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my-thyla-my-captain · 7 months

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the fact that they use the figurehead izzy defaced for "not doing its job" to instead give him his purpose and identity back. the fact that figureheads were historically not only fixtures of stature and power but also, to their crews, "the eyes of the ship guiding them safely home". the fact that izzy protected the goth crew from a lot of edward's spiraling ire physically, the fact that when izzy was presumed gone and dead the ship was steered and then moored in a storm. the fact that without his intervention they would have likely died in that storm, but instead afterwards were able to be come across by the other half of their crew and brought "home". you see the vision, don't you?

#ofmd s2 #ofmd spoilers #Izzy hands #ofmd meta #our flag means death #Our flag means death spoilers #ofmd season 2 #ofmd #jim jimenez #ofmd archie #ofmd fang #ofmd frenchie #edward teach #Ed teach #revenge crew #Ugh they're all so good this season #Also don't get me started that izzy sawed off the legs of a unicorn #Which were later used on him #When unicorns also symbolize healing

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celluloidbroomcloset · 4 months

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Another little moment I love. When Ed goes to find Stede after the aristocrats have laughed at him:

Ed: I think I wanna go now. Stede: What? Frenchie: What did they do to you, man? Stede: Did something happen over dinner?

Ed's near tears, and it's not just Stede who sees it, but Frenchie too. And their immediate reaction is "what did those assholes do?!" Ed doesn't try to hide the fact that he's deeply upset and receives sympathy and support and concern from them both.

He's already a part of the family.

#ofmd #ofmd season 1 #our flag means death #stede bonnet #edward teach #ed teach #frenchie #gif #ofmd meta

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ourflagmeansheartbreak · 3 months

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The way OFMD liberated me. Femininity and masculinity to me are interchangeable concepts that anyone can possess without that dictating their identity. Before that I could have never been comfortable being a trans guy with long hair, wearing makeup and all that. Now? Fuck that I’m slaying. Wee John is my hero, you’re telling me this big scary guy who likes to set things on fire is a softie who sleeps with a plushie, makes dresses and is a drag queen? You literally can be and do anything. Izzy, the scariest pirate in the whole show, wearing makeup, bright red lipstick and singing softly in French? Stede with his fancy four inch heels? Jim as a drag king? Helped me be just so comfortable with myself. And that was a difficult journey, being a trans man and being comfortable enough to be feminine without feeling guilty. And this show did it for me! They just grabbed my by my face and said ‘you can do and be anything you want to. ANYTHING you want to. Do you understand that? Anything at all. It is NEVER too late to be you’ and all I could do was just listen and nod. The whole ‘it’s never too late and there’s no one right way to be queer’ makes me wanna scream and cry and eat the TV and I’ll never not be grateful OFMD for liberating me in a way that makes me feel actually and genuinely happy about myself.

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a-sassy-bench · 5 months

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Overthinking: Frenchie & Cats

in s1 our crew is tasked with making a pirate flag which ends up serving as an interesting little insight into what they consider "scary". pretty much everyone makes something skeleton based, except frenchie and his cat flag.

s2 arrives and we see frenchie decked out in his new kraken-era outfit. we get these little glimpses and think, 'is that a cat?' it's hard to tell.

but then we get more cat. frenchie's new weapon of choice looks like a literal version of a cat with knives in their feet.

it honestly did not occur to me at first that frenchie sewed the cat onto his new outfit because his past sewing projects haven't been that spectacular in terms of their technical prowess.

but then we get the new flag of the revenge. and it's frenchie's cat.

so to weather the kraken-era, frenchie becomes his own worst nightmare, the embodiment of what he considers "evil" and "terrifying".

frenchie has made it clear for two seasons that his coping skill is simply not acknowledging the terrible things he experiences (bottle it up / put it in a box).

then the kraken-era ends. and instead of putting it in a box and never thinking about it again, he makes the cat the new symbol of the ship and we get to watch him happily unveil it while izzy whittles his wooden shark.

i'm feeling very normal about the pirate show, thanks for asking.

.

#ofmd #our flag means death #ofmd frenchie #our flag means death frenchie #frenchie #joel fry #ofmd joel fry #ofmd meta #ofmd s2 #ofmd season two

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avelera · 2 years

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David Jenkins was a playwright before he was a TV showrunner and it so clearly shows in how OFMD was designed as a stage play. Indeed, our logistical questions around how Stede managed to find his crew with just a dinghy or why distances don't matter only come up because we can see the ocean and the distances thanks to the power of CGI movie magic and wouldn't even ping our collective consciousnesses if this was all happening on a stage as the story in its bones was clearly meant to, in this essay I will...

#I mean it's already an essay but you get my drift #our flag means death #ofmd meta #the opening episode shows a lot of stage play structure that comes across as a bit awkward on TV like not opening with a bang line #instead it opens with crewmates muttering plot irrelevant dialogue and with Frenchies song #this is when the audience should be taking their seats #but it comes across as a bit strange in modern prestige television #where we expect to be gripped from the very first second of the script #actually I find it a bit awkward and think that element of the script should have been refined a bit but it does play to overall charm #of OFMD being more firmly in the pirate theatrical play tradition than in any kind of historical pirate tradition

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alexibeeart · 6 months

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just to be clear, Izzy Hands' arc this season is entirely about what Stede Bonnet instilled into his crew and, just as importantly, how they all responded to that for the better. Izzy included. he is saved and embraced by a group who, despite him causing so many problems for on purpose, sees a man suffering and decide to at least try to help him. he flights it at first, he's kicking and screaming, he's languishing, but eventually he responds to their brute force kindness.

Jim longs for when life actually meant something and seeks out deepening relationships. Frenchie, for all his talks about bottling dark feelings up, speaks his mind and takes lead more confidently and without flinching like he did early in season 1. John spends a lot of time in season 2 focusing on his handicrafts which isn't to say his love of fire and explosives is less than but it is a marked shift in embracing all his varied interests which include destruction AND creation.

it's about the magic of the ship, it's about community, it's about growth, it's about love, it's about what happens when you build something beautiful and complicated together. it's about grace, it's about the freedom to be who you are. and a safe space ship to come home to : ) <3

#our flag means death #ofmd #ofmd meta #stede bonnet #izzy hands #jim jimenez #frenchie #wee john feeney #ofmd s2 spoilers #ofmd spoilers #ofmd s2 #crying btw

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khruschevshoe · 5 months

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OFMD Critique: Mermen, the Gravy Basket, and Cognitive Dissonance

Warning: this is going to be a bit rambly.

So, I can't stop thinking about the end of "The Innkeeper." (OFMD 2x3, if you need the reminder.) About how I have completely different reactions to the final scene of the episode depending on who's POV/plot I'm considering it a part of.

As part of the Stede/Ed plot, and as part of Ed's personal character arc, it's masterful. The cinematography, the swelling music (and music choice, god is "This Woman's Work" a fantastic pick), the acting, the lighting, everything about it is so well done. It's a story about a man who has hit the absolute bottom of a depressive episode because he believes that love is only meant to hurt, that no love can exist without it dying, and who is pulled from the absolute Darkest Night of the Soul by the man who loves him- in the form of a merman. (I'm not going to harp on the symbolism and the perfection of choosing a mermaid, a rainbow, beautiful, queer-as-hell mermaid, as Stede's form here because others have done it so much better than I ever could.)

This final scene is PERFECT for the Stede/Ed plotline. I will give it all the props in the world for its gorgeous portrayal of the healing, divinely-coded power of queer love.

But from the crew's POV? From the end of a plot that was literally about a man spiralling and taking everyone down with him? From the POV of people who were just forced to shoot themselves, to fight to the death, to amputate limbs, who finally got to stand up to their monster after months of fear, of sobbing when Blackbeard couldn't see, of living on a knife's edge because if they put one toe out of line they'll get shot in the leg or pushed off the ship or worse?

I'm not looking at a man's rebirth; I'm looking at a villain's resurrection.

All I can feel is dread on behalf of a crew that literally just admitted to having been "living second to second" for months now. A crew that was ready to die at Zheng Yi Sao's behest because that's what they had been expecting from the man they just had to kill to survive a storm.

I can't ever fully immerse myself in the scene as I did the first time around, because I know how the crew's subplot is going to go. I know that they are going to vote Ed off the ship, finally gaining some agency, and then Stede is going let Ed back on the ship within a day with a slap on the wrist. Ed is going to give an "influencer apology" and that'll be that, because as Archie says, "they just kinda get away with these things." The crew will get no more agency in their own trauma recovery or their reactions to Blackbeard beyond Lucius' (very questionably handled) trauma recovery arc. This season is going to end with a character dying from a random gunshot wound to the side after Ed survived a CANNONBALL TO THE HEAD. (A character who, by the way, Ed put a gun in the hand of and told him to shoot himself. A man who, by the way, Ed shot in the leg, permanently disabling him. A man who, by the way, dies by apologizing to Ed for Ed tormenting him and the rest of the crew for months on end and driving them to the point that they would kill him.)

I try so hard to remain in the emotions I felt watching the merman scene the first time around, the hope I had for the Ed/Stede storyline, the hope I had for all of these characters. What I thought I was looking at was a sign of hope for all of them, the idea that they could all heal from their trauma, that everyone could experience some version of this love (whether romantic, platonic, or otherwise) for themselves.

But instead, the only other character to get a song died by the end of the season without ever getting a chance at a Gravy Basket of their own. And thus, I cannot ever feel what every possible Cinematic Cue in his scene is trying to get me to feel, because it will always, always be tainted by knowing that every one of those beautiful choices have been denied to Izzy, Jim, Archie, and Frenchie when it comes to their recovery arcs strangled before they could ever be completed.

#izzy hands #ed teach critical #ofmd critical #the innkeeper #ofmd season 2 #meta #please forgive me for the rambling nature #ofmd 2x3 #ofmd 2x03 #archie ofmd #lucius spriggs #not tagging this ed bc i don't want to upset the fans #jim jimenez #frenchie ofmd

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keeperofthebees · 2 years

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I want Izzy Hands to be forced into the found family and feel so bad about it. Everyone forgives him. He's done nothing to deserve it. He DOESN'T deserve it. But he's forgiven. He threatens them and instead of getting snippy they just go "classic Izzy Hands we love him he's like a Chihuahua" and they gently tease him like they do everyone else and they compliment him during raids and they try to get him involved in storytime and mealtime and he realizes that they like him?? somehow??? he's been a dick why do they like him? and he just has to. cope. and learn how to not be a dick.

Bonus points if he goes up to someone on the crew (Olu? Frenchie? Lucius? Maybe even Stede or Ed?) and asks "why the fuck are you all being so nice to me?" and the only response he gets is a "why not?"

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bromelads · 1 year

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Every day I think about Olu and that fake “Prince Azi” character with his sharp red outfit and fake African accent and fake viceroy/attendant and every day it makes me all giddy not only cuz it was hilarious but because he was so damn happy running the scam with Frenchie

Like it took him a minute to get warmed up and shake off the fear of getting caught but the moment Abshir offered to help, he got right back into character and loved every second of stealing from these snobby white colonialists

🫅🏿BUSINESSMAN🫅🏿

#oluwande boodhari #frenchie ofmd #ofmd meta?#ofmd meta #la meta de mi meta #Samson did such an amazing job letting the depth of Olu’s personality shine thru #like I feel like fanon focuses a lot on his kindness and ability to lead which is great #and how he got pushed into piracy bcuz clearly he doesn’t have the disposition for violence but he still does the job #but him having fun stealing from rich fucks with frenchie?#cultural reset #oluwande ‘do no harm unless you come after me or you’re a racist posh fuck’ boodhari #oluwednesday

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internerdionality · 7 months

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May have more coherent thoughts about this later but the way that the theme of this season is overcoming trauma? The way that they keep showing the characters grappling with their traumatic memories, to the extent of specifically showing flashbacks to prior scenes back-to-back with the scenes where the cast are struggling with that trauma?

And the way that the show specifically showcases the different versions of dealing with those traumas! Without any judgment! Whether it's Jim and Frenchie and Archie getting triggered and then talking through it with objective witnesses, or Lucius doing art and then roleplaying his trauma with more agency, or Ed and Stede literally replaying their aborted kiss scene with a different ending, or Izzy abusing alcohol and then moving to transforming/recoding his trauma through fiction, or Ed and Fang talking out their differing memories of the past like oh my god it's SO GOOD the way they show that different people deal with the same traumas differently, and have to use different methods to overcome it. It's amazing.

#our flag means death #ofmd s2 spoilers #ofmd meta #ofmd s2 #ofmd #ofmd spoilers #izzy hands #lucius spriggs #ducklings #frenchie ofmd #ofmd jim #gentlebeard

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butch-pyrate · 9 months

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Ranking OFMD characters as ouppy or kittin

#ofmd #Our Flag Means Death #ofmd meta #oluwande boodhari #black pete #izzy hands #jim jiminez #lucius spriggs #edward teach #stede bonnet #spanish jackie #calico jack #ofmd frenchie #ivan ofmd #ofmd fang #nathaniel buttons #the swede

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cheers-mdears · 7 months

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Also it is driving me insane that Ed's body language goes camp again with Frenchie as his first mate. Like he really, truly policed his presentation around Izzy I'm going to eat drywall

(And how he was camp and still scared the shit out of Frenchie!!!! 👀)

#let him be soft and camp #ed character analysis #ofmd meta #ofmd season 2 spoilers #ofmd #izzy hands #indrid talks #edward teach #frenchie ofmd

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celluloidbroomcloset · 5 months

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A bunch of random observations from rewatching "The Art of Fuckery."

Stede: How does one...get it out?

Ed repeating "oh, mmph, yeah, yeah, yeah" as Stede tries to get his sword out (subtitles are a gift, y'all)

Ed, having killed exactly one man in his life - an abusive one who threatened the life of himself and his mother - being egged on to kill the only one who showed him honest friendship.

Ed "Fear is the Strongest Emotion" Teach melting just from Stede extending his hand in friendship.

Stede shifting from "Edward" as he enters the room to just "Ed," not long after Izzy yelled at him for not referring to Ed as Blackbeard.

The entire crew cheering Stede on during the duel.

"Oh you cheeky bitch." Thank you, Frenchie.

Ed shutting down and quite literally unable to look at Stede being killed.

Stede using the awesome power of pedantry (and his knowledge of the ship's construction) to beat Izzy.

"Well, that's that." Ed not giving two fucks about Izzy leaving.

Stede apparently staying pinned to the mast all night and still managing to be bitchy

Fuck you, Izzy, I'm glad you're dead.

#ofmd #ofmd season 1 #our flag means death #stede bonnet #izzy hands #edward teach #blackbonnet #ofmd frenchie #ofmd crew #i'm sure i could spin some of these into more meaningful meta but not right now #this one did remind me of why i hated izzy in the first place #fuck that guy #ofmd meta

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fancyingfinefabrics · 4 months

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remember that time when stede got a little carried away during the moonlit kiss?

stede, after dreaming of running into ed’s arms for so long, is finally able to return ed’s s1 kiss—exclaiming “yes I found you!”—and with just a taste, he’s overcome with such undeniable urgency and passion

but when ed pulls away, stede doesn’t make excuses or throw a pity party. he respects ed’s needs with gentleness, only asking for consent to hold his hand

god, this really is the ship of dreams

#same frenchie same #thank you for reading #ofmd #our flag means death #gentlebeard #blackbonnet #ed x stede #blackbeard #ed teach #edward teach #stede bonnet #ofmd kiss #ofmd meta #talking about kisses again #always

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itswhatyougive · 6 months

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He Was Their Dick (and they loved him)

It's really hitting me again how the Kraken crew saving Izzy was such an act of LOVE.

There was nothing for them to gain by saving Izzy once he'd been shot by the Kraken, nothing at all!!

Not even the possibility of Izzy protecting them from Krakbeard, since the deranged captain had already made it very clear he wanted Izzy dead.

Also, as Izzy was very badly injured at the time, it could be assumed that he would not be able to move from his hiding spot.

Since Krakbeard basically signed his death warrant, Izzy would never be able to move freely aboard the ship without facing rhe Kraken's wrath. He would have to stay sequestered in that little hidden room.

If anything, the crew keeping him alive was making their own lives harder, as well as putting said lives in danger.

It would've been much simpler and straightforward to shoot him, throw him aboard, and shrug it off as the humane way to end his life. We'd seen them waste others with little remorse, after all, and Izzy had been a dick to them in the past anyway.

And yet!!

Almost immediately after Izzy had been shot, one or perhaps all of them must have decided to take that chance to save this seriously wounded older man.

They had to quickly find a hiding place, haul his body, do their best to treat his wound, keep him sedated and quiet as best they could, then sneak him medicine and probably food and rum, help him relieve himself and clean that up.

They would have to do this for the foreseeable future, as Krakbeard told Frenchie in no uncertain terms that he had no intention of ever going back to land.

They would have to keep him alive and hidden for as long as the rest of their lives would allow on that doomed ship.

Surely that would sound like too much trouble for a crew that was focused only on living second to second? Not even Archie really understood their reasoning at the time.

All the same, the ever-opportunistic Frenchie and survivalist Jim put aside their self-preservation instincts just to hide this guy and keep him safe.

Fang had known Izzy for the longest, so it stood to reason that he would be the most inclined to help. And yet, Archie and Jim scrubbed Izzy's blood from the deck while Fang cried and Frenchie was likely tending to Izzy.

Frenchie also went to fetch medicine for him, and Jim and Archie cut off the rotten leg. While it's likely that Fang was just too traumatized to see Izzy in that state without crying and drawing attention, the fact is that the other members of Kraken crew stepped up when they really didn't have to.

Frenchie jeopardized his own position as first mate to lie multiple times to cover for Izzy.

Deranged as the captain was, first mate is considered a pretty privileged station. One would think a clever guy like Frenchie would try to get in the captain's good graces to try to ensure his own survival and not do anything that would potentially get him in big trouble.

And yet......well, you get the picture.

The Kraken crew risked it all for Izzy, and they did it for LOVE

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chuplayswithfire · 2 years

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Sometimes I think about the fact that Frenchie sets the stage of Our Flag Means Death's world by starting us off with a song about how the world of pirates is a short and violent one, but how, despite that, it's still a desirable life, because it's "short but nice".

Our heroes do not live in a muppet world of pirates expecting long, happy lives and favoring cheerful shenanigans, and it's Frenchie who reveals that to us. It's also Frenchie who says, when asked about someone returning from a raid mentally devastated, that they should "bottle it up". It's Frenchie who sees a fancy party full of bigoted wealthy whites as an opportunity to make some money in a way that humiliates the fucks who wanted to humiliate him and Oluwande. And it's Frenchie who asks if Blackbeard and Company are going to kill them when the Revenge has been occupied.

Frenchie, despite his lighthearted demeanor, is pretty damned astute. He's clever and quick to evaluate the odds, and he does it without getting grim and bitter and overcautious. He's having a blast of a good time not because he doesn't know piracy is dangerous, but because he does and he's determined to make a good time of it anyway.

In another words, he's a pretty good choice to be an anti-Izzy Hands, at least in terms of helping out a captain. I don't know what Ed will do with Frenchie in season 2 now that the sewing is done, but I imagine he took Frenchie instead of Wee John, even though Wee John has the neater hand at sewing, because Frenchie is the person he saw running a scam and getting away clean, Frenchie is the one who saw *Ed* upset and immediately validated the source of the emotion (they're such dicks about spoons!), and Frenchie knows how to be a pirate.

He just knows how to have fun with it, too. If Lucius is an emotional counterpoint to Izzy (shoulder angel vs shoulder devil), then Frenchie could very well be a piratical counterpoint to Izzy, pointing out ways that they can find the balance between the softer, gentler life Ed hoped to find with Stede, and the grim, bloody realities of a pirate's life, so it can be short but nice. Because Ed's life, after all, has not been very nice.

#frenchie ofmd #edward teach #ofmd #our flag means death #ofmd meta #this is technically theorizing for season 2 but LOOK im just saying #frenchie was not taken JUST for the sewing #frenchie saw ed in a vulnerable space and he wasn't a dick about it #and i think that has a LOT to do with why it was frenchie who was picked up to be kept #jim after all is the only person on the ship who's clearly dangerous enough to run with blackbeard #but frenchie's smart #frenchie has brains #and frenchie knows how to calculate the odds. i dont think he's going to do nothing.#chu watches ofmd again #technically this is part of my liveblog bc im listening to the song again

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