I made a supercut of every instance of the word partner (or partnership) in Black Sails... mostly as a side effect of wanting to analyze how the word was used in the show. More information/breakdown under the cut.
"Partner", "partners", or "partnership" is said a total of 92 times in the show, not counting 11 times when it's part of a "previously on". Of those 92 instances, 11 are in Season One, 24 are in Season 2, 33 are in Season 3, and 24 are in Season 4. Some form of the word gets said at least once in all but eight episodes (1x01, 1x05, 3x01, 3x04, 3x09, 4x02, 4x03, and 4x05). The episode with most instances is 3x02 with a grand total of 7. In the video, the clips are arranged in chronological order according to when they appear in the show. I used the transcript site to double-check my work so I'm pretty confidant I didn't miss anything.
A lot of the time the relationships that get called partnerships also get referred to with other terms (friendship, alliance, husband/wife), either at different times than they're called partnerships or in conjunction with the term, but "partner" as a term interests me because it is non-specific in a way that allows for it to hold a lot of different meanings, sometimes all at once. Black Sails is clearly very specific about what terms are used for relationships, just as it is specific about what name a character is called by, and often there is significance placed on moments when a relationship is called a partnership. (Miranda and Flint in 2x06, Jack and Anne in 2x10, Flint and Sliver in 3x03, etc.)
SO I've made a full chart with details on each of the 92 instances which you can look at here. It has the episode each instance is from, who says it, and to what partnership they are referring. Generally this is pretty straightforward, though sometimes a character is directly referencing one partnership in a way that implicitly applies the label to another, i.e. when Silver says he's "not the first to have been a partner to [Flint] in this way", he is referring to himself as Flint's partner, but also implicitly stating that Gates and Miranda were each Flint's partner as well. Whenever this happens I've noted it in the chart. I've also noted when characters are speaking hypothetical partnerships that do not (yet) exist, or do not (yet) exist in the form they are currently discussed, and when partnerships are referred to in the past tense.
Highlights of some stuff I found interesting:
Silver and Flint are referred to as partners (or as having a partnership) a total of 7 times, and implicitly labelled as such once. This is more than any other partnership between individuals, and depending on how you count more than any partnership between groups, too (see below). The first time they're ever referred to as partners is by Silver in 3x03
Jack and Anne are just behind them with a total of 6, followed by Eleanor and Rogers with 5
The individual relationships between Jack and Max, and between Max and Anne are each referred to using some form of partner/partnership three times, and Jack, Anne, and Max a group of three are referred to using the term once by Max and once by Jack-- though when Jack uses it (while speaking to Marion Guthrie) he doesn't specify who he's speaking about could arguably also be including Featherstone, and possibly Idelle
The pirate and maroon alliance is referred to using partners/partnership 6 times (7 if you count one instance where Flint is used as synecdoche for the pirates as a group), and there are two instances of partner/partners being used when discussing another person or group joining the alliance (Jack in the first case, and Julius and his men in the second), for a total of 9 times that some form of the alliance is discussed using partners/partnership
Other than Flint, the only person who is ever referred to as Silver's partner is Max
Eleanor says partner (or some variation) more than any other character, for a total of 14 times. Runners up are Max (12) and Vane (9)
4 out of the 9 times Vane uses partner/partnership, he's talking about a partnership between Eleanor and someone, though that someone is not always him. Of the remaining 5 instances, two are in reference to his partnership with Teach and two involve Jack in some way (one with the two of them and Flint, and one in the context of Jack joining the pirate/slave alliance)
Max never uses the word partner to describe any relationships that she is not directly a part of, unless you count one instance of speaking broadly about her own experiences in a way that also includes Eleanor's (when she says the chair "demands you win partners" to get it)
Flint doesn't say any form of the word partner until 3x05, though before that point there are other people who call him their partner or apply the term to relationships he has
Thomas says "partner" a total of 3 times, two referring directly to Flint and one speaking generally but in a conversation about a partnership between him and Flint. Miranda says "partners" twice, both times about herself and Flint
"Partner" is used as a verb exactly once, by Madi
Madi, Mr. Scott, and the Maroon Queen each only say partner(s) once (they're not the only characters who only say it once, but i did think the family pattern was neat)
Literally the definition of imperialism and classism. Doesn’t matter how many peasants you sacrifice as long as the most powerful piece is left standing
there's something really fun about how like. according to all Sources i have found many sailors abandoned the royal navy for piracy because the navy was so hierarchical and the officers were given so much power and piracy was the more egalitarian and democratic option. but flint comes from the navy as someone who managed to work his way up to officer and as someone who seems to prefer to function inside those rigid structures, or at least to be most at home there. so even as he is ostensibly fighting for the greater egalitarianism of the pirate world and of progressive values in general it's just not something that he personally is able to value. he doesn't have a democratic bone in his body. he went to the pirate republic talking about kings and wanting to quite literally run it like the navy and tried to fight for that pirate republic while acting like his word was law and every democratic proceeding was an annoying hinderance to his dictatorial rule. it's so good. i like him
wait. what do y'all set your home AC to? 78° F is our normal (and local officials exhort people to set it there regularly). if there are potential grid issues we raise it to 80°
they're always bringing experts or activists on the news to agitate about porn and there's a standard script for this that's like "I think sex education is important, I'm not anti-sex, but so much of this porn is violent and misogynistic if not outright illegal, and it's far too accessible to our children"
I want to see someone finally be brave enough to say that the government should just make its own porn for teenagers that accords with community values, so they don't have to go to these shady places to get it. I think the government porn would probably be pretty bad but I would be so eager to hear about the process of designing it. there would be so many stakeholders and consultations. in canada it would have to be bilingual
no-one would find it at all sexy at first but then in 20 years there'd be a thriving fetish scene where people develop elaborate codes and practices around culturally-embedded tropes from government porn
Every once in a while, I wish the friendship meter from the Sims was real so that way when people tell me "I used Chat-GPT" they can visually see just how much respect I just lost for them in that moment.
One time an acquaintance told me she entered Snape's star chart into chatgpt and I could physically feel that meter dropping three separate times over the course of her sentence
Suddenly recalled Silver calling Madi his 'wife' and was overcome with incandescent rage. Then remembered that he called the revolution 'Flint's war' to Madi's face at the end. Almost did something drastic. But then remembered the fact that he will literally, forever, cast about in the dark for some proof that he mattered. And he will find none. And he'll know that he gave it away. In that moment. On that island. Left it in the ground. Along with the chest. So I calmed down.
It's always been pretty delicious to me that he was inadvertently (and purposely, but that's a whole other thing) more truthful with Flint than with Madi. With him Silver called it 'her war', but with her he didn't have it in him to admit plainly that he took it from her too. And face that the loss of it was indeed greater and far more injurious on her end than it could ever be for Flint or men like Flint. Of course there is also the little element of him believing that her drive to see the revolution through was intensified by Flint's preternatural influence. To him framing it as 'Flint's war' before her might serve to dilute culpability by a fraction in her eyes, so he says it like that. And since it's Silver and OF ALL he lies best to himself, there IS a SIGNIFICANT chance he's not even doing this CONSCIOUSLY. Haha “I've lived long enough to know that any promise made beside the word 'forever' is no more than a lie agreed upon. There is no forever.” or whatever was said that I don't care about
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