#ofmd s2 ep2

[queerly-autistic]

The episode is called 'Red Flags', and the entire through-line of the episode (and the episode before) is Ed displaying the absolutely textbook suicide warning signs.

I'm particularly impressed that they so heavily featured that sudden sense of calm and happiness; where Ed is suddenly smiley and at peace to the point where some crewmembers are wondering if he's 'better' now, but it's actually a huge red flag that he's made the decision to die. Because that's a warning sign that most people would misread - would assume it's a good thing - unless they've had specific training/experience on what to look out for.

I'll say it again: the gay pirate romcom explores mental illness and suicidality with greater depth, and understanding, and realism, than the majority of serious dramas I've watched in my life.

[dimity-lawn]

Our Flag Means Death s2 spoilers

[confusedraven1]

i don’t think izzy fully came to terms with the fact that he shares the blame with stede for setting ed off on his destructive spiral until after he got shot.

when ed asked him to tell him why the vibes are toxic on the ship, that would’ve been a moment for izzy to admit that he was wrong to say what he did and apologize, but, instead, he said it was because ed couldn’t get over stede.

in the hidden room during That Conversation, ed tells izzy he had a dream that he killed him, shot him right through the skull (sidenote: not an actual dream, a plan). izzy looks at him almost in disbelief then says, “good for you. good for you for having fucked up dreams, why would you tell me something like that?”

“it was good for me. it’s just what the doctor ordered.”

that line is….oof. 😮‍💨 BUT it’s also a callback to s1 ep10 when izzy tells ed he wished he had been killed by the english, that death was better than how he was acting.

in this scene in s2 ep2, ed is saying, “you were right. i’m better off dead, and apparently no one else can manage it, so i’m handing the job off to you. and this is exactly how i want it done. izzy, i want you to handle this. i want it done right.”

[when-humans-were-good]

also while everyone’s on the topic of thinfs being rushed and wrapped up too quickly

it rly annoyed me at the start of s2 how kinda quickly Ed got over stede leaving him

like wot?

he had his suicidal times and was mad at stede when he finally saw him and then they met up again, stede said he loved him and boom they were fine?

just didn’t sit right with me

[ghostofchaos-past]

not seeing enough hype for the storm scene at the end of episode 2 guys

[wow-its-me]

HOLY FUCKING SHIT

HOLY FUCKING SHIT

HOLY FUCKING SHIT

I didn’t have ANY OF THAT on my bingo card

Wtf

Ed tries to kill Izzy, Izzy Sucide attempt, Ed forces Jim to fight their new girlfriend to the death, Ed tries to kill everyone, Ed tries to get everyone to kill him

Wtf wtf wtf

Oh actually I did get one thing

Lucious Is alive :) but traumatized :(

[asoulwithadream]

Red Flags - Historical Piracy

Followed by warning shots, if the enemy did not strike their own flag to signal surrender, the red flag (or bloody flag as it is known) was raised, signaling that the target's cargo/valuables will be taken by force and that "no quarter" will be given if the enemy ship continued to refuse surrender.

[mossiestpiglet]

Ed also agrees that No Children is an edizzy song apparently

[the-eclectic-wonderer]

Are you fucking kidding me. Are you fucking kidding me OFMD writers you can’t do this to my bleeding heart are you FOR REAL

[vampiratecore]

love how ed's speech was basically a shitty celebrity non-apology. kinda hate how they all went with it, especially izzy

[viola-halogen]

They’re really taking the Ed/Izzy dynamic to a whole new level of fucked up this season huh

[dimity-lawn]

OFMD s2 spoiler Is the obsession with soup going to lead to Stede and Ed getting a tureen?

[buckevantommy]

IZZY FUCKING HANDS!!!

[ghost4ghosts]

s2e2 spoilers ? under the cut

ed/izzy said i love you in their own ways before blackbonnet did. dare i say iconique

[teeny-tiny-revenge]

Honestly all the takes I come across complaining about Ed's excessive violence feel like they watched an entirely different show. Most of the time on raids he just... stands there? Looking scary maybe with his make -up and outfit and overkill amount of guns, but not doing much? He shoots one random guy who's already impaled on a sword, yeah. Outside of that he doesn't do anything but stare, and not even all the time. He spends a good deal of one raid lighting his pipe and not even paying attention to anything (wouldn't matter to him if anyone were to kill him while he isn't watching his back after all, he wants to die). He pays more attention to the cake than the raid on the wedding boat.

I think the looking scary bit is key, because that's what Blackbeard is and has always been for Ed. He's relied on this image for ages on the job. He doesn't have to do anything on raids (doesn't even have to be on the boat, he says, he's fully aware of this effect). A bit of make-up, a tough looking outfit, that's all it takes because Blackbeard's image does all the work. People see him and scream, he doesn't have to do violence, because everyone will just assume he's going to, and the idea of Ed doing anything is more effective than Ed actually doing anything.

Ed is all posturing and playing a role (and he plays it well). Even with his crew he runs the exact same strategy. He's a whole lot of bark and to anyone other than Izzy pretty much no bite. We see him do two sorts of thing, in broad categories: on his own, he's having a depressive breakdown, does drugs and booze and spends all night crying. Some of the drugs and booze extent into interaction with the people around him, because that's how drugs and booze work, but, most of Ed's actions around the crew are all playing into the mad devil pyrate Blackbeard image. He doesn't lay hand on anyone but Izzy. He doesn't have to! Frenchie is clearly terrified of him, and the others aren't much better. And Ed means to be scary. He means to be so scary that eventually this fear will make the crew turn on him so he can get his suicide by mutiny. And it works! But even when he's in the middle of his suicide by storm or mutiny whatever comes first spiral, he threatens and postures. He waves around a torch. He tells Jim and Archie to fight to the death, and they do it at first. But Ed has no weapons on him. He's not even wearing shoes! He has a torch and a crazy expression on his face, and that's enough, because Blackbeard has always been about smoke and mirrors, and Ed is a master at his job. He can just tell his crew to fight to the death, and he has nothing on his person to enforce it if they say no. Nothing! The fight to the death is a provocation, just like the wheel and the "I'll shoot the mast next!" are provocations. He's bluffing. And he's so good at it, he plays exactly into the image everyone has of him, that it works.

He doesn't fight back when they beat him to death either. They're doing his bidding, after all.

What traumatizes the crew is the meaninglessness of the raids, the atmosphere of despair, the way life no longer seems to mean anything on this ship (because it means nothing to its captain). And of course killing their captain, whom they stuck with for months even through his depression spiral, who they didn't dare reach out to, but watched and hoped would get better. And then they have to live with the guilt of having killed him. They aren't traumatized because he tortured them. He overworked them, and he made them live in his own, empty world, and that one was torturing him most of them all.

Of course they let him come back, and ultimately forgive him. They aren't monsters either, and after all life means something on this ship.

Controversial opinion (?): the Kraken Era wasn’t all that dark.

There’s a whole lot of meta and fic out there that portray early season two Ed as a bloodthirsty, hyperviolent monster, and when that portrayal is challenged, the rebuttal is usually along the lines of, “I’m just doing what canon did. Did you even watch the show?”

I did watch the show, and honestly? I expected Ed to be so much worse than he was! When I see people say they didn’t think Ed did enough to redeem himself or that he went past the point of no return, I just… don’t understand.

I already went into this in my way-too-long meta about Ed and abuse, but I do think it bears repeating (in a shorter post) because it seems like Ed’s actions -- more than the actions of any other character -- are scrutinized and discussed outside of the context of, y’know… a comedy about pirates. There’s tons of casual violence in Our Flag Means Death. Sometimes the violence is even funny! 

So what does Ed actually do?

As far as I can remember (I’ve only seen season two a few of times, so correct me if I’ve missed something!), we see Ed directly harm someone twice in the first two episodes: first on the wedding boat, and then when he shoots Izzy in the leg. Kind of unimpressive numbers, yeah? Tbh, I'd expect more out of a heartbroken Blackbeard.

The first instance involves Ed shooting a man during a raid. That man has a sword through his chest before Ed fires, leading me to believe that Ed’s still following his season one pattern of keeping himself a step removed from murder (technically, the sword killed that guy). We also don’t see the murder happen; the man tumbles offscreen before Ed shoots. This makes the action less brutal. If the writers wanted us to be appalled by Ed’s violence, we would’ve gotten a graphic kill (or several).

And the second instance is Izzy. Ed shoots Izzy in the leg after he suggests that the shitty atmosphere is because of Ed’s feelings for Stede. Hot take, maybe, but I don’t think that was entirely out of line -- definitely not for a pirate captain whose first mate is acting out! Ed’s feelings for Stede are not the only problem; a significant chunk of the problem is Izzy. Izzy called in the navy and led to their capture and, more importantly, Izzy bullied Ed back into the Blackbeard persona. This is what Izzy said he wanted.

We’re also told that Ed has taken more of Izzy’s toes between seasons. This isn’t cool -- bosses definitely shouldn’t be asking for their employees’ toes -- but there is a precedent for it: in season one, Ed told Stede that he used to feed people their toes for a laugh (yuck). For a laugh. This, to me, implies that it’s not a huge deal. It’s certainly not completely unexpected pirate behavior, and it seems more lenient than, like, a keelhauling or a whipping. I think both of those things would've felt way more gruesome and dark.

As far as violent actions go, that’s not a lot. Like, numerically.

Things get darker in S2E2 when Ed becomes increasingly desperate for someone, anyone, to send him to doggy heaven. He’s unhinged and working his way up to a murder-suicide before he’s stopped, but he doesn’t lay a hand on anyone. He orders Archie and Jim to fight to the death. He ignores anonymous crewmembers as they’re swept overboard in the storm. This is bad! It’s self-destructive and selfish! But violent? Monstrous? I don’t really think so.

In my opinion, the worst thing Ed does is force his crew to do violence for him -- not because it’s violence (again, they’re pirates), but because the violence hurts them. THIS is what traumatizes them! Their trauma flashbacks are scenes of them hurting others, not of Ed hurting them directly. Ed didn’t physically torture his crew (with the exception of Izzy, and that’s complicated). His crime was driving them to do one violent raid after another, killing and plundering without any joy or theatrics. Ed feels trapped in the role of Blackbeard -- the role that he’s been desperate to escape -- and, in his heartbreak, he opts to trap his crew with him. 

Yeah, Ed is messed up in the first two episodes of season two. I don’t blame the crew for almost killing him; it’s what needed to be done. I think that Jim, Archie, Frenchie, and Fang had every right to want Ed gone after Stede’s return. 

But I don’t think that Ed was a super violent monster who tortured his crew and murdered his way through his breakup. He engages in very little onscreen violence, and the person that most of his violence is focused on -- Izzy -- is the same person who told him to be violent. I think that anyone who says that Ed’s actions in the first part of season two are extremely dark is either looking at them out of context, misremembering what actually happened and just recalling the dark tone, or working with some kind of motive.

In conclusion: Ed is a man who, at his very darkest, was still operating pretty firmly within the bounds of "stuff pirates do" (but not stuff Ed has historically done, presumably).

Also look at him. Thank you.

GIF by unearthlydust

[chuplayswithfire]

something ive been thinking about and you always have good takes on this so im asking you. do you think the show has decided to Not Talk About Race this season? when ofmd was sold to me, that was one of the aspects that were brought up. not that season 1 is perfect, of course, but they had the "racists get killed" rule, and both ep2 and ep5 have lots of interesting bits and jokes ("not the crowd for skull talk" being my favourite). i just don't see s2 donig anything like that, which made me realise it could be a deliberate choice??

honestly sometimes i think season 1 was just so good and tightly scripted and purposeful that we all thought more highly of it than it may have deserved. i certainly wouldn't have sold the show on that basis, though it is something i like about season 1.

i think season 2 is genuinely just more careless, with regards to this kind of thing. from izzy's "wild dog" and "thought you (ed) were roach" comments to the joke of people not being able to pronounce china, it's felt a lot less purposeful when racism is invoked than in season 1. i don't know if it's a deliberate choice or an artifact of trimming things down to fit the adjusted budget count and getting a bit careless, but it definitely feels like statements that at least would have been acknowledged as racist by a beat in the show - like the man for sale bit having roach and frenchie in the background getting out of dodge - are just being presented without commentary now.