🌟

(side blog 4 saving things) (mostly ted lasso for now)

[piratecaptainscaptainpirates]

I think the most realistic thing about Ed's suicidal behavior at the beginning of s2 is how much he wants to live.

Even as Ed is planning his suicide, he's longing so desperately for a life and a love he thinks he cannot have. It's not that he wants to die, necessarily, it's that he wants to live a life that is full of love and where he can feel more like himself.

And in the gravy basket? After Ed has already goaded his friends into beating him to death? Ed can STILL think of reasons he wants to live.

And they're not complex things! Warmth, good food, good sex. Ed loves the little pleasures that make every day more enjoyable. And, yeah, his mind immediately shuts him down and reminds him he doesn't think there's anyone waiting for him, but Ed is still hesitant. "I feel like I'm supposed to choose to live," he says. He's trying so hard to find reasons to stay alive.

I love so much that Ed had to be thrown off that cliff. He's fighting the whole way down. He's just committed suicide but he doesn't fucking want to die.

It's such a lovely depiction of someone coming back from suicidal ideation. All Ed needed was anything he could hold onto to give him hope that there's something worth sticking around for. And when he has something to hold onto? He grabs it so fucking tight.

And now? He knows there are plenty of people looking out for him. His days are full of warmth, good food, and orgasms. He's getting to actually plan that fantasy he was crying his eyes out about at the start of the season because he thought he could never have it. He's getting to believe he can have the life he wanted.

It's so hopeful and lovely. No one else is doing it like OFMD

[fuckyeahisawthat]

So, this is shot in a mirror, right? Specifically, this mirror--

--although they might have cheated the angle to get the kiss shot.

It goes by super fast, but you can see a bit of the gold frame, out of focus on the right edge of the screen:

Cool trick! But why?

I think there's a few things this shot achieves.

One, it creates the sense that something is just slightly off. Even if we don't clock that this is a mirror shot (it took me a bunch of watches to figure out that was what was going on) your brain is going to register the flipped image as slightly not what you expected. The screen direction of their movement is wrong--in the shot where Stede pulls Ed into the room, they're moving from screen right to screen left, so we expect them to continue that motion, but because we're seeing it in a mirror they're now moving screen left to screen right. All this adds up to make the moment seem slightly off-kilter. It's a bit of visual foreshadowing: while this is a passionate, intimate moment that they both want, Stede and Ed are not on the same page, and that becomes an issue in the next episode.

Two, a visual trick like this often has the effect of calling attention to our position as the audience. It can create a slightly voyeuristic effect that reminds us that we are outside viewers, looking in on the narrative the characters are experiencing.

I think this shot has much the same effect:

It's an unexpected framing choice that makes us feel like we are catching a glimpse of something not set up for the audience to see, lit only incidentally by the fireworks, and it ends with Stede literally drawing the curtain between the characters and the audience.

There's another notable place where a mirror shot is used in the show, and it's here:

I don't think this is a coincidence (and not just because both episodes were directed by Fernando Frias). This is a very intimate scene between Ed and Stede--maybe more intimate than their actual kiss later in the season. And while it's mostly shot in a fairly conventional manner, this shot almost makes it feel like we're spying on them while they have a very vulnerable conversation.

There are TONS of parallels between 1.06 and 2.06, which I may make a separate post about, but this one is a particularly striking visual callback. In both cases, the effect is to make us feel like we are peeking in on a private moment between the characters that is not set up for our consumption.

[soapbubbles511]

And now free

[asneakyfox]

back in s1 lots of different people talked about how izzy functioned largely as an externalization of the worst parts of ed, rather than an independent character. and i thought during s2 that a lot of the confusion and back-and-forth about differing reactions to izzy's arc came from the fact that this had changed, that they were moving izzy from existing mostly to symbolize ed's toxic masculinity issues to an actual character with his own interiority and there was some weird tension there.

but looking back at the season now i'm not sure that's true? i think izzy might still be functioning the same way he did in s1, as essentially a symbol of the part of ed that's afraid to let go of blackbeard, at least to a great extent? izzy heals and eventually leaves the narrative because that part of ed is healing and being let go.

try looking at izzy through the season through that lens:

the father figure angle: isn't the voice that drives you to be your worst self often the internalized voice of a shitty parent or mentor from an earlier part of your life? if izzy represents ed's reluctance to let go of toxic masculinity, doesn't that have to be a belief he absorbed from mentors like hornigold and his dad?

the extra toes and the shooting as effectively a kind of symbolic self-harm, ed spiraling so hard into self-loathing he's lashing out at the part of himself he hates the most. ed's forcing himself to be blackbeard even though he doesn't want to, and he despises the part of him that drives him to do it

when izzy approaches ed in 2x01 and tries to start talking about feelings that can be seen as ed's own inner determination to cling to the kraken crumbling, and he lashes out harder into self-harm because that's terrifying

stede choosing to save izzy's life when izzy doesn't expect it, and izzy being stunned into gratitude, just like this season repeatedly makes the point that stede understands and accepts and loves all of ed, even the darkest parts of him, the parts ed believes nobody could love

there's one side of the fandom that didn't like that ed had to work harder to atone for how he hurt the crew than izzy did. and there's another side that didn't like that we're told at the end the crew love ed when we never really SAW the crew re-embrace ed in any kind of big moment where we did see them reach out to izzy. but if we frame them symbolically as one person, the crew reaching out to izzy could be seen as them embracing ed - even the worst parts of ed, the parts that drove him to hurt them. and izzy is healed by this just like ed himself is healed by gradually coming to accept that people really can love him, even the parts of him that he thinks are monstrous

izzy coming around to ship gentlebeard just as ed himself gradually comes to accept and internalize that he really can be loved by stede

at the end of the season ed comes to accept blackbeard and the kraken as a parts of himself that he doesn't need to cling to or hide behind but also doesn't hate anymore, and this is symbolized by izzy - symbolically the part of ed that clung to those personae - offering him a sincere apology and then dying while ed embraces him

idk, i think it still really lines up, and actually makes some parts of the arc work better?

[ladyluscinia]

I think they were so worried about not getting a season 3 they ruined both the viewers expecting one and the viewers who would've liked it to end there. they've created an easily destroyable status quo because of course something needs to happen to get everyone back together for season 3. so it's not even a happy ending; it's so fragile, it's designed to fall apart the second that anyone learns that the show is back on. i get not wanting to bank on having a third season and wrapping it up but like. Galavant did that and did it better. WITH THE HEROES RETIRING AND THE TWO MINUTE MARRIAGE CEREMONY TO BOOT. But it gave an outline of where the plot might go from there and how the adventure will continue if it gets to. And it never got to, and season 2's ending is good because it's not /fragile/--it's not a cliffhanger, but you get the idea that they could keep going from there still. whereas this one didn't want to be a cliffhanger so much that they created the most breakable new status quo in history and if there is a season 3 it'll immediately be undone and I'll probably still watch it but like I'll /know/, y'know? They could fix everything in the first episode of season 3 and I'd still have to know that at one point, this was considered an acceptable outcome.

The thing that is driving me absolutely insane is they DID NOT HAVE TO DO THIS!

There's so many people looking at it like "well it's a shame that 2x08 clearly had to cram several episodes into one for budget reasons and it made the development weaker but that's the situation MAX put them in" and I cannot emphasize enough how much that is not true.

MAX did not break it to them after episodes 2x01 - 2x07 were written and half filmed that they would have to wrap up the whole plot in 30 minutes. Like absolute worst case scenario they had 10 eps mostly written and budget came back 20% over and they had to reduce to 8 total. More likely they knew they were getting 8 from the start.

It is absolutely nobody's fuck up except David Jenkins and his writers' room if they were unrealistic about what character beats were needed and would fit in the timeframe to reach a satisfying wrap up.

Worries about no S3 were on the table the moment it took until JUNE to get confirmation of S2. This wasn't sprung on them. If they wanted their story to have a "just in case" happy ending and then a "fully realized arc" happy ending, they should have fucking acted like it???

I was shocked when the first three episodes that dropped were so hardcore on destroying Edward's relationships and laying bare exactly how deep his issues went. It only made sense to me if they were going all in on getting a S3 and prepared to spend all of S2 focused on the implications of all that, and then the not-even two week in-universe timeline of the season reinforced my understanding that was happening.

"Shame we don't have time for our main couple to even start addressing their relationship or having moments of self-realization and sharing their issues," says guy who decided to make the first half of S2 about adding more problems on top of well established ones from S1 and the second half of S2 about throwing in a second breakup cycle instead of dealing with the fallout from the first.

Want Edward to end on a beat of feeling part of the found family? Well maybe adding a timeskip after 2x05 and then a crew chat in 2x06 where you make it clear he did an apology tour offscreen could help, but you also could have just not focused hard on him poisoning his relationship with every single one of them in the first place???

There's multiple different ways you can do Act 2 of a three act structure, and they did not have to choose one that ends on another dark cliffhanger beat or right at the open ended turning point toward growth? Like they didn't even do the one they picked in a way they could fit in their season. I feel like by the end of a struggles Act 2 both your protagonists need to have self-realized their issues and maybe had one conversation about it? Edward still wasn't talking about his guilt, and Stede wasn't talking about anything.

They aren't even at the turning point of growth and out of the backsliding / lessons learned era yet, that's why potential S3 will start on another backslide when status quo breaks and Stede starts "that's nice, dear"-ing Edward during the day and slipping out at night to vicariously listen to pirate stories or whatever (and they frame it like he's cheating).

We have two out of three seasons in a show that might only get two, and I feel like the characters have barely moved from their starting position.

Like idk maybe they are really good at coming up with character flaws - ex: Stede is repressed and bottles up his traumas until he mentally checks out / runs away - and just drawing blanks on how to believably "fix" them, but just going "well what if we just used this flaw to throw another miscommunication roadblock in their relationship?" is not getting them where they want to be.

The season was fundamentally designed against their stated goal and did not make what seem to be necessary writing concessions to the reduced screentime if they wanted their finale to land as an even plausibly happy ending. It's hollow.

And possibly not even salvageable in S3 since they aren't demonstrating the skills to salvage it.

[scarrletmoon-deactivated2024101]

you know if the writers actually didn’t care about izzy, they wouldn’t have had him talk to ricky and they would’ve shot him in the head without any chance to say his final words

but i guess if you think izzy is as, or more, important as the main characters despite all evidence to the contrary, this won’t make sense to you

he got more screen time in s2 not bc he was becoming a major character but bc he was getting a send off. the signs were there from the beginning. if you feel blindsided, it’s because you watched the show assuming izzy was going to be something more than a narrative foil and antagonist designed to be a source of conflict between the actual main characters

you can still love a narrative device like izzy, but he was never going to be more than that. sorry.

i should stop trying to explain this anyway because i’m talking to a comparatively small part of the fandom. they’re just loud. and at the end of the day, our love for the show should be louder

[scarrletmoon-deactivated2024101]

something something izzy “fans” in denial that he died vs izzy himself saying “not moving on is worse” idk idk

[glamaphonic]

i keep seeing complaints about ed and stede in the finale that basically amount to they didn't resolve all their character conflicts or unpack all their trauma to each other and you simply don't believe that they'll just be happy from now on running an inn

and like

that's the point.....?

their inn is going to be terrible. they are still two very damaged and complicated men. they are going to have problems.

the point is that after falling in love and realizing that in s1, after that ending disastrously before it started, after reuniting and processing what happened between them in s1 and deciding to inch towards each other again, after ed panicked and ran, they end the season deciding to commit to the relationship and each other.

i feel like a lot of people are having a fundamental issue because they're seeing this as an ending but the show is presenting it as a beginning

this is where they start genuinely working at having an actual relationship

[mxmollusca]

 A critique I've heard of season two is that we’ve lost a lot of our symbolic objects, archetypes, and motifs. Season one gave us the lighthouse, the kraken, the red silk and the unicorn, the seagull, the auxiliary closet, Gnossienne no. 5, Pinocchio…

And then I think back to Samba sharing a quote from writer Alex Sherman during the ECCC panel:

“Season one is Stede going from a puppet to a real boy, and season two is Stede becomes a man.”

And that’s it, isn’t it? The transformation from object to subject, from something that has things done to it versus someone with agency. We see that transformation throughout season two. Almost every significant object is discarded, every symbol realized in flesh. 

The process starts at the end of season one with the throwing away of all of Stede’s things. So much has been written about Stede’s potential response to that act, and so many folks (myself included) held on to the idea that perhaps Ed kept a little bit, maybe the auxiliary closet. Stede literally no longer cares about those things. He originally brought all the things he loved with him to sea because he didn’t have significant personal relationships. That’s why we hear Gnossienne no. 5 as he goes through the empty cabin pulling out all of the knives. The discordant love motif shows how his priorities have changed, how his love has transformed.

The red silk is gone as well, but instead we have Stede, real and in the flesh wearing the exact same color, clutched in Ed’s hand in the moonlight.

The kraken, a giant monster capable of rending a ship in two? Ed becomes that, literally, disassembling the Revenge to sail her into a storm and destroy her. 

The lighthouse? A warning, Ned Low in his silver suit, a beacon in the dark warning Stede of what he will become if he continues on his course.

The unicorn, the destroyed masthead, literally becomes Izzy, a man taken apart and rebuilt piece by piece out of the parts of Stede Bonnet to become a beloved and respected member of the crew, and perhaps one of the strongest examples of self-actualization so far.

The attempts at reversing the process are demonstrated to be ineffective. The catalyst is when Buttons becomes a seagull, which shows Ed that the process of change is possible—that someone can become something or someone else. And he tries, he throws away his leathers, dons Button’s old jacket, tries to become an archetype. Stede tries to become a “real pirate”, despite the warning from Low. Even in Ed’s vision of Stede as a merman, Stede is being reduced to the role of symbol—a mythical being rather than a very real, very flawed man. They are both still trying to be the object when they need to be the subject. They need to take action, to realize themselves. And it’s a gruesome process. Jim’s version of Pinocchio is about the horrific transmogrification from wood into flesh and the horrors that need to be faced in order to make that transition.

We, the audience, are experiencing discomfort in this process. We are being held right up against the lighthouse lamp, and it burns. This is the emotional equivalent of body horror. It feels like all of our beloved belongings are being thrown overboard, but I promise they aren’t.

They are becoming.

[piratecaptainscaptainpirates]

I've been thinking about how Ed starts directly killing people in s2e8. I've seen a lot of worry that this is tragic, that it's Ed falling back into a life he hates with more vigor, and I don't think it's meant to be understood that way at all.

I think it's a triumph.

One thing we absolutely have to understand: there has never been a time on the show when Ed wasn't killing people. That's true for all characters; this is a show about pirates. Even in s1, Ed was leading successful raids and ordering racists skinned. In a realistic sense, nothing has changed.

The difference is in how Ed does not need to construct intricate ways to distance himself from it anymore.

We know that Ed's first time killing was his abusive dad, an event that deeply traumatized him, and it left him thinking himself an absolute monster. His own capacity for violence disgusts and terrifies him, and even though he's been very successful in a very violent career, he needed to distance himself from killing people ("the fire killed those guys, not me") to avoid confronting this part of himself. He believes that the part of himself that is so capable of violence is irredeemable, a monster, unworthy of love.

Even at the start of the season, when Ed is in a self-destructive spiral, it's debateable if he's directly killing anyone. If Lucius had died, he'd probably have said the sea did it, not him. The guy we see him shoot during the raid sequence already had a knife through his chest - it's a step up, and surely meant to be understood as self-harm more than anything else, but that's still a mercy kill, if anything.

Compare to the finale of season 2. These are direct kills, there is no way to argue that Ed is not responsible. It is not debateable that Ed killed all those British officers.

A lot of the worry I've seen around this concern how Ed is going back to what he's good at (as Pop-Pop told him to), and there's an asusmption that that is killing people/violence. But that's not true, is it? Ed's never been good at killing people, his hangups around directly killing are a known character trait. So...what is Ed good at?

Think about how the scene plays out. Ed sees the Republic burning; he can only assume Stede is either captured, wounded, or dead. He's horrified and dazed, his ears ring - he kills the two British soldiers who happen upon him, he decided to fish up his Blackbeard outfit.

What is Ed actually good at? He's a good pirate, a good captain. He's good at keeping his crew safe, he's good at keeping Stede safe. He has to think he's either going to be embarking on a mission to get revenge or to save his boyfriend.

At first, I was very hesitant about the idea of Ed having to go back to piracy, which he says he hates. But what he was actually trying to do was drown Blackbeard, the part of himself he sees as so unworthy of love. He needed to see that Blackbeard is part of him, that he's not a monster or unloveable, that Blackbeard can help him save his friends and his boyfriend.

It's not a coincidencethat the show goes out of its way to make Ed's killing people in this episode as morally easy to accept as possible. The British officers we see are all racist and mean and unpleasant - like, damn, singing 'we shall never be slaves' while making Black characters serve them? Gross! They got what was coming to them! This is the 'racists deserve to die' show, after all.

And Ed uses this violence as a tool for love, to get him back to his boyfriend, to give them a triumphic reunion. I don't think it's a coincidence that this is when Ed tells Stede he loves him, either - he's come one step closer to accepting he's worthy of love, he's more ready to acknowledge what they have.

Ed doesn't have to feel bad about killing those officers. The show doesn't ask him to. He gets to retire while still wearing his Blackbeard outfit - Blackbeard gets to retire, not be drowned with a canonball in the ocean. And we're left with Ed, still with a lot of growing to do and a lot of self-discovery left, but he's closer to realizing that he's not a monster and that he's so deserving of love.

[asneakyfox]

personally i cannot stop thinking about the father figure thing, about how ed teach probably spent a lot of his childhood expecting his dad would eventually kill him one day, and then much later when he decided he wanted to die he tried to get izzy to do it for him, and when izzy refused to do it he imagined hornigold doing it for him

[areyoudoingthis]

the more I think about it the more I love how they resolved the izzy situation after s1. this season has been all about turning poison into positivity, all about the effect stede has on the world through the people whose lives he touches, through his people positive management style and killing them with kindness.

and it has also been about how ed needed to learn to love himself, needed to overcome the trauma born of the violence he always felt doomed to perform so he could come to see his own value and give himself permission to become whoever Ed wants to be. but we saw last season how hard that was for him, because of the baggage he carried and because at every turn someone was trying to pull him back into performing blackbeard and wearing a mask he never wanted in the first place.

izzy was the embodiment of all that, was more there to reflect ed's struggles and his journey than anything else (he was his dad and he was hornigold and he was all of the angry men in ed's life and the angry words they kept repeating in his mind.)

and how do you set ed free? because the show is the relationship, and is deeply a story about love, it becomes possible through the effects of Stede's love and kindness on the world. stede makes the world softer around him and that softness ends up enveloping ed and giving him space to explore himself, to stop listening to his own fears and self hatred and to what everyone wants from him and take the first step into self love.

what do you do with izzy then? just kill him off? but we all wanted to hear an apology from him, we all wanted ed to hear that he wasn't better off dead and that being soft wasn't something he could never have because he wasn't those kind of people. and for that to happen, for the world to reflect some goodness back to ed instead of violence and hurt, izzy had to go through some changes himself. and so he does, because of Stede's crew.

and it's all so ed can hear "maybe you should listen to it" when he expresses hopefulness about leaving blackbeard behind, so he can hear "you're good now, you're ready. Ed, you're surrounded by family. They love you, Ed. Just be Ed."

this isn't about izzy, this is Ed allowing himself to let go, to embrace ed and retirement and love and warmth. izzy dying was symbolic of the end of an era in his life, and I can't wait to see what the rest of it looks like

[o-wild-west-wind]

okay, here’s my actual thoughtful post: I get why people are upset about the finale…I really do. but I want to mention that there’s a bigger picture to this story that’s missing if you’re zooming too close onto Izzy as a character, and I’m honestly so grateful that the show stuck to the thematic arc it introduced in season 1 because, as per usual, it’s about the themes 🤌 and this show never skimps on the symbolism!!

so here’s the thing: the primary themes are toxic masculinity (& it’s opposite, queer joy); trauma; love as a healing force for the above; and, title alert—DEATH. because it’s so much more than a cool title!

now, Izzy has always represented something metaphorical about all of these points; most directly, he’s always represented masculinity, and s2 has been an arc of toxicity deconstruction. but crucially, he’s also represented all that for Ed, who is the deuteragonist of this show. because—don’t forget—Stede and Ed are the show.

I’ve always doubted myself for feeling this after seeing how fandom saw Izzy as a third romantic figure (which like by all means have a blast in your fanfics I don’t care it’s about joy at the end of the day and pursue that as you want to), but after hearing something about djenks referring to Izzy as a father figure, it confirms a major point for me—Izzy is also in a lot of ways a parallel to Ed’s dad, and a representation of the trauma and guilt Ed felt from that formative killing. for so long, Izzy was an aggressive shadow in Ed’s life, and a tangible reminder of those daddy issues—someone telling him what to do, keeping him Blackbeard—and the beautiful thing is how that changed this season, how Izzy became a version of masculinity that could love and be beautiful and make good from the hurt, the literal poison into positivity. someone antithetical to his own paternalistic force, healing our daddy issues one drag show at a time. BUT, Izzy is still thematically representative within Ed’s arc—and by also representing the trauma that made Ed “Blackbeard,” it does make smart writing sense as to why Izzy died (NOT saying you can’t be sad about it—stick with me for a moment).

because here’s the thing—as aforementioned, this show is also about DEATH. killing is the root of everyone’s trauma, and reconciling a relationship with death is the ultimate arc Ed and Stede are both on, with the ultimate path of learning to live despite its inevitability. there’s a reason it was such a huge thing that Ed couldn’t personally kill, and then in this episode killed so many people with his bare hands in the name of love—and there’s a reason that was framed as a good thing. and there’s also Ed’s (and arguably Stede’s) active suicidality, which has been a huge force driving this season. these are characters who see death as this all-consuming thing, and they see their own deaths as the only solution. death is the traumatic force driving almost everything about their being for so long—and its reconciliation is everything for them, the greatest sign of growth. so Izzy’s death, and everyone beginning again with love—healing each other with love—is a cap to it all. it’s death as a positive force, for once. it’s death as love, not trauma. it’s death as something that will always happen, but this time not forced by your own hand. it’s a death to everything toxic, to what “Blackbeard” represented, and all the while a sort of rebirth. it’s kind of a death to…death? it’s functionally like the real physical moon replacing the giant romantic imaginary orb: it’s taking the thing that’s been artificially morphed in Stede and Ed’s heads and making it real this time, with all the bittersweet emotions that come with tangible reality.

and honestly, I’m glad that it was tragic and emotional. I didn’t think I’d be so devastated to see Izzy die, but it really did get to me, especially because of everything he said to Ricky and then to Ed. but think of it this way: Izzy and Ed might be romantically compelling because they were toxic and charged (and I hope people still enjoy everything they get from that dynamic in fan work), but imagine if the show had actually gone in that direction—where would it take us thematically? it would kill the thesis; it would be love as chaos and entertainment, but not healing. instead, this show gave us something so much more powerful: a legitimate, fully-fleshed trauma arc.

trauma hurts. Izzy’s death hurts. but that’s okay. that’s great, actually! it means the storytelling was effective—that Izzy’s arc made you feel something. and i know this won’t be every viewer’s experience, but honestly? I’m glad I can have this grieving process in such a beautifully framed light in the safe space ship of this show, because let’s be real—death, real life death, fucks you up. and let me tell you, I could’ve used this show during so many episodes of grief in my life. but here it is now, reminding us that our grief and trauma doesn’t define us—and WHAT a powerful thing for queer love, especially, to be presented as the thing that heals us all. ESPECIALLY when so much grief and death in this community is woven so deeply with the trauma of our identity.

so grieve as you need to, but don’t forget to turn the poison into positivity 💛 because that’s what the show is telling us—choose live, despite!

[zo1nkss]

Damn OP. I was going to keep this in the tags at first, but idk if it would fit or not bc sometimes I can be a bit wordy.

Not to bring the energy down at all, I just didn't get quite as emotional over Izzy's death as ik many others in the fandom did but it was still an intense emotional moment. That said, it wasn't until reading this post that I understood why and more specifically, that I shed a few tears about it. Because something u said really stuck out at the end there.

"-and WHAT a powerful thing for queer love, especially, to be presented as the thing that heals us."

This show being named "Our Flag Means Death" has had a particular effect on me since day one. To me it's representative of the original Gilbert Baker Pride Flag. I'm reminded that Pride started as a riot to fight back against the rampant death rates of our community members, and how we have been taught by cishet society our whole lives that we are all but marked for death.

As a trans person, my life expectancy ends in 2.5 years. That is something I have thought about every day since I was 15; the emotional impact of death is something we as queer people are not given much space to escape or cope with healthily. And I think that is such a powerful thing to represent and to show, how much that hurts and mangles a person's coping skills. How devastating that is to live with, early death as an inevitability. I think piracy is such a great era of history to show that through, too, because it is so effectively done through that lens.

A lot of queer people who flocked to the show early on, too, also lived most of our lives with dead role models. My uncle was the only queer person I knew of until I was 11-12, he died before I was even born. Queer love as a healing force was only fed to us by other queer people, in the most niche and hard-to-find spaces out there. It wasn't in our cartoons or our teen dramas or our family shows. It wasn't in our horror as the driving force of goodness and morality. It especially wasn't a mainstream comedy with deeply romanticized story beats.

Seeing queer love be the inherent balm that soothes the pain of living, of being, of sirviving a world that hates you - maybe not even for being queer but for something else entirely - has been life changing. And I completely understand ppl feeling so disappointed that he's dead, but I truly feel Izzy's death being a stark reminder that queer love can and will heal all is something so powerful. And most importantly, it's something we all deserved to feel at some point in our lives.

[spenglernot]

STORIES TELLING: THE BREATHTAKING EFFICIENCY OF WRITING IN OUR FLAG MEANS DEATH

One of the things I most admire about Our Flag Means Death is the efficiency of the writing. So much happens so fast, but nothing is dissonant or feels like it comes out from left field. I think part of the reason it works so well is that the subtext does a lot of heavy lifting; setting the foundation for what comes next. There is always more than one thing being conveyed. It isn’t simply storytelling, it’s stories telling.

Case in point: Ed's stories about underwater beasties...

S1 E6, The Art of Fuckery - Ed telling the crew a story about the Kraken. S2 E5, The Curse of the Seafaring Life - Ed telling Stede a story about fishing.

S1 E6 Young Ed sees the kraken (himself). It’s foreboding, powerful and uncontrollable.

S2 E5 Ed clearly delineates between himself and the beast (rage, violence, protection). He is the man (an adult, above the water), conscious and in control. The beast is beneath the sea (subconscious).

S1 E6 Ed describes the kraken as hideous, rising out of the water (of its own volition) while young Ed stands nearby, powerless.

S2 E5 Ed describes pulling to bring the beast out of the water. This is a conscious act, over which he has control.

S1 E6 Ed describes the kraken attacking, before Ed even knew it had done so.

S2 E5 Ed describes triumphantly pulling the beast from the water.

S1 E6 Ed describes his warning about the kraken coming too late, and the kraken takes its victim. The kraken is in control.

S2 E5 Ed shows Stede the beast he subdued: a small fish.

Why is this so damn heartbreaking and funny and touching?

We have two stories that are highly entertaining and work within the context of the episodes to move the narrative forward. But they also say a whole lot about how Ed sees himself at each moment in time.

In season 1, the beast is safely underwater, but it can always rise, with overwhelming strength and power, to wreak havoc and keep Ed safe. It’s not something Ed is fully in control of, and it can (and later does) do tremendous damage.

In season 2, episode 5, the beast is safely underwater. Ed has to put effort into keeping the beast on the line and reeling it in, but he is in control of it.

And, while the small fish silhouetted triumphantly against the moonlight is beautifully sweet and funny, what made me crumple on the floor is what it says about how Ed is beginning to manage the kraken (himself) now.

The kraken is still there, under the water, and maybe Ed isn’t ready to control it in its full form, but he’s working on it. He wrangled a small sea (subconscious) beast and is celebrating his success in that.

And then Stede says this:

(Sob. You're such a good boyfriend right now, Stede!)

Yeah, Ed. That is really beautiful. Good on you, mate. Keep going.

This post was written before OFMD season 2 fully airs. No idea what’s going to happen in episodes 6, 7, and 8 (and I’ve generally fled social media to avoid spoilers). I’ll be back, looking at everyone’s fascinating posts after the finale airs.

[mxmollusca]

 A critique I've heard of season two is that we’ve lost a lot of our symbolic objects, archetypes, and motifs. Season one gave us the lighthouse, the kraken, the red silk and the unicorn, the seagull, the auxiliary closet, Gnossienne no. 5, Pinocchio…

And then I think back to Samba sharing a quote from writer Alex Sherman during the ECCC panel:

“Season one is Stede going from a puppet to a real boy, and season two is Stede becomes a man.”

And that’s it, isn’t it? The transformation from object to subject, from something that has things done to it versus someone with agency. We see that transformation throughout season two. Almost every significant object is discarded, every symbol realized in flesh. 

The process starts at the end of season one with the throwing away of all of Stede’s things. So much has been written about Stede’s potential response to that act, and so many folks (myself included) held on to the idea that perhaps Ed kept a little bit, maybe the auxiliary closet. Stede literally no longer cares about those things. He originally brought all the things he loved with him to sea because he didn’t have significant personal relationships. That’s why we hear Gnossienne no. 5 as he goes through the empty cabin pulling out all of the knives. The discordant love motif shows how his priorities have changed, how his love has transformed.

The red silk is gone as well, but instead we have Stede, real and in the flesh wearing the exact same color, clutched in Ed’s hand in the moonlight.

The kraken, a giant monster capable of rending a ship in two? Ed becomes that, literally, disassembling the Revenge to sail her into a storm and destroy her. 

The lighthouse? A warning, Ned Low in his silver suit, a beacon in the dark warning Stede of what he will become if he continues on his course.

The unicorn, the destroyed masthead, literally becomes Izzy, a man taken apart and rebuilt piece by piece out of the parts of Stede Bonnet to become a beloved and respected member of the crew, and perhaps one of the strongest examples of self-actualization so far.

The attempts at reversing the process are demonstrated to be ineffective. The catalyst is when Buttons becomes a seagull, which shows Ed that the process of change is possible—that someone can become something or someone else. And he tries, he throws away his leathers, dons Button’s old jacket, tries to become an archetype. Stede tries to become a “real pirate”, despite the warning from Low. Even in Ed’s vision of Stede as a merman, Stede is being reduced to the role of symbol—a mythical being rather than a very real, very flawed man. They are both still trying to be the object when they need to be the subject. They need to take action, to realize themselves. And it’s a gruesome process. Jim’s version of Pinocchio is about the horrific transmogrification from wood into flesh and the horrors that need to be faced in order to make that transition.

We, the audience, are experiencing discomfort in this process. We are being held right up against the lighthouse lamp, and it burns. This is the emotional equivalent of body horror. It feels like all of our beloved belongings are being thrown overboard, but I promise they aren’t.

They are becoming.

[asneakyfox]

hey i'm, uh, i'm not sure i should bring this up, because this is a thing in the show that people have many strong feelings about, and i think the show may have managed to handle it in a way that won't make any faction of the fandom entirely happy. but on the other hand, it did make ME feel a little better to notice it.

you know how lots of people keep talking about wanting the narrative to acknowledge the "pining for his boyfriend" scene before they can really accept an izzy redemption arc

well, it DID acknowledge it

izzy across these last two episodes? every single thing he did here, every single piece of his arc here now that he seems to be fully redeemed is remixing elements of what happened there, in ways that involve him rejecting how he acted back in 1x10.

like you remember what happened there, right? ed came out of his cabin dressed in a soft robe much more feminine than his usual clothing and sang an emotional song in front of the crew and in response izzy confronted him and insulted him for being effeminate and mocked the "silk gown" and mocked ed for "pining for his boyfriend" and then told him he needs to be blackbeard not edward, edward better watch his fucking step. we all remember that, right?

here's what happens with izzy in 2x06 and 2x07: izzy adopts a more feminine gender presentation in front of the crew. izzy sings an emotional song in front of the crew. ed wears a soft robe and izzy sees it and doesn't care. izzy jokes in a gentle, non-malicious way about ed and stede fucking and specifically about ed bottoming. izzy tells ed he doesn't have to be blackbeard anymore. izzy calls stede ed's boyfriend.

that's too many things to not be on purpose, that's a clearly intentional pattern of deliberate callbacks. it's repeating all those beats, and doing it in a way that at every turn involves izzy rejecting the way he acted last season. it is the culmination of his redemption arc, the way they show you that the arc really is completed now and that izzy really has changed, and it is framed entirely around showing that he is not the guy from that one scene anymore.

now noticing this does not, for me, change anything i've said about how the show really should have said something more explicit about this all the way back in 2x01, both because that would have made it easier for a lot of viewers to engage with the arc they're giving izzy and also because it would generally make izzy's arc a lot stronger to show the exact point where his attitude on the blackbeard-not-edward stuff started changing whereas right now that's extremely vague. and i think probably a lot of people who wanted some kind of explicit apology from izzy will like this even less because it can be read as the thing where, you know, your bully's decided to come out of the closet and do all the things they used to bully you for and they're getting all this support for it, without actually acknowledging or doing anything to make amends for how they treated you, and that's valid. it's notable that we get almost nothing, so far, on how ed feels about any of this, and i don't know that i really want to take time out of ed's arc to address that when we could be digging into his relationship with stede, but it does feel like sort of a weird lacuna.

but i do want to point out that by framing it this way, by spending basically one and a half entire episodes of izzy time on doing this specific thing, and framing it as the culmination of his redemption arc - and they absolutely are framing it as the culmination of a redemption arc or if you prefer a transformation arc, not as he would have always been like this, don't let anyone tell you otherwise, that's why it's happening all at once right before the finale, after izzy's big moment with buttons-the-bird and the unicorn hoof that is clearly framed as a big symbolic moment of transformation instead of putting any of it before that point - the writers are signalling very clearly that they understand the importance of that scene, that they do understand this is what he needs redemption for.

[asneakyfox]

btw note also that the ONE really fucked up thing izzy did last season that has not yet been addressed in this kind of way is making a deal with the british royal navy, and next episode, if the preview is anything to go by, the british royal navy will show up and izzy specifically will get some individual interaction with their representative in which he explicitly repudiates any notion of capitulation or collaboration with empire, again revisiting the beat of what he did last season but in a way that involves izzy specifically rejecting the choice he made before; if that doesn't confirm this is the approach they're taking to addressing his actions last season i don't know what would

[blue-b-bro]

I've read this cool meta, and, guys, the suit is Ed. The vibrant red, beautiful suit Stede falls in love with from the moment he saw it, is Ed. The one the whole crew was terrified of.

And that explains why we were robbed from Ed seeing Stede in that suit (😭).

Interestingly, Izzy, just like Stede, doesn't believe in curses. Because if the curse = trauma, it's all understandable that the crew is traumatized by Ed, and both Izzy and Stede know that, Izzy being much more aware. But it's like it doesn't involves them. Izzy, babe, you try to tell us- ok, fine, he was making that shark, it's only consistent with his coping mechanism actually.

And Stede got rid of the suit, leaving only the shirt, dark red shirt in an episode, where Ed had to wear a onesie and a bell, to take away as much of Blackbeardness as possible, but still letting him stay.

Also Stede fining this suit in the first place: abandoned/destroyed ship, blood everywhere, everyone getting anxious and Stede’s finds that thing and is delighted (Jim's hissing in the background). Like when he found the Revenge and the found Ed, and everyone was antsy and wanted him gone and Stede (like with the suit) went to Izzy and said "please, convince them to let me keep him 🥺" and every time Izzy was pro democracy

Edit: also, the suit has this authority aura, it made Stede look like someone above his crew, like he's something different. This distance, this show of authority, of power was what has to be taken away from Ed, for the crew to let him stay

[goldenasirpa]

The curse is a metaphor for trauma.

Stede can see, rationally, that the danger is passed- so he doesn't believe it's real. He doesn't understand the curse, but he also doesn't get why the crew is still upset with Blackbeard. Or why they would need a real apology (or more than an apology!) to move on. Izzy understands that the curse- and the threat of more violence- is VERY real to them, which is all that matters. Only validating it and recreating the sense of a "safe space" can even begin to solve tensions. Hell, even Izzys weird advice to Lucius is about VALIDATING that the trauma happened- it's just clear he's still struggling to shift blame where it should go.

I like that the show is gonna keep hammering these themes home via different metaphors. Trauma is multifaceted- it litterally rewires your brain. I love the scene where a simple cake triggers Jim and Frenchie- and its taken seriously. I like that Lucius has a multi-episode arch about moving past trauma and relearning to trust. And I love that Edward is gonna have to PROVE himself, and deal with his own trauma, if he wants to gain any of that trust back.

Because trauma is complex.

Sometime's its a cursed suit, or a ship you have to stay on after you were tortured there. Sometimes it's the ghost-voice of your dead lover, or a shark, or a missing limb. But you can't measure it, and you can't ignore it, and both those things can be true.