thepetrifiedorange - Tumblr blog

[thepetrifiedorange]

Taika Waititi - Late Night with Seth Meyers

[thepetrifiedorange]

Do you ever think about the bits in between the fabulous scenes we got?

Do you think about Stede washing the blood off Ed's face and out of his hair after he woke up? Do you think about him insisting Ed take the bed after they come back aboard the Revenge? Tucking him into bed and sitting close while Ed falls asleep? Lying awake most of the night watching Ed sleep and just savoring the sight of him breathing?

Do you think about what they talked about in the cabin after their second kiss? Did they stay up most of the night talking?

Did Stede lie there holding Ed and smiling like a lunatic after the first time they made love? Did they just lie there looking into each other's eyes until they fell asleep? Or did they have another imaginary restaurant conversation where they just "yes and-ed" each other I to the wee hours of the morning?

Because I think about it a lot.

[thepetrifiedorange]

(Image recolour by @ofmd-ann )

I’m sorry but I need to talk about this LOOK.

Ed just thought Stede was dead. He thought he’d lost him forever, and that the last time they spoke they’d said hurtful things they didn’t mean.

Ed has just put his leathers back on to fight for and avenge his love. He’s just found a letter in a bottle that contained one of the most romantic declarations of devotion of all time. He has finally discovered he is truly loved for who he is.

And now they’re together again. Stede is alive, he’s safe, he’s in Ed’s arms and Ed is just LOOKING at him with so much feeling in his eyes.

I just can’t.

[thepetrifiedorange]

have you ever seen anyone

PRETTIER??

[thepetrifiedorange]

Taika tribute time!

For me, Ed is the heart of the show. Yeah, he looks good, and he absolutely served in season 2

But Taika’s portrayal of him? The way he manages to absolutely devastate with his emotional range? The tenderness he brings to the quiet moments and the way he can make you laugh and cry in a single scene?

That’s the heart of the show. There’s no show without Taika. And I don’t doubt his commitment to the role for a second.

Thanks Taika 🩷

[thepetrifiedorange]

Once again thinking about how ofmd took a pirate comedy and ran balls-to-the-wall with it??! they’re queer, have deep childhood traumas, fall in love, burn down ships of aristocrats, murder english soldiers, struggle with their insecurities, stage fuckeries. get stabbed. It’s a middle finger to toxic masculinity. It’s muppets having adventures on the high seas. It’s mistakes and big fuck ups. self loathing and breaking down. It’s being absolutely clueless half the time. one braincell between all of them. It’s found family! it’s choosing love over resentment, and not looking back. It’s hope against hope, kindness and gentleness. it’s allowing that to change you. they can travel anywhere, time means nothing! they’re leaving snake cults, getting tortured, drinking soup, getting married, turning into birds. they’re getting cursed, running scams, dressing in drag, baking cakes, starting an inn. they’re moving on and up and full of joy and pain and goofiness. It’s the show of all time

[thepetrifiedorange]

getting emotional thinking about the fact that ed has probably never had a boyfriend before and maybe he’s wanted to be called someone’s boyfriend in the past but he held back because he’s fucking blackbeard man, and he’s had it engrained in him for years that that shit is too soft.

and then stede fucking bonnet comes along with his frilly shirts and his letters in bottles and his undying, unwavering love and shows him that men can be tough and soft, and those things are not mutually exclusive.

then ed finally lets himself accept that love and believe he is worthy of it and confess his undying love in return and then — even though they maybe might die — stede bonnet, incredible man that he is, calls ed his boyfriend right there in front of the entire crew. and everyone’s watching and this is a life or death situation, he knows, but hearing the words on stede’s lips hits ed with such unrelenting force that he tries to keep it cool, but he can’t fucking help the skip in his heartbeat or the smirk that tugs on his lips like—

fuck yea, he’s someone’s boyfriend. fuck yea.

[thepetrifiedorange]

i love edward teach!! he’s gentle!! he’s a murderer!! he skins racists with the snail fork!! he has the eyes of all time!! he’s in love!! he’s so beautiful it brings tears to the eyes of our strongest soldiers!! he’s trying to do better!! he builds pillow forts! he wants to be a fisherman!! he giggles when he’s excited!! he’s willing to talk it through!! he likes to cannonball!! he wants to take things slow!! he can’t stay quiet! he paints his nails!! he wears fine things well!!!

[thepetrifiedorange]

from Samba Schutte's IG story

[thepetrifiedorange]

BOYFRIEND!!! bonus: proud bf :')

[thepetrifiedorange]

The whole "homophobic kiss" discourse irks me specifically because I normally hate on-screen kisses. Like, two attractive people doing an attractive activity together should be *attractive* yet somehow they always look terrible to me. But I have loved every kiss in OFMD, *especially* the ones between Ed and Stede. Like, 10/10, so lovely, so soft and warm, so full of affection. I cannot for the life of me see this awkwardness other people are talking about outside of the first one, and that's supposed to be an awkward kiss.

[thepetrifiedorange]

I dunno. I think about little Edward Teach who, having just murdered his father to protect his mother, runs away to become a pirate and spends the rest of his life living in constant fear of being hurt and seeing people he loves hurt by vicious white men who tell him that this is how men, and captains, are supposed to behave.

How he grows up to become a skilled sailor and brilliant pirate, then meets a man who doesn't captain his crew with violence or fear, but with kindness and gentleness, and how he starts to realize that the things he's been told about how to be a man are wrong. That men can be gentle and loving and that those are strengths and not weaknesses. And how that's something he comes to love in himself as he loves it in Stede.

Ed starts to forgive the boy who murdered his father because a good, gentle man sees that boy and tells him "I'm your friend."

[thepetrifiedorange]

We see Stede needing/craving praise, and when he doesn’t get it for the man he is, he tries to be the man he isn’t to get it. It ultimately hurts him, because he’s doing what Ed did for years as Blackbeard - putting on this stereotypical masculine persona to fit in and make people respect him.

Which is another reason why Ed’s whole description of Stede as a mermaid and how it saved his life is important, even if Stede doesn’t fully get it in the moment. Ed’s describing how he saw Stede at a moment of death, when he was at his lowest, and what he saw was a gentle, beautiful vision, appearing out of the darkness. It’s not Stede blazing in with a sword to fight off Ed’s demons or defeat villains, but Stede just being there, his sweet, gentle self. He doesn’t need to kill anyone or fight anyone to protect Ed.

Ed does get it, I think. He’s seen Stede try to be more pirate-y and try to be Blackbeard, and he knows that’s not who Stede is. Even their conversation about the captain’s voice is about owning the fact that he’s captain, not becoming more like Blackbeard: “I’m not the captain, you are.”

He knows that Stede is indeed very strong but it’s not the kind of strength that a lot of pirates value. Stede saved everyone’s lives the night before by being kind and listening to people. He saved Ed’s life by being gentle and loving. When Izzy tries to teach him proper pirate stuff, he keeps fucking up, but when it comes to listening to and caring about the crew, he makes everything right again, even at the cost of things he wants.

Ed comes to a lot of realizations about Stede in Season 2, including that Stede is a good captain because he’s not a proper pirate. Ed captained the Revenge like a proper pirate, doing the same things that men like Hornigold did, and everyone was miserable. Ned Low hates his own crew and they hate him. But Stede survives AND makes life better for the people around him. All the things that Ed loves about Stede make him strong in ways that Ed had been told were weaknesses. And Ed sees how much better life is. He shouts to the crew, “Stede’s got this," and he knows it's true.

So when he describes Stede saving him, he’s trying to say, “Be that. That’s who you are. That's what makes you a good captain. That’s the man I love.”

[thepetrifiedorange]

Poor Ed. He tries to be what the French aristocrats want, and they mock him for it. He tries to be what Calico Jack wants, and he hates himself for it. He tries to be what Izzy wants, and it nearly kills him.

And the whole time Stede is standing over there, just loving him for being Ed.

[thepetrifiedorange]

TBH, this moment aches more than the near kiss.

The vaguely disappointed, longing expression on Stede's face that we can see and Ed can't. He knows that there's something there. He might not know what it is yet, but it's there, and it's enough to make him turn around for one last look.

Ed does the same thing, and he sees this man who has just touched his heart, bathed in the warm light of the cabin, with a gentle smile on his face. He doesn't see the longing, but he feels it, and he turns away just a fraction of a second after Stede does. Ed's not concealing the memories of tenderness and gentleness and someone who loved him and whom he loved enough to sacrifice a part of himself to protect, and he's connecting that to someone he just met but with whom he's already falling in love.

(Gif by @lordoftherazzles)

They're reaching for each other and they come so close to getting there.

[thepetrifiedorange]

I present you: these moments from the FYC Q&A panel.

[thepetrifiedorange]

oh my god. i was re-watching season 2 episode four because season 2 episode four my beloved, and found another symbolic relationship angle akin to the inn talks:

what stede says: then you…shaved your beard off…for me and…

what stede means: i was already panicking about the speed in which our relationship was going, what with everything i was having to work through, but then you stripped away a pivotal part of your identity for me. and it terrified me. i was already convinced that i’m the type of person to mess things up, and then i caused blackbeard to get rid of his namesake. i stripped him of his identifying element. it wasn’t me prioritizing or preferring that persona, but rather, i was terrified of that hurting you. i was terrified you would be upset or suffer for me, because of me.

what ed says: again with the beard. sorry if my horrible, naked chin disgusts you so.

what ed means: sorry if the person behind blackbeard’s mask is unbearable. sorry if you only find that legend and persona attractive, and not the softer man behind it. sorry if my actual personality and self are so undesirable like everyone says they are.

what stede says: i love your chin, naked or otherwise.

what stede means: i love you. no matter who you want to be, no matter who you wish to present as, i love you. ed, blackbeard, or otherwise. it’s not about just the beard. it was never about just the beard. it was always just about you.