I wasn't prepared to the death of >!Blackbeard!<.
I knew that he was going to die but what happened really shocked me. I'm watching the show now for the first time and I'm surprised that it isn't so hyped like others such as Peaky Blinders.
I can't say if it was >!Vane's death or Blackbeard!< that surprised me the most.
Oh now I hate Woodes Rogers and Eleanor!
I just finished the series and I have to say I find myself in a very uncomfortable position.
Don't get me wrong: I loved every moment of this show. But the thought that it's over, and that it ends this way: I feel like I'm reliving the feeling I had during the experience of The Last of Us Part II, but 10 times stronger.
I didn't want it to end, I wanted to see all these characters triumph over their demons, tear their freedom away from those who prevented them from fully embracing it, and finally live the way they had always wanted to. And although for some of them that's the case, or more or less the case (Max, Jack, Silver), I feel as broken as these characters after so much sacrifice, blood, and betrayal.
All of that, for… nothing (?).
Technically, and as it's so well put by Jack and Silver, we'll never truly know the authentic outcome of this story. The possibilities remain open to those who want to believe what they want to believe. And the two possibilities offered are both terrifying after everything these characters have been through, together, against each other, or both at once. That Flint was killed by Silver on Skeleton Island is entirely plausible (throughout the series, particularly in its early stages, we clearly notice Silver's opportunistic side), but the idea that he, out of friendship and respect, found a way to keep him alive and shatter any sense of existence of Captain Flint so that he would return to being the James he had buried away, and send him to that island to find Thomas again, that's almost just as plausible as it is cruel. Silver would have learned of Thomas's survival before the arrival of the Spaniards, still manipulating Flint to the very end to get what he wanted from him. A true mischievous orchestra conductor who would almost be in conflict with himself and his closest relationships.
I refuse, for the moment, to see Silver as the "villain" of the story, because it's obviously much more complicated than that, and it's a series about piracy, for heaven's sake! But this series being so human on so many levels, I can't bring myself to the idea that this ending is a victory. It's a bittersweet ending. It's not the ending I was expecting, nor the one I was hoping for, it's something else entirely. But it's also the only logical and plausible ending the series could have given.
Season 1 set up the characters and the universe, seasons 2 and 3 expanded them, and season 4 was like a slow descent into hell, watching little by little everything that had been built upon so much suffering wither away.
So here I am, in a complete fog, not knowing what to say or what to think, torn between the things that ended well for some but that for others remain uncertain. And I think that's the mark of a great series and writing maturity: life goes on, and nothing is truly set in stone once the series ends. And there had to be a bridge to Stevenson's novel Treasure Island!
Anyway, I wanted to know how you felt at the end of this Dantesque series that deserves so much more attention! Tell me I'm not the only one who's torn, sitting on the beach alone, staring out at the horizon, wondering what I just lived through!
Let me start by saying that I love the show overall. But I wanted to do a deep dive into what I personally consider the weakest part of it: Max and Anne Bonny as characters.
Now, me disliking characters does not automatically mean they are badly written. A character can be unpleasant and still be well-executed. But with Max and Anne, I think there are several writing issues that either weaken the characters themselves or outright break the internal logic of the show.
For example, Max placing herself in Charles Vane’s crew as an act of spite against Eleanor feels strange to me. Whenever a character deliberately puts themselves in extreme danger for emotional reasons, it becomes harder to sympathize with them no matter how badly things later turn out. The reasoning behind the decision feels weak considering the eventual consequences of that relationship.
Then we get Anne freeing Max, which initially feels like a strong redeeming moment for Anne’s character. At first, it seems motivated by basic morality — “this isn’t right.” But the show later implies, mostly through Jack’s comments and Max’s lack of denial, that Anne’s motivation was primarily romantic or sexual attraction.
That really damages Anne as a character for me. She ends up doing something reckless and dangerous against both her own interests and Jack’s interests simply because she is attracted to a woman who only ended up in that position because of her own retaliation-driven choices in the first place.
This pattern continues afterward. Jack has to deal with the consequences, and when he chooses Max over Anne before his voyage as captain, Anne responds by abandoning him, killing a pirate from the Walrus crew, spiraling emotionally, and disappearing for a while.
And honestly, what was the deal with the scene where Max tried to essentially pimp out Anne? I genuinely do not understand how that fit either character’s established personality.
My biggest issue overall is that the writers seem unwilling to truly punish Max or Anne for their decisions. From that point onward, Max repeatedly puts Anne and Jack in dangerous situations for the sake of legitimacy and political power, yet things still largely work out for her because the narrative treats her intentions sympathetically.
What’s unfortunate is that I actually really like Jack Rackham as a character, but the Max/Anne storyline ends up damaging him as well because so much of his arc becomes tied to cleaning up the fallout from their actions.
Anyway that's just my thoughts.
I watched episode 3 last night and I had a very weird dream about Max, the whole thing has been on my mind a lot this morning. I just wanted ask, when Eleanor offered to take care of her, why did Max say that she is Vanes until the debt is repaid ? I don’t understand why she would do that given what she just went through. And why is she so angry at Eleanor for not wanting to run away with her, she and max had completely different stakes on the island so did she offer herself to Vane to spite Eleanor?
I've loved the show, as have all of you. Every now and then I look back at the post from that guy who worked in the props department who was looking to sell some of his trove of cool stuff.
It occurred to me today, some of you bought some of it. And more than likely, bought other pieces from this wonderful show. Anybody want to show off your beautiful display pieces?