#izzy death

[adzeisval]

Oh, fuck off, you twat

I like that its this line that makes Ed start crying. Its just such an Izzy thing to say, such an Izzy reaction. Something Ed is familiar with and perhaps even fond of. Who uses cussing to express a whole myriad of things? Izzy, that’s who, and its the last time Ed will ever hear Izzy say something like that.

[frooogscream]

At least MY babygirl died a dramatic death with the actor being the fucking highlight of the season! YOUR babygirl (+her entire show) got canceled because the actor didn’t want to bother playing her anymore *laughing, in tears*

Is this post making me evil? Have I officially become the villain now? Is this what you’ve done to me, David? Are you happy now?

But why is anybody surprised, Taika said months ago, he’d be leaving: https://consequence.net/2023/11/our-flag-means-death-season-3-taika-waititi/

[forgottentothefog]

The S2 Finale WAS 'Cruel' (We are not overreacting)

I've been seeing a lot of people be called 'sensitive' or 'unable to handle fictional character deaths' because they were upset about Izzy's death, and might have called it a betrayal, or mean, or cruel when they were really emotional. And first of all, people are allowed to be genuinely sad at fictional characters deaths, and they are allowed to complain about them if they feel they weren't done right.

But here's the thing— Izzy's death WAS cruel, it WAS a mean thing to do to the viewers, and anyone who feels betrayed by Izzy's death has both a right and a reason to feel that way.

Now before you roll your eyes at me for being overdramatic, please just hear me out for a second. I won't bite, I promise.

OFMD is generally classified as a rom-com, the producers and cast themselves have said that it is a rom-com, season 1 certainly met all of the requirements for a rom-com, and the majority of viewers believed that they were signing up to get invested in a rom-com!

Sure, there were some scenes in season 1 that were dark (the toe-eating scene comes to mind), but they were levied by the goofy, fun characters and a ridiculous amount of plot armor. Overall, season 1 was a silly, lighthearted queer rom-com with a few dramatic/emotional scenes sprinkled in to add a bit of weight.

Many of the viewers who allowed themselves to get invested in the show's characters and relationships did so because it WAS, primarily, a comedy, and expected a season 2 containing more of the same. Many of the viewers (especially me), only allowed themselves to become to emotionally invested in the show because it was a comedy, and with that comes the comfort of knowing that your favorite characters will get to stay alive and ultimately have a happy (or at least neutral) ending.

People who want to see their favorite characters die tragically, who want sad endings, are not the target audience of rom-coms. People who want to become emotionally devastated when their favorite character dies are not the target audiences of rom-coms. People who specifically want to avoid these things, for whatever reasons they have, watch rom-coms because rom-coms are not supposed to contain these elements.

OFMD, intentionally or not, mislead its viewers into thinking that their favorite characters, their comfort characters, would be safe in the end, even if they lost a limb or two getting there.

Major Character Death has its own warning on ao3 for a reason. There are many people who just cannot take that emotional blow, or do not want to take it.

I understand that many of you are okay with these tropes, but I would like you to consider that there are some people who aren't, and these people thought that OFMD, advertised by fans and cast alike as a comforting queer joy rom-com, would be a safe place for them to get emotionally invested in characters without incurring surprise emotional damages.

Izzy Hands is not one of the two main characters, but he is an important supporting character that had a significant role in season 1, and even more so in season 2. There were many people that loved this character, that were emotionally invested in him, that saw him as a comfort character, and expected him to be okay in the end because OFMD is supposed to be a COMEDY!

And now these people are having to deal with the unexpected death of one of their favorite characters in a genre that is not supposed to kill off its main cast.

I allowed myself to become emotionally invested in Izzy because I thought that it would be safe for me to do so. If I wanted my favorite character to die tragically, I would be watching a drama/tragedy. I watch almost exclusively comedies for a reason, and that reason is that I am very bad at handling sad endings, and I do not want to get invested in media that will give a tragic ending to one of its most beloved characters.

So yes, people are right to be angry at Izzy's death, and killing him off was a cruel thing to do to an audience that was expecting a funny comfort show.

[queer-reader-07]

OFMD SPOILERS AHEAD

.

so i finished our flag means death a few days ago and i finally have coherent thoughts, so i’m gonna talk about izzy’s death

i’ve seen A LOT of people be extremely upset about izzy dying at the end of s2. and i get it. it hurt seeing him die. he’d finally gotten his character arc and he finally was healing and then. death. it hurt. i won’t deny that, it would be disingenuous to act like it wasn’t a painful moment.

but what i cannot get behind is the way some people are framing izzy’s death.

it’s only been a few days of me not aggressively dodging ofmd posts in an attempt to avoid spoilers and in those few days i have seen a truly staggering number of posts framing izzy’s death as being “burying your gays” and that his death is somehow indicative of ulterior motives from the showrunners and writers.

which is just— for the love of all that is holy please use your critical thinking skills. do you not realize how much those claims SCREAM “media illiteracy”?

Bury Your Gays as a trope necessitates a few things. firstly, it’s typically done to further someone else’s story line and secondly, it’s done in stories where there is only one or maybe two queer characters. the writer is burying their one gay, typically for the sake of advancing a straight character’s arc.

that’s not what’s happening with izzy’s death. ofmd is a show that is almost entirely made up of characters who are some flavor of queer. it’s not Bury Your Gays for one of the many gays to die. it’s just character death. which yes, is painful and heartwrenching and heartbreaking. but it’s not inherently homophobic to kill a queer character in media. and izzy’s death doesn’t serve to further anyone else’s character development. people have said it’s just there to like “make sure the writer’s otp end up together” or something like that. which is just such a weird take. first of all the writer’s otp are literally the main characters of this show. and secondly, izzy’s death felt very much like a moment for he and ed to get closure. it had nothing to do with stede, really.

you’re allowed to feel hurt by izzy’s death. in fact, it’s perfectly normal to feel hurt and upset and sad when a character you love dies.

but you can’t start throwing around false and harmful accusations about the writers because the death upset you.

something isn’t objectively bad or “problematic” because YOU didn’t like it. ofmd isn’t homophobic because a queer character that you personally liked died.

and acting like queer people can’t die in media without it being “homophobic” just serves to further other us.

and throwing around accusations that it homophobic is so flippantly is honestly just disappointing.

[arbii]

my baby...i cry.

[piratesmyass]

Hey um. Since I'm fucked rn and literally cannot function, could yall start tagging images/gifs/videos with izzy dying as #izzy death ? I want to delete that image from my brain forever since I'm like. Not okay. Whatsoever. Literally shaking with anguish.

[adzeisval]

It was about Izzy being vulnerable enough and brave enough to say, “Sit with me.” It was about Izzy being allowed to be held in the last moments of his life.

Stab me it would hurt less, but I love it.

(Quote from Con O'Neill in his interview with Collider. Photo Credit to Nicola Dove. )

[adzeisval]

So I was pondering Izzy’s death scene again and it always struck me as an interesting choice to have neither Ed or Izzy on screen when Izzy starts his apology. When Izzy says, “Ed, I’m sorry,” the camera is focused on the crew. 

I really like the detail actually; the crew, though they are silent, are a very important part of the scene. They are there for Izzy, and Ed too, and are witnesses to the changes the two men have made. There Ed and Izzy are, openly apologizing to each other, being emotional with each other, and not caring that the others are watching. 

Izzy has learned that such a display is not a negative thing, and Ed feels safe enough to let his softer side show.