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ladyluscinia · 8 months

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Organizing my thoughts on OFMD 2x01 - 2x03

Strong start to a season. I really enjoy the black comedy aspect of the show, and the "all these people are kinda terrible" aspect, so win for me! The opening scene gave me a lot of thoughts. Actually, lots of stuff gave me thoughts that I'm gonna dump here (as I rewatch the episodes since I spent the first go around whooping and cheering more than paying attention to details lol) so I can start picking through them more coherently.

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Ok, first. OHMYGOD EDWARD AND IZZ- *I am yanked off the stage* Ahem. BlackHands thoughts will go into a different post, so as not to overwhelm the many other things going on worth discussing. (Link to post)

So. Real first point:

Kraken Era

Big thing I was absolutely wrong about was how dark Edward's Kraken arc would go. I was counting on a very handwavy resolution that would still let him do some fucked up shit, but I expected it to be mostly externally directed violence that toed up to a potential line but didn't quite cross it. Reminiscent of Flint's vengeance rampage after Miranda is killed. Self-destructive harm but only tangential harm of others in your social sphere.

That is... we did not get that. But what we did get I am very here for.

I'll be honest - I wasn't sure they were bold enough in a romcom to blast right over the line into horrifying and then be so audacious it looped back to funny, but they did. And I think the tone is working for them so far. Big saving grace is they went way further with Edward's cruelty but they counterbalanced it by going way further with the suicidal themes, which made the whole situation more extreme and sympathetic. He should still probably apologize tho.

The Breakup Boat

Frenchie my beloved! Also Fang & Jim & Archie & Izzy! Literally the breakup boat is a resounding success all around and I adore every second of their fucked up trauma bonding. Win after win after win.

Frenchie is repression king and it's hilarious. I love how he gets named first mate for presumably being the only one who sounds plausibly honest when getting interrogated, tries to turn the job down, and then doesn't follow a single order while vibing. Also the bonding with Izzy?!? He's steps in during the intervention. He hides him after Edward shoots him, and then later he's checking in on him and leaning against his leg in the cell. Please Frenchie get all up in that Edward and Izzy mess!

And I'm trying not to turn this into a breakup boat recap but also Fang sobbing through basically every scene. The wooden boy story. Jim's terrible voices. Izzy hiding in the walls. "He's our dick" to "He was your friend" holy fuckkkkkk. And the whole mutiny scene was amazing. Jim saying fuck this toxic bullshit and Izzy saving them all!!! (Sidenote: love how all the nameless extras got washed overboard in the storm. More bodycount!)

The tearing into a seagull like zombies scene - perfect. Archie recognizing Stede (did they tell her about Stede in hushed whispers or was it literally just Izzy's singular statement?). All backing each other up on the "retirement" story. Izzy taking the blame to motivate Stede in trying to defend the crew again.

Trauma bonding WIN!

Also sympathetic Izzy has been real forever despite misreads of S1 and the mistaken predictions they spawned, but once again... Izzy!!!

BlackBonnet "On A Break"

They are idealizing each other so fucking hard. Also Stede what on earth are you talking about in the first episode??? "He's just blowing off some steam." "I'm afraid that your life is better without me?" MY GUY are you reading that list of what Edward has been up to??? Denial so strong.

So we have Stede still full of self-loathing and simultaneously convinced Ed couldn't want him but also avoiding the realization that he hurt him really bad because Ed wanted him. And we have Edward actively suicidal over feeling unlovable and determined to murder-suicide his situationship and the kids, except he can't kill himself so he's trying to make everyone else do it.

(And, you know, Edward is very pointedly refusing to see how the people around him would care for and support him if he would let them - even when they straight up offer it to his face - because he is more concerned with the misery of his own twisted narrative about being fundamentally unlovable than whether or not that is a true statement. Stede doesn't want him and everyone else is just a prop for his depression's final act. Very "I don't have any friends" of him - shoutout to that flashback in his purgatory sequence too.)

Edward's self-loathing throwing him into the water, but Edward starting to save himself well before merman!Stede shows up. Because he does, deep down, want to live with or without Stede. Very strong. Like that. Also the idealization on Edward's end of envisioning Stede as a legit magical being of golden scales??? Fuck, you two need to get some perspective.

Stede's Crew

Trauma Lucius I was not counting on, but Lucius going from BlackBonnet supporter to FUCK YOU STEDE was fun. Also Stede offering to be supportive and then immediately trying to nope right out.

Sea Witch Buttons!!!!!! We're going to get naked Buttons charging into a scene screaming about how he's a seagull or something, aren't we?

Confirmation that Oluwande can't read in the funniest way. Well I guess on reflection the scrolls are probably in Chinese so reading wouldn't help, so maybe this point is null.

I did like the note of Stede knowing "The Soul Reaper's" real name. Piracy hyperfixation bonus.

JimOlu vs JimArchie... If we get another poly ship then I'm calling SteddyHands real. I'm just saying.

Oluwande taking initiative to step up and flex his boytoy powers to advocate diplomatically for the crew - very Captain material of him. Also conveniently doubled as a distraction so he was essential to the plan. Go Olu!

Antagonists New and Old!

Spanish Jackie was a treat. I enjoy that she still hates Stede. The Swede literally became a new man by marrying her. AND WE SAW THE HUSBANDS!

Prince Ricky is so far just kind of a shady classist scumbag - presumably that's going somewhere.

Zheng Yi Sao on the other hand... interested what's happening with this whole armada plan she's apparently enacting. The whole Olu boytoy arc was fun. I'm not as into the whole "girlboss" approach to every single female character in this show so far, so, uh, concerned about that. Hoping for more exploration of how she's doing Stede's version of piracy but what exactly is off about it? Because so far there's no real reason to resist her, other than maybe the whole "I didn't conquer China by listening to pirates ramble about their feelings" bit.

Hornigold. Yeah, I know he was a subconscious manifestation of Edward's self-loathing but I still have hope. "Last time I saw you, you said you were gonna flay my skin and feed it back to me." Does that not sound like a great foreshadowing for S3???

#our flag means death #ofmd s2 spoilers #ofmd s2 #breakup boat #frenchie ofmd #zheng yi sao ofmd #ofmd 2x01 #ofmd 2x02 #ofmd 2x03 #ladyluscinia

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orionsangel86 · 7 months

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Welp. Okay I watched the last episode of ofmd.

To sum up my thoughts on this season I will say that whilst I enjoyed it and felt the love and passion and respect for its queer fanbase throughout, it didnt hit me the same way the first season did. It felt like maybe a little bit of that season 1 magic was missing and for that I very much blame Max's cutting off 2 episodes and slashing the budget. They had a lot of story they wanted to tell that would have worked so much better in 10 episodes.

I consider the last 3 episodes of season 1 some of the best TV I have seen in my life. From the use of The Chain in ep 8, through the dramatic highs and lows of eps 9 and 10 it was edge-of-your-seat drama and I was in awe at the creators that put it together. But one of the reasons why those 3 eps were so good is because the drama and the pivotal moments were given time to breath.

If those 3 eps were given the same lack of time and budget as season 2, no doubt they all would have been crammed into 1 episode and it would not have had the same impact.

If anything that last episode should have played out across two, with Izzy's death being the half way point and cliffhanger ending leading to a final battle and somewhat happy resolution.

I'm not mad at Izzy's death. If anyone was gonna die, it was gonna be him. His status as Blackbeards enabler and sometimes mentor is over. For Ed to truly be free, I think Izzy always had to go. From a storytelling perspective it makes perfect sense, even though I am sure a lot of fans are absolutely heartbroken about it.

Another casualty of the reduced screentime meant certain original cast members weren't given anywhere near the amount of screentime they should have had. I was expecting a lot more focus on Jim as they were basically the third lead of s1 due to them getting the same backstory as Ed and Stede. All of the crew appear to have had drastically reduced parts which does feel like a big loss to me.

Its funny actually, OFMD S2 suffered from the opposite problem to GOS2. OFMD had too much story to tell in a limited timeframe, GOS2 had very little story to tell outside of the flashbacks and probably too much time given to it. Both shows season 2s suffered from tremendously bad pacing issues.

Also, the one thing the final episode made so obvious to me, is the uncertainty of getting a s3 renewal. It is so clear in the way they tried to wrap things up in a happy bow as best they could, so that if they do get cancelled it leaves fans at least somewhat satisfied. I hate this though. I hate that studios are so fickle and ruthless that creators have to gamble with good quality writing and avoid cliffhangers because of asshole executives who dont actually care about the stories.

Because of the fast pacing, and the fear of cancellation, it felt more like a rush happy ending instead of a part way point in a bigger story, with important character development still to come. Perhaps I need more time to absorb the story in a full rewatch, but im not exactly itching for more at this point, whilst also not really being satisfied with what I got either. I wish we had left Ed and Stede in at least some minor peril, like have them captured and threatened with hanging but at least in a good place romantically, so that we can start speculating about what kind of escape plan they will come up with in season 3. Leaving them in a dilapidated old inn somewhere just felt wrong to me. Instead of ending the season with the stakes sky high (like season 1) it feels like they left season 2 with zero stakes at all, instead of at least a happy medium. At this point we should be turning to fanfiction and wondering what happens next, but instead I'm left thinking "okay then. That was good. What can I watch next?" I don't need to bury myself in fanfic and fanart to feed the hyperfixation this time around, and that is where I feel the most loss.

I'm sure others will have hugely different reactions to me though. Perhaps my expectations were too high? Perhaps my GO obsession just isn't leaving room for OFMD this time? But then again, I think if GOS2 hadn't ended the way it did, I wouldn't still be so obsessed with that either.

Sigh. I dunno. It was a good fun show and will no doubt still be hugely popular with devoted fans, but for me I just can't say it cast the same spell over me as it did last year.

#ofmd #ofmd spoilers #ofmd s2 #ofmd s2 spoilers #perhaps my feelings will change after a rewatch #i hope so #i just wish they could have had the extra two episodes to stretch out the story

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ourflagmeansgayrights · 1 year

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i'm cry laughing some people on twitter are now saying "izzy bashing" needs to be tagged in fics. how did these people ever survive watching this show where izzy is the CANON ANTAGONIST i'll never know

benefit of the doubt but i think most of them have gotten to this point gradually. when they first watched the show they were not attached to izzy the way they are now. i know for a lot of people it was blorbo at first sight with izzy but i've also seen izzy enjoyers say they didn't like him at first, and then fandom made them care about him.

like i'm pretty sure for a lot of ppl it started off with isolating themselves from ppl who made posts that they didnt like, like ppl who criticized ofmd for being based on two real people with direct connections to actual real-world slave trade (which is an incredibly valid thing to criticize abt ofmd).

another one that i think funneled a lot of fans towards being so delusionally attached to izzy was people pointing out or complaining about the disproportionate amount of fan content for izzy compared to prominent characters of color—which is a consistent issue in fandom no matter what the media, and is also a very easy one for people to be uncomfortable with whenever they see it get pointed out. people venting that "fans care too much abt this white man" often make fans who care abt that white man very defensive right off the bat, and then rather than engage with why they feel defensive or question if maybe their enjoyment of this character is fueled by implicit bias (which it might not be, to be clear! im not saying—and i have never said—that everyone who enjoyes izzy likes him for racist reasons), they stop listening to the conversation abt white favoritism and continue blorboposting as much as they want. it's incredibly easy for fans to brush off this convo as "just starting drama" and avoid the topic altogether because "fandom is for fun!" and they dont want to think abt difficult topics like racism and implicit bias, they just want to enjoy their blorbos in peace.

so they kept narrowing the takes they were seeing until they were in an echo chamber that kept moving more and more towards complete woobification of izzy hands. these people are now looking at the show entirely through izzy's pov, making posts abt how sad it is that none of the other characters are ever nice to him, how frustrating the show is from his perspective, how it feels to be deeply in love with someone who doesn't love you back. they've stared at gifs of con's micro-expressions and read angsty fanfiction and looked at endless izzy fanart and their entire ofmd fandom experience revolves around empathizing with this one character even tho the show itself continually makes him the butt of the joke.

at this point, telling these people to rewatch the show doesn't even matter. they've spent so much time over-analyzing every single one of izzy's scenes to the point where the emotional responses they get from these scenes are not the emotional responses anyone would have watching the show for the first time. they've warped the entire first season to fit their version of the show and are forgetting how often the show itself bashes izzy.

and the icing on the cake is the trolling. there's like, one or two people on here who go around sending anon hate and leaving nasty comments on instagram posts and harassing people on twitter for... like, i would say "for liking izzy" or even "for saying positive things about izzy" but like. i've gotten these messages, and the most sympathetic i've ever been to izzy was the post i made like "maybe he's mean bc he has chronic IBS. i'd actually understand him more if that were the case." so when i get these messages it's easier for me to just laugh them off bc it's so obviously just someone trying to make me upset, but people who do care about izzy (a lot of them being the same people who avoided engaging with the "why does fandom care so much abt white characters" convo) get these absolutely horrible messages about how they deserve to get hate crimed and they should kill themselves. and these fans who didn't want to even see vaguely negative posts abt izzy bc they just want to enjoy fandom in peace are now like "im targeted for just liking a character!"

so that's how we get to people saying that "izzy bashing" needs to be tagged. never mind that their definition of "bashing" almost certainly includes things that are not bashing but are just things that contradict the way they headcannnon him.

#ask #anon #mine #txt #og #izzy critical #izzy hands #ofmd fandom crit #if this post is in the izcourse tag no it isnt u just dont know how to use tumblr #obligatory Not All Izzy Fans disclaimer #also btw in case anyone tries to come at me with “it's stupid to tell people to pay attention to different characters”:#noticing the disappointing trend of fandom to fixate on white side characters ≠ telling people to stop making izzy content #im not telling individual izzy hands enjoyers to stop paying attention to izzy. there are a lot of reasons why ppl might like izzy #if i interact w someone whose ofmd contribution is primarily pro-izzy my thought is “oh they like antagonists”#not “oh they don't care about characters of color bc they're racist” ok im not gonna jump there without a reason #but on a fandom-wide scale this is a Trend that has happened over and over again in fandom after fandom after fandom #like We Live In A Society bro we can't just pretend white men are always the faves in fandoms just by coincidence #but also tbh if you think im saying that You Personally need to make content for characters of color? and you're getting MAD at me for it??#then ur probs not someone i want making content for those characters lmao. u keep izzyposting to ur heart's content <3 have fun bestie

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m-y--p-a-s-s-i-o-n-s · 1 month

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Last Line Tag Game

Thanks for the tag @saybiwithme :D

I'm actually currently writing, so the last line I wrote before checking Tumblr just now is for an OFMD fic (I did a rewatch the other day, go figure).

If only he’d have done things differently, Stede might’ve been able to avoid hurting more people in his life, especially the man he loved.

tagging: @lizzy0305 @henriettarhippo-hrh @ineffable-ezra

#tag game #<3

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laceratedlamiaceae · 8 months

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Okay, I spent a few days offline, touched some grass, talked to people IRL, rewatched Everything Everywhere All At Once and some old Contrapoints videos to get some perspective, and I was able to emotionally distance myself from the show enough to rewatch it. Long rambly thoughts below:

I tried going in with the intention of feeling sympathetic for Ed. Needless to say that didn't happen, but I was able to watch his scenes without literally feeling like I was going to throw up, so that's progress I guess. I understand what they're going for with him, but I'm fundamentally uninterested in stories centering the feelings of abusive men over those of their victims. That was obviously how things were going to go, seeing as he's one of the two main characters, and I should have braced myself more for that going into it, but I didn't and as a result I kind of lost it.

I have some hope that they're not just going to have him be forgiven immediately (or at all, honestly) at the end of the season--that would be fine in another show, but not in this one after the direction they've already taken it--but to be honest I've completely lost all my respect for the writers of this show and the story they're trying to tell. In the abstract sense I can get the appeal of the message that even people at their lowest are capable of healing and are worthy of love and care, but the specifics of how it's being handled in this show don't work for me.

Taking a step back from the fandom has also helped me realize that engaging so much with it wasn't good for me; even with every possible variant of "edward teach" added to my filtered tags, I kept seeing posts sympathizing with him and I just don't want to see that--I think a lot of my over-the-top hatred is just a reaction to seeing so much over-the-top love for him; watching the show with some distance from all of that, I was able to just be vaguely annoyed and disinterested by Ed instead of, again, feeling literally sick (seriously. when I first watched the episodes I actually felt queasy at all the bits trying to cultivate sympathy for him). It was kind of a bummer to add "ofmd" to my filters, and I'm sure I've missed out on some cool posts, but overall it's been really good for me. I'm still going to be posting about Izzy and all the other characters I love, but I'm going to do my best to avoid other people's posts.

I think in general I just need to take a different perspective to this show. Instead of seeing it as a great show that I'm a fan of, even if there are some elements I dislike, I'm going to try looking at it like a set of dolls where I can play with the ones I like (which is most of them) and throw everything I don't like (Ed) in the trash. I'm also going to try not spending like 10 hours a day making gifs and scrolling through tumblr, I feel like that might help lol

#ofmd #rambling

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kingsofgaytham · 1 year

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i have finished my ofmd rewatch and yes i'm happy i did it cause my love for this show and its cast grew even more since i noticed so many tiny details or background subplots i missed the first time, the whole cravat exchange between Stede and Ed...but now my heart breaks even more for them, especially poor Edward, manipulated by Izzy and pushed to his limits where he once again puts on the persona he detests but this time he's also mourning the life he already envisioned in his head with Stede :((((

their reunion is gonna be so emotional and i hope by the end of season 2 we get to see Ed embrace his true desires (like soft, silk clothes and eating marmalade at the sunrise with his dumb boyfriend) and i'm excited for Stede to finally experience mutual love, not an empty spectacle put on for the society even tho he really needs to work on his thinking and communication skills cause this whole drama could've been avoided if he told Ed he wants to fix things with his family first ANYWAY i'm sure s2 will make me cry and laugh and scream and i can't wait 💜

#also the spoilers/bts from season 2 i've seen have me excited #the dancing shot with roach and fang????#i need to see end and stede dance in matching outfists okay #they better meet and make up/make out in the first half of the season #my bet personally is ep 3/4 #they're gonna be so gentle and soft with each other please #let ed have fine things aka his boyfriend #also i imagine stede will find the red silk drifting in the sea and bring it back to edward #lucius and black pete reunion is also gonna be one of the top moments i can tell #also the flag with two skeletons seen on the clapperboards is giving co-captains #also also i feel like ed pushed lucius because he's the one that first made him notice stede's affection #it was lucius who consoled ed and saw him at his most vulnerable (crying over stede)#lucius is also the one in a happy gay relationship and he doesn't hide his love for pete #which is something ed craves for himself with stede #lucius was kind of a catalyst for gentlebeard because he made ed realise his feeling for stede are not only valid but might be reciprocated #anyways i have many thoughts about ehat happens in season 2 #and even more pirate brainrot #also my spanish got better over the last year because i could actually understand everything lmao #ofmd #our flag means death #stede bonnet #edward teach #the gentleman pirate #blackbeard #gentlebeard #lucius spriggs #black pete #black pete x lucius spriggs #one last thing izzy is a dick and i hope he sees ed and stede's happiness and eats his other toe

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fangirleaconmigo · 2 years

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Ive been meaning to rewatch ofmd for a couple days too... the show and the fic/meta have such different tones (which is fair and good most of the time) that Ive caught myself getting too deep into the various wank threads and Ive forgotten!! What the show is like to experience!!! There's a balance of comedy and dark shit in the show that is just not there in the fandom experience if that makes sense? Would like to revisit the show and see more clearly what gets distorted over time exposed only to fanon. Five hours of peace are hard to come by though

Hi Anon,

Hola! Thanks for the ask! I absolutely love being in the Our Flag Means Death fandom in the broader sense. I went to an OFMD fandom meetup at SDCC (Idk if you saw the pics) and it was super fun. I even dressed up in an homage to Spanish Jackie for my first cosplay ever XD

But, I have avoided the online OFMD fandom like the plague.

The first OFMD twitter thread I went on (I KNOW better than to read qrts for 'unpopular opinions' I KNOW better but sometimes I'm dumdum and I do anyway) was just a long line of people being so insufferable my brain almost leaked out my ear. Nonny, I turned and ran.

The show is just so joyful and absurd, I don't want to ruin that!

So, I have not read meta. I have only read two fics and they were one shots by witcher writers I already sub to. I even have two OFMD character names muted on like every platform I'm on.

As much as I adore all the good things about fandom, it can be exhausting knowing about all the online feuds, critiques, and controversies. I only have the energy to interact with one fandom like that, and I've already fallen into the witcher, so I'm full up. It's like how I feel about being the mother of one child. I love being a mom. But one is enough. lmao

So I will rewatch the show in ignorant bliss for the most part.

But, I will say, if anyone has any OFMD fandom stuff that's absolutely amazing that you think I need to see and you want to feed it to me directly so I don't have to see all the wank, I'll happily accept and enjoy it.

#our flag means death #ofmd

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fresne999 · 2 years

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Finished Frenchie Fic and Thoughts on Same

I have finished posting "Gentle Man Frenchie: An English Frenchman and How He Became a Pyrate", a possible version of Frenchie's background story fanfic.

And now for some of the background on the background fic/thinking that went into it and by implication some meta about Frenchie.

One of the things I love about OFMD is how the diverse cast each give a sense of fully realized backstories and characterizations. Even if we don't know what those backstories are. There's no one character who is all one thing and that's really fun. I vacillate on which character I find the most interesting depending on what episode I'm rewatching, but given how often I revisit Ep5, TBRiDW, I decided to focus on Frenchie for a bit.

To be honest I was, and wasn't, surprised at how little Frenchie centric fic is out there. Fandom being what it is and all. But, shrugs, I wanted to do my part in filling some of that gap. Aka, I've written a lot of stories for really obscure fandoms over the years.

We get all sorts of tantalizing (and sometimes contradictory) clues about our bard Frenchie's backstory. Aided in a lot of ways by Joel Fry's fantastic acting and expressions. Just consider the pained expression on his face when one of the naval officers calls him a slave in the pilot, which precipitates Jim taking violent action. This is something this man has been dealing with his entire life and he's just tired. The whole bodied joy he takes in blowing things up with Wee John. The world weariness with which he tells Lucius that the world isn't all that. His whole hearted belief in some fairly sketchy "science". The quick readiness with which he pulls together the pyramid scheme. He was in service for "a minute."

Now as it happens because all that is a mess of who knows, I have several head cannons for Frenchie's backstory. The story above represents just one of them.

The first thing I thought when I saw Frenchie go to pyramid scheme mode was about "Moll Flanders", which for those not familiar is a 1700s book by Daniel Dafoe that falls into the early novel genre of "found dairies" where Moll (not her actual name) recounts her life story. Going from being born in Newgate prison, raised by a nurse paid by town magistrates to raise children up until age 8, at which point they will go off and become servants. Moll (going by Miss Betty - a name for servants at first) is convinced that she is meant for better things and through charm, force of will, and luck gets what she wants.

Sometimes she goes about this by sex/being a mistress. Sometimes through marriage. Sometimes con artistry. Sometimes theft. All with this very matter of fact manner for some increasingly hardened activities. When the repentance portion of the story comes, well, let's just say Moll avoids hanging with a lie and a bribe, and manages to save the only man she cares about.

But back to Frenchie, since Moll was both a servant and a con artist, I wanted to tie his life story in with hers. The timing doesn't quite work, but, shrug, OFMD.

At first I was thinking of having him born in Newgate prison as Moll's son, but in that case Moll would already be deported to the colonies, though again bribery means she lands on her feet. Then it occurred to me that it worked much better to make Frenchie Moll's son by one of the few marks/men who she actually cares for, Jemy, her Lancaster husband/highwayman/final husband.

Since we get two names for Moll, Moll Flanders (a reference to a low class woman + prostitutes from Flanders / fabric) and Miss Betty, I decided that (for this story at least) her actual name was Elizabeth, which made it natural to make Frenchie's given name (because he is so not French) Francis. Riffing off the Queen Elizabether & Francis Drake, privateer thing, and being similar to the name he ends up with.

Having him blurt out the France as where he's from thing both riffs off all the, "But where are you from?" tropes and serves as his first example of the con artist lie leading to something else. It's also a bit of a riff of the play "The Foreigner" by Larry Shue in which an Englishman (though I think it's best when the casting makes the character a POC) pretends not to speak English while staying in the American South and racism shenanigans ensues.

I went back and forth a bit on who would be the brown parent, but it worked best for Moll. i.e., I didn't want to play into a stereotype of the absent/abandoning black father. Also, in Moll's career as a thief she tends to blend into the crowd, so in a way she's the opposite of Susan.

Oh, and this change also meant that like OFMD itself with Blackbeard (and the negative space where the source of Stede's wealth would be), err…I'm avoiding some of the more racist/acceptance of enslavement bits from the original books. It also meant that I could play the Moll finally meets Frenchie scene in a certain way that resolved that element of the character arc, but allows Frenchie to an emotional state that needs some slow piracy when the series begins.

Doesn't mean I couldn't fanon that at some point, post S1.10, Elizabeth/Moll goes, "Wait, that's what's going on? I am really too old for this. Hey, Spanish Jacquie, you owe me. Let's sail," shenanigans ensue. If I decided to write that. Seriously, I have a file with about 40 story ideas and every time I write something, two more stories takes its place. Why won't my job pay me to write fanfic instead of...what I actually write?

But speaking of Susan, another book by Daniel Dafoe is "Roxana: A fortunate Mistress". Well, okay like all 1700s books, the actual title is much longer, but lets just go with it. About a woman named Roxana, but whose given name is Susan. She has a constant companion named Amy, her servant. Her career path is much more (as the title implies) as a kept woman, and occasional wife. Like Moll she has many children, the first five of which she has with her first husband. The book ends strangely with Young Susan confronting her mother, demanding to be recognized, which jeopardizes the life Susan has built and it's implied that Amy (or maybe Susan) killed her to keep her quiet. We're told that Roxana/Susan is taken down later, but aren't shown these events.

Which on one hand killing your own kid is a bit grim, but it set up a few things for me structurally.

By introducing Susan (who in the books in a very white lady appropriative way wears turbans and does "turkish" dancing), I had a way to get Frenchie out of a life in service and into a sort of apprenticeship in con artistry. While allowing some of those experiences to match some of the world weariness we so often see from him. Making Susan a sweet on the surface but amoral cold blooded killer, in a very Cathy Ames from Steinbeck's "East of Eden" way, sets up Frenchie's concern when he finally does meet his mother that she'll kill him. Because, well, he's seen a mother kill her daughter to keep her secrets.

It did take a little bit of jiggering to decide where Susan to Young Susan showdown would take place. In the novel, Susan has married and moved to the Netherlands (and is now a Countess). So she does have something to lose. A roving con artist has a bit less to lose if confronted by a daughter, given they could just pull up stakes and go elsewhere. I considered having everything go down at a house party at an estate, but there were just a few too many balls to juggle. So off to Brighton they went. Also it made it easier to have Frenchie be impressed into the navy.

There was a brief period in plotting where I kept having Frenchie ping ponging back to one of the Brother's S, and actually going off to China with a missionary/cleric youngest Brother S, but decided to cut it for some sense of brevity. Though that's why Lord S #3 runs off with his male secretary.

Speaking of the S family, it's very much a thing in Moll Flanders that you don't find out characters' names. There's the governess, the banker, the fill in the blank. Only a few people get names. I wanted to play into that by making all the upper class people have single letter names. They think of Frenchie as beneath them, so he / the narrator doesn't name them.

It was also a bit of a choice to make this Third Person Omniscient, if limited in scope to Frenchie's POV/perspective. But since Frenchie doesn't write, it made a certain amount of sense. Though I also wanted to play with the narrator is only somewhat omniscient. i.e., bringing up things that Frenchie himself might know in hindsight (or for that matter Moll might suss if he told her what happened), but not necessarily going into things like, yes, Susan was planning on killing Frenchie when they went for the little walk, hiding the loot (at an easy to find spot in the middle of nowhere), and claiming he did all the theft.

OFMD has this very defined style, where it's absurdist, which is how we can have so many violent things going on while being a comedy. Part of that is the almost magic-ness.

Frenchie is afraid of witches. It might make sense for him to be raised by a woman who he thinks was a witch. A woman who, at certain points in history, would have been considered a witch. That he buys into the whole cats steal your breath legend. But would be a way to deal emotionally with the high rate of infant/child mortality. Particularly in a small house full of only sort of well fed children in close quarters.

But, well, Buttons talks to seagulls and the tenders can cross vast stretches of ocean in short periods of time. It's a world where be careful what you ask your God, she might answer. The sea being in contrast to the land where God sets a fate in stone. The ocean is literally fluid. Frenchie's beliefs are absurd, but the world is absurd.

The naval academy house owes to a few things. One, I needed Frenchie to get a place in service in a household that was a bit loosey goosey. Not an ideal situation, but a job where there'd be a natural way to become a valet and go off into service for a decade so I could age the character up a bit. As the actor is in his late thirties. Also, I've been to Greenwich and the museum / observatory there.

The academy also allowed me to introduce the concept that yes the British Navy allows for various levels of society to become officers, but the upper class was much more likely to rise to the higher ranks. Which if I ever write an Izzy backstory would tell a story of just that. Though, Izzy is hardly ill served when it comes to the number of stories written about him, so perhaps not. I'm more likely to write a Lucius backstory since he both knows how to read and was a pickpocket, which is a delightful contradiction. So, when / if I write that, he'll be part of Lottie's (now all grown up) gang.

But back to the navy, having the academy section also meant I had those concepts in place for when Frenchie ends up impressed into the English navy, and in place for him to a) be at sea, b) not that great a sailor but then it's not really a choice for him, c) in position to become a pirate.

He sings about loving the pirate life. Like the rest of the crew only seems to be sort of suited to it. Though, I agree his flag is bad ass.

As to Wee John, I ship Wee John and Frenchie. They are adorbs together.

The roommates. The blowing up things. Which sweet explosions I thought about going into gunpowder, making black powder and how to make larger purple explosions with turkey deworming crystals, but decided it was a bit much in the way of researching what people knew about pyrotechnics at the time.

Back to the relationship, they are so cute.

But I also like to think of Frenchie as ace. Sweet, adorkably, bard playing his lute (about loot) ace, but not aromantic. Since this is a Fenchie backstory and not an AU to OFMD, they couldn't really resolve any sort of romantic ness, but I decided to set up a series of meet cute moments at very awkward times (plus the month in the ruined fake castle) so they could establish a connection / blow something up, and a reason for Frenchie to want to settle down for some slow piracy and get to know Wee John better.

Come to think of it, at some point I might write a Wee John background story, because wee giant man and son of a seamstress is ripe for fic-ing. Though a torture loving chef, our friend Roach, could use some love too. Argh, and I would like to go another round (modern this time) with some gentlebeard. Sigh, so many ideas. Not enough time.

Anyway, there you go. Sorta meta by way of why did I write things a certain way for a Frenchie backstory, but meta these days is a very flexible term.

To season 2 we go sailing.

#our flag means death #ofmd #ofmd fanfic #ofmd frenchie #ofmd meta #ofmd frenchie meta #OFMD frenchie pov fic

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piraphysornis · 8 months

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alright i finished my s1 rewatch! i'm also gonna liveblog season 2 in a bit, which will be tagged both "s2 liveblog tag" "ofmd2 spoilers" and "ofmd s2e[number]" so please block those tags to avoid any spoilers.

#s1 liveblog tag #captains orders

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madzilla84 · 2 years

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new fandom smell

might as well talk about this here a bit huh!! otherwise this would be a LOT of tweets

(ofmd) (major spoilers) (long) (emotional) (not clickbait)

So there's no real fascinating backstory here - I saw the internet (and more importantly, my friends) losing their collective shit over Our Flag Means Death, and if my experience with Yuri on Ice taught me anything, I knew it would be something I'd end up liking - which was precisely why I was avoiding it a bit, somewhat unwilling to hand over my brain on a silver platter. I also hadn't watched What We Do In The Shadows or anything like that (I will, sometime), but then unexpectedly last week we watched the pilot during one of our phannie caracal watch sessions and well. That was the end for me, goodbye, game over. (If you wanna watch/rewatch the show too we've only watched the pilot so far; well we watched ep 2 yesterday but we're rewatching it tomorrow for those that couldn't make it)

Immediately obsessed. I 'acquired' the rest of the episodes through a very appropriately-named website (it's not yet available legitimately in the UK) and watched them all on Sunday evening (I was just gonna watch 1 or 2 to begin with, hahaha idiot) and I was Done For. It was sadder than I was expecting but I'm actually not completely sad about it because - you know what, we'll get to that later.

I knew a little bit about the real Stede Bonnet (and have since refreshed my memory, especially after discovering one of my fave youtubers Internet Historian made a feature-length video about his life a couple of years ago that I had somehow missed, YAY), courtesy of my late teens/early 20s pirate phase (didn't we all have one), mainly because I was 19 when the first Pirates of the Caribbean movie came out and I was o b s e s s e d. Anyway of course for all things pirates we must consult the ancient texts:

(Remember these?? I had all of these books. Dragonology was probably my favourite)

And yes, they're in it:

But anyway, yeah. Getting sidetracked. I mentioned YoI earlier and I brought it up because this feels quite a bit like when I finished watching that (I watched it during its run, but towards the end). It was such a nice, happy, positive feeling, just sort of - joyful that this thing exists and that I got to see it, and diving headfirst into all the theories and amazing art and gifs and wailing and squeeing and what-have-you.

People who are a lot better at wording this sort of thing than me have posted amazing things about how and why it's such great and important queer/POC representation and how it was such an antithesis to the queerbaiting we're all so used to, so I won't go too much into that, but I just loved everything - the acting, the writing, the music (day 3, still can't listen to perfect day without crying, i'm fine though, really, honestly, just fine), the characters, the cast, the fanart, the memes, it's just. It's really, really great, and it's a nice feeling to be so thoroughly brainrotted by something I'm enjoying so much. I haven't been grabbed by something new like this for quite a few years now (since getting into dnp in 2018, maybe?), so it's just. You all know how the New Fandom Smell is, it's the best.

I mentioned that I wasn't too sad at the way it ended and, well, obviously that isn't entirely accurate, it was totally heartbreaking - but like, when it *did* end I found myself feeling - excited? Also very sad obviously, because it was sad, but ... I find that I trust the writers and showrunner to take it to a good place, in the end (which is a weird and new and unique feeling), and the journey to get there might be a bit painful (it already is) but that's gonna make it so much sweeter when we finally get there. And that angsty and beautiful journey is gonna be so fuckin good!!

All of that is assuming, if course, that the show continues and that they get to tell the story they want to tell, which, COME ON, it has to. But you never know, I suppose, and of course if that doesn't end up being the case it would change how I feel about it a lot - where we left off was a wonderful place to leave off, there's so much promise and potential, but as an ending it would be pretty unsatisfying and sad, so. We shall see, I guess, but I'm hopeful. Maybe I'm just being a clown, as per usual... (I am here on tumblr dot gov, after all.)

anyway i could go on forever so i'll wrap it up with some random bulletpoints:

The Swede is precious and must be protected

I don't think for a moment that Lucius is dead; fully willing to eat my words but I just don't think so. I don't know if he'll turn up right away or after an absence but i DO know it will be funny. And the tension will be Pete dealing with his idol trying to kill his boyfriend, and of course however Stede feels about it

They separated all the couples at the end (Jim on the ship, Lucius and Stede wherever), which means so many reunion scenes; sad or not that is my favourite shit I cannot WAITTTTT

Obviously fell in love with Taika Waititi; yeah yeah I know the internet has been in love with him for years, but somehow I have managed to get this far in my life without seeing anything he's been in or has made, which clearly was an Error, he's delightful and I have no idea how he does that with his eyes, like a damn Pixar character

Beards don't usually do much for me so I have NO idea how Ed managed to be equally hot and beautiful as full-beard leather version and clean-shaven ethereal doe-eyed anime prince version and angery leather facepaint stubble version, hOW

Same with Rhys Darby; not having watched WWDITS I hadn't seen him in anything either (although? I have the vaguest of vague memories of seeing his standup at some point yeeeeeeears ago on TV, though I don't remember anything about it) - obviously since watching the show I've hunted down many a clip of him/them doing interviews both recently and years ago and it's so lovely to see how funny they are and what good friends they are. They have such insane chemistry, and you can tell they love each other (albeit platonically) in real life. But yes, I absolutely loved him/Stede from the first moment, he's so lovely and endearing and it was such a wonderful performance, especially because it wasn't just comedic, it was so full of depth and emotion and *all* of those things were done so brilliantly, by him and Taika and all the cast, really. How is it his *first* lead?? He's amazing! And Stede is just - extremely relatable, to me at least. (And yes, I got him in that 'which character are you' quiz.) Long may he roam. :_)

The cast!! The characters are just amazing, but so are the cast, at least the ones I've encountered so far; I followed David Jenkins on twitter and twitter was like 'would you like to follow these other 12 people' and i was like 'sure i guess' and they're just wonderful so far. Special shout out to Con O'Neill (Izzy) whose twitter seems to be half him retweeting horny fanart and half hating the Tories. Truly iconic.

And Vico Ortiz (Jim) who went to a ren faire with Samba Schutte (Roach) last weekend and cosplayed as Izzy with blue hair XD. And Samba who cooks IRL and actually made the 40-orange cake!! They all seem like very good eggs.

Spanish Jackie do you need to replenish your spouse numbers or-

Me, a twat, trying to figure out who 'Menozes' was before I realised Jackie was talking about the nose jar. ffs XD

There were so SO many good moments actually I would need a whole separate post or 12

the MUSIC fuck MEEEEEE such good music choices! It was actually the song at the end of the first episode (high on a rocky ledge) that left me with the Longing TM to watch the rest of the episodes IMMEDIATELY (as well as, you know, everything else). I already mentioned I can't listen to perfect day without crying now - it was already a beautiful song, but now? And if you listen to the lyrics? Fuck off??? ;_; and the rest, of course. That Spotify playlist's gonna get some action, I think, heh.

I'll stop here partly because it's super late and this is already so long and partly because tungl's text editing is el shit but man. I'm so glad I found this show, so glad they made it. I'm sure I'll have more thoughts to share soon, I have only watched it once through so far but obviously I'm gonna rewatch.

#our flag means death #ofmd #mad.txt #yes i already bought some stickers

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