narration?
Honestly – this is a massive cheat, but I’m overwhelmingly proud of the entire first two chapters. They just – wrote themselves, or rather Madi wrote herself, and I was left sitting back wondering why I had never written her before when she’s just so incredibly self-aware and intelligent and calm even when she’s facing horrible things.
4. What’s your favorite line of dialogue?
It’s not so much a favorite line of dialogue as it is a favorite section of dialogue:
“What were you planning to do if we married?”The question stops him – causes his eyes to widen.
“If we married?” he asks, and she looks down at him, anger forming a hard, heavy knot in her chest.
“If we had married, what do you think you would have done?” she asks again. “I am my mother’s heir. What life did you see for us, if it did not include bearing the weight of a throne? Of a people?”
“I – suppose I hadn’t really considered it,” he answers, and she feels something in her twist at the words. “If we were to marry -” He looks at her with astonished eyes. “I don’t know,” he confesses, and she nods.
“I know,” she answers. “I did not understand Captain Flint at first. I did not trust him for the same reason that I do not trust any of you. He was a man. He was white, and he made promises I did not think he could keep. Promises I did not think he truly meant. Do you know what convinced me?”
Silver shakes his head – and Madi leans in, bending at the waist, her head closer now to his.
“The day we thought you died in the harbor. You went under. Do you recall?”
“What the hell is that supposed to mean? Of course I do. It was -”
“That day,” she tells him, her voice still low and somehow disconnected from her. “That day, Captain Flint proved himself to me. Do you know how?”
Silver shakes his head again, and she searches his eyes. He truly does not know, she thinks – does not understand.
“He left you there,” she answers, and watches something that she would swear is old grief, old anger flash through his eyes. “You went under the surface of the water. We watched it happen – and I saw the moment that Flint knew. I saw him start to come after you – and I also saw the moment he knew that he could not. In that moment when he might have proven to me once and for all that pirates are not to be trusted – in a moment where he wanted more than anything to act in his own interest -” She shook her head. “I watched that moment dawn and I saw the instant when he put aside his own desires to see to those around him. It is why I trust him – why I listen to him. And why I will never call you husband.”
These lines are the heart and soul of the fic, really – they tell you in one section why it is that Madi is so angry at what Silver has done, it tells you a great deal about her relationship with Flint, and it touches on the larger reason that what Silver did was not ok. Also, it shows what Madi is like when she’s angry, which is not something we get to see very much of – she’s furious, here, and heart-broken, and coping the best way she knows how, and this isn’t kind. It’s the furthest thing from it, she’s trying to hurt him because he hurt her, which is not something that she normally would allow herself in any context other than this one. I’m also unreasonably fond of this:
“These men will be accompanying you,” Flint said, and Jack suddenly recalled where he had last seen all three before. “They came with us out of Nassau when the Spanish took it, and since they’re all mutineers, they have a vested interest in not being delivered to Philadelphia’s harbor. If you so much as attempt to give the order to turn North from your destination, one of them will slit your throat and then all three will see to it that your task is completed so as to stay in my good graces and earn a place among us. Do you understand?”
These lines are absolutely Flint, completely and totally, and I had nothing to do with them, he just popped into my head, told me the plan, and I grinned and wrote it because damn that man is good!
5. What part was hardest to write?
It’s a toss up between the second chapter and the tenth, because chapter 2 is Madi continuing to function even though her heart is breaking and chapter 10 is Thomas trying to do the same, and hurting them hurts me. Both chapters are absolutely necessary for character development, but oh gods I wanted to find both of them a blanket and tell them it would be alright and someone else would handle things.
11. What do you like best about this fic?
Can I say everything? Am I allowed to say everything? I basically love this fic so much – it’s some of my best work, in all honesty. It’s fiery, it’s passionate, it’s everything I needed to say post-finale, and it feels like the ending that the characters deserved, at least in part.
12. What do you like least about this fic?
I can wish that this fic were less controversial. It’s 2017 and the statement “slavery is slavery, it is wrong and should be fought at every opportunity” should not be controversial.
— The true meaning of death is to be forgotten. (Excerpt from “Fornever”) | m.a.w
You know what those men fear right now? It’s
the unknown.Lash that comes from nowhere for reasons never
explained.A visit from the taskmaster in the dead of
night.But I remember that fear.
Right now, I feel it returning.
PLEASE stop defending fictional abuse just because you like the character. It’s fine to like them anyway. They’re just a fictional character. However, the people on the other side of the screen are real and have often experienced abuse themselves.
I understand that it’s all a bit greyscale in a show about pirates, but as someone who suffered abuse and still gets anxiety attacks from it, I would like to ask you all to stop defending it and insulting actual abuse survivors. It’s triggering to see people arguing how multiple death threats or taking away someone’s basic human rights aren’t abusive. It’s okay to love a character who is abusive but it’s not okay to bully people who don’t. Don’t tell them that they’re morons for not liking a character who reminds them of their abusers. Don’t tell them that they’re wrong and should fuck off when they call a character who (amongst other things) tried to kill another character multiple times, but ended up enslaving him instead, abusive. Like whatever character you want, but don’t disparage people who don’t. They’re real people with feelings. Why would you resort to insulting them and dismissing their experiences just because you want to defend a fictional character? You can love the character without insulting people who don’t, and if you seriously think that it’s okay to bully others over the way they see a ficational character, you need to get a fucking grip on reality.
S*lver: “An internment far more humane, but no less secure.” Vane’s spirit: “You think if you refrain from beating them, it’s any better? It isn’t the violence. It isn’t the labor or the hunger or the heat or the chains. You know what those men fear right now? It’s the unknown. Lash that comes from nowhere for reasons never explained. A visit from the taskmaster in the dead of night. But I remember that fear.”
when-did-this-become-difficult:
I see the lack of slavery discourse in Black Sails fandom and I’m surprised. Mr Scott and the Maroon Queen are massive secondary characters and Madi is a major character in a relationship with one of the mains; however, their circumstances, the politics around it; its impact on interpersonal relationships – there is either really not much discussion on those lines (or I’m probably not looking properly.) Framed in that context, the second last frame of the show with Flint and Thomas as indentured labourers in a sugarcane plantation is disturbing, disquieting and frankly, disgusting.
Why is the fandom so quick to absolve Silver and console themselves with “Silver knew James will escape?” I wouldn’t mind Silver’s act quite so much if the fandom had not rushed quickly to frame it as an act of “love” and had instead called out Silver’s act as that of a desperately scared man because that offers some space for justification. Characters are allowed to be flawed; not offered blanket forgiveness for cruelty.
And much of fandom (and I suspect, even the creators) doesn’t understand why T.Ham fans show such open hostility to Silver. See, Silver can want to have Flint moved away from the centrepiece of war but Silver (Silver!) cannot claim redemption when he leaves Thomas in the plantation; when he doesn’t tell Flint about finding Thomas. Silver knows who Thomas is; there was that golden moment at the end of S3; so why leave this man to continue his morally and legally unlawful exile from civilization?
You know what’s also disturbing, disquieting, and frankly, disgusting?
All these white men participate in slavery. Vane & Rackham are shown EXPLICITLY OWNING SLAVES AND MAKING THEM WORK. So Vane’s speech about how slavery was not kind to him? I have a lot of feelings about it–but not good ones.
Flint, when they get to the island of the Maroon Queen, explains that they will most likely be killed because they have gotten slaves from ships and sold them before. In fact, this is common practice for the pirates, to the extent that their pirate island is partially funded by the sale of stolen slaves, to the point where Mr. Scott finds it necessary to free the slaves surreptitiously if he can (see season 4 for more details).
Hilariously enough, Silver, WHO I STILL DON’T LOVE (not a fave) is the only one who hasn’t taken part in the slave trade till the very end. However, I cannot emphasize enough that taking a white man to go hang out with his boyfriend in a prison that /explicitly/ is well-run and for *good people* aka upper class assholes who have been convicted for crimes–a white man who’s literally committed so many legal crimes and moral crimes I don’t bother to count them–IS NOT THE SAME as an innocent black man being sold against his will, shipped across an ocean to a foreign land where he doesn’t speak the language, and worked to death with much abuse.
I’m all in for slavery discourse, but if we’re gonna have this conversation, then let’s have this conversation.
…if someone is forced to work for no wages without hope of release for the rest of the life, then they are a slave. just because they aren’t treated as badly as other slaves does not mean that they aren’t also enslaved.
and oh, “upper class assholes who have been convicted for crimes” – i sure as hell hope that you aren’t referring to people like Thomas Hamilton, who literally did nothing wrong and was imprisoned for 1) trying to reform the empire, and 2) BEING GAY.
TOO DAMN RIGHT
also: “That is the single most dangerous weapon they possess, the one they tempt. “Give us your submission, and we will give you the comfort you need.” No, I can think of no measure of comfort worth that price.”
“What’s to be done with the unwanted ones? The men who do not fit, whom civilisation must prune from the vine to protect its sense of itself. Every culture since earliest antiquity survived this way – defining itself by the things it excludes. So long as there is progress, there will always be human debris in its wake, on the outside looking in.”
“they will most likely be killed because they have gotten slaves from ships and sold them before” yes, they. as in, the Walrus crew. as in, John Silver most likely did too
“a prison that /explicitly/ is well-run” where the guards all carry cudgels . and it’s not just a prison, it’s a sugar plantation
no, of course what silver did is not the same as the atlantic slave trade, but that doesn’t mean that it wasn’t slavery. and he enslaved his friend, then refused to apologise for it when his girlfriend, a former slave, condemned what he had done
Not to mention – yes, they did these things. No, it’s not ok, but you know what? Flint and Vane turned around and started a war the explicit purpose of which was to end slavery. They tried to fix what they did, and Silver, instead of helping them, ended that war by – that’s right – ENGAGING IN MORE SLAVERY. So yes, I’m extra special angry at him for his participation in slavery.
Meg's Mumbles 