literally where the FUCK are his t’gallants!!!!!
[ID: First photo is a screenshot from Black Sails of Flint saying, “Where are my t'gallants on the main and mizzen?” Second photo is a screenshot of a tag reading “#main and mizzen monday”. End ID.]
A sea witch is caught by the royal fleet and finds herself in a dire situation as her captors are attacked by some sort of sea monster. A suicidal escape plan starts to brew in her mind, but she is willing do whatever it takes to ensure her freedom. The real monsters aren't who they initially seem to be.
Ongoing original pirate story I'm writing. Dances a little.
flint is Schrödinger's cat we cant look into the box to verify which because we dont see what happens on skeleton island we only have a second hand account that can't 100% be verified and thus just like Schrödinger's cat flint remains both alive and dead until his state can be observed
I think one of the things that makes OFMD feel freshest is how it balances being a romantic comedy and being queer - specifically, a romantic comedy about queer men (& Jim). Queer men are not unknown in the romantic comedy genre! But what makes the show stand out is how exceptionally careful it is to ensure that the fact of their romances, and of their queerness, is never the source of the comedy. It’s never meant to be funny that someone is queer, or that someone is in love. Coming out, even in the most casual and incidental way, is never used as a punchline.
And yet, it’s also not a utopia where stereotypes about queer people and homophobia (the things that ultimately fuel those kinds of jokes) don’t exist - they do! But every time somebody tries to make them funny, it falls completely flat. It steps outside the acceptable bounds of the genre and the characters react to it in that way. Homophobia isn’t a central obstacle, it’s a faux pas. It’s not allowed to be funny and it’s also not allowed to take up space in the narrative by being the thing the characters must overcome to get their happy ending. Which is a hell of a balancing act.
That scene with Izzy trying to mock Black Pete and Lucius is absolutely crucial to this tone. These characters know they’re in a comedy and they react to things like they’re in a comedy, but they don’t react to his mockery like it’s a joke OR like it has power to shame them. They react like Izzy is embarrassing himself by failing to read the room - like he’s a bully, but a pathetic one. You can be evil in comedies and still be funny, but Izzy is committing the cardinal sin of failing to be funny…and what that does is draw very clear boundaries around what the show is going to allow as a legitimate joke. Homophobic jokes can only be funny when the people making them have consensus from the rest of the group that they’re funny. Instead, in this show, it is clear instead that they are acts of violence and (attempted) control. Which defangs them, because the ultimate power in a romantic comedy always comes from acts of comedy. I find it extremely powerful for a queer romcom to look homophobia in the eye like this and say “nah” than either to ignore it completely, or to make it a central problem.
It’s very very smart writing and acting and it should be cited every time someone tries to whine about comedy and boundaries and not being allowed to be homophobic/transphobic any more. You can be extraordinarily funny about queer people and be received well. Queerness just can’t be the punchline.
Who wants to cook for a bunch of queer-ass sailors on a tall ship????
“no ghost story I've ever heard of begins with the ghost introducing himself,” is such a fantastic line because it’s completely untrue that no ghost story begins that way, but the qualifier “I’ve ever heard” highlights what the real problem is…
Billy has never heard his own story and thus does not know that it begins with “My name is John Silver.”
You say you fight for the sake of Nassau, for the sake of your men, for the sake of Thomas and his memory. But the truth of the matter is, it isn’t for any of those things. What the fuck do you think I am fighting for? I think you are fighting for the sake of fighting. Because it’s the only state in which you can function. The only way to keep that voice in your head from driving you mad. What are you talking about? What voice? The one telling you to be ashamed of yourself… for having loved him. BONUS:
John Silver in Black Sails 4.03 | "Christ's Triumphal Entry Into Jerusalem" by Harry Anderson, 1970
thinking about black sails tonight. thinking about the title specifically.
thinking about the myth of theseus and the black sails of his ship and the show’s various preoccupations with Greek myth. Thinking that black sails in the original story meant blood tribute, the sacrifice of a king’s son to a monster, the careless return, the black sails of false grief that drove Aegeus to fall into the sea when his beloved son was actually alive all along….. THE CLUE WAS IN THE TITLE ALL ALONG….
Yes Black Sails has a large ensemble cast but actually it's very simple. You see, Max is Eleanor, and Eleanor is almost Max but is actually more like Flint just in the opposite direction. Flint, meanwhile, is Rogers, except for the times when Jack is Rogers. Teach, Vane, and Jack are sort of all one another, unless of course you ask Hands, who would tell you that they're all Silver. Anne is emphatically not Max but is frequently forced to be. Madi is Flint but Flint has to work at being Madi. Miranda is also Eleanor, but only sometimes, and never at the same time. Billy Bones is whoever he hates most at any given moment, and also an omen. Silver, of course, isn't anybody at all, and is also the only one of them who isn't a ghost. Easy.
black sails’ ‘viciousness is grief for those not permitted to grieve’ makes me froth at the mouth
Back to roots 🏴☠️
