#namby pamby

[violetrose-art]

This is what I think Namby Pamby (who was mentioned in The Ponyville Chronicle) would've looked like

[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.

[smile-files]

i'm just a ragdolly... :)

[eliounora]

financial struggles are annoying because there's not much you can do to earn more. like even if I work harder at my job, I won't get any bonuses or raises, I'll just be paid my low ass salary no matter what I do. like boy I wish meritocracy was real

[littlefingies]

Truly:

Big of Ed to not be a little bitchy to Izzy after Calypso's Birthday. So lovely that Izzy was able to express himself in front of the crew and not be threatened over it. Would have been lovely if Ed had that.

[blackbeardsheartbreak]

If Izzy fucks off right here

Then this is what happens

But Izzy doesn’t fuck off so all this happens instead

Ed knows that if Izzy hadn’t interfered then he might still be with Stede.

Co-captaining.

Breakfasts and late night drinks and getting closer and maybe someday something more.

Even knowing all that Ed saves Izzy’s life.

Then Izzy dares taunt Ed about his broken heart! The broken heart that he caused!

Izzy wants Blackbeard.

“Be careful what you ask your god for. She just might answer.”

[amphibious-thing]

Highly recommend every OFMD fan read Pretty Gentleman by Peter McNeil before they open their mouth about the connection (or lack of connection as they inaccurately claim) between fashion and effeminacy in the 18th century

[googleitlol]

When going over my notes for writing chapters, I like to reread the chapters of jttw they're supposed to take place in. I thought I'd share some highlights that made me chuckle, along with where Dove learned her insults from 💀

Guan Yin is such an icon

[unopenablebox]

one of many difficulties with my endless amateurish attempts to write pastiches of various british works of fiction set between 1890 and 1955 is that i am constantly coming up on terms i know should exist and absolutely can't call to mind at all, & can't figure out how to move forward besides rereading a random selection of british novels in hopes of finding something

[fictionadventurer]

Civil War history is giving me whiplash. I read a bit of an ebook about 1860 Washington, and then listened to the 1840s chapter of my commute audiobook, and the contrast between James Buchanan and Zachary Taylor is wild.

James Buchanan (1860): (crying) Maybe if I ignore it people will forget about seceding? It's not like there's anything I can do to stop this.

Zachary Taylor (1850): (using "unpresidential language") IF YOU GUYS SECEDE I WILL PERSONALLY LEAD AN ARMY TO TAKE OVER YOUR STATE AND HANG YOU AS TRAITORS!

It gets even wilder when you consider that in 1850, Taylor's former son-in-law Jefferson Davis was already heading secessionist movements. The Civil War had a very real chance of being a family feud, had history gone a bit differently. Frankly, the South is lucky that Taylor died when he did (and it's no wonder that there were conspiracy theories that he was poisoned).

[ladyluscinia]

Why do some people say Izzy is homophobic? Flippant jokes I get, but there are people claiming this seriously. Yes, he's often very mean towards characters who just so happen to be homosexuals... But what in the world would make anyone conclude he's not a perfectly equal-opportunity mean person?!? Same with the racism accusations. Probably preaching to the choir here... And I personally don't even like Izzy (as a person; as a character he's brilliant), but it still gets annoying.

I mean... if the question is whether or not Izzy Hands can plausibly be interpreted as homophobic, then I think the answer is unambiguously yes.

I don't think it was avoidable with the story they are trying to tell. Homophobia is pretty deeply entangled with expressions of masculinity and how people see gay relationships. Izzy's literal purpose as an antagonist is to be so against the BlackBonnet relationship that he was willing to try and get Stede killed over it. And thematically, to do anything interesting with stuff like embracing self-expression or arguing that open honesty and vulnerability are good for people, someone has to fill the role of objector. In a televised medium especially - where you aren't sitting in Izzy's POV and you definitely can't read his mind - there is going to be a level of interpretation to his motivations and what, exactly, he's finding objectionable, and some people will come to the conclusion that he's a homophobe. 🤷‍♀️

It's a side effect of trying to say something not completely shallow in your writing - you will run up against grey areas and you can't make the audience unanimously stay in the intended track. Multiple plausible interpretations will exist. A character who objects to other masculine characters expressing emotional vulnerability will plausibly be read as homophobic.

It's our job as we watch the show to look at all the plausible interpretations and decide which is the strongest, just like it's the writers' job to make sure their intended interpretation is the one the most audience members settle on. Complete consensus is impossible, so I'm not, like, surprised that some people are sticking to their guns on that one, but I'm still pretty confident Izzy being homophobic will end up the weaker interpretation.

I actually think Izzy being more or less doomed to being plausibly homophobic is what makes the writing for him so good. Because a much easier option, or a weaker writing team, would have gone in on it. Yet another story about homophobes making gays' lives unhappy, only this time the twist is we make the homophobes a punchline. It's way harder and more interesting to pull off an antagonist that hates a gay relationship but is only plausibly homophobic, and there's a perfectly valid and even encouraged read of the show where he's not. That's actually cool (and why I'll be pretty disappointed if it turns out he is just Mr. Internalized Homophobia).

🤔 My more controversial opinion, though, is probably that I think once you get to a certain level of theorizing unconscious / unintended homophobia in fiction then it functionally doesn't exist. That's pretty much what I'm trying to say here. In real life there is some value to recognizing that everyone has some unconscious biases they're probably acting on without realizing, but in a story... if the character / their actions won't be acknowledged or treated as homophobic, or they won't make the leap to homophobia at any point in unpacking or addressing their flaws, and you aren't trying to say anything about the author's personal biases or blindspots coming through? If a tree falls in a fictional universe but nobody writes about it, does it make a sound? Did it even fall?

[sbnkalny]

Then i put on a black leather minidress with all this time we meet, we can compare notes, sound good?

violizard

[dolorianwolf]

Alright, time to do a bad cop run (He will not, in fact, do a bad cop run, he’s a coward who had to reload a save in his earlier playthrough because he felt awful for taking Gaston’s sandwich)

[smile-files]

autism vs lesbianism: fight!!!

[laughable-lion-king-art]

It's only harassment when they don't get their way. Butthurt baby baww brigade continues to kick and scream and throw toddler tantrums because they can't sweep me under the rug and silence me with their fascism.

I believe this quote from Mulan said it best

[interstellarhitchhiker]

dog who has refused to poop all day because it is raining outside