#ofmd s2e6

[madootles]

dramatic eyes. dramatic lips. drama on the cheeks.

sketch

[adickaboutspoons]

Y'all realize that there's more than a day between episodes 5 & 6, right? I get that it's weird that Pete and Lucius apparently hadn't told anyone about their engagement yet, but: 1) Ed's cheeks go from looking like this:

to this:

The bruise around his right orbital has completely disappeared, and the one on his left cheek is almost healed, the scab well on its way to a scar. That kind of healing takes at least a week, but it might be as much as a month. 2)

If this takes place the day after ep 5, they JUST went through the adventure of the Cursed Suit, which involved raiding 2 ships in 1 day. And they're already bored? (and spent the night after all that rearranging furniture?)

and 3)

It would mean that Ed was right about only having to wear the penitence onesie and cat bell for one day, and then the crew was apparently totes ok with not only letting him wander around bell-less, but have gone back to calling him Captain:

Edited to add: Ed's not the only one with dramatically altered scars. Izzy goes from looking like this:

to this:

I'm not saying it's a LOT of time, but it's for sure more than just one day.

[unabashed-elation]

As devastating as the finale was, Izzy was so good this season!

So here is my painting of his beautiful look in episode 6 :)

[on-till-morning]

Just gotta give a shout out that Stede’s very first (#1) suggestion about what to do with the guilt loot is to buy clothes, which is totally 100% for the sole benefit of his only-ever-been-in-one-outfit-and-one-outfit-only bf and def not at all about I’M A BIT OF A CLOTHESHORSE Stede and all the outfits he can buy for himself while dressing Ed up in a pretty women shopping montage

[piratesmyass]

If nobody's going to upload all of Izzy's La vie en rose to youtube, then I bloody will

And here's just the French number

[watercooler-raptors]

Israel "Izzy" Hands showing up on deck serving cunt with this look, tenderly singing La Vie En Rose, then facing down torture with a flippant "whatever this is, it's just gonna turn me on"?! Sir?!?!

Con you fucking King. No one else could do it.

[shiplessoceans]

I have digested episode 6 and 7 and taken some time to think and my overall feeling about the episodes is this:

Discomfort. And I think that's the takeaway we're meant to have.

The circumstances under which Ed and Stede for slept together feel off and I feel this is by design.

This wasn't, 'I love you, lets share this as an expression of our love and trust when we are both ready and willing.' It was 'Help me, I just murdered someone and I need to feel anything other than what I feel right now.'

But Ed loves Stede and he knew they were headed here anyway right? A bit more time wouldn't matter and Stede needs him right now so, yeah. Lets do this.

It is very telling that they don't speak. There's silent communication, a desperate grab, a wall slam, a pleading look, a nod and then they fall into it.

Stede didn't speak at all because he knew if he did he would have to let himself feel everything he was avoiding.

Ed didn't speak because he tried and Stede shut it down.

The night was beautiful and I don't doubt they had fun. But it was missing something.

No Gnossiene number 5. Because it was sex. Not lovemaking.

The framing of Ed having his back against a wall, and then the only other scene we see, they are not deepening that passion, but instead we watch as they pause with Ed sitting on the bed watching Stede close a curtain on them both... Oof.

The thing that sticks out to me in Episode 7 is that Ed and Stede are always apart from that point forward. There is a heap of distance between them on the bed. They sit apart at the bar. They moved too quickly, never got fully comfortable with each other and now they've retreated back to their respective comfort levels as they were before they had sex and it's discordant and feels weird, because it's supposed to.

After the euphoria of them finally having sex has worn off, I am afraid I have to agree with Ed.

It was a mistake.

They would both have been better off if they talked about how Stede was feeling, if Stede hadn't shut Ed down when he tried to open a dialogue. I'm not blaming Stede, please understand, there were two consenting parties here and Ed could have shaken his head at Stede just as easily, but he's still bad at communicating his boundaries and knowing what he wants.

The show intentionally gave us:

-Here's Ed learning patience is important when you really want something.

-Here's Ed communicating that to Stede.

-Here's Stede and Ed forgetting that lesson because Stede is in pain.

-Here's a demonstration of why this isn't a good thing.

We wanted a mature relationship for these two and now we must wear the consequences.

Sigh, bring on the 'sure to be devestating' finale.

[thermodynamic-comedian]

something about la vie en rose. anne's "artsy outsider" remark. young izzy singing je ne regrette rien at spanish jackie's. young ed looking at him from across the bar like "that guy. i need him as my first mate"

[kjthenbee]

One thing that I really appreciate about that scene at the end of S2E6 is that before Stede goes in for the kiss, he hesitates for a moment, waiting for Ed to give him the okay. You can see Ed gives a small nod, and it’s only after that that Stede kisses him.

I still think that it probably wasn’t the best idea for them to go so fast with their first time, but I do love that they had that little moment of consent.

[starrywangxian]

ofmd s2e6 spoilers!!

THIS IS WHY WE REWATCH EPISODES PEOPLE!!!! BECAUSE EPISODE 6 OPENS WITH A SHOT OF A LIGHTHOUSE!!!! AND I DIDN'T NOTICE THIS THE FIRST TIME AROUND AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

[mossiestpiglet]

Not just ed SEEING izzy, but also ed making sure IZZY sees him seeing him and approving/supporting. It’s that mutual importance between them.

There’s also a connection between the way izzy looks to ed/ed toasts izzy and in the next episode ed looks to izzy/izzy tells ed to follow his feelings. Both of them still have the need to look to the other to see what the other thinks of them, they need the support but they’re also afraid of the pain that’s been there in the past, and now the other is automatically affirming and supportive of their expressions.

(just my replies to this post, putting it here since it’s kind of a separate thing I want to be able to look at)

[adickaboutspoons]

@bogeymangrandy I’m sorry - I know it’s prolly bad Tumblr etiquette to address a reply in a whole new post, but this is kind of too big an answer to address in the space a reply offers.

So the weird, shitty unchecked racist stuff isn’t JUST contained to episode 5. In episode 3, Izzy says Ed “was a wild dog, and we dealt with him like one.” It’s to set up the “doggy heaven” line, which is doing some heavy lifting in terms of conveying to Izzy exactly how much Ed trusted and confided in Stede, but referring to a MOC as a dog, especially a wild one, is still fucking gross, and, worse, it’s only part of a pattern of racist sentiments. In episode 6, Izzy tells Ed “I thought you were Roach” - that old “they all look alike to me” chestnut. Thanks, I fucking loathe it.

But episode 5 is particularly packed with troublingly racist bullshit, and carries with it connotations for the wider season.

The most straight-forward is when Stede tells Izzy that Blackbeard “credited you with a lot of his skills,” and then “you taught him everything he knows.” If it’s meant to be read as true, it’s attributing all the talent, skill, and brilliance of a MOC to some white dude. But even if it’s meant to be read as Stede flattering Izzy to get what he wants out of him (which I think it is - the whole thing with the fog in season 1 episode 4 kind of hinges on Ed having knowledge and skills that Izzy does not), it’s still not great because it means Stede thinks stroking some mediocre white guy’s ego is worth more than Ed’s reputation, which means he learned nothing from the tavern scene in season 1 episode 10 where he similarly disparages Ed’s reputation for the gratification of his white compatriots.

Similarly, consider him shouting “those fucking barbarians!” after the mostly POC (and Pete) crew rip his red coat, and compare to “You savages!” in season 1 episode 2 when Stede thinks the indigenous people who have captured him have roasted Wellington and Hornberry on a spit. But at least in season 1 Stede gets rightfully called out for being a racist. Season 2 has yet to push back.

Then, there’s the portrayal of retributive justice (the idea that, for justice to be served, a transgressor has to be punished). We start the episode with Ed in his penitence onesie and cat bell. And there is that whole Biblical connotation of sackcloth as an expression of humility, but it also calls to mind the ill-fitted and low-quality material of prison uniforms, with the cat bell as a low-tech ankle monitor, uncomfortably tight and alerting everyone to his position at all times. I’ve seen his non-pology framed as a corporate “apology” and I do think that’s mostly what they’re going for here, but there’s also an element of the preformative penitence that prisoners are forced to undergo during parole hearings. This is Ed being punished for his Kraken-era transgressions.

Now compare to how Izzy, a white dude, has been offered rehabilitative justice this season - never had to grovel, never had to debase himself, never even had to offer a single word of apology for any of the dire shit he inflicted on the crew in season 1, but was nonetheless given the unconditional support and resources he needed to transform into essentially a completely different person. 

It’s not just the races of the people upon whom these different modes of justice are being implemented that is significant - it’s also the races of the aggrieved parties in how they respond to the “justice” imparted by the retributive model, because we also see two direct, individual applications of retributive justice in the episode; Ed offering Lucius to push him overboard, and Fang describing how he brutalized Ed’s body after Jim knocked him unconscious. With Lucius, we see that he experiences a momentary thrill of vengeance, but almost immediately it flares out, and he’s still just as traumatized as before, and perhaps even more obsessed with Ed. Clearly, for him, a white dude, this primitive, Hamurabian form of justice does not give him closure. With Fang, a MOC, it’s the exact opposite - Ed terrorized him, he beat Ed up, and now they’re sweet.

In isolation, this wouldn’t read as implying that white people are more “civilized” and “evolved” than POC - except all the other POC that Kraken!Ed tormented are also seemingly fine now. Jim and Archie are immediately laughing and joking about torture after the non-pology, and Frenchie is debuting a new fancy cat flag and pointing out that “at least he’s wearing the sack” when Lucius starts freaking out about Blackbeard being back. There’s also a running through-line across several episodes about the supremacy of white, colonial values and civility, but I’ll get back to that in just a moment.

Because now we have to talk about the matter of the curse. Because, again, we’re seeing a break-down across racial lines. Team Curse is Jim, Archie, Olu, Frenchie, Roach, and token white guy Pete (the Swede having abandoned the crew for his new paramore, Buttons having transmogrified, Lucius busy being traumatized elsewhere, and Wee John just MIA). Team “Curses aren’t real” is Izzy and Stede. So this isn’t like season 1 where everyone is just kinda hilariously science illiterate and superstitious (like with the “not a mermaid” conversation) - instead, we’ve got a group of superstitious POC vs. the rational, enlightened White Dudes. And the White Dudes are unequivocally correct. Peanuts ARE a serious allergen (and a legume, not a bean). Yeast is what causes bread to rise, not fairies. Ergo curses AREN’T real, and the crew are being irrational. So when Stede relents at the end and agrees to give up his suit, it’s not him conceding that there is validity to his POC crew’s worldview - it’s a white dude condescending to the poor, simple-minded, uncivilized folk even though he’s for sure in the right. Isn’t that just SO magnanimous of him? Isn’t it awfully white of him?

And given that the White view is the Right view in episode 5, we have to start interrogating the other places where that idea shows up. In episode 1, we hear a white priest bloviating about how "The natural condition of humanity is base and vile. It is the obligation of people of standing, such as yourselves, to elevate the common human rabble through the sacred transaction of matrimony.” Normally (and at the time when I first watched it) I would clock this as CRITICAL of the tendency of predominantly white cultures to be self-congratulatory of how THEIR ceremonies are so much more CIVILIZED than those of the savage  - as though they invented the concepts of commitment and monogamy, and as though those concepts are inherently better than the alternatives. But then we have Ed, a MOC, issuing an objection - not to the specific union, but to the concept of a nice, white wedding in general, followed by a raid that Jim later comments on: “Is it just me or was the wedding thing a bit over the line?”

And, consider, in season 1 episode 3, Jim drops this line on Olu when he points out that Jim killed one of Jackie’s husbands: “We live in a state of nature.” So the “natural condition” is intrinsically tied up with that hyper-violent pirate lifestyle, and if even one of the practitioners thereof is clocking it as “a bit over the line” - does it not follow that the bloviating priest was RIGHT? That the white man sure DOES have that burden to take up, doesn’t he?

Which is exactly what Ricky is proposing in his little speech in episode 6: "It's up to us fine gentlemen to stand up against this modern piracy and stay vigilant". And we KNOW that Ricky is full of shit. We KNOW that he’s backing up his racist agenda with a self-serving, revisionist narrative. But maybe it would be better if he also didn’t, maybe, have a point? I guess what I’m saying is that I really miss the days when a racist got a knife through the hand or their ship burned down and it was something to be celebrated, and that I’m not loving the idea this season that maybe the racists are kind of in the right.

[pilotlala]

Ed and Izzy's relationship goes through profound changes between episodes 6 and 7 of season 2. At the beginning of episode 6, Izzy can't admit to approaching Ed on purpose and calls him a "mopey twat." Ed offers a terse apology while unable to even look Izzy in the eye. By mid episode 7, Ed accepts gentle ribbing without anger, and, more importantly, takes Izzy's advice to heart about listening to his feelings.

What happened? Not much time has passed. Yet, there has been a seismic shift.

At the beginning of episode 6, Ed's guilt is still ever-present. We see this in the flashbacks to killing his father, cutting off Izzy's toe. We see it in his response to the gilt/guilt room. He is trying to move forward and change but he is still plagued by these reminders of his violent past. He wants to make amends to Izzy but, "sorry about your leg," is all he can muster. Thinking too deeply about the Izzy's suffering and the role he plays in that is too painful, and has the potential to pull him back to a dark and dangerous place.

But Izzy has a breakthrough during Calypso's birthday. Moment by moment he has been healing, as he accepts the unicorn prosthesis from the crew, as he whittles a shark for Lucius. But when he looks in the mirror with Wee John and sees the possibility of who he can be, unencumbered by the toxic masculinity that ran his life for so long, he is able to move forward. The crew envelops him in love when he reveals this side of himself and serenades them with "La Vie En Rose." Like so many moments in this show, it is an example of the healing power of art.

When Ed sees the changes in Izzy, sees that Izzy might actually be okay, he is able to set aside some of his guilt that made it impossible for them to interact earlier. The door opens a crack and the conversations can start again.

[some-anonymity-preferred]

There's a Mirror!

I love this post on gaze reading and its effect on the decision to mirror-flip Stede shoving Ed against the wall.

Turns out there is also an actual mirror in the scene! (Thank you Discord frens.)

Throughout season 1, mirrors show us when something is even more wrong than what we're seeing onscreen, when someone is emotionally unsettled, when someone's trauma has an active hold on them.

It turns out we are watching the beginning of their super-hot and ill-advised first time through a mirror. And the mirror is showing us all the same subtleties that mirrors did in season 1.

I am dying.

To quote Roach, "This broth, it's, it's beautiful, complicated, balanced. It might be the best thing I've ever had.

We eat... but how often do we taste?"

[piratesmyass]

Because I am totally normal and sane and not at all fixated on Izzy Hands, I spent four hours editing this. Can't put it on youtube because copyright, but here's a link to doogle grive.

I removed all the most intrusive noises since I was mad about it being constantly interrupted and such. It was completely self indulgent, but I though y'all might appreciate it as well.

It's in no way perfect, but it's better than a bloody canonball halfway through the performance or Blackbonnet docking in the background. You can still kind of hear it, but I've removed the loudest parts, hence why it switches from French to English several times. Had to replace whole verses because of the damned faggots >:(

It might take a wee bit to load, please be patient with it. Just stop it for a while and it'll catch up.

Anyway, enjoy Izzy's wonderful singing, my equally mentally ill friends <333

[on-till-morning]

So I’m rewatching episodes 6 and 7 to prepare for tonight’s finale and I'm just now catching like how Frenchie “first mate to Blackbeard for a day aka the original pyramid schemer” and Olu “almost captain of the revenge aka crown prince Azi of Egypt” AKA THE ORIGINAL DREAM TEAM actually team up here to start working Ned’s mercenaries and their work place insecurities FIRST before Stede even appears on the scene to instigate a full on stike. In parallels to s1e5 they once again interact with the working class and once again this affects what Stede accomplishes later. In s1e5 Stede gets intel through Frencie and Olu which he uses to ultimately help Ed feel better about himself and to show him that the nobles aren't any better than him, while also reveals a new side of himself in doing so. He stops Ed from killing a ship of rich people to instead watch as the nobles accidentally set their own ship on fire, after which Team Revenge sails away while it burns in the background. In s2e6 Stede takes down Ned Low’s operation and saves the entire crew by leaning in on cracks he quickly sees, cracks that Frenchie and Olu have in fact already poked at. This time differs in that we aren’t shown that Stede knows about the connection between him and Frenchie and Olu. It also differs in that, instead of being somewhat removed from the whole 'setting a ship on fire thing,' this time we see Stede consciously throw the violin, moving that much closer to the violence.

Much more to analyze about all this but I have 1.5 episodes before me and midnight so I'm going to press on for now!

Bonus for Izzy's contribution: