#bs meta

[organisedbirds]

One of the things that I never stop thinking about is the lack of any “happy” endings in Black Sails (putting aside Schrodinger’s Flint and Silver’s role in that. It’s been done). Madi is the most obvious one to me: time and time again she demonstrates how willing she is to sacrifice everything for the cause and the war including her own life - a decision that is taken from her by Silver’s actions instead replaced of the treaty which she explicitly rejects multiple times and is in complete opposition to what she’s tried to achieve. She’s also entirely alone in her opposition to the treaty, putting her in a position where she either becomes Silver’s wife in Treasure Island, leaving her entire life behind to run an inn or (if you make Max Silver’s wife in TI) being the sole person still trying to achieve the same goal that previously had money and ships and fighters backing it. 

Anne and Jack are slightly less obvious. Jack’s obsession with being remembered and having an important legacy is brought crashing back to reality in the Gurthrie’s parlour with the realisation that people are far more interested in lies that paint his friends as monsters than any resemblance of the truth - Flint’s vision of the future coming true before he even speaks it. The flag that everyone associates with piracy - his main legacy - is “fine” and the future of piracy in Nassau essentially has to remain a secret (when I can only imagine he wants to yell from the rooftops that he fucking won). Anne!! The amount of times she expresses the desire to leave piracy behind with Jack and have something away from that life and the amount of times Jack promises her that once he accepts the pardon so he can keep his name and then once they defeat the governor, then that’s it. And instead - they carry on. Because if Jack does of course she will follow! And because Black Sails is a show that follows the vague contours of history, pretty soon Jack is hung, Mary has died and Anne is imprisoned for thirteen years (depending on how you view the historical debate around her fate, that’s just my personal view).

And of course, this leaves Max (with her ending being the best on the surface) with the people closer to her having disappeared. Her existence is still very much built on sand and looking to history England returns to Nassau, and all she’s built will be gone. Ultimately, Vane is right, the empire survives on the idea of trading submission for comfort - but even that isn’t true! That traded comfort doesn't last for a meaningful amount of time and she's back to the same place she started.

[stillthesunkenstars]

Relistend to Braxiatel in Love and realized it’s actually the best Benny audio ever written . Quotes cited:

oomf’s meta linked

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Liria’s context:

[randomishnickname]

The main deck as a stage - thoughts on S101

Rewatching S101 for the first time in years and I have some thoughts on the ending. Mainly, the reason why Billy, when handed a blank page, goes along with Flint’s wishes and pretends it’s the stolen one.

Thing is, it makes no sense that after what happened on Harbor Island and with Richard Guthrie, Billy'd be very convinced of Flint's Urca de Lima plans. He's seen Flint at his most unhinged and manipulative just a few hours ago! He hasn't had time to think the entire endeavor over! I don't think that, when handed the page, he makes the split decision that

Flint's pursuit of the Urca is worth lying to his brother-in-arms,

he shares Flint's worries about soon-to-be English colonization attempts or

Singleton's death on false pretenses was a necessary evil

The face of a man thoroughly convinced of Flint's leadership

Instead, I think Billy was being typecasted by Flint and reacted accordingly.

Flint sets up a scene: an initiating event (Singleton steals from his crew!), a conflict (trial by combat!), a climax (Flint kills Singleton as punishment for the theft), a clear resolution (Flint returns the stolen page to his crew!). As soon as Flint wins the fight the page being the stolen one becomes the logical conclusion, the satisfying outcome. The righteous man killed the duplicitous man, justice has been served. It's what the audience, waiting with bated breath, very clearly expects. It ties everything together.

And Billy, when he accepts the page from Flint's hand, is handed a role exactly as clear: deliver that bit of information to the audience.

Enter scene: confused boatswain

Except the page is blank.

"Flint? What's my line?

Blindsided by this, everyone's eyes on him, unable to come up with a replacement script from the get-go, Billy goes the path of least resistance and acts out the play according to everyone's expectations. He's carried by the momentum of the story. He's just a hapless stage prop. Yet.

It's the first of many, many times we see the ship's main deck turned into a center stage with Flint (and later Silver) as the showmaster, pushing narratives to enforce his agenda, a game at which he excels.

do Hamlet next babe, you wouldn't even need a new shirt

That man, in a mere minutes after deducting the thief must still be around, devised this exact scene set up and gambled that its dramatic impact would be strong enough to sway Billy. And he was right!! Flint is phenomenal at this game from the get-go, that's his real gift, even more than his fighting prowesses or strategic cunning. A lesser show would let us (the real audience) savor his victory, reflect upon its cleverness and await what comes next.

But then ... after the theatralics, histrionics, the fights and blood and epic grandiloquence acted out in full sunlight ...

We cut to backstage. The brothel, Jack, Anne and Max, hidden in the shadows behind the curtains, ready to rewrite the narrative.

Enter scene - the new playwright

The curtains are fucking red y'all!!!

@urcadelimabean

[nicolos]

been rewatching clips from S2 and thinking about silverflints big fallout which basically starts when flint lies to silvers face and ends w silver lying to flints face

and I think it's so interesting that it's resolved only in 303 when silver says fuck you, im smarter than you think and also we should be friends . because in hindsight I don't think it's we should be friends that gets to flint.

like look. silvers whole thing is using what he knows about people and watching them to get his way. flints is being convincing through power of will and belief. when flint tells silver the gold is still valuable, after silvers watched him convince people things with lies for a season and a half AND been his partner in crime for half a season, he's like cool cool cool, I thought we had a thing but guess not :) this is obviously made worse when Max calls him one of flints men. he's not one of the crew, max, he's his evil little buddy! he doesn't get taken in by flints little ideas and speeches?

ofc right after flint does this again twice in the season: once when he asks him where the fuck else he has people who care what he says (even though it was also true) and again when he was all "hello ~mr quartermaster"

and I think combined w the loss of control and the fact that flints "where would you even go" has become more evident than ever w the leg, silver *has* to get his own back. sure, the truth about the urca gold would out as soon as they got back to Nassau, so he does need to seize control of the narrative, and pretending it was the mens' idea (men whom he chose!) is saving his own skin, but this is the actual moment of fracture for flint. not - i think - because he thinks silver is lying, but because if this is true, silver isn't who he thinks

from his pov silver is useful (and funny and hot) because of his observational skills and ability to see the truth of men. one of the wildest things he does early in the season is ask silver what he thinks of him! and immediately gets upset when silver can identify his problem! SO he's been having a fun and flirty time right until he wasn't (for other plot reasons). i don't think he can fathom that silver knows he's being lied to, because he doesn't think that he's lied; flints whole thing is believing himself very much, to whatever end. but if silver couldn't tell that those guys were (1) unsuitable for their task and also (2) lying to him about the gold being gone, then silver isn't really as good as he thought. and if he can be taken in by one of the crew - that means his being able to read flint and match him isnt because he's partner material, it's just guessing and hoping. he is - after all - just one of flints men!

it's not about usefulness because obviously silver is doing the quartermastering fine, and it's not Quite about the loss of the gold, the whiplash between 210 and 301 - it's because from that pov silvers silly little asides look like trying to be something that he's not. (also because of the grief and rage and depression that he's not interested in looking at, but *is* willing to talk about like a month later after their shark-based heart to heart)

silvers upset because flint is underestimating him is obviously layered, but it's the evenness lost that he seems so deeply aware of. "he had me there, Billy" "i see him! (and he doesn't even acknowledge it!)" theres fear and paranoia and wanting to do his job right, but he is, i think, aware of the reason for this underestimation, and knows and hates when flint is playing him because flint thinks he CAN. the solution to both can only be the awareness that yes, we can deceive each other, no, no one else in our immediate vicinity can, and yes, this is best when we're working together

i think after 303 is also the last time they have any serious lies between them - which is also why the 410 flashbacks bother flint so much, because silver tries to tell him an easy story and a lot of silvers lies are about being small and helpless (in contrast to flints self-beliefs about being big and powerful), and also why nothing flint says after silver finds out madis alive could convince him to do anything but take the most direct way out - because it sounds a lot like "the gold is still a priority"

[mega-ringsandthings-world]

Miranda was always what Flint needed, and to her last moments, she remained exactly that. Flint needed a sacrifice to his cause, a martyr to fight in the name of, and that’s what Miranda became.  Because ten years and Flint was still fighting the trappings of civilization for all Miranda said that he had abandoned it. Because Miranda was civilization. She and Flint and Thomas were all parts of some unique machine, and Thomas might have have been been the engine in the machine, and Flint the weapon, but Miranda was the outer shell, the body, the thing that upheld both those things. She was music and bitter hope and china cups and antiseptic on Flint’s wounds. She was someone to bring home books to and someone to write I’m sorry to and someone to say, “you’re getting blood on my floor.” She was the last person who had any idea whatsoever of James McGraw, the only person who knew him as James McGraw, who once called him lieutenant, who once knew what he looked like in a navy uniform, who once knew what he looked in like in the candlelight of a London drawing room. And in turn, he knew her. Knew her as the woman she once was, knew how she looked in fine silks and jewels and pearls in her hair, knew what she looked like with Thomas on her arm, who knew her as a wife and socialite and lady and a scandal, as all the things she never was on Nassau.    And if Flint was ever to try to take true and exiting revenge, she needed to die. Because as long as she was alive, she was the promise of civilization, of peace, of memory, for Flint to return to. And that’s what she realizes when she puts her head down in Peter Ashe’s drawing room and asks him about the clock. The façade of civilization, the dinner, the pleasantries, Flint and Ashe shaking hands, the talk of a trial, a pardon, it needed to be broken, because in that moment to allow it to exist was intolerable. And she broke it, destroyed it with six words. But she was civilization, and she destroyed herself. 

[threadbareturnbacks]

Dooley's Screen Worn Stunt Double Wardrobe Set

[swept-away-sands]

Anne Bonny being shown as accepting of gentle, caring touches. Anne who lets the people who love her bandage her wounds. Anne who suffers greatly but trusts deeply in the ability of her loved ones to take her bloody hands in theirs and never let go. Anne, who gets to walk away from all of this with daggers in her belt and someone waiting for her at sea and on the shore.

John Silver, who never lets himself be handled with tenderness in moments of extreme vulnerability, maybe because he does not trust it, does not know what to do with it, is afraid of what it could mean, what it could cost him. We do not see it. The narrative grants him that one small boon.

At the end of the day, one disappears from the story. The other disappears into it.

Jack and Max tending to Anne's injured hands

[zutarawasrobbed]

Oma & Shu parallel: Scarf

There’s been a long-standing theory in the Zutara fandom that Zuko and Katara are the reincarnation of Oma and Shu. I wanted to add evidence from the live action that confirms it.

I would like to point out the slow motion of when Katara passes him, and he reaches out for the scarf. He looks mesmerized, as if he’s getting lost in a memory. He then proceeds to follow her.

In episode 4, we hear the story of Oma and Shu, and I noticed something very familiar in one of the designs. Oma wears a prominent scarf that flows behind her, just like Katara’s did when she walked by.

This scene is filmed and directed to draw our attention to Zuko’s fixation on the scarf and Katara herself. The slow-motion sequence of Katara walking by, her scarf flowing behind her, and Zuko reaching out to touch the scarf, is highly charged.

My theory for his reaction is that he sees a scarf similar to one he wore in his past life on his reincarnated lover, flowing the same way it used to on him, only this time it’s in her color instead of his. Something in his subconscious tells him to reach out and follow her, and I highly doubt it was simply because of his motivations to capture the Avatar.

*Edit:

I will make a longer more detailed post in the coming days, but I would like to point this out before then. Think of this as a synopsis.

[dandelionjack]

hey insane doctor who people. remember the snowman scene in the church on ruby road? there was no baby in the pram 👀 instead of a baby it was “shopping” . tags i left on a gifset then realised fuck it, it deserves its own post

gift-wrapped baby that’s not a baby. saved by the doctor from imminent mortal danger but the snowman was hollow on the inside too…

[space-blue]

You know what time it is: Arcane trailer dissection time!!

Just your old Arcane obsessed terminally online person reviewing the most interesting screens (biased) from the teaser that just dropped.

Mamma Medarda just looks DOPE as FUCK in this mask, nothing else to say. She seems to be speaking to Mel, which would indicate she survives, which I hope for. We're clearly dealing with a soft Noxus invasion given the prevalence of Ambessa's troops.

Very interesting to see these troops activating. You have to wonder if they're a failsafe to Silco dying, or if they are being activated by Silco loyalists.

Not doing our girl any favours with that one.

VERY interesting to see Singed getting arrested in a teaser, because that hints it'll happen early on. I figure then that Warwick's escape would probably happen early as well. We may be looking at Singed and Heimerdinger old pal reunions weee

Gotta wonder if he ACTUALLY gets captured though, because Warwick might be a great get out of arrest card.

SEVIKA!!! WITH!! jINX'S GUN!!! I first though for SURE she must have stolen it, or found it, but do you know what?? She has a custom made Jinx arm!!!!

It doesn't seem haphazard, even if it's ungainly. There's a non zero chance that these two are united by Silco's death, instead of split apart!

This strike is clearly showing Medarda's fist. Mommy will be VERY active in this early on.

The previous fist image with projectile launch happens right after those shots. I wonder if that contraption has anything to do with Medarda instead of Jinx or someone else, because poison (spilling from the mouth?) is also a very Noxian thing (thank you, Singed)

What's with Smeech getting SUCH a highlight? What a dope design. Also that shot is the same colours and location style as Sevika shooting with her Jinx augment, so I am wondering if Sevika won't be the one killing him.

Freedom fight Jinx style art? Wow. With blue haired minions behind her? Unexpected! I wonder what Ekko and his firelights think about this, and whether they'll take her in despite everything. This seems to be very Zaun vs. Piltover now.

Our only proof of Viktor in season 2. He's in the Zaun depth with caped figures, most likely shimmer addicts. I wonder if the explosion is him saving them and starting his machine cult, or him defending himself. Anyway, he survives, and I also wonder how many physical augments he needs to heal himself from the explosion, courtesy of the hex core?

Of course the only proof we need that Jayce is alive is that Cait has an Arcane sniper rifle. I don't see Viktor making her one after the explosion........

All in all, interesting stuff!!

[kuzuyamii]

any play, performance, or game is a cage because it's played by the rules written by someone else or whatever black sails is about.

[stillthesunkenstars]

I thought the wake is so ass but after reading like… two eroges my opinion changed into that Simon guerrier was actually unintentionally spitting fire with *That* scene

[pumpkinhimiko]

Since the post about differences in translation WRT Kaito and Kokichi's relationship was unfortunately deleted, I've taken it upon myself to make my own for posterity's sake.

NISA: Geez… you're such a naive dude.

OG: 。。。ったく、テメーはピユアなやろうだな。/ …Geez, you're such a pure guy.

A pretty well-known change that makes Kaito sound more insulting then he does in the original. Kokichi's response was also altered not only in the text, but in the voice acting; in Japanese, he sounds uncharacteristically emotionless, rather than annoyed like in the dub.

NISA: Well, we come from different backgrounds. So for now, let's agree to disagree. No one's ever called me naive before. And from Kaito? Seriously?

OG: まあ、百田ちゃんとオレの話が合わないのわ最初あきらめているけど。。。 / Well, I'd already given up on seeing eye to eye with Momota-chan since the beginning… ピュアなんて言われてのわ初めてだよ。オレみたいに嘘つきがさ。/ But that's the first time someone's called a liar like me pure.

Kaito goes from telling Maki to let Kokichi go or he'll die, to telling Maki to let Kokichi go so she won't get executed:

NISA: Maki Roll, cut it out! You'll get killed if you don't!

OG: ハルマキ、もうやめろ！それ以上やったらマジで死ぬぞ！/ Harumaki, stop already! Any more than that and he'll seriously die!

Kaito's response to Maki saying he shouldn't have cooperated with Kokichi is translated to sound like he was pestered into it. In the original, it sounds like he's seriously reflecting on Kokichi's state of mind throughout the game.

NISA: It was kinda hard to ignore such an annoying guy. Geez… I wonder how far ahead he planned this evil scheme of his.

OG: 。。。あいつわそんあ易しいヤツじゃねーよ。/ …He wasn't that simple. まったく。。。どこからどこまでが計算だったんだろうな。あいつの悪巧みわよ。/ Man… I wonder how much of it he'd planned out. For that cunning scheme of his.

And of course, Kaito's final words on Kokichi were made to sound a lot harsher.

NISA: He was a lying sack of shit.

OG: 。。。あいつは筋金入りの嘘つきだったぜ。/ …He was a liar to the core.

[whoopsitswincest]

I don't even have a problem with dean/cas as a ship. It's lovely. I can see it - i really can. Under different circumstances, I might even love it and be obsessed with it.

Those different circumstances being if Dean and Cas were in a completely different show. Cause in THIS show, Dean and Sam, as written by Eric Kripke and portrayed by Jensen Ackles and Jared Padalecki, have such palpable chemistry that it reached through my laptop screen and punched me in the gut.

I'm like, "aw yeah Dean would be so cute with that gay angel! Too bad he's desperately, wretchedly, fatally in love with his little brother though. Sorry Cas, it's not your fault. You never even stood a chance."

By the time Cas arrived, it was way too late. I had already seen how deep the codependence went. I already knew that there was no hope for Sam and Dean. I already knew that their love was terminal. It's not that dean/cas isn't appealing. It's just...impossible.

[mega-ringsandthings-world]

The thing is. The thing is about black sails is. What did they get in the end for all their pain and suffering and blood? Well, nothing. Absolutely nothing. In the end it all came down to nothing and it meant nothing and they were remembered in history as monsters and died as monsters. But yet it meant everything. They failed, every single one of them, but the fact that they failed meant they tried and that meant everything. They failed in the end, so what was the point of it all? Wouldn't it be better off if none of them had tried, if none of them had bled and struggled and fought or even met? But THAT is the point! The point was in the living, not in the dying, not in the failing! It was in the trying! The way they tried because of each other and for each other! The way they tried to beat against something that could not and would not ever move in their lifetimes! Flint tried for Thomas and Miranda tried for Flint and Miranda tried for Thomas and Silver tried for Flint and Mr. Gates tried for Flint and Max tried for Eleanor and Eleanor tried for Max and Charles Vane tried for Elaenor and Mr. Scott tried for Eleanor and Mr. Scott tried for Madi and Silver tried for his men and Billy tried tried tried and the Maroon Queen tried and Madi tried for freedom and Jack tried and Anne tried And Jack tried for Anne and Anne tried for Jack and Anne tried for Max and Max tried for Anne, and Eleanor's grandmother tried for her and Eleanor tried for Woodes Rogers and Woodes Rogers tried for her, and Woodes Rogers tried and Edward Teach tried for Charles Vane and Jack tried for Charles Vane and on Skull island, Silver may or may not have tried one last time and they all tried and it meant nothing and yet everything. Everything. Because the point was not the losing, but that they fought at all to win.

[mwagneto]

i have a lot of things to say but to keep it short moffat's writing so often completely lacks emotional weight, either because he fails to insert it or because he removes it without realising

as an example of the former, both the women in this episode have scenes where the sad music swells and everyone's crying and you're meant to be sad along with them, her mum died, the doctor's leaving, they're sad conceptually but i couldn't help sitting there and thinking... i just don't care about this. you've failed to write characters or scenes i can get emotionally invested in and instead reached for the cheapest tricks available (universally relatable sad concepts such as dying parent or ending friendship) and figured that would be enough to elicit a reaction. this is something he comes back to countless times, which i don't want to dwell on here but once you notice he's doing it, it's everywhere.

as for the latter, take the death of trev. he's a likable guy and watching him slowly dying would be quite sad but my immediate thought wasn't "aw oh no :( " it was that i have seen an unfortunate amount of moffat media and all his doctor who episodes so i am 100% certain that this isn't trev's actual end, that somehow his consciousness is gonna get uploaded to a database and live on, so there's no point being sad for him. and what do you know, like 20 minutes later they confirm i was right, which the doctor and the audience learns at the same time (except the doctor learns he's alive before he even learns he died, so he never even has to mourn). moffat's completely removed any kind of weight regarding the character's lives since he never actually just up and kills anyone so his stakes are impossible to take seriously.