#but the second he realized that stede was doing this for ed

[adickaboutspoons]

Mostly I was responding to the points raised in @scarrletmoon's response, but you raise some excellent points to which I'd like to respond. Feel free to ignore if you're tired of my bullshit. I completely understand the impulse. 1st, you're absolutely right; I was coming across as gate-keepery by saying that I find Stede's eccentricities charming as though that ought be the default experience. For that I apologize. I ought to have taken more care. When I said "And that's valid, but I would say that those are the parts that the crew and Ed grow to love once they embrace those parts of him instead of cringing at them" what I meant to convey is that the experience of 2nd-hand embarrassment when Stede does something that recalls to the viewer times when they have felt ashamed/were made to feel shame because of something they did is absolutely understandable, but we can take heart in Stede being accepted & loved for those parts of him, & find hope that so too may we be embraced for our own quirks & foibles. My intention was to encourage others to be more gentle with & accepting of their own perceived failings, but I can see now that I failed to adequately express that, & for that I am sorry. I do take issue with the suggestion that I am strawmanning, though; I would argue that how one views Stede's motivation & framing absolutely informs the extent to which/moments in which one finds his behavior cringe-worthy. In your original post, you contend Stede is "pretending to be this macho pirate captain who totally knows what he's doing" & your response above adds he's a bad manager & a jerk because he's praising himself & chiding his employees, whom you interpret as him treating as stand-ins for his own children. If that's how you're framing the scenario, then, sure - I can see how his behavior comes across as cringe to you. But that's not at all how I perceived it. I will grant he is pretending more expertise than he actually possesses, but he IS a pirate captain, & as to the attribution of "macho" I absolutely disagree, specifically because he is textually interested in a form of piracy that is not that. Because that is my understanding of the scene, in the debrief scene I see a person excited at the success of what, if Black Pete is to be believed, is their very 1st raid, & doesn't understand why everyone else wasn't also chuffed. He then listens to Wee John' criticism & encourages him to clarify WHY he feels the way he does. When Wee John identifies the lack of a flag as a contributing factor to his disgruntlement, Stede provides materials so they can rectify the deficit. This isn't Stede forcing arts & crafts on these grown-ass men (& Jim) - it's Stede hearing a problem & supplying the means to a solution. Similarly, he hears out Buttons about the crew's dissatisfaction, & tries to rectify it by finding a more appealing target for a raid, even though he obviously feels unequal to the task himself. To me, that's the complete opposite of a bad manager (to me he's a bad manager when he's being dismissive of the crew's input, like the fuckery brainstorming, & even then he climbs down from his high horse & apologizes. Which? GREAT manager!). Where you see Stede infantilizing his crew, I see them taking part in activities that, while generally relegated to childhood, aren't implicitly childish, & of their own volition, & Stede sowing the seeds that will eventually blossom into a found family (not imposing an established family structure). For clarity, I'm not saying my interpretation is objectively right, nor that yours is wrong. I'm just saying framing is going to influence perception of whether Stede's behavior is Cringe, & that's kind of what I was getting at with my myriad examples of Stede behaving "authentically" or "inauthentically" & when that is a viable predictor of a general fandom perception of when Stede is being Cringe. Because I really don't think it is. This is going to continue in the notes because tumlr thinks they can cut my mic.

listen I love stede a lot - I think he's the bravest character in the show. he changes everyone he meets for the better. he embodies what I think of as the thesis of the show. if he wasn't the way that he is, the show would not be very good, imo.

but in ep one he gives his pirate crew notes on the raid they just did as though they were a community theater troupe and his notes were 1) complimenting his own opening speech as "very inspiring" and 2) complaining that that the crew wasn't sufficiently enthusiastic about robbing two poor fisherman of a single plant.

during the raid his narration went "some men are born to be pirate captains, others learn on the job. me? well I'm a pretty solid mix of both" as though he has any idea what he's doing.

and AFTER the raid Olu has to gently point out to him that piracy isn't a game to the rest of the crew.

There's a reason that Rhys Darby was the only person capable of playing Stede without making him seem like a total dick. And I think that's bc Rhys was able to convey the idea that Stede's behavior in the first few eps is coming out of this deep sense of insecurity - he's doing some Stede-y things (flag making! paying the crew! bedtime stories!) that are great but he's also pretending to be this macho pirate captain who totally knows what he's doing. And it's the pretending that makes people cringe with second hand embarrassment. While also, often, seeing themselves in it and feeling a great deal of sympathy for Stede about it.

The reason Stede is like this is because HE thinks there's something deeply wrong with him, a belief that has been solidified by everyone around him his entire life, and therefore he needs to do everything he can to hide that deeply wrong thing about him. When he unpacks that and embraces the things about himself he originally thought were embarrassing (being weak, pathetic, soft, etc), he can stop pretending. And that's when other characters grow to love him! And so people will sometimes call him cringe because they aspire to be cringe like him, to embrace the parts of themselves that they were punished for and live more authentically.

because he changes! that's the point! he moves from cringe (pretending to be someone he's not) to cringe (being true to himself, always a deeply vulnerable thing to be) and it takes a lot of hard work. that's what makes me LIKE him as a character. that's what I think makes him the bravest character on the show. because he doesn't start out perfect. he's a puppet who grows into a real boy and that means that for a period of time he was a puppet, and that's okay.

[piratecaptainscaptainpirates]

🚨This is a Stede Bonnet season 2 appreciation post 🚨

There's not enough love for my guy Stede on my dash. Some of my favorite excellent Stede moments in season 2:

Apparently having so many dreams about Ed that his horny moaning is a major source of frustration amongst the crew

The way he kisses the bottle before tossing it into the sea still makes me fucking feral

Trying to do a little Ed voice while venting to the wanted poster and then immediately getting mad that Ricky saw him doing that ("can't a man have a little privacy?") even though he made no attempt to move out of a public area

"Sorry if that's a bit creepy-" "YOU ARE CREEPY"

Getting tf out of there when Ricky starts fooling around. Say what you want about Stede but he knows when to leave a situation

Just fucking bitching constantly while he's on Zheng Yi Sao's ship. He hates the wake up bell and he is overqualified for towels 😤

*about the wanted poster* They drew him to look like a ghoul :/

Trying to figure out Ed's location based on a map he's drawn himself and then getting confused about where Cuba is. On the map he's drawn himself

Circling "alive" on the wanted poster

The way he put his own pain and grief aside to prioritize keeping his crew safe, even when he thought some of these people who he cares about so much just killed the love of his life

The way he fondly, mournfully calls Ed a nut when he believes he is dead. The way he beats on Ed's chest to try and bring him back. The love and desperation of it all

"Don't you want your sammie?"

Continuing the trend of venting at length to anyone who asks him about how he's doing, only this time to Anne, who will weaponize this information

For what it's worth. I like your beard. the length

Describing Anne kissing him as "she jumped on my face!!!"

The way he runs in general. Limbs akimbo

His cunty little twirls in the red suit

The way you KNOW Ned Low is a dead man walking from the instant he plays with Ed's hair and insults him. Stede was never going to let him leave that ship alive

The way he immediately compliments the piece of twine Ed brought him on his breakfast tray when he realizes how much this means to Ed

Shouting "FOR LOVE" as a battle cry immediately after getting his boyfriend back

Zero hesitation when Ed asks him if he's having second thoughts about becoming inkeepers. Zero. He knows his priorities now and he knows his number one priority is Ed!

🚨 This has been a Stede Bonnet appreciation post 🚨

[saltpepperbeard]

so, hastiness of the sex and the literal and figurative distance that follows aside, something was really bugging me about the morning after. i couldn’t put my finger on it for a while, but now that i’ve sat with things, i think it’s finally clicked in my head:

stede’s reactions to ed’s sweetness. or lack thereof, really.

because goodness, they just slept together. they just bared body and soul to each other. they just survived a dangerous situation and made it to see the sun rise once again. they’ve been through so much, and faced so much adversity.

and despite all they’ve been through, ed is kind. ed is thoughtful, and soft, and sweet. he brings stede breakfast in bed. he tries to make it as pretty as he can. and then weaves beautiful gratitude and admiration in the form of his goldfish tale.

something that should make anyone sigh with fondness, really. something that make eyes flutter with hearts to match.

…and yet.

and yet stede reacts almost…casually to it all. not glittery how he was at the end of episode 5, for example—so warm and so bright and so very clearly in love. it all felt a bit more…stunted? reserved? unnecessarily curt?

and upon sitting with it as i said, i have two lines of thought, two theories.

one, it’s a sort of look into the heightening poison in his system, the good ol’ villain that is toxic masculinity. he feels the need to perform around ed, to be a man worthy of his love. he feels the need to be more than just “adequate,” more than just an “amateur.” and so he feels the need to be more masculine as a result. he’s not quite at his peak of course, not quite in the absolute thick of it—he still has moments closer to himself throughout the day. but the more poisonous seeds have been planted.

and what does that sort of masculinity often lead to? reserved emotions. stunted reactions. you’re not allowed to show vulnerability, or softness, or anything of the sort; you’re expected to be just a wall of strength and flat composure.

which, also, would align with the show: ed actively tries to combat that mentality in the morning. he straight up tells stede that the man who saved him was a fantastic, orange, sparkly mermaid. not some swashbuckling hero. not some colder, mysterious, more reserved man. but a beautiful, soft, dazzling goldfish.

and stede sort of just shrugs it off—turns it into a “well i hope we’ll both get through the violence” as opposed to realizing that ed is complimenting his true character.

but that brings me to my second theory: maybe stede reacts the way he does simply because…he’s never been loved like that before. he doesn’t know what to do with it. he’s never been brought breakfast in bed before, and now there ed goes doing so for him.

he seems to be fine when he's the one in the driver's seat. like, he's very romantic when he's dealing out the romance. but the second it's turned back on him, he can't seem to conceptualize it, even when it's coming from a man he knows he's in love with. like, ed complimenting his shirt led to a more incredulous reaction. ed saying that stede wears fine things well also led to a more incredulous reaction. and like...

"then you shaved your beard off...for me?"

he just can't grasp it. he can't grasp something so new and foreign to him quite yet. and it's of course also wrapped up in a lot of self-worth issues, because how can anyone love him when he really doesn't love himself (which i think is also the same for ed. help them. HELP THEM)

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

[sungmee]

I'll throw away my faith, babe, just to keep you safe Don't you know you're everything I have?

guardian angel izzy AU! this was originally my second piece for the reverse bang, but things with that author didn't work out, so i'm gonna try to do it on my own, but i wanted to post the art.

more on this AU: -izzy is stede's guardian angel who falls in love with him -a Big Incident happens when stede is younger that makes izzy truly fear for his life -he finds out ed and stede are meant to be together and ed will help keep stede alive -can't directly interfere, so he leaves heaven and joins ed's crew to try and eventually direct ed towards stede -izzy does catch feelings for ed but he doesn't even realize it until after ed and stede meet, he's been too focused on his goal -assumes he'll lose them both to each other, but he's accepted this (he is also wrong) -stizzy-centric, ed/stede, eventual steddyhands

[forpiratereasons]

okayyy things i loved about ofmd s2 today's edition is!! FRENCHIE. what a guy. first off, joel fry, i'm free on thursdays. second, love that he gets promoted to first mate, tries to decline, & IMMEDIATELY disobeys his mad new boss to try and help izzy. he reaches out to izzy a lot tbh and of course frenchie and jim together are the litmus test for how we're meant to feel about izzy.

but frenchie is affectionate with izzy! holds izzy's hand in e1 while fang hugs him, leans against his leg in e3 while they're in zheng's jail, goes back for him in e8 when ed is carrying him forward. i think he grows up a bit esp in the first few episodes & helps his crew at the end (go frenchie!), setting him up to the captaincy at the end.

now that i look back over the series with an eye on frenchie i think they do lay a groundwork for his captaincy - not only does he become ed's first mate but he also has a functioning coping mechanism (a lot has been made of the compartmentalization as frenchie not handling shit but compartmentalization is a legit mechanism and i think once the crew is all back together frenchie gets his shit together pretty fast so u know just bc we don't see frenchie having appropriate outlets doesn't mean he doesn't have any) that would allow frenchie to take a step back and make decisions without necessarily reacting from fear. this is what enables him to fend for izzy!! he can put aside the fear of ed and ask himself, what is the right thing to do? take care of the crew.

other things that slid past me in the first few watches but which i think were more significant than i realized:

in ep 3, when the revenge and the red flag meet, the crew looks to frenchie to answer stede's questions about ed.

auntie talks frenchie (authority) and fang (soft, cultural connection - this is a deft bit of manipulation that totally works btw) aboard the revenge.

frenchie delivers the verdict against ed exiling him from the ship in ep 4 - it can't come from stede, because stede is compromised where ed is concerned, and so instead frenchie is their spokesperson.

we get one final clue as to frenchie's authority and respect among the crew in the post-ep scene of ep 8, where frenchie slips out of the jail - yeah, it's partially because he's thin enough to fit through the bars, but other folks who could fit refuse. he gets the courage up and does it, and it works! he frees the crew!

so you know, i guess i didn't instantly clock frenchie as captain in the final shots of the revenge, but it also didn't ping me as weird that he was giving orders. he's grown a lot over this series. notably, oluwande doesn't take on this sort of active role this series - his arc is a little different with zheng and jim now, his priorities are changing, and he doesn't want to captain the revenge, he wants to follow zheng. just because olu would have been the obvious choice in s1e10 doesn't mean things can't change! olu didn't want to be captain then, he doesn't want to be captain now. that's okay!! the crew have found another leader amongst themselves!!

i'm really excited to see what kind of funky cool badass jacket-wearing captain he'll make in s3!!!

go frenchie!!

[ladykatibeth]

I think some of the surprise there is for Izzy’s season 2 behavior is that a lot of the the fandom (even some Izzy fans) decided to base Izzy’s characterization entirely off of episode 9 and 10 (where he was honestly also probably having a bit a of a breakdown) when he’s at his most lowest and ignoring anything before that.

So while everyone’s here, (welcome new friends!) I’ll address something’s people have been surprised by, or have said is a new development.

1. “Talking it through”….Izzy is a very open character—Wait, here me out.

He is unintentionally very expressive. If you look at his expression it flits through emotions. He’s a pretty bad liar. His feelings are very on display, and he has a lot of them.

In terms of talking, he literally chases Ed around the ship trying to start a conversation about the plan. He explains exactly why he’s upset in episode 4. He’s also mean about it because he’s angry and he’s mean when he’s angry.

(Well I’d argue he’s anxious and he’s angry when he’s anxious and he’s mean when he’s angry)

This is one phrase we never see him disagree with in the first season, but I would argue he doesn’t fully endorse it.

Specifically “as a crew.” He doesn’t like showing vulnerability….in front of people. Intimate conversations are usually private. He’s the least posturing when he’s doing 1 on 1 conversations, for an infrequently used example, look at him ranting to Spanish Jackie like a friend on the phone before the navy people come in—and then he shifts. He will talk to people about feelings—in private.

2.Speaking of episode 4—Izzy’s care for the crew.

Izzy didn’t see the Revenge Crew as his crew up until his being named captain (neither did Ed, the co-captain conversation doesn’t occur until after Izzy’s been banished). He does express care for the QA crew having been lost in his resignation rant.

They are “the crew of the Revenge.” He’s not perfect though, he does risk Ivan and Fang in the navy deal, but given the fact he’s never done this before I assume most of this previous crew behavior is more in line with the first example than the second. He’s not nice, but he at least cares about about them staying alive.

3. Izzy apologizing/taking accountability.

I think the main thing here is people taking Izzy at his most pissed 100% at his word.

In episode 4 we see Izzy do his resignation rant—and he regrets it by the end. He takes back what he said and apologizes for it. Just because Izzy says something when pissed doesn’t mean those are his day to day feelings.

In episode 6 Izzy says Ed will rue this day—and then makes sure specifically to get him out of the way so he isn’t harmed. He expresses concern over Stede doing something to Ed’s brain, not anger at him.

Izzy isn’t incapable of reflection, his pattern is he gets angry says something, reflects when calmer and then either regrets or changes his mind.

So he’s like weeks of (relatively) calmer time to reflect and realize he played a part, Izzy is incredibly impulsive when mad but our impulses aren’t always our regular logical feelings.

(Also why I don’t like when people completely take his Ep 10 rant as his whole entire world view, he’s pissed and scared and saying hurtful things on purpose, that’s not the summation of him.)

[goayda]

So what if… in a modern Steddyhands AU, instead of a Stizzy meet-cute they meet in a car crash. Nothing too serious, just the annoying, extremely inconvenient minor crash that makes you park on the side and blame each other and then exchange info for the insurance company.

And when they are about to go their separate ways, Izzy’s old car doesn’t start and Stede can see how upset he is and feels terribly guilty because the crash might have been his fault because he was briefly checking his phone when it happened.

And Izzy is exhausted after a double shift and it’s starting to rain and he just needs to go home because he is bringing Ed some medicine, but he can’t even blame the posh idiot because he thinks he might have closed his eyes for a second at the wheel and he realizes it could have been much worse.

And the posh idiot then offers to drive him home, saying it’s not a problem and to please, please, let him do that for him. And he seems sincere and so eager and Izzy agrees because Ed has been sick and alone most of the day and he needs the meds for that awful cold and Izzy has promised him to bring home some Chinese food from their favorite restaurant and it’s getting cold.

So Izzy takes his backpack, the medicines and the take-away bags and gets in that big, luxurious car, wondering how much that thing must cost, but doesn’t say anything aside from grunting ‘thank you’, which surprisingly makes the other man smile brightly at him.

And they drive in silence and Stede finds himself glancing quite often at the man beside him. He looks tired and is clutching the pharmacy bag on his lap as if it was a teddy bear and Stede surprises himself by thinking the man looks kind of cute.

Meanwhile, Izzy is worrying about Ed, because he probably hasn’t been drinking enough water and eating only if he feels like it and it has been a mess of a day, but he is going to be home soon and then everything will be fine.

When they get there it’s pouring rain and Stede insists on helping him with the bags and walking him home with an umbrella because otherwise the man is going to get drenched in seconds and Izzy says that there is no need, that it’s not that far, but Stede doesn’t take no for an answer.

So they walk side by side under a ridiculously small umbrella and as expected, both of them get partially drenched. Still, when they reach the door and Izzy takes the keys to open it, he can see Stede is smiling at him anyway and when Izzy opens his mouth to say ‘goodbye and thank you for the ride home’, he ends up saying something completely different.

“Do you want to get in? We have enough dinner for three.”

(The next day Stede is trying to find a subtle way to ask his assistant Lucius about those poly relationships he often talks about without giving him much information.

He is not subtle at all and Lucius immediately asks him to tell him EVERYTHING.

And Stede tells him how handsome and charming Ed is and how sweet Izzy looked when he fell asleep on the sofa after dinner, with his hair tousled and snoring softly and that he very much would like to see them both again.)

[londonspirit]

Was there ever any doubt that Our Flag Means Death Season 2 wouldn't end in thrilling fashion after taking all of us on a rollercoaster of emotions? Probably not, but show creator David Jenkins and writer John Mahone, who teamed up on the script for the finale episode, seemed distinctly driven to squeeze as many tears out of us watching as possible. With the dynamic between Stede (Rhys Darby) and Ed (Taika Waititi) seemingly fractured as of the season's penultimate installment, it was unclear how — or if — the two men might eventually reconcile, but a new threat to the Republic of Pirates, alongside Ed's realization that maybe he isn't meant to be a fisherman after all, sends the two back into each other's arms, literally.

While some characters are afforded something resembling a happy ending, with Stede and Ed deciding to try their hand at being innkeepers as they watch the Revenge sail off into the sunset under Frenchie's (Joel Fry) command, not every single crew member emerges from the finale battle unscathed, chief among them Ed's first mate and formerly ruthless right-hand Izzy Hands (Con O'Neill), whose parting words to Ed may be the very thing that the former Blackbeard needs to hear in order to fully come to terms with accepting the man inside him all along.

Ahead of the Season 2 finale premiering on Max, Collider had the opportunity to reconnect with Jenkins to discuss some of the episode's biggest moments. Over the course of the interview, which you can read below, Jenkins explains why Izzy's speech is both a eulogy for the character and a statement about the show itself, how the Season 2 premiere and finale bookend each other with those beach scenes, and why he wanted to use that Nina Simone needle drop in particular. He also discusses why the season concludes with a wedding at sea, what the finale sets up for Season 3, and more.

COLLIDER: I feel like my first question, in a completely non-serious way, is: how dare you, and my immediate follow-up is: what gives you the right?

DAVID JENKINS: I'm sorry, I'm sorry. Also, I am God to these creatures! But it was hard. It was a hard decision.

The episode kicks off with a somewhat more lighthearted moment, which is Ed realizing he's not cut out for the fishing life after all. On the heels of Stede and Ed’s big fight in the episode prior, why did it feel important to have Ed humorously have the revelation of, “This isn't what I really want after all?”

JENKINS: Well, I like the idea that Season 1 is about Stede’s midlife crisis, and Season 2 is about Ed's midlife crisis. I like that he had a little prima donna moment where he thought he could go and be a simple man, and then it's revealed that he really isn't a simple man; he’s a complicated, fussy, moody guy. No, he's not gonna be able to catch fish for a living. For him to be told that, “At your heart, you're a pirate. You have to go back and do it,” he doesn't want that to be true, but it was true.

Speaking of characters that have a revelation about themselves, Izzy's speech about piracy, about belonging to something and finding family, feels like the thesis statement of this show. Was that the intention behind it?

JENKINS: When I wrote that, I wanted to give Izzy a proper eulogy for himself. He gives a eulogy for himself, but it felt true writing it. Yeah, this is how he sees piracy, and also that's not how he would have viewed piracy in the first season. He would have viewed it as, “I'm here to dominate you, so you work for the boss.” By the end of his journey in the second season, he sees that they built him a unicorn leg, he learned to whittle, and he mentored Stede. He's learned that, actually, a pirate crew works differently than what he thought and that they are all in it together, and they do this for each other. So it felt right for Izzy’s arc, and it is kind of an overall statement about the show.

It's interesting that you call it a eulogy, because, by the time we get to the scene where we know Izzy's not going to make it, it feels like he's using his last moments for Ed more than himself. He has those final words to Ed of, “They love you for who you are. Just be Ed.” Is that the kind of the thing that Ed needs to hear in the moment — even as he's losing, arguably, someone he's known even longer than Stede and is just as close to on an emotional level?

JENKINS: Well, I like that Izzy gives that to him, and then Izzy also apologizes to him because he says that he fed his darkness and that they were both Blackbeard together — that Blackbeard wasn't just Ed, that they did it together. In a way, it's very much for Ed, that speech. The “we were Blackbeard” is claiming that he is also Blackbeard, that Blackbeard is not just Ed’s creation, and I like that for him, too, because he's worked so hard for that — and then just to say, “You can give it up.” There can never be a Blackbeard again as far as Izzy’s concerned because he's dying, and they did that together.

I wanted to ask you about the Stede/Ed reunion. We get Ed finding Stede's love letter that was written all the way at the beginning, and then also the beach fight/reunion. It's definitely a callback to the dream, but was that always the way that you wanted to bookend the season? Here's the dream and the fantasy, and then this is the real moment that we get to have?

JENKINS: It was nice. I knew that I wanted to have the Republic of Pirates at the beginning and end up with the Republic of Pirates. I think the reunion of it was a nice surprise, but it felt right. And finding the letter in a bottle — if you have a letter in a bottle, it's thrown out somewhere, it has to pop up somewhere, you have to see one of them at some point. But yeah, there's a circular nature to it, and that's why I thought it would be good to use Nina Simone at the beginning and at the end as a callback. This dream in this way did come true, and they made it come true.

When I talked to you at the beginning of the season, you mentioned the Nina Simone needle drop, but couldn't say anything about the significance of it at the time. I talked to [music supervisor] Maggie [Phillips], as well, about the needle drops throughout Season 2, and she said you always had a very clear vision for what song you wanted there. A lot of people know the original, but why did you pick Nina's cover? It strikes a different tone; there's a hopefulness to it in a lot of ways.

JENKINS: Yeah, it's wistful. There's a lovely part that sounds like church bells, which is great for the wedding part of it, and then it's just moving. I love her interpretation of it. It’s wistful, positive, and it felt like the end of the show to me. There's a size to it that, up against these images, I just was like, "Yeah, this would be really good. I want this to be in the show."

I did want to ask you about the wedding because on the heels of Izzy's death, it's bittersweet, but also, it's a sign this crew has become a family, and they can still find happy moments and reasons to celebrate. We’ve seen Black Pete and Lucius reconnect, but also reconcile and navigate through Lucius's problems and have their own, almost parallel trajectory journey as a couple alongside Stede and Ed in a way. Was that something that you always wanted to close the season on, the two of them getting hitched?

JENKINS: Yeah. We knew we wanted a matelotage in the season, which is the real term they had for marrying crew members. And yeah, they've always been in relief to Stede and Ed, and they're a little bit ahead of Stede and Ed in how much they can talk about things. So to have a bunch of family things in the season, like a funeral and a wedding, and have the parents kind of watch the kids sail away, felt right, and all of those things seem to work well together and build on each other.

Speaking of Ed and Stede watching everybody sail off, that was an outcome that was somewhat surprising, I think because where they are, you think maybe they're going to end up sailing off with everybody else.” But no, instead, it's just this sweet, lovely note of them getting to play house for a little while. What inspired that turn for them?

JENKINS: I think that they've come to the point in the relationship where they say, “Yeah, we're gonna give this a try,” and that's where the story really gets interesting. That will-they-or-won't-they is interesting to a point, but the real meat of it is always like, “Can they make the relationship, and can they do better than Anne and Mary?” That's the question that we all ask ourselves when we end up in a serious relationship is: can we make this work, and can we get through the hard times? Then they're both very damaged, and it's gonna be a challenge for them, and that's where the story gets interesting.

I'm not sure you can really tease much for a Season 3, but we talked before about how you have your vision for where you want to take this, and based on what we see at the end of Season 2, the implication is that we're going to have Stede and Ed off together, but is the plan to also continue with the other characters as well in their own places?

JENKINS: Yeah. Frenchie’s in charge of the Revenge, and I think Frenchie's Revenge would be an interesting place to work and an interesting ship to be raided by. Then I think that the Revenge means a lot to Stede, and it would be very hard for him to give it up, and he hasn't had a great track record of that. So I think the odds of them all finding each other again are quite high.

All episodes of Our Flag Means Death Season 2 are available to stream on Max.

[piratecaptainscaptainpirates]

Honestly I'm always struck by just how much the lighthouse fuckery and everything about it tells us about Ed, it's such efficient and clever writing!

He's absolutely fucking brilliant, a real genius - Ed is able to count down to the fog's appearance with a margin of error of seconds, and has obviously been keeping count of the date in his head. He's also very obviously a very intuitive and clever sailor and is excellent at playing with multiple moving parts to organize a solution

Despite being so fucking smart, Ed actually gives up VERY easily. He's used to success coming the first time, perfectly, every time, and when his one brilliant plan doesn't work, he's shocked and gives up immediately.

Ed cares SO MUCH about the people depending on him. Like the first thing he says after he realizes is to tell everyone he's sorry. The weight of being a captain and having everyone trusting him for a solution is really getting to him

The striking thing about his plan is that his mistake was small but crucial, and it would've been easily corrected if he'd been open about it from the start. But he was looking forward to the big reveal! He likes the illusion of mystery and infallibility! (and, honestly, can't blame him for not telling anyone - when he tries to talk to Izzy about the clouds early on, Izzy fails to get that it's important and just starts nagging at him.)

When he's pressuring Stede to show him what being Blackbeard is like, he's being a bit harsh (I get the sense it's a very cathartic moment for him, to have just one person experience what it's like to be him for even a few minutes), but, crucially, he's doing that under the impression that there is no real danger because he thinks he's already solved it. When he realizes they're actually in trouble, Ed immediately takes full responsibility and does not expect anyone to help him come up with a plan - he's so used to handling things entirely on his own

It's just so good. I love it.

[boatcats]

Gravitational Pull

Heard @ourfag declared it Whump Him Wednesday.

Stede helps Ed treat a dislocated shoulder during the Co-Captains Era.

--

"Ed?" Stede asked, closing the door to the cabin behind him, "Why are you lying on the desk?"

The desk. Not just Stede's desk anymore. Stede relished the fact. He and Ed were co-captains and co-users of the desk. Ed had been teaching him to plot a course earlier in the week. But now the charts were arranged in much the same pattern as before, paperweights holding down their corners and navigational instuments on top, only... on the rug in the middle of the room. They'd been supplanted on the desk by Ed who lay in his shirt-sleeves on his stomach with one arm hanging down straight over the side in a patch of late afternoon sunlight.

Ed made a non-commital noise, began to shrug, then appeared to change his mind about the movement at the last second. "My shoulder got dislocated on the raid. It'll go back in eventually hanging down like this. A bit of weight might help, though, if you could grab my flask from my jacket pocket."

Oh God. Ed sounded much too casual about this. Stede felt himself start to panic, swore he felt the blood begin to drain from his face, but then he stopped himself. He wasn't the one with the dislocated shoulder. And he had a duty to Ed.

"Of course!" Stede knew he was speaking a bit too loudly and moving a bit too quickly as he made a beeline for Ed's jacket where it lay on the couch. He felt the adrenaline making him awkward and clumsy and winced at his own obvious lack of competence - surely Ed deserved a more practiced nurse.

But Ed said nothing about it and his eyes were soft and fond when Stede skidded to a halt with the flask in front of the desk. There was no amusement in his gaze, no teasing. Ed merely looked grateful and for a moment Stede thought he might drown in the warm feeling that flooded his chest and truly become no use to Ed at all.

Ed made a grabby motion with his good hand. "Give us a sip first, would you?"

Stede unscrewed the cap with clumsy fingers and handed it to Ed who half sat up to take it and haphazardly pour a trickle of rum into his own mouth. "Now take the lanyard and loop it over my other hand. The weight will pull my shoulder back in place faster."

The flask had a waxed loop of braided rope at one end that could be wrapped around ones wrist. "I've lost too many of these things overboard," Ed had told Stede once by way of explanation.

Stede walked around the desk and kneeled by Ed's hanging arm. He tried to be as gentle as possible looping the rope around Ed's wrist and letting go of the flask so that it hung towards the floor. Ed still groaned.

On instinct, Stede ran a gentle hand over Ed's good shoulder. He felt warm and slightly damp with sweat through his shirt. Stede could see sweat beading on the back of his neck under the fall of his hair.

"Thanks, mate," Ed said, voice slightly strained. "You're welcome to stay, obviously. Your cabin. But you don't have to. I'll be alright now."

Our cabin, Stede wanted to correct him, feeling unexpectedly stung. But he stopped himself. "Can I get you a cool cloth?" He asked instead. "You're a bit sweaty. Not that it's... not that it's a problem or... but it looked uncomfortable."

Stede could see the tension bleeding off Ed in the moment after he asked. But then Ed just said "Sure. Thanks, mate."

When Stede came back with the cloth and a bowl of cool water, Ed's eyes were closed, his expression both somehow blank and tight with pain. Stede cleared his throat and the dark eyes blinked open (Ed had remarkably long lashes, Stede realized, and freckles he hadn't noticed before).

"Do you want me to...?" Stede mimed a sponging motion with the cloth.

"Sure."

Stede brought the damp cloth to Ed's forehead and felt him shiver slightly as he traced his hairline, wiping away sweat and grime, then moved to the back of his neck where his hair was sticking to his skin. He moved Ed's hair away from his neck and shoulders so that it fanned out over the desk instead, a cloud of starlight, and felt Ed sigh, relaxing marginally.

When Stede was done, he set the bowl aside and settled on the carpet near Ed's face. Ed opened his eyes and gave him a lopsided smile.

"Thanks. The waiting's the worst bit. Your body wants to tense up but of course that's not going to help so you sort of have to just... lie there."

"Mmm," Stede said and nodded. He wouldn't know but he was certainly ready to take Ed's word for it. He cast about for anything he could do to help. "If it would help take your mind off it, I'm... quite well versed in reading aloud to pirates." Stede felt silly as soon as he suggested it but Ed's smile was immediate.

"I'd love that, mate. It's real hard to hold a book like this."

"Excellent! How about The Little Mermaid?"

[follows-the-bees]

Single layers (and no shoes) represent Ed's emotional vulnerability/openness and self reflection.

It's a common symbolism device to either have characters put on tons of layers when they are feeling vulnerable (Dean Winchester I'm looking at you) or go down to single layer when they are opening up. Ed's clothing is no exception.

Season One

The first time we see Ed in single layers is when he switches clothes with Stede. While during this whole episode, Ed is opening up, he makes altering life decisions while in Stede's outfit. First, the whole scene in the crow's nest where he takes seriously Stede's proposal to continue learning about each other's lives, and second when he lies to Izzy about planning to kill Stede.

I think the choice of black and white, the classic good and bad trope, can be read into as well. Stede is in the black leathers of Blackbeard with lighter color jewelry around his neck, showing the heaviness of the Blackbeard role and crew, while Ed is wearing a white shirt with a black cravat, showing Stede's way of piracy giving him hope while having a bit of Blackbeard's heaviness still there.

In 1x7, This is Happening, Ed goes down to one layer — the t-shirt.) Ed drops his jacket and goes down to a single layer right before Lucius rips into him about Stede's feelings for him and he stays down in these layers as they eat the snake.

Ed's emotions are bare, at the forefront. He is not only realizing Stede's feelings for him, but also letting his feelings come out.

And his shirt is purple — symbolizing Ed's love for Stede. (Sidenote: I love that blue is Stede's color and red is Ed's and they combine for a beautiful purple throughout the show.)

Both Ed and Stede are in single layers the first time they kiss. Ed confesses his love (what makes Ed happy is you) while they sit next to each other on the beach. Both of them are vulnerable, open, especially Ed. They are both terrified, figuring themselves and each other out.

Ed continues to be in single layers as he sits on the dock waiting for Stede. The color theme of purple is once again used to represent Ed's emotional state.

The infamous breakup robe. While Ed has gone back to the Revenge, trying to be just Ed, back to the crew that allowed him to be himself (all but one person that is), he stays in the breakup robe, sans shirt, most of the time.

Until he has to put the mask and persona of Blackbeard back on, he is open, and emotional in front of Lucius and then the crew.

He is also shoeless during most of these scenes. While Ed being shoeless is more prevalent in season two, I think it ties into a deeper level of self reflection.

Season Two

Ed is down to only a black shirt and pants in the grav(e)y basket.

This time the t-shirt is black — symbolizing Ed's dark headspace. But once again, it's all about his emotions and Ed really feeling them. He is self-reflecting, looking into himself and realizing what he wants in life, what he thinks of himself, and finally deciding that ultimately, he wants to live.

There is the moment in Purgatory where Ed makes a shoe and puts it on, symbolizing one foot in the grave. But by the time Ed climbs to the cliff edge, he is back down to no shoes. This symbolizes two things: 1) he is no longer one foot in the grave (foreshadowing) 2) that he is about to do more self reflecting.

The combination of one-layer and no shoes is when Ed is most open emotionally. He now realizes his own feelings about himself, and when he hits the water, he decides to fight to live. Yes, mer!Stede is part of it, his love for Stede cannot be hidden, it is out in the open, the shining beacon of light and hope.

I've talked about it before but the editing of the MerStede scene is amazing. The last shot in the water as Ed sinks down is Ed in all black, surrounded by dark waters, his feet the most prominent in the shot. This cuts immediately to Stede's feet wading into the holds water, joining Ed in both worlds.

In all of 2x5, Ed is in the rice sack (and I'd be remiss not to mention the cat collar and bell.) He starts out wearing sandals: during the talks with the crew, Stede, the door, and Lucius. While Ed is trying to make up for everything, he is not fully committed emotionally to everything.

Not until two things happen: Lucius pushes him overboard into the water — the symbolism of water as rebirth, understanding, growth is very loud this season — and in the process knocks his shoes off. While it is a comedic beat and parallel to Lucius's shoes coming off when he pushes him overboard it has a deeper meaning.

Ed fully lets himself feel and tap into his emotions — sit with himself if you will — once he talks with Fang. He learns that something he did in the past that he thought was fun was actually hurtful to the other person. He genuinely apologizes for that (the opposite of the corporate apology from earlier.)

He then continues that openness and vulnerability with Stede on the deck. Telling Stede exactly what he needs — to take it slow — and knowing that Stede won't do the exact opposite (what happened constantly last season with a certain character cause they thought it was "best") but he knows Stede will listen to and respect him. This moment shows how Ed is not only legit apologizing and realizing his actions, but letting himself be open and vulnerable again.

The last scene I want to point out is the moment before and morning after they sleep together.

The last shot we see of them that night, Ed sits on the bed, his hair down, his jacket off — down to one layer — as he looks lovingly to Stede. We can read many emotions on his face as the two of them are surrounded by all of the colors that we know to represent the couple — yellow, red, and purple.

In a parallel to the night before, the next morning Stede is shirtless but covered from the waist down, while Ed is covered. He is wearing Stede's robe, wrapped in one layer of comfort. The outer layer is blue — both Stede's color and the color of the ocean (there's that rebirth and change symbolism again) — with purple inner lining.

Both of these moments contain physical, mental, and emotional vulnerability for Ed. Ed has never been shy about explaining himself, but he is now starting to understand himself and process these emotions.

When Ed is in single layers and no shoes, it is when he is at his most vulnerable, gets to feel and express his emotions the most.

When he's Ed.

I may have missed some moments but these are the ones that stuck out to me the most. I also didn't dive into Stede here, but that could be a whole other essay.

[chuplayswithfire]

stede does not want to sit with his feelings and distress, he wants to feel something else, anything else, which is why he grabs ed and pulls him in. he's killed a man and it's flashed him back to his father and the blood on his face and the knowledge that a man's work is killing and he's a man now isn't he, become a man now to his father's own definition, he was tortured, ed was tortured, he killed a man, he is near to weeping when he grasps for ed, a drowning man seeking something to change his mood.

ed, reading this distress on his face and wanting to comfort him, realizes what he can do to help comfort stede - they can have intimacy. and it's not like he doesn't want intimacy with stede, in general. he does - he loves stede and is attracted to him and wants to reaffirm his well being as well. he nods, he kisses back, he grasps for stede just as tightly. he still has hesitations and doubts, however.

when we cut back to them, we see that ed has lost only his jacket, while stede has lost of shirt and is taking charge, closing the curtain to give them still more privacy. over stede's shoulder, we see the complex expression on ed's face, not wholly enthusiastic, but certainly not despairing or disinterested.

the sex is good, as a physical act, but it's not lovemaking. they have a good time. but in the morning, ed is already regretting it, already knowing it was the wrong choice. he fucks up making breakfast, he tries to broach conversation - but they are in entirely different spaces. this is where ed starts to realize what jackie makes him certain of in her bar: that they do not want the same things.

after all, ed is saying, let's try to avoid near death situations - and stede is saying, with an amused little dismissal, not likely in our line of work. they are at cross-purposes, they are in different head spaces. ed is still living in the discomfort of the night before, the storm on the horizon he fretted over before ned low arrived.

stede, on the other hand, has pushed it all back - has reframed it as part of their line of work, maybe sees all of last night as a bit of an adventure because look! he rescued his crew, his ed, defeated the villain who ruined everything, got to say a cool thing, and then had sexy. good sex!

ed didn't have second thoughts after they got to jackie'z. talking to jackie just made them undeniable.

[erinthesails]

god. the botched first time together is such a good way to play it. like im personally in hell and praying for a swift death of course, but i feel like.

the entire point of the show is not getting things right the first time. it's about trying again and again and realizing that it's never too late to find yourself, learn more about yourself, grow and change and discover things that are important to you. we've been talking about this all week with the differences between the season 1 "you wear fine things well" scene and this one, where the first time everything is picture perfect but doesn't go how they want, while the second one is real, grounded, imperfect, but honest. their first kiss being, again, when they were in totally different places, and not able to really connect in the way they needed to, even if it was grounded on the romantic notion of running away together (and maybe even BECAUSE the whole premise of that first kiss was so romantic--that's a lot of pressure!)

i think we're going to get something similar with them sleeping together. like, this first time was passionate, intense, romantic, etc. but notice, we don't see a genuine smile from ed the whole time. he's swept up in the moment, he wants stede, i dont think it's an issue of consent, but he KNOWS that this isn't right. that they're STILL in different emotional places and probably shouldn't be doing this here, now.

there's so much emphasis placed on firsts, just generally, in life. your first kiss, your first love, your first time having sex...getting it not just right, but perfect, ideal, the first time is so fucking important in western culture and the very premise of this show refuses to give that impulse to perfection validity. this is a show about two middle aged men who have had loves, marriages, lives, careers, families, whole histories before they met each other. two men who have, to various degrees, settled with the "first" things that came along to them in life because not to do so was a sign of failure. and all it got them was unhappiness and decimated senses of self worth

i actually really like that their first time together is the same way. i think it's setting us up for a second time that blows the doors off the first, and a lifetime of even better as they listen and learn and understand each other better. nothing ever ever has to be perfect the first time, but that doesn't mean it isn't worth it to try again and again til you get it right!!! and they each know that the other person is worth it! worth fighting for and trying again for! i think they both just need to learn that they themselves are worth it too

[our-flag-means-gay]

I think I've figured out what bothers me about Izzy's death.

First of all, it serves no obvious narrative purpose, Ed and Stede stay behind to start an inn instead of getting revenge on the princeling, which makes it feel like Izzy died "for nothing".

Second, it's played, from when Izzy's shot all the way until he stumbles onto the ship, in the same manner in which the loss of his leg was treated, and we know he recovered from that one so we expected him to recover from this. There's no foreshadowing that this time might be different, no tricks that could have made us think it's more serious than previous wounds, and so it comes as an unexpected blow. I know that that's probably the point of it, of death being "unexpected" and "always striking when you least expect it", but you know what? Miss me with that bullshit. After the way Game of Thrones and Rowling have mocked fans who dared expect things like continuity and proper foreshadowing in storytelling, I'm done watching stories where the writers go against what they've foreshadowed just for the shock value. And I know that OFMD has been extremely good at storytelling so far, which is why this has disappointed me so much.

For that matter, speaking of storytelling, on this show, people have been repeatedly stabbed through the chest and strangled within an inch of their lives and shot through the leg and had their heads literally bashed in, and survived all that, and now, all of a sudden, now the show adheres to actual physics instead of operating on Vibes?

And then there's the fact that when you kill a character, you lose any potential for future character arcs and development, and Izzy still had so much potential! And now we've lost it, and for what? Again, it doesn't exactly drive Ed and Stede to do anything differently, they're still going to run an inn the way they would have if Izzy had lived.

All of that is to say that it feels like a betrayal from the show and its particular brand of storytelling to have killed Izzy in the manner that they did.

If they wanted the inn arc to go ahead, they could have had Izzy and Ed realize that they can be apart so that Izzy can keep being the pirate he wants to keep being and so Ed can retire, not... this.

[pearwaldorf]

I have been trying to write this on and off for a while. I figure the second anniversary of the show is as fine an occasion as any to shove it out into the world. It is not everything I want to say about it, but I think the important bits are there.

It is a human impulse to be seen. To be told, through art, you are not alone. It is universal, but of special importance to people who are not well-represented in media (i.e. everybody who isn’t cis, white, able-bodied, skinny, and conventionally attractive).   

This show speaks to me as a queer person who figured things out later than most of my peers. (Not quite as late as Ed and Stede but not terribly far off either.) It’s not super common to see queer media address this, and I didn’t realize how much I needed that reassurance until I got it. That it’s okay to find these things any time in your life. To be told “A queer is never late, they’re always fashionably on-time.” 

They’re not my first canon queer ship. But they are the first ones where I knew it was true from the get-go. Multiple people assured me this was the case. And yet, I still didn’t believe it until I saw it with my own two eyes. This experience is not unusual for fans around my age.  

After I finished up season one, I laid in bed and cried. It’s not something I thought would affect me so much, but it feels like a weight I’d carried so long I didn’t realize it wasn’t supposed to be part of me is gone.

One of the reasons people unfamiliar with the fandom seem to think it’s absolutely crazy (which some of it is, to be fair, but every fandom has that) is the way fans of the show get extremely super intense about it. It took me a few weeks to realize this is a trauma response. I’m not even sure “trauma” is the right word. It doesn’t interfere with my day to day function, but it lasted for years. Decades. So it was definitely something that fucked me up. And in the way you can only start to see something as you’re moving past it, I’ve spent a lot of time trying to get my head around this. (I don’t know if I have anything to say about it yet. Maybe I need more time to sit with it.)

I know this sounds contrary, but I’m really glad David Jenkins does not come from fandom. Sometimes it’s good to know where a line is, and others it’s better to not know there’s a line at all. And this is, sad to say, remarkable to somebody who has had to deal with this for so long. With so many writers and showrunners aware of the line, and getting right up next to it, but never crossing it.

Imagine doing a show with a queer romance and not understanding why this was received with such emotion and fervor, because it’s just two people in love right? What blissful ignorance that this needed to be explained to him! And then he listened to people’s experiences with queerbaiting, and went “Oh my god you thought I was going to do WHAT?” And then you go “Huh. That is really fucked up.” 

The problem with being told something enough, even though you know it’s wrong, is you start to believe it regardless. All the excuses and hedging. It’s so very difficult to do they tell us, when we hear from queer creators how they had fight tooth and nail to make it as gay as it already was. 

And then comes Jenks, just yeeting it out there: majority queer and (not and/or. and) POC cast, an openly non-binary person playing an openly non-binary character. The ability to not have to make one queer (and/or) POC character speak for everybody, so you can inject a tiny bit of nuance into the conversation. The way you can tell more kinds of stories, like the one where the smol angry internalized homophobe comes into his own with the support of a queer community, even though he was a giant fucking asshole to them before.

So many people were like “You can just DO that? It’s really that easy?” And wasn’t that a fucking Situation, to have that curtain pulled aside. What next? Majority POC casts with stories about POC written by POC? Absolute madness. (Please please watch The Brothers Sun on Netflix. It’s so fucking good.) 

And people will scoff and say “Of course a cishet(?) white man would be able to get this pushed through.” But do they usually? The thing I don’t think people understand about allies is they use their privilege to wedge the door open. You still have to do the work to get through, but at least you have a place to start. And it really fucking matters.

The press keeps trying to tell me The Completely Made-Up Adventures of Dick Turpin is the OFMD substitute we need while we float in the gravy basket. I’m sure it’s a perfectly fine show, but I don’t know who has watched OFMD and decided the itch we needed scratched was anachronistic historical comedy.

I want stories written by people that reflect their lived experiences, with actors and crew committed to bringing that to life. And I would like streamers and studios to commit to giving them a chance, and marketing them properly so people know they exist. 

You can keep people satisficed with scraps for only so long. At some point, somebody is going to give them a whole seven course dinner and people will wonder why they’ve been putting up with starving this entire time.

[fishhuh]

What feels most insulting about being told that Izzys death made sense or was an appropriate end to his arc is the fact that it essentially disregards every reason we are upset about how his character was portrayed and sums it up to us just being upset that our favorite character died.

Because it's not that. I mean yeah, we are upset he died, but specifically it's not only how he died, but how the show handled it. Izzy was not just some lovesick puppy pining for Ed, and he was not some hard ass asshole forcing Ed to do the things he did. He was a survivor. A survivor of Ed's abuse, of betrayal, of love that morphed into a desperate attachment to a man who gave him so little when Izzy was the very thing keeping his world still spinning.

Izzy was important to people because of this, and so much more. He represented healing, self acceptance, growth, love. To see a character who was beaten down and thrown away for so long get to see a glimpse of what it was like to actually be his own person, to be cared about and see family in someone who didn't hurt him, only for him to be killed by something that every other character in the show never would have been killed from. Every other character time and time again got to survive what would have logically killed them, and yet Izzy dies from being shot in a scene you only see for a few seconds. Because it's clear to me that the whole time, he was always meant to die. And that's the problem.

The way Izzy's place is Ed's life was written almost paints him as being at fault for his abuse. He tells Ed he "fed his darkness" as if that puts him at fault for Ed literally physically abusing and mutilating him. He is treated as nothing more than a plot device to further Ed's path to happiness. A survivor of abuse dies so his abuser can move forward and heal. Izzy sits rotting in the dirt under the very home Ed gives Stede the love Izzy so desperately wanted.

I also think boiling Izzy's character down to him having an unrequited love for Edward brushes over the reason Ed is so important to him. Izzy forged his entire self around Blackbeard. He was nothing without him. He loved him and saw him as family and Edward didn't give him the time of day. He sacrificed so much of himself so Blackbeard could thrive, and what did he get in return? When Izzy realized he saw the crew as family, that was a very big moment for his character. He finally realizes that he is loved. And then at his funeral, we get all these reactions to his death from the crew that are just so out of character. The whole season was about how the crew was becoming accepting and loving of izzy and literally protecting him and then when he dies they just, what go off and seemingly forget about him?

Izzy deserved better. And we aren't mad because he died, we are mad because such an important piece of representation for so many people was so blatantly thrown away and disrespected.