#the spoiler is the existence of anne bonny

[shiros-boyfriends-are-pretty]

HUGE SPOILER

everyone's giving their take so I'll add mine DO NOT CONTINUE UNLESS YOU'VE SEEN THE FINALE

I think given the uncertainty of the writers and actors strikes not guaranteeing this show would ever go on beyond s2 that this ending makes sense. I think the dissonance many feel at the concept of stede and ed rushing into being innkeepers is valid but i hope when they do renew the show that its almost like how anne bonny and mary read did the antiquing thing and that went poorly. I think we're right in feeling like it's not a good move for theyre current selves and i hope they explore that more in s3

take number 2: I understand why they killed him, but i can't help but mourn the concept of izzy getting to fall in love with someone, getting to be a person outside of blackbeard, getting to exist! Again they didnt know how much of a hit this season would be, or whether or not the then looming, now active strikes would impact production. Season 2 i believe was written to be an ok series finale in case that came to pass, and I can appreciate that for what it is.

Im excited for what season 3 could bring, and i still think season 2 had such beautiful character arcs. Its been so fun experiencing a fandom like this and im not gonna let pacing issues affect the fact that this is still such a good show. I can't wait to see my pirate gays again.

Also, if we love izzy enough maybe theyd do like an izzy hands prequel show? I'd personally love to see how he got to where we meet him at the start of ofmd, he's one of the most complex and interesting characters I've ever seen.

[limeade-l3sbian]

Spoilers for several female characters’ arcs, including Arlong Park and Dressrosa

One Piece is the best-selling manga of all time, full stop. Its mangaka, Oda Eiichiro, is one of the highest-earning authors of all time, taking second place as a comics author only to Garfield creator Jim Davis. While other titans of the industry like Naruto and Bleach have finally ended their original sagas, One Piece remains ongoing. After nearly twenty-five years of serialization, Oda’s epic has had a huge impact on its fans and the manga industry as a whole. 

But while One Piece looms large in the present and past, conversations about how Oda treats women have often taken place on a surface level. Oda started out his career by including women in prominent and active roles in his stories. As time went on, his vindictive nature towards fans meant he started taking out the criticisms he received on his female characters and fans alike,  undoing the good work he had done in the series’ early days.

Oda’s relationship to gender isn’t static, and his early work in One Piece is quite different from what he’s producing now. In the beginning, Oda’s women are positive, if flawed, examples of female characters. While no character design in One Piece can truly be called “realistic,” its women were complex people with believable proportions. As the series went on, however, he began punishing female fans demanding better representation by diminishing women’s roles. 

Examples of his attitude near the beginning of One Piece’s run are present in the SBS, the long-running Q&A section featured in most One Piece volumes featuring Oda’s often unfiltered sentiments. 

D: Were there really woman pirates? O: Yes, there were. But it was considered bad luck to bring a woman on board a ship in those days, and so many of them disguised themselves as men. There were two woman pirates, Mary Read and Anne Bonny, who were said to have fought more bravely than any man. By the way, my character Alvida was based on a female pirate named Awilda (or Alvida) who formed a pirate crew comprised entirely of women. (Chapter 50, Page 124)

Oda is citing his sources and giving reasons why women belong in the One Piece world. It’s unnecessary—he is, after all, creating a fantasy universe where a boy made of rubber fights bad guys, so why should he need to justify female characters existing—but shows that Oda’s done his research and believes female pirates belong in his universe. 

This is most clearly seen in Nami, the first (and for years, the only) female member of Luffy’s crew, the Straw Hats. Her role is that of the navigator, which occupies a tremendously important position; however, her combat abilities lag far behind the others’ from the very beginning. 

Nami is also a money-grubbing thief, a role that paints the only major female character before Robin’s introduction as a duplicitous femme fatale in blue and white stripes instead of slinky dresses. Robin also fits this stereotype–she’s just better at it. 

While Nami’s not the only member of the Straw Hats whose primary abilities aren’t physical combat, compare her company. Usopp may run at the first hint of a fight, but his skills lie in long-range combat as a sniper. While Chopper may primarily be a physician (and reindeer), he can still turn into a bulked-up version of himself in a pinch. Nami has her baton, but she uses it rarely and usually in last-ditch scenarios that end in defeat.

When Nami’s engagements in combat don’t end in defeat, it’s usually because she’s fighting against other women. Women versus women is a trope in long running shounen of this era – watch Naruto and count how many times a woman beats a man head-on. While these battles may be compelling narrative, in One Piece they’re not treated as serious battles compared to the “real” fights, which are Luffy or Zoro or Sanji fighting against the big bad of the arc. It feels like many female villains are only created to give Nami something to do during climactic battles. 

The thing is, though, Oda is a good enough writer that he complicates any simple reading of Nami as a sexist caricature. Nami’s backstory, as played out at Arlong Park, is one of the most emotionally affecting parts of the East Blue Saga. Nami spends the first several arcs backstabbing and double-crossing Luffy & Co. for her own goals. She’s had to go it alone for years, and can’t trust anyone on her path of freeing herself from a tyrant. Asking Luffy for help is a moment of genuine character growth for a woman who has been forced to see everyone but herself as a mark.

Nami’s deceased mother figure, Belle-Mère, is also a huge part of this arc, and significant time is spent on her backstory. Belle-Mère is a former military officer, a fighting woman who adopted two orphaned children fresh out of the Marines. Despite her self-sacrificing death, she is presented as both morally and physically intimidating, her kind personality offset by nerves of steel.. As Oda explained in another SBS segment, even Bell-mère’s distinctive hairstyle is indicative of the way Oda writes her.

O: That hairstyle is called “Women have Guts”. You should yell it out in a beauty parlor. (Chapter 87, Page 128)

O: That hairstyle is called “Women have Guts”. You should yell it out in a beauty parlor. (Chapter 87, Page 128)

Sure, the hair is ugly, but it’s a clear indicator that he sees women as capable of possessing the same drive and fighting spirit as men. 

There are also other female figures important to the Straw Hats’ backstories, such as Zoro’s formative childhood rival, Kuina. Zoro was never able to beat Kuina growing up, but Oda’s writing presents Zoro’s inability to win against Kuina as a result of his age: because he had not yet hit puberty, he couldn’t beat his rival in a fight. Kuina expressed sorrow and frustration that Zoro would eventually surpass her after he hit puberty, something she viewed as unavoidable due to her gender. Her death is Zoro’s primary motivation behind becoming the world’s greatest swordsman, but the potential for her character is never realized. 

This arc sets so much up, not just for Zoro but for the series’ approach to women. The way moving forward seems obvious—presenting an adult woman who challenges Zoro as he is now, thus resolving his childhood trauma—but the series fails to do that… despite introducing Sergeant Tashigi, a swordswoman foil to Zoro who looks exactly like Kuina.

Although Tashigi initially seems like the obvious rival for Zoro, he instead remains overwhelmingly her superior while her position in the Marines is undermined by gendered condescension, with her troops sacrificing their lives to protect her rather than trusting in her skill. She’s not an asset; she’s a liability. 

Despite laying the groundwork to defy Kuina’s internalized gender stereotypes through Tashigi, Oda uses her incompetence to justify them. Kuina has a fighting spirit and is thus sad she’s a woman. Instead of showing the reader that this is wrong through the narrative, Oda’s writing agrees with her. 

It’s not that Oda thinks women don’t have the heart for it. This is said in his own words in the SBS:

D: HI!! Eiichi! You said in Volume 27 that the Jaya arc was “A man’s romance”?! As a woman of 18 years, how would you define my “burning passion for adventure” and “infinite dreams”?! And all my blood goes to my head when I read your manga!!! Take responsibility for it!!! Please take responsibility and include the girls, too. From Her New Nye Co. O: A woman’s romance? No, it’s a bit complicated. The word “man” is sometimes used like an adjective. Really good women have men in themselves. You call them “chic”. So I’ll scream it once again: Men and women can use “A MAN’S ROMANCE”!! Women are included!! (Chapter 263, Page 164)

What limited Oda in these early days was not the idea that women don’t want to fight, but the belief women are fundamentally physically weaker than men. 

There are women throughout the story, but Kuina’s belief that puberty will strip her of all her advantages is repeatedly proven right as the plot develops. Sergeant Tashigi isn’t a satisfying successor to Kuina’s early death because she doesn’t follow through on the set-up for Kuina’s storyline or being a rival to Zoro. Instead, she proves that a fighting spirit can’t overcome the physical weakness of being a woman.  

In Oda’s world, women lack the same prowess in combat as male characters despite the presence of magic Devil Fruit powers. Physically imposing women like Alvida and Big Mom are mocked to the point of inhumanity for their appearances and weight, while attractive women are rarely powerful. In the rare case a woman manages to be both powerful and attractive, like Robin, they mysteriously miss all the action.

Early One Piece isn’t perfect, but there was solid ground to build on. Oda could have grown into his female characters. He already understood the hard part, after all: that women strive for the same human desires of fighting and protecting as men. 

Even with issues this endemic, Oda ultimately humanizes the women who populate the East Blue. He clearly understands that women have motivations: that they love and hurt and hate and desire for vengeance all on their own. Oda knows—or at least expressed, back in the late 1990s and early 2000s—a clear understanding that women are people, with all the messy results this entails. 

But instead of listening to the negative feedback he started receiving, Oda doubled down.

I don’t think Oda hates women. It’s simpler than that: Oda doesn’t like it when people read his characters in ways he didn’t intend. He’s said it himself in interviews. On some level, I can’t blame him. It’s frustrating when readers misconstrue something you’ve written. In an interview at Color Walk 6 in 2014, Oda said:

“I get annoyed to hear people speaking ill of characters in ONE PIECE. For example, when they say ‘this villain is weak’, I can’t help thinking that then I’ll make him much stronger!” 

This isn’t necessarily a bad thing. The reemergence of Sir Crocodile, one of the series’ early antagonists, is among my favorite moments of the series, and it likely happened as Oda’s response to fans calling him weak. Here, Oda’s decision to prove complaining fans wrong by changing the text improved the series. 

Oda’s reactions to complaints about his portrayal of women in SBS, however, are another story. 

D: Nice to meet you. This is sudden, but… please teach us a tip or two on how to draw that hawt hourglass body all ONE PIECE female characters seem to have! Make sure you don’t forget to include their airbags ♡ P.N. If there’s no bread, let them eat roses~ O: Yes. Hello. It’s drawing time at the SBS segment. I would suggest that you think of a woman’s proportions as “three circles, one X”. Now if you’ll excuse me, I’ll be leaving. (I only draw this kind of body, so I get a lot of complaint postcards from my female audience. Let’s all stay strong and keep on living life.) (Chapter 786, Page 24)

This is where his pettiness goes from fun and relatable to troubling. In Oda’s own words, a “lot” of women complain that he doesn’t do right by his female characters. He could reflect on the validity of these many complaints and use that feedback to improve his narrative. Instead, he doubles down on the character traits people took issue with. 

Complaining that a villain is “weak” is an opinion that engages with the media in-world and doesn’t affect anyone. Female fans writing in to express that they are uncomfortable with the portrayal of their gender in his work are talking about something that impacts them personally. Poor representations of women in the media have the potential to affect the way other people in the real world see these women, from cultural perceptions to concrete working conditions. 

Despite explicitly acknowledging that many women who read One Piece don’t like his representation, Oda dismisses them and advises his audience to “all stay strong and keep on living life.” Female fans who complain are moved from the “fan” category to “other.” Oda paints himself as the brave one even as he makes his female fans the target for ridicule by aligning his audience with him against “them.”

Meanwhile, Oda’s character designs grew more sexualized, not less. Here are side-by-side comparisons of Nami, one at the beginning of the series, one directly before the two-year time skip, and one of her afterward. 

Some… things… certainly changed. Long before I ever interacted with One Piece seriously—before I knew anything but the most basic details of the premise—I remember people joking about the huge change in the way female characters looked after the timeskip. This is egregiously sexist character design, enough that people with no vested interest in representing female characters well still took note when it happened. Oda took the timeskip as an opportunity to respond to female complaints and male desires: look, everyone, he said, look at my female characters now. 

This change for the worse wasn’t just visual, but affected the narrative as well. This is clearly seen in Rebecca, a major female character in the Dressrosa saga. It’s not just that she’s a 16-year-old in a chainmail bikini, but that her agency is repeatedly denied as the story unfolds. 

Rebecca is a gladiator taught by her paternal figure to only fight when absolutely necessary. However, when that time arrives in the story, he denies her the opportunity. Despite Rebecca’s skill, this older man’s desire to protect her supersedes her desire to protect her loved ones. It’s taken as a given that she wouldn’t want to fight unless there was absolutely no other way. In other coming-of-age stories, her lack of desire to fight might prove the necessity of doing so when it comes down to the wire. Instead, a man (her mentor no less, a character type who’s generally meant to be pushed aside so their student can complete their growth) steps in at that crucial moment.

What happened to the world Belle-Mere lived in? What happened to a woman’s sense of adventure, her ability to possess a manly spirit? Princess Vivi from Alabasta, the driving force from a much earlier saga, may not have had astounding combat moments, but her battle between her desire to serve her people and her thirst for adventure is a more compelling story than Rebecca’s narrative. Vivi may have chosen civic duty, but she remains an honorary Straw Hat.

Rebecca is a painful step back from Vivi at a time when Oda should be stepping forward. In the past, he had some misguided ideas and exhibited plenty of gender essentialism, but he valued women’s stories and participation. Nami and Robin’s arcs are as fleshed out as any other Straw Hat’s, and their moments of growth are personal and popular highlights of the overall series, used as examples of the quality One Piece can possess. 

D: *click* You BIG BOOB LOVER!!! (Ahem, pardon me.) *slam*… *click* *smack* (blown kiss) *slam*  P.N. marimo O: Whoa. The girls are rebelling. What are you gonna do about that, guys?! OK, leave it to me! I’ll lay down the law for us all. What the hell are you talking about? I’m a goddamn shonen manga-ka! A MAN’S DREAM!! NEVER ENDS!!! (That was good) (Chapter 381, Page 86)

A female fan complains, and he says that he draws shounen manga: therefore, his representation of women is in line with the genre. “A man’s dream” includes adventure, fights, freedom, and all the core tenets of One Piece that appealed to earlier women writing into the SBS; however, it also includes sexualizing women. As a shonen mangaka, Oda writes for boys and aims to represent what boys (and often men) want. What girls want—representation that shows them as varied and human as male characters—evidently just isn’t as important. 

Instead of considering the reasons his female fans don’t like his choices, he considers their opinions irrelevant because they are not his target audience. Any argument of sexism or misogyny can be written away as the annoying or bitter complaints of women whom the story isn’t “for”. The women who get it get to stay, on the condition that they don’t complain. 

If you ask why Oda should have to think about representing women, my response is that it’s hypocritical to say that Oda shouldn’t have to moralize, because, at the end of the day, One Piece already has morals. One Piece doesn’t succeed simply because Luffy is funny, Zoro is cool, and Nami is sexy: it has a through-line of humanity that tells its audience time and time again that blood is less important than the family you choose. Oda is perfectly willing to tell anti-authoritarian stories about corrupt police forces and write blatant racism allegories. To excuse sexism in a show that’s willing to address the evils of slavery head-on requires intellectual dishonesty.

Finally, the idea that women are “not his audience” is false when 52% of the readership of One Piece is estimated to be female.  If over half of your audience is women, maybe it’s in your best interest not to completely disregard everything they say. At some point in a two-decade-long career, a good writer—which Oda demonstrably is—should be able to look around and see that the themes he thought would only appeal to boys have a wide appeal to everyone. Perhaps, then, it isn’t that “really good women” have a man’s heart. Perhaps men and women all have the same heart. Perhaps we all share the same drive for adventure, freedom, and life on the open seas.

One Piece is a wonderful, mischievous, and masterful show with a lot to say about the human need for friendship and adventure. It’s only gotten more influential with time, and it reaches a larger audience than ever. While far from perfect, twenty years ago Oda demonstrated an awareness that female shounen fans possessed the same desire for heroism and friendship as the boys who read his work, and he was happy to let them tag along on the journey—but only until they pointed out his flaws. When women asked for more, Oda made sure female fans knew One Piece was never for girls in the first place. 

[batsarebetterthanpeople]

Now that we have a picture of Anne Bonny and a casting for Mary Read I need to rework Myspace AU because I was very comfortable with the idea of those two being OFMD characters who didn't actually exist and therefore I could do whatever I wanted with them so long as they were dating and so I made them emo groupies with myspace who are in their early 20s and routinely post pictures of Jack in compromising positions with coke on his nose to Myspace with about a 5% chance of a tabloid picking it up. (this is important because of spoilers)

[our-flag-means-death-ao3feed]

この　秋

by alexander (shwishu)

By 1899, the age of outlaws and gunslingers was at an end. America was becoming a land of laws... even the west had mostly been tamed. A few gangs still roamed, but they were being hunted down and destroyed. The most infamous of which being the legendary Blackbeard's gang of black-hearted rogues, who, following a failed heist in California were being pushed east of Blackwater for the first time in ten years. Enter Stede Bonnet, clergy from Barbados, who, whilst on vacation in Saint Denis with his family, decided to flee and pursue the life of crime that was dying ever so quickly. Things did not go as planned. - Welcome! This is a rdr2 au of ofmd, but you don't need to play the game or have any knowledge about it to read this - all you need to know is that the places that the fic takes place in are fictitious representatives of real US states, and that our boys (+ mary read, anne bonny, and jim) are gunslingers! Any rdr elements that are included will be explained within the text, and a map will be linked in the first chapter. (the title translates to 'this autumn' and is pronounced 'kono aki')

Words: 2841, Chapters: 1/10, Language: English

Fandoms: Our Flag Means Death (TV), Red Dead Redemption (Video Games)

Rating: Teen And Up Audiences

Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, Graphic Depictions Of Violence

Categories: M/M, Multi

Characters: Blackbeard | Edward Teach, Stede Bonnet, Israel Hands, Oluwande Boodhari, Jim Jimenez, Lucius Spriggs, Crew of the Revenge, Anne Bonny, Mary Read, Benjamin Hornigold, The Badmintons, Mary Allamby Bonnet, O'Driscoll Gang (Red Dead Redemption), Other Character Tags to Be Added, "Calico" Jack Rackham

Relationships: Blackbeard | Edward Teach/Stede Bonnet, Oluwande Boodhari/Jim Jimenez, Minor or Background Relationship(s), Anne Bonny/Mary Read

Additional Tags: red dead redemption au, no, you don't have to play the game, you'll understand, Alternate Universe - Western, Bandits & Outlaws, Alternate Canon, it mirrors canon, Fluff, Meet-Cute, Angst, Canon-Typical Disregard for Injury, canon-typical disregard for historical accuracy, Changing POV, vague mentions of red dead characters maybe, i doubt i'll be able to resist, if they rock up you'll find them in the characters section, but for all intents and purposes the van der linde gang only exists when it is convenient for me x, no beta we die like men, NO RED DEAD SPOILERS, ofmd spoilers obv

source https://archiveofourown.org/works/40091349

[freedom-in-the-dark]

James Flint Is Gay: A Meta Post

[slides into the Black Sails fandom late with Starbucks]

Hey! What’s up! Here’s a post no one asked for but I wrote mostly for me. Before we get into it, I’ve got some big notices to put on the top here.

DISCLAIMER: If you interpret James as bi, and you prefer that, I am not trying to say you can’t do that or to convince you otherwise! 

You do you! If you’re not cool with seeing him as gay, please do us both a favor and keep scrolling past this post! I’m mildly aware that this fandom has a history of rough discourse surrounding this topic, but I cannot emphasize enough that I am new here, and this post is not an attack. Please do me the courtesy of not attacking me or blocking me or whatnot because I’m not trying to start drama lol. And for what it’s worth, I myself am bi (well, bi ace), so I’d like to think I’m being objective.

This post exists simply because I like to write meta out with my arguments / evidence lined up in a row; it gets things out of my head and onto a screen, and I find it satisfying. And if I’m doing it anyway, I might as well share.

So if you see James as gay, or have an open mind to that interpretation… please allow me to take you on this adventure under the cut. I’m sure it’s obvious, but this contains spoilers? Lol.

Here we go!

Compulsory Heterosexuality vs “Bi Erasure”

Firstly… to address some stuff I’ve seen in my limited Black Sails fandom travels right out of the gate: I’ve seen people imply that interpreting James as gay is “bi erasure,” or they ask “Why are you erasing that James was attracted to Miranda and had an affair with her?”

But to that I say: it’s far more complicated than that.

Gay people can have sexual relationships with people of the opposite sex, especially until / or before they identify as gay. This is how so many gay people can be married to the opposite sex and have biological kids, and then later realize their truth and come out to themselves and their families. Having those experiences or even some variation of actionable attraction to people of other sexes in the past doesn’t negate their ability to later identify as gay, once they stop burying those parts of themselves and/or experience something that “brings that part of them into the light.”

This is why the phrase compulsory heterosexuality exists. The phrase was originally coined by Adrienne Rich in a 1980 essay titled “Compulsory Heterosexuality and the Lesbian Experience.” So yes, let me make this clear: this term originated in reference to lesbians and feminist theory, and then the idea was later expanded upon to include discussions of gay men by other academics in the early 2000s. I’m not gonna dive too deeply into it here, but in essence–as the name implies–this is the idea that patriarchal and heteronormative societies are viewed as the default, so individuals are assumed (by themselves and otherwise) to be heterosexual until “proven” otherwise. Through these standards that are seen as “normal,” people are also taught from a young age–whether explicitly or subconsciously through society–that anything that deviates from those ~straight norms~ leads to negative consequences. And so, society encourages people to avoid sexual exploration, because having experiences with someone of the same sex is what can often bring their gay identity into focus.

In the case of Black Sails, this is all very much emphasized at the forefront because it’s a historical drama. Aside from racism/slavery, patriarchy and heteronormativity are what the characters are actively going to war against.

So, the point in me defining all of this? No one—or at least, not me—is saying that James didn’t have a sexual relationship with Miranda. That’s not in question. But that doesn’t necessarily make him bi, and it doesn’t mean the narrative isn’t structured in various ways that indicate otherwise.

Just keep this in the back of your brain, because I’m going to circle back around to it.

Anne, Flint, & Gay Rage

In the wise words of an old pirate captain: “Fruit, fruit. Tits, tits.” This show thrives on parallels, and gives us lines / scenes that apply to more than one character; it’s partially why the themes are so consistent, and if you ignore that, you can miss a lot of the nuance. Our resident angry gay gingers are one of the paralleled sets of characters.

This is not a meta about Anne… but talking about parts of Anne’s story can help to highlight some things about James’ story.

I tweeted this once: “Flint and Anne’s sexualities paralleled to show struggles with compulsive heterosexuality, fighting for the sake of fighting, bringing parts of themselves into the light, wrestling with being told they’re monsters and their distorted senses of self, etc.” and really, now I’m just here to elaborate.

-----

The word “monster” is a recurring theme in this show. It’s tied mostly to Flint and how he is told he is monstrous for loving a man, fears being “the villain” or “monster” in everyone’s stories, and eventually embraces that monstrous portrayal in service of his goals–even as the violence is slowly devastating to him. But the other character the word “monster” is used in reference to? Anne.

A quote by Max:

“Idelle, how would you feel if the one man you thought would never betray you did? If he purchased for himself a future through that betrayal? If you were told by a world full of men that that betrayal confirmed for them that they were right to see you as a monster to be shunned? She's not mad. She is adrift.”

In some ways, this quote is also the story of what has happened to James in his life, over and over. (Not to say this is what Jack intended to do to Anne, but the parallels inherent in Max’s line itself cannot be denied.) 

James is repeatedly betrayed by those he trusts: Admiral Hennessey; Peter Ashe; Hal Gates. All of them try to get him to conform to heteronormative society–including Gates, because even if he didn’t know it, that’s what he was doing by trying to get James to take a pardon. That’s why James reacts with such instinctual panic and kills him; the idea of being forced to apologize to and assimilate back into heteronormative society puts him at a breaking point. (It can even be argued that Miranda “betrays” James in this way too by trying to get him to take a pardon and go to Boston–which is where his “and they called me a monster” speech comes in–and that also contributed to how James later panics and kills Gates for trying to force him to do the same. Miranda tried in a well-meaning way to get James to move on, because she isn’t fully understanding what James wrestles with; but I’ll go back to that.)

Again, these parallels are deliberate. Anne and Flint are the two main gay characters who wrestle with their supposed “monstrosity” in the eyes of everyone else, because they don’t fit in. They are “othered.” It’s not simply about their violence; for these characters, it’s about what their violence is in service of achieving, which is tied to their sexuality.

Anne is seen as a “monster” for slaughtering the men who abused Max, who is not only a fellow woman but also a fellow lesbian, in a way that Anne is undeniably drawn to even before she lets herself acknowledge the feeling. We as viewers are meant to see this and understand this, and we do. Anne is ostracized for violence that was motivated by her sexuality, which is partially why Max tells her that she understands her violence and will protect her–because Max is not only also a woman in a patriarchal society, but she is gay too.

Flint is seen as a “monster” first and foremost by England, for his sexuality… and then, later, by everyone else for the actions he takes because of his sexuality. Again: the violence he commits cannot be divorced from his sexuality because it is the reason for it. It’s what informs it.

I tweeted about this once too, but in many ways Anne and Flint’s kindred displays of brutality and anger and “fighting for the sake of fighting” (a quote by Miranda which applies to them both) are informed by their desire/need for gay tenderness. The world has too often denied them that tenderness and their expressions of their sexualities, or demonized them for wanting it, and their violence is the result. 

Here’s a quote from Deborah Tolman with regards to how compulsory heterosexuality affects men, which she calls “hegemonic masculinity”:

"These norms demand that men deny most emotions, save for anger; be hard at all times and in all ways; engage in objectification of women and sex itself; and participate in the continuum of violence against women."

The anger and hardness is a huge part of the personas both Flint and Anne have to put on for survival. I include Anne in this because she uniquely lives her life in a “male” role to survive the male-dominated world of piracy, and she’s clearly not immune from these unspoken masculine guidelines: she refers to Max as “the whore” half the time as a defense mechanism. Flint and Anne lash out, they’re hard and angry and violent for the sake of their personas, and it’s all because... inside, they just want to be soft and gay with who they love.

Anne, Flint, & Compulsory Heterosexuality (Not Bi Erasure)

In Black Sails, we are shown the story of a gay person who has a consistent sexual relationship with someone of the opposite sex, but is running from internal truths about themselves in some ways in the process. That person is Anne.

Struggling with compulsory heterosexuality is explicitly Anne Bonny’s prime storyline in the show and that is not up for debate (and I’ve rarely seen people disagree); but I argue that it is also part of James’ storyline, and he is paralleled significantly with Anne to make that clear. It’s just overall more subtle because it’s not the prime focus of James’ story the way it is for Anne, because James’ realizations happened largely in the past and we’re seeing the aftermath of it. The parallels are there, and I’ll be breaking some of them down.

----

From episode one, we are told that Anne has a sexual relationship with Jack…. But later on, she tells Jack that she “can’t be [his] wife,” even though they’ll be partners forever. Why? What changed? The answer is that she’s been with Max and realized that she’s gay. It doesn’t mean Anne didn’t have sex with a man in the past and even enjoy it on some level, but it does mean that she knows now that she was using that sex partially to distract from things about herself that she was doing her best to ignore.

Multiple lines by Max (to Anne) tell us this:

3x03: “When you and I began you did not choose me. Something that lives inside you beyond choice made it so.”

2x01: “But perhaps there is something else underlying it. Something hiding in a place not even you can see. Perhaps… we would do well to bring it into the light.”

Before I continue, let me remind you of something: when writers decide to show viewers something on screen, that is done with intent, especially in a show like Black Sails where not a single moment is wasted. Remember this. What they show us, and what they don’t show us, are both deliberate choices.

So what are we shown about Anne’s sexual relationship with Jack? We get exactly one scene of her having sex with him. We are shown Anne riding Jack in a way where neither party was particularly enthused. Does this mean they definitely never had sex in the past that they both enjoyed on some level? No. But they showed us this one scene on purpose: to emphasize the stark difference when Anne has enjoyable sex with Max, an experience that forever changes her.

So what are we shown about James’ sexual relationship with Miranda? We get exactly one scene of him having sex with her. It is the most depressing sex scene of all time, James is just lying there to try to be helpful for her to chase her own pleasure, and he doesn’t even touch her. Does this mean they never had sex in the past that they both enjoyed, especially back during their affair in London? No. But we are never shown any of that. We never see them have sex in London before James’ relationship with Thomas; we never see them having good sex with each other after it all goes to hell. And that is a deliberate choice.

Why? Because all of the above info about Anne and her compulsory heterosexuality journey also applies to James McGraw, and his relationships with Miranda and Thomas.

“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.”

The realizations James came to about his sexuality (just like Anne did) inform much of his tangled story with the Hamiltons, and much of the tragedy of Miranda and James’ situation after the loss of Thomas. We are shown the way James and Miranda are no longer perfectly aligned after that loss, and grief is undeniably a part of it… but it goes beyond that. It’s more complicated than that. 

That sad sex scene is not solely about grief; remember, that scene takes place ten years after they lose Thomas. It takes place during a time where Miranda is already thinking about and will soon actively try to tell James that they need to move on, without understanding why the loss of Thomas affects him in a profoundly different way than it affects her. I am not minimizing her loss or her grief whatsoever; but it is undeniably more complicated for James, and it’s why he can’t move on.

In episode 1x07:

James: “Have you no memory of how we got here? What they took from us?”

Miranda: “What does it matter now? What does it matter? What does it matter what happened then if we have no life now?”

James is, of course, appalled by this. I’ll talk about why momentarily.

The next time James is in Nassau (2x03), he goes to see Miranda and tries to apologize that night, but she’s otherwise engaged. So he stands outside of her window looking in, surrounded by darkness, while she’s playing the clavichord with children in the light. It is symbolically the domestic version of a heterosexual ideal. He is “othered” by the camera angles / framing, and the dark / light aspects. James is relegated to being an outsider literally because as Flint he’s a pirate, but metaphorically because he’s gay; the reason we as viewers are given that scene is to underscore that he feels he has no place in that display.

Ultimately, James is misaligned with Miranda after the loss of Thomas (shown in both the sad sex scene and arguments) in a way that goes beyond grief. The implication is that things cannot ever be the same for him again since the loss of “his truest love” and the truths he learned about himself.

If James and Miranda were simply at odds with one another because of grief, it would be far less of a “tragedy” in some ways. But James cannot heal the way Miranda slowly finds the way to over ten years, because Thomas signifies things for James that Miranda cannot relate to. In London, when Thomas is taken from them, Miranda even yells to James, “He is my husband!” Her grief and rage are shown as equal to James at the start and have extreme validity; the two of them are partners in the plan to kill Alfred Hamilton for revenge; but then she is able to somewhat move on, whereas James is not.

Why? Because, for James, Thomas was not just his (truest) love; Thomas was the awakening of his fullest self as a gay man.

In the same way that Anne can’t be Jack’s “wife” after she’s been with Max and realizes she’s gay, James cannot content himself with fulfilling the role of Miranda’s “husband” after he’s been with Thomas and realizes he’s gay. Neither of these facts minimize Anne’s love and devotion to Jack, or James’ love and devotion to Miranda; they are undeniably two sets of partners. But Anne and James are forever altered by their experiences with same sex lovers, and the truths about themselves that were brought into the light as a result.

----

Another part of the tragedy of James and Miranda is what happens right when we see Miranda grasp the significance of all of the above. Whether or not she grasped it before in the past, we are shown it only once on screen, and that’s in Charlestown. 

Peter Ashe says this in 2x09:

“You will tell them about the affair with Thomas. You will tell them how it ended. You will explain to them what it drove you to do. You will reveal everything. And when you do, Captain Flint will be unmasked, the monster slain. And in his place will stand before all the world a flawed man, a man that England can relate to and offer its forgiveness.”

This is James’ worst nightmare; we know as such from what he told Miranda back in 1x07, and from when he killed Gates. And yet, here and now in 2x09, he is exhausted from pushing back against heteronormative society, all he wants is to retire the mantle of Flint born of gay rage, and he actually contemplates playing by their rules and giving into their judgements of his sexuality... until Miranda comes to his defense.

In season 1, Miranda didn’t seem to fully understand James’ thoughts on this, but here–in combination with her realizations about Peter Ashe’s betrayals–she finally does. And she’s not having it.

“What forgiveness are you entitled to while you stand back in the shadows pushing James out in front of the world to be laid bear for the sake of the truth? Tell me, sir, when does the truth about your sins come to light?”

And the moment she is yelling in rage on behalf of James, and their combined loss, and how Peter would dare to force James to experience shame about his sexuality again–she is instantly shot for it. A woman who’s yelling on behalf of a gay man? In a patriarchal heteronormative society? It has no place. England makes that clear.

It all further underlines James’ sense of “otherness”... and now he decides to embrace it, even at his own emotional detriment. He will no longer try to fit in or reason with them; he will no longer accept their halfway measures of pardons. He can’t, because in the eyes of England, all that he is as a gay man is abhorrent.

2x10: “Everyone is a monster to someone. Since you are so convinced that I am yours, I will be it.”

3x05, to the Maroon Queen: “...England takes whatever, whenever, however it wants. Lives. Loves. Labor. Spirits. Homes. It has taken them from me. I imagine that it has taken it from you.”

The Way James Views Miranda

And here is where I simply give you more food for thought–or further “evidence” of James being gay, if you will.

All of Flint’s lines about how he views Miranda are worded very, very deliberately.

Here’s a minor one, from 1x05:

“So you can probably guess it isn't as much fun to tell stories about how your captain makes a home with a nice Puritan woman who shares his love of books.”

There is nothing overtly romantic or sexual about this. It’s said in a one-on-one conversation with Billy, where Flint neither has to make the relationship sound like something it isn’t nor refuse to give any info whatsoever. So he goes with what is the seemingly-mild truth.

But 3x01, convincing the men to forego pardons:

“But what price surrender? To beg forgiveness from a thing that took my woman from me? My friend?”

“My woman” is what Flint says for the benefit of the men… these men who are part of the heteronormative world they all live in, and still value sexual relationships with women above all else. It’s about hegemonic masculinity, remember? (“Objectification of women and sex itself.”) He’s doing his best to speak their language. 

But “my friend” is a secondary line that was not needed for the purposes of this speech, but James could not keep himself from adding it in a quieter tone–because that’s who Miranda was to him. His friend. Not his woman, which drips sexism and sexual undertones. Not his wife. Not even his “love,” which he could’ve used if he wanted to be ambiguous and sneak a Thomas reference in; he said “my woman” to appeal to the men, and then he added “my friend” because in the face of her memory he couldn’t help it.

And lastly, in 3x03, we begin to hear from “ghost Miranda.” 

But what is ghost Miranda? She’s a voice from James’ traumatized mind. Everything she says to him is about truths he already knows and/or things he is hiding from himself. So what “she” says here is a voice from James’ mind; it’s about how James sees her, and subtly elaborates on his sexuality in the process.

“When I first met you, you were so... Unformed. And then I spoke and bade you cast aside your shame, and Captain Flint was born into the world... the part of you that always existed yet never were you willing to allow into the light of day. I was mistress to you when you needed love. I was wife to you when you needed understanding. But first and before all... I was mother. I have known you like no other. So I love you like no other. I will guide you through it, but at its end is where you must leave me. At its end is where you will find the peace that eludes you, and at its end lies the answer you refuse to see.”

This does not diminish Miranda’s importance to James in the least! In fact, it emphasizes it, and it is all part of why he is so ruined over her! But it is also, in the oddest way, an elaboration upon how he isn’t bi: Miranda was his partner in many things, including shared grief and revenge and some semblance of life for ten long years; and she was also was instrumental to his formation of himself as a person (“mother”), and his acceptance of himself as a gay man (“love” and “understanding”). This is how he sees her. Mistress and wife were roles she filled in his life, but above all, she contributed to the birth of Captain Flint–the personification of James’ gay rage.

Of course, the “answer” that ghost Miranda (the depths of James’ brain) alludes to here as well as her later words of “you are not alone” are all about James needing to recognize that Silver is a newfound partner and love for him… but that’s a whole other meta entirely.

Closing Thoughts

Look, did I consult a couple of specific scenes and look up transcripts to put quotes in this? Yes. But have I still only seen the show in its entirety once? Also yes. My point in mentioning this is that, if I did a full rewatch, there might even be more evidence I haven’t mentioned here. This isn’t meant to be comprehensive, but I do feel that it... certainly conveys the gist of the mood.

You may still agree to disagree if you prefer to see James Flint as bi; I’m not here to fight you on it and what queer characters mean to you personally. 

But for me, when surveying all available evidence, the narrative screams that he’s gay. In that sense, my thoughts on this matter are similar to my thoughts on the ending; sure, you can interpret it one way if you look at certain details, but if you take in all the evidence and the big picture as a whole… there’s a specific conclusion to be drawn.

Last thing I’ll say is this: Steinberg himself has said that Flint is gay, which I found out way after watching the show and forming this interpretation. And like... not that if I wanted to hardcore argue he was bi I wouldn’t disregard Steinberg’s words, because in my experience the narrative speaking for itself is always more important than than creators’ words, but... in this instance (as in all Black Sails instances I’ve come across), his words just underscore what the well-crafted narrative is already telling us, because the creators wrote this show with intent. They knew what they were doing.

And thus, I will quote him (from these GIFs) below.

“When we were trying to build the story, we wanted whatever this thing was that made [Flint] feel alienated to be so deeply tied into who he was that there was no way he was every going to dismiss this thing that happened to him. We wanted to make sure we understood what the reality was in England in terms of how homosexuality was perceived. In some ways it was more tolerated, in some ways it was significantly less tolerated. I think in terms of Flint being gay, it’s about the fact that it is a tool that is used politically when convenient to make somebody be a monster… and it isn’t even really about the relationship.”

(If you buy the series on iTunes, you get an “inside” look at every episode, including this one from 2x05.)

EDIT: I had no idea Toby Stephens basically confirmed my thoughts that James' relationship with Thomas was his actualization as a gay man, so excuse me as I lose my mind for a moment:

“I think his relationship to Thomas Hamilton, the initial friendship and then becoming lovers is sort of like the realization of himself. I think he became himself with Thomas Hamilton. His potential was unleashed with Hamilton.”

And just for fun, since I’m here anyway, here’s a piece of a Steinberg quote about Anne from the Fathoms Deep podcast.

“In terms of Rackham and Bonny, I think that was another thing that I assumed for a long time could never go away. That they were essentially, you know, that they were married. You know not legally, but they were functionally married. And then this story happened in Season 2 with Bonny, that I think with like with a gun to my head of things that I’m proud of with the show, probably at the top is this story of this woman coming out and understanding that she’s gay. . . And so when we got to a point where it was like, I think she’s gay? Like I don’t think this is something we want to be wishy-washy about. It required getting over that hump with Rackham of, ‘Well like what am I going to do with this relationship? I don’t want to split them up?’ And I think it became something way more interesting.”

Thanks for coming to my TED talk. I love James Flint and his gay rage, I love you if you read all of this, and I love my friend @sunbardy who dealt with me yelling about this in DMs and then proofread the doc.

Hit me up on Twitter @gaypiracy if you want, where I do most of my Black Sails related yelling. And shitposting. Because I contain multitudes.

Know No Shame, my friends.

[battendownthewhatsit]

 I mean if I’d done a Dashboard Osmosis summary of Black Sails before watching any of it-- and I’m so sorry I didn’t -- it would have been something like “Treasure Island prequel about , apparently, John Silver’s Doomed (by the existence of Treasure Island) Romance with idealistic Captain Flint , who wants to establish Nassau as an independent pirate nation and also give the British Empire a punch in the eye. Along the way they run into a few famous Actual Historical Pirates,and there’s someone named Max who is? maybe? Anne Bonny’s GF?” 

And now 1 season plus a few eps in the story seems to be “Vengeance-hungry Would-Be-Pirate-King Flint attempts to Murder His Way to the top of a country that doesn’t exist yet, aided and sometimes offset by equally ambitious Eleanor Guthrie and her incredibly  problematic exes, while absolute chaos demon  Silver complicates everything, constantly, with the mad glee of a cat that found tinsel except the tinsel is ‘life choices that will definitely get someone killed’ “

don’t get me wrong , I obviously love it, I do not  want anything even vaguely like spoilers at this point, but just.  WOW. this is not at all what I was expecting 

[justmenoworries]

Record Of Ragnarok - Review (Warning: Major Spoilers)

Shuumatsu no Walküre or, as it’s known in other countries, Records Of Ragnarok, is an Action Manga by Takumi Fukui, Shinya Umemura and Chika Aji that centers around the end of the world. As of now, it has 33 chapters, contained in 6 volumes.

Summary:

The story in a nutshell is that the gods have become fed up with humanity and decided to just fuck it and kill us to do whatever it is gods do in peace. The valkyrie Brunhilde objects rather strongly to this and invokes the Ragnarok clause to give humanity a chance to survive. The gods and the humans each provide 13 champions to fight for them and whichever side has the most victories after 13 rounds wins. If humanity wins, we keep living and if the gods win, we get unalived.

Pros:

The Premise. The stakes are high enough to get you pumped for each battle and it also leaves a lot of room for moral greyness on both sides. On one hand, we have the gods who strive to eradicate humanity and are almost unanimously presented as privileged jerkasses - but then you get characters like Heracles and Buddha who are technically on the divine side, but are shown to actually not support the plan to kill all humans. On the other hand we have humanity literally fighting to survive - but the manga never shies away from showing that humans are not all innocent cinnamon roles and even poses the question if humanity really deserves to survive sometimes. I mean, how much would you want to root for people who are having Jack the Ripper, a scumbag serial killer, fight as one of their champions? Speaking of which...

The champions. A few of you might have perked up at the mention of Jack the Ripper. As it turns out, whether a champion has been dead for years by the time of the story’s present doesn’t really matter: They get to participate all the same. Leading to a bunch of historical characters getting the chance to prove their badassery in the ring. Even better? This story follows the “all myths are true and all gods exist”-rule. You heard right: Every deity, no matter what religion or what part of the world they originated from, has the potential to become an anime villain! Ever wanted to see Lü Bu going at it with Thor? Well, now you can! Wanna see who’d win in a wrestling match between Raiden Tameemon and Shiva? Just read this manga!

The world-building. Record’s lore and backstories are detailed enough to have their own side-chapters and some of the characters’ pasts really make you feel for them. Wanna know how much? This manga, for a split-second at least, made me feel sorry for an unrepentant serial killer. The writing is just that good.

The art-style. It’s incredibly expressive and detailed, especially in the fight- scenes. The covers are beautiful, the character design is creative and gives every character their own, distinct style. And I know this may sound perv-y, but Aji Chika really knows how to draw naked bodies. Just... don’t pay too much attention to the anatomy.

The battles. As of the time I’m writing this, 4 out of 13 fights have been concluded and the fifth one is currently playing out. Each of the fights demonstrate so much personality and the match-ups are insanely cool. It’s never a closed case which combatant is going to win, each fight has so many twists and turns and the fighters themselves have a lot of chemistry with each other. Their motivations are, for the most part, understandable and fit the characters. If you can, check out the youtube - series by AmiasD Backup, you won’t regret it. The editing and the added background music really bring out the inherent epicness of the manga.

Cons:

The battles tend to suffer from, what i like to call, Anime Battle Syndrome. The action will screech to a halt at several points in order to let the characters monologue about their strategy, boast of their former accomplishments or just kinda... talk to each other for no good reason at all. Or have the background characters talk about something that just happened at length until you just want to shout “I know! I saw, I was there!”And the flashbacks detailing the combatants’ backstories are often just tedious. I know I praised them in my Pro-list, but no matter how cool a backstory is, if it comes smack in the middle of a hyped-up confrontation, it’s annoying! I don’t wanna see five pages of a character reminiscing how they once ate a bug when they were six, I wanna see two guys beat the shit out of each other to decide the fate of all of humankind! Just tell me the story after the battle, jfc.

The comedic aspects of the story are not handled well. I mean, I get it: In a story about the literal end of the world not having at least a few lighter moments would probably lead to the readers putting down the manga eventually because it just got too depressing. But the way Records handles it can cause some pretty big whiplash. One moment you’re on the edge of your seat, biting your fingernails in anticipation of how a certain move in the current battle has played out - only to be confronted with a joke about how Ares is dumb, or one of the background characters making an inappropriate comment. Add to that the uncomfortably high number of sexist and sometimes rape-y jokes and you got a pretty yikes collection of failed attempts to implant humor. Speaking of which...

The manga has a really weird and uncomfortable relationship with women. They’re either oversexualised to the point of being nothing more than a walking, bouncing pair of breasts and hips, or side-lined in order to give all the spotlight to the male characters. For example: The valkyries. The valkyries in norse mythology are a people of badass warrior maidens. In the manga, it’s the valkyrie Brunhilde who kickstarts the tournament for humanities’ right to keep existing. She’s also the one who selects the human champions and prepares them for their upcoming battles by introducing them to their valkyrie-partners, their “Volund”, and she acts as an overseer for each round. She’s about the most involved female character you’ll get in this story. Her sisters, the other valkyries, are literally objectified to serve as weapons to the male champions. One of them is brutally forced to submit to her partner, in a scene that is eerily  reminiscent of assault. You’d think an amazon brigade as famous as the valkyries would be treated better than that, in a manga centered around fighting. Nope. They just get to be inanimate objects for the guys to wield. Oh, and if a champion dies, so does his Volund. So not only do the valkyries not get to fight themselves, they pay the price if their partner screws up. Lovely. Another glaring point I want to bring up: There are no female champions. On either side. We get shown a list of the human champions early on and all of them are male. All the divine combatants so far have been male, too. And there’s no indication that that’ll change in the future. Which is weird, because there is certainly no shortage of badass female characters that could have been used in the plot, both historical and mythological. But nope! Pure sausage fest is what we get instead. What’s that? You wanted to see Jeanne d’Arc or Ishtar or Sekmet or Lyudmila Pavlichenko or Anne Bonnie, or literally any of the dozen of amazing female fighters history and mythology have produced? Tough luck! Saving humanity is apparently a men-only sport.

Overall, Record Of Ragnarok is a story with an interesting premise and a plot rife with potential, but it just has too many flaws for me to declare it perfect or even good, to be honest.

For what it is, it’s an okay read. If you’re willing to muscle through the blatant misogyny prevalent in some parts of it. And the rather painful attempts at humor.

4.9/10. Could’ve been done better.

[whenimaunicorn]

To my knowledge.. That fight scene was for an original scene done by everyone involved. Because there are characters who are based on real people. Charles Vane, Anne Bonny, Jack Rackham, Edward Teach (Black Beard), Benjamin Hornigold, Israel Hands, Mary Reed, Ned Lowe - to name the most obvious - are real people so never learn about them until after the series is done unless you're fine with spoilers. Apparently I read somewhere that there is an actual company named after the Guthrie family, but

2/4: I'm not sure about Eleanor being real. Maybe only inspired by that specific company. But I'd have to look that up again. And.. Characters like James Flint, John Silver, Billy Bones, Benjamin "Ben" Gunn, Israel Hands (There's also a character of him in TI) are characters in Treasure Island. Some of their stories are tweaked for this series though. But still spoilery too.

3/4: Many other the real pirates died the same way in the show so that is spoilery. And if a real pirate, like Vane, was a mystery to people.. They made part of their stories up to make them more humane in some way or another. Regardless if these people are realistic or fictional, Black Sails is a series you simply can never get a break from. Ever. You'll be too obsessed. Fixated. That's why I can easily say BS is one of my most favored series in existence. I'm so upset how underrated this series is.

4/4: I don't know if my answer was anything help for you. ^~^'

Loved it, thanks!!!!

[yolowoho]

Is black sails really actually gay or wishful thinking gay (like naruto)? Pirates aren't necessarilly my thing, but I'd like to give it a try

It is VERY gay. Canonically there’s a gay main character, two lesbians, and a bi woman.

And their sexualities and relationships are integral to the story; the story literally wouldn’t exist without them. Queer rage is very much a central theme, and the show doesn’t vilify that. They went, “what if this character was gay, England was shitty to him because he was gay, so he became a pirate, teamed up with some women and former enslaved ppl, then just fucking declared war on the entire British Empire and that is the Correct Response to homophobia, colonialism, and overall societal oppression.”

The narrative is also very respectful and thoughtful about portraying them, and it’s very much a power fantasy from the perspective of oppressed ppl, but not in an overly fantastical way, if that makes sense? It takes place in the early 1700s, and doing a retcon of actual history would kinda feel cheap in a way, because it’s about the fact that people were fighting against oppression, and slavery, and all that, and they have always done that, even if we won't hear about them. It’s about Stories, in the best possible way. The stories we don’t get to see, or hear about, and maybe they weren’t real, but they could have been, and that just means so much to me. 

"History is written by the victors, which in this case translates to the white, British men who dominate the historical record. The heroes of Black Sails are people whose viewpoints were erased from that narrative. Criminals, political dissidents, people of color, queer women, military conscripts… their lives and values are explored in vivid, authentic detail, regardless of whether the show’s costuming choices or timeline are technically correct."

[...]

"For a traditional pirate hero like Anne Bonny, this whole story plays out like a crime caper with lots of dramatic duels and swooping [lesbian] romance. For everyone else, it’s a nail-biting conflict between a near-undefeatable enemy and a ragtag squad of queer anarchist revolutionaries."

Also it’s got Anne Bonny looking like this: 

AND she’s a lesbian and YES she does have a girlfriend (pictured here on the left, with known wlw ally and fashion icon Jack Rackham on the right)

And SPOILERS but they DO get a happy ending. More spoilers under the cut, but I think it’s important to know, and it didn’t ruin my enjoyment when I knew this going in.

Captain Flint is the gay main character, and while that’s not revealed until partway through S2, I think it really makes S1 a lot better on a rewatch, or even just knowing that fact. (“And they call me a monster” *sob*) Also, a queer character (and one side character) does die, but it doesn’t feel as Bury Your Gays as it could have, because there were still queer characters with good arcs and endings, not to mention they literally pull an Unbury Your Gays in a fantastic way. 

It is a pirate show, and there are some rape scenes in S1, I have the timestamps if you want them, and there is a bunch of violence and death, but it’s not gratuitous, and it’s pretty well done overall. This show just means so much to me y’all. I love it so much.

[rheaitis]

Writing has been #difficult this week. I was gonna write about my own mental state as part of Mental Health Awareness Month, but apparently I'm not well enough to be able to write that stuff out for strangers yet. Moving on, then.

Today marks the first day of US Pride Month, so the five media posts this month are all gonna be queer as hell. And, like, happy; no dead queers here, so buckle in that rainbow seatbelt, cause this is gonna be one gay-ass ride.

Today's media is some 38 episodes long, and both diverse and diversely queer. It's got transformative work, it's got early eighteenth-century politics, it's got pirates, it's got treasure, it's got lesbians and bi women and genderqueer historical figures, it's got long-term committed poly folk, it's got blood, it's got gore, it's got amaaaazing black women ruling their own communities with care and compassion, it's got disabled folk being given focus and allowed agency, it's got conspiracies and alliances and mentoring between people of all genders and generations, it's got really lovely cinematography and music, it's got Toby Stephens' fabulous micro-expressions.

That's right, gentlefolk, today's media consumption is Black Sails. This is more of a weekend binge project, or a month-long thing if you're inclined to be sensible about things. It is also aimed at creasedknees, because I want her to watch it so we can squee.

Black Sails is a prequel of sorts to Treasure Island, dealing with the adventure that leads to the discovery and burial of that treasure. It takes up Captain Flint (Toby Stephens), Billy Bones (Tom Hopper) and of course John Silver (Luke Arnold) from the novel, and peoples itself with various fictional and fictionalised historical figures of the time, most significantly Jack Racham, Anne Bonny, and Charles Vane, who function as foils to our heroes throughout the show. I'm going to talk about them in just a bit but first Our Hero Captain James Flint, whom I adore entirely. (I want to like John Silver, but as in the novel Silver is a marvelously done character, without ever being someone it's safe to trust wholeheartedly or really at all.)

Captain Flint kills someone in the very first episode, and he doesn't actually get any nicer. (Even that killing is preceded by the pirate crew taking a ship with due savagery, so if you dislike gore I sadly cannot recommend watching this series.) In fact he escalates considerably, up from individual acts of piracy to cannonades directed at cities, and the show doesn't particularly gloss over this violence or the human cost entailed. Flint is the most consistently Slytherin character I have ever seen (and the fact that he resembles his mother to the last and most infinitesimal degree is often jarring): a man of vaulting ambition and enormous rage, with a capacity to hold onto grudges undiminished over a decade and longer. I love him. I love him absolutely, and not just because he is so wonderfully tender with all the women around him without ever doubting or trivialising their personhoods or capacity for doing what they set hands and minds to, though that is admittedly a very large part of why.  Flint is always furious, always hurting, always ruthless with himself and his crew and associates, groaning away from a primal wound.

Primal wounds are maybe a good way to talk about this show without showering people with spoilers, as so many of the main characters have such wounds, inflicted by living in systems characterised by ills ranging from slave trafficking, bonded labour, debt prisons, early marriage, sexual violence, weaponised misogyny and institutionalised homophobia, and too often and deeply realistically by the rutted interstices of such injustice. Again realistically, the show's leads do not emerge from these experiences as noble crusaders, but rather as a den of Slytherins desperate to get ahead in whatsoever manner they can, and find whatever they think of as safe harbour: from Max (one of the characters original to the show and superbly played by Jessica Parker Kennedy) who wants to leave behind her miserable childhood and exploited adulthood by gaining entry into the Big House where life is soft and easy, to Madi who wants to lead her enslaved people into liberty, to Rackham who wants to make his mark on the world through narrative instead of having his story told as one of crushing poverty and debt. Our villains have stories as well, but even the few delineated in any detail are effectively subsumed in the institutional machines of which they are privileged cogs.

But important as all these stories are in motivating and substantiating the show, Flint's is the wound at the core of Black Sails. There are problems with this centering of white queer trauma in a show that, set in West Indies, could and almost certainly ought to have instead centered PoC and enslavement. It does deal with these issues, and inarguably allows Max and Madi Scott together as much space as Flint. Still, one has to accept at the start that this is a show about queer resistance that includes other aspects of marginalisation, rather than being a show of marginalised resistance against the institutions  perpetrating and perpetuation said marginalisations. Significantly, Max and Mr. Scott are not initially characterised as being interested in working towards liberation, but the viewer complaints about the slow reveal of Mr. Scott's plans in this regard seem as facile as the screaming about Flint being queer.

I can go on about this show endlessly, as T, poor child, can easily testify, because I love everything about it, from the cinematography, to the gore, to the wlw relationships and just Anne Bonny queen of my heart and every violent impulse. And I do think that if I was a better person I would dwell longer on the gorgeous and deeply complex relationships between Charles Vane, Jack Rackham Anne Bonny and Max, and how I want them all to be alive and married but for Charles and Max to never ever ever touch, OR for Charles to scrub himself raw and bleeding before he's ever allowed to be near Max, and also Max's brilliance and subtlety and compassion and ruthlessness, how she's clung on to kindness in a deeply unkind existence and how that in no way signifies a lack of Nature, red in tooth and claw, and the way her change of clothing reflects and reiterates her change of status and and just. Her faaace, her golden glowing beauty and that heart-stopping smile. But the thing is my interests were set early and I imprinted on exactly one sort of character as a child and I continue to love them more than anything, and much as I adore Max, and much as I worship Madi Scott's regal compassion and strategic mind and her trust in and friendship with Flint and her renewed affection for Eleanor (whom I love also! and who is so sharp and such a merchant-prince and so tramelled by her gender), well. Look. I love Flint. I love his anger, and his sorrow, and his everything. I think it's remarkable how Flint’s story goes from Achillean (my lover is dead I will go to war, my lover is dead I will burn down this town, fight this empire, challenge fate/gods) to Odyssean (I am home from the wars and here is my lover who has longed for me as I for him). But what I love the most is how in a story that is almost entirely about stories and how and when and by whom they are told, Flint gets to say, angry and wounded and betrayed again,

This is how they survive. You must know this. You're too smart not to know this. 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.

I love it so much, so intensely, so much more than Rackham's playing around with narratival style and truth, I love my sad bi ginger pirate uncle, and so would you if you gave the show a chance. It's all on directseries.net, at fairly good quality, with subtitles and everything. Please pretty please?

[thelocalrebel]

black sails (2014-2017)

If pirates, period dramas, queers, anti-colonial uprisings, and characters doing selfish things because they're being human are your thing, read on.

Welcome to the New World, or what the colonial empires of the 18th century referred to the Americas. New Providence Island in the Bahamas is the main setting in the show, an island referred instead as Nassau by its denizens. You might know some of them - Anne Bonny, Jack Rackham, Charles Vane, Edward Teach, and Long John Silver, to name a few. At least, the more famous ones in history.

Fig. 1: the main cast - looking hella fine (src)

The show starts off benign: with our main characters involved in the hunt for a Spanish treasure galleon, the Urca de Lima...only for things to escalate quickly after, and what I feel is where things begin to get very interesting. (Or, when shit happens. Also, a warning for sexual assault in Season 1.)

Fundamentally, Black Sails is a story about haves and have-nots - but from the perspective of the have-nots. Outcasts of a so-called enlightened European society, trying their damndest to make a life half the world away - be it slaves, queers, or pirates. It's about a man waging war against an empire that wronged him for loving another man. It's about a former slave rising from sexual slavery to eventually ruling over the pirate capital of the New World. It's also about other slaves or indentured labourers becoming pirates, and defending this life to death if it meant they wouldn't be enslaved by anyone, anymore.

Sometimes, that means fighting civilisation. Sometimes, that means fighting the essentialising nature of history. For anyone demonised by larger society, there's always, always, that fear of being reduced to petty villains in history; the necessary evil and bogeyman that society has to unite over to defend itself. However, for queer pirates, it's more damaging because in a time where Victorian ideals of family reign supreme, they're not just monsters, they're also moral and religious abominations. Hence, the fear of being the villain in the story? So, so poignant.

All this will be for nothing. We will have been for nothing. Defined by their histories, distorted to fit into their narrative, until all that is left of us are the monsters in the stories they tell their children.

                                                                                 (Flint to Silver, Ep. XXXVIII)

Queers are fundamental to Black Sails. You can argue that almost everyone isn't straight, in that they don’t conform to Victorian-colonial notions of respectability and sexuality - after all, that’s why they’re in Nassau, of all places. Plus, watching how they struggle to embrace their identity AND finally growing into it? In a sense, Black Sails is a tragedy - throughout the show, we see characters fight and die to protect what they value most - people, ideals, goals.

Honestly, the general plot and politicking in the show is amazing - you're always aware of the stakes and the precariousness of the situation, but it's the relationships between the characters that form 999% of my feelings for this show. The sense of poetic justice, and the sublime monologues of characters? It's just a feast to watch and listen - like some of the declarations of love in this show.

I said no to Marion Guthrie’s plan, despite having no alternative and at the risk of losing the entire endeavor, because I refuse to situate a man in a position where he might interfere one day with my ability to repair things with you. You are the bravest person I have ever known, the truest person I have ever known, and I betrayed you and it sickens me. I am so sorry for working so hard to protect the wrong things. For failing to see there was nothing important that does not include you.

                                                                                (Max to Anne, Ep. XXXVI)

Thus, despite the general gloomy outlook, personally, Black Sails ends on a happier note than the general tone of the show implies. Honestly, this is refreshing - there's always a point when killing off characters for "shock value" becomes overused, cheap, and just- tiring. So many chances to kill off the main cast, but they aren't. And if they are, they just are - none of that tragedy porn nonsense. And they're remembered, even four seasons later. They mattered.

No one’s entirely good, nor are they entirely bad. Everyone has done really shitty things in this show for personal reasons, because they're human. More importantly, we see how their actions lead to consequences which are sometimes devastating. Sometimes, that means gratuitous colonial bashing - which never gets old - because the more we learn about the main cast, the more we see how deeply civilisation has damaged them. That's why they're fighting back.

So, colonialism is never apologised for in this story. It's cast as the institution and exploitative empire it is, and if we're keeping score, is responsible for murdering a lot of people in this story. Everything coalesces as someone's speech to a colonial governor, and my word, he was fucking obliterated.

The voice you hear in your head I imagine I know who it sounds like, as I know Eleanor wanted those things. But I hear other voices. A chorus of voices. Multitudes. They reach back centuries. Men and women and children who'd lost their lives to men like you. Men and women and children forced to wear your chains. I must answer to them and this war, their war, Flint's war, my war - it will not be bargained away to avoid a fight, to save John Silver's life or his men's or mine.

                                                                            (Madi to Rogers, Ep. XXXVII)

Even at the end, Black Sails leaves us thinking: who is right? Is fighting the power right to the bitter end worth it? Or is there a point where compromises need to be made, just to make it stop? Honestly, it’s the best way to conclude the series, given how we’ve watched the characters grow throughout the seasons; watching them fight for what matters to them. Best of all, they’re both right.

If I had to sum up Black Sails, it'd be this:

Black Sails is a show about misfits, told by misfits, on their struggles of that era, and how they manage to exist despite it all.

Some Spoiler-laden Articles

Queer and Diverse Black Sails is Quietly TV’s Most Revolutionary Show, Inverse

The Queer Lady Pirates of “Black Sails” Return For Their Final Season Tonight, Autostraddle

[rapunzelthecorgi]

Ahhhh Black Sails has been on my "To Watch" list for ages! You're gonna make me finally watch it. :) Is the queer representation good?

It’s so good!!! There’s like four main queer characters and they all have such great arcs. There’s Max, Eleanor Guthrie, Anne Bonny and James Flint. Ngl Max has a rough time in S1 and her character probably gets treated the worst, (tw for rape) like there are some badly portrayed rape scenes but the first season is the weakest and it’s all uphill for her after that. (the show gets instantly better in s2)

Anne Bonny has her lesbian awakening and her bff Jack Rackham is confused but totally supportive (“I do understand why you wouldn’t want to tell me about this but please know that all I ever wanted was for you to be happy”) And Eleanor is…well she tries and she’s a bisexual mess lmao, but she’s a fantastic character. 

And James Flint oh man, he’s a complete gay disaster and his arc in relation to his sexuality and the homophobia he faces is the most respectful and well done way I’ve ever seen. He’s devoted his entire existence to fucking over England for being homophobic (not an exaggeration). Also UNBURY YOUR GAYS!!! (I won’t go into it bc spoilers but it’s tru) I could go on but the best way to sum up Black Sails is this tweet imo: 

also I have a more in depth Black Sails tag on my other sideblog @tillysfeelings, but I don’t tag for spoilers so search at your own risk. And one more thing I highly recommend listening to the podcast Fathoms Deep. They cover every ep and there’s also some interviews with cast and crew and it’s great! 

[redwhale]

Black Sails/American Gods & Captain Flint.

Er, S4 Black Sails finale spoilers & minuscule setting spoilers for an episode of American Gods. I can’t even be free of Black Sails whilst watching other TV shows! re: American Gods, Ep.7, the setting of 1721, The Carolinas... my first legitimately logical thought at the mention was, oh, I wonder where Thomas and James are at in 1721? I hope they’re happy and well-fed. Thanks, Black Sails, for worming your way into my brain to the point that was my immediate logic leap. ...this above train of thought led to contemplation of silliness where Black Sails exists within the world of American Gods. (Hey, it’s Starz continuity, it could work, though not that Black Sails exists in the Fullerverse.) It hilariously could pay off the almost supernatural nature to Flint that Silver muses on at the end of S3. Also, you know, being James being improbably lucky and unkillable, considering the ludicrous amount of dangerous shit he’s survived. Has James turned himself, and therefore Flint, into Something by sheer force of will, also effecting the world around him? Or is it other people believing in Flint, giving him power? Even within Black Sails itself, it is kinda explored that ‘Flint’ is a joint creation of James, Miranda, Silver, and the crew. They all contribute to the legacy of ‘Flint’ - it’s not much of stretch to think their joint will gives Flint power and immortality. Does Flint fail at the end because of the lack of belief? Silver/Jack/Max didn’t want Flint to turn into a martyr, as then they couldn’t easily stop the war. There would soon be such a loss of belief in ‘Flint’, all those people thinking Flint has walked away from the cause: Flint’s men, Silver’s men, Jack’s men, Madi’s people, the people of Nassau, etc. James is ultimately returned to Thomas, and without that direct sustained belief from all the crews, eventually returns to just being a mortal man. The infamous Long John Silver ends up replacing Flint, created and feared by Billy, and sustained by his crew until he goes into legend. (I’m sure there is a joke in there about Silver almost god-modding Black Sails’ S4 narrative to his own ends, not that Silver was particularly happy about doing it at the time, nor particularly all that delighted about the aftermath.) It could be that it is Thomas unknowingly with all the power! There have been countless sacrifices and blood split by Flint in Thomas’ name and memory over the years, after all. Flint never stopped believing in Thomas or Thomas’ legacy through all that time. Thomas being turned into a (unknowing) god by Flint would be fitting considering Thomas’ role in the Black Sails’ narrative. Meanwhile, Thomas himself has no idea, and just spends his years frowning at sugarcane. On the other hand, is it Thomas that has been praying, over and over, for ten years - that one day James and Miranda will come and find me here. I guess everything Thomas had, alongside the man he once was, was completely sacrificed and ultimately profited from by others (Peter Ashe becoming Governor, the pardons and plans for Nassau being used by Rogers/kinda Eleanor, later Guthrie/Max/Featherstone/Jack). Maybe in Thomas losing so much whilst giving so much, that James is returned to him in trade, though bullshit on the lack of Miranda. There is also a version where the Greek gods go, well, this Flint fellow is tenacious and very reminiscent of Odysseus - considering that tragically separated lover and all that, lots of trials, excluding the fact he’s quite ginger - maybe we should keep an eye out on him? (Calypso wonders, ooh, can I keep this ‘Flint’? Hermes says no. She keeps him at sea for ten years anyway.) At least Gaiman has talked about the finding of Roman coins on American soil, so a few incarnations of the gods might be hanging around.  ...hell, maybe the original Mr. Flint was something or someone, purposefully sowing the seeds for what was to come. Some of the gods in American Gods seem to be omnipresent, it could work. Who were you, Mr. Flint? Again, a jolly fuck you to whoever/whatever dropped the ball in protecting Miranda from harm in all of this! Saving the most depressing variation for last, it could also be that James, Thomas, Silver, Billy, etc, were all very mortal men with very mortal deaths. The myths of Captain Flint and Long John Silver were carried on through the decades, though. Passed from sailor to sailor, ship to ship, port to port. After Treasure Island is written by Jim Hawkins as a young man, and the book becomes so extremely well-known and utterly beloved alongside the stories of the real men themselves, the echoes of Captain Flint, Billy Bones, and Long John Silver are eventually created. Not accurate reflections of the original men themselves, mind, but created as the public view and speak of them. In a cruel irony, the fears that James expressed to Silver on Skeleton Island in the finale come to pass. The Captain Flint that is summoned up by belief is conceived to be as feared and monstrous as he was in Treasure Island and not a true reflection of the man himself. Plus, a penchant for rum. The truth behind Captain Flint - James McGraw, Thomas Hamilton, Miranda Barlow, Nassau, the pardons - is all lost, and the terror that is Captain Flint is all that remains. The shades of Bones and Silver are a tad kinder, as they are written with more affection by Hawkins from when he knew them, as opposed to Hawkins writing Captain Flint out of hearsay. People grow to think on Captain Flint when they want the blood of their enemies, Billy Bones when they want directions at sea, and Long John Silver with his parrot when they want a touch of charm and cunning. (The above could also apply to Avery, Blackbeard, Calico Jack, Anne Bonny, Mary Read, and Charles Vane, shades of true people, contorted by memory and history. I suppose a beloved phenomenon like Treasure Island elevates Silver, Flint, and Bones to something else again.) ...er, this post wasn’t supposed to happen. At all. I think I’ve probably completely mangled the internal logical rules of belief and creation in American Gods, oh dear. In retrospect, there is an interesting synergy between BS and AG on myth, legend, history, the lasting power of belief, and the stories that live on.

[ashleybenlove]

Sick Day / The Truth Hurts

Sick Day

This episode is excellent AF. Esp for only being 11 minutes!

Kim and Ron open the episode by being at the breakfast table in her house and doing homework. Kim is writing with her left hand in this scene. I believe we see her writing with both hands in the series iirc, so yeah, her being able to write with both hands is fitting with Miss I Can Do Anything.

Kim ducks when her brother sneezes. But she still gives them a tissue.

She does not wanna catch their cold but guess what. SHE DOES.

And Wade literally shows her HOW.

Also Kim uses a humidifier. 

“I don’t even wanna know how you got that.” Wade literally has cameras somehow in her house. 

Scientists ask Kim to be extra security. For today. She’s sick af and still agrees.

SrHE LITERALLY FLIPS OFF THE BED AND FEELS DIZZY.

Kim dresses behind a privacy screen thingy and Ron (and Rufus) cover their eyes. I’m frankly of the opinion that supertight friends like Kim and Ron have seen each other naked by now but yeah, of course he’d give her privacy to change. He’s a good dude.

Guard time!

DRAKKEN AND SHEGO ARE HERE TO RUIN EVERYTHING.

Shego finds Kim and Ron’s backpacks and helmets with the KP logo on them. 

Kim’s sneezing up a storm so Drakken and Shego just walk right in and steal the fucking thing. 

But Kim catches them in the nick of time.

Ron can’t understand sick Kim.

Drakken wants to use the Ray X on Kim. He figures its very bad what it’ll do to her. (SPOILER: It cures the common cold!)

Shego’s powers cause the sprinkles to go the fuck off. The Kim-Shego fight happens during this. Also, in this fight, Shego ends up straddling Kim and holding her arms down. This is an actual thing that happened. This exists. And then KIM SNEEZES ON HER.

They still steal Ray X.

“Where is it where’s the dragon?” Ron asks coming onto the scene late and obviously thinking that Kim said dragon rather than Drakken. Also, Ron, the dragon is living on Berk in the Norwegian Sea with his best friend Hiccup Haddock. OH DID YOU THINK I WASN’T GONNA SAY SOMETHING LIKE THIS. 

Drakken quotes a The Pointer Sisters song. 

Shego got Kim’s cold. 

Drakken decides to work with Killigan temporarily. 

Anne is very upset with Kim for going out while sick. SHE HAD TO HELP PEOPLE, ANNE.

Ron and Rufus go alone to Drakken’s lair to get back Ray X.

Ron literally walks by Shego, tells her she looks green... greener, and then she blows her nose in his direction. literally. Shego does nothing.

RON STICKS RAY X INTO THE PANTRY AT THE POSSIBLE HOUSE.

Kim and Ron are now sick together and its super cute.

Drakken’s now sick. Killigan brings in a temp. Hank Perkins. He’ll come back in S4. Cupcakes will be involved. 

Kim and Ron are camped out in the living room, Ron in an armchair, Kim on the couch, watching a soap opera together. AH, SOAP OPERAS. Those are STILL barely around. Interestingly enough, Kirsten Storms, who plays Bonnie, was on two different ones while KP was airing. Also the soap opera is basically what happened in Mind Games.

Ray X is gone.

The twins are well again. Killigan is sick. Drakken and Killigan are also watching the soap opera. 

The twins and Rufus go to the lair.

Ron calls Rufus “buddy.” Ron and Kim notice the twins and Rufus are missing.

Shego makes a wicked fluid retention crack at Kim’s expense.

Kim tells Shego “gesundheit” when she sneezes. Nice.

Drakken watches the fight from bed.

Shego gets stuck in a rug.

Ray X gets broken.

When Ron finds out that the Ray X was designed to cure the common cold he says the perfect thing: “I hate irony” and that ends the episode! Perf.

The Truth Hurts

Mr. Dr. P is having the entire board of directors over for dinner. And he talks shit about them to the entire family.

“I’m about as nervous as a porcupine in a balloon factory.” THAT’S PROBABLY PRETTY NERVOUS.

Kim’s like talk to the tweebs not me. About being on best behavior.

Kim is gonna be on the cover of a cheerleading magazine. Cool.

Kim has to squeeze in a quick rescue.

Dr. Wanda Wong is played by Amy Hill, who has 161 acting credits on IMDB. She is an American of Japanese and Finnish descent. 

Ice fortress. So, Elsa’s ice castle? KP predicted Frozen!

“We’ll build a frozen fortress, she’ll never find us there.” Shego I love your sass so much. Drakken tells her to ICE THE SASS. 

I like that Ron helps Dr. Wong up and is like “Don’t worry we’re the good guys.” Noice.

Figure skating references in trash talk from Shego. Kim’s like bring it. Kim and Shego fight on ice skates.

Kim and Ron get hit with the truth ray.

Kim causes Drakken and Shego to fall into icy water.

Kim gives her interview and she spills secrets about some rando boy she likes but she also isn’t sure if she likes him bc she likes him or because he asked out Bonnie first.

Kim sort of blows her cover chance. Whoops.

Kim’s brain inhibitors shut the fuck down. She can’t lie. On a different show and a higher rating, she’d probably get into more trouble. Because I’d imagine something like that would cause addiction and fuck with self control in general.

Ron tells the truth about some book and Barkin’s cool with it because he fucking hates that book too.

Ron admits he hasn’t kissed a girl. WELL, YOU WILL. NEXT SEASON. (Well, the girl kissed you. But I guess it counts)

Kim heads home and is about to tell her parents about the thing when the big shot bosses arrive.

Kim admits that she hates when James calls her Kimmy cub.

EW, ONE OF THE BOSSES touches her chin/cheek and says that she’s the prettiest thing. He’s a grown ass man and she’s a teenaged girl. This comes off… not okay. And Kim’s response: “I have split ends and am trying to cover up a mountain sized zit on my cheek that you just touched.” I’d imagine that these issues are caused by stress.

Kim and the tweebs have a tug o war with a pillow. It’s amazing.

Kim keeps opening her mouth and telling these truths oh my gods.

It pisses off the three male bosses BUT Dr. Wong shows up just in the nick of time.

Kim gets a hug from Dr. Wong. Aww.

And like all the bosses totally are like WE’RE NOT GONNA ARGUE WITH WONG. So Dr. P’s job is okay. Promotion!

[oh-in-italics]

nonono you can do a long post infodumping is fun. You can always just do a "keep reading" thingy

Oh genius okay have a long rambling paragraph about my adoration of Black Sails. Just a heads up, this will contain some spoilers, mostly regarding James Flint's character, but I'll try and keep them minimal!

Okay, so. When I first heard about Black Sails, I expected it to be a Game-of-Thrones-like epic drama, riddled with masculine heterosexuality, sex, and violence. And though Black Sails has all those things, particularly in season one, it is about none of them. The very first couple we are introduced to in the show are wlw- Eleanor, the white daughter of the owner of the Guthrie Trading Company who has taken to running her fathers business with goods stolen by pirates, and Max, an ambitious prostitute with a knack for making deals behind the backs of her superiors. Throughout the show, women constantly are demonstrated to be the most powerful or influential players on the Island, and each pass the Bechdel test with flying colors. Beyond that, they're these real, fascinating, developed characters who play integral roles in the main plot, even if that plot revolves around two male characters. Without wanting to spoil anything, real life wlw pirate Anne Bonny is a character, and her arc is just. It's amazing. Chef's kiss. I adore her so much.

This brings us to the other thing I love about the show- James Flint. When first introduced, he's shown as a power hungry pirate captain, desperate to leave his mark on the world and control his men all while weaving a web of lies. He is violent, angry, harsh, and does not seem to care about collateral damage. At first, I thought he was designed to be the morally gray, misunderstood, violent, and angry white man that male viewers, particularly incels, would relate to. But (and spoilers here) come season 2, we get a new look at James Flint- through his backstory. When it is revealed that James Flint had been cast violently and harshly out of Britain when his homosexuality, and love affair with coworker Thomas (who comes from a powerful high-class family of great influence), were exposed to his superiors. When he flees the country, he leaves with a broken reputation, and the knowledge that the love of his life was killed for existing. This changes EVERYTHING (and I mean EVERYTHING) about how we see him. He's not a bitter man chasing wealth or a legacy, he is fueled by rage, and the desire to make Britain pay for what they did to him, Thomas, Miranda, and anyone else who exists out of the binary.

Luke Arnold plays John Silver, who's basically like. A pirate version of the MCU Loki. He's fantastic, and his arc is just. Incredible.

Anyways, thats the cliff notes. This show is incredible- it dissects colonialism, homophobia, queerness, gay rage, grief, the construction of white supremacy in the new world, power, love, desperation, and christ so much more. If you can, watch this show! It's fantastic and incredible and it is honestly unjust how few people have seen it.