Black Sails has plenty of battles, but it is the duels that stay with you. Those tight, breathless moments where characters finally stop talking and let the steel speak for them. I remember watching some of these fights thinking, alright, this is the moment someone’s whole reputation either rises or collapses on the floorboards.
Below is a look at the most gripping one on one clashes in the series, written with the sort of enthusiasm that comes from someone who has spent too many late nights rewatching certain episodes just to study the footwork.
Flint vs Singleton
This duel sits early in the show and it hits like a statement of intent. Flint moves with that calm aggression that tells you he has already played out the fight in his head. Singleton, all bravado and swagger, clearly did not. The crack of cutlass on cutlass, the sudden shifts in rhythm, the final sharp end to the tension, it all feels like the series shaking your shoulders and saying, pay attention, this captain is dangerous.
What I love here is how it reveals Flint’s discipline. He fights like someone who carries every decision heavily, even the violent ones. Singleton feels like a man who mistakes shouting for strength.
Flint vs Ned Low
This one feels less like a duel and more like an execution with dramatic footwork. Low has that unhinged energy that makes you wonder if he even cares about winning. Flint fights like a man forcing the world back into order one blade stroke at a time.
The choreography is tight, fast and messy in a realistic way, the kind of fight where you can almost smell the iron and salt. Watching Flint dismantle Low’s confidence is honestly more satisfying than the strike that finishes the argument.
Vane vs Teach
If you wanted a father and son therapy session that got completely out of hand, this is it. Vane steps in with raw power and emotional heat, Teach carries the weight of decades at sea. Their clash feels personal in every frame.
There is something impressive about how they both look like they could break the set with their bare hands. The fight has a rhythm that swings between rage and regret, which only makes the hits land harder. It is the closest the show gets to mythic.
Vane vs Flint
This duel is pure chaos wrapped around two giant egos. Watching them scrap feels like watching two storms collide. There is no clean technique for most of it, just raw instinct and the kind of stubbornness that deserves its own museum exhibit.
What gets me is the mutual respect hiding under every blow. Neither man wants to admit it, but both know the other is one of the few opponents who can truly challenge them.
Silver vs Flint
The final duel of the series carries more weight than anything else the show ever staged. Silver approaches it with that careful, mathematical patience he built over four seasons. Flint enters with something closer to heartbreak than fury.
It is a slow burn of a fight. You can feel years of loyalty twisting into something unsustainable. The blades are almost secondary to the emotions boiling under every movement. When it is over, it feels less like a victory and more like the world exhaling in exhaustion.
The Seven Swords Takeaway
The secret sauce in Black Sails is the emotional loading behind each clash. Nobody fights simply because they are angry. They fight because their identity is being challenged or their cause is crumbling or their past is catching up with them in real time.
The weapons are sharp, but the motives are sharper.
As a viewer who is permanently online and slightly too interested in fictional swordsmanship, I can confidently say that these duels hold up. They feel grounded, sweaty, unpredictable and strangely intimate. It is the kind of television fight craft that reminds you how powerful a simple two person clash can be when writers actually care about the people holding the blades.
If anything, the show makes you appreciate how much character work can happen in the few seconds between sword swings.
Watch the Trailer:
