miranda james carriage scene you'll always be famous to me. regardless of whether you interpret his reciprocation of her interest as a genuinely sexual attraction or as more of an intellectual/emotional one, at the end of the day she was the first one possibly ever to directly and precisely cut through all his carefully crafted persona layers into the heart of who he truly is and encourage him to do something for himself for once without giving a fuck about Big Society. we know by the time he has the affair with miranda he's already pretty enthralled with thomas but he's still at the point of denying and suppressing those feelings in favor of fulfilling his civilized role ("my judgment is still intact", acting ashamed when he beat the fuck out of the other naval officer and hennessey scolds him)
dare i say that if it wasn't for miranda's encouragement to eschew societal expectations in that carriage that he may never have acted on his love for thomas. everything james did at the alfred dinner scene took immense courage, first standing up and stating what he believed in then ordering alfred out and then of course the thinly-veiled love confession with the "you're a good man" speech. it was miranda who first kicked him into this reckless "idgaf" mode and it was also alfred's insults to her at the dinner table which prompted his commitment to it. before miranda came to his defense at the table we can see he was still torn between listening to thomas' voice in his head vs. listening to hennessey's voice. it was the intervention by miranda which finally solidified his bravery in proclaiming to alfred (who also functions as a stand-in for english civilization) ykw this is fucked actually, fuck all this and fuck you specifically, i'm gonna confess my feelings to the man i love now.
flint's story began and ended with thomas but it could not have ever happened without miranda. she was his guardian and guide all the way through the entire journey. she was mistress when he needed love she was wife when he needed understanding she was also (indirectly) wingman when he needed courage. but first and before all she was Mother.
behind every great man (or great men in this case) is a great woman. etc.
I'd have renamed it. Like...you conqueered it, what's the point in keeping the original name? Though the name is definitely important, so it's strange they didn't specify it in the show. Even if I've noticed they generally haven't given too much importance to the ships per se (Urca being the exception) or to the captain/ship relationship as much as one would find it in other pirates story. I mean, they are important for who owns them or for the action they are brought into but there's not really that... almost "personification" of the ship (what brings us to use the "she" pronouns for them after all). Don't know if it's clear what I mean, it may be only my perspective of course, but like...poor Walrus gets wrecked once, almost destroyed twice (if not more) and burned in the end, and they barely spared her a though in season 4 (when Silver talks to Billy about her resilience). So that's probably also why the man 'o war disappears. Like...it wasn't important, they didn't need it anymore and the show just...forgot about it😂
One of the mysteries of Black Sails is where the Spanish man o’war captured in season 1 vanishes to after Captain Flint and his crew return to Walrus…but another mystery is exactly WHAT is this ship. I’ve seen her referred to as a frigate, but now that I’ve captured a good screenshot (season 2, episode 4), that this is definitely no frigate.
The man o’war has three full gun decks. Counting gun ports, it looks like each has approximately fifteen guns, plus a short gun deck back aft near the main deck. This averages to 45-49 guns per broadside, which makes this grand bitch not just a ship of the line, but a first rate ship of the line. That's the age of sail equivalent of a battleship! Take a look at the gif below of the man o’war savaging Walrus and Ranger.
(Frankly, if she was a frigate, I don't think Flint would've worried much; Walrus has the throw weight of a sixth rate frigate and would've stood a good chance; with Ranger along, they would've been just fine and no one should've panicked.)
So, what ship is this? The Urca de Lima was a real ship, though Urca was only a nickname for Santissima Trinidad, and she was part of a combination of two flotillas that made up the 1715 Treasure Fleet. This fleet consisted of eleven ships, of which at least two were ships of the line.
The first was ex-Hampton Court, a British built third rate ship of the line of 70 guns that was captured by the French then sold to the Spanish. Sources say that she was renamed Nuestra Señora del Carmen, but contemporary sources such as the governor of Jamacia, Archibald Hamilton indicate that this was a separate ship and the flagship of the second part of the fleet. (More on that in a moment.)
The second confirmed ship of the line was the French Griffon, which was the one and only survivor. (Cool fact: the captain of this ship was also likely the informant who gave Hamilton his information).
The third ship is the mystery ship that brought up the rear of the formation. This ship is harder to place, and was either a different "massive war galleon" or Nuestra Señora del Rosario, a third ship of the line. This may have been a third rate or fourth rate ship of the line, but sources make it very hard to tell. Given that the wrecks that have been found have never been positively identified, it's even harder to determine which ship was which.
Back to Black Sails. Historical evidence says that there wasn't a first rate ship of the line in the 1715 Treasure Fleet, but the show does also indicate that the Urca was traveling alone, so a bit of dramatic license says that we've got a first rater along for the ride. It's far from outside the realm of possibility, given the contemporary evidence that the Spanish definitely did use ships of the line as escorts for treasure ships.
I think it's safe to say that the ship isn't Hampton Court, however. An ex-British officer like James Flint would 100% recognize Hampton Court, who would've been captured (1707) after he left England but was a distinctly British design. Additionally, the characters continuously refer to her as a Spanish man o'war, which indicates she's Spanish-built.
Spanish-built ships of the line with three decks have 94 guns or greater. Until 1700ish, they frequently were referred to as galleons, a term that faded out of use and was replaced by navíos. If I'm going to be a real history nerd, Spain didn't really have a three deck ship of the line in this era; they'd scrapped the only one they had in 1705, Nuestra Señora de la Concepción y las Animas. But prior to scrapping, this ship was sent to the colonies to harass settlers around Panama, so she was on the right side of the world in the early 18th century.
Historically speaking, Nuestra Señora de la Concepción y las Animas (Our Lady of the Conception and of Souls) is the best candidate for the Man O'War in Black Sails.
In-universe speaking, that big bitch is a three deck, first rate ship of the line of somewhere between 94-100 guns, just based on the number of gun ports and the mincemeat she makes of two ships at the same time. Why did she vanish? Probably because it'd be hard as hell for anyone to beat Flint if you let him keep that ship, and Woodes Rodgers would've had a much harder time taking Nassau when she was protected by a ship of the line.
Have you seen this post before? Probably a close cousin of it. Dimwit me deleted my tumblr and had to remake it.
Additional sources:
1715 Treasure Fleet Information
Ship resting places, armament, and educated guesswork
Archibald Hamilton's information
Reblog if you stand against order, civilization, and goodness itself
support fic writers!
source: @ AgentMayViolet on Twitter!
This is the last thing Flint says to Miranda in a private conversation and I think is one of the most revealing things about Flint as a character he directly states.
Flint was created to be ephemeral and that explains where his fear of being perceived as the villain comes from. Up to this point, what James has been doing is compartmentalizing the actions and feelings of his two versions: McGraw and Flint. And since his intention has always been to get rid of Flint because he is not who he believes himself to be, he can't stand the thought of people only taking into account what the latter has done.
But it's inevitable, James McGraw and James Flint move in completely different circles, they are known to different people. Only one person has lived with both of them: Miranda. She is the anchor to his past life, the one who reminds him that no matter how many years he has been called Flint, he was McGraw before and he still is.
So that's why what is about to happen at that dinner has huge implications for him that will turn him into what he was so afraid of becoming.
~ Who's afraid of little old me?
They should be.
🖤Exciting news! 🖤
🖤My free-to-play visual novel, "Phantom of the Black Rose Revue," is now available!🖤 This nostalgic yuri game features 19 animated CGs, 13 original music tracks, and an introduction to the world, mysteries, and love interests of the Revue! 🖤
Signal boosts greatly appreciated, especially as this game is entered in the Spooktober Game Jam!
#swanqueen #emmaswan #reginamills
The Weight Of Grief Masterlist-
A/N: this story is currently ongoing! Now that I have everything I’ve pre written posted, and ppl have shown some interest. I’ll be continuing to work on it and my intentions are to have a new chapter posted every week minimum! Plot wise you can expect at least 7-8 more chapters of this particular story, it really just depends on the flow of things. it honestly may go over, there is just so much to include✋🏽😭
Summary:
Centuries ago, Agatha Harkness was condemned by her own coven for entangling herself with the dark arts, yet when they tried to execute her she turned their magic against them, draining them of their power and leaving nothing but hollowed husks & ashes in her wake.
In the aftermath of Salem, she found solace in an unlikely love, forging an unbreakable bond with the Reader and later with the cosmic enigma herself, Rio Vidal. Their passion burned bright, but fate is rarely kind to those who defy its balance.
When Nicholas Scratch was born, he was not just your son but a child of magic, a gift from Rio—one that came at an unforeseen cost. Fearful of the price that would one day be demanded, Agatha ran taking Nicholas with her in a desperate attempt to keep him safe. But no amount of magic, no amount of hiding could change what had already been decided.
Years later, Agatha stands on your doorstep, stripped of her power and seeking aid. But the wounds of betrayal are not so easily mended and the weight of grief is not so easily forgotten. How dare she return now, after all this time—after leaving you to grieve alone. Love, loss, and the cruel hands of fate weave their story together once more, But some wounds do not heal without a price.
Prologue 
Ch 1.
Ch 2.
Ch 3.
Ch 4.
Books are a key point of the storytelling in the first two seasons of Black Sails. They help to reveal various aspects of characters and their relationships. Being the nerd that I am, I decided to create a reading list based on Captain James Flint’s key books.
Not only did I bother to compile this short list, but I’m actually reading the books in the list.
The list in sort of the order that they are introduced to the viewer.
Continua a leggere
She/her, writer, books lover (whichever, from every age and every nation) tv shows lovers (ouat, iwtv, black sails, hannibal, good omens...), anime, manga and danmei lover (mxtx especially), rock lover. Women lover. Earth lover. Ao3: https://archiveofourown.org/users/EleonoraParker/works
196 posts