candlewinds:

awwh thank you so much anon!!! :’’) okay gosh. ONLY FIVE?!? [sweating] I think I can do that. I THINK I CAN DO THAT. let’s see…other than the extremely compelling and heartwrenching “oh Cregg” “it was piss” speech which obviously should be number one on anyone’s list (🙊) I believe I shall go with these:

1) The dragons in the darkness speech, 4×10.

“They paint the world full of shadows and then tell their children to stay close to the light. Their light. Their reasons, their judgments. Because in the darkness, there be dragons. But it isn’t true. We can prove that it isn’t true. In the dark, there is discovery, there is possibility, there is freedom in the dark once someone has illuminated it.”

2) The story of Flint™, 2×09

“When I first met Mr.
Gates and he asked me my name, I feared the man I was about to create.
I feared that someone born of such dark things would consume me were I not careful.
And I was determined only to wear him for a while and then dispose of him when his purpose was complete.
And I thought of that story.
Am I ready to let him go? Truth is every day I’ve worn that name I’ve hated him a little more.
I’ve been ready to return him to the sea for a long time.”

3) The “let this be the end of Captain Flint” speech, 3×04. (which is devastating but literally some of the most beautiful dialogue I’ve ever heard?!? this looks like a passage from a novel)

“I moved away from those things. Inch by inch, I forgot it all. And now, in this cage, in the belly of this thing that has swallowed us whole, I wonder if the civilization of Nassau isn’t exactly what I tried to achieve all those years ago.
If resisting it doesn’t set me in opposition to everything I once understood to be good and right. To forgive. To make order of chaos. I wonder if the pardons are the victory and that the most enlightened thing that I can do is sit still. Accept what appears to be inevitable and let this be the end of Captain Flint.”

4) The “so poorly made as that” speech to Silver, 4×08.

“If we are to truly reach a moment where we might be finished with England, cleared away to make room for something else, there most certainly lies a dark moment between here and there.
A moment of terror where everything appears to be without hope.
I know this.
But I cannot believe that that is all there is.
I cannot believe we are so poorly made as that.”

5) aaaaand last but not least, THE ODYSSEUS SPEECH, 1×02

“Odysseus, on his journey home to Ithaca, was visited by a ghost.
The ghost tells him that once he reaches his home, once he slays all his enemies and sets his house in order, he must do one last thing before he can rest.
The ghost tells him to pick up an oar and walk inland.
And keep walking until somebody mistakes that oar for a shovel.
For that would be the place that no man had ever been troubled by the sea.
And that’s where he’d find peace.
In the end, that’s all I want.
To walk away from the sea and find some peace.”

I think those are all probably predictable and I’ve talked about them before so they were easy to see coming but GOD THEY’RE SO GOOD.

I didn’t include the “this ends when I grant them my forgiveness” dialogue from 1×07 bc I’m not sure that really counts as a speech but I HAVE TO GIVE IT AN HONORABLE MENTION BECAUSE IT’S JUST…OUTSTANDING. there are like ten other honorable mentions that come immediately to mind and it kills me not to include them all but fjdsalkfjklsdfjklsdf I’ll leave it at that O:)

thanks so much for the question anon! ❤

#number 4 is my faaaaaaaavorite#it’s so#there is just this stubborn refusal to believe that people are THAT SHITTY#he has literally no reason not to be the biggest misanthropist ever#and yet he’s just like#no we can be better than this#like what the actual living fuck#this angry violent person who has lost almost everything he cared about#he’s sitting there delivering a speech about hope#james fucking flint via @sidewaystime