Tag: black sails
James + the grey shirt
These days any man who can sew a black flag and get ten fools to follow him can take a prize. They can take it because of the fear I and men like me have instilled in their prey.
god ye ever think about that first episode of Black Sails?
like, i know we talk a lot about how s1 is arguably the weakest, but that first episode man – specifically the first 15 or minutes of it.
it starts up with the merchant ship, showing us how scary the pirates are: the captain is almost begged to surrender so they won’t have to fight, the cook hides below decks and tells Silver exactly what pirates do to cowards (which he must’ve only heard through hearsay). That whole exchange between the cook and Silver tells us that you either die fighting the pirates, you die because you hid and they found you, or you join the pirates.
and then we’re shown the fighting, and they’re ruthless. the filming is so clever here, concealing the pirates with smoke and by not focusing on them, making them even more the mythical barbarians we’ve been told about and are anticipating. the crew of the merchant ship is shown being slaughtered, cowering and screaming in a way i don’t think a lot of fighting/battle scenes from film and tv really shows.
then of course is the MARVELLOUS unveiling (literally) of Flint, and we’re given the exact impression on how we’re meant to think of him. The Captain, obviously, since he can stop the crew without protests, and arguably the one to be most scared of. but also a more Educated and gentlemanly pirate (he’s iirc the first of the pirates to actually talk and not just shout and grunt) ((and now i’m thinking about that introduction shot and lawrence of arabia and western films i’ll stop myself before i’m completely off track))
and then. and THEN. after the blessing that is Bear McCreary’s hurdy gurdy, you get the LITERAL UNMASKING OF THE MYTHICAL PIRATES. gates who walks through the ship, considering their plunder in a stark contrast to the fight scene before. sweet Joshua who jumps out, Gates who then rolls his eyes at him and tells him to grow up while Joshua LAUGHS AND TAKES OUT HIS SCARY TEETH.
Dufresne and his accounting!! that whole scene was a fuckin EYE OPENER to me, and what really sold me on the show because look! you can’t just sail a ship around, rob another ship, and call that a day, that’s a pirate’s life for me! there’s COSTS, they share the profit EQUALLY, people are INJURED and DIED and apprently the priates have a system in place for that! they’re paid damage!
JUST. I LOVE THAT INTRODUCTION SO MUCH I LOVE THE WAY BLACK SAILS DECONSTRUCTS THE IDEA OF PIRATES AND THE OBVIOUS RED THREAD OF STORIES AND WHO THEY’RE TOLD BY AND HOW THAT SHAPES OUR WORLDVIEW I LOVE THIS SHOW SM YALL
James Flint in every episode:
XXVIII. Madness is such a hard thing to define, which makes it such an easy label
to affix to one’s enemies. Once it had been applied to Thomas,
once our relationship had been exposed, defiled, scandalized… everything ended.
There were times that I was persuaded to sue for peace since then,
but that was the day that on some level I knew that England was broken… and that sooner or later a good man must resist it.
he let his hair grow out again
M y T r u e s t L o v e
Day 5 Black Sails Femme Slash Week: AUs
A real quickie of modern AU Anne and Max. In my mind I definitely have this kind of modern-ish AU in some unspecified warm semi-Mediterranean country where the characters of Black Sails live happily.
BLACK SAILS – Episode 1×05
BLACK SAILS – Episode 1×05
shesaheroyousee 