*laughs nervously* Izzy? Dead and gone for good? Naaaah, of course not, he’s just in the gravy basket…or on his way to get sea witch necromancied back by seagull Buttons. He’s ok, he’ll be back…he’ll totally be back 🥲.
Yeah!!! S3 trailer by @cliopadra !!🤣 so glad to see their art again!!
Dunno if this helps, but...
@cliopadra aha, here it is, didn't even have to go looking, thank you @thepersianslipper !
Well then.
After that, I’m no longer an OFMD fan. That was cheap and terrible. Don’t expect any fanart from me for that ever again.
Nvm, maybe I’ll make a few denial fanarts.
well, there is a tweet from david jenkins making the rounds that should be a lot of consolation. lemme find where i rb it and tag you.
*laughs nervously* Izzy? Dead and gone for good? Naaaah, of course not, he’s just in the gravy basket…or on his way to get sea witch necromancied back by seagull Buttons. He’s ok, he’ll be back…he’ll totally be back 🥲.
I am seeing some garbage takes out there so quick reminder:
Izzy himself doesn't hold a grudge for what happened to his leg because he fuelled the fire that took it.
Izzy knows he suffered the consequences of feeding the darkness and doubt and misery he saw in Ed.
If Stede's leaving led Ed to a cliff, Izzy was the friend who should have helped him and instead he shoved him over the edge and broke him. The man Ed has known longer than anyone in his life, his 'only family', severed the last hope Ed had that he was worth anything without 'Blackbeard'.
Izzy trained a shark to viciously kill... Blackbeard says you taught him everything he knows... tormented him in his weakest moment...This is Blackbeard, Not some namby pamby in a silk gown pining for his boyfriend...and then dangled his legs in the water. Naturally, the shark took his leg.
As Izzy says: 'Served me right, too'.
Which is why people being so furious on his behalf and acting like Ed is an abusive monster is to invalidate Izzy having any agency at all.
Do you also blame Ed for the murder of his father and think he's a bloodthirsty monster?
Or can you recognise that the cycle of abuse and violence corrupted and traumatized him and that his father shares a portion of the blame for his own death?
Perhaps it's more cut and dried in that scenario because people haven't imprinted on Ed's father?
Izzy is not blameless in the loss of his leg and he would be the first to tell you that. He is a complex human who has made mistakes and his whole arc this season was about him reconciling, owning his mistakes and being his true authentic self anyway. And he did it. Fuck yeah.
"BUT ED NEVER APOLOGISED".
Izzy wouldn't have accepted it if he had.
Ed said 'Sorry about your leg', knowing Izzy wouldn't accept a larger apology. His response was to 'fuck off' as it is. Izzy Hands will never accept a full apology or genuine word of kindness and he shut down Ed's attempts because he didn't want or need it.
Izzy's last act on the planet was to let Ed know he's sorry for breaking him. For feeding him to the darkness so he could have 'Blackbeard' to give him his purpose in life when really, Ed had needed a friend. He apologized to remind Ed that he is loveable just as he is. He wants to undo the damage he did.
To love a character is to respect his right to be a fuck-up and own his mistakes. And to let him learn to accept himself despite those mistakes.
This season made me love Izzy. And I am sad he's dead. And I love that he got to redeem himself, find family and a sense of belonging and help Ed heal when he couldn't always help himself to.
You can feel how you want to feel about the ending.
But to sit back and blast creatives for 'Doing it wrong' because you can't process your emotions without projecting it onto others?
Izzy would be disappointed in you, the same way he was disappointed in Stede for picking a fight with Zheng instead of handling his emotions about losing Ed.
"Oh Bonnet, no..."
Stede's line in the finale about having been a failure his whole life? That's the culmination of the arc they set up for him in season one.
I do wish they'd had the time to spend on a more explicit beat where Stede tells Ed that he's happy to give up on the pirate life so that they can be together, but imo that line is it.
Because of the speed at which everything happened, so much of this season was told more on a thematic level. Beats and arcs being written and completed through metaphor, through mirrors of things in season 1, through putting in an offhand line or cutting two scenes together and trusting that we'll see it, that we'll notice.
When Stede says he's been a failure his whole life, it's not so bad once you get used to it, that's the show telling us that he doesn't need to be a proper pirate to be a good man. He isn't Ricky, who took his failure as proof that he needed to return to-- and win-- inside of the society that had always rejected him, and as a result will only ever be a little wooden boy. And he isn't the man he imagined himself to be at the beginning of the season, all swashbuckling and suave. Zheng tells him he's a real good pirate and asks him to join her in her quest for revenge and, just like Jim does in season one, both he and Ed decide: no. They don't have to. They can try something different. It always comes back to the joke from the first episode: "what if it wasn't like that?"
It's possible (likely, even) that they'll be called back for "one last big job" in season 3 if we get one, but what the ending of this season tells us is the same thing it's been telling us all along: it doesn't have to end that way.
This is a show about failure. About failing and dealing with the consequences, failing and trying something else. Failing to be the thing you thought you had to be and, in doing so, allowing yourself to be whatever it is you actually are.
I've written about the mermaid scene before and I still stand by that analysis but I think another way we can read it metaphorically is as a mix of two things. Ed isn't a Kracken and Stede isn't a Proper Pirate. They're mermen. They've met each other in the middle and become something entirely new.
oooh. season 3 will be the pirate version of fawlty towers. gotcha
whatever the fate of a certain guy on thursday can we please not be shitty about the writers or the future of the show
i’ve seen a lot of ‘if ___ happens i’ll never forgive the writers’ and ‘if ___ happens they don’t deserve to get s3’
but the fact that people feel so strongly about it means that the show has done an incredible job of making folks give a shit about the characters. we’re all spending significant amounts of our free time on the fandom website talking about the show. ofmd has had an absolutely enormous impact on an absolutely enormous amount of people including the folks who have contributed to making it. even if you jump ship after s2 the time you spent enjoying it has not been wasted
it’s absolutely fine to have feelings about how things go but please don’t channel this into personal attacks on the writers or yelling about how the show should get cancelled
anyway i’m tapping the sign. the writers don’t want or need to be tagged in your rants about how you’ll never watch the show again. they are human beings who did their job so well that they created a character that you are genuinely mourning
One of the joys of watching season 2 of Our Flag Means Death is discovering the visual parallels with season 1 that add so much meaning and richness to the story. With affecting, extraordinary economy of visual storytelling, we can see the progression of Ed’s journey from choosing armor in season 1, episode 10 – Wherever You Go, There You Are, to choosing authenticity in season 2, episode 7 – Man on Fire.
[I have to point out the gorgeous cinematography here. Panning down on the left, panning up on the right. The clear resolve of S2 E7 Ed turning to ascend to the deck. I also love the timing of both shots. S2 E7 Ed is turning toward the red silk that S1 E10 Ed will release.]
S1 E10 Ed considers the red silk. The symbol of his tenderness, softness, and vulnerability.
S2 E7 Ed hoists his leathers and his firearm - his literal and symbolic armor and protection - to the edge of the deck.
S1 E10 Ed releases his tenderness, softness, and vulnerability to the sea.
S2 E7 Ed releases his armor and protection to the sea.
S1 E10 Ed throws the person who understands what he’s going through and is in a position to help him work through it in a healthy way, into the sea.
S2 E7 Ed makes breakfast-in-bed for the person with whom he shares emotional and physical intimacy. An act of care and service that strengthens his bond with Stede.
Show, don't tell doesn't seem adequate to describe these two sequences. They are masterful and say so, so much.
The double-edged sword of self-awareness
You’ve really got to give it to Ed. He’s making huge progress. Making a better choice for himself. Moving forward.
Change can be terrifying. For Ed to release that which protected him for decades is, well… it’s courageous and demonstrates hard-won self-awareness and integrity.
Of course, choosing to be authentic to yourself doesn’t translate into automatic relationship building. Understanding and communicating with other people, particularly the person you are in love with, is a different skill set. It is also true that, once you know that you can’t perform a persona to please other people, no matter how much you love them, you risk losing them.
Ed in the second frame, above, kills me. He knows that piracy might be the wedge that drives Stede and him apart. He is trying to share how he feels. But Stede is so enamored with finally being a successful pirate (and glowing from the best (and only) love-sex of his life) that he can't hear Ed.
I love that OFMD takes no shortcuts in matters of the heart. If these lads are going to be together for reals, they are going to have to work for it, and there is still much work to be done.
I'm looking forward to likely being simultaneously emotionally fulfilled and devastated by the season 2 finale in about 30 hours.
This meta was written before OFMD season 2 has fully aired. No idea what’s going to happen in the finale (and I’ve generally fled social media to avoid spoilers). I’ll be back, looking at everyone’s fascinating posts after episode 8 airs.
cant stop thinking abt your take that nothing stede said would've stopped Ed leaving because yeah you know what... he literally did say 'this can be whatever you want' didn't he. he's so gentle and conciliatory he makes so much space he HAS ed's whole number when he says 'you're panicking' and 'it's not about fishing' it's such a tender and insightful response to hearing 'it was a mistake' and for what. no wonder he immediately gave up on being sensible & emotionally intelligent forever
yeah!!! i was really impressed with stede in that scene actually! i'd seen some sort of temporary breakup coming but honestly i thought it would be at least 50% stede's fault, i figured ed would propose retiring together and stede would say something stupid in response and THEN it would all blow up. but actually stede gets hit in the face with incredibly upsetting news with zero warning and a completely nonsensical explanation and handles it really well! "this can be whatever we want it to be" is a very kind response to something that must have been deeply painful to hear, and then when ed does not respond to the offer to renegotiate the relationship (because he really doesn't WANT to give stede a chance to talk him down) and instead throws a bunch of other issues out, stede correctly intuits that he's actually just panicking about something he won't talk about - which is some really nice followup on the beats from 2x03 about how stede actually understands ed on a very deep level. and then ed hits him with "i'm breaking up with you and it's about fishing somehow." i don't think ed was even genuinely offended about stede insulting the fish (although he probably thought he was in the moment): he WANTED stede to say something out of line to him so he could feel more justified in leaving. he would have seized on SOMETHING stede said and taken offense at it no matter how the conversation went.
and i want to be clear i'm not mad at ed here either! he is being unreasonable but he's coming from a really understandable place! there is just no way he can talk about what his issue actually is without making himself absolutely terrifyingly emotionally vulnerable, like, WAY more than in a normal relationship fight, and look what happened when he made himself vulnerable with stede before. he's not going to say "hey listen i have been frighteningly in love with you since a couple days after we met and when you left it hurt so bad i literally almost died of it and also we've never really talked about the thing where i'm a patricidal monster so you can't possibly actually love me and obviously you're going to abandon me again sometime and when i think about that i get so panicky and overwhelmed i just can't do this." nobody would say that! it would feel incredibly pathetic! i get where he's coming from! and i think he's also doing the thing where he's panicking so hard and ruminating about it all so much that he's halfway convinced even inside his own brain that it's actually about fishing somehow.
this is one of the things i love most about ofmd's writing, a lot of tv shows have character conflicts based in miscommunication and usually it's contrived and frustrating for the audience because the characters just aren't saying what they need to say for no reason except to artificially prolong the conflict that's driving the plot. ofmd has a lot of miscommunication-based conflict but it's always this thing where the miscommunication is so intensely painfully grounded in their characterization that it would be wildly unrealistic for them to say anything else.
One of my favorite things about Stede and Ed's relationship is they never try to control each other. It's such a popular and uncomfortable trope in romances (and the way we talk about relationships in real life, even) that one partner won't ""let"" the other do things.
And that never happens with Stede and Ed; from the start we see them as an equal partnership. They're not always good at communicating their needs and wants, but they never deny each other the ability to make their own choices.
In s1e6, Ed advises Stede against the duel with Izzy, and he's obviously devastated when he thinks Izzy kills Stede. But he doesn't deny Stede that agency. In s2e4, when they're still on rocky ground with each other, Stede never powers through a love confession when Ed makes it clear he's not ready to hear it and never tries to force Ed to listen to him or come back to the ship. In s2e6 with Ned Low, Ed tells Stede he shouldn't kill Ned because Ned wasn't worth the pain that would cause Stede, but he also doesn't try to stop him from doing it. And even though Ed is disappointed that Stede killed Ned, afterwards, his immediate focus is on comforting Stede, not in being mad at him or trying to pull a "told-you-so."
It's really nice, and gives me a lot of confidence in how their relationship will progress, because the writers have been so intentional about giving them such a solid foundation to build on. It's like Lucius said about his relationship with Pete: "we don't own each other."
it is so important that Ed wanted to live before he heard Stede's voice. It is so, so, so important that Ed had to be pushed instead of jump, that Ed struggled with the ropes, that Ed found his own desire to live even before he heard Stede's voice, because Stede gave Ed the strength to make it back, but Ed wanted to live, and Ed saved himself, and valued himself.
You can't live solely for other people and it is so important that they made sure we know that it's not just that Stede wants Ed to live, it's that Ed wants Ed to live.
