#critical

This is a fandom critical reblog. Read the pinned post. This is your only warning.

[ofmdsalt]

why

this post details the purpose of this blog and a primer/general warning for other fans who may not want this amount of critical commentary about a show they like.

block this blog if you don't want to see hot takes

for the posts i'm making i will be using these tags. feel free to blacklist any of them if you don't want to see my posts

ofmd critical

anti ofmd

our flag means death critical

fandom critical

the izcourse

izzy hands critical

edward teach critical

stede bonnet critical

gentlebeard critical

this blog also has a finite lifespan. once i feel like i've said my piece, i'm leaving this blog up as a reminder to myself that internet slap fighting isn't worth it, but until i excise that salty part of me, i will be here in the trenches

[side-blog-rants]

I'm sorry ,but if your immediate interpretation of "I fed into your darkness" is omg this is Izzy admitting he was abusing Ed and that he was the sole evil villain the whole time and everyone who sympathizes with Izzy is an abuse apologist,

then I'm sorry that just shows your own childish world view, that you think someone having regrets (on their deathbed mind you) about how a relationship with a loved one played out is them admitting to being an abuser. Like I guess no one should ever apologize to the people they care about then, because ThAT'S aN ADmISSION oF AbuSE!!

Like fuck, if that were the case no one would ever want to apologize for anything then, because apparently if they do that's them saying they're an evil abuser. I shouldn't have to say this, but life is not one continous police interrogation

Also, if that is in fact the case then you don't get to say Izzy getting his leg blown off was 'consequences for his actions' because low and behold Ed fucking APOLOGIZED for that

[dizzy-izzy-in-a-tizzy]

I honestly think the resurgence in people flooding the izzy tag with hate is due to feeling insecure about how closely their perspectives line up with people exposed as bad actors

so there's a need to explain how their takes are 'different'

it'll pass soon

it's honestly just like a few people that can't let go anyways. with pccp gone the amount of hate has gone down significantly

[dizzy-izzy-in-a-tizzy]

I perhaps underestimated how insecure people can be

[bougiebutchbitch]

You would think people watching a show about historical slavers would be ready to deal with 'problematique' topics and actually engage with the writing (which I do not really like for meta reasons but no shade meant). (It is about the pirate show) (no seriously this weird combination about being precious about things not being sterile and inventing sins to be angry about even at expense of actual wrongs the character did in a fandom to a show about Fucking Pirates??? Sorry, you are stronger one)

yeah.

I think a lot of this comes from fans low-key being very insecure about the fact they like the Show About Actual Real Historical Slavers Where Their Favourite Uwu White Guy Canonically Owns A Plantation lmaooooooooooooooo. Remember how pressed they all got when people said (rightfully, imo but it's still just an opinion) that Black Sails is a better show............

It really feels like they picked a guy and made him The Villain to deflect all criticism of their favourite characters onto, including blaming him for choices their faves actually made of their own damn accord in the canon show. And I wonder how much of this originates from how little they want to acknowledge that the show they are obsessed with has genuine flaws and is far from the be-all and end-all of queer fiction????

I know I shouldn't get involved because that makes me just as annoying as the Popular Fandom People STILL leaving long and frankly, fanonised hate-rants about a character everywhere longggggg after a show has been cancelled but - man those guys kinda suck lol. Scary that a lot of them are 30+.

[side-blog-rants]

Looking back, I find it really ironic that the people projecting homophobia onto Izzy's character, were the same ones saying how 'cringe' he was for singing La Vie En Rose in makeup and I just wanna be like, ok so Izzy's homophobic because apparently he 'embodies toxic masculinity' ,but then he's also bad for going outside of that because you personally don't like it and think he did a bad job.

Like please just admit you fucking hate the character and move on. Let's be honest, you wanted Izzy to remain a static traditionally masculine character so that you had a good reason to hate him.

[bougiebutchbitch]

and the same ones claiming that gay men showing bulge in any situation - or even just seeing bulge in public! - was Inappropriate because Think Of The Children

[side-blog-rants]

That situation was just entirely ridiculous I'm sorry. Like it literally reminds me of 2000s tabloids reporting on female celebrities for the crime of having camel toe in a picture. Like it would be one thing if Con had actually flashed people without any warnings, but c'moooon it was marked explicit and you see way worse from the cycling bro who walks around in spandex lmao.

[dizzy-izzy-in-a-tizzy]

Izzy's behavior during OFMD 1x4 was exactly what he should have done as First Mate. Meanwhile, Edward's behavior was a failure of leadership.

The creative parts of leadership are 100% within Edward's role as Captain. He has the vision, he formulates the plans, he makes the decisions.

Meanwhile, as First Mate, Izzy's role is to execute those plans: cleaning up the details, taking any heat from the crew, et cetera.

What happened in the episode? Well...

Throughout the episode, Izzy asks Edward what the plan is to deal with the Spanish—a mortal threat against their lives.

When Edward's ultimate answer is that he's tired of the the same thing over and over, Izzy says that without a plan they're going to die, and Edward's response is, "Let's try that."

Izzy does the very fucking reasonable thing, as First Mate, of trying to get a plan together so they won't die. This is outside the purview of his normal role, but sometimes the plan offered to you by leadership is 'nothing' and you have to cobble together whatever the fuck you can.

Edward eventually reveals that he had a plan all along, but because of his refusal to communicate that plan with anyone, a critical error is left uncaught—one that Izzy catches the moment he has the opportunity.

Ultimately, Izzy's concerns are proven right, when Blackbeard's refusal to communicate nearly gets them all killed.

Failing to understand the very real frustration of Izzy Hands in this situation honestly seems like a lack of life experience—particularly functioning on teams with a lot of creative vision and low attention to detail.

Attention to detail isn't fun. It's boring, time consuming and often a slog. However, it's clear that Edward and Izzy made a good pair because Edward had the creativity to come up with outlandish, off the wall, genius ideas that made him an incredible captain—and Izzy could play the exact role of first mate, cleaning up the details, being the asshole that got the crew to work, and ultimately executing the plan put forward by the person with the vision.

(This is also why Izzy is so bad at taking on direct leadership—the skillsets overlap, but ultimately being Captain requires skills he doesn't have, and skills that are contradictory to being an effective First Mate.)

[ofmdsalt]

Oh so now it’s good if Ed violently hurts Izzy when he’s mad? That’s just him fully expressing his emotions in the way that he wants to and we shouldn’t deny him the ability to do that?

i never said it was good that Ed violently hurt Izzy lol. im making a broader comment to how much a portion of the fandom wants to sanitize the actions Ed made during the Kraken era at the beginning of season 2

there's this common thread in meta and criticism around the Kraken era that seems to struggle with accepting that Ed did in fact hurt a lot of people by his own actions. and not only that but it wants to make him less responsible for his actions by insisting that:

Ed is not a violent person actually despite the fact that he is capable of acts of violence and lives in a violent world of piracy

he never physically hurt any of the crew (except Izzy) so it wasn't actually that bad

what he did during the Kraken era was actually Izzy's fault because Izzy pushed him into all of this

Ed didn't go far enough with shooting Izzy in the leg and in fact he should have shot him twice and crippled him further (i am using the word crippled here to be extremely facetious for a point because there's a disgusting through line for some fans that Izzy's disability is moral retribution which is a disgusting way to view disability)

we seem to be having a really hard time wrapping our minds around what Ed, a man of colour, is capable of doing. yes he's emotional. yes he can be soft. but also he can be violent. he can be angry. does this make him anything less? no, of course not. and we have to reconcile with the fact that violence and rage are part of the human condition. it does not make us any less.

do i think that it was good of Ed to shoot Izzy in the foot? no. do i think it was good of Izzy to disregard his friend's feelings when Ed clearly wasn't happy? also no. but i also don't see Ed and Izzy's relationship as you likely do, anon. i see them as friends who likely became much more co-dependent on each other until they turned into the worst versions of themselves because their circumstances/environments demanded the worst of them... so they became the worst of themselves

does it make me wrong for viewing things this way? no.

does it make you wrong for viewing things the way you do? also no.

but there is no room in this fandom any longer for nuance. we can't have these conversations despite how many people insist that we can. because we will never see eye to eye on things and for some people, that makes people think the worst of each other

[dizzy-izzy-in-a-tizzy]

"edward teach isn't an abuser"

okay

I'm sure his crew never felt threatened by him

or forced to fight to the death because they dared love one another

I'm sure there were no long term after effects from their treatment

and above all else, I'm sure that even if he did hurt all those other people, he'd never hurt Stede

. . .

I know that it's uncomfortable to consider that those of us who are people of color might be complex individuals capable of both good and bad—but for fuck's sake, try.

[baggnshield]

see the thing is that when poc enter fandom, they assume that it would be a "safe space" which is bogus lmao because fandom is made up of the same people who make the real world unsafe for poc right? so why do we think that? because we see some of these people on our dash everyday and they become like familiar neighbours who like you and treat you kindly on an average day. they resonate with your headcanons, you exchange jokes about the blorbo and very slowly you start making friends who understand the overlap between irl racism and fandom racism - imo the more time you spend with your chosen fandom friends, the smaller but surer your safe space becomes.

then there are white people in fandom spaces who are used to being the majority, never having had their biases challenged because lbr leads in most shows are overwhelmingly white.

when these white fans from primarily white fandoms come over to fandoms with poc leads - they don't know what to do. these fandoms usually have a lot of pocs who have gravitated towards that piece of media because they're getting some decent rep for a change.

in short, the white fans and their opinions and their way of moving about in fandom isn't the status quo anymore.

usually one of these things happen as a result -

1. some white fans get exposed to a new way of thinking, get their ideas challenged, learn some new good and bad things about themselves and their privilege in fandom spaces

2. a few white fans start enforcing their white ideas from former fandoms and try to make the new fandom "fuss free" - aka make it purer, slough away all the edges from the poc leads so the blorbo is in a shape and form they feel comfortable interacting with. instead of learning something about a 3d dude (gn) with flaws and issues, they try to level the playing field by making this poc blorbo like all their other blorbos. Problem Solved!!! now they can never make a misstep or accidentally commit a racial faux pas because absolutely every nuanced take on the poc guy will be challenged until it conforms to their comfort space.

3. fandom being fandom, pocs end up disagreeing on headcanons as much as we do on what is/isnt racially insensitive. we forget white fans, we're finally in a place where ideas can be exchanged amongst people who have a lived experience with this stuff. some of us are steadfast in our opinions, some are "agree to disagree" and then there are million other types with their own takes - we aren't a monolith.

4. a bunch of white fans take the ideas being discussed personally - they start taking sides not on the actual debate happening but on which poc they agree with more. there is a strong element of "i'm not racist so i guess i'll with with A over B just so people don't think im one of those white people." a lot of these white fans are WAY over the top because for once, it's not about them and that's hard for them to handle because "well you're calling me racist so!!!"

i don't really have a point with all of this, it's been a hard few days and i wasn't even directly involved. what i'm trying to say is that a poc fan trying to distance themself from a conversation they don't feel strongly about doesn't make them someone who doesn't care about racism - this is our life day in and day out, we're fucking allowed a break from it.

we are allowed to block (and i don't just mean poc here) people who are using us to score fandom points and do not give a fuck about trying to correct their biases.

we are allowed peace and i'm sorry if that makes you feel ostracised - maybe focus more on how you can be a better ally or hell, be a kinder person worth having a discussion over. i have several white friends who listen to me when i bring up issues around racism in fandom, i know it can be done. if you're getting blocked, maybe the fault lies with you being unable to listen and steamrolling anyone who makes an attempt to do so.

maybe idk just maybe, try that instead of trying to win some popularity contest where you're the sole participant.

[ofmdsalt]

if you have to make a whoooole call out post (because that's what it is) about why you think artists drawing Ed showing the emotion of anger is racist, i think there's a lot more to say about the underlying belief that Ed should only show positive or sad emotions within fan art/fanfics

like why are you denying Ed the ability to fully express himself in whatever way he wants just because YOU are afraid of being called racist

[ofmdsalt]

you're on ofmd tumblr 2025 captured

[ofmdsalt]

onto the next bout of discourse i guess lmao

i see we're back on the 'if you block me, that's actually a micro aggression'

which is an insane take btw. like i've been blocked by a shit ton of folks already and you don't have me out here calling them racist for that action lol

[disabledpirate]

Making fun of people with bowel problems is actually fucking ableist and it’s not funny haha when you put it on a list of “cringe fail loser moments” actually

[dizzy-izzy-in-a-tizzy]

Perhaps the most frustrating thing about ofmd is how white people will talk down to you about your own oppression.

Edward did fucked up shit. Izzy did fucked up shit.

Learn to grapple with nuance and be okay with the fact that people aren't perfect, and that you can still love them—that people who have done wrong are still worthy of love.

Or don't. But maybe don't talk down to the people of color in this fandom about how our very reasonable dislike of Edward in season two is a "breakdown."

Maybe look in a mirror and think that maybe you are not the person to be the arbiter of whether or not critiques of a character's behavior can be thrown away because "they're brown and they really didn't mean it 🥺 and if you like the white guy you're racist 😠"

. . .

At this point I really think folks in the fandom, at large, need to confront whether or not this kind of racist rhetoric should be acceptable.

cbc has had plenty of opportunity to see that the opposing arguments are made in good faith. Rather than engage in good faith in return, cbc is outright weaponizing Edward's race in order to shut down criticism from poc who have repeatedly stated this rhetoric is a problem. This is textbook tokenizing behavior, using Edward's race as a shield rather than grappling with critiques in an intellectually honest way.

Ultimately: It is racist to erase the perspectives of POC who have stated this rhetoric harms them, and to use Edward's marginalization in order to silence criticism.

[dizzy-izzy-in-a-tizzy]

I honestly think the resurgence in people flooding the izzy tag with hate is due to feeling insecure about how closely their perspectives line up with people exposed as bad actors

so there's a need to explain how their takes are 'different'

it'll pass soon

it's honestly just like a few people that can't let go anyways. with pccp gone the amount of hate has gone down significantly

[side-blog-rants]

Not going to lie, this is actually how some of the Izzy critical meta is beginning to sound to me,

"Ok so looking back at this one scene, you can clearly see that Izzy FROWNS at Stede, obviously this means that Izzy hates gay people and wants to go abuse Ed."

And then you say that's fucking stupid and their response is always like, "I CANNOT believe Izzy stans are denying the fact that Izzy frowned at Stede, like it's literally there in the show!"

[dizzy-izzy-in-a-tizzy]

hey maybe if you're a cis woman you shouldn't be cissplaining to transmascs why transmasc izzy "doesn't make sense" or would have been "transphobic"

cis people stop being the gatekeepers of trans headcanons challenge: failed immediately

also cbc's perspective on "it would have been transphobic to have izzy as transmasc" is reductive and tokenizing as fuck—the good lil transmascs can only be in the good guy roles 🥺

(I should not have expected checking the izzy hands tag before bed to be a chill and relaxing thing to do and that's on me tbh)

[little-bloodied-angel]

At this point I don't even need to read their take (I just about popped an aneurysm at the "Stede is inherently GNC by just existing and if you don't think so you're femmephobic actually" one) to know how trash it is, but look, above all else the thing is that if a HUGE percentage of the fanbase's transmasc people gravitate towards this one specific character maybe keep your cis trap shut??

"doesn't make sense" noooo, it doesn't make sense that someone who transitioned in the 17th century before falling into muppetland would be scared, would turn that fear into anger because it allowed him to survive, would be constantly on the defensive, would be put on the back foot by people (disingenuously or not) flirting with/being attracted to him while only having seen him clothed, would hone himself into the kind of swordsman that can easily take men three times his size, would be desperate for respect and furious at losing it after a lifetime spent fighting, would be terrified of change that is upending the life he's fought for, would live on the fringe of the law and despise the system and look disgusted with himself the one time he needs it, none of those things "make sense" nah.

I could write more, I could write a whole damn essay actually, but again, literally just the fact of how many transmasc people see themselves in Izzy and gravitate towards him should be enough for The Cis™ to shut the entire fuck up.

Sincerely, a transmasc (and GNC/femme in presentation, on the subject of this particular moron) Izzy fan