#death by dying s2 spoilers

[bi-demon-ium]

im really glad death by dying hasn't gone the route of romance for charlotte and o.w. so far not bc i necessarily want no romance or even bc i hate the idea of them specifically having a romantic relationship but bc i really like the idea that he genuinely is this devastated and going through all this trouble not bc hes in love with her but bc she's a friend. and that matters.

[you-makestedehappy]

𝒾𝓉'𝓈 𝓃𝑜𝓉 𝒶𝒷𝑜𝓊𝓉 𝑔𝓁𝑜𝓇𝓎. 𝒾𝓉'𝓈 𝒶𝒷𝑜𝓊𝓉 𝒷𝑒𝓁𝑜𝓃𝑔𝒾𝓃𝑔 𝓉𝑜 𝓈𝑜𝓂𝑒𝓉𝒽𝒾𝓃𝑔.

[ourflagmeansgayrights]

actually can we stop talking about “deserve” when it comes to characters dying in fiction. not everything is a fable with a moral lesson to be learned. romeo and juliet didn’t “deserve” to die. bambi’s mom didn’t “deserve” to die. izzy dying in the finale doesn’t mean ofmd is saying that certain types of queer people “deserve” to die. fictional death can serve more narrative purposes than just punishment for the character doing the dying.

[preciseshadow]

The fans: Oh, Lucius and Pete aren’t in the trailer or promo pics, it must be because the producers don’t want to reveal their wedding outfits

The show: Actually, it’s because they’re below deck having hardcore sex for 80% of the episode

[whimprone]

What do you mean some people think the ending of 2x3 was too weird? Are we watching the same show? Ed is such a down bad cringefail nerd, of fucking COURSE he would imagine Stede as a mermaid

[rocketrouquine]

I mean…

They did warned us.

(The trident and the heart, you dickfuck david)

[bizarrelittlemew]

love that they prioritized letting Ed's hair down (wonder if it was before or after taking off Stede's shirt and Ed's jacket)

[sherlockig]

😍😍😍😍😍😍😍😍

[bookshelfdreams]

do it. gimme the Izzy straight-coded meta 👀

I feel like I need to preface this by saying that Actually, Izzy Is Straightcoded would be the inflammatory clickbait title I'd give this if it were written to draw traffic & ad revenue to my shitty website. So don't take that term too seriously.

There has been a lot of ink spilled about Izzy thinking he's in a story where one can only be subtextually queer. Some even by yours truly, but the more I think about it, the less sense it makes. What would be the purpose of queercoding Izzy?

In general, villains* aren't queercoded to show that men being attracted to other men is bad. It's often the outcome; but it's not why the trope exists. It exists because cishet people tend to be (and are encouraged to be) profoundly uncomfortable with gender nonconformity, and so, making a character gnc becomes a quick and easy way to make him appear twisted and untrustworthy. If he** can't even obey the fundamental rules of his own gender (rules that are inherent and unchangeable!) what other rules does he disobey?

Or: If a man is insufficiently masculine, he can't be trusted to have morals. The villain isn't gnc because that's an evil trait to have; rather, the gender nonconformity is a symptom of his evilness. Being evil is what enables him to embrace his feminine side, and embracing his feminine side is what others him and marks him as a villain.

This only really works when he's contrasted with a hero (or heroine) who is Doing Gender Correctly. The villain is foul to highlight how good the hero is. The Hero will be honest and straightforward, brave, physically powerful; the Queercoded Villain treacherous, cowardly, and physically weak. The hero is a Proper Man, a Good Person. The villain an Improper Man, and therefore, a Bad Person.

Of course ofmd fundamentally rejects this. The shorthand wouldn't work, because ofmd simply doesn't think effeminacy is creepy. It's uninterested in moralizing self-expression; it just lets people be how they are. There's a wide range of expressions of masculinity on this show, and none of it is inherently bad. People are allowed to be hypermasculine, flamboyant, and anything inbetween, can express their gender in whatever manner they want, and it's all fine - as long as they are authentic about it. Be however you are, but be yourself, and this is what Izzy fails at. The repression marks him as a villain. The strict adherence to what he thinks a Real Man Pirate ought to be like. He's very preoccupied with enforcing a traditional (and toxic) masculinity on himself and others. It's no coincidence the characters he antagonizes the most - Stede and Lucius - are also the most effeminate ones. And I know, I know anglophones have a much more casual relationship to twat and cunt, those don't nearly feel as uncomfortable for y'all as they do for me, so I don't want to assign too much significance here, but he is the only character who constantly uses this kind of language, and also the one who uses the most gender&sexuality based slurs (as far as I remember).

All of this while being clearly, obviously queer himself! I do not feel like I need to explain this; his flustered reaction when Lucius asks him if he's ever been sketched speaks for itself. The fact that he meets Stede and immediately slices his shirt off of him, speaks for itself. And so on.

Izzy isn't straightcoded in the sense that the story wants us to believe he's exclusively attracted to women. Much like a queercoded villain doesn't need to be shown to be attracted to men (and can even be shown to be attracted exclusively to women!) to still be queercoded. He's straightcoded in the sense that he's a stand-in for restrictive and toxic gender roles that society enforces on people. He buys into the idea that there's a way of Doing Gender Wrong, and this is presented as a tragic character flaw. Something he has to overcome to be able to do the thing that actually marks a hero in this show: express himself authentically.

Part of why I found his death so moving is because it enables him to set right the toxicity he spread. His rehabilitation arc was about himself; about finally allowing himself to be, accepting love, accepting community. His death was about taking responsibility. About fully recognizing the hurt he caused. Looking death in the face enables him to finally abandon the last shreds of that toxicity, to apologize and be granted forgiveness. In the end, he was not beyond saving, and the harm he has done will be healed.

*Izzy is introduced as an antagonist to both Stede and the central romance of this romcom. I'm not gonna debate this; if you disagree, fine, but you clearly have such a fundamentally wrong different view of the show that it's pointless for us to try and convince each other.

**of course Queercoded Female Villains exist s well, but they are a whole different can of worms and less relevant to this discussion

[jay-wasstuff]

Mercenaries unionising against Ned Low

[p4nishers]

"we're on a break" area man gonna go ahead and consider a barely coherent confession and a kiss a whole fucking relationship

[bi-demon-ium]

still not over the angel of death existing as she does bc ow wants to her to... like. and i think that implies she exists how she exists because he wants her to too which is like. both sweet and sad.

[whitegownsandflowercrowns]

So I’ve already seen some criticism of Helaena appearing in Daemon’s visions, all “why is she helping the guy that murdered her son?” And while I can understand that criticism, that’s not how I read the scene, and I think it actually reveals a lot more to us about Helaena as a character and how her dreams have affected her life.

Because, while Alys and Helaena did show Daemon a vision of Daenerys, they neglected to mention one teeny tiny barely important little detail. When the dead arrive, their ruler is slain by a Stark while a Lannister sits the Iron Throne. Then, the final male Targaryen kills the final female Targaryen, her dragon burns the Iron Throne, and he goes Beyond the Wall, probably never to have children. In short, Aegon’s Dream is all for nothing.

Presuming that Helaena can see everything the way that this episode implies, she is fully aware of this. And yet, Daemon still needs to play his part. All of their parts are inevitable, everything has always occurred exactly the way that it will. She tells Aemond point-blank that even if he kills her, he will still die in God’s Eye and Aegon will still outlive him. So Blood & Cheese or no, Daemon’s line will still inherit the Iron Throne, and he will still kill Aemond. But in order to do those things, his part involves accepting Aegon’s Dream to be (somewhat) true and standing behind Rhaenyra for good. Helaena is here to help shuffle that along.

I also think that this lends a new weight to her words in 2x03: “I’m sad about Jaehaerys. But I don’t think I should be.”

I’m sad about my son’s death, but I don’t think I should be because I saw this happen over and over in my dreams. Because I know that in the grand scheme of the Song of Ice and Fire, in the story of Westeros and all the lands beyond, he had a minuscule role to play. Because it’s all a story and he was only ever meant to be a minor tragedy in that story. Because I’ve known all of this since I was born, but I’m still human, I’m not just a prophetess or a visionary or a dreamer, I’m still human and I’m still a mother and I’m still sad about my son’s death.

[adickaboutspoons]

Why HELLO EARRING, HOW ARE YOU?

[doctor-mccoys-sanity]

As a diehard Izzy hands fan from the first time I watched the show, who’s main fan interaction with OFMD has been about Izzy (ie basically any fanfic i’ve written is Izzy related, a lot of my original posts are izzy related etc) I AM SO DEVASTATED WORDS CANNOT DESCRIBE IT

[ccl-c]

i thought i got over it but no my mind is still here. ep6 was such a feast.

update: “make me pretty”?!! i will not get over ep6 for a very long time i guess. between the fact that drag was on and off until the last moment and con always wanting it to be pretty, him improvising that line and having a realisation about the character and probably himself over it, him saying s2 is the coming out, his partner and friends helping him with french, and the fact that the party initially was lupete's glamorous wedding (and stede and ed's hook up dance with stede given a makeover by the crew?!), i can't help but imagine what the story was first like even though dj said he decided early on about the death. also the answers about the finale are so professional they sound a bit sad to me but also so funny after a couple of rereads because he's basically saying “as much as i love my role i'm only an actor and did not write the script”.