Thread by @astoryisqueer

sorry I need to vent because I'm nearing the end of my fourth rewatch of #BlackSails and this show is a fucking masterpiece let me tell you.

On today's agenda: another example of the narrative of the show validating #SilverFlint as canon through mirroring in 4x04 and 4x10 🏳️‍🌈🏴‍☠️

After learning about the Savannah plantation from Max, Silver asks Flint a very simple question: now that we are so close to achieving everything we've worked for, wouldn't you trade it all (this war, Nassau, me, wouldn't you trade US) to have Thomas back?

Flint deflects the question, he replies that if Thomas knew that they were so close, he wouldn't want him to. And Silver of course sees right through him: "though that wasn't really what I asked, was it?". And through Flint's silence it is heavily IMPLIED that yes, he WOULD.

He would trade it all, he would trade this whole war he's fighting in his name if he could have the man he loves back from the dead. If he would then be able to find himself in James McGraw and truly let Captain Flint be swallowed by the sea, that's another question entirely.

Point is, what it's been done here, is reasserting Flint's relationship with Thomas and the extent of the things he'd be willing to do for him. Which is then, in turn, even further highlighted by Silver's next line.

Faced with an impossible choice, Flint would indeed give up the war and everything he stands for to have Thomas back. That is what this dialogue wants to achieve: to make this point clear to us, the audience, and to Silver as well.

Remember that at this point Silver does not know that Thomas is alive, making his question legitimate. He's thinking of being in a position of vulnerability to something or someone, and right now he is vulnerable to the idea of losing Madi, because he has just admitted to it.

So intrinsically he is wondering if he would be willing to trade everything (and his relationship with Flint) if it meant to save her. While Flint would trade the war for love, and to have his love back, through this dialogue we are explicitely lead to believe that Silver

himself would, in fact, trade the war to save Madi (his love). THIS IS ALREADY FORESHADOWING THE ENDING EVERYONE. What is still missing is for us to see that he would do that for Flint as well, precisely because he is also in love with him.

Once we get to 4x10, we see Silver faced with the same impossible choice: to sacrifice everything (more than the war, it is to sacrifice the trust both Flint and Madi have in him as well as the possibility of being loved as well) to save them.

Now, because of what we just saw in 4x04, it is IMPOSSIBLE for us to mistake Silver's choice as anything else but a desperate attempt to save BOTH his loves. Silver isn't sacrificing the war and Flint to save Madi alone.

In the same way that he isn't sacrificing the war out of love for Madi while out of what, respect? friendship? for Flint. We KNOW he isn't, and we know because Flint confirmed this for us, that the motives for giving up the war are motives of love. Can only be motives of love.

And we know that even in Flint's case, Silver's love cannot be platonic. We know because the show makes great use of mirrors and we would not be presented with a scene about impossible choices between the war and a non-platonic love if Silver's choice wouldn't then mirror

Flint's own in everything. This is also confirmed by yet another mirror: I'LL WAIT FOR AN HOUR, A DAY, A YEAR is said to both Madi and Flint in the exact moment Silver feels he's losing them, but after he's made the choice of saving them.

The juxtaposition of his relationship with Flint to his relationship with Madi, that we know to be the opposite of platonic, enables us to make the same assumption on the nature of Silver's interest for Flint.

Together with the dialogue in 4x04, it is impossible not to see that #SilverFlint is validated and CANONIC precisely through (obvious) subtext and in virtue of the techniques of storytelling that the creators (and the characters themselves) make use of in the show.

But because Black Sails wouldn't be Black Sails if it wasn't a study in validating queer (and human) relationships through ambiguity and subtext, all of this is obvious to us THROUGH SUBTEXT because we are the audience. But there's beauty and there is truth in ambiguity as well.

Relationships aren't always either well defined or inexistent; they survive on the margins, like us queers have been doing since the beginning of time. There's freedom in the dark, because there is discovery in the absence of structured boundaries. There's exploration.

I don't believe Silver is fully aware of the extent of his sentiment for Flint -not until the very end at least, not until he lets him go-, but that isn't any less valid, any less important or any less beautiful. And he certainly doesn't love Flint any less because of it.

For more on why SilverFlint *has* to be kept as subtext (and for more evidence on the obvious mirrors etc) I redirect you to this amazing thread by @gaypiracy

https://twitter.com/gaypiracy/status/1264696373125042178?s=20

Ok i'm done I'll go yeet myself in the hypeuranium

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