dancing-with-the-madmen - Tumblr blog

dancing-with-the-madmen · 1 year

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As some of you know, I set this up as a sub-blog on my wife's main blog (moku-youbi) because I originally didn't think I would have much to say (lol). After months of patience, my wife has finally asked if I wouldn't mind getting my own blog proper and stop cluttering up her feed with gay pirate brainrot. So from now on, you can find me at:

@adickaboutspoons

See you around, my v. dears!

#housekeeping

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dancing-with-the-madmen · 1 year

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throwing my hat in the ring and saying that my personal favorite reunion theory is a mirroring of ed & stede's first meeting, where Stede saves Ed's life/ends up in a situation where he is the caretaker

1. Satisfying narratively because role reversal/callback

2. Ed deserves to be taken care of and treated softly

3. He wakes up to Stede and isn't sure if Stede is really there (bonus angst if he heard about the fake death and thought he was dead + what if grieving Stede's "death" was the thing that caused him to be reckless enough to get injured/almost die?)

4. "We have to stop meeting like this"

5. Now is his very justified hurt and anger conflicted with relief & realizing all over again how much he loves Stede? And he cant run away from Stede because he is bedridden so What reaction does he let Stede see? There's a lot to unpack there, so multiple episodes of the angst we want without denying us the soft gay caretaking we also want

6. Great payoff for the journey Stede has been on of becoming more confident in who he is & capable of being who he wants to be

7. Stede is torn between "Ed you should rest" and "I know we need to talk"

8. Makes the conflict between Stede wants and what Ed needs even more pronounced

9. It's bittersweet because it's this huge gesture of love overshaowed by this huge hurt that hasn't been resolved

10. It's angst! It's hurt/comfort! It makes sense because their romance is already like if fanfic got a budget!

11. I just really like this idea ok

#oh for sure #it's my 100% fav too #bonus points if Ed calls out for Stede in his fevered delerium #or when his fever breaks and he sees stede mistaking him for one of his fever dreams and piteously moaning 'why must you keep haunting me?'#or something like that #ofmd #our flag means death

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dancing-with-the-madmen · 1 year

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I CAN'T BELIEVE NO ONE MADE IT ALREADY

#lol #what a beautiful armada #ofmd #our flag means death

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dancing-with-the-madmen · 1 year

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this is not really a criticism of my beloved blorbo stede bonnet, i don't really think he should have done this specific thing any differently, but it is extremely funny that he renounced all his wealth thinking he still had a home and what amounts to a small business to return to and he's immediately going to find himself in a situation where he has to figure out how to get money to eat

#for reals #giving up his wealth was 100% the right call #but Stede has some HARD life lessons coming his way #ofmd #our flag means death

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dancing-with-the-madmen · 1 year

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In the interest of being intellectually honest, I have to make a "I was mistaken" post. I don't WANNA, but here it goes.

I've always been a vocal "count the full moons" proponent of trying to figure out how much time has passed in the show, even though I knew Word of God was that the full moon in ep 5 was an emotional reality kind of thing rather than a meteorological reality. If I'm perfectly honest, I liked the idea of two men who have gone most of their lives being closed-off from love taking their time and easing their way into their developing feelings after the immediate spark of their initial meeting and counting the moons leaves room for that. I also liked that it put Jack's time aboard the ship around Halloween because talk about your TRICK or treats.

But today I was re-watching ep 6 and Izzy, in his opening monologue, says they've been on the Revenge for "nearly a fortnight." A fortnight.

That means "Stab me" happens fewer than TWO fucking WEEKS after the Lighthouse.

Talk about 0 to 100. These boys have one speed, and that is Full Speed Ahead.

#ofmd #our flag means death

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dancing-with-the-madmen · 1 year

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I am gonna talk about the izcourse one more time today, but the villain of this post is not the Izzy stans nor Izzy himself. It's the anon. So this does not actually count towards breaking the promise I made this morning about taking a break for a couple days.

I know we occasionally poke this fucker by grading their anons or whatever and I know the Izzy Stan's are presumably having the time of their lives considering that he's not blocked yet on that side of Tumblr, but I'm gonna say something pretty uncomfortable for all of us alike. This anon sucks, they're racist and ableist and probably some other ists that they just haven't gone mask off about yet. They are suicide bating and they are waging a harassment campeign, but the fact that they're in the inboxes of literally everyone proves that this is not an ideological thing. It's just about making other people, and probably themselves, miserable.

We are baring witness to someone else's months long mental breakdown. I think it's one person because they say the same things over and over again in the same type face. If that is the case they're probably unemployed or young enough to not need a job yet given how much time to post they have, although one of my many sometimes nemeses on this sight has suggested they're in their thirties and they didn't dispute it. they're cyber stalking an ungodly number of blogs. And there's something going on with them that makes it such that their chosen pass time is sending Anon hate. What I'm saying is that if I had to guess how the Anon is doing I'd say this person is probably the farthest thing from mentally well that I've personally interacted with, and I'm a head case who works in a field where I occasionally have to assist in a mental health crisis. (I'm a head case and that is my job those two things are unrelated)

I'm not saying any of this to get you to go "oh poor Anon". They are still the villain of this post. Nor am I saying it to justify the harassment. I'm saying it because it should sort of change how we interact with them. I'm being very frank about what's going on here. Another uncomfortable thing about this whole situation is that this person is beyond any of our help. They are semi anonymous and even if they weren't you kind of have to know a person irl to get that sort of help for them. The best way to deal with this situation is in fact to freeze them out. I tried reason. Many others have tried dunking. None of it is working. After a certain point this may be a sort of mutualistic digital self harm for some people. (I goad you into saying hurtful things about me, I say hurtful things about you, we continue making each other feel like shit forever) we really do have to be the ones to cut them off. Their only goal is misery. Don't let them make you miserable.

I don't usually make a call for someone to be the bigger person, because I like to get down and dirty. But this is different. It's not about the show or the fandom. It's about a vortex of suffering that we're only making worse by getting sucked into. That's not a moral judgement on anyone who has interacted in good faith or bad with this anon. It's practical. Block, maybe look up what reporting an anonymous message does and if it does anything lmk if you feel so inclined. I'm not telling you to take it lying down, but we've all gotten our shots in at this point there's no point in dragging it out unless you're trying to maintain the image of being persecuted, which is not worth the suffering it causes on your end.

#Has the phrase 'don't feed the trolls' been lost to the mists of time?#'cos that used to be the standard fandom line when it came to interacting with people who were obvs arguing in bad faith #just starve them out #starve them of time - starve them of attention #they'll go away if you stop feeding them #I am a dinosaur get off my lawn etc.#ofmd #our flag means death

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dancing-with-the-madmen · 1 year

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hey weird question lol but do the people making posts like "fans need to accept that ed is a violent sadist who loves physical violence and stop ignoring all the violence he does on screen” realize that complaining abt fans portraying an indigenous character as not violent enough is a uh. kinda weird stance to take?? lol????

like as of right now it’s kinda up to interpretation how violent ed has been in the past and how genuine ed's sad little "maiming's different, love a good maim" is. personally, i think ed is capable of plenty of violence, but i think his alleged enjoyment of violence has less to do with him having sadistic tendencies and more with enjoying the frat-bro type of camaraderie that comes with engaging in a well-established culture of casual violence among pirates.

some people think ed is less violent than that. i personally disagree with interpretations of ed where he has a gooey innocent marshmallow center (even tho i do love to joke that he's done nothing wrong in his life ever) that's been hidden for years. that interpretation bothers me, but in that petty fandom way where i just roll my eyes and move on.

some people think ed is a cruel sadist who gleefully loves torturing innocents. i disagree with this interpretation, too, but unlike ed woobification this one makes me deeply uncomfortable. and i know i'm not the only person who feels that way. i'm not bothered in a petty fandom way, i'm bothered by the racial implications of interpreting an indigenous character as exceptionally and brutally violent.

and im even more bothered by the ppl who think the fandom's version of ed is not violent enough and make posts about that. like. that's a weird stance to take, and an even weirder one to make posts arguing abt. idk. i think mayyyybe people should take a step back and rethink that that one???

#ofmd #our flag means death

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dancing-with-the-madmen · 1 year

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Imagine Stede being confident enough to initiate sex for the first time and going way overboard. Lights, music, candles.

#the cabin absolutely BURSTING with roses #just. SO. many flowers #like enough to trigger a hay fever sneezing fit #petals sprinkled all over the bed - all over the floor - just EVERYWHERE #and they will be finding them EVERYWHERE on their bodies and on the soles of their shoes and such for just weeks after #so many candles that the room is actually kind of uncomfortably warm #ofmd #our flag means death

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dancing-with-the-madmen · 1 year

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You know, as much as the final Ed scene hurts me, I gotta applaud rhys and taika for like. Actually crying. No single tear bullshit and hiccups. No we got both the screaming outbursts and face-scrunch sobbing

#FEEEEELINGS!#ofmd #our flag means death

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dancing-with-the-madmen · 1 year

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The face Taika will make when Ed hears Stede describe how he didn’t think Ed cared that much about him will create a new emotion in the human language

#ofmd #our flag means death

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dancing-with-the-madmen · 1 year

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manifesting that everyone on the revenge gets unbelievably, unabashedly, and uncontrollably slutty in season 2 😌❤️

#ofmd #our flag means death

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dancing-with-the-madmen · 1 year

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David Fane and Samba Schutte being adorable

#I am having very respectful thoughts about david fane's lap #ofmd #our flag means death

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dancing-with-the-madmen · 1 year

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This is the “I’M VERY ENTHUSIASTIC AND ABSOLUTELY YOUR FRIEND” face of a man who was very nearly murdered by this band of idiots, and only saved by the unexpected return of his fearsome and terrifying boss. Only his fearsome terrifying boss, aka his guarantee that he is safe and not about to get thrown into the sea tied to an anchor, is currently having a complete emotional breakdown and he can’t let these twats know it, because if they know his boss - who they are scared of - isn’t scary anymore, they might rethink the whole not-chucking-him-in-the-sea thing.

#a crew preparing for a talent show is a crew too busy to throw anyone overboard #just something to keep in mind IZZY #ofmd #our flag means death

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dancing-with-the-madmen · 1 year

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I'd just like to add that the picture shown when Stede says "Captain Kidd" is not Kidd at all, but a historical depiction of Stede Bonnet. Makes me think that maybe all the pictures (but maybe especially Stede's misidentified woodcut, and the Anne Bonny model used for Blackbeard) in the show are kind of a meta-narrative about how we really don't know these historical figures at all, just the stories that got built up around them.

Awesome catch about the burning ship detail over Ed's shoulder during the Kraken breakdown, though!

While I was busy writing one response, I realized this belonged in a whole separate post, so--

Y'all know we've got three separate illustrations of Blackbeard in the first season of OFMD, right?

You can see the tldr helpfully demonstrated in this three-panel remix comic from @asofterflag:

Figure 1. The three separate illustrations of Blackbeard seen so far, in chronological order from left to right. Also some text about sexy pirates.

Getting into the nitty-gritty: the first image is an extant depiction of Blackbeard with minimal editing (and is the one in Stede's book when he's talking to Frenchie):

Figures 2 and 3. Left: Blackbeard, as pictured by Benjamin Cole in the second edition of Charles Johnson's A General History of the Pyrates. Or so Wikipedia tells me. (Also, lol: six guns and a sword.) Right: Blackbeard, as shown opposite "Captain Kidd" in episode 3.

For reasons that I will expand on momentarily, I should also point out the following:

The background of the original image depicts three ships.

It moves too quickly to really clock, but we can be sure that at least one of the three ships is also depicted in the image that appears in the show-- you can see the mast touching Blackbeard's left sleeve, which is identically depicted in the original.

Keep this in mind.

The second image (what Stede shows Ed when they meet) is also based off an extant depiction of Blackbeard -- particularly in terms of the leg stance, trousers, bandolier, multiple weapons, smoking beard -- but there's been some hefty editing to get closer to what our Ed looks like:

Figures 4 and 5. Left: Blackbeard, as pictured by Joseph Nicholls in 1726/1736 in A General History of the Lives and Adventures of the Most Famous Highwaymen, Murderers, Street-Robbers. (Six or maybe seven guns. And a sword. And. A big stick.) Right: Blackbeard, as handed to Ed Teach in episode 4. (I count eight guns, plus a dagger, a sword, and Ed's bare right arm.)

Once again, I would like to point out the following:

The background of the original image only depicts one ship...

And the edited image, besides changing Blackbeard's appearance, has two.

So: Three. Two...

Again, keep this in mind.

But then we get to the third image. The one that Izzy rips out of a book and shoves at Ed, and that Ed then uses as a reference to fully embody his sad vampire clown image.

The third image? That fucker is completely original, and also very much our Ed.

Figure 6. Oh dang. Full Blackbeard. Fingerless gloves (hm), no guns, no knife -- just a sword and a skull.

And let me point out:

Only one ship now.

And. A lighthouse.

(This is Ed. Not the Kraken.)

But those ships, huh? Three. Two. One--

OH HEY remember how I said to keep some stuff in mind from earlier? YEAH.

So that first image of Blackbeard! The one with the matching ships in both it and the show version!

Let's go look at it more fully! In close up!

Figure 7. Oh hey look! Guess what's on fucking fire. Looks awfully familiar, where have I seen--

Figure 8. OH YEAH. IN THE PICTURE ABOVE STEDE'S BED. ONE OF ONLY TWO PIECES OF GODDAMN ART LEFT IN STEDE'S CABIN AFTER THE KRAKEN HAD IT PURGED.

YUP

JUST A SHIP

(ON FIRE)

AND A GOD DAMN LIGHTHOUSE.

#set dressing #our flag means death #ofmd

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dancing-with-the-madmen · 1 year

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the fact that Stede’s self-esteem was so low that some guy who bullied him in the 1600s was able to convince him that the man who’d kissed him like six hours ago didn’t actually want him… come back to life Chauncey I just want to talk with my fists

#no lie detected #ofmd #our flag means death

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dancing-with-the-madmen · 1 year

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stede to ed: have you considered retirement?

stede when ed considers retirement: