the-widow-olivia

[the-widow-olivia]

ed’s hair accessories ♡

#this just broke me #ofmd gifs

[the-widow-olivia]

So I want to talk about Ed and Stede's first and second kisses, and the thing that makes the second kiss my all time favourite on screen kiss.

Their first kiss:

It's a sweet kiss. Ed approaches Stede quickly (he's nervous) pulls Stede to him a little. Their lips are mis-aligned slightly, Ed has no idea where to put his hands and Stede hasn't even moved forward enough to not strain his neck. They're both very unsure in this moment; this is not a movie ✨first kiss✨, this is a palms sweaty, heart jumping, noses bumping, oh god does he even like me kiss.

Before the second kiss:

The lead into the kiss is similar to the first; they're both nervous, Ed does a little shimmy and Stede looks away for a moment. It's still palms sweaty, heart jumping, but the question isn't there this time, it's a giddy anxiety not a worried one.

The kiss:

But when they come together? Just look at that, they are totally in sync, nerves evaporated, no awkward fumbling to find each others lips, or where to put their hands. They find each other with confidence. It is a beautiful kiss, super romantic, but also showcasing how perfect they are together.

#ofmd #i miss them

[the-widow-olivia]

If you were in OFMD who do you all think you'd be. No main characters, I'm talking the background characters. I'd be the guy at Spanish Jackie'z in s1e3 who after Stede says "the drinks are on us" and someone throws their drink on Lucius shouts "the drinks be on ye now!"

#I wanna be on one of the pirate crews or at least one of Jackie’s spouses #but I know in my heart I am one of the randos in the tavern in 1.10 listening to Stede’s stories about meeting Blackbeard

[the-widow-olivia]

s1 was stede's journey, s2 was ed's journey. s3 would have been a journey for the both of them together and navigating their lives as a unit. i will forever be angry

#ofmd #i miss them every day

[the-widow-olivia]

A single blurry BTS clip is like a whole tswift album coming out but for sad gays who like pirates

#ofmd #our flag means death #ofmd fandom #the only Taylor I care about is Gypsy Taylor

[the-widow-olivia]

ed buys a waffle machine and starts putting increasingly bizarre things in his waffles. it starts out normal: chocolate chips, chocolate syrup/powder to make chocolate waffles, blueberries. then mini m&ms (yeah I'm mini m&m posting who's gonna stop me??). perhaps even broken up kit kats and oreos. marmalade. miso soup mix. booze (sure why not? swapping out some of the water/oil for rum and seeing what happens). I can't think of anything else rn.

#ofmd #a good fandom imagines blorbos making waffles #a great fandom comes up with unhinged waffle recipes

[the-widow-olivia]

turns out the question 'what would ofmd look like as an animated movie?' can be answered with 'the little mermaid (1989)'

#ofmd #our flag means death #this show just reaches into my subconscious and feeds it candy I guess

[the-widow-olivia]

“We just fast tracked a Mulder and Scully relationship by consummating it in the first season” but make it season 2 (season 1 here)

#our flag means death #ofmd #x files #unhinged fandoms unite

[the-widow-olivia]

This is all just entirely and completely correct. AND I think the deliberate play between subtext and text is why there is an unhinged and prolific fandom around OFMD.

The culture around shipping is all about navigating the space between subtext and text. (Did those two characters share an extra long look at the end of that scene? Maybe you should write 10,000 words on it!) Even when a ship is canon, fans are often filling in the scenes, the emotions, the dialogue that is alluded to but not shown.

The more subtext that OFMD drags into text through the end of S1 and S2, the more it feels like the fan experience itself, where layers of meaning and emotion get added to the original story over time.

when people write about why ofmd is important to them usually they talk about representation, mostly, and why it's such a big deal, and why ofmd's approach to it is different from most other tv, even stuff with overt & obvious queer themes. in particular stede's arc through s1 tends to resonate deeply with queer people on a metaphorical level; most of us are not abandoning our kids to pursue a life of violent crime but nevertheless coming out, especially later in life, does tend to feel like you are throwing your entire perfectly nice life away and betraying everyone who's ever cared about you in order to do something stupid and ridiculous that's probably just going to get you killed, and yet it's what you have to do if you're going to live honestly as yourself. (and, i mean, for a lot of queer people that's less of an exaggeration than it sounds like, especially before VERY recently.)

so anyway that's all true and important but i'm not going to talk about it here because many many other people have already said it better, instead i am going to talk about something that really impresses me about season 1 of ofmd on a pure writing-craft level, which is how it handles the tone shift.

you're watching the first episode for the first time and it's this funny little workplace sitcom about pirates and it's enjoyable in its own right but you do not think for one second that it's ever going to make you sad, right? and you can proceed through seven or eight episodes continuing to think that, and then the last two hit and you suddenly experience like fifty different shrimp emotions you are absolutely not prepared for, and right as you are absorbing that it ends on a cliffhanger that is completely focused on the relationship you have just developed a bunch of entirely new feelings about.

i know this is the point where i got weird about the show, because i have this very distinct memory of watching the first nine episodes - yes, all nine, even after the kiss - and liking it a lot but in a basically normal kind of way. and then after the tenth i remember just sitting on the couch kind of stunned for a minute and then going outside to walk the dog and being unable to stop thinking about it and just feeling like i was going insane, which i guess i did because i am still here talking about it.

the weird thing about this is how much the shift doesn't feel jarring, though? like there's other media i can think of that goes through a dramatic tonal shift. anime does it more often than western tv for some reason; puella magi madoka magica and the original 1998 trigun anime both famously start out very light and happy-go-lucky and then proceed to break your heart. but those don't really feel like what ofmd's doing. in both of those cases it feels like a change in the story - a sudden one for madoka, more gradual for trigun. but with ofmd it feels more like the curtain is being pulled back to reveal what was always there.

when i rewatch season 1 of ofmd i always feel sort of like i am watching two narratives at once. the first one is the surface-level story, which is a goofy sort of adventure-comedy about a silly frilly rich man and his absurd guybrush threepwood quest to become a mighty pirate. and then buried underneath it, the entire time, is this much more earnest and heartfelt story about queer self-discovery and romantic melodrama.

in the first episode that subtext is buried so deep i don't think anyone would see it if you didn't know it was coming, it lives mostly in the image of a little boy bullied for liking flowers and derided by his father for his inability to do "a man's work." but it's there, this dark space at the center of the story that no one's allowed to name, a silhouette you can barely make out lurking under the water, and for the rest of the season it gradually, relentlessly draws closer and closer to the surface: not all beards are beards and then jim's reveal to the crew then i was just uncomfortable in a married state then you want to do something weird? then we don't own each other then you wear fine things well then take your sword and run me through then this is happening.

and then calico jack says you two buggering each other?

and that's the subtext kicking the door down, that's the thing nobody was willing to say out loud before that point. izzy thought they were already fucking and lucius thought they should be fucking but neither of them would say it, but jack didn't know the rules, now he's said it and you can't put the genie back in the bottle, the subtext has become text, after that you get the chain and what makes ed happy is you and pining for his boyfriend (that's another word nobody was allowed to say out loud before this point!) and his name is ed.

this is a trick you can only do once; season 2 really could not possibly have repeated anything similar even under ideal circumstances, and in fact that's part of why the season opens on a scene you could see on the cover of a romance novel, to indicate that we're done with subtext and we're living in romance world now. (and despite this a lot of viewers seemed to buy into the surface-level story so completely that even after the way season 1 ended they're still confused by the shift; you can see this in several of the mainstream reviews of s2 that liked the season but sound genuinely baffled by stede suddenly appearing to care much more about pursuing true love than about his pirate ambitions. sorry guys the piracy was always a metaphor!)

anyway that's the thing i really admire about season 1; it's so carefully constructed around that one elegant trick, and i don't know if i will ever be able to pull off anything like that in my own writing, but i think from here on out i will always be trying.

#ofmd #ofmd meta #god this is so accurate

[the-widow-olivia]

Saw that Rhys Darby was going to be in an episode of Night Court, and I got really concerned for any Night Court fans out there who have no idea that there is a flotilla of pirates about to descend on them.

So I made a helpful guide we can give to fans of other shows when OFMD cast members show up.

So your favorite TV show has cast an OFMD actor!

Hello! It's us, the friendly queer pirate crew, here to enjoy your television program alongside you. We don't bite (and even if we do, it usually sets off a hilarious chain of events that ends in a lovely wedding).

You may notice at some point during our time together that one or more OFMD fans will begin foaming at the mouth or melting into the floor as though they have no bones. This is perfectly normal, as all OFMD fans suffer from a severe form of brain rot previously only found in goats.

However, be warned, the following "normal" items may cause ferality in OFMD fans:

- Oranges (petrified or regular)

- The color teal

- The color purple

- The color black

- The color red

- Fuck it, all the colors. We own colors now.

- Goldfish

- Cats

- Seagulls

- Snakes

- Beanies

- Gloves

- Cake (can be combined with oranges)

- Garlic

- Soup

- Garlic soup

- Legs (pronounced "ligs")

- Eyes (“EYEEE!” however, will just make us laugh)

If an OFMD fan becomes a little too feral, you can soothe them by playing Gnossienne No. 5 and putting a blanket over their head until they calm down. Note: Results may vary if said fan is in “clowning” mode.

OFMD fans are a friendly bunch, but we are often socially anxious. Here are a few phrases you can practice at home if you want to befriend an OFMD fan:

“Wow, that Rhys Darby sure has nice legs.”

“That WJW with Con O’Neill got me right in the feels.”

“Our Flag Means Death deserves a third season and all the Emmys.”

Anyhoo, we’re delighted to be here enjoying TV with you, and you are all invited to Calypso’s next birthday. (BYO bathtub)

❤️

The Crew

#ofmd #our flag means death #ofmd fandom #save ofmd #rhys darby #Ofmd fans #ofmd brainrot #con o'neill #polite menacing until the end of time

[the-widow-olivia]

Happy Birthday, Mary Allamby Bonnet!

You would have loved contemporary art and no-fault divorce.

ofmd as text posts | part 10

#ofmd #our flag means death #ofmd memes #March 15 is her birthday it’s on the graves! #ofmd meme #mary allamby bonnet #I hope she celebrates with a girls weekend with the widows

[the-widow-olivia]

Can someone plz make them a wedding website for wedding week? With the whole story of their love and a gift registry and everything?

(Gift registry could even link to charity of choice and I think we would have takers!)

#ofmd #our flag means death #gentlebeard #ed and stede #ofmd fandom

[the-widow-olivia]

Every blessed second of OFMD is a “yes-and” from someone.

David said, “Stede’s gonna be a mermaid.” And Gypsy said, “Great! And he’s a goldfish.”

The writers said, “Never left.” And Taika said, “Great! And I’m gonna add a foot touch.”

Someone said yes to the nose jar.

Someone said yes to the double sandwich slap that broke Nathan.

Someone said yes to “La Vie en Rose.”

It’s no wonder the fans of this show are running around yes-and-ing each other with art and memes and fics and muppets.

Con is right - we all need to reach out for that yes, in every aspect of our creative lives. That’s when the cool shit happens.

#ofmd #our flag means death #ofmd fandom #save ofmd #fandom is my fandom #wee john wondays #crying over the creative process so hard rn

[the-widow-olivia]

I get that there are calls to stop streaming on Max right now, but, counterpoint:

Wouldn’t it be funny if David Zaslav had to hear about OFMD streaming numbers being through the roof every day for the rest of his (hopefully short) time at WBD?

Like no matter what he does, he’s haunted for the rest of his days by the Gentleman Pirate and his fearsome crew.

#our flag means death #ofmd #but also seriously I hope their entire empire crumbles into dust #HBO was over the moment they ruined Sesame Street

[the-widow-olivia]

Daydreaming about this to deal with the pain. Like to charge reblog to cast or whatever it is the kids say ❤️

#our flag means death #ofmd #don’t forget your numbers indeed

[the-widow-olivia]

Dealing with the cancellation trauma with a bit of fiction. My first entry into OFMD fanfic!

Part 1/4 of the story of Mary Read and Ed Teach’s friendship. Read if you enjoy fuckeries, hot beverages, lesbians finding everyone else insufferable while being insufferable, and musical anachronisms.

#ofmd #our flag means death #ofmd fanfic #our flag means gay #our flag means death fanfic

[the-widow-olivia]

there's this quote i've always loved from a play called "the history boys" where a teacher is talking to his student about the power of books (but it can also apply to all sorts of art imo). it goes like this:

the best moments in reading are when you come across something - a thought, a feeling, a way of looking at things - that you thought special, particular to you. and here it is, set down by someone else. a person you've never met. maybe even someone long dead. and it's as if a hand has come out and taken yours.

i can tell you with full confidence, while watching ofmd there have been several times where i have felt that hand. more so than with any other work of fiction, i have felt that hand. it gripped me tight, held on to me when i didn't even know i needed it, and even if this is the end no person or corporation can ever take that from me. and if you've felt that hand too (which i'm pretty sure a lot of you have) they can't take it from you either.

#ofmd #our flag means death #this is true not only of the show but also the incredible fan works