#I can't believe I finally finished it!

[demaparbat-hp]

Arsonist's Lullaby

[ryllen]

color coded affection

[alnilamen]

maglor 🌼🐦

(inspired by Alois Hans Schram's playing with butterflies)

[daydreamerwonderkid]

All Tim does is eat hot potato chip and lie.

You do NOT have permission to repost my art.

[xieliancore]

angels of decay

[galentir]

Alternative universe where Luke and Reggie share the best werewolf vampire solidarity 🤝

[areyoudoingthis]

This shot makes me completely insane. Ed's wanted to bury the Kraken and Blackbeard for so long, but now he's literally and symbolically digging himself up from the depths, he's swimming all the way to the bottom on purpose to drag himself back out.

And he does it in part because he's just been told "If you were ever good at anything, go and do that", and then rowed himself back into a nightmare, ships burning everywhere, Stede missing, and British soldiers harassing him while he's barely coping with what he's seeing. Maybe at first this is about bringing the Kraken back out of anger and dissociation, but that's why what happens next is so important. Because whatever his motivations are in this moment, he's doing something. The last time he was underwater he was drowning and Stede's presence saved him, this time he's taking action and doing whatever he can to fight back. And anger is only part of that, has always only been part of what moves Ed to violence.

Blackbeard and the Kraken have always been fueled by love, and fear, and yes, rage against unjust situations that made Ed feel helpless and trapped, and then left him feeling even worse for fighting back. And that last bit is what changes this time around and allows Ed to reintegrate, because for the first time, he's not alone anymore to deal with the aftermath, he's not a kid without a family, he's not a man crying alone in secret in an empty room without anyone to console him.

After he digs himself up, he emerges fully dressed on the shore, Edward Teach literally reborn on a beach at last, leathers back on and determined to do whatever it takes to find Stede. And it's such a powerful shot: he's all in black against the white surf, dripping wet hair completely obscuring his features and trailing tentacle shaped rivulets of water in front of his face.

The next shot we see is his shadow self, his dark, blurry reflection on the sand. The only bit of Ed's actual body we get are his feet stepping determinedly on the wet sand, making his way back to land and to Stede and towards his full self (although he hasn't realized this last bit yet).

But it's not until he finds the soldiers reading Stede's letter -and this is such a lovely representation of how the core of the show is the relationship between these two men- that all the parts of him are finally able to integrate into a single person when Ed embraces the Kraken and Blackbeard and Ed as being of equal value. It's reading the adoring, unhesitating declaration of Stede's love that allows Ed to redefine himself, to see his darker parts in a different light, the light Stede has cast on his life.

He reads the letter, realizes the depth of Stede's love for him, understands he's really committed to Ed for good (in permanent ink), that he didn't push him away by showing him his trauma as he feared, that sharing the story he's never told anyone else about his first and worst act of violence didn't make Stede reject him, that Stede loves him and wants him in his life for good. He has a short cry about it while he reads and processes.

And then he roars "you wrote me a lovely letter" and charges. A lot has been said about how angry in love the line sounds, and yes, he is angry, angry that he almost lost Stede again, angry that the British soldiers would mock the letter, angry that they'd hurt Stede and that they'd think they can do whatever they want just because they have the power, think they can separate them again after everything they've been through.

Ed has been afraid of his anger for so long, made up a tale and a whole different persona to hide it behind, but his anger has always been born of love, of the need to keep his loved ones safe, of rage against abuse and injustice, and this is what he needed to be able to see in order to start healing.

He's in love, Stede's in danger, he needs his protection, and Ed offers it unflinchingly and doesn't hate himself for it this time, sees the part of him that is capable of killing not as monster but as loving protector at last. Because the British are abusing their entirely illegitimate authority, and the man he loves is in trouble and may even be dead, and this isn't even a question for Ed, he'll fight for him.

And once he's safe he'll drop his weapons at their feet to kiss him and tell him what he's finally become able to say: he loves him. He's maybe beginning not to hate himself, and he loves Stede. And Stede reaffirms what he wrote in the letter, tells him that he knows, that it isn't Ed-Blackbeard-Kraken that's a dick, but life.

Is this arc done? No, of course not. Healing happens in stops and starts, it takes a long time, and that's why DJ has said from the beginning that OFMD was always meant to be three seasons long; the last season is going to be all about Ed and Stede dealing with their issues so they can grow and heal. But they were always meant to do it together, because that's when they're strongest, that's when they're able to shed a light on the other's darkest bits and help him see them in a kinder, loving way.

This was an emotionally charged step in Ed's journey of growth and self acceptance, but the issue will probably come back up in the future, especially now that he and Stede are slowing down and taking time to process their mountains of trauma and everything they've been through in a very condensed amount of time.

But this is still an incredibly significant moment for Ed. He's gone from panicking and hiding under a blanket in a bathtub to throwing parts of himself overboard to digging them up from the bottom of the sea towards the shore and the light, and wielding them intentionally to fight for what he loves.

[da-janela-lateral]

Can you stand up? I do believe it's working, good That'll keep you going through the show Come on, it's time to go

-------

There had been a severe lack of Pink Floyd in my musical comics, so it was my duty to fix this with a little Broccoli Arc. How are you guys doing.

[emblazons]

"This is only the beginning— the beginning of the end."

STRANGER THINGS SANS VISAGES S04E09 - The Piggyback (Part II of II)

[ifindus]

"Can you just imagine Norway and Sweden here, forced to take a picture together during their union in the 1800s??"

Or, something like that, is about what @cat-with-a-tie said just before requesting this exact scenario ✨

[s0up-arts]

don't give up avery! he'll cave eventually!

[amazingdeadfish]

Day Seven: Love Language

[brotherconstant]

SUCCESSION "Tern Haven" (2.05) SHIV ROY → Anxiety.

He’s got me all Kendalling. This is what happens. You’re promised the keys to the castle and you get paralyzed looking into the eyes of the cobra. And then he smells the vacillation and – that’s it. You’re done. He’s fucking – juiced another lemon. He’s got me second-guessing myself. I’m wavering on the best strategy for securing a company I don’t even like— I really want this. I want to be sitting at that table.

[0ann3]

Drawing these two as I finally reached book 7 of the game KAJSHAKJLSHADK

[summergirl2408]

[marley-manson]

cry for judas | the mountain goats

a bj hunnicutt character study vid

youtube link

Lyrics:

Some things you do just to see How bad they'll make you feel Sometimes you try to freeze time 'Til the slots are a blur of spinning wheels

But I am just a broken machine And I do things that I don't really mean

Long black night, morning frost I'm still here, but all is lost

Speed up to the precipice And then slam on the brakes Some people crash two or three times And then learn from their mistakes

But we are the ones who don't slow down at all And there's nobody there to catch us when we fall

Long black night, morning frost I'm still here, but all is lost

Feel the storm every night, hope it passes by Hallucinate a shady grove where Judas went to die

Unfurl the black velvet altar cloth Draw a white chalk Baphomet Mistreat your altar boys long enough And this is what you get

Sad and angry, can't learn how to behave Still won't know how in the darkness of the grave

Long black night, morning frost I'm still here, but all is lost