#The Best Revenge is Dressing Well

[follows-the-bees]

Ed and Frenchie connecting right away always makes me smile.

Their connection in 1x5 feels instinctual. We see Frenchie carefree, walking into the captain's quarters with a flourish in his new outfit. He's comfortable with them, and when Ed and Stede decide to go to the party, Ed right away asks Frenchie to come along if he doesn't have any plans.

Then when Ed walks out of the party upset Stede is not the only one to respond to that. Frenchie's body language immediately changes from relaxed and having fun to standing straight up, concern on his face followed immediately by a crack at the societal people.

We don't see it directly on screen but Frenchie and Olu used their earlier agreement with Abshir over the pyramid scheme to get Stede the information for the passive aggression moment.

We don't know much about Frenchie's past, only that he worked in "service," can play the lute, and is an absolute gem at pulling off ploys.

I have written about how Frenchie and Ed have similar coping mechanisms with their trauma, and while not on the surface or talked about, it adds to their connection.

(This connection also explains why Ed keeps Frenchie aboard at the end of the first season and why he chooses Frenchie to be first mate.)

Now I feel like I'm rambling but my point is, we learn so much about Frenchie's character in this episode and the relation between Ed and Frenchie is instant and sweet. I love the effortlessness behind connections between people in this show.

The Best Revenge is Dressing Well is a great episode and these small moments, this link makes it all the more deeper.

[ofmd-ann]

Ed: When you cut loose, you really cut loose (He's fucking insane I'm in love)

[xray-vex]

🚪4 🚪 relationship

[littlefingies]

I have always been distracted here by Blackbeard gently cradling the captain's face. But:

He's also up on his tippie toes

Watch him drop down just before he lets go of his face.

What a princess

(gif by @manesalex)

[guydog]

[calxone]

something something the moon is no longer huge and fantastical because they’re no longer a daydream whim or something or whatever

[sherlockig]

Can we all please take a moment to appreciate how good the costumes are in ofmd? Every episode has fantastic costumes but its mostly obvious in The Best Revenge Is Dressing Well. I am blown away every time.

[lordsammichsilas]

Thinking about the whole joke with the homoerotic sword fighting in The Art of Fuckery and how Lucius asks Stede if he’s good while Stede’s still pinned to the mast just like he did after finishing up with Black Pete.

The humor in this show has layers. Much like ogres and onions.

[naranjapetrificada]

Doing a leisurely little season 1 rewatch and I'm here to tell you two things about how the original "you wear fine things well" scene hits now:

Even before Ed took his step forward, Stede knew on some level that a kiss was about to happen (even if that level wasn't his brain). Shout out to Rhys for the brilliant acting choice to press his lips together at that crucial inhale.

This scene still has the power to make your stomach go all swoopy, even after the season 2 redo. Perhaps especially after the season 2 redo.

[ofmd-ann]

(S01E05 - The Best Revenge Is Dressing Well)

[poison-into-positivity]

one of the costuming choices in “the best revenge is dressing well” that I’ll be obsessed with forever is that out of everyone at the party, the only people who have flowers in their hair are Ed and Stede.

the rest of the guests have adorned their hair with ribbons, or hats, or feathers, or jeweled headpieces. But only Ed and Stede have flowers.

[scripted-downfall]

[gaypirateslife4me]

Stede Bonnet after saving his boyfriend from the 'posh knobs' party:

Ed: . . . heart eyes emoji. peach emoji. eggplant emoji.

[lovewillabides]

alt here

[newnewyorker93]

Jeff... the Accountant

You know you can pick anything, right?

Yeah, I like the name Jeff, and accounting sounds fancy as fuck.

aka many, many months later my next Our Flag Means Death felt figure is complete! I meant to make more Revenge crew members before repeating characters (and I still will!) but when I hit "The Best Revenge is Dressing Well" on my last rewatch my brain was like NOPE you need to make Ed-as-Jeff immediately, so here we are 😄

Jeff* never turns his back on a challenge**.

Jeff would sooner die.

*me

**stitching a bunch of tiny decorations in evil gold embroidery floss 😅

+ some bonus closeups for details!

(I know Ed's not holding the red silk while in full Jeff costuming, but I couldn't resist ❤️)

[temporal-discounting]

The costuming in The Best Revenge is Dressing Well does such a great job of creating an undercurrent of unease. The excessive opulence and garishness of the clothing of the french party-goers (especially Antoinette); the sickly sweet colour scheme; the grotesque hair and makeup. It all combines to make it seem as if you can smell the rot beneath the surface.

And a special shout-out to this guy, who supplied some Island of Dr Moreau vibes with his bird hat thingy.

Source for images