#bsm22

8/8: Gates vs. Miranda

Gates, to Flint, in 108: "Lying sack of shit was Mr. Cregg. So I bought the boys a round with the pesos, traded the pocket watch for a bit of tail, and spent two weeks that winter in New York trying to deliver that fucking letter to his sister. Looked high and low. Never found her. So on the way home, I waited till we were in open water and I could see no land in any direction, and I dropped it over the side. Returned to the sea. There are no legacies in this life, are there? No monuments. No history. Just the water. It pays us and then it claims us. Swallows us whole. As if we'd never been here at all.”

VS

Miranda, to Flint, in 205: "I think you are fighting for the sake of fighting! Because it's the only state in which you can function, the only way to keep that voice in your head from driving you mad. […] The one telling you to be ashamed of yourself… for having loved him. You were told that it was shameful. And part of you believed it. Thomas was my husband. I loved him and he loved me. But what he shared with you… it was entirely something else. It's time you allowed yourself to accept that."

1/8: Billy vs Gates

Billy, in 310: “I've lived too long dependent upon Flint to be the one to hold our ranks together. It's time we finally had an alternative. What flows forth from this house, starting tonight, is a new story for Nassau. I've watched her follow mad men. I've watched her follow rich men. I've watched her bow before tyrants. But now it's time she had a king. When we're ready, when he's ready, he'll step into the role we've created for him… and lead an impossible army into an unwinnable war… and win it.”

VS

Gates, to Flint, 107: "I know what happened on the Maria Aleyne. You told me the man you killed was reaching for a weapon. You told me it was self-defense, but there were no weapon in that cabin. I went and I looked. And I still kept my mouth shut. I don't know why, but I know you used the crew to assassinate those people. Men died that day. Our men. And I suspect there's been other times when we've been expendable to you. And if yesterday was one of those days, then you and I have a problem, because Billy wasn't expendable to me. He was a son to me.”

5/8: Miranda vs. Billy

Miranda, to Peter Ashe, in 209: "You destroyed our lives! You caused our exile! Thomas died in a cold, dark place… […] What do I want? I want to see this whole goddamn city, this city that you purchased with our misery, burn. I want to see you hanged on the very gallows you've used to hang men for crimes far slighter than this. I want to see that noose around your neck and I want to pull the fucking lever with my own two hands!"

VS

Billy, to Madi/himself, 410: "Please know… I was so conflicted about all this when it began. I knew it would be difficult to separate them… Flint and Silver. They'd grown so close, it was hard to know where one ended and the other began. I worried that the act of separating them might destroy them both… when what I wanted was to remove Flint. And I saw no other way. But the things I've done in the pursuit of it… were intended to honor my oath. But somehow, here I am now. What I've just done… there's no coming back from that. There is no difference between Flint and Silver now. Or between Flint and any of them. They are all enemies of mine. Now, I believe they are outmatched today. I believe at the end of the day, there will be no more of them left alive. But if somehow… they are able to prevail today against us… fight their way through the British soldiers above, through the governor, through me.. I will ensure that at the end of it all, when they walk through this final door, there is defeat awaiting them.”

7/8: Mr.Scott vs. Julius

Mr. Scott, to Flint, in 204: "I know Eleanor's argument. And I know why you think it is weak and I do not disagree with you. Her judgment about Captain Vane has never been right. But because she is compromised, it does not necessarily follow that she is wrong. I fear that to take that fort will be to divide this island in a most dangerous way. To force men to take sides against each other at a time when our very survival demands the very opposite. I fear that if we go down that road, by the time Spain or England arrive, they will find their job done for them. They will find Nassau has destroyed itself. The world changes. It is inevitable. Perhaps the only thing that is inevitable. If it were me facing this decision, I would make peace with that. I would teach myself to see Captain Vane as an unfortunate but unavoidable change in our landscape. And I would ensure that we all live to see the sunrise again tomorrow. Were it me.

VS

Julius, to the Maroons, in 407: "Fools. You're all fools if you think this road leads to where he says it does. [...] What happens when our enemy realizes that all it needs to do to defeat us is to take away that common cause? Turn one against the other. And when that happens…as it is all but certain to do… which of us standing here are likely to be the ones who benefit and which the ones sold back into their chains?”

6/8: Miranda vs. Mr. Scott

Miranda, to Flint, in 208: "Look at her. When I first learned she was on the island, I saw in my mind a five-year-old child hiding behind her mother's dress. Then I saw her. I realized she's a woman. It's like she's some sort of clock that's finally struck its chime and woken me from this dream we've been living, reminded me how many years separate me from a world I still think of as home. How unrecognizable the woman I am now would be to the woman I was then."

VS

Mr. Scott, to Billy, in 208: "When Captain Flint first arrived on this island, he gained influence faster than any man I'd seen before. Or since. I heard men say it was because of the violence. I heard them say it was his charm. But it was clear to me the reason why he was so good at bending men towards his will was he knew the power of a story and how to harness it to his own ends. That man there, I would argue, may very well be his equal. […] Yeah, the story's his, the story isn't his. But the power of the telling... that is clearly his. At the moment, he's using it to help the captain. But God help us if he ever realizes what else he could use it to accomplish."

3/8: Miranda vs. Miranda

Miranda, to Flint, 205: "I understand why you need that fort. I understand why you need that gold. I understand why you need this island. I understand it all because I was there the day our lives ended and all of this began. But I have been devoted to you since that day. I have been loyal and protective and fucking committed to you since that day, and I am asking you to come with me so that I can save your life."

VS.

Miranda, to Flint, 205: " Thomas, he sees only the principle. The right. It's inspiring. It can be intoxicating. It's why love him. But you, you see the world as it is. You see its truths and how to navigate them. How to bend them to your will. It's why I love you. Men like Thomas need men like you. To protect them from the world. And that is what I am asking you to do. The danger is simply too great."

2/8: Mr.Scott vs. the Maroon Queen

Mr. Scott, to Madi, 306: “Those men rose to their stations because they are peerless when it comes to shaping the world to their will, in creating a narrative and wielding it to compel men's hearts and minds. But the most compelling story requires a villain at its center. And if either Captain Flint or Mr. Silver sees the other as a villain… or worse… us as that… then all is lost. They are of great value to us, but they must be managed by us to avoid that outcome. I wish… you and I had not been so separate all those years. I wish I could have found a way to be a better father to you. But over time, I was determined to leave you something behind, to give you the one thing that no one could ever take away… and that would make you strong enough to understand their world, interact with their world… wage war on their world. But if their identity lies in their stories, I wanted you to know them so that when we are ready to call them enemies, you would be ready for it. The villain makes the story. So to manage our current partners, we must ensure that we all agree at all times who our common villain is."

VS.

Maroon Queen, to Madi, 304: “The men in that cage are deceitful men. They will say things that will sound appealing to you, especially to you. But you must not let them sway you. Your father and I built this place to separate ourselves from their world. […] We are separate enough that we have no need to see them. To steal from them. To fight with them. To know their chains again. I have worked so hard to ensure that you've never had to see those things. But I have seen those things. And I will hold them at bay for as long as I'm able to. For every day that we avoid colliding into their world is a day children are born here, is a day families exist here.I'm in no hurry to see that end. Nor should you be. That separation rests entirely on our existence remaining a secret. The pirates, for as long as they draw breath, could and would for a profit compromise that secret. So they must be eliminated.”

4/8: Hands vs. Julius

Hands, to Silver, in 405: "You don't know, hmm? You don't know? Why should follow you if you don't know? Why Would anyone? don't give a shit what goes on in there. Fuck Flint. Don't fuck FIint. Fuck Billy. Don't fuck Billy. I don't give a shit what you choose, but fucking choose! And don't make me suffer the thinking. Worry ain't a good look for a king, not in a kingdom like this.. where loyalty is in short supply."

VS.

Julius, to the Maroon Queen, 407: "I have fought alongside these men. But I did it so that I might find security. But what they are now arguing for... does not sound like security to me. Nothing is lasting. But months, years, that is meaningful and it can be had here. You now have the resources to have it here. There is a treasure in the ground here. It'd purchase whatever is needed to survive. [...] No one changes the world. Not like this. Not all at once. The world is too strong for that.