Tag: black sails

what’s your opinion on how they’re handling Silver’s disability in black sails? personally, I was so satisfied to just see him beat the shit out of dufrense when he said all those things, but also like, I feel he has a lot of self-worth issues. just curious what you think about it? :)

bisexualcyborg:

OH, NONNIE

look, Silver is so much My Type it’s ridiculous. Snarky, silver-tongued, a face like he’s Will Turner and Ethan Chandler’s long-lost brother, established as subby and, I hope, I hope, going to be established as bi. Bam, me = sold on character. And then he gets this amazing mix of loyalty and selfishness, he starts as a bumbling puppy and turns dark, so dark, and makes himself essential to the plot and to the crew and to Flint with the sheer power of words. Bam, me = even more sold on character arc.

And then. And then. And then they go and make him disabled. Not just disabled – they give him a peg leg (I know it’s treasure island canon, I have to say I’d been anticipating that for a long time). They give him trouble with walking and everything that entails, psychologically, at a moment where I’m this weird mix of struggling and reclaiming my leg troubles. Me = completely head over heel lost without hope for redemption this character was just. Made to give me feels.

Good, on to your question: honestly, up till now, I love it. I love what they’ve done with him and his disability. i love that it’s not just a throw-away event – oh, he lost his leg, now he’s a pirate with a peg-leg, haha, let’s move on to other storylines. They don’t do that! Silver has trouble walking, he has poor balance, he occasionally falls flat on his face – even after seven episodes! 

They’re paying attention to what disability means on a day-to-day basis. Not just physically, but psychologically too – he’s stubborn, he makes choices that may be “bad for his health” bc he has other priorities at that time (bc newsflash, “health” doesn’t automatically always get catapulted to the first place on our list of priorities), he angsts about being a burden to the crew (and I know, disabled people aren’t burdens, but we often do feel like we are, and the fact that they contrast Silver’s angsting about it with the crew’s complete refusal to consider him a burden, with their unconditional and natural support and respect, is super cool. Also that he keeps telling them that they “don’t need to take care of him” bc he’s right! Him being disabled shouldn’t mean people should take away his agency! But it also doesn’t mean that he’s suddenly unworthy of respect and support, and needing more support doesn’t mean he deserves less respect, and people do it bc they respect and care for him and not out of pity for his situation – those are all things that resonate really deeply with me. It’s a realistic and respectful arc for a disabled character – addressing his self-worth issues while also clearly stating that those have no reason to be.

And the people who treat him as if his worth has diminished now? The ableist pieces of shit who call him “half a man” and “a useless invalid”? The show explicitly frames them as dickheads, as jerks, as villains. God knows I don’t support murder but in that scene with Dufresne, everything was shot to make us empathise with Silver and want Dufresne to get his stupid face kicked in – it frames Dufresne’s insults as disgusting and Silver’s rage as righteous.

I must say, I am a bit weary of the timeframe – Silver’s disability coincides with his spiral into darkness, and honestly, I’m done with disabled villains. But otoh, this show doesn’t do “good guys” and “bad guys” in the long run – every disabled character would have been dark in some way, and if they’d been the only cinnamon roll that’d have been icky too bc that would have smelled like inspiration porn. And, more importantly, Silver’s disability isn’t framed as the reason for his descent into the Territory of Very Fucked-Up. And that’s truly the essential bit: he doesn’t go violent murderer because he suddenly feels inferior. He goes ruthless for Flint, for his own ambitions, ambitions he’s nurtured since long before he lost his leg. That’s the redeeming factor, for me, and I hope they keep it that way (if not, i’ll get angry).

Also, in full and complete honesty – and god knows I’m done with violence on screen, done with it, I’ve had enough, – as someone who’s regularly wanted to hit someone upside the head with a crutch when I got glared at on the bus for not giving up my place, or to roll over some ableist arsehole’s feet with my wheelchair, that scene with Dufresne was, beyond the “ew no not again must we really do this,” also profoundly satisfying and cathartic. Seeing someone who’s taunting someone’s “weakness” and then having that very same “weakness” turned against them as a weapon? The aggressive, reclaim-y, “I will damn well show you” part of me I am generally pretty successful at silencing really enjoyed that.

Let’s say Silverflint goes canon (I’m quite hopeful tbh) do you think Flint would be kind of conflicted about it? Like, he would feel he’s betraying Thomas? ’cause he loves waking up next to Silver so much that sometimes he doesn’t want to get up to get things done, he enjoys talking about anything with Silver so much that he doesn’t feel like talking about the war right now, he loves reading to Silver so much that he doesn’t feel like reading maps to plan their next attack… ?

sshomoerotica:

OH GOODNESS GRACIOUS

I definitely think there’s a part of Flint that is conflicted when he starts realizing he has Feelings for John, esp. considering that Miranda is gone so he has no one to turn to.

However, I think that by the time he is at that level of comfort w John – waking up next to him, talking about random shit and reading to him – he’d have made peace with everything.

It’s be before stage that would be bad. John would get fucking whiplash trying to figure out what way Flint is going. One minute he’s fucking flirting up a storm, bedroom eyes, etc. Then when John starts to come on to Flint, Flint starts distancing himself. He panics a lot and tries to run/hide from his feelings. 

Flint’s moods are mercurial at the best of times but when he and John aren’t in sync the whole crew knows it. Flint holing himself up in his office, snapping at anyone who so much as looks in his direction.

John, thank fuck, is very patient. Especially after hearing about Thomas. If he didn’t know about Thomas, well, he probably wouldn’t have even tried in the first place – Flint isn’t someone you just come on to hoping he’s into sodomy. Knowing about Thomas gives John a reference point, and with the way Flint reacted to Miranda’s death, John understands pretty well by this point how Flint works when it comes to love.

Flint is fighting an entire fucking war against British civilization because of Thomas. Flint burned down colonies for (ostensibly) months because of Miranda. 

So yeah, long story short; Flint would be conflicted. He’d be angry at himself for liking someone else again, for letting this happen. He knows first hand the pains of love and loss. He’d tear himself apart because he will never love someone the way he loved Thomas. 

But then he flips open Meditations, reads “know no shame”, and thinks about how Thomas would feel to know that Flint is isolating himself because of this misplaced sense of duty.

Both Thomas and Miranda would see Flint happy. Neither of them would begrudge his having found love again – if that’s even what he feels for John. 

And god, the L-word. Flint is scared shitless of that. What he and John have is so entirely different from what Flint knew with Thomas. It’s gritty and harsh and with the constant threat of death hanging over them. They have their soft moments together but what lies between them is not soft. Flint cannot let his feelings for John get in the way of his war, and John cannot ever allow himself to forget the pattern. 

But it happens gradually. Flint finds himself waking up next to John more often than not. When they should be discussing strategy, they end up in heated but friendly debates. What starts out as a playful jab about John’s literacy turns into them discussing their favorite books and pages read aloud to each other in the comfort of the cabin.

Eventually they are so intertwined that Flint cannot find their separate ends. Flint cannot imagine himself without John at his side – cannot imagine this ship, this crew, this war without him. John is not Thomas, but he doesn’t have to be. Flint’s love for John does not eclipse or remove his love for Thomas. But the time finally comes when it doesn’t hurt so much to think of it, that Flint loves someone else now.