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#i had to gif this scene because i am literally stede
celluloidbroomcloset · 5 months
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A good bit has been made of Ed saying that "last night was a mistake" and I get the sense that a lot of people are interpreting things through a lens that he means they shouldn't have slept together, they should have waited, Stede was pushing things too far too fast, etc. So I want to go into some detail on why I don't agree with that, and what I think is happening in the aftermath of Calypso's Birthday, as well as in the love scene itself.
(This is kinda long, because I am not witty and cannot be brief. These are just my thoughts, so of course I'm not trying to tell anyone how to understand what happens in these scenes.)
Them having sex and what happens after is very much related to the things that they've both gone through, and especially Ed's fears and trauma after his depressive spiral. When we first meet Ed in Season 1, he's already borderline suicidal. Stede gives him a new view of life by showing him things that he's never seen before, and emotions he's never experienced before. He falls in love and anchors himself to Stede. Then his anchor breaks and lets him float off. He's alone and heartbroken and quite literally goes insane with grief and self-loathing (spurred on by Izzy) on a ship filled with people and things that keep reminding him of how he wasn't enough.
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In Season 2, he knows that if he goes back to being Blackbeard, again, after everything, he might very well never be able to come back. He's still terrified of Stede abandoning him, and I think the fact that he did consent to the sex, that he did want to have sex, that he did feel loved and desired and happy, is a huge part of that. He says it was a mistake because he wanted it so much and got exactly what he wanted and is afraid that, again, he's going to lose the person who made him feel like he was enough. So he's doing exactly what Stede says he's doing - panicking and trying to run this time, so that he's not the one who gets hurt again. That's not the same as truly regretting the night before; it actually says that them sleeping together meant so much that it's frightened him because now he stands to lose even more. (If losing Stede once ripped him apart, after they had just barely kissed and admitted they care for each other, what would losing Stede now do to him?)
Should they have waited? Doesn't really matter. They didn't. Are they overwhelmed with emotion? Well, yeah. There have been other posts floating around discussing the relationship between sex and death and the concept of funeral sex, which are quite accurate IMO.
But...I'd say the moment when Stede first grabs Ed at the door is the "overwhelmed with emotion" part. Remember that Stede has killed before, accidentally, and is absolutely wracked with guilt by it. The guilt is also associated with Ed and with his masculinity/sexuality - "you defile beautiful things" - and Ned's words earlier poked those wounds. The last thing that Ed said to Stede before he killed Ned was not to do it because "you can't come back from that." So Stede does what he did before - he runs and hides. But he's not alone anymore. Ed shows up. He's not angry, he's not rejecting Stede or lecturing Stede; nothing has fundamentally changed in their relationship because Stede killed Ned. He's there to say, "Hey, it's OK, it's hard, I know, I've been there." Stede is overwhelmed with emotion - guilt at what he's done and all its associations with his past, fear that he's ruined something in his relationship (defiled a beautiful thing), uncertainty about what this means about him as a person. And there's Ed, standing there and saying "Are you OK?" Nothing has been defiled.
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It's not Ed who crosses the threshold - maybe Stede needs his space and really doesn't need his sympathy right now, so he waits there and doesn't invade the space - but Stede who grabs him and drags him across. That's the impulsive moment, not the sex. Ed is surprised by it, as we can see on his face, and Stede is in pain and almost crying. He seems incapable of speech at that moment, which says a lot about his state of mind since this is a man who cannot shut up. He's not behaving rationally or thinking things through deliberately; he's coming apart and Ed's there and Ed holds him together.
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Now, the next cut could've been to Stede throwing Ed down on the bed or kissing him aggressively (as, indeed, has happened in plenty of shows and films with these kinds of scenes). But that's not what happens. The next cut is to the end of the impulsive moment, Stede backing Ed up against the wall. Then there's a pause. Both of them are recalibrating. Stede in fact keeps his distance (wish we could actually see their expressions up close), and he waits. He's done something he likely shouldn't have in grabbing Ed; he's stopping himself from doing anything else he shouldn't. He's making a choice and it's an important one, just like when he stopped the kiss when Ed told him to, when he stopped saying "I love you" because Ed couldn't hear it, or when he asked if it was OK to hold Ed's hand. He didn't do anything wrong in being impulsive, and he's waiting for his partner to help him know what to do next.
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Could Ed say no at that point? Yes, absolutely, and we know from the moonlight scene that Stede would not try to go farther. Would Ed say no at that point, with the knowledge of how much this man needs him? Yes, I think he would. I don't think this is a case of Ed going "well, he needs this, so I'll sleep with him." That interpretation I think undermines Ed's autonomy and misunderstands his character - he's not going to do something that he doesn't want to, not even for Stede, and he's not going to damage their relationship by having their first time be a result of pity or sympathy. It's going to be about mutual desire, or it's not going to happen at all.
That pause is where they look at each other (again, wish we could see expressions better) and Ed nods. And even then, when Stede leans in to kiss him, it's not Stede who increases the intensity. I think we could even read this as Stede not consciously planning for the kiss to lead to sex. It's Ed who grabs Stede, pulls him up against him, lets his body support Stede's, who's practically collapsing. It's Ed who snatches Stede's waist and wraps his arm around his shoulders and caresses his neck.
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I think it's really important that Ed is the one who ups the intensity. His actions are pretty much the definition of enthusiastic consent. That's needed for the scene, just like all the other scenes where Stede stops when Ed tells him to. It's Ed who wanted to take it slow and so now his choice to go ahead is necessary. There's no indication that this is rushed or only a result of passion and pain.
The next scene, Stede is closing the curtains, and he's shirtless, but Ed is still mostly dressed (and no, that is not the face of a man having second thoughts or being pressured into sex. That's the face of a man who's so in love he can't see anything but fireworks). What's happening is very deliberate on both their parts, and the entire scene is a culmination of their desires and - very importantly - their love for each other. It's not Stede needing comfort or validation and Ed rewarding him with sex. It's them both needing, wanting, and loving each other.
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It's really tempting to make this all more angst-y than it is, especially with Ed's later "last night was a mistake!" But once more, this silly gay pirate show gets at something that a lot of less silly films and TV shows don't - that human relationships are messy and complex, and messiness and complexity are not inherently Problematic. Just human.
Tl;dr: seems like neither of them regretted having sex, and not just because it was definitely good sex.
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03/20/2024 Daily OFMD Recap
TLDR; Rhys; Samba BTS; Con; YouWear50Well; AdoptOurCrew; RhysRadness; FanSpotlights; Articles; LoveNotes; DailyDarby/Tonight's Taika
== Rhys Darby ==
Rhys Darby turns 50 today (the 21st, so technically tomorrow for those of us in the US)!! He graced us with some new Selfie's in Aotearoa!
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== Samba Schutte BTS ==
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Good Calypso Samba put a lot of videos up today. I made posts for them, so I'll link them here. Literally only 1 picture and 14 videos. The man is a lunatic and I love it.
Video 1: Dream Sequence BTS!
Video 2: "Any other burning questions?"
Video 3: Samba & Madeleine & Vico BTS!
Video 4: Leslie & Nat BTS
Video 5: Zheng Plank Scene Takes
Video 6: Explosion Explanation - Earplugs In!
Video 7: Zheng Planking Stede BTS
Video 8: Samba on the Zipline BTS
Video 9: Revenge Crew Running on the Beach
Video 10: Canons BTS: "Let's try doing away with the pull line, cause I think that's just going to be a fucking disaster"
Video 11: Canon Fire: No sound
Video 12: What Explosions Felt Like
Video 13: "That's How The Pros Do It"
Video 14: More Canon Fire / Plank Walking Stede BTS
= Con O'Neill =
Con's show, Happy Valey haws been nominated for a BAFTA! Bafta TV Awards 2024: The List of Nominations
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== You Wear 50 Well ==
Rhys Darby's 50th! There were so many well wishes going around for our lovely captain's birthday! Several crewmates were kind enough to allow me to add their dedications to our captain to the recap tonight! @wanderingnomad @lucybluetiful @PaulineKnip @ourflagmeansfanfiction @eros_the_artist @kaddele
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= Tumblr Highlights! =
Our tumblr crewmates had lots of dedications as well!
= @brainfugk =
= @bizarrelittlemew =
= @kiwistede =
= @snejpowa =
= @stjernegaupe =
== Adopt Our Crew ==
The votes are in! Anton vs Louise was darn close! Now it's the final round! Stede Vs Anton! looks like Stede's in the lead!
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== Fan Spotlight ==
Our darling crewmate @iamadequate1's #MaxMadness replacement is down to the final round! We're down to Our Flag Means Death vs Coyote Vs Acme!
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= Cast Cards =
Thank you our dear @melvisik for tonight's new cast card! Christopher Corbin, while only in the show for a very small amount of time, he made a huge impact! "I'm no prostitute, mate!"
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== Articles ==
Coyote vs ACME Interview
= Love Notes =
Hey lovelies! Today's been amazing! Definitely been a lot of engagement and we're getting to celebrate our lovely captain! Soooo many people signed the 50th birthday Kudoboard that ended tonight ( and the Taika Kudoboard that ended yesterday). So many crewmates stepped out of their comfort zone and put themselves out there, and I just want to say how proud of you I am. I know it's hard to put yourself out there in case you can get hurt, but you still did it for the good of something / someone you love, and you should be proud of that! I hope you're getting some joy out of these days. I know it can be a bit of a double edged sword because we miss Stede and Ed and the whole Revenge crew so much. It's reminding a lot of folks of the gravy basket. Just a gentle reminder that things aren't over. Even if we're not fighting full force right now-- it's not over. It'll never be over. So many people are behind us, and so many other shows have gotten renewed later, sometimes years laters. I know you've heard it all before, but this isn't the end. If you feel up for it, take these days that are for celebrating, and even if you do it just with yourself, do something to celebrate the things and people you love. If you're feeling alone and have discord, feel free to join us on the #RhysDarbyFaction server tomorrow. We'll be doing a lot of group stuff to try and keep some of the love going. If you're not-- reach out to any of your crew. We're here, and we care and we want you all to be okay. Remember to lean on each other, you're all such kind, resilient, and wonderful people and kindness is what keeps this world moving in the right direction. Our crewmate @ourflagmeansfanfiction made a lovely picture that felt appropriate for tonight. You are strong, and beautiful, and we're all gonna get through this together. Night crew <3
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= Daily Darby / Tonight's Taika =
Tonight's theme is microphones!
Daily Darby Courtesy of @celluloidbroomcloset Tonight's Taika Courtesy of @agaywithcoffee
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jod13whittaker · 2 years
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So: Stede Bonnet, Izzy Hands, the way OFMD treats the whiteness of each & how I’m kind of confused by the differences in it lmfao
A few points to start. A) I’m a person of color, specifically of West Indian origin & ancestry, specifically descended from South Asian indenture. B) I love all these characters & am in no way saying there is a “right” character to like or a “wrong” character to like, this is literally just my own issue with the show and I don’t expect other people to necessarily agree or view it the same way or care or whatever. C) I do think this show gets a lot right. I don’t even necessarily know if they get this “wrong,” I’m just struggling with it myself. D) I actually did not want to post about this & had been avoiding it, but this thing has been eating at me since I first watched the season 1 of the show & has been eating at me during subsequent rewatches, so I think I need to just hash it out for myself if for nobody else. E) I am not tagging this lmfaooo but I might as well tag it so I can find it at this point. I’ll put it in my pinned post anyway. F) this is long. Sorry.
Ok, so. Stede Bonnet. Took me a while to love the guy, but I love the guy. That said, I kind of feel a weird amount of dissonance over Stede because of something very specific the show is doing with Izzy Hands's whiteness. (Izzy enjoyers, please bear with me, I’m going somewhere with this I promise, this is a problem I’ve got with the worldbuilding, not with the enjoyment of the characters themselves.)
[Edit: the tl;Dr takeaway is that I think it's weird that the show is dancing around Stede's engagement in structural racism if they're willing to dive into Izzy.]
[edit 2: July 2022: Just to be clear, imo saying this character is racist or has a colonizer mindset says things about Ed's arc that are kind of shitty & horrific. I'm not saying that about either Izzy or Stede. They're white, that means something, but there's a nuance I'm hoping to get across in here & the companion Stede piece.
Also, per word of god, the anchor raising & mutiny scenes in ep 9 were not meant to show overt racism, but rather compare Izzy's & Stede's management styles. So I got that a bit wrong, I think.
And not for nothing but if you think that Stede is a "better" white guy than Izzy & Izzy is peak Bad White Man by comparison, I really want nothing to do with you. At all. If you're reblogging this to "prove" Stede is a better version of whiteness then you've missed the point entirely of what I'm saying. It would be weird & fucked up to make the rich landed gentry the "nice" white.]
[edit 3: October 9 2022: Having now watched the first 3 episodes of season 2, I think it’s even more clear that very little, if any, of the below was intentional. It seems like it was just messy writing in season 1 & that they’re trying to adjust in season 2. Updated comments here.]
Stede’s past is something that the show has deliberately decided to handwave, at least throughout season 1. The show has said that show!Stede isn’t the same as IRL Stede. And if the show had been Full Muppet Genre, that might have worked for me personally; if there were no real-world histories or conversations within the canon, then yeah. Have at it, everyone’s a muppet, real-world history doesn’t exist, I’m gonna watch these three or four couples/polycules be cute & this one gremlin be a shitstain & I’ll be happy about it.
But the show isn’t that (and it’s so much more fulfilling that it isn’t that). As early as the pilot episode, we don’t just see the British Navy as cardboard cutout bad guys with no concept of race or empire. We hear a British Naval officer refer to Black crewmembers of the Revenge as “slaves.” The crew are faking a dinner, and are clearly equal to each other as crewmembers, but the pilot episode introduces the fact that Stede’s merry little floating pride parade exists within the context of real history. We hear about it from Oluwande as well, when he has to explain to Stede that piracy isn’t a lark for most people, it’s something you’re driven into because you have no other option. And in “A Damned Man,” we get to see Stede & Black Pete captured & clubbed together with the other two white characters in that scene:
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[image id: top image is Stede Bonnet seated next to Black Pete, telling the indigenous leadership who’ve captured them, “We’re not colonizers.” bottom image is Stede pointing to two British officers while saying, “They are.” Screenshots from s01ep02 “A Damned Man.”]
At the same time, Oluwande is free to move around, gets a nice mixed drink, and the indigenous people offer him an opportunity to leave the Revenge & stay with them. Very early on, the viewer is introduced to these ideas: interpersonal racism exists, systemic racism exists, colonization exists, white people move through the world differently than the rest of us, and importantly, solidarity exists.
We see further evidence of this in “The Best Revenge Is Dressing Well.” The scenes on the party boat were incredibly difficult to watch because it’s clear almost instantaneously that the white French aristocrats view Ed as a party trick, long before poor Ed recognizes it. They’re interested in how violent and beastly they perceive him to be, while he’s just trying to fit in and enjoy the fine things he’s dreamt about since childhood. What’s interesting to me is that it also seems to take Stede (posing as a phrenologist, jfc lol there was nothing subtle about this episode) a little while to recognize it, and it only really happens late in the game, after Ed is attacked during the dinner. Even before all that, though, there’s racism in the form of the French officer who calls Ed “your kind” and a “donkey.” Certainly Stede’s aware of Ed’s anger, but he moves back to teaching Ed about cutlery pretty quickly and looks at Ed’s discomfort through a lens of class (pirates vs the upper class) while not quite looking at it from a racial perspective also. It seems clear the moment the officer calls Ed an animal that Ed is looking at it through a lens of race, at least to me, so Stede not doing the same felt starkly different.
So the show establishes here that Ed is clearly treated differently from white characters, and in this episode & multiple others, establishes that not only are the other characters of color treated differently due to their race, but that there’s generally solidarity amongst them. This plays really interestingly with Ed’s frustration that people think he’s some ultraviolent caricature (nb: while the caricatures are themselves not racialized, I think there's still subtext there bc the actor playing Blackbeard is not white, & bc they toy with the concept more in Dressing Well), when in reality he has one knife and one gun just like everyone else; that’s not just Blackbeard saying he’s annoyed and bored, that’s a man of color expressing frustration that the largely white naval and merchant forces look at him and see death personified. To Stede, it’s his boyfriend who is as sensitive as he is, expressing the dream to be seen as soft, and as fine, and as vulnerable, and as deserving of careful handling. So when you look at Stede, he’s connecting to Ed on a personal level and seeing how things hurt him--but the show doesn’t have him perceiving the racial aspect as much, possibly because if they did that, they’d have to explore his past more deeply.
When you look at Izzy, they’re doing something extremely interesting with him. Izzy is also not looking at things through a racial lens, but the difference between him and Stede is that the other characters do look at the things he does through that lens in more than just a joking fashion. The writers are acutely aware of this and they are very, very deliberate in the way they craft Izzy’s arc as a result. I’ve written previously about how there’s a public Izzy and a private Izzy, and over the course of the season the private Izzy loses himself entirely (and I would’ve dug further, except Con called himself a wh0re on Twitter and I completely bluescreened after seeing that tweet ANYWAY).
There are a few things to note about the private/public versions of Izzy & the way the writers handle his whiteness. First, the writing takes pains to let us, the viewers, know that privately Izzy respects Ed for being his intellectual superior; he explicitly states that he was honored to work for Ed as Ed is a brilliant sailor, and his reaction to Ed’s initial plan in “Discomfort In a Married State” is one of disbelief that he’d ever doubted his captain’s brains. He nearly leaves the ship the next morning, stating that he’d been wrong to shout all those things at Ed. That the show spends that much time telling the audience that Izzy looks up to Ed not for having a smoking beard and red eyes (like Black Pete fantasizes), but for being smart is noteworthy, as is the fact that the show spends time showing Izzy as remorseful for the way he’d acted. Secondly, in “The Art of the Fuckery,” the writing also lets us in on the fact that the private version of Izzy has no problem with Ed not being able to kill. He’s sympathetic. He would be happy to kill Stede for Ed, and it comes off like an offer from someone whose love language is acts of service.
Publicly? Izzy harangues Ed in front of Fang and Ivan, telling Ed that he must kill Stede. This bit’s important, because even though Ivan and Fang are backing Izzy up regarding the need to kill Stede (and in Fang’s case, is pretty torn up about Ed having told him to send his doggy to a different heaven than where he’d end up 😭), these are two men of color watching a white man telling their captain, another man of color, that he needs to be more violent.
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[image id: Izzy staring at Ed (off camera) as Ivan holds a crying Fang behind him, after the three of them have tried to convince Ed that he needs to kill Stede. Screenshot from “The Art of the Fuckery.”]
Fang had previously expressed that he thought Izzy wouldn’t care that he hated having his beard pulled, and the two of them do seem to like the more open and caring version of Ed that comes with being on board the Revenge. So it’s kind of no surprise to me that in episode 10, even though we see the two standing behind Izzy at the captain’s table, we also see them in the 100% men of color mutiny where they nearly throw Izzy overboard. They have borne some of Izzy’s bullying in the past (although the writers have been careful to also show Izzy as respecting them as pirates to some degree, as much as he respects anyone not named Edward Teach--he pulls Fang’s beard and tells him nobody pays him to think, but they’re still his go-to guys, he has a bit of fun with Fang when bullying the British officer in “A Damned Man,” they actively back him up in “The Art of the Fuckery” and are able to be like “idk boss, I don’t think this murder is happening” with him earlier in the episode, there’s something between these three that’s different from how Izzy treats even the white crew of the Revenge etc.). They have seen him talk sternly to Ed, a superior, but do not see the very next scene where Izzy privately tells Ed, “I’ll happily end it.”
They are viewing Izzy as a white man doing white man things, whereas Izzy? Izzy is clearly viewing himself as a pirate surrounded by other pirates, unaware and completely ignorant of his own whiteness, thinking incorrectly that he has to protect Ed’s tough image as a pirate without considering what it looks like for a white man to constantly portray a man of color this way. This isn’t an excuse for his actions in any way; I think it’s one of the tensions at the core of his interactions with the world around him, similar to how he has no clue how to engage with the open, joyful queerness on board the Revenge, because he’s got no clue that that sort of joyfulness was even an option.
When Izzy breaks that final time, it’s noteworthy what precedes it. He’s spent  quite some time hanging by a thread, for instance when he’s trying to convince the crew that everything’s fine with Ed. The little pep talk he gives on the deck about how Ed’s still under the weather but will be joining them soon is demonstrative; O’Neill is too good of an actor for the portrayal in that scene to be accidental. Izzy is very clearly lying, terrified, and panicking while trying to convince the crew that everything is fine. Recall that his first vocalized fear on the show was that he (and other pirates under Ed’s command) might die. He still fears it, as much as he fears the state Ed is in.
It’s heavily implied that Izzy climbs into the pillow fort and takes Ed’s orders,  because he goes and fetches Lucius to transcribe Ed’s song and surely Ed wasn’t dressing in his leathers just for Izzy’s sake. He steams quietly during the song recital but doesn’t say a damn thing until someone else starts calling Ed “Ed,” but even that isn’t his true breaking point. His breaking point is when Ed asks why they even need to be pirates when everyone’s so damn talented; Izzy, from what we have seen so far, is talented only at one thing, and that’s piracy. He’s a terrible leader, he loses battles of wit, he loses a duel to the more clever Stede. Izzy can’t fathom a future where he’s anything but a pirate, and specifically he ties his ability to survive to Ed’s brains. So he cracks, and tries to convince Ed that he needs to be Blackbeard, in the most cruel way possible.
This is a racially charged moment because of who Ed is and because of everything we’ve seen with Ed. The French party boat where he gets attention by talking about stabbing people, the frustration he voiced over others seeing him and immediately becoming afraid, the Dutch merchants in Fuckery proving his point. White people consistently see a man of color and consider him to be a brute. They draw him as a demon in storybooks.
No matter what Izzy sees, person to person, no matter the fact that Izzy’s in it for Ed’s intellect and hero-worships him as the better sailor, better leader, smarter man, no matter how scared Izzy is that if Ed stops being a pirate then he’ll die, the onscreen image we have is a white man telling a brown man he needs to be a violent stereotype ripped from a colonizer’s book on pirates. That’s also the image Ed himself gets: Izzy’s now a white man he might have trusted at one point, who’s telling him to stop feeling things and start killing. That he’s not good enough for fine things, and that he’s just the caricature in the storybook.
The writers have crafted this carefully though. They could have made Izzy just some one-note racist, but instead they took the time to tell the audience, “Hey, this guy? He has a nuanced view of Ed Teach. He comprehends that Ed cares about Stede in some way, he just also thinks that Stede is messing with Ed’s already depressed mind. And on top of all that, he has no idea what’s happening around him and we’re going to explore how that fear interacts with his unchecked and unexamined whiteness.” Even the caricatures Stede & Izzy show Ed are different, with Izzy's having only one gun and knife. Izzy clearly enjoys Ed being violent towards him, but notably in his first interaction with fellow white MF Stede Bonnet, he’s. Well. A little bit turned on by Stede’s violence towards him, as well, because Izzy’s not picky (you may think he’s scared, but given the metaphors around stabbing on this show, I’m pretty sure he’s not just scared):
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[image id: Izzy Hands going from angry to fear-boner when Stede Bonnet (offscreen) presses a knife into his face. Gif from “A Damned Man.”]
It’s like the writers are saying, through the way they worked his arc, “He’s doing some things that looks bit racist--when the rules of piracy stop working for him, he panics, falls back to the rules of the colonizer & runs to the British Navy, as one example--but there’s a complexity to this character and room for growth.” (And to be fair: Stede also runs back to the comforts of colonialism when he panics in ep 9. It's not a unique reaction to Izzy.) This means if the writers wanted to, they could write it so Izzy learns something about race at some point. (Maybe he still needs to leave Ed behind to do it, I’m not saying it has to be on the Revenge, because quite frankly as much as I ship steddyhands realistically Ed has every right to end this relationship). He could grow, because the writers have done some groundwork both to discuss his whiteness and how that impacts his interactions with those around him, and to give him motivations and thought processes that are about his own capabilities and class as well as make it exceedingly clear that a lot of the drama in s1 comes from basic, fundamental misunderstandings between him and others. There are a ton of paths for Izzy, in part because the writers have decided to really explore what his whiteness means and aren’t shying away from poking at it while also taking steps to make him fundamentally a guy capable of apologizing to, caring for, and sympathizing with at least the person he’s hurt the most, if not eventually other people like Fang and Ivan.
That said, one possible path to take is that Izzy continues to be ignorant, and doesn’t learn anything. And that’s where my problem lies, because that story?  On its own could be very interesting, but in Our Flag Means Death, it would exist alongside whatever the hell they’re doing with Stede Bonnet.
Again, we’ve seen that Stede engages in some racist thought processes and actions himself. The scene where he thinks indigenous people are cannibals, his potential inability to view the French’s treatment of Ed through anything but a lens of class (this was frankly infuriating to me, I’ve watched this episode multiple times and I still don’t know if he gets it), and, honestly, the stuff we see in episodes 4 & 10 both when we see him in Barbados. There’s really no way around the fact that this guy made money off slavery. Mary refers to him renouncing all claims to his family’s wealth in the finale, she lives outside of town in a complex with a large main house and secondary buildings, Stede himself mentions selling off multiple acres to fund the building of the Revenge early on in the season. He calls himself “landed gentry.” There is literally. No way. That he’s anything but a guy who’s made money off slavery.
And the show chooses to dance around that. You must, actually, in order to make him palatable in any way. He leaves Mary & his kids in good financial standing (meaning they now have colonized land & “wealth,” which in 1717 Barbados means...). He and Mary buck against the norms of gender and sexuality, but nothing really else. He never seems to seriously think about race except in jokey scenes; in the most serious scenes around his life, it’s just sort of not a consideration for him.
And because the writers have crafted Izzy’s “hey this dude’s white and will act white and be shitty about it, but we are deliberately leaving room for him to stop being shitty about it--either so he can stop being shitty, or so that it is that much more tragic when he doesn’t” arc so carefully, Stede kind of. Stands out? To me? As not being nearly as careful? And it’s weird because I do actually like what they’re doing with Izzy so far. But because they have done it, it introduces the concept of a white guy who is ignorant of whiteness, and in a weird roundabout way Stede becomes that guy who meets a person of color, treats them as a social equal, but can’t quite take that relationship and expand his understanding to a broader societal view. 
For me, the writers’ refusal to engage with the character background they’ve given him (which is really not that different from his IRL background) accidentally turns him into the Colorblind White Person Who’s Dating A Person of Color, which, having been that person of color, that’s exhausting. His claim that he’s not a colonizer in the 2nd episode is never really dealt with--like, I’m supposed to think that he grows over time (and he does in a lot of other ways, which makes this choice even weirder), but by the 10th episode his choice to leave his family with his wealth is framed as a gift to them. His wealth is colonizer wealth. Even if he didn’t own slaves (which, this is fine tbh, we don't need to have him own people), the land is stolen land, the money would’ve come from exploitation. It feels awkward to me, especially because they’ve shown they can do a “look at this bastard white mf” storyline that has the potential to be redemptive, and that is also complicated by expectations of masculinity & sexuality, with Izzy.
I don’t know. I am struggling to frame this in a different way, but as of right now I’m willing to see where s2 goes (please let there be a s2) and willing to  keep handwaving things. But the more I think about where Izzy’s story could go, specifically turning him into even more of an antagonist & exploring his ignorance of his own whiteness and how other characters perceive him and his interactions with them very differently than how he would perceive it, I can’t help but wonder how Stede would look standing next to all of that, given what they did or did not do in s1.
Edit: I expanded a bit more on what I see as Stede’s arc wrt whiteness in s1 & why I’m a bit unsure about its future here.
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nadjaandlaszlo · 2 years
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bear with me while I have some thoughts about two scenes/lines that they were absolutely INSANE to include in the same episode
I am, of course, talking about “his name is Blackbeard or Captain” VS “his name is Ed”
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I’m sure tons of people have already talked about these two moments from episode 10 but I’m new to the fandom and having thoughts and am physically incapable of NOT writing this entire post <3
So firstly, Izzy’s aggressive tone VS Stede’s gentle one. This one tiny detail is literally making me insane. Because there’s Izzy, thinking he’s doing the right thing, building Ed up, keeping him in his position as a commander as always. He’s being harsh and aggressive because that’s what he’s like, that’s what the Ed he knows is like, that’s what he’s used to and he can’t accept that there has been a pretty dramatic change. I believe Izzy truly does care about Ed, but his way of showing that is through putting him on a pedestal, making him untouchable, putting down everyone else around him. He tries to show his care through his actions and his determination. He does not see Ed as his equal, only ever as his superior.
Then there’s Stede’s softness. Soft voice, soft expression, soft everything. He never once tries to put Ed in some godlike position of worship - sure, like the rest of the crew there’s admiration for the world’s greatest pirate, but he always treats Ed like an equal. He shows his love for Ed in this one sentence, through these few little words in a way that Izzy never could. It’s the equality Stede shows Ed that is the biggest sign of their love, and it’s this understanding of him that makes Stede’s “his name is…” so much more meaningful than Izzy’s. Izzy has respect for Ed, sure, and he loves him in one way or another - but he will never, could never, love and understand him the soft, subtle, equal way that Stede does.
It’s also about Stede knowing Ed better than Izzy does too, I suppose. It’s Stede’s understanding of Ed, even after such a short time of knowing him, that leads him to be so much softer, so much more personal, so much more human.
Then there’s what happens directly after each of these lines, and oh boy, this is where I lose my mind.
Directly after Izzy’s line, Ed says that he actually does want to be called Ed. Directly after Stede’s line, Ed pushes Lucius off the boat. Both of these are direct contradictions of what both of them think about Ed and they throw EVERYTHING into question.
Izzy’s line and Ed’s response are a clear indication of the change Stede’s departure has had on Ed. It shows this emotional side of him, out in full force unlike we’ve ever seen it before. It shows how willing and ready Ed was to move on, how much he wants to leave Blackbeard behind, how much was really resting on his relationship with Stede. It shows how vulnerable he’s become, dropping every act and pretence, being the Ed that only Stede knew in front of everyone. It’s this that gives Stede’s “his name is…” so much weight, because up until then we think the same - his name is Ed, that’s what he wants, that’s who he’s discovered himself as.
But then Stede says his line and the next shot is Ed pushing Lucius off the boat. A total u-turn. Because Stede’s recognition of what love is, his acceptance and readiness to be with Ed forever - it’s all come too late. Suddenly we have to question whether this understanding Stede has means anything at all, whether Izzy’s “his name is…” is actually more accurate, whether Edward Teach is really Stede’s version or Izzy’s version or someone neither of them truly know. So sure, “his name is Ed” means everything to Stede, but everything it meant to Ed is erased the very next moment.
Which is why they were absolutely insane to include these two lines so close because it’s so much to unpack and such a testament to Izzy, Stede, and even Ed himself. It showcases the most fundamental differences between Stede and Izzy, then Ed comes along and throws everything up in the air again. It writes and rewrites so much about what we already know about these characters and their stories in just a few moments and I am very much not okay (in the best way possible).
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epersonae · 2 years
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OFMD FAVE GAME
Thank you for the tag @not-nervous-jester, I'm stuck on both of the things I wanted to write this afternoon so I guess I'll do this instead?
Fave Ed gif:
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Please save this man. (Also I love this outfit so much.)
Fave Stede gif:
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GIF by thyla
Actually, same one as yours Jams; there's a reason this is my icon now, this scene and his expression means literally everything to me, evokes something very personal and special. (I want to see him in S2 with this face but also wearing something ridiculously fancy)
Fave S2 Headcanon: here's the thing. I am fully prepared to be completely surprised by what happens in the actual show. I love the speculation, and yes, I am writing an entire post-S1 fic, but I don't think anything in it is likely to actually happen in the show??? (I'm just running down some ideas that wouldn't let me go.) So really the only thing left is LUCIUS LIVES, because I really do believe that killing his character fundamentally changes the nature of the show in a way that I don't think they'd do.
Fave Blackbonnet song: I was building what ended up being my fic playlist, and Tidal suggested Thank You by Led Zeppelin, and honestly it's perfect.
Fave OFMD Fic Trope: I should make a list as some point lol, but goddamn I love a good Ed POV canon pining fic, they're always so wild and funny and dramatic.
Ed's hair or Stede's hair: so, Ed's hair: the day that I realized that the girl I was madly in love with in college and never did quite get together with (despite being embedded in a sort-of-polycule that needed wholeass diagrams to explain to my therapist at the time) had uhhhhh very much hair like Ed's, as did my high school/college boyfriend (who was also part of aforementioned diagram) and wow it's true there is something about that, huh? (as it happens, I could almost certainly end up with hair like Stede's given the right stylist. it looks fantastic on him and would look like a goddamn grandma on me.)
Longest you've gone between rewatches: I think the last month I've mostly been watching one episode on repeat every few days, which episode depending on which chapter of Hungry for love, waiting to drown I've been working on, and I've been kind of itching to do a full rewatch, actually. (am I going to do it during Sad Week specifically for the catharsis? maaaaaaaaybe?)
Hiding in the ship Lucius vs. Ghost Lucius: por que no los dos? (also I'm always entertained by Lucius pretending to be a ghost while hiding in the ship)
Fave Revenge Crew Member: they're all so fucking good, but lately I've been kind of obsessed with Frenchie.
Tags: @emi--rose @sassygwaine @mxmollusca @deadofxnight
And ofc anyone else, have fun!
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edwardbonnets · 2 years
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OUR FLAG MEANS DEATH 1x08 - We Gull Way Back
bonus:
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