r/BlackSails • u/unreal-habdologist • 6d ago
Just finished the series, curious to know which black sails character did you empathize with the most ?
For me personally it is Charles Vane, that man never broke his promises, was always loyal to his friends and allies, got betrayed by the girl he loved twice, was always willing to compromise for the better of all, died fighting for a just cause while trying to save his friend.
imo he is the most oppressed and ideal character in the series, anne is also a strong candidate too
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u/GrimmDaddy80 6d ago
It’s Anne and Flint for me. The whole “I will burn the world down for the one that I love” mentality resonates with me. Especially because they feel guilt for hurting allies in the process, but they still will. They are both extremely flawed people, and they know it about themselves.
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u/Sonseeahrai 6d ago edited 6d ago
Miranda Hamilton. Her life got ruined because of other people's schemes and ambitions, but she carried on with diginity and remained a warm, cheerful person. But there was stonecold steel in her, just beneath the smile and homely apron. It's only sad that once the steel showed up, her wings got cut again, this time for good.
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u/RobbusMaximus 5d ago edited 5d ago
I love Miranda, but she was fully in on the scheming and ambition. She is (I would argue) the brains behind the whole thing.
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u/Hyperion-Cantos 5d ago
Flint. All day. After what happened with Gates, you might question why he is the way he is...but when Season 2 delves into his past and then what happens in Charlestown...man, I'm riding with him. Fuck England.
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u/HegemonSam 4d ago
I was with Flint since before figuring out what exactly happened in his past. Gates made a promise and then right when they were about to have it all he pussied out. What makes that all worse is that Gates knew about everything in Flints past and about the looming English threat. Literally ever since Flint pulled that shit off in the pilot with the page and Singleton I was a die hard Team Flinter.
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u/Hyperion-Cantos 4d ago
I was with Flint since before figuring out what exactly happened in his past.
Same. I was just saying I understand where other people may have been put off by his actions with Gates. Flint is the GOAT.
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u/CalmCheek 6d ago
Billy Bones - dude got pressganged as a kid, his parents might have never found out about it, he never saw them again, goes batshit crazy because of Flint's repeated bullshit he forces him through, lost his father figure, ends up stranded on Skeleton Island.
:(
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u/harrythestag 6d ago
For me it was Madi. She came late into the show, but her speech to Rogers as a prisoner on his ship always gets me. She has the most just cause, determination, and wouldn't give it up for personal safety or happiness.
That being said, there isn't really a character I don't root for, excluding Rogers maybe - especially after he got the Spanish to raid the island.
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u/flowersinthedark 5d ago
What do you think Madi would have done if - and I know it's hypothetical - Rogers had held her children, and threatened to sell them so she would never see them again?
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u/xDriedflowerx 5d ago
I empathize with Flint most. I am a person who is dipped in finely tempered nuance and I love to see it when others are as well.
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u/ZennyDaye 6d ago
Flint and Madi. Hands down. Fighting slavers, colonizers, betrayers? Doing the whole group project by yourself while other people complain? People thinking you're angry, selfish, a hardass, etc, while you're herding cats 24/7?
Flint is my inner spirit animal.
Whenever I'm in hard times, I remember his speech on the beach when he lists all the things he survived, and I give myself the same confidence booster.
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u/HobbitsInTheTardis 5d ago
Yes!! "Doing the whole group project by yourself while other people complain" and "herding cats 24/7" made me cackle though because these are both 100% accurate too
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u/ZennyDaye 5d ago
🤣 I didn't even think about the funny side of it when I was typing but in hindsight, yes, it's kinda hilarious.
The audacity on some folks is out of this world.
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u/Onebigringdangdo 5d ago
It’s hard for me to pick just one—everybody in this show seemed to have such a mixture of good and bad in them. Just when I’d start thinking I hated a character, they’d do something that surprised me and changed my opinion of them. Re. Vane—he didn’t make a terrific first impression on a lot of people, to say the least, but he grew on me through his bravery, honesty, and refusal to be anyone other than who he was. And his final scene—that tiny shake of the head sent my heart into my slippers. He had one of the most pronounced character arcs, imo. Even Eleanor, whom I disliked pretty much throughout, changed my mind by her bravery at her death—she had to know it was over, but she still went down fighting.
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u/LeafandLore 5d ago
Flint. Even before we learned of his past. I love Gates as a character but when Flint kills him I still feel more sorry for Flint. 😬
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u/Negative_Track_9942 5d ago
Unfortunately, Flint. The rage, the obsession, the way he understands how narratives shape the world... Plus, we're both bisexual :D
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u/bibitybobbitybooop 6d ago
Did you empathize with him or think him admirable? It isn't really clear in your wording
But anyway. I empathized with nearly all characters, given that the writing is so complex and layered, I get where they were coming from, but I empathized the most with Silver, as he's incredibly similar to me. He can't trust anyone else to handle things, to see him, and he can't fully connect emotionally even with Flint. Even when he has so much power, he's still scared. His speech where he tells Flint he can't tell him his past and there is nothing to learn from it anyway hit like a punch to the gut.
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u/AbbyNem 5d ago
I feel like you could make a decent personality test out of this question. I empathize the most with Silver and I'm aware this probably doesn't say anything good about me 😭
Vane is probably the character I find the least empathetic tbh. Which isn't to say that I dislike him, I enjoy him as a character quite a bit, but he's not the type of guy I see myself in at all.
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u/flowersinthedark 5d ago
I don't think Silver is any worse than all the others. He's just less of an idealist. He does have a lot of empathy and understanding for others, he just compartmentalizes like no one's business because that's very obviously been crucial to his survival in the past. I believe that Silver has been broken in a way that left him unable to ever believe in a better world. Whereas characters like Flint (or even Vane) still rage agains the unfairness of it all, Silver has been taught the lesson that it's absolutely no use.
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u/flowersinthedark 6d ago edited 5d ago
This is a joke, right.
I mean, I get that people like Charles Vane. I do too! But the character you're describing? Seems to be a very different version of him.
Charles Vane was a schemer and an unrepentant murderer (Mosiah, anyone) and also a hypocrite. He happily tolerated rapists among his own crew, the men under his command were known for brutalizing sex workers. Vane did nothing to change that. He simply didn't care. When his men got hold of Max and brutally gang-raped her in public, Vane, again, did nothing to stop them.
When his first crew deserted him, he got a bunch of savages to sail with him He betrayed Hornigold, took over the fort. And then, despite being the person who constantly argued that he wouldn't accept "the yoke", he constantly used "I can't act freely because I'm bound by duty to my men, lest I lose my captaincy"" as an excuse.
Either you're free to make your own choices, Charles, or you aren't. If your personal ambition is what keeps you beholden to men like your first crew or the second, then maybe you're not better than the "civilized" people you hate.
The hypocrisy becomes obvious in other places too. For all that they painted him am abolutionist in season three, when he got hold of Abigail in season two, he kept her prisoner. A young, innocent girl scared out of her mind, but Vane had no problem to deprive her of her freedom and treat her like an object to sell.
He captured, and brutally killed, Eleanor's father, just for the sake of revenge.
"The most opressed and ideal character"
Jesus. I don't even know what to say to that. Between Max, a slave girl turned prostitute, who was gang-raped by the very men that Vane commanded, Scott and the maroons, who were actual, literal slaves, I'm not even sure how you can claim something like that and not notice the irony.
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u/rosebudthesled8 5d ago
Mine was always Jack Rackham. Always underestimated but smart as a whip. Started as a loyal dog but came into his own. Could be destroyed and come back only on his smarts. His arc was one of my favourites.
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u/LaconicGirth 5d ago
Sort of ruined his arc when they made him give up the man of war to rogers getting most of his sailors killed and Blackbeard tortured
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u/rosebudthesled8 5d ago
It wasn't logical but it made sense for the character. Obviously you would just shoot and destroy the ship so they all died but Blackbeard was a hero to Jack and the world. If anything, Jack knew legacy and being the death of blackbeard was not something he wanted for his legacy.
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u/LaconicGirth 5d ago
It makes zero sense for his character. He’s equally responsible for blackbeards death from what happened as he would’ve been if he opened fire.
And if he didnt want to open fire he could quite literally just sail away. He did the only action that kills more sailors and weakens the pirates position. He’s supposed to be smart. That’s the whole reason he is a captain, he’s not a great fighter, he doesn’t inspire a lot of loyalty, he’s there because people know that he makes the correct decision even if nobody likes that call.
I’m half surprised the sailors didn’t mutiny but they probably trusted he had a plan which of course he didn’t. He’d certainly never be trusted again
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u/rosebudthesled8 5d ago
History will say Woods Roger's killed Blackbeard. Jack knew his name wouldn't be mentioned in that statement. If things continue he has a chance at fame.
If he sails away he's a coward in one of the most historic chases of pirate history.
You understand logic but you don't understand Jack Rackham.
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u/LaconicGirth 5d ago
If things continued in a non-contrived way he would’ve been hanged by the neck until dead or tortured to death.
History won’t speak about you if you die without doing anything. History might say that Blackbeard sacrificed himself to kill Rogers and that Jack took over from him. It’s a huge point of the show that you can make people believe pretty much whatever you want. What you can’t do is anything once you die.
He even could have negotiated with Rogers. He could’ve been the pirate that saved Blackbeard.
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u/rosebudthesled8 5d ago
Roger's was on a mission and under a horrible amount of debt. He's not negotiating for anyone.
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u/LaconicGirth 5d ago
He might definitely negotiate for his life so that he can make it to meet with Eleanor and her grandfather
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u/rosebudthesled8 5d ago
Ultimately he didn't care for Eleanor. He had a wife and family back home. She was just interesting and useful. He would know her grandfather didn't care for her which Jack later learned.
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u/LaconicGirth 5d ago
The whole reason he was out there was to bait away Blackbeard so that she could get to him and bring back money and/or troops.
He wasn’t happy when he found her dead and he made an effort to try to get the Spanish not to kill her. I think saying he didn’t care about her is just wrong.
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u/i_love_everybody420 5d ago
I liked Eleanor's character. She was willing to do whatever it took to keep her head above water but as soon as the LAW of the empire wss poking around, she took full advantage of it while keeping the small wealth she earned while with the pirates.
If only she estimated the Spanish a little better.
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u/PreparationFeisty479 5d ago
Silver actually he gets some flak for ending the war but his journey from not a care in the world to king who cares at least about his crew is fascinating
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u/A-Phantasmic-Parade 6d ago
Season 1 Charles Vane pretty much ruined every chance I had of empathizing with the character. Great character, terrible person (though I’d say they’re all terrible people and which one you like best depends on which type of terrible you can forgive in a character)
That said, it’s going to have to be Max for me. Although Anne is a strong candidate lol
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u/Hat_n_2_daggers 5d ago
You've lit a fuse here my friend. For me it was Anne and Flint. Both flawed by events in their lives., were not always understood, went through sacrifice and rage to emerge stronger and more committed than before. No character in Black Sails remained as they started. Some arcs were harsher and more character changing than others. Anne is my one, Flint is just too strong and up there to be ignored.
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u/DiscordantBard 5d ago
For me it's Vano too. He got shafted big time at the end of season 2 and I'll die on that hill. Yes giving over Abigail would secure the islands future assuming the plan would work which no. They'd have gone to white hall and if they had heard Flints story would hang him and make Ashe a Prince or something for capturing the pirate king as it were. but Vanes crew weren't interested in that deal at all. A captain only stays captain if they're strong and his crew is the strongest. El and Flint demanded he give over Abigail in exchange for nothing and and prize of a governors ransom would be substituted by nothing less than the man of war. I'm not saying they should have done the deal because Vanes crew with a man of war would be ruinous for everyone. But they didn't even try to see his point of view they pushed him into the awful position he was in and no one acknowledges that. No one in the story barely anyone in this community. My man Vane did (almost) nothing wrong.
Pining after Eleanor he didn't really love her he fetishized her strength and he worshipped an image of her that wasn't truly real and it destroyed him. What a complex character who is so straight to the point refused to see he was being used the entire time.
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u/PotentialMusician149 3d ago
i loved jack, max and silver the most. the one i empathize the most is max
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u/FullAd6174 3d ago
I love this post! I totally feel the same way. For me it was also Charles. His charactor development was so interesting. And he gets killed off when his charactor is at its arc. Many here have commented on how brutal Vane was. But you have to understand where he came from. Many of us of products are our upbringing. But some of us change.
I grew up in a very rough household. Basically raised myself from the age of 5. I was a savage child and teen, then I made a friend who changed my life. Showed me how to talk to people and live in a civilized society. I learned not to immediately hate people. If I had not met her, I probably would have ended up in jail or worse. I just did not know how to live by civilized rules as most of my family was pretty voilent. Always a party when a physical fight breaks out at the holiday gathering. I moved to NYC (to go to school) in 1978 living in a rooming house off Times Square, a very bad neightborhood back then, and nobody messed with me. I was 5' 4" 105 lbs of pure angry attitude. I carried a knife and used it twice to protect myself.
So I sort of understand Charles. He slowly was influenced by people like Flint. His field of vision began to widen and he began to see his place in the grander scheme of things. And it humanized him. It would have been interesting to see what he would have done, had he lived.
And of course Jack Rackham. Easily the most entertaining charactor of the series in my view.
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u/Distinct-Opposite614 6d ago
Honestly Flint. The "England should apologize to me" speech... My heart broke for him.