ANALysis and THEORIES- OFMD EDITION #1
Objective: PROMO GIFS
Time to analyse these bad boys, because I think I may have figured out what they are. They're lines from the show. Each individual little subtext to the official gifs are something which someone will say in the new season, and I'm determined to find out what, when, where and who (I determine that 3/4 would equal success).
I) "I've never seen Blackbeard like this."
This is the same shot from the trailer, possibly either before or after the infamous "Fuck you, Stede Bonnet." However, there may be a Clue in the second shot which may be able to somehow place this on a timeline (not by myself—this has drained my powers). I can't really tell, because of the low quality and high contrasting shadows, whether or not the side of the Stede topper has been smudged with Ed's make-up yet.
It was clear in the teaser when Ed played with the toppers that he'd caressed fake-Stede against his cheek as if he were some rather exquisite cashmere because of the smudges, but we couldn't tell during the teaser if this has already happened by this point because of the angle of the toy. But if anyone manages to get a better picture or spots something I missed that may contradict or strengthen this little thought, do let me know.
I'm pretty sure though that the person who says "I've never seen Blackbeard like this," is someone who has seen Blackbeard enough to know how he was. Someone that perhaps served by his side? So I think that the speaker in this context may be Izzy. There are two options of who he's saying this too: either Stede, once they team up, or to the crew of the Queen Anne's Revenge, this being the old Revenge crew (Frenchie, Jim, and we count Fang). Maybe even Lucius in the walls.
II) "I should have just told him how I feel."
I just want to take a moment just to appreciate the fact how much this gif resonated with me personally. This was the entire basis of all stages of grief I went through after the season finale, the bottomline of all my thoughts: "why couldn't he have just told him how he felt?". Brilliant delivery and shot planning from the designers of OFMD.
Anyways, let's get on with it. This gif is similar to the first one, in it having the potential of being also shot before or after the Vanity Fair picture with the crew (minus Swede) standing under the bridge(?) in the rain. I do think it's before the scene where Stede takes Blackbeard's poster and very confidently elaborates on Ed's goodness. He has his red cravat on, and is looking so pathetic in the rain looking at a wanted poster of his ex-boyfriend, that the scene is loveably laughable in it's entirety.
It's a bit obvious as to who is the speaker for this line: our very own Stede Bonnet. He's regretting on his actions back at the sailor academy, where he chose to keep quiet about his own opinions on Ed's willingness to leave to China, fast, because of his own deep-rooted issues with speaking up about what he thinks about serious, possibly life-chaning topics. Or maybe he's thinking of why he didn't tell anyone, especially not Ed, about the happiness he felt around him, how great he felt in his company, and how much love he felt for the man.
I can imagine this pretty early on in the season (as we know they reconcile or at least get a long decently early, from the leaked promo), and for some reason I have a picture of Stede laying slumped down on some form of furniture, ragdoll-style, whining about this to someone he knows: either Oluwande (probably the most probably option) or, hear me out, Spanish Jackie. I think she's going to become better friends with the Genital Pirate this season, and be a prevelant character to the narrative.
III) "Feel's like a storm's coming."
This happens during the rapid, quick scenes which we were just able to catch from the teaser. Where Jim is half submerged in water trying their best to reach for someone which I may think might be Ed, and Frenchie working the capstan for whatever purposes needed to hoist something heavy in a storm (don't look at me, I don't sail 18th-century ships). But look, Edward has his cravat on, the cravat given to him by Stede. Why he's kept this eludes me, since this should in theory be before their reconciliation, but we all know that Ed still loves Stede, and perhaps this is his way to hang onto him close to his heart while still matching his new aesthetic.
I would like to think that Ed is the one saying this. After all, he is an expert navigator and weatherman, proving his skills during his first appearances in the previous season. (However, I don't particularly trust his date-keeping skills. He messed up the first one, and then let his other date be held at gunpoint and scared into leaving. Tut tut tut) Another reason as to why I think this is because there is no pronoun indicating that he actively feels the storm, but more passed as a backhanded quip just thrown onto the crew and/or Izzy to alert them.
This could also be interpreted as a metaphor: symbolism for something, foreshadowing to the main plot or villain of the series, which will most likely result in some form of cliffhanger at the end, I tell you that.
I wonder if they're going to have another cloud scene though, talking about how they might show signs of storm. However, instead of shape I'd assume that they'd be commenting on a rather large-scale, dark rain-cloud, and connecting it to perhaps winds stronger than usual.
I also saw someone saying that it was possible that Edward, when he falls off the ship, looses the cravat amongst the waves, and that is why he doesn't have it to what I'd assume is after this scene.
IV) I love a good pirate's tale
We can see from this scene that Stede is currently fighting on the beach in the same outfit which he had during the teaser, and if one looks closely you can see that he's excellently accessorised with a beautiful looped earring. However, what we've also learn is that the shot where Ed washes up on the beach is probably in the same scene as this, and by the look on Stede's face (probably augmented by the surrounding chaos) this may be the first time that he's seen Ed in a long time.
I think, as I've said before in previous posts, that Ed has been thrown off the ship in the storm mentioned above. He's been thrown off, and has happened to wash up on this same beach where Stede is fighting, which we know to be possible because of the automatic gaydar in OFMD. (What would be funny though is that he spotted Stede off the shore and decided to make his entrance super dramatic and kraken-like, but ends up just swallowing a shit ton of sea-water and gets his leather ruined, which is why he gets new clothes.)
Why he's fighting? I don't know. But I'm still sure that it's Ocracoke that they're on, because I'm convinced that it'll make an appearance this season—it has too, or else I will send in a formal complaint with our dearest Mr Jenkins.
Now, back to the main bit. The text. Who is it that says "I love a good pirate's tale?" I think that it's either said genuinely, but by someone like Stede, eager to hear about the adventures of experienced and famous seafaring pirates, OR flirtatiously, to insinuate something directed as a romantic quip to get Stede or someone else (a pirate) to talk more about himself. By who, I can't be sure, but I have a list of possible speakers:
Edward Teach
Spanish Jackie
Anne Bonny
Anne Bonny's campy friend
Lucius Spriggs
Stede Bonnet
If there's anything I've missed that you want me to add/change, which I find suitable, do tell.
I'm not sick at all. I'm a normal functioning member of society. I have a life.
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The thing about the final lore tab is that, besides the fact that I'm devastated in ways I can't put into words, the way Saint was affected by this whole thing is unique.
This is obviously primarily Osiris' trauma that we can't really properly comprehend, but Osiris wasn't fully conscious for most of it. It fell to Saint to wait, and hope, that Osiris would be brought back and that he would wake up. There was no certainty for him there. And even before that, he watched "Osiris" being strange and distant and acting weird but obviously nobody could even begin to speculate that the person he interacted with wasn't Osiris at all, so the trauma went from there, from learning that he lost Sagira, then to the shock of Osiris being kidnapped and then the quest to bring him back and then him being brought back in a coma and then the 9 long months of waiting until he woke up.
The state of constant anxiety he experienced for almost 2 years total is nervewracking and gutwrenching. I don't think we can fully understand the impact of that on someone. And the best, or worst, thing is that Saint is infinitely patient. He is infinitely emotional and merciful and opts to be the better person and to wait and wait and wait. And hope that it can be fixed.
Except it can't. It can't be fixed. And not only can it not be fixed, but there will never be justice for it. It's impossible. There isn't a way to truly punish Savathun for what she's done. There is no relief or catharsis for Saint. While Osiris can mostly move on, Osiris did not really have to go through what Saint had to go through. Their traumas are different and Saint's is the type that no one can really understand and there is nothing he can do about it.
A younger Saint would've killed Immaru and then Savathun, 100%. But now he can't, because he isn't that person anymore. And yet, the grief and trauma remain and he has no outlet for them and nothing that can be done to enact any sort of justice. So he settles for pure rage, letting himself essentially vent that anger out, but still leave everyone alive. And there's really no true release here. He got a brief satisfaction of killing Savathun over and over, but at the end of the day, she will walk away and nothing will change and there will be no fix.
Which is why he comes back and just cries. As he said, this wasn't for Osiris, it was for him. It was his outlet for anger and nothing else. After that, there's nothing else left to do but cry. No one can really help him carry the burden of what he's gone through and besides: he's a Titan. He's the one carrying other people's burdens. Which just added to the trauma because for so long he's only cared for others, mostly for Osiris, and never really let himself fully grieve or talk about it. Saint never really processed the horrifying ordeal of constant concern for his loved one, then the realisation that his loved one isn't even with him, then the desperate search and then waiting for months and months for the hope that his loved one might wake up. Then Osiris is awake and we're forced to play allies with the person who traumatised both of them in an incomprehensibly terrifying way. Saint had no other way of attempting to make his peace with the situation.
Year of processing grief. I'm in shambles.
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