#no Mary is not as bad as Izzy

[nicnacsnonsense]

All I’m saying is there are a lot of people out there that will make the — entirely accurate — observation that you cannot just take Izzy at his word that he is the most competent pirate ever who has been single-handedly managing Ed’s mood and his crew for ages now, and then will turn around and take everything Mary says and about how she characterizes her relationship with Stede as gospel.

#ofmd #mary bonnet #izzy hands #stede bonnet #I mean that’s definitely not all I’m saying #I have been saying a lot frequently and at length #but it’s all I’m saying right now #no Mary is not as bad as Izzy #but she definitely has a very biased view of the situation

[arsenicflame]

i Do Not Trust people who make Mary the bad guy in their stories when the show went out of its way to specifically show us how she was suffering just as much as stede was in their marriage and that shes, yknow, a good person

#mary is specifically framed in a sympathetic light in all of her appearances. the show switches to following her narrative so we can see #how much better her new life is for her too!!! like yes she tries to kill stede but we are shown in the narrative WHY she makes that choice #and that she struggles with it and we see stede understanding this too! he supports her decisions and her new life and is happy for her!!! #at no point are we shown anything that makes mary a bad person or bad mother- honestly i generally like mary far more than stede anyway #but even if you dont you should be able to acknowledge... that if u make her the bad guy??? w. what did you take away from the show?? #idk it has the vibes of. the girl character all the fans hate because she gets in the way of their precious little gay ship #or whatever. you know what i mean #ofmd #our flag means death #mary bonnet #mary allamby bonnet #everyone whos a mary hater is also an izzy hater bc theyre coded the same character type. betrayed wives my beloved #(this is a joke.) #uh. this might be one to add in the tags on again sorry gang i have too many thoughts

[carmillas-girlfriend]

send an emoji to my ask box and I'll give my opinion on an Our Flag Means Death character:

🧜‍♂️- Stede Bonnet

🐙- Edward Teach

🦄- Izzy Hands

✒️- Lucius Spriggs

🍊- Oluwande Boodhari

🗡- Jim Jiminez

🐈‍⬛️- Frenchie

🐦- Nathaniel Buttons

🌧- Black Pete

💃- Wee John Feeney

🔪-Roach

🦷- The Swede

👃- Spanish Jackie

🐍- Archie

🐕- Fang

🍲- Zheng Yi Sao

🍃- Mary Read

🐇- Anne Bonny

🍺 - Calico Jack Rackham

🎨- Mary Allamby Bonnet

#certainly nothing bad will come of this #bbc ghosts has a game like this and i want us to play too #if you disagree with my emoji choices im sorry :( #PLEASE play my widdle game???? #our flag means death #ofmd #stede bonnet #ed teach #izzy hands #lucius spriggs #oluwande boodhari #jim jiminez #frenchie #buttons #black pete #wee john feeney #roach #the swede #spanish jackie #archie #zheng #mary read #anne bonny #calico jack #fang #IF I FORGOT YOUR FAVE IM REALLY SORRY!!!!!! #mary allamby bonnet

[something-about-sunflowers]

I want some happy in the Izzy tag so.

Jack is gonna propose to Izzy, he wants to do a whole big thing about it, practically planning a flash mob, but he doesn’t cause he knows Izzy would hate it with all the attention on him.

So he plans quieter, take him to his favorite vegan restaurant, slip the ring in his food or his drink, but then, he can’t go with that either because Izzy is so particular about his food since he’s got all those stomach issues and Jack doesn’t want to send him into an anxiety spiral about where his food’s been.

So he plans gentler, movie marathon night at home, bunch of those sappy romantic movies they both pretend they hate, he’ll tell him ‘hey I got you something extra special with all the snacks’ and pull out the ring box. Yeah. He’ll go with that one. He puts in a request for the day off, pulls out all their super comfy blankets and washes them to make sure they’re extra fresh. Plans a little menu and goes shopping, so excited he’s dancing in the aisles.

The morning before and Jack wakes up to Izzy making breakfast, all the stuff he can’t eat but he knows Jack likes, god he loves him. He gets up, heads to the kitchen presses a big, lip-smacking, kiss to Izzy’s temple and fixes Izzy’s coffee before sitting down to the plate Izzy’s already prepared for him. He’s got the fork halfway to his mouth when Izzy slaps something down on the table.

Jack blinks. Blinks again.

Fuck.

Its the ring box. How did Izzy find it? Jack was keeping it in his truck! Izzy never went in his truck without him, he didn’t even drive! Shit! Could he still save this? Maybe he could-

Wait.

That’s not his ring box. The one he’d bought was a nice, dark green, velvet. This one is a sleek, tan leather. He looks up at Izzy, who is leaning back against the counter, arms crossed tight against his chest, pointedly avoiding eye contact.

‘Well?’ He, honestly, kinda demands in that snappy tone of voice he gets when he’s trying to pretend like he’s not more nervous than a balloon in a needle factory. ‘Are you gonna fuckin’ say “yes” or not?’

A grin splits Jack’s face. He feels about fit to burst himself, how happy he is.

‘Lemme run to my truck real quick.’

#the dork is being a dork #izzy hands #calico jack #cjizzy #their friends all knew and they thought it was too hilarious and sweet to let them in on it #jackie calls the next day asking 'so who am i congratulating?' #anne and mary/mark are demanding pictures of the rings cause they both helped pick them to match #they call ed and go 'bad news man' and ed (and stede) are like 'WHAT' and they're like 'yeah we don't know who's best man to make you' #and ed is like 'DON'T FUCKIN DO THAT TO ME YOU DICK'

[merrymorningofmay]

shaking a strawman defeatist tumblr american by the shoulders and saying do you know that when hozier said 'being reckless and young is not how the damage gets done' he lied to you and if a fascist ends up the president in your country a year from now because you were too sad to vote it will in fact be your fault, personally

#just saw one of these on the dash and it made me very sad! #'uwah bwah all candidates are bad :(' i'm so sorry no tumblr commies with anime avatars are running for president #the us must be truly unique in this regard! we get at least 5 catboy candidates every election #these tags should be read in izzy's voice and tone btw. that's the tired contempt i'm feeling #it's just really grim when people from a fucking. Not A Dictatorship have less political zest than belarusians in 2020 #belarusians!! of all people!! #mari rambles

[shaunashipman]

if u don't see the mary & izzy paralells in s1 ur just dumb and there's not helping u.

what fucking parallels? did Mary routinely tell everybody Stede was crazy? did she threaten and emasculate him when he didn't live up to her expectations? did she sell his boyfriend out to the authorities to get him back under her thumb and acting the way she wanted him to?

Izzy is not fucking "wife-coded" you turnip. Mary was a woman making the best of her situation, asking Stede to please be present in their marriage, which she had no say in being in. Izzy was a pirate who could leave any time he wanted to, but instead tried to force Ed to be his idea of "Blackbeard".

Izzy was fucking toxic in s1, he was literally an antagonist, arguably the biggest one. He didn't care about Ed, he didn't care about the crew, he cared about people being his idea of a pirate. of a man. his arc in s2 was about acceptance, not just of himself but the others.

you Izzy stans don't even like the actual character, you only like the version of him you've built up in your mind (hmmm sound familiar?)

#cleo gets mail #anonymous #ofmd #ofmd discourse #izzy hands #tbc i found izzy somewhat interesting in s1 #then his stans of course made me hate him with all their woobifying #and then i really loved him in s2 #cause he started to get some positive character growth #so can y'all stop trying to make me hate him again #like srsly #just seeing him referred to as ''wife-coded'' made me want to gag #don't fucking slander mary like that #y'all really will do anything to make him the hero and ed the bad guy

[trespasssweetlyurged]

as much as i bitch about the discourse in the ofmd fandom the fact that there are so many deeply nuanced characters in the show to cause this amount of discourse brings me so much joy. opinions on characters vary so much because all their horrendous actions have a sympathetic reasoning behind them. it comes down to where each fan personally draws their own moral line in the sand on whether or not they consider them a redeemable character despite it.

#stede leaving his family was okay because they were unhappy and it worked out for mary #stede leaving his family was a bad because they deserved better than that and they could have potentially lost everything #ofmd meta #our flag means death #tres speaks #you can't just say #or #it comes down to whether or not stede's abandonment is personally that upsetting to you #same with ed throwing out the stuff marooning the crew and cutting off izzy's toe #some people decided ed was a terrible person because of that stuff and portray him as such in their works #and some people decided that was all justifiable because he was heartbroken he can be healed with a kiss #they're all deeply flawed (esp ed and stede) and that makes them so so human and so so lovable #i love all the different reads and metas and opinions it keeps the fandom thriving when it's respectful

[mermaidlighthouse]

Stede to Anne and Mary: “I’d been gut stabbed and Ed just **happened upon** the ship I was bleeding out on”

ummmmmm Ed??? Eddie???? Babe???? Sweet jellybean???? Have you never told him you were fuckin following him around cuz you were already fascinated with him…like you were down bad just cuz he one upped Izzy…like……

#this man has a fleet #this man also puts spikes on his railing but like badly #still need to know where his ship is btw #gentlebeard #blackbonnet #ed x stede #blackbeard #stede bonnet #edward teach #ed teach #our flag means death #ofmd season 2 #ofmd s2 #ofmd #the gentleman pirate

[coeurify]

jus’ a little drabble of gf!ellie couple’s costume

a/n based off that one emma&izzy tik tok(at bottom.)

﹒ ♡₊˚﹕﹒₊﹕﹒₊˚

“El, please come out.”

“I cant. I cant do this.”

Your lips purse together to hide the smile forming from Ellie’s nervous tone, the pitch of her voice just slightly higher behind the door she seeks solace behind.

“You should‘ve just let me dress as Spider-Man!” Ellie whines, muffled by the white painted wood.

“Oh,” you scoff, “so I could be what, Mary Jane.. or Gwen?”

“Yea!”

You shake your head even though Ellie can’t see it, the red fabric of your hood moving with you. “Every masc lesbian and frat dude in the ten mile radius of that party is probably dressed as Spider-Man, El. Just open the door.”

Your fingers reach for the metal knob, and you press on it lightly, turning it just a bit.


Ellie may be embarrassed, but she’d never lock the door on you.

When the creaky wood opens fully, and the bright bathroom light spills into the hallway, you cant stop the grin that spreads on your face.


Ellie is standing there, a sweet little pout on her face as she adjusts one of the ears on her head. The black triangle on her nose is slightly smudged by the nervous hand she rubs across it. “I look stupid.”

“You don’t look stupid,” you coo, the red hood of your ‘Little Red Riding Hood’ costume falling as you step closer, pinching your girlfriend’s red cheeks, fixing the little fluffy wolf ear attached her her messy auburn hair.

“Babe, i’m wearing a leash,” she whines again, the space between her eyebrows furrowing.

You nod. Yea… you had picked that part out. But cmon, how couldn’t you? Ellie had flushed so cutely when you explained the costume idea that you just could not think of anything else.

Your fingers dip beneath the flannel she wears, searching until they find the cheap metal chain attached to El’s neck.

“Gotta keep the big bad wolf close by, don’t I?” You chastise, giving the chain a little tug, bringing Ellie’s lips to your own.

Ellie melts into the affection, pout long gone as she kisses you, “Isn’t the wolf supposed to be the one chasing Little red?”

She smiles against the kiss when you start giggling and pull away. It leaves a little stain of your gloss on the pink fat of her bottom lip, and you resist the urge to reach forward and wipe the stickiness off.

Her lips curl up even further as you step back into the hallway. “You wanna chase me?” You ask, raising your eyebrow.

“Dunno, maybe I should. You made me wear a leash,” Ellie teases, stepping closer.

Her hands reach out, fingers reaching toward your hips as you back against the wall.

You knew what she was doing. “Don’t you dare-“ You point an accusatory finger toward her chest as she closes in on you.

Ellie’s shit-eating grin only grows more, her fingers wiggling as they find your waist, digging playfully into you.

Your weak spot.

The scream that falls from your lips might actually concern some of your neighbors, and you scramble to escape your girlfriend’s torment, tripping down the hall.

“Run little red, run!” Ellie bellowed dramatically, the chain around her neck dangling as she ran after you.

“We’re gonna be late!” You cried, a breathy giggle falling from you as she chases you around the couch, one clip on ear falling from her head in the process.

“Should’ve let me dress as Spider-Man!”

#ellie williams x reader #ellie williams x female reader #ellie williams x fem reader #ellie williams fanfic #ellie williams fic #ellie williams x y/n #ellie williams x you #ellie williams fluff #ellie williams #gf!ellie williams

[celluloidbroomcloset]

Can we also note that there is zero "oh, haha, gay men are grossed out by/don't like women" bullshit in OFMD?

Stede is not disgusted by his wife. He tries to be a good husband and father and is terrible at it because he's a repressed gay man and also he wants badly to be understood and doesn't know how to express that. But we see him try to relate to Mary, and we see moments where they were happy (playing with their children, having dinner). At no point does Stede dislike Mary; he's just not a heterosexual man. They're friends, and are even to finally play together, at the end because they're able to understand each other, finally.

And this carries on throughout. There's zero misogyny at play. The few jokes about Jim when they're revealed to not be a man are written as silly and superstitious, not misogynist, and are pretty quickly put to rest. Spanish Jackie, Archie, Anne Bonny, Mary Read, Zheng, and Auntie are all respected by Stede, Ed, and the rest of the Revenge crew and zero issue is made of their being women.

The show clearly and closely relates homophobia and misogyny. The people who are misogynist or use misogynist language - Calico Jack, Izzy, the Badmintons - are the antagonists. They're the ones who think being female or perceived as feminine is a bad thing. They use misogynist language to describe or dismiss Stede, Ed, and Lucius especially. And while Stede and Ed both have issues about their masculinity, at no point do they think that being female is a bad or shameful thing.

It's yet another trope that the show skirts by not relying on cheap laughs or sexist stereotypes.

#ofmd #our flag means death #ofmd meta #stede bonnet #edward teach #mary bonnet #zheng yi sao

[arsenicflame]

if youre not reading the shrike series by criswritesoccasionally yet i cannot recommend it enough- its izzy-centric, steddyhands, and the current part (part 3) is doing some Excellent stuff with izzy's backstory & establishing relationships with other pirates (anne bonny, sam bellamy, etc etc)

(heads up it can be pretty heavy at times but there is also a lot of comfort)

#im Bad at writing fic reccs but god this is so good #also theyre publishing at an absolutely wild rate + i want to send more support their way nfndnnd #this is the sam/izzy/ed/jack/anne/mary complex polycule of my DREAMS #seriously i think this author mightve crawled inside my head- the dynamics absolutely perfect chefs kiss #nyxtalks #ofmd #our flag means death #israel hands #izzy hands #steddyhands #sam bellamy #calico jack #jack rackham #anne bonny #mary read #bellhands #cjizzy #izzy can have all the boyfriends. as a treat #fic rec

[sixstepsaway]

so here's the thing

i've seen a bunch of people say on twitter and stuff how... ed's behavior is very abusive and his anger is dangerous and he isn't romantic lead material because of it

and i get where they're coming from

but to me the main issue isn't putting ed in the position of a romantic lead, but not crafting the narrative around his characterization so that it allows for a spicy romantic pirates-in-love narrative instead of...whatever this is.

i'm going to try and explain this. idk if i'll do well but i'll try

the way she show presents stede is as an innocent baby who isn't really equipped for pirate life. he goes into a fugue/disassociative state whenever there's any real violence, apparently, and needs protecting by other characters when things get too rough - for example when ed is telling ned lowe not to take the poker to stede.

that's fine! it's honestly adorable to see a masc character being so soft around the edges and being protected by other characters this way.

(i'm not going to touch on stede's... eh... not great characterization this season rn)

then there's izzy, who is shown as a bit violent, a bit rough around the edges. he's more likely to draw a sword or throw a punch or hit someone with a chair or take a punch like a champ. violence is just part of life for him and that's okay, it just Is, from small things like smacking stede on the ass to bigger things like being wall slammed, it's not all that big or bad for violence to happen around and with him, he tends to give as good as he gets (there's some nuance here but i'm talking the macro themes not the micro of what izzy does vs is done to him)

and finally there's ed

ed is presented as violent (stabbing knives at guys, telling fang to use the snail fork etc) and used to a life of violence, and then in season 2 he's presented as really violent, his anger coming out in dangerous and terrifying ways

and frankly, i'd be super into it if he and izzy were the main ship and that twisted dynamic from the first two episodes of s2 was explored and fleshed out into something deeper

friends to enemies to lovers who fight and fuck. angry pirates who lay hands on each other, who break the whole ship with each other in the heat of passion.

except instead, s2 gives us... abuse. it gives us izzy cringing and lowering his head and trying to protect the kids crew from ed's angry outbursts.

so when stede comes back and he's still soft around the edges and ed headbutts him and it's deliberate, it's... not a great look, and the vibes are a bit skewed

if stede fought back, if when ed struck out at him he struck back, if they fought rather than it being one-sided, if it was friends to enemies to lovers and not presented as healthy, but maybe they can work their way there, who knows, maybe even more like anne bonnie and mary read because hey, they were doing something very similar?

except they were both into it. they were both enjoying the fighting and the fucking and the burning down the house.

stede's not enjoying it.

i cannot describe how much i hate this sequence just because of the way stede flinches

anne and mary don't!! mary jumps at the unexpected bang but she doesnt flinch, she doesn't cover her face like she thinks the vase will be coming for her not the wall and anne? looks so into it

and the thing is that in real life, no, you don't want to date someone who throws shit around, or headbutts you

but in fiction when it's two fucked up people doing this shit together like anne and mary?

that can be fun.

but instead what we've been given is stede flinching and apologizing to ed and then all of ed's...what, semi-redemption???? is done away from the other collection of people he abused, and then he spends some time on a fishing boat wearing a dog collar and everything is fine because he's good now and won't be doing anything bad ever again

and it's just... poor writing. the vibes are rancid.

i spent a really big chunk of time between s1 and s2 defending ed. i kept saying how what he did to izzy by making him eat his toe wasn't abuse, it was a one-off and abuse isn't a one-off thing it's a pattern, and then s2 made it a pattern.

explicitly. explicitly a pattern.

not just one toe but three.

jim saying "you're in an unhealthy relationship with blackbeard"

and all ed offered izzy was a "sorry about your leg" which might've been fine if izzy survived and they could work on this more, but instead that's all the apology and closure izzy will ever get

ed threw a chair and a vase and made stede flinch in fear and stede was right to do that. what part of any of this implies this will never happen again? that stede won't press the wrong button at some point and be on the receiving end? none of it

and if we'd been presented with a s2 stede bonnet who could handle himself and stand up for himself and fight back, then maybe i could imagine that turning into a weird sexy fucked up anne/mary like thing and maybe that could be why they put that episode in, but instead it feels like that episode was going, "look, see, ed's violence is fine because these two are fine with it with each other"

but stede isn't

ed and izzy or ed and stede in an unhealthy battle of a relationship could be such a fun, interesting and downright sexy thing to watch unfold on tv, and could honestly end somewhere far more down the chill end of the spectrum, but that's not what we've been given here

i cannot argue that ed isn't an abuser anymore, and not just of izzy but of the whole crew. he terrified frenchie.

it's not good writing to try and lean into the idea that ed and the pirates are violent and live a life of violence, so it's okay that ed's been violent, while simultaneously presenting his violence as traumatic and abusive, and then less than three episodes later saying oh it's fine now, he's just a little meow meow who can do no wrong, see?

especially considering they had him murdering people at the end of the season. and sure, you can say the english are just cannon fodder and they dont 'count', but they did before. ed explicitly did not kill before, and that included the english, or the spanish, or anyone else. so either they count or they don't, but flipping him on a dime makes no sense.

ALSO

having ed be the son of an abusive man who threw plates at his mother and made her cringe and then having ed kill his father to protect his mother and then a season later having ed become the kind of man who throws chairs and vases and makes his love interest cringe is, again, not bloody optimal

i want to say again i dont CARE about tv always presenting healthy relationships or tv always giving us aspirational goals. i want messy fucked up dynamics and terrible people making terrible choices, and still, to this day, i fucking love ed teach. i would honestly love to have seen them continue with ed's darkness and bring stede into it and see where they went with that, to have stede kill ned lowe and not just bury his feelings in ed but get off on it, enjoy the violence, and see where that led, but no

and so instead all we end up with is a protagonist who is being set up for a lifetime of abuse from an intimate partner, and a romantic lead who abuses his love interests (and yes. izzy is a love interest, he is set up like one and positioned like one and treated like one), frightens his love interests with his violence, is erratic and most of all inconsistently written. he was so sorry about scaring fang as though he hadn't been deliberately terrifying the whole crew for fuck knows how long? what?!

the whole fandom has spent so long saying, "no no, i know stede bonnet irl was a slave owner, but ofmd is using the names and not any real piracy, it's more disney piracy, you know? so that kind of stuff doesnt exist!" and then they flipped around and went "blackbeard is blackbeard and so he is evil and does all these horrible things" and i dont know how to rationalize the two sides of that because it feels so out of place

i'm getting rambly, this isnt a particularly well constructed thought process, i just feel like we were robbed both of a toxic, violent relationship that could be fun to see explored on tv and a soft and sweet love story between two middle aged men exploring their first loves in one fell swoop and there's no way for s3 to bring either of those things back because they got utterly torpedoed by making ed a horrible person

ugh

#ofmd critical #i hate that i'm using this tag now :c #edward teach #ed teach #ofmd s2 #ofmd season 2 #our flag means death #ofmd spoilers #ofmd meta #i guess #izzy hands #stede bonnet

[amuseoffyre]

Just realised that when Stede asks Izzy about learning from him, he's actually emulating Zheng's approach with Bartholomew:

some flattery

just enough respect

saying things the man wants to hear (Ed's words)

suggest they could work together to benefit them both

The thing about Stede is that he came from a very narrow world, but from the minute he ended up in the pirate world, he's been growing and learning, absorbing information and tricks and stunts like a sponge, taking them and using them in his own way.

Here are some images of the things he's learned/reused in S1

S2, he's doing the same again, taking what he's already learned and working with it. He learned how to talk about things with Mary and it carries over to so many ladies in the show. He learned how to manipulate like Zheng, although he's still figuring that out.

He reused a combination of his original 'dressing us up as fancy men' fuckery and 'this is the ghost of the forest' fuckery from episodes 1x01 and 1x02 for the escape in 2x08.

There's also a running theme of bad experiences of things being thrown at peoples' heads and it speaks measures that his first active kill is throwing a violin at Ned's head, when we know he had stones thrown at him and he recoiled from coconut wars for the same reason.

It's a delight seeing him go from being unable to climb a rope ladder to playing people at their own game, turning things on their head and unexpectedly getting wins against people who didn't see it coming.

#ofmd #ofmd meta #stede bonnet

[weirdly-specific-but-ok]

pt II our flag means death but I've never watched it

HELLO OFMD FANDOM! It's the Good Omens Mascot and Resident Dumbass, back again for part II. First, let's clear the air of all controversy!

Some of you lovely maggots were kind enough to warn me about certain discourse about a salad spoon and also about a certain gentleman named Izzy. I was warned not to make assumptions and not to take sides, and I hear some members had to leave the fandom for a while because it got toxic. Maggots. All the rest of you. Worry not about me. I'm here to unite the OFMD fandom! How, you ask? By being so undeniably stupid in my own opinions that you all will have to unite to disagree with me. You underestimate the power of my dumbassery. Well, let's not dilly dally and dawdle, here's the updated summary:

I have been informed there is cannibalism on this ship but it is not real. Someone pretends to eat someone and then their wife helps them fake their death while they run away from the ship though their lover wanted them to run to China.

There are BDSM lesbians, which is honestly such a slay, Pinterest has let me down by not informing me of that when I made Part I. I will no longer be using Pinterest a reliable source in future academic essays.

Mermaid Stede performs necromancy while a song called Kate Bush plays (I don't know who this is, a politician? Idk whether of US or UK).

Gravy Basket is a destination and Buttons is a sea witch and there is educational stabbing. Buttons is then a bird because of the BDSM lesbians.

There is a lady who is extremely beautiful and intimidating and powerful and she has twenty husbands and I assumed incorrectly that you were all talking about a Jack Russel terrier.

Let's start with the controversy! Izzy. Secondary protagonist or antagonist? Good or bad? Kindly father figure or homoerotically charged friend? Necessary death or not? No no no. Behold:

I present a new question, a hot take sizzling from the pan: Did Izzy really exist?

Personally, I firmly believe that no, he did not. I believe that the rum on the ship was spiked with hallucinogens.

Izzy was simply the manifestation of Ed's Freudian subconscious, taking the shape of a human being, vaguely resembling a humanoid potato Ed was forced to boil as a kid. I was a psychology student with a final grade of 99% and I accept only destructive criticism on my posts thank you. Feel free to discuss whether he boiled the potato in a fit of rage or whether he was forced to.

There are assorted Ned's, Mary's and an uncertain number of Jeff's on ship.

One of the Jeff's is an accountant, and there is a nonbinary talking sword named Jim. Actually I'm not sure if they talk.

Love you all, rooting for the show to be renewed.

REMINDERS. Be polite to each other in the reblogs, on tumblr reblogs spread posts and not likes (which don't do anything for visibility) unlike other social media sites, but MOST IMPORTANTLY.

I ACCEPT ONLY DESTRUCTIVE CRITICISM, THIS BLOG IS A GODLESS, LAWLESS LAND, AND ALL RAGE AT EACH OTHER MUST BE REDIRECTED AT ME. UNDERSTOOD? YAY.

#good omens mascot #weirdly specific but ok #asmi #maggots #lgbtqia #renew as a crew #adopt ofmd #ofmd #ofmd fandom #pirate omens #our flag means gay #our flag means death #omfd summary #omfd izzy #izzy hands #ofmd meta #ofmd discourse #spanish jackie #stede bonnet #blackbeard #ed x stede #blackbonnet #gentlebeard

[merrymorningofmay]

ofmd?... "premature end"??....... ofmd???.........

#if anything i'm surprised stopping at s2 wasn't the plan all along??? like??? #the finale was all so neat and tied up in a little bow. it really doesn't need anything More why would you (as writers) even want that #idk i. i'd rather have a shorter show that tells me a concise story and knows where to leave off than a bigger faster stronger ContentTM #even if i love the characters and the style and the jokes etc #like i get why people are sad and i sympathise i really do but..... ehhhh.... #mari rambles #also stylised history works best on a small scale i think. or at least limiting your scope is the safer way to go about it #like that “you imperialists are bad and we pirates are good” speech was already a bit of a strain on my suspension of disbelief personally #key words A Little Bit it was a good speech and it worked well in the context of yk A Finale and fit lovely for izzy specifically etc #but i really don't think bringing the british empire and the broader historical situation into this any more would've helped #and this was never an episodic procedural type of show with no upscaling or stakes-raising needed soo. yea

[cuculine-nelipot]

One way in which OFMD exceeded expectations this season is the emphasis they placed on the need for personal growth, especially in the pursuit of relationships - all relationships, not just romantic . Buttons laid it all out for Ed, and then turned into a bird just to prove that it is possible if you believe enough. They repeatedly drew attention to Ed's and Stede's flaws, and why they need to work on them in order to become better people not only for each other, but for everyone around them

Lucius told Stede that he was selfish and self-centred, that despite his self-proclaimed love, respect, and kindness, his actions made him anything but. He and the other crew members told him that he was wilfully ignoring reality so that he could believe in the fantasy of Ed/Blackbeard that he had constructed for himself. These are all things that prevent him from being both the captain and the romantic partner he wants to be. The main thing he needs to do to change is listen actively. This has been true since season 1, when we saw him refusing to engage in an honest dialogue with Mary, and several times when he ignored his crew. However, throughout season 2 he is given ample opportunities to listen, to grow as a person, to become a better leader and partner, but he doesn't. At all. He tells Lucius that he can talk to him about his bad experiences, only to quickly tell him that it's too much, talk to Pete instead. He lets the crew vote as to whether Ed should be allowed to stay, only to invite him back shortly after they decide against. After much arguing, he begrudgingly accepts that the crew believes his red suit is cursed, but he does not get rid of the shirt. He agrees when Ed tells him that he needs their relationship to progress slowly, only to initiate sex with him soon after. When Ed expresses his anger about that, he does not understand, and he does not take responsibility. He murders Ned Low even though he knows how desperate Ed is to leave violence behind. In the final episode when everyone tells him that his plan is terrible, he does not listen and insists that they do it anyway, and Izzy dies because of it. He does not take responsibility for that either. In fact, throughout the season he happily comments on the fact that despite his staggering incompetence, things always seem to work out for him specifically, not acknowledging that the same is not true for anyone else. He has remained just as self-centred and self-serving as he was in the very beginning.

Ed too experiences a similar state of arrested development. His core motivation is still to be a different person, and like in the first season he swings from one persona to the next, never reconciling the disparate parts of himself. The closet he gets to reckoning with himself is when he admits that he does not think he is worthy or capable of being loved, but that he wishes he was. However after being "reborn" every attempt he makes to that end is at best superficial and half-hearted. When he addresses the crew he does not say he's sorry, and the only thing he does that could be framed as an attempt at reparations is when he gives them money to throw themselves a party. At that same party he (at Stede's encouragement) congratulates himself for dispelling the poison, disregarding the fact that it was the crew's idea, and the crew who put all the effort into it.

Like in season 1, each of his personas comes with a costume change. There's the kohl smeared face of the Kraken, the cleaner crisper Blackbeard, and the neutrals of Ed - a blank canvas. He does not know who Ed is yet, and he is prevented from finding out by his unwillingness to accept that he is the Kraken and Blackbeard, to sit alone with himself. Fang points this out to him, but instead of anything meaningful coming from it, we get two separate scenes of Ed thinking about being quiet, about being present. Just for a laugh. Because, like with Stede, it's funnier (apparently) for him to stay exactly the way he is.

So he does not grow, because despite the writers putting him in positions to do so, their idea of comedy is for him not to. His brief stint as a fisherman is shockingly reminiscent of the end of season 1, where he's so focused on being zen and chill and being a totally new person that he neglects the basic functions of his job. Unlike then, he does not have the excuse of being burnt out. There is no commentary on toxic masculinity here. It was just 'funnier' to show him being incompetent, and apparently the only way the writers could think to get him back to the main narrative. By which, of course, I mean Stede. Because despite it's ensemble cast and the seamlessly integrated character-driven storylines on season 1, this is the Stede Bonnet show, right?

In spite of his very real, and understandable frustration with Stede a) initiating sex despite his explicitly saying he wasn't ready and b) killing Ned Low right when he was trying to leave violence behind, he makes a beeline for him. He rows back to the Republic of Pirates, sees it on fire, and immediately thinks of Stede. Not the crew (because despite Izzy's quite frankly insane last words he has not done anything to build a relationship with them) and not either of the two men he's sailed with for years. Only Stede. For Stede all of his development (as little as it was) is undone. He kills some naval officers despite his previously established desire to avoid violence. he dives to retrieve his Blackbeard outfit, simultaneously completely undermining the significance of him tossing them in the first place, and of his swimming upward towards a new life.

In season 1 he left Blackbeard for Stede and in season 2 he reclaims him for the same reason. But that's not growth. That's not character development. In both instances he is simply being reinvented in the context someone else. He pursues Stede simply because Stede enables him to imagine that he is a different person, he becomes the version of himself that exists in Stede's mind. If this were real life, it would be an extremely unhealthy way to live. In terms of fictional media, it's just lazy writing. Putting him next to Stede is the easiest, least meaningful way for Ed to change. Despite insights into his interiority, he is not being written as a character with agency.

This becomes especially obvious when we look at Izzy's dying words, and at David Jenkins own thoughts about their relationship. Jenkins says that Izzy fed Edward poison and ended up eating it too. Izzy says that he fed Edward darkness because he needed Blackbeard. There is exactly one instance where this is true. That one instance does not in anyway serve as evidence that Izzy was responsible for every violent thing Ed had ever done. Izzy was not responsible for Ed killing his dad, Izzy was not responsible for the joy Ed admitted he took in maiming people, and it certainly does not in anyway justify the violence Ed enacted on him. That one instance also does not change the fact that Ed very clearly had all the power in his and Izzy's relationship. He ignores Izzy continuously. His reaction to Izzy's anger is violence - he chokes him, he maims him. Izzy has no power. Ed chose violence - for a myriad of complex reasons, yes, but it was his choice. But the writers are framing it so that Ed is simply a puppet - he can either be filled with "Izzy's" poison, or Stede's "goodness." He has no agency, because it's too hard. It's too complicated. It would be too much for Ed to be a complex, morally flawed character who grows and changes for the better, and it would be so hard to write him having his happy rom-com story. So it's better to just simplify all that complexity, right? Forget the trauma Ed endured, forget the trauma he inflicted, forget his depression and his mania. Izzy fed him poison. Izzy made him Blackbeard. Let's just leave it at that. Except that's not the story they wrote, is it. If Izzy made him Blackbeard, fed Blackbeard, wanted Blackbeard, needed Blackbeard, then why does he almost never call him Blackbeard? Consistently, since episode 2, it's a constant stream of "Edward", "Ed" and "Eddie" and we're supposed to believe it was Blackbeard he was after? Speaking of Izzy, his arc is the cruelest of all. And no, I'm not salty that he died. I am beyond disappointed that he died in the arms of his abuser, that his last act was to not only absolve his abuser of all responsibility, but to take it on as his own, and that David Jenkins seems to think that this is a good end to his story.

At this juncture it's important to say that Izzy Hands is very clearly a victim of abuse - physical and emotional. It has however become abundantly clear David Jenkins and many fans of the show do not see it that way. Why? Is it because he's a man? Because he does not act like some preconceived notion of an abuse victim acts? Because it's possible that he "brought him on himself"? Is it really possible for anyone to bring that level of violence on themselves? He experiences the most growth of this season, yes, but as we've established the bar is very low, and he was not given the chance to flourish like it first seems. He does not remove himself from the abusive situation. He is confronted about it, he lashes out in panic, and he is consoled, but he still cannot admit to it. That one moment of care allows him to distance himself from Edward - just a little bit. It allows him to stop enabling Ed, and to stand up for the crew. Not himself, the crew. He is just as selfless and as blind to his own needs as ever.

When Edward shoots him in the leg he screams for death. When Edward confronts him again, he surrenders to the fact that he is not loved, or wanted, and he tries to kill himself. He does not survive for himself, or of his own volition. He survives because the crew makes him survive - they try to hide him, they cut off his festering leg, they make him a wooden one, they allow him to lean on them (physically and implicitly emotionally) for support. He begins to heal, but he does not fully get there. He still loves Edward. We see it in his desperation to know what Ed told Stede about him. We see it in the way he approaches Ed, hoping for a moment of his time. He never reckons with the fact of his own abuse. He tells himself a shark took his leg. His dying act is to apologise to his abuser, to blame himself. He lets Edward go not for his own sake, but Edwards'. He lets go of Edward, and he says he wants to die, just like he did when Edward shot him, just like he did when Edward talked to him after that. He hasn't healed. While Ed's and Stede's fatal flaw is their selfishness, Izzy's has always been his selflessness, and that is still true. He still loves the man who hurt him beyond comprehension, he still gives his life - takes away his guilt and gives him the family he earned for himself - so that man can be happy without him. He literally dies for Edward's sins. He is denied the opportunity to ever live for himself. He was given the beginnings of healing, a home and, a family; one party and a swan song.

#ofmd #our flag means death #ofmd spoilers #Izzy Hands #Edward Teach #Stede Bonnet #tw sui ideation #this post is much longer than I thought it would be whoops