#this post is about taika waititi as blackbeard

[usersukuna]

queer culture is being obsessed and attracted to a fictional character but not being able to decide if you want to fuck them or want their gender

[i-didnt-choose-to-ship-it]

David Jenkins I'm gonna send the therapy bills to you 'kay?🥰

Like seriously Ed stealing the figurines and painting the bride as himself??

Them (seemingly) running towards each other?? While fighting off soldiers??

Ed turning himself into the Blackbeard he once made fun of???

I am unwell.

October can't get here fast enough.

[gothicwill]

The disparity between my celebrity crushes and the men I’m attracted to irl is so embarrassing bc if someone over 30 approached me I’d call the police, but an actor in his 50s? Yum.

[ladyluscinia]

What Exactly Did David Jenkins Say?

Look, I'm still staunchly of the opinion that Word of God statements and creator interviews are overvalued in fandom, especially when they get pulled out mostly as gotchas without then continuing to analyze whether or not the show canon is successful at getting across that same message. Death of the Author is good, actually, and we should remember that. But they are worth looking at in the context of evaluating intent vs execution, and for future speculation - just, like, please with less of the whole mile high pedestal idolizing and backlash cycles.

But if overvalued "Word of God" is annoying, then overvalued "supposed creator statements that have gone through three rounds of telephone and any given blogger has only heard about a quarter of them, which they'll use confidently anyway" is worse. So, since I'd already looked up interviews for various reasons...

Here is a fairly comprehensive list of interviews David Jenkins has given and statements he's made during them, presented without commentary (save curating which statements get highlighted). All provided with links. I definitely missed some, so if you have any that you want to add, please do - though if you could trim off any commentary and save it for tags / your own post with a link that would be cool.

Also, again, just because he said it doesn't make it incontrovertible canon that only a blind person wouldn't understand. Some of these even arguably contradict each other. The creator's intent doesn't always translate to what the show is doing, nor do you even have to think it was a good idea.

(Listed in chronological order from oldest to newest - post contains spoilers below the cut)

Pre-S1

Gizmodo - Feb 22, 2022 - with Cheryl Eddy (io9) - Link

Why this story - Really, it was the enigma of Stede that drew him in. "I think actual pirate stuff is fine, but it's not necessarily my cup of tea. And I think Taika [Waititi] felt similarly. But hearing about this guy and reading about him and seeing that, you know, he left his family, then he met Blackbeard, they hit it off, and we don't know any of the details in between. So filling those blanks in, and having a very human story, and then being able to do it with the pirate genre, that was like, 'Oh, this would be cool.'"

Post 1x01 - 1x03

Polygon - March 5, 2022 - with Tasha Robinson - Link

David Jenkins, Taika Waititi, and Rhys Darby interview

About Stede running off to sea - "Stede thought he could outrun his baggage, and you can't outrun your baggage."

About S1 - "I don't think there was enough improv on set! We had an insane schedule, with a huge amount of plot. We were budgeted and designed as a one-hour show, but with a half-hour production schedule, which means we really had to chase these episodes to get them shot. And then there are certain emotional beats that we really needed. So trying to find places to find the fun was hard."

Mashable - Mar 5, 2022 - with Belen Edwards - Link

About the show concept - "It was Jenkins' wife who first told him about Stede's adventures; she thought it would make a good TV show."

On casting Rhys Darby - "Stede did a terrible thing to his family. If you cast it wrong, he's a very hard character to get behind," Jenkins said. "Very quickly, the only person I thought of for this was Rhys [Darby]. He has this childlike quality that's endearing."

About the story - "Seeing them discover a need for each other that neither anticipated and charting how that relationship goes is the meat of the story." + "If you're on this ship, you're running from something, and you're running to something that you can't be on land"

Mentions of matelotage - "In fact, one of Jenkins's favorite pirate facts that he learned while working on Our Flag Means Death was the term matelotage, which was a civil union between same-sex pirates. "The more you look at it," he explained, "the more you write to the fact that this is a queer-positive world.""

Discussing piracy careers - "Something else that astounded Jenkins about pirates was "just how fast it all moved — their lives were quite short," he said. "Your career [in piracy] wasn't very long.""

Post 1x09 - 1x10

Decider - Mar 24, 2022 - with Kayla Cobb - Link

David Jenkins, Taika Waititi, and Rhys Darby interview

Pitch for the show - "That was in the pitch," series creator David Jenkins told Decider. "That was the reason, to make them fall in love with each other."

About the romance - "The main thing to me was to side-step coming out," Jenkins continued. "I just want a romance. I want a Titanic romance between these two people. We don't have to do the coming out story and then the non-binary story for Jim [Vico Ortiz]."

About S2 and the show - "The show is the relationship," Jenkins said. "So, we end in a place where there is this breakup. What happens after a breakup between these two people who, one’s realized he's in love and the other one is hurt in a way that he's never been hurt before? What does that do to each of them in an action, pirate world with them trying to find each other again? So again, I really love those rom-com beats."

Collider - Mar 24, 2022 - with Carly Lane - Link

On making it a romcom - "It's the only reason to make the show. If you didn't do that, it would just be weird. I mean, you're using the rom-com beats. You're using these like they're together. And it's funny because so we're so habituated to be like bromance, bromance, bromance, and it's such a simple move to put them together."

Discusses focusing on romance - "I guess I really... I get kind of bored. How much pirate can you do? They're going to rob stuff. They're going to steal ships. There's only so many pirate stories you can do. So if you're going to do a workplace story, I mean, you're essentially having this... You'd have this same amount of relationships in Grey's Anatomy in the ER. So it's standard. It's the most standard. We're making a soap opera on a pirate ship, and to use those soap opera beats... I like it, and I like the flavor in a comedy when you have something that's played genuinely up against very ridiculous things."

Discusses history and kissing scene

Discusses importance of going home to Mary - "Yeah, that was the problem for me in the story. I knew that I wanted to have the end where he goes home, because you need to give Mary her day in court. I just wanted to know from Mary's perspective what happened and then to see that, yeah, they're friends."

Is Lucius dead? - "You got to wait."

EW.com - Mar 25, 2022 - with Devan Coggan - Link

David Jenkins, Taika Waititi, and Rhys Darby interview

Pitch for the show - "To me, [Stede and Blackbeard's relationship] is the reason to make the show," Jenkins explains. "When Taika and I were first talking about it, he was like, 'Oh yeah, that's the show.' I first started reading about Stede and how he befriended Blackbeard and we don't know why. Very quickly, it was like, 'Oh, it's a romance.'"

Polygon - Mar 25, 2022 - with Tasha Robinson - Link

Discusses 3-season intent - "I think three seasons is good. I think we could do it in three."

Discusses acts within S1 - "To me, when you see him get stabbed, and the blood runs through his fingers, it’s like 'Oh, no, the clown got stabbed! And not comedy-stabbed, he got stabbed stabbed!' That to me is cool. And then having Blackbeard find him as the end of what would be the first act of our story felt good to me."

Discusses kiss scene filming and the national moment around gay rights

What to focus on a rewatch - "I think Con O'Neill does such a great job. He's such a complex character, and it's such a tortured relationship. And that's a love story too, between him and Blackbeard. It's a very dysfunctional story, but it's fun to watch. Watch that maybe, on a rewatch, looking where their relationship ultimately goes."

TV Insider - Mar 25, 2022 - with Meaghan Darwish - Link

Discusses show pitch - "When I was pitching [the show] to people, I'd be like, 'Okay, so it's about Stede and Blackbeard, and then they hit it off and then they fall in love.' And then people are like, 'Okay, cool,' Jenkins shares. "And then they really fall in love, and become intimately involved."

Discusses historical inspiration

Discusses S2 direction - "But when [Stede] goes to find [Blackbeard], he's gone and his crew's been abandoned. And so watching them try to negotiate that, that's a good rom-com beat," he adds.

The Verge - Apr 15, 2022 - with Charles Pulliam-Moore - Link

Discusses being surprised by queerbaiting legacy - "...part of me knew that, yes, Stede and Ed's romance was going to be real. But one part of me felt like, 'We're going to do this story, and they're going to kiss, and maybe that's not even going to be that big a deal. Maybe it'll just be a blip.'"

Discusses writing romance - "I'd never written a romance before this one, but I think with Ed and Stede, the question's always 'what's the need for each other?'"

Discusses falling in love and Stede's accidental seduction - "It made sense to have that love be almost like a teenage version of falling in love — one with all these intense and conflicting feelings. They're middle-aged, but Stede's young. Ed's young. Emotionally, they're like 16, and they've both got a lot to learn."

Discusses Con O'Neill as Izzy - "He plays an exhausted quality that's really lovely because this character could just be generically evil, and the way Con plays, it is like, he's credible. I believe that he can do some damage if he wanted to. My favorite thing I've seen about the show is somebody saying that Con's playing the only human with a bunch of Muppets. It does feel like that a bit where he's like Charles Grodin in The Great Muppet Caper."

On Izzy being in love with Blackbeard - "I think Izzy's deeply in love with Blackbeard, and it's a very dysfunctional kind of love, and he's like the jilted spouse who's losing his man to fucking Stede Bonnet, and he can't believe this is happening."

Discusses masculinity and piracy as an escape from that

Discusses diversity and trauma based stories - "And the consensus in that very diverse room was that we wanted to show that isn't just wallowing in trauma. We don't have to do a coming out scene or focusing on the trauma of it — not to say that those stories aren’t valid."

Gizmodo - Jun 20, 2022 - with Linda Codega (io9) - Link

Musing on fandom response to the show - "I'm wondering if the fact that because the queerness of this show isn't gaslighting the audience, and isn't a function of wanting to do something, but not being able to produce the results because of network standards. I think we just happened to be in this lucky spot where the show is actually queer… and I do think that people are responding to that."

Comparing fanfiction to writing - "And Con O'Neill's audition was one of those things I would go back to. I would watch that and be like… Oh, right, that's the show. And in a way, you're writing fanfiction for a certain actor and character because you want them to do something, and you're like–" at this point, it must be said, Jenkins let out a maniacal little giggle. He’s just as thrilled to show off Con O'Neill's ability to seem both deeply exhausted and menacing as the rest of the fandom. "And you [as the writer] you're like… And then Izzy does this now."

EW.com - Dec 13, 2022 - with Devan Coggan - Link

Discusses The Chain sequence - "I had initially wanted that end sequence to be like the FBI raid in a mob movie, where the feds come in, and they've got boxes of stuff, and everyone's running, and someone makes a dash for it," Jenkins explains. "So, it's like a mob movie or FBI raid story, and then it's also a story of Stede's lover coming back."

Pre-S2

Collider - Oct 2, 2023 - with Carly Lane - Link

Discusses fan reaction to S1 - "I thought that they'd kiss, and people would be like, 'Oh, cool, cool!' I kind of thought people would know a little bit more [about] where we were going, but then in hindsight, no, people have been hurt and burned on so many other shows and then made to feel silly."

Discusses starting S2 dark - "One of these characters is very, very damaged and has never made himself vulnerable in this way before, and I don't think [he] would react very well to having his heart broken in this way. I don't think it would be cute, and I don't think it would be funny. I think it would be scary as hell to watch a very damaged guy that we've established in Ed, who killed his dad and thinks he's not capable of being loved, deal with rejection and see that Stede really hurt him."

Discusses adding more female characters

Discusses S2 needle drops including "This Woman's Work"

Discusses 3-season arc

Post 2x01 - 2x03

Mashable - Oct 5, 2023 - with Belen Edwards - Link

Discusses fandom response to S1

About the canon gay relationship - "To watch the explosion of enthusiasm around [the kiss] was disorienting, almost," Jenkins said. "I thought people would react to it, but I didn't think the reaction would be that big. And then it was moving, because I didn't realize that this audience felt so unserved in general, as far as storylines go."

Insider - Oct 5, 2023 - with Ayomikun Adekaiyero - Link

Tease on leaning into the Stede / Ed / Izzy love triangle - "I think Izzy, in a certain way, got the worst deal in the first season," the showrunner tells Insider. "He gets jilted and then he still is in spurned spouse territory at the beginning of the second season."

Discusses Izzy's arc - "What is that relationship about? And I think by the end of the season it kind of becomes a little unexpected of who they are to each other and what they mean to each other," he teases

Discusses addition of Zheng - "He likens Zheng's way of pirating to a successful tech startup, compared with the garage sale vibe Stede had going on the Revenge."

Discusses introducing Hornigold - "I thought Hornigold was the most obvious because he was the person who made Blackbeard what he is. And Blackbeard has a father complex, so it's natural that he's going to bring his former captain back," the show creator said. "It's a struggle with him because he and dad figures don't historically do well."

Discusses importance of the mermaid scene

Inverse - Oct 5, 2023 - with Hoai-Tran Bui - Link

Reveals he didn't commit to the romance until shooting 1x06 - "Jenkins always intended his pirate comedy to end with a romance, but he'd envisioned it as an unrequited love. "It was going to be about Stede learning what love is, and Ed making himself vulnerable and getting burned," Jenkins says of his original pitch. But Darby and Waititi's choices in the scene, which they played without diffusing the tenderness with a joke, made him wonder if they could take the show in a new direction."

Discusses mermaid Stede idea from S1 - "We talked about Stede as a mermaid very early on in the writers' room," Jenkins says. "At some point, yeah, I want to see Rhys Darby as a merman." + "They wanted us to come up with a Season 2 pitch during Season 1. And that was one of the ideas we hit on, and I can't quite remember how we got there, but it was us asking, what is a pirate world? Are there mermaids? Is there magic in this show? With pirate stuff, I don’t know that I want there to be magic, but there was a way where it was something really beautiful about a mer-person, and I like the idea that their coming together would have a mythic size to it."

Discusses historical divergence

Discusses matelotage and pirates as weird outsiders

TV Guide - Oct 5, 2023 - with Allison Piccuro - Link

About the shipping culture - "It's the meat of the show, so it's great to have people bought into the central romance. If it were a bromance that we were trying to make look like a romance, that would suck."

Discusses playlists he makes

Discusses opening dream sequence - "I just like that it started with something badass. Stede, Blackbeard, and Izzy are on an arc together. Whether they're in stories together or not, their ultimate arc is together. I think, by the end of this season, the last episode, that first scene will be gratifying. I won't say why, but their fates are tied together."

Discusses Kraken arc - "But I think the thing that's good about this show is that it can go to really sweet comedy land, but I want there to be, like, if someone loses a body part, for instance, they lose a body part. To do justice to the fact that this guy is a killer and a monster, and dealing with heartache that he doesn't know how to deal with, I think you really need to go there."

Discusses Izzy in S2 - "I mean, he's jilted. He had a partnership with Blackbeard, and he knows he can't live up to this person that Blackbeard fell in love with... Who is that guy? What are his hobbies? What does it look like when he's not totally subsumed with his boss's love affair with somebody, and heartbroken?"

On S2 reunion - "The second season is them being a little bit more mature... It's the thing where you're in your 20s or 30s and you're like, "Well, should we move in together?" They have to make up some time because neither of them have been in a functional relationship before."

About genre of pirate stories - "...is a show about multiple relationships. That's what I want to see when I see this show. I don't want to see a bunch of pirate things that I've seen in other things, I'll just go watch another thing if I want to see that. That's not really my thing. I like the genre, but it's a very hard genre to budge. I want to see relationships in a pirate world."

Discusses the A Star is Born aspect of seeking fame / retiring

Mashable - Oct 7, 2023 - with Belen Edwards - Link

About the mermaid scene - "You need something expressive for when they come back together," Jenkins said. "Their reunion moment has to feel big and mythical. This is not a world where mermaids actually exist, but their love for each other has that size that you can get [a mermaid] in there somewhere."

About Kate Bush - "I love Kate Bush, and I love that song, and I know Taika loves that song," Jenkins explained of the choice. "So I wanted to find a place for that song somewhere in the second season."

Polygon - Oct 9, 2023 - with Tasha Robinson & more - Link

Compares S2 and "Golden Age of Piracy" stuff to Westerns, lists 5 he was thinking of - "Every Western that’s good is that story," Jenkins says. "'This way of life we made is coming to an end. It can't last. It's a blip in time. We created this thing because we need it to exist. We're outlaws, and we need a culture that suits us, but it's running out of time.'"

Gizmodo - Oct 9, 2023 - with Linda Codega (io9) - Link

Short tease on leaning into the love triangle

About Stede, Edward, and Izzy - "I think the three of them are on an arc together that's pretty inseparable," Jenkins said in an interview with io9. "And to watch Izzy try to process what's happened [in season one]… to watch him kind of grow and figure out what's his own story, if he can separate himself from this kind of toxic relationship, is interesting to me and I think gives him a lot of room for growth."

Post 2x04 - 2x05

IndieWire - Oct 12, 2023 - with Sarah Shachat - Link

Discusses directing and show creation

"The limitations of the show also naturally push it back towards moments with the ensemble and plot problems that it would frankly be irresponsible to tackle if you had a giant budget and a fully working ship-of-the-line to sail and then blow to bits. "That's the fun of the show to us, I think. If you open this up and you're like, unlimited budget, that would be terrible because I think you can get seduced," Jenkins said. "[It could be like,] 'Oh man, it's all leading up to a climatic battle on the sea.' And those things are great. But that’s not this show.""

"The nice thing about that, though, is you get to be the lo-fi show that’s like, 'Hey, we’re making The Muppets.'"

PopSugar - Oct 12, 2023 - with Victoria Edel - Link

About S2 Stede - "I like the idea that he learns and grows and he doesn't just stay a bumbling captain. He might be ridiculous, but he is getting better at it."

Discusses genre challenges - "How do you have a show that's a romance show but it's also a workplace show and they're criminals?"

Discusses Edward's redemption - "But Blackbeard still has to come back and apologize and be part of the community again, and give his little press conference. It was fun for us to look at that in the context of piracy, where they all do terrible things to each other. But even by their standards, what Blackbeard did was a bit much."

Discusses Izzy in S2 - "When Izzy shoots Blackbeard and they all mutiny on him, that's Izzy breaking up with Blackbeard. And they're both having their own journey in the wake of it, and Izzy's having his own redemption arc. He's trying to figure out, "Who am I if I'm not Blackbeard's first mate? Who am I outside of this relationship?"" + "If Stede's Spongebob, he's Squidward. I don't know what that makes Blackbeard. But there's a real pathos to Squidward."

Discusses trauma-based narratives - "As a diverse room in terms of sexuality, socio-economic background, and race, we thought, "Wouldn't it be nice to have a non-trauma-based story for these characters who don't get that historically?""

Variety - Oct 13, 2023 - with Hunter Ingram - Link

Discusses three act structure and making Stede work for a relationship - "The way I like to look at a season is in threes. The end of the first act is when they find each other, and this is the beginning of the second act. They've found each other, but they are pissed. Stede thought it was going to be [Kate Bush's] “This Woman's Work,” but, in reality, it is this headbutt –– literally."

Discusses the central romance - "It was always part of the pitch... that is the reason to make the show. The pirate genre is fun, but I wasn’t dying to make a pirate show. Taika wasn’t dying to make a pirate show. But the thing that was interesting to me was that Stede finds love, and he finds it with Blackbeard."

Discusses 2x04 plot - "This episode is based on a very, very thumbnail sketch of "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?." Anne and Mary are Martha and George, and they are Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton."

Discusses adding historical pirates

Discusses Buttons exit - "I just love the idea of him turning into a bird: I love the idea of Buttons somehow being the one character that is able to figure that out."

Discusses Izzy and the crew's trauma plot - "We liked the idea that there is something about trauma and getting past that trauma, even on a pirate ship. They have been through two very different ways of living and they have to get used to each other again. But it's also a family that was separated, and becoming one family again is painful."

Discusses bringing characters back - "We could bring Calico Jack back, who, if you remember, was hit by a cannonball last season. Anyone who is that fun to play with and wants to keep playing, you always find a way to bring them back."

Polygon - Oct 14, 2023 - with Tasha Robinson - Link

Discusses 3-season arc and how keeping them apart with some plot device was never in the cards - "at the end of the first season, they're 14-year-olds, emotionally. In this season, it's more like they’re in their late 20s."

Discussing New Zealand production and ensemble cast writing - "It's pretty organic, because as we're going through and tracking everybody's journey for the season, we're watching the thing that holds us together — what stage of Stede and Blackbeard's relationship are we in? Because the overarching arc is, are these guys going to learn how to settle into a relationship?"

"The second season is more overtly about romance, and more a relationship story."

Energizing aspect of fan reaction

S3 is about "love is work"

Gizmodo - Oct 16, 2023 - with Linda Codega (io9) - Link

About the story - "I want to see them become a functional couple or fail to become a functional couple," Jenkins said. "Those are the most interesting parts of the show."

Discusses fandom engagement - "...ultimately the writers are also "the fans in the room." He goes on to say that, "We're fans of the world. We're writing fanfic about our own characters, our own worlds… It's paid fanfic, but it's fanfic." He gives another example: "If you're writing a season of Succession, you're writing fanfic Succession. You're just getting paid to do it. We, as writers–" it's clear that he's not just talking about the writers in the writers room, "become fans of the world and we all have things we want to see these characters do. What we do is not that different."

Discusses the A Star is Born aspect of seeking fame / retiring

Discusses Zheng Yi Sao

Villains of the series - There are a lot of new villains this season, but, Jenkins says, ultimately, "the antagonist on this show is normalcy… These pirates have a way of life that they're not finding in normal life. They've found a way to live and support each other and be there for each other. And that's always threatened by these larger, tyrannical forces that want to shut them down."

Post 2x06 - 2x07

Mashable - Oct 19, 2023 - with Belen Edwards - Link

Discussing drag performance in 2x06

"It is nice to see with Izzy's arc, where he finally breaks through whatever he's been doing to himself. He lets himself have that moment, which I just love. It resonates for Izzy, and I think it resonates for Con. Just personally, it made me feel good to see how it turned out."

Consequence - Oct 19, 2023 - with Liz Shannon Miller - Link

Discusses intent for romance - "...telling a love story in a serialized medium like television has its perils, largely because it's tough to know how much you can draw out any unresolved tension. "I think we take it episode by episode and we try to not piss people off in taking too long and doing double beats and triple beats," Jenkins says. "You can only do Will They or Won’t They for so long. Then you have to deepen it.""

Discusses pirate setting - "The emphasis on relationships also fits into the show's high-seas setting, which Jenkins finds similar to post-apocalyptic narratives. "It is a little bit like you're doing Mad Max, except there's relationships," he says. "Stuff's shitty, so you gotta try to find some joy. Of course, people are going to have a need for each other in these extreme circumstances, and I like the idea of these characters finding some level of a healthy relationship in these extreme circumstances.""

Discusses Jim x Archie

Discusses 3-season arc

Polygon - Oct 21, 2023 - with Tasha Robinson - Link

Discussing gender and power dynamics in Jackie x Swede / Zheng x Oluwande / Blackbeard x Stede + A Star is Born aspect

Jim not being jealous of Oluwande - "I think that relationship was always seen in the room as a friend relationship that got romantic."

About adding a villain - "I think a lot of the internal forces in Our Flag are the villains." + "I think this is a story about the age of piracy coming to an end. This way of life is coming to an end. And every Western that's good is that story: This way of life we made is coming to an end, and it can't last. […] I think every story about outlaws is about trying to preserve a way of life against normative forces that are kind of fascistic."

Historical accuracy - "The balance of the show is 90% ignoring history, and then 10%, bring it in, whenever we're like, Ah, gotta move the story forward! Remember, the English are out there, and they're really bad!"

Post 2x08

AV Club - Oct 26, 2023 - with Saloni Gajjar - Link

Killing Izzy was always the plan - "We wanted to show the depth of that character. Izzy is one of my favorites. He's like middle management who is in a sort of love triangle [in season one]."

Discusses how they really wanted the happy ending for S2 - "I think with season one's end, it was a gamble to leave it the way it was. Everybody stomached through it. Now if it turned out they didn't want us to make more, I just didn't want to have another story where the same-sex love story ends in tragedy, unrequited love, or if one or both of them are being punished."

Discusses S2 progressing the 3-season romance - "They’re a couple who is like in their late twenties right now as opposed to being teens at the end of season one." + "It was an interesting tension of, which one gives up their dream? A lot of times in relationships questions can come up, like who is going to give up on their dream to take care of the kids? Obviously, no one wants to, but someone ends up giving up more than they want to at some point. What's wonderful about a mature romance, and what I'd want to see more of in season three, is Ed and Stede making these tough decisions." + progressing past the getting together point

Discusses parallels, Republic of Pirates, and Zheng Yi Sao

Short bit about fan response

Collider - Oct 26, 2023 - with Carly Lane - Link

Discusses Ed leaving fishing - "I like that he had a little prima donna moment where he thought he could go and be a simple man, and then it's revealed that he really isn't a simple man; he's a complicated, fussy, moody guy. No, he's not gonna be able to catch fish for a living. For him to be told that, "At your heart, you're a pirate. You have to go back and do it," he doesn't want that to be true, but it was true."

Discusses Izzy's speech to Ricky - "I wanted to give Izzy a proper eulogy for himself. He gives a eulogy for himself, but it felt true writing it."

Discusses Izzy's death scene - "In a way, it's very much for Ed, that speech. The "we were Blackbeard" is claiming that he is also Blackbeard, that Blackbeard is not just Ed’s creation, and I like that for him, too, because he's worked so hard for that — and then just to say, "You can give it up." There can never be a Blackbeard again as far as Izzy's concerned because he's dying, and they did that together."

Discusses Republic of Pirates / music parallels from premier to finale

Discusses finale wedding - "We knew we wanted a matelotage in the season, which is the real term they had for marrying crew members. And yeah, they've always been in relief to Stede and Ed, and they're a little bit ahead of Stede and Ed in how much they can talk about things. So to have a bunch of family things in the season, like a funeral and a wedding, and have the parents kind of watch the kids sail away, felt right, and all of those things seem to work well together and build on each other."

Discusses retirement ending - "That will-they-or-won't-they is interesting to a point, but the real meat of it is always like, "Can they make the relationship, and can they do better than Anne and Mary?""

"Frenchie's in charge of the Revenge" + teases Stede struggling to give it up

EW.com - Oct 26, 2023 - with Devan Coggan - Link

Discusses Izzy's death and telling Con - "It feels like the logical end of Izzy's arc. It's heartbreaking to me because he's my favorite." + "I told him in the middle of shooting because I didn't want him to find out at the table read, obviously. I also didn't want it to leak. He was lovely about it."

Discusses Izzy's final arc - "You know, I didn't expect him to become kind of a father figure to Ed. I think we hit on that while we were breaking the [final] episode. He's in such a weird position: He's like a jilted lover, and then he's a middle manager who has to work for a terrible boss. He gets thrown away, and then he comes back. He really develops, and he becomes a part of this family. I think the biggest surprise was the extent that he was a mentor to Ed. They were both Blackbeard. They both made Blackbeard happen."

Discusses the happy ending intent - "With this season starting so dark, I kind of wanted to reward them for the work that they've done and the character growth that they've had. I wanted to leave them in a place where they're really going to try and make this work. I don't think it's going to be easy for them, necessarily. They're both still immature."

Discusses the wedding - "We knew we wanted a matelotage in the second season, and pretty quickly we landed on Lucius and Black Pete. It seems like they were ready for that. We made up a ceremony and everything, where they call each other mateys, and it was just fun to make our own version of a pirate wedding ceremony."

Discusses potential S3 and Frenchie's Revenge - "But it felt like a good place to end the second season. It felt like a contrast to the first season. If it turns out we don't make any more, I'm comfortable with that being a resting place."

Variety - Oct 26, 2023 - with Hunter Ingram - Link

S3 endpoint - "I love things in threes," he says. "That first act, second act, third act structure is so satisfying when it is done well, and you don't overstay your welcome. I think this world of the show is a big world, and if the third season is successful, we could go on in a different way. But I think for the story of Stede and Ed, that is a three-season story."

Discusses the draw of a "Golden Age" and it's ending

Talks about father figure Izzy and wanting a real sense of loss - "There is a nice parallel to have Ed treat him so badly at the beginning of the season and then come all the way around to where Izzy is this sort of father figure he doesn’t want to lose — because Ed usually kills his father figures."

Gizmodo - Oct 26, 2023 - with Linda Codega (io9) - Link

Teasing future Izzy - "Jenkins looked slightly sad himself, saying that "Ghosts exist in this world." I told him not to make promises he couldn't keep."

"Jenkins said that he doesn't see Izzy as a pure antagonist in season one because on some level… Izzy was right in his hesitations about Stede."

Discussing Con O'Neill & Rhys Darby acting

Jenkins confirms the season was always 8 episodes due to budget cuts

About S2 finale vs S3 - "The first season ends on such a downer, so it made sense to end the second season in a kinder spot." + "I think there's plenty of story left for season three, but I think that it was important to end this as if it was the end of the show, and on upbeat note and avoid the kind of "kill your gays" trope. I don't want to see Stede and Ed punished for giving it a go. I want to see them really say, 'yeah, we’re going to we're going to try to have a relationship'."

Teases S3 revenge against Ricky and going to the Americas

Vanity Fair - Oct 26, 2023 - with Sarah Catherall - Link

About the ending - "It's bittersweet. There's death and there's the rebirth of Stede and Blackbeard's relationship; there's a funeral, there's a wedding, and the idea that this family is going to keep fighting even as they lose members. And then it's about belonging to something." + "A lot of times, with this narrative of characters, same-sex relationships end on a dour, downbeat note, where one of them dies and it's unrequited or it's unrealized; something horrible happens and they're punished in a way. So it was important to leave it open and a lot more show to go, but also leave it in a place where it's happy."

Discusses Izzy as a mentor / father figure - "We felt like Izzy's story had reached its conclusion, where we put him through enough. And then there was the realization that he is kind of a mentor to Blackbeard and that he is kind of a father figure to Blackbeard." + "And it's also a pirate show, so he's got to die."

Discusses filming challenges - "It's a big show; it's basically a one-hour show that we're doing on a half-hour budget."

Discusses adding Zheng Yi Sao

Is the show a queer romance? - "For this show, it's important to me just to write a really bold-bodied romantic show that happens to be between two characters of the same sex. I think that the story beats don't matter, because if you've been in love and you've been hurt and you met someone you love—hopefully we all know what those feelings are."

Blackbeard's arc in S2 - "...the second season is about Blackbeard's midlife crisis. And then when they both have their midlife crises, they can open a B&B together." + "I don't think Stede and Blackbeard are ready to be married. They're emotionally saying: 'Let's give this a go.'"

Discusses historical piracy as "counterculture" that's been straightwashed and whitewashed

Did he feel responsibility to the fan community? - "As opposed to responsibility, it feels more like relief—that people feel seen and they feel good about it and they liked what we did. And so it feels like, Okay, somebody's out there and wants the show. The makeup of the writers room looks a lot like the makeup of the fan base. So as long as we're true to our stories in the writers room, I think we just feel excited that there's somebody waiting on the other end to enjoy it."

Paste Magazine - Oct 26, 2023 - with Tara Bennett - Link

Discusses whether fandom expectations felt weighty - "I think particularly for this season, that "bury your gays" thing… I didn't want to end on a downbeat for Ed and Stede. We did that in the first season. I like that there's a lot of different flavors. It's even a little melancholy because the Republic of Pirates got blown up. But there's still more good things."

Discusses production and plotting - "I wanted to start at the Republic of Pirates this season and end at the Republic of Pirates. And I knew I wanted the Republic of Pirates to be destroyed, ultimately. Within that, we are making a one-hour show on a half hour budget, on a half hour schedule."

Discusses planning the ending - "In terms of ending this season, it all felt right just in talking through it when we were in the room. It felt pretty intuitive. When you get to the third act of the story, things kind of settle in. There's gonna be a funeral. We always knew we wanted a wedding at the end of the second season. And I knew that I wanted Stede and Ed to start an inn together. So once you have those beats, it's kind of locked in."

Discusses Izzy's arc - "It's kind of a strange arc in that I knew we were going to put him through all these things, and I knew he would ultimately die. But I think him becoming a father figure to Ed in the last episode didn't really dawn on us until we were breaking the last episode. Asking what would this man say to Ed at the end because they've been together through everything? He went from a troubled and downtrodden employee to a jilted lover to a discarded employee, to someone that is just trying to find his footing again—no pun intended—to actually becoming this guy's parental figure on some level. And he's one person who kind of raised Ed right, because Blackbeard usually kills his parental figures. So, it felt right and it felt like that's how the mentor dies. The mentor in a story usually dies in the second act and then our hero has to go on and try to do it without them. It felt like the right journey for Izzy and a gratifying one for Con."

On leaving open for S3 - "I don't think it was a very hard thing to do. I think it was more that I felt a responsibility to leave Ed and Stede in a good place, at least for now. It's not gonna go well. They're not going to run a business well. Ed's too much of a talker. Stede can't focus. It's gonna be challenging."

Vulture - Oct 28, 2023 - with Sophie Brookover - Link

Discussing Izzy as a "father figure" and his S2 send-off being a priority

Meaning of piracy - "...what our pirates stand for is a life of belonging to something larger than they are in the face of a crushing, slightly fascist normalcy."

Re: Con O'Neill & Izzy's death - "I had to tell him about halfway through the season"

Third season about the work of a relationship between still damaged main characters

Discusses middles as about change and transitions, and wanting characters to change instead of reset, have them experience permanent consequences

About the final scene - "...Ed and Stede as the parents kind of watching the kids take the ship. Frenchie's the captain now..."

Objective of the crew - "...have had terrible things happen to them at the hands of colonial forces, so they want some payback. Party, plunder, and payback — the three P's."

Metro Weekly - Nov 1, 2023 - with Randy Shulman - Link

Discusses historical premise of S1 and easing into the romance

Discusses S2 genre - "In the second season, it was great because we know it's a romance and we can lead with that. It's a workplace show essentially. I wanted it to be more in the vein of early episodes of Grey's Anatomy or something where there are all these relationships on those shows. That's what you’re following — relationships and friendships that are taking place in a hospital, procedural. That's Grey's Anatomy. This is less procedural for the pirate stuff — and you need the pirate stuff."

Discusses not being into pirates - "But I'm like you. I'm not a big pirate person. In general, it's a big creaky genre that's hard to budge" + "Pirates of the Caribbean, those movies are great. That's not necessarily what I hunger to see, but in that genre, it's great. You're not going to beat that, especially on something that's lower budget. We've seen a lot of this stuff, so it's fun to take it then and don't do any of that stuff."

Discusses adapting historical piracy - "You don't want to see them punch down. You don't want to see them do terrible things to people who don't deserve it, which is not what they really did. So, in the show's world, I think piracy is like a stand-in for something. I think it's a stand-in for being an iconoclast and an outsider and queer in some ways and just different." + "Yeah, I mean, the British are there to be Stormtroopers, or Nazis in an Indiana Jones movie. I mean, they're in there to die essentially."

Discusses diversity staffing

Discusses performative masculinity

Discusses Izzy's death, happy endings, and openness to S3

[batsarebetterthanpeople]

Since I am posting about celebrity drama. Let's do some critical thinking here. I know a lot of people on this website aren't great at it, but let's try.

Guz Khan has been a vocal supporter of Palestine for many many years. He was vocal in his support of Palestine long before he was hired onto Our Flag Means Death. Taika Waititi was brought onboard as an executive producer on Our Flag Means Death before any of the casting had occurred, which means Waititi could have known about Khan's politics and sabotaged his casting, but he did not do that and Khan got the role. Ivan was the character on the crew with the least amount of lines in season 1 and he was on Blackbeard's crew, not Stede's. In season 2 they effectively replaced him with Archie played by Madeleine Sami, who is a New Zealand actor who doesn't have the international TV recognition that Guz Khan has. With all this data, which do we think is more likely:

A) Waititi personally fired Khan because he's a Zionist leveraging his power

B) when OFMD got it's budget cut they had to make some choices about which high payed actors in minor roles they wanted to keep, so they booked Bremner for 4 eps, Faxon for 3 eps, and did not ask Khan back, found ways to write all three of them off, and then brought on Sami for a cheaper contract than they would have gotten from Khan in order to maintain a believably sized pirate crew and keep the ensemble comedy aspects so many people loved from the first season

Like yes Taika Waititi signed a letter to Biden calling for release Israeli hostages from Hamas, the wording of which blamed Hamas for all the violence, and he's liked Gal Gadot's pro Israel insta posts but can we please not make up conspiracies about it. It's starting to sound a hair antisemitic, especially considering that no one is speaking on Con O'Neill (who, unlike Waititi, is not Jewish) also signaling that he's a zionist. he posted pro Israel stuff on his Twitter multiple times just while the Twitter algorithm was showing me his tweets, (from April 2022 until he deactivated for tweeting about a Columbians doing coke later that year).

[superduperoriginalname]

ok nvm what they did was way funnier

please tell me this is the reunion. i dont want anything but for this to be the first interaction they've had since breaking up

[deer0skullz]

Does anyone else feel like Umbrella Academy, What We Do in the Shadows and Our Flag Means Death went down very similar paths or is that just me?

To preface, this is mostly based on how I felt as I watched the shows but also on some of the opinions I picked up from the fandoms.

Also, I’m not going to go back and rewatch all of these shows for the sake of a Tumblr post so I’m working from memory and if you feel like I’ve misremembered any of the plot/ characters let me know.

1. Started as well-received and highly acclaimed live-action fantasy shows with ensemble casts.

Based on my own opinions and what I remember from other fans, UA seasons 1-2 were fairly well received, as were WWDITS seasons 1-3/4 and OFMD season 1.

They’re all definitely different genres of fantasy but I’d say they still all fit under the label. And they obviously all have ensemble casts, with the Hargreeves in UA, the vampires (and Guillermo) in WWDITS and the pirates in OFMD. Even though the plots and characters can be quite different they all have similar vibes.

2. Noted for having open queer representation.

Klaus and Viktor in UA, pretty much the entire main cast of WWDITS, and multiple main characters in OFMD.

3. Tied to already established and respected creators.

UA is based on the comics written by Gerard Way who, of course, is also well known for My Chemical Romance. WWDITS is based on the film by Jermaine Clement and Taika Waititi, who are both executive producers of the show. Taika was also involved in OFMD as the actor for Blackbeard and as an executive producer. He has his name tied to many acclaimed films like Hunt for the Wilderpeople, Thor Ragnorok and Jojo Rabbit.

These are obviously not the only famous people tied to these projects but it’s just a sample of the talent involved in these shows. I feel like the fact that there was so much talent working on these shows makes my next point more interesting.

4. Experienced drops in quality and/ or introduced problematic elements that caused fans to lose interest or respect.

Again, this is opinion based and if you still liked the shows during these seasons then more power to you.

My overall feeling about all of these shows is that they lost a lot of the joy from their initial season(s) as they went on. Like, they just got significantly less fun to watch. But they also had more specific individual issues that I would like to get into.

I stopped watching UA during season 3 and don’t plan on watching season 4. I feel like a lot of people will already know what I might be referring to with this but yeah, the scene where Allison *did that* to Luther made me so sick. I feel like that season absolutely destroyed her character, and as I said, it just wasn’t anywhere near as fun as seasons 1 or 2.

WWDITS is probably the most successful of the three in my eyes but I could still apply the same argument about loss of enjoyment. The “Guillermo wants to be a vampire” plot line got very stale for me, especially with how they “resolved” (?) it. Saying “oh he’s a vampire now oh nevermind he doesn’t actually like being a vampire and also can’t be one anyway so everything’s back to normal” felt like such a waste of time for me. I know a lot of people also criticised the show for queerbaiting because of the Nandermo plot lines and teases. I wouldn’t necessarily call it queerbaiting but I would agree that the “will they, won’t they” is very played out at this point. Another big criticism I have of the later seasons is how Marwa was treated. The fact that she had no autonomy and was being forcibly changed mentally and physically to appeal to Nandor was treated as like, a running joke and I just found it kind of disturbing. Dark humour is pretty common throughout the show, but given how often her character appeared it felt a lot more, significant than throwaway jokes about drinking human blood. I feel like they could have done so much better with her character.

OFMD is probably the most egregious example of the 3. Season 2 was just not good. I’m not saying it was the worst thing I’ve ever watched but it was incredibly disappointing. The pacing was off, the characters were off, the dynamics were off. It was all just very off. The huge cliffhanger ending with Evil Blackbeard felt like it was resolved way too quickly and everything else in the season felt equally rushed. A lot of the character dynamics, but especially Ed and Stede, just felt wrong to me. From what I understand there were production issues or something so I’m not saying the writers just woke up one day and decided to be bad at their jobs but I can only really judge a show by what I saw on my screen, and what I saw was so far removed from the quality of season 1.

5. Finished on a sour note.

UA ended after 4 seasons, with the fourth being released on Netflix today. I haven’t seen anything that indicates whether this was the intended endpoint or whether it was cancelled. WWDITS will end after season 6 which comes out in October. Again, I can’t find anything indicating whether this was the intended endpoint. OFMD was cancelled just a few months after the release of season 2 in October 2023.

I can’t tell other fans how they should feel but for me I’m incredibly disappointed that 3 shows I really enjoyed saw a gradual (or not so gradual for OFMD) drop in quality that ultimately culminated in them just… ending.

Like I said, I have no interest in US season 4, but I am still somewhat hopeful for WWDITS. I would be really happy if they could bring it back to what it was.

Conclusion

I don’t know what the point of writing this was other than the fact that I’ve always associated these shows as having the same vibes and I feel like it’s interesting that they have a lot of similarities and went down similar paths. Also I just like yapping.

[londonspirit]

When Our Flag Means Death first premiered, the pirate comedy series — a novel genre mashup in and of itself — didn't necessarily make a big splash in the streaming landscape. It didn't take long, however, for positive word of mouth and a slowly growing fanbase to lead to impressive viewing numbers, with the first season becoming the biggest new series in the U.S. across all platforms — and its popularity has only grown since. Now, on the precipice of the series' return, over a year after it was finally renewed for a second season, viewers are eagerly preparing to tune in to find out what will happen to Stede Bonnet (Rhys Darby), Edward Teach/Blackbeard (Taika Waititi), and the rest of the Revenge's crew now that everyone has been divided into two separated groups.

Ahead of the Season 2 premiere, Collider had the opportunity to speak to creator David Jenkins for a spoiler-free conversation (if you've checked out some of those trailers already, that is!) about what fans can expect. Over the course of the interview, which you can read below, Jenkins discusses when he found out the show would be renewed, the unprecedented response to Season 1, and why he enjoys engaging with the OFMD fandom online. He also digs into discussing why Season 2 takes a somewhat darker tone, the importance of adding more female characters to the cast, his envisioned story for the show's planned three seasons, and more.

COLLIDER: You made a whole season between now and the last time we spoke!

DAVID JENKINS: It was a long time ago. Here we are!

And I know it was a bit before we even knew that Season 2 was going to be a possibility. How long was that wait on your end?

JENKINS: Yeah, I blocked it out, if I'm honest. [Laughs] It was a minute. We're really lucky that they picked us up, and they've been really wonderful to us at Max. They're just very fun to make this show with. There was a minute where I would call it kind of a slow-burn fandom, and the show just seemed to grow and grow and grow. I think we became more and more viable as the weeks went by after the finale, and thank god we got to do it again.

With the response to Season 1, it felt like week after week, even once the whole season was out, there was just this exponential growth. What was your reaction to that? Has that ever happened to you before, in your experience?

JENKINS: Oh, it’s never happened to me. I don't know if it's happened to other shows. Somehow, I feel like the streaming of it makes this unusual, and then the fact that it is actually a romantic relationship between these two characters. Audiences didn't want to get burned again, and then saw that they weren't going to be, and celebrated it. It just really moved me, actually. I thought that they'd kiss, and people would be like, “Oh, cool, cool!” I kind of thought people would know a little bit more [about] where we were going, but then in hindsight, no, people have been hurt and burned on so many other shows and then made to feel silly. So it was very gratifying to see the show embraced — to see every element of the creative embraced, every element of the production design, every department get their due in attention, was just overwhelming. It's the honor of my professional life. I don't think this happens very often, so I'm just savoring it.

You don't always see creators who are willing to engage with the fandom online, or they try to keep a distance, but it feels like you're getting in there occasionally and interacting with fans. How do you feel about that particular response, the fandom and their passion?

JENKINS: It's an honor. If it were a different circumstance or a different property or something else that maybe had a different tone that brought in a more dyspeptic, less gracious [fandom]... Everyone's been lovely. When people are being nice and normal, easy to be around, yeah, I wanna be at that party. Are you kidding me? And then you're gonna celebrate all the work that we did when we didn't know if the show would be good? Because when you're making these things, you're like, “Well, I know this is just my weird thing. Maybe people like it, maybe they won't.” When people are this gracious and effusive and not weird about it, it's like, “Yeah, let's talk. This is great. You're a fan of the stuff that we were a fan of. We're not different.” So that's really rare.

In terms of the overall tone of Season 2, there's definitely a darkness that it starts with. Was it more of a conscious decision to embrace that side, or did it really inherently come from picking up with these characters after where we left off with them in Season 1?

JENKINS: It's picking up with where the arc is in the story. We're post-breakup, and they're trying to fix it. One of these characters is very, very damaged and has never made himself vulnerable in this way before, and I don't think [he] would react very well to having his heart broken in this way. I don't think it would be cute, and I don't think it would be funny. I think it would be scary as hell to watch a very damaged guy that we've established in Ed, who killed his dad and thinks he's not capable of being loved, deal with rejection and see that Stede really hurt him. It's important to do that, to give him stakes because Rhys [Darby] is adorable, and Taika [Waititi] can be adorable, and sometimes when they're being adorable, they become invulnerable. I want to see a love story between two people who are very vulnerable, for better and for worse. So you have to pick up in a place where there's been damage done and there's a price to pay, and then it's like, “Can they come back from it?”

That's not to say that there aren't moments of levity and comedy. Stede, from his perspective, is this more pining figure writing letters, but he's definitely not in the same mental or emotional space as Ed is at this point because he doesn't realize how hurt Ed is.

JENKINS: The lovely thing about Rhys and about Stede is Stede’s cluelessness. He eventually does the right thing, but he doesn't know his own strength, and that's his problem. Then he does damage, and then he has to repair that damage, and that's the growth of that character. Ed is a guy where you're like, “Wait a minute, you're invulnerable. You’re Blackbeard,” but then you see he's hurt, he's not getting up. To me, those are the natural journeys for those two characters. Then you see Ed come back, and he has to wear a bell around his neck, and he's gonna fix a lock on this door, and he's gonna learn to fish and just be a three-dimensional human as opposed to just a scary drawing. Those are the tensions of those guys, and that's why Rhys has dog energy, and Taika has cat, and that seems to go along with both of those arcs.

I wanted to ask you about one of the things that feels like a really nice addition to Season 2, which is just the number of female characters that we get for the crew to bounce off of.

JENKINS: Good, I’m glad you feel that way.

Leslie [Jones] is back, we get Minnie Driver, and there's a new female pirate captain who shifts the power dynamic, among others. Did that feel like a natural way to expand the cast, or was that a change that you really wanted to make after Season 1?

JENKINS: It felt like both. Watching Season 1 is like, “Oof, there’s a lot of dudes.” We do go into Jim's experience as a non-binary crew member and Jim's relationship with their mentor and mother figure. In Season 2, it felt important and also the most logical way to build the world out. So it was fun to add these characters, even one-offs like Hell-Cat Maggie, and be like, “There are so many different perspectives to bring into this show.” It just felt natural to do that.

What's your favorite needle drop that the show has used so far in Season 1, and which one are you excited for fans to get to in Season 2?

JENKINS: Season 2 is built around [Kate Bush's] “This Woman's Work,” and that was very early on. That was a little bit like [Fleetwood Mac's] “The Chain.” I knew I wanted to use that, clear it, script where it should go in the season. There's a couple of those where it takes a minute to get that song, and there's a lot of back and forth, and if you don't get it, there's not a real good replacement for it. In that first season, “The Chain” really worked. We could have found a different song, but “The Chain,” that really works there. Also, [Cat Stevens'] “Miles from Nowhere” at the end of the first season felt like the Stede Bonnet song with that version of “Miles from Nowhere.”

Season 2, Nina Simone makes a couple of appearances, and I just love the size and grandeur of what she's doing. She seems to fit with a really large fantasy show — obviously, she's Nina Simone — and what she's talking about and how she's expressing it up against this world is really exciting to me. I don't know why it works for me as much as it does, but it really moves me. She comes back at the end of the season with a different track, and I just love having her music up against these pictures.

I've seen quotes from you recently where you talked about how—fingers crossed—if there's a renewal, Season 3 would be the planned final ending for this show. Was that something that you always envisioned, that it would be three-and-done?

JENKINS: I think so. When Taika expressed interest in doing it, I was surprised. “Are you sure?” He was like, “Yeah, man. Yeah, I wanna do it.” I was like, “Okay, but it’s not limited. Can you do it for three seasons?” “Yeah.” “Really? Really, you'll do it for three seasons?” “Yeah, man. Yeah.” So my expectation was we're only gonna get Taika for three seasons. But beyond that, three is good for this show. The first season is about two emotionally underdeveloped men who are at about 14, 15, 16, emotionally. Season 2 is about them getting older and maybe, in terms of the relationship, being around 25 to maybe 30 by the end of the season. And then I think there's one more story to tell, and it's how does a relationship evolve? Where do we find them again in the third season? What are they dealing with? That's very interesting to me, and there is a big story that I'd like to tell there.

Our Flag Means Death Season 2 premieres with its first three episodes October 5 on Max, with two episodes dropping weekly thereafter leading up to the season finale on October 26.

[freeuselandonorris]

✨💌

(for the writer asks here!)

✨What's a fic you've posted you wish you could breathe life into again and have people talking about it? (or simply a fic you wish got more credit)

hmmm. a lot of my fics are either for very niche pairings, niche fandoms or niche kinks, so I’m kind of used to posting into the void to an extent 😅

that said, two fics I’m particularly proud of that didn’t get huge traction are:

all the blood runs hot before it’s cold (F1 RPF, toto wolff/christian horner, christian horner/geri halliwell, E). look, i get it. it’s a weird fic about two very rich and quite obnoxious middle aged men being vile to each other, and one of them gets pegged by a spice girl. it’s not for everyone. but I love what I managed to do with that fic and I think it’s the one I’m proudest of overall in terms of showing off my actual writing ability.

crosstown traffic (our flag means death RPF, taika waititi/rhys darby, E). this one actually did okay for the bounds of a tiny fandom, given it was posted between seasons. but again, I feel like I did a decent job of making this a character study of LA Taika (as opposed to Aotearoa NZ Taika, a very different beast). I’ve actually been thinking about doing a sequel to this at some point, set during the filming of Flag S2, where I look at Aotearoa Taika in more depth, like a mirror image piece somehow.

I guess I haven’t entirely answered the question directly here but yeah, I think they’re the two I would be happiest for people to revisit!

💌share something with us about an up-and-coming work (WIP) that has you excited!

oh god I have like…five WIPs on the go currently because I have poor impulse control.

so I’ve been working on a sequel to the toto/christian fic I mentioned above, set from toto’s POV this time (one of my favourite POVs to write from).

“You know,” Toto says. “I read this book over the winter break.”

“Oh dear,” Christian looks pained.

There’s something different about him today. In the intervening period since Toto was last alone with him, something has changed. He’s taking up the whole cradle of the armchair like he thinks he belongs there.

“It was about Mithridates,” Toto continues, ignoring Christian. “He was the ruler of Pontus in Anatolia in the first century BC. His father was assassinated at a banquet, and so Mithridates spent seven years in the wilderness, ingesting poisons at sub-lethal doses.”

“Right,” Christian says impatiently. “Why, exactly?” His fingers twitch against his thighs.

Toto leans back against the desk, legs stretched out and crossed at the ankles. The sharp edge cuts into his glutes. He flexes, letting the discomfort translate itself into another stirring of blood.

“He built up an immunity,” he says, and leans forward. His cock throbs with every beat of his heart. “Eventually, these repeated small exposures to the deadliest of poisons accumulated in his system. It no longer affected him.”

I also started writing girl!Lando/Oscar filth yesterday whoops

“Hey, Osc.” Lando drops her phone to her chest and fixes Oscar with a scrutinising gaze. She’s been sprawled on Oscar’s sofa for the past hour, feet up on his coffee table, gnawing on the beads of her bracelets and largely ignoring him. “You ever made a girl squirt?”

Jesus. Oscar should be used to this kind of thing by now, really, but it never stops startling him when Lando pipes up have you ever done spanking or did you know that you can train yourself out of a gag reflex if you like, really commit apropos of nothing.

“Uh,” Oscar says. “Nope. Can’t say I have. Have you?”

and wonderful OP I realise you might be glazed over now while I talk about motorsports fics when you followed me for Flag stuff! but the other day I remembered I got halfway through a Roach/Blackbeard cannibalism fantasy (look, it’s canon, alright) fic that I abandoned a few months ago. I’d like to go back to it at some point, though!

“They say you’ve tasted human flesh,” he says. The words are astonishing coming out of his mouth. He keeps his voice deliberately low, his words audible only to Blackbeard before the breeze and the waves wash them away.

“Do they, now,” Edward says, musing. He’s still smiling, but it’s changed now. He’s eyeing Roach speculatively; Roach feels pinned, like something to be inspected under glass. He forces himself to look up at meet Edward’s gaze, more boldly than he feels inside.

Edward leans a little closer, voice low. “Yeah, I’ve tasted flesh.”

Roach can’t stop the way his eyelids flutter, hearing it. He sucks in a breath. “You have?”

“Oh, yeah,” Blackbeard says, and tilts his head. “A man can work up all sorts of appetites under the right circumstances.”

thanks for asking! 💕

[xoxoemynn]

I posted 5,836 times in 2022

That's 5,836 more posts than 2021!

314 posts created (5%)

5,522 posts reblogged (95%)

Blogs I reblogged the most:

@snake-snack-stede

@ourflagmeanslgbtqia

@gaylittlepirates

@blakbonnet

@forpiratereasons

I tagged 5,821 of my posts in 2022

#ofmd - 4,542 posts

#edward teach - 2,987 posts

#stede bonnet - 2,606 posts

#ed x stede - 2,107 posts

#ofmd art - 1,570 posts

#queue wear fine things well - 695 posts

#lucius spriggs - 209 posts

#ofmd meta - 186 posts

#izzy hands - 172 posts

#taika waititi - 162 posts

Longest Tag: 140 characters

#ed being that vulnerable with stede only to be abandoned and the v natural resulting distrust def feels like a major conflict to be explored

My Top Posts in 2022:

#5

I know we all talk about Ed’s adorable sulky face but I also just want to have a moment for his two angry huffs as he really settles into his pout.

1,049 notes - Posted June 9, 2022

#4

Get off my ship. Now. 

Just want to talk for a hot second about what a critical moment this was for Stede as a captain.

Now, obviously by this point the crew is fond of Stede. The dynamics have significantly improved from when the show first started and they were plotting mutiny. But still, when Calico Jack showed up, they reverted a bit too their old ways. Because just when they were starting to get comfortable with having the legendary Blackbeard on their ship, his ole bestie had to show up and remind them all again HOLY SHIT WHAT LEGENDS. THIS is the life of a pirate they signed up for -- rum all day, flying coconuts, devil-may-care stunts on the ship that may end in death but WHO CARES, it’s an ADVENTURE, what a STORY! And when Stede attempts to raise Jack’s constant acts of massive passive aggression, resulting in him sharing a sob story of being mutinied (again), the crew is quick to comfort him by throwing Stede under the ship, letting Jack know they were going to mutiny against Stede and probably would again some day.

But then Calico Jack kills Karl. And listen, everyone knows Buttons is a bit of an odd bird, but he’s their odd bird. There’s a lot of obvious respect for him, and by extension his bird friend, Karl.

When Karl is killed, all the laughter dies as well. Nobody is amused by Jack’s “oops.” He might as well have killed a member of the crew. And then when Buttons responds by placing a hex upon him and Jack laughs?? With utter scorn and derision and mockery???

There’s this suffocating tension because the crew is obviously on the side of Buttons and the dearly departed Karl, but how do you rise up against Blackbeard’s best friend? Sure, they’ve all become somewhat of friends in the past few weeks, but it’s still Blackbeard. It’s like Ed and Jack were the too cool for school seniors, and the crew were the gangly group of misfit freshmen, and they were all having a great time hanging out together over the summer, but now they’ve returned to school and all the old power dynamics are back and it’s scary and uncomfortable and they’ve lost any kind of even footing they had.

But then who emerges? CAPTAIN STEDE. And he IMMEDIATELY tells Jack to get off his ship. 

It’s the firmest we’ve ever heard him speak, leaving absolutely no room for questions or debate. Jack is GONE.

The crew has seen Stede and Jack interact. They may not know the full story, and they may not grasp all the nuances at play, but it’s pretty clear Stede isn’t a big fan of Jack. But he put up with his insults, put up with the changes to his routine, put up with behaviors he found juvenile and cruel...but he would not put up with anyone harming his crew. And by kicking Jack out, Stede was fulfilling his role as captain: to ensure his ship, and his crew, was safe.

And the crew recognizes this. The next day, when Stede tells them Blackbeard will no longer be sailing with them, they’re all disappointed, yes, but they also understand why and that Stede’s upset about it so they’re not going to press the issue...except for Black Pete, who lacks a bit of tact, but he’s roundly told to read the room and not be a dick. Now’s not the time to whine about how they wish Blackbeard were still on board. Now’s the time to respect their captain, who’s hurting. 

Anyway this turned out to be way longer than I thought it would, but it just struck me what a meaningful moment that was, with Stede truly stepping into his role as captain and his crew recognizing it. Such growth in a relatively short amount of time, both with him as a leader and with the crew as a bonded unit.

1,244 notes - Posted May 22, 2022

#3

Do you ever stop to think just how long Edward Teach has been dying to kiss Stede?

We know he’s been tempted at least since their moonlight moment.

So...

Stede excitedly telling Ed they had a great opportunity for a fuckery? Ed was definitely actively resisting a smooch.

Crying in the bathtub? Wouldn’t have said no to a comforting kiss.

Stede learned from him and managed to avoid getting killed by Izzy in a duel? Definitely would have kissed him.

Stede getting his tea just right? The sugar Ed was looking for definitely wasn’t just in his beverage.

Realizing Stede put on the whole treasure hunt adventure to impress him? Honestly Lucius is lucky he didn’t get shoved to the side that day because Ed would have loved a kiss in the palm trees.

“You came back.” “Better alive so I still have a chance to kiss you before the day’s over than dead.”

And that’s just off the top of my head?? Not to mention all the little moments when Stede made him laugh, or smiled at him a certain way, or just did something so particularly Stede-like that Ed just felt his heart explode and it took all his willpower not to just risk it all and kiss him on the spot.

And then think about what a relief it must have been to finally kiss him, and have it be reciprocated...

That’s it, I’m going to stop thinking there.

1,362 notes - Posted July 17, 2022

#2

Half-formed thought about how Ed asking Izzy if he thought the clouds looked like frankfurters very well could have been him attempting to teach him a lesson, like “hey! you know, when the clouds look like this, that’s often a sign that a fog’s going to set in, that should solve that pesky problem with the Spanish,” and how frustrated he gets that Izzy doesn’t follow along and it’s “like pulling teeth with him sometimes, implying this is a regular occurrence with him where Ed is trying to show/teach him something and Izzy just refuses to see past the nose on his face just because the way Ed demonstrated knowledge to him wasn’t “conventional.”

And compare that with how much fun Ed had showing Stede how to be a pirate, teaching him sword fighting, some of the more advanced tools of the trade, a good fuckery, etc. ... and yes part of that is def just because Ed had some major heart eyes for Stede.

But also, Stede just wanted to learn, and he liked doing things differently. He reminded Ed of the joy he used to feel as a pirate. He brought back that fun and sense of adventure.

And as much as Ed may be sick of being Blackbeard, he still clearly likes showing off a bit, likes showing others the ways of the world’s most brilliant sailor and tactician.

He’s not just Blackbeard the Big Scary and Untouchable, he’s Ed who has something of real value to offer people. And I think he’s been craving being able to offer that, to have that kind of connection with someone where they want to learn what he knows and who appreciate his method of delivery (aka and truly accept him for who he is). Again, not just because he’s a legendary pirate captain, but because they know him and respect him.

And then Stede, and the entire crew of the Revenge, give him the opportunity to do just that, and he thrives. It’s the most open and available they’ve ever seen him. It’s the most fun he’s had in ages.

I hope as the show continues we see more of this, Ed passing on his knowledge and wisdom to others and have them all take it in with the same joy and wonder he once felt, thus once again renewing some of his excitement for his old passion.

1,659 notes - Posted July 9, 2022

My #1 post of 2022

Feeling a little emotional because HOW FREAKING WONDERFUL is it that Stede spent his entire life made to feel weak and inadequate just because he liked flowers and fine fabrics and was so earnest, and everyone just mocked him and treated him with scorn and derision like “get a load of THIS fucking guy,” meanwhile Ed walks in and says “yes I WOULD like to get a load of this fucking guy, oh shit, yes, I’m in love with him and everything that he is.”

And then the corollary of HOW FREAKING WONDERFUL it is that Ed spent his life being revered as this violent untouchable legend, and he always wears this protective mask so nobody can see that underneath he’s so deeply human, that he’s lonely and craving connection, and that he spent his life thinking he doesn’t deserve nice things but every so often he allows himself to dream, and then Stede walks in and peeks through that mask and says “hey I see you and you deserve the world and, oh shit, I’m in love with you and everything you are.”

Just the fact that these two people found each other and saw/respected/appreciated each other in a way nobody else could and that feeling quickly blossomed into a deep, genuine love is making me a bit weepy this fine morning and I cannot wait to see where their journey takes them.

2,900 notes - Posted July 17, 2022

Get your Tumblr 2022 Year in Review →

[fleshadept]

I posted 5,653 times in 2022

That's 4,467 more posts than 2021!

769 posts created (14%)

4,884 posts reblogged (86%)

Blogs I reblogged the most:

@blackbeardskneebrace

@his-name-is-ed

@eyeldritch

@blakbonnet

@twocarsonenight

I tagged 3,538 of my posts in 2022

Only 37% of my posts had no tags

#wwdits fx - 301 posts

#cricket chirps - 268 posts

#cricket answers - 240 posts

#taika waititi - 147 posts

#ofmd - 130 posts

#wwdits spoilers - 120 posts

#wwdits - 88 posts

#our flag means death - 88 posts

#iwtv - 84 posts

#boy (2010) - 75 posts

Longest Tag: 139 characters

#you could argue he didn’t plan the fire and that’s highly likely but when it did happen he went 😏 and kept on smiling all proud of himself

My Top Posts in 2022:

#5

See the full post

10,095 notes - Posted September 7, 2022

#4

the way ofmd deals with masculinity is so fascinating. we have stede, who’s about the least masculine a character could possibly be in the traditional sense: he gets sad instead of angry, he refuses to engage in physical violence, he encourages talking about feelings, he likes fashion and interior design and romanticizes everything. he likes picking flowers. and he has been told for his whole life that he is worthless because of all of this. he has been bullied and taunted and abused for it, but that didn’t keep him from adding a secret closet to his ship (lmao) to keep his excess fineries. he is still outwardly himself.

then we have ed. ed who is the pinnacle of the idea of masculinity, part of why he was remembered as history’s greatest pirate in the first place. he’s violent, ruthless, quick to anger, hierarchical, and his name, blackbeard, even emphasizes a symbol of masculinity. he’s revered for his masculinity. his performance is so powerful that people surrender before he even shows up in person. but it’s not him. blackbeard is a character ed has played for as long as he could remember that served to protect him from harm. you can't get hurt if you're never vulnerable in the first place.

when he meets stede, he finds someone he doesn’t have to present as blackbeard for. he can indulge in the frilly colorful clothes, the dancing, the emotional honesty that stede treats as normal. ed lets stede hold his heart in his hands and stede calls it beautiful. and stede, for the first time, has met someone who doesn’t see those things as hateful or embarrassing. everything stede has been mocked for unequivocally delights ed. in the reverse, stede sees blackbeard as the man stede never was. the ideal of a pirate that he read about and romanticized before he became one himself. to stede, blackbeard is everything he could never bring himself to be.

when ed begins to outwardly become interested in stede’s way of life, izzy serves to try to force him back into that hypermasculine presentation of Blackbeard. izzy hates stede for all the same reasons stede has been hated his whole life, and he sees stede as poisoning edward with his embarrassing foppish behavior, emasculating him. this comes to a head when ed signs the act of grace, shaves his beard (the symbol of his performance of masculinity), and kisses stede. all of those go against traditional masculine norms and by extent, the idea of Blackbeard. but ed isn’t performing anymore. he smiles more after the kiss than he ever does in the rest of the show.

then, stede is held at gunpoint by chauncey, who calls stede a monster, a plague for ruining the greatest pirate in history. ruining through emasculation, which in countless other media has been presented as horrific. think about other media that puts masculine characters in prison or the army (the similarities are staggering)—the threat of beating the character down until they’re submissive and emasculated is ever-present. losing the appearance of masculinity is by and large seen as one of the worst things that could possibly happen, and is often paired thematically with the loss of autonomy.

so stede agrees. he’s horrified with himself. he himself was already not traditionally masculine, and he spread it to blackbeard like a disease. everything he (and, interestingly, the viewer) has ever been told is that ed’s shift throughout the show is something to be terrified of. ed shaving his beard, in stede’s mind, confirmed his worst fear: stede had made ed into everything stede hated about himself and wanted to change; he killed blackbeard. but what he and chauncey and izzy can’t see is that stede actually gave ed more autonomy, more freedom and comfort to be himself and do what makes ed happy.

so stede runs. he runs back to where he once performed masculinity as a father and husband (regaining his own beard, so to speak), now sure that blackbeard would have been better off not knowing him. on some level, stede does want parts of blackbeard’s edge to stay (he’s like izzy in that way) and is scared he’s somehow excised it permanently. ed doesn’t want to leave it all behind either, but he’s terrified that stede could never accept the side of him that still exists as blackbeard. i also think this is why ed didn't try to kiss stede until he was the least like blackbeard he could be; he saw it as being less likely to get rejected for the ugliness he saw in himself.

it's interesting that ed doesn't go back to being blackbeard immediately after stede abandons him. at first, he goes all-in on the emotional vulnerability, trying to hang on to the hope he had allowed himself to experience when stede had agreed to run away with him. hanging on by a thread. the thread snaps when izzy mocks him for pining after stede, for lacking the masculinity izzy required in order to maintain his respect. in quick succession ed was rejected by stede, whom he loved, and izzy, whose respect he'd had since before the show began. so he threw his walls back up. he painted his mask back on, closed himself off, and removed every reminder of when he had allowed himself to be vulnerable.

ed's return to masculinity is not presented as a good thing. it's a trauma response, a defense mechanism, and it's toxic. the show experiments with defining a line between toxic and non-toxic masculinity; izzy, calico jack, the kraken, stede's father, the admiral twins, they all represent the ways toxic masculinity enforces a culture of violence and punishes any emotion except anger. stede and his crew represent a healthier version of masculinity: emotional honesty, encouragement and care for others, kindness, and love. it's not an accident that as ed allows himself to love and be loved, he begins to leave behind the toxic aspects of masculinity he had before. i've used the word emasculated to refer to ed's transformation throughout the show, but in truth that's not entirely accurate. it lines up with how many people would view what happened to him, but in reality he did remain a man, he just became a healthier one.

10,317 notes - Posted March 30, 2022

#3

11,019 notes - Posted March 28, 2022

#2

32,575 notes - Posted August 6, 2022

My #1 post of 2022

editing has been disabled on martin scorsese's wikipedia page

42,465 notes - Posted November 20, 2022

Get your Tumblr 2022 Year in Review →

[petrapng]

hello! i'm petra and this is my multifandom blog! my blog contains untagged spoilers & triggers! i'm currently posting about the game grumps and wwdits!

‍ ‍‍ ‍ ‍ ‍ ‍ ‍ ‍‍ ‍ ‍‍ ‍ ‍‍ ‍ ‍ ‍ ‍ ‍ ‍‍ ‍ ‍‍ ‍‍ ‍‍ ‍ ‍ ‍ ‍ ‍ ‍‍ ‍ ‍‍ ‍ ‍‍ ‍ ‍ ‍ ‍ ↓  tags  ↓

(list created with my own tumblr tag list tool.)

  #fav #ref #ask #fanart #multifandom My Creations: #* #*gifs #*art #*fanvid #*moodboard #*picmix My Other Original Posts: #~

YouTube Fandoms:

GAME GRUMPS / NINJA SEX PARTY #gg #arin #danny #egobang #suzy #nsp #danny COMMENTARY YT #danny gonzalez #drew gooden #kurtis conner #jarvis #chad chad RHETT AND LINK #gmm #rhett #link #rhink #rhink fanart #chase DAN AND PHIL #dan and phil #dan #phil #phan BUZZFEED UNSOLVED / WATCHER #bfu #ryan #shane #shyan

TV Shows:

WHAT WE DO IN THE SHADOWS #wwdits #wwdits fanart #nandor #guillermo #nadja #laszlo #colin robinson #nandermo #laszlo and nadja #laszlo and nandor #viago #wwdits bts #kayvan novak OUR FLAG MEANS DEATH #ofmd #ofmd s1 #ofmd s2 #ofmd fanart #ofmd bts #stede bonnet #blackbeard #izzy hands #blackbonnet #blackbonnet fanart #izzy fanart #stizzy #steddyhands #blackhands #rhys darby #taika waititi #con oneill GOOD OMENS #good omens #good omens s1 #good omens s2 #good omens fanart #ineffable husbands #ineffable divorce #ineffable kiss #aziraphale #anthony j crowley #michael sheen #david tennant DOCTOR WHO #dw #nine #ten #eleven #twelve #thirteen #fourteen #fifteen #rose #clara #donna #doctor and rose #doctor and clara #david tennant HANNIBAL #hannibal #hannibal lecter #will graham #hannigram #mads mikkelsen STAR TREK #star trek fanart #star trek memes #kirk #spock #bones #spirk #star trek tos #st:tms #st:twok #st:tsfs #st:tvh #st:tff #st:tuc #star trek bts #william shatner #leonard nimoy #deforest kelley BBC SHERLOCK #sherlock #sh #jw #jm #johnlock #andrew scott #benedict cumberbatch SUPERNATURAL #spn #dean #sam #cas #crowley #destiel #bros #spn fanart #destiel fanart

Miscellaneous:

MARVEL #deadpool and wolverine #poolverine #poolverine fanart #hugh jackman and ryan reynolds #hugh jackman #wolverine #xmen #xmen 97 #nightcrawler #cherik #loki #lokius FLIGHT OF THE CONCHORDS #flight of the conchords #jemaine clement #murray hewitt

  .

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[ninazenikistheloveofmylife]

I posted 7,301 times in 2022

That's 2,266 more posts than 2021!

123 posts created (2%)

7,178 posts reblogged (98%)

Blogs I reblogged the most:

@in-my-valentino-white-bag

@gingerbread-castle

@hanisishus

@professionalchaoticdumbass

@aroaceconfessions

I tagged 374 of my posts in 2022

#ofmd - 64 posts

#our flag means death - 47 posts

#heartstopper - 26 posts

#stede bonnet - 25 posts

#taika waititi - 23 posts

#eurovision 2022 - 20 posts

#heartstopper netflix - 18 posts

#rhys darby - 16 posts

#blackbeard - 16 posts

#ed teach - 14 posts

Longest Tag: 123 characters

#i saw a lot of people ask for izzy to marry them. and while that's incredibly funny im just too fond of first mate oluwande

My Top Posts in 2022:

#5

“You didn’t want a boy to free you/ you just needed a confidant/ someone to understand you/ not just biding for their own wants”

so bears in trees again prove themselves to be the best band to ever exist - I’ve never heard any other song about queerplatonic relationships!

324 notes - Posted January 22, 2022

#4

I can’t believe that all it took for our flag means death to be trending and talked about again was for david jenkins to call rhys darby hot. thats it. thats all it took. i love this fandom

406 notes - Posted April 15, 2022

#3

romance is dead and I’M the cause 😍😍💅👀👀✨✨❤️❤️😘😘😘✨✨😭😍💅👀

1,174 notes - Posted July 24, 2022

#2

See the full post

1,485 notes - Posted April 13, 2022

My #1 post of 2022

One of the main things I adored about heartstopper was the addition of Imogen into the story. I was wary at first because I have seen characters like her before; they are always girls and they are always demonised for getting in the way of the mlm romantic relationship. I was worried that Nick would go on that date with her but he didn’t. When he had that conversation with her about only doing things because other people expect it from you, he really got through to her!! And she completely understood his point of view and he completely understood her point of view!! She respectfully backed off, and I also presume that she got an identity crisis after that. My brain is getting aroace vibes. Only doing things because other people want you to just fits with the struggles of being aroace.

1,638 notes - Posted April 22, 2022

Get your Tumblr 2022 Year in Review →

[badgiraffe]

I posted 420 times in 2022

That's 420 more posts than 2021!

26 posts created (6%)

394 posts reblogged (94%)

Blogs I reblogged the most:

@blackbeardskneebrace

@alameins

@blackbonnet

@neoncomets

@rcmclachlan

I tagged 374 of my posts in 2022

Only 11% of my posts had no tags

#ofmd - 83 posts

#wwdits - 27 posts

#stede bonnet - 20 posts

#heartstopper - 18 posts

#blackbeard - 14 posts

#taika waititi - 14 posts

#our flag means death - 14 posts

#rhys darby - 12 posts

#blackbonnet - 9 posts

#lgbtqia - 8 posts

Longest Tag: 139 characters

#who are you afraid of disappointing? the people who would be mad about seeing queer characters on tv don't deserve the consideration anyway

My Top Posts in 2022:

#5

Felice!! What a legend. I love her.

8 notes - Posted August 20, 2022

#4

Can I please just become a bear and hibernate until spring when the snow will be gone and my favourite shows will be back?

9 notes - Posted November 26, 2022

#3

Wille really had Simon's number memorized enough to remember it high and drunk off his ass in the middle of the night.

11 notes - Posted August 20, 2022

#2

"If the truth of who you are was a home, you are allowed to live in it before having to invite everyone in. People are only allowed in this home you’ve built on your own terms, and only when you’re ready to host them."

Harvey Guillén

16 notes - Posted August 18, 2022

My #1 post of 2022

Mike Flanagan knows how to do Horror With Heart so well.

108 notes - Posted October 12, 2022

Get your Tumblr 2022 Year in Review →

[blackbeards-bonnet]

I posted 5,166 times in 2022

That's 5,166 more posts than 2021!

47 posts created (1%)

5,119 posts reblogged (99%)

Blogs I reblogged the most:

@impalationship

@snake-snack-stede

@forpiratereasons

@ofmd-alsaurus

@honeypieblackbeard

I tagged 675 of my posts in 2022

#ofmd - 461 posts

#our flag means death - 441 posts

#edward teach - 161 posts

#stede bonnet - 152 posts

#blackbonnet - 148 posts

#blackbeard - 143 posts

#ofmd spoilers - 82 posts

#taika waititi - 78 posts

#ofmdedit - 52 posts

#gentlebeard - 49 posts

Longest Tag: 136 characters

#it’s about not living up to the stabdards of others and being disappointed by the one person who you thought would always have your back

My Top Posts in 2022:

#5

Can I serve you guys some sleep-deprived Ed? How about an angsty reunion? I know it's not Accountant, but pls read it anyway, I worked very hard on it

24 notes - Posted July 13, 2022

#4

I know people have made posts like this before but I just want to reiterate… Please don’t seek out creator or actor attention on twitter, especially to fanart. You can definitely post your art and be proud of it (please do!) and you can be excited if they do interact with it (I know I would be!). But that doesn’t mean that you should tag them or pester them or expect attention from them in any way. They’re people, and they have the right to choose what they see/interact with just like everyone else. Please just be respectful!

39 notes - Posted April 7, 2022

#3

If they don’t get a happy ending, I will personally fight taika waititi and god

47 notes - Posted April 1, 2022

#2

Lucius’s reaction to Ed, Blackbeard, and the Kraken in the next season will be fascinating to me.

On one hand, we’ve seen that he and Ed have some rapport, if only in regard to Stede and romantic feelings. There is (or was) some understanding there. For an episode or two, they were on the same page. And we’ve seen that Lucius was never really afraid of Blackbeard or his crew (mocking Izzy, building a friendship with Fang, etc).

On the other hand, Blackbeard literally tried to kill him. That’s a really hard thing to forgive and forget. Lucius strikes me as a very petty person (the break-up scene alone shows that) so I don’t think he’ll be the forgiving sort, but we also have to take Stede’s feelings and actions into account. Lucius obviously cares for Stede very much and seeing his captain and friend so distraught over the loss of his boyfriend might tip the scales in favor of getting Edward back, despite Lucius’s hatred of him. I’m conflicted on whether it’ll be enough, though

Of all of the relationships to explore in season 2, I think Lucius and Edward’s is the one I’m most excited for, especially because there are so many different directions they could go in. I really hope they don’t brush off Edward’s actions for the sake of comedy and instead dig into the nitty gritty of the interactions between these two highly complex, motivated, and emotional characters

86 notes - Posted April 15, 2022

My #1 post of 2022

Is anyone gonna write a fic where Ed is a stripper with the stripper name The Kraken who catches the eye of a recently-divorced Stede or do I have to do everything myself around here?

123 notes - Posted April 7, 2022

Get your Tumblr 2022 Year in Review →

[thiswomanshouldbewriting]

Ho postato 6.198 volte nel 2022

582 post creati (9%)

5.616 post rebloggati (91%)

Blog che ho rebloggato di più:

@what-am-i-outside-my-google-tabs

@crowreys-wormstache

@omarfor-mp3

@enby-wizard

@thebookdragon66

Ho taggato 3.479 dei miei post nel 2022

Solo 44% dei miei post non aveva tag

#parole al vento - 570 post

#stedward - 442 post

#our flag means death - 420 post

#blackbonnet - 416 post

#ofmd - 337 post

#sanremo 2022 - 252 post

#esc 2022 - 240 post

#stede bonnet - 179 post

#edward teach - 144 post

#yes - 111 post

Longest Tag: 139 characters

#something something not a single person in my family is capable of rational thought and i have no idea of what to think of anything anymore

I miei post migliori nel 2022:

#5

I don't usually want to get my hopes up, but it Rhys "great at physical comedy" Darby and Taika "these are two innocent fully erect eggplants" Waititi don't get to play an over-the-top, ridiculous fight that quickly becomes a sex scene in S2 what was even the point.

901 note - Postate 1 giugno 2022

#4

Absolutely devastated at the idea that, for most of human history, for you to hear music there had to be someone physically playing/singing in your vicinity. I would have gone rabid over a good musician.

989 note - Postate 25 novembre 2022

#3

Ok but episode 5 is such a turning point and I feel the need to ramble about this a little.

When I first saw the almost kiss at the end of the episode, I was kind of surprised. I knew from tumblr that the relationship between Ed and Stede was going to develop into a romance, I just didn't expect it to happen so quickly and so explicitly (the damage queerbaiting does to a mf). That scene signed a tone shift that I wasn't expecting, and the more I think about it the more absurd it feels that I didn't see it coming.

While Edward and Stede have lots in common and get along from the moment they meet, they are not on equal footing at first.

Stede treads Blackbeard as a friend, but he is also in a kind of hero-worship situation. He's known about him for a long time, he just had his life and crew saved by him, he is learning crucial skills from him.

And Ed, well, Ed also liked Stede from the moment he heard about him but, as lovable as he thinks that Stede is, Ed is still going along with his own plans. He decides to contact Stede because he's bored. He's learning about upper class because he wants to be one of them. As much as he likes Stede, he does not need Stede, while Stede pretty much needs him to survive.

What changes this dynamic? Well, the way Stede reacts to Ed's vulnerability.

In episode 4 we see Blackbeard in complete control of the situation while Stede panicks, until we learn that Blackbeard was wrong about the day. At that point Ed just... gives up, and retreats to drink himself into a stupor, and is joined by Stede. While they don't exactly bond in this moment, they are for once on equal footing, both musing on their own failings, and come up with the same plan at the same time. They work together, and while Ed still does not need Stede in his life at this point, he has learned that, at the very least, Stede is not the kind of person that would stab him (physically or emotionally) the moment he shows weakness.

Then episode 5 comes along and, despite Blackbeard's attempts, Stede starts to see more through the facade. Stede sees how the "rich donkey" comment got to him, and offers a support that Ed is not yet ready to accept. But later, when the party gets ugly, Stede "soft boy" Bonnet tells motherfucking Blackbeard to stand down, with so much authority that Ed actually does listen to him. Stede not only sees how much those comments got into Ed's head, not only stops him from doing something extremely rush and stupid in response, but actively takes the matter in his hands, punishing a boat full of people for the crime of hurting someone he cares about.

Ed has grown up in a world where every man has to fend for himself, where pirates don't have friends, where weakness means your crew will mutiny, and suddenly he is faced with someone who not only doesn't shame him for his moment of weakness, but tells him don't worry, I can deal with this so you don't have to. The look that Ed gives Stede as the boat burns is, I believe, both because he didn't think Stede had it in him, and because he definitely didn't expect Stede to do this for him.

Cut to the moonlight scene. Ed is still processing everything that just happened, when Stede approaches him and offers, once again, support for what he just went through. He gently takes (after asking!) something that Ed cares about, a symbol of his softness, and treats it with such care and respect, showing Ed how to display that to the world. Ed knows, in this moment, that he can trust Stede, that it's safe to be vulnerable with him, something that he probably hasn't felt with anyone in years. Of course he takes that step forward, of course he is tempted to kiss him.

And this fully progresses in epsiode 6. The episode opens with a montage of the two of them enjoying each other's company, finally on equal footing, because Ed has realized that he does need Stede, not for his plan, but as a person he wants to spend time with, someone cares about (much to Izzy's chagrin). Not only that, but the hilarious/flirty "stab me" scene is all about physical trust. Ed trusts Stede enough that he's willing to be physically vulnerable when he's around. But this isn't the highest level of trust for Ed. Ed would probably rather be stabbed than talk about his feelings, but by the end of the episode he's ready to show Stede what, by pirate standards, is the worst part of him. He's crying, he's scared, he's showing all of his emotional vulnerability, and once again Stede only shows him care. Stede reassures him that he's not a monster, that they're friends, and that their friendship won't change because Ed planned to kil him or because he was too soft to go through with the plan (there's a wonderful post about this, I can't find it right now).

It's not a coincidence that from episode 7 onward these two are clearly and openly head over heels for each other (still screaming about Ed trusting Stede to take something out of his beard), so much so that other characters start to fully acnowledge theirs as a relationship. The progression of their romance - from the instant chemistry to the weird tension to the full flirting - is dictated by how vulnerable Ed is willing to be with Stede, and how gently Stede treats him in response. And it breaks my heart because when Ed finally brought down his final defenses, when he was ready to leave it all behind for Stede, he had his heart broken in the worst possible way.

1.093 note - Postate 16 aprile 2022

#2

Stede Bonnet is literally THE Unkillable Gay™.

Stabbed in the guts and hanged? He is fine by the end of the next day. Blackbeard plans to kill him? Too late, Blackbeard has already fallen in love with him. Run through with a sword and impaled until (at least) the following morning? It's fine, there are no important organs on the left side of the body anyway. A guy tries to shoot him? He accidentally trips and shoots himself in the head instead. His wife plans to murder him? They have a nice heart-to-heart and end up hugging.

He literally cannot be stopped.

1.554 note - Postate 13 aprile 2022

Il mio post numero 1 del 2022

Currently screaming about Stede instinctively saying that Blackbeard is lovely and then immediately realizing that this is not the answer that people wanted and, crucially, it is not an answer he can give them.

He spent weeks at sea, on the naval equivalent of a gay pride parade, surrounded by people who were welcoming, if not of his pirate style, at least of his quirks. He read them stories, he saw them being queer with no guilt, he showed them all of his heartbreak about Ed leaving and was only met with support.

He has forgotten what hiding feels like. Or, rather, he has forgotten that he's supposed to hide. He's not on the Revenge anymore, where he could have donned his silk robe and talked with Lucius and Olu about his feelings. He once again has to hide who he is and, he realizes, he has to hide who Ed is as well.

There are so many layers on which this is true. He has to lie about Ed's vulnerabilities because they are something Ed himself keeps secret, and Stede can't breach that trust. He has to hide Ed's softer side because it won't be accepted, just like Stede's own softness isn't. He has to keep up the Blackbeard persona because that is keeping Ed safe through the fear people have of him. And yes, he also has to hide their relationship because, as far as I can tell from Wikipedia, that was a crime punishable by death.

Stede has, in the span of two seconds, to take all of this in and quickly shift back into his old mask, profoundly aware that as friendly as these men are right now, he can never be honest with them. Which is only highlighted by the fact that they openly cheer after his speech about death, despite it being clearly traumatising for him.

Idk maybe I am projecting, but I truly felt what Stede felt, the need to smile and lie through a family dinner on order to avoid outing yourself or someone else you know. Brb I'm gonna cry now.

4.264 note - Postate 18 maggio 2022

Guarda ora l'Analisi del tuo anno 2022 di Tumblr →

Adding a few comments to this:

I can't believe (but actually yes I can) that ofmd completely monopilzed my tags and top posts. Awesome.

I posted on average 1.6 posts a day. I'm on this website too much (no, I actually use it just the right amount)

@omarfor-mp3 I'll take the cookies.