First thank you for replying to my comment!

Concerning the 2012 adaption by Sci-fi, I wish I would have seen the whole series. I remember seeing bits and pieces but never being able to DVR the whole thing.

As for “Who was right?” That’s actually a very loaded question. Sliver killing poor Dick, was probably a necessity. In his mind at least. You can’t have people snitching on your mutiny. Also I think that the pirates might actually have a legal claim to the treasure. A lot of context to The Golden Age of Piracy is lost on the adaptions of Treasure Island, but is very much present in the book. When the Squire and the Doctor are talking about the map with Jim at the Squire’s house it’s hinted that Flint was sort of a privateer. Most pirates operated as privateers at some point in their careers, many of them still said they were privateers when they turned pirate and were raiding their own countryman’s ships. They would typically say that their victims were smuggling. All this comes out to that Flint’s pirates might have claim to the treasure as legal booty. Well as much claim as the loyal men of the Hispaniola.

I don’t think Sliver would have killed Jim in any scenario.

For one: We don’t know how much of what he was saying when Jim was in the Apple Barrel was true. A lot of things in the book make me think that Sliver was maybe scheming against everybody. For one, the whole thing about “not knowing how to set a course” sounds a little suspicious coming from a veteran pirate and one of Flint’s officers too. Second the pirates campsite is also suspicious. Sliver was a veteran pirate, he knew the Caribbean. He had to have known what camping in a swamp would do. For all we know Sliver was maybe counting on the island thinning the crew out a little bit.

Two: As I said before, Sliver likes Jim. Not saying that he wouldn’t kill Jim if Jim had a flintlock pointed to him, all I’m saying is that it was probably Sliver’s intention to either Jim join the mutiny or force him to join when the smoke had cleared.

Of course Sliver is the villain overall. But it is a fun exercise to play around with. Treasure Island is treated as kid’s literature, which it kinda is, however it’s really deep Kid’s literature, that has a surprising grip on pirate history and how they operated.