CORRECTIONS. Unfortunately I made a few goofs despite spending ages on this 😅 1. Yes I'm aware there were massive slave uprisings like the Haitian revolution and such but none of these instances like ENDED slavery in the 1700s. That was poorly worded on my part 2. I forgot to actually SAY that Jack's tragic clown behavior, and wanting to stand near giants THING is the Falstaff behavior 3. Somebody in the comments said that most likely the Viking guys who enslaved Vane were actually a logging camp of convicts which was a thing that existed? So that's cool to know 4. The Urca De Lima was actually wrecked on the coast of Florida not an unnamed island 5. THE ISLAND THEY GO TO ISN'T SKULL ISLAND ITS SKELETON ISLAND. SKULL ISLAND IS FROM KING KONG APPARENTLY??? I'M SO MAD ABOUT THIS ONE 😭 I may have to update this more as the comments come in but I really hope you like this one it meant a lot to me
This might be the best video I've seen from you. All the praise to you for once again making me want to watch a great show I had regrettably never heard of before.
Another minor correction if i may. Season 1 doesn't end with them on an island, they're on a beach in Florida. The Urca de Lima was a real Spanish treasure galleon that shipwrecked off the coast of Florida during a storm in 1715. Flint also mentions St. Augustine to Silver and the Tequesta tribes which put them in Florida.
I think the reason they had they "Took my woman from me" line is specifically because he's talking to his crew to pull them along to his means. The phrasing is only because he can't speak to the enormity of what Miranda was to him, and it's what the crew would understand. We, the audience, know she was not some object, or really, "his woman" at all. She was something else entirely.
That's how I took the line, as well. It is a weird line- but only because we know Flint and the complexity of his relationship to Miranda (and Thomas). To flint's men, it's in line with what they think they know of who Miranda was to flint. For someone established to be so obsessed with perception, i take every line Flint says in his "captian voice" (any public monolog, basically) as highly intentional and calculated to evoke the reaction he wants.
Recall Flint's story of Odysseus. Odysseus is also connected to the Illiad. A story whose troubles start with Agememnon taking Briseis from Achilles, and then there is the loss of Patrocles which throws Achilles over the edge of reason. The show reversed the order with Patrocles/Thomas taken from James and then briseis/Miranda taken by the king/Ash. The rage of Achilles/Flint follows hard after.
Nothing wrong with that line in relation to captain Flint, she is just too sensitive to lets just say... un-femenist wording. My woman, my man, my sister, my brother, my mother, my father, my friend, my lover. If anybody saying this out loud about a person in their lives triggers you, then that´s something you need to work out on your own. She made a good video, I just hope she realizes that she is the flip side of the coin from a dude-bro. Two sides of the same thing, I believe the saying goes.
Also, like. Even if he doesn't see her as property, that's the way they spoke back then. IDK, here in Mexico "my woman" or "my man" are synonimous to "my partner" it doesn't necessarily convey property
I often use her videos as a "To Watch" list and then watch her video once I've watched the show/movie. If Lady Knight has made a 3-hour video on it, it must be worth watching, right? (Probs gonna do that with this one)
@@Ladyknightthebrave If you're in need of more fun sea content then Ginny Di put out a video titled 'I want a playable merfolk D&D race (so I made one)'
I worked on the VFX for Pirates of the Caribbean 4 and I have so much sorrow for the poor roto artists that worked on this. A thing to keep in mind for all the replacement shots of the boat that they put on water is that the rigging is being filmed. That means every single shot needs to have some roto artist cut out every bit of rope so that the background can be replaced. One particularly nightmarish shot we worked on for Pirates 4 was a helicopter shot circling around the real boat they had. The real boat had motors, so we had to remove the wake created by those. For this shot they also decided to sail INTO the wind but left the sails unfurled for some reason. So we needed to rotoscope all the ropes and guess where they were when the sail flapped against them to reconstruct them. There were so many ropes, crisscrossing each other and it was all brown on brown from a quarter mile away while the boat is bobbing in the ocean and the helicopter is moving. Oh god that was awful.
So black sails never filmed on the water as I understand it? Also you can see the rope rigging in shots all the time so unless I'm misunderstanding, I think they didn't paint that stuff out? But I've heard how Disney treats their VFX teams so my deepest sympathies on a frustrating work experience
@@Ladyknightthebrave you only roto what you want to keep. In this instance they wanted to keep the practical rigging. I'm sure the immense amount of vfx work to replace or keep things like the rigging, masts and sails is why every shot of the ship on water is why they were full CGI. The artists on this show did a great job from what I saw.
@@Tamisday one thing I love is when someone praises a stunt person's amazing performance by saying no vfx was used. Then the BTS shows all the wire/rig removal and background replacement
From what I understand, the "viking guys" that Vane goes back to in s1 are a representation of a very real thing. Logging camps that were often made up of captives, forced to work off debts or for no reason at all, and sometimes made up of former pirates. They were worked so hard that their skeletal structure literally changed because of it. I'd have to do more digging, but that's what I remember from when I did research it. And I think that makes sense for a place that Vane would have come from, and seeing that definitely explains a lot about why he is the way he is.
@@Ladyknightthebrave Aye, they're based off of the Baymen, pirates and buccanneers who settled on the Bay of Honduras while fleeing from the Spanish (though in the show they seem to have settled in the Bahamas instead). While not directly referred to as Baymen in the show, one of them is credited as "Bayman Lieutenant", and like their real-life counterparts, they rely on slave labour and made their profits cutting and selling logwood.
Dangit. I was so psyched to spend 3 hours enjoying this video, but 12 minutes in I have to pause to go watch the entirety of Black Sails. Be back when that's done. UPDATE, 11 days later: I'M BACK AND I HAVE A LOT OF FEELINGS LET'S DO THIS
Fun anecdote I have about this show, I once showed it to a friend of mine and her husband and they loved Silver doing the gossip column stuff so much that when we went to a play at our local theatre of Treasure Island, there was a scene where Silver said no one could harm a hair on Jim's head and I heard the husband stomp his foot next to us
Apparently my best friends roommate lived near where they filmed it. He saw that giant ship every day but didn't know what show it was for. I kinda lost my mind when he showed me the pics because I recognised that thing on sight. I told him to watch Black Sails. Hope he did that.
I personally think this show has such a tragic ending. Silver will forever be haunted by what he's done, by Flint's ghost, forever doomed by the narrative precisely because he's favored by the narrative, and him and Madi will be yards away for the rest of their lives as Flint says. And Flint will be left with all his ideals aborted and voice silenced as the moment he's taken out of the narrative. He's simply not James McGraw anymore, at least not the James McGraw that Thomas knew who wanted to civilize Nassau with him. That guy doesn't exist anymore, and the only person who truly understood the guy that exists, all of him, both the James and the Flint, is the one who has betrayed him. I think one thing people always overlook with this Flint x Thomas reunion ending is that when Silver asks Flint if he'd give up all of it for Thomas, Flint's not that sure anymore, his cause has become bigger than Thomas, and Silver then interprets his lack of an answer with what he needs to be true; that Flint would do the same for Thomas as Silver is about to do for Madi, that Flint and everything he represents will just go away once you give him Thomas back and he'll be happy as James McGraw. That's why I can't see a happy ending in Flint being excluded and imprisoned like the monster they always made him out to be, and as Silver with Madi, what he has with Thomas won't be enough. As Flint himself says earlier in the show all the best lies are mostly made of the truth and that's what Silver's account is to me; trying to tell this tragic ending like it's a happy one as he tries to reason with himself. The events has happened the way he says, yes, but it's ugly for everyone, it's emotionally consequential in grand ways. He tries to pretend he's never known Flint fully so he can pretend his love for and later betrayal of Flint don't matter (like his past does not matter) because the only way John Silver the survivor can survive is if he distances himself from the emotional consequences of it all. I think his actions are very much like Max doing anything to protect her little corner of the world where she feels safe; he tries to cling to that sense of belonging and connection he's found with people but Silver is a deceiver to the core, a storyteller like none other, so he makes even himself believe this was the best way. I think so much of this story is so tragic because people are motivated by love and loyalty even when they're betraying the ones they love and are loyal to and at the end Silver loves Flint so much that he fools himself into believing giving him Thomas back is his true happy ending and Flint loves Silver equally that he just lets him be the end of Captain Flint - he gives it all up for Silver.
Around 2:10:00 I think? When there is the discussion of race and slavery and “white slavery”. I am not here to compare this to the African slave trade, however Billy Bones in the show canonically was “press ganged” into the navy as a child, meaning a bunch of navy dudes took him off the street and just forced him to be a literal child slave to the British navy. These kids would often be chained to the deck and forced to do menial tasks on their hands and knees with no word to their parents about where they’d gone (the irony being that Billy’s parents were activists against this practice, and he was press ganged while handing out anti press pamphlets for his parents cause). While this means Billy was middle class, there were children from way worse circumstances forced into this type of work with no pay, and it’s likely that “Viking colony” that Vane visited is one that he was forced into and escaped as a child. I think the point the show is trying to make is that the British did the same to “their own” and not just to Africans in the slave trade. And that’s why it’s pointless to try to reason with the British, or with any empire. A lot of it is a capitalism metaphor IMO
1/ Everybody was forced to do menial tasks on their hands and knees. Most sailors worked barefoot (no rubber soles till the 19th century and leather slips) and disease was always a problems so scrubbing decks for splinters and hygiene was a constant job. Everybody did it! 2/ Who chains workers to the deck your a hundred miles from land where are they going to go? Ships were full of landsmen, taken on to do menial work, they gained skills and were rated to higher paying jobs unless they were irredemably stupid. 3/ The point of press ganging was to get TRAINED SEAMEN from port cities or returning ships, it was military conscription. Why would they conscript a child with no skills, who is too small to do physical labour and who would be eating rations which cost money?
@@voiceofraisin3778 1/ There were some areas on the ship that even small adults couldn't reach/were too heavy for, so occasionally they'd use children. But you are right that everyone had to pull their weight with most tasks, especially in maintenance and hygiene. 2/ People in basically every seafaring culture would sometimes chain/confine unwilling and kidnaped 'crew' for several reasons such as A) to prevent uprising/sabotage/attack B) to prevent self removal of the permanent variety, thereby depriving the work force of a laborer C) to prevent theft, especially of supplies that unwilling 'crew' were last in line for D) simply to keep track of them E) to ensure that, in the event of catastrophe, the more valuable crew members had a better chance of escape. Granted, they weren't chained 24/7, usually locked away/chained for sleep. Also, it wasn't exactly COMMON because thats a lot of work and risk - but it did happen. 3/ Have you ever heard of powder monkeys? There were many, many tasks for which disposable children were useful. Emphasis on the disposable. Trained adults/teens were more valuable than than a child that was there for fodder, and fetch and carry purposes. Children were a depressingly useful and cheap commodity throughout all of history, easily discarded and just as easily replaced. And most importantly, easy to control because they are smaller and weaker. Of course, all this comes secondhand from history and seafaring nerds who info dump on me, and I might not remember it 100% accurately! So, sorry If I got anything wrong 😅 My interests and expertise lie elsewhere~
Also, Max is my Queen and I'm so glad you love her as much as you do. Honestly, all the women in the show are incredible and very well written. Even if I could have done without that certain aspect of Max's storyline in s1 (or perhaps had it handled a bit differently) there is something to be said for how much she embodies the idea of 'starting out at the bottom and ending up at the top'. Also, rewatching that breakup scene between her and Eleanor makes me cry now, because Eleanor is going to look back and just...wish she could have been the kind of person to make that choice back then, but she wasn't. And now that she is, it's too late.
I found s1 great because of how Max overcomes everything. I have never felt the love of the pirates as freedom fighters the fandom has embraced. They are pirates, just as comfortable to destroy your life as the 'evil civilization' the fandom deplores. Fruit, fruit, tits, tits, they're the f'n same. In a story about narratives that ends with distrusting narratives the acceptance of common day political narrative read into the motivations of the Black Sails characters is curious. What happens to Max in s1 is evil. It is who the pirates are. That is their civilization. Not so very different from the one fandom believes they are fighting. Fruit, fruit... Unlike the video maker and fandom. I find s1 excellent. It is pirates from the outside. Later seasons show us their motivations but ask why those motivations excuse s1. That is who they are. Whose story, whose light are you clinging to?
The way you describe watching this show is nearly identical to the way I watched it. When it was first airing I tried out the first three episodes and could not get into it despite loving pirate media and gave up. I tried a few years later, made it past that first part of season one that is very obviously trying to draw in an audience that Wasn't Me until I made it to the part that Very Much Was and now I also own the entire series, several tshirts, have binged Fathoms Deep, and scream at the tv on every rewatch. Two weeks ago I was at a work meeting and as an ice breaker they asked everyone what their favorite show was. Without hesitation (or thinking about it) I said Black Sails and then, horrifyingly, I was asked to describe the show and realized that I did not know how to articulate why I love this piece of media while the head of HR smiled politely at me from across a table. I went with "it's a historical drama about piracy that works as a prequel to Treasure Island, but it's... you know. Produced by Starz."
"It requires an intolerable sacrifice! To apologize! TO ENGLAND!!! They took everything from us. And then they call ME a monster? The moment I sign that pardon -- the moment I ask for one... I proclaim to the world that they were right! This ends...when I grant them my forgiveness. Not the other way around."
A new Black Sails video??? It's not even my birthday. I often tell people this is one of the best shows I've ever seen, but it's criminally underrated. Seeing more youtube videos about it makes my heart happy.
Did some digging into the etymology of "Maroon" and its various meanings. The colour maroon is derived from a term for a large sweet chestnut, first used in the 1590s and predating the Spanish term derived from their term for escaped cattle. Etymologists believe it comes from a dialect spoken in Lyons, France at the time, which got it either from Greek "maraon" (sweet chestnut) or the Ligurian "marrone" (sweet chestnut) (Ligurian is a language that was spoken in northern Italy at the time, and apparently predates the Latin influence from Rome). The use of it as a colour dates to the popularization of the term "couleur marron" in French ("the colour of a chestnut") used in 1791. In modern French and Italian, marron and marrone (respectively) mean either "chestnut" or "brown," while the colour English refers to as maroon is termed grenat and granata (again, respectively), and are found in grenadine and pomegranate (and from pomegranate, grenade! Etymology is fun and weird sometimes!) There might be some bleedover with the Spanish influence because of the similar terms, but the direct leap from chestnut to colour appears to be a very specific comparison of something to the colour of a sweet chestnut. But that's the colour. Everything about the verb has to do with the Spanish term. The Spanish used the term cimarron (wild, untamed, from cimarra, meaning thicket) to refer to feral cattle on Hispaniola, then extended the same term to refer to escaped native slaves, and finally to escaped black slaves. This is broadly considered the root of "maroon" as a reference to people, which is developed from "symeron" and "maron," though it's also possible the term derives from the Arawakan root word simarabo (fugitive) which is...slightly better? I guess? Either way, this term made its way to English and also came to mean "to be lost in the wild without resources" - probably originally in reference to these Maroon colonies you mentioned, which are just...groups of people stuck out on an island without a broader connection to civilization (though in that case, considering what "civilization" considered their appropriate status, I would imagine these folks would be quite happy about that lack of connection!) In the Caribbean, being "lost in the wild without resources" probably means "stuck on an island without a boat," so that could naturally be broadened to shipwreck survivors in general, and later to a penal sentence used by pirates and so on by deliberately abandoning someone on such an island. Presumably this would be an island chosen to be small but habitable, as it seems unreasonable to make a point of going to an island just to kill someone when you have many more effective ways of killing someone in ways that are either more or less torturous than being stuck on a sea rock and dehydrating over the next couple of days. Primary source: www.reddit.com/r/etymology/comments/8rc8qz/the_color_maroon_and_the_verb_maroon_to_put/ (Who unfortunately does not cite all of their sources, but I'm not up to figuring out my university's VPN system to try to get to real etymology research papers and trying to dig all that up)
This is really interesting but it makes me very confused because my high school, a Catholic school in west Des Moines iowa, are called the Dowling Catholic maroons and our mascot is a leprechaun. So idk what they were thinking
Black youtuber voice menos from the void talks a bit about black sails and slavery in a video about our flags means death, the whole video is very thoughtful and interesting
a character who actively resists definition at all turns for the sake of survival through malleability becoming the ultimate defining archetype for who and what a pirate is is a concept that makes me so insane forever. also! the sheer fact that the "pirate voice" comes from the actor who played long john silver in an early film version is just so wildly meta that it all but guarantees i will never learn to be cool about this show ever
Just watching this on Nebula now, and I gotta say, a 6'5 Billy Bones would have found life aboard a ship of that era absolute *hell.* Space on ships comes at a premium, especially in those days, and *especially* vertical space. Looking at some footage from the HMS Victory's gun deck (thanks Drachinifel), I'd guess roof comes in somewhere around 6'6 with the joists hanging down to somewhere around 5'10 to 6'0...man would be pinging his head off the ceiling all the time or stooping so much he'd develop a permanent curve in his back...or both. Oh, and by the way, Victory is a BIG ship. It's the First Rate that Nelson took as his flagship in his famous battles against Napoleonic France and their Spanish allies, and is 227'6 long with a beam (width) of 51'10....compare to the Queen Anne's Revenge at 103' long and a beam of 24.6 feet (yes, decimal feet, wikipedia's being weird)...and I believe the Queen Anne's Revenge was considered unusually large for a pirate ship. This doesn't necessarily mean the decks would be shorter, and the Victory had more than twice as many people aboard, but that kinda expresses just how tight the space constraints are.
I LOVED your video, but I'm not quite sure I agreed entirely with your point in chapter 11 on Silver not being violent in the beginning of his story because in his VERY FIRST SCENE, he murders a man by stabbing him in the back and then lies about it with a smile to save his own skin. Then, through seasons 1 and 2, while I don't think violence is his first choice, nor does he like it, it really seemed to me like he was trying to fool not only the other characters but the audience as well into forgetting that very first scene and thinking of him as harmless and a fish out of water (if youll excuse the pun) while he went around trying to craft his role to his best advantage. Through all my rewatches of this show, I always forget how his story starts until his confrontation with Flint in the very end when, as you said, he becomes fully the nightmare he is in Treasure Island. He has always been, in my opinion, the character most aware that he is in a story, even more than Jack. There is a post I can't find right now that has this line (and I'm paraphrasing here) "he has one foot in the story and one foot out of it, until that foot is cut off" and he's forced by the narrative he was trying to manipulate but couldn't (and was therefore doomed by) to become a full character in this story he will now never be able to escape. Basically, John Silver is a character that makes me chew glass, no matter how many times I watch this show!! Edit: that quote was actually a Luke Arnold quote! The full thing is: "He’s a guy who’s always had one leg out the door, and then they cut it off"
Yeah he avoids violence because he knows he probably won't win a physical fight but in S1 he also dooms at least half their crew by shooting at the man o war and has 0 qualms about it lmao
I'm obsessed with all of the characters in this show tbh. Sometimes I lay awake at night, thinking about the tragedy of Eleanor dying as a consequence of conforming to a role that she spent the larger part of her life rebelling against, and how blind she was to her privilege to the bitter end. And how Max learned her lessons from the mistakes she and everyone else around them made, and managed to make an actual life for herself amidst the chaos. (Also, shut up, she lived happily ever after, that's the story that's true to me. 😂) I'll also never be the same person I was before I heard Flint's speech at the end. I was literally just crying listening to it again. Thank you for making me relive this emotional rollercoaster. 🙃
I haven’t watched the video yet but you don’t understand how much this video - this show - means to me. It is a crime so few people have watched it. It’s a masterpiece in every way of the word and changes how you see and think. Thank you for talking about it
Toby Schmitz is a darling of Australian theatre. I was in theatre school and all the actresses went to see his shows just to swoon. 😂 I've seen both his Hamlet and his Private Lives. What a riot.
Such an oddly underrated and overlooked show for both its INSANE GoT-level production design, Toby Stephens being the most commanding presence on television, the iconic Flint/Thomas stuff, etc. Anyway, the one CONTROVERSIAL SUBJECT I will STRENUOUSLY object to is the idea that Flint looked better with long hair - but I SUPPOSE ladyknightthebrave is allowed to be wrong ONCE 😤
Having known Calico Jack Rackham's biography before I started watching the show, I went into this series expecting to hate him. Credit to the writers and Mr Schmitz for turning him into my favorite character in the series!
i rewatched black sails last year with my brother, it was his first watch and he got really into it (screaming at the tv into it) and at the end i said that by sending flint away and squashing the revolution, silver lost madi and my brother, whos just a kid really, said 'but he saved james mcgraw' and i had to sit down
Loved this! Thank you for making it! A little tidbit about Luke Arnold, he was an assistant swordmaster on Peter Pan (2003) and was Jason Isaac's scene partner during fight training for the film.
~1:13:29 Note, the fact that there is a mess of accents is probably accurate, but very few of the accents used are. During the early 17th century non-rhoticity (dropping r's at the ends of words) hadn't become a feature of any major British accents, so most of the regional British accents you hear are very distinctively modern.
Black viewer who watched it here. I quite enjoyed it I saw like the first few episodes as like a elementary schooler (which I shouldn’t have but elementary schooler brain didn’t really comprehend it I just thought the opening was cool and I liked pirates) and I then decided to fully watch it recently but it’s handle of slavery I find to be quite solid it of course it has its issues but the handling of slavery in modern media will never be perfect especially written by a white person but it was a very valiant effort. And when most pirate media chooses to ignore the slavery part (cough cough pirates or the Caribbean which I still love) this show to take quite the meaty stab into it which I applaud. This is a pirate show first slavery show like fourth so there was no way we were getting a perfect never had been done before interpretation of slavery but like the showrunners definitely did there research and gave a solid and decently nuanced take so I give them my flowers.
When my dad and i watch Black Sails we always scream "BILLY" whenever he is on screen. 😂 You're one of my very favorite creators, i truly believe it is serendipitous you posted this video the day i finished the show. ❤
I watch a lot of video essays but ever since I discovered your STARGATE and MASH videos, I’ve definitely felt more seen by your work than others. Always excited to see a vid of yours in my notifications!
Thank you for talking about this show. I watched it while it was coming out with my family and we LOVED it. Over the years I have been floored by the lack of internet coverage of this show. Well done!
Whenever i find myself thinking i'd love another ladyknight video, they go and drop a video on something i love or something i learn a lot about. Probably my favourite channel on youtube.
Black Sails is the TV show of all time and you are the video essayist of all time so this is a match made in heaven to me. Love love love this essay, gotta go rewatch the entire show I guess.
Yaaaaaay! When I saw that YOU did an essay on THIS show. THIS. IS. MY. JAM. Told everyone to not get in my way, locked the door, poured some tea, huddled down to watch. This is the stuff of happy places.
I tried to get into this show to fill the queer pirate-shaped hole in my heart (following OFMD's cancellation). Wasn't super invested after the first few episodes, but I may give this a watch (depending on the spoilers) and see if it re-invigorates me, because I really do want to like the show. Edit: I actually watched a few more episodes, and now I'm hooked.
Right??? It’s crazy how many people I’ve seen who have had this experience of starting the show and (rightfully) hating the first few episodes but then picking it up again after seeing people’s posts about it and loving S2 onwards. I did the exact same thing and it’s one of my favourites now so it’s honestly funny to see that so many people went through this as well
@@The_Jovian I think I just got past the swill, and now I’m locked in. I could tell it had the components to be good, so once it started paying off all its setup, I got hooked. The characters are really complex, and have such a dense web of relationships ALREADY! It’s pirate politics! Is any part of this video essay spoiler-free? I really want to watch it, but I’m hesitant to even click on it, lest I get spoiled from the get go.
@@sorrel106 That’s very comforting. I was worried I was just going to dislike the whole show. But holy crap, it’s really good! I could tell from the get-go that the characters had nuance, so once they started putting everyone against each other, that nuance came out in full force. I actually love it now.
@@Zephirite. Ehhh like a very small part. It's better to just come back when you've finished. I gotta say I adore how much discussion of battle tactics and logistics there is, especially in the early seasons
I was SO impressed by the show's production, especially on the ships. The fact that almost all of the water shots are done via effects in insane to me! Some of it looks so real. Lol, that boot montage took me OUT. Bear McCreary is a frelling genius and I listen to his scores so often. ~MM
Oh boy, I'm excited to see this video. I generally liked Black Sails (I had some issues, nothing's perfect), but I'm sure this video's likely to give me an even greater appreciation. I always love these.
I watched this show as a teenager when it came out mostly for the blood and boobs, but the story that started to unfold in season 2 kept me on the edge of my seat. It really was a story that inspired me and awakened many passions in me, although I was too young to understand all the topics it dealt with. the beautiful, the bittersweet, the tragic. This series has been close to my heart for years. Very good video. No shame.
I get excited for your new videos because you manage to unlock a new hyperfixation that I never knew I had. You have a talent for inviting me into new worlds and stories to obsess over.
just finished watching this; an EXCELLENT essay about a beautiful show. Really well done and it makes me want to shotgun this series all over again XD XD I'd forgotten how sympathetic, tragic, heroic, and unnecessary Eleanor's death was, and totally missed some of these details you pointed out; how Roger's misremembers her knitting rather than embroidering, the symbolism of Maadi and Eleanor's fire and Flint&Silver's names... What a Great work of art!
Another Thank You for reminding me that it’s always a good time to rewatch Black Sails again. The acting & writing by the end (both narratively & in terms of dialogue) really did reach rarefied air. The dialogue has that rare quality of being _almost_ too indulgent, but was held right at glorious. The continued “Game of Thrones” marketing is funny considering Flint told us himself “There be *no* Dragons.”
I love the hurdy gurdy. I have one, I’m relearning how to play. I forgot how to after I had Covid. It’s really easy to mess up a gurdy, just leave it in a room that changes temperature or humidity and the entire thing doesn’t play right anymore.
Vane is such a tough character for me because I genuinely disliked him for the first 2 seasons but I did come around to him in season 3 and his death really upset me. But as much as I came to care for him in season 3, that doesn't change how much I disliked him in seasons 1 and 2. So...yeah...it's complicated. I love Flint & Silver's relationship, especially in seasons 3 and 4. I also really like how Madi shifts their dynamic because she's in love with John but her desires & beliefs align more with Flint and that's so interesting to me. Max & Eleanor have such an fascinating dynamic because they don't work as a couple or even as friends but they do understand each other better than most people. And despite everything that happened between them, they do have a genuine affection for each other. Eleanor's death is ultimately what puts Max back on the right path and what leads to her happy ending with Anne. Max saw the way Eleanor compromised everything for her ambition and how that led to her downfall and she chooses not to make the same mistakes. She puts her love for Anne before her ambition and she's rewarded with both love & power. It doesn't look the way she thought it would, but in the end, she gets the life she always wanted. And that's beautiful. Also I love that Jack believes Max betrayed him but he still cares about her enough to offer her safe passage off the island. Their weird friendship (?) is so precious to me. ~MM
Never seen the show but I watch all your videos as comfort media (especially the Hill House and Bly Manor ones) and the reveal at the plantation at the end made me audibly gasp for a character I didn't care about three hours ago
A bit of trivia about the talented Toby Schmidt (Captain Jack Rackham). Toby S. grew up in Perth, Australia, and went to university there with the brilliant composer, pianist, actor, comedian, atheist, singer, etc., Tim Minchin. Among other things, Tim wrote the score for Matilda the musical, which won countless awards, and the score for the musical, Groundhog Day. Toby and Tim have remained close friends and Toby was part of an introduction in a recent documentary about Tim. When I saw Toby's face and heard his voice in the documentary, I gasped, as I immediately recognized him from Black Sails.
i put off watching this for such a long time, mostly because of how protective i feel over these stories and themes and shots and choices you do it justice, you do it with such heart thank u
I’ve seen this show at least 3 times. And every time I watch it, I love it even more. The character arcs, the acting, the scenery, the story, just all of it!
Oh my god, Black Sails is my favorite series ever and I've loved your other essays, this is like a dream come true. Commenting this before even watching. I've been meaning to watch the show with my girlfriend for a while now (she's never seen it) but it literally isn't available to stream anymore in my country... Which is kinda fitting I guess, that I would have to pirate the show about pirates. However, I just ended up ordering a boxset of all the seasons, still waiting for it to arrive a month later... Edit: Having now watched the video on Nebula, I have to say awesome job. That ending was beautiful.
Black Caribbean woman here. To answer your question (how we felt about the handling of race and gender in earlier seasons versus later seasons), speaking only for myself, I couldn't get past the Max rape scenes initially and abandoned the series only to come back to it years later (I think, after its initial run) on realizing there was a marroon storyline. So the marroons and Madi were my entry point, then I went back to the earlier seasons. In the marroon storylines I struggled with wanting what was good for the free Black and enslaved people (I don't call my ancestors slaves as that was their condition not who they were), especially when in conflict with the pirates' machinations, especially knowing that slavery didn't end legally (emphasis on legally) until 1834 in the British West Indies (1838 in most colonies given the apprenticeship period). I didn't see the show ending on a hopeful note for us. But I do feel there was considerable nuance and complexity in the later seasons that made it much more watchable and not as ...uncomfortable as the earlier seasons. I do agree with Foreign that not acknowledging the systemic brutality and reality of slavery would have made it pure fantasy rather than the historical fantasy that it is. I do like that the reality of Black people fighting for their freedom was integrated into the later seasons and that they took time to add texture to individual characters (like Madi, one of my faves, and Mr. Scott).
I'm only 15 mins in and I already know I'll be watching this at least half a dozen times. I am So So SO glad you watched this show because I love the way you analyze media. Also, for my first of many comments (likely under different accounts) the Max/Anne/Jack trio is my absolute favorite dynamic on this show full of magnificent relationships and you are not alone in respectively appreciating JPK's beauty :) Bonus: That comparsion between Eleanor's dialogue in the early episodes and Sam's horrible speech in SG1 was Perfect! ~MM
Watched this MAGNIFICENT video on Nebula right after it dropped, then a second time after binging the show. See, I'm one of those who watched one or two episodes way back when it premiered on Starz, and it didn't grab me at all. I figured it was just another GoT knock-off, and never would have thought of it again were it not for your essay. HOLY CRAP. My wife and I just finished our binge and MAN we love Black Sails! I'm halfway through reading The Republic of Pirates, deep down the Fathom's Deep whirlpool, and have Treasure Island in the Audible queue. Thank you, thank you, thank you for a spectacular new obsession!
I think it's important for you to know that - almost three years ago I watched the first two seasons of black sails, then stopped because I wasn't in the right headspace for a show that intense - saw that you posted this video a few weeks ago and remembered how compelling I found the parts of black sails that I did watch - rewatched the first two seasons in a weekend, then continued to watch the rest of the show - finished at 1 am last night and now here I am anyway, I'll just be losing my mind about flint and silver as both narrative foils and narrative parallels, and about how much I love madi, for the rest of my life 🙃
Good god... i have never watched this show, cant recall ever hearing about this show, but if you make a video aboit something, I will watch it. You are a beautiful individual, I love the words you come up with, and I'm sorry about life, but also so grateful you're still around and producing. Amazing.
It's always a good day when someone raves about my favorite show in the same way I do. Thank you for this beautiful and dedicated exposure of Black Sails :) Regarding the bad vibes around Flint calling Miranda 'his woman' in front of his crew - I always found it quite a genius move coming from him. He, a larger than life character, has consistently developed blurry and undefinable relationships. His dynamic with Miranda transcends romantic, sexual, and friendly love and is a mix of absolutely everything. He is wrecked by a grief that is not just losing someone, but losing someone with whom he has shared so, so much. No one in the crew (besides Silver) can understand that. And yet, he talks to the crew in a way that they can understand. To them, it's simple. Flint got his woman taken away and so it's revenge. What a brilliant move
one day i will get through one of these videos without getting misty-eyed at the end. that day is not today ❤ also "he's pissed off, he's wet, he spends 90% of the show covered in blood" describes half of my favourite fictional characters
i watched black sails in the past year as well and what an instant forever favourite! im so happy to see people continue to discover it (as i’m sure they always will with how timeless and incredibly made it is) but wow i did not know most of what went into the production. im so immersed watching black sails i could have been convinced they really were on ships in the middle of the ocean 😭 i also loved getting to hear more about the history in this video! i will forever be haunted by the show's ending and Silver's decision....
Black Sails is undoubtably one of my favorite series of all time. I’ve not stopped thinking about it since I finished it 4 years ago and have rewatched it a multitude of times over. Excited to watch this!
When I watch Black Sails the first time, it was on my best friend’s recommendation. She told me it would be very much My Shit, and she was right. I’m retroactively mad at myself for not watching it when it was on the air. It’s such a beautiful bit of storytelling, heartfelt and moving, which seems like a rare thing these days. I was so excited when I found out you were doing an essay on it, and it was so worth the wait!
Beautifully written and spoken. Loved that show back then, and so happy to get someone else's thoughts on this show. This was long but fascinating. Thank you ❤
The beauty with which you talk about art is absolutely wonderful. I'm pretty sure every single one of your essays has made me cry, some multiple times, and not just because I rewatch them religiously. I am truly just fascinated by every piece of media you cover. It's a pleasure listening to and getting inspired by your work. Thank you ❤
This video from this channel is everything I need to start this week. Black Sails is among the best shows I’ve ever seen and the most underrated to come out, well, ever. It’s in my personal top five alongside other perfect shows like Mad Men, The Expanse and The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel
Damn man, I didn’t even realize how gay this show was. Like, yes the characters are gay, but I never thought of it as part of its label. Probably cuz I’m a straight dude but when I tell people about this show I just get hung up on how awesome it all is in its entirety.
To be fair, I know some people I could sell this show to better if I mentioned how queer it was, but then I ALSO DON'T WANT TO SPOIL ANYTHING, so it's extra tough when they go "yes, yes, it's just a pirate show, I'll get to it some day"...
Love the video! Black Sails is one of my all time favourite shows and you are one of my favourite video essayists, so when I saw you were going to do a video essay on it, I squeeled out loud! Just a quick credit thing I think you missed in the video though, Mr. Gates was played by the fantastic Mark Ryan. He was in another one of my favourite shows, Robin of Sherwood, and his character was supposed to be killed off after 2 episodes, but despite not having a single line in either episode, this man had so much charisma and sheer presence, they persuaded the show's creator to keep him on and he became a main cast member for the remainder of the show. Just, I love that actor a lot and he as Mr Gates is fantastic and I will forever be sorry he was killed at the end of season 1 to make space for Silver, even though Silver is my favourite character in Black Sails.
I think calling Silver’s distaste of his amputated leg internalised ableism is a bit far - I read it as his grieving for the life and power he once held. His first taste of power on the walrus was reading the news, where he would stamp to get attention, and others would copy him. Stamping is loud, commanding and can be done in unison with others. It’s not as though Silver is mourning his ability to run or dance, but the the physical aspect of his leadership style. Silver stamping on dufreyne with his prosthetic is him adapting to and reclaiming this power and enhancing it. He’s utterly terrifying and this is what his men see from there on.
Okay so I'm only at the 48 minute mark so whether I leave more comments or edit this one as I go is yet to be seen, but I think saying that Vane's quartermaster cuts off Silver's leg is both an understatement and a ... overstatement? This is hard to explain for me but I think the endurance of torture is really frequently used to flag like "this guy is too good to be 'corrupted' by torture", which is also kind of how the crew responded in reacting to Silver's facing down the torture without a word by voting him in as quartermaster. He is /better/ than a mere mortal who torture could have gotten to. Ultimately though, the audience knows this isn't the case - that is, Silver can be, is, and will be a shitty person if it suits the moment. So it is this will power this sheer force of will that gets him through the torture (whether this plays into tropes can be debated but I won't digress) and the torture leaves him With A Leg. When he is rescued, he has a bleeding leg still attached to his body (bleeding meant literally, not as a stand-in for 'fucking'). One's mobility and thus like, legs, is really important to most people, and that he still through it all /had/ a leg is I think a really important aspect? Because it meant he all but faced torture then from his own people, with the psychological torture of amputation (which, regardless of it being the best move and him not being in the right mind, was not consensual) Back in high school, we had a paralympian visit to do high school typical motivational speech. Her story of becoming disabled was waking from a coma following a 5 story fall that she didn't remember, missing her right foot. She ultimately proceeded with an above knee amputation which gave her the best outcomes in terms of prosthetics and mobility. What stuck with me though, was her in discussing amputation, was this relief that she didn't have to make the choice to /have/ amputation in the first place. On arrival at hospital, the doctors considered her foot a non-starter (like, all 26 bones broken in multiple places with severe ligament, tendon, nerve, and vascular damage) so she never had to make that choice, and basically said that if she had been awake and asked, she probably would have at least considered insisting they try save her foot I hope that story isn't too much of a tangent, but I think it does have some carry through to Silver's experience and an aspect of the one-two punch of torture + amputation that could be overlooked? (edited bc i wrote flint instead of silver the whole time accidentally)
Finally back to this essay a month later after watching through all of Black Sails on Netflix! Always insightful, always entertaining, and always a stellar recommendation. Thanks LKB!
57:20 "Anne Bonny was historically known to be straight" *EXTREMELY LOUD INCORRECT BUZZER* Sorry. I just can't. I'm imagining some dudebro losing his shit that famously speculated lesbian Anne Bonny was gay in a tv show and it's too funny.
I really don't know how many times i've seen this video essay, buy as an autistic, black and queer person who has a hyperfocus on pirates and consequentially on Black Sails I've never seen a more beautiful and touching analisys. I alwaya come here when I'm feeling down or needing to cry. Thanks for this magnificent work of art.
6:46 fun fact you actually cook sunny side up eggs from just one side, turn your heat down just a bit from where youd normally make eggs and use a spoon to separate the layer of white off the top of yolk and soon enough you have a sunny side up
At 3.8k likes, you have nearly as many (well deserved) likes as minutes you spent writing, recording and editing this brute of an essay. Very well done
I'm always thrilled to see more people getting into Black Sails so I really loved this video. Thanks for digging more into the behind the scenes and historical connections too.
CORRECTIONS. Unfortunately I made a few goofs despite spending ages on this 😅
1. Yes I'm aware there were massive slave uprisings like the Haitian revolution and such but none of these instances like ENDED slavery in the 1700s. That was poorly worded on my part
2. I forgot to actually SAY that Jack's tragic clown behavior, and wanting to stand near giants THING is the Falstaff behavior
3. Somebody in the comments said that most likely the Viking guys who enslaved Vane were actually a logging camp of convicts which was a thing that existed? So that's cool to know
4. The Urca De Lima was actually wrecked on the coast of Florida not an unnamed island
5. THE ISLAND THEY GO TO ISN'T SKULL ISLAND ITS SKELETON ISLAND. SKULL ISLAND IS FROM KING KONG APPARENTLY??? I'M SO MAD ABOUT THIS ONE 😭
I may have to update this more as the comments come in but I really hope you like this one it meant a lot to me
🤘
This might be the best video I've seen from you. All the praise to you for once again making me want to watch a great show I had regrettably never heard of before.
"Skull Island"? That's kind of a King Kong thing, but I understand the confusion. Good video! 🏴☠🏴☠🏴☠
@@srohr04 FUCK ITS SKELETON ISLAND FUCK ME 💀💀💀
Another minor correction if i may. Season 1 doesn't end with them on an island, they're on a beach in Florida. The Urca de Lima was a real Spanish treasure galleon that shipwrecked off the coast of Florida during a storm in 1715. Flint also mentions St. Augustine to Silver and the Tequesta tribes which put them in Florida.
I already know that after watching this video, my hyper-fixation on "black sails" will return in full force lol
Same lol. I after binged it the first time, I followed it up with the Pirates of Caribbean movies 😂😂😂
Same
I think I need to rewatch the series and have my heart broken all over again.
@@Nohandle1125 I do Muppet Treasure Island when I finish lol
Same but is that really a problem?
I think the reason they had they "Took my woman from me" line is specifically because he's talking to his crew to pull them along to his means. The phrasing is only because he can't speak to the enormity of what Miranda was to him, and it's what the crew would understand. We, the audience, know she was not some object, or really, "his woman" at all. She was something else entirely.
That's how I took the line, as well. It is a weird line- but only because we know Flint and the complexity of his relationship to Miranda (and Thomas). To flint's men, it's in line with what they think they know of who Miranda was to flint. For someone established to be so obsessed with perception, i take every line Flint says in his "captian voice" (any public monolog, basically) as highly intentional and calculated to evoke the reaction he wants.
Recall Flint's story of Odysseus. Odysseus is also connected to the Illiad. A story whose troubles start with Agememnon taking Briseis from Achilles, and then there is the loss of Patrocles which throws Achilles over the edge of reason. The show reversed the order with Patrocles/Thomas taken from James and then briseis/Miranda taken by the king/Ash. The rage of Achilles/Flint follows hard after.
@@MiLikesVids oh, I love this
Nothing wrong with that line in relation to captain Flint, she is just too sensitive to lets just say... un-femenist wording.
My woman, my man, my sister, my brother, my mother, my father, my friend, my lover. If anybody saying this out loud about a person in their lives triggers you, then that´s something you need to work out on your own.
She made a good video, I just hope she realizes that she is the flip side of the coin from a dude-bro. Two sides of the same thing, I believe the saying goes.
Also, like. Even if he doesn't see her as property, that's the way they spoke back then. IDK, here in Mexico "my woman" or "my man" are synonimous to "my partner" it doesn't necessarily convey property
Never seen the show, but I'd watch you talk about various sticks you'd found for 3 hours if you made it.
🤣
That emoji means she's already collecting sticks
I often use her videos as a "To Watch" list and then watch her video once I've watched the show/movie. If Lady Knight has made a 3-hour video on it, it must be worth watching, right? (Probs gonna do that with this one)
Look, you can find some *really* great sticks sometimes
Tbh, this is exactly the kind of show I'd want to know a decent bit about before committing to watching it
one day to spare in pride month to drop the gay pirate video
Truly I JUST made it.
@@Ladyknightthebrave If you're in need of more fun sea content then Ginny Di put out a video titled 'I want a playable merfolk D&D race (so I made one)'
I worked on the VFX for Pirates of the Caribbean 4 and I have so much sorrow for the poor roto artists that worked on this. A thing to keep in mind for all the replacement shots of the boat that they put on water is that the rigging is being filmed. That means every single shot needs to have some roto artist cut out every bit of rope so that the background can be replaced. One particularly nightmarish shot we worked on for Pirates 4 was a helicopter shot circling around the real boat they had. The real boat had motors, so we had to remove the wake created by those. For this shot they also decided to sail INTO the wind but left the sails unfurled for some reason. So we needed to rotoscope all the ropes and guess where they were when the sail flapped against them to reconstruct them. There were so many ropes, crisscrossing each other and it was all brown on brown from a quarter mile away while the boat is bobbing in the ocean and the helicopter is moving. Oh god that was awful.
So black sails never filmed on the water as I understand it? Also you can see the rope rigging in shots all the time so unless I'm misunderstanding, I think they didn't paint that stuff out? But I've heard how Disney treats their VFX teams so my deepest sympathies on a frustrating work experience
@@Ladyknightthebrave you only roto what you want to keep. In this instance they wanted to keep the practical rigging. I'm sure the immense amount of vfx work to replace or keep things like the rigging, masts and sails is why every shot of the ship on water is why they were full CGI. The artists on this show did a great job from what I saw.
😮
“There were so many ropes” would be a great title for a VFX artist memoir
@@Tamisday one thing I love is when someone praises a stunt person's amazing performance by saying no vfx was used. Then the BTS shows all the wire/rig removal and background replacement
From what I understand, the "viking guys" that Vane goes back to in s1 are a representation of a very real thing. Logging camps that were often made up of captives, forced to work off debts or for no reason at all, and sometimes made up of former pirates. They were worked so hard that their skeletal structure literally changed because of it. I'd have to do more digging, but that's what I remember from when I did research it. And I think that makes sense for a place that Vane would have come from, and seeing that definitely explains a lot about why he is the way he is.
HUH ok, I could not figure out who these guys were so that's interesting
@@Ladyknightthebrave Aye, they're based off of the Baymen, pirates and buccanneers who settled on the Bay of Honduras while fleeing from the Spanish (though in the show they seem to have settled in the Bahamas instead). While not directly referred to as Baymen in the show, one of them is credited as "Bayman Lieutenant", and like their real-life counterparts, they rely on slave labour and made their profits cutting and selling logwood.
Dangit. I was so psyched to spend 3 hours enjoying this video, but 12 minutes in I have to pause to go watch the entirety of Black Sails.
Be back when that's done.
UPDATE, 11 days later: I'M BACK AND I HAVE A LOT OF FEELINGS LET'S DO THIS
Tell us your thoughts when you're back
I went the other route... What a great video but i learned there was an entire season or two i missed 😭
IT'S SOOOOO GOOD. And I've been screaming about it to EVERYONE lolsob
@@dreamsinoctarine keep screaming! lol
Dad went to the corner store to buy milk and only came back 2 weeks later crying
Fun anecdote I have about this show, I once showed it to a friend of mine and her husband and they loved Silver doing the gossip column stuff so much that when we went to a play at our local theatre of Treasure Island, there was a scene where Silver said no one could harm a hair on Jim's head and I heard the husband stomp his foot next to us
Apparently my best friends roommate lived near where they filmed it. He saw that giant ship every day but didn't know what show it was for. I kinda lost my mind when he showed me the pics because I recognised that thing on sight. I told him to watch Black Sails. Hope he did that.
I personally think this show has such a tragic ending. Silver will forever be haunted by what he's done, by Flint's ghost, forever doomed by the narrative precisely because he's favored by the narrative, and him and Madi will be yards away for the rest of their lives as Flint says. And Flint will be left with all his ideals aborted and voice silenced as the moment he's taken out of the narrative. He's simply not James McGraw anymore, at least not the James McGraw that Thomas knew who wanted to civilize Nassau with him. That guy doesn't exist anymore, and the only person who truly understood the guy that exists, all of him, both the James and the Flint, is the one who has betrayed him. I think one thing people always overlook with this Flint x Thomas reunion ending is that when Silver asks Flint if he'd give up all of it for Thomas, Flint's not that sure anymore, his cause has become bigger than Thomas, and Silver then interprets his lack of an answer with what he needs to be true; that Flint would do the same for Thomas as Silver is about to do for Madi, that Flint and everything he represents will just go away once you give him Thomas back and he'll be happy as James McGraw. That's why I can't see a happy ending in Flint being excluded and imprisoned like the monster they always made him out to be, and as Silver with Madi, what he has with Thomas won't be enough.
As Flint himself says earlier in the show all the best lies are mostly made of the truth and that's what Silver's account is to me; trying to tell this tragic ending like it's a happy one as he tries to reason with himself. The events has happened the way he says, yes, but it's ugly for everyone, it's emotionally consequential in grand ways. He tries to pretend he's never known Flint fully so he can pretend his love for and later betrayal of Flint don't matter (like his past does not matter) because the only way John Silver the survivor can survive is if he distances himself from the emotional consequences of it all. I think his actions are very much like Max doing anything to protect her little corner of the world where she feels safe; he tries to cling to that sense of belonging and connection he's found with people but Silver is a deceiver to the core, a storyteller like none other, so he makes even himself believe this was the best way. I think so much of this story is so tragic because people are motivated by love and loyalty even when they're betraying the ones they love and are loyal to and at the end Silver loves Flint so much that he fools himself into believing giving him Thomas back is his true happy ending and Flint loves Silver equally that he just lets him be the end of Captain Flint - he gives it all up for Silver.
@irem8513 great essay, love the thought and effort you put in..
Conclusion, in the end, this is a great ending after all..
Around 2:10:00 I think? When there is the discussion of race and slavery and “white slavery”. I am not here to compare this to the African slave trade, however Billy Bones in the show canonically was “press ganged” into the navy as a child, meaning a bunch of navy dudes took him off the street and just forced him to be a literal child slave to the British navy. These kids would often be chained to the deck and forced to do menial tasks on their hands and knees with no word to their parents about where they’d gone (the irony being that Billy’s parents were activists against this practice, and he was press ganged while handing out anti press pamphlets for his parents cause). While this means Billy was middle class, there were children from way worse circumstances forced into this type of work with no pay, and it’s likely that “Viking colony” that Vane visited is one that he was forced into and escaped as a child. I think the point the show is trying to make is that the British did the same to “their own” and not just to Africans in the slave trade. And that’s why it’s pointless to try to reason with the British, or with any empire. A lot of it is a capitalism metaphor IMO
1/ Everybody was forced to do menial tasks on their hands and knees. Most sailors worked barefoot (no rubber soles till the 19th century and leather slips) and disease was always a problems so scrubbing decks for splinters and hygiene was a constant job. Everybody did it!
2/ Who chains workers to the deck your a hundred miles from land where are they going to go? Ships were full of landsmen, taken on to do menial work, they gained skills and were rated to higher paying jobs unless they were irredemably stupid.
3/ The point of press ganging was to get TRAINED SEAMEN from port cities or returning ships, it was military conscription. Why would they conscript a child with no skills, who is too small to do physical labour and who would be eating rations which cost money?
@@voiceofraisin3778 1/ There were some areas on the ship that even small adults couldn't reach/were too heavy for, so occasionally they'd use children. But you are right that everyone had to pull their weight with most tasks, especially in maintenance and hygiene.
2/ People in basically every seafaring culture would sometimes chain/confine unwilling and kidnaped 'crew' for several reasons such as A) to prevent uprising/sabotage/attack B) to prevent self removal of the permanent variety, thereby depriving the work force of a laborer C) to prevent theft, especially of supplies that unwilling 'crew' were last in line for D) simply to keep track of them E) to ensure that, in the event of catastrophe, the more valuable crew members had a better chance of escape. Granted, they weren't chained 24/7, usually locked away/chained for sleep. Also, it wasn't exactly COMMON because thats a lot of work and risk - but it did happen.
3/ Have you ever heard of powder monkeys? There were many, many tasks for which disposable children were useful. Emphasis on the disposable. Trained adults/teens were more valuable than than a child that was there for fodder, and fetch and carry purposes. Children were a depressingly useful and cheap commodity throughout all of history, easily discarded and just as easily replaced. And most importantly, easy to control because they are smaller and weaker.
Of course, all this comes secondhand from history and seafaring nerds who info dump on me, and I might not remember it 100% accurately! So, sorry If I got anything wrong 😅 My interests and expertise lie elsewhere~
I thought the Viking guy was Morgan. Since he sacked Campeche
Also, Max is my Queen and I'm so glad you love her as much as you do. Honestly, all the women in the show are incredible and very well written. Even if I could have done without that certain aspect of Max's storyline in s1 (or perhaps had it handled a bit differently) there is something to be said for how much she embodies the idea of 'starting out at the bottom and ending up at the top'. Also, rewatching that breakup scene between her and Eleanor makes me cry now, because Eleanor is going to look back and just...wish she could have been the kind of person to make that choice back then, but she wasn't. And now that she is, it's too late.
I found s1 great because of how Max overcomes everything. I have never felt the love of the pirates as freedom fighters the fandom has embraced. They are pirates, just as comfortable to destroy your life as the 'evil civilization' the fandom deplores. Fruit, fruit, tits, tits, they're the f'n same. In a story about narratives that ends with distrusting narratives the acceptance of common day political narrative read into the motivations of the Black Sails characters is curious. What happens to Max in s1 is evil. It is who the pirates are. That is their civilization. Not so very different from the one fandom believes they are fighting. Fruit, fruit...
Unlike the video maker and fandom. I find s1 excellent. It is pirates from the outside. Later seasons show us their motivations but ask why those motivations excuse s1. That is who they are. Whose story, whose light are you clinging to?
The way you describe watching this show is nearly identical to the way I watched it. When it was first airing I tried out the first three episodes and could not get into it despite loving pirate media and gave up. I tried a few years later, made it past that first part of season one that is very obviously trying to draw in an audience that Wasn't Me until I made it to the part that Very Much Was and now I also own the entire series, several tshirts, have binged Fathoms Deep, and scream at the tv on every rewatch.
Two weeks ago I was at a work meeting and as an ice breaker they asked everyone what their favorite show was. Without hesitation (or thinking about it) I said Black Sails and then, horrifyingly, I was asked to describe the show and realized that I did not know how to articulate why I love this piece of media while the head of HR smiled politely at me from across a table. I went with "it's a historical drama about piracy that works as a prequel to Treasure Island, but it's... you know. Produced by Starz."
"It requires an intolerable sacrifice! To apologize! TO ENGLAND!!! They took everything from us. And then they call ME a monster? The moment I sign that pardon -- the moment I ask for one... I proclaim to the world that they were right! This ends...when I grant them my forgiveness. Not the other way around."
A new Black Sails video??? It's not even my birthday. I often tell people this is one of the best shows I've ever seen, but it's criminally underrated. Seeing more youtube videos about it makes my heart happy.
Did some digging into the etymology of "Maroon" and its various meanings.
The colour maroon is derived from a term for a large sweet chestnut, first used in the 1590s and predating the Spanish term derived from their term for escaped cattle. Etymologists believe it comes from a dialect spoken in Lyons, France at the time, which got it either from Greek "maraon" (sweet chestnut) or the Ligurian "marrone" (sweet chestnut) (Ligurian is a language that was spoken in northern Italy at the time, and apparently predates the Latin influence from Rome). The use of it as a colour dates to the popularization of the term "couleur marron" in French ("the colour of a chestnut") used in 1791.
In modern French and Italian, marron and marrone (respectively) mean either "chestnut" or "brown," while the colour English refers to as maroon is termed grenat and granata (again, respectively), and are found in grenadine and pomegranate (and from pomegranate, grenade! Etymology is fun and weird sometimes!) There might be some bleedover with the Spanish influence because of the similar terms, but the direct leap from chestnut to colour appears to be a very specific comparison of something to the colour of a sweet chestnut.
But that's the colour. Everything about the verb has to do with the Spanish term.
The Spanish used the term cimarron (wild, untamed, from cimarra, meaning thicket) to refer to feral cattle on Hispaniola, then extended the same term to refer to escaped native slaves, and finally to escaped black slaves. This is broadly considered the root of "maroon" as a reference to people, which is developed from "symeron" and "maron," though it's also possible the term derives from the Arawakan root word simarabo (fugitive) which is...slightly better? I guess?
Either way, this term made its way to English and also came to mean "to be lost in the wild without resources" - probably originally in reference to these Maroon colonies you mentioned, which are just...groups of people stuck out on an island without a broader connection to civilization (though in that case, considering what "civilization" considered their appropriate status, I would imagine these folks would be quite happy about that lack of connection!) In the Caribbean, being "lost in the wild without resources" probably means "stuck on an island without a boat," so that could naturally be broadened to shipwreck survivors in general, and later to a penal sentence used by pirates and so on by deliberately abandoning someone on such an island. Presumably this would be an island chosen to be small but habitable, as it seems unreasonable to make a point of going to an island just to kill someone when you have many more effective ways of killing someone in ways that are either more or less torturous than being stuck on a sea rock and dehydrating over the next couple of days.
Primary source: www.reddit.com/r/etymology/comments/8rc8qz/the_color_maroon_and_the_verb_maroon_to_put/ (Who unfortunately does not cite all of their sources, but I'm not up to figuring out my university's VPN system to try to get to real etymology research papers and trying to dig all that up)
This is really interesting but it makes me very confused because my high school, a Catholic school in west Des Moines iowa, are called the Dowling Catholic maroons and our mascot is a leprechaun. So idk what they were thinking
Black youtuber voice menos from the void talks a bit about black sails and slavery in a video about our flags means death, the whole video is very thoughtful and interesting
Thanks for the rec I'll check that out!
a character who actively resists definition at all turns for the sake of survival through malleability becoming the ultimate defining archetype for who and what a pirate is is a concept that makes me so insane forever. also! the sheer fact that the "pirate voice" comes from the actor who played long john silver in an early film version is just so wildly meta that it all but guarantees i will never learn to be cool about this show ever
Black Sails is how I discovered Toby Stephens and for that I am so thankful
Gotta admit, when you use the Muppet Treasure Island casting as your reference to the characters, this show just gets
So much better.
That is my only frame of reference 😂
Black Sails is a prequel to the other film 😊
My god, you're right.
"He's pissed off, he's wet..."
😂😂😂😂
I am at work! I cannot be on the floor dying like this
That hurdy gurdy really went through the ringer just like the piano did x.x poor gal
Just watching this on Nebula now, and I gotta say, a 6'5 Billy Bones would have found life aboard a ship of that era absolute *hell.* Space on ships comes at a premium, especially in those days, and *especially* vertical space. Looking at some footage from the HMS Victory's gun deck (thanks Drachinifel), I'd guess roof comes in somewhere around 6'6 with the joists hanging down to somewhere around 5'10 to 6'0...man would be pinging his head off the ceiling all the time or stooping so much he'd develop a permanent curve in his back...or both.
Oh, and by the way, Victory is a BIG ship. It's the First Rate that Nelson took as his flagship in his famous battles against Napoleonic France and their Spanish allies, and is 227'6 long with a beam (width) of 51'10....compare to the Queen Anne's Revenge at 103' long and a beam of 24.6 feet (yes, decimal feet, wikipedia's being weird)...and I believe the Queen Anne's Revenge was considered unusually large for a pirate ship. This doesn't necessarily mean the decks would be shorter, and the Victory had more than twice as many people aboard, but that kinda expresses just how tight the space constraints are.
I LOVED your video, but I'm not quite sure I agreed entirely with your point in chapter 11 on Silver not being violent in the beginning of his story because in his VERY FIRST SCENE, he murders a man by stabbing him in the back and then lies about it with a smile to save his own skin. Then, through seasons 1 and 2, while I don't think violence is his first choice, nor does he like it, it really seemed to me like he was trying to fool not only the other characters but the audience as well into forgetting that very first scene and thinking of him as harmless and a fish out of water (if youll excuse the pun) while he went around trying to craft his role to his best advantage. Through all my rewatches of this show, I always forget how his story starts until his confrontation with Flint in the very end when, as you said, he becomes fully the nightmare he is in Treasure Island. He has always been, in my opinion, the character most aware that he is in a story, even more than Jack. There is a post I can't find right now that has this line (and I'm paraphrasing here) "he has one foot in the story and one foot out of it, until that foot is cut off" and he's forced by the narrative he was trying to manipulate but couldn't (and was therefore doomed by) to become a full character in this story he will now never be able to escape. Basically, John Silver is a character that makes me chew glass, no matter how many times I watch this show!!
Edit: that quote was actually a Luke Arnold quote! The full thing is: "He’s a guy who’s always had one leg out the door, and then they cut it off"
Yeah he avoids violence because he knows he probably won't win a physical fight but in S1 he also dooms at least half their crew by shooting at the man o war and has 0 qualms about it lmao
I'm obsessed with all of the characters in this show tbh. Sometimes I lay awake at night, thinking about the tragedy of Eleanor dying as a consequence of conforming to a role that she spent the larger part of her life rebelling against, and how blind she was to her privilege to the bitter end. And how Max learned her lessons from the mistakes she and everyone else around them made, and managed to make an actual life for herself amidst the chaos. (Also, shut up, she lived happily ever after, that's the story that's true to me. 😂)
I'll also never be the same person I was before I heard Flint's speech at the end. I was literally just crying listening to it again. Thank you for making me relive this emotional rollercoaster. 🙃
Elenors scream... Ive never seen the show and even that little piece of the scene had me burst into tears. the ACTING WOW.
I haven’t watched the video yet but you don’t understand how much this video - this show - means to me. It is a crime so few people have watched it. It’s a masterpiece in every way of the word and changes how you see and think. Thank you for talking about it
Oh wow, that bit at the end about the names Flint and Silver in relation to the natures of the two characters-🤌🏻🤌🏻🤌🏻
Toby Schmitz is a darling of Australian theatre. I was in theatre school and all the actresses went to see his shows just to swoon. 😂 I've seen both his Hamlet and his Private Lives. What a riot.
Such an oddly underrated and overlooked show for both its INSANE GoT-level production design, Toby Stephens being the most commanding presence on television, the iconic Flint/Thomas stuff, etc. Anyway, the one CONTROVERSIAL SUBJECT I will STRENUOUSLY object to is the idea that Flint looked better with long hair - but I SUPPOSE ladyknightthebrave is allowed to be wrong ONCE 😤
It's just personal taste lol
Having known Calico Jack Rackham's biography before I started watching the show, I went into this series expecting to hate him. Credit to the writers and Mr Schmitz for turning him into my favorite character in the series!
i rewatched black sails last year with my brother, it was his first watch and he got really into it (screaming at the tv into it) and at the end i said that by sending flint away and squashing the revolution, silver lost madi and my brother, whos just a kid really, said 'but he saved james mcgraw' and i had to sit down
Loved this! Thank you for making it!
A little tidbit about Luke Arnold, he was an assistant swordmaster on Peter Pan (2003) and was Jason Isaac's scene partner during fight training for the film.
one of my favorite video essayists doing a video on black sails oooooo im seated and just in time for it getting put on netflix
~1:13:29 Note, the fact that there is a mess of accents is probably accurate, but very few of the accents used are. During the early 17th century non-rhoticity (dropping r's at the ends of words) hadn't become a feature of any major British accents, so most of the regional British accents you hear are very distinctively modern.
Black viewer who watched it here. I quite enjoyed it I saw like the first few episodes as like a elementary schooler (which I shouldn’t have but elementary schooler brain didn’t really comprehend it I just thought the opening was cool and I liked pirates) and I then decided to fully watch it recently but it’s handle of slavery I find to be quite solid it of course it has its issues but the handling of slavery in modern media will never be perfect especially written by a white person but it was a very valiant effort. And when most pirate media chooses to ignore the slavery part (cough cough pirates or the Caribbean which I still love) this show to take quite the meaty stab into it which I applaud. This is a pirate show first slavery show like fourth so there was no way we were getting a perfect never had been done before interpretation of slavery but like the showrunners definitely did there research and gave a solid and decently nuanced take so I give them my flowers.
When my dad and i watch Black Sails we always scream "BILLY" whenever he is on screen. 😂
You're one of my very favorite creators, i truly believe it is serendipitous you posted this video the day i finished the show.
❤
My dad sees the actor in any other tv show and he screams "Billy" 😆
@mknees1467 SAME!! We're watching Umbrella academy right now and he's just Billy lol 😆 can not escape the pirate life.
I watch a lot of video essays but ever since I discovered your STARGATE and MASH videos, I’ve definitely felt more seen by your work than others. Always excited to see a vid of yours in my notifications!
Thank you for talking about this show. I watched it while it was coming out with my family and we LOVED it. Over the years I have been floored by the lack of internet coverage of this show. Well done!
Whenever i find myself thinking i'd love another ladyknight video, they go and drop a video on something i love or something i learn a lot about. Probably my favourite channel on youtube.
Black Sails is the TV show of all time and you are the video essayist of all time so this is a match made in heaven to me. Love love love this essay, gotta go rewatch the entire show I guess.
Yaaaaaay! When I saw that YOU did an essay on THIS show.
THIS. IS. MY. JAM.
Told everyone to not get in my way, locked the door, poured some tea, huddled down to watch. This is the stuff of happy places.
I tried to get into this show to fill the queer pirate-shaped hole in my heart (following OFMD's cancellation). Wasn't super invested after the first few episodes, but I may give this a watch (depending on the spoilers) and see if it re-invigorates me, because I really do want to like the show.
Edit: I actually watched a few more episodes, and now I'm hooked.
Right??? It’s crazy how many people I’ve seen who have had this experience of starting the show and (rightfully) hating the first few episodes but then picking it up again after seeing people’s posts about it and loving S2 onwards. I did the exact same thing and it’s one of my favourites now so it’s honestly funny to see that so many people went through this as well
It's literally like 5 episodes of pure swill followed by 3.5 seasons of the best show you've ever seen
@@The_Jovian I think I just got past the swill, and now I’m locked in. I could tell it had the components to be good, so once it started paying off all its setup, I got hooked. The characters are really complex, and have such a dense web of relationships ALREADY! It’s pirate politics!
Is any part of this video essay spoiler-free? I really want to watch it, but I’m hesitant to even click on it, lest I get spoiled from the get go.
@@sorrel106 That’s very comforting. I was worried I was just going to dislike the whole show.
But holy crap, it’s really good! I could tell from the get-go that the characters had nuance, so once they started putting everyone against each other, that nuance came out in full force. I actually love it now.
@@Zephirite. Ehhh like a very small part. It's better to just come back when you've finished.
I gotta say I adore how much discussion of battle tactics and logistics there is, especially in the early seasons
"Pissed off, wet, covered in blood" literally black sails in a nutshell, LMAO
I was SO impressed by the show's production, especially on the ships. The fact that almost all of the water shots are done via effects in insane to me! Some of it looks so real.
Lol, that boot montage took me OUT.
Bear McCreary is a frelling genius and I listen to his scores so often. ~MM
Oh boy, I'm excited to see this video. I generally liked Black Sails (I had some issues, nothing's perfect), but I'm sure this video's likely to give me an even greater appreciation. I always love these.
The reason we see so many shots of boots is because downcuff boots...look...fucking awesome.
I watched this show as a teenager when it came out mostly for the blood and boobs, but the story that started to unfold in season 2 kept me on the edge of my seat. It really was a story that inspired me and awakened many passions in me, although I was too young to understand all the topics it dealt with. the beautiful, the bittersweet, the tragic. This series has been close to my heart for years.
Very good video. No shame.
I get excited for your new videos because you manage to unlock a new hyperfixation that I never knew I had. You have a talent for inviting me into new worlds and stories to obsess over.
just finished watching this; an EXCELLENT essay about a beautiful show. Really well done and it makes me want to shotgun this series all over again XD XD I'd forgotten how sympathetic, tragic, heroic, and unnecessary Eleanor's death was, and totally missed some of these details you pointed out; how Roger's misremembers her knitting rather than embroidering, the symbolism of Maadi and Eleanor's fire and Flint&Silver's names... What a Great work of art!
Another Thank You for reminding me that it’s always a good time to rewatch Black Sails again.
The acting & writing by the end (both narratively & in terms of dialogue) really did reach rarefied air. The dialogue has that rare quality of being _almost_ too indulgent, but was held right at glorious.
The continued “Game of Thrones” marketing is funny considering Flint told us himself “There be *no* Dragons.”
Almost 3 hours? Very good, that's the day sorted!
I love the hurdy gurdy. I have one, I’m relearning how to play. I forgot how to after I had Covid. It’s really easy to mess up a gurdy, just leave it in a room that changes temperature or humidity and the entire thing doesn’t play right anymore.
Vane is such a tough character for me because I genuinely disliked him for the first 2 seasons but I did come around to him in season 3 and his death really upset me. But as much as I came to care for him in season 3, that doesn't change how much I disliked him in seasons 1 and 2. So...yeah...it's complicated.
I love Flint & Silver's relationship, especially in seasons 3 and 4. I also really like how Madi shifts their dynamic because she's in love with John but her desires & beliefs align more with Flint and that's so interesting to me.
Max & Eleanor have such an fascinating dynamic because they don't work as a couple or even as friends but they do understand each other better than most people. And despite everything that happened between them, they do have a genuine affection for each other. Eleanor's death is ultimately what puts Max back on the right path and what leads to her happy ending with Anne. Max saw the way Eleanor compromised everything for her ambition and how that led to her downfall and she chooses not to make the same mistakes. She puts her love for Anne before her ambition and she's rewarded with both love & power. It doesn't look the way she thought it would, but in the end, she gets the life she always wanted. And that's beautiful.
Also I love that Jack believes Max betrayed him but he still cares about her enough to offer her safe passage off the island. Their weird friendship (?) is so precious to me. ~MM
this is my favorite show of all time. it means the world to me in many many ways. and i just know you're going to do it justice.
Never seen the show but I watch all your videos as comfort media (especially the Hill House and Bly Manor ones) and the reveal at the plantation at the end made me audibly gasp for a character I didn't care about three hours ago
A bit of trivia about the talented Toby Schmidt (Captain Jack Rackham). Toby S. grew up in Perth, Australia, and went to university there with the brilliant composer, pianist, actor, comedian, atheist, singer, etc., Tim Minchin. Among other things, Tim wrote the score for Matilda the musical, which won countless awards, and the score for the musical, Groundhog Day. Toby and Tim have remained close friends and Toby was part of an introduction in a recent documentary about Tim. When I saw Toby's face and heard his voice in the documentary, I gasped, as I immediately recognized him from Black Sails.
Ladyknight, your essays never fail to make my cry. Thank you for making a video on my favorite series ever.
i put off watching this for such a long time, mostly because of how protective i feel over these stories and themes and shots and choices
you do it justice, you do it with such heart
thank u
Oh no. I have four episodes left. I'll have to finish them before I watch.
I’ve seen this show at least 3 times. And every time I watch it, I love it even more. The character arcs, the acting, the scenery, the story, just all of it!
Already watched the whole thing on Nebula and loved every second! Love Black Sails.
I just finished watching Black Sails on Netflix, this could not have come at a better time. Can't wait to watch!
Yayyyyy you changed my life by recommending this show. Thank you!
Oh I am SEATED. I love that show so so much and can't wait for your interpretation of it. It's sooo fun to analyse
Oh my god, Black Sails is my favorite series ever and I've loved your other essays, this is like a dream come true. Commenting this before even watching. I've been meaning to watch the show with my girlfriend for a while now (she's never seen it) but it literally isn't available to stream anymore in my country... Which is kinda fitting I guess, that I would have to pirate the show about pirates. However, I just ended up ordering a boxset of all the seasons, still waiting for it to arrive a month later...
Edit: Having now watched the video on Nebula, I have to say awesome job. That ending was beautiful.
I fkn love this show. One of those great shows that a lot of people never even heard of. SO GOOD.
Black Caribbean woman here. To answer your question (how we felt about the handling of race and gender in earlier seasons versus later seasons), speaking only for myself, I couldn't get past the Max rape scenes initially and abandoned the series only to come back to it years later (I think, after its initial run) on realizing there was a marroon storyline. So the marroons and Madi were my entry point, then I went back to the earlier seasons. In the marroon storylines I struggled with wanting what was good for the free Black and enslaved people (I don't call my ancestors slaves as that was their condition not who they were), especially when in conflict with the pirates' machinations, especially knowing that slavery didn't end legally (emphasis on legally) until 1834 in the British West Indies (1838 in most colonies given the apprenticeship period). I didn't see the show ending on a hopeful note for us. But I do feel there was considerable nuance and complexity in the later seasons that made it much more watchable and not as ...uncomfortable as the earlier seasons. I do agree with Foreign that not acknowledging the systemic brutality and reality of slavery would have made it pure fantasy rather than the historical fantasy that it is. I do like that the reality of Black people fighting for their freedom was integrated into the later seasons and that they took time to add texture to individual characters (like Madi, one of my faves, and Mr. Scott).
The annoying guy who played Rogers second in command, is Toby Stephen's brother.
I loved this essay video.
Black Sails rocks!
I'm only 15 mins in and I already know I'll be watching this at least half a dozen times. I am So So SO glad you watched this show because I love the way you analyze media.
Also, for my first of many comments (likely under different accounts) the Max/Anne/Jack trio is my absolute favorite dynamic on this show full of magnificent relationships and you are not alone in respectively appreciating JPK's beauty :)
Bonus: That comparsion between Eleanor's dialogue in the early episodes and Sam's horrible speech in SG1 was Perfect! ~MM
The way you watched the show is sending me girl, whaaat
I know I messed up on that one 😓 and it still rocked my socks so there's that
Watched this MAGNIFICENT video on Nebula right after it dropped, then a second time after binging the show. See, I'm one of those who watched one or two episodes way back when it premiered on Starz, and it didn't grab me at all. I figured it was just another GoT knock-off, and never would have thought of it again were it not for your essay. HOLY CRAP. My wife and I just finished our binge and MAN we love Black Sails! I'm halfway through reading The Republic of Pirates, deep down the Fathom's Deep whirlpool, and have Treasure Island in the Audible queue. Thank you, thank you, thank you for a spectacular new obsession!
I think it's important for you to know that
- almost three years ago I watched the first two seasons of black sails, then stopped because I wasn't in the right headspace for a show that intense
- saw that you posted this video a few weeks ago and remembered how compelling I found the parts of black sails that I did watch
- rewatched the first two seasons in a weekend, then continued to watch the rest of the show
- finished at 1 am last night and now here I am
anyway, I'll just be losing my mind about flint and silver as both narrative foils and narrative parallels, and about how much I love madi, for the rest of my life 🙃
Good god... i have never watched this show, cant recall ever hearing about this show, but if you make a video aboit something, I will watch it. You are a beautiful individual, I love the words you come up with, and I'm sorry about life, but also so grateful you're still around and producing. Amazing.
Billy Bones! Long John Silver! And the psychic Captain James McGraw Flint!
It's always a good day when someone raves about my favorite show in the same way I do. Thank you for this beautiful and dedicated exposure of Black Sails :)
Regarding the bad vibes around Flint calling Miranda 'his woman' in front of his crew - I always found it quite a genius move coming from him. He, a larger than life character, has consistently developed blurry and undefinable relationships. His dynamic with Miranda transcends romantic, sexual, and friendly love and is a mix of absolutely everything.
He is wrecked by a grief that is not just losing someone, but losing someone with whom he has shared so, so much. No one in the crew (besides Silver) can understand that. And yet, he talks to the crew in a way that they can understand. To them, it's simple. Flint got his woman taken away and so it's revenge.
What a brilliant move
one day i will get through one of these videos without getting misty-eyed at the end. that day is not today ❤
also "he's pissed off, he's wet, he spends 90% of the show covered in blood" describes half of my favourite fictional characters
i watched black sails in the past year as well and what an instant forever favourite! im so happy to see people continue to discover it (as i’m sure they always will with how timeless and incredibly made it is) but wow i did not know most of what went into the production. im so immersed watching black sails i could have been convinced they really were on ships in the middle of the ocean 😭 i also loved getting to hear more about the history in this video! i will forever be haunted by the show's ending and Silver's decision....
Black Sails is undoubtably one of my favorite series of all time. I’ve not stopped thinking about it since I finished it 4 years ago and have rewatched it a multitude of times over. Excited to watch this!
When I watch Black Sails the first time, it was on my best friend’s recommendation. She told me it would be very much My Shit, and she was right. I’m retroactively mad at myself for not watching it when it was on the air. It’s such a beautiful bit of storytelling, heartfelt and moving, which seems like a rare thing these days. I was so excited when I found out you were doing an essay on it, and it was so worth the wait!
Beautifully written and spoken. Loved that show back then, and so happy to get someone else's thoughts on this show. This was long but fascinating. Thank you ❤
31:00 absolute dream gig, these dudes had the best day ever
The beauty with which you talk about art is absolutely wonderful. I'm pretty sure every single one of your essays has made me cry, some multiple times, and not just because I rewatch them religiously. I am truly just fascinated by every piece of media you cover. It's a pleasure listening to and getting inspired by your work. Thank you ❤
watched this on nebula and it's fantastic. so well-researched and passionate
This video from this channel is everything I need to start this week. Black Sails is among the best shows I’ve ever seen and the most underrated to come out, well, ever. It’s in my personal top five alongside other perfect shows like Mad Men, The Expanse and The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel
Damn man, I didn’t even realize how gay this show was. Like, yes the characters are gay, but I never thought of it as part of its label. Probably cuz I’m a straight dude but when I tell people about this show I just get hung up on how awesome it all is in its entirety.
To be fair, I know some people I could sell this show to better if I mentioned how queer it was, but then I ALSO DON'T WANT TO SPOIL ANYTHING, so it's extra tough when they go "yes, yes, it's just a pirate show, I'll get to it some day"...
Love the video! Black Sails is one of my all time favourite shows and you are one of my favourite video essayists, so when I saw you were going to do a video essay on it, I squeeled out loud!
Just a quick credit thing I think you missed in the video though, Mr. Gates was played by the fantastic Mark Ryan. He was in another one of my favourite shows, Robin of Sherwood, and his character was supposed to be killed off after 2 episodes, but despite not having a single line in either episode, this man had so much charisma and sheer presence, they persuaded the show's creator to keep him on and he became a main cast member for the remainder of the show.
Just, I love that actor a lot and he as Mr Gates is fantastic and I will forever be sorry he was killed at the end of season 1 to make space for Silver, even though Silver is my favourite character in Black Sails.
I think calling Silver’s distaste of his amputated leg internalised ableism is a bit far - I read it as his grieving for the life and power he once held.
His first taste of power on the walrus was reading the news, where he would stamp to get attention, and others would copy him. Stamping is loud, commanding and can be done in unison with others. It’s not as though Silver is mourning his ability to run or dance, but the the physical aspect of his leadership style.
Silver stamping on dufreyne with his prosthetic is him adapting to and reclaiming this power and enhancing it. He’s utterly terrifying and this is what his men see from there on.
Yeah not to mention the way he speaks about it is pretty normal for the time period. Ableisn was not really a concern at a time
Okay so I'm only at the 48 minute mark so whether I leave more comments or edit this one as I go is yet to be seen, but I think saying that Vane's quartermaster cuts off Silver's leg is both an understatement and a ... overstatement?
This is hard to explain for me but I think the endurance of torture is really frequently used to flag like "this guy is too good to be 'corrupted' by torture", which is also kind of how the crew responded in reacting to Silver's facing down the torture without a word by voting him in as quartermaster. He is /better/ than a mere mortal who torture could have gotten to. Ultimately though, the audience knows this isn't the case - that is, Silver can be, is, and will be a shitty person if it suits the moment. So it is this will power this sheer force of will that gets him through the torture (whether this plays into tropes can be debated but I won't digress) and the torture leaves him With A Leg.
When he is rescued, he has a bleeding leg still attached to his body (bleeding meant literally, not as a stand-in for 'fucking'). One's mobility and thus like, legs, is really important to most people, and that he still through it all /had/ a leg is I think a really important aspect? Because it meant he all but faced torture then from his own people, with the psychological torture of amputation (which, regardless of it being the best move and him not being in the right mind, was not consensual)
Back in high school, we had a paralympian visit to do high school typical motivational speech. Her story of becoming disabled was waking from a coma following a 5 story fall that she didn't remember, missing her right foot. She ultimately proceeded with an above knee amputation which gave her the best outcomes in terms of prosthetics and mobility. What stuck with me though, was her in discussing amputation, was this relief that she didn't have to make the choice to /have/ amputation in the first place. On arrival at hospital, the doctors considered her foot a non-starter (like, all 26 bones broken in multiple places with severe ligament, tendon, nerve, and vascular damage) so she never had to make that choice, and basically said that if she had been awake and asked, she probably would have at least considered insisting they try save her foot
I hope that story isn't too much of a tangent, but I think it does have some carry through to Silver's experience and an aspect of the one-two punch of torture + amputation that could be overlooked?
(edited bc i wrote flint instead of silver the whole time accidentally)
What an incredible video essay on this severely under-noticed series. Thank you for putting in the time and effort to create this.
Finally back to this essay a month later after watching through all of Black Sails on Netflix! Always insightful, always entertaining, and always a stellar recommendation. Thanks LKB!
57:20 "Anne Bonny was historically known to be straight" *EXTREMELY LOUD INCORRECT BUZZER*
Sorry. I just can't. I'm imagining some dudebro losing his shit that famously speculated lesbian Anne Bonny was gay in a tv show and it's too funny.
Alright, you've convinced me, I'll watch the show
I really don't know how many times i've seen this video essay, buy as an autistic, black and queer person who has a hyperfocus on pirates and consequentially on Black Sails I've never seen a more beautiful and touching analisys. I alwaya come here when I'm feeling down or needing to cry. Thanks for this magnificent work of art.
6:46 fun fact you actually cook sunny side up eggs from just one side, turn your heat down just a bit from where youd normally make eggs and use a spoon to separate the layer of white off the top of yolk and soon enough you have a sunny side up
At 3.8k likes, you have nearly as many (well deserved) likes as minutes you spent writing, recording and editing this brute of an essay.
Very well done
It's been quite a while since a video essay hit me so hard, fantastic work. Thank you so much 💖
Oh my god I am so excited for this. Black Sails is one of my all time favourite shows.
I'm always thrilled to see more people getting into Black Sails so I really loved this video. Thanks for digging more into the behind the scenes and historical connections too.