Madi
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| Vital statistics | |
| Title | Maroon Princess |
| Gender | Female |
| Status | Alive |
| Ships | Walrus |
| Relationships | Mr. Scott (Father, deceased) Maroon Queen (Mother) John Silver (Lover) Eleanor Guthrie (Friend; deceased) Woodes Rogers (Enemy) |
| Appearances | First: XXII. Last: XXXVIII. |
| Portrayed by | Zethu Dlomo |
Madi is the daughter of Mr. Scott and the Maroon Queen, destined to succeed as leader of the Maroon Island community of former slaves. She becomes the lover of Silver.
At the end of the series, she survives at the final battle and is reunited with her mother and Silver.
Biography
Background
Madi was born in Nassau, to parents who were both slaves, although she was still a childhood friend of Eleanor Guthrie. During the War of the Spanish Succession the port became a haven for English privateers, and the Spain threatened to invade. Her father, Mr. Scott, secured her and her mother passage to an escaped slave community on the Maroon Island. Her mother eventually became the leader of the community as the Maroon Queen. Madi remained somewhat estranged from her father, who stayed in Nassau to provide the community with supplies. She grew up in the community, with the expectation that she would one day take her mother’s place.
Season Three
When Captain Flint and his crew are captured on the island, and imprisoned by the ex-slave community, Madi is intrigued by the pirates. She knows that many of them would know her often estranged father. At night, Madi has the Quartermaster, John Silver, brought to speak to her. He tries to convince her that they have similar hatred toward England. It seems to no avail, but afterwards she goes to her mother and voices her concerns. The Queen rebuffs her, but Mali insists on talking to her father, the ‘away’ Maroon King.
Soon the escaped fort slaves, and her wounded father, Mr. Scott, arrive from Nassau. A partnership between the pirates and ex-slaves is eventually agreed.
Silver is left behind on the Maroon Island to solidify the partnership, while Flint searches for new allies; Charles Vane and Blackbeard’s fleet. During this time, Silver’s leg gets worse. and Silver tries to insist on enduring the pain, but Madi convinces him to receive some medical treatment. The two bond during his painful treatment.
After Flint returns, having failed to secure Blackbeard’s fleet, he now plans to go to Nassau, and find pirates Jack Rackham and Anne Bonny and their cache of pearls. While there, Silver will try and recruit new men by revealing that Flint is still alive. The Queen insists that Madi accompany them to retrieve a store of guns hidden by Mr. Scott.
During the journey, tension flares when Dobbs severely attacks one of Madi’s men, in retaliation for killing several of the crew back on Maroon Island before the partnership was agreed. Silver, at an impasse as to how to proceed without tearing their alliance apart, eventually brings Madi into the fold. Madi swallows her pride to maintain the alliance, and releases the man with orders to say nothing. On Silver’s part, he has his men pin Dobbs in his bunk with a blanket and beat him.
When they return, her father is close to death. Mr. Scott soon passes away peacefully. The entire community mourns his death. Silver approaches Madi to offer her some sort of condolence and the two embrace as she cries.
Soon, an overwhelming English forces converge on the island intent of retrieving the cache. Madi insists on helping to lead the defenders of the encampment with Silver, despite her mother’s objections. In doing so, she affirm her role as the new community’s leader.
Season Four
It is revealed that Silver and Madi are now lovers. After their victory on Maroon Island, Madi joins the pirates as they set their sights on retaking Nassau. What was supposed to be an invasion of overwhelming force, only ends in disaster. Governor Rogers continues to demonstrate his cunning by sinking ships as a hidden blockade. Most of pirate fleet run aground within range of Nassau’s cannons and bloody carnage ensues. Flint orders the crew to abandon ship.
On an isolated beach, Madi and Flint watch dejectedly as the last bedraggled pirates reach their rendezvous, with no sign of Silver. Soon, Billy Bones arrives and leads them into the interior where his pirate rebels hold out. However, things between Billy and Flint quickly turn tense with Billy refusing to allow Flint to dominate the alliance. Flint faces off against him, holding the location of the Urca cache over Billy’s head. However, Madi corrects him; she also knows its location from Silver.
They do agree to raid the Underhill plantation to liberate its slaves and bolster their manpower. However, there’s a snag; to protect their assets, the loved-ones of the slaves have been spread among all seven plantations on the island. Flint orders a tactical retreat and Madi agrees, but Billy’s lingering resentment blinds him to the right choice. Before we know it, the raiding party is split in half, and taking swords and pistols to each other. In the end, Billy and his remaining men retreat anyway as the local militia arrive.
Afterward, Madi and Flint reassert their alliance, blaming Billy for the debacle. When Madi learns that Silver is alive, Flint goes find him at Israel Hands’ hideaway, and save them from the redcoats hunting them. Afterwards, in a rare sweet moment, Silver is reunited with Madi. Silver rides into Nassau, and inspired by their Pirate King, the townspeople rise in revolt. Nevertheless, it looks like the redcoats have the pirates down, when Billy and his men show up in the nick of time, and the pirates takeover Nassau.
With Eleanor still holding the fort, Flint and Silver holds a secret meeting with her, who proposes to surrender the fort in exchange for Urca cache. Silver immediately refuses, but watches helplessly as Flint accepts the deal, offering himself as guarantor. When, Silver tells Madi of the deal, he’s shocked when she sides with Flint, fully bought-in to his war against civilisation.
Meanwhile, Billy is becoming a problem, boldly offering to kill Eleanor and Flint during the exchange. Madi encourages Silver to betray Billy to the plantation slaves to repair the alliance, and he eventually agrees, on the condition that he survives their retribution. It is up to Madi to lead Eleanor and Flint to make the exchange. However, on the secluded beach the only thing waiting from them is Jack Rackham with a small crew; the ship that was seen approaching was Rackham’s and not the one sent to retrieve the cache.
Trying to return to the fort, they find that Nassau is in the throes of a devastating Spanish invasion incited by Rogers. Eleanor, Flint, Madi and her men are holed up at Mrs. Barlow’s abandoned house, when they spy a small band of Spanish scouts. As the Spaniards approach, Flint and the men kill everyone except for three Spanish soldiers who flee. Leaving two men behind, Flint and the others give chase.
Inside the Barlow house, Madi and Eleanor finally have a chance to talk. There are mixed emotions. Madi bitterly recalls how her parent trusted no white people, not even Eleanor. Meanwhile, Eleanor is finally ready to leave this chaos; as long as it's to live with someone she loves who loves her back. By the end, it seems that the pair have reconciled. Unbeknownst to them, however, one of the Spanish scouts outside is not dead. He kills their two bodyguards, and sneaks inside and attacks them. Madi is knocked out, and a brutal brawl ensues with Eleanor. She manages to smashes an oil flash over his head, setting him on fire. As the house catches flames, Eleanor tries to save Madi.
Unknown to everyone, Madi escapes the blaze, but is captured by Rogers’ redcoats. However, they don’t realising who she is, until Billy makes his deal with Rogers, wanting the pirates to pay for betraying him. Rogers tries to make a deal with Silver to exchange Madi for the Urca cache, although Flint insists on a rescue plan. The next day with the Walrus in range, Rogers executes the men Flint sent ashore to rescue Madi, and then moves on to Madi herself. To Flint’s helpless bewilderment, Silver orders Israel Hands to bring up the Urca cache which he had dug up in secret. Rogers weighs anchor and sets sail, with the Walrus in tow.
At Skeleton Island, Flint absconds with the cache into the forest, and Silver promises Rogers he’ll retrieve it and kill Flint. Before attacking the Walrus in their absence, Rogers goes see Madi in her cell. He quietly reads her the riot act: he has no regard for “her kind” and despises the idea of compromise, but offers her a deal to save Silver’s life. However, a calm and collected Madi has the interests of her people firmly in mind and picks the cause over the man. Nevertheless, during Roger’s attack on the Walrus, Jack Rackham arrives in the nick of time, and manages to rescue many of the pirates including Silver and Flint. Together they storm Rogers ship. While the battle rages at all levels of the ship, Silver goes below and finds Madi alive.
While Madi returning to Maroon Island, Silver and Flint row ashore to retrieve the treasure. However sometime later, Silver returns alone. Silver explains to Madi that Flint has been taken to the Savannah plantation to be incarcerated with Thomas Hamilton; reunited with the man whose supposed death gave birth to Flint, the old McGraw seemed to re-emerge. In their final scene, after an implied pause of their relationship, Madi meets Silver at the edge of Maroon island, ready to forgive Silver for ending the war, and ready to reconnect.
Personality
Madi has lived in the ex-slave community almost all her life, and has never known the chains of slavery like her parents. She feels the weight of expectation on her shoulders, to eventually succeed her mother as leader. Like her mother, her people follow her orders without question. Unlike her mother who is distrustful of the pirates, she's curious about them as a link to her estranged father. As the pirates and ex-slaves form a partnership, she slowly grows closer to John Silver, eventually becoming his lover.
Trivia
- In Treasure Island, it's mentioned that Long John Silver married "a woman of colour", which Madi's character is based on.
Memorable Quotes
- "For as long as I can remember, I have been prepared for the day I would take my mother's place. To know that from that day forth, I would forever be the one who tends as opposed to the one who is tended to. You're frustrated. You're angry. You're tired. Perhaps no one else knows why. I believe that not even you know why. But I know why. The crown is always a burden. But it cannot be borne if you cannot stand."
- ―Madi to Silver, XXIV.
- "My father didn’t mistrust Flint. My father mistrusted all of you."
- ―Madi to Eleanor, XXXIV.
- "The voice you hear in your head I imagine I know who it sounds like, as I know Eleanor wanted those things. But I hear other voices. A chorus of voices. Multitudes. They reach back centuries. Men and women and children who'd lost their lives to men like you. Men and women and children forced to wear your chains. I must answer to them and this war their war Flint's war my war it will not be bargained away to avoid a fight, to save John Silver's life or his men's or mine."
- ―Madi to Rogers, XXXVII.
- "The pirates will be leaving here. The chiefs. But I will stay and I will wait — a day, a month, a year — forever. In the hopes that you will understand why I did what I did."
- ―Silver to Madi, XXXVIII.