capjacksparro - Tumblr blog

[capjacksparro]

[capjacksparro]

me watching every new potc trailer: is will turner ok

[capjacksparro]

rip will turner you would have loved monster energy

[capjacksparro]

we should start inventing really really bad pirates of the caribbean discourse

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Lemme give you some Jack Sparrow vibe

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cracks me up how the good place’s writers assume that eternal torment by unnecessary pirates of the caribbean sequels will phase me in any way whatsoever

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potc + random tweets i screenshotted

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sparbossa is real because the dynamic is insane the nemesis-flavoured devotion is unending and the shared history is madness inducing but most of all it's real because jack literally called barbossa daddy on screen. goodbye forever

[capjacksparro]

We need to go back to using sailing ships full time like immediately. Yes it would take longer to get places but the Aesthetic is unmatched

Like there is nothing sexier hthan this

[capjacksparro]

thinking about the treasure island context of black sails again. and how. you know. he didn’t want to be the monster. he’s turned himself inside out over the thought of being perceived as the villain of that story. except that’s what he was always doomed to be. a story is true a story is untrue it’s what we want to believe that survives and we already know what survives because we know the story in which he is a monster and worse he’s an evil ghost haunting the story with no narrative agency. anyway I don’t even care

[capjacksparro]

I'm still on this historical genre thing. Like the process of watching the show IS the process of having your assumptions about pirates and history proven wrong.

The characters in Season 1 play on a lot of historical action and pirate tropes. Flint seems like a "badass" captain, Eleanor seems like a girl boss, Billy is the naive newbie, Vane is the "savage" villain, Rackham is a slippery sidekick, Anne is silent but deadly, etc. This could just be a product of weak writing. Certainly not all of the characters are completely fleshed out in the beginning.

But all of these characters are given at least some nuance early on: the badass goes too far in his violence, the girlboss is secretly insecure, the naive one lies to the crew, the villain is genuinely heartbroken, Jack and Anne are surprisingly tender with each other. But I didn't really see these details until at least the second viewing.

The first time around, these nuances seemed like discrepancies rather than intentional. I dismissed them the first time. I think the tone really encouraged me to watch it uncharitably. The gratuitous nudity and slapstick humor undercut the more serious moments. When the characters seemed tropey, I assumed there was nothing more to them. I didn't give the writers enough credit to believe that depth would be added along the way.

Instead, they took these seemingly flat characters and then added layer after layer of complexity, without contradicting what came before. There are moments for each character that defied my expectations about them so much that it forced me to reasses them, and the show as a whole. Its only when you have the context of their entire arcs that you can return to S1 and recognize that what you saw was just the tip of the iceberg.

I think this is the reason I liked S1 so much better on rewatch. Its far from my favorite, but it feels like I'm seeing pieces of a much larger puzzle. You can't fully appreciate it until you know what the complete picture looks like. Even though literally the first two scenes tell you that there is more to this world than you assume (the scary pirates joking around after the raid).

Despite the flaws in S1, the way they took what they had and capitalized on it is incredible. It elevates its first season in retrospect. I don't think it would have had the same impact if they had done a more abrupt pivot in S2. Instead, they gradually add complexity. At the same time, the tone shifts to become more and more like a historical epic, something encourages you to notice how literary the writing is.

Whether or not it's what the writers set out to do in the beginning, the show first presents and then systematically deconstructs popular assumptions about history, pirates, civilization and the frontier. It weaponizes the preconceived notions that you are projecting onto the show against you. That's why the characters are continually surprising, even when they've heavily foreshadowed their true natures.

And that's why Flint's line about how they will "be defined by their histories" and "distorted to fit into their narrative" hits me so hard every time. We KNOW its true because that's precisely how we entered the show. Its only by the end that you fully realize how tragic that is.

[capjacksparro]

john silver refuses to tell us his story. he lies, and lies, and lies about it. when confronted, he refuses to tell the truth. it’s one of my favourite things about the character, but the thing is— he tries to control the narrative, and he really does at first. but, in the end, he gets swallowed up by the stories others have made up— by the lies others have told about him.

jon steinberg said in fathoms deep that silver’s been removed from his own story, that his curse is that he’s stuck in someone else’s, and he can’t get out. he does everything he can to get out in the beginning, and then he physically can’t, and then he gets so entangled in the story he couldn’t possibly leave— it would fall apart without him (in the end, he makes it fall apart).

billy makes a decision that shapes silver’s whole identity. and even though silver does make the story fall apart in a way, he still can’t get out. and this is what survives him, what has reached us— the lie another man made up.

silver doesn’t just get entangled in it. he becomes it. he becomes a legend, a ghost, a story. it isn’t even one he chose to tell.

[capjacksparro]

bitches be like "its just a tv show it's not that deep" but the bitches haven't seen black sails

[capjacksparro]

wishing everyone who posts random pictures of jd in the potc tag a very die one thousand deaths

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when you have been completely submerged in a series for decades there are many things you know but do not realize. you know them because you know the facts of the series upside-down and backwards. they are part of the expansive weft of background knowledge you have in which your greater understanding of the series is encased. but you do not realize them until they swim up in front of you and bite both your eyelids.

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thinking abt carina again...that shot at the end where she's watching henry reunite with will is genuinely so heartbreaking to me bc like she and henry have kind of bonded over no dad syndrome over the movie and found some solace in that they're not alone in it and now they've both found their dads except henry is getting to hug his and hers is at the bottom of the fucking ocean wails and cries

[capjacksparro]

need to talk abt sparbossa again but to me I think the core appeal is if they both make each other so much worse like I think everyone has their own preferences but I can only do sparbossa if it's like over the top comically toxic like they're constantly doing psychological warfare on each other and plotting each others' downfall but they still idk go to the opera together