#love sea ep10

[gunsatthaphan]

"5 more minutes."

[witchindisguiseofhuman]

love sea ep 10

I loved the show ! Now please someone if there is an special episode.

[fortpeat]

Love Sea - No regrets

Everyone has their fears, the fear of some important disappearing like dust vanishing into thin air.

Mahasamut was introduced to us as a boy who is wild and unpredictable like the ocean, living up to his namesake. He loves his island and its people, and when Rak enters his life, he begins to love this mysterious, lonely man. For Mahasamut, there was no looking back. He is someone who wants to live a life with no regrets, giving his all to everything he does—including loving Rak without holding back. He never pressured Rak, sticking to the rules and agreements set by him because he respected Rak's comfort zone. But Mahasamut also made sure Rak knew his feelings, leaving no room for doubt.

We often forget how young Mahasamut is, and yet he’s been forced to grow up too quickly, making him mature beyond his years. He respects Rak’s boundaries and never pushes them.

Mahasamut understands that Rak is scared of facing his feelings, but as the timeline he set for himself drew near—the moment he would return to the island—he knew he needed to speak his truth. He never wants to have regrets. When he finally places his heart gently into Rak’s hands, we see how scared he is, yet he still takes the leap, hoping that after everything they’ve been through, Rak might accept his love.

Returning all the money to Rak was Mahasamut’s way of proving that it was never about the money for him. He just wanted Rak to love him and to allow him to love Rak in return.

When Rak pushed him away and destroyed everything they had built together, Mahasamut knew he was done. He waited an entire night for Rak to change his mind, but when morning came, he understood that he no longer had a place in Rak’s life. He refused to let their relationship revert to a mere transaction, so he returned to the island.

He never regretted opening his heart, and he has never regretted loving Rak. The tattoo he got is proof of that. Mahasamut was ready to move on, viewing his time with Rak as a beautiful chapter in his life, even if walking away tore him apart. He knew that pushing Rak would only make things worse, so he left while he still had the strength to pick up the pieces of his heart.

When Rak appeared on the island, Mahasamut was initially shocked. When Rak asked him to tie the bracelet back on his hand, Mahasamut had every right to misunderstand. Before him stood the man who had trampled on his heart and declared that he would never love him.

Deep down, Mahasamut hoped Rak had come to confess, but until Rak spoke those words, Mahasamut wouldn’t take him back. Though young, Mahasamut has his own agency and refuses to back down from his decision.

Rak needed to prove his seriousness about their relationship, and we see him following Mahasamut around the island like a lost kitten. Yet, even then, Mahasamut remained steadfast in not letting him back in—and he was right to do so. Finally, we have the confession recording, and at the end, Rak says the words Mahasamut had longed to hear all along. It’s those words that make Mahasamut run to Rak, wanting to hear them directly from him, not through a recording.

The pain of what they went through hasn’t vanished; it still lingers. But they’re both willing to work through it and move forward together.

[popontomarnie]

nina really outplayed everyone in love sea

[mariailoveyou-guerin]

Finally Ep10 literally waited past 2 days for this ep! get to see my beautiful perfect baby again missed him sm!

Not Syd actually flirting with someone I legit thought miss girl was either a lesbain or ace anti romantic after how she acted with Marcus but the way she’s giggling like a school girl with Luca please she’s so real for that actually but she better step away because that is mine and Marcus man go find yourself someone else that is pretty and hot and great chef only to reach Carm level!

laugh like that ever in last 3 years as she’s done wigh Luca this ep like ma’am gonna need you to step away from mine and Marcus man there’s plenty of chefs in the sea go get one of them and leave my/Marcus man alone thanks bestie yes I know he was also flirting back not her legit doing first dates Q&A even talking about her dad and how he’s her person stop that’s cute but plz leave our man alone he’s like the only one we have!

My god the plot of the bear this szn is so mf good and so beautiful my heart actually stopped shattered at how beautiful the plot is and just to show my big huge appreciation for the amazing plot that is s3 of the bear I might have taken 100 pictures of the amazing plot!

And he’s I literally spent 20m just replaying this 5-6s scene of him and the other chefs leave me alone I love great storytelling and plots in tv had to appreciate it!

did I get teary eyed when I saw this 5s scene for sure but it could be the fact I haven’t slept all night and I’m overtired but I’ll likeee to think it’s because of him and how he’s beauty almost brought me to real tears it has happened actually a lot before but not anymore bc I’m grown adult now it would be embarrassing if I did right

[heroesofprovidenceeternal]

Pirate Prison Break! - EP10 of 20 - Tourist in Terrath - Can Bob escape ORC JAIL?!!

HeroesOfProvidenceEternal.com – Get free ttRPG maps, begin your own LEGEND, and become the hero you were born to be!

A dashing privateer captain, Captain Tumult Virile was born for the high seas! Having rarely met his prolific father, and raised by a mother whose heart belonged to the Ocean of Stars, poor young Tumult yearned to distinguish himself before being lost among his brood of twelve siblings. He began life swabbing filthy ship decks of the pirate lords of Brigand's Bay. Bravely saving the life of his captain by slaying a mighty sea monster using only a fork, Tumult was promoted to first mate, and eventually leader of a pirate fleet, exploring Terrath and becoming a maritime legend. After a vengeful rival captain nearly ended Tumult's life, a fortuitous meeting with Father Geno opened his eyes to a new way of life, and he replaced his flag of piracy with the Jolliest of Rogers. He now cuts a fresh path through the open ocean, baring blade and grin in equal measure, always ready for the next daring adventure!

WATCH our new weekly comedy adventure short series Tourist in Terrath! "Pulled through a portal to a fantasy land, Bob from earth is an every man, trying to get home before he gets killed, join our hero Bob for a weekly thrill!" CLICK HERE

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CONNECT with us on all our social media: linktr.ee/HeroesOfProvidenceEternal

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[scribeofpnakotis]

📓📓👀

Daingit I should have known it would be you 😂

Um ok here's to WIP hell I guess.

The first one is the OFMD idea I'm pretty sure you know about already but w/e. Basic plot is;

Alma runs away to sea at some point post ep10 but before the Blackbonnet reunion

She is found stowing away on a ship Ed & co are raiding

When asked what she's doing there (obviously rich kid, fairly clean and well fed etc etc) she says she's looking for her dad (just. Pretend this works with how e10 ended.)

In spite of himself, Ed is kind of invested. Life After Stede has been painfully, mind numbingly boring when it isn't just crushingly sad and he's once again desperate for a break in the monotony. Not getting attached this time though, no sir 🤡

There's a background here where since s1 Ed & Izzy's dynamic has gotten just, way more blatantly abusive, with Izzy lashing out with threats and verbal abuse (never in front of the crew) whenever he feels Ed isn't performing 'Blackbeard' convincingly enough. Most of the time, Ed's just dissociating to get through the day.

Anyway Ed decides he wants to help Alma find her dad (he has no idea who he is, she's not giving a name), with the justification to Izzy & the crew that she's obviously rich so her dad will probably pay a huge ransom to get her back.

So then there's an extended period of Alma living on the Revenge with Ed, Izzy, Jim & Frenchie & the rest of the crew

There's cute kid bonding with the crew bc I'm not made of stone, but the primary focus of this part of the story is on the dynamic between Ed, Alma and Izzy

Specifically with it mirroring the dynamic of Ed & his parents growing up

Alma= bb!Ed

Izzy= Ed's dad

Ed= His mum

So then it's Alma's POV of Izzy's abuse of Ed getting worse and eventually starting to spill over to her (Izzy generally fucking hates that there's this rando kid here now and also specifically thinks she's in the way of Ed being Blackbeard properly)

Culmination of the fic is Ed either killing or firing or otherwise doing something to Izzy to protect Alma (thematically it has to be murder but I don't like making my blorbo kill people)

This brings the parallel full circle with Ed protecting the kid he's basically adopted from a shitty violent white man in the way he wishes his mum had been able to protect him from his dad

Generic Blackbonnet Reunion Epilogue

The second idea newer and more vague but basically it's a TMA/Good Omens crossover called 'Hope, Love and Indigestion' (came up with the title first, can you tell?)

Current plot points include;

Aziraphale finds Pinhole Books while searching for a rare bible (leitners that are bibles anyone??)

The Boys(gn) adopt Gerry & exorcise Mary's horrible skin ghost & also get closure for Eric's horrible skin ghost

Something about how the Good Omens 'god' is the inverse of the TMA fear Entities, two halves of a whole that cannot exist without each other as per gomens themes about how binaries are dumb

Angels & demons are the positive entity equivalent of the fear avatars??? Maybe? Somehow?

Also I think Adam Young & Agnes Montague would get on really well

Mostly this is about how I like making A&C adopt traumatised children from other media

[bakatenshii]

I present @theygottheircages

*clears throat*

another one bites the dust @tetsou @mindninjax

[little-fangirls-blog]

This was so freakin’ beautiful 😍😍😍

[reidwritess]

Hotd: Rise Of The Dragon

Summary: born the only true child and girl to Ser Laenor Velaryon and Princess Rhaenyra Targaryen Y/n Velaryon is thrown into a mess of drama between the blacks and the greens and has to clear her mind from all the drama. While riding close to the coastline of Old Valyria after storming out of the family dinner y/n takes a nosedive on her claimed Dragon cannibal and reappears,as it appears to be 3 months for everyone around her it was only 3 days for her. With brother Lucerys slain by her uncle Aemond, her mother mourning the loss of two children and her father in 3 days as well as learning to come to her terms that her only daughter has supposedly risen from the dead promising revenge on those who have wronged her mother

Teaser: The birth of a dragon

Ep1:Meeting The Dragonling

Ep2:Second name day Shenanigans

Ep3:Claiming the cannibal

Ep4:Little Brothers of mine

Ep5 : A GrandFathers Love

Ep 6: The day the sea snake cried

Ep7: Dragonstone is home

Ep8:the last time

Ep9:The daughter of Valyria

Ep10:A Son For A Son

Taglist: @severewobblerlightdragon

@kassies-take @evanswife1918

[gunsatthaphan]

ep1 // ep10

[luckydragon10]

KinnPorsche Ep11 Lines of Power

You know the drill by now: I'm here to talk about lines of power, staging, and framing in KinnPorsche.

D: I'm a day late. Apologies. My power went out yesterday... which, as @antique-forvalaka pointed out to me, is pretty funny. Totally different line of power.

This post focuses mostly on the first sequences with Vegas, Pete, and Khun Kan (or however we feel like spelling his name today). I won't be showing anything graphic, but there's some camera angle work that is SO interesting that I gotta dive into extra detail.

I have a few fluffier images later to lighten up the post, though, I promise. 😉

More LoP posts: [Trailer] ... [Ep07] [Ep08] [Ep09 Part 1] [Ep09 Part 2] [Ep10] [Ep12]

Pay close attention to the camera tilts (aka the Dutch angles) throughout this scene. I can't even cover everything because there are sooo many shots and angles, but I'll call out my favorite bits.

The two pics above establish the tilts. Vegas's angle tilts left, and Pete's angle tilts right. Their angles are leaning away from each other, like the opposing poles of magnets.

Be careful how you watch the scene... sea sickness may occur. There's lots of tilting back and forth, and when the cuts are fast, I feel like I'm on a boat that's rocking with the waves, very discomfiting.

Then we get a disruptor coming in. Hello, Khun Kan (Kun, Gun, whoever the hell you are).

This shot is so severely tilted, and Daddy Scarfs-a-lot has a biiiiiig thick line of power at his back with that unobstructed column in the foreground. He stepped in, took control of the room, and is like a crushing power looming above both Vegas and Pete.

What do we have here? Vegas is the focus in this shot, and his angle changed. THIS. THIS GOT ME.

Vegas has gone from the one abusing to the one being abused. He's taken on Pete's tilt, going to the right.

I see what you did there. I SEE IT. And I am so impressed by this choice. 🤌

Khun Namechanger takes a deep breath, cools his emotions, and returns to practical decision-making. He brings the scene into an upright position for the moment. The vertical column to the right helps steady the rocking boat that is this entire scene (though only briefly).

After Papa Goatee leaves, Vegas resumes his left-tilt angle.

FIRST SHOT: Oh hey, look, the column is tilting left, so that screws up the tilts from the establishing shots, doesn't it?

NOPE.

In the top pic here, Pete's head serves as the right tilt. If the camera were also tilted the way it usually is for him, his head would practically be horizontal, which wouldn't be any good. So Pete's right tilt still remains in effect, only with his head.

SECOND SHOT: There we go, back to normal with the pillar leaning right. Pete's head in both shots? Parallel. SO PARALLEL. Holy crap.

This is so good it blows my mind. 🤯

If anyone decides to break down every single angle from theses early VP scenes, link me, please? I'd love to see it.

Tableaus! Beautiful tableaus once again! (I explain what a tableau is back in Ep 5 LoP.) These really look like they could be sets on a live theatre stage.

Mostly I want to say how much I appreciate what they've done with P'Chan here.

This demonstrates a great way to accomplish a lot without any dialogue, using the staging to tell a story.

In the first shot, P'Chan is off to the side. He isn't really necessary to this conversation. Then for the Porsche scene, not only is his gun out, but he's looming like an avenging angle.

Peak comedy.

This is my freebie for this post. I haven't gotten a freebie for ages.

It's pretty. I like it. I could stare for hours.

Oh, and there's a damn reflection again. This show drives me mad.

Tankhun is so big here, and Porchay is so smol.

Tankhun's size is emphasized in multiple ways:

Tankhun can't even fit in the frame — the top of his head is getting cut off, emphasizing his stature.

Tankhun is in the foreground, whereas Chay is in the mid-ground.

Tankhun's fluffy jacket more than doubles his width.

These details all add up to make Chay look even more child-like than usual, out of proportion to Tankhun. His smolness is perfect for a scene where Tankhun basically adopts Chay as another little brother.

In this scene, Kim finally (at long last) makes a big breakthrough in his investigation.

Check out the background! It's an open doorway, a direction, a way forward, even if it isn't the direction he expected his sleuthing would go.

///

More LoP posts: [Trailer] ... [Ep07] [Ep08] [Ep09 Part 1] [Ep09 Part 2] [Ep10] [Ep12]

For more great meta from folks across the KP Tumblr fandom, please visit the Damn Good KinnPorsche Meta doc.

[fortpeat]

TongRak Mahasamut is happening

The episode was everything I wished for and more. After Lita was over there were a lot of things I wished that we got and like a dream we got all of that in Love Sea 🥹🥹

I am an angst addict as long as it makes sense for the series and Love Sea delivered. I did not have over the top expectations coz no matter what we are not gonna get everything we want right but the knowledge that I got the things I wished for ... I am still over the moon ! 🥹🥹

Now in Lita when Sky broke up with Pai he was never a witness to the pain he put Pai through and that was one of the things I wished we had coz I wanted Sky to see that if even Pai has a heart of gold it is still capable of pain. 🥺

And in Love Sea we got Rak truly seeing the consequences of his actions and cruel words towards Mahasamut 🥺 that kind of pain doesn't go that easily so it was liberating to see Rak realize how much his words hurt Mahasamut deep.

And I am glad that Mahasamut didn't hold back on his feelings and truly spoke his mind. He is his own person and he had feelings too and Rak needed to see that. I am so relieved that we got Rak groveling to get back Mahasamut' affection tho I wished we had more of that but not enough time 🫣🫣 but I am still happy with what we got.

Fortpeat was so beautiful and phenomenal in the emotional sequence that you will be crying alongside them (based on a true story)

But I have to say extra kudos to Fort here coz oh my god his pain and heartbreak was so visible in each scene 😭😭 it was breathtaking to watch his performance and Peat has never disappointed me in the emotional section. These two carried this show like nobody else. They truly brought it to life with their performance and talent !

I wished we got more of their happily ever after 🥺🥺 but I am praying that we get that in the special episode for 2 hrs or so ! I need it for survival 🥺🫣😭😭😭

(A sudden thought - Did Mahasamut get the tattoo on his neck - which is supposedly a painful place - also it was also mentioned that he hates tattoos so my question is did he get that tattoo in that specific place coz he needed something to take the pain him his heart even atleast for a little while. Kind of like a short time distraction 🥺🥺)

I feel like there's a lot I am missing to say but it's 2am and I need sleep 🫠🫠 but in the next couple of days I will definitely be trying to put all my thoughts one by one 🤭

Until then.

[ephemeralgalaxies]

ok ok so, hear me out.

(forgive me for the long meta post, I forgot how to do the cut line on mobile)

That scene in ep10 of OFMD when Stede is drunk and shows up to Mary's art show and says "If I can give up the sea for her, she can give up the false title?"

Now— alright. Mary has created a life where she's happy, she even said so herself. She's happy with money and kids and a good man that supports her and loves her. She doesn't want to "give it up" like Stede did. She doesn't want to let go of this life she loves, because it's hers and she made it all on her own. She suffered with Stede, as did he with her. They didn't fit; ofc not. She wants a life where she does "fit in this world," as Stede put it.

But Stede doesn't fit in any worlds now. he's not the aristocratic Fine Dinning man or the "lily-livered" baby Bonnet. He's not very well a pirate, in technical terms, since he officially works for the British government. He doesn't fit with Ed because he's gone — Ed let the last piece of himself go with that red silk cloth (the reminder of status and promise of hope).

Stede had to give it all up because, in his mind, he had only hurt the people he was supposed to protect and care about. He left Mary alone, he abandoned his kids, he took away Blackbeard's name and power. He doesn't believe he deserves to be "happy," but rather that he's taken his journey of spontaneity and risk and now it's time to fix what he broke. No more chances, no more hiding behind names and excitable words. Plain and simple, "I gave up the sea." He's not happy, and now everyone knows. He doesn't love Mary, she doesn't love him. They don't want this life. But he thinks, that's the way it has to be, because he can protect her and give her the life that they were told to have. He can be a father for his kids.

But he can't play pirate anymore. The Gentleman Pirate died with Babington's brother. That scream so piercing and terrified, the pure loss of self. He's not gasping and whimpering like in ep1 anymore — this isn't a comedy now. He screams — shrieks, wails — eyes wide and wild. He can't go on like this, death and misfortune following him like a Series of Unfortunate Events stripping away every thing he had been handed.

He can't let Edward stay with him like this, not this broken shell of a man pretending to be a pirate. He wants adventure and the sea, not this violence.

But then—

the art show. Mary. Doug trying to comfort him and ease him. Stede throwing him onto the table and holding the knife to him. "Unhand me or bleed."

Mary is happy, the kids are happy, Ed is probably happy. He's alone.

He's broken.

The family portrait where he's been painted over into nothing but a shadow — "a ghost." The realization that maybe he never did belonged here.

That his dreams were a lighthouse and he crashed on the rocks. That maybe he is the lighthouse and didn't warn them in time to steer clear of him.

That he loves Ed, truly and dearly. "He's absolutely lovely." He wants nothing more than to be with him, to sail forever with him on the open sea. To light a fire in the captain's quarters on the colder days. To read fairytales under the moonlight to their misfit found family of pirates. To perform a good Fuckery. To be as free as Mary, as Ed would be without him.

But maybe... Maybe he doesn't need to be away from Ed. Maybe, now that he might finally — for once in his life — actually understand himself, he can be happy. Because Ed loves him, he knows this. He makes Ed happy... So if Stede didn't break Mary and their kids by leaving, why does Ed have to be broken just because he's willing to give up the life he's carved and risen so that Stede could live? If Stede could give up the sea and be miserable so that everyone else may have the lives they deserve, "why can't [Ed]?" Why can't he choose the same fate for love? Why can't he sacrifice everything Stede thought was important to Ed? Why did it have to be either or?

And so it clicks. Ed just loves Stede. Plain and simple, he gave it up. "You don't have to do this." "Yeah, I know I don't." Because Ed wanted to. And that was the difference, he wanted to give it up anyways, at least a part of it. Stede didn't want to go back, he was a ghost there.

Now, Ed had escaped. Stede could escape. They could get away from the names and reputations and just live on the sea with their crew and cherrywood-masted ship.

It's time to repair what he really broke.

[emmiewtf]

renga fic recs to help fill the void<3

the momentary space that we call now by beecalm: The park beside the sea is haunted. It takes Langa two weeks of skateboarding lessons to realise this. chapters: 2/2 words: 21.8k

But Not Shattered by MermaidMarie: Oka takes Reki to the hospital after finding him beaten up in an alleyway. (canon divergent from ep10) chapters: 12/12 words: 65.7k

I Know You (better than you know yourself) by SpeedOfSnake:  After a skating accident, Langa loses some of his memories. All Reki wants is to restore their previous friendship, but wonders if has the right back into his life when it was his fault that Langa got hurt. chapters: 12/12 words: 64.5k

there’s a hole in my soul (can you fill it?) by vitane: Langa is a pro-snowboarder who’s dealing with grief. Reki has just moved to Canada carrying deep homesickness with himself. Together, they help each other heal their wounds. chapters: 11/11 words: 58.9k

he was a skater boy, he said—no, you know what, no, we're not calling it that by arahir: Everyone knows Reki and Langa are dating. Everyone except Reki, that is. chapters: 2/2 words: 8.1k

to build a home by thankskelley: The king, Langa’s father, died a year ago. It makes sense to form alliances. It makes sense to strengthen those alliances with marriage. Maybe it’s wrong for Langa to be so apathetic about his own wedding, but he can’t find it in himself to care. Reki is trying his hardest to be the prince his country deserves, to be the heir his mother can rely on. It’s difficult, however, when everything he does is so far from good enough. He’s also getting married, which is kind of a big deal. He can’t wait to meet the guy. chapters: 6/7 words: 61.7k

training wheels by mayflymusic:  After discovering that Langa never learned to ride a bike, Reki takes it upon himself to try and teach him. It...doesn't go well. chapters: 4/4 words: 9.7k

Love at First Sip by tamakibaby: There were two universal truths for college students that Langa had come to realize during his first semester: ‘8 AMs’ were a product of Satan himself and coffee (or any other form of caffeine, really) was man’s true best friend. So it came as no surprise that he stopped by the coffee shop every Monday morning before class and when he needed a pick-me-up. Whether the mood boost was due to the caffeine or the barista who was like sunshine incarnate and always spelled his name wrong on his cup, that was becoming harder to tell with every visit. chapters: 7/7 words: 22.4k

I've Got A Piece of Your Heart (But I Want the Whole Damn Thing) by Jenanigans1207: Reki asks Langa to translate the English writing of his soulmate and is left to wonder why, exactly, Langa turns so incredibly red as he does exactly that. chapters: 4/4 words: 29.8k

let go, take flight by babybluebells, maranch:  Happiness comes in many different forms. Reki and Langa find their own, in their figure skating and maybe, just maybe, in each other. chapters: 5/? words: 37.7k

if you kiss me, will it be just like i dreamed it? by sk8ingfrogs (cursedhazel):  Reki writes down everything he wants to do after graduation but doesn't quite remember putting "fall in love with your best friend" on the list. chapters: 1/1 words: 10k

read in between the lines by minfresh: The love letter is two sentences long. There isn’t even a Dear Langa, that’s how short it is. It covers approximately 10% of the paper’s surface area. The sentences get straight to the point. I have a crush on you. Isn’t that awful? It’s written in striking red, in an almost illegible handwriting. There’s no signature. For the first time in Langa’s life, he cares about a love confession. chapters: 1/1 words: 6.7k

Secret Admirers for Dummies: A Canadian's Guide to Falling in Love by discokonomi: Reki gets a secret admirer. Langa pines, wonders, comes to a realization, and stumbles into love. chapters: 1/1 words: 6.2k

Not Another Song By Avril Lavigne by alpha_hydra: Someone likes Reki, but they wish there was one tiny thing different about him. Surprisingly, Langa is the only one other than Reki who has a problem with this. Now with added love letters, confessions, bisexual crises, and dubious skateboarding knowledge. chapters: 3/3 words: 13.7k

Looking for You by IetjeSiobhan:  It is there, looking, for all intents and purposes, as if it’s been there forever: a snowboard, beautiful and delicate and in the prettiest shade of pastel blue. (soulmark au) chapters: 1/1 words: 3.4k

Pick Me Up by Venxvon:  When Reki asks Langa if he was going to carry him back, he means it as a joke. Langa, on the other hand, absolutely does not. (post ep11) chapters: 1/1 words: 3.9k

Double-edged by realfakedoors: Hasegawa Langa, a young noble with an unreasonable amount of responsibility about to be dropped into his lap following the death of his father, takes a season away from the northern province he's called home. He travels with his mother to Solaris, the kingdom's capitol and her homeland--it will do them good, she said. (She forgot to mention the part where they got ambushed by highwaymen on the way there.) Enter Kyan Reki, an apprentice blacksmith, who is just fulfilling a stupid errand for stupid Shadow, since he technically beat Reki in their last match at S. He ends up involving himself in the lives of some northern nobles, and before he knows it, he's thrust into a world of nobility and politics that might prove to be much more dangerous than any swordfighting could ever be. chapters: 3/? words: 18.2k

[nicnacsnonsense]

hi! so, i just wanted to say i really appreciated your meta about stede and mary's relationship. i feel like it approached them with a sort of nuance i don't usually see applied to mary's character; i think sometimes people act as though ep10 absolves her of any wrongdoing whatsoever in regards to their relationship, but imo i feel like that is patently not true. i've always regarded mary and stede as being parallels, and more alike than not. she can be petty and cruel in the same ways he is; stede fucked up royally by leaving the way he did, but i don't think her rushing to remove all traces of him from their lives was necessarily the right decision either, not in regards to the children or their development. painting him out of the portrait was something she did for herself and herself alone, not for alma or louis. especially if she told them he was dead. it serves no purpose to anyone but her, and it seems cruel to do to a little girl who thinks her father has died (and even if she knows he disappeared! i could understand taking the painting down, but there's no consideration for whether the kids might want it later in life).

another thing is that they also both enjoy the trappings of wealth, and while i've often seen criticisms leveled at stede bc of his class privilege, i rarely see the same directed at mary. imo, they are both similar in that their class largely afforded them entry and some sense of notoriety into a world that poorer people need to fight their way into (painting/piracy). granted mary isn't the same kind of clown about it all that stede is, and yes, the painting and piracy within the show are more meant to be simply allegorical than anything else, but why is stede deserving of class criticism and not mary? just because stede's boastful? they're both two extremely privileged people with power dynamics between them that are constantly shifting (mary being a woman; stede being a queer man). i think some of the disconnect here comes from the fact that their story in particular is almost entirely modern and anachronistic; the only real connection to the 1700s they have is the arranged marriage, so i understand where people are coming from, in a sense, when they place all blame almost entirely on stede (barbados as it is portrayed in this show might as well be a random east coast suburb in the 1980s), but some of the stuff she does is still weird and bonkers from a modern context (like trying to erase him from their lives entirely, and slot doug into his place), just like stede is weird and bonkers too.

and while i would say he's definitely the guiltier party in ep10, they're both openly hostile to each other. stede tries to ask her about doug and mary immediately gets defensive. even before stede left, neither of them gave a shit about each other, and it really was an equal opportunity sort of thing. he didn't listen when she spoke about painting, she didn't care about anything he had to say about the sea. 'we just can't seem to stop hurting each other' is a statement of fact, and i feel as though people often forget the 'we' in this context. i honestly hadn't even thought of how that conversation, where she's sort of attempting to extend an olive branch to him, would appear to stede. another way they seem similar to me is that at this point in their lives they're both probably repressed in the same way, with similar childhood trauma (by way of their parents, the homophobic bullying probably did not happen to mary), and this stunts their ability to have meaningful conversations with each other. mary is not all knowing as i feel like people sometimes treat her, and coming to the conclusion that she was in love with doug was likely the same sort of uphill battle stede experienced while realizing he was attracted to men.

anyway, um, i hope it was okay i just blurted this out all over your ask box lol. i just don't often see people in this fandom who have a similar read on mary as me (i feel like attitudes regarding her tend to be either visceral dislike or blatant apologia, neither of which i'm interested in honestly) so i wanted to let you know i agree and appreciate you sharing your thoughts!

Absolutely it's okay that you blurted that all out all over my ask box! Both because I spent a lot of time on that meta and was starting to get down on myself for the lackluster response, and because I too get frustrated by the pronounced tendency in fandom to treat Mary like she was a saint in their relationship.

That's a great point about how removing Stede from that painting was unfair to Alma and Louis! I had never considered it from that angle before, but you're right, that was selfish of her.

With regards to class, I assume people mostly aren't bringing it up because it's not really a factor in her story line, aside from in resulting in an arranged marriage. The only person she interacts with that's (possibly) of a lower class than her is Doug, and that doesn't seem to have particularly impacted their relationship. I think you're right in that any class based criticism that can be leveled at Stede are probably also true of Mary to some greater or lesser degree, but I can see why people wouldn't be bringing her up in that context all that often.

For me I consider both Mary & Stede to be equally at fault with regards to their marriage in the backstory. There is a part of me that wants to put slightly more of the blame on Mary, but I'm also aware that I have some personal experiences that make me biased, so I leave it at equal fault. Then Stede abandons his family, making him the one who is significantly more in the wrong. While I wouldn't generally categorize his behavior in episode 10 hostile, and from what I recall he only really pushes back against Mary with regards to things that reasonably fall under his purview, he isn't really as apologetic as he should be considering. And Mary is hostile, but she also has a right to feel that way. Up until the point she tries to murder Stede, at which point she becomes the guiltier party, but they end up resolving things soon afterward and it becomes moot anyway.