#hohw if

[inkedmoth]

I have such bad time awareness I forgor its monday tomorrow honestly the SECOND I leave my routine I'm like ????

[plantsjustwannahavefun]

Rereading Hell Or High Water and can't get over how Izzy's first reaction to meeting John is "how DARE he sit there looking like that, has he no decency not to be such a hunk, oh my god he's the size and hotness of five men combined, this is so unfair, why can't he just be a normal amount of good-looking, no one needs to be THAT hot, it's too much, I can't bear it"

No really, I can't do it justice so here's the actual quote, just look at this magnificent string of sentences. It's killing me.

Fuck. John Bryce still exists. He's still red-haired and bearded and built like a shire horse, and frankly there's no reason for it—how much the man is, in every possible way. He's too tall, too big. His hair is too red and his beard is too thick. It's apparently not enough for him to be fairly well-built with a touch of copper in his hair. He has to sit there, flaming like a bonfire, with enough beard for five other people and shoulders as broad as a stable door. It's just unnecessary. (Hell Or High Water by Mottlemoth, ch. 6)

... why are you so worked up about this, Israel? Hmm? 😏

[victory-candescence]

Some thoughts:

1. I’ve been thinking about the scene at Anne and Mary’s where they make fun of Stede and Ed for not having had sex yet, and While Ed is defensive of their privacy, Stede seems more confused than anything

which got me thinking, like

if we get any inkling of a scenario that feels like my favorite scene in HoHW, where they spend the night together for the first time, I WILL TRANSCEND THIS PLANE OF EXISTENCE

also

2. I hope they talk it through more, I want Ed to know the extent of what Stede went through to get back to him.

3. Since Lucius proposed to Pete, everyone (including me ofc) is gunning for Stede and Ed to get wedding fever, and then I want Olu, Archie and Jim to go “oh, we want that, too. One for us, please.”

4. Fuzzy Izzy is living rent-free in my head.

[dd-is-my-guiltypleasure]

Lyrics booklet

[plexxaglass]

I know I’m late to the chatter, but I am gutted to find out about how @mottlemoth was treated in this fandom. HoHW was the first ofmd fic I read and it was clear from the start that they are unbelievably talented. The fact that they shared that with us for fucking free!!?? It’s unfathomable that anyone would actually have the gal to complain about that.

I personally never saw any hate or criticism surrounding this fic, and I’m open to be given some context, but I also believe that nothing in this fic warrants the bullying they received.

Bottom line, Crew— please can we stop yucking yums? I’m the first person to call out that, I’m not a self-proclaimed Izzy stan/apologist, especially when it comes to the canon. But Christ, yall, this is a work of fiction. I can be weary of a character for the behavior they have canonically show us thus far, but also be open and curious to see how that might manage to be redeemed. Moth expanded upon this with flawless execution.

I think it’s possible to strike a healthy balance of, being aware of the reality of a character, and be able to enjoy fantasy created about them. Whether that be through fic or fan art. There are certainly those who I think take it too far, not keeping the reality in mind, but I don’t see HoHW as doing that.

This wasn’t an Izzy apologist piece and it wasn’t an Ed erasure piece. It was a redemption for both of these men, it was a story of love in all forms— toxic, complex— and how, when we allow people to sit in accountability for their poor actions, beautiful growth can happen.

HoHW had something for everyone in this fandom imo. I think there’s always a place for discussion surrounding Izzy’s canon homophobia/racism (see: white supremacy)/toxic masculinity. There’s also a place for discussion about Stede’s racism, privilege, sexism— his poor treatment of his ex-wife and the abandonment of his children. And no matter how much I love Ed, this “babygirl” persona that has been placed on him, while fun, had bred some really toxic mentalities and just flat out amnesia about who he is and what he’s done.

I don’t see anyone as blameless, although some hold more blame than others. I think Moth spoke to that. It felt healthy. It felt healing. For us as fans, and for the potential of the canon and wherever it takes us.

I firmly believe that the reason this show has blown up so big, so quickly is because of how flawed these characters are. We can see parts of ourselves in everyone, truly. That’s what makes good writing. It shows us parts of ourselves, even the painful parts that feel intimate and wrong.

I don’t know, I’m just sad. Grateful that we were given a synopsis to (so expertly) bring this story to a satisfying conclusion, but sad/angry that someone was run out of this fandom this way.

[marionedde]

HAPPY DASHCON BIRTHDAY

[justahumanmachine]

Hi there!

For the orange ask game, how about Tangerine and Bronze for Azure :^)

Hi, thank you for the ask! Azure is the protagonist of the novel I'm currently working on, an urban fantasy mystery about three outcasts forced to work together to clear their names and discover the truth of who framed them for murder.

TANGERINE - Describe them! Azure is a fighter at heart, a bitter loner with a checkered past and a strong sense of justice, no matter how much she hates her more idealistic side. She made a name for herself with her rage and overwhelming strength, along with an electric power she won't use unless her life is on the line, and now seeks nothing more than to live a quiet life, no matter how much that fate is denied her. She's actually doing a good job of leaving her criminal past behind her until she gets framed for murder and the plot starts.

BRONZE - What do they do when they lose? Do they lose often?

Azure loses a lot. You'd think a woman with the power of a summer storm wouldn't get her ass kicked quite as much as she does, but there are a lot of problems brute strength can't solve. But when she gets knocked down, she always gets back up, so unless someone actually kills her Azure will eventually beat them.

Yeah! So I think I'm going to start tagging stuff related to this story with "hohw project" since the draft is named Hell or High Water right now. I probably won't be posting much about it since sharing my work online makes me nervous but maybe that'll change.

[xianjaneway]

It's time for my yearly reminder that John Bryce exists, & was better than anything in OFMD season 2. @mottlemoth

[pipiastri]

i’m gonna die if i can’t livetweet my reading of hell or high water

[mottlemoth]

Re: recent posts. A few people have asked what actually happened - enough time has now passed that I feel safer talking about it. In short I was targeted by a group who started out by harassing Rhys Darby's wife and Con O'Neill on Twitter. When Con and Rhys left, they moved onto fanwriters and artists instead. Eventually I got dogpiled. Some of the worst offenders found their way to my wife's Twitter account and started following her. I genuinely feared for our safety at one point. It was insane.

I'm still grieving the friends who didn't dare to be associated with me anymore. It kills me that I didn't get to write John and Izzy's wedding. It kills me that people who labelled me and other fans as problematic are now reblogging GIF sets of S2 Ed and tagging them 'go commit your atrocities, babygirl'.

I'm angry about what I lost, and what HoHW readers lost, and there are apologies I know I won't ever receive. But I'm working through it and I'm getting there. Season 2 has helped.

[batsarebetterthanpeople]

why do so many people keep calling ed izzy's abuser? I thought it was kind of funny how wrong they were at first because I love being right but at this point I feel like, if you really believe that why do you even like this show? where the main love interest is a violently abusive indigenous man? that sounds boring as shit. what would possess the writers of the show for them to make such an awful decision?

but then I think, if this many people believe it does that mean I'm the one who's wrong? or is it that the creators fumbled that storyline when they should have been clearer about it? or maybe it's just that most people on here have had their reading comprehension scorched away by Sherlock Holmes conspiracy theories and Steven Universe discourse. I can't tell. sometimes I think the internet may have been a mistake.

No they're wrong here's what's going on. People all read this shitty fic called Hell or High Water where Ed was everything the Izzy stans say he was and then instead of realizing that Ed is sad everyone regressed into thinking that the Kraken Era TM was going to be incredibly violent, like serial killing blond men because they look like Stede levels of violence. Even if you didn't read HoHW you saw art or read fic from people who had engaged with this fic and succumbed to it's premise. So there's been this background radiation of misunderstanding what the Kraken is on the fandom for several months. So inevitably when Ed did some mild violence and then attempted suicide by threatening murder until the crew took matters into their own hands, which is not abuse or torture by any stretch, btw, it's a murder-suicide at worst (I say at worst because I consider it fuckery-suicide I don't think Ed was trying to kill people I think he was trying to force them into a situation where they thought it was kill or be killed so that they would choose to kill him, but that is my interpretation and you are free to think it's a botched murder-suicide I have no problem with that), which, murder is something the show has never condemned and if it did it would be horribly inconsistent. So anyway, Ed's whole Kraken Era was categorized in the show by him being sad and doing so many drugs and begging someone please god anyone to kill him and trying to break Ned Low's record out of the evil boredom, but because it had a murder-suicide element to it and Izzy's toes were getting removed and he waved a gun around at everyone once (in a way that felt to me like he was trying and failing to work up the nerve to blow his own brains out but I digress) people who liked HoHW and were mad that people had called it out were like "see hes being violent HoHW author vindicated" as if anything Ed did rose to the level of that fic

And you want to know how I know this read is bullshit? Because when I watch the show with people who don't read fic or interact with the fandom and then I gauge their reactions without showing my hand they all implicitly understand that Ed is reacting to Izzy in a way appropriate to how pirate captains react to threats from subordinates. The spectrum of reactions has been from "hey isn't it weird how Ed was the Kraken because his dad was abusive and now he's the kraken because of Izzy? Maybe there's something there but idk" to "I don't think you can apply the logic of domestic abuse to a pirate captain and first mate but also Izzy had it coming" to "I cannot feel bad for Izzy after last season, I'm sorry." To "lmao Izcel" and I've showed this show to roughly everyone I know. The only thing I can conclude from the fact that people who don't engage with OFMD fic almost unilaterally thinking that Izzy is in the wrong and then coming online to see people thinking the opposite is that Izzy as victim and Ed as abuser is pure fanon, like how Stede is a cinnamon roll who talks like Azeriphael.

But anyway yeah you're completely right about the fact that this would be a bad show if they decided to make Ed into a domestic abuser. I don't want to watch a rom com about a domestic abuser falling in love and I don't want a show that decided to make it's indigenous lead abusive when the stereotype of indigenous men as abusers is still to this day used as an excuse to separate indigenous children from their families and put them with white Christians in order to erase their culture. Good thing OFMD didn't make Ed abusive, so I still like the show.

[inkedmoth]

STORY TIME!

So a few years back I found a song that I absolutely loved, it really resonated with me and a story I was writing for my own world. It was called "Hell or High Water" by the Rescuers. It fit the storyline perfectly, and I was quick to slap it into a playlist for that story, liked it on youtube, all those usual things you do with a new song you like!

But I didn't buy it.

I never buy music, I listen to spotify and youtube and that's all I need. But it was a mistake not to buy this song, because out of the blue a few months ago, that band deleted and removed ALL their songs from the internet.

Gone. Scrubbed overnight and without a word to their social media.

Needless to say that was a little upsetting but after So. Much. Digging. I found an acoustic version of the song from when they'd performed at a small venue. It wasn't the same, didn't have the same resonance or weight, but it was the same tune and lyrics so it would do. I accepted that the song was gone and that I probably wouldn't listen to it in full again.

Until last night.

Last night I decided to google Hell or High Water. It had been on my mind a lot recently, and maybe it was a last ditch attempt to see if there was any news or updates from the band. It had been a few months, maybe there was a development, an explanation as to the lost music, or maybe there was nothing. I wasn't really holding out hope for any changes, but I thought I'd check their socials at least.

I didn't get that far, because the first result was a reddit page.

A group of users were ALSO asking the same question, wondering the same things, discussing the removal in preparation of a musical coming out. The Lost Boys Musical.

BUT a user had found a copy of my missing song, tucked away in the middle of a pirate themed playlist on youtube. It existed! It was real! I'd not dreamt the whole thing up! There was a copy and while it had rigging creaking and water sloshing overlaid, it was THERE!

Now remember it's midnight I'm in bed, with my phone's speaker pressed to my ear grinning like a lunatic. While I'd love to leave a comment there and then, I decided to leave it till morning.

I needn't have bothered.

Because all tucked up in bed, I decided to scroll down to read the comments and to see if any of the reddit users had commented, I found they had! In fact, one had specifically asked the maker of the playlist if they had heard of this songs removal, if they knew anything about the band. Or if they had a copy.

Not only did the playlist maker have a copy, they immediately slapped it into a google drive and posted a PUBLIC LINK!

I've never hit a download link so quickly or so recklessly in. my. life.

But I have it back! I have a copy on my phone and my laptop and now this atmospheric-slightly-too-much-sound-effect playlist, but you know what that is great! Its fantastic! This song was utterly lost and gone but now I have a copy and I'm SO SO HAPPY. I've been listening to it on repeat all morning because I've missed it so much.

BUT WAIT there's more!

The reason this song has been plaguing me so much recently, is because it's a perfect fit to one of my fic plans. The fic, which I intend to call "Hell or High Water", is named for the song. The lyrics fit perfectly to various scenes, the vibe of desperation and determination is a perfect fit. The fic is made for the song and the song is made for the fic, to the point where I couldn't write this without the song, and I'm legitimately considering sneaking the lyrics in here and there to the story. The acoustic version was okay, but it wasn't right, but now I have the original and everything is perfect.

So I'm taking this as a sign, and I'm going to start plotting this fic. And since I'm in such a great mood, I'm also going to share a big chunk of a scene I've already written for it.

I'm so happy.

I'm so looking forwards to writing this, and I can't wait to share it with you guys.

[scarrletmoon]

like i know mira lied and i never had any reason to take down PB but it’s still kind of messed up that at least one person thought that the HOHW slavery apologia also didn’t deserve to get taken down

like wait a minute, hang on. i took down my fic bc i thought i had credible evidence that it’d hurt people. the slavery fic author threw a tantrum and pretended they were being persecuted for no reason, but posted a summary of the rest before ending it

honestly hearing that, i was so horrified that maybe i’d acted the same way that it just convinced me i’d done the right thing. it felt wrong to take down PB but im sure the HOHW author thought the same thing. i didn’t trust my judgement anymore and assumed i was deliberately ignorant of my own malice so i tried to take myself out of the picture for everyone’s safety

i’m sure everyone’s sick of me still talking about this but. man, i really did not think i’d be held up as a victim of cancel culture next to the “but izzy HAD to trade slaves for survival!” fic, that’s something else

to be fair to that person they did apologize but not really for the comparison? who knows, maybe they hate my ass now and have me blocked. maybe they realized how bad HOHW was and stopped defending it. no clue. oh well.

[chuplayswithfire]

honestly baffled by the handful of posts i've seen that thing hohw and other fics like that that suggested ed was going to be some like, total serial killer murdering people for looking like stede or taking prisoners to sell for slavery (oh wait, sorry, they said it was for ransom and definitely not slavery....... even though that's not what was described at all...) when what we saw was him going on raids exactly like the raids zheng goes on, and other pirates go on, without any especially murderous energy....

[blubberymuses]

"W-WehlcoooOOUUUUURRRRPPP!~ toh Doohmiihnooh'sh, h-hohw... mmmph.... hohw mahy I hhelpeh yoouuh?~" The teal haired employee asks with her upbeat demeanor, yet barely having the fortitude to stand up, despite her shift starting not even a half hour ago~

[hyumjim]

hohw i feel knowing i got to do paperwork but i cant possibly force myself to even takke one step towards actually doing this. please add an image of someone feeling bad