A story is true, a story is untrue. As time extends, it matters less and less. The stories we want to believe, those are the ones that survive.
The writers gave us this quote as the same time as an “open ending.” Combined with the themes of this show I choose to believe that what’s important is not the story they tell, but the story we remember. The story we believe. And they gave us other themes, too - themes of love, of representation of marginalised characters, and an ending for several of them that was unambiguously happy. This quote, and the entire show, is also clearly a criticism on a bigoted civilisation: civilisation wants to believe that pirates are monsters, that people who are different are monsters, and that’s why those versions of their stories survive. Black Sails is such a meta show, so aware of the contemporary issues it addresses. Out of the two “options” - the one where marginalised characters who have suffered too much finally get a shot at happiness and love and are portrayed, through this love, as human and not as monsters, and the one where those same marginalised characters, treated as monsters by both historical and contemporary civilisations simply because they are different, are punished for their differences with meaningless death, - the one we believe says more about us than it does about the story itself. Civilisation tells the story that serves its narratives, its values. Which version we believe, which version we tell, says a lot about our values - and helps us spread those, against the grain of pessimism and bigotry. Considering the themes of the show,I am pretty sure I know which version would align us with the message the writers have been trying to send. And even if I’m wrong - considering the state of the world right now, where stories about people who are different have the biggest chance they’ve ever had to not be deformed into monstrosity by a bigoted majority, it does not matter what story the writers have been trying to tell. It matters which one we tell. I know which one I believe. I know which one I want to make sure will be remembered. I know which one I want to make sure survives. And like the quote above says - the story that survives, ultimately becomes true. Let’s make it the hopeful one, shall we?
