schneefink | More Black Sails

Pirates! We still have a big bottle of amaretto at home because we made tiramisu last week, so DD and I decided to have drinks while watching pirates, but we need to stop with that because in the past week we've drunk more alcohol than probably the entire year up to then. (Still not much at all.) Originally we started because we were told the first season is bad and bad things can be more fun to watch slightly tipsy, but in this case that really isn't necessary.

We're up to 2x03 and enjoying it a lot. Oddly, after hearing so often how much better the show gets with season 2, 2x01 was one of my least favorite episodes to date, I think because it was a very effective reminder of the brutality. It was easier to forget when we only saw pirates fighting against people defending themselves, but Lowe's crew just executing the entire crew of a ship who'd already surrendered was different. (And a different kind of violence than Vane's crew raping Max.) I shouldn't have expected otherwise, it is a show about pirates after all, but in my defense my two main associations with pirates in media are Pirates of the Caribbean and One Piece, both of which do a great job distracting from the violence.

There are so many complex characters, it's wonderful. Currently my opinions on many of them change basically with every episode, but have a few notes ~~because I'm procrastinating on studying labor law.~~

I liked Max at first, then I didn't when she tried to mess with Jack and Anne's relationship, and then I liked her again when she told Vane to remove the black mark on them. It suits her well if Jack and Anne are on a ship and Max gets to run the brothel alone, of course, but still. The silent exchange between Max and Jack when Anne wordlessly suggested the threesome was wonderful.
Jack and Anne can gather a crew now! Their relationship is so great.

I still really like Eleanor. Lowe threatened to take away everything she has and rape her and kill her, no wonder she was grateful and attracted to Vane after he killed him (Vane killing Lowe was very satisfying), and it was reasonable that she didn't want to risk Vane destroying every ship in the harbor for the chance of taking back the fort, but now she's on the opposite side from Flint and that's not going to end well. And the situation seemed so promising, Vane could take Lowe's ship and Hornigold could get the fort back and everyone's happy, but I bet the hostage will make everything more complicated.

I enjoy the flashbacks to Flint and Miranda's past. I'm not sure yet how I feel about Miranda, but I would enjoy her and Eleanor developing a relationship.

I don't want to constantly punch John Silver in the face anymore! The first moment where I caught myself almost liking him was when he realized Flint really did intend to capture that warship, heh. (Also it's canon that one of the pirates fucked the dairy goat, omg.)

Flint is still really interesting. His crew voted him captain again even though they know that he has his own agenda and is willing to kill his own people to get there, but that seemed less risky to them than being killed by Dufresne's incompetence, and Flint promises danger but the possibility of a high reward. Dufresne was totally justified in his horror that Flint would engineer the situation with the failed prize kill to get his captaincy back, but to be fair Flint did only point out the metaphorical rope and Dufresne hanged himself. Even the officer Flint used to be was aware of the importance of how one is perceived by others, and Flint perfected it and uses it. It's not foolproof but damn effective.

We got confirmation that Billy is still alive! I knew it. There was no body. Captured and tortured, so not great, but hey, alive.
While Mr. Gates is dead, killed by Flint himself. Ouch. Flint stops at nothing to get what he wants. I liked how Mr. Gates started out completely loyal to Flint but is not blind to his fault and he does have his limits, which Flint doesn't appear to have.