The episode is called 'Red Flags', and the entire through-line of the episode (and the episode before) is Ed displaying the absolutely textbook suicide warning signs.

I'm particularly impressed that they so heavily featured that sudden sense of calm and happiness; where Ed is suddenly smiley and at peace to the point where some crewmembers are wondering if he's 'better' now, but it's actually a huge red flag that he's made the decision to die. Because that's a warning sign that most people would misread - would assume it's a good thing - unless they've had specific training/experience on what to look out for.

I'll say it again: the gay pirate romcom explores mental illness and suicidality with greater depth, and understanding, and realism, than the majority of serious dramas I've watched in my life.

And THERE IT IS.

If you wanna no the BIGGEST problem with Zionism, religious appropriation, and the whole genocide thing going on over there?

You know...besides the loss of life.

But also...unfortunately...maybe not?

Watching an episode of Moon Girl. And a character is celebrating her Bat Mitzvah!

And you know what they used as symbols?

THE STAR OF DAVID!

Yes! A delightful, iconic emblem of the Jewish religion. Immediately recognizable. Associated with a proud culture!

Oh, but wait...how's it being used nowadays? I saw two Stars of David in the past five minutes thanks to this episode...guess how I was seeing the symbol the other twenty times today?

So, yeah. This is why when someone puts a religious symbol on a flag, you tell them not to do that.

OFMD Critique: Finales, Writing Backwards, and the Importance of Building Relationships

Continuing on the rambling meta bc it turns out there are a couple of people that responded well to my initial thoughts...

Am I the only one that felt like the OFMD Season 2 finale suffered from the exact same problem as the Game of Thrones or the How I Met Your Mother Season finales? Well, not exactly the same, but lemme explain.

The treatment of Izzy Hands in Season 2 of OFMD feels like when they sat down to write this season, they wrote his death scene first (for whatever reasons that might be, though likely for the sake of Ed's arc- we're not going to address my feelings on THAT rn), THEN backfilled his arc for the rest of the season based on that, but then didn't rewrite his death scene to address the stuff that organically happened when writing the rest of the season.

Like, for example, I've seen plenty of people point out that the deathbed apology from Izzy to Ed doesn't really work (I fed your darkness) both in regards to the sheer imbalance of damage shown onscreen between Ed and Izzy, but also doesn't work as a "putting Blackbeard behind us" scene when Izzy figuratively (and literally, if you count him as part of the group with the cannonball) killed his half of Blackbeard in the storm scene in 2x2, with whatever parts lingering in him killed with the unicorn scene in 2x4. After this point, his arc and his focus has very, very little to do with Blackbeard or hell, Ed in general besides the couple of comments made to Ed and Stede that cement that Izzy is happy that Ed moved on and found someone that makes him happy.

Izzy's arc has left Blackbeard behind already. He has already hit the emotional beat that the finale wants to retread.

And then the other part of his deathbed comments to Ed- "the crew loves you, Ed"- makes no sense from the Ed side of things. The show built up an arc for Izzy that would make people care when he died, but that arc was literally about the crew literally putting aside their differences/fear/distrust of each other to help, support, and accept Izzy as their figurehead, their protector, their friend, their recovery, their family, their (insert positive symbolism/metaphor for all of the VARIOUS implied flirtations here).

What did they have with Ed? Other than his moments with Stede and Fang, what relationships were built up before Izzy's death? Calypso's birthday included no scenes of the crew interacting with Ed other than the short Archie/Ed/Stede convo at the beginning. We get none of him talking to them when prepping for the party. He spends 2x7 and 2x8 with Stede, only having scenes with Stede, never building anything with the crew.

THE LAST SUBSTANTIAL INTERACTION ED HAS WITH THE CREW BEFORE IZZY DIES IS THE "INFLUENCER APOLOGY" IN 2X5 (other than with Fang in the boat). Holy shit, I didn't even realize that until I got to this point in the meta. I had realized that something felt wrong/off about the "the crew loves you line," but I thought that it was because 2x1-2x3 cast such a long shadow on the rest of the season that it was impossible to escape. No, there were cracks in the back half of the season as well.

All of which is to say: if you have to kill Izzy (which you really, really don't, btw, it makes little sense in a show where pretty much every character has survived a near death experience with nary a scratch, but for the sake of hypothetical), there is a way you can pull it off: you have the crew at Izzy's side as he dies instead of Ed. You have their relationship with Izzy at the forefront, because their relationship is the one that matters at this point in the narrative. You have Izzy die trying to save one of them, not by random gunshot.

And then after Izzy dies, you finally give the crew their agency back. You let Izzy's death be the last straw in THEIR arcs. You let them tell Ed that they cannot allow him to stay on the ship after everything. You let them tell him that they are putting their foot down, and he can go retire if he wants, but they will not let him destroy this crew anymore.

(Or, you know, you can have all of that with a death SCARE instead of an actual death, and allow Izzy to sail off into the sunset as a first mate instead of as a dead body. Because that would suit the tone of the show and the story better.)

But I have the feeling that point B (Izzy dying/his death scene) was the thing that was decided on first, and so the budget crunch/other factors may have led the writers into making the same mistake as so many before them have: writing point A out organically, and then failing to change Point B when it no longer fit the story they had written.

Favorite Buddie Moments Per Episode: 6x9 Red Flag

"Stoick was just as bad as Spitelout" just say you didnt watch Riders of Berk

S&S D Arriving Today!!! Ch 13 Out of Context...

Padme was so badass in the clone wars. She got her uncle to join the republic, she solved her uncle’s murder case as well as stopped future murders, she played a man while undercover, she dealt with several assassination attempts, survived poison, survived capture a few times, she survived a newly revived extinct plague while FIGHTING BATTLE DROIDS, she dealt with the other senators and that one old giraffe motherfucker from the clone’s homeworld that i totally didn’t forget the name of what are you guys talking about im a real fan i promise i just forget a lot of names for stuff, she played the same man AGAIN on ANOTHER undercover mission, AND she changed outfits every episode she was in :)

You could say, she gaslit, gatekept, and, quite possibly, girlbossed

Also she married a Jedi, and did a MUCH BETTER job of keeping it secret than Anakin did (I mean she pretended to not know him when she had to pretend to like that one separatist senator [his name doesn’t deserve to be remembered])

Everybody out here wondering if their favorite ships will make it out of next episode alive, meanwhile I am sitting in a puddle of tears lamenting what could've been if they'd only let Sand wield a bat.

Typical 3 am train of thought here but… I feel like Danielle and how she came to be is pretty wild for a kids show. Vlad steals Danny’s DNA clones him several times over, including Danielle, to get the perfect son.

-Obviously first off fruitloop gonna creep

-Secondly, if he had any remaining hope of winning Maddie over having a clone of her son around is gonna be fun to explain. And is a definite red flag haha. Not to mention the AI version of her and the cat (cats?).

-Danielle being a girl brings up the question of what X replaced or modified Danny’s Y chromosome… which only brings up more questions. Is it one of Vlad’s ? Or was he stealing Maddie’s dna as well?

TLDR Vlad is a walking red flag of a character and doesn’t understand the concept of consent.

I just want the graphic novel to be released already.

A scene that I think captures the whole feel and thesis of this show (and specifically season two) is when Archie and Jim first kiss.

We start with Jim and Archie in the hidey hole protecting Izzy. Frenchie, now in the first mate role, tells them to "start with his leg, see where it goes" to save Izzy from the infected gunshot wound, leaving to get the first-aid kit.

Archie and Jim do just that and proceed to sit down in front of a passed-out Izzy, tissues in nostrils to keep the stench away. Pointedly, Jim is still holding onto Izzy's leg and is inspecting it. We get comedy thrown in during and right after the amputation. Joking about which leg to amputate, stating that "oh, he's a gusher," and Jim casually inspecting the leg.

And that is followed immediately by a sweet speech. Jim tells about the good times of the ship, their time with the old crew and specifically Olu. They call Izzy "a dick, but he's their dick" claiming him as part of the crew, the community, and reinforcing that at the heart of it, all of these characters technically aren't "good people," they are pirates, survivors, they've done a lot of morally ambiguous things, but that doesn't mean that they are past saving, past loving, past living.

This part of the scene shows us the community that the crew has for each other, how they are hiding Izzy and trying to keep him alive. It also shows the violence of this way of life. Violence in the past season has always been there but more in a cartoony way — people recover from being gut-stabbed fairly quickly and mysteriously or to the clearly defined bad guys. This season is no longer the fantasy (Note the gusto!) of being a pirate, but the reality of it (Our characters can get fundamentally hurt.)

((And Izzy living from this wound still semi fits the cartoony part of S1 because in reality he would have died from it, but in the show he lives from the wound and recovers fairly quickly, but we don't shy away from the mental and physical trauma of it like S1 would have done.))

As the scene continues, Archie leans in to kiss Jim and when asked why, replies that she likes Jim's optimism. We see here how Archie is used to the real-life violence of pirate life. But Jim, who was raised to be a killer as to seek revenge, has changed into a softer person. One who will try to save the life of the person who was once not enemy but enemy-adjacent. Someone who now tells Fang stories, one who remembers and implements the ways of their old captain to find healing and community in this dark situation.

This moment between Jim and Archie is as sweet and romantic as it can get for two people covered in blood, holding an amputated leg, and noses stuffed with tissue.

The kiss abruptly ends when Frenchie returns with Blackbeard. The moment turns ominous as Blackbeard laughs at them and tells them to leave.

But even in this small scene, comedy still shines through. From Frenchie's lie about not knowing this place existed to Blackbeard's "take the fuckin' leg."

And the scene ends (or where I am ending it for this analysis) with Jim bravely telling Blackbeard that Izzy was his friend.

This whole sequence shows the softness and heart of the show and of these characters in the middle of dark and violent circumstances,

Jim is turned away from the violence and toward the community/romance/comedy while still holding onto the other side the reality/violence, while on the floor with Archie. They then take that evidence of violence turned community/heart with them, balancing all the tones.

This two minute scene truly encapsulates all the elements of the show: humor, romance, community, all forms of love, and the grit of injury and piracy. And I find it fascinating that such a short scene can do all that and why I think it's a perfect example of the themes of the show.

My hand slipped

PETER NUREYEV GILF HUNTER?

clive and pam was not a duo I was expecting but I am not mad about it at all

three different gay pride flags, color-picked from three different images of ed edd n eddy

I’m about to rant so just a warning for spoilers for the new Transformers Earthspark episodes…

Those last few episodes were brutally in Earthspark 💀 With Nova Storm, Brawl, and Breakdown all most likely to be dead (cause maybe Breakdown and Nova Storm somehow lived through some magic plot armor or miracle working lol) I have to wonder who is is already dead or going to die. I’m really glad at least some Decepticons escaped during the jailbreak. Cause I can imagine the horror that the ones in prison are feeling finding out about their fates and the ones who escaping finding out what would of happened to them (or what would happen if they get caught again) But then all of the Decepticons are on the run trying to find Energon which the humans now force them to fight for it and if they lose they get dissected quicker. Like don’t get me wrong the Decepticons always tried attacking the humans but no one deserves what the humans are doing to them. Like the Decpeticons didn’t play with their food they just wanted to get the power to feed there troops and go home while also fighting the Autobots. The humans are playing with their food with no goal but to torture and “play” with another species. Then you got the GHOST AUTOBOTS who just don’t question the humans AT ALL. I mean do they just not notice the fact that what is happen is EERILY similar to how it was before the war? I’m hoping that their are more bots like Bumblebee who didn’t join GHOST for what ever there reasons are. But then they are being hunted and thrown in cells the same as the Decpeticons? Like, take Sunstreaker, my guys does NOT like humans. (Or Tracks or others I can’t remember) imagine fighting for a side in the war and when you finally reach peace time they threaten to through you in a cell for not wanting to be besties with the humans? Like imagine your a Decepticon in the cell and you watch as your enemies and your friends get thrown in the same jail just waiting for the humans to drain them. You got groups of boys like Protectobots, Stunticons, Combaticons and Aerialbots who were CREATED in the war who don’t even know what so called “peace time” feels like. The Decepticons lost both of their combiners in during peace time. Both who could easily be seen as children to others. So now we got two gestalts left who I bet got no idea what to do and have no guidance from anyone so it wouldn’t surprise me if they got involved in some trouble or tried to help around but scared to make a move anywhere. I mean… isn’t it weird that the ONLY Autobots and Decpeticons that we see that are officially part of Ghost are, Optimus Prime, Elita One, Arcee, and Megatron? Most of them are Autobot’s and only ONE is a Decepticon. That’s gotta say something??!!?

But hey that is what the Autobot’s fought for right? For things to go back to “normal.”

I think in retrospect that my problem with Steven Moffats writing for doctor who made the doctor into a grand person when this has rarely been true before, the doctor has just been some weirdo and he is so inconsistent in how he survived the war, be it heroically or cowardly (10 talks like he was a reluctant hero, 9 like he was a coward)

The doctor before Moffat was the last survivor but that didn’t make him any special, under Moffat (at least 11) the doctor was to be the center of the universe who everyone feared or respected