jerthebee

[jerthebee]

Re: "But don't you find it beautiful and meaningful that Izzy got to experience happiness before he died? He ended his life surrounded by love and that was great for him."

You folks are sailing right past our one main issue here. Namely, why did he have to die at all?

It's a comedy show - a comedy show where not-really-deaths outnumber actual deaths by ten to one - why did Izzy have to die? Some of you are talking as if he died the way that people in real life die, like it's one of those things you just can't change. But this wasn't like that. This was a constructed narrative where a decision was made that not only should he be dead at the end of the series, but that it should be confirmed beyond all doubt with OFMD's only grave. Even the Badmintons weren't shown in their graves.

So why did Izzy have to die?

And why do so many of you find it fitting and appropriate that he died? This is a good opportunity to sit down with yourself and maybe examine your own thoughts around ageing and disability. Con O'Neill is in his 50s, not his 90s, and a missing limb is not some kind of down payment on death. The show even went out of its way to fit him with a new leg, breathe new life into him. So "he had to die because he was basically halfway out of the door" is rooted in some nasty ideas about ageing and disability, ideas which you should not allow to fester in yourself. Dig those out. If you're healthy and young, this might seem like a very remote issue to you. It won't always be.

David Jenkins has indicated in interviews that Izzy had to die because (1) he was Ed's 'mentor', a frankly baffling assertion which is contrary to nearly everything established about Ed and Izzy's relationship in the show, and (2) "it's a pirate show."

Okay! It's a pirate show. Seems fair at first.

Until you remember it's also a comedy show where guys turn into birds and people routinely survive explosions and gun shots and being stabbed through the liver on a regular basis. Throughout the narrative, OFMD has established and confirmed over and over and over again that it upholds the comedic law that death is never really death. You can relax seeing Roach fall from the rigging because it's a comedy show - they're not going to do that to you.

But then they did.

They reversed that fundamental law within the world just so that Izzy could die - and so that Izzy could just die. Nothing came of his death. It didn't open up a new section of plotline or change anything. The show could have ended with Izzy off on adventures with the crew he'd grown to love.

Instead he just died. And we're struggling to understand why.

Telling us that he got to be happy before he died doesn't make any sense. If it was all so beautiful and meaningful to see him experience temporary happiness, wouldn't it have been nice to see him happy ever after?

So why did the writers give him death instead?

We're scared that it's 2023 and some folks still think it's just fitting for visibly queer characters to be tantalised with happiness then struck down. We're scared that at the bottom of this, it makes sense to you that Izzy died because you think he was old and broken and no use to anyone now. We're scared to have discovered that even the show which said kindness, kindness, kindness right from the start had none for this character we loved, and we're scared that you find it so beautiful.

[jerthebee]

I think, that the most devastating thing about the OFMD season 2 finale is that in any other show, we would have seen it coming. When shows take a character and show how loved they are becoming, show how they are changing for the better. When shows have characters helping guide other characters to where they need to be, when they show how a character has found a family and chosen something to fight for. When shows increase screen time of a character and show them truly happy or being true to themselves, in literally ANY OTHER show we would have thought "oh no, this character is probably going to die or something bad is going to happen to them."

But with OFMD we thought that these characters had a bit of plot armor. The crew members dying was pretty much unthought of because that's not really the vibe of the show, you know? Especially the "main" crew members like Stede, Ed, Izzy, Lucius, etc. When Lucius was quite literally thrown into the middle of the ocean, NOBODY believed he had died for even a second because it just didn't fit with the vibe of the show.

So despite all the warning signs, Izzy being killed blindsided us all because it wasn't even a concept that was possible in our minds. And that's what so devastating about this. We should have known but we didn't.

[jerthebee]

I just gotta put this somewhere.

So our flag means death spoilers.

I do not understand why Izzy needed to die in the story. He could still be alive with the same ending. Thematically, I can't get my head round what him dying did for the story.

I am talking strictly that I don't get what this did for the story. Nothing feels gained story wise. This doesn't feel enriching to the story or world. Feels like a pokemon has confused on me and it is super effective.

I wasn't sad because I was so confused as to what was trying to be said, because what could be said can be told without him dying and make more sense and be a lot more fulfilling. A LOT more fulfilling. Him surviving would of made the ending a lot more enriching, and a lot more sense.

Was it all about trying to close a chapter for Ed? Because again he doesn't need to die for that to happen. Was it to show Izzy would die for his new family? Well we already knew he would do that. Like 4 episodes showed that growth. Wasn't that a big point of the Calypso's Birthday episode? Izzy starting to see himself and the crew, to accept the past, new beginnings, new friendship and a new sense of self?

He came so far, why not let him go further?

He could be on the Revenge right now with his new family and new founded sense of self. He didn't need Ed anymore and Ed didn't need him, he didn't need to die for that chapter of their lives to be closed?! Ed didn't need it either! That man was trying his best to fuck off and start his new chapter, he just needed Stede to move with him, which he got. If it is that Izzy needed to die for Ed to be able to achieve that, why not just keep him a cunt and a stain in Ed's life? What was the point of his growth? Because I had fully come to the understanding that they were going to go their separate ways anyway, which is why him dying makes no sense to me?!?!

Him being alive on the Revenge, whether as captain, co captain, whatever, would not of changed Ed and Stede living in their Inn together. Izzy by the end, was no longer the anchor that held Ed down to his old way of life, in fact he was telling Ed to go do what feels right. Ed was no longer the stain that kept Izzy cruel nor would Izzy allow Ed to do that him anymore, they both grew, and they naturally grew apart, found love, acceptance, family.

So it just does not make sense for him to die. Nothing was gained. It's just hollow. And if the whole thing is that the Sea Witch is just going to bring him back, then why bother at all with ANY of what happened. He has already been reborn, and he did that himself.

Legit at the end, none of it made sense and finished the episode going "right...but WHY did he have to die?!" Felt so pointless. A bizarre decision.

I blame HBO Max.

[jerthebee]

Let's talk costuming significance! Because there's some really interesting stuff going on! So Zheng Yi Sao drops the soup bitch mask when she buys the Roman puzzle box full of indigo, correctly identifying it as extremely valuable. And there's a LOT going on there - because indigo dye has a long history of being a hot comodity, even being referred to as "blue gold", but along with that, especially at the height of Spanish colonization, that was of course heavily tied up in slave labor. And I think it's curious that, in a show that has been quite careful about depictions of and references to slavery, and unequivocally condemning and punishing those who endorse or practice it (think the British officers who called Olu a slave and got a knife through the hand, or the French Party Boat where the hoity toity people were either left to the fire or jumping overboard while Abshir and the other POC make a safe escape in a treasure-loaded skiff with a bright-looking future on the horizon) that Zheng buys the Revenge Crew as an ancillary purchase along with the indigo (I want to make it clear that I am in no way suggesting that this is in any way comparable to the horrors of the institution of chattle slavery. However, it IS strange that she is is framed so sympathetically, to the point that she is presented as a viable romantic possibility for actual ray of sunshine Olu, while at the same time using the labor of the Revenge Crew without any mention of any compensation other than a bedroll on the deck and some really good soup...). BUT! ALSO! I think it's notable that every one of her subordinates are attired head-to-toe in indigo-dyed fabric. Like, that is SUCH an ostentatious display of wealth on her part. She is SO successful that she can afford to "waste" blue gold on her peons. And that is just FASCINATING.

And just another, completely unrelated costume note - How Hornighost's clothes were actually a HUGE clue as to Ed being in limbo (not purgatory, writers. Purgatory is a different thing). So here's his "favorite shirt":

I'm particularly interested in the great big ring just behind his right elbow with all the ropes hanging from it. That is sailcloth, my v. dears, the large-gauge grommets being the places where the sails could be rigged to the yardarms. And "burial at sea" wasn't just a matter of pitching a corpse overboard - first the body was sewn into a weighted shroud - usually sailcloth. Couple that with the way the dangling ropes are giving strong Marley-weighed-down-in-the-chains-of-vice-he-forged-in-his-miserly-life, and the shroud-like cape thrown around his shoulders, and you've got a brilliant costume that is shouting "THIS iS A DEAD GUY".

[jerthebee]

i just love them

[jerthebee]

"best I could" best I could!??! Mr Jenkins you're SICK you're CRAZY you're TWISTED for this

[jerthebee]

He has a sadness in his eyes you only see in eastern european gay porn

[jerthebee]

Really so much respect for David Jenkins. He really went "historical accuracy"? "Realism"? "Laws of physics"? Nope, we don't need those here, everything in this story is Vibes. Dinghies can travel huge distances if necessary, except sometimes not, injuries heal immediately or slowly fester, whichever the plot demands for comedy or drama respectively, a character spends several days dead/in a coma/in purgatory and then just comes back to life when his beloved shows up. Nothing is too over the top for this story, cringe doesn't exist, we'll dial all those feelings up to eleven, and we're gonna play everything with 100% earnestness, and we're gonna have a merman and it's going to be so fucking romantic. And he's right about all of it! Really the best way to do fiction.

[jerthebee]

CON O'NEILL as Izzy Hands in OUR FLAG MEANS DEATH (2022— ) Episode 2.03 The Innkeeper

[jerthebee]

You remember Jane Austen? Yeah. I'm not gonna forget her in a hurry, am I? The brains behind the 1810 Clerkenwell Diamond Robbery. Brandy smuggler. Master spy. What a piece of work. She wrote books. Novels. Jane? Austen? Yes! Whoa, bit of a dark horse. Novels, eh? Yes. They were very good. Good Omens (2019-) || Pride and Prejudice (2005)

[jerthebee]

What a show

[jerthebee]

we could have been… us.

[jerthebee]

The Magic Trick You Didn’t See: Being An Analysis of Good Omens Season 2

(or: Neil Gaiman, Your Brain is Gorgeous But I Have Cracked Your Sneaky Little Code And Have You Dead To Rights*) (*Maybe)

***

Soooooo I just spent the last 48 hours having a BREATHTAKING GALAXY BRAIN EPIPHANY about Good Omens Season 2 and feverishly writing a fuckin16,000 word essay about the incredible magic trick that @neil-gaiman pulled off. 

Yes, it’s long, but I PROMISE your brains will explode. Do you want to know how magic works? Do you want to know what Metatron’s deal is (I’m like 99% sure of this and it’s EXTREMELY FUCKING GOOD)? Do you want to know about the Mystery of the Vanishing Eccles Cakes and the big fat beautiful clue I found in the opening credits? Do you go through the whole inventory of Chekov’s Firearm & Heavy Artillery Discount Warehouse? 

Here is the essay, go read it: https://docs.google.com/document/d/193IXS11XN46lziHRb6eUpM17yK0BQkRqke1Wh64A_e0/ When ur done u can tell me I’m an insane crackpot, and u know what, i won’t even be offended

In case you don’t know whether you want to bother reading the whole enormous thing on google docs, I’ve put the first couple sections of it under the cut. JUST TRUST ME OKAY, HEAR ME OUT, THIS IS VERY EXTREMELY COOL, NEIL IS GOOD AT HIS JOB–

Keep reading

[jerthebee]

I need to buy a gun

[jerthebee]

[jerthebee]

and what makes Ed happy?

[jerthebee]

I recently saw your post about lgbt+ language with the history of queer and stuff, and is the phrase “we’re here, we’re queer, get used to it” also a result of a response towards those radical lesbians you were talking about, as well as society as a whole? I have no idea how or where I even saw that phrase and I don’t even think I’ve seen or heard it in over a decade, but it has that prolific sort of protest-y feeling and I’m curious

Ah, no. That one's not from conflict within the LGBTQ+ world, it's from our struggle with the world around us. It's the battle cry of a community trying to convince the world around them that LGBTQ+ people were:

A real and non-trivial part of the population, and could not be made to disappear

Human beings who deserved to live, even if they kept participating in "the homosexual lifestyle"

Dying at horrific rates of a disease nobody understood or had treatments for, and

Going to fight like HELL for their survival.

On a previous post of mine people got talking about the AIDS crisis, and the contributions made it better than anything I could do alone. I think it's very worth reading. But one thing I want to highlight is:

The Die-In. It was a tactic ACT UP (the AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power) used in the late 1980s and early 1990s to push AIDS into the public consciousness. Activists would rush into a public place like a traffic intersection, a busy train station, or the entrance to a government building, and "die", laying down and bringing things to a grinding halt. They held up signs and tombstones airing their grievances; they chanted slogans aimed to bring about the very particular political point they wanted to drive forward.

[Image description: ACT UP protesters outside the FDA headquarters in Rockville, Maryland on October 11, 1988. They demanded the release of experimental medication for those living with HIV/AIDS with slogans reading: 'Never Had A Chance.' 'I Got the Placebo' and 'I Died for the Sins of the FDA.' Source. End image description.]

AIDS deaths involved so much stigma and isolation. Fear of contamination meant that hospitals were reluctant to treat patients with HIV/AIDS, medical staff hesitant to touch them, and ordinary people afraid of so much as using the same toilet seat or water fountain as them.

And then, like the post I reblogged a couple days ago, severe illness and death meant that many people's estranged families suddenly re-entered their lives, because they were often the only ones with the legal rights to visit them in hospital or dispose of their effects, and wanted to hush up their queerness. Bury trans people under their deadnames, write obituaries of gays and lesbians that failed to mention their significant others or cause of death.

So that's... the context in which Queer Nation arose, and the environment in which "queer" was reclaimed. "Queer" was useful because it was inclusive and easy to put in a chant, and also because straight people did use it as a pejorative.

Mainstream liberals would literaly argue that sure, they guessed gay people had the right to exist, but did they have to be so blatant about it? Did they have to be such fucking queers? And sure, AIDS was terrible, but those activists were so unpleasant, and anyway, it's a totally preventable disease: Just don't have gay sex ever! Problem solved! (Spoiler: Gay people will not stop being gay; nobody deserves to die for having sex; and straight people can get HIV too.)

So ACT UP also staged "kiss-ins", which also involved occupying a public space, but this time to prove that people can be gay in public and the world will not end and society will just have to DEAL with its inherent disgust or moral outrage or whatever.

That's where the chant came from. It's stepping out defiantly into public space in a marginalized position, and warning the world that we are not going away. We refuse to go away. If, as many claimed, God himself designed AIDS as a punishment for the sin of homosexuality, and meant it to wipe gays from the face of the Earth? He must feel pretty sheepish right now, because it didn't work.

We're here. We're queer. Get used to it.