#chris liveblogs black sails

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black sails s2e3 liveblog

doing this out of order bc i don’t want to rewatch 3 eps in one night

listen i know flint orchestrating a scheme that leads to his men dying is supposed to make him less sympathetic but i’m still rooting for him. ned lowe on the other hand can go fuck himself he’s annoying and brutal and evil

it’s weird to see flint (well, anyone really) dressed in clean clothes in the flashback bits

oof they show why flint learned spanish (to read a spanish-language copy of don quixote miranda gifted him) and then cut to his bookshelf on the walrus, full of spanish books

people like silver now? now that’s an unexpected turn of events. and you know what? i’ve come to like him, too.

vane won a swordfight by clotheslining his opponent with a shawl. nice.

lowe’s modus operandi seems to be approaching people and going, ‘just so you know, i’m a homicidal maniac! i’m fucking crazy! i might kill anyone if i’m provoked! see you around.’ his big mistake here is trying to bribe vane

max and anne have such a sweet relationship. poor jack a bit, but anne really needs this

mrs barlow tries so hard to be polite and inoffensive in her speech, but does very polarizing things in her actions. she’s every inch still a noblewoman while eleanor, who is the daughter of a governor, is every inch a businesswoman

max and vane’s convo is v interesting- it humanizes him to see him talk respectfully to a woman, esp a prostitute, and esp max, and it shows that max uses her perception of other people’s motives for things other than personal gain. they understand each other, in a surprising way

the ENTIRE bar goes silent when flint walks in. it’s SUCH a cool moment oh my GOD. unfortunately, the scene that follows is quite distressing. i honestly don’t know if eleanor’s right in leaving vane the fort, or if flint’s right that vane would steal all the treasure as soon as they get it back to nassau

the whole thing going on with max and vane and anne and jack is so interesting and, at this moment, quite funny

i really like miranda, and i find the setup of her relationship with flint funny. straightbaiting indeed. however, she pays too little mind to what would happen to flint’s career if people seriously suspected they were having an affair together

yay ned lowe is dead, ewwwww i don’t like watching these knife fights/choking matches. also can we stop it w the decapitated heads?

known wlw ally jack rackham! also his faces... he rly goes through some face journeys. i guess anyone would when being invited into a threesome

i actually... like eleanor and vane together. it’s terrible for both of them tho lol. also, eleanor’s chosen the wrong side of this particular conflict- short-term going with the flow will lead to long-term trouble

flint gives a rousing speech aaaaand we’re left on a cliffhanger

this was a good episode! lots of crunchy character conflict, reunions, new status quos

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black sails liveblog s1e3

yup, another one. this is a good show.

good costume choice- we can see he has injuries all over his torso, and the bit of blood you can see foreshadows when his wounds re-open

throughout this scene, she keeps her eyes respectfully averted from his chest, which communicates a lot about the nature of their relationship (ie, that it isn’t romantic, which is also supported by him waking up solitary). is she an herbalist of some sort? because she has herbs hung up to dry, and her house is sparse but clean and well-organized. i’d guess she was a nun, but i don’t quite think so

i’m loving eleanor guthrie’s outfits

i’m glad they’re making silver write down the schedule. i don’t know that he’ll write it down accurately, but in case he gets killed, it’s a good insurance policy. and don’t worry eleanor, i’m sure you’ll get a new girlfriend

flint’s a sweet man, and a book nerd to boot. it’s almost a shame he’s a pirate

silver definitely doesn’t know the rest of the schedule. they’re all fucked lmao

also you can see the dirt in the lines above his eyebrows. details.

what exactly is supposed to have happened to randall? and is tom hopper 7 feet tall or what

wait mr guthrie is still alive? what the fuck i thought flint beat him to death or something

‘no matter how many lies we tell ourselves, no matter how many stories we convince ourselves we’re a part of, we’re all just thieves waiting for a noose��� damn ok!

silver reminds me of both captain jack sparrow and gaius baltar from battlestar galactica in that he’s open about his only motivation being self-preservation. he’s also not good at making friends or having relationships based on anything other than manipulation or economic pursuits

mr gates’s glasses are so tiny!

mr gates: ‘i don’t know what you’re up to, jack, but you sound like one desperate mother-fucker to me’ oooooh! on a related note, mr gates is a really good quartermaster. he and flint are an ideal team

flint is really bad at negotiating

that’s a charged handshake

HIDEOUS sunglasses there, mr rackham

thank goodness vane lets max go unharmed. anything else would have made him a full-fledged villain in my eyes

the pastor definitely has a crush on mrs barlow, the poor bastard. can’t really blame him. aaaaaand he’s checking her out.

mr guthrie found the portrait... yikes. also i do already know what the portrait’s about and who thomas hamilton is (was?)

pastor: ‘is he keeping you here?’ which he does he mean? does he mean flint? or her husband?

do NOT fuck with eleanor guthrie!!! i do have to say, though, that what happened to max was not vane’s fault. it’s easy to blame him for the actions of his crew, but i think rackham’s failure to move max more discreetly is more to blame. eleanor isn’t thinking rationally, though, and she has plenty of reasons to want to get back at vane, and since i’m rooting for flint here i’m happy that he has his ship with fewer strings attached

how would knowing about mrs barlow change billy’s opinion of flint? also, interesting that billy is now independently choosing to lie for flint

drama king

ok episode three down, five more in this season to go. things are getting interesting. i hope to see more of ann bonny soon

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black sails s1e2

subjectively the hottest outfit so far

eleanor guthrie and max are an amazing power couple

peeing on a corpse is an extra level of low

silver bellyflopping into the water... karma, bitch. also what kind of sailor doesn’t know how to do a decent standing dive?

oh SHIT now this scumbag knows about the treasure galleon. secret’s out

flint’s outfit here is subjectively the second hottest

‘have you no decency’ hmmm irony. also, he doesn’t.

silver, to max: ‘unless there’s something else keeping you here?’ and then they cut straight to a barrel stamped with guthrie’s name. not only does she have a significant other (well. complicated when you’re being paid to be someone’s kind-of girlfriend, but with the implication of deeper feelings i think significant other is the appropriate term), she also has a steady job, silver, maybe you should consider that

this guy: disrespects eleanor and the other guy whose name i don’t remember, then gets up in vane’s face when he confronts him, asks who vane thinks he is

vane: ‘charles vane, of the ranger.’ 

this guy: oh shit oh shit oh shit

me @ eleanor guthrie smiling: 😍😍😍

‘fruit, fruit! tits, tits!, plant, plant! it’s the fuckin’ same!’ i’ve seen this quote around, it’s nice to know where it comes from

‘kings and not wanting them’ is going to be a theme, i see. so is ‘people following or failing to follow the norms of pirate society’. flint is not very good at conforming, and that’s going to make him a lot of enemies.

‘that’ll do’ fuck yeah it will! swords! kudos to the prostitute for just. having one on hand

oh poor max. this whole scheme would be very smart if she were dealing with different people. and dammit they figured out flint’s bluff.

look at this outfit... i want to look exactly like this, sans beard

flint’s plan is very ambitious. he’s a good captain not only because he has experience and intellect, but because he has vision; he wants systemic reform, and to create a separate nation for people like him who have been forced out of their countries and into lives of crime. i approve, but i don’t think he’ll be able to get enough people on board (no pun intended) with his plan to make it work

‘they aren’t animals, mr. scott, they’re men starved of hope. give it back to them, who’s to say what could happen?’

flint’s now referencing the odyssey. who was he before he became a pirate?

gay panic.png

‘this place is just sand! it cannot love you back!’ oof

max basically just proposed to eleanor- them running away together would set up a new life they’d live together, which is one way to define marriage

‘what wondrous love is this’ is max and eleanor’s theme....... gay rights

condoms existed in the 1700s?

vane just killed the messenger. i really don’t like him. then again, at least he’s straightforward, unlike rackham, who’s sleazy

karma, bitch.

ohhhh no no no. silver’s life is now worth five million spanish dollars with that paper burned. he’s gonna be a wanted man. at least he can be assured that he’s needed

now they’re playing the skye boat song over eleanor crying into her drink after breaking up with max. sad gay rights

flint looking down on the party and being socially outcast and emo is quite relatable

great cinematography

who is she? i like the harpsichord-playing. she and flint seem to have history of some sort

soooo flint collapsed. is he injured or is he showing emotional vulnerability? stay tuned for the next episode!

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black sails s1e8 “live”blog

context: i watched about half of this episode because i thought it was the first episode (who knows why), and then watched the full thing with my family this afternoon, so this really isn’t a liveblog. but hoo boy do i have thoughts, so here’s an abridged version

jack’s the perfect person to run this brothel, especially with his partnership with max. also, his little voices when he’s mocking people are so funny. that said, the choices they make here come back to bite them in the ass in the next few episodes. they’re new at this and it shows

everyone hates john silver and it is SO funny

knowing what’s going to happen to mr gates makes the scene where him and flint are drinking together and swapping stories really sad :( gates is flint’s only real friend- we never see him this relaxed and happy with anyone else. gates is also one of the most decent men in this show- spending two weeks in new york trying to deliver a dead friend’s letter is uncommonly kind

‘keep wondering’ flint is such a BITCH and he KNOWS it. i love him

i legit thought silver didn’t know the schedule and was stringing flint along the first two times i watched the front half of this ep. i have a lot more respect for him now

calling a dead friend a ‘lying sack of shit’ is so funny but SO crass. also weirdly affectionate

‘there are no legacies in this life, are there? no monuments, no history. just the water. it pays us, and then it claims us; swallows us whole, as if we’d never been here at all.’

i love where they take anne and jack’s arguments/anne’s inconsistent attitude re: max- it’s an unconventional resolution to the very boring love triangle/jealousy deal i thought it would become. also add a tick to the ‘fuck you, jack’ counter

i had no idea how they were going to resolve this. the ship just wasn’t fuckin there lol it feels like the rug’s been pulled out from under you. the music... the whole season of buildup... it’s a great (horrible) moment

mr scott i love you, you’re the best, and you deserve better than... everything

charles fucking vane. i really don’t like him. the best part of his character is how absolutely whipped he is for eleanor

fkjsfsfjfsd gates is RIGHT of course but mr dufresne won’t fucking listen and has to mutiny in the middle of this incredibly important mission, at the most important time... the first time i’ve really liked silver. also, flint is inhuman he can swim while shot

flint sounds batshit crazy next to mr gates. unfortch. also, not looking forward to seeing what flint’s like when silver is his closest advisor, he’s going to go off the fuckin deep end

wish i could take a screenshot- there’s a shot of flint where a shadow from his hair meets a slice of light going under his nose up across his cheekbone. it’s rly cool

flint is a weird dude. i don’t think he likes killing, at least not in close combat. he certainly hates to lose people he loves (esp if he... kills them 😬)

vane: i’ve been watching you since you were thirteen! isn’t that romantic? eleanor: what the fuck you’re blackmailing me i hate you. vane: hurr durr that’s hot

literally everything goes to shit in this episode, huh

except max and eleanor’s relationship, sort of? they’re talking again, and kind of at peace with where they’re at in the moment

‘on sand, nothing is fixed. nothing is permanent. and fates change so quickly...’

‘today, you have everything you ever wanted’ uh. not really. neither of you have each other anymore, and i think that’s more important to you than you realized

flint wakes up shirtless and injured for what, the third time now? this whole show is just an excuse to have men with long hair walk around either half-naked or soaking wet, glower menacingly, and be covered in blood, and i respect that

alright that’s a wrap on season one! season one had a lot of setup, but i trust the show to use that for good payoffs and development in later seasons. also, fully three quarters of the female characters are wlw, and i really respect that. on to season two!

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black sails s1e6

anne bonny trying to help max is so important

‘four hours ‘til sunup. if we can’t get those guns before then, flint will let us leave, right?’ billy: *shrugs*

billy’s wearing a shirt in this scene, which is a rarity. also, he’s right to ask questions about flint and mrs ‘barlow,’ though now is really not the time, and he’s not going to get the answers he expects

cinematography! lighting!

mr scott is unusually forthright and stalwart for this show. he states his case- he won’t help the people held in the cargo hold signal their willingness to cooperate with the pirates because he knows that could help eleanor’s plan, which he opposes on several levels. he doesn’t stop the others from acting in their best interests, and avoids violating his principles or loyalties. i don’t agree with his opinions, but i admire his moral fiber and communicative-ness

and with one nod, eleanor guthrie made a good decision! more than that, i think this scene speaks to a theme of the show, that we can’t always know the reasons why people make decisions. i think the captains believe eleanor banned vane because she didn’t like him or felt threatened by him, which is what it would seem if you didn’t know about max. we, the audience, know eleanor better than the captains do, so we can see her actions as reasonable. i think this parallels/contrasts flint’s talks about stories very well, because without spoilers, the audience knows less about flint than the other characters, so we’re less likely to see his actions as reasonable because we don’t know his motivations in their entirety.

now that eleanor’s re-instated vane, max is in danger

anne FUCKING bonny! what a bad-ass motherfucker thank goodness she’s here

‘talk some sense into her, jack, before she goes and does something stupid’ with that expression on her face, not likely to happen

ok sike i guess it worked. unfortunate. i wanted her to kick some ass

putting a read more bc this got LONG

good eye, and quick thinking, from billy. i don’t know what he’ll find in that letter, but i think it’ll raise more questions than it answers. sidenote where do pirates learn to read

so mrs barlow tried (is trying?) to bribe flint a pardon by claiming he wants to repent, when he definitely does not. also yep, the letter just made things more complicated

gates: billy’s coming up with a plan

billy: no i am the fuck not

the pastor thinks he’s being chivalrous here by basically refusing to leave mrs barlow alone until he gets information from her. the chivalrous thing to do would be to leave her alone and not pry into matters that aren’t his concern. then again, he is a pastor, so i suppose knowing other people’s business is in the job description

eleanor: ‘you want to kill hammond, then you’ll have to kill them all’

anne didn’t anticipate that, but knows she’s right. anne’s scrappy and knows how to survive, but eleanor can see the bigger picture. if they stop hating each other, they could work really well together

silver: ‘i don’t know how else to say this, except “no.” i suppose there’s “fuck no,” or “fuck you”’ this show has GREAT one-liners

silver: ‘beg pardon?’

eleanor: ‘now you’ll beg me for it’

anne:

aaaand mrs barlow just had sex with the pastor.

hm. not liking the leadership going on with flint and gates, but i don’t see that they have any good choices.

this SHOT

after a year and a half of watching ds9′s fuzzy dim lighting and matte makeup faces, it’s really nice to see modern high-production-value camera work, good makeup, and good lighting

‘maybe you are right. you and i are not the same.’

is that giant pin thing a weapon? is she gonna stab the guy and take his keys?

oh FUCK yes mr scott

oh NO he’s never killed anyone before. what a monumental and horrible thing to be forced to do

the breaking of chains lines up with the axe blows

one of the best things abt black sails is its narrative choices allow people to save themselves. the women work together to help each other, the slaves work together to help each other, and other people certainly help, but a lot of that help is giving advice and tools and choices rather than doing the work or making the decisions

i’m happy she’s the one who stops the captain from blowing the powder keg, though again, that is a horrible thing to be forced to do- to kill or be killed, to have to fight to regain freedom taken from you

what is silver playing at? is he going to double-cross eleanor? ok yup he lied to her for his own gain. she will find out, silver, you should know that

THEY GOT THE CANNONS BEFORE DAWN!

flint... not killing mr scott does not make you a good person.

SHIT.

billy has to survive, he’s a main character! dunno how he’s going to survive falling off a ship in the middle of the ocean, though

also OHHHH billy gets nearly-killed because he wants to press for details about flint’s personal life while in the middle of life-or-death situations, and didn’t have mr gates there to keep him focused on the matter at hand. adhd king.

silver: ‘but now, between you and flint, i’m not certain who i should be more afraid of’

‘i didn’t do it for you’ people stop being mean to max petition. as if max’s situation weren’t sad enough, bear mccreary is ripping my heart out with ‘what wondrous love is this’ as her theme

jack: ‘i hope you’re pleased with yourself’

anne: 

*is very pleased with herself*

and it’s actually quite sweet that anne can bet on jack’s love for her to supercede his self-interest

what’s this place? and who’s the guy?

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black sails s1e4

yay for billy! congrats on the promotion. same to gates, though i forsee difficulties ahead for him

flint has a weird relationship with his crew. when billy talks, they joke and talk over him and are a bit rowdy. as soon as flint steps out of the shadows, the deck hushes nearly silent.

the cut between billy suggesting they forgo the fuck tent and them driving the stakes of the fuck tent into the sand is good television

randall: drops a dead pig on the sand in front of silver

silver: ‘you shouldn’t have’

billy: ‘i think the captain knows what he’s doing’

billy: does not think the captain knows what he’s doing

this guy’s mad that flint uses his crew for personal revenge quests... sorry, dude, but he won’t stop doing it. flint is a man full of barely repressed rage against pretty much everyone, and he has the leadership skills to get people to cooperate with his schemes. you can’t stop him.

most depressing, awkward sex scene i have ever watched.

flint and mrs barlow have a very odd relationship.

flint is a sweet man for being a ruthless, murderous pirate, but he’s also a possessive asshole

same energy

mr. scott is the mvp. he has such a level head and is so good at communication. eleanor really needs him around, and i don’t think she realizes that

‘what the fuck did you do to that?’ his delivery is so funny. also silver’s secret is out, he can’t cook for shit

pirate sex ed 101

randall has a cat!

i predict the palm tree is going to snap and the ship will not come out undamaged

rackham: ‘life is simply too FUCKING SHORT’ what a mood

flint: ‘nobody’ll believe it’s possible until we show them. but when that day comes, you know what they’ll say? they’ll say that it was inevitable.’

they’re going to cut randall’s leg off. :(((((

pirates need OSHA! damn

flint is one badass motherfucker. this is like the third time in three episodes that he’s ended up covered in blood. in one way, i think personally saving randall will earn him some respect from his crew, but they’ll blame him for the other guy’s death and for the loss of randall’s leg. billy’s starting to seriously question flint’s leadership now, which is a bad sign for flint.

flint... there is water... everywhere around you. clean your face.

ohhhh so the rumor among the elites is that flint and mrs barlow/mrs hamilton were having an affair. that’s uh. not quite right. and what exactly is he proposing as an exchange for her theoretical new life in boston?

i think this eleanor is an opium dream

mr guthrie: ‘i will see to it that they are cast out of this place’ i can’t tell if he’s pulling an extremely elaborate con, or if he’s decided to undermine eleanor and destroy everything he’s built on nassau. i hope it’s the former

aaaand stay tuned for the next episode, in which flint and co. are somehow going to get the guns off the andromache.

i really hope ann bonny gets more independence from jack rackham and finds people she can trust to work with so she can, you know, talk to other people and do stuff. she clearly has a reputation, but we don’t yet know what for

i also hope that she and max team up, because max is in deep shit right now and it’s kind of awful to watch

i need to start a count of how many people tell jack rackham to fuck off

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black sails s1e7

wow the pastor is an edgelord, practicing his angsty sermon out in the middle of a cornfield

yeah, flint did miss a very important day on nassau

eleanor and silver are now in a sort of alliance. interesting. maybe i’m wrong, but i don’t foresee this lasting long. 

gates: ‘well, chew a man’s throat out, tends to make an impression’

oh good, gates is continuing billy’s investigative work. we’re gonna get answers

don’t lie to randall, and don’t underestimate him. he’s always honest, and easily overlooked, so he gets critical information

‘you now i’ve never thought of you that way’ not an excuse, eleanor, and a fixable thing. you could free him very easily

HMMMM

what are they building here?

vane is wrong- nassau cannot be taken easily, because its denizens will protect it. 

vane: ‘no man is rich who could make a lot more by doing less’

flint you ASSHOLE. don’t do this to gates. he’s your #1 ally, and besides that, y’all are friends, and you owe it to him to be more honest and less cruel. billy’s death wasn’t his fault

flint’s lost gates’s allegiance, and the crew is debating whether or not to turn on silver or kill randall. things are looking bad for pretty much everyone

so vane was a laborer here when he was a kid? yikes. good for him that he got out

the fight scene with vane has no music behind it, which is a really cool choice

wait he’s fucking DEAD?

for some reason my computer isn’t letting me take screenshots but silver’s face when he has to memorize the page in four minutes or he’ll be killed is SUCH a mood. that’s how i feel cramming for a test during passing period

mr scott has to put up with so much shit from everyone

oh so here’s the scene that everyone has giffed. it’s... oof. big feelings.

thank GOD eleanor figured a way to help the slaves. i wish she’d done more, though. not having money isn’t a good excuse.

despite his protestations to the contrary, jack rackham is too nice to run a brothel. he might be willing to kill people, but he’s not good with confrontation. he’s going to need max’s help

i thought flint and eleanor were going to kiss for a hot minute, which... ew.

i feel bad for mr gates. he obviously doesn’t want to betray flint, but feels he can’t justify his loyalty anymore.

vane is very much NOT dead. ok!!!

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black sails s1e5

i’m in the public library with my laptop so idk if i’ll finish all of the episode rn but LET’S GO

flint’s a pragmatist, and billy’s an idealist. flint’s explanation of why voicing a captain voicing their doubts is usually a bad idea reminds me of several conversations in battlestar galactica, though bsg tends to favor idealism more than black sails

‘you’ve heard the stories, haven’t you? she’s a witch, who pledged my soul to the devil and anoints me with the blood of infants to keep me safe in battle.’ nice joke, but also good point- sensational stories are likely to be accepted if they’re what people want to believe, and the nature of truth is a complicated thing. also, flint won’t tell his secrets that easily, even to set a rumor to rest.

wowza jack rackham is a skilled con-man! he may be an asshole, but at least he’s confident. rackham, one, former brother owners, zero.

what does mr guthrie think he’s playing at? you can’t just tell people you were nearly arrested if you want to keep your business running

ok i have a prediction- eleanor is going to somehow convince her father/someone else with power and influence to keep the operation running until flint’s mission is over. she’s now literally dependent on flint’s success for the continuation of all of nassau. interesting sociological/economic storytelling- the dependence of the group on smaller internal groups who aren’t necessarily aligned in their goals, but who in actuality depend on each other for their individual and collective livelihood. tragedy of the commons, sort of, in action

flint you sly bastard. billy’s not going to stay afraid of you forever, and by that time, you’ll be in the most critical parts of your quest, and you’ll need his vote to convince your crew to go along with your plans. i really don’t recommend trying to get your way in this manner

the ship’s going to fucking break this is so stupid

ok never mind i guess it’s fine

i like that they show the process of measuring speed

also flint says ‘please’ when giving commands what kind of pirate

so now eleanor is depending on flint so she can pay her debts and honestly for her own personal safety. this is not a good place to be a woman if you don’t have power. i think she’ll be fine, but she’s on thin ice

‘to assume that we’ve seen the last of eleanor guthrie, is well, not to know her’ good judge of character there, mr rackham

[vine guy voice] wow

billy: ‘either we take bryson’s ship, or we’re...’

other guy: ‘i believe the word you’re looking for is “fucked”’

billy: ‘yeah. thank you’ 

are those deck scrub brushes? whatever. billy’s a nerd and i love him

‘for all you virgins in the room, [boarding a ship bow to midship] is also known as fucking suicide’

i swear mr dufray’s actor was in the stargate movie. i could probably look it up but eh whatever (*nope. he just looks kind of like james spader to me ig)

flint’s smile is low-key creepy. don’t like that

gates: ‘i hope you know what you’re doing’

flint: ‘so do i’ - that’s the most doubt flint’s willing to show, and only to gates. i suppose they are about to go try to kill people, so you have to act confident or you’ll lose your nerve, but the repression really jumped out

sniped

sniped

oh and sniped again

:(((

did mr dufray just bite a man’s throat out??

eleanor guthrie: ‘to [my father saying the guthrie trading operation in nassau is over], i have this to say: fuck him, and fuck that’

‘we’re going to re-create my father’s operation here, without my father’ YES!!! it’s going to be difficult, but eleanor really is the person to do it. she has more personal stake in the continued success of nassau than anyone else, and she has the nerve and cunning to do it. i hope it works out, and that these men’s sexism doesn’t stop them from believing in her

mr jeffrey: ‘my men aren’t merchant sailors, they’re hunters’

eleanor guthrie: ‘yes, but they’re bad at it, jeffrey’ she tried earlier to assure them she wasn’t insulting them but the gloves are off now and she’s going in

bryson’s carrying slaves. hhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh BAD

bryson: ‘we men of duty must often put our feelings aside’ shut the FUCK up. you do not get to frame yourself in solidarity with a man you are threatening to sell into slavery. mr scott deserves better #1kforever

bryson is a horrible man. there’s been some horrible violence in this show, but nobody else has shown such a disregard for human life.

max ‘chose,’ silver? chose? oh yes, all the wonderful choices she had in life, from the privileged position of a prostitute working in a brothel that services sailors and pirates, whose only way out was though working with you, who faces danger and violence and indignity at every turn, yes, she chose

flint’s been out-pirated. he can’t believe it

and covered in blood, again. occupational hazard... pirates need OSHA. also, thanks to billy for saving flint’s life.

ok there we go! they’re rafted up to a ship with resources they can’t leave without, but they can’t get those resources because they’ll be killed if they do, and now they’re sitting ducks being approached by another ship from the other side. they’re, i believe the word i’m looking for is, fucked.

[mxlxdroit]

now that i’ve caved and am paying for starz so i can watch black sails, i think i’m going to continue my liveblog of it that i started last year. i’ll start over with the start of season two, because that’s when my liveblogs got more spotty. block “chris watches black sails” if you aren’t interested!

[indigoire]

It Read-through Chapters One and Two, “After the Flood” and “After the Festival”

Starting off strong with child death! Yaaaay! 

Warning for gore, death, homophobia, hate crimes, sewer clowns, and juvenile humor. 

Explanation of what I’m doing here.

The first chapter is pretty much exactly like the first part of the 2017 movie, with a few very key differences. 

For one, Bill is a few years younger here than he is in the first movie. In the movie the kids are around thirteen or so and they make note of this a couple times. In this Bill is only ten, therefore he’s eleven for the rest of the child half of the novel. Georgie is still only six. 

For another, when Pennywise attacks Georgie he doesn’t drag Georgie into the sewers, and the neighbors respond to his screams almost immediately. It’s outright stated that forty-five seconds after Georgie’s first scream a man named Dave Gardener finds Georgie’s body, already dead, arm torn from its socket. People run outside when they hear the scream, they witness Georgie by the storm drain, they know of the attack. In the movie he’s “gone missing”, largely presumed dead, but here Bill and his family know from the outset that Georgie is dead and died violently at that. There is a mention by King that the town tends to get through terrible events and then pretend they never happened in order to get over them, and I think in the film they made this more overt by having the few neighbors around ignore what happens to Georgie. 

I feel like for the sake of the liveblog I should go over what happens in the book for the unaware, but it almost feels superfluous for this first chapter. Everyone knows Georgie dies at the hands of Pennywise, at the claws of It. Even the book lets it slip very early on that Georgie is slated for death, only a few paragraphs in. 

Let’s rewind and properly explain. The book begins with George Denbrough running after a newspaper boat in the rain. George, or Georgie as he is affectionately called, is the younger brother of Bill Denbrough, one of our main characters, if not the leading man. Bill is sick with the flu, so he can’t go and play with Georgie in the rain, but he builds the kid a paper boat all the same, and seals it with paraffin wax to keep it watertight. A lot of the first chapter is devoted to two things: showing the bond Bill and his brother share, and showing that Georgie is already somewhat aware of It’s presence. 

Bill sends Georgie down to the cellar to get the wax, and Georgie goes, but with extreme trepidation. He pictures monsters waiting to snatch him up in the cellar, and King here goes in depth into the smell of the cellar, a smell of “dirt and wet and long-gone vegetables”, the stink of rot, which is the smell of the monster, “the smell of It, crouched and lurking and ready to spring. A creature which would eat anything but which was especially hungry for boymeat.”

Yep. “Boymeat”. Right up there with “manflesh” in terms of descriptive vocabulary. 

But basically, on some level, Georgie knows there’s something lurking in the dark for him, and he knows it’s a childish fear but he can’t quite shake his instinct. 

Sidenote: there’s a reference to the Turtle fairly early on! Georgie finds a flat can of Turtle wax, and stares at the logo for a good thirty seconds. Which, by the way, probably looked like this: 

Anyways, Georgie finds the paraffin wax and runs up the stairs, fearing that something lurking in the dark will grab him by his shirttail and yank him down, but he escapes and goes to give the wax to Bill. 

Just a personal note here, when I initially tried to read this book some ten years ago I rolled my eyes at the conversation between the two brothers, which I remember distinctly being about buttholes, who was the biggest butthole, etc. I mean, they’re kids, it’s juvenile humor, what ya gonna do. The version I have downloaded here has the kids calling each other “a-holes”. So now I have to wonder if my version got censored somehow. Anyways. Nothing to inspire confidence in the rest of the novel like a conversation about who’s the biggest asshole between kids. 

The brothers do have an oddly tender moment, which they both note is out of character for them, with Georgie kissing Bill’s cheek goodbye and Bill telling him to be careful. It seems like they know instinctively that they’re never going to see each other again. 

Georgie runs out to play with his boat, and he chases it happily through the street until it unfortunately goes down a storm drain. Georgie tries to see if he can get it, but only sees yellow eyes staring back, until said eyes solidify as a clown. Georgie describes the clown as a cross between Bozo the Clown and Clarabell from Howdy Doody (both, for the record, are the most terrifying clowns I’ve ever seen, dear lord), but King notes that if Georgie “had been inhabiting a later year” he would have thought of Ronald McDonald first. 

Just real quick gonna throw these nightmares up on screen for y’all:

Thanks, I hate it. 

Here Pennywise introduces himself as Mr Bob Gray, also known as Pennywise the Dancing Clown, so right off the bat there’s some differences. Georgie asks himself how he could have seen yellow eyes when Pennywise’s eyes are a “bright, dancing blue” like his mother’s or Bill’s eyes. 

Like the 2017 movie, Pennywise says the storm blew him and the circus into the sewer, and asks Georgie if he can smell the circus. Georgie can indeed, but he does notice the cellar smell lurking underneath, the smell of wet and rot. 

But he ignores it. 

Instead the clown offers him a balloon and Georgie asks “do they float?” 

And the second he reaches his hand out to grab a balloon, Pennywise latches on, Georgie screams, and knows no more. 

“They float,” it growled, “they float, Georgie, and when you’re down here with me, you’ll float, too—”

It’s noted that Georgie watches the clown’s face change, and what he sees destroys his sanity “in one clawing stroke”. 

So really it’s a good thing that he dies a few moments later after It wrenches his arm off. 

Again, Georgie’s body is found within the minute by a neighbor, and other neighbors run over to see what’s going on. 

The chapter ends with a description of the paper boat floating through the sewers of Derry, as Bill’s family is delivered the news and his mother is sedated for shock in the ER, and “perhaps it reached the sea, and sails there forever, like a magic boat in a fairytale”. 

Sweet sentiment. I’m getting all choked up over here. 🙄

So I figured I’d read on to the next chapter, seeing as the first chapter is so short and so well known. 

God, I wished I had left it at one chapter. 

The next chapter is told through a series of interviews with the witness and suspects to the case of the murder of Adrian Mellon. 

It’s a fucking shitshow of a chapter.

It is DEEPLY homophobic. Every word of it. 

This is how we’re introduced to Don Hagarty, partner to Adrian and key witness to his murder: “This man—if you want to call him a man—was wearing lipstick and satin pants so tight you could almost read the wrinkles in his cock.”

COME ON, STEPHEN. 

Now. I know very very well that this book was published in 1986 and America was not kind to queer people in the eighties. I know that King was capturing that homophobia, not necessarily homophobic himself, and that his viewpoints have probably changed. 

That said, reading this chapter was like a punch in the stomach every few sentences. The cops who interrogate the men responsible for the hate crime against Adrian make it clear that they are both disgusted by the attackers and deeply homophobic themselves. They all say at some point “I don’t like fairies, I don’t care for queers, they’re hardly men” in varying forms of intensity. 

I honestly think I blacked this chapter out when I was seventeen, I don’t remember it being like this. Or maybe I didn’t care so much a decade ago, closeted and repressed, and that’s a scary realization. That your own internalized homophobia might have been so pervasive that you don’t see it in others. That it sounds reasonable when a supposedly sympathetic character says he hopes the murdering homophobes get locked up, prison raped, and get AIDS. 

Sigh.

To sum up: Adrian Mellon is attacked while out with his boyfriend, Don. A group of young men, having been teased by Adrian at the Canal Days festival (though Adrian here makes a blowjob joke, not a shitty haircut joke--he’s too good for this book really), claim that they attacked out of “civic pride” because Adrian was wearing a “I ❤️ Derry” hat. One of the attackers tells Don to get out of there, and he screams for help. The attackers push Adrian over the side of the Kissing Bridge. The attacker who saves Don, Chris, sees Pennywise, and so does Don a little bit later, and they tell the cops that interrogate them. The cops dismiss the clown, at first ostensibly because the witnesses are hysterical, but then later in the chapter it’s revealed that the police don’t want the attacker’s lawyers jumping on the clown thing to prove their clients’ innocence. So Pennywise, even having been seen by two witnesses, is left off the record entirely. 

King also reveals the deeply, deeply homophobic sentiment in the town, the violent anti-gay graffiti all over public property, at the Kissing Bridge or in the public park, the people in the town outright ignoring the attack as it’s happening, the fact that the one gay bar in town is home to some very fearful people who just want to keep their heads down. 

So yes, you can extrapolate that the homophobic stuff expressed in the book is to show that Derry is a hateful place where fear festers and so forth...

But King also goes out of his way to emasculate Don Hagarty and Adrian Mellon every chance he gets, effusing about the dramatic makeup they wear, the nail polish, the bright outfits, the campy attitudes. Adrian is described as five-foot-five and slight. Don is described as shrill and dramatic (his BOYFRIEND was just BRUTALLY MURDERED). Meanwhile the homophobes are described as looking like Bruce Springsteen. Like. 

I really feel for Don, I do, despite the book’s best attempts to make him a walking caricature, a huge gay joke. He says Derry’s like “a dead strumpet with maggots squirming out of her cooze”. He calls Derry a sewer. He’s right on both counts.

Well. On that cheerful note, time to wrap this read-through up! Tune in next time for our introduction to Stan (and probably the last time we’ll see grown-up Stan :D). 

Bye for now.

[mxlxdroit]

black sails s1e1 liveblog

here we fuckin go, lads

the episode starts from the perspective of the ship the pirates are attacking- lends an air of mystery

silver is a coward, which probably means i shouldn’t like him, but it also means he’s going to be able to survive for longer than most. also he’s uhhhh hot

flint stops his crewmen from killing the captain of the ship, but i’m not sure being alive will be better for him

music by bear mccreary, babey! i love his work on battlestar galactica, so i have high hopes for the soundtrack

the opening titles are gorgeous

look at that! (just wait until tumblr flags this post now)

michael bay is one of the producers- is it the same as the transformers guy?

scary pirates boarding a ship and killing people with axes -> sibling-level goofs. this is gonna be fun

this guy,,, what a dumbass

black sails: in which pirates teach respectable sailors class consciousness and the value of direct action and democratic lifestyles (aka piracy)

...dad sent me to the moon

ohohoh so silver has the schedule? that’s a good bargaining chip, esp once they realize he doesn’t actually know how to cook

‘restrain him, you say?’ uh yeah... good luck with that

guthrie has said fuck more times than everyone else in this episode combined. she’s also very good at business

just have to say i LOVE flint’s tiny ponytail

mr gates has an illuminati tattoo

oh my god did flint just get arrested

and there’s canon wlw in the first episode!!! !!!! also i knew bear mccreary would come through they played an instrumental version of the hymn ‘what wondrous love is this’

flint’s a little off the rails but he gives good speeches

pirate theory 101 with james flint

this idiot thinks he’s going to beat flint in a swordfight? fat chance. i haven’t seen flint fight with a sword but i have a feeling he’s the better swordsman

ok maybe not. he just bludgeoned singleton to death with his fists. wow.

is every female character in this show wlw? because we’re 3 for 3 in the first episode

ok there we go! first episode was very good. great music, strong writing, good acting, interesting premise, characters who are minorities with agency and power, great costumes