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Our Flag Means Death Season 2 - Filming in New Zealand

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"take it slow" they said. OUR FLAG MEANS DEATH 2x06 - calypso's birthday

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1.04 ed by stede's beside 2.03 stede by ed's bedside

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Nothing is as real as the idea of you (July 15 2022)

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My old ofmd art that I haven’t posted here💦

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I never posted these over here cause I'm bad at upkeeping my tumblr page, but today seems like a good day for sharing some fruity pirate brainrot. I love them all.

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Poison into positivity!

intsa: soupfairy_art

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redraw of the best scene in the whole damn show

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The emotions of Ed and Stede's reunion and its aftermath are really quite subtle and realistic. They have their initial talk, with Stede apologizing and Ed expressing his pain and them both talking out some of what happened. And then they start to be OK again. But it’s not the end of it. Ed is still scared. He starts to trust Stede but he’s also wary of that, because he trusted Stede before and got badly hurt before. Stede is still struggling to find his footing, as a captain and as a man. He can’t prove to Ed that he’s not going to leave again, and he falls back into some patterns that only make Ed more concerned.

Stede never really knows that Ed thinks he’s not lovable. He loves Ed so perfectly and thinks Ed is so wonderful that it doesn’t seem to enter his head that Ed might not love himself. He knows that he caused pain, but he doesn’t know how that pain developed or even what it turned into, beyond what he saw of its aftermath.

But I love that there’s not tons of the two of them rehashing things, or Ed asking Stede to prove that he’s going to stay, or Stede asking Ed to prove that he’s safe and not going to fly off the handle.

What’s happening with both of them is more subtle and realistic—those fears that neither of them can let go, the desires they have that they need to consider and reevaluate, the assumptions that they make about the other, their issues with their pasts and their masculinity. It’s a great example of a complicated and truly loving relationship (and why I do like where the story ends, if it ends there), because neither of them really want to mess about with each other's emotions. They’re not playing games to punish one another or ask for proof of love—even Ed, who is far less confident that Stede loves him enough to stay, doesn’t require Stede to prove it to him. He’s just scared.

Amazingly enough, it's shown to be a real adult relationship, and allows the complexity of that relationship to also be passionate and loving and full of joy.

Just...really remarkable all around.

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"Stede stabbed me once, had to make him do it. He's so fragile." (S02E04 - Fun and Games)

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Recently rewatched OFMD with a friend and I looove how Ed's introduction completely turns your expectations on their head.

Blackbeard is popular enough in the cultural zeitgeist that you kinda have a good working assumption of what you're gonna get, right? You expect a hyper-masculine, macho guy, super tough, stab-you-in-the-back, life-is-cheap kinda guy.

And Ed's introduction is so careful. He speaks in that soft, gravelly voice. We don't even get to see his full face. When we do get his full introduction, it's in that beautiful pan-up, with the slow footsteps and the dramatic lighting. It's seductive, almost, and it's mysterious and cool and so carefully-orchestrated. Especially on rewatches, it stands out how much of a performance it is.

And we know what to expect from this guy. The way he's teased throughout s1e3 makes it seem like they're setting him up to be the bad guy, right? It's an easy read on your first watch, and it's what my friend assumed.

And then in episode 4 we actually meet Ed. And, slowly, you start to realize this guy is brilliant, yeah, but he's also funny and goofy and he just wants someone to play with.

And then you start to get it. The whole Blackbeard thing is an act. He wants to introduce himself as Ed. He wants someone to be friends with. At the end of s1e4 when he tells Izzy he's going to kill Stede, you don't know yet that trying to force himself to kill Stede is going to trigger Ed so badly that he's going to have a panic attack, but you can already guess he's not going to to through with that plan.

It's such a clever character reveal, because it plays on your expectations - look, it says, here's Blackbeard! You know what to expect from Blackbeard! And then you get to meet Ed, and the story says the Blackbeard thing is an act, actually, and he fooled you, too.

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teeny tiney hut to make them all safe and sound

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teeny tiney hut to make them all safe and sound

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Skethcy fishy pirates

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I keep seeing posts on social media thanking the OFMD cast and crew for their work and not mentioning Taika, and it's driving me to distraction because Taika is absolutely fundamental to the existence of this show.

There's a huge chance the show wouldn't have been picked up at all if Taika hadn't attached his name to it. And he didn't just attach his name and walk away - he played a key role in developing the show. David has said that he was looking at the history with Taika and they both went 'omg Stede and Blackbeard were fucking' and decided to centre the show around that. Taika pushed for Rhys to play Stede. Taika saw Nathan's comedy on instagram and went 'yep that's Lucius'. Taika was desperate to play Ed, and fought to play him. Taika has spoken about how much he loves playing Ed, how it made him fall in love with acting again, to the point where he wears some of Ed's jewellery and has gotten some of Ed's tattoos actually inked on him. He poured everything he has as an actor into Ed (some of the stuff he had to perform, particularly at the beginning of S2, is difficult) and the show simply wouldn't work without it. Taika directed the pilot. He loved the show enough to juggle filming S1 with post-production on Thor: Love and Thunder. When the show's budget was slashed by 40%, and could no longer afford to film in LA, Taika would have been key to moving production to New Zealand - and if that hadn't happened, S2 wouldn't have happened. When a director went off sick with Covid during S2, Taika jumped in to direct half an episode and then didn't take a director's credit on it.

You do not have to like Taika. You do not have to agree with everything he does/says. But what we are not going to do is erase the absolutely key fundamental role that Taika has played in OFMD. This show simply would not exist, probably not in any form, but certainly not in the form we see and love, if not for Taika's continuing and multi-level contribution.

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The popularity of ships like Aziraphael/Crowley and Ed/Stede makes so much sense because it’s the classic good boy meets bad boy except this time the bad boy is also a good boy, the good boy is insane actually, and both boys are middle aged men

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#Literally wlw on mlm violence