#and makes Stede and Ed's choice to leave the crew a not-so-happy ending.

[adickaboutspoons]

It really is SO bizarre that they decided that the season's "Big Bad" should have zero investment in or interaction with the show's main characters after the first episode, and I think it really makes him more toothless as a villain. Like. Think of Chauncey - he's an admiral in the King's Navy and, because of that position, ostensibly dedicated to eradicating the pirate menace, but he cares FUCK ALL about Blackbeard - someone who he identifies as history's greatest pirate - and will blithely let Ed go off to continue to pillage and plunder (under Izzy's supervision, of course) if it means he can get his hands on the man who killed his brother. I mean, it's terrible news for Stede, but it makes Chauncy an awfully compelling villain - putting him in a position of competing loyalties (dedication to family vs. dedication to country/responsibility to the position he's spent his entire life working toward). We don't want him to succeed in his vendetta because we're invested in our show's heroes, but we understand where he's coming from. There are stakes. With Ricky? Like. He gets his nose cut off trying to pull a heist (on land, even. He's not even a pirate - he's just a thief), and suddenly he's anti-pirate. But he doesn't bear any animosity toward the man that inspired him to try his hand at the life, nor who abandoned him to be maimed. Normally you would expect to see a personal vendetta under the guise of a more generalized, socially palatable motivation. Snippets of him hearing about Stede's exploits and Ricky suddenly showing a renewed zeal for "eradicating the pirate menace". Hearing that Stede joined Zheng's crew on the night he abandoned Ricky and maybe peppering in questions about that when he meets with her. Hearing that Stede's at the Republic of Pirates (and being CELEBRATED) and deciding it's time to launch his attack, maybe even against the advice of his tactical advisors who insist that all the pieces aren't in place yet/they're still awaiting reinforcements to secure the town after the attack (thus creating a weak point that Stede can exploit during the escape). But we don't get any of that. Instead it's just. Piracy. In general. That is the target of Ricky's ire. Maybe a little animosity toward the person who cut off his nose in specific, but even then, not enough to enact revenge on her or try to have her killed or maimed or even jailed - just, like, humiliating her a little? (And even so - as much as I love her, Jackie is a tertiary character AT BEST. A sometimes friendly antagonist. There's really just not enough there to ask the audience to be really invested in what happens to her.) And the fact that none of this has anything to do with Stede at all? It contributes to that weird feeling in the last episode that the show has forgotten that Stede is the main character. But it also robs Ricky of any kind of depth. There's no conflict of interest. No stakes for him succeeding or failing to fulfill his goal. He's just a bland nothingburger of a villain.

I feel like Ricky would have been a way better character if they just hadn’t brought him back. Stede Bonnet fanboy Ricky was fun, but when he came back in episode 6 he’s was just basically any generic English naval officer. Theoretically Jackie cutting his nose off is why he’s so anti-pirate now, but not in any way that actually feels meaningful or impactful. And he literally never mentions Stede again! He’s just boring now.

So yeah, have Jackie cut his nose off, and then he’s never to be seen again. Leave us all like, well, probably he died of blood loss or infection or something, but in our hearts he ran off to join Doug, Hornberry, and Jeffrey’s Stede Bonnet Fan club.

[amuseoffyre]

Since insomnia is kicking my arse of late, I naturally tilted into the thoughts about the nature of the 3-act structure and why S2 of OFMD may have felt off and incomplete to a lot of people.

I am fully in agreement that we lost a lot of valuable time with only 8 episodes and a lot of it did feel rushed, but for the amount of story and set-up and growth and development they needed to fit into 4 hours of television, they did astonishing things.

DJenks has said from the very start that this is a story that has been planned out to take 3 seasons. It's literally a 3-act play and we are currently right in the middle of the worst part of that timeline according to every traditional 3-act structure.

Act one/season one is self-explanatory. Like New Hope in the Star Wars Trilogy or Fellowship of the Ring, this is the set-up. We're introduced to our protagonists and antagonists, the relationships are given a foundation.

The beginning is Stede's journey to becoming a real boy. The inciting incident, the one that actually pushes his change beyond "playing pirates" is meeting Ed. The second thoughts come together in episode 8/9 after his confrontations with Jack and Chauncey and episode 10 is the climax.

Act 2/season 2 is never going to be as smooth and simple as act 1/s1. A big part of the A2/S2 job is set up for A3/S3 and this is what we're seeing and why a lot of story threads seem to have been left dangling.

Again, to call back to Empire Strikes Back and The Two Towers, the structure is much the same: the original batch of people are divided and scattered, the big enemy from A1/S1 is looming, new allies make themselves known. In SW, this meant the introduction of Lando and Yoda as allies plus the hint of the Emperor lurking in the background. In LotR, we have the Rohirrim, Gondor and the Ents as allies and the expansion of Sauron's forces in Helm's Deep, Osgiliath and the winged wraiths.

There's a clear trajectory following the A2/S2 structure:

obstacle 1 - the crews separated and struggling

obstacle 2 - the end of episode 2 and the repercussions of his actions

twist - just when things start to settle, the Ned Low situation happen and Stede kills for the first time

obstacle 3 - Ed's struggle with his identity leading to him leaving

disaster - Ricky's assault on the Republic

crisis - do-or-die battle because they have no other choice

climax - the last 15 minutes of ep. 8 live here.

As with SW and LotR, there's an ending, but weighted with the knowledge of a story that is meant to continue. Each of those act 2 films end with the heroes still aware of the looming threat, some of them heading out on new missions, and some of them resting and healing. There's brief pause, brief respite, a moment to take a breath.

We have all the characters in place now and the battle-lines have been drawn. Luke still needs to confront Vader (I see you, impending Ed and Hornigold confrontation), Frodo still needs to destroy the ring, Aragorn still needs to lead the army against the Black Gate, the second Death Star is still hanging in the sky.

I'm so excited to see what S3 brings because we have so many arcs ready to go: Zheng's vengeance trip, the inevitable enforced out-of-retirement arc for Ed and Stede, Hornigold, Ricky trying to maintain his tenuous control of the republic given how many of his people were killed when the crew escaped, the pirate rebellion gathering forces.

Also how often do we get shows/films where the supporting cast are given this much storyline? We have a named/speaking-role cast of upwards of 15 central characters. That is a staggering amount of people to work with, when most shows would only focus on the leads and a couple of their friends. Six is the average for most TV shows, while comedies can inch higher because ensembles, but most ensembles don't get as much as our crew did.

I know a lot of people aren't happy about Izzy's death. I know I would have liked to see him a lot more, because he's such a grumpy old bitch and I love him and him affectionately roasting Ed and Stede would have made my entire month. But I'm also aware that narratively, as a figurehead of the old ways of piracy and "we were Blackbeard", it was a symbolic death as well - a sign of the death of the old ways of piracy and of Blackbeard as was.

(Also, they Obi-Wanned him. I'm not over that. Gave him the "if you strike me down I will become more powerful" speech. I'm just... guys, your star wars nerdery is showing XD)

So while it was flawed in places and pacing, given the scale of the story they're telling, the number of pieces and characters they had in play, and the arcs they have been setting up while also still keeping the humour, I am giving a standing ovation for a remarkable piece of work.

[eliza1911o1]

So interesting that, when we have gotten communication between Ed and Stede this season (particularly in ep 4), Stede has never once brought up Chauncey. The dude not only stole Stede away from eloping with the love his life, but also died right in front of him in the same way as his brother moments after verbally abusing him

S1 was heavy with Stede’s internal thoughts and feelings, from the Badminton ghost to full childhood flashbacks; in s2, we’ve seen this shift over to Ed, such as with Hornigold and memories of his past. Since the emphasis has been on Ed’s, we have rarely been shown obvious cues to Stede’s anxieties and insecurities, though we’re well aware of them. Then, just as Stede has finally achieved everything he thought he needed to be, it all falls apart and, for the first time in quite a while, scenes of Stede as a child come back

This post reminded me that Stede has actually become more and more unhappy with himself and never reconciled with his emotions of inadequacy, no matter how happy he seemed. This is what makes Chauncey important, or, at least, his lack of mention

The Badmintons represented everything Stede was born into (particularly the insecurities his father imprinted onto him) that persuaded him into piracy. They aligned with norms, they bullied him for acting differently, and they even succeeded due to/within the limitations of norms as officers. Stede has always been told that being kind, liking nice things, enjoying intellectual activities, being adverse to violence — all that made him, him — were the wrong things for a man to be. This doesn’t change when he becomes a pirate; others still continue to point out his failings (Izzy in ep 5, Ned in ep 6, Zheng in ep 7). Stede has long internalized his strengths as his shortcomings, so while his personal methods and, truly, some luck are the real reasons things always manage to work out, he attributes his growing skill in piracy to be the true answer

Both Badminton’s die right at his feet and though Stede still takes on the responsibility and guilt, they really die due to their own carelessness. Killing Ned is done to cement his position, paralleling Nigel’s death in s1, but different in that it is an active choice. When Stede becomes a “real pirate” after killing Ned, for the first time this season (someone can correct me on this but it’s 3AM and I’m not double-checking rn) we see flashbacks, a moments of doubt and anxiety, quickly squandered because everyone likes him now, right?

Just when Stede finally manages to prove himself notorious as a worthy pirate, everything else begins to fall apart; Ed leaves, his crew almost leaves, he almost dies, yet again, and he’s back to feeling as weak as he always has. Everything, literally, blows up

Stede knows he isn’t a capable man (people always keep reminding, so it’s hard to forget), he knows he’s a failure and a mistake, he knows trying hard just brings misfortune to those around him, but he so badly wants to prove everyone otherwise and the only way he knows how to do that is by becoming something in their eyes. however, in doing so, Stede keeps surviving, untouched, while everyone continues to be put in harms way or, when it becomes too much, leaves him. Nigel and Ned dying bought respect, but Chauncey’s death reminded Stede of what he always felt like; a failure who ruins nice things. Now, at the end of the season and at his lowest, Ed has also left, so there’s no one to tell him otherwise

[crazypenguintacofan]

Okay after sitting a bit with my feelings and rewatching the whole thing, I'm 100% certain that killing Izzy was the correct narrative choice.

1— This season solves all of Izzy's main character conflicts and satisfyingly closes his arc. Easily resisting Ricky's "seduction attemp" (appealing to Izzy's ego and desire for praise and power) and remaining loyal to the crew (which s1 Izzy would've had a lot of trouble with), plus his apology to Ed and fully letting go of Blackbeard, were the perfect culmination for his story thus far. And, crucially, Izzy's character conflicts needed to be solved so his relationship with Ed could be solved, because it's the only way Ed could've ended the season leaving piracy, which I'm guessing was a major plot point the writers always had in their 3-arc plan.

With that in mind, to keep him in the story, you'd have 2 choices:

a) Build up a new conflict for Izzy, which would take a lot of screen time that we do not have bc next season is the last and we don't even know how many episodes Max is gonna order (and the resolution to Ed and Stede's story has to be the priority).

b) Just keep him around doing things in the background like other minor characters, just a pleasant background presence with no real function. Which honestly? Would've been a disservice to both character and actor. I think having Izzy go out with a blaze of glory of sorts both honors the character and gives Con O'Neill the chance to show off his skill, and that was the right call from the Doylist perspective.

2— I didn't like what I perceived as Ed being passive in the final "break up" with Izzy, I read it as only Izzy making the choice of letting go, but that's not really what happens. Ed could've chosen to go full Blackbeard again and go get revenge, and in that way keep sacrificing his true self for Izzy's sake. But he actively chooses to build his happiness with Stede instead <3

3— As many people have pointed out, both Izzy's death (as THE representative of traditional piracy) and the destruction of Republic of Pirates symbolize the end of piracy as we know it at the hands Prince Ricky. It's a massive change in the status quo of that universe and it sets potentially very interesting scenarios for season 3.

4— Izzy's death contextualizes and makes more meaningful both Ed's choice to remain in land and the crew's choice to remain pirates.

On perspective, someone important had to die in the final episode. The whole of s2 has been about showing the harsher realities of piracy, which haunted the narrative in s1 but were never explicitly visible (you could consider the Kraken scenes in s1 ep 10 a sneak peek). Piracy becoming more realistic and less fairytale-like (not hyper realistic either, this still a surreal comedy in which people turn into seagulls) could be linked to Stede and Ed getting a more realistic perspective of romantic relationships, as well. Crucially, what was missing from this exploration of piracy was a meaningful death. We've been told often that risk of death is a big part of that world, but we've never really *seen* it in a meaningful way (RIP Ivan who died offscreen). A big death was needed to contextualize the decisions that all the characters make at the end of the season and that set the stage for season 3. And again, if you're gonna kill someone, it's better if it is a character that has finished his arc and has no loose ends, and that's Izzy.

This death is a tangible reminder of the cost of living as a pirate. A sudden end can happen to anyone at any time (and Izzy got inmensely lucky that he didn't die in the battlefield and kept breathing for long enough to say goodbye). With full understanding of the costs, Ed decides to leave piracy as he always wanted, but the crew decides to recommit to it.

The crew's choice to remain pirates despite the cost it's even more significant if it turns out they're the only crew that managed to scape the destruction of Republic of Pirates. They are among the last pirates in the Caribbean (I really hope that Anne Bonny, Mary Read and Hellkat Maggie are still alive and kicking somewhere, though). And now "the new Revenge" has the opportunity and the responsibility of rebuilding piracy in a fresh and better way, inbued of all the ways Stede's captaincy has made all of them kinder.

So yeah. Izzy's death ties everything narratively and thematically in a neat little ribbon. So I'm still gonna miss the little rabid rat, but I'm at peace with it, I'm zen, I'm like a fisherman contemplating the universe in a fish scale.

(I'd still like it if they brought Izzy back as some kind of pirate revenant. I don't know how the fuck that would make sense at a thematic level, but I do love stories about the undead)

[sixstepsaway]

right, so, here are my Thoughts about that whole thing now i've slept on it. probably won't be super coherent but here we go

i feel bad for stede. he got shoved, somehow, into the weird love interest role so many female characters find themselves in, where they are truly completed by a man and a romance not the things they've been striving for throughout the series so far. he's shown no sign of wanting to give up the pirate lifestyle he's just finally got back, and to accompany him giving that up with izzy's gorgeous "piracy is about family and somewhere to belong" speech from earlier just feels cruel. we joke about how episode 2 stede wouldn't care if lucius died but that changed, he got attached, his crew became his family. they were loyal to him and followed him even when they were just working at spanish jackie's for pennies. they respected him and loved him enough to let him talk them into letting ed back on board. this was, at least at this point in stede's arc, his happy ending. in fact, you can even argue he was happy without ed for a while at the start of this episode. his relationship with ed is important and it's icing on the cake, but it isn't something to complete him, or his only source of happiness -- nor should it be!!! and then for some reason ed shows back up, fishes up his leathers, kicks ass to save him, loses izzy and now they're leaving stede's ship and crew and found family to... run an inn made out of the world's shittiest fixer-upper? stede? stede twirly fancypants bonnett??? in that place? maybe at the end of a full run this might have felt like a good conclusion to his story, him realizing he wanted belonging, not necessarily to be a pirate, and maybe them bringing some of crew along to have their home somewhere safer and happier than the piracy they don't really enjoy but turn to because they have no other choice, but right now it just feels like... honestly like either he agreed to it to keep ed with him ("AITA for convincing my boyfriend to run an inn with me after leaving him two days ago because we were moving too fast? little backstory: this involved my boyfriend leaving everything in his life for me and no i did not apologize for running off to become a fisherman") or like, as i said up there, a matter of "actually all he needed was a BOYFRIEND all along" which... ngh. stede is more than his relationship.

idk why we bothered establishing that frenchie, jim and even archie were willing to put their lives on the line and lie to ed's murderous face to save izzy's life just for them to be stone-faced and have no feelings about his loss. like, okay, ed and he's stories are tied together and him dying in ed's arms makes more sense narratively than him dying in anyone else's, but also ed hadn't earned that and izzy deserved to die in the arms of someone who hadn't tried to kill him and shot him in the leg not to mention we went from fang's squishy hug and frenchie holding his hand to just... nothing? not a thing? roach, the ship's surgeon, did nothing to try and save him? it's just ed slapping his gunshot wound pathetically?

it strongly feels like they swapped izzy and ed's roles in his death scene sounds stupid but hear me out "you're my only family" would make so much more sense coming from izzy with ed dying in his arms. izzy's desperation to keep hold of ed, right down to accidentally pushing him down the kraken path at the end of season 1, being rooted in the feeling that ed is all he has in the world? ed responding that no, the crew love izzy. he's earned their love. he has a family outside of ed now, can't he see that? that makes so much more sense, considering izzy nearly died for them multiple times and spent the first few episodes trying to protect them and then being protected by them in kind he was their new unicorn!!! meanwhile ed said sorry to fang, izzy and lucius, and no one else has been shown to give any fucks about him since that whole thing, and like... rightly so? because he hadn't earned them back at all? and he fucked off on them too last episode lol dont forget he didnt JUST leave stede

we should have known better than to trust djenks when he broke jim and olu up for no reason ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ idk

nothing worth a damn happened this episode it was all running around and waving swords. idk how anyone got to where they were at the end. it was just poor writing.

the pacing has been off all season but they really shoved three episodes into one and hoped it'd work

i'm getting flashbacks to the timeless ~finale~ ugh

they spent so much time one ed's stupid fishing boat monologue instead of on ANYTHING ELSE

i ran out of thoughts

oh, here's another: the show walked a line between muppetry and things that were taken seriously lucius' finger, izzy's toes: serious ed getting bonked by a cannonball: emotionally serious, but not physically serious ed and stede both getting stabbed: not serious and what was treated as serious and what was treated as handwavy was dictated by what the storyline and the emotional needs were izzy getting shot to make it so they all had to run away yapping would have been hilarious, especially if he got back to the ship and went "nah eddie it's my left side, remember what i told you about the left? nothing important on the left" "your liver" <- roach, horrified but instead weird death scene because this was treated as physically serious, even though it...should not have been, really? and that is bothering me a lot too, because when lucius was thrown to his death, we looked at stede finding the crew on the island and went, "aha! lucius will be fine, because that's what the show logic is" and we were right, because the show had taught us that but that didn't extend to izzy for this and that's just weird

[anewhopeplusone]

I may live to regret this, but here I go, wading into the OFMD finale discourse...

SPOILERS, OBVS...

So, a lot of people are upset, which is fair, but some of the reasoning I'm seeing strikes me as a limited view of Izzy's arc. Specifically, I'm thinking about this post that has been making the social media rounds:

I've come across many posts saying that Izzy evolving as a person and bonding with the crew was just the beginning for him and he had a whole new happy future ahead of him, but, like... what if he didn't? I'm not saying that killing him off was the right decision - I'm still on the fence about it, honestly - but there seems to be this idea that his growth over the course of the season only has value as a means to a greater end, which... no. Those experiences were ends unto themselves. Just because he doesn't continue on in a healthier place in perpetuity doesn't mean it wasn't worth it for him to make it to that healthier place.

Ed was ready to leave Blackbeard behind when we met him. Izzy got there, but it took a lot longer, and the reality is that he and Ed are very different people. Ed relished the idea of change and was happy just to start a new life with Stede. Izzy, on the other hand, understood the necessity of letting Blackbeard - the persona that he had co-created and devoted his life to - go, but he didn't have the same motivation to move on. Yes, he had the support and love of the crew, and he loved and supported them back, in his own grouchy, foul-mouthed way, but even so - I don't think he knew how to pirate without Blackbeard functioning as his true north. I'm not sure he wanted to. But it didn't seem likely that he would leave piracy and start fresh the way Ed did, either. So, where did that leave him?

I think he had come to a place of peace and acceptance about his life. He'd made things right(ish) with Ed. He'd reached a point of understanding and respect with Stede. He'd built relationships and done a lot of healing. And I think that was enough for him. He was satisfied. I don't think he necessarily wanted to die, but he wasn't afraid, and he didn't feel like he had unfinished business. He was one of the greats. He knew his legacy would live on.

Like I said, I'm not entirely convinced that it was the right choice for him narratively, but it was a valid one, and one that is thematically consistent with the show as a whole. Ed and Stede both spend the entire series trying to figure out who they really are. Izzy is only ever himself. And in the end, that's all he has to be - for Ed, for Stede, for the crew, and for him.

[earthwormspaghetti]

I feel simultaneously very sad about the Thing (ffs there’d better be an AU fanfic where everything’s absolutely the same, except Izzy’s still there) and very happy that Stede and Ed finally got to be silly little innkeepers together.

Also, why, though. Why Izzy, of all people? You just give him a lovely redemption arc, a good story of acceptance from the crew and the journey to self-love, AND a killer speech to that asshole with the wooden schnoz, but then YOU FUCKING RUN IT INTO THE GROUND LIKE A BOAT WITH A MADMAN AT ITS PROW!

Do you UNDERSTAND what you did? The character everyone enjoyed watching grow and hurt and feel happy and learn, who finally got a chance at happiness after basing his whole life off something that only hurt him, who survived all the curveballs thrown at him, you just ABANDONED him so the story had a bit of drama in it?!

Also, if I correctly calculate, Stede & Ed (the real people!) do only 1 year at sea: this is correctly mirrored in the show; they leave seafaring after about a year (1717-1718)

Meanwhile, Isreal Hands is said to have continued after Ed Teach and Stede Bonnet stopped; he’s on PHYSICAL records (for testimony against Ed’s corruption, but such details are not the most important in the show’s contents. [what IS, you mothers and sons of fuckers, is how long he fucking LIVED!]) as being alive and well after both pirates’ end of careers: he was recuperating from a bullet wound (see what you could’ve DONE THERE, you?! See how symbolic it could’ve been for him to recover from that bullet he took, this time not ferreted away in secrecy, but cared for by the crew, and, most importantly, in the place where he finally felt welcome? To heal and get better, becoming captain like he was [IRL] of Blackbeard’s ship the Adventure? TO FINALLY FEEL AT HOME AND SAFE?! To have CLOSURE?!)

But NOOOOOO, you just HAD to kill the guy off, and for what? Was the intent to make it more dramatic? To amplify people’s feelings while watching the show? Because what has been done here is a deliberate killing off of a very prominent character, with no obvious or logical reason for doing so in view.

Now, this is certainly a complaint against the writing choices for the show, but can’t we also blame HBO, who crammed it into 8 episodes instead of 10? Would it be better if they had more stuff to work with; would there have been less need for drama and melancholy? I would strongly prefer slower episodes, to cramming the storyline into only eight, and just throwing random shit at the whiteboard and seeing what sticks. You understand? That drama is not the answer? That having him recover, or better yet, just not have him get shot at all, would be so much funner to wrap up ROMANTIC COMEDY with?!

For fuck’s sake, we don’t even really know when Izzy died; the only record we have is from 1724, when Captain Charles Johnson said in his book “A General History Of The Pyrates” that he died a beggar in London.

See how fucking open ended that is? Just a questionable source, giving a rather vague claim? How EASY it would be to have him… well, pretty much do anything except get randomly shot in 1718? They did it for Ed and Stede, they could very easily do it for Izzy.

At least, if they wanted something exciting/dramatic, have him be captured by the English and testify against Ed as an innocent bystander who Teach maimed; and somehow build from there. Maybe he could become a craftsman and fade into obscurity, enjoying a quiet life on land. Maybe become a singer at a bar, having a good time as himself (he wasn’t bad at the party, he could sure use that to his advantage!) Maybe he could run into the crew, just as he’s about to be executed, or as he’s being hanged, and be liberated by them; to rejoin their crew as their beloved unicorn. Maybe he could get lost and presumed dead in the chaos, only to be found alive and his usual slightly damp, permanently cranky state of being a while later.

I now feel quite disappointed to be deprived of my, and a lot of people’s, favorite weird little one-legged grouch.

Godspeed to the fic makers, I wish you all the best of winds in your sails, which sadly appears to have left that small part of the story itself. Make me proud and use as many adjectives as you like; I’d love to learn how many words you can find to convey “strange and slightly greasy”.

[asgardian--angels]

Taika and OFMD

thinking about Taika's new interview where he's said the season 2 ending seems like a natural conclusion to the show.

We know that David wrote the season finale the way he did in case it didn't get renewed for s3. And we know that David does have a season 3 storyline in mind, as he's envisioned Ed and Stede's love story as having three acts. And I know that the fans believe there's more story to tell, too, because they haven't resolved their communication issues, their trauma, or lingering plotlines.

The interview mentions that one of the limits on the show's capacity to keep running is Taika's schedule. To me, that may be the biggest holdup of anything when you get down to it. We're so lucky to have had him for two seasons of this show, given just how many projects he has going concurrently. But it gets more and more difficult to block off months of his time - and when looking for a season 3, David is going to need to produce an exceptionally compelling reason to bring him back in again. If Taika believes the show could end where it is, as much as he's adored being on it, he may prioritize other projects.

To me it felt as much of a risk to end s2 on a 'happy ending' note than to end on a cliffhanger, because it leaves the door open for cancellation on the basis of 'good enough.' I get why he did it, and I do think it was the right choice, but still. It makes the season 3 setup harder, because as Taika even said, he wouldn't want a situation where Ed and Stede have to leave their idyllic life behind. Which would have to happen to some extent - pulled back into the fray at least temporarily when the crew needs their help or the larger conflict of the pirates vs the English comes to a head, otherwise there'd be no drama or excitement. And if the storyline was simply Ed and Stede running an inn and having domestic mornings and working out their feelings, that's just not enough for Taika to clear his schedule and sacrifice other potential projects.

I trust David Jenkins to have something in mind that can convince tptb a third season would bring them great ratings and streaming subscriptions. I honestly don't think that's the part of this process that would hold (is holding?) the execs' decision up. Rather, it's whether the premise for season 3 is deemed compelling and necessary enough for our big name actors to sign on and commit their time to. For all we know, it's taking more time than anything to just figure out if Taika has any time in the next two years to devote to this (have you seen the sheer number and scale of his upcoming films?). They're not going to greenlight a third season if Taika can't commit. And Taika's so busy right now with Next Goal Wins that maybe they haven't even been able to sit down with him to have a lengthy contract discussion.

I'd like to think that Taika and David have discussed the three-act story premise for OFMD thoroughly, since it's something David's been saying since season 1 and if Taika didn't think he could do three seasons then I'd think the show would have been a nonstarter unless it was a 'cross that bridge when we come to it' situation, so the potential difference in opinion here is interesting. But it leads to some possibilities such as a season 3 where Ed and Stede aren't main characters - the focus turns more to the crew, with only half or even a third of the episodes featuring the main duo. Or an even shorter season 3 such as a 3 or 5 episode miniseries to reduce the time commitment for Taika. If the timeline for the show's production has to get pushed out an extra year to fit with his schedule, HBO Max might just decide it's not worthwhile to pursue. So there's a lot of things that can happen, and as much as we want an expanded season 3 with more episodes and a bigger budget, that may very well not be compatible with the reality of Taika's long-term availability.

We have to consider these possibilities. As I've said before, season 3 is in no way guaranteed, even from streaming analytics and critical success - but this is another dimension to this conversation that I haven't heard anyone talking about, and quite possibly the most important one because it's very concrete. No Taika, no OFMD. The fact that he said the show could perhaps go on without him and Rhys shows me this is where his thoughts are as well.

I don't want to make anyone despair here - I want season 3 more than anything. I do believe the show, and the story, deserves the full arc and natural conclusion that David has planned. We absolutely need to keep campaigning for renewal, harder than ever as we move into the one-month-post-finale window. But we should also realize that a big part of the renewal decision is out of our hands, and comes down to the ability of the show's star to actually stay involved. I think Taika will try his best to shuffle things around, but as I said David needs to be able to pitch him a season 3 that convinces him Ed and Stede's story isn't finished yet.

So fingers crossed. We may not hear anything for a while, as negotiations have to involve Taika and he's a busy busy man right now. I am optimistic, but I just wanted to remind folks of this aspect of the process.

[petrifiedcrange]

❝ Don’t worry, Eddie. It's gonna be alright, ❞ Izzy's voice is soft, in a way he's never sounded before, in a way he's only recently learned to be, thanks to the crew that so generously accepted him into their midst and showed him what it was like to have a family — big, messy, loyal, wonderful family — for the first time in a very long while, and fond in a way he didn't sound since they were much younger, since before Edward got tired of his role as a captain and a sea legend and Izzy had to take on more and more responsibility, more than he could handle, and they stopped understanding each other and everything became messy.

He smiles at his captain... no, just Edward, Ed, almost serene if it wasn't for the pain that tightened the corners of his mouth, resigned.

He doesn't want to die, per se. Wouldn't mind staying for a little longer aboard this peculiar ship with the crew that aren't anything like pirates Izzy spent most of his life around but are pirates, sailors, people that he can finally understand and relate with and living a little for himself, for the first time in decades, not for the Crown, not for Blackbeard or even Edward, but for himself and his crew, his family. Maybe, they would have other parties. Maybe, every once in a while he could sing again and have a look... That would be nice.

But nice things aren't for pirates like him, who have too much blood on their hands and too many mistakes in their past.

Izzy made peace with it. Just like he made peace with his inevitable end.

And even now, he isn't really thinking about himself... because maybe, just maybe, if he made peace with his death, if he showed that he was willing and ready to go, then Edward wouldn't be so sad about it.

❝ You don’t need me anymore, ❞ he says, and he should be sad about it, and he is, a little, but mostly he's relieved and proud and happy for Edward — because he found the family amongst which he doesn't need him to survive, doesn't need Blackbeard, with whom he can be just Ed, ❝ The crew will take care of you. They'll keep you safe. ❞

At least, Izzy hopes they will, if not because of their own feelings towards Edward — Izzy is not delusional enough to think that they feel anything other than tolerance for him, not after everything Edward Kraken did to them, they'll need time to warm up to him again, and even then, they might never love him the same way they did before — then out of whatever they felt towards Izzy and respect and love they feel towards their captain.

Speaking of which...

❝ Bonnet will, too. Just don’t push him away, ❞ and suddenly frantic energy seems to take hold of his weary frame, and Izzy shifts, hissing in pain but not letting it stop him, leans forward, closer to Edward, reaches for his hand and holds on tight, eyes feverishly bright and tone desperate and gentle and firm as he implores, ❝ Promise me, Eddie, that no matter what happens, no matter how scary it gets and how much you want to run away, you will stay and you will talk things through with Stede instead of running away to become a fisherman or some other nonsense like that. ❞

And maybe it's not fair of him to ask, because he is on his deathbed and if it is his dying wish, Edward will have no choice but to honor it, but if he has to leave, he needs to make sure Edward will be taken care of, will have someone who will make sure he is safe and sound and happy like Izzy tried to do for the last couple of decades ( and Stede is the perfect man for the job, he knows that now ), but he learned the hard way that it's nearly impossible to do if Edward himself doesn't cooperate.

You can't catch a fish unless the fish wants to be caught.

[ OPEN for Ed, either an alternate take on his conversation with Ed in what he thinks are his dying moments or a starter from Izzy on his sickbed a few days post-S2, he is going to be just fine, don't let the starter fool you, but they don’t know yet for sure if he'll make it or not and he thinks he is going to die, so he is being a little dramatic about it ]

[tamilhobbit]

Speaking as an Izzy hater - I found his character racist, homophobic and despicable in S1, did not see any appeal at all, and then copped a lot of shit from racist Izzy stans on Twitter (I used to enjoy fic that gave him a good arc, but those fandom experiences led me to start avoiding basically anything to do with him). Maybe the demographics are different on Tumblr, but Twitter was overwhelmingly pro-Izzy in a way that didn't acknowledge any of the bad he'd done and was hostile to anyone who disliked him.

I also thought his 'character growth' in S2 was too rushed. Him showing up in drag and singing felt more like Fandom Izzy. Canon Izzy had made a very very big leap there that, to me, didn't feel earned or justified. But I'll freely admit that my poor fandom experiences have soured me against him.

Otherwise, I agree with most of these points. I'm very much a Gentlebeard shipper and I still did not like the portrayal of their relationship this season. I have many of the same criticisms you expressed.

And it's gross that the 'talk it through as a crew' show refused to deal with everyone's PTSD, and even gave Lucius SA-related PTSD and played it off as a joke. Pete was horrifically cruel to him about it. That is one of my biggest issues with S2.

I think the writers suffered from being too involved with the fandom, to be honest. And it affected their own vision of their characters.

I've already said that to me, someone who is not an Izzy stan, the Izzy we got in S2 was much more like the Izzy I saw in fanfics and fandom than the Izzy we met in S1. Yes, Izzy could plausibly have become that person, but it takes a lot of work and growth that I feel they skipped over.

There was also just way too much going on. They crammed too much in and didn't have the time to treat any of it with the detail and respect it deserved. Given the show had to be cut down to 8 seasons, the writers desperately needed to be ruthless in cutting and editing. They needed to take out anything that didn't serve the plot or character growth, so they could focus on the important things.

They didn't.

Anne and Mary, for example. They don't actually add anything concrete to the storyline beyond being a backdrop for Stede and Ed! They serve as symbolism and foreshadowing, sure, but... of what? If we take them as foreshadowing of Stede and Ed, all it tells us is that this idyllic retirement that they end the show on won't actually be a happy ending for them. That they won't be happy with it. Which is a weird choice. Or do they serve as narrative foils of Stede and Ed, as a dark mirror? The narrative isn't very clear about that, to be honest.

The feeling I got was that that they were fanservice. Fans were clamouring for Anne Bonny and Mary Reed, so they gave us pirate lesbians, regardless of whether it was useful. The writers should have cut them and focused more on the plot, or made them relevant to the plot. They didn't.

Fans wanted Zheng Yi Sao, so we got her. Even though the plot ended up making her look a little foolish and incompetent by the end, in contrast to the first half.

Fans wanted Izzy to embrace his queerness, so we got that, even though it seemed like a rather abrupt shift.

Fans wanted more women and POC, so we got Archie. Who just shows up and isn't very well fleshed-out tbh, and ends up breaking up Jim and Olu. (Are they poly? It's only ever hinted at. And then Olu leaves for Zheng Yi Sao anyway. If they then become a polycule, it is entirely up to the fans.)

Fans wanted Stede to become competent and famous as a pirate, so we got that. Fans wanted Gentlebeard sex, so we got that. Fans discussed a soft shore retirement for Gentlebeard with Oluwande captaining the crew, so we got that.

This was some Monkey's Paw bullshit. We got a everything that we'd mused about on Twitter and Tumblr. It just wasn't executed well.

And yeah, even though I dislike Izzy, I do think his death was stupid. And in my opinion, a cop-out. It was like Shadow Weaver in She-Ra - you don't need character growth or redemption if you sacrifice yourself instead! With the double whammy that both Ed and Izzy have been toxic and awful to each other, and this narrative choice basically wriggles out of having to deal with that in any meaningful way.

Question: I enjoyed s1 OF OFMD, but for various reasons I never actually got around to watching s2 (pick up most of the plot from tumblr tho). What exactly went wrong in s2 that got so many people upset?

Oh, boy. Very long rant incoming.

So, for context, S2 had a significantly smaller budget, which necessitated moving the filming location to union-unfriendly New Zealand, reducing the number of actors/number of appearances of established actors, and cutting down the number of episodes from 10 to 8. In a show where each episode is only about half an hour long, that last one alone was enough to seriously hamper any character development or plot. I am very comfortable putting the vast majority of the blame on HBO because of these financial decisions.

The short version is that Jenkins et. al. needed to address and build on the problems left hanging in S1 while also getting the characters to the end of their character trajectories in case there was no S3 while also leaving room for additional episodes in case there was a S3, in a grand total of four hours, and failed.

The long version is that there were a bunch of what I'd consider small problems in isolation that came together and exploded in the S2 finale.

The reduced cast necessitated breaking up the crew (ex: having Swede marry Jackie and stay on land with her, so they don't need to pay Nat Faxon for all eight episodes) and not spending as much time on their relationships as S1 did.

The reduced time meant that the entire season was rushed (in contrast to S1, which takes place over at least several weeks if not months, most of S2 takes place in roughly five days), leading both to a lot of telling rather than showing (because they don't have time to show you), including vital character and relationship development.

This includes:

Having the Kraken half of the crew beat Ed to death after months of being abused by him – abuse that is clearly shown to have given them PTSD and a well-justified fear and hatred of him – only for them to be okay with him two in-universe days later;

On that note, having Stede dismiss the crew's concerns about Ed because he loves him and also we only have three more episodes left to fit in everything so we need to get over it really fast, even though Stede is supposed to be well-meaning and caring (even if he's not good at it all the time);

Resolving the issue of Stede abandoning Ed in one day, then having them "go slowly" in their relationship for two days and then have some spur-of-the-moment sex, and then the next afternoon have them break up over their diverging career aspirations, and then the day after that resolve that problem and retire on land while the rest of the crew sails off into the sunset;

Stede becoming a fantastic pirate captain over the course of one day, becoming wildly popular in the piracy world two days later, and then deciding the day after that to never be a captain again because he is retiring with Ed;

Having Ed and Stede decide to retire together as what is implied to be the end point of their relationship arc, when none of Stede's issues from S1, like his poor self-esteem, have been so much as mentioned by anyone, implying that he's either magically gotten over them or they don't matter all that much, actually, even though they were the catalyst for basically everything he did in S1;

Ed having two separate character crises – "I am an unlovable person" and "I want to do something with my life other than piracy" – not spending a lot of time on either one, having moments that clearly indicate he is still working on both problems and they have not been resolved, and then apparently having them both be resolved in the final episode despite nothing occurring to actually make that happen, and in regards to the latter, despite the story actively undermining it by repeatedly showing he can't do anything other than piracy;

Related to the above, Ed ending the series as allegedly being loved by the crew as a family (thus solving Crisis #1) despite this never actually being shown, demonstrated, or even fucking alluded to onscreen. If anything, it shows the exact opposite.

This last point is especially galling to me because of what is probably the most divisive issue in the fandom right now: killing off Izzy Hands after giving him seven episodes of character development.

The show begins with the Kraken crew clearly trying to use the skills they learned as part of Stede's crew to cope with their incredibly shitty situation and care for each other, which includes Izzy. Izzy, on his end, tries to protect the crew and speak up for them, which results in him being repeatedly hurt (both implicitly, as Ed at one point says "that's another toe" in response to Izzy advocating for the crew and we later see he's missing more than one toe already, and explicitly, as Ed shoots him in the fucking leg in front of the crew when he stands up for them).

This camaraderie is shown again and again and again. Frenchie, Jim, and Archie take care of Izzy while his leg is infected, at risk to their own lives. Izzy's misery over losing his leg is what unites the PTSD-ridden Kraken crew and the well-meaning-but-ignorant-of-PTSD marooned crew, who are initially at odds, to make him a new prosthetic leg. Izzy gives Lucius advice about forgiving Ed. Izzy is introduced to drag and opens up enough to sing at a crew party, and the whole crew is having fun together while Ed and Stede are in their cabin having sex for the first time. Izzy gives Stede pirate captain lessons and bonds with him when Ed leaves him. Izzy provokes the season's villain into focusing on him and then gives a big speech about how piracy is about belonging to something, giving the rest of the crew time to try to escape.

Recall that Season 1 had some pretty well-established universe rules, one of which was that it runs on Muppet physics/magical realism. People can jump off yardarms, hit the side on the way down, and be perfectly fine. People can get stabbed in the liver and it's totally okay because it's probably not that important, and even can stay pinned to a mast all night that way with only mild discomfort. Buttons can talk to birds and see long distances without a spyglass and put hexes on people. Good people can be hurt (Stede is stabbed repeatedly), bad people can die (the Badmintons, Geraldo), but no one we care about is ever killed.

This is repeated in Season 2: Ed is beaten into a coma with a cannonball and wakes up like Sleeping Beauty after a spirit journey, with no injuries to his face or body. Buttons turns into a seagull after spending an episode doing a magic ritual and is never seen again (because they couldn't keep paying Ewen Bremner due to the budget cuts). Jackie microdoses her husbands with poison to build up their immunity, so that she can later pull a Dread Pirate Westley and poison the British with shared drinks.

So: in the finale, the villain of the season is taken hostage by the pirates (for reasons? unclear how that fits in the plan), happens to have a gun on him (no one checked??), shoots Izzy on the right side and then leaves with no repercussions. The entire crew stands around silently doing nothing while Ed cries over Izzy and tells him that he's his only family.

And Izzy fucking Hands, the guy who just spent eight episodes bonding with and protecting everyone, uses his last words to reassure Ed that him becoming Blackbeard/the Kraken was Izzy's fault and that the crew is Ed's family and they all love him. No one else says anything to Izzy or tries to comfort him or help him in any way.

I repeat: in a show predicated on the idea that bullies and bigots die stupid deaths while queer people and POC are basically magic, a show that was praised for being kind to queer people by not making them worry about their faves suffering or dying, a show founded on the strength of the relationships between the characters, the guy who went through a season-long arc of learning to embrace his pirate found family and his own queerness is shot for stupid reasons on the side we're told isn't important and dies while everyone just stands there. His last words are about the whole crew loving Ed when the only person that the whole crew has loved all season is him.

Anyway, never mind all that, let's cut to Lucius and Pete getting married and Stede and Ed retiring!

Complicating all this is that people who liked Izzy (or even said anything insufficiently mean about Izzy) were harassed for months in between seasons with insults, slurs, and actual fucking death threats. Izzy's growth was kind of a vindication for liking him: it meant that, despite all the harassment, we were right to like him and care about him as a character. Even people who didn't like him initially started to like him during Season 2.

And then he dies, and now there's a bunch of people saying that Izzy fans are big whiny babies who can't handle fictional death, and actually his death was so meaningful and beautiful and the only logical end to his arc, and it can't be bad writing because people die in real life all the time, and also he admitted he fed Ed's darkness so actually he was a terrible person all along anyway and they were right to hate him (and his fans)!

So, yeah, there are a lot of reasons why it's so hated, and I'm probably only addressing the problems of the pro-Izzy people (from what I can tell, BlackBonnet shippers who don't like Izzy think Ed and Stede's relationship is fine and dandy, but I'm sure that there are other criticisms they have that I have not addressed). I'm not even addressing the issues with Jim and Oluwande's relationship this season (and whooo boy are there issues).

It wasn't a universally bad season. There were episodes I really loved and still do. But the finale was a train wreck, and because it was a train wreck, a lot of people are looking back at what happened before the wreck and realizing that, oh, the train lost its brakes and steering because of the budget cuts and the engineers kept throwing fuel in the engine to make it go faster, and huh, now that I think of it, that part earlier in the trip was really wobbly but I didn't pay much attention to it at the time because I was sure the engineers had everything covered.

[doks-aux]

I want the classic set-up where it’s post-reunion and Izzy has been banished from-- I’m sorry, it’s come to a “mutual agreement” that Izzy leave the Revenge as a convenient scapegoat for everyone’s problems, and only a few weeks or months later it can no longer be denied that this was a Bad Idea. So they return to whatever port they left him at or that he most likely would have rowed to and set out to find him and bring him back.

They find him with his new crew or new family--be it Calico Jack, Anne Bonny, Mary Read, Sam Bellamy, Spanish Jackie, the OC of your choice, whoever--looking relaxed and content in a way he never has before aside from really not being happy to see Stede and Co. again. And Stede invites him back on board in a way that makes it clear he does not want him back but is also actually ordering him to come back because apparently he was doing a WHOLE LOT of the actual work on the ship and they haven’t figured out how to pick up the slack yet and also Ed’s not doing great without someone to ground him or let him be the good cop and also he just kinda got really used to being the center of Izzy’s world and attention and misses it and really cannot be expected to not get everything he wants without consequence or compromise, so won’t Izzy just suck it up and quietly and graciously accept a life of thankless devotion? Maybe if he’s less annoying about it this time, Ed will give him another thump on the back. Maybe even multiple thumps!

And Izzy, who’s been mostly quiet through the whole spiel, says, “No.”

“What do you mean, ‘no’?”

“I mean, absolutely fucking not, Bonnet. Now get out of my sight.”

“But what am I supposed to tell Ed?”

And Izzy smiles. “Tell him he’s got terrible taste in boyfriends and he can go suck eggs in Hell.”

And then he stayed with the people that actually liked and appreciated him and never regretted it and lived happily ever after, the end.

[amuseoffyre]

Since I did my wee heart's content flail about Stede's autistic coding, of course I can't leave Ed out. I am absolutely 100% on board with ADHD Ed. (Natch, here be spoilers for the whole series)

That man may be a brilliant tactician but the fact that Izzy has to chase him around a ship, telling him to stop getting distracted by clouds and model ships and shiny things immediately sang out to me. "Focus, Ed", Izzy tells him. "Yeah, but I'm bored," Ed replies, bored by the monotony of the same old over-and-over-and-over again.

To Stede, piracy is a life of excitement and adventure. To Ed, it's become routine and humdrum. "I don't even need to be there" he says. There's nothing that sparks his interest, keeps his focus, or makes him want to stick around but he can't see any other choice because he's Blackbeard. That's who he is and has to be. "Do you ever feel like you're just treading water, waiting to drown?" he says, trapped by his role, his name, his position and his own perception that it's all he can be in a repeating and tedious loop that is making him miserable.

And then you see him on Stede's ship, getting to try new things, have his world view shaken up, experience different kinds of behaviour and he blossoms. He's sparking with Stede, their two variations of neurodiversity fitting together just right, both of them getting to have the support and validation they need from a peer and the stimulation and interaction they have lacked.

Honestly, Ed looking at Stede and going "you're a fucking lunatic and I like it" feels like the dynamic I have with so many of my neurodiverse friends :D

I love that both of them have the same outside-the-box thinking when it comes to feral planning, but Ed - when he needs to - can look at a dozen random things that no one else would notice and go "huh" and work out a plan based entirely on that.

Ed looks at the shape of clouds and can calculate to the *minute* when things will happen - when it's something he's good at and gets excited by (which has the double-header of exasperating Izzy), he loves it. He looks around Stede's room and sees a way to construct an improvised lighthouse on a ship. And he's so proud of himself when it all works out.

Of course, it doesn't all go well. He gets so caught up in giddy excitement by the new things that he impulsively decides he wants to go to a posh party. And of course, gets entirely overstimulated, starts behaving in ways that are seen as too loud, too strange, too rude, egged on by his hosts and doesn't realise until he becomes the butt of the joke. My emotions when he goes running to Stede saying "I want to go home now" because it hits him so hard becoming the focal point of mockery. Lil sprinkle of rejection-sensitivity for you, my good pirate.  

Plus there's the clash when he and Stede do the treasure hunt. Stede, from his perspective and belief of what pirates enjoy, is trying to keep Ed stimulated and happy enough to stay. Ed, from his perspective, is being forced to do something embarrassing and cringy, leading to him losing his temper and getting angry. It takes Lucius explaining the miscommunication of what Stede is trying to do to make Ed realise this wasn't what he thought it was and immediately tries to make things better for Stede.

Add the fact he can't sit still, he's constantly swinging, climbing and bouncing on things. There's a frenetic energy to him, big physical reactions, big motions, and the only time we see those slow down - even stop - are at the end of the season. Ed was on the verge of becoming a Captain like Stede for the crew. He was so close to it. Sad, but slowly processing things (talking it through, as a crew), until Izzy yelled at him about all the things he fears he is and that make him bad (ie. the very things Izzy loves about him because Izzy is a leeeeeetle bit murdery).

At first, it's not so obvious, because he's still very visibly grieving but when he's holding that little bit of silk, remembering when Stede treated him like he was good enough, and then Stede Just Left Him? Was it because he wasn’t fine? Was it because fine things are what Stede really wants? The moment he lets go of that silk, when he puts on the the Blackbeard mask again, he's still and grim and it's a performance. A very taut, controlled performance that only falls apart when no one can see.

Izzy has been trying to get him to mask his behaviour the whole season and finally, finally he gets what he wants. He wants Blackbeard in command and focussed and as he was. But that isn't Ed. That's never who Ed was. And Ed, who is already not good at dealing with rejection, is in pieces hiding under a costume.

[seedsofwinter]

Here's the truth: someone can have a trauma reaction and make choices in a state of trauma trigger that still end up hurting other people when they didn't mean to... And in doing so still need to make up for the damage they caused. They might think they're doing the right thing. But they're still reacting in trauma, and might even be making choices for someone else without giving them a chance to say if that's what they want or not (consent).

Stede reacted to the new trauma of Admiral Badminton's death and the hateful words said by the man, words that whether he realized that or not pushed all of Stede's buttons on his fears. We saw in his fever dream in episode 3 that he knew a note was not enough for Mary. He didn't even give Ed a note. He just wandered off in trauma. He didn't go to Ed with his fears for support and assurance of his love, because Stede was told he had [emasculated] Blackbeard, the fiercest pirate to ever exist. Even though he knows Ed doesn't like being Blackbeard, he prefers to be Edward or Ed. And I mean this in the sense of who those people are to Ed, as a mask he has to wear as Blackbeard.

When they first met, we had already seen that Ed was bored, his first mate was saying that he was half insane, had strange whims. He was a man on the edge, who entertained the idea that death was an adventure he hadn't had yet, and wouldn't be opposed to trying.

Stede narratively absolutely needed to go back to Mary and the children, partially to close that chapter of his life, and definitely so that he could learn what love could be. Because he'd never experienced it. He didn't know that's what that was. He had kissed the man and he still didn't know what that was! Because he had presumably kissed Mary. Kissing did not equal love for him, even if we can assume he felt something more when kissing Ed on that beach.

And it's so good to see him get to be friends with his wife. To see him use the skills that he picked up this season to truly make his escape from the shackles of his birth.

But he doesn't think of Ed except as he thinks of getting back to him. There is no moment where he thinks "oh no! I left him! Mary, I didn't even leave him a note like I left for you, I just left him. He must think so ill of me. He must think I abandoned him, and I did."

Stede Bonnet has only happiness in his mind and his heart as he runs off to find his beloved again. And he hasn't even thought what the past week could have done to him. He's not put himself in Ed's shoes: Sitting on that pier, waiting, falling into spirals, overthinking everything, getting caught in the loops of obsessive thoughts. Stede knows that Ed has never had a friend before him. That he doesn't think he's a good man. That he thinks Stede was always going to see what he is (not who) and push him away.

And even if it wasn't that, Ed would have come to some point while he waited where he realized Stede wasn't joining him there to get in that dinghy and row away. Even if Stede had simply fallen asleep and not woken up in time, at no point did he--in Ed's mind--wake up and realize he was late and rush out to find him. At the very least, Stede was able to sleep through the night? Without excitement? That meant Ed had put more into it and misread the situation. Oh the embarrassment of hope. (And after Ed "never left", Stede leaves!)

Stede doesn't know all of this obviously. He can't possibly know that Ed went off and found the old crew. And that he was hanging on by a thread. Nor can he know Izzy cut that thread by holding a mirror up to Ed and saying his moping about his boyfriend wasn't good enough (it was the word "boyfriend", it was labeling that silly hope Ed had been drowning in since the dock.) He went from zero to Blackbeard in an instant to have anyone call him out on that--and after Lucius and the rest of the crew have been being so gentle and waiting for him to take time and heal at his own pace!

And when he let go of that silk, his heart, he even stopped being Blackbeard and became the Kraken. He couldn't have Lucius there; he was one who could get close to him and stand up to him, that had been proven already. So he had to go too. They all needed to go, all of the ones who reminded him of the man he loved. And he kept the two that seemed to have someone a little bit more special to them, sure but.... He's not going to be happy, they can't be either. So this secondary action to it all. He split up Jim and Oluwande; Lucius and Pete; Frenchie and Wee John (and I will die on the hill but that IS a queer platonic relationship).

But Stede doesn't know. He hasn't thought of even a fraction of this. He was in trauma when he abandoned Ed, the man with who he mutually found happiness. And he was in misery back at his family's home. And now he is in a different type of fantasy, one where he could walk back into Ed's life and be welcomed with open arms without needing to atone for the damage that he's caused. Because he hasn't even thought it might be there.

He needs to hear from his crew exactly what happened. We know he's going to meet them first. He needs to figure out how to apologize, and use Ed's apology languages, not his own. He needs to make a huge show of his love and devotion. And he needs to accept that Ed doesn't need to accept either of those things. No one can force anyone to accept an apology or to bring someone back into their life even if they do accept the apology.

And obviously I want them to get back together. But I need Stede to earn this, and learn the next part of the lesson. To see what the cowardice got him on this end of it. To start to heal further from the trauma that has been following him his whole life since childhood. Without doing that, he cannot be for anyone the kind of man he should be. Not least of all Ed.

It's going to be painful and dark.

Without, Ed will never be on equal footing with him.

[teeny-tiny-revenge]

I really liked this arc for him, because of what you said, yes, but also because it's Stede breaking away from his pirate fantasies. Stede's piracy is a fantasy. He leaves his stifling, unhappy marriage to a life of freedom on the seas. He wants to have personal freedom, glory, acclaim, people who admire him, because his previous life has been lonely, with no friends, no-one enjoying his company, nobody approving of him, and him having no personal freedom and choices for his own life.

And he gets that, by running away to sea. In a way. The Revenge and its community is a bubble, a small island of good life in the larger world of piracy. This larger world of piracy has some good bits, but it also has lots of bad bits. Ed has lived in this world of bad bits for all his life, and it's hurt him so much that he couldn't stand staying alive in it anymore.

Stede doesn't see piracy like that (before episode 7). Stede still has an idealised, better version of piracy he lives in, a world that only exists around him. He shapes this world, by his own good qualities. He teaches his crew kindness and compassion, it goes so far that even Izzy is changed by Stede's values and example, but outside of Stede's very small sphere, piracy isn't like this. Piracy is the world of backstabbing and murder, of torturing and settling people on fire, of constant threat of death and trauma. And this is the world that Ed needs to escape from.

And Stede, up to this point, doesn't see it. Stede hasn't truely lived in this world of bad piracy, because for him it's been full of adventure, and finding friends in his crew members, and falling in love. I think narratively the point of this arc is to show Stede the dark side of piracy so he can understand why Ed wants and needs to leave this life.

And it's done really well, because Stede sort of speedruns the life of notoriety. It's cool at first! Everyone likes him! People recognise him in the streets! But then it's drinking too much. It's going with people's expectations and peer pressure to do bad things. Within a day of being a notorious pirate, Mr "I don't like coconut wars or turtle vs crab" sets a bloke on fire in the street because that's what his crowd of admirers wants (and it's what he needs to do in order to keep his position of being cool and respected). Then he finds that keeping things like a romantic relationship isn't actually compatible with his pirate glory life, either. And then he finds out how quickly he can lose all this fame, how a single failure to meet the standards means he's being abandoned by his "loyal" followers, how nobody ever actually liked Stede, no, they liked the idea and image of the Gentleman Pirate.

The fame is empty. It's meaningless. Piracy is not some amazing paradise. It's a human culture with many flaws. What made it good was the community he'd found/built on the Revenge, and what had actually made him happy had not been being a pirate, it had been falling in love and being together with someone (Ed) who gets him, who likes all of him, not just a mask he wears.

OFMD is fond of its narrative parallels, especially with the main couple, and I think this one was really well done, especially given the short time they had for this arc. At the end of it, Stede is not in the same position Ed is in. He doesn't have years of trauma and a near suicide behind him, but he loses basically everything in the course of a day, by giving in to his worst impulses and falling for the allure of fame, for lashing out at his friends when he's heartbroken over Ed leaving (parallels!) and in the end he is in a position to actually see why Ed can't go back there anymore.

Stede leaving piracy behind with Ed makes sense and is satisfying because of this arc. Before it, piracy was fun for Stede, and awful for Ed. Stede would have left this life for Ed, which wouldn't have been great as a happy ending feel. But Stede doesn't only leave piracy for Ed. He's had his go at it, for real. He had the fame and the notoriety, the admiring crowd, he got what he thought he wanted, and it nearly destroyed him and it nearly destroyed the relationship with his friends and it nearly destroyed his relationship with the love of his life. It was a nice dream, but reality didn't hold up. (As for parallels, also Ed's fantasy of aristocratic life is very quickly crushed, and he moves away from it.)

Stede's brief run as famous pirate helps him to realise that what really made him happy wasn't any of that, it was other things. First and foremost his love for Ed, because he didn't return to sea because being a pirate was so awesome. He also returned to sea because he belonged in the world of piracy more than in the world of high society, sure. But he primarily returned to sea to find and reunite with Ed. For love. And by the end of the season, Stede and Ed are back together, finally fully committed to each other. They don't need pirate adventures. They just need each other, and a peaceful life where they can heal and grow as people.

I want to talk about Man on Fire.

Stede's arc in this episode is one that a lot of people struggle with. I think it's a great episode, but I don't think you're stupid if the transition from Stede feeling bent out of shape after killing Ned Low in s2e6 to him happily setting a man on fire in this one feels abrupt and jarring. This episode really could've benefitted from some extra time and I honestly think they did it a disservice by not airing the last two episodes together (if it was up to me after seeing it all, the release schedule would've aired Calypso's Birthday on its own so the last two could air together), but I think we can still put together what we're supposed to take away.

The scene where Stede happily sets a man on fire, I think, is the focal point of this episode. I mean, they named the whole episode after it, we're obviously supposed to think it's important! So let's go through it.

This whole episode, Stede has been getting the approval and validation he's been longing for his whole life. It's no coincidence it's almost exclusively other men we see fawning over him - Stede's pain in the last episode is hinged around how he still felt bad for killing Ned, and how he wishes he was able to do "a man's work" as his father depicted it without emotion.

S2e7 is him seeing that wish through. It's also not a coincidence that Stede remembers his father in a blood-spattered leather apron and he spends this episode seeking the approval of another older man in a blood-spattered leather apron. The costuming in OFMD is always extremely intentional so I'm confident we should understand that as a sign of where Stede's mind is in this episode.

You know what the whole man-on-fire scene really reminds me of? When Stede is telling his pirate stories to a bar full of his peers in s1e10, and he badmouths Ed when they ask him what Blackbeard is like. He backtracks from "he's absolutely lovely" to say Ed is "a bloodthirsty killer, born of the devil" - something he had to know damn well would absolutely fucking break Ed's heart if he heard Stede say it. In the moment, all he could think about was what he had to do to get a crowd of his peers to approve of him.

The same thing's happening in this scene. All Stede cares about is how he said a cool thing and everyone laughed!

Just like the scene in s1e10, I think we're meant to be watching this and thinking "Stede buddy wtf are you doing?" It's a moment of regression in Stede's character arc, just like him talking bad about Ed was; Stede is kind and lovely and he's abandoning the parts of himself he thinks are too soft to appeal to a crowd of people he wants to admire him.

[eugeniedanglars]

now i’m thinking about how one of the things i appreciate most about ofmd is that even though the overall plot of the show is a gay romance, the characters’ individual arcs would still work if they were cishet—but they work better because they’re not.

like, let’s look at stede’s arc: he’s been told his whole life that he’s weak, unmanly, cowardly, pathetic. he’s unhappy in his arranged marriage, bored by domestic life, and decides to prove his mettle and search for adventure and fulfillment by becoming a pirate. even as a pirate, however, he struggles to escape the perception of himself as ineffectual and unmasculine, and he is plagued by guilt over abandoning his family. through his friendship with blackbeard and his gradual earning of the respect and love of his crew, stede learns to be more decisive, brave, and confident, but also that he needs to hold himself accountable for the way his choices impact the people around him. this ultimately spurs him to return home and try to make amends with his family, but the way both he and mary have grown in their time apart means there is no longer a place for stede in the society he left. stede’s newfound decisiveness and accountability help him accept that he can’t stay, and instead of secretly running away in the middle of the night again, he says goodbye properly and ensures everything is taken care of for his family before returning to the sea, having finally gotten the closure he needed in order to fully commit to his new life.

all of that would work if stede was straight! the closest his sexuality and his romance with ed comes to being a direct plot point in his individual character growth is when it motivates him to return to piracy at the end of the season, but his and mary’s mutual unhappiness is a strong enough motivator on its own that his decision to leave would make sense even without the ed/stede romance. (your wife wanting you gone so badly she tries to kill you with a skewer is a great reason to skip town.)

but the fact that stede isn’t straight makes it all resonate so much more. stede being tormented by his father and nigel for not being “tough” or “manly” enough isn’t just about the pain of toxic masculinity, but also the trauma of growing up visibly Other, being targeted for differences that you not only can’t control but don’t even understand about yourself until later. stede wasn’t just bullied, he was clocked, and it makes it that much more compelling to watch him become more confident without losing the traits that made him clockable in the first place. or take his whole midlife crisis about being bored with his life and finding happiness as a pirate—it would be so easy to tell that story with a straight man, but it wouldn’t have the same oomph. (if anything, it would risk sending a gross “men aren’t made to be tied down to a wife and kids” type message.) stede’s objectively shitty action of abandoning his family is a lot more sympathetic, creates a richer character, and just plain makes more sense when the reason for his “discomfort in a married state” is that he’s gay. the happiness and freedom he finds in piracy coming from him finally getting to explore who he is, be around other lgbt people, and fall in love for the first time is much more meaningful than if the only thing he was free of was the responsibilities of having a wife and kids.

and it’s not just stede! even if he and stede were just platonic or if he had a heterosexual romance, ed could still experience the stifling pressure of being asked to perform a toxic persona because no one ever sees the real ed underneath, the joy and terror of being vulnerable with another person who finally understands him, and the pain when that vulnerability and real self is seemingly what drives the other person away—but god, those themes of being forced to be someone you don’t want to be but getting punished when you try to be anything else hit so much harder when framed through the lens of a gay romance.

i really think this is a huge part of what makes ofmd work so well. i’ve mentioned this before, but i love how the show strikes a balance where characters’ identities aren’t their defining characteristic, but they aren’t an afterthought either, and i think that balance is largely thanks to how the character arcs are handled separately from the larger plot. i know david jenkins has talked about wanting to sidestep the whole coming-out story plot, but a lot of stories that try to avoid a coming-out plot end up overcorrecting and creating lgbt characters whose identities feel completely incidental and not like an authentic part of the character’s lived experience. ofmd doesn’t do that: its characters are complex, interesting people who happen to be lgbt and have bigger things going on in their lives/storylines besides their identities, but those identities still inform who they are, how they relate to other people, and how they navigate the world.

[jojoeyo]

Our Flag Means Death BlackBonnet theory

SPOILERS AHEAD

I think how all this is going to play out is that Izzy is going to take Blackbeard’s place in his death

In the 4th episode, Izzy gets into an argument with Ed when he and Stede have swapped roles. He says “I’m not dying. Not for that ponce and not for you”

When a major declaration like that shows up in a story, especially a well written story, it often comes back in some form. I'm willing to bet that at some point, Izzy will be faced with the choice to die or not to die for Ed

Ed clearly wants out of the pirate life and is intrigued by Stede's talk of retirement. When he mentions this to Izzy, they make a say the only retirement for a pirate is death. Ed comes up with a plan of someone dressed up as Blackbeard to take his place. In this entire scene, Stede and Ed have changed clothes, strongly hinting that Stede would be killed

However, I want to point out that Izzy is also dressed like Blackbeard. Look at how similarly their outfits look from the back

In terms of costuming, everyone in Blackbeard’s crew dress in black and leather

It clearly differentiates then from Stede's crew, none of whom often wear black, if at all. Izzy and Ed's outfits are the most similar, with the biggest difference being Ed's cropped sleeve. To me, Izzy is fully covered because he is fully committed to piracy. Ed isn't doesn't have his heart in it anymore. His exposed arm is him breaking away from that life. Subconsciously wearing his heart on his sleeve, if you will! I may be reading into this, but I love when costumes tell a story!

You can tell how ready Ed is for a change by how how shockingly calm he is when him and Stede enlist in the army

Look at how soft he is 🥺 He’s ready for a (relatively) normal life

Izzy acts as a foil to Ed. He’s the part of Blackbeard that is still a violent criminal. He will live and die by that code. Ed wants something more, but violence is only life he’s known up until Stede. As much of an asshole as he is, Izzy does everything because he cares about Ed. He knows full well that sentimentality can get you killed, which is why he's so gung ho about keeping Ed away from Stede (that and he wants Ed to fuck him)

In all likelyhood, Izzy the closest thing to a friend Ed has every had. He calls him "Ed" before Stede takes that roll over, and puts himself in charge of his well being

I think that ultimately, down the line, Izzy will come to understand that Ed and Stede are in love. As salty and jealous as he is, I think Izzy deep down wants Ed to be happy, and that he'll realize that what Ed wants more than anything is to leave the pirate life with his new love. Izzy loves Ed more than anything, and will do anything for him. including taking Blackbeard's place as a corpse. In this same scene, you can see the curtains drape over him like a death shroud

And what do the lovers do? Escape to China!

There was a lot of badass piracy happening in China at the time, so it would be amazing to see come Chinese Pirates!

Maybe it's my wishful thinking and being burned too much by queerbaiting, but I want to see this end in a happy ending. Let Ed and Stede be in love and be happy and extra

That's my two cents ❤️