#mary read omfd

[rachelillustrates]

Just thinking about Anne and Mary and Ed and Stede.

(OFMD s2 spoilers under the cut)

Something about Anne and Mary clinging to each other in recommitment in the burning wreckage of their home after addressing one of the biggest reasons for how toxic they've become. "I thought this was what you wanted." "I thought this was what YOU wanted!" As Ed and Stede leave that scene, in their new beginning, after having finally begun to re-communicate too.

Something about loving someone SO much that you stay and fester, even though you're so terrified of losing them you cannot communicate. Something about staying, and accepting that that's just how it is, cause that is better than losing them entirely.

Something about agreeing to run away together on a beach, unable to voice your panic. Unable to face your doubts. But unable to say no to the person you love most.

Something about seeing clearly again, once that Truth is out, and Love flooding in after all.

(Will likely add to this on a rewatch but that's what I've got so far. Ooof.)

[toastywindow]

i need to know... his other crushes before he met stede

[our-flag-means-yippee]

Basically any female character from this show tbh

Joanne Kathleen when she see’s a cis woman with slightly less feminine features: 😨😨😨

OG Screenshot:

[shinyyshield]

toxic old yuri AND toxic old yaoi?? god bless

[king-nyx]

Anne Bonny and Mary Read (ofmd ver.) mean the absolute world to me. I love those kinky murder-y wives. They're the best thing to ever exist. Stabbing and poisoning each other? yum. delicious. i love them.

[un-monstre]

*shaking you by the shoulders* Anne Bonny and Mary Read are not going to be giving anyone relationship counseling you stupid slut. They are insane nasty. They are coo coo bananas. Anne is Calico Jack's wife. They are there to make things worse by providing weed and lap dances. They are going to sit in the corner and watch as Stede and Ed fight and they are going to jump in at any opportunity they see to cause friction between them. They are going to turn these poor men into a soap opera for their viewing pleasure.

[tigerballoons]

I was tagged by: @sirtadcooper

Tag someone you want to know AND/OR some of your besties.

Favourite colour: that specific dark blue you only get in glass objects, but I'm partial to most shades of blue and green

Last song: "This is War" - 30 Seconds to Mars

Last movie: Song of the Sea. Very charming story about selkies, do recomend although it would be better with pangur too

Currently watching: Nothing, although I have been planning to rewatch Black Books for a while

Other stuff I watched this year: OMFD s1, GO s2, The Terror more than once... I don't really watch things. It's why I thought I was safe. I was very wrong.

Shows I dropped this year/didn’t finish: Nothing actually

Currently reading: Icebound in the Arctic by Michael Smith, for... Well, for Frank let's be honest. I'm not very impressed so far. Battersby's Fitzjames biography is better. The Charioteer 1953 edition by Mary Renault, for the fandom reread. Why We Sleep by Matthew Walker on audiobook.

Currently listening to: my playlist of favourite songs

Currently working on: A crochet blanket that's so very nearly done it's ridiculous. I only have four more rows of squares to attach, and it's not like I can't think about Them while doing so... Not touched it for weeks. Even worse case for the fic I pretend I'm working on, but we won't mention that

Current obsession: Haha, er... [gestures vaguely at blog] So have you heard of this show called The Terror?

I'm tagging: @ralphlanyon, @carrotcakecrumble, @officious-sea-lawyer, @renaultphile but no pressure

[s-che]

I don't think people are giving Mary and Stede nuance, they're just okay with Stede being a violent misogynist (assaulting Doug for literally not justified reason) because he's gay. Like I know they kissed and made up after because OFMD is a serious romcom and it's fine. Glad they didn't try to fit a serious domestic abuse arc in one episode! But if you want to seriously analyze OFMD through abuse as a lens Stede is deadbeat misogynist who gets away with neglecting his family because he's wealthy and Mary doesn't have equal power to him in their marriage.

i mean i think with respect this is sort of exactly the take i’m responding to right, only for stede-mary instead of izzy-ed. i think — omfd being fundamentally a rom-com aside — that part of what it’s trying to do is complicate the abuser-victim binary by setting up relationships where everyone is hurting everyone. it asks us to think about where harm comes from beyond the actions of individuals.

like to some extent im not even talking about stede’s return much as their earlier life together. stede and mary are both involved in making their marriage miserable — i’m not sure it’s helpful to try and tally respective damages (and im not totally sure that, in the relationship we see in the show, mary is actually subordinate to stede). none of it matters, anyway, because the peace that they get at the end of season 1 is: we were bad together, we can have a different relationship and be mutually happy for each other. my point is that ppl seem to be able to get that far, and then fall into the same trap of trying to sum up the harm izzy and ed have done to each other and figure out who’s on top. nobody’s on top. izzy and ed are mutually harmful because theyre products of the same homophobic-homosocial education about how theyre allowed to be around each other, just like stede and mary’s relationship is a product of a regressive heterosexuality. we’re supposed to read them against each other and hope that izzy and ed can find a new configuration like stede and mary did.

afterthought: i think stede vs doug has a lot more to do with demonstrating that he can’t even pretend to fit in in “polite society” anymore than it does misogyny (if you want to argue it the other way i’d be glad to hear the case but also like. i think sometimes we have to stop treating characters like real people and start thinking about what their purpose is in the narrative, & i dont totally grasp the broader use of that read)

tldr yadda yadda enlightenment imagination of the individual subject yadda yadda protestant ethics married to heteropatriarchy etc etc etc awakening queerness against the social structure i.e. the same stuff im always on

[runawaymarbles]

Ao3 Wrapped

Otherwise known as “stuff I bookmarked this year.”

-

Favorite Fics That Were Posted/Completed In 2022:

 we were warnings by mia_ugly  (OFMD Ed/Stede)

The only OMFD fic I’ve read. Possibly the only OFMD fic I want to read.

What I'd Have Done by Flight_of_Fantasy (Merlin, Gen-ish)

THEE magic reveal fic

This Nervous Condition by Anonymous   

The Godstiel/Dean soul-mpreg fic. Absolutely unhinged. Delightful.   

the cheapest room in the house by biggaybenny (Spn, Dean/Cas)

instant fandom classic.  the one where dean puts grindr on his phone for Cas to prove he’s not homophobic. A+ behavior for all concerned.   

Under The Table by bomberqueen17  (TheWitcher, Iorveth/Roche)        

this is kind of cheating because it’s part of a series that isn’t finished yet and was started before 2022 but let me have this.

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Some Favorite Older Fics I Read For The First Time in 2022  

 Deep Breaths by trollprincess  (Spn, Mary/Ellen, 2010)

Mary Campbell raises the boys on her own while in a cold war with the rest of the PTA. Also, weird things are afoot. I love her your honor

The Shape of Things to Come by spiderglass  (Spn, Dean/Cas, 2021)

I’m just a sucker for djinn dreams and the resulting trauma, what can I say                      

I, We, Us by winterhill  (X-Men, Charles/Erik, 2013)

you ever wanted a daemon au that just goes for the throat and haunts you forever?  this fic is for you.

Candyman by sandwichgardener (Charlie & The Chocolate Factory) 

Have you ever said “what if Riverdale, but Charlie and the Chocolate Factory”? No. That’s because you aren’t as galaxy-brained as sandwichgardener. please read this.  

The Game of Lying by CastleScribe (Merlin, Gen, 2018)

Merlin fic that uses Merlin’s mythological origin story in the funniest way possible.        

On Labor by a_good_soldier  (Spn, Dean/Cas, 2021)

 Dean tells Cas he loves him because he thinks it’s what Cas wants to hear. Alt title: “On identifying one’s emotions.” insane. unhinged. i’m obsessed. i’m projecting.    

an unclean man who went down to immerse himself: by 52ndstreet  (Spn, Gen, 2021)

Cas puts Jimmy through jewish purification rituals and i’m never going to be normal again .

  To the ground by Saetha  (The Witcher, Iorveth/Roche, 2021)

look i don’t even go here really but you ever wanted mortal enemies who are obsessed with each other in kind of a soft way? 

  $499,000 - 4bd, 3ba, 2,940 sqft by seabass  (IT, Richie/Eddie, 2019)

Richie is a shitty radio DJ and Eddie’s house is probably haunted             

[riotradarada]

OMFD S2 predictions I have been thinking about for a year:

-Edward is going to have a ghost lucious that haunts him (like Nigel to Ed)

-Luscius IS alive and maybe hiding on the ship! (Since there are a lot of hidden secret passages hidden in the ship that Stede built)

-For the love of God, more Lucius and Izzy content (Con O' Neil and Nathan foad are so insane together we need their chemistry on screen)

- Stede or Ed get a girlfriend either to make the other one jealous or as a very misguided rebound

-Izzy is either going to get a lot better as a character or a loottt worse

- ABBA SWORD FIGHT OR SOMETHING!! I NEED IT!!

-More famous pirate characters (possibly Ching Shih, Anne Bonny, and Mary Read)

-If any of those letters in a bottle make it back to ship, which it probably will, Izzy finds them and keeps them secret from Ed.

[ex-altiora]

oh mary "james kidd" "ass creed" read is SUCH a gender too

[amandolinabee]

Me: Slides a $20 bill at David Jenkins and Taika Waititi so they will include Anne Bonny and Mary Read in season 2.

[puddingandtame]

Trying to temper my expectations for season 2 omfd BUT IF I DONT GET ANNE BONNY AND MARY READ I SWEAR TO GOD-

[candied-cae]

Who is Stede as a father?

Throughout the show we watch him dote and care for his crew- reading them bedtime stories, giving them creative outlets, breaking up fights, encouraging them to talk about feeling, appreciate their skills, share with each other. He's a great father to them. So why is it that his own family is THAT uncomfortable?

I really hope in season 2 we get some further context about Stede and his family's life before he set out on the Revenge. I keep watching the show over and over again, and when the scenes come up with the flashbacks I'm still so confused on where exactly they all stood with each other.

We see Stede's continued isolation from his family. He stands at a perfect arms length away from Mary in their portrait. And he's so distant in the painting with both Mary and the kids, while the three of them are close, in similar colors and touching, and he stands stiff and separate from them. He is seated on the opposite end of the dining table, as far away from them as possible. When he speaks, trying to connect to the conversation about his favorite horse, they look at him like an outsider and continue on, choosing to ignore what he says.

And yet, when his kids play, though he's reading a book, he is asked to play with them and does so happily. He might like to continue his story, but he does put it down to play with them while Mary walks off to drink her wine. He even makes a point to slam down the book playfully and jump into action with Alma and Louis. Sure, he kind of uses the kids as an excused to play pretend at his dream of being a pirate, but he does let them win anyway, so he clearly cares about making it fun for them.

And when he left at night to start is life as a pirate, he made a point to open their bedroom door and tell them "Goodbye children, I love you."

And when he is told that he's been reported dead, and he wonders how his family might be, he pictures himself close to them at the dining table. Having moved his seat to be right next to them, all four laughing. A scene that never actually took place and is completely out of their family norms.

And then throughout that last episode all we see is a very stilted relationship. Surely, Mary is mad, she was molding a life she actually was able to enjoy after he'd left, and him returning will cause all sorts of problems. Yet Alma and Louis seem so bored of him. Alma particularly also seems to hold some resentment (which does make sense), but they both seem completely disinterested even as he tries to tell exciting stories at the dinner table.

But at the end, when he's trying to explain why they are going to kill him and yet he won't really be gone, Alma reveals that she split the petrified orange she'd seemed insulted by the day before, to keep half of it with her and leave half with her father.

I don't know. I'm trying to make sense of that dynamic totally. Parts of it make sense, and parts of it don't completely to me. The only real answer I can come to would be that Mary's resentment towards Stede and their failing marriage made it so the kids didn't even like interacting with him around her, and could only really enjoy their father's company alone. And it may be because we got so few scenes reflecting on their lives together, but it seems important to note that the only time we see them paying attention to the kids Mary is entertaining them while brushing off Stede and wondering off to be alone and drink while he commits his afternoon and plays with them (this is not to imply she is a bad mother! just something to note).

So yeah, this was mostly a ramble while I scrolled through all the scenes and rewatched all the scenes of the Bonnets.

More OMFD

[livelydiver]

The Healing Kind [AO3]

Words: ~22K | Rating: Explicit | Pairings: Edward Teach/Stede Bonnet with background Israel Hands/Lucius Spriggs | Genre: Fix-It, Angst with a Happy Ending, Hurt/Comfort, Smut

Phew!

This fic was started in the dark days of May when it seemed that OMFD might never be renewed... I love Kraken-Ed, but wanted to write a fic featuring the Fictional Character Who's Having a Hard Time since my heart was aching for a reunion that was sweet and easy and free of anger. Turns out what my heart needed was a bit of angst followed by a whole lot of fluffy hurt/comfort and some truly gratuitous sex.

Can't stop thinking about the power of creation in OFMD - that this show tells us it is worthwhile to make the things you want to make:

How the first thing that endears the audience to Stede is how much he encourages and embodies the joy of self-expression

How the story itself rewards artists/artistry (looking at you, Lucius and Mary)

All the layers of meaning in Ed and Stede’s sartorial choices (“painted,” in a sense, from a shared palette, because my god your honor they were SOULMATES)

The significance of the flags designed by Stede’s crew (and, ultimately, Ed) to the story and the title

And thinking about how this dovetails with the fandom, why so many us writing/sketching/crafting in ways we haven’t (“in weeks… months… maybe ever?”) - because it reminded us how fucking good it feels to create and celebrate others’ creations.

I just don't have the words for how much I love it (and you) all. Thank you for reading!

[lucile-frenchfornerds]

omfd is great and has amazing representation but i am a bit annoyed that none of the main characters are women, especially bc it's truly not that hard to put women in pirate shows :( i really hope they'll at least introduce Mary read and Anne bonny in s2