You can use the term enslaved, it’s more accurate anyway.

Ah, yes, another thing to put on my Watch List because of Ladyknightthebrave. I'm not bitter-I'M EXCITED ;-}

1:47:19 wow! I'm actually in tears from that reading.

okay, like 2 minutes into this video and .... I gotta go watch black sails don't I? I'll be back in a few days....

This deserves way more views! What gives??

The main theme of 2 is "when on a quest of revenge dig two graves" Ellie and Abby destroying everything they care about is the point of the story

Did I hallucinate a video where you interviewed a Holocaust expert and the two of you reviewed the best and worst portrayals of the shoah?

I've never watched Hill House. Watched your video. Started crying when Nell saved her siblings. Began bawling when you read the poem out loud. Thanks! 😭👍

I actually didn't like this show and all llllll other similar shows I like alot

Arrrrrgh

What's up with the racial profiling of Diego Luna, the guy looks like a Spaniard or a Portuguese that I see on vacation in those countries, I mean he just looks like a southern European and that's it

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.

It's been quite a while since a video essay hit me so hard, fantastic work. Thank you so much 💖

I mean when you have boots as fashionable as those, you’d want to show them off as often as you can

Ridiculous. A kid beating up on a story done by her parents. The entire thing sounds like a teenager who is rebelling against those parents.

I guess they really wanted Tarantino to be a fan of the show.

Pretty good treatment. I actually learned quite a lot, or at least was reminded of a lot that I had forgotten. We used to watch MASH after dinner on Thursday nights. Mom and Dad and I, and it was always funny or serious but always worth it.

It is 6 in the morning and I can’t stop. I’m obsessed with this now. This show is currently the most important thing in the world to me and I adore Mr Dufrense arc so much it hurts.

They’re sea legs

I love that youtube just decided to not put the full video in my subscriptions tab, at least now I have something good to watch

I've watched the theatrical version, that is almost unwatcheble, in pure disbelief because I watched the director's cut first years before, and I didn't get any hints of Deckard being a replicant in the theatrical version. And although I know that's the intension, I don't think it's clear even in the director's cut and the definitive cut, it's very subjective and ambiguous.

Boots and belts! Glorious belts!

Alright, you've convinced me, I'll watch the show

I love blood I'm in

As a black superfan of this show, those scenes are extremely difficult. The white savior trope with Vane is a bit cringe and probably one of the show's low points (it also felt like he was going against character). But as Foreign said, a lot of the uncomfortable things we see there are most likely accurate. Fantastic work, btw. Always glad to find another Black Sails fan!

This might be because I watched the show first and then read the books, but I actually really liked the change they made to Jesper and Wylan’s relationship. We already have the enemies to lovers who bicker while one is flirtier and the other is trying to hide their blush in Nina and Matthias, and we already have the epic slowburn romance of kaz and inej. The change in how they met is refreshing and allows for more awkwardness between them. It also makes their relationship stand out in the many slowburn relationships happening around them. While I do think they did speedrun the rest of their relationship so that they’re super duper in love with each other after, like, a week in the show, I also think this makes for a devastating lead up for when Jesper and the crows find out that Wylan is actually a Van Eck. Obviously we’ll never get to see that payoff now that the shows cancelled, but numerous fanfics have done a really good job of portraying this. Just thought I would share that thought.

I've finally gotten to the end of this video and I. Am. WEEPING. Omg this was so beautiful and touching. ❤

First, they came for the Communists And I did not speak out Because I was not a Communist Then they came for the Socialists And I did not speak out Because I was not a Socialist Then they came for the trade unionists And I did not speak out Because I was not a trade unionist Then they came for the Jews And I did not speak out Because I was not a Jew Then they came for me And there was no one left To speak out for me

This reminds me that I still haven’t watched the last episode of this show.

Everybody typing story’s about the game: Me: 12:56 stop shooting me I’m a baby😡😡😡😡

Welp, time to finally go watch Black Sails

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.

There should be WAY more brown people and WAY more accents bit i get it

Great video, as always! Side note that the Feast of Fools is indeed twelfth night. The lyrics in the Disney song even state “scurvy knaves are extra scurvy on the sixth of Januervy”

I’m watching this a few days after you posted it, but funnily enough the day you posted I watched Muppets Treasure Island for the first time in forever 😆

zack mcgowan aka rowan from 100 is the goat

According to family legend, I have a several-times great grandfather who got impressed by the British Navy. He tried to run, they caught him, and then he got keelhauled. And he lived, and escaped again, this time for real. But yeah, keelhauling is terrifying.

so there's not one (Toby Stevens) but FOUR people from Black Sails in the PJOTV series? (Toby Stevens, Sarah Jessica Parker, Steinberg and Bear McCreary!)

Such an unexpectedly moving video essay. I don’t know if I’ll ever watch the show but I still feel like I’ve experienced something

I can't believe you didn't mention the interview where they say they're aiming for second best Treasure Island adaptation (the first being The Muppets version)

this will be a great watch once i finally finish the show 😅

One of my favorite shows that i cant rewatch because it hurts too much.

I think that Charles Vane backstory was just meant to prove that slavery was something that could look for victms in vulnerable people. Orphans, large families, women, etc.

“Seems to be extremely devoted to him” overlaying a full contact kiss was an AMAZING cut

This show is one of my top 5, and quite possibly top 3 shows of all time. Season 2 is probably the best singular season of a show I have ever seen, perhaps bar Shogun's (now) first season. At the same time, this is one of the most upsetting shows I've seen as well, partially because of its story, and partially because I was not in a good headspace when I watched it and the moment I realized that I was watching a train wreck in slow motion, I think I felt probably all of the emotions Flint was feeling when Silver pulled the gun on him (but like, for the entire duration of the season and the half that remained; it was severely unpleasant). Midway through season 3, I had a moment of realization that this show was _highly_ unlikely to pull an alt-history where the British Empire is brought down during the Golden Age of Piracy, and that was one of the most oppressive feelings I've felt while watching a show. It felt like the show was letting out all of the emotions I had held inside, and then took all of it and put it back in a bottle and shoved it back inside my chest. Also, I'm kinda enraged about how Miranda got treated in the narrative. Girl basically got five seconds of actually thinking about herself and letting out her own emotions on-screen before she got a bullet in the head (okay, I'm exaggerating, but still). The women in the show, while well-written, are all put in very weird positions and I'm not convinced that _all_ of these instances were completely thought through. Miranda gets fridged for Flint, Eleanor gets fridged mainly for Rogers, even Anne gets kicked around for Max and Jack to have arcs and feelings, and of course Max' prolonged assault which you already touched upon. Again, it's not to say that these characters don't stand on their own two feet, but it's kinda telling that Max and Eleanor are generally the most disliked characters of the show (while Vane gets lionized because he did one single unselfish act in his entire career), and it's not _completely_ the audience's bias. A couple things I would like to add here: -Flint is the personification of queer rage, like, holy sh!t. He is literally born as a trauma response to his (and Thomas and Miranda's) rejection by the society at large. -Flint's speech about people being unable to imagine the end of the empire is more or less Fredric Jameson's well-known quote "it is easier to imagine the end of the world than the end of capitalism", and is pretty much giving Mark Fisher's line of argumentation in Capitalist Realism, just substituting England for capitalism. Utopian imagination is pretty crucial in battling this type of "realism". Ironically, the show also refrains from this utopic imagination. The only thing we get is James and Thomas being "happy" on a plantation. -The revolution against the empire is launched by a gay man, a black woman, and a disabled man. -While Silver is disabled and has a lot of ableism to process, he actually never really deals with the idea of being a disabled man living under the empire. He is part of the republic of pirates when he becomes disabled, is already accepted by the crew who love him, help him and don't consider him less-than because of his disability, and who in fact see his disability as a badge of honor. It brings a new layer to Flint's argument with him there at the end about how he'll become a tale to scare their children with. Silver _doesn't know_ what it's like being viewed as the Other, but he is soon gonna find out. Madi as an ex-slave and a black woman, and Flint as a gay man, have both experienced this first hand. -Woodes Rogers' attitude toward Eleanor is so disgusting. He practically speaks about her as if she is a wild animal he has tamed, and it brings the motif of colonization onto the gender dimension as well. I think Eleanor becomes even more tragic once you consider that she willfully is trying to integrate herself into this colonized mindset. -Flint is as a matter of fact alienated even within his own pirate group. There is not a single person there who knows about his history and sexuality, and in fact, the part you highlighted with "they took my woman" _is_ Flint basically performing heterosexuality. He really can't explain to his crew the depth of what happened. Miranda remains his "beard" even in death, as she was in life as "the woman". -While the reunion with Thomas is sweet and giving James a much-needed break for once (and a double _unbury_ your gays on top of that), he is still quite basically and forcibly shoved back into the closet by the one man he came out to. The plantation is basically there to uphold the (very heteronormative) status quo, even if James and Thomas get to be free in their own way there. It is very symbolically important that it is a "plantation" after all. I think that ought to explain why Flint eventually drinks himself to death. -It's a bit unfortunate that understanding the full story requires the audience to have specific knowledge of the time period, because I've seen way too many people defend Silver and Max's actions as being better due to pacifism, "saving more lives", and "at least the slaves in Nassau got to be free". It seems almost every other day someone new who's watched the show comes on the subreddit saying how they were routing for the British and the Spanish, or how Woodes Rogers did nothing wrong and the likes. Like, no, Flint was absolutely right during the "there be dragons" speech. Madi, as well as the rest of her people, have all the right in the world to be pissed at Silver forever. Unfortunately, it seems the show was relying too much on people understanding that things like slavery or being confined/exiled/killed for your sexuality are awful and a lot of people just don't seem to get that. I think the need to lead this narrative into Treasure Island, which brought up the theme of "a story is true, a story is untrue", resulted in giving people license to close their eyes on certain facts. As for the debate about Flint's fate, there are several setups throughout the previous seasons that, in the event that Flint is killed, won't actually get a payoff: -While Flint is "waging a war against civilization", it is very obvious that he actually wants to go back. There is a conversation between him and Vane in Miranda's house about domesticity, and the way Flint so delicately holds one of Miranda's cups shows that he yearns to let go of the war. In a way, he wants to give up, it's only for Thomas and Miranda that he continues the fight. -I think somewhere in season 1 they talk about Odysseus and how he would be rid of the sea only when he reaches a place where an oar would be mistaken for a shovel. And then Flint is taken to a literal plantation. -The idea that Flint the vengeful captain is different from McGraw the man who loved Thomas, which was set up with the backstory, the conversation about the name Flint, as well as with Miranda's ghost. -It is established that Silver is Flint's weak spot, has _made_ himself Flint's weak spot. Flint quite technically gave up the revolution to save Silver. He basically already gave up the war, and he knew very well by that point that in a debate between himself and Silver, John would win. He wouldn't attack John at that point, if he wanted to he would've let him be killed. So it makes perfect sense that Silver and his men are able to subdue him and take him away. -The idea that Silver has control _because_ he knows people's stories. Remember the gossip column? Yeah, he pulls that on Flint himself. Are we supposed to assume that all of these are invented by Silver too, or what? I genuinely don't think the showrunners were going for an open ending here and things accidentally lined up that way, but even if that's the case, the only thing it proves is that some people have an easier time believing that Silver completely went meta and warped the entire show retroactively than believing that things indeed happened the same way he said it happened. Kinda doing the same thing where Silver was fever-talking that Flint was controlling the storm.

I had never really been into Shakespeare much (my most memorable experience with it had been a Shakespeare in the Park production of Love’s Labors Lost I attended at a writing camp where my friends and I spent the rest of the day hopelessly crushing on the lead actress) but a few years into dating my partner he leaned I had never seen his favorite, Much Ado About Nothing and long story it short it’s now also my favorite of the bard’s plays.

I’ve been deeply fond of Jojo Rabbit since I first saw it but it’s always so reinvigorating to re-examine media through the lens of your video essays (like recontextualizing my feelings on Schindler’s List as a gentile thanks to your videos and interviews about Holocaust films). And I believe I’ve heard of the Book Thief before but now thanks to you I’m going to add it to my reading list. You have such a beautiful and heartbreaking way of conveying topics, you’re such a fantastic storyteller and your videos almost always leave me tearing up at some point but it’s especially true with this one

ooh this was GREAT! as someone who was considering whatching Black Sails and found out in time that it would Not Be For Me, tysm for summarizing it in such an eloquent (read: utterly fannish :3 ) way <3 (and it's not the first time i watch your videos with that in mind!) also: the closed captions are /amazing/ this time, thank you so so much for the care you put into them after i pointed out the problems i (some of?) the previous videos! :D

I tried watching Black Sails when it was new, and fell off halfway through season 1. Then I came back to it a few years later. It's not perfect, but OMFG is it good?!?!? And this video totally does it justice.

What an absolutely wonderful video essay. This has made me want to go back and watch it all over again