#no YOU wear fine things well

[rocketrouquine]

My face is actually hurting from smiling.

I squealed so much my neighbors must have thought there was a mice invasion.

Soooooo much, my god ! I’m being FED !!!!

WE won. We fucking won.

(Wish stede told him about Chauncey though but oh well)

[ofmd-ann]

Bonus:

You can say anything and I will not abandon you. Unwrap the worst things you have done. Watch me hold them up to the light and not even flinch -  Trista Mateer

[xxprincess1x]

It was, in fact, a love story.

[delioncourtes]

Please don't die. I'm here now.

OUR FLAG MEANS DEATH - 2.03 The Innkeeper

[livelovecaliforniadreams]

#You Wear Fine Things Well

[where-our-stories-start]

1x05 vs. 2x05

[thinking-about-fiction]

No because when Stede said "You wear fine things well" to Ed the first time, he just said it like all the other nice things he has said to Ed, and I don't think he fully knew how much it meant to Ed UNTIL Ed said it back to him when they were in the same place and he realized how much that one line stuck with Ed all this time and I'm not losing my mind you are

[temporal-discounting]

This is quite possibly my favourite Stede face journey in all of OFMD. The little blink of disbelief as Ed says his own words back at him.

The little grin as the meaning of those words settles in.

The way he can't hold Ed's gaze any longer and just has to look away.

It's so fucking sweet, and shy, and young. They both know they're on the same page now, but there's still nervousness there; there's still butterflies flapping away in their tummies.

It's just so utterly endearing.

[zulizenz]

So I posted an Instagram reel as I was working on this because oil pastel is fun to work with. And Taika liked it, and I panicked...and now here's the finished piece.

[googoogojob]

[chaotic-neutral-knitter]

Izzy telling Stede "I know you think you understand him," and Stede immediately describing Ed's emotional state perfectly accurately with "He was either going to watch the world burn or die trying, so which was it?" is everything to me, by the way.

Like, Izzy still doesn't get it. He's clinging to this idea that he's the only person who knows Ed, because he's seen the darkest parts of Ed and thinks that is who Ed is. He thinks that Stede is an idiot who only loves a projection of Ed, the sweet and open version of him that showed up around Stede on the Revenge in season 1. He doesn't understand that Stede might know about the dark shit and care about Ed anyways, because he doesn't really understand that love is more than just putting up with someone's bullshit.

But Stede KNOWS Ed. He's seen Ed crying in a bathtub about killing his dad, order a man skinned for an insult, and cheerfully fold socks after it seemed like everything important had been taken from him. Unlike Izzy, he can see through the facade to the whole human person underneath - not a myth, not a monster, just a man. He clocks everything Ed is doing as a cry for help, and all he wants is a chance to offer that help.

(also - this is the second time this season that Izzy makes the claim about being the only person who knows Ed, and I bet a big part of his arc this season is going to be learning that maybe he didn't know Ed at all. [And maybe if Ed can be loved wholeheartedly, despite all the horrors of his past, Izzy can be loved too?? chew on that you tiny weirdo])

[teh-ches-noddle]

I wish you all an absolutely Terrible Halloween

As always do not repost or use my stuff yadda yadda spooky month

[supermanddntdieforthis]

I think as bad as Ed wants to marry Stede, he’d never be the one to ask. Stede would have to be the one to propose. Stede’s already done the marriage thing and Ed doesn’t know if Stede would even want that again, so he just sits on it. He wants to marry him so bad it makes him crazy but he can’t bring himself to ask. And I think if Ed ever did ask it would probably be a subconscious thing. Like not even realizing what he’s said until he’s confronted with Stede’s reaction.

[delioncourtes]

OUR FLAG MEANS DEATH - 2.05 The Curse of the Seafaring Life

[blueberreads]

You wear fine things well.

[theindiscreetbookworm]

So, on my [redacted] rewatch of OFMD, I noticed that the cadence when Ed says "and tonight I'm supposed to kill... you" and when he says "what makes Ed happy is... you" is the same. The movement of his head is the same, the moment when he looks at Stede is in the same place in the phrase.

DJenks talked that one time about how he actually thinks the bathtub scene is the most intimate scene in the show, how these two people who are so closed off from others sit there and open themselves up to each other for the first time, and how beautiful that is. And I think Ed is confessing the same thing in both these moments.

Now, hear me out. They sound like opposite confessions, right? "I was trying to kill you" vs "I love you". But they're both saying "I love you". It's just in different ways.

"Love of a pet makes a man weak."

"You don't belong in doggy heaven."

I couldn't do it. I was weak. I love you and it made me weak.

By episode 9, by "what makes Ed happy is you", it's changed, but it's not the opposite. It's not 'I love you and it made me strong'.

It's 'I love you and it set me free'.

In the bathtub, Ed is confessing it like a crime. On the beach, he confesses it like a truth. It's such a beautiful development.