pirateshelly:

I feel like there’s a really interesting parallel between the Anne/Eleanor teaming up to kill Max’s rapists in season 1 and James murdering Alfred Hamilton. There are a few lines in relation to those two situations that draw explicit parallels, but the differences in the way they’re presented to the audience is such a fascinating example of the way this show deals with the truth of a story versus the way a story is perceived and presented to the world.

In season 1 the audience is privy to Anne and Eleanor’s motivations and there’s no question that we’re supposed to be fully on their side even though they’re murdering 8 dudes. And from a place of knowing the why of it and knowing it was a sort of “righteous killing” we then see the way their actions to defend max are twisted in order to vilify both of them. Eleanor is turned into a tyrant and an evil queen who will murder anyone who “offends” her pride. And Anne becomes the monster and madwoman shunned by every crew on the island..

But with James and the Maria Aleyne we don’t know the story. We only know how it’s perceived, we only see the outside version of story where he’s a villain. But then we move in closer and learn the truth and retroactively realize what kind of story this has been right from the start and it’s just SO GOOD.

It’s the whole unraveling of the concept of queercoded villains this show does and it’s just amazing