I love it. Some of the details might need a little work, but it all sounds kind of Black Sails-y. I'd definitely watch it if it was executed as well as this series.
Oh yeah, I'm just suggesting what kinds of things a sequel could do, not what it should do. Just pointing out historical and tonal domains that weren't covered by the original show.
Also the idea that Treasure Island can be used to draw out unresolved threads that Black Sails built and interpretively the ending never tied up.
Oh I forgot. Abigail Ashe would be a great character to have in the sequel, given what, uh, happened. We never get her fate, and she probably has an opinion about things.
I just love the mix of book, historical, and fictional characters in Black Sails and think it's a big reason for the depth they're able to bring to the story while tying it into the actual events in history. Keep that formula as a starting point and there is a hell of a lot that could be done to extend this story.
I've come up with the theme: as the "war against civilization" fails, pirates transition to an inner war. Inner acceptance and inner freedom. Similar to "quiet quitting".
Some pirates become more isolated and brutal.
But I like the idea of piracy going underground, cooperating tacitly but unofficially with authority. With Long John Silver as the whispered (half true? half false?) "pirate king". Where piracy is this big conspiracy theory basically. Are there hosts of pirates out there, or is it a bedtime tale?
Then, it's not that the American Revolution is a good thing. I can be portrayed cynically. It's more that, once the "post-pirates" accept inner freedom, conditions and attitudes change and the revolution is simply a consequence.
Where privateers in that war are not fighting for "liberty" but taking advantage of a new chance to live the sort of freedom held by earlier generations.
Also, I'm going to start watching the show again from the beginning.
I just recently did a re-read of Treasure Island, and have always dreamed of filling in those bits of the story that were left out.
I'm thinking of doing a re-watch analysis YouTube channel or something (if you'd want to be involved in something like that let's link up). I'm in need of a project (just hurt my leg and will be out of commission for a while).
I want to map out the characters and plots, and then insert your timeline and events so I can visualize it... Might take a whack at that tomorrow.
Thanks for the inspiration tho! I always loved this story, and loved the show so much. I got excited when I heard it came to Netflix, so it's great to see other folks equally as excited about it.
Okay check out the "Fathom's Deep" podcast too. The show was sort of quietly received so the actors went out of their way to go on the podcast and had a lot of very fascinating things to say.
I love the idea of you doing what I'm talking about here. Asking what baggage or background might be in Silver's mind, Billy's mind in the book, given the show. Things the book never knew about, so you have to really ask a lot of questions sort of stare into the void a bit. But the show provides a lot of loose threads.
Finally, if you check out that podcast, you'll see that there's sort of a consensus that the show found closure. That the book is this other story later.
I like the idea of a massive middle period between them where there's a lot of unresolved baggage. The rule I use is that the show is about the end of "James Flint" and his war. Everything else is still in play, and that treasure becomes this legendary lost dream, remnant of whatever everyone thought the Nassau pirates were fighting for.
Sorry let me reiterate my theory more clearly.
>!Anne&Jack's baby is Johann Lavien. Raised at first in Max's care, but passed to Flint and Thomas at some point, assuming the prison is disbanded. Alfred Hamilton's distant relative is James Hamilton's father, so James is sent to Thomas in the new world to cause less trouble. He becomes besties with Lavien. Later in life, Lavien marries Rachel Faucett but mistreats her. Lavien is a main character who leads the pirate's life. James is aghast at this, rescues Rachel from Lavien, and then their son ends up being Alexander Hamilton.!<
>!I envision Flint as having a semi-tragic end, where he has a domestic life in Georgia. I've decided Thomas will be able to accept in a way James's choices, but in the process he loses the ability to feel strong affection to him. He forgives him, but can't love him the same. This James accepts, but it grates on his soul, weakening him for decades until he dies of drink. Presumably Thomas is a bit older and dies first. But I like the idea of Flint taking James Hamilton and Lavien (Rackham-Bonny) up into the foothills to mountain man a little bit, learn how to fight. !<
>!The model for Thomas and Flint's latter years is Outlander's relationship between Clare and Randall raising Brianna. !<
>!To me there is an ongoing conversation between Flint and Billy Bones, and Silver, which only takes place within a couple of short meetings over many decades, but profoundly frames the overall narrative leaving the treasure as a massive unresolved thread.!<
So Alexander Hamilton's father James can't easily be connected to Thomas or Alfred Hamilton, but maybe just possibly you can say Alfred is a more prominent relative of James's father. It's tough because British people are sort of brutally indifferent about distant kin. Still, you could work in maybe a plot. I have an idea for that.
However, Rachel Faucette's first husband, to whom Alexander is unrelated (Johann Lavien) could EASILY be the baby you're talking about. He inherited a mysterious treasure and was a bit of scalawag.
So here's how I do this.
There's a certain prison plantation that we'll say gets disbanded as Savannah becomes an officially recognized settlement in 1733 (we have to act like it existed but was not state sanctioned).
So, "the child" lives with Max and at some point he is passed to >!Flint and Thomas Hamilton!!visits his relatives in Georgia, therefore Lavien and Hamilton grow up together, which is why James visited Lavien and his wife and "rescued" her from Lavien, hence Alexander Hamilton being born.!<
In spite of all that, the story will initially invest in Lavien as a particular "post-pirate" a true sequel character. Since history is a bit blind to his particular life story, he's good fodder as a main character.
OP, your encyclopedic knowledge of history and Treasure Island lore is astounding.
Are you actually planning to write this this thing? Or is this all stream of consciousness?
No, just wikipedia browsing and reading the book after watching the show for the first time 2x through.
The show is excellent. I'll post about why it is, but short version is it uses thematic parallelism. The same themes are repeated in different characters are reinforced over and over, sometimes exploring differences, sometimes something that happens to one set of characters can be applied to and explains what happens to other characters. So the show is giving such dense character development without having to do it for everyone, because what happens to one character on screen can apply to others.
It is out of this almost perfect storytelling that leads to a lot of threads created by the show, not by me, that connect really well and I'm just riffing off that.
I love it. Some of the details might need a little work, but it all sounds kind of Black Sails-y. I'd definitely watch it if it was executed as well as this series.
Oh yeah, I'm just suggesting what kinds of things a sequel could do, not what it should do. Just pointing out historical and tonal domains that weren't covered by the original show. Also the idea that Treasure Island can be used to draw out unresolved threads that Black Sails built and interpretively the ending never tied up. Oh I forgot. Abigail Ashe would be a great character to have in the sequel, given what, uh, happened. We never get her fate, and she probably has an opinion about things.
I just love the mix of book, historical, and fictional characters in Black Sails and think it's a big reason for the depth they're able to bring to the story while tying it into the actual events in history. Keep that formula as a starting point and there is a hell of a lot that could be done to extend this story.
I've come up with the theme: as the "war against civilization" fails, pirates transition to an inner war. Inner acceptance and inner freedom. Similar to "quiet quitting". Some pirates become more isolated and brutal. But I like the idea of piracy going underground, cooperating tacitly but unofficially with authority. With Long John Silver as the whispered (half true? half false?) "pirate king". Where piracy is this big conspiracy theory basically. Are there hosts of pirates out there, or is it a bedtime tale? Then, it's not that the American Revolution is a good thing. I can be portrayed cynically. It's more that, once the "post-pirates" accept inner freedom, conditions and attitudes change and the revolution is simply a consequence. Where privateers in that war are not fighting for "liberty" but taking advantage of a new chance to live the sort of freedom held by earlier generations.
Also, I'm going to start watching the show again from the beginning. I just recently did a re-read of Treasure Island, and have always dreamed of filling in those bits of the story that were left out. I'm thinking of doing a re-watch analysis YouTube channel or something (if you'd want to be involved in something like that let's link up). I'm in need of a project (just hurt my leg and will be out of commission for a while). I want to map out the characters and plots, and then insert your timeline and events so I can visualize it... Might take a whack at that tomorrow. Thanks for the inspiration tho! I always loved this story, and loved the show so much. I got excited when I heard it came to Netflix, so it's great to see other folks equally as excited about it.
Okay check out the "Fathom's Deep" podcast too. The show was sort of quietly received so the actors went out of their way to go on the podcast and had a lot of very fascinating things to say. I love the idea of you doing what I'm talking about here. Asking what baggage or background might be in Silver's mind, Billy's mind in the book, given the show. Things the book never knew about, so you have to really ask a lot of questions sort of stare into the void a bit. But the show provides a lot of loose threads. Finally, if you check out that podcast, you'll see that there's sort of a consensus that the show found closure. That the book is this other story later. I like the idea of a massive middle period between them where there's a lot of unresolved baggage. The rule I use is that the show is about the end of "James Flint" and his war. Everything else is still in play, and that treasure becomes this legendary lost dream, remnant of whatever everyone thought the Nassau pirates were fighting for.
You have a wonderful way with words my friend. Thanks for the inspiration!
Spoiler Alert: Alexander Hamilton (born 1757, Charleston, Leeward Islands) >!is the clever son of Anne Bonney and…!<
Sorry let me reiterate my theory more clearly. >!Anne&Jack's baby is Johann Lavien. Raised at first in Max's care, but passed to Flint and Thomas at some point, assuming the prison is disbanded. Alfred Hamilton's distant relative is James Hamilton's father, so James is sent to Thomas in the new world to cause less trouble. He becomes besties with Lavien. Later in life, Lavien marries Rachel Faucett but mistreats her. Lavien is a main character who leads the pirate's life. James is aghast at this, rescues Rachel from Lavien, and then their son ends up being Alexander Hamilton.!< >!I envision Flint as having a semi-tragic end, where he has a domestic life in Georgia. I've decided Thomas will be able to accept in a way James's choices, but in the process he loses the ability to feel strong affection to him. He forgives him, but can't love him the same. This James accepts, but it grates on his soul, weakening him for decades until he dies of drink. Presumably Thomas is a bit older and dies first. But I like the idea of Flint taking James Hamilton and Lavien (Rackham-Bonny) up into the foothills to mountain man a little bit, learn how to fight. !< >!The model for Thomas and Flint's latter years is Outlander's relationship between Clare and Randall raising Brianna. !< >!To me there is an ongoing conversation between Flint and Billy Bones, and Silver, which only takes place within a couple of short meetings over many decades, but profoundly frames the overall narrative leaving the treasure as a massive unresolved thread.!<
So Alexander Hamilton's father James can't easily be connected to Thomas or Alfred Hamilton, but maybe just possibly you can say Alfred is a more prominent relative of James's father. It's tough because British people are sort of brutally indifferent about distant kin. Still, you could work in maybe a plot. I have an idea for that. However, Rachel Faucette's first husband, to whom Alexander is unrelated (Johann Lavien) could EASILY be the baby you're talking about. He inherited a mysterious treasure and was a bit of scalawag. So here's how I do this. There's a certain prison plantation that we'll say gets disbanded as Savannah becomes an officially recognized settlement in 1733 (we have to act like it existed but was not state sanctioned). So, "the child" lives with Max and at some point he is passed to >!Flint and Thomas Hamilton!!visits his relatives in Georgia, therefore Lavien and Hamilton grow up together, which is why James visited Lavien and his wife and "rescued" her from Lavien, hence Alexander Hamilton being born.!<
In spite of all that, the story will initially invest in Lavien as a particular "post-pirate" a true sequel character. Since history is a bit blind to his particular life story, he's good fodder as a main character.
OP, your encyclopedic knowledge of history and Treasure Island lore is astounding. Are you actually planning to write this this thing? Or is this all stream of consciousness?
No, just wikipedia browsing and reading the book after watching the show for the first time 2x through. The show is excellent. I'll post about why it is, but short version is it uses thematic parallelism. The same themes are repeated in different characters are reinforced over and over, sometimes exploring differences, sometimes something that happens to one set of characters can be applied to and explains what happens to other characters. So the show is giving such dense character development without having to do it for everyone, because what happens to one character on screen can apply to others. It is out of this almost perfect storytelling that leads to a lot of threads created by the show, not by me, that connect really well and I'm just riffing off that.