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#baby about to do a million lightyear freestyle dive into a pool of boiling sulfur 😭 #ofmd #edward teach

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Source (Season 2 - November 19th 2023)

Vico Ortiz: Happy sunday everyone!

#lovelies #❤️ #ofmd #ofmd bts

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#people are misnaming baby hornberry in the notes to this 😭 #he is a smitten baby though #and who can blame him #ofmd

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kittycat . btw. ifyou even care

#😭 #ofmd #edward teach

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If you read Ed as abusive and quick to explosive violence and you read Ed and Stede's plot line "love will fix you" you have no explanation for how the 2x07 dumping and the poppop plotline played out. If there's a whole subplot which doesn't mesh with your reading of the show you might want to see if there's an alternative reading.

#why the hell didn't i reblog it back then? here we go #ofmd

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Controversial opinion (?): the Kraken Era wasn’t all that dark.

There’s a whole lot of meta and fic out there that portray early season two Ed as a bloodthirsty, hyperviolent monster, and when that portrayal is challenged, the rebuttal is usually along the lines of, “I’m just doing what canon did. Did you even watch the show?”

I did watch the show, and honestly? I expected Ed to be so much worse than he was! When I see people say they didn’t think Ed did enough to redeem himself or that he went past the point of no return, I just… don’t understand.

I already went into this in my way-too-long meta about Ed and abuse, but I do think it bears repeating (in a shorter post) because it seems like Ed’s actions -- more than the actions of any other character -- are scrutinized and discussed outside of the context of, y’know… a comedy about pirates. There’s tons of casual violence in Our Flag Means Death. Sometimes the violence is even funny! 

So what does Ed actually do?

As far as I can remember (I’ve only seen season two a few of times, so correct me if I’ve missed something!), we see Ed directly harm someone twice in the first two episodes: first on the wedding boat, and then when he shoots Izzy in the leg. Kind of unimpressive numbers, yeah? Tbh, I'd expect more out of a heartbroken Blackbeard.

The first instance involves Ed shooting a man during a raid. That man has a sword through his chest before Ed fires, leading me to believe that Ed’s still following his season one pattern of keeping himself a step removed from murder (technically, the sword killed that guy). We also don’t see the murder happen; the man tumbles offscreen before Ed shoots. This makes the action less brutal. If the writers wanted us to be appalled by Ed’s violence, we would’ve gotten a graphic kill (or several).

And the second instance is Izzy. Ed shoots Izzy in the leg after he suggests that the shitty atmosphere is because of Ed’s feelings for Stede. Hot take, maybe, but I don’t think that was entirely out of line -- definitely not for a pirate captain whose first mate is acting out! Ed’s feelings for Stede are not the only problem; a significant chunk of the problem is Izzy. Izzy called in the navy and led to their capture and, more importantly, Izzy bullied Ed back into the Blackbeard persona. This is what Izzy said he wanted.

We’re also told that Ed has taken more of Izzy’s toes between seasons. This isn’t cool -- bosses definitely shouldn’t be asking for their employees’ toes -- but there is a precedent for it: in season one, Ed told Stede that he used to feed people their toes for a laugh (yuck). For a laugh. This, to me, implies that it’s not a huge deal. It’s certainly not completely unexpected pirate behavior, and it seems more lenient than, like, a keelhauling or a whipping. I think both of those things would've felt way more gruesome and dark.

As far as violent actions go, that’s not a lot. Like, numerically.

Things get darker in S2E2 when Ed becomes increasingly desperate for someone, anyone, to send him to doggy heaven. He’s unhinged and working his way up to a murder-suicide before he’s stopped, but he doesn’t lay a hand on anyone. He orders Archie and Jim to fight to the death. He ignores anonymous crewmembers as they’re swept overboard in the storm. This is bad! It’s self-destructive and selfish! But violent? Monstrous? I don’t really think so.

In my opinion, the worst thing Ed does is force his crew to do violence for him -- not because it’s violence (again, they’re pirates), but because the violence hurts them. THIS is what traumatizes them! Their trauma flashbacks are scenes of them hurting others, not of Ed hurting them directly. Ed didn’t physically torture his crew (with the exception of Izzy, and that’s complicated). His crime was driving them to do one violent raid after another, killing and plundering without any joy or theatrics. Ed feels trapped in the role of Blackbeard -- the role that he’s been desperate to escape -- and, in his heartbreak, he opts to trap his crew with him. 

Yeah, Ed is messed up in the first two episodes of season two. I don’t blame the crew for almost killing him; it’s what needed to be done. I think that Jim, Archie, Frenchie, and Fang had every right to want Ed gone after Stede’s return. 

But I don’t think that Ed was a super violent monster who tortured his crew and murdered his way through his breakup. He engages in very little onscreen violence, and the person that most of his violence is focused on -- Izzy -- is the same person who told him to be violent. I think that anyone who says that Ed’s actions in the first part of season two are extremely dark is either looking at them out of context, misremembering what actually happened and just recalling the dark tone, or working with some kind of motive.

In conclusion: Ed is a man who, at his very darkest, was still operating pretty firmly within the bounds of "stuff pirates do" (but not stuff Ed has historically done, presumably).

Also look at him. Thank you.

GIF by unearthlydust

#i don't remember reblogging all the additions #and all this is so true #🫀 #🐙 #🐡 #ofmd #edward teach

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co-captain cuddles

#🥹 #ofmd

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I did this. On purpose.

#he has every right to be this perfect #ofmd #stede bonnet

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Ed is just. He’s so happy. He’s fucking THRILLED to be back together with his boyfriend. It’s got him saying nearly incoherent shit in a room full of people. He’s rambling about cats in a life or death situation. That man is delirious with happiness after a lifetime of suffering.

#ofmd #edward teach #ofmd gifs

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OUR FLAG MEANS DEATH Season 1, Episode 7 “This Is Happening”

#my loves #ofmd

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I just think of how much Stede has grown. He was so scared in “Act of Grace.” He’s so uncertain about who he is and what he feels. And then when he talks to Ed on the sofa, it’s with this clarity and maturity and total lack of fear or uncertainty. He knows he’s in love, that he has been for months, that this man is all he ever wanted. He’s not afraid of anything. He just has to finally tell Ed what he feels, like he failed to before. And it’s so simple and so lovely.

#yeah #ofmd #stede bonnet

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Yep. And Ed immediately tearing up at it. They killed me and healed me in one go.

Also the way their voices change with emotion. Ed/Taika in this scene. And Stede/Rhys in the first kiss scene. They truly let their characters live and speak through them. It's pure magic.

Stede immediately saying that he likes the length of Ed’s beard, after one of their last conversations being about how Ed can’t be Blackbeard without a black beard…

Poor baby has internalized everything. He’s repeated everything he said wrong in his head for months. He’s rehearsed everything he wanted to say to Ed, to assure him of his love.

It’s such a great reminder that Stede never declared his love. He never gave Ed assurance of his feelings, and then he ran off and seemed to confirm that what he didn’t feel the same. And Stede’s so determined that Ed is gonna know how much he loves him.

#ofmd #stede bonnet #edward teach

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Our Flag Means Death → A Gentleman Pirate

#my loves #ofmd

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The thing I am fucking feral about today: this shit.

Look. Look at this.

Stede, by and large, is not a Toucher. (That’s a whole separate essay.) He’s hesitant as fuck about it, and tends to initiate contact, if at all, through some intermediary: clothing, air, etc. Later, with Ed, he’ll do incidental touches, little things that could be explained away like the brush of arms together, etc.

(THIS IS NOT THAT ESSAY.)

But look at this shit. “May I?” Stede asks, and he gives it a moment but Ed doesn’t actually hand it over. He doesn’t even answer.

And Stede just reaches out, takes an end of the silk, and

slowly

drags it

through Ed’s fingers as Ed fucking tilts his eyes upwards in complete silence, his gaze clicking from spot to spot as his heart gets unwound from his lax – but not relaxed – grip.

And while I like the meta where Stede has NO FUCKING CLUE ABOUT HOW SEDUCTIVE HE’S BEING, I also like the idea that for the first time in his life, because this is a Queer Situation, Stede has the glimmerings of Game. Because, my god, the forwardness of it. He didn’t wait for Ed to give it to him. He just reached out and took, but in such a syrup-slow manner that Ed could’ve said no, could’ve just tightened his fingers if he didn’t want to let Stede take this precious thing– and Stede’s giving him that time while simultaneously also making some pretty great allusions, intentional or not, to how exactly he’d make his move, if a move he ever made.

Like, “May I?“ Stede would ask, and Ed (Blackbeard) wouldn’t move, wouldn’t say a word, but he wouldn’t step away either, would just watch Stede with a clicking gaze as Stede stepped forward, raised his hands, and drew Ed syrup-slow toward him, every moment one where Ed could turn away and every moment clear that Stede was here, wanting this, wanting him, and deliberate in his want.

So my god, the pure queer seduction of this scene: the intermediary object as a stand-in for themselves; the plausible deniability; the silent consent (a subgenre of plausible deniability); coded language; “innocent” touch as protective camouflage…

(It’s a little distressing to consider how much queer romantic context comes from trying to be both Open to a possibility while simultaneously trying not to get the shit beaten out of us for being wrong. It’s a powerful language. It’s a tragic one. It’s what makes it feel so special if it goes right.)

Anyway. Stede may have no idea the levels he’s playing at here, but he’s a man who was explicitly and in canon abused for displaying a particular flavor of non-masculine behavior. Even if he doesn’t know he’s queer, he knows the need for the language of safety; he’s been learning it since childhood. So he speaks it– and Ed, who engages in at least “when at sea” levels of queer living, picks up on it like the Stede-radio he’s been tuning for ages now to find a signal that explains him has suddenly gone from static to the crystal-clear notes of Gnossienne No. 5.

Is it any wonder that Ed’s oh no moment is fucking palpable here? Is it any wonder that Stede comes away from this scene a little more certain of himself around Ed, able to argue him into staying, pull him into a treasure hunt, touch his bare arm against Ed’s when they become co-captains?

GAH these fuckheads, look at them.

#🫠 #ofmd

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the last tag :D <3

and

#cackling #😁😁 #ofmd

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#the babiest #pretty golden boy #stede bonnet #ofmd

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I wonder how all of Hollywood sleeps at night knowing nobody will ever make an episode of television better than “The Innkeeper” forever. must be tough huh

#ofmd