ofmdsalt

[ofmdsalt]

the way i see it half the fandom is like "ed never did anything wrong, he was ultimately justified for all his actions and i love him and the other half of the fandom thinks he needs to suffer and be punished and hates him but i will refuse to listen to anyone who wants to talk about ed's actions being seriously bad" and then the other half of the fandom is like "ed is a complex character who has made terrible mistakes and done bad things but that's what makes him interesting and dynamic and i love him!" and these supposed people being unfair and hating on ed are so few and far between that they're statistical outliers.

#ofmd critical #edward teach #ofmd #like give his man his agency back lol #it honestly feels like half this fandom sees him incapable of doing anything beyond another white man #that goes for both izzy and stede and peoples' assertions that while izzy was bad for ed #stede is wholly good for ed and that's where we should stop analyzing who ed is #this is why i sometimes prefer reading long ass character studies #where the relationship is secondary at best to the plot

[ofmdsalt]

personally i think Anne Bonny and Mary Read were a case of wasted potential in season 2. or just

like i've seen some pretty great meta about what media the episode Fun and Games is pulling from in terms of pairing up Ed and Stede (as the relative 'young' couple) with Anne and Mary (the relative 'older' couple) and having Anne and Mary act as a mirror and a lesson for Ed and Stede.

now. that's all fine and good analysis. and i wish i could get the same enjoyment out of this as others do, but to me Anne and Mary in this ep both feel flat. they're used as a mirror for Ed and Stede. a learning device. character development. they don't serve a purpose outside of this episode and don't really exist beyond it and that's what makes them so flat to me. if we are to use these two sapphic women as devices for men's development, i feel like it's just a form of fan service. of tokenization. just throw in some lesbians to show that we're very progressive and call it day. that's how it feels.

and again with the constant assertions that this is the ed and stede show and everyone exists in service of ed and stede's development, well, Anne and Mary being here at all don't really do anything in terms of adding in a sapphic couple. they're here for the main characters and that's it. i don't feel the need to care about them because the show doesn't really care for them.

#ofmd #ofmd critical #mary read #anne bonny #makes me a little depressed that this is all we get for the sapphics #like i've seen the toxic yuri trope be played out in other media to better effect #these characters stop existing for me after the ep ends

[ofmdsalt]

i find it also stems from a deep need to consume content/media that is good/pure because then that says something about you as a moral person because you like this show with all these great things going for it when like... no? that's not what you should be doing when consuming media?

because then it puts this type of comfort, feel good media on a pedestal to which everything around it is judged for how it fails to match up to this thing that we've elevated above everything else in a really artificial manner.

it becomes a really a really narrow view through which media is critiqued and consumed. like these characters are complex and nuanced. strop trying to make this a black and white issue when it really isn't

:lies flat down on the floor:

I cannot believe we are still arguing about this.

My Opinion™️ is that if people want to do the whole 'they're both toxic and awful' thing, that's totally cool! I agree to an extent! It's just there's no universe where they're EQUALLY awful.

You cannot equate shouting at a guy to physically mutilating him repeatedly AND emotionally and physically torturing his friends! You just can't! It's weird that people keep trying! You don't need to do this in order to love Ed!

Case in point: I love Ed! But so many of his fans just cannot comprehend of the very simple fact that you can like a character without justifying everything they do.

I don't think everything Izzy did was justified! I think he's a badnasty man in S1 who made badnasty decisions! I think he's a jealous little cunt with 0 healthy coping mechanisms, and that he did hurt Ed by trying to force him to stay in his Blackbeard persona! Hell, I do think he would potentially have manipulated Ed more if he wasn't hilariously inept at it! I love that! That's interesting to me! I love flaws! I love shitty people!

I just don't think that makes him 'deserving' of abuse or being traumatically physically disabled.

And I think it's fucking gross (and dare I say.... ableist) that people keep insisting otherwise!

I also don't think Ed was right to lie to him and manipulate him to stay when Izzy wanted to leave - which would've been the healthiest option for both of them. I love that aspect of Ed! I love that he's so needy and desperate for love that he clings to Izzy despite not reciprocating his feelings, and would lie to him to keep him close! Again, flaws make a fascinating character!

I just don't understand why Ed stans can't come to the exact same conclusion of 'my fave is not a perfect guy; he made mistakes and people got hurt' that Izzy stans are expected to constantly proclaim!

You don't have to use another fucked-up character as a scapegoat to pretend that your favourite fucked-up character never did anybody any harm! Why would you even want to do that?

Oh right it's the purity culture and the fear that liking a morally imperfect guy is the same as being morally imperfect yourself isn't it

#ofmd #ofmd fandom critical #when media gets labelled as wholesome that's when i get worried about what the state of the fandom will be lmao

[ofmdsalt]

just wanted to share op's tags which i also think are extremely relevant to the conversation

kashfaksajs I'm sorry but it's genuinely funny how much of OFMD is

Ed: I must Exorcise Blackbeard

Izzy: Okay.

Ed: I mean it this time!!!

Izzy: Great.

Ed: I'm a new man now!!!

Izzy: That's nice.

And people still think Izzy was like this evil, manipulative little gremlin whispering bad things in Ed's ear and forcing him to be violent

#ofmd #izzy hands #edward teach #methinks fandom does the whole word of god (jenkins) a little too much #and seeing ed as someone caught up in a cycle #a cycle of abuse and pain and isolation #but that he can ultimately overcome that cycle #and be more than his father #be more than the kraken #that is ultimately a more fulfilling take and also gives ed his agency back #he may have hurt people #but he doesn't have to let his pain and anger overcome or define him #and that he deserves something more and he can be something more

[ofmdsalt]

You know you can just not watch the show you don't have to make a whole Tumblr about it

jokes on you, anon. i actually really liked the first season of the show and loved the characters of Jim and Olu, but ever since the lacklustre season 2 dropped, i can't go three feet without people insisting that this is the Ed and Stede show so i shouldn't even complain about how both characters got shafted due to budget cuts and should just be grateful for any attention at all

but thanks i'll let some rando internet person tell me what i can and can't do

#salty #that's my person tag fyi #ofmd critical #i have a pinned post on this blog for a reason #this is meant to be a critical blog #don't like? block away!

[ofmdsalt]

You nailed it! As a fan of rarepairs, side characters, and the stories of one off episodes from other fandoms, it's pretty popular for people to focus on a specific character within a show. Like, fandom is a sandbox. Find your own corner and play in it.

But it's incredibly frustrating to be a fan of Jim and Olu and their relationship and try to search for them in OFMD tags and find absolutely nothing with many people insisting that this is the Ed and Stede show, why am I complaining about it?

Like Jim goes on such an interesting journey in season 1. And as one of the few non-binary characters in media, it feels like Jim gets lost in season 2 because production cuts meant having to simplify the story and unfortunately focus more on Ed and Stede.

I know that OFMD has a lot of people who are new to fandom, but nothing drives it home like seeing people earnestly insist it's the Ed and Stede show.

Yes, they're the main characters.

Yes, their relationship is the core of the show.

But that does not mean the other characters are NPCs who don't matter. Jim has their own subplot where they choose hope and Oluwande and later on Archie over revenge! Lucius goes through trauma and tries to cope with that! Izzy goes from an asshole focused on his captain to less of an asshole who protects his crew!

Our Flag Means Death has a very strong ensemble with lots of fun and interesting major and minor characters, so of course there'll be people whose fave is Calico Jack or Izzy or Jim or Evelyn over Ed or Stede. That is perfectly normal and happens in every fandom.

Star Wars fandom, for example, saw Ice Cream Maker Guy run in the background of one scene and now he's got a backstory and a name.

You are not doing fandom wrong by preferring minor or major characters over a main character.

You are doing fandom wrong by insisting everyone has to like the main characters best and prioritise them over all the other characters.

#ofmd #ofmd fandom critical #like this show is so full of many great characters and situations #why would you (royal you) discourage people from playing around with side characters #and don't get me started about zheng lol #she was wasted in this show #which sucks because ruibo qian was a breath of fresh air

[ofmdsalt]

howdy! glad to continue this conversation. i think what's also frustrating is that the internet slap fighting within this fandom also stems from a very defensive position, so having to document absolute vitriol or harassment becomes a necessity to fight against ongoing harassment and bad faith arguments

and this fandom also has a particular view of how people should interpret the show and if you deviate from that reading, you're doing fandom wrong and it's so easy for the conversation to devolve from there. so every week, every day it's something new. so new discourse that's weaponized against people

not only that but this fandom has also created scapegoats and strawmen out of the term like 'canyonite' to refer to people they don't like. and quite frankly this is just really petty and sort of high school behaviour

Know what I'm sick of? I'm sick of a few fans posting every other fucking day about how some other fans are fandoming wrong, because those fans don't like the same character/in the same way that they do. And somehow it becomes an issue of racism, because fuck if they'll allow stanning of a white guy (funny enough, the only time I've seen race mentioned), not on their fucking watch, nosirree.

And somehow it's the wrong-fandoming-fans' fault that you fine, upstanding citizen fans have to post about this shit AGAIN because it happened AGAIN and you know, I can't remember the last time I saw the outright racist posts in the tags, so I must be curating Tumblr extremely well in that regard (wait... is it ON Tumblr, or is it somewhere else on the internet, but you brought it HERE?), at least. But I still see the regularly scheduled "Fandom was mean again" posts, so. Maybe not that good.

I'm fucking sick of it, and I don't care if this upsets them/you too, so allow me to be specific. I've read too many hypocritical essays on how Izzy fans/Canyon are doing it wrong/never shut up/missing the point/bad people who should feel bad/promoting oppression of insert-group-here (FYI, I belong to some of those groups, so - fucking don't even start it with me) ... yet those essays always have dozens of notes of agreement on them. We all know -ism is bad, we all fucking know that, but I swear some of you act like you're getting points for how many times you point it out.

Judging by the dozens of notes, maybe you are.

I know mine is not going to be the popular opinion, I know I'll get shit, I know you'll dismiss me as a troll, I don't care. I'm not having fun in Tumblr OFMD fandom anymore. You've helped to make it not fun. This constant infighting has got to fucking stop.

As you(generic policing fans) like to point out: it's a SHOW. With characters written/acted to entertain us. Some of them are going to be your favorite, and some of them are not ( I fucking hate Calico Jack, some people love him, that's okay) .

Canyon? Same to you.

Is there another group, non-Ed-non-Izzy, that needs to hear this message? Listen the fuck up:

LIKE WHAT YOU LIKE.

LET PEOPLE LIKE THE SHIT THEY LIKE.

Believe it or not, these two things can be done simultaneously. Stop reading shit into what other people are doing/saying, fucking ignore/block them if they bother you so goddamn much, and get the fuck on with enjoying the fandom the way you want to enjoy it. Let's all just fucking love us some gay pirates. It's what we're all here for.

...and if the way you want to enjoy it, is to ruin other people's enjoyment, then you can just fuck right the hell off. Thank you for your cooperation.

#also no shade to you izzy-anti! #it's just really depressing to see how some people are treated in this fandom #while others champion this space as welcoming and inclusive #when that hasn't been the case for everyone #and when new fans are looking into this space #and this is what they see #they may be turned away at the door for fear of social isolation if they do or say something wrong #when they don't even know half the conversations that have already happened

[ofmdsalt]

hey! didn't mean to make this seem like it was a call out to you! just how people interact with the purpose and uses of the canonizzyhours blog itself. and this has nothing to do with you personally, only that people see a blog that posts anonymous asks with no feedback and some people use this type of blogging style as a weapon to be, quite frankly, mean to other people. this is both done by anonymous asks sent to deride other users of their interpretations or continuing the 'poisoning of the well' point i made earlier. or to bully users for how clearly their anonymous take is wrong by adding in replies, reblogging the anonymous asks and adding additional commentary. it starts to feel like dog piling after a while it all makes me wonder if the purposes of the canonizzyhours blog are mired and murky based on how people now perceive it as a place where they can just vent about XYZ and engage in bad faith. again, nothing against you personally! i see the asks posted in the general OFMD tags and i often see other blogs reacting to these asks and it just continues the cycle of discourse. it's just a reflection on the fandom as a whole and the actions people take

Know what I'm sick of? I'm sick of a few fans posting every other fucking day about how some other fans are fandoming wrong, because those fans don't like the same character/in the same way that they do. And somehow it becomes an issue of racism, because fuck if they'll allow stanning of a white guy (funny enough, the only time I've seen race mentioned), not on their fucking watch, nosirree.

And somehow it's the wrong-fandoming-fans' fault that you fine, upstanding citizen fans have to post about this shit AGAIN because it happened AGAIN and you know, I can't remember the last time I saw the outright racist posts in the tags, so I must be curating Tumblr extremely well in that regard (wait... is it ON Tumblr, or is it somewhere else on the internet, but you brought it HERE?), at least. But I still see the regularly scheduled "Fandom was mean again" posts, so. Maybe not that good.

I'm fucking sick of it, and I don't care if this upsets them/you too, so allow me to be specific. I've read too many hypocritical essays on how Izzy fans/Canyon are doing it wrong/never shut up/missing the point/bad people who should feel bad/promoting oppression of insert-group-here (FYI, I belong to some of those groups, so - fucking don't even start it with me) ... yet those essays always have dozens of notes of agreement on them. We all know -ism is bad, we all fucking know that, but I swear some of you act like you're getting points for how many times you point it out.

Judging by the dozens of notes, maybe you are.

I know mine is not going to be the popular opinion, I know I'll get shit, I know you'll dismiss me as a troll, I don't care. I'm not having fun in Tumblr OFMD fandom anymore. You've helped to make it not fun. This constant infighting has got to fucking stop.

As you(generic policing fans) like to point out: it's a SHOW. With characters written/acted to entertain us. Some of them are going to be your favorite, and some of them are not ( I fucking hate Calico Jack, some people love him, that's okay) .

Canyon? Same to you.

Is there another group, non-Ed-non-Izzy, that needs to hear this message? Listen the fuck up:

LIKE WHAT YOU LIKE.

LET PEOPLE LIKE THE SHIT THEY LIKE.

Believe it or not, these two things can be done simultaneously. Stop reading shit into what other people are doing/saying, fucking ignore/block them if they bother you so goddamn much, and get the fuck on with enjoying the fandom the way you want to enjoy it. Let's all just fucking love us some gay pirates. It's what we're all here for.

...and if the way you want to enjoy it, is to ruin other people's enjoyment, then you can just fuck right the hell off. Thank you for your cooperation.

#ofmd fandom critical #ofmd

[ofmdsalt]

hey op!

i've been noticing some of the same behaviours you've outlined here. there's a lot of bad fandom etiquette here and i've outlined it into 4 points

Poisoning the Well: this stems from feeling the need to comment on everything happening with the fandom. so this often seems like people commenting on things they see on Twitter and then want to make more discourse about it on Tumblr which only creates more issues and i don't think it's actually solving anything other than generating more controversy

Fandom Policing: this fandom has such a weird relationship with canon, fanon, headcanon, ships, and just interpretation in general. i've never seen such takes of people finding X ship "distressing" or "disturbing". like learn to use block lists. learn to block tags. learn to use tools at your disposal rather than getting on a soap box and preaching to everyone on the street corner about why they're bad.

Weaponizing the Language of Social Justice: this is where i'm going to take a more cautious approach. in general, i do think being aware of the things we create and consume is good. however. often times the language of social justice and progressive ideals gets weaponized by people to assert that they're like better than other people?? and this doesn't help when the people that this type of language is used against are often marginalized folks themselves. all to uphold FICTIONAL CHARACTERS over being a decent human being to others. (and as an aside: some of these fictional characters result from a process of historical revisionism and interpretation which is never a good look. i mean hey! it happened with the Hamilton musical and fandom as well. more on that another day lol)

Dumb Internet Slap Fighting: this fandom has moved on from direct approaches of dialogue to like vague blogging about people. and that's fine. that's whatever. but i think blogs like canonizzyhours has outlived its purpose and has become an anonymous forum for people to just bitch about stuff and affording them anonymity and no push back. now it's taking screenshots and cropping out blog names and avatars to better hide who we're talking about just so we can continue Internet Slap Fighting. (and at least this has moved away from including names which has resulted in doxxing, harassment, and other really bad things, and yes i know people who have been bullied out of this fandom)

i find these topics interesting but i've seen so many people declare they're leaving the fandom because these types of behaviours are exhausting. being taken out of context. having to constantly justify why you're writing X in a certain way. all so people can have this moral authority over the interpretation of the text when fandom is supposed to be a sandbox. let people play in it and stop throwing mud at each other lol

anyway: don't like don't read. block people whose opinions you don't like. curate your fandom experience. be curious, be critical, but also have fun

Know what I'm sick of? I'm sick of a few fans posting every other fucking day about how some other fans are fandoming wrong, because those fans don't like the same character/in the same way that they do. And somehow it becomes an issue of racism, because fuck if they'll allow stanning of a white guy (funny enough, the only time I've seen race mentioned), not on their fucking watch, nosirree.

And somehow it's the wrong-fandoming-fans' fault that you fine, upstanding citizen fans have to post about this shit AGAIN because it happened AGAIN and you know, I can't remember the last time I saw the outright racist posts in the tags, so I must be curating Tumblr extremely well in that regard (wait... is it ON Tumblr, or is it somewhere else on the internet, but you brought it HERE?), at least. But I still see the regularly scheduled "Fandom was mean again" posts, so. Maybe not that good.

I'm fucking sick of it, and I don't care if this upsets them/you too, so allow me to be specific. I've read too many hypocritical essays on how Izzy fans/Canyon are doing it wrong/never shut up/missing the point/bad people who should feel bad/promoting oppression of insert-group-here (FYI, I belong to some of those groups, so - fucking don't even start it with me) ... yet those essays always have dozens of notes of agreement on them. We all know -ism is bad, we all fucking know that, but I swear some of you act like you're getting points for how many times you point it out.

Judging by the dozens of notes, maybe you are.

I know mine is not going to be the popular opinion, I know I'll get shit, I know you'll dismiss me as a troll, I don't care. I'm not having fun in Tumblr OFMD fandom anymore. You've helped to make it not fun. This constant infighting has got to fucking stop.

As you(generic policing fans) like to point out: it's a SHOW. With characters written/acted to entertain us. Some of them are going to be your favorite, and some of them are not ( I fucking hate Calico Jack, some people love him, that's okay) .

Canyon? Same to you.

Is there another group, non-Ed-non-Izzy, that needs to hear this message? Listen the fuck up:

LIKE WHAT YOU LIKE.

LET PEOPLE LIKE THE SHIT THEY LIKE.

Believe it or not, these two things can be done simultaneously. Stop reading shit into what other people are doing/saying, fucking ignore/block them if they bother you so goddamn much, and get the fuck on with enjoying the fandom the way you want to enjoy it. Let's all just fucking love us some gay pirates. It's what we're all here for.

...and if the way you want to enjoy it, is to ruin other people's enjoyment, then you can just fuck right the hell off. Thank you for your cooperation.

#ofmd #ofmd fandom critical #i also think many of these issues stem from majority American understandings of content consumption #and American understandings of a whole slew of things lol #but that's for another day #also op all the times i use 'you' im like speaking to a general 'you' #the royal 'you' as it were

[ofmdsalt]

He would not fucking say that but let's indulge

#fandom is a sandbox #and you gotta loosen up a little #otherwise you'll stress yourself out too much by adhereing to canon #or missing out on incredible works that diverge from it

[ofmdsalt]

It feels really weird to be completely dismissive of how Ed treated the rest of the crew. Need we forget he made Fang kill his own dog so he could be a part of Ed's crew.

It also really flattens Ed's character and removes so much of his own agency to say he wasn't responsible for any of these actions he committed even though they were terrible actions.

He's more than that, and it's frustrating to see this conversation still happening over and over.

it's the year of our lord 2024 and I can't believe we're still having this argument

For the sake of this post, let's focus on Edward's behavior towards Fang, Jim, Archie and Frenchie, four people we can all safely assert didn't meet the criteria for your violent cop fantasies.

No, being a POC doesn't make it okay for you to be a violent abuser.

Even if you have man pain :(

Sincerely, one of the POC you're treating as a monolith with your behavior.

PS: Did Fang deserve it?

If you can't answer that question with your whole chest, your argument literally doesn't matter to me.

#ofmd #ofmd critical #edward teach #these arguments are so circular and so repetitive

[ofmdsalt]

just thinking about how much Jim's character was wasted in season 2

like they were so interesting and mysterious in the first season. and learning about their quest for revenge and how they just... gave up after killing the first guy says so much about them.

and then we lose all of that in season 2

#ofmd critical #jim jimenez #i'd blame the slashed budget #they probably couldn't spend more time on rewrites and overall structural planning of the story #but they feel like two separate people in each season

[ofmdsalt]

but why not a sea burial

i find it really weird that Izzy doesn't get a burial at sea but you know Karl, the seagull, does and even Lucius' finger gets a nod at a sea burial

especially since that land burial Izzy did end up getting was so... lacklustre for a show that prides itself on community and connection and celebration

how do we go from Calypso's birthday... to no one even eulogizing at Izzy's funeral lol

#salty #ofmd #ofmd critical #izzy hands #doing a rewatch to get some dialogue lines and build some material #and i forgot about the finger part #just a small nod by Fang who does the deeds #but it's still mentioned #and yet izzy is buried like a dog in the front garden lol #this is just so bizarre

[ofmdsalt]

One thing that baffles me about the OFMD fans who can't accept any criticism about the show, not even mild criticism, is that even if you loved every second we got on screen, we know it's not the version of S2 Jenkins and the others wanted to make.

We know there were last-minute rewrites. We know that Jim/Oluwande/Archie were supposed to have a sex marathon. We know Pete and Lucius were supposed to get married in ep 6. We know the crew was supposed to push Ed and Stede together.

So how can you go 'this season was perfect' when it's not the season the creator wanted to make?

#ofmd critical #personally i think it also stems out of the need to defend queer media no matter the cost #because often times queer media is held to an impossible standard #but that shouldn't put blinkers on us to be incapable of seeing #that season 2 fell victim to the current hellscape of streaming media we're currently in #it's okay to say you want more out of queer media #it's just realizing the fact that we are completely incapable of telling the stories we want #on a scale comparable to non queer media #when streaming platforms just don't give a shit across the board

[ofmdsalt]

Greets you in fellow hater: Hiiii helloooo hiiii :3

every time i try to explain this blog to a friend i feel like this

#aren't you tired of being nice #don't you just want to go ape shit #also this is a hater blog and i state that explicitly #don't like my takes? feel free to block

[ofmdsalt]

So disheartening to me that the discussion of racism in the ofmd fandom is spearheaded by like 3 really gross people who hide behind wholesome inclusivity and no-nonsense activism while being some of the most deeply unpleasant and pro harassment people I've ever seen in fandom. And obviously they're all vocal Izzy antis.

You'll know who I'm talking about.

#ofmd #ofmd fandom critical #really interesting to see how people say OFMD is the bestest show ever #when it comes to matters of race and sexuality and gender #and then turn right around to treat people of colour in their own fandoms like shit #and dare to say to other queer fans that they must be dealing with internalized homophobia #honestly #what the actual fuck

[ofmdsalt]

i love the thing though where people will be like "lol ed cutting off izzys toe doesnt matter theyre pirates violence is funny and nbd stop saying its a bad thing!" and then be deadass serious about how izzy yelling at the crew is abusive, yanking fangs beard is an unforgivable act of sadism, and calling someone a twat indicates theyre a violent misogynist

#the izcourse #izzy hands #ofmd