season 3 Eleanor is genuinely so depressing like the way she's so quiet and demure compared to in the first two seasons, the way her outfits become more refined/restrictive, how she stands in the background as support, finally listened to but only in relation to the man who's actually in charge... she really is the embodiment of nassau under English rule, welcoming its new cage until it starts to chafe just one season later.

black sails has so many examples of excellent character design but currently rewatching s1 and i love how they're like okay so here's our cool antagonist pirate. he's got a super deep voice and long hair. hot and mysterious right?? oh and he's completely and pathetically down bad for the local Girlboss who keeps making the world's worst decisions

Flint's modus operandi consists of 'I will do what I want, when I want, how I want, because any possible consequences to my actions will be minor problems at most that I will be able to easily handle' [they certainly won't be]

Eleanor's modus operandi consists of 'I will do what I want, when I want, how I want, because it doesn't even cross my mind that consequences are A Thing That Exists when it comes to me' [they definitely are]

The worst part is that their goals are the exact same for half the show so they have the most toxic cycle of mutual enablement. It's terrible. I love it.

eleanor guthrie did not go from wearing cravats and vests to corsets and gowns just for people to say she always dressed like a femme. don't worry ms guthrie I saw you cut away pieces of yourself to achieve acceptability in rogers' eyes and be accepted back into the english upperclass and then die anyway the same way your mother did before you.

eleanor sniffing the leftover rum(?) in people's mugs to see if it's still good before dumping it BACK into the pitcher to presumably sell again you'll always be famous to me

Hannah New as Eleanor Guthrie in Black Sails 204

eleanor character thesis

um rewatching black sails and the last thing the real eleanor says in 2x9 before she’s taken by hornigold is “the time for storytelling is past. now is the time for cold, hard truths” 

s1 and 2 eleanor was so hot i cannot believe they did her dirty like that and put her in bland and sometimes outright sub-par dresses and corsets. the leather?? the neck-ties????? THE COMPLICATED BRAIDS?????? the futch aesthetic was HER BIRTHRIGHT and you TOOK IT AWAY FROM HER YOU COWARDS

#S1 eleanor guthrie would have had woodes rogers’ death contracted and carried out before breakfast#and this is in direct relation to her distinguished disaster bi aesthetic  ( @inarticulate-flailing ) i would argue that she is Peak Disaster Bi, but otherwise, i’m in full agreement 

A fucking gifset XD

Why Eleanor’s Death wasn’t about Rogers...

I see this flying around. So, a few words…

She had a great death scene. She fought till the end. Yeah, it’s violent. But do you realize what show you’re watching? Than there’s the blatant symbolism of Eleanor = Nassau… The Spanish attack Nassau… The Spanish kill Eleanor. Nassau falls, and so does Eleanor. They parallel each other, and that’s definitely why the writers did it in the same episode. 

Now onto Rogers… First of all, her final words were actually about Madi. She tried to save her. That’s very in line with her character and doesn’t surprise me at all. Before that, she asks about Rogers being with the Spanish. For me, this immediately came across as Eleanor wanting to know if she made a mistake. She wants to know if she chose the wrong side. If choosing Rogers was wrong. It was, but Flint spares her that knowledge. Her asking about Rogers had much more to do with her, and her choices, than it did Rogers. Eleanor dies feeling at peace with her choice to choose love over personal ambition. 

Rogers’ whole presence last season was completely defined by Eleanor. Everything about his storyline revolved around Eleanor. Her death will leave its mark on the rest of the story and everyone still alive. Rogers, obviously. But also Max. Where is Max going now? To Eleanor’s grandfather. Even Flint feels the loss of Eleanor. This isn’t about Rogers. It’s about Eleanor and everyone who loved her. 

“Eleanor Guthrie had to die because Black Sails never lets its characters off the hook for past misdeeds – and as Max mentioned in 4.04, hers have piled up. Further, before the show truly made itself known as A Tale of Two Pirates in terms of Silver and Flint, Charles Vane was Flint’s primary ideological and narrative foil. Considering the fact that Vane died for killing relatively minor character Richard Guthrie and Peter Ashe died for dooming Thomas Hamilton, it wouldn’t make sense with the show’s established morality system if the person who killed the second most prominent character escaped unscathed.

That said, nobody expected her death to come this soon or be this gutting. Following her Season 3 plot line, I was concerned that Black Sails wouldn’t be able to make me care when her time came. But to the credit of both the writing and Hannah New’s performance, the way it plays out is achingly sad. It’s impossible even for the most Eleanor-averse viewers not to feel moved.

In the end, she didn’t have the most obvious cause of death — revenge from Jack. It wasn’t even a taste of her own medicine in the form of an intentional betrayal from a lover. In the ultimate karmic payoff, after a lifetime of turning on lovers, Eleanor chose the wrong one to be loyal to. Rogers’s betrayal was not done with malicious intent but rather with the carelessly condescending certainty that his plan was better than hers. Eleanor Guthrie, former Queen of Thieves who switched to civilization’s side, was literally killed by the patriarchy. Her death scene itself is intimate and deeply human, but it also speaks to the show’s larger themes about the gnarled and greytoxicity of the patriarchy.

Her death holds an extra tragic tinge because while Gates, Miranda, Vane, and Teach all died standing up for what they believed in, Eleanor’s capacity for self-delusion lasts until her final breath. Flint’s lie about Rogers’s culpability in the Spanish raid is an act of love, but in true Eleanor fashion, instead of appreciating the love coming from someone in front of her (Max, Vane, and finally Flint), she’s spending her energy on someone who doesn’t deserve it (Richard Guthrie, Rogers).

Teach’s death was the most brutal in execution; Vane’s in impact on the story; Miranda’s in suddenness. But Eleanor’s is the most perfect in its poetic tragedy. It’s senseless in its randomness — because so many people want her dead for personal reasons, but this soldier is not among them. It’s inevitable in its connection to her own choices and history. And it brings her narrative full-circle as she dies with her truest love (Nassau) in the arms of her truest father figure. (Recall that one of her first Season 1 interactions with Flint was a hug). After her rocky Season 3 arc, it seemed impossible that Black Sails could bring Eleanor’s story to a satisfying finish. By weaving in nearly every disparate element of her arc, it does. As usual, never underestimate this show’s absurdly brilliant writing.”

———- Lauren Sarner (XXX). 

— a study in survival | m.c.