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An interesting thing that just struck me about the raid montage in s2e1 - we don't really see Ed directly participate. At all.

He seems mostly to be just kinda...standing there, with this strikingly blank expression.

He licks frosting off a knife while everyone else is fighting, not having moved from that spot. In another raid, he lights his pipe and we can see fighting in the background, but he's not involved. Everyone else is doing the actual raid. He's not really doing anything at all, doesn't have any weapons at the ready despite how they're strapped all over him, doesn't even watch his back.

(Gif by @unearthlydust)

The closest he comes is shooting a gun, once, at someone who just fell down and had a sword sticking out his chest. If that guy wasn't already dead when he hit the floor, he was going to be soon. That shot Ed fired didn't mean much in the long run. That was performative at best.

So why do we see Ed not participating in these raids, clearly just going through the motions? I don't know about you all, but it reminds me of how, when he's trying to get the crew to mutiny on him and they're being tossed around in the storm, we see everyone else scrambling to hold onto things but Ed just spreads his arms wide, not holding onto anything. He's not even wearing shoes in this scene, so he has no traction at all.

It's like he's just waiting for random chance to kill him.

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Our Flag Means Death 2.06 "Calypso's Birthday"

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#live frenchie reaction

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When Ed is in a moment of weakness and is met with Stede's gentleness, he feels safe and opens up more. When Ed is in a moment of weakness and is met with Izzy's cruelty, he feels threatened and lashes out.

Stede and Izzy aren't ultimately responsible for Ed's actions, but they are kind of illustrating a point about men and masculinity: a culture that says men's only option for survival is toughness and cruelty is highly destructive and alienating. a culture that allows space for softness and care is necessary for becoming a fuller, more three dimensional person.

I think Izzy taking responsibility for the poisonous atmosphere on the ship is important because I see him as a stand in for men who are complicit in attacking softness and picking fights with other men and don't understand the wrongheadedness of their actions until that constant violence takes a toll and forces them to confront their own vulnerability. It's a live by the sword, die by the sword situation. Izzy isn't just a victim of Ed's attacks on him, he's a victim of a culture he upheld and reified taken to the extreme. And understanding that one can be complicit in a culture of abuse that also ends up harming you is a big part of what men need to understand about the patriarchy--the system that gives them power also alienates and destroys them. The tools it gives them for survival are also weapons that can be used against them at any time. That is such a big and nuanced theme of the show, and I think it's difficult to talk about in this fandom without being labeled an abuse apologist. Which frustrates me to no end.

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This moment brought tears to my eyes from laughing so hard.

His voice doesn't even sound like Rhys' nor Stede's. If I heard just the audio I never would have connected it.

Stede getting his fine clothes back, his ship back, Ed back, changed him. Something possessed Rhys Darby in this episode because his performance in his fancy clothes is unmatched.

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ofmd as text posts | part 7/?

(alternate version where they're all one image for easy saving)

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Happy valentines day!! Hope yours isn’t as angsty as theirs

Print available!

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our flag means death + reductress headlines 1/?

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I have to say, I just started casually watching ofmd after basically watching it through you guys. I am already spoiled. I thought there would be no surprises. I am already aware of the best jokes, the foot touch, the plot beats. You can become an expert on any show simply by scrolling past gifs of it for months.

However, NONE of you prepared me for this little guy here:

It is profoundly obvious visually, through dash osmosis and general visible evidence, that this is a little man with a lot wrong with him. but what you cannot grasp from gifs is his voice. His voice is amazing: I did NOT expect it: I cannot describe it: the actor chews on his lines like a menacing guinea pig. It is like hearing Kermit the Frog trying to strangle his own puppeteer. Like someone has trapped a vengeful spirit in a balloon and is allowing it to speak prophecy, but only in short, squeaky bursts. No, I can’t describe it at all. I was expecting the character to be “scrungly” and was aware that many of you wish to place him in a jar and shake him vigorously, but I didn’t know he sounded like something that would cause all greyhounds in hearing distance to instantly go cross-eyed and launch themselves into outer space. He! Is! Scrofulous!!!!

If you watched the show on its first principles you probably wouldn’t have noticed this because you would have accepted it as part of the full sensory experience of the character, but if you have only encountered it as gifs for the best part of a year, the sound of this chap is one HELL of a shock . Definitely adds to the flavor. Enhances the sensory experience. Sign on today.

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"You're getting tired, old man."

"Aye. And you're getting frustrated."

little sketch cus i just think it'd be neat if they got to spar together

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episode 10 in a nutshell

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OFMD Textpost Memes because this is apparently what I contribute to the fandom 😂

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this is the first good quality fully lit picture of blackbeard’s office i’m seeing and i have so many questions

cannot ignore those spooky ooky halloween crepe drapes, the fuckin makeshift bedsheet ass curtains tacked up on the ends and then this weird asymmetric attempt at a gothic vibe with the purple & black SHEER fuckin, party city halloween accent cloth. i know ed thought this was so fucking cool.

purple walls.

three discrete visible chairs for some reason

the way he has a wall sconce plenty of natural light AND upwards of fifteen candles going all at the same time

two animal print throw blankets, same color different prints

straight up Lyre in the bottom right hand corner

i don’t have much specific to say about the various knickknacks beyond boy, that’s a lot of skulls, do you think this dude’s a pirate, but i love that mysterious green bottle next to the skull in back there

btw, i wish i saved this pic but you’ll just have to trust me when i tell you that there’s bts photos of all the curios from blackbeard’s desk and one of them is a dog muzzle, presumably for izzy

what appears to be the world’s largest wastepaper basket

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Lucius Spriggs + Popular Text Posts

More textpost memes

Bonus fandom in-joke:

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Stede (in tears, gazing majestically into the sunset): my family is Here now. at Sea

the family in question: i GUESS we can wait to kill him until the day After tomorrow 🙄🙄🙄