#I just like how ofmd takes tropes and turns them on their head

[tulipseason]

sappy izzy post (sorry)

…

something I’ve been thinking about a lot lately is how easy it would have been to give izzy a big self-sacrificial heroic death to drive home his redemption arc? but I think one of the reasons why his death was so surprisingly moving to me is how the show very explicitly didn’t do that. I guess granting antagonists/former antagonists those kinds of save-the-day, self-sacrificial deaths gives the act of dying some leverage to save the character. (which is a trope I’m not usually opposed to and think can be done well!). But in ofmd it’s as if izzy dies to let that notion go. and it’s freeing, to be able to let that go. in this world of pirates that resign themselves to short lives, this idea that dying can’t save you or redeem you, that it’s a tragedy and not a hero’s ending, that only loving authentically and learning to be loved and can bring closure, and that’s what these characters found in the end. including izzy

[blakbonnet]

AUTHOR OF THE WEEK: @darcylindbergh (@forpiratereasons)

Ever since the cancellation (and the second cancellation, thx max 🙃) I've found comfort in going back to fics that started it all for me - the OG fics that remind me of a happier time when the fandom was buzzing with activity, when it was all about meta and discussions and the love of the characters - and the first author I go back to to relive that is Darcy, without fail. I don't think you can read their work and be unaffected by it. Every single person I know has a favourite fic by them. Beyond lovely, lyrical prose, and brilliant plot - Darcy just gets them ✨ Read on to know a bit more about their writing process:

What's your writing process like? Do you start with the beginning or the end? Do you write in order or as the scenes come to you? 

Depends a little bit on how I came to the idea - was it an idea born from having a scene leap into my mind and now I’m just building the rest of the fic around it, or do I have a prompt, or do I have a goal I need to meet? So I start with whatever’s driving me to write the thing and I write the elevator pitch which is usually about 50 words of “what is this about.” Then I write a 500 word outline. Then I write a 1000 word outline. Then I start from the beginning and fill in to the end. I don’t usually write out of order, but I will if something really takes hold. 

Favourite trope or headcanon you like to explore while writing? 

Hurt/Comfort as a general trope. I like to write about finding the people who see you for who you are, the insecurity of disbelieving people could really love you, and the realization that it’s true, it’s really true: they do love you, not just as much as they say but so so so much more than they could put into words.

Whose voice is easier to write - Ed or Stede? Why? 

I think Ed is easier to write because his mind is very like mine (it’s definitely the untreated ADHD), but Stede is very fun to write because I think his sense of humor is quite like mine (it’s definitely the pretentious bitch /affectionate). They’re both so fantastically complex, I love being in both their heads. 

Your personal favourite thing you've written that you'd like more people to read 

Oh man this is a hard question. I will say I’m especially proud of “Bedtime Stories” which was a bit of an experiment and I’m so happy with how it turned out (@lindie-kninjaknitter did a great podfic too!) - and “Tenderly the Light” which I literally cried trying to write because I wanted it to work so bad and I trusted it so little, but with some distance I think it turned out really nice.

What is the one word that you think you use a lot? 

Not a word necessarily, but I like to write emotions as being felt in the inside of the elbows. I come back to that description a lot. 

Do you have a beta reader? Have they made you a better writer? 

I have a betaing cheerleader in @mintly who keeps me sane on the day to day. She reads about 75% of what I post in advance - the other 25% I’m just winging it really. Yeah, she’s absolutely made me a better writer, not just by helping me hone the story but by helping me trust myself too. 

Why OFMD 🥹

Gosh okay, the big question. For me OFMD is about - we spend a lot of our lives being put into little boxes ‘cause it’s tidy. It’s easy. And for a lot of our lives, we stick to our boxes because it’s easy for us too. We let it happen because there are expectations and we have responsibilities and obligations and these boxes keep us pinned in place, and it’s so easy to just stay where we’re put. 

But OFMD is about opening the lid to the box. It’s about seeing the light. It’s about how it’s never too late to open that lid. It’s about how if you just trust yourself enough and you trust the people around you, you can reach for a hand to lift you up and you can find one in the dark to help pull you out. You can find people, and you can find joy, and you can get out of that box and there’s so much room out there. And I know it’s hard. It’s so fucking hard. It’s okay if it’s hard. OFMD is about how it’s hard and scary and you will definitely fuck up and you will definitely have some scary moments wondering if you’re going to lose your balance and fall back in, but just hang on a little longer. Let that trust in yourself grow a little stronger. It’s better to stand unsteadily than to let yourself be made small again. 

And yeah, there will always be someone who wants to put you back in the box because it was easier for them, but you find your people and your joy and you hang on fucking tight and that’s stronger than easy. Our joy and our song and our communities and our hope will always be stronger than their commitment to easy. 

Rhys Darby’s legs don’t hurt either. 

Please head over to @ofmdlovelyletters (who also made the header) and send your love to all your favourite authors (and authors of the week 😈 watch that blog for some special letters coming your way)

[extraterrestrialechos]

There's not a bad guy of the show.

I'm back reading through Tumblr meta here, and this seems like a central misreading of the show I've seen in fandom.

Izzy is the henchman of the show. Ed is a hugely successful mastermind archetype villain. He's introduced through the Bond Villain chair which long ago even in my youth had descended into parody but means THIS IS THE VILLAIN.

At the first shot, and then again in the last shots. After Fang clubs Jim over the head and Frenchie comes in, the two of them literally break into the world's silliest MUAHAHAHAHA laughter.

No one is the "bad guy" of the show, but Ed is the villain of the show.

Izzy is his pathetic henchman with puffy sleeves who nobody particularly fears or respects who derives 100% of his authority from Ed (Fang thinks Izzy's a joke), because however bad they are at communication they're close and (now quite confirmed) have a long personal history.

Izzy is the guy polishing the Penguin's boot.

Heck, we even know there's a cut for time scene where he put bows in Ed's beard in episode 5. This gif happened on camera. Later Ed sees him dying and asks for tea. This is super thoroughly broadcasted. Ed says jump, Izzy (until late episode 10) says how high.

So while the show has dark and serious story beats, and there are also long tragic shots of Ed's face deadening as he turns away from flirting with Izzy, or Izzy standing there looking like a kicked puppy in his confusion when Ed gives him up after the duel -- that's what Izzy is, Ed's dog, having separation anxiety because as we see so swiftly a henchman without his villain cannot survive long in the wild.

When Izzy stares pathetically into nothing and says Bonnet's done something to his bosses' brain and Rory Kinnear makes the face of all time in, frankly, the scene of all time, those three were fantastic -- we're supposed to laugh.

When Izzy gets punched and lands ass up and comes up with his hair HUGE, we're supposed to laugh. At him.

Every moment of drama is firmly situated within a camp framework where the ridiculousness is used to gesture toward real emotions, but Ed still does a silly Baby Driver style sequence before brutally amputating Izzy's toe after, yes, Izzy threatened his life in what already almost became a domestic.

There's so much comedy here and so much parody here and so much FUN, and it's a subversion of film villainy, where Ed would be beyond Darth Vader level, he's king of the ocean. He's capable of equal parts violence and genius, but he's secretly vulnerable and dorky and traumatized and when a guy who has no idea who he is shows up right when he's ready to throw in the towel Ed... plots to murder him and desecrate his corpse and take his estate and money.

But then he learns he likes Stede. And Izzy is left bewildered because that's not how their archetypes WORK.

Heck, even Chauncey isn't the bad guy of the show. Because WE know he's a trash horrible imperialist colonizer, but he thinks he's Horatio Hornblower, pride of the crown, out there for honor and queen and country and he, too, absolutely breaks down when people stop acting out their tropes. In any classic seafaring series he'd be the hero. He ends up blowing his own head off in a fantastically scripted scene, but he never himself doubts he's the hero up to the moment his, like Nigel's, brain is obliterated.

(Nigel isn't even a proper villain, he's just a horrible, horrible person who frames how empty Chauncey's "heroism" is since he's "avenging" a waste of human flesh.)

I think a big issue in the fandom is just, wanting there to be clear cut good guys and bad guys in OFMD itself when the genuine brilliance of the script is the constant subversion of other media where there ARE good guys and bad guys.

‘izzy is not the bad guy’ is such a wild take like fair enough if he’s your blorbo i get it and if you don’t think he’s a bad person i get it but at least acknowledge that he’s the antagonist of the show. like if not him then who else. if the guy who sold them out to the british and nearly got mutinied by the entire crew and told ed he’d be better off dead than doing some gay pining is not the bad guy then please. who is

[handmedowncj]

Queer Anachronism in Our Flag Means Death

WARNING: OFMD SPOILERS!

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We need to talk about anachronism and queerness in Our Flag Means Death. One of the funniest parts of OFMD is the creative use of anachronism. Instead of dutifully following historical accuracy like many other period pieces, OFMD plays into campy anachronism for the sake of the joke. In the year 1717, Oluwande wears Crocs on the beach. Roach hits Izzy with a deli sandwich. Stede reads his crew Pinocchio, a story not written for another 150 years. OFMD far from invented comedic anachronism, (Monty Python, A Knight’s Tale, etc. have also fully committed to the bit) but OFMD has unleashed anachronism on a far more powerful frontier: queer imagination. By releasing itself from the chains of “but that didn’t really happen,” OFMD creates space for queerness yet unseen in period pieces, especially comedies. Queer people have always used fiction as a method to represent stories lost to the ages (think Portrait of a Lady on Fire), but OFMD takes queer representation to a completely different stage by committing to the anachronism and fully imaging alternative ways of being.

Jim obviously represents the real historical phenomenon of people assigned female at birth dressing and living as men on pirate ships, but instead of deliberating over how these people might possibly identify today, OFMD imagines a world where Jim uses they/them pronouns, and no one blinks an eye. In this queer playground of a world before modern transphobia but with addition of modern trans identities, Jim allows the audience a peek at what the world could look like. Jim has a romance, a revenge plot, a tragic backstory, all completely distinct from their identity as a nonbinary person. The creation of nonbinary identity as a non-issue is so funny, but it is also radical. The radical potential of imagining nonbinary people outside of transpobia cannot be overstated, and we need to talk about it.

Stede’s reconciliation with Mary turns the tragic marriage trope on its head. Instead of marriage ending a queer episode in one’s life, as it often did in reality and often does in fiction (again, Portrait of a Lady on Fire) or alternatively, falling into the misogynistic trope of the evil wife, standing between a queer love story, Stede and Mary speak openly about their respective lovers. Throughout the entire show, when faced with queerness, the show dares to ask: why not? Oluwande is literally in Crocs, so why wouldn’t we imagine queer liberation that includes wives not as stand-ins, but as allies and accomplices in the creation of queerness? Breaking the rules of history and television and narrative, we imagine a world where a gay man can conspire with this wife of arranged marriage to fake his death so they both live happily ever after.

Knowing (as we do from David Jenkins’ tweet where he told everyone to follow the writers) that at least 4 of the 13 writers on OFMD are nonbinary people of color, it invokes the queer of color perspective on scenes that anachronistically look at race as well as sexuality. During my personal favorite scene of the show, A British Navy officer tells Frenchie to be “quiet, slave” and to stop his “uppity” behavior, and he gets a knife through his hand as a result. In any other show, the fact that the Black members of the crew had to pretend to be servants to trick the Navy would likely have been an unfortunate necessity (if there were any Black pirates included to begin with!) but OFMD treats that racism as a reason to blow up the entire ruse and just start killing people. Because why not? Why imagine a world full of fanciful pirates and gay romances if they still have to bow to racism? And the next time they meet the aristocracy, the trope is flipped further, with Olu pretending to be a king in a trick that ends with all the other servants/enslaved people on the ship riding off into the sunset while their supposed masters die on a ship in a blaze. I won’t get into the INCREDIBLE indigenous representation in Episode 2, since much of that is actually not anachronistic and rather correcting historical falsehoods, the depictions of race in OFMD are delightfully anachronistic and intrinsically queer.

Honestly, OFMD can only be understood as the result of finally giving QPOC a seat at the table, and that is why it’s been the top ranked show for five weeks, and #RenewOurFlagMeansDeath has been trending on twitter for just as long. I am so grateful to have a show that allows queerness to play and thrive in whimsical, but also serious and heart-wrenching, settings.

[biceratops7]

Can we just acknowledge how ofmd said “twink rights” for a moment?

Ok wait hear me out, it is legitimately so weirdly rare to see media centered around queerness that sees effeminate gay men as diverse, complex, and invaluable to our community. More historically it’s been used as cinematic shorthand for (often negative) queer coding, but now a days it’s either a token or something to point at and go “We’re gay but not like those guys, we’re normal people.” (Looking at you Love Simon…)

And then we have Our Flag Means Death, which has a bare minimum of three effeminate gay men, all completely different from each other in several areas. All having their presentation of queerness treated as a strength by the series.

First we have Lucius. He’s the first openly gay character we meet and is easily the most “stereotypical.” However these things are deconstructed and seen as healthy character traits. For example in episode 5, Lucius is shown to “get around” if you know what I mean. Usually this is seen as dangerous or immoral by the narrative, but ofmd completely turns that on its head when it’s revealed not only that his boyfriend knows about it, but the whole ship does and supports it. “We don’t own each other” takes a commonly frowned upon stereotype of gay men and asks why it’s even seen as bad in the first place. What’s wrong with an adult who enjoys open sex with other consenting parties? It’s precisely Lucius’s pride and the crew’s acceptance of it that wins them a victory against Izzy.

Another thing about Lucius is that he’s easily one of the most self actualized characters in the show. Normally when this happens it’s used in the “gay best friend” trope, where you’re a straight but “woke” blonde lady who’s uber confident twink friend gives great advice. You know, that one? Accept here Lucius’s strong sense of self concept and knowledge of healthy relationships are used to help his own community. Often times effeminate gay men either can’t hide their queerness or just choose not to, because of that “twinks” are often seen protecting or mentoring younger/ newer members of our community, and that role is incredibly important and deserving of respect.

Alright now let’s move from that to the dude with a giant beard who is so stereotypically manly he’s rumored to carry nine guns. That’s right, Blackbeard is low key a twink and I will fight to the death on this hill.

I’ve already touched on my reasoning behind that in this post, but what I didn’t mention is that these attributes are not only acceptable by the narrative but staunchly encouraged.

When Ed’s taking part in these things he’s growing as a character, he’s putting his past behind him and becoming the healthiest version of himself. Even when he’s just straight up having a mental breakdown throwing himself into these softer things is used as symbolism for healthy coping strategies like being honest about what’s wrong and opening up to people who care about you.

This is in stark contrast with him violently throwing away every trace of it. His abrupt return to traditional masculinity (and casual murder, but you know, pirates) is treated as a moment of weakness made in desperation, one he quickly realizes didn’t work at all. But now it’s too late.

And then there’s Stede, I won’t say much about him because it’s pretty simple. Stede’s “effeminate” traits are seen as negatives by the people we’re supposed to dislike (Izzy, the twins, his father, etc.), but a big theme of the series is showing that those people were wrong and painting them as strengths. He’s at his best when he uses less traditionally masculine traits, the show actually frames them as valuable skills. 

His attitude on being emotionally open makes a HUGE positive impact on Ed’s life and eventually endears his crew to him, making them all incredibly close. His knowledge and liking for “fine things” is something he and Ed share together and is the first thing they connect over. The show isn’t about Stede becoming a better man despite these attributes, it about him becoming a better man because of them. Because he chooses to share them with someone who finds them charming and loves him for who he is instead.

[laurelier]

Wearing white: some thoughts on the subversion of purity and Christ-figure symbology in OFMD.

Specifically with regard to episode 3, but, like, it’s all over the (treasure) map. I finished this show for the first time, like, less than a week ago and I have actually not been able to think about or do anything else since so. Have this. 

I’ve seen a few real sharp metas floating around from some lovely people who have been on the ofmd beat since the beginning about a) the masterful and almost frighteningly detailed use of color symbolism in this show and b) the subversive use of Christian imagery in its visuals, and I wanted to submit a few (non-exhaustive, this is the tip of the tip of the iceberg) thoughts about white (and black, sort of) clothing to that general discourse, because it kind of. Is a thread that ties in with both tapestries. 

Under the cut— a few thoughts on when Stede wears white, when he wears black, and when Izzy accidentally channels Pontius Pilate, if pilate had taken, like. A more homoerotic and hands-on approach. I'd probably get kicked out of catholic school for this, unless it was one of those ones where they teach you how to throw knives.

Little tiny TW section before I begin: I don't get graphic in this post, I don't think, not any more than the show is, but I do mention the Concept Of Virginity a few times, so if discourse around that is in any way sensitive for you, just be aware. I tried to be gentle, but it's never a bad idea to warn.

Can’t touch this dadadadaaaa

Every color in this show is a multilayered symbol— red blue gold black purple green orange white, all of em, it’s fascinating and I am having a FIELD day thinking about how the visuals of this show use colors to suggest whole other worlds of meaning. And each color in turn represents lots of different things, but I do think that one important meaning of white, in OFMD, is the presence of emotional invulnerability. I think of it as a play on the Christian-canon virgin myth, in that when we think of white (in a Western, Christian symbolic tradition, ofc; I don't think the entire show operates from within that logical frame, but given Stede's background, I think you can certainly say he as a character is subject to it) we’re usually supposed to think of “virginal” purity, the idea of being Untouched and therefore Perfect, Holy, Godly, In Need of Protection, all that; I think the show/Stede kind of take that pervasive reductive tired idea and twist it around in a very cool way.

Opportune moment to reaffirm that I think the only good use of this Virgin Trope is when it’s turned on its head, as OFMD does— bc in the show, those characters who favor white in their clothes and, as such, create an association with this idea of being Virginal and Perfect appear to me not to be so much passively untouched as they are actively untouchable. And unlike in the traditional mythos, where virginity/“purity” (ack) is the ideal state (for women in particular), in OFMD, a show that’s so much about the deconstruction of rigid masculinities and, really, just rigid, isolated ways of being human— being unaccessed and untouchable is canonically not a desirable thing.

Stede’s the main one this applies to, I think (aside from Mary, at times, but the colors of her dresses are another post and a half). Stede’s a blue-coded character, @weirdgirlcore lays that out here, and that means so many things, but he also wears a lot of white— to start, we've got his white shirts, which are period costuming, sure, but. They’re also the closest layer of clothing to his skin, and he’s, like, always got them on, and there’s a good argument to be made that Stede is one of, if not the, most emotionally unavailable characters in the show. 

The scene where he's talking to the crew about talking things through, ironically enough. The shirt is so bright white and it's, like, right over his heart?

This isn't always applicable, and I think it moves around a bit, but I tend to think of these shirts as something of an insulating, protective layer: they’re almost always there, and they’re almost always white, and considered in the context of ep 3, I wonder if they, like. Serve the function of a bulletproof vest kind of deal. (Which makes it all the more interesting that Izzy shreds Stede’s shirt in the absolute horniest way possible in ep 2— maybe foreshadowing the way Ed will do the same to Stede, kind of break through his defenses, I don’t know; the way that even in his most vulnerable-looking states, such as in his pajamas and in his underclothes, Stede is still walled-off— but that’s a different barrel of fish.)

The cream of the Caribbean

Ruffly white undershirts/pjs aside, white color symbolism gets its moment to really shine in “The Gentleman Pirate”, when the crew visits the Republic of Pirates and Stede and Lucius wear those bright white outfits cringe. The bright ivory color, on the surface, evokes Stede’s, shall we say, inexperience with the world of piracy, his softness to that world and naïveté. Lucius, though, as well as the bloody, exhausted, sunburned hostage, also wear white— and no sooner does Lucius step off that boat than his brilliant, beautiful, pristine white coat is spoiled rather grotesquely by a man in an Unfortunate State who smears blood all down it. 

Grisly.

To this, all Stede can say is, “Really? You couldn’t have sidestepped?” which is a line that makes me gnash my teeth and pull my hair, because what else does Stede Bonnet do better in the first nine episodes of this show than sidestep everything that is represented by the symbology of the color red as expressed in this post by @edwardsilkheart— vulnerability, human emotion, real desire, Ed himself?

Even so early in the season, Lucius is already the direct opposite of Stede’s unavailability— he’s open, he’s vulnerable, he’s loving because of those things, he’s warming up to Stede— @weirdgirlcore again, hi, I’ve been reading your posts like my life mfing depends on it, this one explains this well, but the idea that Lucius is the red-coded emotional heart of the ship is just, yeah— so it makes sense that he’d be the one to be open enough to receive the ~redness of the pirate world and all the good and bad it’s got to offer. Stede, though, is so adept at keeping himself clear of all of that, even as he’s physically in the thick of it. The image of Stede walking entirely unscathed through the pirate world in his bright white little matching set is so evocative for me, like, a), you go girl, but b), you’d think those very, very white Virgin Mary ass clothes would make him more vulnerable to getting dirty or being singled out as a target, but they don’t, which makes me think there’s a way to read the moments when Stede wears white as when he’s at his most defensive, not least— and I think that’s such a cool reversal.

landed gentry lookin ass

When they get to Spanish Jackie’s, Lucius is again the one who gets blood thrown all over him, and walks around the rest of the time with that giant red stain all over his front. Hostage is looking rough too, but Stede remains perfectly spotless until he gets on the boat with the Spaniards and they stab him— and the red of his own blood soaks him, as opposed to Lucius, who’s sporting the blood of others. Stede has no contact with the color red at all, really, until moments before he’s lying in a pool of his own blood at Ed’s feet. 

And almost the literal next scene, like, that’s the final moments of ep 3, the “I’ve heard all about you” (knife me)— almost the literal next scene is Stede and Mary’s wedding. Like, that’s one of the opening scenes of ep 4, and Mary’s of course there in her white ass wedding dress, and we see her and Stede come into frame right after we see the lighthouse, I absolutely cannot stand this progression, it’s too smart.

I hate this shot. I hate it. Look at the lighthouse. Look at Stede in his stupid green cravat and Mary with her stupid green flowers. Look at the red on the officiant's neck tie thingy the nuns who taught me religion class in 6th grade would be so disappointed to know i don't remember the name of that shit but did it ABSOLUTELY have to be that bright red? Was that, like, an ecclesiastical necessity? God. GOD.

BECAUSE in order to get to this ^ scene, we have to go through Stede getting stabbed in his all-white fit at the end of ep 3 and his red blood spilling all over it: we have to watch him lying there in what is essentially his own white ass wedding dress, wearing blood for the first time (oh my GOD the implications) with Ed looming over him bathed in red light, wearing all black— like, they just got married. That’s what just happened. Symbolically they are wifed up and the suggestion is so heavy because of the close proximity of Stede’s actual legal wedding to Mary in the narrative and— all of that just underscores that now, Ed poses a big emotional threat to Stede. And having finished the show, we know that Stede, in the infinite depths of his self-hatred and subsequent capacity for cruelty to those he loves, will run from that. Will try to go back to being untouchable, before he really ever touched anyone; will try to go home and resume his former life, for a number of different reasons— a big one being that he believes he’s a ruiner, that he ruined Blackbeard, which calls up the way that, in a world that subscribes to the myth of virginity, virgins are considered “ruined” after certain intimate events unfold. Stede, the wearer of the supposed virginal color, believing himself a ruiner. I can’t believe this show, I honest to God cannot believe it.

But, of course, no matter how hard he tries, Stede can’t go back to being untouchable anymore, from that moment on the Spanish boat he loses his rather uncanny ability to stay completely lily-white— he’s found something that affects him, can break through his armor of, like, snow-white emotional blankness, and that could be so good for him if he could just let it. 

Jesus christ superstar but make it goth

One last final, kind of different note, because I was planning to write here about black and what I think that means but as I was writing I found that I don’t think I really know, lmao— but I do think it’s important that Stede is wearing black when Izzy stabs him against the mast in ep 6. Because, like. That’s, a) of all, such a deranged crucifixion nod. Stede??? As a Christ figure? Nailed to a pirate mast after a homoerotic swordfight that’s also a stand-in for, like, the romantic competition between Izzy and himself for Ed? Are you joking? 

Like— come again. Stede???!? As Jesus? It’s so good. It’s SO good. Stede isn’t Jesus! But he is. He is! Like, the best part is that Stede being Jesus here makes sense: he just forgave Ed, no questions asked, for attempting to murder him and right after that, he’s like, dying, and then oop he’s alive nvm what!— and all the while the whole thing is so gay, and his knowlege of how to survive the stabbing ordeal is rooted in such a gay moment, and he’s nailed to that fucking cross mast— and he could easily have killed Izzy afer he threw the gunpowder in his face, and even Olu was telling him to stab him but he didn’t, he showed Izzy mercy— and then Izzy’s sword breaks off in his guts and Stede is there stapled to that blessed mast metaphorically absolving everybody’s sins, most notably Ed’s, and there’s not a damned thing Izzy can do about it. 

The lighting in the scene where Iz actually stabs Stede is so dark that I couldn't get a good screenshot so here just have this pic of S in his little sweater with his little blue ring.

And b) of all, he’s wearing black while all of this happens, an uncharacteristic color for him, and which is also the color of Ed’s clothes: black likens Stede to Ed, in this moment (as well as Izzy). The last time Stede wore black, he was in Ed’s actual outfit, and he felt the burden of the real, dangerous, immediate responsibility that Ed bears. Stede’s adoption of the color black here from head to toe is such a cool choice on the part of the show in part because much, much more often, like, almost always, white is associated with Christ figures, as it is with virgins. But Stede-as-Jesus is wearing black— mourning, death, night; black being, maybe, the color associated with the times in our lives when we really have to, as Stede says, “face the music”, face the depths of ourselves.

Get crucified bitch.

Like I said, I don’t know what I think about symbolism of black, but. I do think if Stede were wearing white here, as he was the first time he got stabbed, I think that would kind of put a symbolic edge of unreality over the scene— the way he's used white to fabricate things, create an escapist reality around himself that insulates him from what’s really going on, as he does in the Republic of Pirates. The fact that he’s wearing black, to me, suggests him grappling with the weight of his situation, with his proximity to both death and love/Ed, with the responsibilities of captainship, and maybe most importantly, with the very, very real emotional honesty that Ed gives him to hold in this episode, directly before this scene.

Every time I rewatch this show I am struck anew at the sheer depth of the attention to detail in the script and costuming and lighting and set design and just. In everything. I don’t know how people make things that are so good, but I am thanking all the Jesuses I personally am aware of that this exists, long live.

[scrambled-eggsed]

How Stede Bonnet reminds me of Don Quixote

Disclaimers: I read two (2) chapters out of Don Quixote in my high-school literature class, and the only stuff i know about the story is pretty much from there (first and eighth chapters, if any of y'all are interested). Also this is 100% about Stede Bonnet the character and the way he is written in the show, and not in any way about the historical man. SO!

There are a few elements to this - the obvious similarities between Stede and Don Quixote as people, including their backgrounds, approaches to the lives they chose, and the obvious incompatibilities between them and the dangers of being pirates/knights; the similarities in how the narrative itself mocks both of them, whether its the general framing of scenes or the actual narrator; and also how in Stede's case, the narrative takes a turn and pulls him away from being a Don Quixote, especially when in relation to Ed.

So about the first thing! It really is the most obvious part of this comparison - generally, they are both from wealthy backgrounds (wealthy-ish in the case of Don Quixote, I think, but the point stands), and abandoned their comfortable lives in exchange for lives of danger and adventures. It will be expanded on later but I should also point out here that there are a few differences between them in this sense - namely the reason behind Don Quixote's decisions being Comical Insanity, while Stede was always out of place in his life since childhood, whether due to full-on homosexuality or his general "softness" in relation to The Standard. Slightly more about that later! But anyway, they are also extremely not suited for the lifestyles they chose, and interestingly, once again in different ways - Don Quixote is trying to make his fantasies a reality, in a time period which is [decades? a century?] after the time when it had a chance of being relevant. He also bases those fantasies on cheap novels and clichés - which is to say, even if he WAS in the right time period, he would still be seen as a lunatic. That bit is similar to Stede's case, except that Stede IS in the right time period - the Golden Age of piracy, I'm pretty sure? He wants to join a lifestyle which does exist in his time, but what makes him similar to Don Quixote is how, like him, he has no clue how it works - he acts out the fluffed-up tropes he knows from stories, with ZERO awareness to how dirty and gruesome it gets. That's a big part of the comedy in both stories - just like how Don Quixote had a stupid, kinda dangerous duel with that Basque guy, Stede stabs a man through the HEAD and it's still ridiculous. The tone of the story ties into how much they both absolutely do not fit the lives they've chosen.

Now that brings me to my second point - the tone of the two stories is pretty similar in how it treats Stede and Don Quixote's misconceptions of reality (here I should point out that in OFMD, the tone does change throughout the show. A while ago I read a post that explained the changes in the tone as the show progressed, and I can't find it now, but the point is that right now I'm referring to the early episodes of the show - generally until Stede gets stabbed, which, I'm pretty sure, is where the aforementioned post noted the first drastic change in the tone of the show). It's easier to explain Don Quixote's example - the narrator straight-up says he is insane, and while the other consistent point of view in the story, Sancho Panza (who, as far as I understand, is basically There for most of the story?) tries to gently convince Don Quixote he's wrong with his conception of reality, or sometimes speaks in his metaphors in order to get through to him, the narrator just mocks him every time. With no ambiguity, the narrator gives the distinct, clear descriptions of the actual reality, beyond Don Quixote's fantasies. Generally, Don Quixote is described as pitifully and amusingly delusional - while it makes him into a somewhat endearing character, he is always painted by the narrative to be, pretty much, a crazy idiot.

With Stede it's a bit different, for a couple of reasons - firstly, there is no narrating voice in the show like there is in Don Quixote, and secondly, with the shifts in the tone of the story, this image of him is not as consistent as it is with Don Quixote. All in all, it lets his character be less of a caricature and more of a relatable Human Person - the narrative never paints him as outright, unmistakably crazy, and doesn't build his character in such a way so that he is purely A Landowner Driven To Madness By His False Conception Of A Life Of Adventure. Instead, the narrative lets him actually explore the way he fits into a life of piracy, in an almost sensible way - the persona of The Gentleman Pirate is absolutely ridiculous and still doesn't remotely fit the concept of the life he's chosen, and the way he tried to actualize that persona just put him and his crew in danger, BUT the narrative still shows it in a way that makes it seem original, unique and fascinating, even if it's still out of touch with reality. And THAT'S where we get to Ed!

Ed is a really interesting way to break the Don Quixote trope for Stede, and essentially shift the whole story into a different genre - now, instead of it being purely about Stede trying to understand piracy through his twisted conception of reality, it adds the Entire Other Element of Ed's story, and his involvement with Stede. Ed doesn't fit into any side-character trope in the general template of Don Quixote, and so he basically breaks Stede out of the story he was in. There's a whole other essay to be written about the parallels between Ed and Stede and the way they inverted those parallels as they went along, but the point is - the focus shifts to those parallels in a way that takes the focus off of Stede's Don Quixoteness and his lack of touch with reality. If we take as an example the way Stede didn't know how to live as a pirate, Ed literally shows him! Not to mention how Ed brings in a whole new way of being a pirate, with an undertone of insanity and an emphasis on the desire for the fun and adventures of the lifestyle, which ties into how he sees all of Stede's weird approach to piracy as fascinating and original. Don Quixote had to recognize his aspirations of being a knight to be delusions, but through Ed, Stede gets to continue his story as a story about him actually adapting to the life of a pirate, rather than turning back. That's exactly what we saw in that shot in the final episode of the season, with Stede sailing away - his attempt to come back to his home was WRONG, and he instead needed to continue his life at sea, as a changed man. Unlike Don Quixote, who's ideas about knighthood made him ill and eventually killed him (if I remember correctly? Basically the lack of sleep, lack of food, his attempts to live up to the clichés of being a knight), and on his deathbed realized that his conception of reality was wrong, Stede instead realized that the life he made for himself, despite the unusual way he has to live it, is in fact the right path for him.

Aside from the actual way Ed taught Stede to be a pirate, their love story plays such a big part in this as it is - unlike Don Quixote, who's love was also a part of the knight act, and at the end didn't actually get romantically involved with her (I think???????), Stede's love to Ed is a big part of the driving force behind his eventual decision to return to the sea. And even beyond the layers of him being a closeted gay man in the 18th century, and how it paints in a different light his disconnection to his family and the rest of his normal life, it is also the biggest inversion to his story as a Don Quixote. It's a genuine and heartfelt storyline, without the usual parodic tone of the show, and in that way it's the final breaking point of the ridiculousness of Stede's approach to life at sea - the gradual, building romantic tension hints at the way the story will eventually accept Stede's strangeness as a good part of his character, rather than the dangerous, laughable and pitiful force that drove the story until that point; after that, the absolute acceptance of the love story as a love story by the narrative was what allowed Stede to finally escape the image of a delusional Don Quixote, and instead fully be a character who's quirks are just part of the many layers and traits he has - it's the finishing part of the transition from the caricaturistic image of Stede that was established during the early episodes, into a complex, layered character. OKAY I REALLY NEEDED TO GET ALL THAT OUT, THANK YOU FOR COMING TO MY TED TALK