#gentlebeard meta

[quarterblindsocialworker]

Someone please correct the poor partially blind girl if I'm wrong, but is that Stede's battle jacket that Ed is huddled under in that tub? Beacuse if it is.......

[quarterblindsocialworker]

I see no lies here.

Ed has a list

[ourflagmeansgayrights]

godddd the way the original e5 “you wear fine things well” scene was backlit by a giant full moon that didn’t actually exist bc this was ed and stede’s fairy tale romance, the way they’re both all dressed up in finery and looking their best after a fancy night out (which didn’t go how either of them expected but that’s not the point the point is it was an Event it was a whole Thing they went to)

and then in the e5 “wear fine things well” 2 electric boogaloo scene the moon is a waxing gibbous because it’s real and stede’s wearing what remains of his fancy suit he had to get rid of and ed’s wearing a fucking. sack and a cat collar. and holding a fucking dead fish. and they’re just catching up after both of them had a pretty normal day doing their own things. this isn’t the picture-perfect fantasy from last season this is both of them grounded in the moment taking it slow because their relationship is worth handling with care. they want this to last and they want this to be real so they’re taking their time, being gentle. they’re not as completely absorbed by each other the way they were last season, they’re their own separate people who can exist in different plotlines for an episode and then come back at the end of the day and catch up, swap stories, kiss and hold hands and just hang out and enjoy being in each other’s presence.

now if you’ll excuse me. i have to go cry.

[lightbluetown]

i just love that ed asked for stede to stop

i love that stede was finally able to tell ed that their first kiss happened too fast and that he panicked. i love that when they kissed again, when ed leaned in for a quick peck but stede got passionate, ed was able to break the kiss and say "hey man, let's take this slow". i love that stede, of course, immediately stopped. i love that it didn't feel weird and they kept playing with each other's fingers and talking about their day

that was the most healthy, natural, realistic kiss i've seen. it wasn't romanticized for tv, it wasn't forced to be something it didn't have to be. it happened under a moon that wasn't full, on the deck of a messy ship, after ed complimented a piece of fine clothing that had lost most of its charm. it was as awkward as it was graceful

[captain-flint]

something something Ed not being able to step in to protect Stede from physical and emotional harm out of fear of damaging Stede's reputation and instead letting it play out as he silently falls apart in the background

[palaceoftheprophets]

I am feeling fine and perfectly normal about them. :)))))))

[dragonlands]

This isn't the face of someone who is sad or even unsure of what he wants. This is Ed being vulvenerable. His face is open and loving. This is the man who's had a lot of sex in his life but none of it had meant anything and now he gets to have sex that means EVERYTHING. This is the face of a man in love coming undone.

And also. This isn't the man turned on by violence deciding to fuck Ed on a meaningless whim. His eye are glistening from tears and there's so much going on but his eyes are filled with unbearable amont of LOVE. Yes he just killed a man, and there's probably adrenaline rushing through his veins, but this moment has been long time coming. And it isn't motivated by violence, it's motivated on Stede holding onto what's real and good in his life, and that's Ed. He doesn't know who he is, a gentleman or a pirate, the only thing he knows is that he loves Ed. Wants Ed. Needs Ed.

And I want to add that it's not uncommon at all that death and violence act as complex motivators for sex. Funeral sex is a concept - people wanting to celebrate being alive when confronted with their own mortality. Baby boomers originate from people historically fucking like rabbits after ww2. So yeah, I think the scene was realistic, consensual, and amazingly nuanced. I could not have hoped for a better first time for these two.

[lookinglass-fic]

THIS is Blackbeard. Not some namby-pamby in a silk gown pining for his boyfriend!

This little scene in the teaser is so important to me actually. Because no matter what Izzy took with those words, no matter what posturing Ed does with his nine guns and kohl beard, underneath it all, he is still the soft, queer, lovelorn man in a silk gown pining after Stede.

He is still an absolute badass. He is sliding through sand on his knees and cutting off Navy officers with a single blow. He's crashing ships and throwing knives and taking names, and he is also longing and aching and wishing to be the lovely, fine thing that Stede loved.

[quarterblindsocialworker]

I love how tender and caring Stede is. Consent is so important to him that even in the throes of confusion, passion, and desperation to feel loved, Stede won't act without Ed's consent. I often feel like Stede's reasons for the end of 0206 was that he feared he was losing himself, and the only thing he knows damn well about himself that doesn't revolve around his image is his love for Ed. He wanted reassurance that the love he has for Ed and the love he is certain Ed feels for him is unchanged in spite of his seemingly uncharacteristic murder of Ned Lowe. Stede isn't willing to lose himself, and he isn't willing to lose Ed over this either. He's so desperate to know that the actions he's taken haven't changed who he is. He's also so desperate to ensure that he isn't hurting Ed again that he won't move forward without Ed's enthusiastic consent. God this fucking show.

Thinking about how Stede mainly touches Ed's elbow or cups the back of the head — never his face. How Ed reacts poorly to people touching his face, especially without consent. (Face touching has been used as a form of aggression and control on him in the past.) Stede touches where he knows Ed feels safe and comfortable.

The two times we see Stede touch Ed's face he asks first - the snake scene and Ed leans into it - and the bathtub scene where Stede touches Ed's shoulder and Ed is the one to lean in and touch his face to the back of Stede's hand.

[asongaboutpirates]

"You know what's not fair? You expecting me to melt back into your arms!"

That line, guys, that line... I have thoughts on that line that I can't fully articulate yet. Something about Ed being so casually vulnerable, being so open about the fact that he is the one who wants to be held and to be kept safe. Ed seeing Stede as the stronger person out of both of them, as the one person who is able to catch him (mind that Ed was falling off a cliff when he almost died). Something about Ed's need to be in a confined space when he feels unsafe, a bathtub, a pillow fort, Stede's arms? Ed is mad at him, and still basically admitting that he wants Stede to hold him. Like. What.

[xray-vex]

the various stages of realizing that he wrote you a lovely letter because he thinks you're lovely

[lightbluetown]

part of me feels like this doesn't just mean "i should have told him i was in love with him". i think it also means, or it should also mean, that he should have told ed that things were happening too fast, that he was scared, that he was happy when ed kissed him but it made him panic, that he felt inadequate, that he couldn't fully understand ed's or his own feelings, that chauncey messed with his head, that he felt like he had to go back to his family because it was the one thing he could try to fix but he couldn't turn ed back into the "beautiful" blackbeard

[blakbonnet]

They saved each other 🥲

[our-flag-means-love]

i just need to talk some more about one of my favorite sequences of events in the entire season.

stede says he'll be right back and runs off into the woods, directly paralleling him leaving ed alone at the dock in s1e9.

buttons says "to love the sea as she must be loved requires change."

ed says "people don't change, buttons. not into birds or otherwise."

buttons seemingly successfully transforms into a bird and flies off.

within seconds, stede returns, tells ed he couldn't find his way back to the ship, and asks ed to come with him, in direct contrast to s1e9.

it's such a simple sequence, but such a perfect one. people do change. both into birds and otherwise.

[naranjapetrificada]

It's not that I don't love a little bit of gossipy, interfering Lucius, but I got to thinking about the look on his face just before he tells Ed off in This is Happening:

He's not delighting in/frustrated by their back and forth, he's annoyed. He's looking at all the work his bizarre little boss put into trying to show Thee Blackbeard a good time, and Ed's been whining about it the whole time, and how Ed isn't seeing how torn up Stede is about the whole thing.

And like, we know for a fact that Lucius has picked up on the vibes, and not because his character is standing in for some world-weary queer who's seen it all. We know because in a previous scene (that is literally the episode title) we see him see it. Even if he had entertained the idea before, he's seeing it happen in front of his eyes. He's not saying "Oh my god this is happening" he's saying "Oh my god this is happening."

And if it's happening, that means Stede isn't just demanding the treasure hunt as another of his misguided little ideas or out of naivety (although both are definitely in play because it's Stede). It also means Stede isn't pouting just because his plan didn't pan out. Lucius, who is regularly shown to be one of the most empathetic people on the crew (aside from my beloved Oluwande), now understands that Stede is desperate to keep Ed entertained (and why) and that the plan for the Day of Adventure falling apart has much higher stakes to Stede for good reason.

So yeah, he's mad. Mad enough to tell off Blackbeard. And I feel like we Flanderize him sometimes and make him intervene in their relationship in fanon just for the hell of it. But when do we actually see him get involved?

When he's mad and feeling protective:

When Stede is sad about Ed leaving:

When he's telling Ed how sad Stede is:

And I guess in way that's less directly about their relationship and more about just being supportive, when Ed is sad in the blanket fort:

I'm not saying it's wrong to write nosy gossipy Lucius, lord knows I've done it. I just think we sell him short if we ignore his empathy and how much that motivates his actions.

[queerly-autistic]

I've been turning over the 'boyfriends' deleted scene in my head all day, rotating it gently in my hands to get a good look at it from all angles, trying to figure out why it hit me in such an emotional place, and I realised it's because it's so...young?

It just perfectly captures that wonder and surprise and joyfulness of being in love for the first time, and realising that you can suddenly use words like 'boyfriend' and they mean something tangible to you - testing out the language and definitions of your relationship for the first time and being absolutely giddy with it all.

And the fact that it's two middle aged men, who have both been on their own specifically queer journeys, gives it a whole other layer of meaning and importance.

As queer people, so many of us were denied the opportunity to have these experiences when we were kids; standing on the sidelines and watching our peers go through all these rites of passage, whilst never quite able to reach out and touch it ourselves. And I think many of us live in perpetual fear that because we didn't to get to have this as kids, then we've missed out, and we will never get the chance to have those experiences in the same way.

But it isn't too late.

My mum came out as gay at 50, and I watched her go through the same thing when she met her first ever girlfriend (who is now her wife): the absolute excited youthful joy of being in love and getting to do all the things she never got a chance to do when she was younger. As a twenty year old, I was a bit annoyed and embarrassed by my mum suddenly turning into a lovesick teenager, but looking back on it now as a thirty-something, it actually makes me well up slightly thinking about how absolutely beautiful it was.

And that's why the 'boyfriend' moment puts me in such an emotional headspace. Because what this silly show did was cup my face gently in its hands and say 'it's never too late to have this'.

I'm so, so glad that we have so much representation for younger queers these days; that young queers get to see themselves represented on screen, having all these experiences that every young person deserves to have. But it's so much rarer for us to see older queers represented in this way, too. Older queers getting to have this is so important, and watching these two men in their 40s experience this, being allowed to revel in the giddy joy of first love - omg we're boyfriends! - like the happy lovesick teenagers they thought they'd forever lost the chance to be, it's just everything to me.