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.”
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?
Tag: js critical
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.”
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.”
So s*lver insted… Will die or he’ll be sent to the plantation?
I really don’t think I’m going to go for either option, or that James and Madi would either. They don’t want him dead – they loved him, once, and they’re both better people than to commit the very same crime that S*lver did by trying to sell James to the plantation. No – I think he’s getting marooned somewhere and it will be up to him to make his own luck from there on out. He wanted out of the war – he’s getting his wish, just not the way he wanted it.
I’m really sorry to know that you have been victim of child abuse. And I have know in the first place what that means. I just want to say that when in a tv show or in a movie or in a book there are characters who are abusive that is always adfirmed by the creators and by the actors. Now where are the evidence of that in *bs*? How can the authors omit that their co-protagonist is an abusive character? How can the actor omit it and be surprised by the hate that his ch. Is receving?
Thank you, Anon, and in response to your question: I have no idea. The writers have, honest to gods, written a character that is, make no mistake, abusive, whether he means to be or not. It’s well-portrayed, it’s chilling to those of us who have experienced similar, and neither the writers or the actor himself seem to get that that’s what is there in the script, on the screen, in the show. I’ve never been 100% comfortable with the character, and the more I look at him in retrospect, the more I understand why that is. To be fair, it took me a while to realize, even having the experiences
I’ve had, so I suppose it’s possible they genuinely don’t realize what
they’ve put out there.
I would have thought, though, that the ending of the show was fairly cut and dried on that front – S*lver basically tells both Flint and Madi that they’re not capable of making good decisions on their own so he’s making decisions for them. He treats Madi and her people like that, and then when she tells him to get out – when she tells him she wants nothing more to do with him after what he’s done – he refuses to leave. He tells her he’ll wait until she comes around to understanding what he’s done and why and my gods does that sound like every abuser ever telling someone they’ve hurt them for their own good and that it’s their fault they had to do it. He tells Flint the same – I’m selling you for your own good, Thomas is there, go quietly. If you hadn’t insisted on your war (here read: if you hadn’t had convictions and ideals you believed in strongly enough to die for) I wouldn’t be doing this. I could quote considerably more of the show at you – it’s woven through s1 to s4, but I’ll stop here, because this isn’t meant to be a long, drawn out meta.
jamesmcgrew
a réagi à votre billet “Surely old stuff but I’ve enjoyed tumblr late so… I don’t understand…”I agree with the anon, and I think those who complain about the finale are just those few tumblrs, set up with a personal hate against the most complex and fascinating character of the show, perhaps because they do not understand him.
the most complex and fascinating character on Black Sails is James Flint, sorry I dont make the rules
You know what – I tried to sit quietly about this. I really did. I tried to find it in me to not say anything, but you know what? I’m saying it, because it bears saying.
You’re damned fucking right that my anger at S*lver is personal, but it’s not because I don’t understand him. It’s because I understand all too well, as do most of the people I’ve talked to who are also angry at his actions during season 4. You want to know why we’re angry? It’s because we know people who are just. like. him. We grew up around them. We’ve had relationships with them. We’ve loved them at some point, and you know what all of us have in common? What every single one of those interpersonal relationships have in common? They were fucking abusive. What I would venture to call a large majority of us understand one thing very, very clearly, and that is that people who act like S*lver, whatever their reasons, are not good people to be around. They might be abuse victims themselves. I weep for them for that, and I sympathize with the fact that in a lot of cases, they’re replicating behavior that was inflicted on them or that they developed because they were being abused, but that doesn’t give them the right to inflict it on other people or a pass on their behavior when they do. That doesn’t give them the right to invalidate the choices of others, or to blame those people for the misfortunes that have befallen them at the hands of others, or to attempt to plant suspicions about previously trusted individuals in other people’s heads so as to isolate them and endear them to their abusers, to name just a few things that S*lver has done in the course of the series to Flint and later to Madi.
You know why we don’t like him? Because he triggers some of us, and because he sold someone into slavery, WHICH IS FUCKING WRONG. I don’t know how to be more goddamn clear about this – what he did was wrong, wrong, WRONG, and no, you don’t get to tell me or anyone else not to be angry at him, because in some part our anger at him is our anger at the people who dared to hurt us, who told us we were alone but for them, who left us to twist in the breeze when we needed them most, who made us feel like we were less than the dirt on their shoes when they should have been building us up. My anger at him is the product of anger at other people, and let me tell you, I have worked fucking hard to respect myself enough to understand that no one has the right to treat me like shit and that I get to be angry at them when they do. My anger at S*lver is the result of learning to recognize abuse when I see it so that I can avoid it in future and it’s a healthy, functional defense mechanism.
So frankly, take your “oh it’s personal and that somehow invalidates what you feel” and stuff it.
So rogers is are going to be sent in the plantation? Or to bedlam?
No-that’s what he fears, though, that someone in England may decide that instead of trying him for treason, it would be more cost-effective and less embarrassing to do to him what was done to Thomas. Ironically, his best chance for avoiding that is now to help them to get the terms of the treaty reworked and then throw himself on the mercy of the people he tried to stamp out. I’m big on redemption through fixing what you broke, and before you ask what the difference is between Rogers and Silver in that respect, I really don’t see Silver ever apologizing for what he did or being able to fix it if he were sorry because it’s just too big. Basically I think the difference is that we see Rogers being haunted by the consequences of his actions and apologizing to Eleanor whereas Silver very specifically says, “I’m not sorry,” and waits for Madi to come around to his way of thinking instead of acknowledging that he’s done anything wrong.
The Cup of Their Deserving (the wages of their virtue) – DreamingPagan – Black Sails [Archive of Our Own]
Chapters: 10/11
Fandom: Black Sails
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Relationships: Captain Flint/Thomas Hamilton, Madi/John Silver (past)
Characters: Captain Flint, Thomas Hamilton, Madi (Black Sails), “Calico” Jack Rackham, Assorted OCs, John Silver (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.
The Cup of Their Deserving (the wages of their virtue) – DreamingPagan – Black Sails [Archive of Our Own]
Chapters: 10/11
Fandom: Black Sails
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Relationships: Captain Flint/Thomas Hamilton, Madi/John Silver (past)
Characters: Captain Flint, Thomas Hamilton, Madi (Black Sails), “Calico” Jack Rackham, Assorted OCs, John Silver (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.
The Cup of Their Deserving (the wages of their virtue) – DreamingPagan – Black Sails [Archive of Our Own]
Chapters: 10/11
Fandom: Black Sails
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Relationships: Captain Flint/Thomas Hamilton, Madi/John Silver (past)
Characters: Captain Flint, Thomas Hamilton, Madi (Black Sails), “Calico” Jack Rackham, Assorted OCs, John Silver (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.
non sibi sed aliis // not for oneself but for others
Meg's Mumbles 