Am I in mourning? And also in denial? Yes. Do I also think David Jenkins tried his best to solve this in 2 months and it didn't happen (because HBO needs to rot in hell)? And that he didn't want people to spend any more time, resources and mental health on something that could take (many many months) a lot of time? Also yes. And, most importantly, do I think Our flag means us? It does. Our flag means us. It means this community, these people who managed to find hope and joy and solace in each other. Our flag means found family for those who had the misfortune of having blood relations they couldn't call by this name. Our flag means queer celebration, indigenous representation, creative ingenuity. It means the crew on the set of s02 doing wonders with their bare hands, budget cuts be damned. It means a handcrafted mermaid tail, a hand-made storm, eel bites, sword training, meticulous tattoos, "There he is", boyfriends, running on the beach, a bare-butt guy, a green-socked leg, a sammy in the face, people dressing up in British navy uniforms. It means everything. It means everything to me. It's my whole heart. So don't forget it in the days to come. Don't forget what was taken from us but also remember: Our flag will always mean us.

I literally still can't believe we got two men contemplating murder-suicide to the tune of symphony no 7

I don't think I will ever fully believe that it happened

regardless of everything else that happened with that show, the overton window for mainstream queer stories will never be the fucking same.

we ate. and stories in the future will run where ofmd walked.

it was also one of the most unabashedly homoerotic things I've EVER seen. 90s boys love, men's kink clubs, literally sleeping with men—none of it compares. these men created a life together, and now they're creating a death together.

Aren't you worried that another billboard will result in even more people harassing fans which will cause a significant decrease in people engaging with the fandom. I think you guys are shooting yourselves in the foot here in terms of morale and you should probably stop and just refund the money. I don't want an influx of people in my inbox again and I think that is the general consensus among fans. the first billboard was a pr nightmare the second one will have even more diminishing returns. Please if you are involved in the save ofmd crew reconsider your plans and if not reconsider shilling for them

Hi Anon! I appreciate you writing in! As I've mentioned in my previous post, I'm mostly here for supporting the renewal effort by spreading information. I realize it probably looks like because I'm forwarding information from saveofmd that I'm a decision maker. The SaveOFMD team does vote on various initiatives (for example I'm currently on a Taika Appreciation project, and helping suggest charities to support) so it's not just the billboard going on in there. They are one of the initiatives going on in the SaveOFMD Crew. To address your question:

"Aren't you worried that another billboard will result in even more people harassing fans which will cause a significant decrease in people engaging with the fandom"

To be honest, I'm not, but that's just me. If that's something you're concerned about, that's entirely valid. For me, what I've found is that, nothing I do online, in any fandom is going to be accepted by every person. I choose to continue discussing things with people who are willing to be positive, or at least have constructive and are willing to work through things (like I try to). The way that I like to look at it personally is, there are always going to be people who harass us. Being a queer woman, I've had that problem my whole life. What matters is how we as a fandom, or individual deals with it. If I go out on the street in mens clothes because they're comfortable, and I get made fun of by someone, or called a slur (which has happened many a time) does that mean I stop doing what I'm doing? For some people, they choose yes, for me, I don't. If someone is harassing you friend, 1. I would recommend looking for support in your other fans. 2. Block them if they aren't willing to compromise, or you don't have enough spoons to deal with them. No matter what we do, someone is not going to like us, that's just the way the world works.

In regards to:

"I think you guys are shooting yourselves in the foot here in terms of morale and you should probably stop and just refund the money."

I'm happy to pass on this suggestion to the billboard team (again, I'm on the server for other purposes so I don't usually get involved in that) but I'm more than happy to recommend it for you on your behalf.

In regards to:

"I don't want an influx of people in my inbox again and I think that is the general consensus among fans"

I 100% understand the want for not having your inbox flooded. Might I recommend you set some boundaries on your blog? (This is coming from a place of love, I promise I'm not being sarcastic). If you don't want people talking to you about this, or continuing to ask, I'd just recommend stating that in a pinned post (and/or turning anons off-- I've had to do this before to set a boundary) To the second part of your statement: "I think that is the general consensus among fans". I would have to respectfully disagree. I've heard much more excitement than I've heard hate regarding it (and I have heard some negative feedback for sure, but I'd say it's 10% concern and 90% for that I've run into), but perhaps I'm not following the right people (so it could be a bias on my part). If you'd like to send in another anon request and forward me to some places where I could find more people who are upset, I'd be more than happy to read through to see what the concerns are.

I try to be sort of a liaison between the fandom and the various renewal efforts going on (including save ofmd crew), so I'm more than happy to pass on information and provide the concerns to people who are headlining that particular initiative.

In regards to:

"the first billboard was a pr nightmare the second one will have even more diminishing returns."

Can you please provide me with a little more information regarding this? From what I saw in every platform online, the billboard was a PR success in terms of getting noticed by studios and media. There was some backlash among fans / other efforts around the world that thought "the billboard was a waste of money" but the specific purpose was to raise awareness and did get us (the fandom) recommendations from David Jenkins on where to focus efforts. And that's not to say that bad PR didn't happen. Specifically I know a lot of people were upset because "why pay for a billboard when you can help palestine". I will continue to repeat myself in this particular situation because I think it's important. 1. We are allowed to have things we love (everyone in the world is) 2. We are allowed to fight for those things if we feel the need/ability to do so. 3. Just because a fan supports a billboard, doesn't mean they aren't supporting Palestine, or any other efforts going on around the world. 3.5: Many of us don't show what we donate to for privacy reasons, and because we don't feel the need. The purpose of donating to Palestine for example is very different than the purpose of donating to a billboard (the billboard is meant to get attention) and Palestine is too, but my/anyones donating to help people in Palestine doesn't get attention because the attention is already there. The problem is in the leadership in all our countries literally not doing anything to stop the genocide happening there, despite constant reminders. --- BUT THATS A DIFFERENT STORY FOR ANOTHER DAY. 4. We are allowed to have silly little things that make us happy because otherwise life isn't worth living. <TW: Death/Trauma>: I grew up in VA during 9/11 the DC sniper all within my high school years (and one of my friends parents were murdered by the dc sniper). </end TW: Death/Trauma> I say this not for pity, but to point out that I've lived through enough trauma in my life, and gone through enough to know I have to have my silly little things in my life that make me smile, and WE ALL NEED THOSE for our mental health. If someone else doesn't like that, that's their problem, not ours. Please don't let their inability to cope affect your ability to do so.

"Please if you are involved in the save ofmd crew reconsider your plans and if not reconsider shilling for them"

I made a post earlier tonight regarding this situation. Here's the post so I don't have to repeat it again (and other people dont have to read it again here!) Just like any fundraiser, or watch party, or really anything in this fandom, if people choose to be a part of something, that doesn't mean you or anyone else has to. There are people who put money towards cameos, and I know some people think that's wasteful, but that's not up to them, it's up to the people who want to put in for cameos. I'm not a huge fan of EdIzzy fanart (I know, gasp) but if I see it on my tumblr I just scroll through it. I don't tell people not to make it, or make them uncomfortable for doing it. If I may, I would suggest, since the billboard is something that you dont support (and anyone who feels this way)-- 1. feel free to provide feedback, which you have, and I'll forward that on for you, and then 2. move forward and scroll past. The Save OFMD Crew, just like anyone asking for people to join on cameos isn't demanding you help, it's offering it in case you want to join in-- the answer to that can totally be, "No".

Alright anon, thank you again for the feedback. I appreciate you reaching out, and I'll bring these concerns up with the team in the A.M. (for me). Hope you have a good night and things end up being a little calmer for you in your inbox. To others: I will probably get more asks tonight (I already see the numbers going up in my inbox lol) but I'm gonna wait til tomorrow to answer them because I still have to finish the recap AND do another hour work (and its already 10 PM here) so if I don't get back to you tonight---please know it's not because I don't want to talk, it's just cause I'm running out of hours in the day :)

It's just Izzy being a literal 5yo. His toddler moments were more than expected (and that's not including all the middle fingers) 1. Toddler is having a NO YOU ARE contest at the playground 2. Toddler hates another toddler for no reason 3. Toddler states his name is not Buttface 4. Toddler does as he's told but he hates every second of it 5. Toddler secretly thinks every word he has just heard is bs 6. Toddler yells YOU KNOW NOTHING MOM 7. Toddler devastates another toddler with fake giggling 8. Toddler is a guilty cat 9. Toddler is sick of eating oatmeal 10. Toddler forgets how words work 11. Toddler defies his parents by putting his feet on the table 12. Toddler tries to think of a withering remark and arrives upon "scowly face"

Look, drugs are bad and you should say no and all that but counterpoint: what if it's Edward Teach flipping his hair like Rapunzel, shooting the most suggestive over-shoulder glance and saying "Want some?"

@ people who make Ed a "naur my soft widdle baby Eddie-pie just had trauma amd that's why he traumatised the crew and did all that fucked up shit 🥺🥺🥺"

Why do you refuse to have nuanced characters? Why deny him the sauce?

Happy Boyfriend Day to everyone except the people who immediately made it all about how much they hate Izzy

*smacks with newspaper*

What is wrong with you?

"The door opens a crack and the conversations can start again-" I'm crying rolling on my floor screaming because, YES, there was something of a promise of conversations starting again, of life starting again. And then- and then- AND THEN.

Ed and Izzy's relationship goes through profound changes between episodes 6 and 7 of season 2. At the beginning of episode 6, Izzy can't admit to approaching Ed on purpose and calls him a "mopey twat." Ed offers a terse apology while unable to even look Izzy in the eye. By mid episode 7, Ed accepts gentle ribbing without anger, and, more importantly, takes Izzy's advice to heart about listening to his feelings.

What happened? Not much time has passed. Yet, there has been a seismic shift.

At the beginning of episode 6, Ed's guilt is still ever-present. We see this in the flashbacks to killing his father, cutting off Izzy's toe. We see it in his response to the gilt/guilt room. He is trying to move forward and change but he is still plagued by these reminders of his violent past. He wants to make amends to Izzy but, "sorry about your leg," is all he can muster. Thinking too deeply about the Izzy's suffering and the role he plays in that is too painful, and has the potential to pull him back to a dark and dangerous place.

But Izzy has a breakthrough during Calypso's birthday. Moment by moment he has been healing, as he accepts the unicorn prosthesis from the crew, as he whittles a shark for Lucius. But when he looks in the mirror with Wee John and sees the possibility of who he can be, unencumbered by the toxic masculinity that ran his life for so long, he is able to move forward. The crew envelops him in love when he reveals this side of himself and serenades them with "La Vie En Rose." Like so many moments in this show, it is an example of the healing power of art.

When Ed sees the changes in Izzy, sees that Izzy might actually be okay, he is able to set aside some of his guilt that made it impossible for them to interact earlier. The door opens a crack and the conversations can start again.

I'm done playing the lawyer when it comes to Izzy, he doesn't need it. Instead I'm just going to be saying things like look at this cutie-booty-patootie, don't you want to just wrap him in a lavender blanket and sprinkle glitter all over his face and bathe in his voice? Yes, the only viable answer is yes.

That is SO on point, like there is so much implied past in this scene? Where Izzy is exasperated with Ed's self-destructive behavior to the point where he is just numb and like....he doesn't even know what to do anymore, he thinks offering him more raids and treasure and things to plan will work but here they are, talking about death again. How about another raid, boss? how about another fuckery? No thanks, I'd rather die. They are so bad at feelings, I'm crying. Also there's not only a hint of Hook but also of Peter Pan in this (To die will be an awfully big adventure)

can we just talk real quick about how when Ed was telling Izzy "Ooh, now there's an idea, I haven't done that (died) yet." he pulls out his fucking knife

which he then is holding out-of-shot as he says "Haven't died yet, have I? Maybe we should try that."

✨caution! Izzy rant ahead✨ Every time I see posts villainizing Izzy I'm kind of baffled. I know i should have gotten over it by now but making Izzy the villain is kind of missing the heart of the whole story? "Oh no, Gentlebeard is the heart of the story-" It's a story about found family. About dysfunctional people. People who err and fail and make horrible decisions and overcome their traumas. I know that's not lost on the fandom when it comes to Ed, not one little bit. He's all cute and bored when we meet him, right? Not the man who sets ships alight anymore, with all the people in them? Not a psychopat, just a tired little boo who's ready to shake off Blackbeard's mantle? And it's great that he's ready. People get there. But what I get from many posts is that it's fine for Ed to get there when he's ready but Izzy had to follow him straight away into the land of the mentally healthy or fucking die. Only Izzy is just as dysfunctional as good old Ed if not more, and he's not ready, and nobody is asking him to be ready when they board the Revenge. The only person he feels close to in the world ignores him, Stede (understandably) offers him none of the talk-it-through treatment and the crew mocks him. All within reason, but when you have severe mental issues and trust issues and defense mechanisms your first instinct is not to open yourself up. It's to lock yourself down. Bite back at those who mock you. Attack those who disdain you. Destroy your chances of happiness, because you think you dont deserve it. Wrong approach? yes, god, yes, of course it is, but "wrong approach" is basically the title of every other episode in this show.

Now I know that many of you see maiming (not a one time thing either. continuous maiming) as a suitable payback for Izzy's deal with the English. (Maybe you don't even see what baffles me in that statement) "I fed your darkness. Blackbeard" has been quoted as a closing statement more times than I can count. Everybody can read into "I fed your darkness" as they please; I know how I read into it. I've been in love with people who's darkness I fed and they fed mine in return. And I'm not even going to point any fingers here, regardless of how disproportionally abusive that relationship was. It's a we thing, it's always a we thing. Darkness feeds on darkness. Izzy didn't create Blackbeard. Izzy didn't burn that fucking ship with all the people in it. We don't even know if Izzy met Ed before he was Blackbeard or not. It was most likely a "we" thing, where they built together upon an existing structure, a joint tower of darkness. Feeding the myth, throwing all of their insecurities in it, creating a monster. Forging a bond not with the touch of silk and gentle fingers but with whatever nightmares you can imagine. So Izzy playing doctor Frankenstein to Ed's Kraken is…it's wrong, it's simply wrong. Ed was not a corpse when they met. He was not a blank slate. He was probably already a mess of his own when the darkness-feeding started.

That turned out to be quite the rant but it's important for me to voice it. Izzy is far from blameless. Ed is far from blameless. A lot of other people in this show are technically far from blameless. But making a person who's a member of (the ofmd) family your villain? There are some straightforward villains in this show and then there are those who want to, crave to, strive to belong but have a hard time because they're so genuinely flawed.

Does it ever give you chills? how hushed the Kraken era is? The utter calm of his silent commands. The seductive whisper of his threats. The silence of his anger. Taika: I have no range. My range is me. Meanwhile his range: a mercurial man who has been leading a very violent life but somehow still stayed innocent and has a craving for simple and beautiful things and just had his first heartbreak which made him very vulnerable and open, but then his defense mechanisms were triggered and he descended head-first into a swamp of madness where he let his darkness swallow him in the hope it will make him stronger-

Source (Season 2 - December 19th 2023)

sambaschutte: Calypso Dump 3: more pics of torturers, torturees and our lovely crew🪅🎊🏴‍☠️✨

The Kraken 101 starter pack: 1. Gear up. Building a mental breakdown starts from the outside in. Stop using mirrors: you only need to feel how you look anyway. 2. Practice your Kraken voice. If you sound like you're dead on the outside, you'll very soon be dead on the inside 3. Stop using cutlery. Cutlery is even worse than mirrors. It's for normal people and you are not that. No food should touch your mouth if it's not impaled on a sword 4. Create a vibe in your room by not cleaning it. 5. That way when you do clean it it will scare the shit out of everybody. Start dusting and watch them cower in fear. 6. Don't forget the crazy eyes: the less you blink, the bigger the chance somebody will be crying by the end of this interaction 7. For the cherry on top: have a heart to heart with your closest friend, only instead of telling them they are important to you, tell them to murder you. Now that you're absolutely over the edge of batshit-krakenness you can start smiling again. 8. The world is your oyster! You're finally ready to do something absolutely outrageous like sail into a fucking storm. The perfect time to take a nap after all the hard work you've done.

This is it, their whole past in this two sentences. The quiet reassurance of it. I saw you. Because I care about you, because I'm looking out for you. Because I see things others don't, things you hide. You can't hide from me. You can't hide behind a fuckery or a facade. You can not get early enough for me to not follow you. You can not change enough for me to stop knowing you. Of course you saw me. I should have known. You were always the one who saw me and it made me feel safe, knowing that someone sees me. It kept me sane. There were things I didn't know how to say but I thought to myself: Izzy knows. There is nothing I can truly hide from him. There is longevity in those words. An implied pattern of What's happening now has happened before. Yes, things were terrible between them, maybe even beyond terrible but how many times Ed has done something with the quiet knowledge he doesn't have to inform Izzy because he knows? The good and the bad, the joyous and the terrible. Mercurial moods, plan changes, impulsive decisions. Izzy knew. They knew. They knew each other. Am I crying? Idk is the water wet? is the sky blue? Is Ed's quiet smile the most heartbreaking thing the world has witnessed?

Don't forget about the 8 stages of break-up. 1. Tragic couch-potato (resignation) 2. Extra-dramatic gossip girl (sharing) 3. Surprisingly well-dressed psychopath (anger) 4. One step away from playing the Joker (pure madness) 5. Darren Aronofsky audition (cathartic meltdown) 6. Imaginary Starbucks barista (conversation with your subconscious) 7. Cool bitch (ignoring your ex to their face) 8. Passive-aggressive Teddy bear (talking it through)

Don't crucify me, Blackbonnets, I want to talk about this ship for a second. So in season one we have this charmed feeling where everything is easy for Ed and Stede, right? It's cute, romantic, fluffy and it makes sense. Cue the Kraken. Look, I love the Kraken and I will defend the Kraken with my life but it took him all of 5 minutes to appear, and God did he appear with a vengeance. You can't just apologize your way out of a mess like this, no matter how many sexy cat collars you're wearing. Camping and fishing for a few days doesn't fix it either. He's in a better place now but Ed clearly has a lot of growing/figuring out to do still and the best way to do it isn't by being in a relationship - lest you start depending on the other person to be your only source of sanity.

(I'm being a total hypocrite now lol, I would probably let Izzy swoop in there but just. just belay that please)

And Stede is just learning how to be free. How to spread his wings. Be a pirate. Have admirers. Have all the fun he had dreamed of/and read about in his books. Doesn't he deserve the unbound experience, instead of being immediately dick-notized by Ed? I'm not saying they're not going to be endgame anyway - I'm saying that if we do get our s03 I hope these issues will be explored.

And regardless of everything I just said, look at the scenes they have together. Like I can't NOT enjoy them. I can't not invest my emotions in them. They are. so. beautiful. Such a testimony to the writing, directing, the whole crew. We need more of this. We need closure. We need this story finished.