10 YEARS OF BLACK SAILS (2014–2017) – Created By Jonathan E. Steinberg & Robert Levine

That's what's so special about him!

That he is not the kind of character (for his role, in fact) one would expect to have this deep, actually introvert kind of personality. And it clashes so much with his 'shouting order-self' we get to see while he is on action, but I think that EXACTLY because he has actually that kind of personality there wouldn't have probably been any other ways than that for him to relate with people around him.

Also, it's such a great depiction of how in the end everyone has to morph their own selves -even painfully- in the shape more fitted to survive in the enviroment they have to be. Which is sad but it's exactly how his character came to be and it's what makes him special because it makes him not only a vengeful warrior but also a broken neurodivergent human who has to face a world that has not enough space for people like him.

A dragon in the darkness, indeed.

thinking about flint's awkwardness around people, one of my favourite acting choices made by toby stephens (who truly never misses) is in the scene where thomas goes to kiss flint. he cups his face, holds his gaze and flint looks at him trapped. but when he comes closer flint just. flinches. his face jerks slightly back as if to avoid a blow. his are eyes pained like he's already been hit. it's such a panicked little twitch, instinctive and quickly tamed, that i hesitate to put it to rational considerations about the consequences of kissing a man. i always felt it was a moment of profound shyness and unease in the face of tenderness. again, i find it really endearing and i am forever surprised they went for this complex mix of sweetness, vulnerability and strength and competence in a male protagonist of a show covering the role of a warrior leader.

The Untamed x Harper’s Bazaar making

and that… that can make you do unspeakable things

I have to go there, one day😭😍

0 thoughts head empty, it’s the bench

So beautiful and hearwarming! It would be amazing if Madi went freeing them, I think the three of them would make a great squad.

They deserve that freedom and the happiness which comes with it. Sometimes is useful to read things like this. It makes one feel better, even if I can hardly imagine it coming true.

Happy Thomas Resurrection Day

I wrote a little short thing in celebration. All prompts to be handled shortly - I’m in a writing mood!

It has been a long time since Thomas Hamilton had the luxury of caring about smells. He recalls his first night in Bethlem Royal Hospital all too well for so many reasons, but high on the list is the appalling stench of the place. He recalls retching over and over again that first night - soiling the rough uniform they had forced him into and earning himself a qualification as a messy patient, something which he had come to regret in later months as he sat in his cell, dressed in little more than rags, huddling in the straw. He has long since learnt to disregard any and all smells that might have disturbed him in his former life - and so it takes him quite by surprise when the scent of the sea, complete with its faint edge of the dead things that have washed up overnight but without the heavy reek of the Thames, strikes him all at once. He breathes it in, and feels something in him ease- as if it had taken this to assure him at last that he is still breathing, still here -

Still tangible and alive.

“Thomas?” James asks, and Thomas shakes his head, struck speechless as he stands on the shore for the first time in years, staring at the ship that is going to take them away from this shore - away from all that they have both suffered and into a new life.

“Forgive me,” he croaks, and swallows hard. “Forgive me,” he repeats. “I - had no idea not smelling tilled earth any longer would affect me this way.”

James blinks.

“There’s - a strange sort of symbolism in that, I suppose,” he acknowledges, and Thomas stands, dumbstruck for a moment at the eloquence of his husband’s statement.

He has been dead to the world for ten years. He has smelled earth - worked it, been covered in it for so long. His fingernails have been crusted with it, his hands turned black and brown as it’s been ground into his skin. He’s been buried - buried before his time, before the breath has left him, with no coffin, even, to shield him, and he suddenly feels as if he has just, finally, burst free of his premature grave only to find himself not thirty feet from freedom such as he has only dreamt of in his fitful, disturbed coma. He turns, and kneels, allowing the sea water to run over his fingertips, then raises them to his nose. He is alive, and he suddenly wants to splash out into the swell, bathe himself in the ocean, allow it to wash the past ten years off his beleaguered, dirt-encrusted skin and his battered psyche.

“Do you think,” he asks, taking a deep breath, “that there’s time for a bath, before we leave?”

James looks at him, and then at the water.

“That’s going to be colder than you think it is,” he warns, but doesn’t sound like he has any real expectation of dissuading Thomas from his goal. In fact, he’s looking at the water speculatively himself, and then at Thomas, who grins at him.

“I might need supervision,” he says. “I think you should come and make certain I don’t drown.”

“We have a few hours before nightfall,” James agrees, and Thomas feels a thrill of possibility run through him - even as he recalls that they are not entirely alone.

The ship in the bay, after all, will not surrender itself to two men. Thomas turns toward their ragged crew of escaped convicts, and the stronger men that Madi has brought with her to their rescue. He looks to Madi herself, who stands, one eyebrow raised in amusement.

“I will take the men further up the inlet,” she says to both of them. “Do not make me come looking for you in the dark.”

James blushes - actually blushes, and then the princess turns, and walks away, and Thomas’ grin widens.

“Shall we?” he asks, and James gives a huff of helpless laughter, and then they are both laughing, stripping their shirts off and going splashing into the water. There will be grime in their hair tomorrow and they will both need a new set of breeches, but for now, they are joyful, cleansed with the salt, renewed, refreshed -

Resurrected.

My captain🖤☠ (and king).

Perfect description.

I'd forgotten how exceptional the first episode of Black Sails and the introduction of Captain Flint are. In one (1) episode they point to this soggy, angry little man and go: this is the most dangerous pirate of the seven seas. he wouldn't even win a swordfight. he beat someone to death with his bare fists and is ready to do it again. he probably cries himself to sleep at night. he's the most collected, composed man you've ever seen. he throws furniture around in a fit when he's angry. he talks about the importance of trust and honesty. he doesn't believe any of it. he can completely change someone's mind when he talks to them. the people closest to him know not to trust a single word that comes out of his mouth. he's in control of the narrative. he's trapped in a web of lies of his own making. he's made himself into a legend. everything he's built is just one second away from falling apart. he inspired a whole nation. he's the number one public enemy. he's a hero. he's a monster. he's just one man. he's starting a war against the whole world.

She's absolutely a great character. I've always loved her and her relationship with Lestat (yeah, all of it to the end). I'm really curious to see what they are going to do with her in the show.

She is 'The Wild' and I can't wait to see how they'll make that real on screen.

Gabrielle De Lioncourt is such a cool character I cannot wait to see them on the tv show preferably played by a non-binary person maybe? There's no character like them, like being forced into the performance of womanhood and motherhood out of the constraints of the time period. Being so apathetic to her children and husband because it's almost like they belong to someone else. She's one of the only characters who was given a choice about her turning and she's the one who takes to vampirism the best, immediately viewing it as an opportunity to disregard all the shackles of societal expectations, directly opposite to someone like Louis who tries desperately to hold on to whats left of his human life. And the pure agony of her hair growing back every time she cuts it that scene felt so tragic, the betrayal of her true self by her own body.

Independent multi-muse Black Sails blog, rules are pinned, verses, character info and more coming soon.

I’ll post another with all the links soon! 🖤 Please share.

Credit: @teachthekraken

@mdzsnet | MDZS Network’s Anniversary Requests ⤷ requested by anonymous: Wangxian + Shrike

I couldn’t utter my love when it counted Ah, but I’m singing like a bird ’bout it now I couldn’t whisper when you needed it shouted Ah, but I’m singing like a bird ’bout it now — Shrike (Hozier)

This is exactly the spirit of the show. This is what Thomas would say about their war (well, his own war too). This is what makes this show so dear and personal to me. The key to all historical changes.

As Woodes Rogers once said:

"You expect the world to become what you want it to be despite all avaliable evidence and experience to the contrary."

Yes, this is what they all have been doing through the whole show. WR included.

Long live Black Sails.

The thing is. The thing is about black sails is. What did they get in the end for all their pain and suffering and blood? Well, nothing. Absolutely nothing. In the end it all came down to nothing and it meant nothing and they were remembered in history as monsters and died as monsters. But yet it meant everything. They failed, every single one of them, but the fact that they failed meant they tried and that meant everything. They failed in the end, so what was the point of it all? Wouldn't it be better off if none of them had tried, if none of them had bled and struggled and fought or even met? But THAT is the point! The point was in the living, not in the dying, not in the failing! It was in the trying! The way they tried because of each other and for each other! The way they tried to beat against something that could not and would not ever move in their lifetimes! Flint tried for Thomas and Miranda tried for Flint and Miranda tried for Thomas and Silver tried for Flint and Mr. Gates tried for Flint and Max tried for Eleanor and Eleanor tried for Max and Charles Vane tried for Elaenor and Mr. Scott tried for Eleanor and Mr. Scott tried for Madi and Silver tried for his men and Billy tried tried tried and the Maroon Queen tried and Madi tried for freedom and Jack tried and Anne tried And Jack tried for Anne and Anne tried for Jack and Anne tried for Max and Max tried for Anne, and Eleanor's grandmother tried for her and Eleanor tried for Woodes Rogers and Woodes Rogers tried for her, and Woodes Rogers tried and Edward Teach tried for Charles Vane and Jack tried for Charles Vane and on Skull island, Silver may or may not have tried one last time and they all tried and it meant nothing and yet everything. Everything. Because the point was not the losing, but that they fought at all to win.