Julie seems like she sure could use a HOOPLAH! brand cigarette, only available at Howdy's Place - The Home of Everything You Need and Everything You Don't! 🐛 🍎
an incomplete list of terrible but extremely popular Our Flag Means Death takes that I would like to never see again please
(and I do mean popular, as in, lots of people seem to think they're canon, to the point where I feel slightly insane and like I was watching a different show to everyone else)
1. Ed's mum was loving and nice and supportive, if hampered by her bad situation
this comes up more in fic than analysis, to be fair, but good god, what show were some of you watching? this isn't to vilify her, because yeah, she's clearly a product of colonialism, white christian supremacy, and domestic abuse, but like. that doesn't make how she raised Ed good. clearly she was trying to keep him safe, but "we don't deserve nice things", and especially "it's not up to us, it's up to god", speaks to me of someone who squashes down any ambition on her son's part, has fully bought into the lies of christian colonialism, and tries to pass them down to her son.
as does happen in colonised communities, particularly among older generations. I know us white people like to think that every indigenous person is a perfect left-wing anti-imperial activist, but that's simply not the case, and Ed's mum is so clearly an example of an older conservative christian indigenous parent who had to believe the lies told by their coloniser in order to survive, but is now passing on that trauma to their children. and I just...
if I read one more fic where Ed's mum is a perfect loving supportive angel who always believed in her kid and always supported and protected him, I'm gonna scream. yes, it's sweet, and it's fun to sometimes veer from canon and give your blorbo nice things, but it's still veering from canon. and yet, I see very few people acknowledge that, or actually talk about the nuances of Ed's mother, and how she definitely tried to protect him, but was far from sweet, doting, and unconditionally supportive.
2. Ed's loving look when Stede is picking food from his beard in 1x07
like most of these things, I enjoyed it as a joke or exaggeration at first, until I realised that people were actually being serious. but every time I watch that scene, I see Ed looking absently-mindedly over Stede's shoulder, because a) that's what you do when someone leans in to pick something off you, and b) surely the point of the scene is that they're so comfortable and easy together that they don't notice the intimacy of what they're doing, but Lucius, an outside observer, thinks it's obvious. right?? I can't be the only one seeing it???
[sigh]
anyway. finally, the really really big one:
3. Ed is a soft uwu babygirl princess femme bottom sub who loves her cat collar and is teaching Stede how to dom him in the "say you're the captain" scene
I mean, there's not much to say except to link to duke's absolutely phenomenal twitter thread about "how the 'babygirlfication' and infantilization of ofmd ed teach is an extension of racist perceptions of indigenous men being inherently violent and thus needing to be emasculated to be considered sympathetic"
but especially That One Fucking Scene, good lord. talk about taking shit out of context. everyone looked at a slowed-down gif of one shot in the trailer and cried "babygirl!! he's such a simp, he just wants to be dommed!!", when actually that scene is about how a) Stede is cringefail and terrible at being a typical harsh, commanding pirate, and b) Ed is lovingly embarrassed by this. he encourages Stede to assert himself (and give Ed something to do during his probation/help him make amends with the crew), but like. normally. he's acting perfectly normal in that scene, and mostly annoyed by the outfit and embarrassed by how badly Stede fails. but just because he's sitting down while Stede is standing, and he happens to take a breath in that one shot (because, you know, people breathe sometimes), everyone's doubled down on their "submissive babygirl" bullshit, and I can't get the fuck away from it.
which - listen, it's fun for me, too! it's fun to explore exaggerated aspects of a character, it's fun to read/write/draw that angle in smut, I get it! but I keep seeing people keep claim it's literally canon, and I cannot stress enough that that is Straight Up False. for the love of god, please just watch the show without your (potentially kinda racist) bias glasses on, and remember to treat the characters with respect instead of projecting onto their every interaction a shallow dom/sub binary just because you find it hot.
Our Flag is a show very specifically about masculinity, and what it means to be a man; how assumptions about that can harm and restrict men; and how men can grow beyond them. it's a nuanced and sympathetic examination of this. the whole point is that Ed is allowed to like nice fabrics and be tired of violent piracy and still be a man. the point is that two men fall in love - equal, honest, sincere love - and are still men, still exactly who they are.
(on that note, insisting that Ed is canonically trans or femme because of these things often ends up just leaning into gendered stereotypes: men are harsh and active and dominant, and women are soft and passive and submissive, and if Ed's not the former, he must be the latter, right? it also tends to hetero-ify the central relationship, casting Stede as "the boy" and Ed as "the girl", needing one to be masc and one femme. not always, and again, I understand and have enjoyed transformative works that take those elements and run with them, and explore what the story could be like if Ed were trans/nb/etc - but it's still a transformative interpretation. it's not canon.)
relatedly: those fucking wedding toppers! it seemed blatantly obvious to me that half the point of those scenes was that Ed is distraught and blaming himself for Stede leaving because he wasn't the ideal partner. it's his entire arc for the first half of season 2! Ed hates himself and believes there's something wrong about him that makes him unlovable. so he keeps and then discards the wedding toppers, painting himself onto one of them, because he's projecting himself onto an image of ideal/successful romantic love that he thinks Stede wants, and in which he doesn't fit. he's trying to mould himself into someone else to make himself lovable, not realising that Stede already loves him for himself.
like, it's important that the groom figure isn't actually like Stede, either. yes, it's blond and has a nice, peach-coloured suit, but a) Stede was very specifically unhappy in the posh, heterosexual, married state the figures represent, and b) Stede by this point looks nothing like that figurine. it's directly contrasted with the image of him in the rowboat, scruffy and plain and earnestly in love, rather than fancy, cold ceramic.
so it's important to the whole narrative that Ed's yearning for/projection onto the wedding toppers is false, and born from his insecurity. he gets drunk, and play-acts a stereotypical image of romantic happiness into which he doesn't fit, but real love looks nothing like that, because real love isn't found in stifling hegemonic cultural structures, but honest, emotional connections between people allowed to be their whole, vulnerable selves. Stede is not like the groom, and Ed is not like the bride, because they shouldn't have to be. Ed should not (and does not) have to warp himself into a demure bride in order to be worthy of love: he's already lovable and loved exactly as he is! that's the point!! of the scene!!!!!!
but no, I have to wade through swathes of art and fic and meta about how badly Ed wants to be a sweet little demure kitty princess, how he wants a wedding night and a ring to prove he's Stede's property, and acting as if this is somehow canon, because people on the internet have zero reading comprehension and are scared of brown men.
the whole point of Our Flag is that you don't need to compress yourself into prescribed social roles, and in fact, doing so will only make you miserable; and that racist, patriarchal, colonial institutions should be resisted and dismantled at every opportunity.
so tell me again why the ultimate message is that Ed and Stede should get married under an arch in front of an altar and their lined-up friends, with flowers and rice falling around them, all dressed in white, one in a suit and one in a dress, with rings and a kiss and a honeymoon after, before they move into a detached house with a yard and a fence and re-adopt the kids that Stede abandoned? and this isn't about promises, fidelity, or even monogamy - I'm specifically talking about everyone in this fandom who seems to think that the ultimate goal is the most stereotypical 20th century cisheteropatriarchal christian wedding, but with the name "matelotage" slapped on top, as if that takes away all of the underlying baggage.
just - I know we're all meant to hate men and masculinity and yadda yadda yadda, but actually, to be earnest for a second, men deserve respect too, because all people and all genders do. and two men are allowed to be in a relationship and still both be men - complex men, with their own, layered relationships to their gender - without having to fall into neatly-arranged dom/sub masc/femme roles, or seal the deal with a hegemonically-approved ceremony.
so please, stop reducing an indigenous lead character to a caricature of a femme uwu princess bottom just because he has long hair, wore a robe once, and you're too scared of brown men to imagine him with proper agency. and then please, for the love of god, stop claiming that that interpretation is canon.
I've definitely seen these takes, especially in the Ed/Stede shipping corners of the fandom. And apart from the excellent points it makes about Ed, the chacterisation of Ed talked about in the original post also affects the characterisation of other characters in fic/art/headcanons.
Because if Ed is "a soft uwu babygirl princess femme bottom sub" then obviously Stede is the manly Dom top.
Honestly, I feel so incredibly validated this episode, specifically with K's speech to Tabby. I mentioned it on this post (where I talk about K and their Atlas Complex), but this only further cemented that idea in my head: K works so hard to seem like they have control, that they're more experienced, that they're self-reflective and intelligent. They want to seem like they're more emotionally intelligent, when in reality they're not, because they're a teen who tries to take on every injustice in the world. Them admitting that they're saying all of this to Tabby because they cannot word themselves to Evan is so heart-breaking, because I recognize that behaviour. They cannot get any of those words out to Evan when they're talking to him, which leaves only the words they don't want to say, the things that will hurt - whether that is Evan or K themselves - and not the things they want to say.
Erika plays K so brilliantly, and I cannot help but shout them out for every episode that comes out. Maybe it's the fact that I was just like K when I was younger, but I find K such a compelling character that I just want to dig my teeth into. Erika always plays the most fascinating characters, and I adore the way they combine both speech and body language to act out a character.
It was just an amazing episode, y'all.
Also shoutout to Carlos Luna for his acting as Tabby, and the bloody callout he gave K came through the screen to punch me in the nose.
Cycloid scales are thin, overlap, and flexible. They're found on primitive teleosts (like minnows and carp).
Ctenoid scales have small, backwards pointed scales (known as cterns) make the fish more hydrodynamic and faster. They're found on Advanced Ctenoids (like perch and sunfish).
Ganoid scales are thick, diamond-shaped, and mostly non-overlapping. They're found on Chondrostei (like sturgeons and paddlefish).
Placoid scales are spikey and tooth-like with nerves. These are found on Chondrichthyes (like sharks and rays).
i'm so obsessed with brennan's interpretation of charisma for an extremely autistic-coded character being that evan gives up the anxiety about fitting in, he stops masking, and instead he leans into his blunt, matter-of-fact nature, and that serves him SO MUCH BETTER in social situations than constantly apologizing for being different
placing my hand on your lower back while we walk to keep you close, make sure people don't bump into you. leaning in close to confirm a suspicion— you're using a different shampoo. ("how'd you know?" you laugh, surprised that i even remembered what the old one smelled like. i just noticed. i always notice.) bumping my knee against your thigh under the table and smoothing over the spot with my palm, and you don't say anything, still smiling as we talk so i leave my hand there, let it ride higher, closer and closer.
it's only a matter of time before i'm kissing your neck, one hand cradling the back of your head while the other slides down, down, and your breath catches in your throat, eyelids fluttering. it shouldn't feel so good, should it? our other friends are in the living room, probably wondering what's taking us so long, and they'll definitely notice the hickey i left just above the collar of your shirt. but you like it, you like the thrill when i stuff my fingers into your mouth to keep you quiet, other hand working underneath your underwear.
maybe you like it too much. follow me around like a stray, desperate for another taste— of what it's like to skirt the lines of less and more, of what it's like to be mine. and you know what? i'll give it to you. what are you waiting for? come over. that's what friends do, isn't it?
I just want soft cuddlefucking. Arms holding me tightly, a nice slow deep fuck, kissing and praising me while wiping my tears away, fucking all the stupid sad out my head, reassuring me it'll be okay soon and that they've got me
i want to be fucked like your own personal slut but i also want to be fucked so tenderly as if i’m the most fragile thing in the world. like … ya know?
Casually fingering a trans guy who’s sprawled across my lap with one hand as I focus on the book I’m reading. Vaguely acknowledging his whines and the way he’s desperately trying to hump my thigh but never quite finding the right angle. His poor little dick needs some attention but that’ll have to wait for later. I need to at least get to the next chapter, and when this one finishes on a cliff hanger, well I’m sure he’ll be a good boy and wait a little longer.
stormborns
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