something bordering on weird

for @iwt-v who requested a gifset from the bathtub scene in 3x01

If you’re concerned that by removing her from this place she could get violent with you, there are men we can talk to about making sure she can’t hurt you. I don’t want to hear that again. Not from you, not from the other girls, ever. When no one in the world… no one… no one… could care less about what those men were doing to me on the beach, she did. That means something to me. So for as long as she desires, this place will be a safe place for her.

here’s the kind of random piece I did for the black sails zine, it’s a Mad Max AU featuring MaxAnne! initial idea was for Max to fill the role of Mad Max, but Anne clearly fits the silent wanderer role better, so Max ended up being Furiosa 

you can download the zines in PDF form over at @blacksailszine! the other entries are amazing so please check them out if you’re interested! 

Painted for the art contest hosted by Toby’s News on Twitter and IG.

pirates couples

just remembered how max was always taking care of eleanor and anne, she, that woman who most of her life had only herself, who was driven by her own ambitions and didn’t want to let anyone get in the way of them, her primary way of showing love wasn’t grand words or grand actions it was simply taking care

when she immediately became concerned for eleanor and stopped her from getting drunk, and then looked after her wound after she’d been hit by vane; when she wanted to provide for eleanor and be the one that organises their running away together; when she was so patient towards anne when anne was confused about what had happened between them; when she went out of her way to get anne and jack a ship and a crew; when she took care of anne when anne was completely lost; when she told jack she wanted to insure anne’s future was safe; when she just had to go out and risk it all in search of eleanor after hearing the spanish were coming; when she was reunited with anne and immediately just wanted to take care of her; when she spent the last part of season 4 taking care of anne, but also jack, and idelle; max, when in love, was really like

and it can be so deceiving because these actions, like those of all black sails characters, are often framed in a way that you don’t know if she’s acting in self interest or not, but then you look at the pattern, you see how often she does it and you think, oh, it’s her nature

kiss your cute pirate girlfriend under her cute floppy pirate hat

[instagram] [get it on stickers+cases+more] [buy me a coffee?]

I meant to upload this commission from the v talented batcii ages ago! thank you for my life 🦋🌹💖

#meeting your future wife#and wanting to kick her ass#i love them (via @grayingskies)

Rewatching episode 5 of season 3, and one moment I find so interesting is when max is essentially pledging her loyalty to rogers with her share of the treasure and she compares it to a dowry. There’s this reoccurring theme with Anne and max and their relationship with the idea of marriage, and the idea that turning away from it represents both turning toward their truer selves and toward each other.

With Anne it obviously comes up with the “husband” she was married off to as a child. And then her whole season 2 arc concludes with her asserting that she can’t be jacks wife. Then with max its just so telling that the moment she declares her loyalty to rogers (and loyalty to the whole facade of civilization that she still idealizes) she does so by comparing it to a marriage. And the conclusion to her entire character arc is her deciding that marrying a man is the one compromise she absolutely will not make (and I adore the face Anne makes at the very possibility of max being some man’s wife).

I feel like there’s just this really fascinating theme throughout black sails about I guess the institutionalization of love? Like, what kind of love is wrong and profane and punishable by death, and what kind of love is not only allowed and encouraged but enforced and considered legally binding, and just how harmful those definitions are (like with just how diminished Eleanor becomes playing the role of “Mrs rogers”). Its telling that the only truly healthy married couples in the entire show are Miranda and Thomas, who obviously aren’t a traditional married couple in any sense (they basically use the institution of marriage as a source of security, to shield them while they each pursue love in their own unconventional but real and genuine ways), and Scott and the queen, whose entire existence as a family is kept hidden away in the shadows outside of civilization and its laws (plus she has power that is entirely her own in a way that wouldn’t be allowed in the “civilized world” and not dependant on him, unlike Eleanor in season 4). Eleanor literally refers to playing the part of a traditional English wife as “mutilating herself”.

I just can’t get over how beautifully max’s character arc subverts the sexist “ambitious, career focused woman realizes she really just needs love” cliche. Because her realization is not “I put so much energy into my career, I failed to realize I really just need a man!” it’s “the one thing I’m not willing to do to further my ambitions is compromise my own needs and identity and marry a man”. It’s about more than just her realizing that love is more important, its her realizing that her sense of self and her sexual identity are more important. Her choosing Anne is her choosing herself (just like in season 3 when max tells Anne “when you and i began, you did not choose me, something that lives inside of you beyond choice made it so”, so much of their love story is tied up with the story of their identities). Max is confronted with the fact that heterosexual marriage is something society rewards, and told that it’s a step all women must take if they want to get ahead, and her response is basically “fuck no”, and it just made my gay ass So. Fucking. Happy.

@thefckingwarship made a post about max, anne, and jack as this meme so here we are 2 hours later and i still need to study for like 10 exams great job @ me