#OFMD meta

[freyalorelei]

I would like to see this updated for characters we met in the second season--for example, I'm pretty sure that Zheng's in a cutthroat political action film, whereas Anne and Mary are in a domestic slice-of-life drama that takes a sharp turn into muppetry in Stede and Ed's presence.

Prince Ricky's in a biographical drama where he's the morally justified protagonist who was duped and betrayed by the dastardly (yet dashing!) Dread Pirate Bonnet when he was at his lowest moment in life.

While we like to joke about Izzy being in the wrong genre, I would argue that there are in fact at least five distinct genre universes in the world of Our Flag Means Death, and all of them have different rules.

Stede Bonnet, and his crew when they’re around him, live in a Muppet movie. I didn’t come up with this analogy but it’s so accurate. Insane physical comedy and comedy-action where no one really gets hurt. Mild peril but you know everything is gonna work out. Terrible puns and sight gags, but room for sweet, genuine emotional moments too. The rules of time, space, probability and logic will bend for a good joke.

Izzy Hands is in a grimdark action/drama where if someone gets stabbed in the gut they will behave normally and fucking die. (Probably slowly and painfully, of sepsis.) Crucially I think Izzy also lives in a genre where you can only be subtextually queer, and violence (done for or with or to each other) is the only acceptable form of intimacy between men. This is why being forcibly dragged into Stede’s world, where everyone is busy having silly low-stakes misadventures and being gay and emotionally available all over the main text–and seeing his Subtextual Boyfriend go into this world and love it–sends him round the twist.

The British, Spanish and other imperialist militaries are in a Master and Commander-style naval adventure where they’re the heroes. This is why they all take it completely seriously when Stede (unintentionally) kills Badminton and takes hostages, even though we can see that he bumbled his way into it ass-backwards. This is also why Stede is so shocked to get actually for real stabbed aboard the Spanish ship. (“Did you mean to do that?”) He didn’t realize until that moment that he’d stepped into a different genre. The stabbing is one of the first Surprise Genre Switch moments we get and in retrospect it’s very important for setting up that in this world, the threat of getting hurt or killed is very real–which we need to understand to know that there are real stakes much later, when Stede almost gets executed by the British.

Keep reading

[asneakyfox]

talk about how the makeover plot from 2x06 doesn't make sense because ed is already attracted to stede is one of the weirdest takes in this fandom. i think a lot of the people who say that are almost certainly wrong about a lot of the other assumptions they make about this plotline, but this one isn't just an unjustified assumption, it is a straight up incorrect belief that is directly fully contradicted by the knowledge we have; the idea that the plotline would have implied ed wasn't attracted to stede without the makeover is explicitly, objectively wrong and we know this for a fact.

the exact premise of the makeover plot is that ed was already very intensely sexually attracted to stede: that's the whole concept, and this is not me making a guess, we know that for certain because it is one of the things samba explicitly told us about the plotline. the thing that triggered the makeover plot, the very first beat of the arc, was roach and wee john noticing that there's a lot of sexual tension going on between ed and stede! this means that there was pre-existing mutual sexual attraction, and a lot of it! that's what sexual tension means! the plotline would have if anything functioned to reinforce how much ed was already attracted to stede before the makeover happened, because the whole explicit concept is that if he hadn't been, nobody would have thought to do a makeover in the first place!

the concept of the makeover is that it is not something that happens because ed isn't attracted to stede, in fact it is the exact opposite of that, it is something that happens because ed is very clearly desperately attracted to stede and yet isn't acting on it and roach and wee john think he should act on the attraction he already has so that's what they think the makeover is going to "fix!" (the scare quotes are there because there is no reason to think the plotline would have ended up implying it did fix anything, but that's another issue entirely; that's at least just an unsupported assumption rather than one that outright contradicts what we know.) the premise that samba explicitly explained is not that roach and wee john are attempting to create sexual attraction where it previously did not exist, it's that they're saying "wow, ed is so extremely horny for stede already that i bet he could not resist stede dressing even 0.001% sexier than he already does, because he is so clearly already incredibly attracted to that man."

again, this is not me speculating or extrapolating or making educated guesses. this is what samba told us directly in the same quotes that are the reason we know this plotline ever existed at all. the entire premise was that wee john and roach decided on the makeover because an enormous amount of sexual tension was already present. this post has consisted entirely of me repeating the same concept over and over again in slightly different words like mojo jojo but given that people apparently didn't get it when samba said it in the first place i'm not sure what could possibly be necessary to communicate this.

it's entirely possible that there might be other good and valid reasons behind the decision to cut the plotline. if you want to make an argument that it was a good idea to cut the plotline i am sure you can come up with some possibilities if you try! but we can be absolutely sure that "because it would have implied ed wasn't already attracted to stede" was never one of them.

[follows-the-bees]

Stede getting his power back from his bullies around the symbolism of tree trunks runs throughout the show, but I want to talk just about the first season here.

We see Stede as a child getting bullied by other children in multiple ways. His hands are tied to oars (which I'm gonna talk about as a tree trunk-like structure for this analysis) which physically ties him against his will to these long sticks on the water.

But we also see him running away from picking flowers (nice things) and ultimately hitting a large tree trunk causing himself to pass out.

Both of these instances deal with Stede bullied and put into scenarios where he has lost control, i.e. feels powerless.

But then Stede take back that power from bullies, both old and new. Stede use a whale paperweight to hit his (old/childhood) bully. The whale is a symbolism of the sea, where he has escaped to find himself, as well as book/parchment, where Stede has hidden away from the real world over the years. But more importantly, what he has brought with him to sea (freedom), and continues to share with his crew, and which this entire show is hinged upon: the art of storytelling.

But I want to focus particularly on the duel Stede has with Izzy. Stede doesn't run away like he did as a child, he accepts the challenge to a duel, he stands up to the bully. And this time those tree trunks (that symbolism of wood and story) are used as an advantage. Stede gets the upper hand by having enough time while Izzy pontificates to position himself in front of the mast.

He uses his words (story) and knowledge of wood when he built the ship (sea) to best a bully in a way only Stede could. It's growth from his childhood but also shows how Stede's way of piracy and outlook on life stands up against others.

And one of the last shots of the first season, of Stede, is him in a dinghy holding onto oars. This time, instead of being tied to it by bullies, Stede is taking his life back, his freedom. He is choosing to row out to sea to find his love, his community, his self.

He has taken back his narrative.

[spenglernot]

Saw this again recently. Very much worth another reblog ♥️

I wanna take a minute to talk about the Looks of the entire cast of OFMD S2.

I think we're all pretty familiar with the male gaze. Lots of skin, tits and ass, that sort of thing.

The female gaze has been debated, but it looks something like a sexy college professor or himbo househusband.

What OFMD S2 absolutely nails is the queer gaze.

Look at this man.

An absolutely beautiful man. Who wears crop tops and leather pants. Long hair up in a messy bun. He's wearing eyeliner. And pearls.

And here.

Drawn on facial hair. Spaulders. Bracers. Fishnet sleeves. A MOTHERFUCKING MULLET.

These badasses.

The teeth and chains. SO MUCH MAKEUP. Big fancy coat with nothing underneath. Glam met goth and fucked out these looks.

And THE SWEDE!

Cropped jacket. Ponytail. Asymmetrical button fly. Decorative chains (again).

All of this screams queer. If I saw any of these people in a bar I'd be like "Yep, one of us." The gender fuckery of it all. The feminine and the masculine all thrown in together in perfect combinations. Decoration for its own sake. Jewelry and flashy adornment and gorgeous peacockery.

And we love it. The fandom is going absolutely feral over these looks, these actors, as we very well should. There is not a single member of this cast who has not had beautiful art lovingly made depicting them.

Fuck the male gaze, fuck the female gaze. Give me the queer gaze. Give me queer creators making queer media for queer audiences and absolutely nailing it. These people are not at all what Hollywood usually thinks sexy looks like, yet we want to devour every one of them. This is what queer beauty looks like. What queer sex appeal looks like. What queer desire looks like.

Fuck yes. It's about time.

[o-wild-west-wind]

ofmd is like not comedy as in sitcom but comedy as in shakespearean where it’s psychological trauma and conflicts of violence but with dick jokes and the promise of marriage in the end

[ourflagmeansgayrights]

"killing off izzy after he went through all this growth and finally got to be happy means all that healing was for nothing"

goddamn that is a bleak way to look at life. we all die, man. healing is still worth the effort.

[ulgapodatkowa]

I have so many thoughts but I at least want to address the "for the new unicorn" note. because first of all it's so incredibly gratifying for izzy to finally be accepted into a community. it was shown before that the crew cares for him in some way but it was the first time he really saw that. that he isn't useless and alone, that he still has a place on the ship. even more so the crew WANTS HIM to be on the ship. and also that they want him to embrace his disability which doesn't make them think any less of him.

but also the choice of words. because inherently it rings queer, unicorn as a symbol of queerness. and even if it may have a negative sound when you use it differently here it is extremely positive. izzy is not only accepted to the crew, he's also accepted to the queer community, to the family. the unicorn on the revenge was also the one that was leading the ship, so one can argue that they want him to take that role in their dynamic.

and you can see that he does so immediately. he puts himself together and starts helping the crew. he's still bitchy but no longer violent and cruel. he helps stede and lucius immensely because that is what he does now. he's part of the family. twat.

[lightbluetown]

i just love that ed asked for stede to stop

i love that stede was finally able to tell ed that their first kiss happened too fast and that he panicked. i love that when they kissed again, when ed leaned in for a quick peck but stede got passionate, ed was able to break the kiss and say "hey man, let's take this slow". i love that stede, of course, immediately stopped. i love that it didn't feel weird and they kept playing with each other's fingers and talking about their day

that was the most healthy, natural, realistic kiss i've seen. it wasn't romanticized for tv, it wasn't forced to be something it didn't have to be. it happened under a moon that wasn't full, on the deck of a messy ship, after ed complimented a piece of fine clothing that had lost most of its charm. it was as awkward as it was graceful

[edscuntyeyeshadow]

thinking about how ofmd took blackbeard, a historical (almost mythical) figure that has pretty much always been depicted in media as a super hypermasculine white cishet man, and turned him into a gay man of color who wears crop tops and silk gowns, paints his nails and pines for his boyfriend

[stedebonnit]

Can I also say how touching it is that Stede said he believed Ed would he happier without him, who, even in his fantasies, could only picture Ed wanting him as a picture of masculinity with a beard and no hesitation to kill. Stede still, deep down, doesn't understand why Ed would ever want him as he is.

But who did Ed see coming down to rescue him? It wasn't a manly recreation of Stede with a beard, masculine style and a killing spirit, it was a merman. Someone bright, colourful, by all accounts a rather feminine perception of Stede.

That was who rescued Ed. It wasn't who Stede thought he needed to be, it was someone soft, and bright, and graceful, and expressive. Someone feminine, someone queer.

I just think that's beautiful.

[three--rings]

One thing I haven't seen a lot of talk about in the fandom so far is about the financials of this season.

It took us two whole months to get a confirmation of renewal from Max, and I talked at the time that I think there was probably a lot of heated negotiations going on at the time with contracts and that's why it took as long as it did.

I think we see a huge number of indications of the compromises that were made in order for S2 to be made. One obvious one that has been talked about is being making in in NZ instead of LA, to save $.

But there's also the eight episodes instead of ten. And then the cast aspect. One downside of moving overseas was having to fly out and house the cast, not just pay day wages.

We knew immediately about Guz Khan not coming back, losing Ivan as a character. At the time I was sad but I thought it had the air of a pretty harshly practical call. If you went through the main recurring cast and said okay which character will affect the fewest things, has the least character interactions of anyone? It would be Ivan. (With the only competition being The Swede IMO, but he's Stede's crew and therefore a little more central.)

And then this season started and we got first The Swede sidelined and taken out of major scenes. And then I noticed that different members of the crew were simply absent for long stretches, like Wee John isn't around for ep 5 at all. And then Buttons takes flight.

Lucius and Pete aren't at the party for most of it. Fang isn't in the torture scene. Roach and Fang aren't in the bar. Etc. SCHEDULING IS HAPPENING.

The new characters are almost entirely played by NZ local actors, which is great, but also...cheaper.

In other words there are big signs that they did everything possible to give us a giant cast of almost everyone we love from S1, and cool new characters, in the most economical way possible.

And I'm grateful for it. I'm grateful we got S2, and it looks great, and it's well written, I'm having a blast, and we get to spend more time with this awesome cast.

But I also kinda think it needs to be said that the cost-cutting shows. That it shouldn't have been only 8 episodes, the pacing is off. That we miss every time someone from the ensemble isn't on screen.

That despite what they've put on screen looking very good, there's far less costuming budget, there's less elaborate sets, and it's a little disappointing. And it's clear it's not a lack of will or talent or vision but blatantly lack of money.

Look, streaming networks want brilliant shows that people love (that will get them to subscribe) but they very don't want to pay anyone to make them. That's like, the whole moment we're having right now.

Max puts out promos about how great it is to not have unions messing shit up in NZ. Well I have friends who are union costumers in LA and guess what union costumers did amazing last season. This season, well, I guess Stede got three whole shirts, so that's cool.

So I dunno. It's just stuff I think about. I'm not trying to be negative about the show in any way. I'm extremely happy with this season; I love it more than well, possibly any show I've ever been in fandom for.

But I see you, Max. You're cheap. You weren't that cheap when you were called HBO.

[asneakyfox]

The part I don't understand about the makeover plot isn't about attractiveness at all - I don't get why Stede would go along with a plan to push the sexual tension over the edge like that when he and Ed had just agreed to go slow until Ed was emotionally ready? Like it feels like that proposed plot belongs in the *very* different version of s2 that we've heard some bits of, where Ed and Stede had the longer what are we? and slow getting back together storyline not something that was cut right at the last minute before filming 2x06.

so unlike "would the plot imply ed wasn't already attracted to stede," this is something we legitimately do not know because samba didn't explain that part of it. there are multiple possibilities here. off the top of my head i can think of at least two that actually fit into the storyline (and are therefore much more likely than "the writers decided stede should decide to violate a boundary ed set immediately in defiance of literally everything we have ever known about him and only noticed this is out of character a couple days before it was supposed to be filmed.")

first it is not at all obvious to me, or i think to stede, that "take it slow" would mean "don't dress sexy enough to tempt me." i think stede might well think it means, ed is going to take the lead in deciding when or if their physical relationship is going to move forward, and while they wait for ed to make that decision, stede's role is supposed to be to court him like, you know, a gentleman - bringing him flowers and taking him on dates and asking him to dance and generally doing all he can to make ed feel cherished and courted and wooed. dressing to look as good as he can would be part of this! that's one of the classic ways you show you are Putting In The Effort for a new relationship! i don't think stede would think of putting on sexy clothes as "pressuring ed to agree to sex before he's ready" but i can easily imagine him thinking of it as "showing ed that i am putting in the effort to be the best possible boyfriend when and if he decides to grant me boyfriend status, because he deserves to be wooed by a suitor who puts in every possible effort."

interestingly i do think there's some stuff left in the season that kind of subtly points at this possible angle. for instance, this plot arc would fit really well with the stuff that's already in 2x06 where ned low accuses stede of being "like a pet" to ed and stede seems to decide to kill ned in part to disprove that; that's also him courting ed, saying "ed deserves a lover who'd kill to protect him or avenge his honor, and i'm going to show him that i can be that lover." there's also the dialogue in the "taking it slow" scene already - "you can't catch a fish unless the fish wants to be caught" / "and you're the fish?" which immediately struck me on first viewing as stede trying to cast the relationship in a traditional heteronormative courtship mode, where there's distinct roles, one person does the pursuing and the other decides when they're ready to be caught. (and of course ed immediately rejects that model - "we're the fish," i.e. the relationship is something we build together as a team - so of course the foreshadowed resolution of this would be stede realizing he did not need to think of it the way he was because ed never needed stede to court him at all, stede had already seduced ed as thoroughly as anyone has ever been seduced back in s1 just by being himself.)

second though the other possibility is we don't know if stede would have known about the intent of the makeover at all. i'm not going back to check exact wording rn but i sure don't remember samba saying anything that even hinted at that. it's entirely possible that the idea was that wee john and roach would go to stede and say "hey, you should let us pierce your ear and put eyeliner on you and give you some leather pants for no particular reason, we just think it would look dope for the party" and stede would obviously agree to this because he loves makeup and new clothes and he'd just have no idea that this was a part of a scheme that was meant to end with getting him laid.

in any case though you're absolutely right that any version of this would work much better in a longer season where there was more breathing room between "can we take it slow" and other characters deciding they cannot bear those guys taking it slow for any longer, and in fact that is one of the big reasons i was always sure there was a cut episode 5.5 even before alex sherman confirmed at the panel two weeks ago that i was right about that; the ed-stede plot in that episode surely would have been about how desperately attracted to each other they both are and how bad they were doing at taking it slow and that would make it much more understandable why everyone else on the ship would end up feeling like they couldn't take this any longer. and it's entirely possible that losing the buildup they could have done in episode 5.5 was a major factor in deciding they needed to cut the makeover entirely.

[teeny-tiny-revenge]

Really so much respect for David Jenkins. He really went "historical accuracy"? "Realism"? "Laws of physics"? Nope, we don't need those here, everything in this story is Vibes. Dinghies can travel huge distances if necessary, except sometimes not, injuries heal immediately or slowly fester, whichever the plot demands for comedy or drama respectively, a character spends several days dead/in a coma/in purgatory and then just comes back to life when his beloved shows up. Nothing is too over the top for this story, cringe doesn't exist, we'll dial all those feelings up to eleven, and we're gonna play everything with 100% earnestness, and we're gonna have a merman and it's going to be so fucking romantic. And he's right about all of it! Really the best way to do fiction.

[blakbonnet]

Ed baiting Ned Low </3 oh i get it. the tally marks, ‘we’ve got a record to break.’ ed was baiting ned low deliberately. he had to know low would come after him: low was ed’s original passive suicide plan - @forpiratereasons

[dragonlands]

This isn't the face of someone who is sad or even unsure of what he wants. This is Ed being vulvenerable. His face is open and loving. This is the man who's had a lot of sex in his life but none of it had meant anything and now he gets to have sex that means EVERYTHING. This is the face of a man in love coming undone.

And also. This isn't the man turned on by violence deciding to fuck Ed on a meaningless whim. His eye are glistening from tears and there's so much going on but his eyes are filled with unbearable amont of LOVE. Yes he just killed a man, and there's probably adrenaline rushing through his veins, but this moment has been long time coming. And it isn't motivated by violence, it's motivated on Stede holding onto what's real and good in his life, and that's Ed. He doesn't know who he is, a gentleman or a pirate, the only thing he knows is that he loves Ed. Wants Ed. Needs Ed.

And I want to add that it's not uncommon at all that death and violence act as complex motivators for sex. Funeral sex is a concept - people wanting to celebrate being alive when confronted with their own mortality. Baby boomers originate from people historically fucking like rabbits after ww2. So yeah, I think the scene was realistic, consensual, and amazingly nuanced. I could not have hoped for a better first time for these two.

[ourflagmeansgayrights]

godddd the way the original e5 “you wear fine things well” scene was backlit by a giant full moon that didn’t actually exist bc this was ed and stede’s fairy tale romance, the way they’re both all dressed up in finery and looking their best after a fancy night out (which didn’t go how either of them expected but that’s not the point the point is it was an Event it was a whole Thing they went to)

and then in the e5 “wear fine things well” 2 electric boogaloo scene the moon is a waxing gibbous because it’s real and stede’s wearing what remains of his fancy suit he had to get rid of and ed’s wearing a fucking. sack and a cat collar. and holding a fucking dead fish. and they’re just catching up after both of them had a pretty normal day doing their own things. this isn’t the picture-perfect fantasy from last season this is both of them grounded in the moment taking it slow because their relationship is worth handling with care. they want this to last and they want this to be real so they’re taking their time, being gentle. they’re not as completely absorbed by each other the way they were last season, they’re their own separate people who can exist in different plotlines for an episode and then come back at the end of the day and catch up, swap stories, kiss and hold hands and just hang out and enjoy being in each other’s presence.

now if you’ll excuse me. i have to go cry.