#ofmd essay

[funkwallace]

Move over, Izzy apologists -- I'm here to redeem Calico Jack!

You know that movie with Starlord guy and Hunger Games chick where it's in space and he wakes her up because he's in love with her, but people say if you imagine the movie from her perspective it's actually a horror film? (IMDB says it's called "Passengers")

We're doing that with my boy CJ today. And CJ is a saint, full stop.

Calico Jack only knows about Stede Bonnet whatever rumors might have floated to him on the wind, and what Izzy has told him. He and Izzy are both old friends of Blackbeard, and he has no reason to distrust Izzy. Now imagine what Izzy has told him about Stede.

CJ loves Blackbeard enough to have saved his life once already. In some traditions, that makes him responsible for Blackbeard's life thereafter. Now his friend is in danger once again - the English are bearing down on his location looking for Stede. Of course he's gonna go try and extract his boy -- shoot, if implications are to be believed, his *lover*! He needs to do everything in his power to get Blackbeard out of there.

He knows the "full force of the English Navy" is only after Stede, so he has no reason to win Stede over and get him to escape as well. Why would he even want to, after what he's heard about Stede from Izzy? If Stede is all they want, he has to make Stede dislike him and not follow along -- otherwise, the English Navy keeps coming.

In fact, to his credit, he actually tries to save the entire crew! He spends all his time trying to win them over, and invites them to come along with him when he has to bail -- because he knows Blackbeard will follow him, and that would be enough, but he tries to save all those innocent buffoons as well!

In my opinion, this can explain all of his behavior, excluding Karl. Maybe Karl was an accident, or maybe he didn't know how beloved Karl was, that it would make the others stay. Just being obnoxious wasn't getting him kicked off the boat, so maybe he thought that would be an appropriate step up to get himself booted by the captain, without realizing the crew would choose not to leave with him at that point.

What's more, without CJ, our boys might never have fully leaned into the fact that they're in love! They could have kept pussyfooting about, flirting but never committing. But after "You came back" -- "Never left" and the foot touch? Then being captured and sent off to Navy Camp and the kiss that followed? CJ was a necessary catalyst!

That's that! I've said it! Calico Jack did nothing wrong!

[ofmd-archive]

my heart genuinely goes out to every black woman and woman adjacent black person who's hurt by episode 7 like i was by zheng being screwed over*. white dude dumly outsmarting zheng is hurting me because she's the sole character that looks remotely like me. Seeing spanish jackie's bar exploded and that it implies she was foolish enough to accept a fucking grandfather clock from someone she cut the nose off of can't be the best feeling.

Idc if the next episode "fixes" things. The statement has been made and the betrayal has been commited. Things can be mended but it sucks cus for once i let my guard down. I god forbid felt safe. I guess that teaches me a lesson.

"But that was just it - hate was exactly the right word. Hate is a force of attraction. Hate is just love with its back turned." -Terry pratchett

That is where i'm left with this show at this current time. No i will not be taking constructive criticism from white people on this. Only voicing this so that anyone reading and is currently feeling isolated, doesn't feel alone. Cus i don't think many people will point this out.

And i swear to fucking god if any of you white saviour fucks try to twist my pain here into justifying sending hate to the writers or actors then you will get the most biting letter i am able to compose from me. Don't you fucking dare take my pain and try to use it just to get your hateful rocks off.

[proconsulpanspermia]

Our Flag Means Death is very gay but also very gender.

Here is my trans reading of Blackbeard's character arc!

First of all, David Jenkins choosing Blackbeard as his lead in a show about unlearning toxic masculinity was such a 3D chess move. While I think a majority of the themes can be related to the experience of being a feminine gay man, Ed's obvious euphoria at wearing soft clothing and choosing to shave his facial hair is some unignorable subtext that i'm gonna read into.

When we first meet Ed, he's already created the macho, confident, violent (and dare I say, over compensating) persona of Blackbeard. While Stede struggled to meet the masculine expectation of a pirate captain, Edward went above and beyond, creating an impossible caricature of a man than even he can't live up to; though he's surrounded by people who expect him to.

Seeing Stede be a pirate captain without all the pretending seems to unlock something inside of Ed that he was trying to bury. For the first time, he realizes it's possible to be different, and to have all of the things he's been longing for. With Stede aboard, he feels more comfortable trying new things; pretending to be someone else at a party, putting effort into his appearance, letting his guard down around his tight-knit crew. You know, baby trans stuff.

Although Stede escaping from the expectations of his loveless marriage and his judgemental society feels like a powerfully queer moment of deciding to stop living a lie, the sea comes with another set of expectations about Masculinity. Stede, who simply can't help himself in that regard, makes do but Blackbeard has spent a lifetime internalizing and projecting those expectations. Being around a new set of people who don't have those expectations of him allows Ed to consider that he could actually change and be the person he wants to be, but when people like Izzy and Calico Jack are around he slips into his old habits.

When they are given the Act of Grace, it's Ed's new leaf. He gets to leave all those expectations behind. He can go by the name he likes, and shave his facial hair and wear soft clothing and just be with the one person who actually sees him. It's such a wonderful and vulnerable moment and it's clear that for him, escaping the pirates life is similar to how Stede felt about leaving his wife; he's going to escape and finally stop pretending.

When Stede leaves and, in his eyes, rejects him after he laid himself bare for the first time, it makes complete sense how he dove right back into his old persona and coping mechanisms.

In conclusion, OFMD is a masterwork of symbolism and I really appreciate how it looks at masculinity and sexuality as separate but equally interesting things. The pirates life is simulatously a queer escape from heteronormative society and an oppressively hypermasculine space. And Stede Bonnet is the solution.