#ofmd s2 discussion

[bug-buzzz]

Talking abt Stedes bottle in s2 and how they're gonna read it:

OK so we know Stede wrote his little love letter and all but my question is, who's gonna read it? The only person we know who is confirmed to be able to read is Lucius but he's uh, out if commission at the moment. I'll come back to Lucius later. First of all, its almost certain that Ed cant read. Hes gone his whole life without it and when he signs the Act of Grace, he signs with an "X" - a symbol which means he is illiterate. Theres two possibilities that could mean he can read though, one is that he only signed the X so he wouldn't be bound to the document, or that Stede taught him how to read at some point after this. (Maybe in the military?) But for the sake of this post im assuming Ed cannot read. We don't know if Izzy can read, we see him holding a book but he may just be looking at the picture, but if he can, I don't see him realistically telling Ed about the note unless he lies about it or maybe tells him in hopes it will make him mad? It doesn't make sense for Izzy to read it for Ed. It is possible that Jim can read however. They grew up raised by a nun where reading the Bible was probably important, and we may not know their literacy because they didn't speak for a good chunk of time. We know Lucius can read, so if Lucius is a stowaway like some theories suspect, he could read it. Maybe Jim or Izzy is hiding Lucius and has him read it for them? Another possibility is that nobody on the ship can read and that they take the bottle to someone who can, maybe someone recognizes Stedes style or handwriting, maybe that is why we see Ed with Spanish Jackie (Jackie has signs in her bar so I assume she can read) but Ed seems to have recovered from being The Kraken in this scene so I'm not sure. And just for shits and giggles, maybe they take it to Stede for him to read it just for him to say "uh I wrote that." Anyways those are my ramblings abt the note in the bottle.

[thats-entirely-too-much-tuna]

these frames are 37 seconds apart. for eighteen months we’ve been reading and writing and theorizing about their eventual reconciliation, and stede bartholomew bonnet managed to speedrun it in THIRTY-SEVEN SECONDS.

[saltpepperbeard]

thinking about these 21 frames btw. if you even care.

[bizarrelittlemew]

this has to be a shout-out to the fandom for speculating about the sleeping arrangements aboard the Revenge for over a year

[chuplayswithfire]

ngl i have always found it fascinating where people draw the line with violence. i've seen multiple people now object to the implied sexual violence of the 'human puppet' game Lucius talks about, because sexual violence is somehow uniquely dark and taboo... but the show has always dealt in comedy related to violence, even violence targeted at specific groups - antiblack slurs, references to the genocide of indigenous communities, and the presence of racism in general, and often mixed in with the comedy. those topics are just as serious as sexual violence, and just as dark. why wouldn't the show be willing to delve into the one, if they're willing to go to the others?

[izzysillyhandsy]

Rewatching OFMD (again) with a friend who's never even heard of the show is an eye-opening experience.

At S1 episode 4 she said something like: "I think Edward offloads all the heavy stuff onto Izzy - he wants to be liked and admired and Izzy has to keep everyone and everything in line. And everyone including Ed hates him for it? No wonder he seems exhausted."

She was really upset by how little respect Izzy got from everyone around him and "how badly the crew treated Izzy" in Ep 5.

We're at episode 6 now and she's horrified - "The uszh meant that Izzy would've had to kill all the people on this ship, didn't it? Probably even including Stede?"

Sometimes, with all the discourse about who's to blame and why is it Izzy, I forgot how tough Izzy's deal was as Blackbeard's first mate.

Of course he gladly put up with it for Ed and their special bond (and she also saw that immediately), but as soon as Stede waltzed in and it all fell apart poor Iz was in hell...

And yeah, of course it's more complex than that (I can't wait for us to get to the last 2 episodes and S2), and this is obviously not a remotely new or original take.

It's just so nice to see my friend discovering my favourite character (and character dynamics, namely Ed and Izzy) and immediately latching onto him/them ❤

[leonsgotit]

OFMD S2 SPOILERS ‼️

in season 1, stede was constantly putting his feelings ahead of other people’s—he put his own feelings ahead of mary’s and his kids’ when he ran away in the middle of the night to become a pirate and when he left ed at the dock to return to his family (and yeah, stede thought he was protecting ed from him when he did it and he was in distress after having been kidnapped and then witnessing his childhood bully accidentally shoot himself in the head and i’m not discounting that at all!! but he also ran because he was afraid of how fast things were moving with ed), and he does it in other little ways all throughout the season but i think these two examples are the most important ones.

he puts his own feelings in front of other people’s up until mary tries to kill him and he realizes how he’s sort of messed everything up for her by returning, as well as realizing his feelings for ed. then, stede fakes his own death and gives up everything he has to return to ed.

now, in season 2, we see stede constantly putting the feelings of others before his own. he sets aside his own feelings about izzy to rescue him and the rest of his crew so they can take back the revenge. he doesn’t like izzy, but stede can tell that he’s important to frenchie and jim and archie and fang, and he knows izzy was important to ed, so he sets aside how he feels and saves izzy, too.

stede does everything in his power to protect ed when he wakes up (comes back from death), but when the crew speaks their mind, stede again sets aside his own feelings for them. they aren’t comfortable with ed being on the ship anymore, and even though stede has spent months and months searching for him, and even though stede cried and begged for ed to come back, he doesn’t try to fight the crew when they’ve made their decision. even though watching ed leave the revenge must break his heart.

stede tries to give ed the space he wants from him, he doesn’t push to make ed understand why he left the dock that night, and when ed gets angry upon learning that stede “left him for mary,” stede doesn’t try to explain what happened in full. he lets ed be angry, he respects ed’s need for space.

when he tries to tell ed he loves him, and ed pushes stede away, stede respects that boundary that ed has set. he tells him instead that he loves everything about him, being near him, and breathing the same air—and stede tells ed he doesn’t have to say it back.

when stede finds that “cursed” red suit that he loves so much, he puts himself first for a little while—but when it becomes apparent that the crew won’t be comfortable until the suit is gone, stede puts them first. he gets rid of the suit and validates their feelings about it. even though he really loved that suit.

and we love character development—we love to see stede growing as a person and learning to put other people’s needs and feelings before his own—but it’s like from zero to one hundred right now. stede is putting other’s (particularly ed’s) feelings before his own, because he feels guilty about what happened in season 1. and because, i believe, he’s still thinking about what chauncy badminton said to him—that he ruins beautiful things and that he ruined ed. so he’s over-correcting in order to fix what he thinks he is responsible for breaking.

it almost seems like stede doesn’t think his feelings are important anymore, that he has to completely ignore how he feels in order to make amends with everyone, especially ed.

he needs to find a healthy balance of acknowledging and validating his own feelings while also being able to put other people’s feelings in front of his own when appropriate!!

which is why i think he and ed need to actually TALK about what happened that night at the dock. they need to sit down and lay it all out, cards on the table, no stone left unturned.

stede needs to tell ed that chauncy kidnapped him from his bunk at gunpoint, he needs to tell ed exactly what chauncy said to him about how he ruins beautiful things, and how he brought blackbeard to ruin. likewise, ed needs to tell stede why he immediately thought stede had just ditched him—he needs to tell stede why he didn’t think to go looking for him that night and jumped to the conclusion that stede had changed his mind.

THEY NEED TO BE HONEST WITH EACH OTHER!!!

[plantsjustwannahavefun]

Ed stans trying to convince everyone it's problematic to think Izzy had better character development than Ed in S2 without making it about race challenge (impossible)

[spooksicl-e]

place your bets as to which character is actually the healthier one in s2.

[lizluzz]

I can't believe that after all the speculations about who should be the sugar baby: Ed or Stede, it's actually the Swede.

[soapbubbles511]

Not to be Stede-coded, but most of my thoughts after the sneak peek clip amount to "Sorry about your toes Iggy*, but sounds like Ed's having a hard time🥺" And "Sounds like Ed could also use a hug from Fang"

Like, we already knew all that but baby is deep in his "fuck it" spiral.

Ed was already burnt out and miserable and feeling trapped when we met him. And for a minute there after he met Stede, he had hope that things could be different. That he could retire. That he could have friends. That he could explore things he actually liked and let himself enjoy softer things. Then Stede left. And Izzy made it explicitly clear that he wouldn't tolerate Ed changing.

So he went fuck it. You want me to be Blackbeard? I'll be Blackbeard. The only retirement pirates get is death anyway. Captains rule through fear and intimidation. This is how piracy has always worked. Lots of maiming and assorted violence. Lots of drinking and lets throw in some drugs. Fuck it.

None of this is really new information, but it's making me sad for Ed. Extra sad when I think about him crying with his cake topper dolls when he's alone.

*not actually that sorry about his toes

[boatcats]

I did not find Izzy's death ableist in any sense. Before I saw the episode I did have a fear that they would portray him sacrificing himself for the crew because he was "too broken to go on" or some other ableist bullshit. But instead he dies at a point in his life where he's probably happier than he's ever been. That's what makes it so affecting! He has community, he has friends, he's valued and knows it. And all this happened after he lost his leg. His life was not only still worth living, it was more joyful. And he doesn't die sacrificing himself or due to his disability. He dies in a twist of fate during a dangerous situation.

I didn't read him telling Ed at the end that he wanted to go as suicidality. He was bleeding out already. Ed continuing to apply direct pressure to the wound might have kept him alive for a little longer but it was causing him significant pain. He preferred to go a little more quickly but much more comfortably in the arms of someone he'd finally made his peace with.

[saltpepperbeard]

Okay besties, ready to do some clown speculation with me? 🤡🏴‍☠️

I think Season 2 is going to come out in June. I know that’s way later than most of us are hoping, but it follows numerous timelines. Season One wrapped towards the end of September 2021, and premiered in March 2022. That’s about a six month gap between wrap and release.

Season 2 wrapped in mid-December. If it’s on a similar editing schedule as the previous season, ie about six months between wrap and release, then that roughly puts us in June.

Also, I feel like they’d want to shoot for June anyway, since June is ✨Pride✨. It’s also the anniversary of renewal, so it would check numerous boxes.

Which, if that’s the case, would mean we could expect a trailer sometime in May, and potentially a teaser in April. The first Season One teasers I can find date back to January, and the main trailer released in February. For even further comparison, HBO released the trailer for The Last of Us about a month before it aired.

So that’s a month-ish before release for the main trailer, and potentially two months-ish before release for the teaser.

TLDR, I think it just might be a bit too early to be getting anything right now, and that we shouldn’t give up hope on receiving previews!

…Hopefully 🤡🏳️‍🌈🏴‍☠️❤️

[garbomode]

HOLD ON i can't stop thinking about a take i keep seeing that's like "kraken ed wasn't really that bad, he only hurt izzy and izzy deserved it." because like, even putting aside the izzy apologist in me, it's still just objectively wrong. he pushed lucius off the ship! as far as anyone knew he killed him!! that seems kind of like hurting someone to me!!

[zo1nkss]

I think it's worth examining that when Izzy decides someone is beneath him, they're no longer human in his eyes.