#taika is literally so fucking pretty

[sad-yehaw]

me screaming is an understatement

[nuka]

You know what? I think it's fucking lovely that the OFMD fandom is collectively coming to support Taika after all the shit he got for the letter. If you don’t like him, that’s fine, I’m not saying everyone does or should, but the general vibe in the fandom this week has been so much better regarding Taika. And I’m glad Samba did a shoutout for him. I’ve seen so many people say, “actually, overall Taika’s a good guy and he’s allowed to make mistakes and it was a letter so just block me if you disagree”. People are going to get shit for saying that, but they’re saying it anyway, and I admire that.

I’ve always enjoyed Taika’s work, I saw his short film Two Cars, One Night back when I was a teenager and I immediately thought there was something unique about his style. Something about how he tells meaningful stories through humor has always appealed to me. Not to get all parasocial here, but I do get the vibe from his work and his past interviews that I’ve gone through some of the same shit as he has early on in life, so that might be why I relate to him and the messages in his work so much, and why I can kinda see where he’s coming from. I think he’s a brilliant filmmaker. And he’s truly put so much effort into his character in Our Flag Means Death, and the show wouldn’t be the same without his contribution to it. Anyway, that’s just my opinion on his work.

I’ve come to the conclusion that he’s not acting from a place of malice with the letter, and he often tends to say things in interviews without explaining himself that well, which leads to people making their own assumptions about what he’s saying. These days you have to overexplain yourself when you say anything just to make sure you’re not accidentally offending anyone, because people will read some hidden meaning into anything you don’t say. There are actually evil people in the world, and Taika’s not one of them. He’s also not in a place of political power, so his political stance has about the same power as my hairdresser’s political stance.

Taika’s put a lot of work into giving visibility and a voice to indigenous groups through filmmaking. Many people are willing to throw all that away for one letter. I’m not. If you disagree, then that’s your opinion. Personally I think he’s a pretty decent guy, a complex human being just like the rest of us, and he’s done a lot of good. Do I think he could’ve done some things differently regarding this situation or some situations in the past? Sure! He’s not perfect. No one is.

But I also completely understand why he’s not much on social media anymore, because he’ll get attacked for literally anything he says or does. Why bother trying to appease anyone online, when the majority of people are going to be dicks about it anyway. He probably has better things to do with his time in the real world.

So yeah.

[sarucane]

Allow me to preface with: I love where OFMD ends up. Every time I see something that makes me fear for a renewal (Taika noooo), I remember that everyone was was okay where it ended, and dammit the ends justified the means

But:

Fuuuuck it's overstuffed, objectively. And my measurement of overstuffiness is: Big Musical Moments.

OFMD has these amazing sequences where the music and the action and the story all blend together in this glorious literal symphony. A normal episode has 1-2 of these sequences, and they're fucking glorious and eternal.

The finale of S2? The finale of S2 has FOUR Big Musical Moments! Five if you count Ed coming out of the water!

It's too many, it just is. There's missing links between character moments, missing plot details--it's a mess.

But I fucking love it and I'm so, so glad they rushed, because a TV season ender is a balance between the story as a whole and the investment of its watchers. Jenkins and co. decided that the investment of the watchers--and the wholeness of its charaters--was more important than the mechanics of story. And if that make you feel cheated, that's fair and that stinks. But fuck, so many stories are about the endless continuance of the characters and the ego of the creators--it's pretty damn amazing to feel like the fans (*cough* of the main arc *cough*) are valued and the creators are less important than getting to a place where it's ok to end.

The last line of this show might be "fuck that's strong!" "maybe we just air it out a bit..."

And that's actually okay. And it is, somehow, beautiful.

But goddamnit, JUST FIVE MORE MINUTES and that episode would have been PERFECT...

[batsarebetterthanpeople]

Takia & Rhys are platonic friends, so i'd rather not watch a sex scene BUT scattered clothes/waist-up naked bed cuddling/jumping each other when the Passion Grows Too Great/overheard moans etc. would all be excellent. Also maybe a scene right after they have sex, where Ed's snoring & then it pans over to Stede whose expression is just 🤩🤩 like when Arnold Schwarzenegger loses his virginity in Twins.

Not to be like, a sex worker on main, but this is such a weird take to me.

Like first of reason it's a weird take is, I've done a fake sex scene in a filming situation before (it was for a friend's art school project as a teenager and it lasted exactly 10 seconds so it was like not serious or comparable) and trust me acting in a sex scene is not very much like having sex. And unlike what I did there's gonna be a whole intimacy coordinator and set choreographer and all that shit on set which is gonna make it even less like having sex. Like from what I gather through the grape vine if there's a blackbonnet sex scene is season 2 like what I described what happened was they took the worlds stiffest weirdest blanket that was specifically frozen into one position, and then there were like 5 people sitting just of screen in those directors chairs pausing it every few minutes to make sure everything that's happening is above board, and they're wearing jeans under that blanket, and Rosie Darby and Rita Ora are also off screen in a chair just to make sure it doesn't get to narsty (i've heard of actors spouses sitting in on sex scenes before Idk if that's standard practice but it's a thing I've heard of). So a sex scene is not sex let's just start there. You're on a set with a bunch of fucking cameras, nobody is touching anybody else's junk, they will literally make fake prosthetic junk for them to touch before they let the actors touch each other, and nobody is actually even naked. Like even in episode 8, the least sexual nudity ever, Buttons the character may have been butt fucking naked but Ewen Bremner had one of those skin color tape on g strings that makes you look like a ken doll down there.

The second reason it's a weird take for me is, as someone who has done sex work before... truly getting paid to fuck a platonic friend sounds like a dream scenario. Like that sounds like the most normal scenario I can think of. Like you would already care pretty deeply about each other's comfort level, you would be able to get passed the awkward "so uh, hi I'm ___ I guess we're having sex now" thing because that's your buddy you know them. You can meme with each other to diffuse the tension. Absolute best case scenario. Like that's not what's happening here because like I said they're super not having sex, but I were watching a porno the actors being platonic friends IRL would not ruin it for me because that sounds like literally so much chiller than fucking a stranger for money to me.' I prefer a John I've seen before personally. (not that those two types of sex work are the same)

The third reason this is weird to me is because... we've like, seen them kiss, presumably we want them to kiss again. But that is where the acting is real. Does them being platonic friends ruin the kiss for you too? Because they actually kissed each other. Unlike a sex scene that would not be fake.

The final reason is, like I said, we're not watching Rhys and Taika have sex because they didn't have sex (for this). But we are watching Ed and Stede have sex. Ed and Stede are not platonic friends, so the people you're watching have sex (Ed and Stede) are very much attracted to each other.

TL;DR: Any sex scene they would do on OFMD is all smoke and mirrors. Even if they literally showed us a dick going into an ass (which they're super not gonna do) that is prosthetics, ass molds and cgi. So Rhys and Taika being platonic friends who aren't attracted to each other irl should be of no object. If you would prefer to see a scene like you described rather than a full blown sex scene that's fine, but Taika and Rhys being Just Friends is quite possibly the most nonsensical reason to not want to see it. It's fine to feel weird about seeing sex on tv like that's ok you don't have to come up with some reason.

[prettybluelites]

Thoughts: Impossible Birds

Okay, to hold me over until Thursday, I'm going to rewatch and blather about each of the existing three episodes, one each, today tomorrow and Wednesday. It won't be true "reaction" because I'm on...oh, the 6th rewatch? But I'll try to cover the stuff I know I was thinking when I watched the first time.

Action right out of the gate. Love a good dream sequence. Rhys looking alarmingly Branagh-esque.

First lols of the new season: "You absolute twaaaaaaaaa..." and the tackle hug. That just looked like it hurt.

More on this bit in the previous post, where I wrote about "I Love My Baby."

This scenery was well worth the wait, goddamn

Not gonna lie, I'm not a fan of fart jokes, but it got them back to reality pretty quick. So I guess I have Wee John's farts to thank for the outstanding pacing so far.

THEY PIMPED THE SWEDE OUT TO JACKIE, omg, I fucking DIED at Roach practically pushing him into her lap. "He's single!"

Also lmao at Buttons' plaintive "May we go back to the sea now?" The flip side of "Are we there yet?" They really are just little children.

I know I'm supposed to be caught up in the "Trust No One" tattoo but I'm distracted by Taika's waist

Jesus Christ there's a lot to unpack in that wedding officiant's speech. "Elevate the common human rabble," yeeesh. I mean, I know that was a thing, like, "people of our standing" or whatever. But yeesh.

That close shot of Ed's eyes when he says "I'm the fuckin' devil"--that's something that grabbed me when I first watched the trailer. Or teaser, whichever it was. There's not a single glimmer of light there. He's so tired and broken and it's all there in his eyes.

The wedding raid is probably a vaguely inappropriate time to mention that Vico is still, as I believe Nathan Foad put it, the hottest human being on the planet

Obsessed with Archie

Obsessed with Susan/Zheng Yi Sao

Obsessed with Auntie

I'm not going to analyze the Izzy stuff much at this point because there's already been a lot of that and I haven't fully processed my feelings so right now I'm just going to leave it at, Con O'Neill is fuckin incredible

Swede has assimilated well, I see

Firm believer that everybody looks cuter when they're wet. Stede looks cuter but mostly sadder

"Could be, could be, mate" - I screamed

Ricky is obviously ew and I hated sitting there helpless while he played Stede like the proverbial fiddle

Stede's look when Swede says "husbandly duties," equal parts Oh no, TMI and Aw, that's our lil boy

Feels wrong not to say anything about Izzy's sort-of confession to Ed, but like I said, I'm still processing. Did I mention Con is incredible?

Taika is scary in the scene that follows, it's actually kinda hard for me to watch, but goddamn he nails it. When can this show win all the Emmys it deserves?

Fun fact, the lime rickey was invented in 1883 :D

Leslie Jones is awesome and gorgeous, and I love Jackie and Susan squaring off in this scene

I absolutely love that Jim, the orphan raised by a nun to be a killing machine, is the character that has made me laugh the hardest, like until I literally cried, on every single viewing of this season so far. And Fang and Archie laughing at Jim's telling of the story just adds to the moment, there's so much joy in the middle of that awful, awful situation they're all in.

And on the other hand is Ed's speech about the bird, just heartbreaking, especially the way he's gasping his way through it. Treading water, waiting to drown.

The song here is fucking gorgeous too, they just keep hitting the soundtrack out of the park

I love soup too, friends.

And here endeth the episode, not including the extended bit of Jim's Pinocchio story, but I've said all that needs saying about that.

Stay tuned for Episode 2 tomorrow!

[widowsliver]

okay so, not music related (if u twist it, it can be tho) but. you mentioned media and that so, top 5 films? my fav question to ask anyone as a (almost) film student

Finally found the time to answer this as I’m on a 3 hour train ride (willing myself to not make a 1975 reference right now) so here ya go!! thank you for your patience :)

1. Knives Out (Dir. Rian Johnson)

my favourite genre of typically everything will always be a good classic murder mystery (I am a massive agatha christie fan), I love anything that really makes you think and look out for stuff whilst you’re watching it and gets your heart pumping, so this is why this will always be my favourite film because of how masterfully it was developed. everything down to the angles chosen by rian to literally everything in the film (I’ve watched the videos where he breaks down scenes on YouTube so many times) is just perfect and makes so much sense — something that gets lost sometimes (in my opinion) in mysteries. although the sequel isn’t on my top 5 list, I genuinely think it was one of the strongest second instalments to any franchise and I throughly enjoyed it.

2. Red Eye (Dir. Wes Craven)

similar reason to knives out, I love the thrill of the film because of the confined space, which initially would make the audience think there wouldn’t be much you could use and get stuck, but I don’t think this was an issue in the film at all. my mate initially chucked this on without telling us anything about the film (besides cillian murphy being in it, which was enough to convince me) so imagine the surprise on my face when I realised this wasn’t a cute corny romcom. the ending fight sequence in the house was also fucking amazing and quickly shot to my top 5 list immediately after watching it. I also fancy the duck out of rachel mcadams so this was a bisexual dream.

3. Moulin Rouge! (Dir. Baz Luhrmann)

I just love love. I love love love love. the best love story to ever be told in such a extravagant way with an hilarious cast. this is also my favourite stage musical of all time and the way they adapted it was brilliant. really does pull the story together amazingly and teaches the audience a lot through it’s hard hitting ending — I cry every time, and despite my love for satine I don’t think I’d love this film as much if it didn’t end the way that it does.

4. JoJo Rabbit (Dir. Taika Waititi)

this is also another film that made me bawl so much when I saw it in the cinema, the way that it made me feel emotionally pulled on my heartstrings like no other film I had seen before, especially with the masterful shot of rosie’s shoes. that’s what got me (and I’m pretty sure what got everyone). to be on my top 5 list, a film either has to emotionally destroy me which makes me experience emotions I never thought I had, or blow my mind. as you can see every film on this list at least meets one of those factors.

5. Now You See Me (Dir. Louis Leterrier)

finally, the awesome film that is now you see me. I admittedly am quite obsessed with jessie eisenburg in this film (unashamed) and I feel bad for my friends who saw me whilst I was at my peak obsession with this film. but all the characters / cast compliment each other really well, and either I’m just insanely easily impressed (all of my friends will definitely agree with me on this) or the ending was just mind blowing. maybe a mixture of both? either way, I also think this film has one of the greatest scores of all time. truly is a masterpiece in every sense of the word!

I will mention the most recent film I watched in the cinema was Mission Impossible: Dead Reckoning Pt. 1 and I was absolutely blown away by it. some excellent directing and choice of shots, costumes etc. as a media student genuinely did feel that everything (down to the last detail) was carefully thought of. also so excited for barbenhiemer I will be watching them both on the same date as a double bill — it’s the law.

[niobiumao3]

Found a little bit more energy to talk about why the cancer plot in Thor: Love and Thunder is just so insufferably bad.

So setting aside weird inaccuracies (infusion sitting literally right next to some random person? lol no, sterility and infections are a thing; why is a woman Natalie Portman's size in a huge, widebore MRI do you know how hard it is to get one of those as a fat person who actually needs it; why does she still have hair; where is her port), the part where she's working on her OWN cancer while making jokes about Stages is just awful writing and intensely insensitive.

You know who works on their own cancer? No one who wants to live. I work with cancer researchers and when they have cancer guess what--someone else does the leg work. Colleagues, possibly, but not them. Sure they can understand the ins and outs better than a layman but they don't do their own pathology.

And Jane isn't even a biologist or a doctor, she's an astrophysicist. Sorry guys but she's not Shuri, she doesn't know fuck all about how to do this shit. There are professional technicians and oncologists who do these things for a REASON. They specialize in it. And the MCU has a biologist/doctor, fucking Helen Cho. Why is it not her that Jane consults with? Erik isn't an oncologist either. And why is the lab Jane wants to get back to not an astrophysics lab in Atacama or something, you know where her own damned work might be??? No she's randomly checking blood samples under a microscope.

This also makes no sense in light of the staging 'joke' with Darcy. Are you going to tell me someone who doesn't know staging is going to work on their own cancer?! Worse, they could have written this joke with proper gallows humor and completely missed the mark. (Eg. "You're stage 4, Jane." "Stage Four A, Darcy, *A*." "Okay that's still distant metastasis soooooo..." " Yeah but it's not as distant as 4B." Darcy, offering a donut: "If yoooouuu say so.")

It's grotesque to see something as serious, life-destroying, and terrifyingly common as cancer dealt with so frivolously. I fucking hate it and I'm disappointed in Taika for putting this kind of garbage out there about goddamned cancer. I don't care how funny your movie is meant to be, this was awful.

And to add insult to injury, the only reason she has cancer is so she can be Thor. That's it; she wouldn't be seeking out Mjolnor otherwise. Later they walk this back by showing her mom dying of it as well, but why was that not brought up initially?? Oh also, it's a retcon! Her mom is ALIVE in Thor 2. Now she's dead since childhood, I guess. Or something.

Also bringing up her mom is clearly meant to signal breast cancer, except no one wants to say that because how can she be Thor's love interest if she's had a radical double mastectomy? Guess we need to allude to it rather than owning up to the narrative we chose.

There are things I liked. Waititi continues to handle Thor's powers in a way I prefer; I also loved the notion that Mjolnir being broken wasn't actually relevant to its power. Why was that not the actual narrative thrust? This is something a person with terminal cancer can relate to--the idea that when you're irreparably damaged you want to still do what you can while you can. Plenty of terminal patients opt to stop treating so they can live what they've got left. (This is one of my favorite lines from Endgame, Rhodey, who walks only with the aid of technology, to Nebula: We work with what we've got. God, very real and relateable.) That would have worked as a central thrust; instead it's relegated to the final like 20m of the film and tossed in on the side.

Just, overall it's a badly written movie. It just is, and the fact that it involves things pretty close to home for me and which I would love to see more about makes it hurt that much more.

So. Fuck this movie. It sucks, don't watch it.

[luuuna-rambles]

I posted 712 times in 2022

That's 334 more posts than 2021!

597 posts created (84%)

115 posts reblogged (16%)

Blogs I reblogged the most:

@your-resident-fangirl

@luuuna-rambles

@a-dotrivenitupontop

@defectivegembrain

@aces-and-anime

I tagged 652 of my posts in 2022

Only 8% of my posts had no tags

#nbc community - 284 posts

#community nbc - 273 posts

#communitygifs - 208 posts

#communityedit - 202 posts

#abed nadir - 193 posts

#danny pudi - 188 posts

#troy barnes - 142 posts

#donald glover - 140 posts

#the six idiots - 127 posts

#six idiots gifs - 118 posts

Longest Tag: 140 characters

#also he only specifies about three of the facts and two of them are the clive owen thing and 'i'm more into girls in pyjamas than in lingeri

My Top Posts in 2022:

#5

See the full post

514 notes - Posted October 10, 2022

#4

See the full post

517 notes - Posted October 22, 2022

#3

See the full post

656 notes - Posted April 16, 2022

#2

David and Taika arguing about shoes, an ongoing saga

813 notes - Posted May 9, 2022

My #1 post of 2022

So you're telling me it's canon that Troy Barnes:

Thinks Abed is “pretty adorable”

Refers to Abed as his “other half”

Really likes butt stuff

Holds hands with Abed constantly, within the first few weeks of knowing him

Thinks the pride party held at Greendale is “pretty dope” (And is fucking grinning ear to ear as he says it I Iove this boy)

Literally cannot conceive of the idea of dating a woman, where polyamory with Abed isn’t involved (There’s someone out there for us)

Has a Tumblr blog dedicated to Clive Owen, the contents of which is at least somewhat embarressing

Is upset that he can't have Abed's babies

Moves in with Abed, despite earlier agreeing with him that best friends moving in together would be a bad idea

Doesn’t bat an eye at his girlfriend referring to Abed as “your boyfriend”

Refers to “telling the group about his dance lessons” as “coming out”

Lives in a two bedroom appartment, yet shares one room with Abed

Dresses up as Freddie Mercury, and immediately goes to Abed to ask if he thinks he’s hot

Literally says “I love you” to Abed

And my mum still thinks I’m reading too much into this???

1,183 notes - Posted September 11, 2022

Get your Tumblr 2022 Year in Review →

[answrs]

#not gonna bandwagon-hate whoever it's popular to hate today just because some rando says 'didn't he do xyz?' #maybe he did maybe he didnae I don't know because no one spewing accusations bothers to cite a fucking source #nut up or shut up

(tags by @redshiftsinger - fucking preach!)

another important commentary from the notes (via @keigan-of-sweden)

#people are frothing at the bit for any reason to declare Taika ''problematic'' so that they can feel justified in cancelling him #they tried it before OMFD came out but it didn't take #and For Some Reason this always happens to celebrities of colour hmmm #they do something that's wildly popular -> get put on an impossibly high piedestal -> ''some people'' get tired of seeing them everywhere #-> and subject them to an impassable scrutiny in order to find some excuse to declare them cancelable #Taika Waititi #OFMD #fact check

literally within the first three replies on this shitty post are a textbook example with someone going "the POC guy always gave me bad vibes (which totally wasn't just racism projecting on him ha ha!) and now I have a reason to say he's evil, yay!" and another person responding "yeah it's awesome!"

editing to add @observethewalrus tags as well

bullshit #there were over 100 names on that letter and boy people sure are being picky about who they wanna cancel #the letter was tone deaf and made no mention of the literal fucking genocide #it was BAD #but compared to let’s say noah schnapp actively and knowingly posting zionist propaganda #it was pretty meaningless #if you want to take a moral stance on that damn letter that’s fine but you better be criticizing every single person on that list #I don’t see any star trek people ranting about chris pine #gif sets from nope were on my dash the other day but jordan peele signed it too #this whole thing made me even more of a fan of guz khan #I have huge respect for him #and he’s shut people down for leaving antisemitic comments on his posts #we stan a legend

literally not surprised in the slightest

[voidpants]

i'm not gonna lie, i really quite enjoyed ofmd, but i can't pretend i'm upset by the cancellation

like, the show romanticises a pair of actual, literal, existed-at-one-point-in-time slavers, but you wouldn't know that from watching it, because while all manner of other crimes are portrayed, that particular set is conveniently omitted

and there really aren't a whole lot of generations between then and now, and the impact of those crimes is still being felt by families spanning several continents

you can admit that's pretty fucked up, right?

you can admit that speaks to a disregard for the history and trauma of the african diaspora, right?

not to even mention how taika waititi made a whole marvel movie about how a nation built on colonialist violence cannot be rehabilitated, and must be torn out by the roots for its people to find redemption, but when an actor on the show expressed solidarity with palestine, they got axed

like, does the show speak to me as a queer trans person? yes. but i'm also aware that me being white and european affords me a privilege of being spoken to, that a black queer trans person might not be. and i can't ignore or deny that, just so that i get to uncritically enjoy a piece of media

[candied-cae]

One of my favorite things about watching Ed and Stede fall in love, is how clearly we see the consequences of their lives effecting how they are able to perceive their own feelings.

Where Ed was shown bad examples of love, Stede was shown nothing at all. When Ed was shown freedom, Stede was still trapped. But when Ed found himself caged, Stede found his way out. And all those things shaped how they realized they were in love.

On one hand, we have Ed.

His first exposure to "love" is his mother's abuse at the hands of his father, that at a young age he felt he carried the responsibility to end. It paints it bad: Even if there was once love there, it withered and died until it became violent, or perhaps there was never love and it was just the thing adults did because that's the world we live in, you get married and hate each other because what else are you going to do to pass the time?

So he runs off, becomes a pirate at a young age, rebelling against society and its expectations, and its rules, and its nuclear families. Fuck them all, Edward Teach doesn't need any of it. And in his new life, he finds power and control over what happens to him for probably the first time. He's good at piracy, he has tense companionships, earns respect, and it's fun. It's new and different from the mainland life.

And then he get's used to it, and suddenly it's just another trap again. It's not the same game as the land fairing people of the world, a different charade, yet still one he has to play just because the world says so. Maybe he didn't get married, but he's got this nickname and reputation and now he had to fill its role. All these expectations he tried to avoid, but he just created new ones. And it's probably somewhere in here, that even if he had let himself believe he could love and be loved, that he lost it again. Such a thing surely wasn't real, people just lie and pretend they loved each other because that's just what you do.

But then he finds Stede. This crazy, weird, fantastic guy who just isn't doing it like anyone else. He is doing what he wants just because he wants and there's no one's stopping him. And it's beautiful and refreshing to see that freedom, after all his years had made him jaded. And at first it was just fun, really exciting and wild and thrilling and joyful, but it was just fun. Something to fill that void of boredom.

Then he really falls. When Stede tucks that silk into his pocket and tells him he wears fine things well. When he really sees everything that Stede is and it's amazing. He's so undoubtably his own person, unwilling to bend to the ways the world wants him to be. He is in open rebellion to society in every way, and in every move he makes he heals a little bit of Edward's broken heart. He gingerly holds it in his hands and assures him that he is worthy of sweetness and finery. And when Ed loves Stede, it's entirely its own feeling. So different from his parents, his crew, his companions. It's just something new to the world that it's never seen before, and it's all his. It's so powerful and beautiful, and he's willing to die or give up any other freedom he has for it. That love meant too much to lose. So when he kisses him, it's his unabashed, unafraid, leap of faith into love's embrace.

And on the other side, there is Stede.

His father's love to him did not exist. All their interactions were cold and dripping with hate. His father hated him. Hated his softness and his hope and all that made Stede himself. And he had no one else to turn to. In school, with the other boys his age, he was hated exactly the same. Tormented and abused in the name of asserting superiority over him. Ripping him to bits for daring to love flowers.

He never had family love, he never had friendly love, and when the topic of romance was finally brought up, he was told he got none of that either. His entire life was a series of business transactions the rich would move around as they organized themselves in their hierarchy. And so he did his job in it. He was "baby Bonnet" so other boys could be better that him, and he was "Mr. Bonnet" so he and Mary could combine their families wealth.

Then he ran away. When he could no longer stand all these different roles he served for everyone but himself, he ran away. And he was only on the waters for less than a year. That was not enough time for him to even begin to understand love. He tried his best, he did have such a large heart despite his life. He showered his crew with respect and gentle understanding, giving to them all the love he held, wanting not just his dreams of piracy, but companionship for the first time in his life. Of course it was strained, he had a lot to learn before they could really bond.

So when he meets Ed, he's almost entirely entranced by his first friend. Someone who is actively enjoying every single thing about him. Every ridiculous character quirk, all his strange priorities, the way he caries himself, his humor - all of it is beloved by Ed. For the first time in all his life, he has someone who actually likes his personality. He was falling in love, but he had no idea that wasn't just how friendship felt. The prospect of companionship was something so foreign to him. All of his love was genuine, just vastly underestimated by himself who couldn't place the name of all the feelings he now carried.

Even when Ed kisses him, he knows he likes Ed, he knows Ed is his favorite person in the whole world, he knows he liked the kiss. But he still wasn't sure how serious it was. Still couldn't be sure it wasn't just a best friendship. It was only when Mary walked him through it would he admit to himself that it was real. It was actually love.

What all those kids did to him, what his father told him before he met Mary, all the times he has felt like an outsider to his own heart: none of it mattered. Despite all of it telling him that he would never get love, he went out and found it. And now that he knows it, he's going to fight like hell to get back to Ed so he can enjoy it.

More OMFD

[angelicmemo]

Our Flag Means Death is a wonderful and fun show about pirates having adventures and is only possible BECAUSE of the historical context. It’s the dynamic of the pirate legend and the aristocratic bumbling fool found in history with the real Stede and Ed that MAKE the show

did you expect David and Taika to get the idea and just be like yes let’s make this, this sounds so fun….

Oh we can’t use the real guy cause, like pretty much everyone in the 1700s, he sucked????

Let’s use my oc instead! His name is Steve Nonnet but he’s known on the sea as the Dandy Swashbuckler!

People would notice, people would obviously be like umm wtf is up with that? It’s so much better to already have the basis of literally hundreds of years of legend backing up your a story.

Do you think the show would be nearly as effective if everything was the exact same but Stede wasn’t Stede and Blackbeard wasn’t Blackbeard? The reason Ed’s character arc works is BECAUSE we already know Blackbeard and then we see him and he turns all our expectations on our heads. Replacing him with another random pirate wouldn’t have the same effect, neither would switching out Stede when a simple google search can reveal that there was someone with the exact same basis as him already existing and interacting with Blackbeard.

You can’t praise the historical inaccuracy of a show (Olu’s Crocs, Jim’s Binder, Timeline errors with when things are invented etc) and then go back and slander it for not following the lives of these characters exactly how they happened- racism, abuse and slavery included.

The show is a lighthearted comedy based loosely on the dynamic of two pirates who died 300 years ago. Not everything has to be about Trauma. Just let people enjoy things it’s seriously not that hard.

[ourflagmeansgayrights]

like considering the way people were speculating that taika was personally responsible for firing guz khan from ofmd, a story with very little evidence that honestly reads like an antisemetic conspiracy theory, it’s weird to me that the screenshot on the right being the one passed around twitter and people jumping to the conclusion that he’s talking about that letter he signed when what he was talking about right before that was jojo rabbit and holocaust denial/misinformation and continuing conversations about the holocaust.

yeah taika has a history of saying/doing some pretty uninformed and tone-deaf stuff at times and this is one of them, but i’m not gonna get all worked up over a Jewish Māori man being frustrated that people who dont know anything abt what Māori people are facing are combing through his instagram likes and going in twitter to demand expert statements from him on social issues he is not completely informed about. taika is literally just a guy who makes movies and the way people hold him to this higher standard of moral purity is so fucking transparent

why do we have to do “taika waititi is a bad person” discourse every other week

[faggotwalkwithme]

this is a jemaine clement appreciation blog

[vampyre-lesbian]

some of my favorite little moments from our flag means death, in no particular order

when the guys are trying to convince Jim’s Nana they’re Catholic, so they start making the sign of the cross, but Frenchie just kind of waves his hand around aimlessly

“maybe they understand ecclesiastical latin!” and Taika’s little face journey immediately following that line

i literally cried laughing when Ed was losing his shit and throwing the snake around. a bug landed on me recently and I had pretty much the exact same reaction tbh

“cats are terrifying because they’re witches and got knives in their feet” “cats are very evil because they steal children’s breath”

Blackbeard's Bar and Grill and Other Delicacies and Delights and Fishing Equipment™

"I'm sorry, I didn't realize I had an audience with the fucking pope"

the super dramatic divorce arc that only lasted a total of five minutes before Ed decided to come back.

when Jim did that classic cat thing and knocked over a cup while making direct eye contact with Olu

Lucius's Pinocchio voice

Frenchie and Olu inventing the pyramid scheme in 1717

Izzy moaning "ooooh, Daddy." like what the fuck was up with that.

"I would love to be stabbed by Jim" honestly same

"Lucius... we spend every day together. Treasure is the real treasure!"

please feel free to add on to this!

[funnefatale]

wanted to make a post ranting about how much tlat fucked over val but it's so bad that it isn't worth the brain power it would take to write an essay so here's a list of bullshit. tlat spoilers obviously

this movie just unnecessarily made val into a slutty bisexual who has commitment issues? like, why was she like "an orgy sounds great" while thorjane (the straights) were like ew

the way they reduced her to the token black friend who is there purely to support the white mains??? like that was the vibe I got from the trailer but this was somehow worse??? she got virtually nothing???

why are the asgardians respecting thor more than val when she's their king and the one whose been taking care of them while thor's been fucking around having his fifteenth midlife crisis???

tessa said that there was a version of the script where her whole storyline was just about finding a queen and she had to step in because it was dehumanizing and the focus on val needed to be about her being a person who happened to be queer... but where was this person? we got some grrl power king status scenes and a couple of blink and you'll miss them lines about the valkyrior and that's it

how did we not get a single flashback about the valkyrior even though we know an extra was cast a valkyrie

she got nerf'd and kicked out of the final battle and was absent for like most of the last 30 minutes

some kids got more of a hero moment in the final battle than val did

pretty sure she actually had more screen time in ragnarok than in tlat

she had literally no character development or plot. she is literally just a body there to fight

no fr there's this whole ass scene where she's basically a body for korg?? it was very strange and didn't serve a purpose but she had to do it while because I guess thorjane are too important to do it

thor says that zeus was his childhood hero when it was previously val, and like yeah you can have more than one hero but come on

we are three movies deep, why doesn't val have a first name??? tessa implied she would get a name and then she just didn't????

val doesn't get to talk about her beloved herself - it's just korg babbling at her about her commitment issues and mentions an ex girlfriend

val lowkey compares jane to her sisters but their entire friendship is basically offscreen

there's this bit where korg says thor doesn't discriminate who he loves and it cuts to a montage of thor with a bunch of white women and idk that feels like an attack on the idea of a black woman being his love interest

also this isn't about val but thor's characterization was just so fucking awful this entire movie like holy shit who the fuck was that man baby because that was not the person at the end of ragnarok or even iw/endgame. like, what the fuck did taika do to my man??? but that may need to be its own post

in conclusion this movie sucks ass. is it queerbaiting? no, val is explicitly queer (and korg but who cares about that pile of rocks), but it's not a good movie and just a horrible movie for val in particular. if you're a qpoc or a woc who was excited to see val finally get her moment in the sun then don't even bother