#merstede

[temporal-discounting]

Just a friendly reminder that we really got to see this with our own actual eyeballs, and it wasn't some kind of vivid fever dream or something

[googoogojob]

secretly watching a cute neighbor across

[and-fishing-equipment]

i've seen a couple of posts like "why didn't they use a stunt double for the underwater scene" and like girl imagine trying to tell rhys darby that the scene where his character is a cryptid will be played by someone else

[starbramble]

mini merstede wants to take krack-ed on a date

[starrodent]

i’ve been meaning to draw something for ofmd ever since i watched it last month…then a week ago i remembered it was mermay!!!!

i spent an absurd amount of time on this thing and i am praying the colors won’t get fucked up too bad

a lot of the background/general color scheme was referenced from this gif by @ ofmd-ann

he’s so silly. fisherman ed has my whole heart

[lydiajoypalmer]

you're safe now

shop / sticker club

[i-amusemyself]

no offence but all the things we should've said that we never said. all the things we should've done that we never did. all the things that you wanted from me. all the things that you needed from me. all the things we should've given, but I didn't. if you even care.

[quaintlyfig]

"Deep Sea Wreck" - Artwork by @inkirtis

I was lucky enough to commission Inkirtis to create the album cover that Stede makes for Ed's album my fic "Deep Sea Wreck." It is absolutely gorgeous, and I am head over heels in love with it!!

Thank you so, so much, Inkirtis!!! They are beautiful!! 😍🐙🌊🧜

Fic link: https://archiveofourown.org/works/55449025

[queerly-autistic]

The thing that gets me the most about this scene is that Stede doesn't rescue Ed. Not in the traditional sense. He doesn't grab him. He doesn't pull him out of the water. Heck, he doesn't even lead him out of the water.

No, what he actually does is just be with Ed, exactly where Ed is. And that's the most powerful thing he could do.

And, crucially, Ed is still underwater. Stede's presence hasn't changed the fact that he's underwater. But the difference is that the weight has stopped pulling him further down, and, most importantly, he's no longer drowning.

I've talked about how much I love the way that this show explores mental health, and this is just a shining example of that. Stede's love for Ed, and his unwavering supportive presence beside him, doesn't fix his mental illness. It doesn't pull him out of the water.

But, fuck me, does having that love and support make it all feel a bit more survivable.

[nortsauce]

Seeing the world in color again.

.

@ PPL WHO DIDN’T LIKE THE MERMAID SCENE DNI /j

IT WAS SO GORGEOUS TO ME AND I HAVE A SMALL VID BASED ON AN EDIT I SAW THAT I’LL POST LATER

[nesleepng]

mwah 💋

[googoogojob]

not so much lonely pier at Jeff's inn by the sea

[crimson-and-clover-1717]

Chauncy’s character assassination of Stede Bonnet in 109 is brutal. I want to explore the imagery and connotations of monster. Typically, we think of monsters as grotesque, ugly and something to be feared. Monsters are deemed anti-normative by the majority who set the standard for what is considered desirable, normative.

Stede has been ‘monstered’ by everyone his whole life. His father others and bullies Stede for being a gender nonconforming boy; Mary cannot understand Stede’s desperate need to ‘break the monotony’ in their marriage; the Revenge crew can’t initially comprehend this new, life-affirming approach to piracy and consider mutiny. To the likes of Nigel Badminton, Stede has been a ‘monster’ since childhood with his gentle, crying, flower-picking ways. Ed is the first person to see beauty and worth in the monster. When Ed attempts finally to shed the costume of toxic masculinity worn as protective armour for so long, he is accused of being a monster too: ‘This…you’ve become’. This. Unnamable. A whatever. All because Ed isn’t performing masculinity to Izzy’s expected standard. Effeminate behaviour will not be tolerated. Emotion outside of anger is weakness.

But this show loves to confound and it confounds well.

In 203, Ed’s mind subverts the trope of the monster into something transcendental. And by doing so rescues his own self from the Kraken-monster imagery that has imprisoned him, the stone falling from his waist, albatross-like.

Because what is more monster than a human-hybrid. A scaly, underwater-breathing, half-man, half-goldfish. Merstede is a monster. An effeminate one. And a beautiful one! Ed reclaims the word from Chauncy, rehabilitates it, and allows the wonder of Stede Bonnet to blaze across his dying consciousness. This enigmatic man, frequently reviled for being unashamedly himself, turned Ed’s world upside down and inside out. Who challenges Ed’s own perceptions of self again, and again, and again. Whose anti-normative qualities are not grotesque, but rather exquisite. This undefinable, miraculous creature who left Blackbeard completely and utterly undone.

Stede mirrors Ed. I am you and you are me. Let’s be anti-normative together. Let’s redefine the trope.

Here be monsters, both.

[starbramble]

<3

[sailorsruin92]

Do you think this fish wanted to be caught?

[and-fishing-equipment]

YOU GUYS I WAS LOOKING BACK THROUGH ONE OF THE PANELS TO SEE IF THERE WERE ANY HIDDEN REFERENCES AND

(when asked to describe his characters journey in one phrase)

(WHEN ASKED WHAT STEDES FAVORITE CRYPTID WOULD BE)

his cryptid loving ass is so excited about getting to be a mermaid