#also the inherent nature of an Unlearning Biases arc is that like. in real life this is not an arc

[ourflagmeansgayrights]

for the record tho i DO actually have a bit of an issue with how stede's character arc of unlearning biases is like... subtle enough to almost be subtext. like [URL REDACTED] did have a point (one singular point) about how this season focuses so much on stede's feelings of inadequacy and guilt about abandoning his family. there's a lot of screen time dedicated to showing the audience how stede feels, and not a lot of him recognizing when he's said or done something out of ignorance

part of that is the nature of stede being the protagonist, obviously. he's the hero of a romcom, we HAVE to know how he feels or else this is the shittiest romance writing of all time. the logical next question to that is "well why is a white man the protagonist?" and for that one you'd have to ask david jenkins why he wanted to write a fictional romcom about stede bonnet anyway, and that's a WHOLE other extremely valid criticism of the show that people have talked about before. so the fact that the show is going to give us more insight into stede's feelings than to like, the rest of his crew, is just a reality of how this story is set up.

and then there's the issue of "how much attention can this show give to stede's Unlearning Biases arc before this becomes the White Man Unlearns Racism show." like, i've said before that i want stede to get called out on his bullshit, but what i DON'T want is a scene where olu sits stede down and very patiently teaches him about racism and stede asks a lot of questions and at the end olu claps him on the back and is like "on behalf of all BIPOC, i declare you Not Racist"

which obviously i don't think this show will do, bc ofmd has a lot more nuance than that. but on a spectrum of THAT to making the Stede Learns About Prejudice arc so subtle that people might deny it's even there... we're actually firmly in the second category, even though i think that's more the fault of viewers misreading the show than the writing of it. it's tricky to strike this balance of not excusing stede for the dumb shit he says and does, but not spending an excessive amount of the show on corny scenes where they rehabilitate a white man from his implicit biases. i think the show does a mostly good job of it, but they err on the side of subtlety a little bit more.

and the thing with THAT is like, we've only gotten 1 season so far, and stede's barely even started on this arc. so my opinion on how the show handles this is going to change one way or the other. right NOW, so far, i think the show can stand to be a bit harsher to stede about all this. but it makes SENSE that it's been pretty subtle about it so far! like, i said in the first paragraph that this season had so much focus on how stede feels, but the main focus of the plot was literally ABOUT stede learning what he feels. and what he feels is gay love!! now that stede knows he's in love and he's irreversibly committed to being a pirate, i stand by what i said in the post i linked above: i want his arc in season 2 to be about actually learning about this new world he's chosen to live in and learning that it's not just the thrilling adventure he thought it was. that's a much easier character arc to thread the Stede Unlearns Biases arc through in a way that isn't corny and annoying

[ourflagmeansgayrights]

old post i've been thinking abt lately since ppl seem to think i love ignoring stede's biases. now with my tags added!

#also the inherent nature of an Unlearning Biases arc is that like. in real life this is not an arc#this is not a ''person had X trait which was bad and now they dont and X is never problem again'' character arc ok#unlearning biases is an ongoing process that takes lifetimes. the personal work never ends#always watch yourself always hold yourself accountable always accept when you make a mistake#and in a fictional story. where there is an End. the show has to get to a point where they can close a curtain on a character#with the assumption that theyre not gonna have the same harmful behavior & if they slip up they'll own up to it + learn from it#which is different than a story saying ''This Character Is No Longer Racist'' but if ur not careful it might look like that!!#and it's ALSO hard to do all this when the focus of the show is not actually about this character unlearning their biases#it's about this character falling in love

for the record tho i DO actually have a bit of an issue with how stede's character arc of unlearning biases is like... subtle enough to almost be subtext. like [URL REDACTED] did have a point (one singular point) about how this season focuses so much on stede's feelings of inadequacy and guilt about abandoning his family. there's a lot of screen time dedicated to showing the audience how stede feels, and not a lot of him recognizing when he's said or done something out of ignorance

part of that is the nature of stede being the protagonist, obviously. he's the hero of a romcom, we HAVE to know how he feels or else this is the shittiest romance writing of all time. the logical next question to that is "well why is a white man the protagonist?" and for that one you'd have to ask david jenkins why he wanted to write a fictional romcom about stede bonnet anyway, and that's a WHOLE other extremely valid criticism of the show that people have talked about before. so the fact that the show is going to give us more insight into stede's feelings than to like, the rest of his crew, is just a reality of how this story is set up.

and then there's the issue of "how much attention can this show give to stede's Unlearning Biases arc before this becomes the White Man Unlearns Racism show." like, i've said before that i want stede to get called out on his bullshit, but what i DON'T want is a scene where olu sits stede down and very patiently teaches him about racism and stede asks a lot of questions and at the end olu claps him on the back and is like "on behalf of all BIPOC, i declare you Not Racist"

which obviously i don't think this show will do, bc ofmd has a lot more nuance than that. but on a spectrum of THAT to making the Stede Learns About Prejudice arc so subtle that people might deny it's even there... we're actually firmly in the second category, even though i think that's more the fault of viewers misreading the show than the writing of it. it's tricky to strike this balance of not excusing stede for the dumb shit he says and does, but not spending an excessive amount of the show on corny scenes where they rehabilitate a white man from his implicit biases. i think the show does a mostly good job of it, but they err on the side of subtlety a little bit more.

and the thing with THAT is like, we've only gotten 1 season so far, and stede's barely even started on this arc. so my opinion on how the show handles this is going to change one way or the other. right NOW, so far, i think the show can stand to be a bit harsher to stede about all this. but it makes SENSE that it's been pretty subtle about it so far! like, i said in the first paragraph that this season had so much focus on how stede feels, but the main focus of the plot was literally ABOUT stede learning what he feels. and what he feels is gay love!! now that stede knows he's in love and he's irreversibly committed to being a pirate, i stand by what i said in the post i linked above: i want his arc in season 2 to be about actually learning about this new world he's chosen to live in and learning that it's not just the thrilling adventure he thought it was. that's a much easier character arc to thread the Stede Unlearns Biases arc through in a way that isn't corny and annoying