#And in the exact opposite position
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Ed AND Stede both mask and I wanna talk about it
I know the fandom talks A LOT about Ed being a chameleon, flipping his entire personality on a dime to fit into the current situation and company, to the point that he can't even really recognize when it's happened and how far he's gone.
But I wanna look at it with Stede too. He literally asks his crew in the very first episode to give him constructive criticism so he can change what he is doing to better serve them, but he cannot fathom behaving different on a personality level.
They both mask so heavily, but in different ways. Edward masks with his personality, whereas Stede masks with his actions. And it is absolutely because of where they came from before they meet each other.
-Edward's Mask and His Struggles-
Edward learned to survive as a lower-class, mixed-raced, son of a physically abusive father and indentured mother. When he became a pirate, his survival on the water hinged on performing in a way that pirates approve. It isn't the mainland where you're protected by certain laws, if pirates don't like you, they can just kill you. It's important to be liked on the water. So, being hard, being cruel, being Blackbeard, when the company was right, it allowed him safe passage to climb the ladder and build his legend. He succeeded with that carefully crafted persona entirely devoted to this job.
In contrast, he is allowed mistakes. He may mess up a bit, but we all like Blackbeard. If a raid goes bad, if he gets too drunk, if he acts a bit erratic, if he loses sight of it all, if he faces critique? He's fine. His crew are loyal to the persona he displays and they allow him room to be imperfect because of it.
He is allowed to make mistakes as long as he is good company.
He can put on the right face and say the right things until he goes into crisis because he doesn't know what to do with himself. Because everything is boring to him that he can't force himself to keep doing it any longer. He's so tired.
-Stede's Mask and His Struggles-
Stede learned to survive as a upper-class, white, son of an emotionally abusive father and, as fas as we can tell, complete lack of mother-figure. His entire life has hinged on doing the right things. It's the aristocratic society, he has responsibilities he simply does not have any choice in abandoning. And, as long as he does as he's supposed to, he cannot be harmed. So, he'll be bullied, he'll get married, he'll inherit his family's fortune, he'll father children, he does all the things he has to do to just hold his position in high society and survive in that sort of world. And he does it well enough.
In contrast, he cannot figure out his personality. He cannot master what is it he's suppose to be to make people like him. It's no matter though, he does his job so there's nothing anyone else can do about it. If he's annoying, if he's too soft, if he's dandy, if he's an outcast, if he's not like the other boys? He's fine. He's safe under the veil of a rich man in mainland high society.
He is allowed to be disliked as long as he does what he's supposed to.
He can follow the rules and do all the right things until he can't be Mr. Bonnet because day in and day out he's alienated in his own home. Because he's been trying to find a way to make himself fit with his family and he can't keep trying any more. He's so tired.
-What Their Masks do to Each Other-
So - while Ed comfortably slips between "Blackbeard", "The Mad Devil", "Ed", "Jeff the Accountant", "Captain", "Beardie*", "Edward Teach", "Eddie", "The Kraken" - Stede cannot understand how one files down parts of themselves to fit in different places, to constantly act like someone they're not. He has always been completely himself, even when it doesn't work.
And - while Stede is able to navigate being a family man, starting a pirate crew, inventing people positive management, accepting critique and adjusting to it, smiling in the face of his abusers, learning to stun and kill, understanding and using passive aggression, throwing a fuckery, learning to duel, starting a treasure hunt for Ed, promising to do things he's not sure he can handle - Ed doesn't get how someone just makes themselves do all these different things, half of them things they didn't want to do at all. He has always done as he's wanted, even when it gets risky.
Which is why is it so fascinating that these two forms of masking, the gap between their communication, is what leads them to hurt each other in the last episodes.
Ed tries to be what he thinks Stede wants him to be, throwing away the Blackbeard title and trying to settle down into complete softness... and Stede tries to do what he thinks Ed wants him to do, promises to follow his plan and run away to China despite his anxiety about his family... But these things aren't authentic to themselves.
Edward Teach is a little bit of every persona he wears and a little bit done with the pieces he has grown from. They are all a part of him. And Stede would love them all if Ed shared it. If he trusted him enough to let down the curtain and shake off the performance.
Stede wants to do so many things that he's never spoken of and doesn't want to do so many things he thinks he has to. He just wants to get to chose. And Ed would support him in whatever he wanted if Stede would just tell him how he feels. If he would just be honest and stop forcing himself to do things for other people.
They have both been trying to please each other with the tools they've mastered to please the worlds they came from, but they were effectively lying to each other in a hundred tiny ways. Because they loved each other so much, but they didn't believe they were good enough as they really were.
They thought they needed the masks to keep their lover's affections - But they need to put them down so they can truly see one another.
More OFMD
#Another post analyzing the effects of Ed and Stede's very different traumas and how it shaped them in opposite ways?#it's more likely than you think#They are BOTH autistic and they BOTH heavily mask through out the entire season#They follow different systems and have learned different rules to survive the worlds they were born in#But I only see people wanting to talk about Ed's masking WHEN STEDE DOES IT TOO AND IT'S EQUALLY AS INTERESTING#LEMME TALK ABOUT STEDE AND HOW HE WALKS THROUGH THE WORLD TRYING TO EARN PEOPLE'S APPROVAL TOO#So yeah - I just really wanted a chance to explore all the 'actions' Stede has done over the season#and how - in a lot of them - he is clearly uncomfortable but doesn't allow himself to say no or fight against it#And it's so clear that he just does things that are expected of him - even if he struggles in being the 'person' he's supposed to be#A lot of Stede's life just happens to him - he never had much of a choice in so many parts of it and that doesn't change at sea#And in the exact opposite position#Edward just throws himself into becoming every different person he thinks people want him to be - whether he likes it or not#He doesn't know how to be himself and risk letting people down when they see who that is#so he plays the roles - even does them quite well - even if he struggles with what he things he's 'supposed' to be doing#And he doesn't just 'get fixed' the second he meets Stede - he needs time to understand he's safe#I'm typing a lot of stuff tonight guys#didn't sleep - must keep analyzing OFMD#I'm in THE ZONE#Our Flag Means Death#Our Flag Means Death Spoilers#ofmd#ofmd spoilers#hbo#Stede Bonnet#Edward Teach#Gentleman Pirate#Blackbeard#blackbeard x stede#gentlebeard#blackbonnet
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Eve: Bottling up negative emotions is bad for your health, so you shouldn't do it.
Seto: I know, that's why I bottle up all my emotions, both positive and negative, so it cancels out.
Eve: Th-that's not how that works-
Actually, the two are pretty open with each other.
#small hastag ramble#but i low-key feel kaiba is like. super mischaracterized when it comes to how he handles emotions#Id absolutely argue that Kaiba is one of the most emotional characters In the entire manga. More than Yugi is even#its just that a majority of the time his emotions are based in anger and hatred. so people see him as bottling up his feelings#when he's honestly the exact opposite. hes VERY open about how he feels and why he feels certain ways#For example Kaiba bluntly telling the gang that he's going to blow up Alcatraz because he hates his stepfather so much#or when Kaiba was very visibly disgusted by the shadow game on the piers with Yugi v Joey#or the numerous amounts of times Kaiba verbally told Atem how much he wants to defeat him. to the point of trembling with desire#Like Kaiba is incredibly open about his emotions. Except that a majority of the time his emotions are based in anger without a resolution#I just think its misinterpreted as him concealing his emotions because he doesn't show a lot of positive ones. but no. he's just that angry#especially since a majority of his actions in the manga are based on his own feelings#anyway sorry for the rant lmao the conversation just drives me nuts#I think he'd absolutely be really open to Eve about how he feels and his frustrations#Kinda using Eve as a sort of rubber duck to vent to a lot#It's also one of the reasons Eve loves Kaiba so much. because he's so brazen about his thoughts and feelings#ssv#oc#yugioh au#giant/tiny#yugiohoc#bondshipping#rant#tag rant#oc x canon#answered asks#ask
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(inspired by this post by jamestown-base)
shoutout to people with canonically dead F/Os, and specific shoutout to people who don't mind if their F/O is dead
i love you people who cannot take their F/O's death seriously, whether that's because they died in a ridiculous way, because you can't accept it, or because you just don't want to
i love you people who laugh at their death scene, it doesn't mean you enjoy their suffering, you just enjoy media in diverse ways
i love you people who change the plotline to prevent their F/O's death, and i love you people who change the plotline to make their F/O (or S/I!) die, for any reason or no reason
not taking your F/O's death seriously does not mean you lack empathy, but it's okay to have low/no empathy, too! it does not make you a bad person and your F/O loves you just the same!
#i saw the exact opposite of this post yesterday and i didn't want to ramble in OP's reblogs so here y'all go#personally my F/O's death is just so stupid i laugh every time#biggest and baddest character of the franchise explodes after being punched in the kneecap#selfship#self ship#self ship positivity#selfship positivity#og#do not be ableist on this post. biting barking growling#aspd safe#cluster b safe
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repurposed some really old ocs into kitties nd only rlly kept their personalities and th fact that theyre siblings. also kept that rot is blue bc even if it never fits his story i love to make this bitch blue
#my art#warrior cats#wc#ocs#warrior cats oc#wc oc#sorta??#theyre not warrior cats but theyd probably interact w clans#made up some lore while drawin em nd theyre not exactly mortal cats#so they wouldnt be in the clans#just interact with them#spade positively and rot negatively#gave em the exact same markings so you know theyre related#even though theyre like opposite colors
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Fellow Hawaii Five-0 fans, help me understand.
The hero in this tweet is Steve. Who, according to the EP, “won” in the end. I assume he means in the series finale.
HOW?
How did Steve win exactly?? Because try as I might, I can’t count him leaving everything (and everyone) behind as a win. It might count as a first step, maybe. A faltering attempt towards healing, but definitely not a win.
He was at his lowest when he left, and brought with him all the baggage collected over thirty years of trauma. We don’t know if leaving actually helped, if setting out for parts unknown gave him the peace he was looking for. We don’t know because we weren’t told anything about it. The EP left us on that beach with Danny, with not even a reassurance that Steve would be back. So based on that, on what we saw, how did this hero win?
#I want so badly to reply asking him this#h50#steve mcgarrett#danny williams#he’s been making even less sense since the show ended#saying the exact opposite of what he did#but this for some reason struck a chord with me#and really I need your help#so you guys think the series ended on a positive note?
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Are women (insert general statement on the vagaries of gender generalisations) more likely to get into caring/helping professions, because they're more often cared for/helped growing up? Whereas boys are encouraged to be independent, to do things themselves, and man up/not act like babies?
In doing all that, do we teach girls how to help others, and the value of helping? While those same emotional/reward associations aren't built up the same way for boys (in general)?
#was just thinking about why I like helping people so much#its in part because I feel like Ive been helped so so so so SO much in my life#and I want to be able to give back. or just be on the other side for once.#it's a power thing in many ways? that now I can be on the other side of it?#it's funny. in a way I'm inverting it and putting myself in the exact opposite position.#but ofc 'girls get treated delicately then grow up to become nurturers' is like. gender roles 101
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I hate to tell you guys this but it is neither a hot take nor an unpopular opinion to say "i like valentines day"
I can assure you that majority of society agrees with you.
#text#idk i keep seeing posts like this and it's driving me insane#because no one is really actually saying you can't enjoy valentines day#if there is anyone saying that it's such a small and insignificant amount of people#the actual unpopular opinion is literally the exact opposite. y'know...because people call you sad and miserable if you dont enjoy it#it's just frustrating to see people position themselves as having the unpopular opinion when it is actually the most popular opinion to hav#and then act like the people who dont share that opinion are actually the bad guys here.#stop making up guys#people saying “valentines is stupid” is the least of anyone's problems#you're not exactly quirky for liking a popular commercialized holiday#also just reminded it was valentines day because i saw an influx of these posts.
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bewinged edengrace weapons my beloved
#look its one of my favorite black mage weapons#so i'm casually progging the criterion on black mage with some friends#definitely some good slightly more difficult content to practice black mage on#but also turns out snake prio is too hard for anyone to understand#what is the point of a priority system for selecting adds if no one is going to follow the order?#i'm half serious when i say i'm going to make a worksheet enumerating every possible debuff on each role#and requiring everyone to to fill it out for their position to determine which add they will take#i have a dps who refuses to use color match when doing spreads right before add baits#and also just yolo takes the north add no matter what -- screw debuffs i guess#i have a healer who is trying to adjust for that dps#and half the time the group survives#that dps thinks they did the mechanic right when in fact they survived because the healer adjusted#i also have someone who agreed to a particular priority and promptly do the exact opposite of the priority#keep in mind this is WITH voice chat for callouts and discussion#how did anyone survive p8s#i want to know
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ngl spiritually i am laying in bed kicking my feet up in the air and twirling my hair around my finger like i have a crush on a cute boy in a chick flick but instead of having a crush i am just. so delighted by. being the object of an extended april fool's bit in my group chat while i was in choir
#sasha speaks#i wanna talk about me#like i have always struggled with the idea that i am memorable and appreciated as a person when i am not like#actively present in someone's space/time/whatever. and receiving some kind of positive feedback about it#i have object permanence of a toddler when it comes to the idea that my friends are still my friends even when we don't talk every day#and i often tend to forget that. no there are in fact people who like you and appreciate you existing in their life and notice things about#you. or i assume i'm not interesting or likeable enough for that or whatever#but like#man#it was a joke! someone in my group chat was like. you know what would be funny. i am going to pretend to be Anti Sasha#i am going to say the exact opposite of a bunch of statements/facts about sasha as a joke in pretending i am her evil doppleganger#going so far as to copy my icon and display name and discord about and invert them for a laugh#and bring up specific details and opinions about me. and i'm like#holy shit#i exist to other people when i'm offline#i'm memorable. there are things about me that are noteworthy and stick with people#i'm the object of a joke but in a lighthearted and deeply appreciative way#holy shit!!#i am loved! i am loved!!#happy april fool's day the april fool was ME ALL ALONG for THINKING THAT I'M A MEDIOCRITY!
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something I’ve noticed is the use of yellowish green to reference the fungus/infected- literally from episode 1 til now the fungus is associated with greenish yellow tints and this newest episode (6) they’ve been using that same tone both in moments where there is literal warmth either of love or companionship but most importantly in the scene where tommy and joel are in the bar and in the bedroom where Ellie and joel talk (and all our hearts break) and they’re both saying the opposite of what they want to say/think! like the concept of the fungus taking over your brain and controlling your behavior is also tied to these super emotional moments where talking about emotions is so hard especially where you’re 20 years deep into a survivalist world, opening up about your feelings can be an out of body experience and it feels foreign/ like you’re being controlled! it just really felt like when emotions and adrenaline are so strong you can’t really control what your actions are or what you’re thinking or saying because your brain is literally strugs to func
#i might be overthinking this but I remember my high school counselor telling me that when I wanted to kms it was so hard to say out loud#because your brain can’t compute and vocalizing it can be SO hard#and that’s always stuck with me#but also I’ve had super emotional fights with my family where I knew I was thinking and wanted to say a positive thing but all I could#yell/say was the exact opposite because I wanted make them feel hurt so I wouldn’t have to process my own hurt#the last of us#tlou#the last of us show#tlou spoilers
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y’all I’m also just a sad mentally ill lost person I am not a therapist I do not have any professional experience and have never claimed to. It is totally okay to say how you feel but I’d really appreciate if y’all didn’t try to straight up completely negate my positive posts. I understand that state of mind I really really do but I make these posts in an effort to help others and in a strange way also help myself and it kind of just makes me rly sad when certain things are said :/ you are entitled to say whatever you want on your own blog of course but please do not do it on my posts that are clearly intended to build people up and provide encouragement. Thank you 🖤
#I am really trying to put an effort in to be more positive overall#and some things people say just depress me tbh#on posts that are intended to have the exact opposite effect#it isn’t about pride or any shit like that idc if you say something to negate a post that doesn’t matter#it’s about the fact that I am really out here trying to help people and would appreciate if y’all kept certain things to yourselves <3#if you need to talk about any negative feelings my messages/inbox are always open and anon is almost always on.#just please don’t do that on posts that I created w the intention to help others <3 thank you
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My plan is to check up on Ultra Magnus's losing war on interfaction porn in a little bit, as i haven't kept up with— hmm. I was gonna go copy the name of the fic again but ao3 seems to be acting up for me.
#i wonder if i can access it on my other phone#huh no i can't#i suppose there are multiple reasons to let ao3 sit for a few minutes now#i swore that I'd end up falling asleep the moment i got out of the car but no i suppose I'm not gonna#iicr mags's efforts were actually //encouraging// more positive bot and con relations#the exact opposite of what he wanted#last i remembered deathsaurus accidentally walked into view of the autobot zoom meeting? i think?
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reminder to myself that “i need to fucking kill someone” is not a normal way to express a positive emotion
#i will literally feel so much and be so overwhelmed with like positive emotions#and i will want to say so many things and be so sappy#and then i decide immediately that i’ll die if i actually express a heartfelt sentiment out of nowhere#so i default to ‘im full of murder rage and violence and im going to bite someone to death’#when really i feel the exact opposite#what the inability to communicate will do to a mf#murphy rambles
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I hope legato and knives ship name is millionsummers because it's a pretty name but also extremely ironic when you think about it
#it sounds so positive and bright#such a romantic name#makes you think of youth and joy and freedom and lightheartedness#the brightest side of being in love#which is extremely ironic considering how this ship is the exact opposite of all that#...then again blueknives is a fun name too
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Funny thing about Rick is that at first he always seems so professional- a little tired and beaten down sure, but always professional.
And then he opens his fucking mouth and he’s got the thickest Tennessee drawl you can think of and he’s only barely managing not to use any of the local phrases he grew up saying and it’s just
‘God damn they really do have a redneck working for Interpol’
#ooc#release me from this earth // Richard Morgans#hidden secrets // lore and headcanons#just#amusing shit about my boy#I love him he’s just the exact opposite of the sort of person you’d imagine working in his position#like#give the boy a forestry badge or some shit like that#and let him walk around the woods all day looking for poachers and shit#he deserves it
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there’s that one segment of an interview in molotov cocktails zine which was published in december 94 but as far as i can tell the interview occurred during glasto at the end of june 94 and like richey is a) clearly in a bad mood/bad place and b) obviously mentally a disaster and literally less than a month away from a breakdown, but taking a step back and looking at what he’s saying is actually really interesting.
the interviewer keeps asking him about like individual political movements or activist things and stuff like that and he keeps throwing it back and it’s really fascinating because it’s not that he doesn’t agree with it outright
but he keeps talking big-picture when the interviewer is more zoomed in on more manageable aspects. it’s obvious richey’s not interested in looking at one thing at a time, he’s so goddamn zoomed out he’s looking at the big picture from space and it’s too big. like, he keeps talking in greys and nuances, saying he hates it when people make easy solutions, and saying x or y charitable cause or movement is pretty much useless because it only addresses a fraction of a problem. he talks about how individual choices in terms of activism mean nothing because the little people don’t have as much influence as the rich and powerful and/or they’re so affected by poverty they can’t participate in certain things (like buying organic veg). it’s like he’s so zoomed out that the only way he can imagine solving the world’s problems is by finding some sort of universal solution that fixes everything at once (or at least many things at once), but that’s impossible, but he can’t seem to zoom back in and see how smaller actions build upon each other. he can only see the way that when looking at the big picture which is more grey and nuanced, the smaller actions seem to be acting in black and white. which is not true but would look that way if you were too zoomed out.
nicky’s comment about the pulitzer prize is so applicable here. like this wt book keeps talking about how richey did all this stuff because he wanted to secure himself in rock n roll mythology but reading this interview it seems far less about the music industry and more like richey wanting to take on history and current events and his own knowledge and Solve Them all by himself not for the rock n roll myth (as in, music myth) but to make an impression on the world and a statement in general about being “above nature.” especially because he seems to imply that only science can make a worldwide impact while the person is still living, and lumps other bands like take that in with the immediate but shallow impact of culture (sex and violence) and seems to lump himself or the manics in with delayed impact of art (death). the “above nature” comment is also interesting in context with his simon price interview from november 1994 where he talks about self-harm as control of mind over body and his suicide attempt as the failure of his body to be as strong as his mind (although in part i think that was him being deliberately vague because he didn’t want people to know what happened).
really looking at the lyrics for jfpl and the little journal/manifesto tidbits in the deluxe edition plus the few other scraps that have been made available over the years and the way everything is so compounded in all those words like he’s trying to condense so much stuff onto one page and in so few words, it really seems like he mentally bit off more than he could chew. not about trying to be a rock myth or whatever more like trying to somehow conquer modernity.
#wt writeup#sort of more like an observation while doing research but it's not really about the book#richey was in a fucking state#it's like the exact opposite of ego death like a total attachment of the self to the state of the world#that's the thing this book says richey's story reflects the hero's journey and blah blah#but i don't think he reached ego death in a campbellian sense#as in i think so much of his self worth and everything as an artist was so wrapped up in his Self and his ego#that when he started to doubt everything around him there was no way he could handle the doubt of self#and come out the other side in a positive sense#reading what he has to say is like watching him slowly doubt everything to death#but then there's nothing left to support him when he turns it on himself#and his relation to everything else was so tangled up with his Self & the importance he lent to his mind#so turning doubt back onto himself by the end just unraveled it completely since he'd already gotten rid of anything to grasp onto#like in old looney tunes where the character climbs all the way up a tree and keeps climbing the air#even after he's surpassed the tree#and then when he finally realises there's no tree under him he falls and splats on the ground#oops didn't mean to write a second essay in the tags
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