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I present to you a comic about the mystical ending of the story of Edward Teach and Stede Bonnet. I drew it for about a year.

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Our Flag Means Death - Digital Poster Project - Renew as a Crew for season 3!

I finally get to share my contribution to the @RenewAsACrew #renewasacrew digital poster project!! We need season 3! Renew as a Crew!

Please share/repost this. Spread the word! All the posters are also available in a Zine. Please visit the website: https://www.renewasacrew.com/ @StreamOnMax @david_jenkins__

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Over the past month, 256 artists collaborated to recreate 310 frames of Ed and Stede’s S1 kiss to express our love for this show and these characters. This is animation is the result

If you'd like to take a look at each frame, check out the project website here

Also check out the project credits here! The doc has all the artists who participated listed in frame order with their social media links and ways to donate to them

So, what makes Ed Happy?

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OFMD fix-it Epilogue

Decided to make an epilogue as a thank you! wanted to try and write some fallout from the reunion. takes place over about a week. tw for blood and stede saying something self harmy. Thank you all again for the incredible response to both parts ;w;

Part one Part two

Keep reading

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OFMD Fix-it Part 2

Ayyy here’s part 2! Thank you so much for the incredible response to part 1! I read the tags and comments often y’all are too nice ;v; Enjoy all 69 pages! tw for blood and injury

Part one

kofi

Keep reading

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OFMD fix-it comic Part 1

Finally finished part 1 of this behemoth! A take on ed and stede’s possible confrontation in season 2! Part 2 is in the works where they talk it through. Enjoy!

Keep reading

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❝ Maybe I’m just too demanding

Maybe I’m just like my father, too bold.   ❞

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moodboard

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no but for real...taika nailed the scene in the blanket fort. like, the way lucius asks, "and this fictional character he's having a hard time?" and you can see ed struggle. his lips begin to quiver as he tries to keep it together, you can see the tears in his eyes and you can hear the pain in his voice when he goes, "yeah...maybe", it's heartbreaking and raw and it's just so incredibly human...idk I just think taika did a fantastic job.

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Edvard Teach, alone on a beach...

Fanart for ‘Our flag means death’.

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My first reaction to Blackbeard’s turn in episode 10 was like “Wow, he just swung so quickly between two extremes that I have whiplash”. At first, it didn’t really track for me. It seemed like a huge over reaction/quasi non-sensical. However, I watched the turn again and it really all seems to make sense….but before we get to that… first let’s think about who Ed was before he had an emotional break through that allowed him to be a namby pamby in a silk dressing gown pining for his boyfriend. Then, we can see why that namby pamby did a 180 and set out to kill a group of men he was planning a talent show with 60 seconds ago.  

He was a child in an abusive household and obviously he has very ingrained low self esteem over his former station in life. He is still very sensitive to any kind of rejection or ridicule and his entire identity is a persona that is designed to keep him safe from those two things. To stop others from perceiving this he overcompensates with violent outbursts whenever he feels shame (ask the guy that got skinned with a snail fork). He also makes sure that everyone around him (that he’s not trying to rob or maim), really, really likes him. Think about how he is so performative with the crew so that they absolutely idolize him. He doesn’t act in a way that feels genuine. He acts in a way that will live up to his legend.  

In general, he has never been himself. He has always been a chameleon. When we see his interactions with Calico Jack, we are seeing echoes of he person he was when he first met him as a young man. He takes all his cues from Jack, he lets Jack dictate everything about their relationship and clearly feels more comfortable following his lead than asserting his preferences (exhibit A: He starts drinking 30 seconds afer he says its too early to drink because Jack mocked him). 

Then, he graduates to a codependent sort of relationship with Izzy where he is still seeking approval but in a less sycophantic way. Izzy likes working under the greatest pirate and Blackbeard likes getting his approval. He is still very much just maintaining his image and persona to both gain approval and protect himself.

By the time Ed meets Stede he feels like there is something seriously missing but he’s got no idea what it is because he never developed an identity that wasn’t just a self-defense mechanism. 

But with Stede, I think he feels like he doesn’t need to try so hard.  Who he is with Stede feels very easy and natural. By the time they get to Wayward Seaman sleepaway camp he realizes he doesn’t need a persona. He can just be Ed. He’s not going to be ridiculed or rejected.

After Stede does LITERALLY THE WORST THING YOU CAN DO TO A PERSON THAT HAS FINALLY FELT SAFE TO BE THEMSELVES AFTER 45 YEARS OF INTENSE REPRESSION, Ed takes it FAIRLY WELL. He doesn’t go right back to maiming. All the bluster has gone out of him. He’s just sad.

When Izzy confronts him about not being himself anymore, he actually takes a step back from Izzy. He doesn’t even stand his ground. It isn’t until Izzy throws “namby pamby pining for his boyfriend” in his face that Ed reacts violently. While Izzy is still in the room, his face is full of anger… but the screen cap is him as soon as Izzy leaves the room. He immediately starts tearing up. This is exactly, EXACTLY why he bottled everything up. Being open gives people weapons. Then he hears the crew chanting his name in the distance saying “sing us another song!!!”

He spends a lot of time thinking, thinking and drinking. I think he slowly becomes ashamed of how much emotion he has let out to the crew. When he pushes Lucius overboard he is punishing him for seeing him while he was vulnerable.

Even though he appears to be the dominant person in his relationship with Izzy, he is actually being round about submissive by cutting the mans toe off and feeding it to him. This is exactly what Izzy wanted! He’s saying fine, I’ll be your bad ass pirate because wow you hurt the fuck out of my feelings. He is still in intense pain even though he is trying to block it out. For most of the post-Kraken part of that episode Ed seems dissociated because he has no real emotions to show except sadness. They make this pretty clear when the last time we see him he is crying and hugging himself.

I feel like I just wrote way too much and I”m not sure if I even properly expressed the main feeling I have in my head. But whatever. Just be sad with me. 

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currently losing it over how eds eyes are just completely full and brimming and overflowing and bursting with love like the only thing in his brain at this moment is pure love for stede and its all over his face

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I know almost every single person in the OFMD fandom is interpreting Izzy a little bit different. Aka we're all spotting different amounts of, or focusing differently on, these traits:

Being a literal homophobe and racist

In love with Ed and jealous

Just trying to do his fucking job seriously and no one is helping

Sexually frustrated bc he's been trying to get topped by Ed for years

Obsessed with having total control over everyone around him

Mad/Worried about Ed suddenly changing in a way he doesn't understand

etc.

I was already pretty firmly in the "Izzy is overall a bad person but also he's seems to be a lil in love with his boss in a way that's entertaining" camp, But as I'm rewatching it - I think I'm going further into "Izzy is just a bad person who's obsessed with control".

A little point of this, is when Ed tells him to go to the Republic of Pirates and bring Stede in so he can meet him, and he starts saying no. Izzy sighs and asks Edward if they could "just send the boys" to do it. Idk fam, but if Izzy was super in love with Edward, why not do the stuff he tells you to do? Even if it's a little inconvenient, you might follow command without hesitation to prove how good you are and do the job well to earn praise. But no, he tries to push back on the orders, and tries to change Edward's mind on how to do things. But he doesn't push too far; to stay in control, Edward can't doubt him.

But the main part that convinced me, is because I'm remembering that he was totally fine with Edward literally abandoning the pirate life, as long as he killed Stede to do it and left his legacy and his crew to Izzy. That doesn't really seem like a thing someone who's in love with his captain would be cool with. He's also not super effected when Ed seems genuinely interested in the idea of killing himself because he's so bored. That's something you should be concerned about if you love someone.

Those are things you might be less distraught by if your primary focus is just amassing power.

He definitely could've convinced himself that he had a right to Edward, that he was the only one who knew what was good for him, that Izzy Hands deserved to tell Edward what to do. So when Edward starts rebelling, it makes him furious. Here he is, having spent so many years of his life dedicated to proving to Edward that he was to be listened to, and now Edward won't listen. He's going off and making friends with people who are telling him not to follow Izzy's rules, he's not making good on his promise to step down and pass the throne to Izzy, and Izzy's being disrespected by the other people on the ship.

The only control he (sort of) has left is over Ivan and Fang, so when he decided to try and scare Edward back into following his orders, he pulls the two of them to his side and has an intervention so they can not only accuse him of being weak, but guilt trip him as well. And it still doesn't work.

So obviously he's lost his emotional hold on Edward, so he'll just have to physically take it back, enter the plan to defend Stede in combat so he'll have to be respected and followed again. And then that doesn't work.

So he sends Calico Jack, someone Edward has known even longer than him, to ease him back into Izzy's open arms. That doesn't work.

Even when they are about to watch Stede be killed by the British Navy, even then Edward jumps in the way and calls for an act of grace...

He completely lost control of Edward.

He thought he'd be able to get it back when he proved that he knew better and was better than Stede Bonnet, but that didn't matter to Ed. Ed leaves to join the King's forces for 10 years, and there's no sloppy emotions about it, and idk about you, but if I guy I was in love with was abandoning every part of him I recognized from someone I thought was unworthy and I believed I may not see him for 10 years, or ever again: I'd be a mess, despite my best efforts. But Izzy's not, because Izzy never really cared about Edward, he cared about being in charge. And when Edward and Stede leave, he's left in charge. But he does a pretty shit job of it. And when the crew is about to kill him and retake their control, Edward returns, and spares him. That's his in.

Edward was emotional, alone, soft, and hurt now, Izzy would be able to regain control here. Easily. All he needed to do was rial him up, scare him just enough that he closes off again. Goes back to being the dutiful Blackbeard who gets the jobs he's assigned completed, and doesn't waste time with all the emotional stuff. And he does so, easily. When you've been manipulating someone for years, and they finally lost the things they we using to escape, it's second nature to do what'll bring them back to heel.

And yeah, Izzy is prolly hot for the power Blackbeard has, but I don't think it's really anything close to love, it's an attraction to this force he's sure he has command over.

P.s. Shout out to this post by @bellasmommyissues: I started this draft over a week ago and wasn't really sure if I was going to finish it, especially since it's a sorta unpopular take... But I saw their post and and it convinced me I wasn't crazy for seeing more of Izzy's love of control vs love of Blackbeard, so I sat down and finished the damn thing.

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“So I reckon what makes Ed happy… is you.”

Stede and Ed kiss, Our Flag Means Death (2022) - painted in Procreate over 8.5 hours.

Reblogs welcome, but don’t repost anywhere!

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You know what really breaks my heart about OFMD? That, when it comes down to it, Stede, too, rejects Ed in favour of Blackbeard. Chauncey tells him he’s ruined one of the greatest pirates of the age and Stede immediately thinks of the ruined reputation of Blackbeard, the monstrous, smoke-blackened shell that Ed has slowly, cautiously been emerging from. The Blackbeard that Ed has very explicitly said he does not want to be anymore, that he has never really been. Stede thinks of the Ed that gave up everything for him, that confided in him, that kissed him, as the ruins of Blackbeard. In that moment, Stede becomes a mirror image of Izzy and his twisted adoration of the Blackbeard myth, and it is all I can do not to howl at the screen, ‘Stupid fucking Stede Bonnet! You could have had it aaaaaaall!’ before descending into anguished sobbing.*

* Haha, not really. I have been doing the anguished sobbing anyway. My neighbour has started complaining about all the wailing.

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Blackbeard in episode 8 really bothered me because his general demeanor just doesn’t line up with the rest of what we see in the show. I get that he was reverting to the juvenile version of himself that he was when he was with Calico Jack but there was something else that was nagging at me…and I think I finally figured it out. Bear with me while I psychoanalyze Blackbeard to understand the dynamic between him and Calico Jack….

So, Blackbeard is really sensitive to rejection and afraid of being mocked. He definitely lashes out in extreme ways when he is made fun of. Think of him screaming at the captain that called him a donkey….and the way he reacted to the passive aggression. He also very, very desperately wants to be liked. Think of him interacting with the crew on his first day of the revenge. He really basks in their admiration and is definitely showing off. He waits till the last second to tell them that he has a plan because he wants everyone in a full panic before he swoops in to save them. He needs the moment to have maximum drama to get  maximum attention. 

Also consider what we see of him as his flashbacks of him as a kid….he seems like a quiet, sensitive lad. Now imagine that kid at 15-18, as a young pirate on his first crew. He just very desperately wants to be liked and doesn’t want people to see any of his sensitivity. I posit that when him and Jack first met, Blackbeard thought he was literally the fucking coolest and went into full “people pleasing chameleon” mode to avoid any risk of rejection. I think what was nagging at me as being “off” about the Blackbeard/Calico Jack dynamic was that Calico Jack is the dominant personality in that relationship. Blackbeard is giving off a “Wow I can’t believe such a cool guy likes me” quasi sycophantic vibe. Blackbeard takes all his cues from him and really just wants to please him. Whatever activity Jack wants to do he does it, which makes sense if that is the pattern that he established with this guy back when they were teenagers.

The screencap is the scene when Calico Jack was leaving the ship. Blackbeard is very much avoiding eye contact and seems very unsure of how to navigate this conflict beacause he can’t say a word against Jack. He has never said no to this man in his life. He really, really doesn’t want to leave but he knows he will if Jack asks him. 

He starts to finally push back a little bit the next day on the beach when he tells Jack “its a bit early for that don’t you think”…but then he gets a sharp response…and just starts drinking anyways just to go along with him. He pushes back more by not letting Jack murder Lucius for his dinghy…but he’s still willing to just be dragged along by Jack to wherever. He finally stops making himself conform to the version of himself that Jack likes when he realizes that if he doesn’t, Stede will die. 

I need to end this rant because I know it’s already quite lengthy but I think the reason Ed loves Stede is because he is a chronic people pleasing chameleon, but making Stede happy actually aligns with his genuine interests and feelings. It doesn’t feel draining and wrong to be pleasing to Stede. For once, it feels like he’s wearing his own colors. 

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I love all your Izzy thoughts! He's kind of my favorite because there's just so much going on and he just...every scene he's in, you know? What I've been fascinated by lately is when Izzy can't even with Ed playing dress up and he pulls him aside he calls Ed an unpleasant shell of a man. Izzy. Complaining someone else is unpleasant when that's his entire brand. Like. Does he not know that? Ed low-key told him he was being a buzz kill twice that episode! Is he trying to mirror Blackbeard's unpleasantness? Then keeping his word leaving and apologizing the next day... you've still got it...

Hi, Anon! I'm glad that you enjoy my little ramblings, thank you! And Izzy really is an interesting character, isn't he? David keeps referring to him and his relationship with Blackbeard as "complex," and I mean... it's the perfect descriptor! He's such a blast to talk about and unravel.

And you bring up an excellent point there. One of the things I've found interesting about Izzy is the difference between his treatment of Edward Teach versus Blackbeard. In a way, Izzy controls Edward- he's pulling his strings in a genuinely manipulative manner- yet he's doing so because he wants Blackbeard to take control. It's an interesting duality, right? He wants control, but also wants to be controlled. He gives harsh direction, but also wants harsh direction.

Within those concepts, I see a possible answer to your wondering. In at least two instances Israel's been a people pleaser in the sense that he does genuinely want to be liked and accepted. In episode ten he thought he was being an ideal captain, a good captain. But as you say, "unpleasant" is the perfect descriptor for Izzy's behavior. He's brash, he's toxic, he wants to be respected and he's trying to imitate the behavior that he's received in the past. Calico Jack talked about Hornigold, and the long story short of that was that all his crew were abused. That's what Izzy's come to know as true captaining- as the pinnacle of good commander. As we know, Ed had been living up to that, too. From the snippets we saw and the way his crew regarded him, Blackbeard as a captain also seeps with that abusive and toxic mentality. Israel wants that, and he tempts that, and he manipulates Edward Teach to coax Blackbeard forward.

If I'm taking a good stab here, I think Izzy has 0 self confidence. Maybe he does in the image he puts forth, but not himself. Not Israel Hands. I think he's repressed, and wounded in an awful way from decades of hard life and abuse. It's what he's come to know, and respect, and thus, it's also what he emulates. He's entangled with Edward's Blackbeard concept- an identity seeping with abusive and toxic ideals- not only does he adore and respect that side of him, but when Izzy is left alone to captain the Revenge? That's exactly the behavior that he puts on. Brash, threats of violence, an unpleasant demeanor. He thinks this is the key to a good captain- this is what everyone should want and want everyone should respect.

But of course, Ed had begun to refute those ideals. He didn't want to be Blackbeard, didn't even identify with the image that the books portray and that Izzy craves. So he grew away from it, and instead moved toward finer things, softer things, things that he found with Stede; a man that explicitly rebuts and demolishes piracy's abusive nature. Ed never changed himself for Stede, he simply let himself open the door to the things he'd always wished to experience. But then it backfires, his heart is broken, Bonnet's gone and now he's experiencing a pain unlike any other.

This is vital because when Ed returns from the dock, Izzy must feel justified in his hatred for love and soft things. He must feel utterly sure of himself for once- his actions have been substantiated! He was right- love makes you weak. Love breaks you and prevents you from being a strong captain. To Izzy? A man- a pirate captain- who is soft, who loves, who refutes abusive and toxic behavior, he cannot be respected. So Israel lets Ed mope for a few days, because Blackbeard MUST arise from the ashes. He has to. But when it takes too long? When Ed begins to settle into this new, genuine and thus softer identity? Izzy steps in. He threatens Ed- he's utterly unpleasant and entirely threatening. And it works for him; he coaxes the man he loves forward- the man who's every single one of his destructive ideals- and he wins.

So. Israel is unpleasant. Because being unpleasant is what wins you respect. It's what pirates ought to be and thus it's who the man that he loves (Ed) ought to be. He thinks this is best for 1. himself and 2. Blackbeard. He thinks that being the Kraken is what makes a man, a pirate, a captain- respectable. Edward Teach wasn't filling that ideal, and thus Izzy wants nothing to do with him.

When he apologizes to Ed after calling him an unpleasant shell of a man, I think he's doing so because Ed showed a glimmer of Blackbeard. Which to Izzy? That was a glimmer of hope.